PayPal on Monday announced that it will soon debut contactless payments in Germany, allowing German iPhone users to make payments for purchases in stores using their PayPal accounts.
PayPal can finally offer this features after the European Union’s Digital Markets Act forced Apple to open up access to the NFC chip in the iPhone to developers of third-party apps. This allows third-party payment systems to offer their own tap-to-pay solutions without the need to go through Apple Pay or the Wallet app.
NFC access is available for banking and wallet apps in the European Economic Area, which includes the 27 European Union countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
European Union users can select which app will be activated by default when an iPhone nears an NFC-capable payment terminal or when the iPhone’s side button is double clicked. This will allow PayPal users to set it as the default app, allowing them to quickly make payments for purchases in stores wherever contactless Mastercard payments are accepted.
PayPal says it will launch its contactless mobile wallet “in the coming weeks,” with Germany acting as the first test market.
As an incentive to get customers to use PayPal over Apple Pay, there will be cashback offers in the PayPal app and will eventually offer a pay over time features to allow customers to pay six, 12, or 24 monthly installments for purchases.
