Wallapop requires power of attorney to Mangopay to use its wallet

Wallapop blocks the wallet for anyone who doesn’t sign powers of attorney to Mangopay

Why can’t you move the money in your Wallapop wallet without first signing a power of attorney? The official explanation chains together a European directive, a payment gateway based in France and Luxembourg, and four checkboxes you have to tick on screen. If you don’t tick them, the continue button won’t activate. And without the paperwork, there’s no transfer.

The case documented in July 2026 by a seller sums up the logjam. Her identity was already verified, but when she entered the wallet the app asked for verification again. When she tapped it, instead of personal details a request appeared for Wallapop to act as her representative before Mangopay. According to its description, that power includes changing contact details, registering or modifying external accounts, executing payments and checking the balance and transactions. Mandatory, and with an expiry date: every 180 days or after each withdrawal.

What Mangopay is and what role it plays in payouts

Mangopay is not some makeshift app. It is a payment institution operating from France and Luxembourg. When someone buys, Wallapop transfers the amount to Mangopay and Mangopay credits it to the seller’s account, which explains the two- or three-day delay many take as normal. On the other side of the scales is the handover: providing both sides of your ID to an intermediary platform that also stores transactions from other second-hand sites unrelated to Wallapop.

The regulatory alibi: identity and money laundering

The line from the industry is that verification is not a whim: European anti-money-laundering rules require identifying anyone who sells online before transferring funds to a bank. The process tightens when you withdraw money, top up the wallet or change bank details. The awkward question remains: why does that identity check come with a power of representation and a six-monthly renewal that were not among the conditions of the original sign-up.

At what point does Wallapop report to Hacienda (Spain’s tax agency)?

The other front is tax. Once you exceed 30 transactions or €2,000 in a year, the platform reports the data to the tax authorities. A low threshold that turns domestic selling into an issue with a trail. Hence the advice repeated until people are sick of it: deal in person and in cash, especially if you go over those figures.

What sellers do: cash, in person and outside the app

The reaction is unanimous in direction, not in anger. Withdraw the balance as soon as possible — in case a report blocks the account with money inside —, agree to meet in person and take cash. For small-scale selling, between shipping costs and insurance the transaction becomes so expensive it is not worth it. Textbooks, new clothes with tags, collector’s items: what once looked for a buyer on the app ends up donated to a library or left next to a dumpster. The amounts trapped are of all kinds: some had 400 euros held back by Mangopay’s conditions.

A process designed to shield the transaction has ended up scaring off the most harmless part of the market. The payment gateway is left clean of suspects. The wallet, too. Of money.