Terms & Conditions
Last updated: Dec, 2023
My Book Gems is a Marketplace for independent authors to sell their books. We are not responsible for the individual sellers’ returns, refunds, shipping, etc. Please go to the individual author’s bookstore front page and contact the individual author by their contact information. Each author’s bookstore will display its own policies, please read these before purchasing or check these for refund and return information.
As a marketplace that allows users to offer, sell, and buy goods and services in various geographic locations using a variety of pricing formats. My Book Gems is not a party to contracts for sale between third-party sellers and buyers, nor is My Book Gems a traditional auctioneer.
Any guidance My Book Gems provides as part of our Services, such as pricing, shipping, listing, and sourcing is solely informational and you may decide to follow it or not. We may help facilitate the resolution of disputes between buyers and sellers through various programs. Unless otherwise expressly provided, My Book Gems has no control over and does not guarantee: the existence, quality, safety, or legality of items advertised; the truth or accuracy of users’ content or listings; the ability of sellers to sell items; the ability of buyers to pay for items; or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction or return an item.
Some Basics for Authors:
Cover Image Requirements and File Size Limits:
Cover Images
Cover images should have a width of 1800 pixels, height will depend on cover orientation (landscape or portrait). If you have a cover size of 6×9 this will be 1800 x 2700, square 1800 x 1800, etc. Keep the size justified/locked so that when you are resizing the height will keep the portions correct. Change the size from in. to px and scale or input the width size to 1800.
Image Limits
You are allowed 5 images per listing: please include, front and back covers with 3 others of your choosing (these can be inside pages or mockups).
File Size Limits
Book size limits: 0
Samples size file limits:
Download size files:
Audio size files: (can be created on the audio player)
*These limits help keep memory size equal for everyone and allow for website memory availability for everyone’s listings. Please adhere to the limits to be fair for all authors on the site. Thank you
Social Media:
If you would like to be included on our social media accounts, please send a short video (60 seconds or less) of your book to be uploaded onto our Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube accounts as well as a longer video for our Youtube account.
We will include a link to the bookstore and a link to your section/page of the bookstore along with your short description/summary in the description and video end links. The video title will be the book title plus the author’s name.
If you have a website, please add this to your store page. These videos are for ad purposes to help direct traffic to your bookstore page, not your website, so please do not add this to your video clips for the bookstore.
Thank you for your understanding.
A quick reminder:
Advertising:
The bookstore is responsible for ads for the bookstore only.
We are not obligated to run ads, but if we choose to promote, we will promote the bookstore as a whole only and not individual authors.
We are not responsible for your store traffic and you should add the bookstore to all of your social accounts and links for places to purchase your books along with doing your own personal ads to help drive traffic to your storefront/page of the bookstore. (This is why we offer the video clips for our socials as a free way to advertise/promote your books on other platforms).
Fee Responsibilities:
You are responsible for all fees, taxes, returns, and refunds (each storefront/author/vendor is responsible for adding their own store policies. The bookstore is only responsible for the platform itself).
Please remember to add these policies to your storefront page.
You can price your books however you like, including offering for free, however you are still responsible for all fees incurred by the sale of the free book (including but not limited to: transaction fees, taxes, returns, refunds and other fees).
Please bare this in mind when pricing your books.
Conditions of Use
Welcome to My Book Gems (mybookgems.com). Mybookgems.com provides website features and other products and services to you when you visit or shop at mybookgems.com, use mybookgems.com products or services, use mybookgems.com applications for mobile, or use software or products provided by mybookgems.com in connection with any of the foregoing (collectively, “My Book Gems Services”). By using My Book Gems Services, you agree, on behalf of yourself and all members of your household and others who use any Service under your account, to the following conditions.
Please read these conditions carefully.
We offer a wide range of My Book Gems Services, and sometimes additional terms may apply. When you use a My Book Gems Service (for example, Your Profile, Gift Cards, My Book Gems Video, Your Media Library, My Book Gems devices, or My Book Gems applications) you also will be subject to the guidelines, terms and agreements applicable to that My Book Gems Service (“Service Terms”). If these Conditions of Use are inconsistent with the Service Terms, those Service Terms will control.
User Agreement
This User Agreement, the Mobile Application Terms of Use, and all policies and additional terms posted on and in our sites, applications, tools, and services (collectively “Services”) set out the terms on which My Book Gems offers you access to and use of our Services. The Mobile Application Terms of Use, all policies, and additional terms posted on and in our Services are incorporated into this User Agreement. You agree to comply with all terms of this User Agreement when accessing or using our Services.
The entity you are contracting with is: mybookgems.com, 10027 S. Hawkins Rd, Reed City, MI 49677. In this User Agreement, this entity will be individually and collectively referred to as “My Book Gems,” “mybookgems.com,” “we,” or “us.”
Please be advised that this User Agreement contains provisions that govern how claims you and we have against each other are resolved (see “DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY” and “Legal Disputes” provisions below). It also contains an Agreement to Arbitrate which will, with limited exception, require you to submit claims you have against us or our agents to binding and final arbitration, unless you opt out of the Agreement to Arbitrate (see Legal Disputes, Section B (“Agreement to Arbitrate”)). If you do not opt out: (1) you will only be permitted to pursue claims against us or our agents on an individual basis, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class or representative action or proceeding, and (2) you will only be permitted to seek relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief) on an individual basis.
Policy Enforcement
When a buyer or seller issue arises, we may consider the user’s performance history and the specific circumstances in applying our policies. We may choose to be more lenient with policy enforcement in an effort to do the right thing for both buyers and sellers. The foregoing does not limit or impair our right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone, or to terminate this agreement with anyone, for any reason at our discretion.
Using My Book Gem (mybookgems.com)
In connection with using or accessing our Services you agree to comply with this User Agreement, our policies, our terms, and all applicable laws, rules, and regulations, and you will not:
- breach or circumvent any laws, regulations, third-party rights or our systems, Services, policies, or determinations of your account status;
- use our Services if you are not able to form legally binding contracts (for example, if you are under 18 years old), or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from using our Services, or are a person with whom transactions are prohibited under economic or trade sanctions;
- fail to deliver items sold by you, unless you have a valid reason as set out in My Book Gems policies;
- manipulate the price of any item or interfere with any other user’s listings;
- take any action that may undermine the feedback or ratings systems (our Feedback policies);
- transfer your My Book Gems account (including feedback) and user ID to another party without our consent;
- share your login credentials with any third parties. If you require that authorized third parties (employees, agents, etc.) have access to your account we may offer, in the future, a Multi-User Account Access program for that purpose, but this is not yet available at this time..
- create listings, post, or upload content in inappropriate categories or areas on our sites;
- engage in gambling;
- post false, inaccurate, misleading, deceptive, defamatory, libelous, or illegal content;
- distribute or post spam, unsolicited or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
- distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm My Book Gems or the interests or property of users;
- use any robot, spider, scraper, data mining tools, data gathering and extraction tools, or other automated means to access our Services for any purpose, except with the prior express permission of My Book Gems;
- circumvent any technical measures used to provide our Services;
- interfere with the functioning of our Services, such as by imposing an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
- export or re-export any My Book Gems application or tool, except in compliance with the export control laws, and rules and policies of any relevant jurisdictions;
- infringe the copyright, trademark, patent, publicity, moral, database, and/or other intellectual property rights (collectively, “Intellectual Property Rights”) that belong to or are licensed to My Book Gems. Some, but not all, actions that may constitute infringement are reproducing, performing, displaying, distributing, copying, reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, or preparing derivative works from content that belongs to My Book Gems or someone else;
- infringe any Intellectual Property Rights that belong to third parties affected by your use of our Services or post content that does not belong to you;
- commercialize any My Book Gems application or any information, data, or software associated with such application, except with the prior express permission of My Book Gems; or
- harvest or otherwise collect or use information about users without their consent.
Sellers must meet My Book Gems minimum standards. Failure to meet these standards may result in My Book Gems charging sellers additional fees, and/or limiting, restricting, suspending, downgrading, or terminating your seller account.
If we believe you are violating this User Agreement or any of our policies, or abusing My Book Gems and/or our Services in any way, we may, in our sole discretion and without limiting other remedies, limit, suspend, or terminate your user account(s) and access to our Services, delay or remove hosted content, remove any special status associated with your account(s), remove, not display, and/or demote listings, reduce or eliminate any discounts, and take technical and/or legal steps to prevent you from using our Services. We may offer a process allowing users to report claimed violations for us to consider and handle through one or more of these options, all in our sole discretion.
If we believe you are violating our policies prohibiting Offers to buy or sell outside of My Book Gems, you may be subject to a range of actions, including limits on your buying and selling privileges, restrictions on listings and account features, suspension of your account, application of fees, and recovery of expenses for policy monitoring and enforcement. Also, as provided below in the Fees and Taxes section, if we believe you are violating our policy on buying or selling outside of My Book Gems, you may be charged final value fees.
We may cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a substantial period of time. Additionally, we reserve the right to refuse, modify, or terminate all or part of our Services to anyone for any reason at our discretion.
My Book Gems Minimum Standards
Listing Conditions
When listing an item for sale on our Services, you agree to comply with My Book Gems Listing policies and Selling practices policy and also agree that:
- You assume full responsibility for the item offered and the accuracy and content of the listing, including listing content created using tools offered by My Book Gems or third parties such as translation, image editing, and generative artificial intelligence tools,
- Your listing may not be immediately searchable by keyword or category for several hours (or up to 24 hours in some circumstances). My Book Gems can’t guarantee exact listing duration,
- Your fixed-price listings may renew automatically every calendar month, based on the listing terms at the time, until all quantities sell or the listing is ended by you or My Book Gems, in its sole discretion,
- The content you provide complies with all of our listing policies, including the Images, videos and text policy,
- Content that violates any of My Book Gems policies may be modified, obfuscated, or deleted at My Book Gems sole discretion,
- We may revise product data associated with listings to supplement, remove, or correct information,
- We strive to create a marketplace where buyers find what they are looking for. Therefore, the appearance or placement of listings in search and browse results will depend on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:
- buyer’s location, search query, browsing site, and history;
- item’s location, listing format, price and shipping cost, terms of service, end time, history, and relevance to the user query;
- seller’s history, including listing practices, Detailed Seller Ratings, My Book Gems policy compliance, feedback, and defect rate; and
- number of listings matching the buyer’s query,
- To drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer,
- Some advanced listing upgrades will only be visible on some of our Services,
- My Book Gems Duplicate listings policy may also affect whether your listing appears in search results,
- Metatags and URL links that are included in a listing may be removed or altered,
- We may provide you with optional information to consider when creating your listings. Such information may be based on the aggregated sales and performance history of similar sold and/or current listings; results may vary for individual listings. You agree that we may display the sales and performance history of your individual listings to other sellers,
- Artificial intelligence-based tools may be used to provide you with content; availability and accuracy of these tools and content are not guaranteed,
- For items listed in certain categories, subject to certain programs, and/or offered or sold at certain price points, My Book Gems may require the use of certain payment methods, subject to our Payments methods policy. For example, for inventory covered by authentication or storage services, buyer and sellers may be subject to escrow and/or payment handling requirements,
- You will not sell and will promptly remove all listings for any product recalled by a manufacturer or governmental agency if the sale of the product is prohibited by law or regulation or if the product poses a health or safety hazard as specified by any governmental agency. My Book Gems has no responsibility or liability for the safety or performance of any product that you list or sell using our Services, including any product that is subject to a recall. You are solely responsible for any non-conformity or defect in, or compliance with any public or private recall of, any product you list or sell using our Services,
- My Book Gems may publish and promote your listings, including related content such as username, product reviews and feedback on the websites or in the applications, services, and tools used on My Book Gems or from other websites and
- Selling fees do not purchase exclusive rights to item exposure on our Services. We may display third-party advertisements (including links and references thereto) or other content in any part of our Services, including listings, in our sole discretion and without consent from, or payment, fee reduction, or other credit to, sellers.
