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The hundreds of millions of consumers who pay online with PayPal and Venmo are facing higher prices because of rules the platforms impose on merchants that prevent them from steering customers to different, cheaper payment options, according to a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Thursday.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses PayPal of using “anti-steering” rules to quash competition from lower-cost platforms. In the past, credit card companies have faced scrutiny for suing anti-steering provisions, which deter merchants from guiding customers to payment options that come with lower fees.

In the case of PayPal, which owns Venmo, the plaintiffs allege that the company locks merchants into provisions that prevent merchants from offering discounts to persuade customers into using payment options that are cheaper than PayPal and Venmo. The rules also block merchants from telling customers that other payment options might be cheaper, according to the lawsuit. As a result, the lawsuit charges, consumers pay higher prices.

“If consumers were allowed to see behind PayPal’s pricing veil, they would see a clear and distinct difference between using PayPal and Venmo to complete their transactions and using its competitors,” Steve Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, said in a news release. “For a service named for its friendliness, PayPal is far from consumer friendly.”

PayPal said in a statement that it is reviewing the filing. “PayPal continues to put our customers first in everything that we do, and we take this responsibility seriously,” the company said.

As of February, the company hosted 400 million active user accounts and 35 million merchant accounts, according to its annual report. In 2022, the company generated $27.5 billion in revenue and stated in its annual report that it earns revenue primarily by charging transaction fees and offering other payment services. The lawsuit alleges that PayPal’s transaction fees are 3.5 percent higher per transaction than other platforms.

In 2010, the Justice Department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-american-express-mastercard-and-visa-eliminate-rules-restricting" target=_blank>sued Visa and Mastercard</a>, alleging that the anti-steering agreements they had allegedly imposed on merchants were anticompetitive. The companies swiftly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111904233404576458081673213422" target=_blank>settled with the government</a>, agreeing to allow merchants to offer discounts for other forms of payment.

Referring to the credit card case, Berman said “We see PayPal doing precisely the same thing.”

In 2018, however, the<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/06/25/supreme-court-just-issued-ruling-affecting-credit-card-industry-silicon-valley-too/" target="_blank"> Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision</a> that American Express was allowed to use the anti-steering rules with retailers, arguing that the Justice Department and several states did not prove that the credit card companies harmed both merchants and consumers.

Berman told The Washington Post that the ruling will not affect his case against PayPal.

“If anything, the Amex litigation confirmed that these types of anti-steering rules are anticompetitive,” he said. “The plaintiffs there prevailed at trial, and the technical market definition issues the Supreme Court addressed on appeal are not an impediment in our case.”

Humboldt State University, BA in Globalization Studies 

Julian Mark covers breaking business and technology news for The Washington Post. He previously worked overnight with The Post's Morning Mix team. Before joining The Post, he covered housing and policing for Mission Local in San Francisco.  

Julian  Mark

PayPal, Venmo ‘anti-steering’ rules raise prices for consumers, lawsuit says 

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