Paypal is the new the ally of Netflix in fighting against virtual private network services (VPN).

The worldwide online payments company has started to cut off support for its customers using Paypal in paying off VPN providers due to copyright infringement concerns and accessing content illegally using a VPN. It means that users cannot pay using their PayPal account for the VPN service, needing to unblock Netflix USA content.

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VPNs let users access the Internet through an encrypted connection. VPNs make it harder for companies (and governments) to eavesdrop on users’ online activity or to home in on their identity or location. In short, they can better protect a person’s online privacy. There are hundreds of site-unblocking services available that allow users to tunnel into a country as though they were physically there. Many use these services to bypass copyright blocks and service limitations from streaming services like Netflix.

Previously, Netflix announced that it is finally going to crack down on VPN users, and it managed to stop them from circumventing geo blocks. But most VPN providers have been quick to react, responding with measures that countered Netflix’s actions.

PayPal has contacted one VPN service via email, Canadian UnoTelly, with the news that it would not allow any payments on account of copyright concerns. This is a temporary victory for Netflix though, as UnoTelly advised customers to change their payment options from PayPal to credit cards, according to BGR. 

Although PayPal’s excuse of trying to prevent copyright infringement is not wrong at all, its decision to block payments is not necessarily right. A lot of consumers use VPN for entirely different purposes than Netflix, and they would not be able to use PayPal for payments either.

A spokesperson for PayPal said that the company needs to company with laws set by governments and regulatory agencies. The company will not allow the use of its service for transactions that infringe copyrights or other proprietary rights, ZDNet reported. 

It is still unclear how many VPN services are affected now. It is also not known so far how aggressively PayPal is going to go after online services that allow their users to bypass geo-restrictions.