A class action lawsuit has been filed in the federal court in East St. Louis against Apple, Visa and Mastercard companies. The companies are accused in it of a conspiracy aimed at illegally eliminating competition and as a result artificially inflating fees for credit and debit transactions.
Free access to this article is provided to you by MU Group.
As reported by Reuters, the main plaintiff in the class action lawsuit is the retail chain Mirage Wine & Spirits, but also involved are "at least several thousand" merchants. According to court documents, Apple, Visa and Mastercard are alleged to have conspired to artificially inflate credit and debit transaction fees, causing losses to merchants. Mirage Wine & Spirits directly calls these actions a "very large and constant monetary bribe".
The card operators are alleged to have unlawfully reached an agreement with Apple, in exchange for a share in the profits from fees generated through the relevant payment systems, to refrain from competing with both companies. The lawsuit reads, among other things:
"Instead of competing in the American market for POS card network services, Apple and Entrenched Networks agreed to allocate this market. Apple reached an agreement with Visa, and then with Mastercard, not to use the iPhone to create its own independent POS transaction payment network. Instead, Apple, Visa and Mastercard agreed to conduct Apple Pay transactions through the POS transaction payment network of Entrenched Networks".
Those involved in the class action lawsuit are now seeking multi-million dollar damages from Apple, Visa and Mastercard.
The lawsuit also highlighted Apple's blocking of access to certain iPhone modules by other companies. This mainly concerns the NFC chip, which is used for contactless payments. The battle for this module has been going on for years, which means that at the moment, Apple Pay is the only mobile wallet platform available on iPhones.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit adds that "unlike Apple's iPhone, Google devices based on Android allow for mobile wallets from other companies."
Apple has so far strongly emphasized that it does not want to share the Apple Pay module with other entities for security reasons, but in the face of the above allegations, the company is willing to change its mind. It is also likely that the giant from Cupertino will do this against its will under increasing pressure from the European Union.
In 2024, AI will bring about significant changes in the area of project and human resources management in small and medium-sized companies, and its proper use can affect not only work efficiency, but also savings. How to make the potential of this technology work to the benefit of your company?
We examine the most popular threats associated with tools operating in the SaaS (Software as a Service) model and suggest how to avoid them.
The CBM Indicator study for the Confederation of Leviathan reveals mixed feelings among company managers - 61% perceive a deterioration of business conditions, 59% are optimistic about the future, and 60% positively assess the upcoming changes in the law.
As the only company in the world, it is able to produce processors in the most advanced 3 nm technology. In addition, it owns the most expensive factory ever built, and its clients are Apple, NVIDIA and Intel. How did it happen that Taiwanese TSMC became one of the most important companies in the world?
English