Important Notes
I would encourage you to visit this page every once in a while to update on the latest developments in government policies, host regulations and / or latest terms and conditions of things happening that would affect your online business.
No doubt about it, everything changes overtime and rather than being caught out due to oversight or unaware, I would encourage you to visit this page to stay abreast.
No doubt about it, everything changes overtime and rather than being caught out due to oversight or unaware, I would encourage you to visit this page to stay abreast.
PayPal Halts Personal Payment Transactions From And To India
PayPal isn’t working properly in India. eBay’s electronic payment juggernaut appears to be blocking personal transactions to or from accounts of India-based users. It is reversing personal transactions; transactions involving businesses are still allowed.
A reader checked in with us yesterday to let us know PayPal notified him that the company had stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India (full e-mail can be found below).
This does not appear to be an isolated incident: see here, here and here for more reports, although we gather commercial payment transactions are unaffected at this point.
This is the standard notification e-mail people are receiving in their inbox:
Hello XXXX,
Your payment of xx has been sent back to the sender of the payment.
We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.
If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.
If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.
We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.
Thank you,
PayPal
Asked for more information, Binary Turf received a meatier but equally vague response from the customer service department:
Dear ,
Thank you for contacting PayPal.
I understand that you want to know why the payment you received for $ USD from is reversed. This payment was sent as Personal. We have stopped allowing Personal Payments to be sent to and from India. We are aware of this issue and I sincerely regret the inconvenience it has caused you. We are trying to resolve this as soon as possible. Below are the details:
Personal Payment – Send Money for India Accounts
· India customers are no longer able to see the option to send a Personal payment on the Send Money page · They can continue to use other payment options, such as eBay checkout.
If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.
If this payment was a personal payment, such as a gift to a friend or family member, then we request that you find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.
Although India customers are unable to send Personal payments, they are still receiving Personal payments from Non India customers.
· In order to stop ALL Personal payments TO and FROM India accounts, we have started reversing Personal payments sent by Non India customers starting today. (the only exception will be in cases where the buyer has included a shipping address – we don’t want to delay any shipment of goods) · Emails will be sent to both sender and recipient to let them know why the money was returned and what options they have to proceed forward. (see attached for examples)
· We are also in the process of implementing a change on the website to automatically stop the payment from processing, rather than waiting to reverse the payment. We will send you additional updates as soon as we have more details.
The Personal payment option on the International Send Money page has been updated and India has been removed from the ‘select a country’ drop down list.
· If the payment was for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then the buyer may resend the payment to the seller by following these steps on the PayPal website: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.
I’ll be glad to hear from you if you need clarification, please email us again and we will try our best to give you immediate answers. Thank you for choosing PayPal for your online payment needs. We appreciate your business.
The wording seems to suggest that this is a temporary decision, but it’s still unclear why the company decided to take such drastic measures with no prior warning on policy changes whatsoever, and why this appears to be occurring in India only.
We’ve contacted PayPal and will update when and if we hear back.
Update: Anuj Nayar, Director, Global Communications at PayPal tells us:
I can confirm that personal payments to and from India have been suspended while we address some questions from our business partners. You can still make commercial payments. We’re trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Guess we’ll have to wait until the issue is addressed.
Source: TechCrunch Robin Wauters on February 5, 2010
A reader checked in with us yesterday to let us know PayPal notified him that the company had stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India (full e-mail can be found below).
This does not appear to be an isolated incident: see here, here and here for more reports, although we gather commercial payment transactions are unaffected at this point.
This is the standard notification e-mail people are receiving in their inbox:
Hello XXXX,
Your payment of xx has been sent back to the sender of the payment.
We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.
If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.
If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.
We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.
Thank you,
PayPal
Asked for more information, Binary Turf received a meatier but equally vague response from the customer service department:
Dear ,
Thank you for contacting PayPal.
I understand that you want to know why the payment you received for $ USD from is reversed. This payment was sent as Personal. We have stopped allowing Personal Payments to be sent to and from India. We are aware of this issue and I sincerely regret the inconvenience it has caused you. We are trying to resolve this as soon as possible. Below are the details:
Personal Payment – Send Money for India Accounts
· India customers are no longer able to see the option to send a Personal payment on the Send Money page · They can continue to use other payment options, such as eBay checkout.
If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.
If this payment was a personal payment, such as a gift to a friend or family member, then we request that you find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.
