Merchant Payment Service
Agreement
FOR NON-SINGAPORE RESIDENTS, PLEASE TAKE NOTE
OF THE NOTICE FOR NON-SINGAPORE RESIDENTS.
PLEASE
READ SCHEDULE 1, WHICH CONTAINS IMPORTANT REGULATORY DISCLOSURES.
Last updated: January 3th, 2024
This Agreement is entered into
between:
● PIPO (SG) Pte. Ltd., a company incorporated in Singapore with
registered number 201942693R, having its registered office at 1 Raffles Quay,
#26-10, South Tower, Singapore 048583 and licensed by the MAS as a major
payment institution under the Payment Services Act 2019 of Singapore (“PSA”)
to carry on: (i) account issuance service; (ii) domestic money transfer service;
(iii) cross-border money transfer service; (iv) merchant acquisition service
and (v) e-money issuance service (“PIPO”,
“we”, “us” or “our”). For the
avoidance of doubt, it is PIPO (and not any other Affiliate of PIPO) that holds
the licence under the PSA; and
● Merchant (“you”, “your” or “Merchant”);
(each a “Party”, and collectively, “Parties”).
1.
Definitions
1.1.
Capitalized terms, which are not otherwise defined in the
body of this Agreement, have the following meanings:
|
“Account User” |
means any person who is allowed
access, by you, to our Services or your account with us through the Platform. |
|
“Affiliates” |
of a Party means any person
directly or indirectly controlling, controlled by or under common control
with that Party (but only for so long as control exists), where “control”, “controlled
by” or “under common control” means the possession, directly or indirectly,
of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management, operating
policies, or assets of that person, whether by way of ownership of its voting
or equity securities or assets, or by way of ownership of rights to appoint
or remove a majority of its board of directors, or by way of arrangements set
forth in articles of association, contracts, management agreements, voting
trusts, or otherwise, and where “person” means any individual, corporation,
partnership, joint venture, association, trust, other entity or group. |
|
“Agreement” |
means this Merchant Payment
Service Agreement, including its schedule(s) (if any), as amended from time
to time. |
|
“Applicable Laws” |
means any and all applicable
laws, statutes and regulations, and any and all directives, notices,
guidelines codes, practice notes, circulars, policy statements, rules,
ordinances, orders, requests, requirements, judgements, decrees or writs (in
each case whether or not having the force of law) of any governmental,
regulatory or judicial body or agency having jurisdiction over any of the
parties to this Agreement or any of the subject matters of this Agreement,
including, without limitation: (a)
the PSA and all subsidiary legislation pertaining to
the PSA, as the same may be amended, supplemented or replaced from time to
time; (b)
the Guidelines; (c)
any directives, notices, guidelines, codes, practice
notes, circulars, policy statements, rules, requests or requirements (in each
case whether or not having the force of law) from time to time published or
issued by MAS, as the same may be amended, supplemented or replaced from time
to time; and (d)
all laws, statutes, regulations, directives, rules,
directions, codes, ordinances, judgements, decrees, writs or orders enacted
or issued in relation to anti-money laundering and countering the financing
of terrorism. |
|
“Balance Transaction Monies” |
means the Sale Proceeds minus
any fees and charges which the Buyer and the Merchant agree will be deducted
from the Sale Proceeds before they are received by PIPO. |
|
“Business
Day” |
means a day which is not a
Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday and on which banks are open for business
in Singapore. |
|
“Buyer” |
means the buyer of the Merchant’s
products and/or services via the Platform. |
|
“Confidential
Information” |
means each Party’s information,
including without limitation the terms of this Agreement, and in the case of
PIPO’s Confidential Information, the rates at which we provide our service,
technical information and any information disclosed or being disclosed in the
future by us to the Merchant related to the provision or use of the Services
that is designated as confidential or that reasonably should be understood to
be confidential given the nature of the information and the circumstances of
disclosure. |
|
“Designated
Settlement Account” |
means the bank account or the
account opened with a third
party payment service provider designated
by the Merchant pursuant to Clause 4.8 of this Agreement, or such
other accounts as notified by the Merchant and accepted by us from time to
time. |
|
“E-Wallet” |
means an electronic wallet
issued by us in which Balance Transaction Monies may be held. |
|
“E-Wallet Services” |
means our provision of the E-Wallet
and maintenance thereof. |
|
“Fees” |
has the meaning given in Clause 5.3. |
|
“Force Majeure Event” |
means events beyond a Party’s
reasonable control (whether or not reasonably anticipated), and which renders
impossible the performance of such obligations, including without limitation
to insurrection, war, riot, strikes, labour stoppages or slowdowns,
explosion, nuclear incident, fire, flood, earthquake, pandemic, the onset of
infectious diseases, issuance of quarantine or other prohibition or restrictive
orders or requirements by any governmental or public authority, change of
law, national or regional shortage of adequate power or telecommunications or
transportation, or cyber-attacks, internet service provider failures or
delays, or denial of service attacks, or other catastrophic event of a
similar nature. |
|
“Guidelines” |
means the MAS E-Payments User
Protection Guidelines (effective 5
September 2020) as amended, supplemented or replaced from time to time. |
|
“Intellectual
Property” |
means intellectual property,
which includes but not limited to patents, utility models, rights to
inventions, copyright and neighbouring and related rights, moral rights,
trademarks and service marks, business names and domain names, rights in
get-up and trade dress, goodwill, trade
secret and the right to sue for
passing off or unfair competition, rights in designs, rights in computer
software, database rights, rights to use and all other intellectual property
rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all
applications and rights to apply for and be granted, renewals or extensions
of, and rights to claim priority from, such rights and all similar or
equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or
in the future in any part of the world. |
|
“Losses” |
means any losses, damages, loss
of opportunity, liabilities, claims, actions, suits proceedings, judgements,
demands, costs, expenses (including without limitation fees and expenses of
legal and other professional advisers on a full indemnity basis, exchange
expenses and all other out-of-pocket expenses), disbursements, fees,
interests, commissions, charges, taxes, fines, penalties, duties, and/or any
other losses, liabilities and/or costs of whatsoever nature and howsoever
arising. |
|
“MAS” |
means the Monetary Authority of
Singapore. |
|
“Merchant” |
means the seller of the
products and/or services on the Platform. |
|
“Network
Rules” |
means any standards,
procedures, rules, regulations, programmes or requirements of, or issued by
internationally recognized debit or credit card brands including without
limitation China Union Pay, VISA, MasterCard, JCB, American Express, Diners
Club and such other cards as PIPO may agree to process from time to time,
including but not limited to the Payment Card Industry Data Security
Standards. |
|
“Payee” |
has the meaning given in Clause 5.13.1(e). |
|
“Personal
Data” |
means any information related to a “data subject”; or
any information which falls within the scope of “personal data”, “personal
information” or “personally identifiable information”, including any
materially similar or analogous concept or definition under the Applicable
Laws. |
|
“Platform” |
means TikTok Shop. |
|
“Platform
Provider” |
means the provider of the
Platform, TikTok Pte. Ltd., a company incorporated in Singapore with
registered number 201719908M and having its registered office at 1 Raffles
Quay, #26-10, South Tower, Singapore 048583. |
|
“PSA” |
means Payment Services Act
2019, as may be amended from time to time. |
|
“PSP
Agreement” |
has the meaning given in Clause
13.1. |
|
“Revolving Balance” |
means a minimum sum of money
(in such currency specified by us) as stipulated by the Platform Provider,
and which is notified by us to you from time to time. |
|
“Safeguarding
Institution” |
means any bank or financial institution referred to in paragraph (c) of the
definition of “safeguarding institution” in Section 23(14) of the PSA which
is appointed by PIPO to safeguard the Balance Transaction Monies in
accordance with Section 23 of the PSA. |
|
“Sale
Proceeds” |
means the proceeds of sale of
the Merchant's products and/or services on the Platform. |
|
“Sanctions” |
means (a) the economic sanctions maintained under the laws and regulations
of the United States of America, including, without limitation, the sanctions
administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign
Assets Control (“OFAC”); (b) the
sanctions maintained by the United Nations (“UN”); (c) the sanctions maintained by the European Union; (d) the
sanctions maintained by Singapore; (e) the sanctions maintained by the
government of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) (including, without limitation, those administered by Hong
Kong, the People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Public Security (China),
and the Ministry of Commerce (China)); and (f) any other sanctions maintained
by any governmental or regulatory body or authority from time to time under
the Applicable Laws. |
|
“Sanctioned Jurisdiction” |
means the jurisdictions that are subject to U.S. sanctions administered by
OFAC and/or sanctions administered by the UN, the European Union, Singapore,
the government of the PRC (including Hong Kong) and/or any jurisdiction that
is subject to sanctions administered by any regulator from time to time under
the Applicable Laws. |
|
“Sanctioned Person” |
means any individual, entity, or government that is the target of sanctions
(a) administered by OFAC (including, without limitation, those persons on
OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List) as well as
any individual or entity that is located or resident in or organized under
the laws of a Sanctioned Jurisdiction, and/or (b) imposed by the UN, and/or
(c) imposed by the European Union, and/or (d) imposed by Singapore (including
those found on MAS’ lists for designated individuals and entities accessible
on MAS’ webpage at: https://www.mas.gov.sg/regulation/anti-money-laundering/targeted-financial-sanctions/lists-of-designated-individuals-and-entities), and/or (e)
imposed by the PRC (including, without limitation, those sanctions
administered by Hong Kong, the People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Public
Security (China) and the Ministry of Commerce (China)), and/or (f) imposed by
any governmental or regulatory body or authority from time to time under the
Applicable Laws. |
|
“Services”,
and each a “Service” |
means the service(s) that you
elect to be provided and which we agree to provide you under and subject to
the terms of this Agreement, including the E-Wallet Services and the payment
processing services provided by us via the use of one or more Third Party PSPs
(or such other means as we consider appropriate) to facilitate the
Transactions conducted on the Platform, which includes but is not limited to
the following: (a)
receiving or arranging for the receipt of Balance
Transaction Monies from the Buyers via a Third Party PSP and thereafter
sending or arranging for the sending of the monies (after deducting the
relevant fees, including but not limited to any applicable operating agency
fees, logistic fees, and any fees charged by the Platform and any other
deductions as you agreed with relevant service providers from time to time)
to the Designated Settlement Account; (b)
holding Revolving Balance in your E-Wallet for the
benefit of the Platform Provider, and transferring the Revolving Balance or
part thereof to Platform Provider on the Platform Provider's instructions; (c)
where applicable, issuance of a payment account to the Merchant held
in the name of the Merchant, and that payment account is used for the
initiation of a payment order or the execution of a payment transaction, or
both, and/or the payment account enables money to be placed in and withdrawn
from the payment account; and (d)
where applicable, making the necessary currency exchanges to settle
the Balance Transaction Monies from the Buyer to the Merchant. |
|
“SIAC” |
means the Singapore
International Arbitration Centre. |
|
“SIAC
Rules” |
means the Arbitration Rules of
the SIAC for the time being in force, which rules are deemed to be
incorporated by reference in this Agreement. |
|
“Third Party PSP” |
means the third-party payment
service provider, payment gateway or such other financial institution engaged
by us to process or settle Transactions. |
|
“Transaction” |
means any transaction that
relates to the Merchant selling products and/or services on the Platform, or
which we may process for or on your behalf under our Services, including but
not limited to: (a)
the transaction made between a Merchant and a Buyer,
for the payment by a Buyer for products and/or services sold on the Platform
by a Merchant; (b)
the receipt of monies for the provision of such
products and/or services by a Merchant and any refunds to the Buyer; (c)
(where you are provided the E-Wallet Services) any
transaction made on your E-Wallet. |
|
“Trust Account” |
has the meaning given in Clause
6.1. |
2.
