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0 pointssmartbit9y ago0 comments

@nolok what is the value of this regulation? Some recent/current examples. 1) During the banking crisis after 2007 EU banks loose 100billions of euro's and the taxpayer mostly payed for their losses. 2) They get 80billon euro's for free every month (quantitative easing) from the ECB which goes down the drain, iow into their profit, not into supporting the economy. 3) Up till the Greece crisis, Greece had to pay high interest rates to the commercial bank because of the risks associated with lending to Greece, but when the shit hit the fan, the commercial banks got their loans redeemed by the IMF/ECB instead of the banks having to write them off. 4) And more recent, N26 is regulated in Germany but had very flakey security https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-7969-shut_up_and_take_my_money. And I can go with al long list...

I couldn't agree more that Paypal can not be trusted, in my vocabulary Paypal US stole the money from the designated charities. To say that Palpay is nice and good in Europe because they regulated by Luxemburg banking authorities, IMHO is far stretched.

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5 comments · 2 top-level

ptaipale9y ago· 3 in thread

I don't think the parent said that Paypal is nice and good in Europe. It merely said that they might be under a stricter regulatory control in Europe, so unhappy customers have more tools available to keep them to account.

[Edit/add]: However, American citizens have often stronger tools available in class action suites. EU countries trust the authorities, and it is then up to officials to control parties like Paypal. Do they do it? It's not necessarily very consistent.

tokenizerrr9y ago

Except class action lawsuits get you absolutely nothing unless you are a lawyer. Enjoy that voucher for a free pancake, only redeemable between 4.30 and 4.32 AM at a single restaurant.

sedachv9y ago

As an individual consumer you are very likely to shrug off small losses because of a company acting in bad faith and move on. It is not worth your time. The management of an individual company has a large incentive for acting in bad faith because the aggregate profits from ripping off many consumers can be large. Class-action lawsuits are expensive for the company being sued and act as an effective deterrent to bad behavior, and are one of the very few ways for consumer collective action under a capitalist system.

ptaipale9y ago

But at least they can be started and participated by individual citizens.

pjc509y ago

> 80billon euro's for free every month (quantitative easing) from the ECB which goes down the drain, iow into their profit, not into supporting the economy

This is not how QE works and it is absolutely not free money.

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