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From the brief of Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · No. 19

From the daily brief · Vendors

FTC settles with Riverside Payments for $600,000; $695 exit fee waived for 60 days

If a card processor sold you on 40% savings and a 'risk-free' cancel, this order shows which contract terms to check before your next renewal.

By Carter Josephson · · 2 min read

What happened

Riverside Payments Inc., its equipment-leasing affiliate Cascade Equipment Leasing LLC and their operators will pay $600,000 to settle FTC and Washington state allegations that they promised small businesses 40% to 60% savings on card processing while hiding fees, auto-renewing three-year contracts and a $695 early termination fee. The proposed order, announced Nov. 2, 2026 and filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, suspends a $32,083,921 judgment and requires the companies to tell customers they can rescind processing agreements without a termination fee or penalty for 60 days.

What it means for a 10-to-50-person business

Take a 16-person HVAC shop running $90,000 a month in card payments at an assumed 2.9% effective rate, or $2,610 a month. A 40% savings pitch promises $1,044 a month back. The complaint says switchers typically ended up paying more once fees missing from the quote sheet appeared: activation, batch, data-security non-compliance and inactive-processing fees. Getting out meant a $695 exit fee buried in a 26-page contract, plus a Cascade terminal lease that auto-renews and runs one year past the three-year processing term. Cancel calls often went unanswered. Riverside and Cascade customers should care most: the 60-day window removes the $695 fee. The release does not say whether the terminal lease ends too, so ask in writing. Everyone else should treat this as a checklist. If your processor contract has a multi-year term, auto-renewal, an exit fee or a separate equipment lease, you face the same risks. Shops on month-to-month, flat-rate processing with no lease can skim and move on.

What to do
Cancel

If you process with Riverside Payments or lease a terminal from Cascade Equipment Leasing, watch for the court-ordered notice and send your written cancellation inside the 60-day fee-free window; if you don't, pull your own processor contract this month and write down its renewal date, exit fee and any equipment-lease end date.

What it costs
What it costs
Riverside early termination fee
$695, waived during the 60-day window
Terminal lease past the processing term, assume $40/mo × 12 months
$480 (release does not say if waived)
Pull contract and last 3 statements, check fees
1–2 hrs (≈ $100 at $50/hr)
Switch processors, assume 4 hrs setup and testing
≈ $200 at $50/hr
Doing nothing
$695 exit fee applies again after the 60 days, and the contract auto-renews after its three-year term
Sources
ftc.gov (primary) · FTC: Report fraud and bad business practices

Questions owners ask

When does the 60-day fee waiver start?

The release says the defendants must notify customers of the 60-day window. It does not give a start date. Stipulated orders take effect when a district judge approves and signs them, so watch for the notice and keep copies of any cancellation you send.

Does the order cancel my Cascade equipment lease?

The release says the waiver covers the early termination fee or any penalty for rescinding the merchant-processing agreements. It does not say whether the separate Cascade lease ends. Ask Riverside and Cascade in writing.

What should I look for in my own processor contract?

Look for the term length, auto-renewal terms, the early termination fee and any equipment lease with its own end date. On your statements, check for activation, batch, PCI or data-security non-compliance and inactivity fees. These are the fee types the complaint says were left off Riverside's quote sheets.

Three to five of these, every weekday morning.

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