A federal judge has certified a class of U.S. banks and credit unions in an antitrust lawsuit challenging Apple Pay transaction fees, allowing eligible card issuers to pursue their claims together rather than through separate cases.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's order covers entities that issued an Apple Pay-enabled card and paid Apple a fee when that card was used through the service, MacRumors reports. White also denied Apple's request to exclude expert testimony that the plaintiffs say supports their argument that Apple held monopoly power in the mobile-wallet market.
Class certification is a procedural ruling. It does not establish that Apple violated antitrust law or that the issuers are entitled to damages.
The dispute centers on access and issuer fees
The lawsuit, first filed in 2022, alleges that Apple insulated Apple Pay from competing tap-to-pay wallets by restricting access to the iPhone's near-field communication hardware. According to the complaint, issuers pay Apple 0.15% of a credit-card transaction and half a cent for a debit transaction made through Apple Pay. The plaintiffs allege that those charges produced as much as $1 billion in annual fees.
Their comparison is Android, which supports multiple contactless-payment wallets and, the complaint argues, does not impose the same issuer charge. The banks contend that broader wallet competition would make it harder for Apple to sustain the fees.
The plaintiffs are seeking repayment of fees and an injunction against the policies they challenge. Apple will still be able to contest the class's market definition, damages model and underlying antitrust claims as the case proceeds.
Apple's NFC policy has changed
The product rules at the center of the complaint are no longer identical to those in place when the case began. Starting with iOS 18.1, Apple made its NFC and Secure Element platform available to eligible third-party developers in the United States and a growing list of other markets.
That change gives approved apps a path to offer contactless transactions on the iPhone, but it does not by itself resolve the lawsuit's claims about fees and past restrictions. The certified class is focused on issuers that say they already paid Apple under the earlier structure.
