A US regulator has announced a settlement with Goldman Sachs and Apple that will send nearly $20 million to Apple customers.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says Goldman Sachs and Apple “illegally mishandled transaction disputes” from Apple Card users – accusing Apple of failing to forward a significant number of reported issues to the Wall Street banking giant.
According to the CFPB, Goldman also failed to follow federal requirements put in place for investigating disputes when receiving customer complaints from Apple.
“These failures meant that consumers faced long waits to get money back for disputed charges, and some had incorrect negative information added to their credit reports.”
In addition, the CFPB says Goldman Sachs and Apple misled consumers on interest-free payment plans for device purchases.
“Many customers thought they would automatically get interest-free monthly payments when buying Apple devices with their Apple Card. Instead, they were charged interest.
In some cases, Apple did not even show the interest-free payment option on its website on certain browsers. Goldman Sachs also misled consumers about the application of some refunds, which led to consumers paying additional interest charges.”
Apple Card launched in August of 2019 with Goldman Sachs as the issuing bank, Mastercard as the payment network and Apple as the developer.
The CFPB is ordering Goldman Sachs to pay at least $19.8 million in redress to affected customers and a $45 million civil money penalty. Apple will pay a $25 million civil money penalty.
The US government agency says it intends to “closely police” Goldman Sachs if the trillion-dollar lender initiates other credit card ventures in order to avoid a repeat of these offenses.
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