THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBES THE TERMS ON WHICH PAYPAL OFFERS YOU ACCESS TO OUR SERVICES.
This User Agreement ("Agreement") is a contract between you and PayPal, Inc. and applies to your use of the PayPal™ payment service and any related products and services available through www.paypal.com (collectively the "Service"). If you do not agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement, please do not use or access our Services.
You must read, agree with, and accept all of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement and the Privacy Policy, which include those terms and conditions expressly set out below and those incorporated by reference, before you may become a member of PayPal. We strongly recommend that, as you read this Agreement, you also access and read the information contained in the other pages and websites referred to in this document, as they may contain further terms and conditions that apply to you as a PayPal user. Please note: underlined words and phrases are links to these pages and websites. By accepting this Agreement, you also agree that your use of other PayPal websites and Services will be governed by the terms and conditions posted on those websites.
For additional information about the Service and how it works, please also consult the PayPal Help Center .
We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on our site. Except as stated below, all amended terms shall be effective 30 days after they are initially posted on our site. Upcoming changes will be posted on the "Policy Updates" page, accessible from "Policy Updates" link on the Account Overview page once you have logged in. In addition, you can set your Preferences to receive email notification of all policy updates. You may review the current Agreement prior to initiating a transaction at any time at our User Agreement page.
In this Agreement, "you" or "your" means any person or entity using the Service ("Users"). Unless otherwise stated, "PayPal," "we" or "our" will refer collectively to PayPal, Inc. and its subsidiaries including PayPal Asset Management Inc. Unless otherwise specified, all references to a "bank" in this Agreement include savings associations and credit unions, and all references to a "credit card" include Visa- and MasterCard-branded debit cards.
This Agreement was last modified on February 13, 2004.
1. Eligibility. In order to use the Service, you must register for a Personal, Premier, or Business account. Users may only hold one Personal account and either one Premier or one Business account. Our Services are only available to individuals or businesses that can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, our Service is not available to minors (under 18), persons who are suspended from our Service, or to persons who present an unacceptable level of credit risk. In order to receive credit card funded payments or use the Service to conduct business or in conjunction with a business, you must upgrade to or register for a Premier or Business account.
2. The Legal Relationship between You and PayPal.
2.1 Agency Relationship. PayPal acts as a facilitator to help you accept payments from and make payments to third parties. We act as your agent based upon your direction and your requests to use our Services that require us to perform tasks on your behalf. PayPal will at all times hold your funds separate from its corporate funds, will not use your funds for its operating expenses or any other corporate purposes, and will not voluntarily make funds available to its creditors in the event of bankruptcy or for any other purpose. You acknowledge that (i) PayPal is not a bank and the Service is a payment processing service rather than a banking service, and (ii) PayPal is not acting as a trustee, fiduciary or escrow with respect to your funds, but is acting only as an agent and custodian.
You are not required to keep funds in the PayPal system (i.e., carry a balance in your PayPal agency account) in order to use the Service. If you do carry a U.S. Dollar balance in your PayPal account and do not enroll in the PayPal Money Market Fund, PayPal will pool your funds together with funds from other Users, and will place those funds in accounts at one or more non-interest bearing FDIC-insured banks ("Pooled Accounts"). Those funds may be eligible for FDIC pass-through insurance. Balances held in currencies other than U.S. Dollars will not be eligible for FDIC insurance.
You agree that you will not receive interest or other earnings on the funds that PayPal handles as your agent. PayPal will also not receive interest on those funds, but may receive a reduction in fees or expenses charged for banking services by the banks that hold your funds.
If you enroll in the Money Market Fund, PayPal's subsidiary PayPal Asset Management Inc. will act as your agent to transfer any U.S. Dollar balance in your PayPal account on a daily basis to purchase shares in the Money Market Fund. Thereafter, payments that you send through PayPal will be funded by a redemption of your shares in the Money Market Fund. For more information on the Money Market Fund, please review the prospectus .
By initiating and sending payments through the Service or adding funds to your balance, you appoint PayPal as your agent to obtain the funds on your behalf and to transfer the funds to the recipient that you designate or to a Pooled Account, subject to the terms and restrictions of this Agreement. PayPal will obtain the funds first by debiting your funds in the Pooled Accounts or redeeming your shares in the Money Market Fund, if any. If this is not sufficient to fund your payment fully, PayPal will obtain the remaining funds per your instructions by debiting a bank account that you designate or charging your credit card. When you send a payment, until that payment is accepted by the recipient (which may occur instantly), you remain the owner of those funds and PayPal holds those funds as your agent, but you will not be able to withdraw those funds or send the funds to any other recipient unless the initial transaction is cancelled.
By receiving payments through the Service, you appoint PayPal as your agent to cause the funds to be deposited on your behalf in the Pooled Accounts until you further instruct PayPal with respect to the transmission of your funds. Through the PayPal website, you may provide instructions to withdraw the funds, enroll in an automatic sweep of the funds into the PayPal Money Market Fund or transfer the funds to a third party, in each case subject to the terms and restrictions of this Agreement. If you receive a notice that a payment has been sent to you through PayPal but you have not registered for the Service, PayPal will not become your agent and you will have no claim to those funds unless and until you register for the Service and indicate your acceptance of the payment. If you register for a Premier or Business account and intend to accept credit card payments, you will be receiving services provided by Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and Wells Fargo Merchant Services, LLC (collectively "Wells Fargo"), and the terms of the Premier and Business Account Policy will govern your rights, obligations and liabilities with respect to such credit card transactions.