Overview of Agreement
2.1.
This Agreement sets out the terms and conditions
regarding your use of the Services as a Merchant. You may not access or use the
Services unless you agree to abide by all of the terms and conditions set out
in this Agreement.
2.2.
Unless
otherwise indicated or the context requires otherwise, reference to PIPO, us,
our, or we include our Affiliates that are involved in providing the Services.
3.
Acceptance of Agreement
3.1.
Prior to using our Services, you acknowledge that you
have read and agreed to the terms and conditions set out in this Agreement.
3.2.
We may amend this Agreement from time to time by
publishing an updated version of this Agreement on the Platform, which shall
take effect immediately upon posting on the Platform. You agree to be bound by
any subsequent amendments which may be made to this Agreement, based on your
continued use of our Services.
4.
Your Account and Our Services
4.1.
Before using any Service and before an account with us is
created for you, you must register as a Merchant with the Platform Provider.
4.3.
You agree to provide all information and documents to our
satisfaction and assistance to us in order to facilitate the approval of the provision
of any Service to you, including but not limited to:
●
your name, your registration number, your registered
address and principal place of business, proof of incorporation (with date and
place) and supporting documentation;
●
information about you and your beneficial owners,
directors, executive officers, and authorised persons such as full name
(including any aliases), unique identification number, nationality, date of
birth, residential address and supporting documentation;
●
documentation such as financial accounts and statements,
and other information on your business model, shareholding and operating
history;
●
for individual Merchants, your legal full name (including
any aliases), date of birth, nationality, residential address, contact
information, unique identification document type and number;
●
supporting documentation; and
●
any other information and documentation as reasonably
required by PIPO from time to time.
4.4.
You acknowledge and authorise us to take other
supplementary customer
due diligence measures for you in order to comply with our anti-money
laundering and counter-financing of terrorism obligations, including, obtaining any additional information about
you (including without limitation information set out under Clause 4.3 above) from other third parties,
including without limitation the Platform Provider and credit reporting
agencies. You agree to take reasonable steps to ensure that any information
provided to third parties, in particular, the Platform Provider, remains
current, accurate and complete.
4.5.
Our determination on whether to provide you with any
Service is final. For the avoidance of doubt, we may in our sole and absolute
discretion agree to only provide you a particular Service, and not another
Service nor all Services, and you acknowledge that our willingness to provide
you such Service does not oblige or compel us to provide you any other Service
nor all Services. We are not obliged to (but may elect to) provide you with
specific details regarding any failure to satisfy merchant due diligence and
anti-money laundering checks and compliance requirements.
4.6.
Until we have approved the provision of a Service to you,
the Service will be made available to you on a preliminary basis only. You
agree that any Transaction prior to the approval of the provision of the
Service to you is undertaken at your own risk, and such Transactions may be
cancelled or reversed if approval is not provided by us to provide the Service to
you.
4.7.
In the event that we do not approve to provide a Service
to you within a reasonable time period (determined by us in our sole and
absolute discretion), we reserve the right to immediately stop providing any or
all Services to you and terminate this Agreement with immediate effect. Upon
such termination, we may cancel or reverse any Transaction.
4.8.
Prior to and whilst using any Service, you shall open and
maintain at all times, at least one bank account or an account opened with a
third party payment service provider in your name (“Designated Settlement Account”) which shall be designated for
purposes of clearing and settling Transactions, as well as for payment of any
fees and charges as provided in this Agreement, and you shall inform us of any
change in the particulars of the Designated Settlement Account which may impact
your ability to comply with this Agreement (including without limitation the
location of the branch at which such account is held). We reserve the right to reject
any account as a Designated Settlement Account for compliance with Applicable
Laws, or our policies and procedures. Any change to any Designated Settlement
Account shall take effect only after the same has been approved and confirmed
by us. Any Designated Settlement Account should be
5.
Our Provision of Services and Our
Rights
5.1.
Subject to our approval of provision of a Service to you,
we will provide you with:
●
access to the Service; and
●
support to resolve issues relating to your use of the
Service.
5.2.
You acknowledge and agree that, notwithstanding anything
to the contrary in this Agreement, in providing any Service we may enter into
agreements with one or more Third Party PSPs which in turn will also directly provide
payment processing services to you. For more information regarding your
relationship with such Third Party PSP(s), please see Clause 13 (Payment Instructions and Processing).
5.4.
We will use reasonable commercial endeavours to undertake
maintenance of the Services so as not to cause disruption to the Services.
5.5.
For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this Agreement is
intended to constitute the taking of deposit by us and your Balance Transaction
Monies shall not be regarded as a deposit under the Banking Act 1970 of
Singapore.
5.6.
Whilst we will investigate any reported errors that you
have communicated to the Platform Provider and attempt to rectify them, you
agree that your ability to recover any monies that you have lost due to an
error may be very limited or even impossible, particularly if we did not cause
the error, or if the funds are no longer available.
5.7.
You acknowledge and agree that if you fail to comply with
Clause 11 (Merchant Representations and Warranties) or Clause 12 (Your Relationship with Your Buyers), and any failure to provide
information and documents upon request, without prejudice to any other rights
we have under this Agreement, we may inform the relevant regulator of the
infringement.
5.8.
We may, in our sole and absolute discretion, refuse to
process any Transaction:
· where we believe that the
Services are being used, whether by you or your Account User(s), for the
purpose of any illegal, fraudulent or unethical activities. In order to comply
with our obligations under the Applicable Laws, we reserve the right to ask for
further information or evidence relating to you or your Account User(s) or the
purpose and/or background of each Transaction;
· if we are required to do so by
any Applicable Laws, or where we have reason to believe that the processing of
the Transaction would violate anti-money laundering and countering the
financing of terrorism laws, Sanctions, other Applicable Laws, or our policies
and procedures; or
· where we in our sole discretion
believe that we may incur significant Losses from processing such Transaction
due to high exchange rate volatility or other circumstances.
5.9.
Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, you acknowledge and
accept that (a) we will not process a Transaction or permit any use of your
account, E-Wallet (where applicable) or any Services that involves a Sanctioned
Jurisdiction, a Sanctioned Person, and/or that is otherwise prohibited by the
Applicable Laws (in each case in our sole and absolute discretion), and (b)
without limiting the foregoing, we shall have no obligation to process (and may
refuse to process) a Transaction or otherwise provide any Services to you if a
Transaction involves a Sanctioned Person and/or a Sanctioned Jurisdiction
and/or is otherwise prohibited by the Applicable Laws (in each case in our sole
and absolute discretion).
5.10. You further acknowledge and
accept that the authorities of relevant jurisdictions may require disclosure of
Sanctions-related information about a Transaction and you acknowledge and
accept that we are not liable if we, or any other person, rejects or delays
performance of a Transaction or discloses information about a Transaction (a)
as a result of a violation of Sanctions that has occurred with regard to a
Transaction, and/or (b) if the performance of a Transaction would cause a
violation of Sanctions to occur, in each case (a) and (b) in our sole and
absolute discretion.
5.11. You agree to promptly provide us
such information and/or documents that we may reasonably request from you from
time to time, whether through the Platform or otherwise, for us to fulfill our
obligations under this Agreement and/or comply with the Applicable Laws. You
agree and acknowledge if we do not receive such information and/or documents
that is satisfactory to us, we may:
· not process or suspend a
Transaction, or withhold monies due to you;
·
suspend our Services (or any part thereof); and/or
·
cancel or reverse any Transaction.
5.12. Balance Transaction Monies
5.12.1. You hereby appoint us as an agent
for the limited purpose of receiving payment of the Balance Transaction Monies from
your Buyers. You agree that a Buyer’s full payment of the Balance Transaction Monies
to us (including where the Balance Transaction Monies are received in your
E-Wallet, if applicable) constitutes final payment to you, extinguishing a
Buyer’s payment obligation to you as if the Buyer had paid you directly, even
if payment is not received by you from us.
5.12.2. With respect to the Balance
Transaction Monies received from your Buyer as a result of a Transaction, you
agree that:
(a)
the Platform Provider has been authorized by you to give
instructions to us with respect to the processing and settlement of the Balance
Transaction Monies, provided that it does so in accordance with its Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop (“Merchant Terms of Service for TikTok Shop”) agreed with you. You should read your Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop carefully in order to understand the scope
of your authorization and the instructions that the Platform Provider may give
in relation to the processing and settlement of the Balance Transaction Monies.
