Banks stake out Apple Pay battleground in ACCC submission

The concept of the big banks arguing for change in order to increase competition tells you something about Apple’s apparent domination of the mobile phone market and its willingness to exploit this market power.

In a submission released today, the banks have responded to the ACCC’s draft denial of the right to collectively negotiate with Apple by dropping their proposed claim to seek the right to fight for the ability to pass on the Apple fee and to cut the period for authorisation in half to 18 months.

The latter is designed to show the big banks are not just simply trying to delay Apple and the former is to show the real fight is not over money but the right to get access to Apple’s near field communication facility which links your phone to the retail terminal.

Android phones allow the banks access to near field communication without having to go through the extra step of clipping the ticket.

That’s what the banks want from Apple so they can keep direct control of their customers.

The banks said “Apple’s conspiracy theories about Trojan horse fees are a function of its imagination.”

“For Apple to suggest that mobile payment services are not open to differentiation or improvement is short sighted and reflects a failure to imagine any other way of doing things than the Apple way,” they added.

They have a point.

ANZ, AMP, American Express and others already offer Apple pay services in Australia having agreed to simply pay Apple and comply with its terms.

Apple noted hundreds of banks around the world had accepted their terms.

The big banks are anxious about losing their control over customers by allowing Apple to create one more click between you and the bank and about ceding market power to Apple for fear what it might do in the future.

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Source: Banks stake out Apple Pay battleground in ACCC submission – The Australian