The Swiss competition commission has launched a probe into several financial services firms including UBS and Credit Suisse. This is over the suspicion that they jointly took part in a Samsung Pay and Apple Pay boycott to benefit a local mobile app called TWINT.
“There is the suspicion that the companies agreed not to make their credit cards available for use with Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, in order to favour the Swiss solution TWINT,” the watchdog said.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Apple Pay boycott?
Apart from UBS and Credit Suisse, PostFinance, Swisscard, and Aduno were also investigated. Offices of all these entities were raided.
Refuting the allegations, Credit Suisse said: “We are surprised about this investigation and are convinced that the allegations will prove to be unfounded.
“We already offer to consumers in Switzerland access to Apple Pay and Samsung Pay through our subsidiary Swisscard, of which Credit Suisse owns 50%. In addition, we have been in talks with companies such as Apple, Samsung or Google for several months to discuss how their mobile payment solutions could be offered to our clients.”
On the other hand, UBS said that it held negotiations with Apple Pay two years back but failed to ink an agreement.
“Although we have offered several alternatives, unfortunately no agreement could be reached,” the bank noted.
Postfinance also denied the charges. Meanwhile, TWINT said that its premises were also searched even though it demanded a probe into Apple earlier for hampering the use of its app on IOS devices.
