Taiwan’s FTC Approves Mobile Payment Platform (Jan. 24, 2013)
Jan. 24, 2012
Mobile carriers around the world continue to join forces to enable mobile payments. On Jan. 23, Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) approved an application by five domestic mobile carriers and transit card provider EasyCard Corp. to jointly run a platform for mobile payment-related apps, according to the Central News Agency.
Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan Mobile Corp., Far EasTone Telecom Co., Asia Pacific Telecom Co. and VIBO Telecom Inc. and EasyCard will jointly run a mobile platform that will enable the carriers’ customers to buy near field communication (NFC)-enabled apps, the CNA reports.
To avoid monopoly, the FTC has set regulatory terms for the six companies, which stipulate that each cannot invest more than 10 percent of the registered capital or stock of the businesses they operate. The companies also cannot bar entry of other carriers and payment operators to the field, according to published reports.
Other governments generally have avoided such stipulations for mobile payments joint ventures. Last summer the European Commission gave “unconditional approval” for a mobile payment JV of the U.K.’s three largest carriers, Vodafone UK, Telefónica UK and Everything Everywhere, called Weve—formerly Project Oscar—despite concerns from competitors. Verizon and T-Mobile, which own Isis with AT&T in the U.S., were free to invest $100 million more into the mobile payments JV in October.
