To: Congress
Protect consumers from predatory ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes!
The Consumer Financial Protection Board has found that ‘buy now, pay later’ services provided by e-commerce platforms like Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, and Zip violate consumers’ financial privacy and prey on consumers who may not realize these services do not provide the usual protections afforded to other lines of credit. We urge you to pass legislation protecting consumers from predatory and invasive layaway services!
Why is this important?
In the last two years, the use of ‘buy now, pay later’ services has increased ten fold. That’s a huge problem. A new report from the Consumers Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) shows that many of these services — including industry leaders Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal, and Zip — commit serious digital surveillance.
And, they prey on consumers who may not realize they’re taking on debt without the usual protections afforded to other lines of credit. ‘Buy now, pay later’ is the Wild West of e-commerce. Congress needs to step in and pass laws to protect us from these predatory lenders!
Sign the petition: Congress must pass legislation protecting consumers from privacy violations and predatory lending committed by ‘buy now, pay later’ services!
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is already investigating layaway services and calling out their violations. When the agency revealed the new report, Chopra explained how layaway services are “harvesting and leveraging” consumer data in novel and dangerous ways.
The consumer data gathered and sold by ‘buy now, pay later’ firms opens the door to scary new frontiers of surveillance, including digital dark patterns and individualized pricing. These are unprecedented methods of financial surveillance which are likely to harm low-income and other vulnerable populations the most.
Layaway is back in a big way. We need strong legislation to protect consumers and their financial privacy, ASAP!
Sign the petition: Congress must pass legislation protecting consumers from privacy violations and predatory lending committed by ‘buy now, pay later’ services!
And, they prey on consumers who may not realize they’re taking on debt without the usual protections afforded to other lines of credit. ‘Buy now, pay later’ is the Wild West of e-commerce. Congress needs to step in and pass laws to protect us from these predatory lenders!
Sign the petition: Congress must pass legislation protecting consumers from privacy violations and predatory lending committed by ‘buy now, pay later’ services!
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is already investigating layaway services and calling out their violations. When the agency revealed the new report, Chopra explained how layaway services are “harvesting and leveraging” consumer data in novel and dangerous ways.
The consumer data gathered and sold by ‘buy now, pay later’ firms opens the door to scary new frontiers of surveillance, including digital dark patterns and individualized pricing. These are unprecedented methods of financial surveillance which are likely to harm low-income and other vulnerable populations the most.
Layaway is back in a big way. We need strong legislation to protect consumers and their financial privacy, ASAP!
Sign the petition: Congress must pass legislation protecting consumers from privacy violations and predatory lending committed by ‘buy now, pay later’ services!