14 DAY TRIAL // Both the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the New York State Attorney General have asked eBay and PayPal to detail their robo-call policies that will become active next week and July, respectively.
These new rules will come into effect via new user agreements that both companies are putting in place preparing for the moment when PayPal would spin off from eBay into a separate publicly traded company of its own.
The first one to address these new policies was New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who believes these new agreements break state consumer protection laws.
Right after his announcement, the FCC also sent a public letter to PayPal, informing the company that its new user agreement may be against the law if not implemented following the regular procedures.
Robo-calls are still a problem, even with the Internet around
To be considered legal robo-calls (cold calls, or telemarketing), PayPal and eBay must obtain users’ agreement in writing, along with a telephone number where they can be contacted either by call or text.
In response to the FCC's letter, a PayPal representative reiterated that any user can opt out of robo-calls at any point they wish to. But as mentioned above, this still doesn't make the company's policy "legal."
For now, no answer has been given by eBay, but this shot across the bow was surely heard at their offices.
It is unclear if either PayPal or eBay want to use the new robo-call policy for collecting debts owed to them or just to market promotions like everyone else.
Either way, chances are high that if this small clause in their policy isn't changed, both companies will be put under investigation and could risk a serious fine right when they're about to pull off one of the biggest splits seen on the financial market for years.