Effective from: March, 2023.
In the Merchant Agreement, and in the Terms & Conditions, the following definitions shall apply:
3D Secure The “Three-Domain Secure” protocol developed by Visa International Inc. (Visa) branded as “Verified by Visa” and “MasterCard SecureCode” developed by MasterCard International Inc. (MasterCard), including successive versions thereof and any amendments thereto.
Account Holder Any person who is authorised to use a Payment Method issued to him.
Acquirer A financial institution that is authorised by a Scheme Owner to enable the use of a Payment Method by accepting Transactions from merchants on behalf of the Scheme Owners, routing these to the Scheme Owners or Issuing Banks and collecting and settling the resulting funds to the Merchant.
Acquiring via Payola Use of a Payment Method via Payola where Payola acts as the Acquirer or Payola contracts with the relevant third party Acquirer on behalf of the Merchant to enable the use by Merchant of such Payment Method.
API Application Programming Interface consisting of a direct secured internet connection between the Merchant’s site and the Payola environment via which Payment Details are sent.
Authorisation The process whereby an Account Holder (or Merchant on Account Holder’s behalf) requests permission for a Payment Method to be used for a particular purchase of Merchant’s Service or Product. “Authorised” shall have the corresponding meaning.
Bank Account The bank account held by an Eligible Merchant with Payola on which funds owed by Payola to the Eligible Merchant (credit) or by the Eligible Merchant to Payola (debit) are administered and on which Payola will Settle the funds for Transactions validly processed for the Merchant.
Business Day A day other than a Saturday or Sunday on which banks are open for business.
Capture Period The period in which an Authorised Transaction can be Captured. The Capture Period varies per Payment Method.
Capturing The confirmation by (or on behalf of) the Merchant to the Acquirer that a Transaction for which Merchant received an Authorisation is to be executed and the Account of the Account Holder is to be actually charged for the Transaction. “Captured” shall have the corresponding meaning.
Card Any form of Credit Card or Debit Card, which may be used by a Cardholder to carry out a Transaction on a Cardholder’s account.
Card Association / Card scheme Visa, MasterCard, Discover or comparable bodies which provide Cards.
Card Verification Method / CVM Code The 3- or 4-digit numeric code that is printed on a Card. This code is known as: for Visa: CVV2; for MasterCard: CVC2; for American Express and Discover: CID. Collectively referred to as CVM Code.
Cardholder Any person who is issued a Card and possesses and uses a Card and, where required on the Card, whose signature appears on the Card as an authorised user.
Chargeback A Transaction which is successfully charged back on request of the Account Holder or the Issuer pursuant to the relevant Scheme Rules resulting in a cancellation of a Transaction in respect of which a Merchant has been paid or was due to be paid. If a Chargeback occurs for a Transaction in respect of which Merchant already received Settlement of the related funds, this results in the unconditional obligation for the Merchant to immediately return the Settled funds to Payola o, to enable Payola to return such funds to the Scheme Owner or Acquirer.
Chargeback Fee The fee charged by Payola to the Merchant in respect of a Chargeback.
CNP or Card Not Present Transaction A Transaction by a Cardholder where the Cardholder is not physically present at the point of sale at the time of the Transaction. CNP shall comprise MO/TO and E-Commerce Transactions.
Credit Card Any form of credit card, which permits or enables Transactions on a Cardholder’s account.
Customer Area The secured interface on Payola’s website where Merchants can review and operate on their Transactions, profile and settings and find usage instructions, information regarding the Services and the Payment Methods.
Debit Card Any form of debit card, which permits or enables Transactions on a Cardholder’s account.
Delivery Date The date on which the complete Merchant Product and/or Merchant Service is delivered to the Account Holder who paid for the corresponding Transaction.
Deposit Level The minimum level of Deposit(s) set for the Merchant from time to time pursuant to these Terms and Conditions.
Deposit(s) A sum of money held by Payola, withheld by Payola from funds to be Settled to the Merchant and/or separately deposited with Payola by the Merchant on Payola ‘s request as security for Chargebacks, Fines and fees due to Payola.
E-Commerce Transaction A Transaction by an Account Holder where said Account Holder is not physically present at the point of sale at the time of the Transaction, and the Payment Details are presented to the Merchant or Payola by the Account Holder by means of secure Internet communications.
Eligible Merchant A Merchant which is deemed eligible to hold a Bank Account by Payola (in its discretion) and, as such, is provided a Bank Account.
Fine Any fine, uplifted service fee or other additional payment as imposed by the Scheme Owners and/or Acquirers to the Merchant and/or Payola, as a result of situations such as, but not limited to, breach of Scheme Rules by the Merchant or caused by the Merchant, excessive fraud levels or excessive Chargeback levels.
Hosted Payment Pages The Payment Interface where an Account Holder is redirected from the Merchant shopping site to a payment site hosted by Payola, on which the Payment Details are entered by the Account Holder.
Inflation The Euro Area Inflation (HICP All Items Euro Area) as found on http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/home (or such future replacement website as may be used by Eurostat).
Interchange Fee(s) The fee(s) set and charged by the Card Schemes (and in part passed on to the relevant Issuer) for processing and settlement of a Card Transaction. This fee shall include the assessment fees and any other scheme fees charged by the Card Scheme for the particular Transaction.
Issuer / Issuing Bank An institution that issues Payment Methods to the Account Holder and whose name appears on the Card or bank account statement as the Issuer or who enters into a contractual relationship with the Account Holder with respect to the Payment Method.
Merchant The company entering into a Merchant Agreement with Payola and for which Payola processes Transactions related to the Merchant Service and Merchant Products.
Merchant Agreement The agreement between Payola and the Merchant for the provision of the Services to Merchant, including the Terms and Conditions and all Schedules and other documents appended thereto by reference.
Merchant Product / Merchant Service A product/service which the Merchant is selling and for which Transactions are processed.
MO/TO or Mail Order/Telephone Order Transaction A Transaction by an Account Holder where the Account Holder is not physically present at the point of sale at the time of the Transaction, and the Payment Details are presented to the Merchant by the Account Holder by means of mail (not email), fax or telephone.
MSC / Merchant Service Charge The fee that Payola charges per Transaction for the use of the relevant Payment Method for that Transaction. This can be a percentage of the Transaction amount, or a fixed fee, or a combination of a percentage and a fixed fee. The Processing Fee is not part of the MSC.
Order Currency The Currency in which the Transaction is originally offered to the Account Holder.
Payment Currency The Currency in which a Transaction is processed.
Payment Details The information which makes up a Transaction message which needs to be submitted to the Payment Interface to enable the processing of the Transaction by Payola and to perform fraud checks, including details regarding the Card, the Account Holder, relevant authentication details and the payment amount.
Payment Instruction Electronic instruction sent by an Eligible Merchant (or by an authorised third party acting on behalf of Eligible Merchant) to Payola via the Customer Area to transfer funds from the Bank Account to another bank account.
Payment Interface An electronic connection method provided by Payola to the Merchant for providing the Payment Details for individual Transactions allowing Payola to provide its Services with respect thereto.
Payment Method A method of enabling payments by Account Holders to merchants such as Cards, online and offline bank transfers and direct debits offered by the Scheme Owners.
PCI DSS The security standards for transmitting, processing or storing card data / payment details, known under the name PCI DSS, as required to be observed under the Scheme Rules of the Card Schemes.
POS / Point of Sale Transaction Transaction submitted for processing by a Cardholder via a POS Terminal where the Cardholder is physically present at the location of the POS Terminal
POS Terminal Device designed to submit POS Transactions to Payola by reading the relevant data on the Card, registering the approval of the Cardholder for the Transaction, encrypting the Payment Details and sending them via the public internet to Payola for processing.
Processing Fee The fee that Payola charges for each Transaction submitted for processing to the Payment Interface, regardless of the Transaction amount and the type of Payment Method used.
Refund A (partial) reversal of a particular Transaction, whereby the funds are reimbursed to the Account Holder on the initiative or request of the Merchant.
RFI or Request for Information A request from Scheme Owner or Acquirer received by Payola for more information about a Transaction, made available by Payola to the Merchant in electronic form.
