By Kevin Woodward@DTPaymentNews Vending payments specialist USA Technologies Inc. says promoting Apple Pay at the point of sale produced a 36.5% increase in overall sales and a 55.5% increase in revenue from contactless purchases. Malvern, Pa.-based

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Monday officially launched its Chase Pay mobile app, announcing users can now download the wallet and use it to pay at more than 7,500 Starbucks Corp. outlets and at almost 1,400 Best Buy Co. Inc. stores to start with. The app, …

Recreational marijuana is now legal in a growing number of states, but cash remains the dominant payment method. Now, however, CanPay, a Littleton, Colo.-based payments provider, has developed a digital payment option that allows legal marijuana retailers to directly debit a consumer’s checking account from the point of sale. Typically, …

• Two merchant organizations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a U.S. Department of Justice filing that asks the full panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear a 6-year-old case alleging anti-steering rules established by American Express Co. are anti-competitive. A three-judge panel of that court ruled …

By Peter Lucas @DTPaymentNews Sweden-based e-commerce payments provider Klarna continues to expand its footprint in the United States by doubling its user base and adding new features to enhance the user experience. More than 2 million U.S. consumers now use Klarna’s streamlined checkout service, generating hundreds of millions of dollars …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Visa Inc.’s practices involving EMV debit card transaction routing, Visa disclosed Tuesday. And the Federal Reserve earlier this month posted guidance about EMV debit routing that, according to retailer trade groups, was issued in response to their objections to Visa’s practices …

• The Federal Reserve posted a notice that a payment network violates the debit card transaction-routing requirements in its rule implementing the Dodd-Frank Act’s Durbin Amendment if the network requires a merchant to allow a cardholder to choose an application that routes to only one network during an EMV debit card purchase. …

Consumers who use their Samsung Pay mobile wallets to make a payment will be rewarded for their transactions with the debut this week of Samsung Rewards. Announced Monday, the program enables consumers to earn points for their Samsung Pay transactions, which can be redeemed for retailer gift cards, prepaid Samsung …

By Jim Daly@DTPaymentNews Countless analysts have tried to diagnose what ails the lackluster U.S. mobile-wallet market, but new observations from securities rating agency Fitch Ratings Inc. succinctly identify three primary causes: a lack of compelling value propositions, an overcrowded market, and cyber-risk aversion on the part of consumers. “The vast …

• Gift cards were the most sought-after gifts among consumers queried for a survey about the upcoming holiday season and sponsored by the National Retail Federation; 61% of respondents reported wanting a gift card, followed by clothing and accessories, 54%; and books, CDs, DVDs or videos, 40%. • Merchant processor …