ADA, Chatbots, and Compliance-as-a-Feature: Turning Lawsuit Traps into Portfolio Stickiness (with Michael Williams, Clym (https://www.clym.io/)

Cash is disappearing, card rails rule, and “set it and forget it” legal copy is now a liability. In this fast, no-B.S. episode, James Huber and Jeremy Stock sit down with Michael Williams, co-founder of Clym, to unpack the lawsuit vectors quietly hitting merchant websites: ADA accessibility claims, “chatbot wiretapping” suits, and a maze of state privacy rules that change faster than roadmaps. The punchline for payments pros? Compliance is product—it reduces fines, preserves MIDs, and keeps portfolios from churning.

Why this matters to payments teams

ADA goes digital: Website accessibility claims have exploded—think large volumes with five-figure settlements that crush SMBs and create needless merchant attrition.

Wiretapping via chatbots: In two-party consent states, recording or logging live chat without explicit notice is becoming an easy plaintiff’s layup.

Dynamic, not static: What’s compliant in one state might fail in another. A one-size policy either over-frictions conversion or under-protects risk.

Operational drag: When demand letters hit, support, finance, and legal get pulled off mission—right when merchants need them most.

What we cover (built for ISOs, PayFacs, acquirers, ISVs)

The new lawsuit economy: Why “fines without findings” moved from ramps and bathrooms to menus, receipts, and live chat logs—and how automation lets plaintiffs scan thousands of sites a day.

From GDPR to geofencing: How a CFO’s privacy headache birthed a horizontal, website-level compliance stack—accessibility, privacy, “wiretapping,” and geo-controls—designed to update without re-implementation.

Real-time compliance: Continuous scanning that flags risky changes (new widgets, menu updates, policy drift) before a demand letter arrives.

Friction that fits: Show less friction where law allows, more where it’s required—so marketing converts and legal sleeps at night.

Retention math: Portfolio stickiness improves when an ISO bundles easy, merchant-installed compliance at a partner price—versus losing the account after a suit.

Practical playbook you can deploy this quarter

Website attestation at boarding: Add a one-page checklist: ADA accessibility, privacy notice, cookie behavior, chatbot recording disclosure, and where each appears (entry, checkout, receipts).

Two-party consent guardrails: If you operate in consent states, on-page chat notice plus explicit “continue” intent = safer logs.

Geo-aware policies: Serve state-specific privacy/consent text and feature friction based on visitor location; don’t let the strictest state throttle all traffic.

Evidence kits for defense: Time-stamped screenshots of menus, signs, policy pages, chat notices, and a weekly crawl log. Merchants need this before a letter arrives.

Quarterly scans, monthly deltas: Automate site scans; review deltas with merchants; fix drift (plugins, templates, receipt footers) without re-platforming.

Field signals you’ll recognize

“Register-only” disclosures that fail conspicuous-notice tests.

Live chat that asks name/email without recording-consent language.

Menu PDFs that screen readers can’t parse.

Traffic from restricted states hitting prohibited SKUs.

Demand letters starting high, settling mid-five figures—and repeating.


**Matters discussed are all opinions and do not constitute legal advice.  All events or likeness to real people and events is a coincidence.**

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A payments podcast of Global Legal Law Firm