2.2 PayPal is only a Payment Service Provider. PayPal acts as a payment service provider by creating, hosting, maintaining and providing our Service to you via the Internet. We do not have any control over the products or services that are paid for with our Service. We cannot ensure that a buyer or a seller you are dealing with will actually complete the transaction.
2.3 Identity Authentication. We use many techniques to identify our users when they register on our site. Verification of Users is only an indication of increased likelihood that a User's identity is correct. You authorize PayPal, directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider necessary to validate your registration. This may include ordering a credit report and performing other credit checks or verifying the information you provide against third party databases. However, because user verification on the Internet is difficult, PayPal cannot and does not guarantee any user's identity.
2.4 Release. In the event that you have a dispute with one or more users, you release PayPal (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees) from any and all claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes. If you are a California resident, you waive California Civil Code §1542, which says: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if not known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
2.5 No Warranty. WE, OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, EMPLOYEES AND OUR SUPPLIERS PROVIDE OUR SERVICES "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. WE, OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, EMPLOYEES AND OUR SUPPLIERS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. PayPal shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that requests for electronic debits and credits involving bank accounts, credit cards, and check issuances are processed in a timely manner and but we make no representations or warranties regarding the amount of time needed to complete processing because our Service is largely dependant upon many factors outside of our control, such as delays in the banking system or the U.S. or international mail service. Some states do not allow the disclaimer of implied warranties, so the foregoing disclaimer may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other legal rights that vary from state to state.
The above clause is completely separate from PayPal's Money Back Guarantee, which you may choose to purchase at the time of an eligible transaction, and which assigns to you certain privileges, as defined in the Money Back Guarantee Policy.
2.6 Limitation of Liability. IN NO EVENT SHALL WE, OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, EMPLOYEES OR OUR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH OUR WEB SITE, OUR SERVICE, OR THIS AGREEMENT (HOWEVER ARISING, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE). Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.
OUR LIABILITY, AND THE LIABILITY OF OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, EMPLOYEES AND SUPPLIERS, TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE IS LIMITED TO THE ACTUAL AMOUNT OF DIRECT DAMAGES.
2.7 Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold PayPal, its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors and employees harmless from any claim or demand (including attorneys' fees) made or incurred by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party relating to your use of the Service.
3. Fees. All fees are set forth in the Fee Schedule. All fees will be assessed in the currency of the payment. Additional information about PayPal's fees is available in the Fees Policy. Your account and all transactions are made and displayed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise specified and may be subject to exchange rates.
4. Non-U.S. Use. To be eligible for an account, you must be a resident
of the United States or one of the approved countries listed below:
Anguilla
Argentina
Australia*
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada*
Chile
China
Costa Rica
Denmark*
Dominican Republic
Finland*
France*
Germany*
Greece
Hong Kong*
Iceland
India
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan*
Luxembourg
Mexico*
Netherlands*
New Zealand*
Norway*
Portugal
Singapore*
South Korea
Spain*
Sweden*
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom*
Countries marked with a * in the above table may withdraw funds from their PayPal account to a local bank account, and are considered "Withdrawal Countries".
Non-U.S. Users in some countries may not use the Service to receive payments, and may only use the Service to send payments. These countries are designated on the PayPal Non-U.S. Accounts page. If you are an Non-U.S. User, you warrant that you are violating no law or regulation by your use of PayPal.
5. Receiving Payments.
5.1 Credit Card Funded Payments. The only accounts that can receive credit card funded payments are Premier and Business Accounts. Personal Accounts that receive credit card funded payments may accept the payment by upgrading to a Premier or Business Account, or they will have to deny the payment. Personal Accounts may receive non-credit card funded payments for free. By accepting a credit card payment, you agree that you are responsible for the payment if it is reversed. If such reversal occurs on a credit card funded payment made to your account, we will reverse the payment and debit your PayPal account balance to pay for the reversal unless the transaction is covered by the Seller Protection Policy. If there are insufficient funds in your PayPal balance, you agree to reimburse PayPal through other means, as described in the Payments (Sending, Receiving, and Withdrawing) Policy.
5.2 Removal of Expired Cards. We will notify you of expired credit cards in your account and provide you the opportunity to update those cards before we remove them as a funding source in your account.
5.3 Withdrawals. In order to withdraw money from your PayPal account we require you to provide PayPal with a number of forms of identification as further described and protected in our Privacy Policy. We require this information to authenticate your identity and to determine how much you may withdraw from your account per month. We may limit withdrawals and require additional information from you depending upon your location (U.S. or international), credit rating, and other factors. Generally, in order to withdraw more than $500 per month, we require you to complete some authentication procedures, such as confirming: your email address, your bank account, and your social security number. You may withdraw funds by direct deposit to the bank account you have on file with us or you may elect to receive a physical check for a nominal processing fee as disclosed in our Fee Schedule. Generally, checks will only be sent to Confirmed Addresses. Importantly, if you are an Non-U.S. User and do not reside in a Withdrawal Country, please note that you may not be able to withdraw funds from your PayPal Account and should therefore only accept payments if you know you will send payments in equal amounts out of your account. For more details and guidelines about withdrawals, please refer to our Payments Policy.
6. Sending Payments.
6.1 Sending Payments. In order to send payments through our Service we require you to provide PayPal with a number of forms of identification as further described and protected in our Privacy Policy. We require this information to authenticate your identity and to determine how much you may send with your account. We may require additional information from you depending on your location and other factors. Based on the information you provide, we will determine your Sending Limit. Generally, accounts that have a confirmed email address and credit card on file may send up to $2000. Accounts that are Verified by adding and confirming a bank account or by otherwise being verified by PayPal will receive a higher Sending Limit or no limit at all.
