A federal judge has dismissed the current version of a lawsuit that accused Apple, Visa, and Mastercard of colluding to keep payment processing fees artificially high for merchants.Still, the fight isn’t definitively over.The case, filed in 2023 by Mirage Wine & Spirits and other businesses, claimed that Apple profited from anticompetitive agreements that discouraged it from launching a rival payment network to compete with Visa and Mastercard.
From the original lawsuit: On Wednesday, however, U.S.District Judge David Dugan said the plaintiffs simply didn’t bring enough to the table.In his ruling, he noted the lawsuit relied mostly on “a slew of circumstantial allegations” that were ”too speculative and conclusory to adequately represent parallel conduct,” and failed to show that Apple ever had concrete plans to go head-to-head with the card giants in the payments infrastructure space in the first place.
30 days to try again Still, the judge did leave the door open for another round, as merchants have 30 days to amend their complaint and try again: As reported by , Apple hasn’t commented on the ruling.Mastercard declined to respond, and Visa didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.All three companies have denied any wrongdoing.
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