Apple sued over Apple Pay payment system
Apple has been hit with a lawsuit in the US over Apple Pay.
The tech giant is accused of stifling competition from rival payment card issuers by utilizing its dominant position in the mobile phone market.
An Iowa-based chartered credit union, Affinity Credit Union, filed the class-action lawsuit in a federal court in California.
The BBC contacted Apple for comment, but they did not react right away.
Apple “coerces” users of its smartphones, smart watches, and tablets to use its own wallet for contactless payments, in contrast to manufacturers of Android-based devices that provide users a choice of wallets, such as Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the complaint claims.
According to the complaint, Apple forbids users from utilizing competing mobile wallets that can provide competing tap and pay options.
The almost 4,000 banks and credit unions that utilize Apple Spend, according to Iowa’s Affinity Credit Union, are compelled to pay at least $1 billion in extra fees each year as a result of Apple’s anti-competitive behavior.
Additionally, it said that Apple’s actions reduced the company’s incentive to improve Apple Pay’s functionality and make it more secure.
Affinity Credit Union stated that “Apple’s conduct damages not only issuers but also customers and competition as a whole.”
“Apple could not maintain these high fees if there were competition.”
Unspecified monetary damages and an end to Apple’s claimed anti-competitive behavior are sought in the case.
Other legal battles
Apple already faces a possible heavy fine after European Union regulators on 2 May said it had abused its dominance in iOS devices and mobile wallets, by refusing to give payment rivals access to its technology.
According to the complaint, Apple charges issuers a 0.15% fee on credit transactions and a flat 0.5 cent fee on debit transactions using Apple Pay, while Android-based rivals charge nothing.
The plaintiff is represented by the law firms Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and Sperling and Slater.
They were instrumental in securing a $100 million settlement for a group of smaller iOS developers who alleged Apple had overcharged them for commissions last August.
Margrethe Vestager, the head of the European Union’s digital policy, stated in May that Apple had claimed that it couldn’t grant access to NFC for security reasons in response to the EU’s investigation into its mobile payment practices.
The majority of mobile phone payments done in stores in Europe use a wireless technology called “Near Field Communication,” or NFC.
This feature facilitates ‘tap and go’ by permitting communication between a customer’s mobile phone and the store’s payment terminal.
Vestager stated on the EU website that “our study to date did not discover any material that would suggest to such a higher security risk.”
The information in our file, on the other hand, shows that Apple’s actions cannot be justified by security issues.
Google Case
A trial is also scheduled for claims that Google overcharged millions of UK app users.
Liz Coll, a consumer advocate, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the nearly 20 million British Play Store customers.
Her goal is to make up for years of alleged overcharging by Google and competition law violations by UK Android smartphone and tablet customers.
We are convinced that our claim is valid, she stated.
“We look forward to pressing the case for UK consumers at trial,” they said. “Google Play Store’s imposition of a headline 30 percent tax on our digital transactions is unlawful and unreasonable.”
Google declared it will contest the assertion.
