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Comment by mscasts | Hacker News Reader

Thank you, Germany.

I love the EU and it's countries more and more for every news article like this.

What do you like about this regulation? What do you see being implemented in practice and how will it change the customer experience? I seriously don't see the advantage.

I like the fact that my local EU bank will actually be allowed to offer me mobile payments as opposed to now, when Apple refuses to even talk to them because my country is too small.

Do you have a source for the claim you make here?

https://support.apple.com/sl-si/HT206637#Europe

Slovenia - Missing all of the biggest ones. None of the ones I use-used are on the list:

Nova Ljubljanska Banka - the biggest one SKB banka Abanka Sparkasse

And I have never heard of any on the list.

Do have a source for the fact that the reason they aren't on the list is that "Apple refuses to even talk to them because my country is too small."

I mean in the UK, Tesco, the largest food retailer won't take Apple Pay because it doesn't give them enough data. Instead, if you want to pay with your phone over £30 you have to download their own damned app.

Your country must be microscopic because even Malta, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg have supported banks.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206637#Europe

Perhaps you live here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

It's not really surprising that the EUs tax haven countries support whatever there is to support around money ;)

You don't see advantage to have an option to use e.g. Google Pay on iPhone?

Apple Pay adoption in banks (in EU at least) is much worse than Google Pay, so if I have account in bank that has only Google Pay I can't currently use iPhone to do payments.

That's what we are asking, what does this law do for us (well, for Germans). Just blindly saying "Thanks" isn't useful to the discussion.

It sounds like it forces Apple to open up the NFC stack to other applications?

In order to implement Apple Pay in a country, a bank needs to beg Apple. And it looks like Apple doesn't care about smaller banks and small countries at all. For example, in NL they allowed only a few biggest banks to implement Apple Pay.

> they allowed only a few biggest banks to implement Apple Pay.

Again, is there a statement from any of these smaller banks saying 'we'd love to have it but Apple won't let us'?

The Netherlands has Apple Pay on ABN, ING, Bunq, N26 and Rabobank. That should cover around 80% of the market.

Apple wants every bank. The discrimination comes from the payment processors — it’s likely that those payment processors who handle transactions for the local banks don’t care about the smaller banks. For example, FirstData in the US drove and facilitated adoption — it wasn’t the banks that reached out to Apple or vice versa. It’s fun to say something like “a bank needs to beg Apple,” but that is just not based in any sort of fact. Instead your comment attempts to paint a picture that big, bad Apple is mean to little banks when the truth is far more complex and has little to do with Apple and everything to do with payment processors. It’s also very likely your small bank doesn’t want to pay the 15 basis points on credit or the 3 basis points for debit.

But saying Apple doesn’t care about smaller banks — that’s just a lie. Some of the smallest banks all across the US are using Apple Pay. It’s possible and probable that your bank just does want to offer Apple Pay.

Here is an interesting article from 2015 about banks and Apple Pay: https://www.bankdirector.com/issues/technology/becoming-an-a...

Please note the lack of “begging” involved in the process discussed in the article linked above.

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