An antitrust lawsuit against Apple brought by Venmo has been dismissed, the judge finding that there was no evidence of anticompetitive behavior.
The Paypal-owned app company has, however, been given one final chance to make its case – though the judge made it very clear this would be a long-shot …
Venmo
The Venmo app was originally created as a peer-to-peer mobile payment system. The idea was that if a group of friends shared an Uber, for example, that they could use Venmo to send their share of the cost to the account holder.
Another user case highlighted by the company was one person settling a group restaurant bill for speed, with the rest of the group using the app to transfer their share.
The app initially banned business use, but later embraced this, so that app users can now use Venmo to buy goods and services too.
Venmo subsequently expanded into cryptocurrency, the app allowing users to buy, sell, hold, and transfer several different currencies.
Antitrust lawsuit against Apple
Venmo filed its lawsuit last year, claiming that Apple made it difficult or impossible for competitors to introduce new features in order to compete against the iPhone maker’s own Apple Cash service.
It appears the company faced pushback from Apple in the range of crypto features it wanted to offer in the app, and argued that the company was behaving anti-competitively by blocking or hindering these updates.
Crypto site Coin Telegraph reports that the case has now been dismissed.
United States District Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed an antitrust lawsuit brought against Apple by Venmo and Cash App customers over allegations the California company’s Apple Cash product was anti-competitive […]
Judge Chhabria granted Apple’s motion for dismissal, [stating] that the plaintiffs failed to establish what antitrust actions took place, nor did they establish why competitors such as Zelle weren’t included in the initial complaint. It also refers to the plaintiff’s suit as “speculative,” and outlines what the court perceives as a flawed premise […]
“Even assuming that Guideline 3.1.5 restricts decentralized cryptocurrency transactions (which seems doubtful), it is not clear how companies agreeing to a guideline outlining the Apple Store requirements for apps facilitating cryptocurrency transactions constitutes an unlawful agreement.”
The dismissal was made without prejudice, which means that Venmo can in theory file an amended version of the lawsuit within the next 21 days, which might then allow it to be heard. However, Judge Chhabria made it very clear that an amended filing was extremely unlikely to succeed.
He said Apple’s motion to dismiss pointed out “many” problems with the lawsuit, and “it is difficult to see how amendment could salvage this case.” The most likely outcome, then, is that the 21-day period will lapse, and the dismissal will then become permanent.
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