Discount linked to payment method.

Gaston.La.Brick

I don't want to penalize buyers using PayPal by adding the PayPal fee to the invoice, as some sellers tend to do.
But I do want to give an incentive to buyers for choosing other payment methods, by giving them a % discount when they do. That % discount will of course be lower as the PayPal fee. Both buyer and seller win: buyer pays less, seller receives more.

My suggestion would be: add a % discount option, per payment method. The discount is applied to the order based on the chosen payment method.

Hoddie

That would be against PayPal's terms and conditions, as you're promoting other payment methods above theirs.

Gaston.La.Brick

Thank you for your feedback @Hoddie . Can you point me to the specific paragraphs of the T&C that illustrate this? I tried to find such a statement, but wasn't able to find

Hoddie

Rules about surcharging

PayPal does not encourage surcharging because it is a commercial practice that can penalise the consumer and create unnecessary confusion, friction and abandonment at checkout.

You may only surcharge for the use of our services in compliance with any law applicable to you and not in excess of the surcharges that you apply for the use of other payment methods.

Presentation of PayPal

You must treat PayPal as a payment method or mark at least on par with any other payment methods offered at your points of sale, including your websites or mobile applications.

Calibrick

Also, I don't believe you're permitted to charge for fees on this site... the assumption is you have built these costs into your overall part prices in aggregate (e.g., while you'd lose money on a single $0.001 technic pin, in aggregate across all your sales you'd come out fine with fees built in).

Gaston.La.Brick

@Calibrick , that was just my point: not charging fees. Only giving (an extra) discount when some payment method is chosen, just to avoid this.

Hoddie

What you suggest is not explicitly banned in Belgium under legislation or PayPal's rules, but would appear in my opinion to be indirectly disallowed. It remains legal only insofar as it has yet to be tested.

Courts across Europe are beginning to deal with cases relating to the card payment legislation of 2015. A few have already been decided, including a high-profile case in Germany that permits German retailers to levy a surcharge for PayPal, contrary to official government guidance.

So far as I know, no ongoing or settled case relates to indirectly imposing a surcharge by offering a discount for all other payment methods. A similar scenario under the old legislation was tested and ruled illegal - one of the reasons the most recent directive was introduced was because some European airlines were aggressively trying to find deficiencies in the old directive and related legislation.

If you proceed with the policy and a customer raises a complaint that they've been charged more because they paid by PayPal, you risk a costly intervention from the authorities. The chances of this happening are probably so small as to be insignificant, but the risk is not nil.

The discussion is probably moot as Brick Owl has always seemed to shy away from requests such as this.

Gaston.La.Brick

Thanks @Hoddie for taking the time to bring more insight! But indeed, the discussion is probably not really useful as the platform will not likely take any risk.

I'm not too worried myself: I'm talking about like 2% on average orders of 5 to 10 euro. I'm sure the cases you mention have much higher discounts (price differences) over a much, much, much higher volume of orders. If only I did that kind of volume ;-)