原文标题：
Apple Pay
Tap dance
Trustbusters take aim at Apple’s clout in contactless payments
Mr Cook, tear down this wall
Watchdogs take a swipe at Apple Pay
Why complaints about Apple’s walled garden are multiplying
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THERE IS NOT yet an app to keep track of the growing number of antitrust complaints against Apple. But perhaps there should be. On May 2nd the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, added another to the pile. Following an investigation begun in 2020, it sent the smartphone-maker a “statement of objections”, saying that, in the commission’s view, Apple is abusing its power in the market for smartphone payments.
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At issue is Apple Pay, a contactless-payment service introduced in 2014. Apple Pay uses a specialised radio called a Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip to allow an iPhone to work like a contactless credit card. Users who have loaded their banking details onto their phones can wave them at contactless-payment terminals to pay for things. Apple collects a fee from the user’s bank for each transaction.
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The service has quickly become popular: in 2020 Bernstein, a financial firm, estimated Apple Pay accounted for about 5% of global card transactions, and forecast that it might reach 10% by 2025. The problem, in the commission’s view, is that i OS, the operating system used by iPhones, allows only Apple’s own mobile-wallet software to make use of the NFC chip. That freezes out rivals who might want to build competing payment apps of their own. Android, a rival smartphone operating system maintained by Google, does allow third-party apps access to a phone’s NFC chip, meaning that Android users can choose contactless-capable smart wallets from firms such as Google, Samsung, PayPal and others.
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The commission’s findings are only preliminary. But if a full investigation comes to the same conclusion, Apple would be in breach of European competition laws, and exposed—at least in theory—to fines of up to 10% of its worldwide turnover. The firm will have further chances to argue its corner before the commission issues a final decision, a process that could take many months.
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The antitrust probe is the latest in a string of attacks on Apple’s business model by app developers, rival firms and governments. Apple runs the iPhone as a “walled garden”, in which the firm imposes tight controls on which apps are allowed to run on its devices, and on what those apps are allowed to do. Apple says its restrictions are there for the privacy and security of its users, an argument it has repeated in response to the commission’s allegations.
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Others, though, allege less noble motives. In 2020 Epic Games, the maker of “Fortnite”, a popular video game, and “Unreal”, a software engine on which hundreds of other video games are built, sued Apple, claiming that its refusal to allow rival firms to process payments made from within apps was anticompetitive. (Epic had wanted to offer Fortnite players a rival, cheaper payment system.) After losing the initial case, Epic has appealed—this time with support from Microsoft, America’s Department of Justice and 35 individual states.
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Similar complaints by Spotify, a music-streaming firm, helped prompt another EU antitrust investigation in 2020; a third is under way in Britain. Following a complaint from Match Group, an operator of dating sites, Dutch trustbusters found Apple’s in-app payments policies to be anticompetitive in October. They fined the firm €5m a week every week between January and March 28th (when it reached the €50m maximum fine, a cap the watchdogs have not yet raised).
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Investigations and court cases, of course, are not foregone conclusions. But even if Apple wins some battles, it could still lose the war. On March 24th the EU agreed the text of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a bumper piece of legislation designed to force big tech firms to open their platforms up to competition. One of its themes is to try to forbid companies from giving preferential treatment to their own apps and services. The DMA would require Apple to allow users to install apps from places other than Apple’s own App Store, and force it to allow rivals to provide in-app payment tools of their own. The walls are not looking as solid as they were.
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量772左右）
原文出自：2022年5月7日《The Economist》Finance & economics版块。
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路本文翻译整理：Fei Min
本文编辑校对: Irene仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
【补充资料】（来自于网络）
“围墙花园（walled garden）”指的是一个控制用户对网页内容和服务进行访问的环境。尽管“围墙花园”并不能实际的防止用户访问围墙外的东西，但它使访问墙外内容要比访问内部内容要难。服务提供者围墙的原因很多，例如，在1999年，美国在线少儿频道就建立了一个围墙花园，以防止用户访问一些不适宜的网站。然而，建立花园的一个普遍的原因还是由此产生的利润：运营商们(如苹果，谷歌等)允许用户访问自己或合作伙伴的网站，却不能访问竞争者的网站。因为像手机这样的无线设备通常只能访问限制在一个范围内的网站，这一部分网站对于无线用户来说就算是一个围墙花园。
近场通信（Near Field Communication，简称NFC），是一种新兴的技术，使用了NFC技术的设备（例如移动电话）可以在彼此靠近的情况下进行数据交换，是由非接触式射频识别（RFID）及互连互通技术整合演变而来的，通过在单一芯片上集成感应式读卡器、感应式卡片和点对点通信的功能，利用移动终端实现移动支付、电子票务、门禁、移动身份识别、防伪等应用。
欧盟委员会是整个欧共体行政体系的发动机。欧盟委员会的任务在《欧洲联盟条约》221条及以下得到规定：其具有主动权，可以建议法律文件，并为欧洲议会和欧盟理事会准备这些法律文件。在法律提案还没有获得决议的情况下，欧盟委员会可以随时撤回其法律提案。
《数字市场法案》是欧盟委员会公布的法案，意在明确数字服务提供者的责任并遏制大型网络平台的恶性竞争行为。2022年3月24日，欧洲理事会和欧盟委员会就《数字市场法案》达成一致，旨在限制谷歌、苹果、亚马逊、脸书等科技巨头。
【重点句子】（3个）
On May 2nd the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, added another to the pile.
That freezes out rivals who might want to build competing payment apps of their own.
But even if Apple wins some battles, it could still lose the war.
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