Tech

Greek citizens locked out of PayPal, iTunes during financial fallout

It’s capital control.

Photo of Fernando Alfonso III

Fernando Alfonso III

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If Greece’s crippling financial situation was not bad enough already, citizens of the peninsula have now been prohibited from using Apple’s iTunes and PayPal.

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These two digital services have been banned as part of the government’s effort to prevent money from leaving the country, BuzzFeed reported.  This restriction is known as a capital control.

“We are carefully monitoring the situation in Greece and progress of negotiations between the Greek government and its lenders,” a PayPal spokesperson said in a statement to BuzzFeed. “Due to the recent decisions of the Greek authorities on capital controls, funding of PayPal wallet from Greek bank accounts, as well as cross-border transactions funded by any cards or bank accounts are currently not available. We aim to continue serving our valued customers in Greece in full, as we have for over a decade in this country.” 

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Greek residents voted to not accept an international bailout, the BBC reported.

The Greece financial crisis kicked into high gear Tuesday when the country failed to pay a debt repayment of $1.7 billion to the International Monetary Fund, the New York Times reported

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H/T The Next Web | Photo via Flickr/Wesley Fryer (CC BY 2.0)

 
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