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MCX CEO says CurrentC exclusivity deal that blocks Apple Pay will expire within ‘months, not years’

After an undeniably bad two weeks of press, MCX CEO Dekkers Davidson seems to have changed the company’s tune on CurrentC’s exclusivity policy that prompted retailers like CVS and Rite Aid to disable NFC terminals and block Apple’s iPhone 6-backed mobile payment system Apple Pay. Davidson told Re/code in an interview that MCX, the merchant consortium behind the Apple Pay competitor known as CurrentC, will lift the exclusivity policy in a matter of “months, not years.

Previously, the MCX CEO only vaguely hinted that the retail consortium would consider allowing participants to accept both CurrentC, which is still in development, and Apple Pay, which launched in the United States earlier last month, saying that the scenario “could be entirely possible.”

Davidson told Re/code that the exclusivity policy which blocks Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and other NFC-powered payment solutions serves to offer MCX “breathing room” while its own CurrentC is being developed. Retailers involved in the MCX group are contractually required to accept CurrentC and not other mobile payment services like Apple Pay or risk potentially being fined. However, Meijer, a supermarket chain participating in the MCX group, has openly accepted Apple Pay at its locations as Davidson noted in the interview.

Again, the change of tune is likely necessary following the previous two weeks of unfavorable attention received by MCX and its CurrentC product. Following the rollout of Apple Pay, the competing CurrentC service became a target largely due to the exclusivity policy that prevented the iPhone 6-backed service from working at certain retailers after previously working without issue.

This led to a flood of negative App Store ratings for the CurrentC app, which is only available through the store for private testing. The situation reached its lowest point when MCX informed CurrentC users that email addresses and zip codes were obtained through the service being hacked.

Shortly after the Apple Pay launch, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared that Apple Pay received over 1 million activations during its first 72 hours adding that it was larger than all mobile payment services combined. When asked about CVS and Rite Aid’s move to block Apple Pay after its launch, Cook described the situation as a “skirmish.”

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Comments

  1. Mosha - 9 years ago

    Ha! Crumbling. Wait till Apple Pay gets introduced to the world.

  2. OneOkami (@OneOkami) - 9 years ago

    Damage control for being exposed for anti-consumer practices.

    Classic.

  3. Prediction: In 12-24 months no one will remember (nor care) what CurrentC is/was.

    • ameadows252 - 9 years ago

      Haha! You’re 100% right.
      As soon someone uses Apple Pay for the first time, they’ll want to conduct all their transactions that way. I’d also like to add to your prediction and say that in two years time (when most iPhone users who don’t yet have an NFC capable iPhone will have upgraded to one), any retailer who DOESN’T support Apple Pay, will be seen as an inconvenience. This is coming from a guy who’s been using Google Wallet for the past couple years on his Nexus 4. I’ve found it to be a super fast and stupidly simple way to buy things. Now that I have my iPhone 6 though, and having seen just how much faster and simpler Apple Pay is, even over Google Wallet, there’s no way this thing won’t catch on.

      Apple Pay will be the de facto standard for mobile payments, and like you said, CurrentC will almost immediately fade into obscurity.

      • iPrince (@_iPrince) - 9 years ago

        Well said. I’d take this comment over any other, b/c you’ve used both platforms. Good review.

      • emailjimmyw - 9 years ago

        Great points, and I totally agree with you.

  4. thetekman10 - 9 years ago

    Just used Apple Pay in my local CVS, I guess they never got the memo.

    • theagentmike - 9 years ago

      which state are you in? maybe there’s state laws that are allowing some to accept it

    • jrox16 - 9 years ago

      Maybe individual store managers are just like “fuck that guy, we will serve our customers”??

  5. Manuel Rivera-Ortiz - 9 years ago

    Absolutely unrcontionable. That this sort of thing happens in a democracy is arresting. Shame on you Dekkers Davidson. Did you really think we the public would sit idly by? If you did then you mistake all 350 million of us for fools which itself disgustingly insulting.

  6. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Shouldn’t even be months. Should have never been.

  7. Silence Dogood - 9 years ago

    Riiiiiiiiiiight! What ever you have to say to save face!

    • 89p13 - 9 years ago

      My thoughts exactly — How fast can you back peddle you idiot. That was the most consumer unfriendly scheme I’ve ever seen. Thankfully, the story was broken before it could be implemented.

      Just stay tuned for MCX, ver. 2.0 – coming to a merchant near you too soon!

