Clusterfuck for PayPal Germany in Progress?

stopmebeforeiblogagain.com

2 points·blacktar··9 comments

German law basically dictates that if you tell someone they won a prize, you have to give them that prize, no ifs or buts:

§ 661a Gewinnzusagen Ein Unternehmer, der Gewinnzusagen oder vergleichbare Mitteilungen an Verbraucher sendet und durch die Gestaltung dieser Zusendungen den Eindruck erweckt, dass der Verbraucher einen Preis gewonnen hat, hat dem Verbraucher diesen Preis zu leisten.

Yes, but there is also §119 BGB, disputability due to an error (not correct translation). http://dejure.org/gesetze/BGB/119.html

If it was a technical mistake (which it seems it was), Paypal should be able to avoid payment (again, not a lawyer. But yes. A clusterfuck (and one with the potential of much lulz).

We'll see how it turns out. Bring popcorn.

PayPal Germany confirms as mistake http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=...

Another German legal blogger chimes in on the gaffe: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=...

TNW broke the story in English http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/07/paypal-accidentally...

TL;DR PayPal Germany seems to have sent mass-emails claiming German customers have won 500,- EUR when they have in fact not. Kaspersky Labs have verified emails as legit, coming from PayPal.

(Mental note to self: Never ever use "clusterfuck" in title when posting to HN ever again. Karma mod trolls do not approve.)

Let's asume 500.000 PP-Users got this message - legal will force PP to pay out - this is a 250 million EUR gift :D

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