Last week PayPal announced its plans to expand its “global purchase protection” beyond tangible goods to include digital products and services including music, books, games, tickets, and software downloads, says Internet Retailer Magazine. Users were informed of the change in policy via email earlier this week. (see email screenshot below, 4th bullet)

          CNET reports the policy goes into effect July 1, which may be why the online PayPal Purchase Protection promise has not yet been updated.According to IR, Tomer Barel, PayPal’s chief risk officer, the amount of intangible goods being purchased by consumers is growing, but he did not share specifics except to say the dollar value of digital goods being purchased has grown about 20% each year.Last year PayPal tested the program in the U.K., and consumers responded positively. CNET quotes Barel as saying, “There is greater piece of mind. We see also, overall, the level of trust that they see in the purchase process, specifically when using PayPal has increased.”This is just one of many changes PayPal has planned, as it separates from eBay later this year to become its own, publicly-traded company. Other changes include updates to the eBay/PayPal operating agreement including non-compete agreements between the two organizations. eBay agrees not to create another payment platform, and PayPal agrees not to create its own marketplace.Insider Take:How does the addition of digital goods protection impact subscription companies? Considering that PayPal, an open, secure, global payment ecosystem, processes 11.5 million payments each day and has 162 million active digital wallets in 203 global markets in 100 different currencies, the impact could be significant, and we see it as a positive move, assuming the news is true.On the consumer side, those who pay for subscription services using PayPal will have recourse within 180 days of their purchase if they are unsatisfied with the deliverables. Let’s say a consumer subscribes to a software service, but has problems downloading or updating the product and cannot find a resolution directly with the provider. The consumer can contact PayPal and ask for a refund. The extended protection could also protect consumers who have been scammed by unscrupulous subscription companies, like those we reported in April.On the company side of things, businesses that are operating above board will not see this as a problem, but rather welcome the additional layer of assistance in resolving customer disputes. This change could also help push skeptical prospective customers over the threshold to convert them into buyers. They will have the subscription company’s own refund policy to guarantee their satisfaction, as well as PayPal’s protection. The change may also help PayPal to be more competitive with other payment platforms like Google Wallet and Apple Pay. {Post was updated at 4:53 Pacific, May 6, to remove the link from the Ecommerce Bytes article and replace it with a screenshot from the actual PayPal email.}