Apple banned PayPal from Apple Pay over Samsung deal

Apple has decided not to add PayPal to its payment platform Apple Pay because the payment service previously added support for the fingerprint reader of the Samsung Galaxy S5. At least that’s what an American website claims.

Apple and PayPal were initially said to have had talks about adding PayPal as a “preferred payment option” in Apple Pay, but PayPal’s decision to build support for the fingerprint reader in the S5 is said to have upset Apple. The Bank Innovation website writes this on the basis of anonymous sources; it is unclear how reliable that website is.

PayPal’s place is now taken by payment start-up Stripe. David Marcus, then director of PayPal, is said to have been afraid of Apple’s reaction to the deal with Samsung, but CEO John Donahoe of parent company eBay is said to have pushed the deal through. The feud with Apple is said to have been one of the reasons Marcus left PayPal for Facebook.

Tuesday it was announced that eBay will divest PayPal next year; the payment service, which eBay acquired in 2002 for $1.5 billion, will become a standalone publicly traded company.