Paypal sent an email to customers today alerting them that they had changed some of the legal terms and conditions of service. These documents govern your relationship with Paypal and they claim these changes will make Paypal more secure, quick and easy to use.

However, even after the friendly email and short description of changes the Policy Update page itself it still best suited to the legally informed – and even then it took us a while to get through.

So, here at Unlock the Law we thought we would give you the updates how you want them – short, simple and relevant to you everyday needs. We have selected the most important to decipher, just in time for black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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What are the changes to Paypal?

They have made the Paypal logo safer – Paypal have made clearer their intellectual property rights. This means, they take very seriously people using the logo without direct distribution from Paypal themselves, giving you greater security.

They Have Made Transactions Clearer – The agreement now states that where you pay through Paypal, they will not pay on your behalf until they have cleared funds from your account. Also, the have made clear that they will not refund money to customers, until they have cleared funds from the customers account in the first place. This means both you and Paypal know where you stand financially.

Paypal will not take on your debts – If you cancel a direct debit through Paypal, you are liable to reimburse Paypal for any goods or services consumed in relation to that cancelled direct debit.

Reimbursement buyer Protection has improved - Buyers may now raise a dispute up to 180 days after the payment was made (previously this was only 45). Also, the reach of eligible purchases that can be claimed to be not received now includes custom made items.

However the purchase of any ‘wager’ or any other opportunity to benefit from a gambling activity, it expressly prohibited as an eligible purchase.

Furthermore, buyers are now protected from being exposed to dealing in counterfeit items. If an item is purchased and when it arrives it is ‘significantly not as described’ or believed to be a counterfeit, under the law if the purchaser send this back to the seller, they may be deemed to be dealing in counterfeit goods. If Paypal believes this to be the case, the can report it to the relevant authorities and the item may be confiscated.

The policy comes into force on the 29 December 2014. If you are happy with the policy changes, you don’t need to do anything. However, if there is something in the policy you don’t agree with, there is provision for this on the Policy Update page.

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