Apple, Mastercard and Visa are suspected of engaging in illegal activities in the mobile payment market.Forming a monopoly, thus hindering market competition, was earlier filed by the U.S. courtRuling to reject, determining that the plaintiff's allegations of "bribery to maintain a monopoly position" lacked sufficient evidence, and thus temporarily put an end to the dispute.
The lawsuit was filed in 2023 by Mirage Wine & Spirits, a beverage retailer in Illinois, USA, on behalf of all physical channels in the United States that provide Apple Pay payments. It claims that Visa and Mastercard "bribed" Apple with high fees to allow it to maintain its market dominance through credit card transactions.
The lawsuit alleges that Apple reached an agreement with Visa and Mastercard, which included Apple canceling the development of its own retail transaction payment network system to avoid competing with the transaction network systems established by Visa and Mastercard. It also canceled the NFC operating mechanism behind Apple Pay used by other businesses, meaning that third-party mobile wallet businesses would be unable to implement contactless payment operations through the iPhone's built-in NFC function.
The lawsuit pointed out that Apple charges about 0.15% for each credit card transaction and 0.5 cents for each debit card transaction, which becomes the economic incentive for Apple Pay to continue to cooperate deeply with Mastercard and Visa.
However, the court ultimately determined that the information presented by the plaintiffs did not provide conclusive evidence to prove that Apple originally planned to launch its own transaction payment network system, or that there were specific circumstances in which Mastercard and Visa "bribed" Apple.
In fact, since Apple Pay was launched in 2014, international card issuing organizations such as Mastercard, Visa, and American Express have been deeply involved in the design and promotion of its ecosystem. Many of Apple's financial services, including Apple Card in cooperation with Mastercard and Apple Cash in cooperation with Visa, are built on the existing financial system.
Although dismissed by the court, the lawsuit still reflects market concerns about Apple's closed NFC app permissions design. For years, developers have repeatedly called on Apple to open up the NFC Tap to Pay feature, allowing third-party payment services to directly access and complete transactions through NFC contact without going through the Apple Pay mechanism. Although Apple has subsequently further opened up its NFC functionality, it has not fully relaxed its use.
It was not until 2024, facing the requirements of the EU Digital Markets Directive (DMA), that Apple began to target the European region.Expanding the opening of NFC functions, allowing third-party payment applications to access directly, and recently expanded toThe United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, etc.Despite this, the Apple Pay service ecosystem in most markets around the world still maintains a closed structure that works closely with Mastercard and Visa, and this is unlikely to change in the short term.
After the court dismissed the case, the plaintiff Mirage Wine & Spirits can still file another lawsuit after providing sufficient evidence, indicating that the competitive situation in the payment market is still uncertain.
In addition, with the continued promotion of services such as Samsung Pay and Google Pay, and the acceleration of the global trend towards contactless payments and open banking, regulators around the world continue to have concerns about Apple's monopoly cooperation with Mastercard, Visa, etc.
It remains to be seen whether Apple will continue to open up more NFC functional areas in the future, or simply make strategic concessions to regulations.