Purchase Conditions
When buying an item using our Services, you agree to the Rules and policies for buyers and that:
- You are responsible for reading the full item listing before buying,
- You enter into a legally binding contract when you buy the item,
- We do not transfer legal ownership of items from the seller to you,
- Utah Code Annotated § 70A-2-401(2) and Uniform Commercial Code § 2-401(2) apply to the transfer of ownership between the buyer and the seller, unless the buyer and the seller agree otherwise.
International Buying and Selling; Translation
Given the nature of My Book Gems global marketplace, listings may be viewed and purchased by, and shipped to, buyers around the world. Our Services are accessible internationally. We offer to international sellers and buyers. If, as a seller, you do not want your item to be sold to buyers internationally, you can state in our individual store policy what countries you ship to and exclude countries or regions you don’t want to ship to by adjusting your shipping settings as provided in the International selling policy. Sellers and buyers are responsible for complying with all laws and regulations applicable to the international sale, purchase, and shipment of items.
For sellers, you agree that we may display your listing for sale on our My Book Gems site and any other site, social media site, or advertising platform. If you list your items with an international shipping option, the appearance of your listings on sites other than the listing site is not guaranteed. If you sell an item on My Book Gems site that is different from your registration or listing site, you are subject to the User Agreement and applicable policies, including any buyer protection programs, of that other site with respect to that particular sale.
You authorize us to use automated tools to translate your My Book Gems content, including member-to-member communications, in whole or in part, into local languages where such translation solutions are available. The accuracy and availability of any translation are not guaranteed.
International fees
Shipping, taxes, and other fees are solely on the individual store/vendor/author. They are responsible for international shipping fees, taxes, etc and will have their own policies. Sellers must not sell illegally to any country not allowed to purchase their items, and are solely responsible for any illegal actions it conducts on My Book Gems.
Fees and Taxes
We charge sellers for the use of our Services.
The fees we charge sellers for using our Services to sell goods and services are listed on our Author’s Membership Plans pages. We may change our selling fees from time to time by posting the changes on the My Book Gems site a week (7) days in advance, but with no advance notice required for temporary promotions or any changes that result in the reduction of fees.
If you are a seller, you are liable for fees arising out of all sales made using some or all of our Services, even if sales terms are finalized or payment is made outside of My Book Gems. In particular, if you offer or reference your contact information or ask a buyer for their contact information in the context of buying or selling outside of My Book Gems, you may be liable to pay a final value fee (We charge two main types of selling fees: a membership monthly fee to be able to use our platform/site, and a 25% commission final value fee when your item sells. The amount we charge is a percentage and will depend on the item’s price that you list it at.) applicable to that item, even if the item doesn’t sell, given your usage of our Services for the introduction to a buyer.
You as a seller must have a payment method on file when using our selling Services and pay all fees and applicable taxes associated with your use of our Services by the payment due date. If your payment method fails (we will make 3 attempts) or your account is past due, we may place restrictions on your account, or the My Book Gems Payments Entities (as defined below) may collect amounts owed in the manner described in the Payments Terms of Use, and late fees will apply (Your fees and other selling costs are automatically deducted from your sales proceeds. However, you’ll need to set up a valid payment method to cover your selling costs in case your sales proceeds are insufficient. A valid payment method includes a debit or credit card, or a linked payout bank account. We’ll charge your on-file payment method (3 attempts) within 14 days if your funds are insufficient. We may add up the amounts you owe into a single charge.)
Why you need a valid payment method
If you don’t have a valid payment method set up for selling costs, your selling activity could be affected, or we may need to charge outstanding costs to your linked payout bank account.
There are a number of reasons we may charge your on-file payment method or linked bank account for outstanding costs, such as:
- My Book Gems fees, final value fees, international fees, and other fees
- Payment dispute refunds
If your payment method for selling costs is declined, we may suspend or place a hold on your account until the outstanding amount is paid in full.
If you haven’t selected a payment method for selling costs, or if your payment is unsuccessful, we may attempt to charge another on-file payment method for any outstanding amount you owe My Book Gems.
If we attempt to charge your on-file payment method, and the charges are declined, we will re-attempt the charges up to 3 times.
One-time payment
If your funds go into negative or you owe My Book Gems money, you’ll be given the option to make a one-time payment, using a credit or debit card.
My Book Gems, or the collection agencies we retain, may also report information about your account to credit bureaus, and as a result, late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report. If you wish to dispute the information My Book Gems reported to a credit bureau (i.e., Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion) please contact us at My Book Gems, c/o Collections Department, 10027 S. Hawkins Rd., Reed City, MI 49677. If you wish to dispute the information a collection agency reported to a credit bureau regarding your My Book Gems account, you must contact the collection agency directly.
Dispute fee
Disputes should first and foremost be taken up with the author/vendor/seller to get resolved as My Book Gems does not set their individual store policies and resolution is up to them. If it comes down to reporting and disputing the store, we will become the mediator until or unless it involves My Book Gems directly. If you are found responsible for a disputed amount as per My Book Gems policies (e.g., chargeback), we charge a $20.00 dispute fee, excluding sales tax, for each dispute.
If your buyer opens a payment dispute, you can generally choose to accept the dispute, or challenge the dispute with supporting evidence.
A payment dispute is when a buyer requests their money back by reporting an issue with their order to their bank, credit card provider, PayPal, or other payment institution. The disputed amount may be placed on hold until the issue is resolved. This is different to a hold being placed on your payouts, when you may need to take further action on your My Book Gems account to resolve the issue.
When your buyer opens a payment dispute, we’ll contact you to let you know what the next steps are. To respond, you’ll need to either accept or challenge the payment dispute within 5 calendar days – if you don’t respond, the payment institution is likely to find in your buyer’s favor. The final outcome will be decided by the buyer’s payment institution.
Responding to a payment dispute
When responding to a dispute, you may choose to:
- Accept the dispute, or
- Challenge the dispute
Accepting the payment dispute
If you agree with the buyer, or you’d prefer not to challenge the payment dispute, you can accept the dispute.
When you accept the payment dispute, the amount will generally be paid from the total of your Available, Processing, and On hold funds. If you don’t have enough funds to cover the cost of the refund, the amount will be paid from your on-file payment method. We’ll close the payment dispute once the buyer’s payment institution confirms the refund.
Challenging the payment dispute
If you don’t agree with the buyer, you can challenge the payment dispute and provide some supporting evidence to help resolve the issue.
Providing evidence for the payment dispute
Because different types of evidence can be more helpful in certain cases, we recommend providing different types of evidence depending on the type of payment dispute.You will need to send all evidence to the buyer’s payment institution.
Buyer doesn’t recognise the transaction or Buyer didn’t receive the item
Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
A physical item that’s been shipped, except for vehicles |
- Tracking information showing the order was delivered successfully to the shipping address that matches the address on the order details page
- Signature confirmation when an order total is greater than or equal to $750
|
Item doesn’t match the listing or Item was damaged when received
Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
Any physical item |
- A clear photo showing the item is as described and its condition pre-shipping
- Messages with the buyer showing the issue has been solved, e.g. a partial refund or seller solution was accepted
- Any other evidence that proves the item was returned in a different condition
|
Item wasn’t authentic
Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
Any physical item |
- Proof of authenticity from the rights owner
- Messages with the buyer showing attempt to resolve issues prior to dispute
|
Buyer didn’t receive a refund
Type of item |
Recommended evidence |
Any physical item |
- Proof that a refund was already provided on My Book Gems
- Proof of cancellation
- Your stated return policy
- Messages with the buyer showing that a refund isn’t required
- Proof that the item was returned in a different condition, or that a different item was returned
|
Helpful Tips for Disputes
Before you upload an image, it helps to crop the image to the relevant area. You can also compress or merge images if you wish. Your image can be in JPEG, JPG, or PNG format. The maximum number of files allowed is five, and the total size for all files should be under 1.75 MB. You can also provide supporting text when challenging the dispute.
When you challenge the payment dispute, the final outcome will be decided by the buyer’s payment institution. The payment dispute could take up to 90 days or more to be resolved, depending on the payment method or card provider. My Book Gems may hold the funds from payout up to 90 days from when the dispute arises.
If the dispute is found in your favor, you won’t be charged for a refund and you won’t have to pay a dispute fee.
If the dispute is found in the buyer’s favor, they’ll receive a refund, and you will be charged for the refund and dispute fee. You won’t be charged more than one dispute fee per order, even if your buyer has used multiple forms of payment.
The refund amount will generally be deducted from the total of your Available, Processing, and On hold funds, and you’ll be charged a dispute fee.
*In some cases, your buyer’s payment institution may reopen a closed payment dispute. If this happens, you may be asked to provide additional evidence for challenging the dispute.
Avoiding payment disputes
A buyer may open a dispute if:
- They didn’t receive their item
- The item doesn’t match the description in your listing
- They didn’t recognise the transaction
- They were charged more than once for an item or for the transaction
- They changed their mind or canceled the transaction (on physical items only)
- They’re missing a credit or a refund
To help prevent payment disputes, you should always:
- Create detailed, accurate listings
- Include multiple, high-quality photos of your items
- Use a tracked shipping service with proof of delivery to the address provided by the buyer at checkout
- Include signature confirmation if an order has a total cost (including shipping and taxes) of $750 or more.
- Be responsive to buyers who contact you through the My Book Gems platform and work to resolve any issues
- Keep any messages and supporting documentation through My Book Gems
- When deducting an amount from the buyer’s refund, provide information to your buyer as to why you didn’t issue a full refund. For example, “deducted 5% from the refund because the item was returned used or damaged”
Buyers can’t use more than one resolution method to get a refund. If a buyer opens a dispute, has any open order cancellations, reports that an item hasn’t arrived, or returns requests cases for the same transaction are immediately closed.
Buying and Selling Off-site
Offering to buy or sell outside of My Book Gems by exchanging personal information before a sale is not allowed. Buyers also can’t share contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers, prior to completing a transaction on My Book Gems.
Contacting another My Book Gems member to discuss moving a purchase off My Book Gems exposes both the buyer and seller to the risk of fraud. It also means both buyer and seller are not covered by our protection programs.
What is the policy?
Buyers and sellers can’t:
- Engage in any action with a user on the site designed to complete or facilitate a transaction outside of My Book Gems
- Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale
- In any communications with another My Book Gems member, refer to or promote external websites that facilitate sales outside of My Book Gems
- Use contact information obtained through a My Book Gems transaction to offer to buy or sell an item outside of My Book Gems
- List an item and then mention or link to additional identical or related items for sale outside of My Book Gems
- Offer catalogs or other items that are used to order items directly outside of My Book Gems
Buyers and sellers should:
- Complete purchases on My Book Gems in order to be covered by My Book Gems protections and My Book Gems policies. Confirmation of a completed transaction on My Book Gems can be obtained by:
- Using the My Book Gems checkout to complete the purchase
- Viewing the purchase in purchase or sales history
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems User Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
If you receive an offer from a seller to transact outside of My Book Gems, please report it.
If you receive an offer from a buyer to transact outside of My Book Gems, please report it.
Why does My Book Gems have this policy?
Offers to buy or sell outside of My Book Gems are at potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers. Transactions conducted outside of My Book Gems are not eligible for My Book Gems protection programs and policies. Additionally, My Book Gems has invested a great deal to connect interested buyers with great sellers and we want to participate in ongoing transactions with them.
