US law firm Hagens Berman has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple alleging that, by preventing mobile wallets other than Apple Pay using the NFC chip in iPhone and Apple Watch to enable contactless payments, the company is in breach of federal antitrust law.
The lawsuit also claims that by having “unlawfully linked two of its products — mobile devices and its proprietary wallet”, Apple “unlawfully monopolises for tap-and-pay mobile wallets on iOS” and that consequently the reported US$1bn Apple collects annually in fees from card issuers is also in violation of federal antitrust law.
Hagens Berman[1] — which has previously filed two antitrust lawsuits involving Apple, one for US$560m in 2015 and another for US$100m this year — lists Iowa’s Affinity Credit Union[2] as the plaintiff, but says that the lawsuit “seeks to represent a class of US credit unions and financial institutions that issue payment cards enabled for use in Apple Pay”.
“The class action was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and accuses Apple of denying rivals access to the technology needed to develop a competing mobile wallet,” the law firm explains.
“On iOS devices, Apple has ensured that only its mobile wallet, Apple Pay, can make contactless payments at the point of sale. Having secured a monopoly for Apple Pay in this fashion, Apple charges card issuers who use Apple Pay supracompetitive fees for a service that is available on Android devices for free, according to the lawsuit.”
“The lawsuit seeks to reimburse payment card issuers who have been charged Apple Pay’s fees and seeks injunctive relief to put an end to Apple’s
