On October 21, the CFPB issued a series of orders to
"collect information on the business practices of large
technology companies operating payments systems in the United
States."
The CFPB sent the orders to six companies: Amazon, Apple,
Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Square. In a statement accompanying
the press release announcing the orders, Director Chopra described
the CFPB's action as an "inquiry into big tech payment
platforms" and stated that he had ordered "six technology
platforms offering payment services" to turn over information
about their products, plans and practices. Responses from the
companies to the CFPB orders are due by December 15.
The CFPB issued the orders pursuant to Section 1022(c)(4) of the
Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), its so-called market
monitoring authority. See 12 U.S.C. 5512(c). This authority permits
the CFPB to collect information regarding the activities of
"covered persons" (a defined term) for the purpose
