Apple will for the first time allow banks, payment services and other app developers to use the underlying technology behind Apple Pay to make rival tap-and-go payment services, settling a long-running European Union antitrust investigation, regulators said on Thursday. The agreement applies only in the European Union, where consumers could see an influx of new apps and services to make payments on the go. Apple has until now refused to grant rivals access to the payment technology on iPhones, known as near field communication, essentially forcing people to use Apple Pay. “Apple has committed to allow rivals to access the ‘tap and go’ technology of iPhones,” Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president, who oversees competition policy, said in a statement. The announcement on Thursday does not apply to Apple Watch, which also has tap-and-go payment technology, an E.U.

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Persons: Apple, ” Margrethe Vestager Organizations: Apple, European Union, Apple Watch