Ahead of Apple Pay’s Europe launch at WWDC, survey finds cost and lack of customer demand and access to data has stalled retailer interest in US

As Apple prepares to expand Apple Pay to Europe at WWDC, anecdotal evidence suggests that the company’s forecast for US adoption may be too optimistic and that many retailers remain skeptical about the payment system.

Chief executive Tim Cook made the confident prediction in January that 2015 would be “the year of Apple Pay”. Since then, Apple has aggressively courted retailers – and claimed significant success. A spokesman said “about half” of the top 100 US merchants will accept Apple Pay this year, with more to follow in 2016.