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Upcoming online wallet policy changes.
6 years ago
This is potentially going to twist the pants of a lot of artists and writers.
Yesterday a certain online payment processor made an announcement about upcoming policy changes that will go into effect on March 12th, 2020.
The policy update that stands out the most is the one where merchants must supply customer service contact information including a phone number.
There is some confusion over who would be classified as a merchant in the changed policies. According to
kayla-na, 
nawka was on the phone with these people and had been told "if you're a seller, you're a merchant". So selling art or story commissions makes you a merchant in that sense.
Yet when I talked to customer support, I was told that it seems to affect only the ones who have business accounts. This kind of conflicts with what Nawka was told, and it indicates that their customer service representatives are once again sending mixed signals with their conflicting responses. Either that or I'm reading it wrong.
Yet this policy change has the potential to upset a number of people. But the definition of who is and is not a merchant in the fandom is a cloudy one. We can only wait for more information or move to another payment processor.
EDIT: The policy is not final, as it is still being discussed by the payment processor's legal people. At the moment the wording of the policy only makes it mandatory for people with business accounts to supply "customer service contact info". But they suggest not worrying and keeping an eye on the policy for changes as we get closer to March 12th. They are also aware of the number of people that have personal accounts and use them to receive payments for goods and/or services, but their legal team has not discussed nor disclosed any other information on wither or not this will impact such users.
Yesterday a certain online payment processor made an announcement about upcoming policy changes that will go into effect on March 12th, 2020.
The policy update that stands out the most is the one where merchants must supply customer service contact information including a phone number.
There is some confusion over who would be classified as a merchant in the changed policies. According to
kayla-na, 
nawka was on the phone with these people and had been told "if you're a seller, you're a merchant". So selling art or story commissions makes you a merchant in that sense.Yet when I talked to customer support, I was told that it seems to affect only the ones who have business accounts. This kind of conflicts with what Nawka was told, and it indicates that their customer service representatives are once again sending mixed signals with their conflicting responses. Either that or I'm reading it wrong.
Yet this policy change has the potential to upset a number of people. But the definition of who is and is not a merchant in the fandom is a cloudy one. We can only wait for more information or move to another payment processor.
EDIT: The policy is not final, as it is still being discussed by the payment processor's legal people. At the moment the wording of the policy only makes it mandatory for people with business accounts to supply "customer service contact info". But they suggest not worrying and keeping an eye on the policy for changes as we get closer to March 12th. They are also aware of the number of people that have personal accounts and use them to receive payments for goods and/or services, but their legal team has not discussed nor disclosed any other information on wither or not this will impact such users.
