Apple, Visa, and Mastercard win dismissal of merchant antitrust lawsuit over payment fees

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Apple, Visa, and Mastercard successfully convinced a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging they colluded to stifle competition in the payments network market, leading to inflated merchant transaction fees. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Dugan in Illinois ruled that the merchants failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their claim that Apple unlawfully refused to launch a competing payment network to challenge Visa and Mastercard.
Mike Scarcella for Reuters:
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Dugan found that the plaintiffs offered only “a slew of circumstantial allegations,” but allowed them to amend their lawsuit to strengthen their claims.
The lawsuit, filed by beverage retailer Mirage Wine & Spirits and other businesses, was brought on behalf of a proposed class of thousands of merchants.
Visa and Mastercard had disputed claims of making payments to Apple, and had argued that the iPhone maker in its agreements with the networks expressly preserved a right to compete with them.
Apple argued that the complaint failed to show that the company had any plan to enter the payments network market and compete with Visa or Mastercard.
In his ruling, Dugan said the merchants’ allegations “completely ignore the difficulties, costs and time, risks, and potential for failure associated with such an endeavor.”

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MacDailyNews Note: The case was Mirage Wine & Spirits Inc et al v. Apple et al, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, No. 3:23-cv-03942-DWD.

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