Insolvency of Platform Businesses with Customer Wallets: Locating the Legal Character of the Digital Balance

Introduction : Digital platforms in e-commerce, online gaming, travel booking, and fintech regularly hold money in a manner that is not truly on behalf of the customer. A wallet balance resulting from a cancelled order, a refund held as "store credit," a stake deposited for an online contest, or a balance prepaid into the account of a travel aggregator are each, in effect, a sum of money that has been paid by the customer, and retained by the entity in anticipation of its own further service...