The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced on Friday that it has placed Google Payment Corp. under federal supervision, Reuters reports. Google has reportedly filed a lawsuit to block the CFPB’s order, which could lead to routine inspections and monitoring similar to those applied to banks.
The agency found that Google’s error resolution and fraud prevention processes pose risks to consumers, citing consumer complaints about Google Pay Balance and Google peer-to-peer payments. These complaints, which The Washington Post says are “unfounded,” include that the company failed to fully investigate fraudulent claims and failed to provide an “adequate explanation” for the results of these investigations.
The CFPB states that its conclusion that Google needs to be supervised does not mean that the company is “guilty of wrongdoing.” In its order, it also notes that Google Pay and the P2P platform were suspended earlier this year.
