BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) — Apple Inc. has been hit with an antitrust lawsuit over its payment service, Apple Pay. The plaintiff claims that Apple uses its market power in the mobile device industry to fend off competition from rival payment apps and charge card issuers to boost profits.
Affinity Credit Union, an Iowa-based payment card credit union, filed the lawsuit and seeks to have the case characterized as a class action. The credit union alleges that Apple violated the Sherman Act, which is designed to protect competition, by bundling its mobile devices with its mobile wallet to exclude all competitors.
Apple charges issuers a 0.15 percent fee on credit card transactions and a 0.05 percent fee on debit card transactions. In contrast, Google Pay and Samsung Pay on the Android platform do not charge any fees to card issuers, Affinity said in the lawsuit. “
Apple has not yet commented.