General Liability Release of Claims
Effective immediately upon agreement of use of site/purchase of product/purchase of membership/use of marketplace as a vendor, I, hereby release and forever discharge ‘My Book Gems,” “mybookgems.com,” “Jodi A. Metalf,” and all associated, their agents, employees, successors and assigns, and their respective heirs, personal representatives, affiliates, successors and assigns, and any and all persons, firms or corporations liable or who might be claimed to be liable, whether or not herein named, none of whom admit any liability to the undersigned, but all expressly denying liability, from any and all claims, demands, damages, actions, causes of action or suits of any kind or nature whatsoever, which I now have or may hereafter have, arising out of or in any way relating to any and all injuries and damages of any and every kind, to both person and property, and also any and all injuries and damages that may develop in the future, as a result of or in any way relating to any and all possible injuries and damages that are possible.
It is understood and agreed that this Release agreement between the parties; and that the terms of this agreement are contractual and not merely a recital. This Release may be altered, updated, amended or modified, at anytime by mybookgems.com to keep it current, legal, and binding by law.
Furthermore, this Release shall be binding upon the use, purchase, and agreement of mybookgems.com by the undersigned and his respective heirs, executors, administrators, personal representatives, successors and assigns. This Release shall be subject to and governed by the laws of the State of Michigan.
This Release has been carefully read and fully understood by the undersigned. I am freely, knowingly and voluntarily entering into this Release.
By continued use of the website you are acknowledging and agreeing to the General Release of Liability. Furthermore, by checking upon purchase of a product or membership for vendors, you are agreeing to our General Release of Liability under our Terms and Conditions.
PRIVACY
Please review our Privacy Policy, which also governs your use of My Book Gems Services, to understand our practices.
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
When you use My Book Gems Services, or send e-mails, text messages, and other communications from your desktop or mobile device to us, you may be communicating with us electronically. You consent to receive communications from us electronically, such as e-mails, texts, mobile push notices, or notices and messages on this site or through the other My Book Gems Services, such as our Message Center, and you can retain copies of these communications for your records. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.
COPYRIGHT
All content included in or made available through any My Book Gems Service, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software is the property of My Book Gems or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws. The compilation of all content included in or made available through any My Book Gems Service is the exclusive property of My Book Gems and protected by U.S. and international copyright laws.
TRADEMARKS
In addition, graphics, logos, page headers, button icons, scripts, and service names included in or made available through any My Book Gems Service are trademarks or trade dress of My Book Gems in the U.S. and other countries. My Book Gems trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product or service that is not My Book Gems, in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers, or in any manner that disparages or discredits My Book Gems. All other trademarks not owned by My Book Gems that appear in any My Book Gems Service are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by My Book Gems.
PATENTS
One or more patents owned by My Book Gems apply to the My Book Gems Services and to the features and services accessible via the My Book Gems Services. Portions of My Book Gems Services operate under license of one or more patents.
LICENSE AND ACCESS
Subject to your compliance with these Conditions of Use and any Service Terms, and your payment of any applicable fees, My Book Gems or its content providers grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and make personal and non-commercial use of the My Book Gems Services. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of any My Book Gems Service, or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of any My Book Gems Service or its contents; any downloading, copying, or other use of account information for the benefit of any third party; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools. All rights not expressly granted to you in these Conditions of Use or any Service Terms are reserved and retained by My Book Gems or its licensors, suppliers, publishers, rightsholders, or other content providers. No My Book Gems Service, nor any part of any My Book Gems Service, may be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without express written consent of My Book Gems. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of My Book Gems without express written consent. You may not use any meta tags or any other “hidden text” utilizing My Book Gems name or trademarks without the express written consent of My Book Gems. You may not misuse the My Book Gems Services. You may use My Book Gems Services only as permitted by law. The licenses granted by My Book Gems terminate if you do not comply with these Conditions of Use or any Service Terms.
YOUR ACCOUNT
You may need your own My Book Gems account to use certain My Book Gems Services, and you may be required to be logged in to the account and have a valid payment method associated with it. If there is a problem charging your selected payment method, we may charge any other valid payment method associated with your account. to manage your payment options. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your account, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. My Book Gems does sell products for children, but it sells them to adults, who can purchase with a credit card or other permitted payment method. If you are under 18, you may use the My Book Gems Services only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. Parents and guardians may create profiles for teenagers in their My Book Gems Household. My Book Gems reserves the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, terminate your rights to use My Book Gems Services, remove or edit content, or cancel orders in its sole discretion.
Effective date from January 1, 2024 for sellers who accept these Payments Terms of Use during new seller registration or otherwise on or after that date.
Introduction
These Payments Terms of Use (“Payments Terms of Use”) set out the terms on which the My Book Gems Payment Entities set forth below offer you Payment Services (as defined below in Part I, Section 1) in relation to your use of the My Book Gems Services. Your use of the My Book Gems Services will continue to be governed by the User Agreement applicable to you. Capitalized terms used, but not defined, in these Payments Terms of Use have the same meaning as set forth in the User Agreement. The applicable User Agreement, related My Book Gems policies, or other agreements between you and us (for example, a billing agreement) may include provisions regarding your use of the My Book Gems Services without Managed Payments (as defined below) which may conflict with these Payments Terms of Use. You understand that, with respect to our Payment Services, these Payments Terms of Use supersede any and all such conflicting provisions. You agree to comply with these Payments Terms of Use when accessing or using our Payment Services.
These Payments Terms of Use are between you and the applicable My Book Gems Payment Entities, as set forth below. If you have international sales, you may receive Payment Services from My Book Gems Payment Entities, as described in Part I, Section 2 below. In addition to the General Payments Terms (Part I of these Payments Terms of Use), My Book Gems Payment Entity has Additional Payments Terms (Parts II, III, IV, V and VI of these Payments Terms of Use) that apply to the Payment Services such entity provides. My Book Gems and the companies it directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, are referred to as our “Affiliates.” The My Book Gems Payment Entities are Affiliates of My Book Gems
I. GENERAL PAYMENTS TERMS
This Part I of the Payments Terms of Use applies to all Payment Services you receive from the My Book Gems Payment Entities (also collectively referred to as “we” or “us” in this Part).
1. About Payments on the My Book Gems Services
You agree to have the My Book Gems Payment Entities receive or execute payments on your behalf in relation to your use of the My Book Gems Services, and manage settlement of related payments to you (referred to as “Managed Payments,” “Payment Services,” or similar names).
Buyers may pay for your items using payment methods such as the following, the availability of which may vary:
- Certain credit or debit cards (VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover),
- PayPal,
- Google Pay,
- Apple Pay,
- Direct debit,
- “Pay Later” payment methods, otherwise known in some areas as payment via installments, or “direct debit upon invoice” or “payment upon invoice,” or “Buy Now Pay Later”,
- My Book Gems coupons, gift cards, etc. (if applicable), or
- Funds held in a stored value account issued under My Book Gems Balance Terms and Conditions (currently only available to selected sellers residing or established in the United States).
We may modify the scope of payment methods available at our sole discretion.
The underlying contract for the buyer’s purchase of “items” (which may refer to goods and/or services) from you is directly concluded between you and the buyer.
After a Managed Payments transaction occurs, you will receive a notification confirming such payment transaction. We will initiate settlement of proceeds received to your Linked Financial Account (as defined below in Part I, Section 4 “Seller Onboarding”). You can access the status of your Managed Payments transactions, including settlements and other payment information, which will be available to you when you successfully onboard to Managed Payments. If a payment is made to you in error, or if you receive funds that you are not otherwise entitled to receive at the time of disbursement, we have the right to recoup such amounts from you.
2. International Sales
Because multiple My Book Gems Payment Entities provide Payment Services, you may receive Payment Services from more than one My Book Gems Payment Entity, as follows:
- If you receive Payment Services from My Book Gems Payment Entity, such entity is appointed to process transactions and manage the settlement of funds related to your sales.
- Each My Book Gems Payment Entity is appointed to manage payments for sales (“Responsible Payment Entity”)
- If you sell an item listed on an My Book Gems site whose Responsible Payment Entity is also your Payout Entity, your Payout Entity will process the sale and settle the corresponding funds to your Linked Financial Account.
- If you sell an item listed on an My Book Gems site whose Responsible Payment Entity differs from your Payout Entity, the Responsible Payment Entity will process the sale and transfer the corresponding funds to your Payout Entity, which will receive the funds on your behalf and in turn disburse them to your Linked Financial Account.
If you reside outside the EEA (except Iceland), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, the performance of any Payment Services provided to you by My Book Gems is deemed suspended until an item you listed on My Book Gems site is sold.
Payout Currency
Your “Payout Currency” is the currency that we will use for settling your transaction proceeds to your Linked Financial Account. We will generally determine your Payout Currency as US currency, unless offered otherwise:
- If you are a seller residing or established in the United States, or any of the Additional Countries, your Payout Currency is the US Dollar.
- If you are a seller residing or established in any other Country, then your Payout Currency is the US Dollar, or such other currency as we may offer and you may select as determined by your country of residence.
We may enable further Payout Currencies at our sole discretion in the future. Where offered by us and agreed upon by you and your buyer, your buyer may pay for an item you sell with currency other than your Payout Currency. When this happens, the paid amount will be converted into your Payout Currency prior to disbursement of the funds to you, using the applicable transaction exchange rate and assessing the currency conversion charge as indicated on our Fee Page described in Section 3 (“Seller Payment Fees”) below. Similarly, your receipt of My Book Gems Services from Affiliates may cause you to incur fees which are published in a currency other than your Payout Currency; if this happens, we may convert such fees into your Payout Currency in the same manner as described in the prior sentence.
Further, if you live in an Additional Country, the financial institution you opened your Linked Financial Account with may charge you a separate fee for converting your funds from the US Dollar to your local currency.
3. Seller Payment Fees
The fees and expenses which we charge in relation to your use of Managed Payments are, unless otherwise communicated to you, set forth in the applicable fee page. Such fees and expenses are subject to change, as set forth in the applicable User Agreement. For instance, if the User Agreement is applicable, we may change our seller fees from time to time in the manner set out in the User Agreement. In some circumstances, you might be eligible for a credit of certain fees you paid, as described in the Fee Credits section.
4. Seller Onboarding
In order to use our services, you must register and accept these Payments Terms of Use. If you reside in the EEA, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, your submission of your Managed Payments online registration application constitutes your offer to conclude this agreement. If your onboarding is not immediately confirmed, you will receive notification that you have been approved to receive services once we have reviewed your information.
To use Managed Payments, you must:
- Link a financial account, so you may receive settlements of proceeds from Managed Payments to this account (“Linked Financial Account”).* If you reside in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, or Australia, your Linked Financial Account must be a bank account based in your country of residence, or such other type of account or instrument (such as a debit card) that we may permit in our discretion. If you reside in a country within the EEA (except Iceland), you may provide a bank account located in any EEA member state (except Iceland), as your Linked Financial Account. If you reside in Switzerland or Liechtenstein, you must provide a bank account located in Switzerland or Liechtenstein as your Linked Financial Account. If you reside in an Additional Country, we may require you to create a Linked Financial Account with a specific non-bank third-party financial institution to receive payouts. Depending on the Additional Country that you reside in, we may also offer you the option to use a bank account located in the Additional Country as a Linked Financial Account. If we cannot make direct debits from your Linked Financial Account for Owed Amounts (as defined in Section 9), we require you to keep another payment method on file with us and we may withhold payouts to your Linked Financial Account until you have successfully provided us with such other payment method.
