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Re:Root – Programmable bank account for software developers by kuschku on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @05:43PM (#14260432)
> in fact you may have more luck changing the dumb laws if people are truly hurt by them.

But that’s the point.

Cuban Cigars are legal in Germany.

You can legally buy them.

But every payment processor that’s located in the US can not process such a transaction.

Relying on foreign companies for most basic needs means you lose a lot of sovereignty.

Re:Root – Programmable bank account for software developers by run4yourlives2 on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @05:46PM (#14260464)
Given that I've personally bought Cuban cigars with my Amex card last Christmas as gifts, I'm pretty sure your assertion is false.

It's more likely the case that an American credit card holder cannot buy them, even when he is in Germany, because he's subject to American laws, as I would be if I took a box into the US and started selling them.

Re:Root – Programmable bank account for software developers by kuschku on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @05:57PM (#14260552)
No, my assertion is pretty much right.

It went so far that PayPal, VISA and MasterCard ended up threatening several German store chains to stop selling products from Cuba or they’d end all business with the store

It went into national media, and was discussed on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/ka26b/paypal_bl...

Rossmann won against PayPal in court, to this date they don’t offer any payment via PayPal.

They came to an agreement with VISA and MasterCard, where if a sale contains embargoed products, everything but these products can be paid by card, but the embargoed products can not.

Re:Root – Programmable bank account for software developers by adrr on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @06:42PM (#14260871)
Processors don't send l3 data for normal consumer based transactions. How would they know you were buying cuban cigars?