WASHINGTON, D.C. – Four major financial infrastructure platforms and payment providers recently received warning letters from the Federal Trade Commission reminding them of their obligations to customers.
FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson sent letters to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard, which expressed concerns about publicly reported examples of denying their customers access to services due to their political or religious views.
“Full participation in commerce and public life necessarily requires that lawabiding individuals can access, and freely participate in, our financial system,” Ferguson wrote in the March 26 letter.
“It is inconsistent with American values to deny lawabiding individuals the ability to run their legitimate businesses and feed their families because they attracted the ire of rogue American officials, overzealous activists, or, more worryingly, foreign governments seeking to control public discourse,” he continued. “That is why President Trump’s August 7, 2025, Executive Order on debanking makes clear that it is unacceptable to debank lawabiding citizens due to ‘political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities.”
Ferguson’s warning states that the companies may be violating the FTC Act, which is a 1914 law that aims to prevent unfair business practices and protect consumers. An attempt to deplatform customers or deny them access to financial products or services that is inconsistent with their terms of service could lead to an investigation and potential enforcement action.
In recent years, stated a press release, the “FTC has brought numerous enforcement actions against payment infrastructure platforms and related entities for unfair or deceptive practices, including misleading merchants about fees and contract terms and facilitating fraud on consumers, including through the means of card networks.”
The warning letters can be viewed at ftc.gov/legal-library/ browse/warning-letters.