eBay blocks online retailers' Cuba products
Published: 29 Jul 11 08:40 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110729-36611.html
Online auction site eBay and its subsidiary PayPal are prohibiting German merchants from doing Cuba-related transactions, prompting accusations the company is violating European law
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The move is apparently in response to the long-standing US embargo against Cuba, which generally prohibits American companies from doing business there. But there are no such restrictions against European Union companies and, EBay, which is based in California, has allowed Cuba-related transactions by Europeans to go through in the past.
Thomas Altman, who sells Cuban cigars and spirits through his internet store, told Die Welt that PayPal has closed his account despite his protests, making it impossible for him to sell his products.
“We offered a compromise, but PayPal has not addressed it at all,” he said.
A PayPal spokesman confirmed the closure of Altman’s shop and several others to the newspaper, stating that its acting on the policies of its US parent company.
But he offered no alternatives for merchants such as Silke Wolf who said she had lost up to 60 percent of her business through PayPal.
“This has now disappeared and we have no substitute,” she told Die Welt, speculating the move was actually calculated to protect American alcohol brands.
Aggrieved online retailers say they’re mulling their legal options and a class action lawsuit is one possibility.
International trade expert Lothar Harings, with the law firm Graf von Westphalen, thinks they’d likely be successful. He called eBay’s actions “grossly unlawful” in Germany.
“eBay itself is violating EU law, mainly EU blocking regulations,” Harings said.
The regulations, which explicitly allow Europeans to do business with Cuba, were formulated in response to US sanctions against the communist caribbean state.
The Local/mdm
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Your comments about this article:
If PayPal wants to do business in Europe, it has to follow European regulations. Or to pay fines if it does not respect them.
If PayPal was the only way to bank on-line, I would agree with you. They're not. They're a US company that has to follow US law. Are these people forced to use PayPal??
The German trader counted on PayPal honoring their contract according to the EU legal regulations (as PayPal Europe is registered in Luxembourg). Therefore they did not needed to use another payment service provider. By closing down their account (and this is done on illegal grounds), PayPal prevents them to do business until they enter an agreement with another provider.
The irony is that in this case PayPal would need to transfer money from/to Cuba only if some Cuban guys would like to buy Cuban cigars from Germany. So actually they cannot be the middle man in doing business with Cuba. They would only service a German trader who already bought its merchandise from Cuba.
The E.U. Council Regulation (EC) No. 2271/96 of 22 November 1996 protects against the effects of the extra-territorial application of legislation adopted by a third country, and actions based thereon or resulting therefrom.
In Canada, my Parliament enacted the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act (FEMA) amendments forbidding Canadian companies and Canadian-based U.S. subsidiaries, involved with Cuba, from complying with any directive from any U.S. entity attempting to influence or harass any company operating in Canada. Enacted in 1992 in response to ratification of the Torricelli Act, the amended FEMA responded, once again, to infringements on Canadian sovereignty found in the Helms Burton Act.
The E.U. has to "man-up" and follow their legislation in place!
Torture,firing squads, exporting violent revolution, a Cuban Coast Guard that mahine Guns people trying to escape or imprisions them for life and a real Old Time Soviet Stooge to boot, who wouldn't want to support that??? I mean if you can make a couple of EUROS, pull yourself up by your own Jack Boots and go ahead, you may be to busy selling stuff to Iran to do it tomorow.
Respect. Don't ever change.
This is just another example of the wild new World we live in....one evening in about 45 seconds I bought something in in overseas from myself (Hong Kong or such as I recall) then payed out my ebay balance since I was there to ebay whose servers are in California if I recall correctly and the amount went into their Swiss accounts. Since I do not live in Asia, the US or Switzerland it boggles the mind how many legal jurisdictions were involved....the technology is ahead of the legal agreements at present. My condolences to the German merchants, because having the rug pulled out is rough and I would think they may certainly have a legal case. For what it is worth, PayPal probably had zero choice since they must obey the direct government orders of the jurisdiction of where they do business (or find themselves in jail shortly).