You agree
that we have been authorized by you and have the right to deduct or withhold
(or may instruct any relevant Third Party PSP to withhold) the Balance
Transaction Monies to compensate us, the Platform Provider and/or any affected
users of the Platform Provider or other third parties if we suspect you have
(i) abused coupons, vouchers or other promotional discounts to third parties
and/or encouraging their use in a manner inconsistent with normal use); (ii)
intentionally delivered empty or incomplete parcels to Buyers (fulfilment
fraud); (iii) engaged in any off platform transactions; or (iv) breached this
Agreement, the Merchant Terms of Service for TikTok Shop, any
TikTok Shop Policies and applicable laws and, as a result of such breach, us,
the Platform Provider, a user of the Platform Provider or a third party has
suffered loss or damage;
(b)
subject to sub-paragraph (d) below and the instructions
from the Platform Provider, we shall, and you authorize us to, transfer to you:
(i) in each payment cycle as determined and notified by the Platform Provider,
the Balance Transaction Monies upon receipt of instructions from the Platform
Provider with respect to the processing and settlement of the monies, or (ii) upon
receiving instructions from the Platform Provider that you request to initiate
a withdrawal, the Balance Transaction Monies in an amount requested by you, subject
to limitations set by the Third Party PSP, such as the minimum amount that a
Third Party PSP can process for each transfer;
(c)
we may pay out the relevant Balance Transaction Monies in
a currency that is different from the currency of the Transaction price that we
receive. As we do not offer exchange rate, we will conduct currency conversion
using the foreign exchange rate quoted by our partner banks Third Party PSP
and/or third party data providers, as the case may be, which will only be
available at the point of payout and such exchange rate offered by our partner
banks and/or Third Party PSP will be disclosed to you in such method as
determined by us from time to time, upon completion of the settlement;
(d)
before transferring any Balance Transaction Monies to
you, we shall have the right, and you authorize us, to deduct or withhold any
charges, Service fees due and payable to: (i) us and/or our Affiliates, such as
Affiliate commissions and any fees due and payable to any Third Party PSP; (ii)
the Platform Provider, such as Platform fees , in accordance with the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop; and (iii) any other persons or entities in
accordance with your agreement with such persons or entities from time to time,
such as operating agency fees and logistic fees (if any);
(e)
we will be relieved of any obligation to pay any
unclaimed monies to you, and you will be deemed to have waived any claim in
respect of such unclaimed monies, upon the expiry of 5 years from the date of a
Transaction (or as otherwise instructed by the Platform Provider), or if monies
have been transferred to a relevant competent authority if required by the Applicable
Laws (less any fees, if any and to the extent permitted under the Applicable
Laws);
(f)
we may, and you authorize us to, receive and retain interest
on any monies held by us on your behalf while performing our Services, and you
acknowledge that you will not receive such interest or other profits in
relation to our Services;
(g)
to the fullest extent as permitted under the Applicable
Laws, you will grant us a lien and security interest in all monies that we
receive as a result of Transactions that we process for you. This means that if
you have not paid monies that you owe to us or to any of our Affiliates, we
have a right superior to the rights of any of your other creditors to seize or
withhold funds owed to you for Transactions that we process through the
Services, and to debit or withdraw funds from any bank account associated with
you. Upon our request, you will execute and deliver any documents and pay any
associated fees we consider necessary to create, perfect, and maintain a
security interest in such monies;
(h)
where you are provided E-Wallet Services, references to our
transfer or paying out of Balance Transaction Monies to you shall include our
making available of the Balance Transaction Monies in your E-Wallet.
5.12.3. Other than payments which may be
stopped for compliance checks, you acknowledge that payments will be made to your
Designated Settlement Account or a Payee (as the case may be) within 3 Business
Days (for domestic money transfers) or 7 Business Days (for cross-border money
transfers) upon receipt of monies (as the case may be), or, where permitted
under Applicable Laws, within such period of time as we may agree with you.
5.13. Revolving Balance
5.13.1. You agree and acknowledge that:
(a)
pursuant to the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop, you are required to place a Revolving
Balance with the Platform Provider for certain purposes as may be specified and
notified to you by the Platform Provider and/or us. The Platform Provider will
have full rights to claim receipt and possession of the Revolving Balance upon
any stipulated events of default under the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop, upon which the legal and beneficial title
to the Revolving Balance will vest in the Platform Provider fully. Upon
termination of the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop, you will be entitled to a refund of any
unclaimed Revolving Balance to your Designated
Settlement Account(s);
(b)
you appoint us to act as limited agent to receive and
hold the Revolving Balance in your E-Wallet, and that we are also appointed as
a payment service provider of the Platform Provider and may collect and receive
the Revolving Balance for the benefit of the Platform Provider (subject to the
right of refund under the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop). You further agree that the Revolving
Balance will be held by us in a manner that is consistent with the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop and the terms as described herein, and in
particular that we are authorised to transfer or cause the transfer of the
Revolving Balance (or applicable parts thereof) to the Platform Provider, solely
upon Platform Provider's instruction
without any further authorisation, verification or other acts or deeds. We will
notify you where we deduct your Revolving Balance, in which case Clause 5.13.1(d)(i)
and (ii) shall apply. Without limitation, we are not obliged to verify if an
event of default has occurred and are entitled to take any instructions from
the Platform Provider solely for the transfer of the Revolving Balance as valid
and binding on you;
(c)
we are entitled to deduct any Fees due to us from the Revolving
Balance;
(d)
if your E-Wallet has insufficient Revolving Balance:
(i)
you shall immediately fund your E-Wallet to make up for
the shortfall; and
(ii)
we shall be entitled, and you authorize us, to use an
amount of money that is due to you as Balance Transaction Monies to make up for
the shortfall; and
(e) apart from the foregoing, your
Revolving Balance may not be used for any purpose whatsoever, save that if you
have surplus Revolving Balance such surplus may, if permitted by us, be
withdrawn to your Designated Settlement
Account(s).
5.13.2. Other than payments which may be
stopped for compliance checks, you acknowledge that where any Revolving Balance
is deducted in favour of the Platform Provider, the Platform Provider will receive
the relevant amount of money within 7 Business Days upon receipt our of
relevant instructions from the Platform Provider, or, where permitted under
Applicable Laws, within such period of time as we may agree with the Platform
Provider, in which case you are deemed to have agreed to such period.
5.14. E-Wallet Services
5.14.1. In the event we agree to provide
you E-Wallet Services, you agree and acknowledge that the following terms shall
apply in respect of the E-Wallet Services:
(a)
you shall only use your E-Wallet in the course of your
business. In particular, where you are an individual or sole proprietor, you
agree and undertake not to use your E-Wallet as a means of executing payment
transactions other than in the course of business. Without prejudice to the
generality of Clause 5.8, you acknowledge that we may
reject, delay or suspend any Transaction, and/or freeze or impose restrictions
on your E-Wallet, where your E-Wallet is used as a means of executing payment
transactions other than in the course of business (including where we suspect
the same);
(b)
your E-Wallet may be subject to such limits and
restrictions as we may in our sole and absolute discretion impose from time to
time, including but not limited to limits on capacity, outflows and Transaction
size and frequency;
(c)
unless otherwise permitted by us, your E-Wallet can only
be credited using Balance Transaction Monies, and you will not be able to
credit or otherwise fund or top-up your E-Wallet with other forms of money,
e-money or electronic value;
(d)
you may only withdraw your Balance Transaction Monies
held in your E-Wallet to your Designated Settlement Account(s) and, for the
avoidance of doubt, you may not withdraw your Balance Transaction Monies held in
your E-Wallet in the form of physical currency anywhere;
(e)
you may instruct us to transfer Balance Transaction
Monies held in your E-Wallet to such accounts, third parties and/or payees as
we may approve and notify to you from time to time (“Payees”).
Notwithstanding that a Payee may have been approved by us and notified to you,
we reserve the right to revoke such approval at any time, in which case you
will not be able to transfer Balance Transaction Monies held in your E-Wallet
to such Payee. In order to effect payments to a Payee, you must provide us such
details on the Payee as we may require from time to time, and you acknowledge
that your failure to do so may result in us delaying, suspending or rejecting a
payment request. Without prejudice to the generality of Clause 5.8, you acknowledge that your
instructions to us to pay any Payee may be rejected for any reason, including
but not limited to reasons related to compliance with Applicable Law (including
but not limited to anti-money laundering or sanctions regulations) or our
(including our Affiliates’) policies or procedures. When rejecting a payment, we
will be under no obligation to disclose the reason for the rejection.
6.
Safeguarding
6.1.
To the extent required by the PSA, we will safeguard your
Balance Transaction Monies in suitable financial institutions unless the
exemption conditions as specified in PSA are applicable for you. Your Balance
Transaction Monies will, to the extent required under the PSA, be deposited in
SGD (or in SGD equivalent) into the dedicated and segregated trust account held
by us with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Singapore branch (“Trust Account”) as our Safeguarding Institution. For avoidance of doubt and to
the extent permitted under the PSA, if you are a foreign entity as defined under
Regulation 32(3) of the Payment Services Regulations 2019, we will,
notwithstanding the provisions under this Clause 6, not safeguard your Balance
Transaction Monies under the following cases, and you hereby acknowledge that
your Balance Transaction Monies will not be safeguarded under the PSA in such
cases:
(a)
where we receive Balance Transaction Monies on your
account in respect of a provision of a merchant acquisition service (as defined
in the PSA) to you; or
(b)
where we receive Balance Transaction Monies on your
account in respect of a provision of a cross‑border money transfer service (as
defined in the PSA) to you for the purpose of enabling us to provide a merchant
acquisition service (as defined in the PSA) to you.
6.2.
All Balance Transaction Monies in the Trust Account are,
to the extent required under the PSA, held on trust by us for you. Such monies
in the Trust Account are always kept separately from the monies in the accounts
we use to run our own business, and we will not use the money held in such
accounts to repay any debts that we may owe to any other party.
6.3.
You acknowledge that Balance Transaction Monies will, to
the extent required under the PSA, be deposited in the Trust Account together
with, and commingled with, monies received by us from, or on account of, other
customers of us. As such you acknowledge, agree and accept that it is not
possible to identify any portion of the relevant money in the Trust Account as
specifically belonging to you and money in the Trust Account could be withdrawn
to meet the obligations of other clients. You acknowledge that due to such
commingling, in the event that we become insolvent, there is a risk that there
may be a difficulty identifying Balance Transaction Monies due to you from the other
money belonging to our other customers.
6.4.
You acknowledge that in the event that the Safeguarding
Institution becomes insolvent, there is a risk that you may lose some, or all,
of the Balance Transaction Monies held by us for you.
6.5.
Where we have determined, in our sole and absolute
discretion, that you are not a resident in Singapore and we will issue e-money
(as defined in the PSA) to you, you acknowledge that you have read and you
understand the following notice:
Notice for non-Singapore
residents
PIPO is licensed by the MAS to provide e-money issuance
services. Please note that this does not mean you will be able to recover all
the money you paid to PIPO if PIPO’s business fails.
7.
Unauthorised Use of the Service
7.1.
The provisions in Clause 7 apply to the
extent we provide you with any protected account as defined in the Guidelines
and references to “account” below should be construed accordingly.
7.2.
