Google Sues Consumer Finance Regulator Over Supervision Of Payment Arm

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(RTTNews) - Google has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. consumer finance regulator, which placed the tech major's payment unit under federal supervision, reports said.

Earlier on Friday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB announced its order to supervise Google Payment Corp., which could result in routine inspections and monitoring like those imposed on banks.

CFPB said the decision was taken after it had determined, following consumer complaints, that Google Payment services had posed a risk to consumers.

The Congress has given CFPB the authority to supervise certain nonbank financial companies to ensure that all consumers have access to markets for consumer financial products and services and that they are fair, transparent, and competitive.

In its latest statement, the agency said there are multiple indicia that Google Payment meets the standard for supervision under the Consumer Financial Protection Act or CFPA.

For making the decision, the CFPB cited consumer complaints about Google Pay Balance and Google's peer-to-peer or P2P payment platform, which were accessible through the Google Pay App, a mobile app available on both Android and iOS devices.

It was indicated that Google Payment had failed to investigate complaints about erroneous transfers, among other potential violations. The consumer complaints alleged that Google has not taken adequate steps to monitor, prevent, and detect fraud or to alert consumers to the risk of fraud.

The agency added that the law allowed for supervision even if the company has discontinued these services. Both Google Pay and the P2P platform have been discontinued, and are no longer provided in the U.S.

In making the order, the agency checked around 300 consumer complaints, mainly about reports of fraud, scams and unauthorized transactions, and found that the company had engaged in wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the agency noted that the purpose of supervision is not to impose sanctions for legal violations, and that a determination that supervision is warranted is not a finding that an entity is guilty of wrongdoing.

Following the CFPB order, Google Payment said it was challenging the order in court to block it, stating that the regulator had relied on a small number of unsubstantiated complaints concerning a product, which it no longer offers.

The company's complaint said, "As a matter of common sense, a product that no longer exists is incapable of posing such risk."

In late November, CFPB had finalized a rule to supervise technology firms such as Google, Apple Inc. and others that offer digital funds transfer and payment wallet apps, and treat them more like banks. The US consumer watchdog then said the rule on federal oversight of popular digital payment apps by the largest non-bank companies was aimed to protect personal data, reduce fraud, and stop illegal 'debanking.'

The rule, following a proposal from last year, is expected to supervise Big Tech and other widely used digital payment apps handling over 50 million transactions annually, in U.S. dollars.