6.2 Enrolling in the Expanded Use Program. Non-U.S. members (and some U.S. members) will be asked to enroll in the Expanded Use Program before they may send any payments. Once you confirm an email address, add a credit card, and enter your Expanded Use Number, your account will have an unlimited sending limit. American Express has decided to decline PayPal credit card transactions that are funded with an American Express Corporate Card. As a result, any attempts to register or use an American Express Corporate Card will be denied. Some accounts, at PayPal's discretion, may have a higher or lower limit before completing enrollment in the Expanded Use Program. Some transactions, at PayPal's discretion, may not apply towards the limit. To obtain your Expanded Use Number, you must pay a $1.95 Expanded Use Fee, log in to your PayPal account, and enter the four-digit Expanded Use Number associated with the $1.95 charge. After you have successfully entered your Expanded Use Number, you will receive a $1.95 bonus on the next PayPal payment you send. (This bonus may take up to 24 hours to process and be reflected in your PayPal account balance.) This Expanded Use enrollment will be complete and your sending limit lifted if and when you correctly enter your Expanded Use Number on the PayPal website. If you remove the funding source (e.g. the bank account or credit card) used to enroll in the Expanded Use Program, PayPal may require you to enroll in the Expanded Use Program again.
6.3 Refused Payments. When you send a payment to a third party through our Service, the recipient is not required to accept the payment, even if the recipient is already registered with PayPal. The recipient may return the payment or, in some cases, use the PayPal Service to deny payments that you send. Any payments sent through PayPal that are denied or unclaimed by a recipient will be returned to you on the earlier of: (a) the date of such denial, or (b) 30 days after the date the payment is sent. For more details and guidelines about Sending Payments, please refer to our Payments Policy.
6.4 Electronic Transfers. When you make a payment through PayPal that is funded with Instant Transfer or eCheck, and when you initiate an "Add Funds" transaction you are requesting an electronic transfer from your bank account. Upon such request, PayPal will make electronic transfers via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) system from your U.S. bank account in the amount you specify. You agree that such requests constitute your authorization for such transfers. PayPal will never make transfers from your bank account without your authorization. PayPal provides you protection against unauthorized withdrawals from your bank account under the terms of the Electronic Fund Transfer Rights and Error Resolution Policy below.
7. Your Information and Restricted Activities
7.1 Definition. "Your Information" is defined as any information you provide to us or other users in the registration, payment process, stores or other features of our Service. You are solely responsible for Your Information, as we act as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of Your Information.
7.2 Restricted Activities. Your Information and your activities (including your payments and receipt of payments) through our Service shall not: (a) be false, inaccurate or misleading; (b) be fraudulent or involve the sale of counterfeit or stolen items; (c) consist of providing yourself a cash advance from your credit card (or helping others to do so), (d) be related in any way to gambling and/or gaming activities, including but not limited to payment or the acceptance of payments for wagers, gambling debts or gambling winnings, regardless of the location or type of gambling activity (including online and offline casinos, sports wagering and office pools), with the exception of payments for gaming transactions that are expressly authorized by law in the jurisdiction of both the sender and the recipient of the payment; (e)violate PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy; (f) infringe on any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other property rights or rights of publicity or privacy; (g) violate any law, statute, ordinance, contract or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing financial services, consumer protection, unfair competition, antidiscrimination, or false advertising); (h) be defamatory, trade libelous, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing; (i) be obscene or contain child pornography; (j) contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs cancelbots, easter eggs or other computer programming routines that may damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or other personal information; or (k) create liability for us or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our ISP's or other suppliers. If you use, or attempt to use the Service for purposes other than sending and receiving payments and managing your account, including but not limited to tampering, hacking, modifying or otherwise corrupting the security or functionality of Service, your account will be terminated and you will be subject to damages and other penalties, including criminal prosecution where available.
7.3 License. Solely to enable PayPal to use the information you supply us with, so that we are not violating any rights you might have in that information, you agree to grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, sublicensible (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in Your Information, in any media now known or not currently known, with respect to Your Information. PayPal will use and protect Your Information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
7.4 Trademarks. PayPal.com, PayPal, and all related logos, products and services described in this website are either trademarks or registered trademarks of PayPal, Inc., or its licensors, and (aside from the circumstances described below) may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of PayPal. In addition, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons, and scripts are service marks, trademarks, and/or trade dress of PayPal and may not be copied, imitated, or used, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of PayPal.
Notwithstanding the above, HTML logos provided by PayPal through its Affiliate Program, Website Payments features, or Auctions Tools features ("Logos"), may be used without prior written consent for the purpose of directing web traffic to the Service. These Logos may not be altered, modified, or changed in any way, or used in a manner that is disparaging to PayPal or the Service. Logos may not be displayed in any manner that implies sponsorship or endorsement by PayPal. PayPal is a payment service, and no partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement.
8. Access and Interference. Our web site contains robot exclusion headers and you agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our web pages or the content contained herein without our prior expressed written permission. You agree that you will not use any device, software or routine to bypass our robot exclusion headers, or to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the PayPal site or any activities conducted on our site. You agree that you will not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure. Much of the information on our site is proprietary or is licensed to PayPal by our users or third parties. You agree that you will not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, create derivative works, publicly display or frame any content (except for Your Information) from our web site without the prior expressed written permission of PayPal or the appropriate third party. If you use, or attempt to use the Service for purposes other than sending and receiving payments and managing your account, including but not limited to tampering, hacking, modifying or otherwise corrupting the security or functionality of Service, your account will be terminated and you will be subject to damages and other penalties, including criminal prosecution where available.