You are responsible for the
control and use of your account. As stated in Clause 8.1, we are not in the
position (nor are we obligated) to verify the identity or authority of any
person(s) using your account.
7.3.
If you discover a transaction
in your account that you did not authorise, you should contact PIPO immediately
as soon as practicable after discovery of the unauthorised transaction, and
provide us with all information that we may request from you.
7.5.
You agree and acknowledge that
you shall be liable for actual loss arising from an unauthorised transaction where your or your Account User(s)’s recklessness was the primary cause
of the loss (which includes the situation where you or your Account User(s) deliberately
did not comply with Clause 4.9 or Clause 4.10). In order for us
to determine if you or your Account User(s) was reckless, you shall provide us
such information as we may reasonably request. The actual loss that you shall
be liable for under this Clause 7.5 shall be capped at
such amount as we may agree with you from time to time and subject always to the
Applicable Laws (which includes in the case where your account constitutes a
protected account as defined in the Guidelines, you shall be liable up to any
applicable transaction limit or daily payment limit that we have agreed with
you).
·
fraud or negligence by us, our
employee, our agent or any outsourcing service provider contracted by us to
provide our Services;
·
non-compliance by us or our
employee with any requirement imposed by the MAS on the us in respect of our
provision of the Services; or
·
non-compliance by us with any
duty set out in Section 4 of the Guidelines.
7.8.
You shall not be liable for any
loss arising from an unauthorised transaction that does not exceed S$1,000, if
the loss arises from any action or omission by any third party not referred to
in Clause 7.6 above, and does not arise from
any failure by you or your Account User(s) to comply with Clause 4.9 or Clause 4.10.
8.
Your relationship with the
Platform Provider
8.1.
You represent to us and acknowledge and agree that you
have acknowledged and agreed for the Platform Provider to provide us with
information and instructions relating to you and Transactions carried out on
the Platform as required in this Agreement Such information and instructions
shall include, without limitation, those as set out above in respect of the Balance
Transaction Monies received from your Buyer as a result of a Transaction in
order for us to provide the Services to you and the information set out under Clause
4.3 above), and that you will provide such information and
instructions to the Platform Provider for the Platform Provider to provide the
same to us, in order for us to provide the Services to you. You agree and
acknowledge that we may not process a Transaction until we receive such
instructions and/or information that is satisfactory to us. You agree that we
are entitled to rely on and treat all information and instructions received
from the Platform Provider as authentic, true, complete and accurate and deem
such information and instruction as provided by you, without any further
inquiry or verification on our part. Any such information or instructions
received from the Platform Provider shall be deemed conclusive and binding on
you. This includes any
instruction by the Platform Provider to withhold the Balance Transaction Monies
from being settled to your Designated Settlement Account, or to deduct any
monies owed to the Platform Provider from the Balance Transaction Monies.
8.2.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Parties acknowledge and
agree that the Platform Provider is providing the above services as the
Platform Provider and communication network service provider only, and is not
acting as our delegate or agent in connection with any Services that we provide
to you under this Agreement nor providing any payment services to any person.
9.
Our Payment Services to Other
Parties
9.1.
You acknowledge and agree that the Services we provide to
you are not on an exclusive basis. There may also be conflict of interests
arising from us providing services to multiple parties. In particular, you
acknowledge that we may also provide Services to one or more Payees. You
acknowledge and agree to waive all claims arising from conflicts of interests,
and agree that we may take such actions or inactions to fulfil our obligations
under the agreements we enter into with other parties, and we shall not be
liable to you for any Losses as a result of taking such actions or inactions,
as long as they are taken by us in good faith.
10.
Our Representations
10.1. By providing the Services, we
represent that:
●
we are, and will remain during the term of this Agreement,
a business duly organized, registered, validly existing and in good standing
under the laws of the country in which the business is registered;
●
we have full power, capacity and authority to enter into
and perform our obligations under this Agreement; and
●
we will obtain and maintain all necessary licenses,
permits and approvals required for the provision of the Services during the
term of this Agreement.
11.
Merchant Representations and
Warranties
11.1. By using the Services, you
represent and warrant that:
●
you will comply with all Applicable Laws (including the
PSA);
●
in the case of an individual, you are not a minor and
have full power, capacity and authority to enter into and perform your
obligations under this Agreement;
●
in the case of a company, you are, and will remain at all
times, a business duly organized, registered, validly existing and in good
standing under the laws of the country in which the business is registered, and
you have full power, capacity and authority to enter into and perform your
obligations under this Agreement;
●
you will use the Services in the course of your business
only;
●
there is no litigation,
proceeding or investigation of any nature pending or, to your knowledge,
threatened against you or any of your Affiliates, which would reasonably be
expected to have a material adverse effect on its ability to perform its
obligations under this Agreement;
●
you will use our Services in good faith, and shall comply
with all Applicable Laws and regulations, including all anti-bribery,
anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, Sanctions and tax laws
relating to your use of our Services;
●
you will provide us with all necessary information
(including information relating to the Buyers, Payees (if applicable) and the
Transactions), assistance and cooperation for us to provide you with our
Services, and to enable us to comply with all Applicable Laws or obligations
towards any regulators;
●
you will promptly comply with all directions, notices or
requirements issued by us or any of our regulators in relation to the Services,
including cooperating in the conduct of any audit, review, inspection or
investigation in relation to any Transactions, or your compliance with this
Agreement and the Applicable Laws;
●
you are a Merchant and have good title, all necessary
rights, licenses, permits, or approvals required for the offer, advertising,
and sale of your products and/or services on the Platform; your products and/or
services are not prohibited products and/or services, are of merchantable
quality, free from defects and conform to the listed specifications as
communicated on the Platform;
●
neither you (nor any of your Account User(s)), any Payee,
nor any of your beneficial owners, directors, executive officers, authorized
persons, employees or agents is (a) a Sanctioned Person, (b) beneficially owned
by a Sanctioned Person, (c) located or resident in or organized under the laws
of a Sanctioned Jurisdiction, or (d) listed on MAS’ Investor Alert List;
●
the information and materials you provide in connection
with the use of the Services are true, complete, lawful and accurate, and are not
false, misleading or deceptive;
●
you shall fulfill all of your obligations to your Buyers
and will resolve all disputes with your Buyers;
●
you shall not use the Services to defraud us, our
Affiliates or any other person;
●
you shall not use the Services for the benefit of, or in
connection with, a country, organisation or person subject to Sanctions;
●
you shall not use the Services to provide remittance or
domestic/cross-border money transfer services;
●
you shall not use the Services to facilitate money
laundering, terrorist financing and/or other unlawful activities, nor any
activities that will give rise to money laundering, terrorist financing, Sanctions
violation or other regulatory risks to us;
●
you shall not work around any of the technical
limitations of the Services or enable a disabled or prohibited function that interferes,
destroys, modifies or otherwise affects the normal operation of the Services
(e.g. transmit any viruses, Trojan horses or other harmful code);
●
you shall not copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post,
transmit, resell or distribute in any way, any data, content or any part of the
Services;
●
you shall not reverse engineer or attempt to reverse
engineer the Services (unless expressly permitted by law);
●
you shall not transfer any rights granted to you under
this Agreement unless prior written consent has been obtained by us; and
●
you shall not intentionally expose us and/or our
Affiliates, and their respective officers, employees directors, contractors,
partners, agents, subcontractors, representatives etc., to undue risk or
otherwise engage in activities that we determine to be harmful to our Services,
operations, reputation or goodwill.
11.2. You undertake and warrant that
all your representations and warranties in this Agreement will be fulfilled and
remain true and correct at all times. In the event any of them become
unfulfilled, untrue or incorrect, you will promptly inform us of the same and
rectify the situation to our satisfaction (without prejudice to any other
rights or remedies available to us).
12.
Your Relationship with Your
Buyers
12.1. You may only use the Services for
legitimate Transactions with your Buyers and are responsible for your
relationship with them. This includes:
●
identifying and verifying the
identity of your Buyers, as required by Applicable Laws and providing such
information of the Buyers and the Buyers’ Transaction information to us upon
request, to the maximum extent permitted by Applicable Laws;
●
determining your Buyers’ eligibility and authority to
enter into and complete a Transaction. As we would not have any visibility on
knowing whether a Transaction is accurate, complete, or typical for your
business, you are responsible for knowing whether a Transaction initiated by
your Buyer is erroneous (such as a Buyer purchasing one item when they meant to
order another) or suspicious (such as unusual or large purchases, or a request
for delivery to a foreign country where this typically does not occur). If you
are unsure if a Transaction is erroneous or suspicious, please contact your
Buyer before fulfilling or completing the Transaction; and
●
complying with all Network Rules, including accepting
payments using payment card for bona fide legal commercial transactions between
you and your Buyers for products and/or services that are free of liens, claims
and encumbrances.
12.2.
You shall comply with all
know-your-client requirements and other relevant anti-money laundering and
counter-financing of terrorism obligation measures which you are subject to
under all Applicable Laws.
12.3.
You shall obtain representations and
warranties from your Buyers regarding the following:
a)
no part of the funds used by your
Buyers to acquire the products and/or services through the Platform shall be,
directly or indirectly derived from, or related to, any activity that may
contravene any applicable laws, including anti-money laundering laws and
regulations;
b)
no receipt of funds from your
Buyers (and thereafter remittance to you) shall cause us to be in violation of
any applicable laws, including anti-money laundering laws; and
c)
no Buyer is subject to any
sanctions or similar prohibitions imposed by any regulator.
12.4. You shall remain fully
responsible to the Buyers for the products and/or services sold to the Buyers
and the operation, management and administration of associated services you
provide to the Buyers. You shall be responsible for handling, answering,
administering and resolving complaints from and disputes with the Buyers in
relation to the Transactions and shall indemnify and defend PIPO against any
and all Losses arising out of or in connection with any such complaint or
dispute.
12.5. You are solely responsible for
any Losses you incur due to erroneous or fraudulent Transactions in connection
with your use of the Services. Even if we work with you to assist you or law
enforcement authorities in recovering lost monies, we will not be liable to
you, or responsible for your financial Losses or any other consequences of such
fraud.
13.
