Australia's government said on Monday it would bring Apple Pay, Google Pay and other digital payment services under the same regulatory umbrella as credit cards and other payments as part of legislation set to be introduced to parliament this week.
At this point it doesn’t actually seem like they’re proposing any specific changes at all. The draft changes some definitions in a way that Apple Pay is included as a “participant” and gives the Reserve Bank of Australia regulatory authority over it under the Payment Systems Regulation Act. Considering the fact that Australia is the country that first pushed the link tax (basically a way to make Facebook give money to Rupert Murdoch and friends just because), I’m not terribly optimistic.
At this point it doesn’t actually seem like they’re proposing any specific changes at all. The draft changes some definitions in a way that Apple Pay is included as a “participant” and gives the Reserve Bank of Australia regulatory authority over it under the Payment Systems Regulation Act. Considering the fact that Australia is the country that first pushed the link tax (basically a way to make Facebook give money to Rupert Murdoch and friends just because), I’m not terribly optimistic.