PayPal · Decline codes
What does the PayPal PAYEE_BLOCKED_TRANSACTION error mean?
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PayPal's PAYEE_BLOCKED_TRANSACTION error means the payment was declined by the merchant's PayPal fraud tool, Fraud Protection or Chargeback Protection, because of potential fraud risk. PayPal's advice to the merchant: "Please review your fraud settings." The buyer can use another method; the merchant should check whether its settings are blocking genuine buyers.
- PayPal description
- Declined by fraud tool (Fraud Protection/Chargeback Protection) due to potential fraud risk. Please review your fraud settings.
- Type
- Merchant rule
- Who declined
- The merchant's PayPal fraud tool
- Retry
- Only after the cause is fixed
- Shopper action
- Use another method or contact the store
- Merchant action
- Review your PayPal fraud settings
- PlatformDTC renewal
- Paused, not blamed on the customer; merchant alerted; retried automatically
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC treats PAYEE_BLOCKED_TRANSACTION as the store's own PayPal account refusing the payment, not the customer's decline. A renewal that hits it is paused: the customer is not emailed or asked to update anything and no failed attempt is counted. It is retried automatically, at most every 12 hours, and the dashboard alert "PayPal is refusing renewals for N subscriptions" links the merchant to payment settings so the PayPal fraud settings can be reviewed.
Why it happens
The seller's PayPal fraud tool judged the payment risky and declined it.
What the shopper can do
Try another payment method or contact the store.
What the store can do
Review the fraud settings in your PayPal account, as PayPal suggests.
Watch whether genuine repeat customers are being caught.
For developers
details[0].issue = PAYEE_BLOCKED_TRANSACTION. Retrying the same request will meet the same fraud decision.
Frequently asked questions
- Is PAYEE_BLOCKED_TRANSACTION the buyer's bank?
- No. PayPal says it's the merchant's fraud tool.
- What's the difference from TRANSACTION_BLOCKED_BY_PAYEE?
- Both point to the merchant's fraud settings; PayPal returns them as separate issues with slightly different wording.
Sources
- Orders v2 API errors — PayPal
Related
- TRANSACTION_BLOCKED_BY_PAYEE — Blocked by payee: the merchant's own PayPal fraud settings blocked the payment.
- TRANSACTION_REFUSED — Transaction refused: PayPal refused the request without a specific reason.
- PAYMENT_DENIED — Payment denied: PayPal declined to process the transaction.
- TRANSACTION_LIMIT_EXCEEDED — Transaction limit exceeded: the total is over a PayPal transaction limit.
- 0100 — Referral: the card's bank wants the cardholder to contact it before it approves.
- 0390 — Account not found: the bank has no account matching these card details.
- 0500 — Do not honor: the card's bank refused the payment and gave no reason.
- 0580 — Unauthorized transaction: the payment isn't authorized for this card.