Payment Instructions and
Processing
13.1. You agree that Third Party PSP(s) may be used as the
channel(s) to settle Balance Transaction Monies from the Buyers, to transfer
Balance Transaction Monies held in your E-Wallet to Payees, the Platform
Provider or your
Designated Settlement Account(s), and acknowledge that we may
enter into separate agreement(s) (each, a “PSP
Agreement”) with one or more of the Third Party PSPs to appoint such Third
Party PSP(s). You undertake to do all things necessary (including entering into
the requisite agreements with the Third Party PSP (where applicable)) in order
to allow the relevant Third Party PSP to process and settle any of the foregoing
transactions, including:
(a)
providing the necessary information and documents to the
Third Party PSP; and
(b)
granting the required rights, licenses and permissions to
the Third Party PSP to allow it to perform its payment processing services.
13.2. You agree and acknowledge that we
shall not be liable for any Losses to you arising from any actions or omissions
of the Third Party PSPs (including any failure on the part of any Third Party
PSP or breach by any Third Party PSP of the PSP Agreement). You agree and acknowledge
that we shall have the sole and absolute discretion in determining whether and
how we shall exercise or enforce our rights against the Third Party PSP
(whether arising in contract, tort, equity or otherwise), and we shall have no
obligation towards you in connection thereto.
13.3. You agree and acknowledge that we
shall not be liable to you for any defaults in payment by a Buyer
13.4. You undertake to promptly
reimburse us, upon request by us, for any over-payments made by us to you in
respect of any Balance Transaction Monies, failing which we shall be entitled,
and you authorize us, to withhold an amount representing such reimbursement
from subsequent settlements to be made to you.
13.5. We shall have the sole and
absolute discretion to determine whether or not to proceed with the settlement
with you
(a)
the settlement is or would be, in our opinion, in
violation of any Applicable Laws or any relevant anti-money laundering and
counter-financing of terrorism policies and procedures of PIPO;
(b)
when you fail to comply with your obligations under
Clause 11 (Merchant Representations and Warranties) or Clause 12 (Your Relationship with Your Buyers);
(c)
PIPO does not actually receive the Balance Transaction
Monies or any other monies in such amount and/or in such currency due to a
default of the Buyer or the default of any third party payment gateway or other
Third Party PSP
(d)
where you do not have sufficient Revolving Balance in
your E-Wallet, in which case we may use such settlement amount (or part
thereof) to make up the shortfall.
14.
Term, Suspension and
Termination
14.1. We will be entitled to suspend or
withdraw your right to use any Service, or to cease or suspend any Service provided
to you, where:
●
we have reasonable grounds to suspect that you are in
breach of any of your representations, warranties, obligations or any provisions
under this Agreement;
●
your failure to comply with Clause 11 and 12;
●
your failure to provide information and documents to our
satisfaction upon request;
●
you are in breach of this Agreement (including without
limitation not having sufficient Revolving Balance in your E-Wallet) and have
failed to remedy such breach within 3 Business Days or such period of time as
we may specify;
●
we have determined that you do not or no longer satisfy
our merchant due diligence and compliance procedure(s) mentioned in Clause 4.2 above in respect of the Service;
or
●
your account with the Platform Provider has been suspended
or terminated.
14.2. This Agreement is effective upon
the date you first access or use any Services and continues until
terminated:
●
by us for convenience upon 2 months’ written notice to
you;
●
by us with immediate effect, if we are notified by the Platform
Provider that you have ceased to be a Merchant on the Platform;
●
by us with immediate effect, if you fail to comply with
Clause 11 (Merchant Representations and Warranties) and Clause 12 (Your Relationship with Your Buyers) or fail to provide any
information or documents upon request;
●
by us with immediate effect, if we determine, in our
absolute and sole discretion, that you are not eligible to use the Services
because of the risk presented to us (including, but not limited to, fraud), you
are unable to satisfy our know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks)
●
you become insolvent or you are
subject to a change of control; if you commit a material breach of this
Agreement and if such a breach if remediable, a failure to remedy such breach
within 5 Business Days of you being notified of the breach;
●
by us with immediate effect, if you commit a material
breach of this Agreement (including without limitation not having sufficient
Revolving Balance in your E-Wallet) and if such a breach is remediable, a failure to remedy such breach within 5
Business Days of you being notified of the breach or such period of time as we
may specify;
●
by us with immediate effect, if we, in our absolute and
sole discretion, determine that (a) we do not possess the relevant licenses,
permits, authorizations, approvals and/or regulatory statuses to provide the
Services to you, or (b) our continued provision of the Services to you would or
would likely cause us to be in breach of the Applicable Laws;
●
by us with immediate effect, if we are requested or
directed to do so by a governmental or regulatory body or authority (such as MAS);
●
in accordance with Clause 4.7; or
●
in accordance with Clause 19.10 (Force Majeure).
14.3. Our termination of the Services
provided to you does not immediately relieve you of obligations incurred by you
under this Agreement. Upon termination of the Services provided to you, you
agree to:
●
complete all pending Transactions; and
●
stop accepting new Transactions.
14.4. Upon termination of the Services
provided to you, you understand and agree that:
●
all Fees and any other financial obligation incurred by
you through your use of our Services prior to termination must be paid to us
within 3 Business Days from the date of termination of this Agreement;
●
all licenses granted to you by us under this Agreement
will cease;
●
we reserve the right (but have no obligation) to delete
all of your information stored on our servers; and
●
we reserve the right to refund or otherwise return
amounts that have been collected from Buyers by us but not paid out to you, in
the event that we are unable or unwilling to make payments to you as a result
of concerns relating to fraud, insolvency, anti-money laundering or other
regulatory or legal requirements.
●
we reserve the right to deduct or
withhold (or may instruct any relevant Third Party PSP to withhold) the Balance
Transaction Monies to be settled with you to compensate us, the Platform
Provider and/or any affected users of the Platform Provider or other third
parties if we suspect you have (i) abused coupons, vouchers or other
promotional discounts to third parties and/or encouraging their use in a manner
inconsistent with normal use); (ii) intentionally delivered empty or incomplete
parcels to Buyers (fulfilment fraud); (iii) engaged in any off-platform
transactions; or (iv) breached this Agreement, the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop, any TikTok Shop
Policies and applicable laws and, as a result of such breach, us, the Platform
Provider, a user of the Platform Provider or a third party has suffered loss or
damage.
14.5. You understand and agree that we
will not be liable to you for compensation, reimbursement, or damages related
to your use of the Services, or any termination or suspension of the Services
or deletion of your information.
14.6. We will remit all remaining
monies owed to you by us within 15 Business Days from the date of termination
of this Agreement. You agree that we shall make deductions from all remaining
monies owed to you by us should you fail to fulfil any of your obligations set
out above upon termination of the Services (which may include collection agency
fees, attorneys’ fees, any applicable interest and other related costs).
15.
Intellectual Property
15.1. We and our licensors exclusively
own all rights, title and interest in all Intellectual Property in the
Services. Our Intellectual Property is protected by copyright, trade secret,
patent and other Intellectual Property laws. Nothing
hereunder grants you any license, transfer, assignment of our Intellectual Property.
15.2. Neither you nor we will imply any
untrue sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation between you and us.
16.1. You may use Confidential
Information solely to perform your obligations or exercise your rights under
this Agreement.
16.2. You will not disclose, or permit
to be disclosed, Confidential Information to any third party without our prior
written consent, except that you may disclose Confidential Information solely to
your employees, Affiliates, agents or professional advisers who have a need to
know and who are bound to keep that information confidential under
confidentiality requirements consistent with this Agreement. You may disclose
Confidential Information to the extent such Confidential Information is
required to be disclosed by law, by any governmental or other regulatory
authority or by a court or other authority of competent jurisdiction, provided
that, to the extent it is legally permitted to do so, you give us as much
notice of such disclosure as possible and, where notice of disclosure is not
prohibited and is given in accordance with Clause
16, you take into account our reasonable
requests in relation to the content of such disclosure.
16.3. You agree to exercise due care in
protecting Confidential Information from unauthorised use and disclosure, and
at a minimum will use at least the degree of care a reasonable person would
use.
16.4. You agree that we may disclose
any information relating to you, the Buyers and the Transactions (whether or
not such information amount to Confidential Information) to our Affiliates
(including the Platform Provider) and Third Party PSPs for purposes of
providing the Services to you, provided that our Affiliates and Third Party
PSPs (a) need to know such Confidential Information for the purpose of us
performing the obligations hereunder, (b) are informed by us of the confidential
nature of such Confidential Information and (c) agree to act in accordance with
Clause 16.
16.5. The foregoing obligations shall
not apply to any information that:
●
was in the public domain at the time it was communicated
to you by us;
●
entered the public domain after the time it was communicated
to you by us through no fault of yours;
●
was in your possession free of any obligation of
confidence at the time it was communicated to you by us;
●
was rightfully communicated to you free of any obligation
of confidence after the time it was communicated to you by us;
●
was developed by your employees or agents independently
of and without reference to any information communicated to you by us; or
●
is expressly permitted to be disclosed under the terms of
this Agreement.
16.6.
16.7. Notwithstanding the foregoing,
you expressly agree that we may disclose any information relating to you, the
Buyers and the Transactions (whether or not such information amount to
Confidential Information) to the extent such information is required to be
disclosed by law, by any governmental or other regulatory authority or by a
court or other authority of competent jurisdiction, and we shall not be obliged
to notify you of such disclosure.
17.
17.1. Please refer to our Privacy
Policy (which we may update from time to time) which explains
how and for what purposes we collect, use, retain, disclose and safeguard
Personal Data that you provide to us.
17.2. To the extent that you process
any Personal Data received from us, you agree that you shall:
●
be compliant with all applicable data protection laws
with respect to any Personal Data provided by us to you;
●
not knowingly perform your obligations under this Agreement
in such a way as to cause us to be in breach of any of our obligations under
applicable data protection laws; and
●
provide such information as may reasonably be requested
by us from time to time concerning the measures that you have taken to ensure
compliance with your obligations under this Agreement and under applicable data
protection laws.
17.3. To the extent that we process any
Personal Data received from you or on your behalf, we will provide you with
reasonable cooperation and assistance in relation to any complaint or request
made in respect of any Personal Data processed by us in connection with the
Services, including by forwarding to you details of the complaint or request,
providing you with any Personal Data relevant to the complaint or request, and
taking steps to correct any errors in the Personal Data we hold in relation to
a person making a complaint or access or correction request, within a
reasonable timeframe.
18.
Limitation of Liability and
Indemnity
18.1. Our Services are provided on an “as
is” “as available” basis, and are subject to:
●
availability of resources;
●
geographic and technical capability of communication
networks including that of the Platform Provider; and
●
you meeting the technical requirements for accessing the
Platform from time to time.
