Packaging Corporation of America
Materials
24
out of 100. Number 472 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where Packaging Corporation of America does well
- Arbitration 2 of 20. Few problems found.
- Renewals 4 of 20. Few problems found.
- Data retention 2 of 15. Few problems found.
- No forced arbitration clause and no class-action waiver appeared in any of the three documents reviewed — unusual compared to consumer-facing peers.
- The privacy policy states 'We do not partner with or have special relationships with ad server companies,' and says aggregate statistics shared with business partners 'do not include any personally identifying information.' The B2B Sales Terms, unlike the website terms, cannot be changed unilaterally — they 'can be modified, waived, or amended only by a writing signed by both Buyer and PCA.' The privacy policy also promises an opt-out when information practices change.
If you order boxes or paper from PCA as a business customer, you cannot cancel the order on your own — you need PCA's written permission first.
The fine print
6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.
-
If you order boxes or paper from PCA as a business customer, you cannot cancel the order on your own — you need PCA's written permission first. Cancel without it and you owe them their out-of-pocket costs.
Buyer may not cancel or terminate for convenience, or direct suspension of manufacture (collectively, a 'Cancellation') except with PCA's written consent. In the event of a Cancellation without PCA's written consent... PCA's remedies shall be limited to any reasonable, incidental, out of pocket expenses incurred by PCA as result of such Cancellation.
-
Anything you send PCA through the website or email — even personal information — is not treated as confidential. If it leaks or is grabbed by a third party without their permission, they accept no liability to you.
In no event, however, will the information you provide us be deemed to be confidential, create any fiduciary obligations to you on our part, or result in any liability to you on our part in the event that the information is inadvertently released by us or accessed by third parties without our consent.
-
PCA reserves a blank check to use your information in ways they haven't told you about yet. You only get an opt-out after the fact, and you have to keep checking the site yourself to catch changes.
From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy policy. If our information practices change at some point in the future, we will post the policy changes to the PCA website to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check our site periodically.
-
The website terms can be rewritten by PCA at any time, with no promise of notice to you. (Note: the separate B2B Sales Terms do require mutual written agreement to change.)
PCA reserves the right to change these terms and conditions and change or delete information on this site at any time.
-
Anything you post or transmit to PCA's website — ideas, messages, files — can be copied, shared, and used by PCA for any commercial purpose, forever. Similarly, unsolicited ideas sent to them are deemed non-confidential and nonproprietary.
Any material, information, or other communication you transmit or post to our website will be considered non-confidential and nonproprietary. We retain the right to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate, and otherwise use that material, information, or other communication for any and all commercial or noncommercial purposes.
-
If PCA breaches the contract or ships defective product, the most you can ever recover is what you paid on that invoice — no consequential damages at all. And you lose your right to sue one year after shipment, which is shorter than the usual multi-year window the law gives you.
Under no circumstances shall PCA's liability in aggregate to Buyer for breach of contract or warranty, or commission of any tort, including negligence and strict liability, or indemnity, exceed the invoice price for the involved products. PCA WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, AND BUYER ASSUMES THE RISK OF THESE DAMAGES... Buyer must commence any action at law or in equity against PCA within one year after PCA ships the involved products.
How these were found
PCA is a B2B paper/packaging manufacturer, so there are no consumer accounts, subscriptions, or consumer-facing data products to score — the score is deliberately modest. All three documents were read directly from packagingcorp.com (no mirrors needed): Website Terms of Use (revised December 2014 — notably stale), Privacy Policy (revised October 2021), and Sales Terms and Conditions PDF (revised September 27, 2023). The site references a separate 'PCA Privacy Statement — California' under Doing Business with PCA, but its full text was not retrieved (the linked 'here' on the privacy page resolved to a subsidiary site instead), so California-specific data rights were not scored. The Sales Terms apply to business buyers of packaging/paper, not website visitors.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.