Comment by mehrdadn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mehrdadn | Hacker News Reader

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> PayPal arbitrarily freezes people's accounts

PayPal kept doing that so much that regulators (FTC? I forget) finally made them stop holding pseudo-cash accounts for people until/unless people specifically requested it. Laws take time to catch up.

> why not obvious billion dollar ones? why would anyone expect them to take it on given how risk averse they are?

Again: I'm not opining on what they should or shouldn't be doing. All I'm saying is, if you think the fact that it's not a utility is a good supporting argument for this, I'm saying their classification is far from obvious to me. But if you have other arguments to make, I'm not expressing any opinions on them; I'm solely replying to the "it's clearly not a utility" bit.

To my knowledge, Paypal continues to randomly and often very opaquely freeze people's funds for months at a time or longer, so if you have a link to this FTC ruling, im honestly curious to see it.

I would think that because of “know your customer” and other regulations banks and payment processors have to be able to decline business. They can’t possibly be utilities unless we overturn all the anti money laundering regulations. Am I missing something here?

Can a utility refuse to provide service?

Yes. In general, a utility provider may refuse to initiate service if the requesting customer cannot comply with the requirements outlined in the utility’s tariffs or rules. Utility tariffs and rules are authorized by the CPUC.

https://consumers.cpuc.ca.gov/cab_faq/

Utilities must provide service to any member of the public living within the utility’s service area who has applied for service and is willing to pay for the service and comply with the utility’s rules and regulations. The utility’s duty to serve is not absolute, however. A utility may deny service for good cause (e.g., nonpayment).

https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/older_consumers/consumer_fac...

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