The Secretariat of COMCO launches preliminary investigation into NFC access on Apple devices

Apple grants third parties access to the NFC interface on iOS devices solely via NFC & SE platform technology and subject to its terms and conditions. On 10 December 2025, the Secretariat opened a preliminary investigation to assess whether Apple is violating Swiss antitrust law. Among other things, it seeks to clarify whether other providers of mobile payment apps can effectively compete with Apple Pay for contactless payments with iOS devices in shops.

Apple devices run exclusively on the company’s proprietary iOS operating system. Apple controls every aspect of this ecosystem, including access to the standard NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. NFC enables short-range wireless data exchange between mobile devices such as smartphones and other devices that support NFC.

Until 2024, Apple denied third parties access to the NFC interface on iOS devices, whereas such access was freely available on Android devices. On 11 July 2024, the European Commission accepted commitments offered by Apple to grant third parties free access to the NFC interface on iOS devices and declared them legally binding under EU antitrust law. The Secretariat has been in dialogue with Apple since early 2024 to enable Swiss app providers to access the NFC interface on iOS devices as well. As a consequence, Apple has been granting Swiss third-party app providers access to the NFC & SE platform on iOS devices since late 2024. The Secretariat is now conducting a preliminary investigation to determine whether the terms and conditions for granting access – which differ from those applicable in the EEA – comply with Swiss antitrust law. To this end, the Secretariat continues to gather information and insights from the markets.