Apple is facing a new class-action lawsuit in California for allegedly limiting the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment option on its devices. The plaintiffs claim that Apple users are forced to pay higher fees for payment services that are controlled by Apple without any choice.
Apple has a history of being accused of anti-competitive practices regarding payment methods on its devices. For example, Apple was sued by Epic Games, which won the right to inform users of their app of other payment methods that could avoid Apple’s 30% commission on Apple Pay. Apple also faced a private anti-trust lawsuit and an EU investigation for abusing its dominance on Apple devices to harm competing wallets.
The new lawsuit alleges that Apple has entered into anti-competitive agreements with CashApp and Venmo, two peer-to-peer payment platforms owned by Block and PayPal, respectively. The lawsuit says that these agreements prevent the integration of decentralized cryptocurrency technology within existing or new iOS peer-to-peer payment apps.
“Decentralized payments would allow iPhone users to send payments to each other without any intermediary at all—and with transaction costs far lower than what Venmo, Cash App, and Apple ultimately charge to move money to and from bank accounts and credit cards. Despite the obvious utility, there is no means to make decentralized payments on the iPhone. This is because of Apple’s control over every app installed[…] through its App Store.”
The lawsuit also accuses Apple of banning crypto-related apps from its App Store, such as the Zeus Bitcoin wallets. It also mentions that Apple threatened to remove Damus, a decentralized social networking app backed by Dorsey, from the App Store because of its tipping feature, but later allowed it to stay on the platform.
The lawsuit does not include PayPal and Block as defendants, which may suggest that the plaintiffs believe that Apple imposed the terms of the anti-competitive agreements on them. The judge will have to determine whether PayPal and Block were coerced or benefited from the agreements.
The lawsuit seeks to stop Apple from limiting the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method on its devices and to compensate the plaintiffs for the damages caused by Apple’s actions.
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