Apple, Mastercard, and Visa were jointly accused of anti-competitive practices when it comes to payment networks in a new class-action complaint filed in the United States as reported by Reuters.
According to the report, the three companies are accused of conspiring together to restrict new competitors from developing alternative payment card networks, forcing users to pay artificially higher transaction fees with debit or credit cards. The complaint was lodged in East St. Louis, Illinois by Mirage Wine & Spirits.
The complaint alleges that Visa and Mastercard struck “unlawful agreements” with Apple that would see the latter abstain from directly competing with them in exchange for lucrative transaction fees when debit and credit cards are used through the Wallet app.
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The plaintiff alleges that the transaction fees paid by Visa and Mastercard to Apple are nothing but a “very large and ongoing cash bribe” amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. Even though the complaint is filed by a single company, the plaintiff seeks damages on behalf of thousands of merchants in the US who are allegedly affected by the deal involving the three companies.
Apple has recently come under heavy fire for its Wallet and Apple Pay practices in the United States, Europe, and Australia. An earlier case filed in California alleges that the company co-conspired with PayPal and Block to limit potential competitors from developing peer-to-peer payment apps on iOS forcing users to rely on Apple Cash, Venmo, and Cash App.
In Europe, the company is offering to open up its NFC contactless payments network to banks and other third-party institutions to natively develop their own Apple Pay competitors. Apple reportedly made this offer in response to pressure from the European Union over monopoly accusations that also included threats of heavy fines.
Over in Australia, the federal government is set to approve new legislation that would see digital payment services including Apple Pay and Google Pay subject to the same set of financial regulations just like traditional banks and card issuers.