- At this time, you may only use our Payment Services to receive disbursements to a Linked Financial Account. You may change your Linked Financial Account at any time as permitted by us. Payouts will be made to your Linked Financial Account subject to (i) your completion of the Linked Financial Account verification process, and (ii) the completion of our assessment for security and risk purposes and under our anti-money laundering and other legal obligations. Our assessment typically takes up to two (2) days after your completion of the verification process, or longer if any issues or irregularities arise in which case we will complete our assessment without undue delay. If you reside in an Additional Country and we offer you the option to receive payouts to more than one Linked Financial Account, we will allocate your payouts among your Linked Financial Accounts in conformity with your instructions. By adding a Linked Financial Account to your My Book Gems account, you represent and warrant that you are the lawful owner of, or have the lawful right to use, any Linked Financial Account you associate with your account. In certain circumstances, we may permit you to direct payouts to a Linked Financial Account owned or controlled by your legal representative. If you elect to receive payouts to a Linked Financial Account owned or controlled by a legal representative, you represent and warrant that the legal representative has the authority to receive payouts on your behalf, and you fully release us from any and all liability for losses you may sustain arising from disbursements made by us to the legal representative under these Payments Terms of Use.
- Provide us with all information which we may require for purposes that include: verifying your identity, complying with applicable laws and regulations such as anti-money laundering and sanctions screening obligations, allowing us to manage settlements of your transaction proceeds, and assessing fraud and risk. If you are an individual, this information may include, without limitation, your full name, address, phone number, date of birth, taxpayer identification number, bank account information, and a form of government-issued identification (e.g., a copy of your identity card or driver’s license). If you are a business, this information may include, without limitation, your full business name, address, phone number, entity type, bank account information, tax identification number, and business number, in addition to details regarding your beneficial owner(s), director(s), officer(s), authorized representative, legal representative, and/or primary contact, such as name, contact information, nationality, title, and government-issued identification (such as a United States Social Security Number). You understand that we will be unable to settle your proceeds if you do not provide or appropriately update us with accurate contact information and other requested data.
- Provide us with all information necessary to authenticate you or your payment transactions, which may include validation of your phone number or email. You understand that we may be unable to execute certain transactions or complete certain requests without this information.
- Maintain in a timely manner the accuracy of the information we have on file, and consent to our periodic updating of such stored information based on information provided by you, your bank, or other payments services providers. You will only provide us information about payment or settlement methods that you are authorized to use. You understand that if you update information such as your country of residency, you may need to repeat some or all of the onboarding steps described above to continue using Payment Services.
- Comply with all, and not cause a third party to violate any, applicable laws, regulations, rules, and terms and conditions in connection with your use of the My Book Gems Services. You will not use Payment Services to move funds associated with gambling. You understand that some third parties (such as banks, credit and debit card issuers, credit and debit card networks, and payments services providers) may have their own terms and conditions for the payment or settlement methods you or buyers choose to use in connection with payments that we manage, such as terms and conditions that relate to the settlement of funds, chargebacks, prohibited items, and overdrafts. Failure to abide by third-party terms and conditions may result in fees assessed to you, delays in your receipt of funds, or other actions taken by such third parties. You agree that we have no control over, or responsibility or liability for, such fees, delays, or actions.
You authorize us and our Affiliates to check information you provide to us, including by verifying the existence of your bank account and obtaining reports from, or comparing your information to, third-party sources. Such third-party sources may include without limitation, banks, credit agencies, data brokers, and other service providers. We reserve the right to close, suspend, or limit your account or rescind your access to any or all of our services in the event we are unable to obtain or verify any of this information. We are not responsible for any losses suffered by you as a result of incomplete or inaccurate information you provide.
5. Shipping
When you receive notice that a buyer has paid for an item through a Managed Payments transaction, you must then ship or otherwise deliver your item in accordance with the agreed shipping method.
6. Managed Payments Limitations
In some listings or categories, My Book Gems may allow sellers to offer buyers the option to pay for a purchase directly to the seller without using the payment services offered by us under these Payments Terms of Use, for example by cash payment on pickup (“Offline Payment Methods”). We do not manage payments for such Offline Payment Methods. Offline Payment Methods are not covered by the My Book Gems protection programs; additionally, we will not assist buyers or sellers with payment disputes (such as chargebacks) in connection with Offline Payment Methods. Your listings are subject to these payment policies and any other terms about payments that may appear on the My Book Gems Services, including terms relating to the payment and disbursement methods available to you for such listings.
7. Using Managed Payments
Returns and Cancellations; Refunds
If your buyer is entitled to a refund for a return or cancellation for a Managed Payments transaction, based on an agreement between you and the buyer or according to My Book Gems policies regarding such transaction, you authorize us to pay to the buyer the corresponding refund amount on your behalf if applicable for us to do so instead of the seller.
eBay Buyer Protection Programs
eBay offers buyer protection programs on certain eBay Services to ensure that buyers receive the item they ordered or get their money back. Such programs are referred to as “eBay Buyer Protection Programs,” and known in many jurisdictions as the “eBay Money Back Guarantee” (“eMBG”). You understand that if your buyer successfully files a claim under such program for a Managed Payments transaction, the respective eBay company offering the eBay Buyer Protection Program (“eMBG Service Provider”) will reimburse the buyer the amount owed on your behalf pursuant to the applicable User Agreement and eMBG policy. According to the applicable User Agreement and eMBG policy, you must reimburse the eMBG Service Provider for any such amounts.
Disputes
A buyer (or the owner of a payment instrument) may initiate a chargeback, direct debit reversal, or PayPal buyer protection claim, or otherwise asks their financial institution to open a payment dispute (all referred to solely within this Part I as “Dispute”) in connection with a Managed Payments transaction. The final outcome of the Dispute will be decided by the buyer’s financial institution.
We will manage Disputes, as follows: When a Dispute is opened, we will notify you and ask you whether you choose to accept or challenge the Dispute. If you accept the Dispute, you agree to the reversal of the payment to the buyer. If you challenge the Dispute, eBay will submit to the financial institution any relevant evidence you provide about the Dispute. You agree to provide timely information to assist in the Dispute resolution process and understand that your failure to provide requested information on the timeline we require and as specified by credit and debit card networks’ and other payment service providers’ rules could adversely impact the outcome of a Dispute investigation, up to complete forfeiture of the amounts in Dispute. If you accept the Dispute or if the buyer’s financial institution decides in favor of the buyer, the respective amount will be refunded to the buyer’s original payment method and charged to us. You must reimburse us for such charges, unless you are eligible for seller protection in which case you are not held liable for amounts refunded to the buyer. If you choose to accept the Dispute, we may still decide to challenge the Dispute in our discretion and at no additional costs to you.
Some payment institutions offer an optional arbitration process to contest the results of an individual Dispute. We may ask for your consent to participate in such arbitration process. If you consent to chargeback arbitration, you authorize us to represent and defend you throughout the arbitration. You will be responsible for all costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees and any arbitration fees assessed by third parties, arising from such arbitration proceedings), as agreed between you and us in each case, and you authorize us to pay these amounts on your behalf while the arbitration is pending.
You will not contest the resolution of any Dispute that we investigate and/or re-present, nor will you re-open resolved Dispute investigations. If you are a consumer in the EU, UK or Australia, or a Small Business within the definition of Small Business Contract (as defined in s23 of Schedule 2 – Australian Consumer Law of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) (“Australian Small Business”) in Australia, your rights to file a complaint or to take legal action in court remain unaffected.
Seller Protection
If you have met your eligibility requirements for, and fulfilled all your applicable obligations, under the Seller Protection policy, you will not be held liable for any amounts to be returned to buyers due to eBay Buyer Protection Program claims, Disputes or unauthorized transactions with eBay spendable funds.
Fines, Penalties and Losses
We are unable to manage payments for prohibited and restricted items. Before listing your item, you must ensure it complies with eBay’s rules, applicable laws, and any additional restrictions imposed by credit card associations, network rules, or third-party payments service providers that we may use.
You agree to indemnify and reimburse us for all reversals, chargebacks, claims, costs, losses, damages, fees, fines, penalties and other liabilities and expenses incurred by us or brought against us by a third party arising out of (a) your breach of these Payments Terms of Use or the User Agreement including without limitation any violation of eBay’s policies; (b) your violation of any law or the rights of a third party; or (c) any transaction processed by us for you for an item or service you listed on eBay (including without limitation the accuracy of your item description or any claim or dispute arising out of items or services offered or sold by you).
Holds
We reserve the right to manage the risks associated with providing you the Payment Services, by placing restrictions on your access to your funds when deemed necessary, as described in further detail below.
You agree that we may place holds on your funds or instruct a payment service provider to hold your funds, prior to disbursement. For the avoidance of doubt, if you receive funds to either a stored value account issued to you under eBay’s Balance Terms and Conditions or to a payment account, a hold may also be placed on such funds. If a hold is placed on your funds, the amount and status of the hold will be displayed under the Payments tab in the Seller Hub/My eBay. We will notify you through the eBay Message Center and/or by email and, depending on the reason, may request additional information from you to help resolve the issue. A hold may be placed if we have reason to believe there is an increased risk associated with the provision of our Payment Services or with a certain Managed Payment transaction, for example if we cannot verify your identity or if your buyer files a dispute. Please see our holds help page for more detail on the hold types and examples. We take into consideration relevant factors when assessing the risks including selling history, seller performance, returns and cancellations, chargebacks, riskiness of the listing category, transaction value, the ability to make direct debits from your Linked Financial Account, and the filing of eBay Buyer Protection Program claims. We also may cancel or freeze the settlement of your proceeds as necessary to comply with our legal obligations in connection with fraud prevention, risk management, or regulatory compliance, or, upon lawful request by our Affiliates, to enable them to comply with legal obligations applicable to them (such as compliance with tax-related obligations from EU DAC7 legislation). Any hold placed on your funds will be lifted when the issue is resolved.
Unless your payout entity is eBay Sarl or ECUK, we may retain an amount that we reasonably believe may be necessary to pay for any refunds, reimbursements, or other payments associated with returns, Disputes, or other post-transaction activities, when your eBay account is closed. Unless otherwise required by law, we will settle any unused retained amounts to your Linked Financial Account within 180 days of your eBay account closure.
Your bank’s holds and settlement procedures may at times cause delays in the settlement of funds to your Linked Financial Account, and we do not have control over these delays.
Reserves
In order to manage risk or secure your obligations under these Payments Terms of Use, we have the right to require a reserve of transaction proceeds. This means that the respective portion of your funds is reserved as unavailable for disbursement. Reserves may be in the form of rolling and/or minimum reserves.
- A rolling reserve is a reserve funded by withholding a set percentage of your transaction proceeds each day for a fixed period to be released to you later at a scheduled time on a rolling basis. For example, we may require a rolling reserve of 10% for a period of 60 days. Under this requirement, 10% of your transaction proceeds earned on day 1 will be withheld from your payouts and then be released to you on day 61. Subsequently, 10% of your transaction proceeds earned on day 2 will be withheld and then released to you on day 62, and so forth. Rolling reserves are the most common type of reserve.
- A minimum reserve is a requirement to hold a specific amount of money in your reserve. A minimum reserve may be funded by contributing a set percentage of your daily transaction proceeds to the reserve up to the minimum requirement, or by setting-off the entire amount of the minimum requirement from your pending payouts. For example, if we require a minimum reserve of $5,000, the reserve may be funded by contributing 10% of your transaction proceeds to the reserve each day until the amount reaches $5,000. Alternatively, if your pending payouts equal or exceed $5,000, the minimum reserve may be funded by setting off the reserve requirement from your pending payouts at one-time in full.
