Apple agreed to open up its chip used for contactless payments to competitors at the request of the European Union. The Norwegians will be the first to use the new function, and the Finns next year too.
Norwegian users of Vipps Mobilepay will be the first to receive the new contactless payment function. The feature is coming to Finnish users next year. Vipps Mobilepay
Vipps, united with Mobilepay, has launched in Norway the world’s first competitive solution for the Apple Pay payment feature found on Apple devices.
With the change, Apple users can use Mobilepay in the same way as Apple’s own solution, i.e. by bringing their phone or smartwatch next to the payment terminal. The application does not need to be opened separately from the device.
Mobilepay payments are said to speed up in online stores as well. However, Mobilepay contactless payment requires support from the bank and store payment systems.
In Norway, about 70 percent of Norwegian bank customers are covered by Mobilepay contactless payments in the initial phase. More banks are joining in the future.
“We have been fighting for years”
CEO of Vipps Mobilepay Rune Garborg says in the company’s press release that he is happy about the fair competition with the technology giant that is finally starting.
– We have been fighting for years to be able to compete on an equal footing with Apple. It seems almost unreal that we finally get to launch our own solution, Garborg enthuses.
The feature is coming to the Finnish Mobilepay application during 2025. It will also be available for Mobilepay’s Android application.
What took?
The reason behind the change is the European Union, which has made Apple open up the NFC chip enabling contactless payment to its competitors as well.
Until now, Apple has kept the use of the chip found in its devices to itself, which has limited competing payment service providers from developing their own similar solutions for Apple devices.
Vipps Mobilepay says it is the first company in the world to offer a feature that competes with Apple Pay for Apple devices.
In August, Apple said it would allow alternative payment methods in the IOS 18.2 update. This update is scheduled for release on Monday, December 9th. With the update, Apple users can choose another payment method instead of the default Apple Pay.