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Apple has been hit with a class action lawsuit from Venmo and Cash App customers who claim it has abused its power in the market to decrease competition in the mobile peer-to-peer payments area, causing consumers to pay “rapidly inflating prices.”
Apple hit with second class action lawsuit
Four consumers filed the lawsuit, alleging Apple violated U.S. antitrust law through its agreements with PayPal’s Venmo and Block’s Cash App.
Apple’s agreements limit “feature competition” within peer-to-peer payment apps, including prohibiting existing or new platforms from using “decentralized cryptocurrency technology,” the complaint says.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction that could force Apple to divest or segregate its Apple Cash business.
The case adds to Apple’s recent antitrust headaches. A U.S. judge in California in September ruled that payment card issuers can sue it over alleged anticompetitive practices involving its Apple Pay mobile wallet.
Apple in another case has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an order in a lawsuit from “Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games challenging restrictions on in-app payment processing.
The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit alleged Apple, Venmo and Cash App “have repeatedly raised prices for transactions and services with no competitive check.”
They argued that a peer-to-peer app based on “decentralized” crypto technology “would allow iPhone users to send payments to each other without any intermediary at all.”
The lawsuit claims Apple has excluded from its App Store at least two Bitcoin wallet apps like Zeus and Damus.
“With its massive user base, the iPhone is the ideal platform for mobile peer-to-peer payments. Decentralized payments would allow iPhone users to send payments to each other without any intermediary at all, and with transaction costs far lower than what Venmo, Cash App, and Apple ultimately charge to move money to and from bank accounts and credit cards,” says the complaint.
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