Court grants sex worker anonymity in case against payments processor SumUp
A British court has said an escort should be allowed to remain anonymous as she seeks to prevent card payments processor SumUp from banning sex workers from using its payments services.
The court’s decision to grant anonymity to the escort – referred to only as Anna – will see her argue that SumUp’s decision to ban sex workers from using its payments platform is discriminatory, as it overwhelmingly impacts women.
The case comes after Anna purchased a contactless card machine from SumUp to allow clients to pay for her escort services, whilst operating as a sole trader.
“SumUp provided me with contactless card machines allowing me to take card payments from clients without the risk of them being traced to my legal name, ensuring anonymity – payments can only be traced to the business the machine registered, not the individual identity of its owner,” Anna said.
But after a month of using SumUp’s services, the London-headquartered firm kicked Anna off its platform, pointing to its ban on sex workers.
Anna is now attempting to force SumUp to reverse its decision, in arguing that SumUp’s ban on sex workers is discriminatory towards women, under the Equality Act 2010.
The new court order will allow Anna to fight the case while retaining her anonymity.
“In my case, anonymity was paramount: one of the central reasons I obtained a SumUp card machine was to hide my name and identity from clients,” Anna said.
The ruling may open the door for more legal challenges from sex workers in the future, in setting a precedent to allow sex workers to fight their cases anonymously.
In a statement, sex workers union United Sex Workers (USW) said it would continue to fight cases against payment processors.
“We hope that these challenges will encourage organisations to act responsibly by dropping such policies without resorting to legal action,” the union said.
The case comes after OnlyFans last year set out plans to ban sexually explicit content from its platforms, in a bid to please Mastercard and Visa. OnlyFans quickly reversed its decision after securing an agreement with the payment processors.
Prostitution contributes billions of pounds to UK gross domestic product (GDP) each year.