Scheme Owner The party offering and/or regulating the relevant Payment Method.
Scheme Rule The collective set of bylaws, rules, regulations, operating regulations, procedures and/or waivers issued by the Scheme Owners as may be amended or supplemented over time and with which Merchant must comply when using the relevant Payment Method. As a service Payola endeavours to make up to date versions available of the Scheme Rules applicable to the Merchant via the Customer Area, but only the then current applicable Scheme Rules as issued by the relevant Scheme Owner and/or the relevant Acquirer are binding on Merchant.
Service(s) The collective set of payment processing, payment routing, fraud control, reconciliation, reporting, Settlement and/or other services as provided by Payola to the Merchant to enable the Merchant to use Payment Methods to process Transactions, as well as providing a Bank Account to Eligible Merchants and any other services offered by Payola to a Merchant under the Merchant Agreement.
Settlement The payment of amounts by Payola to the Merchant, owed with respect to settlements received by Payola from Acquirers or Scheme Owners for Transactions validly processed for the Merchant, minus the amounts for Refund and Chargebacks, Transaction Fees and the amounts needed to keep the Deposit on the then current Deposit Level. “Settle” and “Settled” shall have the corresponding meanings.
Software The collective set of programs and data developed and/or operated by Payola as needed to provide the Service to its merchants, including the Payment Interface.
Terms and Conditions The current version of these terms and conditions of Payola.
Traffic The profile of Merchant Transactions, including volume, spread across Payment Methods, geographical spread and other relevant information.
Transaction An Authorisation request of an Account Holder for a payment from the Account Holder to the Merchant submitted by Merchant to Payola.
Transaction Fee The sum of Merchant Service Charge (MSC) and Processing Fee.
Uncompleted Order Amount The total amount of Authorised, Captured and/or Settled Transactions for the Merchant on any point in time, for which the Merchant Products and/or Merchant Services have not been delivered to the relevant Account Holders at that time and/or for which the return rights or order cancellation rights of the Account Holder under the terms and conditions of the Merchant and/or applicable law have not yet lapsed.
Working Hours From 09:00 CET to 18:00 CET on Business Days, or such other hours as may be published by Payola on the Customer Area.
The Payola Services deliver real time or near real time Transaction processing capability over the Internet with a high availability service level applying to the Payment Interface (as set out in clause 6). The Payola Services include reconciliation services for Transaction Acquired and Settled via Payola, to help match processed Transactions with settlements received from the relevant Acquirers and Scheme Owners. All Card Not Present Transactions shall be submitted to Payola for processing through the Hosted Payment Page as Payment Interface, unless otherwise agreed in the Merchant Agreement. All POS Transactions shall be submitted to Payola to the API by means of an Payola approved POS Terminal, which complies with the requirements set out in clause 4.
If the relevant Acquirer or Scheme Owner settles related funds directly to Merchant (so not via Payola), reconciliation services will not be available unless specifically agreed otherwise in writing by Payola.
The Merchant is obliged to ensure all data that Payola requests to be provided for a Transaction, including those needed for fraud checks, are provided with each Transaction submitted for processing by Payola. If the Merchant fails to provide the requested data with each Transaction, Payola has the right to immediately suspend Transaction processing. Payola may revise the required data needed to process Transactions from time to time by giving notice to the Merchant via the Customer Area as needed to be able to process such Transaction and conduct fraud checks.
In order to enable Payola to comply with anti-terrorism, financial services and other applicable laws and regulations and KYC (‘Know Your Customer’) requirements imposed by the Scheme Owners and Acquirers, Merchant must when entering into the Merchant Agreement and thereafter on Payola o’s first request, provide information about itself, its activities and its shareholders (the “Registration Information”). Merchant warrants unconditionally that all Registration Information it provides is correct and up to date.
Merchant will provide Payola with at least three Business Days prior written notice of any change of the Registration Information. Merchant will on first request from Payola provide such additional information and supporting documentation regarding its activities and identity and that of its shareholders as Payola may reasonably determine to need to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations and Scheme Owner and Acquirer KYC requirements. Merchant agrees that Payola may run further checks on Merchant’s identity, creditworthiness and background by contacting and consulting relevant registries and governmental authorities.
Payola’s acceptance of Merchant as user of the Services and the relevant Payment Methods is strictly personal and limited to the use by Merchant of the Services for payment of Merchant’s own products and services. Merchant may not use the Services to facilitate the payment for products or services sold by third parties and therefor may not resell the Services to third parties.
Support for each Payment Method is subject to acceptance by the relevant Scheme Owner or Acquirer used by the Scheme Owner, which such Acquirer or Scheme Owner may withhold or withdraw in its discretion at any time. Some Scheme Owners or Acquirers may require the Merchant to enter into a direct agreement with the Acquirer or Scheme Owner before the Merchant may use the relevant Payment Scheme. Merchant hereby authorizes Payola to submit Registration Information received from Merchant to the relevant Scheme Owners and Acquirers to obtain permission for providing access to their Payment Methods for Merchant.
Payola will support the Payment Methods and Currencies as specified in the Merchant Agreement, as long as Payola continues to support these in its general product portfolio. In case of: (i) materially different terms imposed by the relevant Scheme Owner or Acquirer; (ii) material malperformance by the relevant Scheme Owner or Acquirer (or reasonable ground for Payola to expect such malperformance); (iii) reasonable grounds to doubt the credit worthiness of the Scheme Owner or Acquirer; or (iv) sharply increased costs for Payola to offer the Payment Method due to new circumstances; then Payola may decide in its reasonable discretion to stop supporting a particular Payment Method or make future support conditional on the acceptance by Merchant of additional conditions or fees. Payola will give at least 1 month written notice of any discontinued or changed support of any Payment Method, unless this is not reasonably possible given the cause for this decision. Payola will use its reasonable endeavours to offer an alternative for any discontinued Payment Method to the Merchant.
Merchant understands that Acquirers and/or Scheme Owners might cancel certain Payment Methods, change the characteristics thereof or change the acceptance criteria under which they make them available. As a consequence, Payola may be forced to block Merchant from further use of a Payment Method or impose additional restrictions or conditions on its continued use as a consequence of such decisions of the relevant Acquirer and/or Scheme Owner. Where possible Payola will use its reasonable efforts to give Merchant prior notice of any such change or cancellation with respect to the Payment Methods agreed to be offered under the Merchant Agreement. Payola will on request of Merchant in such case reasonably assist Merchant in finding alternative Payment Methods available to Merchant or manners in which to (re-)gain the approval of the relevant Scheme Owner or Acquirer.
For all Transactions processed through the Hosted Payment Pages, 3D Secure authentication will be offered as option to use by the Merchant where supported by the Acquirer and Payment Method used in combination with the then current Software of Payola.
Payola will have the right to offer the Account Holder the option to use a different Payment Currency than the Order Currency, in which case the Merchant will still always receive Settlement of the Transaction amount in the Order Currency (except in case another currency is agreed in the Merchant Agreement or the Merchant does not make a bank account available for Settlement in the Order Currency).
All Transactions processed by the Payola Services will be screened by the Payola Fraud Control Tool, which performs a number of checks on the Transactions and attaches a resulting total score to each Transaction, which represents the likelihood of the Transaction being fraudulent. Merchant must configure the scoring values for the Payola Fraud Control Tool via the Customer Area on the Payola website to determine how the Payola Fraud Control Tool will judge Transactions.
The Fraud Control Tool does not guarantee the prevention of fraudulent Transactions, nor against resulting Chargebacks or Fines. Regardless of the resulting total score, Transactions may be fraudulent or non-fraudulent.
Payola reserves the right to change the scoring values as set by the Merchant in the Fraud Control Tool in case Payola in its reasonable discretion on the basis of clear and objective indications judges these to pose an unacceptable risk for accepting fraudulent Transactions or creating increased Chargeback levels. (Payola n is not under any obligation to check these or any other setting made by Merchant in the Customer Area.) Furthermore, Payola has the right to add new checks to the Fraud Control Tool or change existing checks without prior notice.
