Apple Pay Blocked at CVS, Rite Aid in Challenge to System

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Apple Inc.’s mobile payment technology ran into a roadblock a week after its introduction as CVS Health Corp. and Rite Aid Corp., part of a consortium developing a competing system, disabled Apple Pay in their drugstores.

CVS and Rite Aid are among 220,000 U.S. merchants that already have technology in place to read the short-range wireless signals that enable customers of Apple Pay or similar services to make a purchase by waving their smartphones. The retailers weren’t among those specifically named as accepting Apple Pay when the iPhone maker revealed its system last month.