Latest Filing in the Chris Moneymaker PayPal Lawsuit Appeal

08:26
30 Apr

After more than a year in the legal battleground, there is new movement in the ongoing legal battle between PayPal and the plaintiffs in the "Moneymaker" lawsuit. The suit alleges that PayPal unlawfully seizes funds in an arbitrary manner.
The latest appeal, filed by California attorneys Eric Bensamochan and Edwin Schreiber, continues the fight against a court's ruling in June 2022 that dismissed the case, referring the claim back to its internal arbitration process.

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More Action in “Moneymaker” PayPal Lawsuit

This case kicked off last year with PayPal's seizure of $12,000 from Chris Moneymaker's personal account in April 2021. The funds were payments for a daily fantasy sports league that Moneymaker manages. After the seizure, Moneymaker took on Eric Bensamochan as his legal representation and encouraged others to join him in fighting against PayPal by using his high profile as a former WSOP Main Event champion. Poker League of Nations founder Lena Evans later became the lead plaintiff in the case.

The complaint, which includes three plaintiffs, alleges that PayPal's terms of service are onerous and one-sided. The latest appellate brief argues that California law works in favor of the plaintiffs, citing prior case law dealing with "unconscionable" contract clauses, which are overly harsh or one-sided results that "shock the conscience."

PayPal's ability to invoke a 180-day freeze on any account it believes may have violated its terms of service is one such example, compounded by the company's allegedly common use of the process.

According to the filing, PayPal often refuses to disclose exactly how or why given users had their accounts frozen and also refuses to allow those customers to submit evidence on their own behalf. The filing also alleges that PayPal sends former customers a tax statement for all the money PayPal has taken from their accounts.

This case may yet drag on for several more months, and if the lower court ruling is reversed, resolution could still take years.

Eric Bensamochan and other attorneys have also launched a parallel effort against PayPal and Amazon, alleging that both companies enforce one-sided terms of service. This lawsuit was filed last year in Singapore, where PayPal's terms of service allow anyone to file a contract dispute against PayPal in a Singapore court.

ACR pro Chris Moneymaker is no longer involved in any legal action against PayPal but he continues to speak out against the company on social media in protest at its contentious business practices.