European Union debates mobile payment regulations as more industry giants take part

Mobile-Commerce

Mobile Commerce
Regulators in the European Union may choose to stimulate payments using mobile devices as those in other areas face struggles with services that are currently drawing the participation of industry leaders such as Apple Inc., Google Inc., and Visa Inc.

According to a document produced by the European Commission that looks into perspectives for future industry regulations, the region doesn’t yet have a “concrete European framework” in place for systems that provide customers with the ability to buy products and services using their mobile phones.

The document stated that “As a consequence, the largest and most promising global m-payment initiatives are currently launched outside Europe,” and that companies such as Visa, Google, and Apple have each made their own announcements about their significant investments into the mobile payment environment.

It has been predicted by Juniper Research that mobile phone users may make up to $50 billion in purchases around the world by the year 2014 using near field communication (NFC) technology. The Gartner research company said that in 2010, there were 7.1 Western European mobile payment users. In the Asia-Pacific region, there were 62.8 million users.

The document also explained that until security companies and mobile operators collaborate, the market in Europe will remain “fragmented”.

In Brussels, a spokesperson for the European Commission, Chantal Hughes, would not comment on the subject. However, a Google spokesperson, Al Verney, said that the company was not yet ready to comment quite yet, indicating that they are possibly preparing a statement about the document’s findings. An Apple spokesperson, Alan Hely, also would not comment on the findings.

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