Rite Aid and CVS may face a class action for boycotting Apple Pay and other mobile payments systems.
San Francisco plaintiffs firm Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe announced this week that it is considering suing the retail giants to force them to reinstate Apple Pay, which they blocked . The law firm is investigating whether the companies violated antitrust laws aimed at promoting competition by joining forces with other retailers to thwart Apple Pay.
Less than one week after Apple Pay launched in October, CVS and Rite Aid disabled the technology that supports the mobile wallet. Although the mega-retailers have allowed contactless payments in their stores before, they are part of a consortium of companies that is developing another mobile payments system that would let them pay less in fees to credit card companies and gather more data about transactions. The Merchant Customer Exchange, which also includes Walmart and Best Buy, threatens members with harsh fines if they accept rival mobile payment systems, the New York Times reported, likely forcing the pharmacies hands.
But Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe is crying foul, arguing that Apple Pay is more convenient and secure than CurrentC, a system MCX plans to release in 2015. MCX confirmed last week that email addresses of customers who signed up for the CurrentC pilot had been exposed.
Unlike Apple Pay, the MCX s system… has serious drawbacks for consumers, the law firm said in the press release.
An antitrust lawyer based in San Francisco said he struggled to see how consumers were harmed by being shut out from Apple Pay. But Apple might be able to make a case that it has been illegally shut out of a key segment of the market, said the lawyer, who declined to be named because he is involved in pending litigation against the Cupertino-based company.
Apple Pay allows people with the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus to make purchases by waving their phones at the register, rather than reaching for their wallets. Up and running in stores ranging from Macy s to McDonalds, Apple Pay is already the most possible mobile payment system, Apple CEO Tim Cook said at a technology conference last week. He added that Apple Pay saw more than 1 million activations in its first three days.
Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe is reaching out to people who would like to use Apple Pay or Google Wallet, a mobile payments offering for the Android ecosystem, in Rite Aid or CVS. Representatives for the pharmacies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We ll update this post if we hear back from them.
