Irritations

This is just one of many irritations relating to the fact that I recently sold a lump of hi-fi on ebay.  This item was at one time held to be the best preamp in the world, but it has been superseded now, and this particular one had been sitting on my shelf for a while.  So it was time to find it a new home with someone who will enjoy using it.

With ebay it's almost mandatory that you offer PayPal as a payment method.  I have had a PP  account for ages; I don't use it much, mostly it is a means of paying my monthly Spotify sub.  But occasionally I sell things, and the money passes through.   In this case, a bit over 1500 euros.

I get a message as follows, relating to the possible future limitation of my PP account:

"PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening the accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information to help us provide you with secure service. We would like to return your account to regular standing as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.

So I read this and it seems to expect me to infer that extra information is needed to ensure the security of my account, but that's not actually what it says: it wants the information to "help provide me with secure service".  So it could be about security, or more simply, with the provision of any service at all.  The latter is more likely.

They go on to say:

"You have received €1,800 or more in total payments to your PayPal account in this calendar year and are therefore approaching our annual receiving limit of €2,500. PayPal is required by law to comply with European Union Anti-Money Laundering regulations by collecting information from customers when they reach this limit. "

So am I supposed to infer that "our" annual receiving limit is part of some rule that PP apply?  It seems like it, only that's not what the following text implies.  Being required by our lords and masters in Europe to provide extra information when a limit is reached sounds like "our ...  limit" is something imposed on PP by eurocrats.   But I haven't even reached this limit yet.  I suppose the only good thing about this is that by asking well in advance, they potentially avoid limiting the account when the threshold is reached, pending being satisfied that I'm acting legally.

This is nothing but an irritation, and does nothing to deter determined money lauderers.  These meddling interferences in our ordinary lives get right up my nose.

End of rant.