An online seller has claimed that the money-handling company
PayPal ordered the destruction of a $2,500 French violin that she
sold to a buyer in Canada. The seller, known as Erica, told the
website regretsy.com
that the buyer had disputed the violin's Maurice Bourguignon label,
and said that because PayPal had deemed the violin 'counterfeit',
it had ordered the buyer to destroy it in order to get their money
back.
Erica wrote: 'I am now out a violin that made it through WWII as
well as $2,500. This is of course, upsetting. But my main goal in
writing to you is to prevent PayPal from ordering the destruction
of violins and other antiquities that they know nothing about. It
is beyond me why PayPal simply didn't have the violin returned to
me.'
PayPal's terms and conditions include the following reference to
the destruction of counterfeit goods: 'For SNAD (significantly not
as described) claims... PayPal may also require you to destroy the
item and to provide evidence of its destruction.'
When asked for comment, a PayPal spokesperson said: 'While we
cannot talk about this particular case due to PayPal's privacy
policy, we carefully review each case, and in general we may ask a
buyer to destroy counterfeit goods if they supply signed evidence
from a knowledgeable third party that the goods are indeed
counterfeit. The reason why we reserve the option to ask the buyer
to destroy the goods is that in many countries, including the US,
it is a criminal offence to mail counterfeit goods back to a
seller.'
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