18.2. You understand that we and/or our
Affiliates make no guarantees to you regarding Transaction processing times or
payout schedules. Except as expressly provided for in this Agreement, we make
no other representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied,
including without limitation no representation or warranty (a) that the
Services will meet your requirements or business needs; (b) that the Services
will always be available, accessible, uninterrupted, timely, secure, or operate
without error; (c) of the accuracy, reliability or correctness of any data
provided through the Services; (d) that we will correct any defects or errors
in the Services, API, or our data; and/or (e) that the Services are free of
viruses or other harmful code.
18.3. Nothing in this Agreement shall
operate to exclude or limit either Party’s (or that Party’s employees’ or
agents’) liability for: death or personal injury resulting from negligence;
fraud, deceit or fraudulent misrepresentation; or any other liability which
cannot be limited or excluded by the Applicable Laws.
18.4. You agree and acknowledge that, notwithstanding
Clause 7 (Unauthorised Use of the Service) and to the maximum extent
permitted by the Applicable Laws, neither us nor any of our agents,
representatives, Affiliates, holding companies, subsidiaries, employees,
officers, directors, service providers, and subcontractors will be liable for any
Losses you may incur or suffer from or as a result of:
●
your system or device not working properly during your
use of the Services;
●
your failure to provide us with all necessary information
and render all necessary assistance and cooperation to us for us to provide you
with our Services.
●
our actions or inactions for compliance with the Applicable
Laws (including anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism
laws and Sanctions), or an order or a request from a governmental or regulatory
body or authority;
●
interruptions to or cessation of the Services;
●
any bugs, viruses, harmful code, or unauthorised access
of servers, infrastructure in connection with the Services;
●
the illegal conduct of others;
●
your use of the Services for any activities that are not
compliant with the Applicable Laws, our policies and procedures that have been
made available to you, or agreements that you have with the Platform Provider;
or
●
your inability to use the Services due to reasons within
your sphere of control.
18.5. You acknowledge and agree that
the use of our Services will not create any liability on our part in respect of
the supply of products or services by you to a Buyer and you will remain
directly liable in relation to such supply.
18.6. You agree that under no
circumstances will our liability to you exceed the aggregate of the amount of
fees paid by you to us during the 12-month period immediately preceding the
event that gave rise to your claim for damages.
19.
Miscellaneous
Governing Law and Dispute Resolution
19.1. This Agreement, its subject
matter and its formation, are governed by the laws of Singapore. Any dispute
arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, including any question
regarding existence, validity or termination of this Agreement, shall be referred
to and finally resolved by arbitration administered by the SIAC in accordance
with the SIAC Rules for the time being in force, which rules are deemed to be
incorporated by reference in this Clause. The seat of the arbitration shall be
Singapore. The tribunal shall consist of three (3) arbitrators. The language of
the arbitration shall be English
Entire Agreement
19.2. You agree that this Agreement
constitutes the entire agreement between you and us and supersedes all previous
agreements, understandings and arrangements between you and us, whether in
writing or oral, in respect of its subject matter. This Agreement may be
executed in English and other languages. If there is any conflict, the English
version of this Agreement shall prevail.
Conflict
19.3. If there is any conflict or
ambiguity between the terms of this Agreement and the Merchant
Terms of Service for TikTok Shop, this Agreement shall prevail with respect to the
inconsistency.
Waiver
19.4. A waiver of any right under this
Agreement is only effective if it is in writing and shall not be deemed to be a
waiver of any subsequent breach or default. No failure or delay by us in
exercising any right or remedy under this Agreement or by law shall constitute
a waiver of that or any other right or remedy, nor preclude or restrict its
further exercise.
Severance
19.5. If a court or any other competent
authority finds any provision of this Agreement (or part of any provision) to
be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part provision shall,
to the extent required, be deemed deleted, and the validity and enforceability
of the other provisions of this Agreement shall not be affected. If any
invalid, unenforceable or illegal provision of this Agreement would be valid,
enforceable and legal if some part of it were deleted, the provision shall
apply with the minimum modification necessary to make it legal, valid and
enforceable.
Assignment and Subcontract
19.6. We may assign our rights or
obligations or subcontract our obligations to a third party. You may not assign
your rights or obligations or subcontract your obligations to a third party
without our prior written consent. Should we provide our consent, the third
party must provide reasonable information and assistance to us to satisfy our
know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks and requirements before
using our Services.
Third Party Rights
19.7. This Agreement benefits solely
the Parties to this Agreement and their respective permitted successors and
assigns and nothing in this Agreement, express or implied, confers on any other
person (other than as expressly set out in this Agreement) any legal or
equitable right, benefit, or remedy of any nature whatsoever under or by reason
of this Agreement, or by virtue of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 2001
of Singapore.
No Partnership
19.8. Nothing in this Agreement is
intended to, or shall be deemed to constitute a partnership or joint venture of
any kind between any of the Parties, nor constitute any Party the agent of
another Party for any purpose. No Party shall have authority to act as agent
for, or to bind, the other Party in any way.
Notices
19.9. All notices to us (apart from
notices related to data-related inquiries or complaints which should be
resolved in accordance with our Privacy Policy) must be sent via a message
through the Platform Provider. You acknowledge and agree that all notices in
connection with this Agreement to be sent to you will be sent to you via a
message through the Platform Provider. Any notice shall be deemed to have been
duly received the next Business Day following the notice being
communicated.
Force Majeure
Headings
19.11. The headings in this Agreement
are for convenience of reference only and shall not limit or otherwise meaning
or interpretation of this Agreement.
Schedule 1 – Disclosure for the
purposes of paragraph 18(b) of MAS Notice PSN07
PIPO
works with a large number of Third Party PSPs in order to provide efficient
cost effective currency conversion services and we may not be able to provide
you with the actual or reference market rate information prior to conversion of
a payment request or receipt because this would be offered and determined by
the Third Party PSPs instead. In such event where the applicable exchange rate
is not available at the point of transaction, it will be determined by the
relevant Third Party PSP at a later date.
Schedule 2 - Guidelines
Monetary Authority of Singapore
E-PAYMENTS
USER PROTECTION GUIDELINES
[Amendments to take effect on 5 September
20201]
1 This version of the E-Payments User
Protection Guidelines indicates the amendments which
will take effect
on 5 September 2020.
It has been
published in advance
to facilitate implementation by the industry.
Issue Date : 28 September 2018
Effective Date : 30 June 2019 [Amended on 5 September 2020]
E-PAYMENTS
USER PROTECTION GUIDELINES
1
Overview
and Application of the guidelines
1.1
The E-Payments User Protection Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) cover the following areas:
(a)
application of the Guidelines;
(b)
duties of account
holders and account
users;
(c)
duties of the responsible financial
institution;
(d)
liability for losses
arising from unauthorised transactions; and
(e)
specific duties in relation to erroneous transactions.
1.2
These Guidelines set out the expectations of the Monetary
Authority of Singapore (the “Authority”) of any responsible financial institution (“FI”) that issues or operates a protected account. The Guidelines set out duties
of users of protected accounts. Where expressly stated,
certain parts of these Guidelines do not apply
to any responsible FI in respect
of any credit card, charge
card or debit
card2 it has issued.3 The Guidelines relating
to the resolution of erroneous transactions apply to FIs in relation
to any payment account where such an FI is the FI of the recipient of an erroneous transaction. The terms
“protected account” and “responsible FI” are defined
in these Guidelines.
1.3
The aim of these
Guidelines is to establish a common baseline
protection offered by responsible FIs on a business as usual basis
to individuals or sole proprietors from losses arising from isolated
unauthorised transactions or erroneous transactions from the protected accounts of these account
holders.
2 Debit cards in these
Guidelines refer to the debit
cards that the Code of Practice for Banks – Credit Cards
in the Code of Consumer Banking
Practice by the Association of Banks in Singapore applies
to.
3
Holders of credit
cards, charge cards and debit cards issued
in Singapore currently benefit from liability
apportionment
in the ABS Code of Practice for
Banks – Credit
Cards, and existing
fraud prevention measures
in place. As such,
the liability apportionment set out in the Guidelines do not apply to transactions on credit cards, charge cards and debit cards issued in Singapore.
1.4
These Guidelines provide general guidance, and are
not intended to be comprehensive nor replace
or override any
legislative provisions. They
should be read
in conjunction with the provisions of the relevant legislation, the subsidiary legislation made
under the relevant legislation, as well as written directions, notices, codes
and other guidelines that MAS may issue
from time to time pursuant
to the relevant legislation and subsidiary legislation.
2
Definitions
2.1
For the purposes
of these Guidelines:
“access code” means a password, code or any other arrangement that the account
user must keep secret, that may be required to authenticate any payment transaction or account user, and may include
any of the following:
(a)
personal identification number,
password or code;
(b)
internet banking authentication code;
(c)
telephone banking authentication code;
(d)
code generated by an authentication device;
(e)
code sent by the responsible FI by phone
text message such
as SMS,
but does not include a number printed
on a payment account (e.g.
a security number printed on a credit
card or debit card).
“account agreement” means the terms
and conditions that
the responsible FI and account holder have agreed to that governs
the use of a payment
account issued by the responsible FI to the account
holder;
“account contact” means the contact information that the account
holder provided the responsible FI under paragraph 3.1;
[Deleted on 28 January
2020]
“account user” means—
(a)
any account holder; or
(b)
any person who is authorised in a manner
in accordance with
the account agreement, by the responsible FI and any account holder
of a protected account, to initiate, execute or both initiate and
execute payment transactions using the protected account;
“authentication device” means any device that
is issued by the responsible FI to the account
user for the purposes
of authenticating any payment transaction initiated from a payment
account, including a device that
is used to generate, receive or input
any access code;
“account
holder” means any person in whose name
a payment account
has been opened
or to whom a payment account
has been issued,
and includes a joint account
holder and a supplementary credit card holder;
“bank”
has the same meaning as in section 2(1) of the Banking Act (Cap. 19);
“currency” means currency notes
and coins which
are legal tender
in Singapore or a country or territory
other than Singapore;
“digital
payment token” has
the same meaning
given by section
2(1) of the Payment Services Act 2019;
[Amended on 28 January
2020]
“e-money” has the same meaning
given by section
2(1) of the Payment Services Act 2019;
[Amended on 28 January
2020]
“finance
company” has the same meaning
as in section 2 of the Finance
Companies Act (Cap. 108);
“money”
includes currency and e-money but does not include digital payment tokens;
[Amended on 28 January
2020]
“non-bank
credit card issuer” means a person
who is granted a licence
under section 57B of
the Banking
Act (Cap. 19);
[Deleted on 28 January
2020]
“payment
account” has the same meaning
given by section
2(1) of the Payment Services
Act 2019;
[Amended on 28 January
2020]
“payment
transaction” means the placing, transfer or withdrawal of money, whether
for the purpose of paying for
goods or services
or for any other purpose,
and regardless of whether
the intended recipient of the money is entitled to the money,
where the placing,
transfer or withdrawal of money
is initiated through
electronic means and where the money is received
through electronic means;
[Amended on 28 January
2020]
“protected account” means any payment account that—
(a)
is held in the name of one
or more persons, all of whom
are either individuals or sole proprietors;
(b)
is capable of having
a balance of more than
S$500 (or equivalent amount expressed in any
other currency) at any one time, or is a credit facility;
(c)
is capable of being used
for electronic payment
transactions; and
(d)
where issued by a relevant payment
service provider is a payment
account that stores specified e-money.
