Received an email from PayPal today.

Dear Mark Smith,

We would like to announce important developments affecting all PayPal accounts in the European Union (the "EU").

No action is required on your part, and you will be able to continue using PayPal with no changes.

Currently, PayPal (Europe) Ltd. is the service provider for PayPal in the EU. PayPal (Europe) Ltd. is a UK company regulated and authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK as an electronic money institution. This authorisation enables PayPal to provide its service throughout the EU.

From 2 July 2007, a new PayPal company, PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. (PayPal Luxembourg), will become the service provider for PayPal in the EU. This is a Luxembourg entity regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg equivalent of the FSA. PayPal Luxembourg will provide the PayPal service throughout the EU.

Your customer relationship with PayPal
On 2 July 2007, your customer relationship will be automatically transferred from PayPal (Europe) Ltd. to PayPal Luxembourg. This includes your customer relationship as governed by the terms of the PayPal User Agreement and, for applicable UK merchants, the PayPal Website Payments Pro Agreement (collectively, the "Agreements").

To summarise, from 2 July 2007, PayPal (Europe) Ltd. will assign to PayPal Luxembourg all of its right, title, interest, and benefit in and to the Agreements.

New User Agreement and Privacy Policy
We are also pleased to announce that from 2 July 2007, PayPal Luxembourg will issue a new form of the PayPal User Agreement and Privacy Policy. This new version of the User Agreement will be presented in a much more user-friendly manner, and many of the policies currently accessed by hyperlinks, will now form part of the main text of the User Agreement.

Also, the Privacy Policy will reflect that PayPal Luxembourg will be the data controller of your personal information from 2 July 2007 and set out further details of the third parties to whom PayPal Luxembourg will disclose your personal and account information.

For more information about the transition to PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. click here.

If you do not wish to continue your relationship with PayPal, you may close your account at any time by logging in to your account, clicking Profile, and following the instructions from the "Close Account" link. You should make sure you first withdraw the outstanding PayPal balance to your bank account.

Yours sincerely,

PayPal (Europe) Ltd.

Have you read the new customer agreement? If yes, were there any note worthy changes to the user agreement?

They have yet to issue it. However they do have provided us with a Migration FAQ.

I received essentially the same email when Paypal Canada opened up. I did nothing and it's never meant anything to me other than being able to use CDN funds from that point on.

It actually looks like some sort of workaround scheme to their privacy policies in the EU. It seems to me that after transferring your information to PayPal Luxembourg, that they will sell your information to various third parties. I have also heard from some of my peers in the UK and EU, that they noticed that in the FAQ, they state that anyone who doesn't wish for this to happen - must close their PayPal account before the transfer takes place. Seems like a very tricky move on the part of PayPal, will better the economy of Luxembourg though. Money makes the world go round, eh

Nefarious!

I wasn't ware that Paypal sold information. I've never received any spam that I would attribute to my Paypal account.

I don't trust paypal too much these days. Especially when you run a business and have someone do fraudlents charges. Then paypal locks your account or limits it, till they fiddle around and figure out what happen't.

Do they lock the account on any chargebacks or disputes?

They usually limit your account access if you have several unresolved complaints at once.

It doesn't really sound to me as though they sold your information with the intentions of profiting off of your account through them. It sounds to me like a new company will be taking over the reigns in EU. Now whether that is a good or bad thing... I am not sure. But paypal has never really been all that attentive to questions or problems, so it can't get much worse unless we start randomly losing money out of our accounts.

I agree PayPal wouldn't do that, but I do predict which policies will change within PayPal but for now I'll keep those opinions to myself.

I'd use google checkout, seems like their staff and policies are a lot better than Paypal's. I'm not saying paypal is the worst transaction sources, but at the moment google checkout seems pretty good and simple. It could be that their not as busy as Paypal, but that can also be a good thing.

Yes they can block the account as well if you are at fault.

I would love to offer Google Checkout but the last time I checked they were only taking US and UK merchants.

I don't really see a difference in the revised version anyway has anyone seen their BETA Site what do you think?