We may require a reserve if we have reason to believe there is an increased risk of non-fulfillment of your obligations under these Payments Terms of Use. We take into consideration relevant risk factors before requiring a reserve, including, as applicable (i) your eBay account history, (ii) whether the category you are listing in has a higher likelihood of chargebacks or refunds, (iii) whether your eBay account has an elevated number of customer claims or disputes, (iv) your business and/or personal credit history (business sellers may be subject to credit agency checks), (v) whether you are selling products in advance of availability (pre-selling orders), and (vi) whether you have extended delivery time frames. Depending on your performance and the risk associated with your use of Managed Payments, a reserve may be raised, lowered, or removed at any time. The amount of each reserve (and any subsequent change) will be reasonably determined based on the seller-specific risk (including the volume of your sales). The amount and status of each reserve will be displayed under the Payments tab in the Seller Hub/My eBay and we will notify you of any reserves we require of you.
If ECA is your Payout Entity, any reserve required of you is further subject to the Seller Reserve Terms and Conditions. By accepting these Payments Terms of Use, you agree to the Seller Reserve Terms and Conditions to the extent they apply to you.
Our Liability
If we have acted with reasonable precautions and/or in accordance with our legal obligations, we are not liable for any unauthorized, incorrectly, unexecuted, or delayed payment transactions when such issues were caused by abnormal and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control.
Signature
In instances where we are required to collect your signature to meet anti-money laundering and/or other legal requirements, we may (where not prohibited by applicable law) treat your acceptance of these Payments Terms of Use as the equivalent of you providing us your signature.
8. Security; Third-Party Providers; Data Protection
Security
You acknowledge the importance of the security measures we put in place with regards to Managed Payments, and agree to comply with them. You are responsible for maintaining the security of all passwords, codes, or other login credentials used to access your eBay account and the related Payment Services and, subject to eBay’s seller protection policies, for any transactions made or actions taken using your eBay account.
If you become aware of an unauthorized payment transaction or of a delayed or incorrectly executed transaction, you must notify us immediately by using a contact method stated in the “Introduction” of these Payments Terms of Use, above. If you notify us by telephone of such a transaction, we may request written confirmation immediately following the notification. The notification shall be free of charge.
Third-Party Providers
We may use our Affiliates or third-party service providers (for example companies that process payments and disburse settlements, perform risk assessments or compliance checks, verify identity, or validate payment or settlement methods) in different locations to assist us in providing Managed Payments. Our Affiliates or third-party service providers may further outsource the services to other eBay Affiliates or third-party service providers. In this context we may transfer your data to such eBay Affiliates or third-party service providers to whom services are outsourced. At times, we may communicate to you through the eBay Affiliate which provides the eBay Services to you. For example, our Affiliate may notify you of a hold or other restrictions taken on your account. As relating to outsourced services, you hereby explicitly agree to our use of such eBay Affiliates or third-party service providers to assist us in providing Managed Payments and the outsourcing of services in relation thereto (including the right to sub-outsource), and you accept that the obligation of secrecy does not exist with respect to the related transfer of data (e.g. contact details, account information, sales related information) to such eBay Affiliates and third-party service providers. Our Affiliates and third-party service providers are either subject by law to a professional secrecy obligation, as provided by the law applicable to the eBay Affiliates or third-party service providers, or will be contractually bound to comply with strict confidentiality rules. Customer data transferred in accordance with these purposes will only be accessible to a limited number of persons within the relevant eBay Affiliates or third-party service providers, on a need to know basis. Regardless of whether we use eBay Affiliates or third-party service providers, the appropriate eBay Payment Entity remains responsible to you for the performance of the services contemplated under these Payments Terms of Use.
In conformity with our User Privacy Notice, we may also share information collected by us pursuant to these Payments Terms of Use with our Affiliates as necessary to enable your continued use of our Payment Services and the eBay Services. Please view our User Privacy Notice for more information on the collection and processing of personal data, including details on processing purposes and legal bases under applicable data protection laws.
Data Protection
Our performance of Payment Services entails the processing of your buyer’s personal data when a sale happens. With respect to such data processing, you, the Responsible Payment Entity, and the Payout Entity each act as a separate data controller/business under the applicable data protection laws (which may without limitation include, the General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or other data protection laws to which you are subject). You agree to: comply with your obligations as a data controller/business pursuant to the applicable data protection laws, and provide us with all such reasonable cooperation, information, and assistance as necessary for us to meet our requirements as a data controller/business.
9. Collection of Fees and Other Amounts You Owe
You authorize us to collect from you any amounts you owe us, our Affiliates (in particular the Affiliate which provides the eBay Services to you), or third parties who, as separately authorized by you, provide services to you in connection with your use of the eBay Services (such as shipping carriers), under these Payments Terms of Use, the User Agreement, any other service contract, policy, agreement or as required by law (referred to as “Owed Amounts”). Owed Amounts typically include the following:
- Fees;
- Amounts as described in “Returns and Cancellations; Refunds”, “Disputes” or “Fines, Penalties and Losses” in Section 7 above;
- Amounts you owe the eMBG Service Provider under the applicable eMBG Policy;
- Taxes or other charges related to your use of our or our Affiliates’ services, if applicable and required by law; and
- Amounts we incorrectly settled to you due to a payment processing error or otherwise (see Section 1 above).
For clarity, your authorization permits us to collect amounts which you already owe to us, our Affiliates or third parties as described above. This authorization does not establish any new claims for payment against you. In some cases, our Affiliates may assign a claim against you for payment of Owed Amounts payable by you to us.
Collection of the Owed Amounts may be carried out on a one-time, sporadic, or recurring basis by the following means:
- Retaining such amounts from your current or future disbursements relating to any transactions that you may have in connection with any eBay account owned by you;
- Recouping from your Linked Financial Account (and if required, by issuing a direct debit mandate or other similar authorization);
- Recouping from any other payment instrument or payment method you may have authorized or placed on file with us or our Affiliates (for example, to pay for seller fees, shipping labels, or dispute resolution);
- Recouping from your stored value account, if a stored value account has been issued to you;
- Recouping from your payment account, if a payment account has been issued to you (see Part III); and
- Retaining collections agencies or using other collections methods, if the collection by other means has been unsuccessful.
You authorize us to choose the method of collection among those listed above. We generally deduct Owed Amounts from your current or future disbursements we process on your behalf. If a stored value account or payment account has been issued to you, we will deduct the Owed Amounts from funds held in the relevant stored value account or payment account before disbursing the funds to you. If your disbursements awaiting payout or funds held are not sufficient to cover these amounts, we will charge your Linked Financial Account or another payment method on file. If you have several payment instruments on file, you may indicate a specific payment instrument as your preferred payment method for collecting Owed Amounts in your eBay account.
You also authorize the Affiliate whom you have entered into the User Agreement with for the provision of eBay Services to charge you for any Owed Amounts on our behalf from any payment method you may have on file with such Affiliate.
If you provide us with a SEPA/BACS direct debit mandate for debiting Owed Amounts from your bank account, any required advance notice will be given to you at least three days prior to charging your bank account. At any point prior to you explicitly cancelling a SEPA/BACS direct debit mandate we have obtained from you, we may deduct Owed Amounts based on such mandate. Unless you are a consumer in the EU or UK, you waive, to the extent possible under applicable law, any rights you may have to receive advance notice of any particular preauthorized charge.
If our attempt to recoup an Owed Amount from a payment instrument you have authorized us to use fails as a result of your acts or omissions, we may charge you for the failed attempt as set forth on the Fee Page or as applicable in Parts IV and V below.
10. Amendment
All sellers (except consumers in Germany)
We may amend these Payments Terms of Use by notifying you of the changes in writing (for example, by posting a revised version of these Payments Terms of Use on our website, including the Seller Hub or the eBay Message Center). Before the anticipated effective date of such change, we will notify you at least fourteen (14) days prior, or
- if your Payout Entity is eBay Sarl or ECUK, then two (2) months prior;
- if your Payout Entity is ECA, then thirty (30) days prior.
If you are a consumer (i.e., not a business) outside of Germany whose Payout Entity is eBay Sarl or ECUK, you will be deemed to have consented to these changes unless you explicitly reject them before the anticipated effective date. For all other sellers, your continued use of Managed Payments beyond the effective date of the changes will constitute your acceptance of the changes.
Consumers in Germany
If you are a consumer in Germany, we may offer you changes to these Payments Terms of Use at any time. We will be notifying you in text-form, for example via email, and/or the Seller Hub or the eBay Message Center of any proposed changes at least two (2) months before the anticipated effective date of such change.
The changes offered to you shall only become effective if you accept them as follows:
- If a proposed change is a material change (as defined below), we will ask for your active consent to such a change.
- If a proposed change is not a material change, you will be deemed to have consented to these changes unless you explicitly reject them by notice to us in text form (e.g. via email) before the anticipated effective date. In case of such changes, we will inform you in the notice with which we offer you the changes about the right of rejection, the period of time and your termination right (see subsection below).
A “material change” is a change of these Payments Terms of Use (especially with respect to provisions defining the type and general scope of the agreed services or the term and termination) in our favor, which would significantly shift the balance between service and remuneration to your disadvantage or would effectively establish an entirely new contract.
A change which is due to a requirement of law, a legally binding court decision or an injunction does not constitute a material change.
Termination right in case of amendments (all sellers)
If you do not agree to proposed changes, you may terminate these Payments Terms of Use, pursuant to Section 11 (“Term, Termination”) below, without any extra cost at any time before the effective date. We always publish the amended Payments Terms of Use on the eBay website.
11. Term, Termination
These Payments Terms of Use are effective indefinitely, unless terminated in accordance with the below.
We may terminate these Payments Terms of Use by giving written notice fourteen (14) days prior or if eBay Sarl or ECUK is your Payout Entity, then two (2) months prior via email to your registered email address. However, we may also terminate these Payments Terms of Use on less notice or with immediate effect in the following scenarios:
- We are required to do so by law or a court order,
- A governmental authority requires us to do so to comply with anti-money laundering or counter-terrorism financing obligations,
- We have reasonable grounds to believe you are carrying out a prohibited or illegal activity (including, but not limited to, financial crimes such as fraud, bribery, corruption money laundering, or sanctions violations),
- We are unable to verify your or your business’s identity, or any other information pertaining to you, or
- You are otherwise in breach of a material contractual obligation of these Payments Terms of Use, or seriously or persistently violating any provisions of these terms in any other way.
If eBay Sarl or ECUK is your Payout Entity, you may terminate these Payments Terms of Use and close your payment account, without prejudice to the termination events foreseen above, by giving one (1) month notice by notifying eBay Sarl preferably via email at payments@ebay.de or ECUK at Paymentsinfouk@ebay.co.uk or by contacting the Customer Service via any of the available communication methods (e.g. Contact Us form, chat).
If eBay Sarl or ECUK is not your Payout Entity, you may terminate these Payments Terms of Use by closing your eBay account; if you use Managed Payments after such termination, you will be deemed to have again accepted these Payments Terms of Use.
If you give notice of termination to one eBay Payment Entity, such notice shall also be deemed as a termination notice to the remaining eBay Payment Entities.
Your use of the eBay Services as a seller requires continued registration for Managed Payments. Should you therefore terminate this agreement, you will not be able to use the eBay Services provided by our Affiliates. Our Affiliates which provide you the eBay Services according to the User Agreement may terminate the User Agreement pursuant to the termination provisions therein.
Termination of this Agreement shall not affect the rights or liabilities of either party accrued until termination and/or any terms intended (expressly or implicitly) to survive termination, including your obligation to pay amounts owed to us relating to your activities prior to termination and our right to collect from you such amounts in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use. If there are pending payment transactions at the time the termination takes effect, they will be processed pursuant to terms of these Payments Terms of Use unless prohibited by law. As of the effective date of the termination, you will not be able to sell any items on eBay Services anymore.
