US District Judge David Dugan in the Southern District of Illinois ruled July 9, 2025, that merchant plaintiffs provided insufficient evidence to support their claim that Apple decided not to form a competing network to Visa and Mastercard because those networks paid a large cash amount up front and that Apple earns additional cash amounts from Apple Pay transactions settled over the card networks. Dugan dismissed the case—Mirage Wine & Spirits Inc. et al. v. Apple Inc. et al.—in part because language in the contract between the parties allows Apple to start a competing network. He ...