Apple’s Tap to Pay launched in eight more European countries

On Tuesday, Apple announced that its in-person contactless payment service has been introduced in eight more European countries.

With Tap to Pay on iPhone, vendors can accept contactless payments without an additional payment terminal. Customers can make a payment simply by holding their iPhone, Apple Watch, debit card, or digital wallet against the retailer’s device. The payment will be securely completed using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

Payment platforms and developers can integrate Tap to Pay on iPhone into their iOS apps, making it easy for merchants to enable this payment method.

Tap to Pay only works through a supporting iOS app on an iPhone XS or later running the latest iOS version. The iPhone XS was released in September 2018, but can be upgraded to iOS 18.5, Apple’s latest version of its mobile operating system.

From now on, Tap to Pay has been made available in eight more European countries: Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Malta. Apple’s contactless payment service works with credit and debit cards from premium payment networks, including American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa.

Payment platforms like Adyen, Mollie, Revolut, SumUp, Viva, and Worldline also support Apple’s payment service.

Apple promises that customers’ privacy is well protected. “With Tap to Pay on iPhone, customers’ payment data is protected by the same technology that makes Apple Pay private and secure. All transactions made using Tap to Pay on iPhone are encrypted and processed using the Secure Element, and Apple doesn’t know what is being purchased or who is buying it,” the tech company says in a press release.

Tap to Pay was first introduced in 2022 and has since then been made available in Australia, France, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.