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California Northern District Judge Jeffrey White partially denied (PDF) Apple’s request to dismiss a proposed federal class action lawsuit over Apple Pay, reports Reuters.
Three credit unions argued Apple violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by charging too much in processing fees and being too exclusionary by not letting other digital wallets access its NFC-scanning hardware.
The judge agreed with the credit unions’ argument that because QR code payment apps (like Venmo) lack Apple Pay’s convenience and functionality, and it’s too expensive to switch to Android, iOS tap-to-pay is a market unto itself.
And Apple is the only player in a certain market that would have other competition if not for that little NFC reader detail that makes it a monopoly say the lawyers.
No NFC access for third-party apps sounds anticompetitive to Judge White.
Apple and the credit unions will meet again in court on December 1st at 11AM PT.
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seems like a govt crackdown on big tech
I suspect it’s because they left the tech sector alone for too long and now major damage control is needed.
It seems like laws and politicians are always a little late to the game with regulations on new technology because they don’t fully understand a new technology or its implications until it’s been on the market for a while.
Unfortunately, that means by the time the technology’s implications have been determined, a lot of damage can have already been done.
I think, similarly, politicians were not examining the tech sector closely when it came to acquisitions; but they realize, now, that they let it fester a little too long.
Hopefully the FTC continues to break up any monopoly it can identify (tech or otherwise), but there’s certainly a lot of work to be done.
Sure would be nice if they cracked down on all the companies that have gobbled everything up and made market competition difficult. Not really sure why Apple Pay is the thing they choose to spend resources on when there are plenty of other issues to address
Not really sure why Apple Pay is the thing they choose to spend resources on when there are plenty of other issues to address
The cynic in me says this is retaliation for something apple did or refused to do for the government
Because three credit unions chose to sue Apple about it? Read the article.
I guess they do have a point. Android has Google Pay and Samsung Pay, it would be great if all 3 worked on iOS and Android.
Banks also have the option of offering their own NFC products on Android, not that many do anymore. Apple doesn’t allow real access to NFC hardware.
