News > Apple, Visa and Mastercard hit with antitrust lawsuit alleging ‘bribe’

Apple, Visa and Mastercard hit with antitrust lawsuit alleging ‘bribe’

Apple, Visa, and Mastercard have been named in a new antitrust class action lawsuit that accuses the three of conspiring to stifle competition for point-of-sale payment card services. As part of this agreement, Visa and Mastercard “paid Apple a portion of transaction fees” for payments made using Apple Pay on their respective networks. The lawsuit alleges that this has led to merchants paying “artificially higher fees for credit and debit transactions.”