1. Capital Theft from Artists

The industry’s most substantial issue today is the severe discrimination of those who work within this industry and are exploited by banks, payment processors, and other traditional financial institutions.

Despite its high profitability, adult merchants are deemed high-risk by financial service providers, mostly because the content they produce is considered taboo by society and seen as a reputational risk which in turn leads to significantly higher processing fees and increased chargebacks.

The popular ‘adult-friendly’ payment processor CCBill takes a 10.8-14.5% cut of payments from these creators and charges a $1,000 ‘high-risk’ registration fee annually, pricing out many potential entrepreneurs and content creators. Moreover, some service providers entirely refuse to service those in the adult industry.

• In 2014, JPMorgan Chase closed the bank accounts of several high-profile adult industry entertainers and their family members without considerable notice or justification.

• In 2015, Visa and Mastercard stopped processing payments for advertising on the classifieds community website backpage.com.

• Even typically flexible payment processors including PayPal have become notorious for suspending the accounts of industry members and seizing their funds with no reasonable explanation.

This discrimination and censorship have persisted despite the FDIC declaring it unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.