EXCLUSIVE: Stripe faces backlash after payments firm cut off small family business for selling gun accessories – amid ‘de-banking’ controversy
Silicon Valley payments company Stripe is under fire across the globe after blocking small, family-run businesses from using its services.
The payment processing company, which is valued at $50 billion, allows merchants to accept credit and debit card transactions online.
But Alastair Muir, who runs a country goods retailer in the UK with his wife and son, says his account was recently axed because he sells legal air rifle accessories.
The 60-year-old had been using the service to operate his online business Farm Cottage Brands for around two years when seemingly out of the blue, it was cut off after Stripe claimed he was selling items that violated its regulations.
And he is not alone. Against a backdrop of rising complaints about organizations ‘de-banking’ customers over political and religious views, the company, which is based in San Francisco and Dublin, Ireland, is facing increased criticism from business owners in the US and the UK who claim to have been unfairly targeted.
Online payments company Stripe has a headquarters in San Francisco (pictured). It provides online payments for businesses around the world
Alastair Muir (pictured), 60, is the Managing Director of Farm Cottage Brands, an online country good retailer which he runs with his wife and son
According to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by DailyMail.com, the Federal Trade Commission has received 1,591 complaints about Stripe since January 1, 2020.
Mike Glover, a prominent ‘prepper’ based in Utah who sells survival equipment as well as online courses, claimed in March to have also been cut off for selling ‘weapons, ammunition, and related products.’
Posting online, he wrote: ‘We don’t sell firearms through Stripe nor take payment for ‘ammo’ or ‘related products’. We provide online education.’
In January 2021, Stripe also made headlines after it stopped supporting payments to the Trump campaign website shortly after the Capital riots.
Farm Cottage Brands was set up in 2011 by Muir as a subsidiary to a larger e-commerce business, which he runs with his wife Lindsay and son Edward.
It sells air gun and shotgun accessories among other rural-themed items like cuff links, flasks, cards and mugs.
Muir claims he was targeted as part of a campaign led by parts of the financial services industry against people who are passionate about British countryside pursuits – including shooting.
‘We’re not a firearms dealer so we don’t sell rifles or shotguns but accessories which include targets, cleaning kits, pellets, magazines and oil,’ Muir told DailyMail.com.
He explained how after two years without issues, he received an email from Stripe in August saying Farm Cottage Brands was in contravention of its policies.
Farm Cottage Brands was founded in 2011 by Alastair Muir. It sells various country-themed goods including . Pictured are some of its online marketing material like walking sticks, cuff links, flasks, cards and mugs
He was told he would have to remove from his website the listing for a 10-round plastic magazine that holds lead air gun pellets.
After failing to oblige, Stripe suspended its service of his store earlier this month.
‘We’re writing to let you know that we have determined that your business… is in violation of the Stripe Services Agreement,’ the email, dated September 11, read.
‘Specifically, we are unable to accept payments for weapons, ammunition, and related products, as mentioned on our Restricted Businesses list,’ it added.
Stripe does not allow the sale of firearms, explosives and dangerous materials and lists ‘guns, gunpowders, ammunitions, weapons, fireworks and other explosives’ as prohibited items on its website.
However this list does not refer to gun-related products such as the air gun magazine – which is designed to feed pellets into the chamber of an air gun.
‘There were no problems until we had an email from them saying we had to remove certain items related to air gunning and clay shotgunning – which is an Olympic sport,’ Muir said.
‘It’s just beyond belief. It’s an international organization trying to control what people can and cannot do.
‘It’s got to be stopped. They’re trying to stop people from going about their business. They’re trying to impose their views on people,’ he added.
After DailyMail.com contacted Stripe on Muir’s behalf, Farm Cottage Brands was told its account would be reinstated.
Stripe told Muir that his ‘account was incorrectly closed’ after a ‘routine review’ but refused to comment further about the case or its review process more broadly.
Instead, it directed DailyMail.com to a section of its website that states ‘basic economic infrastructure, like bank accounts or the services Stripe provides, should be broadly accessible and provided in an impartial manner.’
Online payments company Stripe was once the most highly valued privately owned Silicon Valley company but after the pandemic suffered with the downfall of the internet economy
The review of Muir’s account comes amid a growing debate around organizations de-banking customers – and after British politicians spoke out on the issue of financial providers cutting off legitimate and legal gun clubs in the UK.
British politician Nigel Farage, who was at the center of a high-profile de-banking controversy, told DailyMail.com last month he thought the phenomenon was a growing problem in the US.
‘The situation in America is absolutely as bad as it is in Britain,’ he said. ‘Banks have become political campaigning organizations.’
Last month DailyMail.com reported on a fallout between Bank of America and an ultra-conservative Christian charity which provides necessities to Ugandan orphans.
Memphis-based non-profit Indigenous Advance Ministries filed a complaint to the Tennessee Attorney-General’s office over concerns its accounts were closed because the bank disagrees with its ‘religious views.’
Bank of America denied that it de-banked the body over these views and told DailyMail.com that ‘religious beliefs are not a factor in any account-closing decision.’
