Current through 2023-2024 Legislative Session Chapter 709
Section 10-1-439.2 - Discrimination in financial services prohibited(a) Unless otherwise precluded by law, regulation, or membership eligibility, it shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for any person to refuse to provide financial services of any kind to, to refrain from continuing to provide existing financial services to, to terminate existing financial services with, or to otherwise discriminate in the provision of financial services against a person or trade association solely because such person or trade association is engaged in the lawful commerce of firearms or ammunition products and is licensed pursuant to Chapter 44 of Title 18 of the United States Code or is a trade association.(b) It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for any financial institution to require the usage of a firearms code in a way that distinguishes a firearms retailer that is physically located in this state from general merchandise retailers or sporting goods retailers, unless such required usage of a firearms code is based on a good faith conclusion that such action is required by applicable law or regulation.(c) It shall be unlawful for any financial institution to discriminate against a firearms retailer by declining a lawful payment card transaction based solely on the assignment or nonassignment of a firearms code; provided, however, that a financial institution may decline or otherwise refuse to process a payment card transaction on the basis of a firearms code if such action is requested by the customer or is the result of fraud prevention procedures or merchant category exclusions offered by the financial institution for the purpose of expenditure control or corporate payment card control.(d) Except as otherwise required by law or regulation, a financial institution shall not disclose a financial record, including a firearms code that was collected in violation of subsection (b) of this Code section, unless such disclosure is based on a good faith conclusion that it was required by applicable law or regulation.(e) Nothing in this Code section shall limit the ability of a financial institution to negotiate with responsible parties or otherwise impair the financial institution's actions related to dispute processing, fraud management, or protecting transaction integrity from concerns related to illegal activities or cyber risks.Amended by 2024 Ga. Laws 403,§ 1, eff. 7/1/2024.Added by 2017 Ga. Laws 217,§ 2, eff. 5/8/2017.