Kass v. PayPal Inc.

Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant-PayPal and others’ motion to compel arbitration in plaintiff’s claim that PayPal mishandled charity donations she made through her PayPal account. While terms of plaintiff’s PayPal account did not include mandatory arbitration clause at time plaintiff became account-holder, record showed that PayPal had amended terms of its account in 2012 to include mandatory arbitration clause and, according to defendants, PayPal emailed plaintiff with notice of mandatory arbitration clause, as well as gave plaintiff timeframe to close her account if she objected to said clause. However, Dist. Ct. could not find that plaintiff had received said notice and opportunity to opt out, where plaintiff flatly denied receiving said email or otherwise agreeing to inclusion of mandatory arbitration clause as part of terms of her account. As such, plaintiff’s denial precluded Dist. Ct. from resolving factual dispute via motion to compel and required Dist. Ct. to set matter for trial.