For some Payment Methods, Transactions can be cancelled by the Merchant after they have been Authorised. The final responsibility for accepting or rejecting a Transaction will remain with the Merchant. Payola reserves the right to cancel Transactions that it has reasonable grounds to suspect to be fraudulent or involving other criminal activities, even if the Fraud Control Tool failed to block the Transaction.
For some Payment Methods it is possible to ask for Authorisation of a payment (to check whether the Account Holder indeed has an account that can be charged for the payment amount) without immediately Capturing the Transaction. The prior Authorisation gives the Merchant some additional assurance that when Merchant Captures the Transaction, it will be Settled to the Merchant (and not blocked or subject to Chargeback). The Merchant is responsible for Capturing Transactions; this can be realised via the Customer Area or the API. Merchant understands that Authorised Transactions have a limited maximum Capture Period in which they can be Captured which is set by the Issuing Bank or the relevant Scheme Owner. Beyond the applicable Capture Period, the additional assurance granted by the prior Authorisation is no longer valid, increasing the chances of the Capture not leading to a successful Settlement of the related payment. It is Merchant’s responsibility to check the applicable Capture Period via the Customer Area to ensure it timely Captures Authorised Transactions. Merchant should generally take into account that the Capture Period can be as short as 5 days after Authorisation.
Subject to the Deposit being at the applicable Deposit Level, funds from the Account Holders charged for the validly processed Transactions of the Merchant which are Acquired via Payola are paid by the Acquirer or the Scheme Owner to Payola, who will subsequently Settle received funds to the Merchant.
Payola is only obliged to provide Settlement of Transactions for which it has received settlement(s) by the Acquirer or the Scheme Owner. It is Merchant’s responsibility to evaluate if the conditions imposed by the Payment Methods for settlement (as communicated from time to time via the Customer Area and/or by the Scheme Owners themselves via their websites and other communication channels to the Merchant) are acceptable to the Merchant. This is specifically relevant for the Merchant to take into account with respect to Payment Methods that are not monitored and regulated by governmental financial services authorities such as but not limited to non-Card Scheme related prepaid cards and SMS and IVR payments. Merchant understands and agrees that Payola will not compensate Merchant for late or non-performance, insolvency or bankruptcy of the Acquirer or Scheme Owner due to which Merchant receives late Settlement or no Settlement at all for processed Transactions.
Payola reserves the right to withhold Settlement of Transactions if they are Captured, but suspected to be fraudulent, related to illegal activities or likely to become subject to a Chargeback by Payola and/or the relevant Acquirer and/or Scheme Owner, until satisfactory completion of Payola ‘s investigation, that of the relevant Acquirer or Scheme Owner or that of a third party nominated by any of these parties. The Merchant will give its full co-operation to any such investigation.
No interest will be due over amounts held by Payola prior to Settlement of such funds to the Merchant, except in case Settlement is delayed for more than 30 days due to the intent or gross negligence of Payola. In such case interest will be due by Payola over the late Settled amount at the rate of the 3 month EURIBOR rate +2%.
Payola may not sell or pledge its receivables on or via the Scheme Owners resulting from Transactions processed for a Merchant.
Merchant shall from time to time on the first request of Payola provide all required information regarding the then current actual or expected Delivery Dates for processed Transactions and estimates for the average time between Transaction Authorisation and the related Delivery Date. Further Merchant shall provide Payola on its first request with all requested information on Merchant’s then current ability to provide the Merchant Products and Services, its financial status, solvability and liquidity.
This information is used by Payola to estimate the likely Uncompleted Order Amount as used to determine the Deposit Level as per clause 3.4. In case Payola has reasonable grounds to question (i) the accuracy or reliability of the information regarding Delivery Dates and/or (ii) Merchant’s financial stability and/or (iii) its ability to provide the Merchant Product and/or the Merchant Services to the Account Holders, Payola may in its discretion take this into account in estimating the Uncompleted Order Amount for setting the Deposit Level. Payola will not take such action arbitrarily and will where reasonably possible (considering the grounds and urgency of the adjustment) request and consider Merchant’s input on Payola’s amended assessment of the Uncompleted Order Amount before using it to amend the Deposit Level.
Merchant may only use the Services for payment of those Merchant Products and Services which Merchant registered for when entering into the Merchant Agreement with Payola as reflected in the Merchant Agreement. The acceptance by Payola of Merchant as customer is strictly linked to the description of Merchant’s Products and Services Merchant registered for when entering into the Merchant Agreement. Merchant must ask prior written approval for any change or addition to the Merchant’s Products and Services prior to submitting payment requests therefor.
The Merchant shall not use the Services for the payment of Merchant Products and/or Merchant Services where it is illegal to offer or provide these to or from the relevant country and/or which are stated in Payola ‘s Prohibited and Restricted Products and Services List. Merchant may obtain a written waiver for Products and Services in the ‘restricted’ section of this list, but such waiver may be revoked by Payola in its discretion. This list may be updated in Payola’s discretion where needed to ensure legal compliance, compliance to Scheme Rules, prevent high levels of Chargebacks, reputational risks and/or to reduce exposure to potentially fraudulent or illegal transactions. Merchant will be informed of updates of this list by Payola publishing an updated list in the Customer Area. Where a published change affects a significant portion of the Merchant’s Product or Services, Merchant may terminate the Merchant Agreement by giving written notice to Payola.
Payola’s acceptance of Merchant as customer should not be interpreted as an advice or opinion of Payola as to the legality of Merchant’s Products and Services and/or of Merchant’s intended use of the Services therefore. Merchant is and remains solely responsible to ensure the Merchant Products and Services sold are compliant with the Scheme Rules and applicable laws in its country of origin and the countries it customers are based in. Further some Payment Methods apply additional restrictions as set out in the applicable Scheme Rules which Merchant must at all times ensure compliance with.
The Services of Payola may not be used (and Transactions may not be submitted for processing) for prepaying Merchant Products and Services for which the Delivery Date is in part or in whole more than 12 months after the date the Transaction is submitted for processing.
For E-commerce Transactions, Merchant is obliged to provide on its website the following information to an Account Holder for every Transaction: complete description of the goods or services offered, returned merchandise and refund policy, customer service contact (including email address and/or telephone number), address, delivery policy, Merchant’s consumer data protection policy and all other legally required information to be provided to the Account Holder in the relevant jurisdiction.
The Merchants must maintain a copy of all electronic and other records related to the Transaction and the ordering and delivery of the Merchant Product and Services for the greater of (i) 2 years subsequent to the Transaction being processed or (ii) the applicable warranty period of the delivered Merchant Product and Services. The copy of the records shall include, but not be limited to: shipping details (if relevant), invoices for the delivered Merchant Product and Services and all contacts with the Account Holder. In case of investigations by Payola, the Acquirers and/or the Scheme Owners with respect to Chargebacks, suspected fraud or other RFI’s from the Scheme Owners, Merchant will fully co-operate in the auditing of such records. Merchant’s obligations to maintain documentation of its business according to applicable laws remain unaffected by this clause.
Merchant shall not honour delivery address changes for any Transaction after requesting the Authorisation.
For violations of certain key requirements under the Scheme Rules by Merchants, some Scheme Owners (and in particular the Card Schemes) can levy significant Fines, ranging from 25.000 Euro to over 1 million Euro. The Scheme Owners do this to protect the Account Holders, Merchants and providers of the Payment Methods collectively against misuse, fraud, illegal activities, breach of applicable laws, reputational damage and excessive costs. Key examples of Scheme Rules which are subject to such Fines: (i) using the Payment Method for other Merchant Products and Services than for which the Merchant received express authorisation to use it for; (ii) using the Payment Method for Merchant Products and Services which are violating applicable laws; (iii) using the Payment Method for selling Merchant Products and Services for which the Scheme Owner explicitly prohibited its use (e.g. adult content, drugs, arms, gambling); (iv) using the Payment Method for the benefit of a third party / reselling the use of the Payment Method to a third party (the authorisation for Merchant to use a Payment Method is strictly personal); (v) percentage of Transactions of a Merchant which is subject to a Chargeback is above the applicable acceptable level (see clause 7.1 for more information on this); (vi) breaches of security and confidentiality obligations with respect to Payment Details (see clauses 4.1 and 4.2 for more information on this); (vii) fraudulent, misleading activities of which Account Holders are the victim.
