Happy Days Are Here Again New Jack Swing

Practiced forenoon! Apple tree is once again facing an antitrust boxing, this time over Apple Pay. I'1000 Ben Brody, and getting a slight head injury has made me cringe every time someone gets bashed on the noggin on Boob tube.

The boxing over Apple Pay

Apple merely tin can't take hold of a break. But in Europe, no American tech company can. The European Commission is on a tear this twelvemonth, introducing new rules that would force big tech companies to open up their platforms and law them aggressively for allowing illegal content. But this week, it's Apple specifically that's under the microscope.

Apple's latest antitrust fight is over Apple Pay. The European Commission announced yesterday that information technology believes Apple is violating antitrust rules by refusing to allow rival mobile wallets to offering tap-to-pay functionality on the iPhone. Apple allows developers to admission the iPhone's NFC scrap, but not to connect to payment systems in physical stores. That means Apple Pay is the only option on iPhones — and the Eu is non happy near information technology.

• The commission sent its "preliminary view" to Apple, maxim that the visitor "abused its dominant position" in giving a boost to its own contactless payments system. At present Apple has the take a chance to address the EU's concerns. The company tin can likewise request an oral hearing.
• "Apple has congenital a airtight ecosystem around its devices and its operating system," said Eu antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who is too the bloc'south commissioner overseeing competition. "Apple tree controls the gates to this ecosystem, setting the rules of the game for anyone who wants to reach consumers using Apple devices."
• If the Eu finds Apple tree guilty of anticompetitive behavior, it could be forced to pay upwards to 30% of its revenue from Apple tree Pay. That'south not a huge amount of money for Apple, at least compared to the revenue it earns from hardware, merely notwithstanding.

Apple says consumers have other options. They tin, for case, buy another phone that leverages a different payment organization. Apple too told The Wall Street Journal that it is "setting manufacture-leading standards for privacy and security" while providing would-exist competitors access to the technology on the same terms as it operates.

• The pushback echoes Apple'due south defense in other antitrust cases, including those targeting its App Store: The company often insists that features that announced to create a closed ecosystem funneling consumers through its products are merely security protections.
• The charges come up as Europe is taking a big swing at U.Due south. tech giants. Yesterday's "statement of objections" comes almost exactly a year later on complaints from the Eu about Apple's handling of rival music apps, which also came amongst prior antitrust cases and charges.
• Officials likewise agreed in March to new competition rules that would require major changes to the App Shop and iMessage, every bit well every bit services from Google and Amazon.

Apple Pay is under scrutiny at an interesting time. Apple tree is getting fix to allow iPhone users to receive contactless payments through the built-in NFC engineering without additional hardware.

• Although information technology would serve as a replacement for Square's dongle and other terminals for greenbacks and credit card payments, it wouldn't directly replace the software and services that Square and others provide.
• In fact, Apple'southward move could embolden Square's competitors. It picked Stripe and Shopify equally initial partners for its new tap-to-pay service. Apple tree could well sell more than iPads every bit retail registers, with its favored software partners providing the payments plumbing.
• Meanwhile, NFC is fading as the hot new applied science for payments. QR codes first popularized in Chinese payment apps have spread to other systems effectually the world. Developers don't need the phone maker'south permission for QR codes, and consumers seem to like them.

That highlights the issues regulators have with keeping up with fast-moving engineering. Instead of asking questions about NFC mobile wallets, the Eu could be digging into how Apple settles on Stripe and Shopify for early access to its newest tap-to-pay service, or if there are issues discouraging the rollout of QR-code payments. In Washington and Brussels, in that location'due south a tendency to fight the last fight, instead of the next one, and information technology's not the big tech companies that pay.

— Ben Brody (electronic mail | twitter)

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People are talking

Jack Dorsey and other bitcoin defenders pushed dorsum on a letter of the alphabet citing lawmakers' environmental concerns over crypto:

• "Education is required to ensure that public officials empathise that the digital asset mining sector does non contribute to the environmental issues raised in the alphabetic character."

Coinbase's Brian Armstrong thinks one billion people volition accept used crypto within a decade:

• "My approximate is that in 10-20 years, nosotros'll run across a substantial portion of Gross domestic product happening in the crypto economy."

Rob DeSantis doesn't want Twitter to have a presence in Florida:

• "That is not something that I'1000 advocating."

Nathan Simington doesn't call up the FCC should interfere with Elon Musk's Twitter grab:

• "It would be not only unconstitutional, just plainly united nations-American."

Making moves

Uber will report earnings tomorrow, and everyone wants to know about how inflation, rising gas prices and the continued spread of COVID-19 variants are hit the company.

Former Airbnb exec Greg Greeley volition go Thrasio's CEO this summer, and the company will reportedly lay off some employees this week.

Michael Mignano is leaving Spotify. He co-founded podcast distributor Anchor and led Spotify's podcast tech efforts.

Tej Redkar and Sophie Kitson joined Sumo Logic equally master product officer and primary HR officer, respectively. Redkar comes from LogicMonitor, and Kitson's from Accenture.

Lorne Schwartz is Libro'due south new president. He last held the same role at DataCandy.

In other news

Amazon will cover travel expenses for abortions and other medical treatments, following similar moves from Yelp and other companies responding to new state abortion laws.

Amazon workers in Staten Island won't course a matrimony after they failed to get enough votes.

Elon Musk doesn't want much of his own money in Twitter, sources told Reuters. He'south apparently talking with investment firms and other people about chipping into the bid.

Facebook's podcasting foray is over. Its audio plans had already been losing steam, and now podcasts will be completely off the platform in June.

Meta wants to release four VR headsets betwixt now and 2024, co-ordinate to The Data. One of them, Project Cambria, is expected to be released in September.

More Apple workers want to unionize, this time at a mall near Baltimore, Maryland. This is the 3rd group of Apple workers to push button for unionization.

Grindr user data was gathered and sold for years, sources told The Wall Street Journal. The location data could particular romantic encounters and other personal tracking information.

Google isn't happy with an Eu fine for holding besides much power over search, calling the $1.six billion punishment "criminal."

Ex-TikTok exec Alex Hofmann launched a dating app called Spark. He created a handful of apps similar Wink and Helpline since leaving TikTok a few years dorsum.

The crypto buffet

Randi Zuckerberg wants you lot to know all virtually Web3. She launched a new podcast yesterday called "Crypto Cafe with Randi Zuckerberg," which includes chats with tech futurists and metaverse finatics.

The early on Facebook exec will spend the first few episodes talking with crypto leaders like Chris Cantino, Brin Morin and Jaime Schmidt. Like her blood brother, Zuckerberg's been pivoting toward crypto and the metaverse since her days at Facebook: She just rolled out a new platform for Web3 leaders and a creator accelerator for women-led crypto businesses.

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Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Savor your twenty-four hours, come across you lot tomorrow.

Correction: An earlier version of this story included information about Tim Melt joining a university lath; information technology was removed as it is not timely data. This story was updated on May 3, 2022.

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Source: https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/sourcecode/apple-pay-eu-antitrust

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