The agreement, announced by the European Union this week, is binding for a decade, letting other companies use the technology free of charge. In doing so, Apple ended an investigation by EU regulators, who said Apple was abusing its market dominance by cutting off access to the technology.
“Through our ongoing discussions with the European Commission, we have offered commitments to provide third-party developers in the European Economic Area with an option that will enable their users to make NFC contactless payments from within their iOS apps, separate from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet,” the company told the Financial Times.