Paypal UK FOS Changes

Talyn

Hi, I just received the following email from Paypal UK.  It sounds like it could be important but doesn't really explain much.  Anyone know what the full implications of this change means and whether it is significant?  How does the Voluntary Jurisdiction differ to the Compulsory Jurisdiction?  Thanks.

Email follows:

Hi

We're making some changes to our legal agreements that will apply to you.

Important notice to all UK customers

As part of PayPal’s continued efforts to manage some necessary changes arising from the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, we will be withdrawing from the UK Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) Voluntary Jurisdiction on 1st December 2022. Due to changes to UK rules, since 1st January 2021, we have been, and continue to be, subject to the Compulsory Jurisdiction of the FOS and complaints about acts or omissions occurring on or after this date can be referred to the FOS under the Compulsory Jurisdiction. Our withdrawal from the Voluntary Jurisdiction will not affect any rights you may have to refer a complaint to the FOS under the Compulsory Jurisdiction.
If you have a complaint about an event that occurred before 1st January 2021 and you have not yet submitted that complaint to PayPal, you should contact us as soon as possible. You can contact us by clicking Contact Us at the bottom of any Help page.

Where you have a complaint that relates to an event that occurred before 1st January 2021 and you are dissatisfied with how PayPal has resolved that complaint in our final response, then you must refer that complaint to the FOS before 1st December 2022 if you would like FOS to look at it – unless our final response says that you must refer your complaint to FOS by any earlier date.

You can find the notice regarding our withdrawal from the Voluntary Jurisdiction on our Policy Updates page, as well as further information about other changes that may apply: www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/upcoming-policies-full.

You can also view these changes by visiting PayPal.com, clicking ‘Legal’ at the bottom of the page and then selecting ‘Policy Updates’.

If you have questions about any of these changes or your account, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Thank you for being a PayPal customer.

Sincerely,

PayPal

LaDerniereSemaine

It means what it says it means

If you have a complaint about an event that occurred before 1st January 2021 and you have not yet submitted that complaint to PayPal, you should contact us as soon as possible. You can contact us by clicking Contact Us at the bottom of any Help page.

Where you have a complaint that relates to an event that occurred before 1st January 2021 and you are dissatisfied with how PayPal has resolved that complaint in our final response, then you must refer that complaint to the FOS before 1st December 2022 if you would like FOS to look at it – unless our final response says that you must refer your complaint to FOS by any earlier date.

So anything you think they did wrong before Jan 1st 2021, get your skates on because you only have until Dec 1st this year.

Otherwise, it's business as usual.

davidsian

The question is - are we losing any rights through their withdrawal from the compulsory scheme, and are they important? Like Talyn I would be grateful if someone could clarify this for me.

Ectophile

If they are withdrawing from the Voluntary Juristiction, then you can't be losing any rights.  Because they weren't rights in the first place, if they were things PayPal had voluntarily agreed to.

BristolPete

Still the question remains - if I am part of even a voluntary scheme and choose to withdraw from it there must be a reason for doing so. In the case of a business like PayPal they must be getting some advantage and I guess we, the customers, are loosing some protections. If anyone actually understands the implications it would be really good to know. PayPal clearly don't intend to tell us therefore it is impossible for their customers to understand or to make a reasoned response to this action. 

sheramber

A business has to pay afee for both schemes. Why pay two fees?

Jollycity

Don't worry. This is only a technical change due to Brexit. You will continue to have the ability to refer disputes to the FOS. The email is just telling you that you need to lodge any complaints you already have soon 

This article explains in full

I can't post links but you will find the specific article about PayPal and confirmation of your continuing rights on the FOS website

quaybab

This is deliberately misleading. Paypal has a number of activities (products such as pay in 3, paypal credit etc), some are subject to FOS Voluntary jurisdiction (VJ), some are CJ, some are neither.

This is a typical example of where the financial industry (inc FOS as its full of people who move fluidly between firms around canary wharf) screw people over. Customers only
find out the particular product is not covered under CJ (which essentially means FOS final decisions are enforceable in court under the FSMA 2000) when they get to the Ombudsman.
Even the FOS don't know who's (products) CJ or VJ and you have to put in a service complaint in order to get answers to simple questions after being passed around.

VohnnyJegas

quaybab said:

This is deliberately misleading. Paypal has a number of activities (products such as pay in 3, paypal credit etc), some are subject to FOS Voluntary jurisdiction (VJ), some are CJ, some are neither.

This is a typical example of where the financial industry (inc FOS as its full of people who move fluidly between firms around canary wharf) screw people over. Customers only
find out the particular product is not covered under CJ (which essentially means FOS final decisions are enforceable in court under the FSMA 2000) when they get to the Ombudsman.
Even the FOS don't know who's (products) CJ or VJ and you have to put in a service complaint in order to get answers to simple questions after being passed around.

None of this matters to consumers

Sean_White

A number of people saying this does not affect consumer rights, but then in the same breath telling people they have to make their claims 'before' December for any outstanding complaints people may have.

Additionally, whichever you spin it, Paypal removing itself from a voluntary group "clearly" means less rights for consumers and another miserable result of Brexit!

So can those who do understand this (not those who are pretending they do) add some clarity to this situation "without" the dismissive contradictions please?

VohnnyJegas

Sean_White said:

A number of people saying this does not affect consumer rights, but then in the same breath telling people they have to make their claims 'before' December for any outstanding complaints people may have.

Additionally, whichever you spin it, Paypal removing itself from a voluntary group "clearly" means less rights for consumers and another miserable result of Brexit!

So can those who do understand this (not those who are pretending they do) add some clarity to this situation "without" the dismissive contradictions please?

It was a change because they chose to switch to the compulsory part of the regulation, rather than voluntary.  This has nothing to do with any withdrawal of rights.

How dumb are you people?

Our voluntary jurisdiction is a scheme that financial businesses can choose to join in order to allow the Financial Ombudsman to consider complaints about their activities where those activities are not otherwise covered by our compulsory jurisdiction. A financial business who joins our voluntary jurisdiction can also apply to withdraw from it at any time.

When PayPal joined the FCA’s Temporary Permissions Regime, it became subject to the Financial Ombudsman’s compulsory jurisdiction for complaints about services provided into the UK on or after 1 January 2021. PayPal’s withdrawal from the voluntary jurisdiction does not affect an otherwise eligible complainant’s right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service about an activity that PayPal undertook after this time.