by Apple faces a class action over alleged anti-competitive conduct in the iOS peer-to-peer payments market.
Disgruntled consumers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple claiming the tech giant has conspired to limit peer-to-peer payment options on its devices and block crypto technology from iOS payments apps.
The Nov. 17 complaint filed in a California District Court alleges Apple entered into anti-competitive agreements with PayPal’s Venmo and Block’s Cash App to restrict the use of
decentralized cryptocurrency technology in payment apps, which caused users to pay “rapidly inflating prices.”
“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 filing says.
The plaintiffs also claimed Apple uses “technological and contractual restraints,” including
hardware-enforced App Store exclusivity and “contractual limitations on web browser technology”
to “exercise unfettered control over every app installed and run on iPhones and iPads.”
With these restraints, Apple can — and does — force new to market iOS P2P payment apps to bar crypto “as a condition for entry,” the suit claimed.
