“This Department of Justice is delivering on President Trump’s vow to root out illegal DEI from every corner of corporate America,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday, announcing a settlement with PayPal Inc. to resolve a fair lending investigation into a discriminatory investment program created for black and minority-owned businesses.
“With this settlement, PayPal agrees that race and national origin should play no part in determining which small businesses deserve its investment and financial support,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Tuesday.
In a press release, the Justice Department revealed the terms of the settlement, valued at about $30 million:
“The settlement requires PayPal to launch a new Small Business Initiative that excludes criteria based on race, national origin, or other protected characteristics.
“As part of the initiative, PayPal will waive processing fees for $1 billion of transactions – a value of approximately $30 million – for eligible American small businesses that are veteran-owned or engaged in farming, manufacturing, or technology.”
“PayPal announced the discriminatory Economic Opportunity Fund in 2020 to invest in black and minority-owned businesses. While the program gave a preference to businesses based on race, color, and national origin, it was not implemented to remediate any specific instances of past discrimination,” the release explains.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, because an applicant receives income from a public assistance program, or because an applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
