This is very bad news for Apple, Google and Samsung. The European Union has in fact just adopted “rules relating to the basic functionalities and certification of European digital identity wallets”. The long-term objective of such a measure is to arrive at the design of a “unified digital portfolio”, of which Europe would be the sole master.
Such a position allows the continent to break away from its technological dependence on the giants of Silicon Valley, Google and Apple. Today, these two apps are the ones that offer digital wallets to their users.
Tomorrow (in 2026 according to the Commission’s wishes), Europe could therefore compete with them by offering a single service for all European citizens. The end of this dependence could, however, mark a technological step backwards, with the EU having neither the means nor the capacity to provide a service as efficient as that of Google and Apple.
Users, the big losers?
In this affair, the users of these private digital wallets therefore appear to be the big losers. If the European Union wants to be reassuring, explaining that this new system will provide better protection for our data (with local backup of information in particular).
But concretely, this unified digital wallet will not necessarily bring together all the cards that we already have in Google Wallet or Apple Wallet. In order to present its project to as many people as possible, and have it accepted, the Commission has just published a list of titles which could actually find their place in this future application.
There we find identity papers (identity card, driving license, diploma, health insurance card), but also banking systems (bank card, current account, etc.) or even systems for hostages (ticket tickets). train, plane, transport card, etc.).
Facilitate use across states
For the European Union, the arrival of this digital wallet must respond to a problem, the complexity of transferring securities from one country to another. Concretely, it is today quite difficult to reserve a car from a foreign country with a dematerialized French license.
With this European convention around the unified digital wallet, it will be easier for States to verify the authenticity of a security. The mere presence of a title in the application will be a guarantee of security for consumers and the authorities.
Europe knows that this project, which it has been working on for years already, is still far from finished and the arrival of these services will take time. Nothing should change before 2026 (at the earliest) and until then, Apple and Google should play all their cards to remain the sole masters of this very important market.
