Apple has launched a blistering attack on three of Australia's big banks, saying their request to collectively negotiate over digital wallet access to the iPhone will compromise the handset's security, reduce innovation and blunt Apple's entry into the payments market in Australia.
In a sign of growing acrimony between the world's largest company and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp, Apple told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that "allowing the banks to form a cartel to collectively dictate terms to new business models and services would set a troubling precedent and delay the introduction of new, potentially disruptive technologies".
The three large banks made an application in late July with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank seeking authorisation to collectively negotiate with the technology giant, which has locked the banks and other third-party providers of digital wallets off the iPhone platform in favour of its own Apple Pay.
In a pithy, three-page submission to the ACCC, Apple says providing access to the phone's transmitter to allow bank applications to facilitate contactless payments would compromise the security of Apple's hardware.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 11 2016, @04:11AM
Indeed. How do you like crapple when the shoe is in the other foot?
Nice little banksies are just having a walled garden over there...