Via the Customer Area more detailed information on then current applicable Fines and Scheme Rules is available for Merchant. Merchant is strongly advised to regularly review the then current Scheme Rules and relevant changes to applicable laws as applicable to its Merchant Products and Services and business practices to ensure their compliance to applicable Scheme Rules. Payola assists Merchant in this by providing access to and summaries of applicable Scheme Rules via the Customer Area. Where Merchant finds the Scheme Rules (including Fine possibility) to be unacceptable, Merchant is free at any point in time to stop using the relevant Payment Method (the Scheme Rules and these terms remain applicable to previously processed Transactions for Merchant).
Where Payola becomes aware of and/or received any notice of a potential exposure to a Fine related to any Merchant behaviour, Merchant will on first request provide all reasonable co-operation to help investigate the relevant circumstances and remedy the relevant violation, notwithstanding all other rights and remedies of Payola in such situation as per the Payola Terms and Conditions. Where possible Payola will share relevant feedback received by Merchant with the Acquirer/Scheme Owner handling the potential Fine so it can be taken into consideration by the Acquirer / Scheme Owner. If Fines are applied for Merchant violations, these may be invoiced by the Scheme Owners and/or the relevant Acquirer to Payola as their contracting party (for the benefit of the Merchant). Merchant shall fully indemnify and hold Payola harmless from any Fines applied by the Scheme Owners as a result of Merchant’s breach of the terms of the Merchant Agreement and/or the Scheme Rules.
Payola may open a Bank Account for a Merchant which is an Eligible Merchant. The Merchant agrees that the Bank Account shall be used only for commercial or business purposes, and not for personal, family, or household purposes.
By default, subject to the Deposit being at the applicable Deposit Level, any credit balance on the Bank Account will each Business Day be automatically transferred to the Merchant’s designated contra bank account(s) held with a third party bank (‘sweepings’). If and to the extent necessary, the Merchant hereby authorises Payola to execute sweepings from the Bank Account to the Merchant’s designated contra account(s). Payola may also grant Merchant the option to initiate a funds transfer from the Bank Account by submitting a Payment Instruction to Payola or by instructing a third-party payment initiation service provider to issue a Payment Instruction on Merchant’s behalf. Payola may also grant the Merchant the option to set its own sweeping settings (including the frequency of sweeping and the bank accounts to which funds transfers will be made) for the Bank Account.
The Merchant may obtain rectification of an unauthorised or incorrectly executed automated sweeping or Payment Instruction from Payola only if the Merchant notifies Payola without undue delay on becoming aware of any such unauthorized or incorrect transfer, and no later than 6 months after the debit date. Date of receipt of a Payment Instruction
If Payola receives a Payment Instruction from the Merchant after the end of the Working Hours of a Business Day, this Payment Instruction will be deemed to have been received on the following Business Day.
The Merchant and Payola may agree that execution of a Payment Instruction shall start on a specific day or at the end of a certain period or on the day on which the Merchant has put funds at Payola ‘s disposal, in which case the time of receipt of the Payment Instruction will be deemed to be the agreed day. If the agreed day is not a Business Day for Payola, the Payment Instruction received shall be deemed to have been received on the following Business Day.
Payola will not allow the Bank Account to be debited by the Merchant if the Deposit is not at the applicable Deposit Level. The Merchant agrees that Payola has the right to debit the Bank Account to bring the Deposit to the applicable Deposit Level. Unless otherwise agreed between Payola and the Merchant, the Bank Account shall always have a credit balance and no debit balance shall be permitted.
The Bank Account has a multi-currency structure, such that multiple currencies can be administered on the same Bank Account (with the same International Bank Account Number, “IBAN”). The default currency is Euro, unless otherwise agreed between Payola and the Merchant.
The Bank Account will carry interest in the following way. Interest will be paid on amounts that are credited on the Bank Account for longer than 2 Business Days. This means that interest will be calculated on a daily basis, based on the ‘End of Day’ balance of that day minus the credited amounts on the Bank Account over the most recent 2 days (that day and the day before). The interest rate will be calculated on the basis of the shortest term interbank reference rates plus a margin (which can be positive or negative), as communicated by Payola from time to time.
Without prejudice to any right to set-off which Payola may be entitled to as a matter of law, Payola may set-off any amounts due to the Merchant or standing to the credit of the Bank Account against any amounts owed or other liabilities of the Merchant, now or at any time hereafter due, owing or incurred by the Merchant to Payola under, in connection to, or pursuant to the Terms and Conditions and/or the Merchant Agreement. This right of set-off includes but is not limited to the situation where proceedings are initiated for the winding up, bankruptcy or dissolution of the Merchant (or similar proceedings). Payola may also set-off if: (i) Payola ‘s debt is conditional or not due; and/or (ii) the Merchant’s debt is not due.
The Merchant will be informed of Payola ‘s use of its set-off rights. Claims expressed in different currencies will be set-off at the prevailing exchange rate(s) at the date of set-off.
Payola will invoice the Merchant monthly for the Services rendered. Invoices provide an overview of (i) the Transaction Fees and other costs and fees due for the past month, calculated on the basis of last month’s Transaction volume, (ii) an overview of the Transaction Fees and other fees already withheld from the Settlements and (iii) where relevant the remaining amount due or credited to the Merchant. Amounts due or credited are subsequently added to or subtracted from the next Settlement to the Merchant or in absence of a next Settlement are payable or credited as applicable within 30 days of the invoice date. The invoice currency will be Euro (EUR) unless expressly otherwise agreed in writing.
Payola provides electronic invoices as standard. Printed invoices or statements can be requested for subsequent invoices via the Customer Area (additional costs may be charged by Payola).
Payola shall be unilaterally entitled to raise the prices for its Services, with three (3) months prior notice. Said price increases shall only become effective for the Services rendered by Payola starting at the end of the notice period. The Merchant may, however, during the three months’ notice period, cancel the Merchant Agreement with Payola for which the price increase is applicable by providing written notice to Payola per the end of the three month notice period.
For the avoidance of doubt, this clause does not apply to any communicated increase of fees charged by the Acquirers or Scheme Owners for the use of their Payment Methods where such fees are not included in the fees charged by Payola (e.g. in case the Interchange Fee is increased by the relevant Scheme Owner or Acquirer where an Interchange Plus pricing is agreed to apply) or due to changes in applicable laws.
Payola shall be entitled to change its prices to adjust for inflation with as maximum last year’s published Inflation. Said price change may be applied by Payola only once annually and will be announced at least one month in advance. For an increase under this clause 3.3 the termination right referred to in clause 3.2 does not apply.
Payola shall set the Deposit Level to be applied by Payola to account for and cover for the potential indebtedness of Merchant for fees, Fines and Chargebacks payable from Merchant to Payola, based on Payola’s reasonably assessed then current estimate of the Uncompleted Order Amount, potential Fine exposure and other potential liabilities. Payola has the right to adjust the Deposit Level in its discretion from time-to-time to bring it in line with its then current estimates. Upon Merchant’s first request Payola will inform Merchant of the information, estimations and assumptions and calculations used by Payola to establish the then current Deposit Level.
The initial Deposit Level will be set by Payola on the basis of the information provided by Merchant regarding its anticipated initial use of the Services when entering into the Merchant Agreement. Payola may require Merchant to transfer the Initial Deposit to Payola before it may start using the Services for commercial (so non-testing) purposes.
Payola shall subsequently keep the Deposit at the Deposit Level by deducting funds from or adding funds to each Settlement. If at any point in time the Deposit drops below the then current Deposit level, Payola may require Merchant to immediately transfer such funds to Payola as is necessary to bring the Deposit in line with the then current Deposit Level.
After termination of the Merchant Agreement or after processing of Transactions is stopped, the Deposit shall be released by Payola in monthly steps to the Merchant to account for the decrease in Uncompleted Order Amount, fraud exposure and/or Fine exposure until the full Deposit is released to the Merchant or where applicable, in part or in whole applied by Payola to pay for Chargebacks, cover Fines or fraud claims or pay for unpaid Payola fees due by Merchant. The Deposit will as standard be fully released to the Merchant 6 months after processing of Transactions for Merchant has stopped unless specifically identified potential liabilities still exist at that point in time.
