FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson issued warning letters to the CEOs of four major payment and financial infrastructure providers regarding concerns about debanking law-abiding customers based on political or religious views. The letters remind the companies of their obligations to customers under the FTC Act, warn that inconsistent denials of service could trigger investigations and enforcement, and reference President Trump’s 2025 executive order prohibiting debanking due to political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities.
In-house legal teams at financial services, payment processing, and financial infrastructure companies should prioritize reviewing all customer-facing agreements, including merchant services contracts, user terms of service, and account agreements, to audit service termination and denial of access clauses. These clauses must explicitly prohibit debanking or service denial based on customers’ political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities, and must align with customers’ reasonable expectations of service access. Teams should also review downstream partnership agreements with banks, card networks, and other financial partners to ban such entities from facilitating debanking of shared customers, and ensure all service termination grounds are clearly defined to prevent inconsistent application. Additionally, references to FTC Act compliance and alignment with relevant executive orders should be updated to reflect the prohibition on viewpoint-based or discriminatory debanking.
Entity
PayPal Holdings, Inc., Stripe, Inc., Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc.
Industry
Financial Services"PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard"
"paypal-holdings-inc"
"stripe-inc"
"visa-inc"
"mastercard-inc"
"FTC Act"
The FTC settled charges with data broker Kochava, Inc. and its subsidiary Collective Data Solutions (CDS) over allegations that they sold precise location data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices without consumer consent, enabling tracking of visits to sensitive locations like reproductive health clinics and places of worship. The settlement prohibits the companies from selling or sharing sensitive location data without affirmative express consumer consent, and imposes compliance requirements including a sensitive location data program, supplier consent assessments, incident reporting, and data retention schedules. No monetary penalty was imposed.
The FTC filed a complaint and obtained a temporary restraining order against six defendants operating a deceptive health care scheme that impersonated government and insurance carriers to sell fake comprehensive health plans. The defendants allegedly charged consumers without express informed consent, failed to disclose material terms including cancellation processes, and misled consumers into paying for inadequate coverage that left many with substantial medical debt. The FTC seeks refunds for affected consumers and alleges violations of the FTC Act, Telemarketing Sales Rule, Impersonation Rule, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
$140.0M
Following an FTC investigation, a federal court granted summary judgment against timeshare exit scheme operator Christopher Carroll, ordering him to pay $140 million total ($95 million in consumer redress, $45 million civil penalty) for defrauding consumers out of over $90 million. The scheme used deceptive direct mail and in-person pitches, falsely claimed affiliation with timeshare companies, failed to provide refunds, and violated the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule by forcing consumers to sign non-cancellable contracts. Carroll is also permanently banned from marketing timeshare exit services or engaging in deceptive door-to-door sales.
This press release announces the FTC's testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on April 15, 2026, outlining the agency's priorities including consumer privacy protection, competition enforcement, and implementation of the TAKE IT DOWN Act. No specific enforcement action against a private entity is announced in this release.
The FTC announced an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking public comment on a potential nationwide rule to address unfair or deceptive fee practices by online food and grocery delivery platforms. The ANPRM covers requirements for disclosing total prices, fees, variable charges, price differentials, and promotion terms. Past FTC enforcement actions against Instacart and Grubhub for deceptive fee practices are cited as evidence of ongoing issues in the industry.
$868K
The FTC announced three separate settlements with companies making false 'Made in USA' claims: TouchTunes (electronic dartboards, $625k consumer redress), Americana Liberty and related parties (flags and flagpoles, $167,743 redress), and Oak Street Bootmakers (footwear, $75k redress). The companies violated the FTC Act, Made in USA Labeling Rule, and for Americana Liberty, the Textile Act and Rules, by making unqualified origin claims for products with significant imported components or wholly imported from China. Each settlement prohibits future misrepresentations of U.S. origin and requires consumer notices.