CFPB Orders Tech Giants to Turn Over Information on their Payment System Plans

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a series of orders to collect information on the business practices of large technology companies operating payments systems in the United States. The information will help the CFPB better understand how these firms use personal payments data and manage data access to users so the Bureau can ensure adequate consumer protection.

“Big Tech companies are eagerly expanding their empires to gain greater control and insight into our spending habits,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We have ordered them to produce information about their business plans and practices.”

The orders are issued pursuant to Section 1022(c)(4) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act. The CFPB has the statutory authority to order participants in the payments market to turn over information to help the Bureau monitor for risks to consumers and to publish aggregated findings that are in the public interest. The CFPB’s work is one of many efforts within the Federal Reserve System to make payments safer, faster, and more competitive. The initial orders were sent to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Square. The Bureau will also be studying the payment system practices of Chinese tech giants, including Alipay and WeChat Pay.

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Families and businesses benefit from faster, cheaper, and more secure payment systems. As online commerce and electronic payments have become consumers’ normal expectation — especially during the pandemic — companies have developed new products and business models to meet this demand.

At the same time, these changes present new risks to consumers and to a fair, transparent, and competitive marketplace. For example, large technology firms such as Apple and Google have sought to integrate payments services into their operating systems. Person-to-person (P2P) payments platforms such as Venmo and CashApp have grown quickly, and speedy growth can present risks to families and businesses. Chinese giants Alipay and WeChat Pay are part of broader super apps that touch multiple parts of a consumer’s life and until recently were actively seeking to expand their presence in the US market.

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The CFPB’s orders build on the efforts of the Federal Trade Commission’s work to shed light on the business practices of the largest technology companies in the world. The orders also seek to illuminate the range of these consumer payment products and their underlying business practices. Specifically, the orders will compel information on:

Data harvesting and monetization. Payment companies may be actively sharing payment data across product lines and with data brokers and other third parties. In some cases, Big Tech companies may be using this data for behavioral targeting. These practices may not align with consumers’ expectations. The orders seek information on how companies collect and use data.

Access restrictions and user choice. When payment systems gain scale and network effects, merchants and other partners feel obligated to participate, and the risk increases that payment systems operators will limit consumer choice and stifle innovation by anticompetitively excluding certain businesses. The orders seek to understand any such restrictive access policies and how they affect the choices available to families and businesses.

Other consumer protections. Consumers expect certain assurances when dealing with companies that move their money. They expect to be protected from fraud and payments made in error, for their data and privacy to be protected and not shared without their consent, to have responsive customer service, and to be treated equally under relevant law. The orders seek to understand the robustness with which payment platforms prioritize consumer protection under laws such as the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

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