PayPal · Decline codes
What does the PayPal TRANSACTION_BLOCKED_BY_PAYEE error mean?
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PayPal's TRANSACTION_BLOCKED_BY_PAYEE error means the payment was blocked by the merchant's own PayPal Fraud Protection settings. PayPal did not decline the buyer; a rule the seller configured did. The buyer can try another method or contact the store, and the merchant should review its fraud rules if good customers are being blocked.
- PayPal description
- Transaction blocked by Payee’s Fraud Protection settings.
- Type
- Merchant rule
- Who declined
- The merchant's PayPal Fraud Protection settings
- Retry
- Only after the cause is fixed
- Shopper action
- Contact the store or use another method
- Merchant action
- Review your PayPal fraud rules
- PlatformDTC renewal (Smart retry)
- Treated as generic and flagged; PayPal ladder
What PlatformDTC does
PlatformDTC has no specific rule for TRANSACTION_BLOCKED_BY_PAYEE: it is treated as a generic decline and logged as unclassified so the team can review it. With Smart retry on, a PayPal subscription renewal declined this way follows the PayPal ladder: up to 7 attempts, each at least 3 days after the last, moved to the subscriber's next payday when one falls within a week, inside a window of at least 24 days.
Why it happens
A fraud rule the seller set up in PayPal matched this payment and blocked it.
What the shopper can do
Try another payment method or contact the store.
What the store can do
Check which fraud rule fired in PayPal and whether it's too strict for genuine buyers.
For developers
details[0].issue = TRANSACTION_BLOCKED_BY_PAYEE. Don't retry the same request; the same rule will fire.
Frequently asked questions
- Did PayPal decline the buyer?
- No. PayPal says the merchant's own Fraud Protection settings blocked it.
- Can retrying help?
- Only if the rule changes; the same payment will match the same rule.
Sources
- Orders v2 API errors — PayPal
Related
- PAYEE_BLOCKED_TRANSACTION — Payee blocked transaction: the merchant's PayPal fraud tool declined it.
- TRANSACTION_REFUSED — Transaction refused: PayPal refused the request without a specific reason.
- PAYEE_ACCOUNT_RESTRICTED — Payee account restricted: the merchant's PayPal account is restricted.
- TRANSACTION_LIMIT_EXCEEDED — Transaction limit exceeded: the total is over a PayPal transaction limit.
- PAYMENT_DENIED — Payment denied: PayPal declined to process the transaction.
- 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.