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Payments, Contactless Payments, COVID-19, Apple Pay, Regulation


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It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Contactless Payments

Published:

Dec 19, 2020


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Posted In:

Payments, Contactless Payments, COVID-19, Apple Pay, Regulation

Published:

Dec 19, 2020


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As consumers gear up for the holiday shopping season, many are looking for a contactless experience from retailers. Representing a scant 3% of US transactions in 2018 (versus 64% in the UK and 96% in South Korea), tap-to-pay is up 150% in the US since March.

Last spring, contactless payment limits (intended to reduce fraud), which initially started at $30, increased across the board, doubling in Germany and Netherlands, and jumping up to $250 in the US. Consumers are driving a lot of this change. According to Visa, 50% of consumers “would not shop” at stores that don’t have touchless checkout.

With over 383m users, Apple Pay has been a driving force for alternative payments (outside of China), and has recently drawn antitrust attention from several regulators. Since Apple is able to block rivals from using tap-and-go payments on an iphone/iwatch, regulators are concerned Apple is only giving consumers its technology as the option for contactless payments. Claiming that their approach is about security, Apple has attracted the European Commission’s attention, as the latter has launched a formal antitrust probe into Apple Pay.

Maybe some smooth talking with the regulators will help cement Apple’s position as the driving force in contactless payments for many Christmases to come!

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It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like...


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