McDonald's

McDonald's is testing a new payment system that could allow customers to purchase their meals using mobile devices.

According to Reuters, 30 restaurants in France are involved in the trial, which sees customers' payments processed by eBay's payment arm, PayPal.

The concept was demonstrated at a McDonald's conference in Orlando, Florida, earlier this year as part of a booth featuring technology expected to go live in the next couple of years, Reuters reports.

The participating French restaurants allow customers to order food through their smartphones or tablets, using a McDonald's mobile application, and then pay through PayPal. Customers then wait in a separate line to pick up their app-ordered meals.

McDonald's owns more than 30,000 restaurants worldwide. The fast food chain is one of a number of retailers, including Home Depot, that have recently signed up to use PayPal to process payments in store.

PayPal is facing increasing competition in the mobile payment space for retailers: Square recently signed a landmark deal with Starbucks, whereby the mobile payments startup will process credit and debit card transactions at the coffee chain's U.S. stores. From this fall, customers will also be able to purchase their coffee using the Pay with Square app.