Apple Pay: a new lawsuit alleges the use of "coercion" to create a monopoly for the payment app in the US

Apple device users become "coerced" into using the OEM's first-party wallet for contactless transactions, in a way that constitute anti-trust practices in its industry, and also obliges US banks and credit unions to pay "excess fees" estimated at US$1 billion or more per year to support its customers who use Pay.

These, at least, are the central arguments on one side of the legal battle in which the hardware and services behemoth now finds itself. They are based on findings that Apple levies a flat $0.005 fee per debit transaction and a 0.15% fee on all credit transactions on account issuers in the US, whereas there are alternatives with zero fees across the board out there - should users have easier access to them, that is.

Affinity Credit Union is based in the state of Iowa, although it has come to the Northern District of California's US District Court to press its new suit that Apple exerts a monopoly in mobile payments throughout the country.

The financial institution has engaged Sperling & Slater and Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro to represent them in this case, 2 legal firms also credited with a victory in court over Apple for minor iOS developers who contended that the OEM took too large a cut of their commissions.

The plaintiffs seek the immediate cessation of Apple's "conduct" in the US transactions market should they win the case, as well as unspecified "triple damages". The defendant has yet to respond publicly to these accusations.