The European Commission has announced an enquiry into practices employed by tech giant Apple’s behaviour on its payments platform Apple Pay. A preliminary investigation determined that Apple may be acting in a way that counters EU competition law, by banning other payments providers from using it’s NFC chip technology on its mobile devices to make payments. Speaking about the importance of consumer’s ability to choose in an already rapidly changing market, Commission EVP Margarthe Vestager, charged with competition policy, commented: “It is important that Apple’s measures do not deny consumers the benefits of new payment technologies, including better choice, quality, innovation and competitive prices. I have therefore decided to take a close look at Apple’s practices regarding Apple Pay and their impact on competition.” If Apple is indeed found in breach of European Competition rules, the tech giant may face a hefty fine and may be compelled to allow other payments providers access to the NFC hardware embedded in mobile devices, so that consumers can use other mobile wallets in order to ‘tap to pay’