In a document to CADE, a Brazilian regulatory agency, Apple is pushing back against pressure to open up the iPhone NFC access, reports OGlobo — as noted by 9to5Mac.
A lawsuit in the country was motivated by complaints from banks and fintechs that claim that Apple limits the use of NFC technology to its own ecosystem, making it difficult to offer competing digital wallets on iOS, the article noted.
However, in its document to CADE, Apple pointed out that the iPhone accounts for 10% of the smartphone market in Brazil. The tech giant also noted that Brazil was the first country in Latin America to launch Apple Pay and that, since 2018, more than 40 banks and issuers have already offered the service to their customers. Worldwide, the solution is present in 89 markets and is offered by more than 11,000 banks.
In the document to CADE, Apple said that companies that advocate free or almost free access to NFC payments on iOS have a direct economic interest in reducing their own costs.
“In addition, these companies are interested in promoting an NFC access model that, unlike Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, introduces frictions that can limit the willingness of users to easily switch between different payment cards, by requiring them to select a new payment solution each time they want to use a different card,” Apple added.
In June 2025 CADE recommended a decision against Apple for what it called anti-competitive practices in the tech giant’s iOS ecosystem, reported Reuters. The move follows complaints filed in 2022 by firms including Latin American e-commerce platform MercadoLibre over Apple’s alleged restrictions on the distribution of digital goods and on in-app purchases.
MercadoLibre’s complaint, filed in 2022 in Brazil and Mexico, accused Apple of imposing a series of restrictions on the distribution of digital goods and in-app purchases, including banning apps from distributing third-party digital goods and services such as movies, music, video games, books and written content.
CADE ruled that Apple must allow app developers to add tools so customers can buy their services or products outside the app, such as through the use of hyperlinks to external websites. Another preventive measure is that Apple must allow app developers to offer other in-app payment processing options apart from the one owned by Apple.
This is just the latest of Apple’s woes in Brazil. In March 2021, the Brazil’s consumer protection foundation, Procon has filed Apple R$ 10,546,442.48 (approximately $1.9 million) for selling iPhones without a charger. In July 2022, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon were accused of buying gold illegally mined in Brazil.
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