Healthy competition among the companies in any given industry benefits the end consumer to get the most value for money spent. Companies sometimes also come up with inter-company agreements to sway the competition and keep the revenue intact.
Recently, Apple was sued for taking the wrongful advantage of competitive agreements with counterpart payment companies that are stifling crypto-like decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) payments.
Reuters reported that four plaintiffs called themselves users of Venmo and Cash App, filed a lawsuit against Apple in California District Court. The plaintiffs alleged in the court filing that Apple abused its influence and restrained the competition in the mobile P2P space.
The filing underscored that Apple joined hands with Venmo and Cash App, financial products from PayPal and Block Inc., via anti-competitive agreements. The agreement restricts the use of decentralized technologies such as cryptocurrencies in payment applications. In the absence of such alternate systems, the users are compelled to pay “rapidly inflating prices.”
The plaintiffs are residents of New York, Hawaii, South Carolina, and Georgia. Their allegations highlight that Apple violated the United States antitrust law in the wake of agreements with Venmo and Cash App. The agreement diminishes the possibility of competition that results in difficulties for users.
In the filing, plaintiffs noted, “these agreements limit feature competition—and the price competition that would flow from it—marketwide, including by barring the incorporation of decentralized cryptocurrency technology within existing or new iOS Peer-to-Peer Payment apps.”
The plaintiffs demand a court order for Apple to force the tech giant to either divest or segregate the Apple Cash business.
Apple’s Unfair Control and Antitrust Practices
Plaintiffs in the legal case against Apple have accused the tech giant of employing “technological and contractual restraints” to maintain control over apps on iPhones and iPads. The alleged restraints include hardware-enforced App Store exclusivity and “contractual limitations on web browser technology.”
According to the claim, these measures grant Apple the ability to dictate the entry conditions for new iOS peer-to-peer payment apps, forcing them to exclude cryptocurrency functionalities.
In a separate legal battle, Apple has sought the U.S. Supreme Court’s intervention to overturn an order related to a lawsuit from Epic Games, the maker of “Fortnite,” challenging restrictions on in-app payment processing. This latest case adds to a growing collection of antitrust lawsuits against Apple in recent months.
In September, a U.S. judge in California ruled that payment card issuers have the right to sue Apple over alleged anticompetitive practices concerning its Apple Pay mobile wallet.
The legal landscape surrounding Apple is intensifying with multiple cases scrutinizing the company’s practices, particularly app store policies and competition within the digital payment space. These legal challenges underscore the increasing scrutiny faced by major tech companies over issues of antitrust and market dominance.
Steefan George is a crypto and blockchain enthusiast, with a remarkable grasp on market and technology. Having a graduate degree in computer science and an MBA in BFSI, he is an excellent technology writer at The Coin Republic. He is passionate about getting a billion of the human population onto Web3. His principle is to write like “explaining to a 6-year old”, so that a layman can learn the potential of, and get benefitted from this revolutionary technology.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/11/21/antitrust-lawsuit-filed-against-apple-for-restricting-crypto-use/