30. Federal Trade Commission · Notable
Treat de-banking and political deplatforming as an unfair trade practice
Printed page 874 30. Federal Trade Commission
“When banks or internet platforms refuse customers based on their political or social views (as distinguished from religious views), they forgo profits. … This type of behavior can rise to the level of an unfair trade practice when the business is (1) publicly traded; (2) highly regulated; (3) enjoys legal privileges; (4) enjoys market power; and (5) appears to engage in its own political or social agenda that is unrelated to any conceivable branding concerns.”
What has happened
- Attempted
Chairman Ferguson wrote to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard warning that denying customers access to financial products because of their political or religious views — or facilitating another firm's doing so — may violate the FTC Act and could lead to investigation and enforcement, citing the President's Executive Order of 2025-08-07 on debanking. The banking half of the ask now has an asserted enforcement theory; no investigation or proceeding has been announced under it.
- Attempted
The FTC opened a public inquiry into how technology platforms deny or degrade users' access to services because of the content of their speech or their affiliations, issuing a Request for Information and saying in terms that the conduct may have harmed consumers "by potentially unfair or deceptive acts or practices, or potentially unfair methods of competition". Comments closed 2025-05-21; no report, rule or case has followed.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Held at attempted on a rule applied across this chapter: an inquiry or a warning letter is a concrete step that changes nothing, a Commission order or policy statement is partial, and a theory established in an adjudication would be done. The Commission has issued orders against coordinated ideological demonetization (Omnicom/IPG, 2025-06-23; WPP/Publicis/Dentsu, 2026-04-15; Havas, 2026-06-30) but none against a bank or a platform refusing a customer, which is what this Quote names.
- Chairman Ferguson’s 2025-08-21 statement warning companies against censoring or weakening Americans’ data security at a foreign government’s behest is adjacent and not on this ask.
- The President’s debanking Executive Order of 2025-08-07 is cited by the FTC letters and is Chapter 27’s instrument, not this chapter’s; it is named in the note rather than carried as Evidence so the two chapters do not double-count it.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- refusal of service by banks and internet platforms on political or social grounds
- ID
- 2241