If PayPal requires you to ship an item back as part of resolving your claim, you must pay the return shipping costs yourself — PayPal will not reimburse them.
Buyers who receive a wrong or misrepresented item must pay their own return shipping costs to resolve the claim, which can be a material out-of-pocket expense that reduces the net value of any refund received.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Return Shipping Costs Excluded from Coverage and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →Consumers filing SNAD claims for high-value or heavy items may face significant out-of-pocket return shipping costs that are not recoverable, which could make filing a claim economically unviable for lower-value purchases.
(1) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This exclusion may be scrutinized under FTC Act Section 5 (15 U.S.C. § 45) if it is not clearly disclosed at the point of sale or in the initial program description, potentially constituting a deceptive omission. State consumer protection statutes in California (CLRA, Cal. Civ. Code § 1770(a)(14)) address deceptive representations about refund and return policies. (2)
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