- A federal judge partially denied Apple’s request to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit concerning Apple Pay’s alleged antitrust behavior, initiated by three credit unions.
- The credit unions claim Apple violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by charging excessive processing fees and excluding other digital wallets from accessing its NFC-scanning hardware.
- The judge acknowledged that iOS tap-to-pay, via Apple Pay, constitutes a distinct market due to its convenience compared to other payment methods like QR code apps.
- Lawyers argued that Apple Pay is “unlawfully tied” to Apple’s devices, though the judge found this claim unconvincing as Apple Pay is free and not forced upon users.
- The judge agreed with the accusation of “arbitrary and inflated fees” for payment processing, and identified a lack of competition in the iOS digital payments market as detrimental to consumers.
- This case follows a preliminary 2022 EU ruling deeming Apple Pay anticompetitive due to Apple’s exclusive use of the iPhone’s NFC reader, with a court meeting scheduled for December 1 to further address the lawsuit.
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Third party apps can’t use NFC on iPhone!?
That explains a lot, actually. I’ve seen plenty of QR based systems that I thought should really be NFC. Now I know that this is basically because they didn’t want to pay the Apple tax.
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