9. Privacy and Security. We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes without your consent and we only use Your Information as described in the Privacy Policy. We view protection of users' privacy as a very important principle. We understand clearly that you and Your Information are one of our most important assets. We store and process Your Information on computers located in the United States that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices. You should only log in to your PayPal account on a page which begins with https://www.paypal.com/. All of our pages begin with https://www.paypal.com/ and therefore you should not use any other site that does not begin as such. We use third parties to verify and certify our privacy principles. Our current Privacy Policy is available at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/privacy-outside. If you object to your information being transferred or used in this way, please do not use our Services.
10. Termination or Closing Your Account. You may close your account
at any time by clicking the "Close Account" link in your Profile on the
PayPal website. Upon closure of an account, any pending transactions will
be cancelled and any balances associated with Redemption Codes (for points
programs such as eBay Anything Points) will be forfeited. Any funds that
we are holding in custody for you at the time of closure, less any applicable
fees, will be paid to you by check, assuming all withdrawal related authentication
requirements have been fulfilled (for example, you may not use closure
of your account as a means of evading withdrawal limits on new Unverified
users). You may not use closure of your account as a means of evading investigation
- if an investigation is pending at the time you close your account, PayPal
may continue to hold your funds for up to 180 days as appropriate to protect
PayPal against the risk of reversals. If you are later determined to be
entitled to some or all of the funds in dispute, PayPal will make an additional
payment of those funds to you. You will remain liable for all obligations
related to your account even after such account is closed. If you do not
access your account for a period of three years, it will be terminated.
After the date of termination, we will use the information you provided
to try to send you any funds that we are holding in custody for you. If
that information is not correct, and we are unable to complete the payment
to you, your funds will be subject to applicable state laws regarding escheat
of unclaimed property.
11. Remedies and PayPal's Right to Collect From You. Without limiting other remedies, we may update inaccurate or incorrect information you provide to us, contact you by means other than electronically, immediately warn our community of your actions, place a hold on funds in your account, limit funding sources and payments, limit access to an account and any or all of the account's functions (including but not limited to the ability to send money or making withdrawals from an the account), limit withdrawals, indefinitely suspend or close your account and refuse to provide our Services to you if: (a) you breach this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference; (b) we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to us; (c) we believe that your account or activities pose a significant credit or fraud risk to us; (d) we believe that your actions may cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users or us; or (e) your use of your PayPal account is deemed by PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover to constitute abuse of the credit card system or a violation of credit card rules, including (without limitation), using the PayPal system to test credit card behaviors. Even if they have been recorded as completed in the Recent Activity or History Transaction Log of your PayPal account, transactions are not considered completed until the funds have been charged to the customer's funding source (for payments) or posted to the customer's bank account (for withdrawals). In addition, PayPal reserves the right to hold funds beyond the normal distribution periods for transactions it deems suspicious or for accounts conducting high transaction volumes to ensure integrity of the funds. If we close your account, we will provide you notice and pay you all of the unrestricted funds held in your PayPal account. Additionally, to secure your performance of this Agreement, you grant to PayPal a lien on and security interest in your account. In addition, you acknowledge that PayPal may setoff against any accounts you own for any obligation you owe PayPal at any time and for any reason allowed by law. These obligations include both secured and unsecured debts and debts you owe individually or together with someone else. PayPal may consider this Agreement as your consent to PayPal's asserting its security interest or exercising its right of setoff should any law require your consent. The rights described in this section are in addition to and apart from any other rights.
12. Assignability. You may not transfer any rights or obligations you may have under this Agreement without the prior written consent of PayPal. PayPal reserves the right to transfer this Agreement or any right or obligation under this Agreement without your consent.
13. Legal Compliance. You shall comply with all applicable U.S. and international laws, statutes, ordinances, regulations, contracts and applicable licenses regarding your use of our Services.
14. Notices.
14.1 Electronic Communications. You agree that this Agreement constitutes "a writing signed by You" under any applicable law or regulation. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, this Agreement and any other agreements, notices or other communications regarding your account and/or your use of the Service ("Communications"), may be provided to you electronically and you agree to receive all Communications from PayPal in electronic form. Electronic Communications may be posted on the pages within the PayPal website and/or delivered to your e-mail address. You may print a copy of any Communications and retain it for your records. All Communications in either electronic or paper format will be considered to be in "writing," and to have been received no later than five (5) business days after posting or dissemination, whether or not you have received or retrieved the Communication. PayPal reserves the right but assumes no obligation to provide Communications in paper format.
14.2 Credit Report. You agree that PayPal may order and review your credit report with the sole purpose of assessing your fitness to hold a PayPal account and/or your ability to use the Service or features thereof.
14.3 Procedure. Except as explicitly stated otherwise, any notices shall be given by postal mail to PayPal Inc., Attn: Legal Department, 303 Bryant Street, Mountain View, California 94041 (in the case of PayPal) or to our online message center or the email address you provide to PayPal during the registration process (in your case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after posted or email is sent, unless the sending party is aware that the electronic communication was not received. Alternatively, we may give you notice by mail to the address provided to PayPal during the registration process. In such case, notice shall be deemed given 3 days after the date of mailing.
15. Legal Disputes. In the event a dispute arises between you and PayPal, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Accordingly, you and PayPal agree that any controversy or claim at law or equity that arises out of this Agreement or PayPal's services ("Claims") shall be resolved in accordance with one of the subsections below, or as otherwise mutually agreed upon in writing by the parties. Before resorting to these alternatives, PayPal strongly encourages users first to contact PayPal directly to seek a resolution. PayPal will consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation, as an alternative to litigation.
