Affinity Credit Union files a proposed class-action complaint in California accusing Apple of illegally profiting from payment card issuer fees via Apple Pay
but jury is out on ultimate assignment Rida Imran / iThinkDifferent : Apple accused of blocking third-party mobile wallets from using ‘Tap to Pay’ payment on iOS Brandon Vigliarolo / The Register : Apple Pay bags Cupertino another antitrust lawsuit Arnold Zafra / The Mac Observer : Apple Gets Another Antitrust Lawsuit, This Time For Charging Apple Pay Fees to Card Issuers Tom Phillips / NFCW : Law firm files class action against Apple on behalf of US payment card issuers over NFC chip access and service fees United States District Court, Northern District of California : Class Action Complaint for Violation of the Sherman Act and Clayton Act Mitchell Clark / The Verge : Apple's getting sued for having a monopoly on the iPhone's tap-to-pay Jack Purcher / Patently Apple : A Class Action has been filed against Apple by Iowa's Affinity Credit Union regarding the Apple Pay Monopoly on iOS Tweets: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Apple has more active antitrust lawsuits of any big tech company ever. If corporations were actually people, they'd have to throw Apple under the jail. https://www.bloomberg.com/... Joe Rossignol / @rsgnl : Important to note that the proposed class for this lawsuit is U.S. card issuers — aka banks. So even if Apple ends up paying a settlement here, the money would go to lawyers and banks. Yay... https://twitter.com/... Mark Gurman / @markgurman : Power On from May with an explainer on the situation: Apple Keeps Its Tap-to-Pay Feature to Itself to Protect Revenue https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/... Hagens Berman / @classactionlaw : #Apple Sued in Massive #Antitrust Class-Action Lawsuit Alleging $1 Billion Illicit Annual Revenue Stream from #ApplePay Fees more » https://www.hbsslaw.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Affinity Credit Union’s California filing adds a U.S. card-issuer challenge to Apple Pay’s commercial model. It follows reports that PayPal and other companies’ concerns about Apple’s NFC restrictions helped prompt a formal European Commission antitrust complaint.
The dispute also echoes Apple’s earlier opposition to Australian banks seeking to collectively bargain over Apple Pay. Across the coverage, control of iPhone payment access and the fees attached to that access are becoming the linked issues.
First-order effects
- Affinity Credit Union’s proposed class action puts Apple’s Apple Pay issuer-fee practices and iPhone NFC access under antitrust challenge in a California court.
- Apple must defend a model that the complaint characterizes as using control over iOS payment functionality to profit from card issuers.
Second-order effects
- Other payment-card issuers gain a U.S. litigation vehicle alongside the European NFC scrutiny, increasing pressure on Apple to substantiate its access restrictions and fee structure.
- Payment-wallet providers’ complaints about NFC limits become more consequential because issuer fees and wallet access are now being contested as parts of the same gatekeeper arrangement.
Third-order effects
- If regulators or courts require broader access to iPhone payment functions, platform owners’ ability to pair device-level control with payment-service fees would face a more explicit antitrust boundary.
- The pattern points toward payment interfaces becoming a recurring test of whether mobile-platform control is a security policy or a source of regulated platform take rates.
The trend: Mobile payment disputes are converging on whether control of NFC hardware lets platform operators set both the terms of wallet competition and the fees paid by financial institutions.