By Mike Scarcella

May 7 (Reuters) - Mastercard MA.N has persuaded a U.S. judge in Boston to dismiss a lawsuit from a technology startup that accused the payments giant of illegally blocking its efforts to build a “universal” digital wallet for consumers.

In a ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said plaintiff OV Loop had not presented enough facts to support its claim that Mastercard was monopolizing the market for mobile payment services for a consumer-merchant network.

OV Loop’s lawsuit, filed last year, accused Mastercard of violating U.S. antitrust law by denying it access to an essential digital payments technology the company needed to help build a unified commerce platform. The Massachusetts-based company was seeking more than $75 million in damages.

Talwani also said OV Loop could not rebut a general rule in antitrust law that “a private business may exercise its own independent discretion in choosing parties with which to deal.”

Mastercard declined to comment on Wednesday, and a lawyer for OV Loop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OV Loop’s lawsuit alleged Mastercard was granting selective access to tokens that the plaintiff said are needed for a company to compete for digital wallet payments like those used for Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Wallet.

Founded in 2018, OV Loop wants to develop and market a “super app” for digital commerce, offering services to consumers and merchants. OV Loop said it was able to obtain token services from Visa.

In seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, Mastercard said OV Loop had failed to allege any actual refusal by Mastercard to do business with it.

"OV Loop admits that Mastercard competes with three other payment card networks," Mastercard also told the court.

The case is OV Loop Inc v. Mastercard Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 1:24-cv-10412.

For plaintiff: Lawrence Green of Burns & Levinson; Edward Kang of Kang Haggerty; and Oliver Griffin of Griffin Partners

For defendant: Ken Gallo and Andrew Finch of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

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Mastercard sued by digital wallet startup over access to payment tech