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Apple Pay antitrust lawsuit going ahead in United States


Apple Pay



A class action lawsuit alleging Apple Pay Violating antitrust laws by forcing consumers to use the Wallet app got the green light from a California judge on Wednesday.

Apple Pay is an important part of the Apple ecosystem and is offered during device setup. The meaning of the Apple Wallet and his properties have won antitrust attention Before.

Accordingly a report out of Reuters, Illinois’ Consumers Co-op Credit Union and Iowa’s Affinity Credit Union, as well as GreenState Credit Union, have accused Apple of antitrust practices with Apple Pay and have proposed a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit made its way to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White without much change, meaning Apple will have to face the charges in court.

The judge dismissed a parallel lawsuit accusing Apple of demanding this iPhone Owners can use Apple Pay and forgo other wallets. The lawsuit focuses on the importance of Apple Pay on iPhone compared to customer choice on Android.

“We are pleased with this ruling,” Steve Berman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an email. “There are billions at stake, so it was huge for the class that the motion (to dismiss) passed largely unscathed.”

The class action lawsuit uses Sherman antitrust law as the basis for the proposal. That means the court must find that Apple is enforcing a 100 percent monopoly on the domestic market for tap-and-pay wallets on the iPhone. iPadAnd Apple Watch.

The complaint alleges that Apple’s conduct forced more than 4,000 banks and credit unions that use Apple Pay to pay at least $1 billion in excessive fees. This harms consumers by minimizing the incentive to make Apple Pay more secure and easier to use – which would be the case if Apple allowed wallet competition.

The report states that Apple asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed and failed. The company said it charged smaller card issuers “nominal” fees and that plaintiffs ignored the “competitive reality” that consumers could pay with cash, card or other means.