The Lines Are Drawn In Apple Pay/CurrentC Battle

It started with the Rite Aide and then spread to CVS, now, according to NYT reporting the battle for the merchants between Apple and MCX is heating up as more major retailers are finding that though they might be interested in taking mobile payments, they won’t be taking them the Apple way, as their heart (and customers) are already pledge to another.

The New York Times reports that major retailers such as The Gap, Best Buy and Target have all signed on to use CurrentC (when it emerges sometime in 2015) and (speaking on the conditions of anonymity) trying to break out of that agreement now to take Apple Pay is will end with massive fines.

This newest battle between giants – Apple and Walmart (the power retailer that largely stands behind MCX) – is just one of many emerging fronts as card companies, retailers and technologists rush to cash in on the $90 million win mobile payments that Forrester Projects will be up for grabs in the next several years.

Until then, MCX merchants seem to have no choice to wait on mobile sidelines as they can’t take Apple Pay punishment and their solution – the CurrentC wallet – won’t be making the seen for several months at some yet to be determined point in 2015.

“These retailers are in a real jam,” said Karen Webster, chief executive of Market Platform Dynamics, a payments industry consulting firm. “The last thing merchants want is ticking off their consumers over payment,” Ms. Webster said.