Apple faces possible antitrust suit over tap-to-pay limits

By Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

A proposed class action lawsuit filed against Apple accuses the company of violating U.S. antitrust law by ensuring that Apple Pay is the only available mobile wallet for making tap-to-pay payments with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.

The complaint, filed Monday by law firms Hagens Berman and Sperling & Slater, alleges that Apple is illegally profiting at least $1 billion annually by blocking rivals from accessing NFC technology on its devices, thereby preventing competing services like Google Pay or Samsung Pay from offering tap-to-pay payment functionality on Apple devices.

For every Apple Pay transaction completed with a U.S. issuer’s payment card, the issuer must pay Apple a fee of 0.15% for credit cards and half a cent for debit cards, the complaint alleges. By comparison, Google allows multiple mobile wallets on Android smartphones and does not collect a fee from U.S. card issuers for tap-to-pay payments.

For more details, read the full story at MacRumors:

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/07/18/apple-pay-anticompetitive-lawsuit/