PayPal Redials Its Robocall Feature

In the wake of criticism from both users and regulators, PayPal is scaling back once-ambitious plans to change its user agreement to allow automated calls and text messages. As widely reported, the company is amending its user agreement just days before the new contact terms were due to take effect.

Through changes now in place modifying its user agreement, PayPal will not push robocalls on users unless those users have previously given the company written consent to do so, The Washington Post reported on Monday (June 29). That policy takes the place of an “opt-in” policy wherein such communications would have been a condition mandated alongside continued use of the mobile payments platform. That strategy set off a wave of criticism from customers across various media and social media outlets, letters from lawmakers and scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission over robocalls as part of its jurisdiction over telemarketing.

And in another shift, PayPal states that robocalls will be used by the company in an effort to “detect, investigate and protect our customers from fraud.”

Separately, a PayPal blog post stated that the company has been working “proactively with regulators to clarify that our focus is on our customers, on consumer protection and on doing the right thing.” The blog went on to offer an apology “for any confusion we may have caused.”

The recent policy changes brought praise from at least one corner where concern had been noteworthy, the Post reported. “I commend PayPal for taking steps to honor consumer choices to be free from unwanted calls and texts,” FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a statement. “These changes, along with PayPal’s commitments to improve its disclosures and make it easier for consumers to express their calling preferences, are significant and welcome improvements.”

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