Although India customers are unable to send Personal payments, they are still receiving Personal payments from Non India customers.
· In order to stop ALL Personal payments TO and FROM India accounts, we have started reversing Personal payments sent by Non India customers starting today. (the only exception will be in cases where the buyer has included a shipping address – we don’t want to delay any shipment of goods) · Emails will be sent to both sender and recipient to let them know why the money was returned and what options they have to proceed forward. (see attached for examples)
· We are also in the process of implementing a change on the website to automatically stop the payment from processing, rather than waiting to reverse the payment. We will send you additional updates as soon as we have more details.
The Personal payment option on the International Send Money page has been updated and India has been removed from the ‘select a country’ drop down list.
· If the payment was for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then the buyer may resend the payment to the seller by following these steps on the PayPal website: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.
I’ll be glad to hear from you if you need clarification, please email us again and we will try our best to give you immediate answers. Thank you for choosing PayPal for your online payment needs. We appreciate your business.
The wording seems to suggest that this is a temporary decision, but it’s still unclear why the company decided to take such drastic measures with no prior warning on policy changes whatsoever, and why this appears to be occurring in India only.
We’ve contacted PayPal and will update when and if we hear back.
Update: Anuj Nayar, Director, Global Communications at PayPal tells us:
I can confirm that personal payments to and from India have been suspended while we address some questions from our business partners. You can still make commercial payments. We’re trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
Guess we’ll have to wait until the issue is addressed.
Source: TechCrunch Robin Wauters on February 5, 2010
U.S. Seeks to Restrict Gift Giving to Bloggers
Washington (Tuesday,October 6, 2009) - The US government wants to make it a little harder for bloggers to shill products online for fun and profit. New guidelines released by the Federal Trade Commission say bloggers must disclose any money or freebies they receive in exchange for writing product reviews, a fast-growing and loosely regulated way for companies to market everything from diapers to movies. The move is an effort to apply the same rules that already cover broadcast stations, newspapers and magazines to the Wild West marketplace of the World Wide Web.
Separately, the FTC also updated its guidelines for celebrity endorsements, saying that celebrities must "disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media."
It also eliminated one loophole used in many diet and fitness ads, which allowed marketers to tout massive weight loss by some subjects as long as they included the disclaimer that the "results not typical." In the future, the FTC said, those testimonial ads will also have to include some information about what the typical weight loss might be.
The question of how and whether bloggers should divulge their relationships with companies has been hotly debated in recent months. It is a particularly controversial issue online, where the traditional division between editorial and advertising found in newspapers and magazines is harder to maintain.
As blogging has grown, more users are opining on topics ranging from their jobs to their dinner on social-networking and other Web sites. Big companies are increasingly using these forums to build buzz, sending bloggers products to review or even helping them host parties to encourage others to try their wares.
The new FTC guidelines represent the latest in a series of efforts by the government to respond to the needs of consumers who increasingly spend time online. Congress is mulling new legislation to regulate targeted advertising online. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission is looking at how to adapt its children's TV rules to cover online videos.
The FTC's decision is likely to be a boon for companies that sell Internet advertising and the agencies that advise them, giving them a shot at money that was previously going directly to bloggers.
Sarah Hofstetter, senior vice president of emerging media for 360i, a digital-advertising agency, praised the decision for restoring "common sense to a nascent form of marketing."
Ted Murphy, founder of IZEA Inc., a business that connects bloggers and corporations for the purpose of paid "sponsored posts", said the guidelines could have the most impact on public-relations firms and companies who giving bloggers free merchandise.
"This is surely pretty scary for some brands or PR agencies, but I think it is actually going to be a good thing for the industry," said Mr. Murphy, whose clients have included Sears Holdings Corp. "Disclosure and transparency are key to making this social media space sustainable."
The FTC regulations target such bloggers as Christine Young of California, who parlayed a personal Web site detailing her experiences home-schooling her six children into a significant commercial enterprise. She is one of the Elevenmoms, a cadre of bloggers organized by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which receives free merchandise from the retailer's suppliers, and has been flown to special events by Frito Lay, Johnson & Johnson and other companies.
Ms. Young said she has toughened her standards and discloses the relationship when she writes about the items.
"The brands and companies directly working with bloggers need to be held accountable," she said. "While some companies may choose not to work with us now, I would much rather work with companies that wanted us to be open in the first place."
