[alterom]

>It's easier to get justice from a local bank in your country, or to at least talk to a real person face to face than from PayPal Luxemburg or wherever they're located.

Is it, really?

It would not matter to the local court where PayPal's HQ is.

PayPal needs to be licensed in your country to handle money transfers. They can lose the right to operate in your state if they aren't compliant with the laws.

In the US, the licenses are required even on the state level: e.g., here are the requirements for California Money Transmitter License:

https://www.jwsuretybonds.com/states/california/money-transm...

Fraud and theft are one fun way to lose such a license.

[trinix912]

I doubt they have a license to operate in all countries where the service is accessible/used. And yes, it is way easier to get justice from a local bank, a letter from a lawyer is usually enough if it ever gets to this point in first place, whereas for PayPal&co good luck with ever getting a response. Filing a lawsuit against a foreign company and getting anything out of it is even more of a gamble.

[alterom]

>I doubt they have a license to operate in all countries where the service is accessible/used.

Really?

I doubt you have tried checking all countries' regulations. Or any, for that matter.

Because there isn't a country where money transfers aren't regulated. Go prove me wrong.

To save you some effort: in the US, you need to have a money transmitter license issued by your state, e.g. in California'

https://dfpi.ca.gov/regulated-industries/money-transmitters/

>Filing a lawsuit against a foreign company and getting anything out of it is even more of a gamble.

Are speaking from experience, or hypothetically?

In any case, filing a lawsuit and raising a complaint with the regulator is an action that can cause the foreign company in question to lose the license to operate in your state.

And unlike your local bank, they don't have direct ties to politicians.

[trinix912]

> I doubt you have tried checking all countries' regulations. Or any, for that matter.

I checked it for my country before writing anything. They don't have a license, nor does Revolut for that matter. I'm not pulling this out of my ass, go check it yourself: https://www.bsi.si/sl/nadzor-bancnega-sistema/izdana-dovolje... (Hint: look in the 4th column where the 2nd column says "Dovoljenja za opravljanje storitev bank in hranilnic")

They definitely do business here, just like Revolut, which has the authorization to do banking in the UK, but not here.

> To save you some effort: in the US, you need to have a money transmitter license issued by your state, e.g. in California'

That's the US, not the entire world.

> In any case, filing a lawsuit and raising a complaint with the regulator is an action that can cause the foreign company in question to lose the license to operate in your state.

They _don't_ have it in the first place, there's nothing to lose for them, only for you as their customer. Furthermore, there's no legal entity of theirs in my country which the court could liquidate to pay me back in such a case. Please consider the fact that not every country has the same legal system as the US before you start lecturing me on how the legal system of my own country, which I dare assume you don't live in, works.

> And unlike your local bank, they don't have direct ties to politicians.

But they have ties to international politicians, which is no better.