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Contents9
  1. Consumer impact summary
  2. Incidents
  3. Ends transaction fee refunds (2019)
  4. Introduces an inactivity fee for certain countries (2021—)
  5. Restricts purchase of Steam games to certain currencies (2025)
  6. Violations of the GDPR (2025)
  7. Products
  8. See also
  9. References

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PayPal
Basic information
Founded 1998
Legal Structure Public
Industry Financial technology
Also known as
Official website https://paypal.com/

PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers. It serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders. The company operates as a payment processor for online vendors, auction sites and many other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.

Consumer impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

  • User Freedom
  • User Privacy
  • Business Model
  • Market Control

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  • Arbitration: "You and PayPal each agree that any and all disputes or claims [...] shall be resolved exclusively through final and binding arbitration or in small claims court. You or PayPal may assert claims in small claims court instead of in arbitration if the claims qualify and so long as the matter remains in small claims court and advances only on an individual (non-class, non-representative) basis."[1]
  • Censorship: PayPal prohibits anything they consider "Adult Content" or "obscene" (NSFW), even when the content is part of a private transaction.[2] This doesn't protect kids, it needlessly limits the ways in which artists earn money, and content users can consume.[citation needed]
  • Market control: In countries outside of the European Union (EU), PayPal has a duopoly as a payment handler, along with Stripe.[3]

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the PayPal category.

Ends transaction fee refunds (2019)

Effective 7 May 2019, PayPal stopped refunding transaction fees on refunds.[4] PayPal announced they would undo this policy change, and then a few months later re-implemented it.[5]

Introduces an inactivity fee for certain countries (2021—)

Sometime in 2021, and later expanding it to more countries in 2022, PayPal began charging an inactivity fee in Canada and the EU.[6]

If you don't log in or don't have transactions for a year you will be charged $20 CAD or €10 each year. Then, when there are no more funds in the account, they will close your account. If you have not logged in they assume you have seen the changed terms and agree to the changes and thus the fees.[7]

Restricts purchase of Steam games to certain currencies (2025)

Beginning in early July 2025, PayPal limited the purchasing of games on Steam to the following currencies:[8]

  • U.S. dollar (USD)
  • Canadian dollar (CAD)
  • Euro (EUR)
  • British pound (GBP)
  • Japanese yen (JPY)
  • Australian dollar (AUD)

No official reason was provided, however the timing of it does somewhat line up with Collective Shout's campaign of pressuring payment processors to censor certain content on Steam. There is no proof of this, though.

Violations of the GDPR (2025)

The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 in Europe forced PayPal to disclose a list of third-party companies they shared user data with. The list included over 600 different companies, from fraud prevention to analytics, tracking, and advertising companies.[9]

In December 2025, a study by Netzwerk Datenschutzexpertise (Data Privacy Expertise Network) found PayPal to be violating the GDPR in several instances. It lists unlawful data processing for advertising purposes, invalid consent practices, and violations of the principle "Privacy by Default", as required by Article 25 of the GDPR.[10][11]

Products

This is a list of the company's product lines with articles on this wiki.

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See also

Link to relevant theme articles or companies with similar incidents.

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References

  1. ↑ "PAYPAL USER AGREEMENT". PayPal. 26 Jan 2026. Archived from the original on 3 Mar 2026. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
  2. ↑ "Acceptable Use Policy". Legal Agreements for PayPal Services. 2022-10-29. Archived from the original on 2026-03-13. Retrieved 2026-03-16.
  3. ↑ Woods, Evelyn "eevee" (2025-07-03). "The rise of Whatever". fuzzy notepad. Archived from the original on 2026-03-12. Retrieved 2026-03-16.
  4. ↑ Meldner, Richard (6 Apr 2019). "PayPal Will No Longer Refund Transaction Fees On Refunds". eSeller365. Archived from the original on 5 Oct 2025. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
  5. ↑ Statt, Nick (2019-09-21). "PayPal reinstates controversial policy of pocketing fees from refunds". Archived from the original on 2025-09-17. Retrieved 2026-03-14.
  6. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (16 Nov 2022). "Here is what you need to know about PayPal's Inactivity Fee". ghacks. Archived from the original on 16 Nov 2022. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
  7. ↑ "What is the inactivity fee?". PayPal. Archived from the original on 24 Jan 2026. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
  8. ↑ David, Carcasole (12 Aug 2025). "PayPal Is Only Processing Steam Purchases in EUR, CAD, GBP, JPY, AUD, and USD". wccftech. Archived from the original on 9 Oct 2025. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
  9. ↑ "List of Third Parties with Whom Personal Information May be Shared". PayPal. 1 July 2025. Archived from the original on 17 Jan 2026. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
  10. ↑ Schuler, Karin; Weichert, Thilo (10 Dec 2025). "Datenschutz bei PayPal — Big Tech und Finanzdienstleistungen" [Data privacy at PayPal — Big Tech and financial services] (PDF). Netzwerk Datenschutzexpertise (in Deutsch). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 Dec 2025. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
  11. ↑ Koch, Marie-Claire (11 Dec 2025). "Expert Report: Massive Data Protection Violations at PayPal". Heise Online. Archived from the original on 28 Dec 2025. Retrieved 6 Mar 2026.
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