Cougar Allen
Buccaneer (ret.)
- Joined
- Oct 9, 1998
- Messages
- 74,276
This time around the discussion is even more confused than usual. Most of the ranting in this thread doesn't seem to have any obvious relationship to the facts. Just so we all know what we're arguing about:
The PayPal contract isn't any different from most credit/debit card companies. (IMHO PayPal is really a niche credit/debit card fulfillment company, marketing primarily to internet sellers who don't do enough selling to set up for other ways to take credit/debit cards.)
The contract says you can't charge a customer extra for using PayPal. Whether you call that a surcharge for PayPal or a discount for another payment method makes no difference; the contract specifically prohibits both. (The idea is if a seller can take credit/debit cards he'll do so much more business that he'll come out ahead even after paying the fees. That apparently works for most businesses, since most businesses do accept credit/debit cards.)
PayPal attempts to enforce its contract by refusing to do any more business with people they catch violating it.
Some states have given that clause the force of law; most have not. (If you're doing enough business through PayPal to make legal costs affordable for them that might possibly be relevant. I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice.)
Those are the facts (except for the parts in parentheses). Now that we all know what we're arguing about maybe we can argue more coherently.
Is that clause an outrage? Is it illegal, immoral, unethical, contrary to the Code of Hammarabi, Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Constitution of the United States of America, etc?
Or is violating that clause an outrage, illegal, immoral, unethical, contrary to the Code of Hammarabi, Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Constitution of the United States of America, etc?
Those are things we can argue about.
The PayPal contract isn't any different from most credit/debit card companies. (IMHO PayPal is really a niche credit/debit card fulfillment company, marketing primarily to internet sellers who don't do enough selling to set up for other ways to take credit/debit cards.)
The contract says you can't charge a customer extra for using PayPal. Whether you call that a surcharge for PayPal or a discount for another payment method makes no difference; the contract specifically prohibits both. (The idea is if a seller can take credit/debit cards he'll do so much more business that he'll come out ahead even after paying the fees. That apparently works for most businesses, since most businesses do accept credit/debit cards.)
PayPal attempts to enforce its contract by refusing to do any more business with people they catch violating it.
Some states have given that clause the force of law; most have not. (If you're doing enough business through PayPal to make legal costs affordable for them that might possibly be relevant. I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice.)
Those are the facts (except for the parts in parentheses). Now that we all know what we're arguing about maybe we can argue more coherently.
Is that clause an outrage? Is it illegal, immoral, unethical, contrary to the Code of Hammarabi, Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Constitution of the United States of America, etc?
Or is violating that clause an outrage, illegal, immoral, unethical, contrary to the Code of Hammarabi, Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Constitution of the United States of America, etc?
Those are things we can argue about.