PayPal is changing how it charges sellers for transactions paid using QR codes. PayPal has been sending out the following notice of a change to its user agreement and numerous other legal agreements this week:
Hello (Name redacted),
We’re making some changes to our legal agreements that will apply to you.
There is no action needed from you today, but if you would like to learn more, you can find details about these changes, when they apply and what you can do if you want to decline the changes on our policy update page. You can also view these changes by visiting PayPal.com, clicking ‘Legal’ at the bottom of the page and then selecting ‘Policy Updates’.
If you have questions about any of these changes or your account, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Thank you for being a PayPal customer.
The email notification links to a landing page on PayPal.
Under “Amendments to the PayPal User Agreement – Effective October 23, 2023,” PayPal said it was changing fees it charges sellers for QR code transactions and noted, “The new pricing will result in fee increases for some transactions.”
Currently, PayPal charges 1.9% plus a fixed fee for QR code transactions over $10, and 2.4% for transactions $10 and under.
Beginning October 23, 2023, PayPal will charge 2.29% plus a fixed fee, no matter the dollar amount.
PayPal also charges 2.29% plus $0.09 for QR code transactions through a third-party integrator, and that is not changing.
PayPal made it clear it was changing fees for QR code transactions, but users were left to parse out what other changes to the legal agreements might impact them – an increasingly common practice among tech firms that can leave their users vulnerable to surprises. (One user on the PayPal Community Board said they tried to understand it but got “lost in all the mumbo-jumbo lingo.”) The page stated:
“The User Agreement is being amended to clarify the scope and applicability of the Commercial Entity Agreement to specified card payments received by sellers and to make relevant updates consistent with the requirements of the card network rules.”
We suggest users review the legal agreements and contact PayPal and ask it for specifics. Here are the other legal agreements PayPal said were changing:
The last major change we recall PayPal making to its legal agreements was last year when it closed the “Friends and Family” fee loophole. As we noted at the time, “personal transactions” were known as Friends & Family in PayPal lingo; some sellers had encouraged buyers to use this method to avoid paying fees, though it left buyers without certain purchase protections.
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/.
“There is no action needed from you today…” but if you follow this totally phishy link with a UTM code to track your actions, we’ll put you on our “troublemakers” list, so just go along with what we want because we say so.
