Vipps has announced the launch of support for contactless payments using an iPhone in Norway, making the Norwegian payments firm the first third-party app in the world to offer tap-to-pay support on iOS, just like Apple Pay. Previously, only the company’s Apple Pay and Wallet apps were allowed to access the NFC chip for contactless payments, but a previous announcement from the company revealed that access to NFC functionality on the iPhone would be opened up with the iOS 18.1 update  in select regions.

Contactless Payments With Third Party Apps on iOS

The company says that support for contactless payments on an iPhone with the Vipps app was made possible after Apple allowed third-party developers access to the hardware on the iPhone, as part of an agreement with the European Union (EU). The move means that Apple’s handsets will now allow users to access the same functionality offered by the Apple Pay and Wallet via third party apps.

As of Monday, customers in Norway can use the Vipps app on their iPhone to make contactless payments. The company says that it currently supports 40 banks, including SpareBank 1 and DNB. Transactions with other Vipps users will be supported, along with in-store or online payments, as well sending money gifts, requests for payments, and payments to organisations or associations.

Third party contactless payments on iOS
Photo Credit: Apple

In order to enable support for contactless payments on iOS, Vipps worked with BankAxept and Thales, and the company says that payments at nine out of 10 terminals in Norway will be supported, as they work with BankAxept cards. The company says that it will add support for Mastercard and Visa cards “before the summer holidays” (translated from Norwegian).

Vipps users with eligible cards can now make payments by bringing their iPhone close to the payment terminal, and the handset will also allow them to summon the app quickly by pressing the side button twice. The app will be able to use Apple’s Secure Element microprocessor, which enables support for secure contactless payments.

This is the same functionality that was added to iOS 18.1 before it was released, and developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the EU, the UK, and the US can add support for contactless payments on an iPhone.

“We have fought for a long time to be able to compete on an equal footing with Apple. Therefore, it feels almost surreal to finally launch our very own solution. This will now be an unusually exciting battle between the world’s strongest brand and Vipps,” says Rune Garborg, CEO of Vipps MobilePay.

New Delhi: The government consulted over 100 entities including some of the businesses likely to be impacted by the proposed digital competition law, such as Amazon, Apple India Pvt. Ltd, Flipkart and Google, and their suggestions are under consideration, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed Lok Sabha on Monday. 

The minister told the House in a written reply that pre-legislative consultations on the Draft Digital Competition Bill were held as per the ministry of corporate affairs’ policy.

Closed-door consultations were held in March 2023 during the drafting of the bill, with entities and stakeholders likely to be impacted by the law, the minister informed. 

“More than 100 stakeholders submitted responses, ranging from legal professionals, industry associations, civil society organizations, and domestic and foreign digital enterprises providing digital services in India,” the minister said. 

This was followed up by seeking public feedback this year on the draft bill in e-consultation mode, the minister informed. The suggestions are being examined, the minister said.

Stakeholder discussions were also organized by ministry of electronics and information technology in June.

The Bill seeks to protect competition in the market and proposes a code of conduct or ex-ante regulation to prevent irreversible market tipping by influential digital players.

The current regime of Competition Commission of India’s (CCI’s) investigation into an anti-competitive practice after it has taken place is thought to be both resource and time intensive in achieving market correction. The proposed law has borrowed the concept of digital market gatekeepers who should abide by the code of conduct, from similar legislation in the European Union which became effective from 2 May 2023. 

EU’s Digital Markets Act covers large digital platforms providing core platform services such as online search, app stores and messenger services, and have to comply with certain obligations as well as prohibitions. The gatekeeper entities, called systemically significant digital enterprises in the Indian Bill, will be identified by financial and market presence related criteria.

It is no doubt that China has a commanding lead in the worldwide market for electric vehicles. However, according to reports, Beijing is ordering businesses to halt their active hunts for production locations in the area, sign new agreements and generally maintain a low level of activity while discussions over EVs are underway.

According to sources, who asked to not be named because the discussions are confidential, the State owned Dongfeng Motor Group has already put a stop to plans to possible manufacturer automobiles in Italy in reaction to the warnings.