15.1 Arbitration. For any Claim (excluding Claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the award sought is less than $10,000, you or PayPal may elect to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration conducted by telephone, on-line, and/or based solely upon written submissions where no in-person appearance is required. In such cases, the arbitration shall be administered by the American Arbitration Association or JAMS, in accordance with their applicable rules, or any other established ADR provider mutually agreed upon by the parties. Any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.
15.2 Court. Alternatively, any Claim may be adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Santa Clara County, California or where the defendant is located (in PayPal's case, Mountain View, California, and in your case, your home address or principal place of business). You and PayPal agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within the county of Santa Clara, California.
15.3 Alternative Dispute Resolution. PayPal will consider use of other alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as binding arbitration to be held in Santa Clara County, California or another location mutually agreed upon by the parties.
15.4 Violations of Section 15. All Claims (excluding requests for injunctive or equitable relief) between the parties must be resolved using the dispute resolution mechanism that is selected in accordance with this Section by the party first to assert a Claim, either through a court filing or commencement of arbitration. Should either party file an action contrary to this Section 15, the other party may recover attorneys' fees and costs up to $1000.00, provided that the party seeking the award has notified the other party in writing of the improperly filed Claim, and the other party has failed to withdraw the Claim.
16. General. This Agreement is governed by and interpreted under the laws of the state of California, U.S. as such laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within California by California residents. Notwithstanding the foregoing sentence, the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), and all of its rules and procedures, shall govern Section 16 hereof, to the extent that the FAA is inconsistent with California law. We do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to our service, and operation of our site may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. You agree that this Agreement and all incorporated agreements may be automatically assigned by PayPal, in our sole discretion, to a third party in the event of a merger or acquisition. Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. This Agreement and the documents it incorporates set forth the entire understanding between us with respect to the subject matter hereof. Sections (3) Fees, (2.4) Release, (8) Access and Interference, (2.6) Limitation of Liability, (2.7) Indemnity, and (16) Legal Disputes shall survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.
17. Disclosures. The Services are offered by PayPal Inc., located at 303 Bryant Street, Mountain View, California 94041. If you are a California resident, you may have this same information emailed to you by sending a letter to the address above with your email address and a request for this information. Fees for our services are described in our Fees Policy.
Disputes between you and PayPal regarding our Services may be reported
to Customer Support online through the PayPal Help Center at any time,
or by calling (402) 935-2050 from 6 AM to midnight Central Time. Additionally,
you may report complaints to the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division
of Consumer Services of the Department of Consumer Affairs by contacting
them in writing at 400 R Street, Sacramento, California 95814, or by telephone
at (800) 952-5210.
PayPal Privacy Policy
The Privacy Policy below governs your PayPal account and any information you provide on this site. If you apply for a PayPal VISA® credit card (available in the U.S. only), you authorize PayPal and Providian National Bank (which is the issuer of the PayPal VISA card) to exchange the information you provide in the application form. If you are approved for a PayPal VISA credit card, your credit card account will be governed by the Providian Privacy Policy.
A. Overview
B. Information We Collect
C. Our Use and Disclosure of Information
D. Information Security
E. Accessing and Changing Your Information
F. Contacting Us
A. Overview
In order to operate the PayPal service and to reduce the risk of fraud, PayPal Corp. ("PayPal" or "we") must ask you to provide us information about yourself and your credit card and/or bank account. This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect and how we use that information. PayPal takes the privacy of your personal information very seriously and will use your information only in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information or a list of our customers to third parties. However, as described in more detail in Part C below, there are limited circumstances in which some of your information will be shared with third parties, under strict restrictions, so it is important for you to review this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy applies to all services that are hosted on the PayPal.com Web site, whether the services are offered by PayPal, by its subsidiaries, or by the PayPal Money Market Fund.
Your privacy is important to us. By participating in the Council of Better Business Bureau's BBBOnLine® Privacy Program we have made a commitment to meet the program's strict requirements regarding how we treat your information and have it verified by BBBOnLine. Further information about this program is available at http://www.bbbonline.org.
Additionally, in order to enhance the protection of your privacy and our compliance with this Privacy Policy, PayPal has agreed to disclose our information practices and to have our practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. By displaying the TRUSTe trustmark, PayPal has agreed to notify you of:
What personally identifiable information of yours is collected
by PayPal.
The organization collecting the information.
How the information is used.
With whom the information may be shared.
What choices are available to you regarding collection,
use and distribution of the information.
The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect
the loss, misuse or alteration of information under PayPal's control.
How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy
Policy, you should first contact PayPal using this form. If you do not
receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily
addressed, you should then contact trUSTe www.truste.org/users/users_watchdog.html.
TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with PayPal to resolve your concerns.
By accepting the Privacy Policy and User Agreement in registration, you expressly consent to our use and disclosure of your personal information in the manner described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of the PayPal User Agreement. This Privacy Policy will take effect on March 4, 2003. This Privacy Policy was last updated on October 10, 2003.
Please note that your personal information will be stored and processed on our computers in the United States. The laws on holding personal data in the United States may be less stringent than the laws of your country but PayPal will hold and transmit your personal information in a safe, confidential and secure environment. If you object to your personal information being transferred or used as described in this Privacy Policy, please do not register for the PayPal service.
