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France's largest retailers and the country's major mobile-network operators have formed a consortium to standardize the way merchants would deliver loyalty programs and coupons on Near Field Communication mobile phones. The new group, called "Ergosum," will be announced next week with 10 leading retailers, including such major chains as Carrefour Group, one of the world's largest retailers; competing hypermarket chain Auchan Group; supermarket chain Intermarché; and LaSer, an arm of department store and general merchandise retailer Galeries Lafayette, sources tell CardLine Global sister publication Cards&Payments. France's three major mobile-network operators—France Telecom-Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom—also belong to the group. The group's creation follows the formation last year and in late 2006 of separate consortia of banks and transit operators to standardize and set business rules for NFC payment and transit ticketing. Those groups also include the major French mobile operators. "Okay, you have specified how to pay, but in shopping there is more than paying. There is also using loyalty schemes, there are coupons," one mobile operator tells Cards&Payments. "They [big chains] feel the prospects [for NFC] are good enough that the are willing to contribute." The new group also may set rules and standards for some payment-related issues, such as how the NFC phones would choose from multiple payment or loyalty applications that may reside on the same device, says another source. The merchants agreed to terms for the formation of the group on 19 Nov., says a source. Like the payment and transit-standards groups, the retail consortium is expected to hold an NFC trial. Before that, the group will issue draft specifications, perhaps as early as March. Besides mobile couponing and other loyalty programs, the specifications would deal with standards for how NFC phones could be used for product promotion at the checkout counter. Other large French retailers that have joined the group include consumer-electronics chain FNAC and home-improvement merchant Leroy Merlin. By forming the group, the retailers are not committing to NFC rollouts, but their membership indicates their strong interest in the technology. Carrefour, Auchan and Intermarché earlier said they plan to accept contactless payment cards in France, adding that contactless terminals later could be used for NFC payment and perhaps loyalty. French telcos and service providers are taking a more-cooperative approach than their counterparts in other countries to laying the foundations for NFC. As one mobile operator put it, French telcos want to "have a fully interoperable end-to-end solution" when NFC phones eventually reach the market in sufficient quantify and variety, likely in 2010. They would then set up one or more demonstration cities to help promote the French way of NFC in other countries.