Although it is not a hard and fast rule, China’s instruction could exacerbate tensions as the two powers compete for control of the automobile sector. Earlier this month, the European Union voted to raise tariffs on Electric Vehicles (EV) made in China to 45% claiming Beijing unfairly subsidies to its carmakers. China has vehemently disputed this assertion and has now vowed to impose its own tariffs on the European diary, brandy, pork, and automobile industries.

According to one of the sources, Beijing is also worried about the possible overcapacity as a result of Europe’s rocky EV transition and low demand for Chinese cars in the market, even if Dongfeng Motor told Italian officials that Rome’s support for the EU tariffs was the reason for its change.
This tension rose when customs taxes levied by the European Union increased significantly.
Thus, it is can be said that there is high tension between the European Union and the Chinese Electric Vehicle industry.

Apple now requires developers in the European Union (EU) to provide the company with their contact information, in order to comply with regulations that affect app stores. App makers will have to disclose a phone number and a public address on the App Store, which will appear under individual app listings. Apple has also set a deadline for developers or companies to comply with the new requirements, after which their apps will be delisted from the App Store.

In a post shared on the Apple Developer website on Thursday, the company announced that EU Developer Account Holders or Admins in the Apple Developer Program will need to enter their trader status via App Store Connect. The submission of trader information is mandatory, and developers will not be able to submit an app (or app update) until the process is completed.

An example of a trader’s details displayed on the App Store
Photo Credit: Apple

Apple requires developers to submit trader information in order to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act. Under articles 30 and 31 of the DSA, Apple must “verify and display trader contact information” for all traders on the platform, which will be visible to customers in all 27 regions in the bloc. The requirement also applies to developers from the EU who don’t distribute apps for users in the region.

Those enrolled as an individual in the Apple Developer Program will have to provide an email address, a phone number, and an address or a post office box. Meanwhile, developer accounts registered as an organisation will only have to provide a phone number and an address, while the address associated with their Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number will be automatically displayed, according to Apple.

Apple has set a deadline of February 17, 2025 for developers to update their trader status App Store Connect. Developers who do not submit their information by that date will have their apps removed from the App Store in the EU, according to the company. 

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Some of the most prominent artificial intelligence models are falling short of European regulations in key areas such as cybersecurity resilience and discriminatory output, according to data seen by Reuters.

The EU had long debated new AI regulations before OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public in late 2022. The record-breaking popularity and ensuing public debate over the supposed existential risks of such models spurred lawmakers to draw up specific rules around “general-purpose” AIs (GPAI).

Now a new tool designed by Swiss startup LatticeFlow and partners, and supported by European Union officials, has tested generative AI models developed by big tech companies like Meta and OpenAI across dozens of categories in line with the bloc’s wide-sweeping AI Act, which is coming into effect in stages over the next two years.

Awarding each model a score between 0 and 1, a leaderboard published by LatticeFlow on Wednesday showed models developed by Alibaba, Anthropic, OpenAI, Meta and Mistral all received average scores of 0.75 or above.

However, the company’s “Large Language Model (LLM) Checker” uncovered some models’ shortcomings in key areas, spotlighting where companies may need to divert resources in order to ensure compliance.

Companies failing to comply with the AI Act will face fines of 35 million euros ($38 million) or 7% of global annual turnover.

Mixed Results

At present, the EU is still trying to establish how the AI Act’s rules around generative AI tools like ChatGPT will be enforced, convening experts to craft a code of practice governing the technology by spring 2025.

But LatticeFlow’s test, developed in collaboration with researchers at Swiss university ETH Zurich and Bulgarian research institute INSAIT, offers an early indicator of specific areas where tech companies risk falling short of the law.

For example, discriminatory output has been a persistent issue in the development of generative AI models, reflecting human biases around gender, race and other areas when prompted.

When testing for discriminatory output, LatticeFlow’s LLM Checker gave OpenAI’s “GPT-3.5 Turbo” a relatively low score of 0.46. For the same category, Alibaba Cloud’s “Qwen1.5 72B Chat” model received only a 0.37.

Testing for “prompt hijacking”, a type of cyberattack in which hackers disguise a malicious prompt as legitimate to extract sensitive information, the LLM Checker awarded Meta’s “Llama 2 13B Chat” model a score of 0.42. In the same category, French startup Mistral’s “8x7B Instruct” model received 0.38.