Notification of Changes
This policy may be revised over time as new features are added to the
PayPal service or as we incorporate suggestions from our customers. If
we are going to use or disclose your personally identifiable information
in a manner materially different from that stated at the time we collected
the information, you will have a choice as to whether or not we use or
disclose your information in this new manner. Any material changes will
be effective only after we provide you by e-mail with at least 30 days'
notice of the amended Privacy Policy (if you have closed your PayPal account,
you will not be contacted to notify you of the amended Policy and your
personal information will not be used or disclosed in this new manner).
We will post the amended Privacy Policy prominently on our Web site so that you can always review what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose it to anyone. Please check the PayPal Web site at www.paypal.com at any time for the most current version of our Privacy Policy.
PayPal Shops and other pages on the PayPal Web site include links to third party Web sites. These sites are governed by their own privacy statements, and PayPal is not responsible for their operations, including but not limited to their information practices. Users submitting information to or through these third party Web sites should review the privacy statement of these sites before providing them with personally identifiable information.
A Special Note About Children. Children are not eligible to use our service and we ask that minors (under the age of 18) do not submit any personal information to us or use the service.
B. Information We Collect
Required Information
To open a PayPal account, you must provide your name, address, phone
number, and e-mail address. In order to make payments through PayPal, you
must provide credit card, debit card or bank account information (bank
account information is required to make payments totaling more than $1,000).
We also ask you to choose two different security questions to answer (such
as your city of birth or your pet's name) This required information is
necessary for us to process transactions, issue a new password if you forget
or lose your password, protect you against credit card fraud and checking
account fraud, and to contact you should the need arise in administering
your account.
If you enroll in the optional sweep of your funds into the PayPal Money Market Fund, we are required to collect your Social Security Number ("SSN") or other Taxpayer Identification Number ("TIN"). In order to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act, we will also require your SSN or TIN if you send or receive certain high-value transactions or high overall payment volumes through PayPal. If you choose to register or apply for certain optional features or products offered through PayPal Web sites, such as listing your business in PayPal Shops, or applying for the PayPal Visa® credit card or the PayPal MasterCard® debit card, you will be required to provide additional information to establish that you qualify for such features or products.
Transaction Information
When you use PayPal to send money to someone else or request money
from someone else, we ask you to provide information related to each transaction,
including the amount of the transaction, the type of transaction (purchase
of goods, purchase of services, or simple money transfer ("quasi-cash"))
and the e-mail address of the third party. We retain this information for
each of your transactions through PayPal. We also collect the Internet
address (IP address) of the computer or device you use to access your PayPal
account, in order to help detect possible instances of unauthorized transactions.
Information About You From Third Parties
In order to protect all our customers against potential fraud, we verify
with third parties the information you provide. In the course of such verification,
we receive personally identifiable information about you from such services.
In particular, if you register a credit card or debit card with PayPal,
we will use card authorization and fraud screening services to verify that
your card information and address matches the information that you supplied
to PayPal, and that the card has not been reported as lost or stolen.
If you register your online business with PayPal Shops or if you send or receive high overall payment volumes through PayPal, in some circumstances we will conduct a background check on your business by obtaining information about you and your business from a credit bureau or a business information service such as Dun & Bradstreet. If you incur a debt to PayPal, we will generally conduct a credit check on you by obtaining additional information about you from a credit bureau, to the extent permitted by law. PayPal, at its sole discretion, also reserves the right periodically to retrieve and review a business and / or consumer credit report for any account, and reserves the right to close an account based on information obtained during this credit review process.
Additional Verification
If we cannot verify the information that you provide, or if you request
a withdrawal by check to an address other than your verified credit card
billing address, we ask you to send us additional information by fax (such
as your drivers' license, credit card statement, and/or a recent utility
bill or other information linking you to the applicable address), or to
answer additional questions online to help verify your information.
Web Site Traffic Information
Because of the way that World Wide Web communication standards work,
when you arrive at or leave the PayPal Web site, we automatically receive
the Web address of the site that you came from or are going to. We also
collect information on which pages of our Web site you visit while you
are on the PayPal site, the type of browser you use and the times you access
our Web site. We use this information only to try to understand our customers'
preferences better and to manage the load on our servers, so as to improve
our service and your experience with PayPal. We do not track the Web sites
that you visit before or after you leave the PayPal site.
Our Use of "Cookies"
"Cookies" are small files of data that reside on your computer and
allow us to recognize you as a PayPal customer if you return to the PayPal
site using the same computer and browser. We send a "session cookie" to
your computer if and when you log in to your PayPal account by entering
your e-mail address and password. These cookies allow us to recognize you
if you visit multiple pages in our site during the same session, so that
you don't need to re-enter your password multiple times. Once you log out
or close your browser, these session cookies expire and no longer have
any effect.
We also use longer-lasting cookies to display your e-mail address on our sign-in form, so that you don't have to retype the e-mail address each time when you log in to your PayPal account. In addition, we use cookies to process our referral program, described in Section C below. Our cookie files are encoded so that your e-mail address and other information can only be interpreted by PayPal. We may, however, share cookie information regarding whether or not a certain user is already registered with PayPal with certain merchants with whom we have an official co-marketing relationship.
Customer Service Correspondence
If you send us correspondence, including e-mails and faxes, we retain
such information in the records of your account. We will also retain customer
service correspondence and other correspondence from PayPal to you. We
retain these records in order to measure and improve our customer service,
and to investigate potential fraud and violations of our User Agreement.
We may, over time, delete these records if permitted by law.
Questionnaires, Surveys and Profile Data
From time to time, we offer optional questionnaires and surveys to
our users for such purposes as collecting demographic information or assessing
users' interests and needs. The use of the information collected will be
explained in detail in the survey itself. If we collect personally identifiable
information from our users in these questionnaires and surveys, the users
will be given notice of how the information will be used prior to their
participation in the survey or questionnaire.