For the ‘Blend Fee’ pricing structure for the MSC, Merchant acknowledges that the underlying Interchange Fee is calculated by Payola based on Traffic characteristics provided by the Merchant and documented in the Merchant Agreement when agreeing the Blend Fee. If the actual Traffic differs materially from the figures provided by the Merchant, Payola has the right to proportionally adjust the Blend Fee per direct, based on the actual then current Traffic characteristics. Reason for this is that certain types of Transactions (e.g. Transactions made with Credit Cards issued outside Europe for transactions with European Merchants) are charged at higher rates by the Card Schemes than similar Transactions with European issued Cards.
For the ‘Interchange Plus’ pricing structure, Merchant acknowledges that the actual MSC is calculated by Payola based on the actual then current Interchange Fee per Transaction attracted by that Transaction, according to Card Scheme Interchange pricing which varies from time to time. The then current Card Scheme Interchange pricing level is published by the Card Schemes. In the Customer Area (internet links to) the then current published Interchange Fees are published.
The agreed MSC pricing structure is documented in the Merchant Agreement.
Merchant agrees with the withholding of any fees and other sums due to Payola under the Merchant Agreement including Chargebacks and Fines from the Settlement amounts and including funds required to meet the then current Deposit Level requirements. If the Settlement amounts are not sufficient to cover amounts due to Payola, the amounts remain due as per the due date as stated on the invoice and shall be paid separately by the Merchant within 30 days of the date of the relevant invoice.
Payola has the right at any time to require immediate payment of sums or to set-off Merchant’s debts to Payola n against Settlements to Merchant in the following cases:
Interest shall accrue on any unpaid amounts owed by the Merchant to Payola at the rate of 1% per month.
All fees of Payola are excluding applicable VAT, turnover and other taxes or levies which will be separately payable by Merchant where applicable to invoiced amounts or services.
The Services shall be used by the Merchant for Card Not Present Transactions via the Hosted Payment Pages unless agreed otherwise in the Merchant Agreement. The Merchant redirects the Account Holder to the secured Hosted Payment Page of Payola. The Hosted Payment Pages can be tailored on some points by the Merchant by using the standard ‘skin’ options embedded therein.
Merchant shall not capture, register and/or have the Account Holder fill in, any Payment Details (expressly including Credit Card data) on its own site, but will use the Hosted Payment Pages instead to have the Account Holder submit its Payment Details there. Merchant will not use screen grabbing or other emulation technologies to input Payment Details onto the Hosted Payment Pages.
(The following is only applicable for Merchants with which Payola expressly agreed to provide a Payment Interface via the API method for Card Not Present Transactions.)
Connections to the API interface are made with “SOAP” calls using HTTPS. Authentication is performed via a combination of username/password, IP and/or client certificate checks. If Merchant does not activate 3D-Secure for Transactions offered via the API interface where such option is available, Merchant understands that a higher Interchange Fee may be applied by the Card Schemes / Acquirers and other restrictions may be applied by the Card Schemes / Acquirers.
The Merchant using the API interface must at all times fully comply with the then current PCI-DSS rules and on Payola’s first request demonstrate such compliance and provide its valid certification of its compliance. If the Merchant cannot prove the compliancy to the PCI-DSS rules or its certification/compliancy becomes invalid, Merchant will notify Payola immediately. Payola has the right to immediately suspend Transaction processing for Merchant in case Payola has any indication that Merchant is not compliant with the PCI-DSS standards which Merchant cannot immediately prove to be not founded. Merchant shall fully indemnify and hold Payola harmless from any losses, claims (including applied Fines by the Scheme Owners), costs or damage Payola incurs as a result of Merchant’s breach of this obligation.
The Merchant shall be solely responsible for the installation, servicing, maintenance, security and operation of the equipment and software needed to connect to the Payment Interface and submit Transactions for processing by Payola. Payola provides standard software modules and installation guides to the Merchant to help enable the connection to the Payment Interface and may provide software tooling to interact with POS Terminals provided or approved by Payola to connect to the API. Payola shall ensure its input is provided in a professional manner, but Merchant remains responsible to ensure the correct implementation and use of the Services in its own systems in accordance with the then current installation and usage instructions and software updates provided by Payola via the Customer Area.
Merchant may only submit POS Transactions to Payola if this is explicitly agreed in the Merchant Agreement. Merchant may only submit POS Transactions for processing using POS Terminals approved by Payola for such purpose from time to time, adhering strictly to any then current usage instructions as issued by Payola with respect thereto via the Customer Area, including by updating the software embedded on the POS Terminal with software updates made available by Payola.
Where a POS Terminal is provided by Payola or recommended for use by Merchant in combination with a third party device like a tablet, I-pad, cash register etc., a “Third Party Device”, Merchant must install the then current version of the software and related updates issued by Payola for such Third Party Device on such Third Party Device. Payola is not responsible or liable with respect to the proper functioning of the Third Party Device and use of such third party device will be subject to license and usage terms imposed by the relevant third party providers of such Third Party Device. Then current supported Third Party Devices are listed in the Customer Area.
Payola may also provide Merchant with software building blocks (such as software libraries) to enable Merchant to create applications to interact with Payola provided or Payola approved POS Terminals. Support by Payola with respect to the use of such tooling and software building blocks and the applications created therewith, is not included in the Services of Payola and such tools are provided on an “as is” basis without any warranty.
Each POS Terminal is provided by Payola with a four months limited hardware warranty, which starts on the day the POS Terminal is made available to Merchant. The hardware warranty solely entitles Merchant to the free reparation or replacement of an Payola provided POS Terminal which through a defect in the POS Terminal cannot be used to submit Transactions to Payola. In order to claim the reparation or replacement of a defective POS Terminal under the hardware warranty, Merchant must contact the Payola Service Desk prior to the expiry of the term of the hardware warranty and obtain a return address to send the defective POS Terminal to, together with a filled out hardware claim form as provided to Merchant by Payola for such purpose.
The hardware warranty does not apply in case: (i) the defect is caused by any undue external influence (e.g. contact with water, extreme temperatures, dropping the device etc.); (ii) the defect is caused by any (attempt to) open, change, repair or add to the POS Terminal by parties other than Payola or approved by Payola in writing; (iii) the defect is caused by use contrary to the operating instructions in the then current usage guides and operating instructions issued by Payola for such POS Terminal via the Customer Area; (iv) the defect is caused by use of the POS Terminal in combination with any third party software or device other than the then current Payola approved versions of Third Party Devices, using then current approved versions of Payola released software applications for the relevant Third Party Device.
Any discontinued approval by Payola for connection to the API by means of a type of POS Terminal provided or previously approved by Payola, will where reasonably possible be announced at least 3 months in advance by Payola via the Customer Area. Payola will use commercially reasonable efforts to continue to support a specific model of POS Terminal it previously provided to Merchant for at least 2 years from the date it is made available for use by Merchant. Payola reserves the right to apply a shorter notice period where reasonably deemed necessary: (i) to comply with new Scheme Owner requirements; (ii) to comply with changes in applicable laws; or (iii) to address an imminent security threat identified by Payola. If Payola discontinues support of a previously provided POS Terminal during the applicable hardware warranty period as specified in this clause 4, Payola will on Merchant’s request replace such POS Terminal at no additional charge.
It is the responsibility of the Merchant to comply with the relevant instructions and installation manuals issued by Payola regarding its integration into the Payola Services and Software, including updates issued from time to time to Merchant via the Customer Interface. Payola is not obliged to provide notification of changes to the Software and the interfaces thereto which would not impact Merchant’s use of the Services if it had correctly followed the integration instructions and other usage manuals.
Payola strongly advises to use “defensive programming” when integrating with the Payola Services. This implies for example that automated decisions programmed into the systems of Merchant should be defaulted to non-delivery of products and services. E.g. program your systems only to deliver products or services after receiving an express authorization of the payment requested and not program you system to deliver in case no explicit rejection is received.
