Contactless revolution: in Luxembourg, the iPhone has become a payment terminal
Bagus Hernawan, Unsplash
As of this Tuesday, Luxembourg businesses now have the option to accept contactless payments directly on their iPhone, without the need to use a separate terminal. This was announced by Apple, introducing a new feature aimed primarily at small businesses, cafés, freelancers and mobile services.
The customer only needs to attach his card with NFC, iPhone with Apple Pay or Apple Watch to the merchant's smartphone, and the app on the merchant's device is all that is required. The main condition: having an iPhone XS or newer with a current version of iOS and a contract with one of the payment providers.
In Luxembourg, Adyen, Mollie, Revolut, Stripe, SumUp, Viva and Worldline are already connected. They provide the technical part of transaction processing. Security is ensured through NFC technology and the Secure Element chip embedded in Apple devices.
The function is compatible with the main payment systems - Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. In other countries, national solutions such as Bancontact (Belgium) or Dankort (Denmark) are also being connected to the system.
Apple itself emphasises that encryption is built in at the hardware level and transaction privacy is similar to that of Apple Pay.
This solution promises to be a game changer for small businesses, reducing the cost of entry into the digital payment infrastructure. Instead of buying a terminal or subscribing to expensive equipment, an entrepreneur now only needs what's already in his or her pocket - a smartphone.
