It's usually Americans complaining about our lack of contactless terminals in every thread, I find. Which is annoying when the thread isn't about America at all.
Anyway, it's kinda weird that AmEx isn't going to be supported in France and Switzerland. I get that it's probably not accepted in that many places there, but they do have a presence right?
I live in Switzerland and since 12/14 have used Apple Pay via my USA based AMEX card almost everywhere, where not accepted, I use my USA based Visa card.
Almost all card-accepting merchants take Amex (subway* , McD, Lidl* and Manor(a)* are some of the larger exceptions.). Post office* only takes their own post bank card.
* Also lacking NFC in their POS terminals (as are all gas stations besides coop pronto.)
The reason apple's Swiss Apple Pay launch partners are smaller boutique/off-name and/or prepay Visa card issuers is because the 5 biggest banks, it's two biggest grocery chains (Coop and Migros) who do take Apple Pay) and the post office are members of the Twint consortium.
In other countries where banks have tried to block Apple Pay, Apple has been able to use AMEX as an entry wedge. But in Switzerland, Amex cards are issued by AECS a joint venture of Amex and Credit Suisse. I'd bet that because CS is one of the Twint cartel, it blocked Swiss Amex from being used as an entry wedge in Switzerland.
For Apple Pay uptake to become ubiquitous here, it has to be offered either through some more mainstream banks, or on some of the common (annual fee free) credit cards offered by Coop (Supercard Visa via AECS) or Migros (Cumulus Visa via Cremba) which is unlikely to happen as long as Twint has a breath left in it.
The best hope against non-Twint NFC payments not getting frozen out by the Teint mafia is the tourist trade. As long as Twint is a Swiss only system, with no significant ex-Swiss uptake, merchants and payment systems will be pressured to leave access to NFC POS open to competing systems like Apple Pay.