Friday, July 11, 2025
LegalNews

Judge dismissed competition-suppression lawsuit against Apple, Visa, and Mastercard

Apple, Visa, and Mastercard have convinced a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to suppress competition.

Apple, Visa, and Mastercard have convinced a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to suppress competition in the payments network market and causing merchants to pay inflated transaction fees, reports Reuters.

U.S. District Judge David Dugan in Illinois that the merchants hadn’t provided enough evidence to support their claim that Apple illegally declined to launch a competing payment network to rival Visa and Mastercard.

Mirage Wine & Spirits filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging that Apple had made agreements with Visa and Mastercard to not compete against the payment processors. Judge Durgan writes that the plaintiffs provided only a “slew of circumstantial allegations” in its suit. The ruling doesn’t entirely stop the lawsuit, as the retailers are allowed to update the claims to make them stronger, and to refile the suit.

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.

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