Non-member Recipients and Requests
When a member either sends a payment to, or requests a payment from,
an individual who is not a registered member of PayPal, we will retain
the information that the member submits to us, including, for example,
the other party's email address and/or name, for the benefit of the member
who is attempting to contact the non-member, so that the member can see
a complete record of his or her transactions, including uncompleted transactions.
Although this information is stored indefinitely, we will not market to
the non-member in any way at any time. Additionally, these non-members
have the same rights to access and correct information about themselves
(assuming that their email addresses were correct enough to reach them)
as anyone else who uses PayPal.
C. Our Use and Disclosure of Information
Internal Uses
We collect, store and process your personal information on servers
located in the United States. We use the information we collect about you
in order 1) to provide our services and process your transactions, 2) to
provide customer service, 3) to determine your eligibility to receive offers
for special features or products, such as the PayPal MasterCard® debit
card, and 4) to improve our products and services. At your option (as indicated
in your PayPal Profile settings), we use the information you provide to
access specific third party services on your behalf and perform the actions
that you request us to perform, such as invoicing buyers on behalf of auction
sellers.
We give access to individually identifiable information about our users only to those employees who require it to fulfill customer service requests.
Disclosure to Other PayPal Customers
If you are a registered PayPal user, your name, e-mail address, date
of sign-up, and whether you have verified control of a bank account are
displayed to other PayPal customers whom you have paid or who are attempting
to pay you through PayPal. If you are a Business account holder, we will
also display to other PayPal customers the Web site address (URL) and customer
service contact information that you provide us. However, your credit card
number, bank account and other financial information will NEVER be revealed
to anyone whom you have paid or who has paid you through PayPal, except
if we are required to do so pursuant to a subpoena or other legal process.
If you are buying goods or services and paying through PayPal, the seller of the goods or services may request that you provide a mailing address that PayPal has confirmed as matching the billing address in the credit card system. You do not have to provide this information. If you do not provide the information, however, the seller may choose not to accept your PayPal payment and not to complete the transaction.
Beginning in spring 2001, PayPal will also disclose to other PayPal customers the number of payments you have received from Verified PayPal customers (as defined in the User Agreement on the www.paypal.com site), or other aggregate measures that provide an indication of your reputation with other PayPal customers.
Disclosure to Third Parties Other Than PayPal Customers
PayPal will not sell or rent any of your personally identifiable information
to third parties. PayPal will not share any of your personally identifiable
information with third parties except in the limited circumstances described
below, or with your express permission (and to other PayPal customers as
described above). These third parties are limited by law or by contract
from using the information for secondary purposes beyond the purposes for
which the information is shared.
We share information with companies that help us process the transactions you request and protect our customers' transactions from fraud, such as sharing your credit card number with a service that screens for lost and stolen card numbers. See "Information About You From Third Parties" in Section B above. Additionally, if you go into a negative balance and owe us money, we may share information with processing companies including collection agencies.
We disclose the information we collect, as described in Section B above, to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements (for example, we disclose information to Providian National Bank, which is the issuer of PayPal Visa™ credit cards, so that Providian can determine customers' eligibility for the PayPal Visa credit card, and so that PayPal and Providian can better match the products we offer to our customers' needs). These companies are subject to confidentiality agreements with us and other legal restrictions that prohibit using the information except to market the specified PayPal-related products or services, unless you have affirmatively agreed or given your prior permission for other uses.
We disclose information that we in good faith believe is appropriate to cooperate in investigations of fraud or other illegal activity, or to conduct investigations of violations of our User Agreement. Specifically, this means that if we conduct a fraud investigation and conclude that one side has engaged in deceptive practices, we can give that person or entity's contact information (but not bank account or credit card information) to victims who request it.
We disclose information in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, levy, attachment, order of a court-appointed receiver or other comparable legal process, including subpoenas from private parties in a civil action.
When a user signs up for a co-branded version of PayPal (e.g. PayPal Evite) through links on our co-branded partner's website, PayPal will share with the co-branded partner that user's name, e-mail address and physical address in order to provide enhanced integration between PayPal's services and the services of our co-branded partner. When a user signs up for a co-branded version of PayPal through Intuit's QuickBooks software, PayPal will share with Intuit information on that user's PayPal transactions so that the information can be automatically entered by Intuit into the user's QuickBooks program. If a user does not want his or her information shared with PayPal's co-branded partner, he or she should not use this aspect of the site.
If you choose to invest in the PayPal Money Market Fund, we will share
your information with PayPal Funds, a Delaware business trust which is
the issuer of the Money Market Fund, and with PayPal Asset Management,
Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of PayPal that is the transfer agent for
the Money Market Fund, so that you can complete your investment more easily
and can move funds into and out of the Money Market Fund without re-entering
your personal information for every transaction.
We disclose information to your agent or legal representative (such
as the holder of a power of attorney that you grant, or a guardian appointed
for you).
We share aggregated statistical data with our business partners or
for public relations. For example, we may disclose that a specific percentage
of our users live in California. However, this aggregated information is
not tied to personally identifiable information.
As with any other business, it is possible that PayPal in the future could merge with or be acquired by another company. If such an acquisition occurs, the successor company would have access to the information maintained by PayPal, including customer account information, but would continue to be bound by this Privacy Policy unless an until it is amended as described in Section A above.
We share your information with our parent, subsidiaries and joint ventures to help coordinate the services we provide to you, enforce our terms and conditions, and promote trust and safety.
