PayPal Surcharge


I have noticed alot of people add a (3% or so) PayPal fee to their items and I wonder if everyone is aware, that is against the user agreement. It seems that PayPal looks at sellers as "merchants". This is cut from the Paypal website:

-No Surcharges. Under Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express regulations and the laws of several states, including California, merchants may not charge a fee to the buyer for accepting credit card payments (often called a "surcharge"). You agree that you will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as payment. This restriction does not prevent you from imposing a handling fee in connection with the sale of goods or services, as long as the handling fee does not operate as a surcharge (in other words, the handling fee for transactions paid through PayPal may not be higher than the handling fee for transactions paid through other payment methods). Nor does this restriction apply to Pound-denominated transactions by sellers residing in the United Kingdom listing items for sale on a UK-based website.
dill

Showing 1 response by karls

Geez Dill, I'm impressed. I didn't think anyone actually read that boilerplate. Figures that California would be leading the charge as usual into making one more free market choice bite the dust, thus once again screwing everyone in the name of protecting them.

Since we as sellers can't control whether a buyer pays via credit card or via bank transfer (both options in paypal), I can't see how this is enforceable. Besides, as thsalmon points out, you can always offer a discount for cash or equivalent.