PayPal has announced the launch of Seller Protection for Intangibles- an expansion of its existing seller protection program that earlier only covered merchants selling tangible goods such as handicrafts, fashion, art, etc.
The Seller Protection Program for Intangibles will cover two types of buyer complaints – ‘Unauthorized Transaction’, when a buyer claims that he or she didn’t authorize the payment and ‘Item Not Received’, when a buyer pays for the service but claims that he or she did not receive the service. The PayPal Resolution Centre will investigate issues and work with the sellers to ensure that they are protected against this type of fraud in genuine cases.
Anupam Pahuja, Country Manager and Managing Director, PayPal India said: ‘PayPal enables small businesses, freelancers and other businesses to sell their products and services across the globe. A key objective for PayPal in India is to ensure that genuine sellers, small or big, are protected from unauthorized claims and chargebacks. Growing instances of online fraud act as a barrier for sellers selling online services and other intangible goods to clients abroad. With our Seller Protection Program for Intangibles, we aim to empower freelancers and merchants in India to sell with confidence and assure them that they have our support to grow.’
According to a World Bank report, India is home to 1.8 crore freelancers, more than developed markets like US and UK. The global market size for online freelancing is projected to grow to USD4.4 billion in 2016. It is also estimated that by the end of 2020 global revenues for freelancing will be to the tune of USD 15 billion to USD 25 billion. PayPal wants to be an enabler for this segment.
A large section of PayPal’s users in India are merchants and freelancers selling intangible products and services like online tuitions, software/ app development, event and travel tickets. With industry leading risk models and a strong technology backbone, PayPal is the only payments company offering such protection to sellers in India.
The facility is live in India from June 25th, 2016.