If a payment request receives the status “Authorised” (or similarly worded status), this means the payment transaction is likely to be successful. However, this is not 100% certain. Payment may still be blocked or subject to Chargeback by the Account Holder (where Chargeback is possible under the relevant Scheme Rules). The likelihood of a payment marked as “Authorised” being blocked or unsuccessful depends on the Payment Method which is used. For example for direct debit transactions this risk is significant because in most cases the status “Authorised” only means the Account Holder’s bank account exists and not that there are enough funds on the bank account to actually perform the payment.
Payola reserves the right to change or amend the Software and the interface to it at any time, to provi Payola de the Merchant with a new version thereof, and/or to change the functionalities and characteristics of the Software. No changes will be implemented by Payola which materially reduce functionality of the Services which was explicitly committed to be provided under the Merchant Agreement, except where this is made necessary by: (i) the need to follow generally accepted changes in industry standards, (ii) changes in applicable laws or Scheme Rules, (iii) the need for increased security due to security risks identified by Payola (iv) other reasonable grounds which warrant the reduction of functionality. If Merchant is significantly impacted by a material reduction of functionality due to a change in the Software, it may terminate the Merchant Agreement by giving written notice to Payola within one month after Payola announced the change.
Payola will announce material changes to the API Interface for the Merchant where reasonably possible at least 12 months in advance to allow Merchant to prepare for any impact. Payola endeavours to minimise changes to the API Interface. Shorter notice periods may have to be made to comply with applicable laws, changes in requirements from Acquirers or Scheme Owners or the need for increased security due to security risks identified by Payola.
Merchant guarantees not to copy, capture or intercept Payment Details such as credit card numbers, CVM Codes, ‘PIN’ codes that are entered on the Hosted Payment Page or on the POS Terminal. This rule is imposed by the Scheme Owners to protect Account Holders against misuse of their Payment Details (like credit card numbers) and is strictly enforced by the Scheme Owners, and a violation of this rule can lead to the application of high Fines by the Schemes Owners. If Payola has reason to believe that Merchant is copying, capturing or intercepting Payment Details, Payola has the right to suspend processing of Transactions and Settlement. Merchant shall fully indemnify and hold Payola harmless from any losses, claims (including applied Fines by the Scheme Owners), costs or damage Payola incurs as a result of Merchant’s breach of this obligation.
Regular support is available by email, web or telephone on Business Days on Working Hours. Emergency support is provided 24 hour per day. Supported helpdesk languages are English, German and Dutch. Support documentation is available in English. The support web site will contain a knowledge base, news items and troubleshooting helpers on a personalised basis.
Payola commits to use all commercially reasonable efforts to achieve an average minimum uptime of 99.9% (measured on a quarterly basis) of the Payment Interface, to receive Transaction requests, excluding from the uptime calculation any downtime of the Payment Interface caused by acts or omissions of Merchant, Acquirers or Scheme Owners, changes implemented on specific Merchant request, general internet failures, failures of individual Payment Methods or force majeure. Merchant is obliged to immediately notify Payola of any downtime of the Payment Interface which it experiences and to provide all reasonably requested co-operation in investigating and resolving any such downtime.
Payola uses all reasonable efforts to avoid having to take the Payment Interface offline for executing planned maintenance. Should under exceptional circumstances such maintenance nevertheless prove necessary, Payola will provide as much notice as practically possible and plan such maintenance in a manner and on a date and time to minimize the potential number of affected potential Transactions for all its Merchants. Should under emergency situations (e.g. in case of force majeure event or terrorist attack) unplanned maintenance be necessary to the Payment Interface necessitating it to be taken offline, Payola will use all available resources to keep the required downtime to the absolute minimum.
Payola takes reasonable measures to provide a secure payment system and shall keep its systems used to provide the Services PCI-DSS certified.
Planned maintenance to the back office of Payola’s payment processing system (the Customer Area) will happen in the standard weekly maintenance window on Tuesdays 07:00 – 07:15 hours CET or at other times as determined by Payola and communicated to Merchant. The Customer Area may be temporarily not available during planned maintenance. As specified in clause 6.1 back-office maintenance will only in exceptional circumstances affect the availability of the Payment Interface for accepting Transactions.
Many Scheme Owners, and in particular including most Scheme Owners issuing Credit Cards allow Account Holders to Chargeback Authorised and Settled Transactions by requesting a Chargeback from the Scheme Owner or the Issuing Bank. Merchant’s receipt of a Settlement and/or Authorisation confirmation regarding a particular Transaction therefore does not unconditionally entitle Merchant to receive Settlement of the Transaction amount or to keep the Settled amount, as in case the Account Holder claims a Chargeback in accordance with the relevant Scheme Rules, Merchant loses entitlement for the relevant amount and must return it via Payola to the Account Holder. Please check the relevant Scheme Rules to see which Payment Methods allow Chargebacks and what procedures apply. Payola credits an Eligible Merchant’s Bank Account with Settlement amounts on the condition that no Chargeback shall occur. If there is a Chargeback, Payola is authorized to debit the credit that was made to the Bank Account.
Scheme Owners and Payola do not accept Merchant generating excessive levels of Chargebacks as Chargebacks are an indication of Merchant’s inability to provide the Merchant Products and Services in accordance with Account Holder expectations and create additional work and costs for all parties involved (including Scheme Owner, the Issuing Bank and Payola). If Chargeback levels of the Transactions of the Merchant for a specific Payment Method are above levels acceptable for Payola and/or the relevant Scheme Owner for that Payment Method or are expected to become above unacceptable levels, Payola reserves the right to suspend the availability of said Payment Method in its discretion.
In general Merchant should take into account that a Chargeback level of more than 0.5% of the total volume of Transactions which is Authorised, is considered unacceptable for Payola and most Scheme Owners and can lead to suspension of Transaction processing for the relevant Payment Method and/or Fines being applied (for which Merchant will be responsible). For some Payment Methods higher or lower tolerances for Chargeback levels may apply, please check the relevant then current version of the relevant Scheme Rules for this (see Customer Area for more information). Please note that the relevant Scheme Owner, Acquirer and/or Payola not taking immediate action in case of excessive Chargeback levels occurring cannot be interpreted as consent or a waiver of related rights by Payola, the relevant Acquirer or Scheme Owner.
Merchant may not provide Refunds to an Account Holder for a previously processed Transaction using a different Payment Method than the method used for the original Transaction. The original Transaction can in such case still be subject to Chargeback by the Account Holder or Issuer, causing the Merchant having to refund the received funds twice. This is a well-known method to make fraudulent use of stolen Credit Cards at the expense of Merchants.
In case Payola has reasons to suspect that Merchant is not delivering its Merchant Services or Merchant Product on or prior to the Delivery Dates used to calculate the Uncompleted Order Amount and/or if Payola has reason to suspect that the Merchant Products or Merchant Services for which Payola processes Transactions are based on fraud, likely to cause high Chargeback volumes and/or illegal, Payola has the right to suspend Settlement of all related Transactions and/or block Authorisations therefor until Payola has been given assurances to its satisfaction that the relevant Merchant Products and Services are actually delivered in accordance with applicable laws and orders placed by the Account Holder.
For every Chargeback, a non-refundable Chargeback Fee will be charged to the Merchant as set out in the Merchant Agreement.
For every Chargeback where Payola is obliged to pay the Chargeback amount, Merchant gives Payola authority to deduct the same amount from the Merchant Settlements or where the Settlement amount is too low, from the Deposit.
As Chargebacks may arise a considerable period after the date of the relevant Transaction, the Merchant acknowledges and agrees that, notwithstanding the termination of the Merchant Agreement for any reason, Payola shall remain entitled to recover Chargebacks and Chargeback Fees and related Fines from the Merchant in respect of all Chargebacks that occur in relation to Transactions effected during the term of the Merchant Agreement.
Refunds will be charged as a Transaction by Payola and a Refund fee can be applied by Payola after giving prior notice to Merchant, if manual intervention is needed or additional costs are incurred by Payola to process such Refund.
