On Wednesday, Merchant Consumer Exchange (MCX), the group behind CurrentC, spoke out regarding reports that its system was hacked and their stance on Apple Pay in member stores.

In an online press conference, Dekkers Davidson, CEO of MCX confirmed that the hacking attacks didn’t hit the group’s servers. The attack happened against the company that supplies their emails and only emails were lost in the attack.

Davidson said “Like any consumer experience, we own this. I can’t speculate on cause. It’s unfortunate in this internet age that people still think this kind of activity is cool. Any attack is something you learn from and get stronger, and we will get stronger.”

As for their stance on Apple Pay, Davidson said “We have respect for Apple and Apple Pay. There is no harm in competition. It should happen. Consumers need to have choice, and we will put choice in consumer’s hands. No one has a monopoly on virtue and consumer experience.”

Reports surfaced over the weekend regarding MCX members CVS and Rite Aid who were blocking Google Wallet and Apple Pay. Davidson’s response was that it was the choice of each individual MCX member to decide the payments system they use.

In addition, The New York Times reported that if a MCX member used an alternative payment system to CurrentC, they would face severe fines. Even though the paper reported speaking to multiple members of MCX who confirmed the fines, Davidson continued to insist that this was not the case.

Davidson said, “Merchants make their own choices about their commitment to MCX and make their own choices about other forms of payment”.

110 000 stores are operated by the MCX partners, representing over $1 trillion in annual payments.

The CurrentC payment system is currently in its pilot stage, with a scheduled launch next year.