The new guidelines "can only assist bloggers" in convincing readers they are trustworthy, said Tricia Haas, the 31-year-old owner of blog site Momdot.com. She said she always discloses receipt of free products from companies, adding that freebies don't affect her reviews. Ms. Haas noted that she posted a negative review Monday for a cake-making machine a company had sent her.
Ed Morrissey, a conservative blogger, questioned how far the FTC's rules would extend. "If I get a free tube of toothpaste in the mail and say nice things about it on Twitter, Facebook, or in a PTA meeting, do I have to disclose it as a freebie or pay the $11,000 fine the FTC imposes?" he wrote. "What kind of disclosure can one fit into a 140-character Twitter message, anyway?"
Enforcing the guidelines could be difficult, because the agency has limited authority and staff. With a broad mission to protect consumers from deceptive trade and anti-competitive business practices, the FTC investigations generally originate with consumer complaints.
Source: Jessica E. Vascellaro, Geoffrey A. Fowler and Nomaan MerchantOnline Wall Street Journal
Separately, the FTC also updated its guidelines for celebrity endorsements, saying that celebrities must "disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media."
It also eliminated one loophole used in many diet and fitness ads, which allowed marketers to tout massive weight loss by some subjects as long as they included the disclaimer that the "results not typical." In the future, the FTC said, those testimonial ads will also have to include some information about what the typical weight loss might be.
The question of how and whether bloggers should divulge their relationships with companies has been hotly debated in recent months. It is a particularly controversial issue online, where the traditional division between editorial and advertising found in newspapers and magazines is harder to maintain.
As blogging has grown, more users are opining on topics ranging from their jobs to their dinner on social-networking and other Web sites. Big companies are increasingly using these forums to build buzz, sending bloggers products to review or even helping them host parties to encourage others to try their wares.
The new FTC guidelines represent the latest in a series of efforts by the government to respond to the needs of consumers who increasingly spend time online. Congress is mulling new legislation to regulate targeted advertising online. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission is looking at how to adapt its children's TV rules to cover online videos.
The FTC's decision is likely to be a boon for companies that sell Internet advertising and the agencies that advise them, giving them a shot at money that was previously going directly to bloggers.
Sarah Hofstetter, senior vice president of emerging media for 360i, a digital-advertising agency, praised the decision for restoring "common sense to a nascent form of marketing."
Ted Murphy, founder of IZEA Inc., a business that connects bloggers and corporations for the purpose of paid "sponsored posts", said the guidelines could have the most impact on public-relations firms and companies who giving bloggers free merchandise.
"This is surely pretty scary for some brands or PR agencies, but I think it is actually going to be a good thing for the industry," said Mr. Murphy, whose clients have included Sears Holdings Corp. "Disclosure and transparency are key to making this social media space sustainable."
The FTC regulations target such bloggers as Christine Young of California, who parlayed a personal Web site detailing her experiences home-schooling her six children into a significant commercial enterprise. She is one of the Elevenmoms, a cadre of bloggers organized by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which receives free merchandise from the retailer's suppliers, and has been flown to special events by Frito Lay, Johnson & Johnson and other companies.
Ms. Young said she has toughened her standards and discloses the relationship when she writes about the items.
"The brands and companies directly working with bloggers need to be held accountable," she said. "While some companies may choose not to work with us now, I would much rather work with companies that wanted us to be open in the first place."
The new guidelines "can only assist bloggers" in convincing readers they are trustworthy, said Tricia Haas, the 31-year-old owner of blog site Momdot.com. She said she always discloses receipt of free products from companies, adding that freebies don't affect her reviews. Ms. Haas noted that she posted a negative review Monday for a cake-making machine a company had sent her.
Ed Morrissey, a conservative blogger, questioned how far the FTC's rules would extend. "If I get a free tube of toothpaste in the mail and say nice things about it on Twitter, Facebook, or in a PTA meeting, do I have to disclose it as a freebie or pay the $11,000 fine the FTC imposes?" he wrote. "What kind of disclosure can one fit into a 140-character Twitter message, anyway?"
Enforcing the guidelines could be difficult, because the agency has limited authority and staff. With a broad mission to protect consumers from deceptive trade and anti-competitive business practices, the FTC investigations generally originate with consumer complaints.
Source: Jessica E. Vascellaro, Geoffrey A. Fowler and Nomaan MerchantOnline Wall Street Journal