Last week, the office of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced a rare and welcomed shift in corporate policy to restore access to a popular brand of business software and payment processing that had previously discriminated against members of the firearm industry. The move came after Cruz’s office had investigated complaints from constituents whose small businesses were disrupted when their access to the brand’s services was abruptly canceled. In each case, there was no warning, no opportunity to appeal the decision, and no recompense for the economic harms caused. Diligent work by Sen. Cruz and his staff traced the chain of decision-making through the brand’s own hierarchy and on to large national banks with whom the brand had partnered. Ultimately, when confronted with its shockingly callous treatment of the constituents, the brand relented and agreed to change its policies…….
……….concerned the QuickBooks suite of accounting software, which its publisher Intuit claims is the leading such product for small businesses. Intuit executives acknowledged the actions against Cruz’s constituents and the “acceptable use polices” that discriminated against firearm businesses. But they blamed these policies, in turn, on mandates from associated banks, one of which was Bank of America and another was JP Morgan. JP Morgan, for its part, admitted it was the ultimate source of the Intuit policy. Bank of America, however, denied culpability. In any case, Intuit went on to revise its acceptable use policy to end the discriminatory practices.