Vipps MobilePay: First Apple-Paid alternative comes from Norway 42 comments
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With “Vipps MobilePay”, the Norwegian payment service provider Vipps is the first provider in the world to be able to offer its digital wallet on Apple’s iPhone as a payment option. Previously, it was exclusively Apple Pay available.
Under pressure from the EU
The introduction of Vipps MobilePay, and certainly many other providers in the future, was made possible thanks to an agreement between the European Union and Apple from July 2024, which provides that Apple must also allow other providers payment services on the iPhone.
From the EU’s point of view, this was necessary because Apple Due to its dominant market position, it deliberately excluded other payment providers from its own iOS operating system or did not grant d other developers access to the NFC interface. Because this limits innovation and free competition, the EU has pushed for changes in Apple’s business practices.
Concretely, the agreement looks like this Apple including the following key points:
Free access to the NFC interface for third parties. An easy way to change the default payment app. Establish a monitoring mechanism and a separate dispute resolution system, for independent verification if Apple access is restricted.
The mentioned changes apply to all developers within the European Economic Area (EEA). The full press release is available on the European Commission website.
First among many
The CEO of Vipps is visibly proud that Vipps is the first provider of an Apple-paid alternative.
We’ve been fighting for years to ensure we’re on a level playing field Apple can compete with, and it seems almost surreal to finally be able to bring our own solution to market. It will now be a very exciting battle between the biggest brand in the world and Vipps.
Rune Garborg, CEO of Vipps MobilePay
Vipps was founded in 2015 and has now become the payment service provider with the most users in Norway. In Germany, or for German customers, Vipps is practically unusable because the company has no known German banking partners.
It can be assumed that other suppliers will soon follow for the rest of the European market.
Topics: Apple
Apple Paid applications Payment service iOS iPhone Smartphones Economy Source: Vipps
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