A St. Louis-based CBD retailer is fighting credit card company Visa in court, alleging the business has been unfairly blacklisted, according to a lawsuit that moved forward in federal court this week.
The suit was first brought in 2018 by MNG 2005 Inc., parent company of CBD Kratom, which has 40 retail stores across the U.S., including 14 in St. Louis.
The company claims that in March 2018 it contracted with JPMorgan Chase Bank to process credit card payments for online orders, but the company got a warning from a Visa contractor, G2 Web Services, that CBD Kratom was added to a “blacklist” because it was engaging in illegal activity and was part of a law enforcement investigation.
Chase in response shut down the retailer’s account on May 1, 2018, and withheld $66,500 in payments from customers, the suit claims.
Read more at St. Louis Post-Dispatch.