UK watchdogs probe competitiveness of digital wallets from Apple, Google, PayPal

The U.K.’s Payments Systems Regulator and Financial Conduct Authority are probing the competitiveness of digital wallets from Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), PayPal (PYPL), and others, and risks the wallets pose to consumers and businesses. “The use of digital wallets has grown rapidly over the last few years, and it’s likely that more than half of UK adults now use one. With Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal being three of the most widely used digital wallets in the UK today, digital wallets have become an increasingly important touchpoint between big tech firms and UK consumers. The regulators are therefore keen to better understand the impact on consumers and businesses that digital wallets’ increasing popularity creates, including: the range of benefits that digital wallets bring for service users whether there are any features that mean payments don’t work as well as they could for consumers and/or businesses their role in unlocking the potential of account-to-account payments and how they could impact competition between payment systems; and whether digital wallets could raise any significant competition, consumer protection or market integrity issues, either now or in the future.” The regulators said they will analyze all responses received and provide an update by Q1 2025.