PayPal User Agreement Changes to Take Effect in May

PayPal notified users it’s making changes to the User Agreement that will, for the most part, go into effect in May. Included are changes to PayPal’s Seller Protection program and Purchase Protection program.

PayPal listed the policies effected and highlighted in broad strokes some of the changes – but it will be up to PayPal users to dive in and compare old and new policies to see the full impact.

One thing that jumps out on the overview page is that PayPal is making changes to how it handles transactions involving Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). For example, PayPal is excluding NFTs from its Purchase Protection program. PayPal is also excluding NFTs with a transaction amount of over $10,000 from its Seller Protection program (see details).

PayPal is also excluding from its Purchase Protection program: “Payments that you initiate via a third-party platform using your PayPal Balance account and assigned account and routing number (PayPal’s Direct Debit functionality),” and made changes to the program involving SNAD claims (Significantly Not as Described).

Some additional changes of note:

• PayPal Rewards points redemption to the PayPal Shopping Credit will no longer be available
• The PayPal Online Card Payment Services Agreement is being updated to reflect PayPal’s position as our merchants’ agent for settlement of funds, and resulting obligations for merchants, including receipt requirements under applicable law and the card network rules.

The changes impact a large number of PayPal services, be sure to read the overview page and the specific agreements for each service you use. You can visit the PayPal website and click the “Legal” hyperlink in the footer – as always, beware of phishing emails from scammers pretending to be PayPal, and don’t click on links in an email to log in to a website.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.