PayPal withdraws buyer protection from crowdfunding campaigns

PayPal will no longer offer customers the option to request a refund from June 25 if it has gone to a crowdfunding campaign. The decision will remove protection from users from fraudulent or otherwise deficient crowdfunding campaigns.

PayPal makes the news known in a policy update. Kickstarter and PayPal already had no official partnership, so the biggest consumer group affected will be those on competitor Indiegogo. Now users can undo a transaction up to 180 days after a transaction. This buyer protection will therefore no longer apply from 25 June.

The withdrawal of buyer protection makes consumers even more vulnerable to crowdfunding campaigns that fail to deliver on their promises. The cases of this are also not limited to actual scammers. An example is the Kickstarter campaign of the game Broken Age. It brought in $3.3 million, but was able to deliver part or even not what it promised to its backers. In addition, Kickstarter’s terms of use state that a campaigner is under no obligation to deliver what he promises. Another example is that of Jolla, who also has some difficulty in keeping his promises.