Parents’ group UsForThem, who had their accounts temporarily closed by PayPal last year at the same time as the Free Speech Union and the Daily Sceptic, is urging the U.K. regulator to demand transparency and free speech assurances from the finance giant before granting it a full license. The Telegraph has more.
PayPal, the multi-billion-pound online payments service, is currently operating under a temporary licence but hopes to be granted full permission to operate in Britain permanently by the end of the year.
The service was previously allowed to operate in the U.K. under an agreement throughout Europe, but since Brexit has been on temporary licence.
It has until December to get approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for a full licence but has become embroiled in the de-banking scandal after several groups claimed their accounts were shut suddenly.
The U.S. payments company was last year accused of shutting down accounts for political motives after temporarily closing the accounts of UsForThem, the parents’ group that fought to keep schools open during the pandemic, as well as the Free Speech Union and its founder Toby Young without any clear explanation.
It later reinstated the accounts following a backlash from MPs.
Other groups that had their accounts shut down by PayPal last year included Left Lockdown Sceptics, which describes itself as a “socialist collective” opposed to government lockdown measures.
However, as customers ask banks for internal communications about their accounts using “subject access requests”, PayPal has now been accused of failing to meet its legal requirements to hand over information on customers.
Ben Kingsley, Head of Legal Affairs at UsForThem, said that PayPal had not provided information the campaign group had requested on its account closure and demanded the FCA intervene.
He said PayPal was “refusing to comply with its legal obligations under U.K. and European law to disclose the information it holds which explains why it de-banked UsForThem in September 2022”.
Mr. Kingsley said the provider “brazenly continues to ask the FCA to grant it a permanent licence” and said the regulator should demand that PayPal “justify its apparent breach of U.K. law and regulatory standards, and to suspend its licensing application in the meantime”.
He added: “The FCA must ensure that the only international financial businesses permitted to operate in the U.K. are those which commit to comply with applicable U.K. law and regulatory standards.
“This applies especially when businesses are as ubiquitous and influential as PayPal. The U.K. regulator should not allow itself to be steamrolled into granting a permanent licence to an organisation which has revealed itself to be disinterested in U.K. law and regulatory standards.”
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