PayPal Class Action

[Dominic]

I got my email today - anyone else get one or going to claim?

[DarrenC]

Got what? Claim what?

[Dominic]

From a news article:

PayPal, the payment platform owned by eBay, is taking steps to pay out millions of dollars to settle a class action suit.

On Friday, it sent e-mails to account holders, notifying them of the impending windfall. "If you opened a PayPal account between October 1999 and January 2004, you may be entitled to a payment from a class action settlement," the e-mail read.

In early 2002, Roberta Toher and Jeffrey Resnick filed separate lawsuits against PayPal, claiming that the company is prone to restricting, freezing or closing customer accounts without good reason; the cases were later consolidated and turned into a class action suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division

The suit claimed that PayPal failed to supply customers with information about dispute resolution procedures and didn't follow proper procedures when investigating complaints.

PayPal denied wrongdoing and also disputed whether the provisions of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act apply to it. But it settled the suit in June 2004, avoiding a trial.

According to the settlement, PayPal will pay $9.25 million into a settlement fund, to be paid out to members of the class and the attorneys. The company also was required to change its business practices, which it says it's already done.

The attorneys are asking the court for $3,332,500, plus reimbursement of expenses of up to $135,000, or around 37 percent of the $9.25 million settlement.

Those who actually went through PayPal's dispute resolution process will get the lion's share of the portion of the expected $5.78 million that actually goes to account holders; any account holder can get a split of $1 million reserved for them."

[Joel Naten]

Yeah, I got mine. It doesn't seem like we'd get too much from it considering the "other" account holders only split $1 million. But, I might just get into it, in case not a lot of people apply for the money.

[compar]

Are you Guys sure? I'm a long time member and user of PayPal and I haven't recieved a letter or ever heard of this.

Are you sure this isn't just somebody phishing? It would be a great way to get your PayPal username and password.

[jjdubb]

It's from paypal with links to an https paypal page. I think its legit.

[compar]

Here is part of what PayPal say on their website about fraudulent emails:
Request for Personal Information: If we require information from you, we will notify you in an email and request that you enter the information only after you have safely and securely logged in to your PayPal account.
The URL to the rest of the information is https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/email-security-outside

[compar]

And the other question is how can you particpate in a class action suit if you have not been "damaged"? Even under class action companies don't give out lollipops and free lunches. You have to have been "damaged" to receive compensation for damages.

[Dominic]

I'm with you on the concern about fraud - but I did a google news search as something like this would hit the news... and there is a few stories about it being legit.

I wasn't effected by the problem they are talking about but you may have been compar as a longer standing account holder - you'll get an email from paypal soon if you haven't got one.

How could you have been 'damaged' - I think with this one some account holders may not realise they were (you may have been), but by the sounds of it the ones who were really effected by it were effected badly.

[Old Welsh Guy]

Can't see this somehow. I man surely the register etc would have had it in their newsletters etc looks like a phishing stunt to me.

[Dominic]

http://news.google.com.au/news?hl=en&edition=au&ie=ascii&q=paypal&btnG=Search+News

[melaniejk]

Yes, I got the emails also. PayPal even discusses the suit on their web site.
I'm not going to participate. I don't think it's worth it. They have 45 million account members. So, the amount of money each person would get is very, very small. :)

PayPal didn't admit any wrongdoing. It's just a settlement. In the agreement anyone who was a member during those years qualifies. My credit card company had a similar situation a few years ago. I got a credit for .15 cents.

Besides, I like using PayPal. I never had any complaints.

[mopacfan]

I couldn't get the claim form to come up last week. Is it working now?