Regulatory capture and regional monopolies aren't going anyway any time soon. Let's throw out another hypothetical.

How would you feel if the only broadband ISP in your area automatically blocked entire swaths of websites from you on the grounds that the ISP felt they were "immoral" (whatever that means)? And yes I know VPNs exist but that is missing the point.

Payment processors are "pipelines" in the same manner as ISPs should be. If the major ones (VISA/MC) block you from doing business, that's putting someone's entire livelihood at risk.

EDIT: For clarification, I agree that antitrust has never been weaker and that we do need better trust-busting. I just think that it is more realistic to focus on legislation around payment processors MC/VISA atm.

I agree natural monopolies such as ISPs can justify additional regulation. I'm not convinced payment processors are natural monopolies (see sibling thread, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44683153 ).

> I just think that it is more realistic to focus on legislation around payment processors MC/VISA atm.

I think it would be really, really, really hard to pass legislation requiring payment processors to service all customers, especially if you're using porn video games as the champion of your cause. Even if it did pass, I suspect it'd be pretty quickly declared unconstitutional and personally, I think that would be the correct call.

We already have anti-trust laws. We've used them before. "All" we have to do is enforce them.