An independent coffee shop in the Yorkshire village of Nether Poppleton recently had its PayPal account shut down after incurring the wrath of the e-commerce giant by stocking beans from communist Cuba.
According to the Independent, family-run York Coffee Emporium - which sells beans online - had its PayPal account closed without warning, meaning money could not be moved in or out.
The firm's owners, Laurence and Philippa Beardmore, were told that the action had been taken because they sell a brand of coffee called Cuban Serrano Superio.
The US, where PayPal is based, has had a strict trade embargo in place on Cuba since 1960, two years after Fidel Castro seized control of the island state.
Despite the fact that the UK has no such embargo in place, a PayPal spokesman told the Independent: "We have determined that as a US company, PayPal and all of its subsidiaries are obliged to comply with specific US government-imposed sanctions, even if these subsidiaries operate outside of the US."
The Beardmores' account has been reinstated but any customers wishing to buy Cuban Serrano Superio have to use the alternative Sage Pay system.