9to5Mac notes that CVS's payment terminals have had NFC capability for years; the company actually turned it off to prevent customers from using Apple Pay. This is because CVS was a member of Merchant Customer Exchange, which was behind a proprietary mobile payment format called CurrentC. Companies that adopted CurrentC turned off NFC payment capabilities in order to encourage adoption. However, CurrentC was clunky to use; it involved scanning a QR code, which is much less seamless than Apple Pay's current system. As a result, it never established a large user base, and in 2017, JP Morgan bought the tech, which was its effective end as a payment system. In other words, CVS gambled on a payment system that didn't work and is now having to relent and accept Apple Pay.
CVS Pharmacy has announced it will now accept Apple Pay in its stores. Despite already having the technology in place to use the system for many years CVS was, until recently, a member of the Merchant Customer Exchange, which promoted the rival platform CurrentC and shut off NFC terminals to encourage adoption of the service. However, with the technology struggling to catch on and then being sold to JPMorgan last year, CVS has now agreed to support Apple's mobile payment platform.