Apple has until the end of the month to respond to a series of technical and legal questions from CADE, Brazil’s competition watchdog, over alleged anti-competitive rules related to the iPhone’s NFC. Here are the details.
Apple’s NFC rules are still under fire in Brazil
Last month, Apple accused Brazilian banks seek a “free ride” in an anti-competitive investigation involving contactless iPhone payments.
This investigation began last year, after Brazil’s central bank (Banco Central) and banking lobby group Febraban asked CADE to investigate whether Apple was unfairly restricting third-party payment providers’ access to the iPhone’s NFC compared to its own services.
Since then, Apple has arguing that there is “nothing in Brazilian law that prevents it [it] from charging a fee for its services,” noting that it only holds 10% of the country’s smartphone market and that third-party developers have had access to the iPhone’s NFC since 2024.
Apple has also argued that the Brazilian market is well served with payment options, saying that Apple Pay is not “causing harm to the consumer, nor exclusion of competitors”. So far, however, these arguments have not convinced regulators.
This week, like reported by Folha de S. Paulo (via MacMagazine), CADE has stepped up its investigation:
“On Tuesday (17), the agency sent an official notice to the technology company, requesting information on fees, technical requirements and contracts signed with developers in Brazil. The company has until March 30 to respond.”
As we covered last monththis investigation partially affects PIX, a local, free and instant payment system launched in 2020 that is by far the most used payment method in the country:
Last year, Banco Central rolled out a contactless protocol for PIX, which Apple (unlike Google) has refused to adopt, considering it a non-essential feature for Brazilians, who still rely heavily on PIX payments via QR codes rather than the relatively new contactless method.
As Folha de S. Paulo notes, Apple also appears to be trying to avoid being classified as a so-called Payment Transaction Initiator, “a regulatory category overseen by the Central Bank that would bring obligations around interoperability and access.”
So far, Apple has not commented on CADE’s latest request.
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