The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has warned tech giants about being overly restrictive in access to payments apps, taking an explicit shot at Apple’s Apple Pay.

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Because Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pay dominate the mobile-device tap-to-pay market, the constraints they impose on app developers’ ability to use the technology could inhibit consumer choice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said. Apple requires iOS device users to turn to Apple Pay for tap-to-pay transactions, barring direct integration with apps such as Venmo, while Google’s Android operating system does not, but the concern is that Google “could reverse this position in the future,” the bureau said.

“The CFPB will continue to work with these entities and take appropriate steps to ensure that Big Tech companies do not impede the development of open ecosystems for digital payments,” the agency said in a report published Thursday.

“Any frictions either company imposes on access to essential hardware or software could impede the shift towards open banking and, ultimately, negatively impact consumers — e.g., by reducing competition, innovation, choice and ease of access,” the CFPB said in its report.

MacDailyNews Take: The U.S. Supreme Court decided in march to hear a case that will consider the constitutionality of funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which is yet another prime example of meddling federal government overreach whichh currently wields too much unchecked power) and, in doing so, test the constraints of the CFPB regulators’ abilities to bury burgeoning markets under reams of red tape. The case will be heard this fall, with a decision likely by summer 2024.

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