Data Localization Act Prevents Apple Pay from Coming to IndiaByNitish Singh-September 6, 2018.235 Figure 1 Photo Courtesy of Apple Pay All payments in the country must be processed only within India to avoid the launch of the service. India is the second largest smartphone market in the world at the moment, but Apple has not found a footing. For Apple, the Indian market was a rough ride with the company unable to maintain sales figures and a steady decline in market share. The business has also been hurt by import taxes and legal requirements that prohibit Apple Stores from being built locally. The tech giant had been negotiating the introduction of Apple Pay with banks and legal authorities. It does seem as though the business is about to suffer yet another setback. After the Reserve Bank of India (Rbi) adopted a data localization rule, Apple has put its plans to launch its payment service on hold. Under the new law, all payment data must be stored locally through payment services only to prevent the tech giant from collecting and storing data outside the country. The Apple I d and Touch I d are used as Apple Pay authentication methods which are also not qualified in the region. The Rbi doesn’t require biometric data to be collected for authentication purposes. Alternatively, India’s National Payments Corporation demands that four or six-digit pins be used to authenticate transactions. Eddy Cue promised Apple Pay last year but he refused to give a release date until the company was certain about the quality of the app. But it seems that with the latest law in place, Indian consumers will be left out. The tech giant isn’t alone in this situation with similar problems facing firms like Google Amazon PayPal and WhatsApp. Google has managed to implement Google Pay in the country (formerly known as Tez) by adhering to the Indian regulations and using the Unified Payment Interface system. If they want to introduce Apple Pay in the region, Apple may be forced to do likewise.