When you look at the payments landscape today, it is hard not to be impressed by how quickly Apple turned a complex, hardware dependent process into something as simple as tapping two phones together. The company’s latest announcement that Tap to Pay on iPhone is now available in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, and Norway might read like a routine expansion. It is not. We are watching the late innings of a transformation in how European businesses accept payments.
What started as a U.S. launch in February 2022 has turned into a European phenomenon that is reshaping everything from street markets to national retail chains. The pace is the tell. It feels like one of those rare moments when an industry shifts almost overnight.
Why this European expansion matters more than you might think
This rollout is not just another pin on the map. The partnerships Apple lined up tell the bigger story. In Norway, merchants can pick from Adyen, Nexi, PayPal, Stripe, SumUp, Surfboard Payments, and Viva.com. That range fits Norway’s mature payment rails and shows Apple is plugging into local players, not trying to bulldoze them.
Meanwhile, the Baltics are tighter in scope. Estonia and Lithuania support SumUp and Revolut, while Latvia focuses on SumUp. When neighboring merchants run on similar platforms, cross border selling gets easier, and the regional ecosystem gets stronger.
The tech stays simple, which is why it travels fast. No additional hardware or credit card machine is required. An iPhone XS or newer is enough to start taking payments in minutes. The flow uses NFC technology to securely authenticate contactless payments, and it supports PIN entry with accessibility options.
What fuels the momentum is Apple’s existing base. Apple Pay accounts for 54% of in-store mobile wallet transactions in the U.S., with a projected around 60-65 million active users in 2025. That consumer comfort converts straight into merchant demand in Europe, because Tap to Pay lets them accept what customers already prefer.
The technology that’s making traditional terminals obsolete
Why does this feel disruptive? The transaction is simple end to end. Sellers just need to open up the app, register the sale, and present their iPhone to the buyer, who taps with a compatible contactless method. Under that calm surface sits a security stack that often beats traditional terminals for protection and speed.
All transactions are encrypted, and Apple does not see what was bought or who bought it. That privacy first posture answers a core worry merchants and shoppers have about digital payments. Processing runs on the same Secure Element used by Apple Pay, adding layered encryption so sensitive data stays protected on device.
The competitive picture is moving. While Apple Pay held a 14.22% share of online payments globally in 2025 versus PayPal’s 47.43%, in-store behavior looks very different. Apple Pay’s 2.3× faster app performance than Google Pay translates into an experience people notice. In a packed coffee bar or a Saturday market, a few saved seconds per order add up, shift after shift.
That performance gap shows up in adoption. 68% of users in 2025 said Apple Pay felt faster for in-store transactions than other mobile wallets. Not just convenience, a reset of expectations that pushes merchants toward speed.
How European regulations are reshaping the payment battlefield
Europe’s rulebook is adding fuel, just not in the way regulators might have imagined. The European Commission’s Digital Markets Act forced Apple to open iOS NFC access to third-party providers, reshaping competition. In June 2024, Apple agreed to free NFC input access and to let consumers set other providers as the default.
That pressure produced a paradox. Apple opened the door and at the same time sped up its own Tap to Pay rollout. Instead of slowing Apple, the rules raised the urgency to plant flags before rivals fully exploited the new NFC access. The result, a more competitive, faster moving European payments market.
The effects are visible already. PayPal has developed NFC capabilities for in-store terminals and launched contactless iPhone payments in Germany, letting users set PayPal as the default payment app over Apple Pay. Regulation unlocked the move, and the rivalry is pushing the whole ecosystem forward.
Local European payment solutions are thriving in this new competitive climate. Poland’s Blik experienced meteoric growth in 2024, up 43% in spending, with contactless growing fastest at 58% year on year. Switzerland’s Twint has seen over 30% growth in 2024, topping 770 million transactions. These are no longer niche players, they are real competitors reshaping habits and showing that regulatory opening lifts local innovation as well as global platforms.
What this means for small businesses and the future
The implications for small businesses are the headline. Over 85% of U.S. retailers already accept Apple Pay, and 41.4% of companies accepting Apple Pay are small firms with fewer than 10 employees. Tap to Pay removes the last hurdles, dedicated hardware, monthly terminal fees, and fiddly setup.
The shift lands especially hard in Europe, where smaller firms have often faced higher barriers to new payment tech. When Apple Pay accounts for approximately 35% of non-cash point-of-sale transactions in advanced European markets, not accepting it means turning away more than one in three digital payments.
Adding Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, and Norway moves Apple closer to full European Economic Area coverage. With just five countries remaining before full availability, the tipping point is near, Tap to Pay shifts from novelty to baseline. Early adopters bank the network effect as customer expectations harden around the seamless tap.
The broader trend points the same way. Digital wallet in-store adoption among U.S. consumers rose from 23% in 2019 to 43% in 2024. Not a slow creep, a surge into the mainstream. With Apple Pay transaction volume expected to reach about 1-2 trillion dollars globally in 2025 and strong double digit growth, a simple iPhone setup gives small businesses direct access to a huge, growing flow without buying traditional infrastructure.
Where do we go from here?
Apple’s latest European expansion is more than geography, it marks a shift in how we think about payment acceptance itself. Regulatory pressure, tech advances, and changing consumer habits are feeding each other, a tidy perfect storm that speeds up innovation for businesses, shoppers, and the wider economy.
The real test is adoption in these new markets, and the early signs look good. With 98% of U.S. customers likely to recommend Apple Pay and 92% satisfaction rates, the base is there. Europe is not the U.S. though, and its diverse habits plus strong locals like Blik, Twint, and pan-European efforts such as Wero will keep the pressure on, either slowing Apple or pushing everyone to move faster.
The twist, competition often speeds things up. With multiple players stretching what contactless can do, the tech moves faster, experiences get smoother, and businesses gain more options that fit their customers.
For businesses in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, and Norway, the message is clear, the future of taking payments just got simpler. No hardware, no setup costs, no maintenance contracts, just an iPhone and the right app. As Apple maintains its list of countries where Tap to Pay is available, watch how fast it reshapes individual shops, local retail ecosystems, and the expectations that steer them.
The phone is not just becoming the wallet, it is becoming the terminal. For small businesses across Europe, that shift is happening now, one country at a time. What began in the U.S. is turning into a European standard, and the speed suggests we are only at the beginning of a larger change in how commerce works.
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