  8. jrox16 - 9 years ago

    How about Mr. Davidson just go fuck himself, along with the stores which joined him…

    • mrnagrom - 9 years ago

      I’m telling him to go fuck himself. I’m doing it with my wallet. Every store that has nfc disabled because of this wont get a cent of my business till they fix it. I’ll go out of my way to find a duane reade or walgreens so i don’t spend money at a cvs (i live a block away from a rite aid)

  9. What has Dekkers Brooklynn, wait Dekkers Davidson, done in the month between the announcement and the launch of Apple Pay? He didn’t see this coming?? He didn’t tell his merchants to disable their nfc before so this thing with CVS would not have made the news? They didn’t prepare any “fact sheets” showing how their product would be better?? They didn’t even seem ready to answer questions on Apple Pay launch week.

    That is not the type of leadership I would want for a “cutting-edge”, new technology company trying to find a spot in an emerging market. MCX looks a few steps behind in their every move

  10. TrueCopy (@TruthCopy) - 9 years ago

    I never thought Apple Pay would be that big of a deal. I didn’t think paying with my phone would be that big of a deal. But it is. It’s huge. And you’re right, given the choice, everything else equal, I’d pick a retailer that has a compatible NFC reader.

    I can’t wait until this becomes more than a novelty.

  11. Laughing_Boy48 - 9 years ago

    It looks like Apple Pay will become the dominant electronic payment system by 2015. It’s about time they got some market dominance. We’ll see how soon Android ends up taking that away. I know it’s going to be another pissing contest about who’s got the most market share. It always boils down to that metric. As long as Apple is taking a nice little cut out of every transaction that will be good for Apple shareholders.

    • Carlos R. Batista - 9 years ago

      Google Wallet has to revamp their entire system to get the banks on board. Unfortunately Google makes money of your information so it is in their best interest to know as much as possible about your payment methods and transaction data. For Google to go down the privacy protection route will take quite some time.

  12. moofer1972 - 9 years ago

    “…Just long enough for us to rush our piece of crap to market.”

  13. diososx - 9 years ago

    Too little too late.

  14. Used Apple Pay today at McD’s…took all of a few seconds and I was done. Awesome! I had my debit card hacked twice in the past couple of years with swipes so I feel very comfortable using this method.

    • nsxrebel - 9 years ago

      USAA only went live earlier this week, and today I finally got to use Pay for the first time. Picked up my dad at LAX. Stopped at McD’s to use the restroom. He asked if I had eaten dinner yet, so we ordered food. He was handing me a bill to pay and I told him I had it. Gave me a confused look when I put my phone up to the NFC terminal. I didn’t know if I had to unlock the phone and open Passbook in order to use Pay. All I did was press the home button and continued to hold my finger on the TouchID, and VOILA! Transaction went thru! Apple have really done their homework on this one. No wonder all these banks are jumping at the opportunity to use Pay!

  15. Isn’t the photo attached to this article sort of misleading? Makes it look like the person is using Current C on an iPhone 6, but that’s the Apple Pay interface.

    • 2 things about the photo make me think its okay: one, the transaction doesn’t show as successful (on par for MCX) and 2- I don’t see any coupons or ads being sent to the phone (also expected from MCX)

  16. John Skooter - 9 years ago

    They seem to be focused on the fact that retailers will be able to use any NFC form of payment but to my mind the real issue is the requirement for me to provide to them highly personal information in order to sign up to use their product. All the information that any respectable identity thief would need to rob me blind. Unless and until they address those requirements it won’t matter what kind of spin they put on their product, it will fail and fail miserably. It appears that his fool of a CEO will continue to refuse to acknowledge the real problem with their product. Any business that takes their potential customer base as idiots and fools will never prosper.

  17. Hammond Cheeseborough - 9 years ago

    Months? How about in the next 24 hours? I’d be good with that.

  18. digizeo - 9 years ago

    This is the first time i have ever seen a technology that has crashed and burned before it even took off, and Apple didn’t even have to lift a finger. “Sir what are we going to do about currentc disabling our apple pay?” “Nothing” “What?” “You’ll see” Takes a seat and just watches.3 weeks later “See, didn’t have to lift a finger”

  19. mrnagrom - 9 years ago

    i’m pretty sure they actually mean that their company will expire within a few months. Personally I can’t wait for this walmart backed turd to finally get flushed.

  20. Neal Leeper - 9 years ago

    It’s just like DivX and Circuit City. They both are gone.

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.