PayPal announced additional fee and policy changes that will take effect on September 19, 2022 after making new rules that went into effect in July. The policies appear to further crack down on fee avoiders and include a new way to identify websites that violate its policies. In addition, PayPal is increasing certain fundraising fees.
We
reported that PayPal was closing the "Friends and Family" fee loophole in the US that took effect last month. Now PayPal is doing the same thing for international transactions. ("Personal transactions" are known as Friends & Family in PayPal lingo. Some sellers encouraged buyers to use this method to avoid paying fees, though it left buyers without certain purchase protections.)
Here's a summary of the changes going into effect on September 19, 2022:
- U.S. business accounts will not be able to receive personal transactions from PayPal accounts outside the U.S. starting October 31, 2022.
- U.S. PayPal accounts will not be able to send personal transactions to business accounts outside the U.S. starting October 31, 2022.
- The Agreement to Arbitrate will provide revised information on the process if disputes arise between you and PayPal, including additional information about arbitration, small claims disputes, and the payment of associated fees.
- If you integrate or reference PayPal services on your website, we are clarifying that PayPal may use automated technologies (e.g., website crawling) to assess your website to ensure compliance with the user agreement and to combat fraud.
- Pricing for sending and receiving certain donations is being updated. The new pricing will result in fee increases for some transactions. You can preview the Consumer Fees Page and the Merchant Fees page that will be effective following such changes.
- Additional terms will be incorporated into the user agreement which govern the use of Invoicing, as previewed below.
The fourth bullet point has some "Not Safe for Work" (NSFW) websites owners concerned, including artists who expressed concern PayPal would start scanning their websites looking for violations of its Adult content policy.
The next bullet point above indicates those who accept donations may pay higher fees.