Payola will not execute a Refund (meaning the relevant sum will not be returned by Payola to the relevant Account Holder, directly or via the relevant Acquirer / Scheme Owner) in case the funds for this cannot be subtracted from the next Settlement. Refunds are not funded by Payola from the Deposit (as the Deposit is not calculated taking Refunds into account) or funded from its own means. On Merchant’s request an additional deposit specifically for funding Refunds may be created with Payola to ensure the immediate execution of Refunds, irrespective of then current Settlement amounts.
Fees charged for executing the original Transaction will not be refunded in part or in whole to the Merchant if the Transaction is Refunded or made subject to a Chargeback.
The property rights in the Software and other materials and all other intellectual property rights related to the Payola Services are owned by Payola and its licensors. The Merchant Agreement does not transfer any intellectual property rights with respect thereto and only provides Merchant a limited, non-exclusive and non-transferable license to use the Software and all other materials made available by Payola solely for the purpose of using the Services in accordance with these terms and the applicable usage instructions communicated to Merchant via the Payola website from time to time.
All information relating to the Merchant or to Payola and designated as being confidential, and all information not expressly designated as confidential but which should reasonably be deemed confidential by reason of its nature or content, is considered “Confidential Information”. Each party remains the owner of all data made available to the other party. Merchant acknowledges that the terms of the Merchant Agreement and any information provided by Payola on its Services (including communications from Payola’s support functions) are Confidential Information.
Each party undertakes to take all necessary steps to protect the confidential nature of all Confidential Information of the other party, agreeing, in particular:
The obligation to maintain confidentiality does not apply to information:
The obligation of confidentiality as described in this clause shall remain in effect also following the termination of the Merchant Agreement, regardless of the grounds for termination.
The following data is to be considered confidential, without need for special mention:
Where Payola processes personal data while performing the Services they will act as data processor under the direction and responsibility of the Merchant in accordance with EU Privacy Directive 95/46 and any successor (including EU Privacy Regulation 2016/679) and applicable Dutch privacy laws. Merchant will comply with the personal data protection laws of the Merchant’s country of origin and of those countries in which the Merchant offers its goods and/or services from time to time, in particular when processing and sending personal data to Payola in the context of using the Services and submitting transactions. Both Payola and Merchant shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against misuse.
The Merchant’s use of the Hosted Payment Page is PCI compliant under Payola ‘s PCI DSS certification for the Hosted Payment Pages subject to Merchant complying to these Payola Terms and Conditions.
Except where explicitly agreed otherwise in the Merchant Agreement, the Merchant Agreement is entered into for an indefinite period until it is terminated by either party by giving at least two (2) months’ written notice to the other party.
Merchant has the right to terminate the Merchant Agreement immediately if:
Payola has the right to terminate the Merchant Agreement and/or stop the processing or Settlement of Transactions for Merchant immediately in part or in whole if:
Payola shall only be liable for its own acts or omissions and not for acts or omissions of third parties. This exclusion expressly applies to acts or omissions of Scheme Owners and Acquirers or for events or activities originating outside the systems of Payola (such as internet disturbances or malfunctions in third party systems), except in case such events were caused by the intent or gross negligence of Payola.
The total liability of Payola under the Merchant Agreement towards Merchant for breach of contract, tort or under any other legal theory in any calendar year is limited to an amount equal to the total Processing Fees paid by the Merchant to Payola during the previous full calendar year (or if no Services were provided in the previous calendar year, the total Processing Fees paid in the initial 12 months of the term of the Merchant Agreement).
Payola shall not be liable for breach of contract, tort or under any other legal theory for any loss of profit, business, contracts, revenues or anticipated savings, or damage to good name; or for any special, indirect, or consequential damages.
Neither Payola nor any other party to the Merchant Agreement excludes or limits its liability under the Merchant Agreement for intent, gross negligence, death, fraud or personal injury.
If any claims for damages, costs and expenses are asserted against Merchant by third parties asserting that these third parties are the owner of any rights regarding the Software and/or systems of Payola, Payola shall indemnify Merchant without delay from these third-party claims, including Merchants reasonable costs of its legal defence, and offer Merchant the necessary assistance in its legal defence.
Merchant shall indemnify and hold Payola harmless from any claim (including legal fees) brought against Payola by any third party (expressly including Scheme Owners and Acquirers and their claims for payments of Fines) as a result of Merchant’s breach of the terms of the Merchant Agreement, applicable laws and/or the Scheme Rules applying to the Payment Methods used by Merchant.
Payola shall be entitled, at any time, to assign, novate or otherwise transfer the Merchant Agreement to another company in the Payola group, (i.e., a company with at least 50% the same shareholders), without the prior consent of the Merchant by providing written notice to Merchant of such transfer.
In the event that any provision in the Merchant Agreement (including the Payola Terms and Conditions) is declared null and void or inapplicable, said provision shall be deemed non-existent, and all other provisions of the Merchant Agreement (including the Payola Terms and Conditions) shall remain applicable. The parties undertake to take all steps to eliminate the provision declared null and void and/or inapplicable and to replace the same with a provision approaching, insofar as possible, the economic objective of the provision declared null and/or inapplicable.
The Merchant Agreement contains all the commitments between the parties and replaces all other prior contractual commitments between the parties. No representation, warranty or undertaking given by any of the parties to any of the other parties under the Merchant Agreement shall be of any force or effect unless expressly reduced to writing and repeated in the Merchant Agreement, and all implied or prior representations, warranties and undertakings are, save to the extent expressly set out in the Merchant Agreement, expressly excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.
The Merchant agrees that its name and standard logo (as published by the Merchant) may be included by Payola on the Payola client list on its website and in its sales materials. Payola shall be entitled to use said list freely in its commercial efforts. Any other use of Merchant’s name, logo or information shall only occur with Merchant’s prior written approval which Merchant may withhold in its discretion.
The Merchant may on its website in the section “frequently asked questions”, or in a similar informational section on its website, refer to Payola as its payment service provider, explaining that this is the reason why the name Payola may appear on bank statements of the customer. Merchant may also include an internet link to the website of Payola in such context. Merchant may not mention Payola on the home page of its website in any situation. Merchant must in each case also clearly state that customers of Merchant should not contact Payola for support or questions regarding payments processed by Payola for Merchant. Merchant may not use the logo of Payola anywhere on its website without the prior express written approval of Payola, which Payola may refuse or withdraw in its discretion.
Payola may revise the Terms and Conditions from time to time by giving at least 30 days written notice to the Merchant via email or a notice in the Customer Area. If the change has a material adverse impact on Merchant and Merchant does not agree to the change, Merchant may give written notice of its objection to Payola within thirty days after receiving notice of the change. If Payola receives such notice, Payola will contact Merchant to discuss the objections of the Merchant. If the Merchant continues to refuse to accept the change and Payola refuses to withdraw the announced change, Merchant may terminate the Merchant Agreement by giving at least one month written notice to Payola (such termination notice to be sent at the latest 60 days after Merchant received notice of the change). Merchant is not entitled to object to and shall not have the rights set out in this clause for any change which Payola implements in order to comply with applicable law or requirements imposed by the relevant Acquirers and/or Scheme Owners. For such imposed changes shorter notice periods may be applied by Payola as is needed to comply with the relevant requirement.
The applicability of Merchant’s purchasing or other general terms and conditions is expressly rejected. If Merchant accepts a proposal made by Payola (including a proposed Merchant Agreement) by issuing a separate written statement – for example a purchase order – which refers to the proposal and/or the Merchant Agreement, then additional or deviating terms or conditions contained in or referred to in such separate document shall not apply between the parties unless such deviating terms are explicitly accepted in a written statement issued and signed by an Payola board member. In any case the terms of the Merchant Agreement as proposed by Payola, including the Payola Terms and Conditions shall take precedence over any terms and conditions contained or referred to in any such acceptance document from Merchant.
