Justice is often a dish best served cold. In the world of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, it seems a major victory has been scored. More specifically, JPMorgan Chase faces a lawsuit for charging customers a cash advance fee when they attempted to buy cryptocurrency from certain exchanges. It was only a matter of time until that “change of heart” resulted in negative press for the bank.
JPMorgan Chase has a big Problem
It is not entirely surprising to see things come to a head for JPMorgan Chase. Although this bank has gotten itself into various troubles in the past, its most recent action has attracted a lot of negative attention. More specifically, the firm began charging cryptocurrency enthusiasts a cash advance fee when they used a JPMorgan account or payment card to buy Bitcoin.
This particular action by the bank generated a lot of negative media attention. It’s not entirely surprising, though, as JPMorgan Chase made its stance on cryptocurrency quite clear some time ago. However, the firm also admitted that Bitcoin and altcoins are a pretty big problem for its business as of right now, which would certainly explain the new cash advance fee.
Unfortunately for the bank, their customers did not take kindly to that particular development. Brady Tucker claims the bank started charging interest rates of up to 30% per year because he purchases cryptocurrency. Those charges, combined with the cash advance fees as well as “additional charges” related to cryptocurrency were cause for filing a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase.
The lawsuit filed by Tucker includes the comment by Jamie Dimon in which he called Bitcoin a fraud. It is evident that this statement may come back to bite the CEO at some point, as it is well-documented all over the internet and on paper. As such, Tucker is seeking a class-action status for the lawsuit. Additionally, he’s demanding a refund of all fees charged, as well as $1 million in compensation for “damages”. That latter part may not necessarily work out for him, but the sentiment certainly resonates.
The big question is whether or not other JPMorgan Chase customers will join Tucker in filing this lawsuit. Thousands of clients have been “robbed” of their money due to these cash advance fees in the past few months. Additionally, we’ve seen a lot of banks around the world prevent their customers from buying cryptocurrency, even though it remains highly doubtful such a decision is even lawful in the first place. Banks should never determine how their customers can spend their money.
Whether or not anything will come of this lawsuit remains to be determined. As of right now, there is still a lot of work to be done, even though the evidence is clear for everyone to see. Refunding these costs should not be much of a problem for the bank, yet the lawsuit won’t go away as a result. More importantly, this sets a rather interesting precedent for other victims looking to file a lawsuit against their bank.
