Apple Inc. will change several of its business practices to end a European Union antitrust probe into its mobile payment system.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, announced the development today.

Apple’s iPhones and iPads feature an NFC, or near-field communication, chip that allows users to pay at stores with their handsets. NFC makes it possible to make purchases by holding a mobile device near a payment terminal. The technology uses a digital wallet, an app that stores the user’s credit card details, to process transactions.

The European Commission opened an antitrust probe into Apple’s NFC implementation in 2020. Currently, users can only make NFC-powered purchases at stores using the iPhone maker’s own Apple Pay and Apple Wallet apps. Third-party payment apps can’t access the technology, which the European Commission tentatively flagged as a breach of the EU’s competition rules in 2023.

To address regulators’ concerns, Apple earlier this year offered to change its NFC implementation. This proposal is what led to the European Commission’s decision today to close the antitrust investigation into the system. Apple won’t implement the original list of suggestions it proposed, but rather an amended version that takes into account feedback collected by the EU from other market players.

The most significant change to Apple’s mobile payment system is that third-party digital wallet apps are gaining access to the NFC chip in iOS devices. That will allow users of those apps to make contactless purchases using stores’ payment terminals. As part of its antitrust commitments, Apple has pledged not to charge for NFC access or make it conditional on developers’ use of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

Consumers will receive the ability to set third-party digital wallet apps as their default payment method instead of Apple Pay. If such an app is configured as the default method, it will automatically launch whenever users place their iPhones near an NFC payment terminal.

The change that Apple made to its antitrust commitments before they were accepted by the EU introduced a number of additional requirements. In particular, the iPhone maker will have to provide a simple way of setting a third-party digital wallet as the default payment app on iOS devices. Additionally, Apple will allow consumers to make purchases at stores that use a smartphone as a payment terminal.

The company will set up a dispute resolution system for developers who wish to challenge restrictions on their apps’ NFC access. Under the revised version of Apple’s antitrust commitments, it has agreed to set shorter deadlines for addressing such complaints. The iPhone maker will also allow independent reviews of the NFC access restrictions it imposes.

“Today’s decision makes Apple’ commitments binding,” said European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. “It opens up competition in this crucial sector, by preventing Apple from excluding other mobile wallets from the iPhone’s ecosystem. From now on, competitors will be able to effectively compete with Apple Pay for mobile payments with the iPhone in shops.”

Apple’s commitments are set to go into effect on June 25. They will remain in force for ten years throughout the European Economic Area, which includes the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. A monitoring trustee appointed by Apple will provide updates on the company’s compliance with the commitments to the European Commission. 

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