WASHINGTON – When Sen. Al Franken sought reelection in 2014, constituents could use their PayPal accounts – an online payments system – to make a "secure online donation" to his campaign.
Franken, other senators send letter to PayPal about its new policies
Sen. Al Franken joins other lawmakers on a letter to PayPal about the company's new user agreement
By kueppcm
June 17, 2015 at 12:50PM
On Tuesday, Franken pushed back against PayPal due to recent changes in the company's user agreement that mean campaign donations, online shopping or other uses of your PayPal account may come with a flood of unavoidable robocalls.
He joined three other senators who sent a letter to the online payment company.
The letter, addressed to PayPal's President Dan Schulman, calls the company out for not allowing consumers to opt out of robocalls from the company.
Sens. Franken, Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in the letter the inability to opt out of the robocalls "could adversely affect consumers by exposing them to a barrage of unwanted calls that are unstoppable unless consumers choose to discontinue using PayPal."
The lawmakers point out that PayPal has already been warned by the Federal Communications Commission that the policy violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The TCPA states companies must first obtain consent from consumers for robocalls and must also allow for them to opt out.
"We share the FCC's perspective and believe consumers should not have to agree to submit themselves to intrusive robocalls in order to use a company's service," the letter states.
The lawmakers requested a response from Schulman by July 7.
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