NFC Times Exclusive Insight – One of Australia's largest supermarket chain, Coles, and the Australian Retailers Association have thrown their support behind four major banks seeking permission from Australian antitrust regulators to negotiate as a bloc with Apple as they try to break what they see as the tech giant's divide-and-conquer strategy for recruiting banks for Apple Pay.
The retailer supporters of the banks' initiative contend that consumer and merchant choice shouldn't be limited by “a technical lockout” by Apple of its NFC technology, noting that “many consumers may not have realized (the lockout) would be imposed when they purchased their mobile device,” said a letter signed by Coles’ head of payments, Nikala Busse, to the commission.
Commonwealth Bank, Westpac Banking Corp., National Australia Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, all of which have so far held back from participating in Apple's mobile payments service, filed a request with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in July arguing that they need to form a bloc to counter what they consider to be Apple's excessive clout in dictating terms for Apple Pay. They also asked for authorization to jointly boycott participation until the negotiations are complete.