12. Assignment
In our sole discretion, we may assign our rights and obligations under these Payments Terms of Use and, in such event, we will notify you accordingly.
II. ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR SERVICES PROVIDED BY eCI
In addition to the General Payments Terms above, the following provisions apply with respect to Payment Services you receive from eCI. Within this section, “we” or “us” refers to eCI.
As between you and eCI, these Payments Terms of Use incorporate by this reference the provisions of the User Agreement to the extent applicable to this agreement. In the event of any conflict between the User Agreement and these Payments Terms of Use, these Payments Terms of Use will govern.
We may change, discontinue, enhance, or modify features of Managed Payments at any time.
1. Appointment of eCI as Agent
eCI will receive payments on your behalf as your agent. You hereby appoint eCI as your agent for the limited purpose of receiving, holding and settling payments for Managed Payments transactions.
A payment received by us from a buyer, on your behalf, satisfies the buyer’s obligation to you in the amount of the payment received, regardless of whether we actually settle such payment to you. In the event that we do not make any such payment to you as described in these Payments Terms of Use, you will have recourse against us only and not against the buyer, as such payment is deemed to be made by the buyer to you upon receipt by us. To the extent permissible under the rules of any third-party or governmental body with jurisdiction over us, you agree that we are not liable for your acts and omissions and you understand that we disclaim any such liability.
2. Receipt and Settlement of Funds
After a Managed Payments transaction occurs, you will receive a notification confirming such payment transaction. In certain instances, your transaction may be declined, frozen, or held for any reason including for suspected fraud, high risk or potential violation of any regulation, compliance with economic or trade sanctions, eBay or eCI policies, or a policy of one of our third-party payments services providers.
Funds received by us on your behalf represent an unsecured claim for payment against us, but do not constitute deposits; nor are these amounts eligible for FDIC pass-through insurance. eCI may combine your funds with the funds of other eCI customers in pooled custodial accounts and invest the funds in accordance with state money transmitter laws. You do not have any ownership interest in these investments and any interest earned from these investments will be retained by us. To the extent you may have any beneficial ownership in the interest or proceeds of these investments, your acceptance of these terms constitutes an assignment of any right, title or interest therein to us.
If we are your Payout Entity, we will initiate settlement of proceeds received to your Linked Financial Account. We may, in our sole discretion, offer you the option to receive your proceeds to a stored value account issued to you by us. Your transaction proceeds, other than those being held in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use, and subject to the estimated settlement times set forth in the next sentence, will be aggregated to a batch for settlement to you on a regular basis (for example, a single daily settlement for all transactions ready for disbursement to you that day), unless otherwise requested by you and agreed to by us. We anticipate that Managed Payments transaction proceeds will generally be settled to your Linked Financial Account approximately two to seven business days after the buyer’s transaction, although actual settlement times may vary for individual transactions based on circumstances such as your bank’s processing times. Notwithstanding the foregoing, when you onboard to Managed Payments, we may initially place you on a different payout schedule (no less frequently than monthly) and will communicate the applicable payout schedule to you in My eBay or Seller Hub.
We may diverge from this procedure as needed for compliance or operational reasons. If we are unable to settle the Managed Payments proceeds, then, depending on the reason why we are unable to settle the proceeds, we may refund the buyer or otherwise process these funds in accordance with applicable law, including abandoned property laws, such as by escheating funds to a governmental body after the passage of an applicable period of time, or our policies.
3. Authorization for Collection of Owed Amounts
You hereby authorize eCI to debit or charge any Owed Amount from your Linked Financial Account or any other payment method you have on file with us, including your stored value account (if stored value has been issued to you). Your authorization will remain in full force and effect until the earlier occurrence of: our receipt from you of any written communication that revokes such authorization, or upon the closure or termination of your eBay account.
To the extent permitted by law, you hereby irrevocably sell, assign, grant, convey and transfer to eBay and its Affiliates, as applicable, all of your rights, title, and interests in any and all accounts receivable, payments of money, and general intangibles owed in your favor to satisfy any and all obligations or liabilities you owe to eBay or its applicable Affiliate in connection with your use of Managed Payments and eBay Services for the sale of goods or services to your Buyers.
4. Legal Disputes
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS AND WILL HAVE A SUBSTANTIAL IMPACT ON HOW CLAIMS YOU AND eCI HAVE AGAINST EACH OTHER ARE RESOLVED.
You and eCI agree that any claim or dispute at law or equity that has arisen, or may arise, between you and eCI (or any related third parties) that relates in any way to or arises out of this or previous versions of these Payments Terms of Use, your use of or access to Managed Payments, or the actions of eCI or its agents, will be resolved in accordance with the provisions set forth in this Legal Disputes Section. Any translation of these Payments Terms of Use and all related documents is done for our users’ convenience and in the event of a dispute between the English and any Chinese-language versions, the English version of these Payments Terms of Use and all related documents shall govern.
A. Applicable Law
You agree that, except to the extent inconsistent with or preempted by federal law, the laws of the State of Utah, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Payments Terms of Use and any claim or dispute that has arisen or may arise between you and eCI, except as otherwise stated in these Payments Terms of Use.
B. Agreement to Arbitrate
You and eCI each agree that any and all disputes or claims that have arisen, or may arise, between you and eCI (or any related third parties) that relate in any way to or arise out of this or previous versions of these Payments Terms of Use, your use of or access to Managed Payments, the actions of eCI or its agents, or any products or services sold, offered, or purchased through the Services shall be resolved exclusively through final and binding arbitration, rather than in court. In this Legal Disputes Section, the term “related third parties” includes your and eCI’s respective affiliates, subsidiaries, parent companies, predecessors, successors, assigns, as well as your, eCI’s, and these entities’ employees and agents. Alternatively, you may assert your claims in small claims court, if your claims qualify and so long as the matter remains in such court and advances only on an individual (non-class, non-representative) basis. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Agreement to Arbitrate.
-
Prohibition of Class and Representative Actions and Non-Individualized Relief
YOU AND ECI AGREE THAT EACH OF US MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, OR REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION OR PROCEEDING. UNLESS BOTH YOU AND ECI AGREE OTHERWISE, THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE OR JOIN MORE THAN ONE PERSON’S OR PARTY’S CLAIMS, AND MAY NOT OTHERWISE PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF A CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE, CLASS, OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION OR PROCEEDING. ALSO, THE ARBITRATOR MAY AWARD RELIEF (INCLUDING MONETARY, INJUNCTIVE, AND DECLARATORY RELIEF) ONLY IN FAVOR OF THE INDIVIDUAL PARTY SEEKING RELIEF AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT NECESSARY TO PROVIDE RELIEF NECESSITATED BY THAT PARTY’S INDIVIDUAL CLAIM(S). ANY RELIEF AWARDED CANNOT AFFECT OTHER USERS. If a court decides that applicable law precludes enforcement of any of this paragraph’s limitations as to a particular claim or a particular request for a remedy (such as a request for injunctive relief), then that claim or that remedy request (and only that claim or that remedy request) must be severed from the arbitration and may be brought in court, subject to your and eCI’s right to appeal the court’s decision. All other claims will be arbitrated.
-
Arbitration Procedures
Arbitration is more informal than a lawsuit in court. Arbitration uses a neutral arbitrator instead of a judge or jury, and court review of an arbitration award is very limited. However, an arbitrator can award the same damages and relief on an individualized basis that a court can award to an individual. An arbitrator should apply the terms of these Payments Terms of Use as a court would. All issues are for the arbitrator to decide, except that issues relating to arbitrability, the scope or enforceability of this Agreement to Arbitrate, or the interpretation of Section 1 of this Agreement to Arbitrate (“Prohibition of Class and Representative Actions and Non-Individualized Relief”), shall be for a court of competent jurisdiction to decide.
The arbitration will be conducted by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its rules and procedures, including the AAA’s Consumer Arbitration Rules and the AAA’s Commercial Arbitration Rules (as applicable), as modified by this Agreement to Arbitrate. The AAA’s rules are available at www.adr.org. In the event that the AAA is unavailable to administer the arbitration, another administrator will be selected by the parties or the court.
A party who intends to seek arbitration must first send to the other, by certified mail, a valid Notice of Dispute (“Notice”), which may be downloaded at this link: http://p.ebaystatic.com/aw/help/legal/Notice_of_Dispute.pdf. The Notice to eCI must be sent to eBay Inc., Attn: Litigation Department, Re: Notice of Dispute, 583 W. eBay Way, Draper, UT 84020. Any such Notice addressed to and received by eBay will also be deemed to be received by eCI, if such Notice regards services offered by eCI. eCI will send any Notice to you to the physical address we have on file associated with your eBay account; it is your responsibility to keep your physical address up to date. To be valid, you must personally sign the Notice and complete all information on the Notice form, including a description of the nature and basis of the claims the party is asserting, the specific relief sought, and the email address and phone number associated with your account.
If you and eCI are unable to resolve the claims described in a valid Notice within 30 days after eCI receives the Notice, you or eCI may initiate arbitration proceedings. A form for initiating arbitration proceedings is available on the AAA’s site at www.adr.org. In addition to filing this form with the AAA in accordance with its rules and procedures, the party initiating the arbitration must mail a copy of the completed form to the opposing party. You may send a copy to eCI at the following address: eBay Commerce Inc. c/o CT Corporation System, 1108 E South Union Ave., Midvale, UT 84047. In the event eCI initiates an arbitration against you, it will send a copy of the completed form to the physical address we have on file associated with your eBay account. Any settlement offer made by you or eCI shall not be disclosed to the arbitrator.
Where no disclosed claims or counterclaims exceed $25,000, the dispute shall be resolved by the submission of documents only, subject to the arbitrator’s discretion to require an in-person hearing, if the circumstances warrant. In cases where an in-person hearing is held, you and/or eCI may attend by telephone, unless the arbitrator requires otherwise.
The arbitrator will decide the substance of all claims in accordance with applicable law, including recognized principles of equity, and will honor all claims of privilege recognized by law. The arbitrator shall not be bound by rulings in prior arbitrations involving different users, but is bound by rulings in prior arbitrations involving the same eCI user to the extent required by applicable law. The arbitrator’s award shall be final and binding and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.
-
Costs of Arbitration
Payment of all filing, administration and arbitrator fees will be governed by the AAA’s rules, unless otherwise stated in this Agreement to Arbitrate. If you complied with the Notice of Dispute procedures of Section 2 of this Agreement to Arbitrate (“Arbitration Procedures”) and the value of the relief sought is $10,000 or less, at your request, eCI will pay all administration, and arbitrator fees associated with the arbitration. Any request for payment of fees by eCI should be submitted by mail to the AAA along with your Demand for Arbitration and eCI will make arrangements to pay administration and arbitrator fees directly to the AAA. In the event the arbitrator determines the claim(s) you assert in the arbitration to be frivolous, you agree to reimburse eCI for all fees associated with the arbitration paid by eCI on your behalf that you otherwise would be obligated to pay under the AAA’s rules. eCI will pay as much of the filing, administration, and arbitrator fees as the arbitrator deems necessary to prevent the cost of accessing the arbitration forum from being prohibitive.
-
Severability
With the exception of any of the provisions in Section 1 of this Agreement to Arbitrate (“Prohibition of Class and Representative Actions and Non-Individualized Relief”), if an arbitrator or court decides that any part of this Agreement to Arbitrate is invalid or unenforceable, the other parts of this Agreement to Arbitrate shall still apply.