“Claude 3 Opus”, a model developed by Google-backed Anthropic, received the highest average score, 0.89.

The test was designed in line with the text of the AI Act, and will be extended to encompass further enforcement measures as they are introduced. LatticeFlow said the LLM Checker would be freely available for developers to test their models’ compliance online.

Petar Tsankov, the firm’s CEO and cofounder, told Reuters the test results were positive overall and offered companies a roadmap for them to fine-tune their models in line with the AI Act.

“The EU is still working out all the compliance benchmarks, but we can already see some gaps in the models,” he said. “With a greater focus on optimising for compliance, we believe model providers can be well-prepared to meet regulatory requirements.”

Meta declined to comment. Alibaba, Anthropic, Mistral, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

While the European Commission cannot verify external tools, the body has been informed throughout the LLM Checker’s development and described it as a “first step” in putting the new laws into action.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said: “The Commission welcomes this study and AI model evaluation platform as a first step in translating the EU AI Act into technical requirements.”

© Thomson Reuters 2024

Amazon‘s $1.7 billion (nearly Rs. 14,100 crore) acquisition of robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot may reduce competition and strengthen Amazon’s position as online marketplace provider, EU antitrust regulators warned on Thursday.

The European Commission opened a full-scale investigation and will decide by November 15 whether to clear or block the deal.

“We continue to work through the process with the European Commission and are focused on addressing its questions and any identified concerns at this stage,” an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters.

Antitrust enforcers around the world have stepped up scrutiny of Big Tech acquiring smaller rivals, concerned about the accumulation of troves of data by a few companies, and big players leveraging their dominance into new markets.

The acquisition announced in August last year would add iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum to Amazon’s portfolio of smart devices, which include the Alexa voice assistant, smart thermostats, security devices and wall-mounted smart displays.

IRobot made its first Roomba robot vacuum in 2002. Amazon has previously said the vacuum cleaner market is very competitive, with lots of Chinese players.

“The Commission is concerned that the transaction would allow Amazon to restrict competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners and to strengthen its position as online marketplace provider, ” the EU executive said.

“The Commission closely cooperated with other competition authorities during the initial investigation and will continue such cooperation during the in-depth investigation (…) the opening of an in-depth inquiry does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation”.

The Amazon spokesperson also said the company could “offer a company like iRobot the resources to accelerate innovation and invest in critical features while lowering prices for consumers.”

The EU competition enforcer’s decision confirmed a Reuters story last month and came a month after the UK antitrust agency cleared the deal unconditionally after a preliminary review.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

The European Union (EU) has announced a set of draft rules to make it mandatory for all smart devices connected to internet to assess their cybersecurity risks. The step has been taken amid growing concerns about cyberattacks. Under the newly proposed law, known as the Cyber Resilience Act, the European Commission can also levy fine of up to EUR 15 million (nearly Rs. 120 crore) or up to 2.5 percent of their global turnover on all companies who fail to comply with the rules.

The EU has made it strict for all smart devices connected to internet — including laptops, fridges, smartwatches — to assess the cybersecurity risks. In case of any errors, the companies are also compelled to fix them under the new Cyber Resilience Act. EU digital chief Margrethe Vestager, in a statement released earlier today, said, “It (the Act) will put the responsibility where it belongs, with those that place the products on the market.

The act was initially announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in September 2021. The step has been taken in direction to make digital products more secure for consumers across the EU. Failing to comply with the laws can invite a fine of up to EUR 15 million or up to 2.5 percent of the total global turnover for the companies.

Vestager also encouraged companies to comply to these rules of assessing cybersecurity risks as it could save them as much as 290 billion euros annually in cyber incidents.

Under the new law, manufacturers will have to assess the cybersecurity risks on their products. In case of any faults, the companies need to take appropriate procedures to fix problems. Moreover, they are also bound to inform EU cybersecurity agency ENISA of cyber incidents within 24 hours as and when they get aware about it.

The draft rules, before becoming a law, will need to be agreed with EU countries and EU lawmakers.

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