The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are flying off the Apple store shelves, but one of its marquee features – the potentially game-changing mobile payment platform Apple Pay – is facing major obstacles as the Cupertino company seeks to disrupt the mobile payment space.

Among Apple Pay’s main detractors is natural foe PayPal, an eBay subsidiary, whose domain Apple is attempting to invade with its near field communication technology (NFC) equipped iPhone 6 models.

The strategy deployed by PayPal, also headquartered in the Silicon Valley, appears to involve turning the public against its competitor. To that end, the firm bought a full-page ad in the New York Times that takes a jab at Apple’s iCloud security breach involving nude celebrity pictures. According to Hallels, the ad declares: “We the people want our money safer than our selfies. PayPal, protecting the people economy.”

PayPal isn’t alone in antagonizing one of the world’s most valuable companies as it attempts to recreate the marketing magic of the late Steve Jobs era under current CEO Tim Cook. Top U.S. retailers Walmart and Best Best have outright rejected implementation of Apple Pay despite Apple’s partnerships with credit card companies and smaller retailers such as CVS, Duane Reade and Sephora.

VentureBeat points out that Apple not only had a “strategic invite list” to get companies aboard, but also timed the the Apple Pay roll-out as merchants are being prodded by U.S. credit card firms to switch their payment systems by October 2015 to chip and PIN reader. “It’s reasonable to think when merchants upgrade to new card readers, they will opt for systems that are both EMV- and NFC-friendly,” VentureBeat’s Ruth Reader concludes. (EMV – Euro, Mastercard, Visa – is the system for chip and PIN credit cards worldwide.)

The NFC card readers may be cost-prohibitive, however, as at $250 each, merchants would have to shell out more money per unit than even a new model chip and PIN unit.