The company behind CurrentC, an in-store mobile payment system backed by some of the biggest retailers in the U.S., attempted on Wednesday to play down a growing controversy over whether its backers could accept Apple Pay.

Dekkers Davidson, CEO of Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), said its members, which include retailers such as Walmart, Shell, 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, Sears, Old Navy, Best Buy, Exxon Mobil and Gap, are free to make their own decisions on payment systems.

The comments, which came in a conference call, represented the first time MCX had addressed a sudden flood of online criticism about its technology.

Formed in 2012, MCX had existed largely unnoticed until last week when two of its members — drug store chains Rite Aid and CVS — abruptly stopped accepting Apple Pay and Google Wallet, which use a wireless chip payment technology called NFC.

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