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Antitrust Suit Against Apple, Visa, and Mastercard Dismissed by Federal Judge

By  |  July 10, 2025

A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit that accused Apple, Visa, and Mastercard of working together to stifle competition in the digital payments market and inflate transaction fees for merchants, according to Reuters.

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    U.S. District Judge David Dugan, presiding in the Southern District of Illinois, ruled on Wednesday that the plaintiffs—led by Mirage Wine & Spirits—had not sufficiently demonstrated that Apple had engaged in unlawful behavior by choosing not to create its own competing payments network. The judge found the merchants’ arguments to be based largely on circumstantial evidence and noted that they failed to establish a viable antitrust claim. However, the plaintiffs have been given the opportunity to amend and refile their complaint.

    Per Reuters, the lawsuit was initiated on behalf of a proposed class of thousands of businesses, accusing Visa and Mastercard of paying Apple what was described as an “ongoing cash bribe” amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The plaintiffs claimed this alleged arrangement discouraged Apple from developing its own payments infrastructure, allowing Visa and Mastercard to maintain dominance and impose excessive transaction fees on merchants.

    Related: UK Appeal Court Sides with Funders Against Apple, Sony, Visa, Mastercard

    Apple Pay, launched in 2014, enables iPhone users to make purchases using stored payment card information at participating retailers. The plaintiffs argued that Apple’s failure to introduce a competing network was not coincidental but rather the result of anti-competitive agreements with Visa and Mastercard.

    Apple, Visa, and Mastercard had denied any collusion. Apple maintained that the lawsuit lacked any evidence of intent to compete in the payments network market. Visa and Mastercard also refuted the claim that they had made payments to Apple for non-competition purposes. According to Reuters, Apple asserted that its contracts explicitly preserved the right to compete with the card networks.

    In his opinion, Judge Dugan emphasized that the plaintiffs overlooked the substantial hurdles involved in entering the payments market, stating their complaint “completely ignore[d] the difficulties, costs and time, risks, and potential for failure associated with such an endeavor.”

    Mastercard and the plaintiffs’ legal team declined to comment on the ruling, Reuters reported. Apple had no immediate comment, and Visa did not respond to a request for one.

    The case, filed under Mirage Wine & Spirits Inc et al v. Apple et al, is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, case number 3:23-cv-03942-DWD.

    Source: Reuters