PayPal Europe has been fined $27.3m by Poland’s competition regulator for failing to adequately tell consumers in its contractual clauses activities which will get them fined, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) said on Monday (15 July).
UOKiK claimed that activities which could lead to fines from PayPal were described in an unclear way. This could lead to users not understanding what was allowed and not allowed on the platform.
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“PayPal clauses are general, ambiguous and incomprehensible,” Tomasz Chrostny, the head of UOKiK, said in a statement.“When reading these provisions, a consumer cannot predict which of their actions may be considered prohibited, or what sanctions may be imposed on them by the entrepreneur.”
“Therefore, PayPal has an unlimited possibility to decide at will whether the user has committed a prohibited act and what penalty they will face for it, which may be, for example, blocking money on the account,” Chrostny said.
The decision is not currently final and PayPal will have the possibility to appeal to a court, UOKiK said.
PayPal said it had been working closely with UOKiK during its investigation and were reviewing the announcement.
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