In case Merchant has concluded the Merchant Agreement with Payola via Payola’s website or via any other online means, Payola may at any time request that Merchant re-confirms its acceptance of the terms of the Merchant Agreement (including these Payola Terms and Conditions) by means of a written document signed by an authorised representative of the Merchant. If Merchant does not comply with such request within 5 working days after receiving a request by Payola to do so (which request may be issued to Merchant via the contact email address submitted by Merchant when concluding the Merchant Agreement), Payola reserves the right to suspend part or all of the Services until Merchant has complied with such request.
The parties undertake to take all steps to reach an amicable agreement to any dispute arising in relation to the validity, interpretation or fulfilment of the Merchant Agreement. This clause 14.1 is without prejudice to a party’s right to seek interim relief against any other party (such as an injunction) through the competent courts to protect its rights and interests, or to enforce the obligations of any of the other parties.
The Merchant Agreement and these terms and conditions are solely governed by Dutch law excluding the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. In the absence of an amicable agreement, any dispute relating to the validity, interpretation or fulfilment of the Merchant Agreement shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Marshall Islands.
Last Updated: 2023 March
Payola is committed to protecting your privacy and earning your trust. This Privacy Policy discloses our privacy practices for personal information we collect when you use or access our products, services, features, or content through any Payola website or when you apply or express interest in employment with Payola (“Payola Employment”).
We may, in our sole discretion, change this Privacy Policy from time to time by posting a revised version at https://payola.ca/. If we make any material change to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting a notice on https://payola.ca/ prior to the change becoming effective and may also elect to send you an email notifying you of the policy modifications.
Over the past twelve months, and on an ongoing basis, Payola collects your personal information to do the following:
Over the past twelve months, and on an ongoing basis, we may share your personal information as follows:
Other than as stated in this Privacy Policy, Payola does not disclose or sell any of your personal information to third parties without your consent. Please note that third parties, such as merchants that you pay and third party websites that you visit, have their own privacy policies. Payola is not responsible for the policies and practices of such third parties and we encourage you to review their privacy policies.
Your access and use of the Payola Sites, and submission of this data to us, constitutes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and consent to the uses set forth in this Privacy Policy.
No. Payola does not sell your personal information.
Will Payola refuse service, charge me a different rate, or provide different quality service if I decline to provide certain data?
In order to use Payola Services to transfer funds through the monetary system, a user must comply with applicable federal laws and rules. These applicable laws and rules may require the disclosure and retention of information regarding the identity of senders and recipients of funds.
Payola will not discriminate against you for exercising any rights you may have under any other applicable law or rule. Payola does not base its prices or the quality of its services on the exercise or non-exercise of legal privacy rights.
As reflected above, Payola and its marketing, analytics and fraud prevention service providers use technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags, and scripts, to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about Payola’s user base, and we may receive such information on an individual and aggregated basis from such providers.
We use cookies to provide you with a personalized experience by recognizing you when you return to the Payola Sites; better understand our users by tracking how they use the Payola Services; improve the design and content of the Payola Sites by tracking how users interact with the Payola Sites; and identify and prevent fraudulent activity. You can change your browser settings to refuse cookies.
We may gather certain information about our website visitors automatically and store it in log files. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you in order to provide and improve the Payola Services.
We may partner with a third party to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third party partner may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this website and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you do not want this information to be used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may opt-out. This does not opt you out of being served ads and you will continue to receive generic ads.
We use Local Shared Objects, such as HTML5, to store content information and preferences. Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our website also use Flash cookies and HTML5 to collect and store information. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5.
The Payola Sites may include social media features that allow you to “Like” or share content on third party sites. These features may be hosted by the third party sites or the Payola Sites, and may collect your IP address, the Payola Site page you are visiting, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function. This Privacy Policy does not apply to third party cookies, web beacons, social media features and widgets (such as the Facebook Like button), or other tracking technologies used by third parties. Payola is not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of such third parties.
If you prefer not to receive promotional emails from Payola, click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any promotional email that we send you to remove your email address from future promotional email campaigns. If you have difficulty with the unsubscribe process, contact us at mailto:info@payola.ca /email/
We have security measures in place to protect your personal information, including the use of industry-standard data encryption technology and internal policies and restrictions regarding the storage of and access to your personal information. Please note that no data transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at mailto:info@payola.ca
If your information changes, you can correct it in your account settings by contacting your organization’s Account Manager at https://payola.ca/
If you wish to close your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you the Payola Services, contact us at mailto:info@payola.ca and we will respond to you in a reasonable timeframe. We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you the Payola Services, or to the extent required by applicable law or rule.
Payola is a general audience website. Payola does not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone under the age of 18.
By accessing or using Payola, you agree to comply with the terms and conditions of this Acceptable Use Policy.
You may not use Payola in connection with any product, service, transaction or activity that:
-Violates any law or government regulation, or promotes or facilitates such by third parties;
-Violates any rule or regulation of Visa, MasterCard, Meeza or any other electronic funds transfer network (each, a “Card Network”);
-Is fraudulent, deceptive, unfair or predatory;
-Causes or threatens reputational damage to us or any Card Network;
-Involves any of the business categories listed in “Certain Business Categories” ; or
-Results in or creates a significant risk of chargebacks, penalties, damages or other harm or liability.
You may not use Payola in connection with any product, service, transaction or activity that:
-Falls within the Prohibition List
-Relates to the sale and/or purchase of:
1.Banned narcotics, steroids, certain controlled substances or other products that present a risk a consumer’s safety;
2. Blood, bodily fluids or body parts;
3. Burglary tools;
4. Counterfeit items;
5. Illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia;
6. Fireworks, destructive devices and explosives;
7. Identity documents, government documents, personal financial records or personal information (in any form, including mailing lists);
8. Lottery tickets, sweepstakes entries or slot machines without the required license;
9. Offensive material or hate speech or items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance, or the financial exploitation of a crime;
10. Chemicals;
11. Recalled items;
12. Prohibited services;
13. Unlicensed financial services, stocks or other securities;
14. Stolen property;
15. Items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy or any other proprietary right under the laws of any jurisdiction;
16. Sales of currency without BDC license, certain cryptocurrency operators;
17. Obscene material or pornography;
18. Certain sexually oriented materials or services;
19. Certain firearms, firearm parts or accessories, ammunition, weapons or knives;
20. Any product or service that is illegal or marketed or sold in such a way as to create liability to Payola r; or
21. Production of military and paramilitary wears and accoutrement, including those of the Police and the Customs, Immigration and Prison Services.
-Relate to transactions that:
1.Show the personal information of third parties in violation of applicable law;
2. Support pyramid or Ponzi schemes, matrix programs, other “get rich quick” schemes or certain multi-level marketing programs;
3. Are associated with purchases of annuities or lottery contracts, lay-away systems, off-shore banking or transactions to finance or refinance debts funded by a credit card;
4. Pertain to ammunitions and arms; and
5. Involve gambling, gaming and/or any other activity with an entry fee and a prize, including, but not limited to casino games, sports betting, horse or greyhound racing, lottery tickets, other ventures that facilitate gambling, games of skill (whether or not it is legally defined as a lottery) and sweepstakes unless the operator has obtained prior approval from Payola and the operator and customers are located exclusively in jurisdictions where such activities are permitted by law.
If, in our sole discretion, we believe that you may have engaged in any violation of this Acceptable Use Policy, we may (with or without notice to you) take such actions as we deem appropriate to mitigate risk to Payola and any impacted third parties and to ensure compliance with this Acceptable Use Policy. Such actions may include, without limitation:
-Blocking the settlement or completion of one or more payments;
-Suspending, restricting or terminating your access to and use of the Payola’s Services;
-Terminating our business relationship with you, including termination without liability to Payola of any payment service agreement between you and Payola;
-Taking legal action against you;
-Contacting and disclosing information related to such violations to (i) persons who have sold/purchased goods or services from you, (ii) any banks or Card Networks involved with your business or transactions, (iii) law enforcement or regulatory agencies, and (iv) other third parties that may have been impacted by such violations; or
-Assessing against you any fees, penalties, assessments or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) that we may incur as a result of such violations, which you agree to pay promptly upon notice.
We may need to update, modify or amend our Acceptable Use Policy at any time. We reserve the right to make changes to this Acceptable Use Policy.
We advise that you check this page often, referring to the date of the last modification on the page.