VDARE.com vs. PayPal: An Update (And Some Hopeful News)

11/11/2019

Many, many thanks to VDARE.com readers who have rallied (tax-deductibly!) to help us in our litigation Resistance to the post-Trump Big Tech/Big Media Reign of Terror against immigration patriots.

Up until now, we have told you mostly about our First Amendment suit against Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers for denying police protection to our projected 2017 conference in that city. The great Michelle Malkin, herself a resident of Colorado Springs, wrote a syndicated column on this atrocity here.

We will be updating you on this Colorado Springs situation shortly.

But, there are other situations! Right now, I want to tell you more about our claim against credit card processer PayPal for suddenly and arbitrarily cutting VDARE.com off from receiving donations, after an untroubled business relationship of some 12 years, in August 2017. Our Notice of Dispute, required by PayPal’s User Agreement, is here. [PDF]

I first posted about this matter in June here.

As I anticipated then, PayPal did indeed ignore our Notice of Dispute — no doubt arrogantly assuming that VDARE.com did not have the money to pursue the matter further.

And, of course, we are indeed worried about our donors’ money. But, nevertheless, we were able to file a Demand for Arbitration on August 12. (PayPal’s User Agreement requires that disputes be adjudicated in the first instance by the American Arbitration Association [AAA]). Our Demand for Arbitration is here. [PDF]

I know VDARE.com’s lawyer readers enjoy reading these documents — and generously offering us advice, which we’ve found most valuable! We are represented in this matter by Randazza Legal Group.

Since then:

On September 4, the AAA informed us that it considers our case not under its Consumer Arbitration Rules but under its Commercial Arbitration Rules — requiring a filing fee, not of $200, but of $5,500.

This was a surprise to us because Consumer Arbitration Rules are specified in the PayPal User agreement. But, to avoid unnecessary additional expense, we paid the fee. (As, of course, PayPal was also required to do — but it can afford it).

On September 23, PayPal finally responded to our Demand for Arbitration. Interestingly, it has engaged outside counsel, the Los Angeles office of the global law firm Alston & Bird, perhaps an indication of how serious PayPal is taking this case. But the response was underwhelming.
On October 7, an Arbitrator was selected. A preliminary conference is subsequently held.
On October 31, we received a bill for $15,900 — representing our half of the Arbitrator’s estimate of his time, plus the “final fee” that all litigants who reach a trial must pay.

Needless to say, this sum is a really heavy burden for VDARE.com. (Again, PayPal can afford it — although some shareholder should complain at the annual meeting about this completely unnecessary expense).

Nevertheless, we are paying this bill — but we can do so only because of the generosity of patriot donors like you. Please help us (tax-deductibly) NOW!

The timeline going forward:

By November 21, our lawyers will file by a brief responding to various issues, especially why California law should apply. (Political discrimination is illegal under California state law). PayPal will have a month to respond (i.e. by December 20) and our lawyers then have two weeks to reply (i.e. by January 3, 2020).
A hearing before the Arbitrator has been scheduled for January 23 2020

Obviously, this process is hugely expensive and time-consuming — to say nothing of distressingly unpredictable.

But, VDARE has embarked upon litigation now because we have no choice. Like the American immigration patriot movement in general, we have entered what the Chinese military theorist Sun Tzu called “death ground” — we must fight or be completely demonetized, deplatformed and driven out of the public square.

American patriots have rights. We simply have not been organized to enforce them. We must show that attacking us is not costless.

And, note that VDARE.com’s standing up to what PayPal is not just on behalf of ourselves alone. It will have repercussions right across the patriotsphere.

Indeed, I hope I can already report a little good news. Recently, I have been told that a completely innocuous paleoconservative academic group has been arbitrarily cut off by PayPal without warning, again after an untroubled business relationship that went back for years.

But, in this case, PayPal allowed the group to contact and transfer its recurring donations. In contrast, PayPal did not allow VDARE.com any chance to contact and transfer our recurring donors, with the result (among other problems) that the subscription base of our VDARE Quarterly magazine was destroyed. This is a major point in our claim against PayPal.

I’d like to think that PayPal’s lawyers told its Social Justice Warrior staff: hold on here, we don’t need this too.

([Re-])subscribe to the VDARE QUARTERLY here!

And please donate to our Legal Defense Fund — we’ll be making more announcements soon!

(And, if you’re particularly interested in our PayPal or Colorado Springs litigation, you can earmark your donation using the dropdown menu).

Thank you — on behalf of VDARE.com and what the Founders called “our posterity.”

Sincerely,

Peter Brimelow is the editor of VDARE.com. His best-selling book, Alien Nation: Common Sense About America’s Immigration Disaster, is now available in Kindle format.

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