A federal judge dismissed merchants’ antitrust lawsuit accusing Apple, Visa and Mastercard of coordinating over Apple Pay and interchange fees. The dismissal was without prejudice, but the plaintiffs later chose to end the case rather than amend their complaint. It was not a ruling that the alleged arrangement happened.
What the Apple Pay lawsuit alleged
The case, Mirage Wine + Spirits Inc. v. Apple Inc., No. 3:23-cv-03942, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Merchants alleged that Visa and Mastercard shared interchange-fee revenue with Apple in connection with Apple Pay transactions. They also alleged that Apple agreed not to develop a competing payment network and restricted competitors’ access to the near-field communication (NFC) hardware used by Apple Wallet.
Those were plaintiffs’ allegations, not findings of fact. The available case coverage does not establish that the companies made such an arrangement or engaged in the alleged conduct.
Why the judge dismissed the complaint
According to AppleInsider’s report and a January 2026 legal digest, the court found that the complaint did not adequately allege an unlawful agreement under the Sherman Act. The digest says the allegations were contradicted by express terms in agreements between Apple and the card networks. The reported account does not include a full quotation from the judge’s order, so the ruling is best described by its legal result rather than by an isolated phrase.
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What happened after dismissal
The dismissal was without prejudice, which left the plaintiffs an opportunity to amend their complaint. Instead, they filed a stipulated dismissal. The case therefore ended without a trial or a finding that the defendants were liable.
This is not the broader Visa–Mastercard interchange settlement
The Apple Pay case is separate from the long-running U.S. class action known as the Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation. That action concerns merchant acceptance of Visa- or Mastercard-branded cards from January 1, 2004, through January 25, 2019; it is not the same lawsuit as Mirage Wine + Spirits.
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The official settlement site reported that a second initial partial distribution was approved in June 2026, with payments planned on a rolling basis in September 2026. This distribution update concerns the separate class action, not a payment or recovery in the Apple Pay case.
Case at a glance
| Feature | Apple Pay lawsuit | Broader interchange-fee class action |
|---|---|---|
| Case or proceeding | Mirage Wine + Spirits Inc. v. Apple Inc., No. 3:23-cv-03942 | Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation |
| Defendants or parties described | Apple, Visa and Mastercard | Concerns merchant acceptance of Visa- or Mastercard-branded cards |
| Subject | Alleged coordination involving Apple Pay, interchange fees and access to Apple Wallet’s NFC hardware | Merchant card acceptance from January 1, 2004, through January 25, 2019 |
| Procedural status reported | Dismissed without prejudice; plaintiffs later filed a stipulated dismissal | A second initial partial distribution was approved in June 2026; payments were planned on a rolling basis in September 2026 |
Sources and limits
The dismissal rationale and subsequent stipulated dismissal are reported by AppleInsider and summarized in a January 2026 legal digest. The underlying order and subsequent docket entries are not directly reflected in those materials, so procedural details here are attributed to those reports. The separate class-action distribution update is from its official settlement website. The case number and court are listed in the CourtListener docket record.
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