PayPal, one of the biggest fintech companies in the world, is being sued by a couple of its users for apparently freezing their accounts without explanation.
In a lawsuit filed in California last Thursday, PayPal apparently withheld some accounts for as long as six months for apparently violating its 65-page user agreement.
The suit was filed by two users from California and one businessman from Chicago, who says that PayPal’s move is an unlawful seizure of their money. Now, the three plaintiffs want to turn it into a class-action lawsuit to represent all the other account holders who had their accounts frozen.
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As per the users, PayPal failed to inform the plaintiffs and its members of the reason behind the move. PayPal even told them that they have to get a subpoena just to give them the information on why they’re holding their accounts, denying the plaintiffs access to their money.
PayPal’s practice has even drawn attention to some of its popular users. One of them, professional poker player Chris Moneymaker, threatened that they will sue the company for holding USD12,000 of his money.
Anyone else that got funds confiscated by @PayPal feel free to reach out to my lawyers whom are starting a class action suit https://t.co/eHy2IKPIqX
— Chris Moneymaker ⭕ (@CMONEYMAKER) May 27, 2021
However, just days after posting the tweet, PayPal apparently “mysteriously returned his money”, so he cannot now be part of the lawsuit, as per Eric Bensamochan, the lawyer of the suit filed last Thursday.
Moreover, the lawsuit is also accusing PayPal of committing conversion, which is the act of dominion wrongfully exerted over the personal property of another, civil violations of federal racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act (RICO), breach of contract, and unjust enrichment.
The plaintiffs want restitution and unmentioned exemplary and punitive damages.
Via: Bloomberg
Very interested to read this. I am an Australian and Paypal has recently frozen $14,500 of money received for the one off sale of a used car. It seems that I shall have access to the money in a few days, but I find it outrageous that they seem to do this on a regular basis to some their world wide customers. Good luck with the class action