NetChoice Joins TechNet to Challenge Biden CFPB’s Power Grab Over Digital Payments CONTACT: PRESS@NETCHOICE.ORG WASHINGTON—Today, NetChoice joined @TechNetUpdate in a new lawsuit to protect consumers, businesses and innovation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Director Rohit Chopra’s attempted power grab over digital payments. The CFPB’s rule exceeds the agency’s authority and unlawfully expands government power over the American economy. This blatant overreach is less about protecting consumers and more about overzealous bureaucrats consolidating government control over one of the most innovative sectors of the economy. “The CFPB’s unlawful power grab undermines the rule of law, further bloats the administrative state and puts American consumers and innovation at risk. NetChoice is proud to join TechNet to stop this overreach from the Biden administration,” said @ChrisMarchese9, NetChoice Director of Litigation. “The CFPB’s actions create unnecessary roadblocks for businesses striving to meet consumer needs and set the stage for increased prices and reduced options. America’s success in the digital payments space has been driven by innovation and competition—not heavy-handed, unlawful government interference. Chopra’s rule threatens to stifle technological progress and harm the very consumers it claims to protect.” Under Director Chopra, the CFPB has embarked on a relentless quest to control American markets, using intimidation to force businesses to prioritize government demands over the needs of their customers. Rather than fostering a competitive market that benefits consumers, the CFPB’s actions will increase costs, limit choices and block innovation. “Instead of fostering a regulatory environment that supports responsible innovation, the CFPB is undermining the very principles that make the U.S. a global leader in financial technology. By granting itself broad authority over a company’s operations, even those entirely unrelated to digital payments, the CFPB goes far beyond its mandate. For example, under this rule, a company offering digital payment services could find itself subjected to wide-ranging scrutiny over its tax payments or completely unrelated product lines—areas that have nothing to do with consumer payment applications or the CFPB’s mission. This isn’t regulation; it’s overreach and risks creating a chilling effect on innovation that drives economic growth and benefits millions of consumers,” said @CarlHolshouser, Executive Vice President of TechNet. Protecting consumers should mean encouraging innovation, not smothering it under the weight of inappropriate, unlawful regulation. NetChoice stands committed to promoting innovation, consumer choice and proper balance of power in America’s digital economy. Read the complaint in TechNet & NetChoice v. CFPB & Chopra, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, here: TOP TAKEAWAYS OF TECHNET & NETCHOICE V. CFPB & CHOPRA: 1. Unlawful Power Grab: Congress gave the CFPB its power and defined where the agency could lawfully make rules. However, in its attempt to assert power over digital payments, the CFPB has far exceeded its appropriate scope and authority, thwarting the rule of law and violating separation of powers. Congress—not the CFPB—must make rules around digital payments. 2. Chopra’s Quest for Control: President Biden’s CFPB director, Rohit Chopra, has repeatedly and publicly advocated to expand government control over marketplaces and some of America’s most innovative companies. This bureaucratic intimidation distorts the proper balance of market power and cudgels businesses to focus on the demands of a handful of government bureaucrats rather than the demands of consumers. 3. Disregard for Consumers: Consumers look for easy to use, trustworthy products that work seamlessly with the tools and technology they have. Companies, in turn, have tried to provide them with these products, to the chagrin of the CFPB. Rather than being concerned with consumer needs, the CFPB is focused on expanding its own control. Such rules will also lead to increased prices and squeezed product markets. That goal runs counter to an agency that precisely is named to “protect consumers.” In fact, the CFPB found no harm to consumers in need of regulation. Instead, it merely exclaimed that it has the power to regulate even absent harm. That’s contrary to the actual statute Congress wrote. 4. Acting as a Roadblock to Innovation: By unlawfully expanding its power over businesses innovating for consumers, Biden’s CFPB will make it more difficult for all companies, especially emerging, small ones, to invent new products to best serve consumer needs in the digital payments space. In acting outside its lawful authority, the CFPB’s rule will act as an unnecessary roadblock to innovators and ultimately set back consumers. It’ll also ossify innovation markets, discouraging companies from entering, and making the U.S. more like the E.U.—which has been dwindling far behind in innovation. Learn more about TechNet & NetChoice v. CFPB & Chopra, here:

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