Reuters NewsA class action lawsuit filed by Mirage Wine & Spirits, an Illinois beverage retailer, on behalf of all physical channels in the United States that offer Apple Pay, alleges that Visa and Mastercard "bribed" Apple with high fees so that it could 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.
By doing so, Visa and Mastercard can not only ensure that their own credit card transaction network systems are not affected by Apple's payment service, but also prevent other third-party mobile wallet services that are not bound to credit cards from operating through the NFC function provided by Apple, thereby reducing the proportion of transactions through credit cards.
According to the report, Visa and Mastercard reach agreements with Apple worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year, allowing their own transaction network systems to maintain a certain advantage.
Apple has previously been accused ofInvolving monopolyThe reason is that the NFC function behind Apple's wallet service is not open to other wallet services, and is even only allowed to be used on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, giving Apple a greater advantage in mobile payments.
However, although Judge Jeffrey White, who presided over this lawsuit, agreed that payment by scanning QR codes is not more convenient than Apple Pay, and also agreed that the cost of switching payment methods is relatively high, he believed that Apple did not force consumers to use its wallet service and Apple Pay function. At the same time, this service is provided free of charge and does not involve any charges. Therefore, he believes that Apple's service does not involve monopoly.
