Hmm, as far as I understand PayPal's classification, there is "crowdfunding" (money used to finance - more or less - every step of the project, and the outcome of it all not being guaranteed), "pre-selling" (company has other sources for conducting its business, and sells additional items, which it is certain to deliver, given that the underlying effort is already covered by those other sources), plus presumably a number of other categories not relevant in this case.

According to this scheme, the Neo900 project would be very much "crowdfunding". As I understand it, it is PayPal considering us doing "pre-selling", which causes them to apply those restrictions.

Again, to my understanding, the principal difference is that crowdfunding is a "best effort", where all parties involved accept the possibility of failure, while any form of regular sales, which would include "pre-selling", considers failure to deliver in itself as a breach of contract.

If PayPal were to consider us as "crowdfunding", it seems that they would not impose such crippling restrictions.

So I'm afraid you may have sent a message that could be understood as being quite contrary to what you have probably intended to express.

When clarifying this, perhaps it is best not get too hung up on specific terms, but rather focus on the underlying concept: the funds sent through PayPal are expected to be used by Neo900 UG (e.g., for purchases, remuneration, services, taxes) long before any goods can possibly be delivered, the parties involved trust each other to act in good faith, and nobody has any reason to expect PayPal to exercise any oversight.

Disclaimer: Joerg has the final authority on Neo900 UG's official interpretation of all this. Alas, he's probably sound asleep at the moment, and I'm commenting without first checking with him because I think there is a risk of proliferating misconceptions.

- Werner