Apple Tap to Pay brings iPhone-based contactless payments to France

A picture of Apple pay being used between two iPhones

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple has today announced that its Tap to Pay iPhone-based contactless payments feature is now live in France, giving companies a whole new way to accept money from their customers.

Tap to Pay allows businesses to accept payments using nothing more than an iPhone, with customers able to pay using Apple Pay on an iPhone or Apple Watch, or a contactless card from their bank.

By rolling Tap to Pay out to France Apple says that more people now "have a simple, secure and confidential way to accept contactless payments while benefiting from the power, security and usability of the iPhone."

Apple Stores and More

Apple confirmed the arrival of Tap to Pay via a press release, saying (via machine translation) that "the BPCE Group (Banques Populaires, Caisses d'Epargne and Payplug) and the companies Adyen, myPOS, Revolut, SumUp, Viva Wallet and Worldline now offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to their French professional clientele, and they will soon be joined by BNP Paribas, Crédit Coopératif, Market Pay, Stancer and Stripe."

Further, "as of today, Tap to Pay on iPhone is available in all Apple Stores in France, and is being deployed in many points of sale, including those of Christian Dior Couture, belonging to the LVMH group, Dyson, Rituals, and Sézane."

All that businesses require in order to use Tap to Pay is an iPhone XS or later running the latest version of iOS. Apple also notes that the same security technologies that apply to Apple Pay also apply to Tap to Pay, ensuring that card details and transaction information remain private.

In terms of payment options, Apple Pay is available as mentioned earlier. Contactless card payments will work as well, although Apple does add that "Tap to Pay on iPhone will be compatible with contactless credit cards from major payment networks, including American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa" at launch. Beyond that, Cards Bancaires support is on the way "in the coming weeks.

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Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.