Apple sued: would Apple Pay on iPhone be a monopoly?

A class action denounces Apple Paywhich would have a monopoly on contactless payments on iPhone. The complaint explains that Apple Pay is the only service that uses NFC payments on Appletaking a commission on each transaction, unlike what happens on Android.

Is Apple Pay on iPhone a Monopoly? The class action in the United States

The class action arises from the Iowa-based company Affinity Credit Union, issuing debit and credit cards. But the lawyers are hoping other financial institutions can join in and sue Google.

Legal documents explain that Apple earns over annually a billion dollars, taking advantage of the commissions from $ 0.15 per transaction that Apple Pay asks. And lawyers complain that card issuers don’t have to pay anything when their customers use “functionally identical Android wallets.”

Most importantly, the complaint accuses Apple of violating antitrust laws, because only Apple Pay would have access to pagamenti NFC su iPhone, iPad e Apple Watch. In addition, banks could not pass the costs on to Apple’s tax customers, limiting incentives to seek cheaper options.

As already happened in the case concerning Apple and Epic, this type of complaint concerns the definition that the judge gives of ‘market’. The complaint concerns the contactless payments on mobile wallets for iOS. But if the judge decides that users can always switch to Android, the case may not win. The difference is: iOS is a Apple product or platform? The definition remains legally complicated, so the case won’t go an easy way.

The goal of the lawsuit, according to Hagens Berman’s lawyers, is to change Apple’s payment policies and get compensation for financial institutions.

This isn’t the only problem Apple Pay is facing right now. The European Union objects that third party developers cannot use the NFC payment system on iPhonAnd. A choice that leads to “less innovation and less choice for customers”.

Facing a lawsuit in both America and Europe, Apple may be opting to allow other apps to pay with l’NFC su iPhone e Apple Watch? At the moment Cupertino is not responding and prefers to leave the discussion to the lawyers. But we will keep you updated in case there is any news.