Last year’s wave of account bans was undoubtedly a severe blow to many Chinese sellers. When stores were blocked one after another and accounts were frozen, sellers have reached the awareness of deploying multiple platforms. At this time, the new channel of independent websites has become the first choice for many sellers.

However, a situation that has occurred in the industry recently can’t help but make sellers who have already deployed independent websites shudder.

A large number of sellers have had problems with their PayPal accounts, and some sellers have had more than 50 million deducted.

Recently, many independent sellers have reported abnormal funds in their PayPal accounts. Some sellers have found that their PayPal accounts Cleared and the funds are frozen.

In response to PayPal’s action, a seller said that more than RMB 50 million was deducted from the Paypal account bound to the independent website, involving nearly 30 accounts, and another 6 accounts were bound due to The products sold by the independent website were sued for trademark infringement, and the frozen funds reached more than 20 million.

Overall, the amount of funds deducted and frozen from the seller’s Paypal account has exceeded RMB 70 million.

It is understood that the email sent by the PayPal Customer Support Center shows that the seller violated the provisions of the "PayPal Fair Use Rules" and was deducted liquidated damages. For other accounts bundled with PayPal, you need to wait 180 days after the account withdrawal function is closed before you can apply for normal refund.

After the incident, some sellers have already started "rescue operations" against the accounts involved. Currently, the seller is in the active appeal stage and is contacting foreign lawyers to prepare for subsequent rights protection. At the same time, the seller also expressed the hope that Paypal can give a clear reply and a proper solution as soon as possible, otherwise it will choose to protect its rights through judicial procedures.

Huge amounts of funds were deducted and frozen. As far as this incident is concerned, the impact on the seller and the accounts involved is inevitable. In addition to the direct economic losses, the seller also said that it has had a certain impact on the planning of the independent station business and will most likely be forced to make adjustments.

There are not a few sellers who have encountered this kind of situation. Some small and medium-sized independent website sellers have reported that they have also encountered the same situation as the above-mentioned sellers. Like the above-mentioned sellers, many sellers found that the email they received also showed "due to violation of PayPal's fair use rules."

For the sellers involved, the incident came without warning. They were at a loss after the incident. They found it even more difficult to accept PayPal’s claim of “violating fair use rules”. . In the view of these sellers, PayPal did not clarify which behavior or product violated which specific rule of fair use. It is unreasonable for funds to be deducted without explanation.

In fact, this is not PayPal’s first action. As early as late March 2020, PayPal also cleaned up thousands of seller accounts. At that time, all the funds in the accounts involved were directly frozen, and the losses exceeded One hundred million dollars. It is not difficult to see that PayPal’s rectification has not stopped.

Small and medium-sized sellers have been hit hard. Is it a purge or a violation?

Judging from the feedback from sellers, the situation of PayPal accounts being deducted and frozen this time is not only seen by some big sellers, but also by many small and medium-sized independent sellers, who have suffered heavy losses. Many sellers said that their PayPal accounts were deducted, and some were even cleared directly. The amount deducted from a single account ranged from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Since then, news that PayPal has launched a new round of cleanup and rectification actions against accounts in China has spread in the circle, and many sellers are worried that incidents similar to last year’s account ban will happen again.

And according to foreign practice, if consumers encounter illegal fraud, they can directly request compensation from the payment institution. PayPal has launched a rectification on this, and it is very likely that it has compensated a lot of money.

"If a few sellers are blocked, it may be due to illegal operations. Sellers who sell goods normally do not need to worry; if a majority of sellers are blocked, they may be reported or targeted," a seller said .

There are also many sellers who say that they are operating in a normal and compliant manner, and that PayPal accidentally harmed them, just like Amazon’s account ban last year that harmed innocent people. It is understood that there are also scammers among overseas buyers. In order to extort sellers' goods and funds, they will claim that they have not received the goods even though they have received the goods, and lodge a complaint with the payment channel and request a refund. The payment channel also tends to favor the buyer and refund the buyer.

Under such circumstances, some independent website sellers said that they were like "fish and meat on the chopping board, everyone cuts them off." Their third-party platform accounts were blocked at will, and account funds were also frozen at will.

PayPal responded: Violation of relevant policies and rules

PayPal officials also responded to a large number of independent website sellers whose PayPal accounts were blocked.

PayPal stated that it is committed to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of both sellers and buyers, and will maintain a legal and fair cross-border e-commerce trading environment through measures such as cracking down on illegal sales and purchases; in addition, PayPal is also taking measures to protect users. Whether they comply with the "Fair Use Rules" will be strictly investigated. Sellers who violate these rules and the "PayPal User Agreement" will pay a certain amount of liquidated damages.

Judging from PayPal’s official response, many sellers violated PayPal’s relevant policies and rules, and PayPal’s decision to handle them fell within the legal scope.

It is understood that PayPal will freeze (freeze suspicious transactions based on the risk control model), restrict accounts (cannot withdraw cash, receive payments), reserves (reserve funds to resolve disputes), fines (violations) "Fair Usage Rules", payment of liquidated damages of US$2,500 per time according to the number of times) four measures to restrict sellers, which are reflected in the "PayPal User Agreement" and "PayPal Fair Use Rules".

Some people in the industry pointed out that this incident was caused by fines and affected a large area, resulting in the suspension of many sellers' PayPal accounts.

There is no absolute "shortcut" for either Amazon or independent websites. This PayPal incident also confirms from the side that cross-border e-commerce is developing towards compliance. Even with a multi-platform layout, sellers must This must not be taken lightly. It is necessary to register a trademark before newly developed products enter the market. In addition, compared with Amazon sellers, independent website sellers should pay more attention to the "freedom" of independent websites, enhance their own strength, and at the same time abide by the platform rules and eliminate any behavior that may touch the red line.