“It’s not illegal to charge a fee,” Apple tells Brazilian regulators using an NFC probe.

Apple Pay and iPhone NFC sensors have long been the subject of conflicts around the world. Last year, the European Commission forced Apple to grant developers access to NFC leaders, and recently expanded this access elsewhere due to increased regulatory pressure.

Currently, Brazil’s new national payment system has regulatory bodies looking at the iPhone’s NFC more closely, and it seems the company doesn’t want to be upset.

Apple’s NFC rules were investigated in Brazil

Since 2020, Brazilians have enjoyed Pix, a free, immediate pay ecosystem created by the Brazilian Central Bank. Recently, the agency announced its deployment of a proximity Pix. Google has adopted features for free to over 40 participating banks. But Apple wasn’t.

This has angered banking institutions and associations. Banks have argued that Apple’s rules for accessing iPhone NFCs are prohibitively strict, one of which charges a fee of up to 0.17% per transaction.

After a public session with banking institutions and representatives, Cade began a preliminary investigation into what was classified as Apple’s monopoly in the proximity payment system. The group also accused Apple of imposing “limitations and difficulties in favor of its own digital wallet.”

As reported by Tecnoblog and Tilt, Apple said “there are no laws that prevent Apple from charging fees for using the service,” and that this is not a monopoly case, as the iPhone represents only 10% of the Brazilian smartphone market. The company further argued that “there is no evidence of harm to Brazilian mobile payment services or Brazilian consumers.”