[Amended on 5 September 2020]
“relevant
exempt payment service provider” means any exempt payment service provider under section
13(1)(a) to (d) of the Payment Services Act 2019 that
provides account issuance services where each payment
account issued stores
e-money;
[Amended on 5 September 2020]
“relevant payment
service provider” means any major payment
institution as defined
in section 2(1) of the Payment
Services Act 2019
that has in force a licence that
entitles it to carry on a business
of providing account
issuance services or any relevant exempt payment service provider;
[Amended on 5 September 2020]
“responsible FI” in relation to any protected account, means any bank, non-bank credit card issuer, finance
company or relevant
payment service provider that issued the protected
account
[Amended on 5 September 2020]
“sole proprietor” means any business owned by an individual where
the owner is personally
liable for debts and losses of the business;
“specified e-money” has the same meaning given
by section 2(1)
of the Payment
Services Act 2019;
[Amended on 5 September 2020]
“unique identifier” means a combination of letters, numbers
or symbols specified by the responsible FI to the account holder
and is to be provided
by the account user in relation to a payment
transaction in order
to identify unambiguously one or both
of—
(a)
any person who is a party to the payment
transaction;
(b)
any person’s payment account;
[Deleted on 28 January
2020]
“unauthorised transaction” in relation to any protected account, means any payment
transaction initiated by any person
without the actual
or imputed knowledge and implied or express consent of an account user
of the protected account.
2.2
The expressions used in these Guidelines shall, except where expressly defined
in these Guidelines, have the same
meanings as in the applicable Acts in which
the expressions are referred
to or used.
3
Duties of account
holders and account
users
Account holder to provide contact
information, opt to receive all
outgoing transaction notifications and monitor notifications
[Amended
on 25 April 2019]
3.1
The account holder
of a protected account should
provide the responsible FI with contact details
as required by the responsible FI in order
for the responsible FI to send
the account holder transaction notifications in accordance with Section 4. Where the protected
account is a joint account, the account holders should jointly give
instructions to the responsible FI on whether the responsible FI should send
transaction notifications under paragraph 4.4 to any or all the account
holders. The duties
of the account
holders in this Section 3 will apply
to all the account
holders that the
responsible FI has been instructed to send transaction
notifications to.
3.2
The account holder
should at a minimum provide
the following contact
information which must be complete and accurate, to the responsible FI:
(a)
where the account holder
has opted to receive transaction notifications by SMS, his Singapore mobile
phone number; or
(b)
where the account holder
has opted to receive notification by email, his email
address.
3.3
It is the
account holder’s responsibility to enable transaction notification alerts on any device
used to receive
transaction notifications from
the responsible FI, to opt to receive
all transaction notifications for all outgoing
transactions of (any amount) made from the account holder’s protected account,
and to monitor
the transaction notifications sent to the account contact. The responsible FI may assume
that the account
holder will monitor
such transaction notifications without
further reminders or repeat notifications.
[Amended
on 25 April 2019]
Account user to
protect access codes
3.4
An account user
of a protected account should
not do any of the following:
(a)
voluntarily disclose
any access code
to any third
party, except as instructed by the responsible FI
for any purpose including to initiate or execute any payment transaction involving the protected account;
(b)
disclose the access code
in a recognisable way on any payment
account, authentication device, or any container for the payment
account; or
(c)
keep a record
of any access
code in a way that
allows any third
party to easily misuse the access code.
3.5
If the account user keeps a record of any access
code, he should
make reasonable efforts to secure the record, including:
(a)
keeping the record
in a secure electronic or physical location accessible or known only to the account user;
and
(b)
keeping the record
in a place where the record is unlikely to be found
by a third party.
Account user to protect access to protected
account
3.6
An account user of a protected account
should at the minimum do the following where a device is used to access the protected account:
(a)
update the device’s browser4 to the latest version
available;
(b)
patch the device’s operating systems5 with regular
security updates provided by the operating system
provider;
(c)
install and maintain the latest anti-virus software
on the device, where applicable; and
(d)
use strong passwords, such as a mixture of letters, numbers
and symbols.
3.7
An account holder
should inform all account users
of the security instructions or advice provided
by the responsible FI to the account holder.
An account user
should where possible follow security
instructions or advice
provided by the responsible FI to the account
holder.
Account holder to report
unauthorised transactions
3.8
The account holder of a protected account should
report any unauthorised transactions to the responsible FI as soon
as practicable after receipt of any transaction notification alert
for any unauthorised transaction. Where the
account holder is not able
to
4 Examples: Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox
5 Examples: Windows operating system (OS),
Macintosh OS, iOS, Android OS
report the
unauthorised transaction to the responsible FI as soon as he receives any
transaction notification alert
for any unauthorised transaction, the account
holder should if the responsible FI so requests, provide the responsible FI with reasons
for the delayed
report. This includes time periods or circumstances6 where
it would not be reasonable to expect the account holder to monitor
transaction notifications.
The report should be made in any of the following ways:
(a)
by reporting the unauthorised transaction in any communications channel
for such purpose as set out in the account agreement;
(b)
by reporting the unauthorised transaction to the responsible FI in any other
way and
where the responsible FI acknowledges receipt
of such a report.
Account holder to provide information on
unauthorised transaction
3.9
The account holder of a protected
account should within
a reasonable time provide
the responsible FI with any of the following information as requested by the responsible FI:
(a)
the protected account affected;
(b)
the account holder’s
identification information;
(c)
the type of authentication device, access code
and device used
to perform the payment transaction;
(d)
the name or identity of any account
user for the protected account;
(e)
whether a protected account, authentication device, or access code
was lost, stolen or misused and if so:
•
the date and time of the loss or misuse,
•
the date and time that
the loss or misuse, was
reported to the responsible FI, and
•
the date, time
and method that
the loss or misuse, was reported to the
police;
(f)
where any access
code is applicable to the protected account,
•
how the account holder
or any account user recorded
the access code, and
•
whether the account holder
or any account
user had disclosed the access code to anyone; and
6 Examples of such time periods and circumstances are late evening
to early morning,
and work or travel
commitments that do not allow the account holder to access
his or her phone.
(g)
any other information about the unauthorised transaction that is known to the account holder.
Account holder to make police report
3.10
The account holder of a protected account should
make a police report if the responsible FI requests such a report
to be made to facilitate its claims investigation process.
4
Duties of the responsible FI
4.1
Except for paragraph 4.4,
this Section 4 does not apply to any responsible FI in respect of any
credit card, charge
card or and debit card
issued by the
responsible FI.
Responsible
FI to clearly inform account holder of user protection duties
4.2
A responsible FI should inform
every account holder
of a protected account of the
user protection duties.
4.3
For the purpose
of paragraph 4.2 user protection duties comprise:
(a)
duties of the account holder
and account user
as set out
in Section 3; and
(b)
duties of the responsible FI as set
out in Section 4, excluding this paragraph.
Responsible FI to provide outgoing transaction notifications
4.4
Subject to paragraph 4.5, a responsible FI should provide
transaction notifications that fulfil the
following criteria to each account holder of a protected account that the
responsible FI has been instructed to send transaction notifications to in accordance with paragraph 3.1, in respect
of all outgoing transactions (of any amount) made from the account
holder’s protected account.
(a)
The transaction notification should be sent
to the account
holder’s account contact. If the account holder
has provided more than one account contact
to the responsible FI, the transaction notification should be
sent to every account contact selected by the account
holder to receive such notifications.
(b)
The transaction notification should be sent
on a real time basis
for each transaction or on a batched
basis at least
once every 24 hours to consolidate
every outgoing transaction made in the past 24 hours. The responsible FI may
but is not
expected to send both real
time notifications and daily batched notifications to the account
holder.
(c)
The transaction notification should be conveyed
to the account holder
by way of SMS or email.
An in-app notification must be accompanied by an SMS
or email notification that
meets the deadline in sub-paragraph (b).
(d)
The transaction notification
should contain the following information, but the responsible FI may omit any
confidential information provided that the information provided to the account
holder still allows the account holder to identify the transaction as being an authorised transaction (as referred to in
paragraph 5.3) or unauthorised transaction.
•
Information that allows
the account holder
to identify the protected
account such as the protected account number;
•
Information that allows the account holder to
identify the recipient whether by name or by other credentials such as the recipient’s account number;
•
Information that allows
the responsible FI to later
identify the account holder, the protected account,
and the recipient account such as each
account number or name of the account
holder;
•
Transaction amount;
•
Transaction time and date;
•
Transaction type;
•
If the transaction is for goods
and services provided by a business, the trading name of the merchant
and where possible, the merchant’s
reference number for the transaction.
[Amended on 25 April 2019]
Compliance with
account holder preference
4.5
Notwithstanding paragraph 4.4, a responsible FI can elect
to comply with
an account holder’s transaction notification preferences. While
the responsible FI should make
available to account holders
the option to receive transaction notifications for all
outgoing transactions (of any amount) made
from the account
holder’s protected account, if the account
holder instructs or has instructed the responsible FI otherwise, the responsible FI may provide notifications for outgoing transactions in accordance with the account
holder’s instructions. For example,
the responsible FI may provide
outgoing transaction notifications to the account
holder only for amounts higher
than $0.01 or only for certain types
of outgoing transactions, as instructed by the account holder.7
[Amended on 25 April 2019]
7 For example, if the account holder
chooses not to receive pre-authorised, first person, or recurring transaction notifications, while
the responsible FI should make
the option to receive these
notifications available to the
account holder, the responsible FI may comply
with the account holder’s
instructions and not notify the account
holder of such transactions.
