SEOUL – The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has intervened in Samsung Electronics' plans to transition Samsung Pay into a paid service for credit card companies, sparking a heated debate over excessive government intervention and "reverse discrimination" against domestic tech giants.
According to industry sources on March 25, the FSS recently summoned representatives from eight major credit card companies to monitor trends regarding Samsung Pay’s potential authentication fees. The regulator reportedly requested that card issuers report any demands for fees from Samsung Electronics immediately, describing Samsung Pay as being "closer to a public good" given its massive user base of 18.6 million.
The FSS plans to officially deliver its stance to Samsung Electronics, urging the company to refrain from charging fees. The regulator’s primary concern is that such fees would deteriorate the profitability of card companies, eventually leading to a reduction in consumer benefits or an increase in costs for the public.
However, the move has drawn sharp criticism from industry experts. Critics argue that applying the "public good" logic to a private digital payment platform is an overreach of regulatory power. Furthermore, it raises questions about fairness compared to Apple Pay.
Since its launch in South Korea in 2023, Apple Pay has been charging local card companies an estimated 0.15% commission per transaction. In contrast, Samsung Pay has provided its service free of charge to domestic card issuers for a decade since its 2015 debut.
"There is a clear issue of equity compared to Apple Pay," a Samsung Electronics official stated. "If a fee were to be introduced, our intention would be to return those gains to customers rather than simply taking them as profit."
The most pressured parties are the credit card companies. They are currently caught in a "triple squeeze": stagnant merchant fees due to government-mandated rate cuts, the existing commission burden from Apple Pay, and the potential new costs from Samsung Pay.
"The FSS is adamant about maintaining the current low-fee structure for card transactions," said an industry insider. "This rigid control effectively blocks healthy fee competition between card issuers and digital payment providers, a level of intervention rarely seen in other global markets."
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