from Hacker News

The SaaS founders are blocking their Russian customers

by hamza__nouali on 3/3/22, 8:59 PM with 3 comments

Hi everyone,

In the last few days, I started to see many founders from the US and the EU claiming they've blocked their Russian customers even though there is nothing mentioned in their policy and their terms of use.

According to this, can the Russian customers sue those founders?

What about the GDPR rules that prevent websites from tracking visitors' locations?

  • by mytailorisrich on 3/3/22, 9:31 PM

    If the customer is an individual that may also be unlawful racial discrimination as the definition, at least the EU/UK, includes nationality.

    Now, suing a company in a foreign country is no walk in the park.

  • by verdverm on 3/3/22, 9:28 PM

    Most TOS have room for cancellation by the vendor. They could also refuse to renew their service. Customers could try going to court maybe?

    GDPR is for the EU, which Russia is not a part of, so it doesn't apply. Even so, GDPR allows for monitoring IP addresses, for example to ban an abusive IP.

  • by NmAmDa on 3/3/22, 9:30 PM

    GDPR applies to EU citizens and residents and I don't think it prevents tracking for the purpose of blocking.