Limitless Apple Pay Sued, Android Pay arrives in Russia
Apple Pay just got a lot more user friendly in the United Kingdom. A purchase limit of £30 ($38.81) has been removed at around 50% of the UK merchants that accept Apple Pay.
That means some major British retailers including Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Nando’s and Pizza Express have removed limits on Apple Pay, Wareable reported. The limits were a major barrier to Apple Pay adoption because the average mother spends far on a typical grocery shopping trip than $38.81.
There are still many retailers that limit Apple Pay purchases including US outlets that cap purchases at $25. Some merchants; including Boots in Britain and Walgreens in the United States, have never placed limits on Apple Pay.
Inventor Claims Apple stole his Encryption Technology for Apple Pay
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) might not own the technology upon which Apple Pay is based. Inventor Kenneth P. Weiss charged that the tech giant violated 13 patents; owned by his company Universal Secure Registry, in a federal lawsuit filed in Delaware on May 21.
Weiss is alleging that Visa gave Apple access to his technology during the development of Apple Pay, The New York Times reported. Weiss met with Visa engineers in a failed attempt to market a payment solution in 2010, Apple Pay was released in 2014.
If it is successful, Weiss’s suit would be a big problem for Apple because his patents might cover some of the most important features of the digital wallet. That includes biometric identification (fingerprint reading), smartphone authentication and the generation of secure one-use tokens for each financial transaction.
The Times did not say how much money Weiss is seeking. Weiss told The Times that he would like to resolve the matter out of court.
Android Pay Launched in Russia
Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android Pay has finally been launched in Russia. The digital wallet went live on phones with 4.4 KitKat or above operating systems on May 23, 2017, Android Police reported.
Android Pay is supported by 15 Russian Banks; including Alfa-Bank, Bank Okrtite, Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank, Tinkoff Bank and VTB24. It will also work with Russian payment services such as ASSIST and Payture.
This means that Android Pay is now available in 11 countries. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is working on rollouts in four more countries; Canada, Brazil, Spain and Taiwan. A Brazilian rollout would be big news because as far as I know neither Apple Pay nor Android Pay is available in any South American country.