Our Contacts with PayPal Customers
We communicate with users on a regular basis via e-mail to provide
requested services, and we also communicate by phone to resolve customer
complaints or investigate suspicious transactions. We use your e-mail address
to confirm your opening of a PayPal account, to send you notice of payments
that you send or receive through PayPal (including referral payments described
below), to send information about important changes to our products and
services, and to send notices and other disclosures required by law. Generally,
users cannot opt out of these communications, but they will be primarily
informational in nature rather than promotional.
We also use your e-mail address to send you other types of communications that you can control, including the PayPal Periodical newsletter, auction tips, customer surveys and notice of special third-party promotions. You can choose whether to receive some, all or none of these communications when you complete the registration process, or at any time thereafter, by logging in to your account on the PayPal Web site and changing your preferences in the Profile page of the My Account tab. You can also change your choices at any time through the same procedure.
In connection with independent audits of our financial statements and operations, the auditors may seek to contact a sample of our customers to confirm that our records are accurate. However, these auditors cannot use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
Internet Address Information
We use IP addresses, browser types and access times to analyze trends,
administer the site, improve site performance and gather broad demographic
information for aggregate use.
Your Use of Information and Our Services
In order to facilitate the transactions between PayPal members, our
service allows you limited access other users' contact or shipping information.
As a seller you may have access to the User ID, email address and other
contact or shipping information of the purchaser, and as a purchaser you
may have access to the User ID, email address and other contact information
of the seller.
By entering into our User Agreement, you agree that, with respect to other users' personally identifiable information that you obtain through the site or through an PayPal-related communication or PayPal-facilitated transaction, you will only use this information for: (a) PayPal-related communications that are not unsolicited commercial messages, (b) using services offered through PayPal (e.g. insurance, shipping and fraud complaints), and (c) any other purpose that such user expressly agrees to after adequate disclosure of the purpose(s).
In all cases, you must provide users with the opportunity to remove themselves from your database and review any information you have collected about them. In addition, under no circumstances, except as defined in this Section, can you disclose personally identifiable information about another PayPal user to any third party without our consent and the consent of such other user after adequate disclosure. Note that law enforcement personnel and other rights holders are given different rights with respect to information they access.
PayPal does not tolerate spam. Therefore, without limiting the foregoing, you may not add a PayPal user to your mail list (email or physical mail) without their express consent after adequate disclosure, even if said user has previously made a purchase from you. We strictly enforce our Anti-Spam Policy! To report PayPal related spam to PayPal, please contact us.
Merchant Referral Program
When you sign up for a PayPal account, you become eligible to participate
in our Merchant Referral Bonus program. We provide you with a link on the
Merchant Referral Bonus page which identifies you as the referrer. If a
merchant uses that link to sign up for a Premier or Business PayPal account
and completes the bonus requirements, you are eligible for a referral bonus.
If you use a referral link to sign up, your business name (if you have
a Business account) or first and last name (if you have a Premier account)
may be listed in the referrer's PayPal account, along with the amount of
bonus you have generated for the referrer, which is calculated as a percentage
of your transaction volume, as described in the Merchant Referral Bonus
Policy, along with the amount of bonus you have generated for the referrer,
which is calculated as a percentage of your transaction volume, as described
in the Merchant Referral Bonus Policy.
Please use our referral program responsibly. We strictly enforce our Anti-Spam Policy! Read details on the Referral Bonus.
D. Information Security
Information Security
PayPal is committed to handling your customer information with high
standards of information security. Your credit card and bank account information
are stored only in encrypted form on computers that are not connected to
the Internet. We restrict access to your personally identifiable information
to employees who need to know that information in order to provide products
or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards
that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information.
We test our security systems regularly and also contract with outside companies
to audit our security systems and processes. For more information on PayPal's
security practices, please visit the PayPal Security Center.
The security of your PayPal account also relies on your protection of your PayPal password. You may not share your PayPal password with anyone. PayPal representatives will never ask you for your password, so any e-mail or other communication requesting your password should be treated as unauthorized and suspicious. If you do share your PayPal password with a third party for any reason, including because the third party has promised to provide you additional services such as account aggregation, the third party will have access to your account and your personal information, and you may be responsible for actions taken using your password. If you believe someone else has obtained access to your password, please change it immediately by logging in to your account at www.paypal.com and changing your Profile settings, and also contact us right away as described in Section F below.
E. Accessing and Changing Your Information
You can review the personal information you provided us and make any desired changes to such information, or to the settings for your PayPal account, at any time by logging in to your account on the PayPal Web site and changing your preferences in the Profile page of the "My Account" tab. You can also close your account through the PayPal Web site. If you close your PayPal account, we will mark your account in our database as "Closed," but will keep your account information in our database. This is necessary in order to deter fraud, by ensuring that persons who try to commit fraud will not be able to avoid detection simply by closing their account and opening a new account. However, if you close your account, your personally identifiable information will not be used by us for any further purposes, nor sold or shared with third parties, except as necessary to prevent fraud and assist law enforcement, or as required by law (for example, to send former Money Market Fund investors a report of dividends paid during the calendar year for tax reporting purposes).
F. Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this privacy statement, PayPal’s information
practices, or your dealings with PayPal, you can contact us using this
form, call (402) 935-7733 Monday through Friday between the hours of 4am
and 10pm PST, or write us at PayPal, P.O. Box 7022, Mountain View, CA 94039.
With respect to our privacy practices as a financial institution and our compliance with this Privacy Policy, PayPal is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can obtain information about the FTC at http://www.ftc.gov.