Consumer complaint received 2025-07-25 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: NC

Complaint narrative:
Payment Processor Overreach and Monopolistic behaviour To whom it may concern, in the past week, XXXX, XXXX, and PayPal have crossed a line in regards to dictating what online stores are allowed to sell by withholding their critical services and refusing to do business with stores who do not follow their strict yet loosely defined opinions on what should be legal to still, not just once, but twice, twice in one week. This is an extreme overreach of their power and clear abuse of monopolistic behaviour. Digital payments are necessary in the modern world, and yet these three companies act recklessly, bypassing worldwide law to enact their own personal sales bans, effectively dictating what can and can't be supplied online by strong arming the digital storefronts into submission.

Although I take offence to every form of monopolistic abuse that these companies have caused ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXc ), in this email I would like to focus on the recent abuse towards digital storefront " XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX '', as it deeply affects me personally. 

XXXX XXXX is The most popular storefront for XXXX XXXX XXXX  novel games. As a XXXX XXXX  people often get harassed and suppressed in the real world, and yet XXXX XXXX used to be a XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX people to share stories and profit off of their own creativity. Since the ban yesterday caused by monopolistic abuse by payment processor companies pressuring XXXX XXXX to remove all XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  group has lost a form of income, lost a large portion of stories akin to a book burning, and lost yet another safe haven that used to exist. All that taken away by the strongarm overreach of payment processor monopolies, who bypassed the law to directly ban anything that they take offence to without realising the impact of their decisions, the fact that there are no alternative payment providers means that they hold the monopoly and get to decide what can and can't be sold without regards to local laws or government regulations. In fact, most of the erotica games on that storefront were made by or featured XXXX members, and most of them were no more erotic than the common female erotic novels you can find available at any bookstore, and yet those bookstores can continue to sell those books and their authors continue to profit, but XXXXXXXX  game developers have had their games banned and profits withheld. The only difference is that XXXX, XXXX and PayPal feel comfortable bullying digital stores but don't care about physical stores, yet neither of them are breaking any laws in any jurisdiction. 

I've already discussed how their monopolistic behaviour and strongarm abuse of their power has affected XXXX  and freedom of artistic expression while bypassing law and hurting many more people than they aim to help, but worst of all is that these digital storefronts are used worldwide, and I have already talked to my foreign XXXX friends who are really unhappy about this sudden unregulated ban. There are XXXX  people from almost every country who use XXXX XXXX for reading visual novels or producing and selling them, and yet XXXX companies in XXXX XXXX they have the right to enforce bans worldwide without getting involved with foreign or even local government. Furthermore, XXXX XXXX was a small independent website, and enforcing bans like this without involving the government by bullying them and refusing to offer the only available digital payment processors, it could easily cause a small independent storefront to have to close down business and go bankrupt. Again, not because they broke the law, just because they offended the only digital payment processors who reacted with monopolistic abuse without thought of the repurcussions of their actions.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation