Rite Aid and CVS officially disable support for Apple Pay

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 27 Oct 2014

image MasterCard Apple Pay promo

Last week, many iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users reported that Rite Aid and CVS had disabled support for Apple Pay after initially accepting payment from it.

Now, according to The New York Times, both companies have officially disabled support for Apple Pay. A spokesperson from Rite Aid said that the company “does not currently accept Apple Pay” and that it is “still in the process of evaluating mobile payment options.”

Apple did not comment on this move from Rite Aid and CVS. However, according to the chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard — Ed McLaughlin — both companies have made the wrong decision.

“We think consumers should have the ability to pay any way they want. Rite Aid and CVS have been accepting contactless payments for quite a long time. We look forward to them turning the functionality back on in their stores,” Ed McLaughlin said.

Even though the official statement from Rite Aid suggests otherwise, many believe that both companies have stopped accepting payments via Apple Pay as they are a member of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which is currently working on its own mobile payment system known as CurrentC.

[Via NY Times]