1999-03-24 , ESC-9957
Business News From Philips Semiconductors

Philips Semiconductors and Shell Nederland BV today launched a new national contactless payment scheme called Easypay. Easypay provides people who want to pay for fuel and purchases at a fuel station with a convenient and secure contactless payment and loyalty system. Initially the system will be introduced in approximately 100 specially selected, large Shell outlets throughout The Netherlands, before possibly being extended to the other 650 outlets. The introduction of Easypay is the first large scale application of contactless fuel payment in Europe.

Easypay provides customers with convenience, security and speed, as the technology enables payment to be made directly at the pump, instead of in the fuel station. In addition, customers can collect loyalty points with every payment. Later this year they will also be able to use Easypay to pay for other purchases in the shop.

The Easypay contactless electronic payment system is based on Philips Semiconductors' proven MIFARE® chip technology, which is the worldwide standard for contactless smart card schemes. The MIFARE® chip is embedded in a transponder in a key ring that customers receive when they join the scheme. When the customer wants to dispense fuel, all the person has to do is place their key ring near the MIFARE® chip reader that is incorporated in the fuel pump and punch in a unique pin number.

The reader uses radio frequency identification to quickly verify the chip and authorize the transaction to enable the customer to fill up the vehicle with fuel. After returning the fuel nozzle to the pump, the customer is automatically billed for the amount of fuel, from their nominated bank account.

"We are proud that Shell selected us for Easypay. It underlines our leading position in secure, proven and upgradeable contactless electronic payment technology," said Roel Pieper, Royal Philips Electronics' executive vice president. He added, "Easypay can be extended to make use of our MIFARE® PRO multi-application card ICs, the brain of MIFARE® PRO cards. Such a multi-application card enables secure transactions in both contact and contactless applications and supports recently defined application standards developed by major banking institutes. It will open up amazing opportunities for different providers to jointly offer their services on one card or key ring."

"Shell always wants to address the customer's needs," said Pat O'Driscoll, president of Shell Retail International. "We are convinced that Easypay with Philips' MIFARE® technology will be the way of payment in the future. The launch of Easypay in The Netherlands marks the start of a Shell-Philips partnership with global potential."

Philips Semiconductors' MIFARE® Architecture Platform is a compatible family of contactless and dual interface (contact and contactless on a single chip) smart card ICs, based on a single MIFARE® reader platform. With over 2.5 billion card transactions, the open MIFARE® technology has become the industry standard for contactless smart cards and corresponds to the international standard for contactless smart cards, ISO 14443 A.

MIFARE® is a registered trademark of Royal Philips Electronics

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest semiconductor supplier in the world (according to Dataquest's preliminary 1998 ranking by sales). Philips Semiconductors is a leader with a proven reputation in the development and production of components for radio frequency identification, cryptocontroller and contactless smart card ICs. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by regional application labs.

The Royal/Dutch Shell Group of Companies is the world's largest private energy company. Headquartered in London and The Hague, the Group is engaged in various activities related to oil and natural gas, chemicals, renewable resources and other businesses throughout the world. Shell Nederland Verkoopmaatschappij B.V. is based in Rotterdam and is active in marketing and sales of oil products in The Netherlands. The number of Shell service stations in the Netherlands is approximately 750; in Europe 11,000. World wide there are almost 50,000 Shell stations.