-
Opt-Out Procedure
IF YOU ARE A NEW USER OF OUR PAYMENT SERVICES, YOU CAN CHOOSE TO REJECT THIS AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE (“OPT-OUT”) BY MAILING US A WRITTEN OPT-OUT NOTICE (“OPT-OUT NOTICE”). THE OPT-OUT NOTICE MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE YOU ACCEPT THESE PAYMENTS TERMS OF USE FOR THE FIRST TIME. YOU MUST MAIL THE OPT-OUT NOTICE TO EBAY INC., ATTN: LITIGATION DEPARTMENT, RE: OPT-OUT NOTICE, 583 WEST EBAY WAY, DRAPER, UT 84020. ANY SUCH OPT-OUT NOTICE ADDRESSED TO AND RECEIVED BY EBAY WILL ALSO BE DEEMED TO BE RECEIVED BY ECI, IF SUCH OPT-OUT NOTICE REGARDS SERVICES OFFERED BY ECI.
For your convenience, we are providing an Opt-Out Notice form. You must complete and mail that to us in order to opt out of the Agreement to Arbitrate. You must complete the Opt-Out Notice form by providing the information called for in the form, including your name, address (including street address, city, state and zip code), and the user ID(s) and email address(es) associated with the eBay Service account(s) to which the opt-out applies. You must sign the Opt-Out Notice for it to be effective. This procedure is the only way you can opt out of the Agreement to Arbitrate. If you opt out of the Agreement to Arbitrate, all other parts of these Payments Terms of Use and its Legal Disputes Section will continue to apply to you. Opting out of this Agreement to Arbitrate has no effect on any previous, other, or future arbitration agreements that you may have with us.
-
Future Amendments to the Agreement to Arbitrate
Notwithstanding any provision in the User Agreement or these Payments Terms of Use to the contrary, you and we agree that if we make any amendment to this Agreement to Arbitrate (other than an amendment to any notice address or site link provided herein) in the future, that amendment shall not apply to any claim that was filed in a legal proceeding against eCI prior to the effective date of the amendment. The amendment shall apply to all other disputes or claims governed by the Agreement to Arbitrate that have arisen or may arise between you and eCI. We will notify you of amendments to this Agreement to Arbitrate by posting the amended terms on www.eBay.com at least 30 days before the effective date of the amendments and by providing notice through the eBay Message Center and/or by email. If you do not agree to these amended terms, you may close your account within the 30-day period and you will not be bound by the amended terms.
C. Judicial Forum for Legal Disputes
Unless you and we agree otherwise, in the event that the Agreement to Arbitrate above is found not to apply to you or to a particular claim or dispute, either as a result of your decision to opt out of the Agreement to Arbitrate or as a result of a decision by the arbitrator or a court order, you agree that any claim or dispute that has arisen or may arise between you and eCI must be resolved exclusively by a state or federal court located in Salt Lake County, Utah. You and eCI agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within Salt Lake County, Utah for the purpose of litigating all such claims or disputes.
III. ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR SERVICES PROVIDED BY EBAY SARL
In addition to the General Payments Terms above, the following provisions apply with respect to Payment Services you receive from eBay Sarl. Within this section, “we” or “us” refers to eBay Sarl.
As between you and eBay Sarl, these Payments Terms of Use incorporate by this reference the provisions of the User Agreement to the extent applicable to this agreement. In the event of any conflict between the User Agreement and these Payments Terms of Use, these Payments Terms of Use will govern.
1. Payment Service; Disabling Payment Methods
You authorize eBay Sarl to acquire and settle payments that it receives on your behalf. When you sell an item on eBay, you are deemed to be a payee, with eBay Sarl acting as your payment service provider. In a refund, chargeback, or similar scenario, or if you use your funds to pay, you may be deemed to be a payer, again with eBay Sarl acting as your payment service provider. If eBay Sarl is your Payout Entity, eBay Sarl will open and hold a payment account for you.
The acceptance of a buyer’s payment instrument (for example, their Visa card), once it has been authorized for payment, satisfies the buyer’s payment obligation to you, regardless of whether we actually settle such payment to you. In the event that we do not make any such payment to you as described in these Payments Terms of Use, you will have recourse against us only and not against the buyer. To the extent permissible under the rules of any third-party or governmental body with jurisdiction over us, you agree that we are not liable for your acts and omissions and you understand that we disclaim any such liability.
We may disable specific payment method(s) available to buyers for all or some of your listings if we reasonably believe the use of such payment methods for your transactions will increase regulatory, financial, or other risk to us. For example, if you would like to offer a high-priced item with a new eBay account, we may disable such payment methods where the amount is credited with a time delay after the transaction (e.g. direct debit or payment upon invoice). In assessing the risk, we consider relevant factors such as your sales history, service status, eBay account history, risks associated with certain item categories, transaction value, and number and monetary amounts of eBay Buyer Protection cases. We will re-enable the affected payment method(s) for your listings once the risk no longer exists.
2. Execution of Payment Transactions
When you, as a payee or payer, use Managed Payments, the payment transactions will be executed in accordance with the payment schemes rules and procedures, or as otherwise agreed.
Required Information
Your payer (for example, the buyer of an item you sell on eBay) must ensure we are provided with the data required for us to execute the payment transaction. If we do not have sufficient data to execute such transaction, we reserve the right to ask your payer’s payment service provider for the required information.
We require the following information for the execution of a payment transaction:
- Your name,
- Your eBay username,
- The buyer’s name (where applicable),
- The buyer’s eBay username, and any other data about the buyer which the buyer’s payment service provider or we may require (where applicable),
- The currency of the payment transaction (if possible, in abbreviated form),
- The amount of the payment transaction, and
- The beneficiary’s payment details.
We may also require specific information, such as a one-time authorization code sent to your verified phone number or email address, to authenticate a payment transaction (or to allow you to access certain information related to Managed Payments on eBay).
To the extent reasonably possible, we will automatically utilize the information stored in our systems. Where the required information provided by you or your payer is not fully available or is inaccurate, we will not bear any liability for any damage, delay, or other consequence from the non-execution or defective execution of the relevant payment transaction.
Receipt of Payment Orders
A payment order will be deemed to have been received by us if:
- Carried out by means of a payment card, then in accordance with the card schemes rules; or
- Received by our available electronic communication channels, then on the business day when it is actually received by us.
If the payment order is not received on a business day, it will be deemed to be received on the next business day. “Business days” in this Part III of these Payments Terms of Use shall mean the days on which banks in Luxembourg are open for regular business.
You may not revoke a payment order after we have received it. However, if we have agreed that a payment order will be executed on a certain future date, the business day prior to this future date will be the latest you can revoke the payment order.
Refusal of Payment Orders
We reserve the right to refuse the execution of a payment order when:
- The payment order information contains factual errors and/or is incomplete;
- You have not satisfied your obligations under these Payments Terms of Use or any other agreement between you and us;
- There are doubts about the validity of the instruction, or the identity or authority of the person giving the payment order; or
- The payment order, if executed, would lead to a breach of the applicable rules, laws, or regulations.
We may charge a reasonable fee for such a refusal.
You acknowledge that when executing a payment transaction, we may have to disclose information mentioned above and your legal address to the other party’s payment service provider and, where relevant, also to intermediaries involved in the execution of the payment transaction. You expressly accept and instruct us to disclose such data.
Where you are the payer, the execution of the transaction may depend on us having received the respective amount from you prior to the execution.
3. Settlement of Funds
If we are your Payout Entity, we will initiate settlement of proceeds received to your Linked Financial Account. Your payments will generally be initiated either automatically according to the schedule you have pre-selected or “on demand” based on an individual payment instruction we receive from you. However, if your payment account is not configured to include a regularly scheduled settlement, we may periodically sweep available funds out of your payment account and send them to your Linked Financial Account.
Your transaction proceeds, other than those being held in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use, will be aggregated to a batch for settlement to you according to the payout schedule agreed with you. For example, if you select weekly payouts, a single settlement will be initiated automatically once a week for all transactions ready for disbursement to you on that day. If you request a payout on demand, a single settlement will be initiated for all transactions ready for disbursement to you on that day. You may be able to choose to have only a portion of your available transaction proceeds paid out to your Linked Financial Account, leaving the rest in your payment account. We anticipate that your transaction proceeds will be available on your payment account and ready for disbursement approximately one to two business days after the buyer’s completion of the order, although actual availability may vary for individual transactions depending on the buyer’s payment method, and when the payment transaction is received by us. We may diverge from the agreed settlement process as needed for compliance or risk reasons. The balance on your payment account is not a deposit. You will not receive interest or any other earnings on the money held in your payment account.
If we are unable to settle your proceeds, then, depending on the reason why we are unable to settle your proceeds, we may refund the buyer (e.g., in the event that we cannot process your information due to technical reasons etc.) or otherwise process these funds in accordance with applicable law.
We will provide you with monthly statements of your transactions free of charge, which can be accessed in the Seller Hub.
4. Liability for Unauthorized Payment Transactions
You will be fully liable for all losses relating to an unauthorized payment transaction if you acted fraudulently with respect to such a payment transaction, or if you failed to fulfill one or more of the obligations under this agreement (such as keeping your credentials safe or notifying us without undue delay) with intent or gross negligence.
5. Our Liability
We will refund you in full and are liable for losses directly and reasonably foreseeably incurred by an incorrectly or non-executed payment transaction, provided that you have informed us of such transaction without undue delay after becoming aware of the defect and in no event later than thirteen (13) months after the transaction was executed, unless we failed to make information about the transaction available to you.
We are liable for damages suffered as a result of willful misconduct or gross negligence. In case of minor negligence, we are only liable for (a) damages resulting from injury to life, body, or health; or (b) foreseeable typically occurring damages resulting from the breach of an essential contractual obligation. Any further liability is excluded.
If you are a business using the Payment Services, unforeseeable damages in accordance with the above include (but are not limited to) loss of goodwill or reputation, direct or indirect loss of profits, loss of data, loss of business and other intangible losses. You also explicitly agree that as a business you may not benefit from the rights and liability regimes deriving from the legal provisions with regard to payment services (Articles 79(1), 81(3), 86, 88 to 90, 93 and 101 of the Luxembourg Law of 10 November 2009 on payment services) in the event of non-execution or defective execution of Payment Services under this agreement, meaning we are not liable to you for the losses or damage you may suffer under those provisions.
6. Shipping Labels
If buyers purchase a return shipping label at their own expense on the eBay website, eBay may automatically deduct the label costs from the refund amount a buyer receives from you. If this occurs, you agree (as a debtor to the buyer for the refund) to be delegated as a debtor to the shipping carrier for the label costs, and authorize us to use the relevant part of the refund amount to pay the shipping carrier on your behalf. You will not bear any additional shipping costs in this event.
7. Klarna
On certain European eBay sites, buyers may choose a Klarna Payment Method to pay the purchase price for any item you sell them. You hereby agree to and shall comply with the terms and conditions for Klarna Payment Methods (“Klarna Payment Methods Terms”), which shall form an integral part of these Payments Terms of Use. Subject to the following, you agree to sell and assign your purchase price claims against buyers who choose a Klarna Payment Method to eBay Sarl, which will then sell and assign these claims to Klarna Bank AB (publ), Sveavägen 46, 111 34 Stockholm, Sweden (“Klarna”) based on an assignment-chain via our acquirer, e.g. Adyen N.V. (“Acquirer”). The buyers who use a Klarna Payment Method will make their payments to Klarna, which will forward the payments to eBay Sarl via the Acquirer, so that eBay Sarl will process and settle such payments according to these Payments Terms of Use.
7.1. Contractual object and scope
7.1.1 These Klarna Payment Methods Terms shall apply in addition to the other terms and conditions agreed between you and eBay Sarl in these Payments Terms of Use and, in the event of a conflict, shall prevail over such other terms and conditions in these Payments Terms of Use.