4.6
A responsible FI should explain the Guidelines
clearly to each account holder (whether a new
or existing customer of the responsible FI) and should
highlight the duties
of the account holder
in paragraph 3.3,
explain how the liability framework in Section 5 of the Guidelines will be affected
by the account holder’s transaction notification preferences and how
any relevant claim
by an account holder (as defined in paragraph 4.12)
will be resolved. The responsible FI should act fairly and responsibly to the account
holder at all times.
[Amended on 25 April 2019]
Incoming transaction
notifications
4.7
A responsible FI is encouraged to provide transaction notifications that fulfil
the criteria set out in paragraph
4.4(a) to (d) for payments
to the account holder’s protected account (“incoming transaction notifications”) as a matter
of good practice, as incoming transaction notifications provide e-payment users
with a fuller
view of their
e-payments.
[Amended on 25 April 2019]
Responsible FI to provide recipient
credential information
4.8
Where transactions are made by way of internet
banking, any mobile phone application or device arranged
for by a responsible FI for payment
transactions, including a payment kiosk, a responsible FI should provide
an onscreen opportunity for any account
user of a protected account to confirm
the payment transaction and recipient credentials before the responsible FI executes any
authorised payment transaction.
4.9
The onscreen opportunity should contain the following information:
(a)
information that allows
the account user
to identify the protected account to be debited;
(b)
the intended transaction amount;
(c)
credentials of the intended recipient that is sufficient for the account
user to identify the recipient, which
at the minimum should be the recipient’s phone number, identification number, account number
or name as registered for the
purpose of receiving
such payments; and
(d)
a warning to ask the account
user to check
the information before
executing the payment transaction.
Responsible FI to provide reporting channel
4.10
The responsible FI should provide
account holders of protected accounts with a reporting channel
for the purposes
of reporting unauthorised or erroneous transactions.
4.11
The reporting channel
should have all the following characteristics.
(a)
The reporting channel may be a manned phone
line, phone number
to receive text messages, online portal to receive
text messages, or a monitored email address.
(b)
Any person who makes
a report through
the reporting channel
should receive a written
acknowledgement of his report through
SMS or email.
(c)
The responsible FI should
not charge a fee to any person
who makes a report
through the reporting channel
for the report
or any service
to facilitate the report.
(d)
The reporting channel
should be available at any time
every calendar day, unless it is a manned phone
line, in which
case that reporting channel should be available during business hours
every business day.
Responsible FI to assess claims and complete
claims investigation
4.12
A responsible FI should assess any claim made by any account holder
in relation to any unauthorised transaction covered in Section 5 (“relevant
claim”) for the
purposes of assessing the account
holder’s liability in accordance with
Section 5. Where
the responsible FI has
assessed that the relevant claim does not fall within
Section 5, the responsible FI should
resolve such a claim in a fair
and reasonable manner.
The responsible FI should communicate the claim resolution process
and assessment to the account
holder in a timely and transparent
manner.
4.13
The responsible FI may require
that any account
holder furnish a police report
in respect of unauthorised transaction claim, before the responsible FI begins the claims
resolution process. Upon enquiry by an account
holder, the responsible FI will be expected to provide the account
holder with relevant
information that the
responsible FI has
of all the unauthorised
transactions which were initiated or executed from a protected account,
including transaction dates, transaction timestamps and parties to the
transaction.
4.14
The responsible FI should complete an investigation of any relevant
claim within 21 business days for straightforward cases or 45 business days for complex
cases. Complex cases may include
cases where any party to the unauthorised transaction is resident
overseas or where the responsible FI has not received sufficient information from the account holder
to complete the investigation. The responsible FI should within
these periods give
each account holder that the responsible FI has been instructed to send transaction notifications to in
accordance with paragraph 3.1 a written
or oral report
of the investigation outcome and its assessment of the account
holder’s liability in accordance with Section 5. The responsible FI should seek acknowledgement (which need not be an agreement) from that account
holder of the investigation report.
4.15
Where the account
holder does not agree with
the responsible FI’s
assessment of liability, or where
the responsible FI’s has assessed
that the claim falls outside
of Section 5, the account
holder and the responsible FI may proceed
to commence other forms of dispute
resolution, including mediation at FIDReC where
the responsible FI is a FIDReC member.
Responsible FI to credit protected account
4.16
The responsible FI should credit
the account holder’s protected account with
the total loss arising from any unauthorised transaction as soon as the
responsible FI has completed its investigation and
assessed that the account holder
is not liable for any loss
arising from the unauthorised transaction. The responsible FI should disclose
this arrangement to the account holder
at the time the account
holder reports the
unauthorised transaction to the responsible FI, and inform
the account holder
of the timeline for completing its investigation in accordance with paragraph 4.14.
[Amended on 25 April 2019]
5
Liability for losses
arising from unauthorised transactions
5.1
Section 5 does
not apply to any responsible FI in respect
of any credit card, charge card or debit card issued by the responsible FI.
Account holder is
liable for actual loss
5.2
The account holder
of a protected account is liable for
actual loss arising
from an unauthorised transaction where
any account user’s
recklessness was the
primary cause of the
loss. Recklessness would include the situation where
any account user deliberately did not
comply with Section
3. The account user is expected to provide the responsible FI with information the responsible FI reasonably requires
to determine whether
any account user was
reckless. The actual
loss that the account holder
is liable for in this paragraph is capped
at any applicable transaction limit or daily payment limit that the
account holder and responsible FI have agreed to.
5.3
For the avoidance of doubt, where
any account user
knew of and consented to a
transaction
(“authorised transaction”), such
a transaction is not an unauthorised transaction, notwithstanding that
the account holder
may not have
consented to the
transaction. This would also include the
situation where any
account user acts fraudulently to defraud any account holder or the responsible FI. The account
holder of a protected account
is liable for all authorised transactions up to any applicable transaction limit or daily payment
limit that the account
holder and responsible FI have agreed
to.
Account holder is not liable for any loss
Loss resulting from any action or omission by the responsible FI
5.4
The account holder
of a protected account is not liable
for any loss
arising from an unauthorised transaction if the loss arises from any action
or omission by the responsible FI and does not arise from
any failure by any account
user to comply
with any duty
in Section 3.
5.5
Any action or omission by the responsible FI includes the
following:
(a)
fraud or negligence by the responsible FI, its
employee, its agent or any outsourcing service provider contracted by the
responsible FI to provide the responsible FI’s services through
the protected account;
(b)
non-compliance
by the responsible FI or its employee
with any requirement imposed by the Authority on the responsible FI in respect
of its provision of any financial service;
(c)
non-compliance by the responsible FI with any
duty set out in Section
4.
Loss resulting from
any action or omission of any independent third party
5.6
The account holder
of a protected account is not liable
for any loss
arising from an unauthorised transaction that does
not exceed $1,000,
if the loss arises from
any action or omission by any third party not referred to in paragraph
5.5 and does not arise from any failure by any account
user to comply
with any duty in Section
3.
Agreement to reduce account holder’s
liability
5.7
Where the account
agreement specifies a lower amount
for the account
holder’s liability in the same situations described in this
Section, the responsible FI should fulfil
its obligation to all account holders
under the account
agreement.
5.8
The responsible FI may offer to reduce the account holder’s
liability specified in this
Section 5 on a case
by case basis,
where the responsible FI deems it to be appropriate to offer
such a lower amount
to the account holder.
Application of this section to joint accounts
5.9
Where the protected account is a joint account, the liability for
losses set out in this Section 5 apply jointly
to each account
holder in a joint account.
6
Specific duties in relation to erroneous transactions
FIs to make reasonable efforts to recover
sums sent in error by the account
user
6.1
Where an account
holder has informed his responsible FI in accordance with this Section 6 that he or an account user has initiated a payment transaction from a protected account such that money has
been placed with or transferred to the wrong recipient (“erroneous transaction”), and the
account holder’s FI has informed
the wrongful recipient’s FI of the erroneous transaction, the FIs
of both the account holder
and of the wrong recipient should make reasonable efforts
to recover the sum sent
in error. For the purposes
of this Section 6, “FI” in relation to any payment
account means any bank, non-bank
credit card issuer, finance
company or relevant
payment service provider
that issued the payment
account.
[Amended on 5 September 2020]
6.2
For the purposes
of paragraph 6.1, reasonable efforts
means the following:
(a)
Where the FI is the FI of the account
holder:
•
within two business days of receiving the necessary information from the account
holder under this Section, the FI should
inform the recipient FI of the erroneous
transaction;
•
within seven business
days of informing the recipient FI,
the FI should ask the recipient FI for the
recipient’s response and provide the
account holder with any new relevant information to allow
the account holder to assess if he should make a
police report about the erroneous transaction.
(b)
Where the FI is the FI of the wrong recipient:
•
within two business days of receiving the necessary information from the account holder’s
FI about any erroneous transaction, the FI should:
i.
inform the recipient of the erroneous transaction and all necessary information that would
allow the recipient to determine if the
transaction was indeed
erroneous;
ii.
ask the recipient for instructions on whether to send the sum sent in
error back to the account
holder; and
iii.
inform the recipient that his retention or use of sums transferred to him erroneously where
he has had notice of the erroneous transaction is an offence
under the Penal
Code.
•
within five business days of receiving the necessary information from the account holder’s
FI about any erroneous transaction, the FI should:
i.
ask the recipient for instructions whether
to send the sum sent
in error back to the account
holder; and
ii.
inform the account holder’s
FI about the recipient’s response, including nil responses.
6.3
The timeline specified above
assumes that the case is straightforward. FIs are to use
their best
efforts to respond
within the timelines specified above. The FIs may
take longer to convey instructions in complex cases such as where any party to the transaction is resident overseas or where the FIs have
not received sufficient information from the account holder to convey instructions within
the specified timeline. For avoidance of doubt, the
FIs are not expected to resolve each erroneous
transaction claim but to facilitate effective communication between
the account holder
and the recipient with the aim to improve
the account holder’s chances
of recovering the payment amount
sent through the
erroneous transaction.
Account holder to provide information on
erroneous transaction
6.4
For the purposes of assisting the
FI to recover sums sent
in error, the
account holder of a protected account
should provide the responsible FI with any of the following information as requested by the responsible FI:
(a)
all the information set out in paragraph 3.9 except limbs
(e), (f) and (g);
(b)
the recipient’s unique identifier, including account number,
identification number, name or other credentials entered by the account user;
and
(c)
the date, time, amount and purpose
of the erroneous
transaction insofar as such information is known to the account
user.