The payments app is freezing and completely removing people from its platform for not reading the user agreement. Problem is, the agreement is 27 pages long…
And based off of some of the terms, you could be next: it prohibits dozens of rather vague activities, like selling or paying for items bought on Craigslist.
Grey area ALERT
Venmo’s restrictions are aimed at keeping payments “between friends” in order to reduce high-risk payments that could result in users getting scammed.
One user was frozen out of his account for selling an old computer for $450 to his friend. Due to the item and payment size, the sale was flagged as “commercial,” which is AGAINST THE RULES.
But experts seem to feel that Venmo’s user agreement is “awful” and “oppressive.”
The agreement also states that “the company has sole discretion to change” restrictions at any time. And according to legal professor, Nancy Kim, “If you can change a contract at any time, it’s not really a contract.”
Basically, Venmo is making the rules up as they go, eyeballing which poop emoji caption constitutes a high-risk purchase, and pulling the trigger without asking questions.