Australian officials to deny permission for several banks to bargain on Apple Pay

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) serves as a competition regulator in the country. Therefore, it's up to it to make sure that consumers are safe from monopoly. Also, it's about to deny permission for several Australian banks to boycott Apple Pay.

The banks in question are Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, National Australia Bank Ltd and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd. Their common goal is to gain access to the iPhone's NFC chip and develop their own mobile payment platforms, independent from Apple Pay. If the aforementioned banks manage to convince the ACCC that they're in the right, they can boycott Apple Pay for a period of up to three years as a negotiation tactic, according to Australian law.

On the other hand, Apple is doing its best to stop that, claiming that allowing third-party access to the iPhone's digital wallet system would be a serious security concern for the end-user.

The banks have some more time to present a good case to the ACCC and get the legal bargaining cartel formed. The Commission will be issuing its final decision in March, 2017. A representative for the group said for Reuters that they will continue to argue their case with the ACCC, as otherwise there would be effectively no competition against Apple for mobile payments on the iPhone.