Brazil Recommends Sanctions for Apple Over App Store and NFC Rules
The recommendation was issued by the General Superintendence of Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (SG/CADE), the technical body of the federal antitrust authority. In a public statement translated from Portuguese, SG/CADE determined that Apple’s conduct with iOS constitutes a violation of Brazilian competition law and urged CADE’s internal tribunal to impose penalties, including financial fines and mandatory changes to Apple’s policies.
The investigation started in 2022 after formal complaints were submitted by Latin American e-commerce platform MercadoLibre and other digital service providers. The companies alleged that Apple engaged in anti-competitive practices by requiring in-app purchases to be made exclusively through its own payment system and by restricting developers from informing users about alternative purchasing options — a practice known as anti-steering.
MercadoLibre further argued that Apple abused its control over the iOS platform by denying third-party access to critical technologies such as the iPhone’s NFC chip, effectively limiting mobile payment competition in Brazil.
Previously:
- PayPal Contactless iPhone Payments
- Brazilian Court Mandates iOS Sideloading
- iPhone NFC Access Outside EU
- Apple Commits to Opening NFC in EU
Update (2026-02-20): Marcus Mendes:
In response, Apple sent CADE a list of counterarguments, including that it holds just 10% of Brazil’s smartphone market, and that third-party developers have had access to the iPhone’s NFC since 2024.
[…]
Last year, Banco Central rolled out a contactless protocol for PIX, which Apple (contrary to Google) has refused to adopt, deeming it a non-essential feature for Brazilians, who still rely heavily on PIX payments via QR codes rather than the relatively new contactless method
[…]
As reported by O Globo, the company’s local legal team argued that “there is a desire by third parties — specifically banks and payment service providers — to act as ‘free riders’ on Apple’s proprietary technologies[…]
I thought the whole point was that NFC isn’t a proprietary technology.
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Man, their chickens really are coming home to roost. None of this would’ve happened if they’d listened to users and developers and opened up a little. Instead, they tried to control everything
This is similar to what happened to Bell Telephone except Apple is getting a mere slap on the wrist instead of being broken up
At least Bell was confined to a single (national) jurisdiction.
Apple is getting picked at all over the globe in similar but slightly different ways.
It would be a lot simpler if there were one judge that issued one definitive order. And if Apple keeps pushing they may wind up with 9 of them making a statement that will be hard for them to wiggle out of. That seems to be what they want, but I don’t think it will go the way they think it will.
@Bart
Well, if the US government wasn’t so damaged by corporate donations, they would’ve regulated big tech a decade ago before the problem became this big. They would’ve blocked the mergers and acquisitions that are now making antitrust necessary and they would’ve created some pro-consumer regulations like right to repair and probably mandated 3rd party app installation, among other things
So that’s why we don’t have that. If America was regulating Apple, they very likely wouldn’t have splintered the rules like they’re doing
Hopefully Brazil will have paid close attention to apples malicious compliance ink other countries and managers to write the obvious thing in wiggle free way.
@Manx yeah that ship sailed decades ago.
But it's only become apparent in the last decade or so that Apple and Google really have a chokehold on something that has become as essential as railroads and telephones.
I've more or less given up on the US legislature doing anything useful, this is all going to be executive agencies and court battles.