7.1.2 Klarna is a payment institution that is constantly supervised and officially licensed by Finansinspektionen, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. Klarna offers payment methods for integration on eBay Services. The payment methods offered by Klarna (“Klarna Payment Methods”) include payment by invoice and payment by installments. Your buyers who purchase items on eBay Services may use the currently available Klarna Payment Methods offered by eBay to settle the purchase price claim.
7.1.3 If your respective buyer chooses one of the Klarna Payment Methods in connection with a sales contract on the eBay Services (“Sales Contract”), eBay Sarl acquires your purchase price claims against your buyers including all ancillary rights and will sell and assign these to the Acquirer. The Acquirer will then sell and assign the purchased claims to Klarna, who will assume the payment default risk in accordance with the following provisions. This arrangement is further referred to as “Chain Factoring”.
7.1.4 Klarna and the Acquirer will not be a party to and not have any obligation under these Payments Terms of Use or any other agreement between you and eBay Sarl, eBay, the buyer or any third party.
7.2. Integration of the Klarna Terms of Payment and the Klarna Privacy Notice
In case of payment by invoice, you shall conclude with each buyer the Klarna terms for payment by invoice (“Klarna Pay Later Terms”) for the buyer’s use of Klarna Payment Methods, as available online at https://cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/legal/terms/27220/de_de/invoice?fee=0. You hereby agree and accept that the Klarna Pay Later Terms shall become an integral part of each Sales Contract where the buyer uses the Klarna Payment Method payment by invoice. Also, the Klarna Data Privacy Notice (“Klarna-PN”) shall be made available to any buyer using a Klarna Payment Method. You hereby agree that Klarna has the Klarna Pay Later Terms and the Klarna-PN implemented into the payment check-out of the Klarna Payment Methods and instruct Klarna to have the Klarna Pay Later Terms and the Klarna-PN made available to the buyer on your behalf.
7.3. Purchase and Assignment of Seller Receivables
7.3.1 You agree that each receivable against your respective buyer in connection with a Sales Contract where your buyer has chosen a Klarna Payment Method and which is nominated in EUR (jointly the “Seller Receivables” and each a “Seller Receivable”) will automatically be offered to eBay Sarl for purchase after conclusion of each Sales Contract. eBay Sarl will either accept your offer by proceeding with the payment process, or reject your offer. Such offer and acceptance will conclude a purchase agreement between you and eBay Sarl (“Single Purchase Agreement”) regarding the relevant Seller Receivable which is purchased (the “Purchased Receivable”) in accordance with these Klarna Payment Methods Terms.
7.3.2 You hereby assign, subject to the conclusion of a Single Purchase Agreement, all your current and future Seller Receivables including ancillary rights (such as rights for any securities, transport and deficiency insurance claims, withdrawal or rescission rights, or other claims against third parties with respect to the relevant Seller Receivable) to eBay Sarl, and eBay Sarl hereby accepts the assignment.
7.3.3 Upon conclusion of a Single Purchase Agreement, you and eBay Sarl reiterate the assignment of the relevant receivable identified through the transaction-ID in the purchase offer whereby the purchase offer constitutes an offer to assign the relevant receivable from you to eBay Sarl and the acceptance of purchase offer constitutes an acceptance of this offer by eBay Sarl.
7.3.4 In case there is any doubt about the validity of the assignment of the Seller Receivables and this requires any further declaration or action by you, you will execute such declaration or action upon request of eBay Sarl.
7.3.5 You irrevocably authorize eBay Sarl with the power of sub-delegation to notify the relevant buyer regarding the assignment of the Seller Receivable and to exercise non-assignable rights, such as contractual rights, in connection with the Seller Receivables in its own name.
7.4. Collection Risk/Collection
7.4.1 Except in a case of a Defect Receivable pursuant to section 7.6.1, eBay Sarl bears the risk that the Purchased Receivables are not collectable from the respective buyer in part or in full, in particular caused by the insolvency of the buyer. eBay Sarl will pay the purchase price (minus the agreed fees and expenses of eBay Sarl) for the relevant Purchased Receivable regardless of whether it chooses to enforce the relevant Purchased Receivable.
7.4.2 The collection and enforcement of the Purchased Receivables is the responsibility of eBay Sarl. eBay Sarl shall bear any and all costs in this regard.
7.4.3 eBay Sarl will transfer the economic risks of the obligations described in section 7.4.1 and 7.4.2 to the Acquirer and consequently to Klarna in accordance with the Chain Factoring as described in section 7.1.3.
7.5 Representations and Warranties
7.5.1 Every time upon entering into a Single Purchase Agreement concerning a Purchased Receivable, you represent and warrant to eBay Sarl that
- the Purchased Receivable is valid, validly assigned to eBay Sarl and enforceable against the buyer;
- you hold free and clear title to, and may freely assign and transfer, the Purchased Receivable, and the Purchased Receivable has not yet been assigned or transferred to third parties; and
- you will ship, deliver or provide the respective item(s) to the relevant buyer completely, on time and in accordance with the Sales Contract with the respective buyer in order that the respective buyer is not able to exercise any right or claim of retention, set-off, supplementary performance, reduction, recession right or damage claims.
7.5.2 Each of these representations and warranties to eBay Sarl with respect to a Single Purchase Agreement will be provided by eBay Sarl to the Acquirer (and by the Acquirer to Klarna) back-to-back in accordance with the Chain Factoring arrangement.
7.6. Assignment of Purchased Receivables back to You/Disputes
7.6.1 If the relevant Purchased Receivable fulfills one of the following criteria (the “Defect Receivable”):
- the buyer reverses the Sales Contract on the basis of a mandatory withdrawal right or a voluntary right of return offered by you;
- in case of an eMBG claim or a payment dispute; for example, if the buyer objects to a Purchased Receivable, if – upon request of eBay Sarl – you do not provide valid proof of shipment or delivery or other proper performance to eBay Sarl in accordance with the Seller Protection Policy;
- you are in breach of a representation and warranty pursuant to section 7.5.1 in respect of the Purchased Receivable;
or in any other case where you give a refund to a buyer for any Purchased Receivable (“Refunded Receivable”), and the Acquirer consequently decides to use its right to assign back the relevant Defect/Refunded Receivable to eBay Sarl, eBay Sarl is entitled to assign back any Defect/Refunded Receivable to you.
7.6.2 eBay Sarl hereby assigns all current and future Defect/Refunded Receivables to you subject to the condition precedent in section 7.6.3 below and you hereby accept the assignment of all current and future Defect/Refunded Receivables.
7.6.3 The assignment of the relevant Defect/Refunded Receivable above is subject to the condition precedent that eBay Sarl notifies you of the re-assignment (the “Re-Assignment Notice”).
7.6.4 You are obliged to pay back any purchase price which you have received for the Defect/Refunded Receivable from eBay Sarl without undue delay after eBay Sarl has provided the relevant Re-Assignment Notice. eBay Sarl is entitled to set-off this claim which you are obliged to pay to eBay Sarl with any further payment which eBay Sarl is obliged to pay to you.
7.7. Information and Assistance Obligations/General Provisions
7.7.1 You shall undertake to inform eBay Sarl promptly upon becoming aware of (i) any breach of a representation and warranty according to section 7.5.1 regarding any Purchased Receivable or (ii) any other event that may materially impair or jeopardise the realisation of the Purchased Receivables or might materially change your solvency or, subject to you becoming aware of it, the probability of payment of the Purchased Receivables by the buyer.
7.7.2 In case you receive any direct payments from a buyer on the Purchased Receivable, you shall reject these received payments and refund the buyer, and notify the payer that payment shall be made to Klarna. You shall notify eBay Sarl of any rejected payments on the Purchased Receivables.
7.7.3 Upon eBay Sarl’s request, you shall promptly hand over to eBay Sarl, the Acquirer, and/or Klarna any information, records and documents which are necessary or expedient for the examination and the enforcement of the Purchased Receivables.
8. Corrective Measures
If we become aware of suspected or actual fraud or other security threats affecting your eBay account, we will notify you by email and provide you with instructions on how to protect such account.
9. Financial Regulations Consent
eBay Sarl will share information you provided to eBay Sarl with our Affiliates or third parties only for the purpose of such Affiliates and third parties assisting us in providing Managed Payments as described in Part I, Section 8 (Third party Providers), or in accordance with the following consent.
You expressly consent to eBay Sarl sharing your information with our Affiliates or third parties under the conditions and for the purposes as described below. By sharing this information, we and the respective Affiliate will be able to comply with applicable law. This will allow us and our Affiliates to continue to provide our services to you.
- We may share your information with eBay GmbH or other eBay Affiliates which are obligated under the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC) to obtain such information from you. The Digital Services Act obligates online platform providers like eBay to obtain and validate certain information from professional sellers offering goods and services to consumers in the EU. Such information can among others include identification information about you (including for example a copy of your identification document or an equivalent electronic document), information on your account with us (including information related to your Linked Financial Account), as well as the results of any verification of such information performed by us.
- We may share with eBay GmbH (the entity providing the eBay Services to customers in the EU under the User Agreement) your Linked Financial Account information and the total amounts paid to you in a given quarter including amounts withheld for fees and taxes, as well as any other information about you to allow eBay GmbH to comply with its obligations under the EU DAC7 tax directive (Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 of 22 March 2021 amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation). Under this directive as transposed into national law, eBay GmbH is required to collect customer information for certain sellers and report this to EU tax authorities.
- We may share with eBay Inc. (the entity that facilitates the offer, sale, and purchase of goods and services on the eBay.com e-commerce marketplace) your Linked Financial Account information to enable eBay Inc. to comply with United States federal and state laws that require online marketplaces to collect and verify certain information regarding high-volume third party sellers of consumer products on such online marketplaces. These laws include the United States INFORM Consumers Act (H.R. 2617 – 117th Congress (2021-2022)) and any such substantially similar laws as may be adopted in the United States from time to time.
- We may, directly or through our Affiliates, disclose account information to intellectual property rights owners on the basis of applicable national law of an EU member state in an out-of-court disclosure process, in the event of an infringement of their intellectual property rights for which our payment services have been used (including, but not limited to, Art. 19 of the German Trademark Act).
- We may disclose to tax authorities in the EU your account information and details on your cross-border payment transactions, as well as any other information required to comply with our obligations under the CESOP Directive (Council Directive (EU) 2020/284 of 18 February 2020 amending Directive 2006/112/EC), as transposed into national law in the EU Member States.
10. General Provisions
Exclusion of Certain Provisions for Non-Consumers
If you are a business which uses the Payment Services, you agree that Articles 79 (1), 81 (3), 86, 88, 89, 90, 93, and 101 and Title III of the Law of 10 November 2009 on payment services shall not apply to your use of the Payment Services.
Individuals
If you are an individual acting in your own capacity and not on behalf of a business, you may not use the Payment Services to receive or transfer funds on behalf of another natural person or a legal entity.
Complaints
Any complaints about eBay Sarl or the services it provides should first be addressed to eBay Sarl. You agree that all responses from eBay Sarl relating to such complaints may be sent to you by email.
Should you not be satisfied with eBay Sarl’s responses, you may also escalate your complaint to the CSSF (www.cssf.lu), which is the competent authority to receive out-of-court complaints by customers of payment service providers authorized in Luxembourg. For further information please refer to our Complaints Procedure.
Communication
We will communicate with you in the language(s) in which we provided these Payments Terms of Use to you. You agree that we may give you notice or other information by posting it in your eBay Account, emailing it to your registered email address, mailing it to your registered physical address, calling your phone number, or sending you mobile messages.
Legal notices to eBay Sarl (except for termination notices pursuant to Part I, Section 11) shall be served by mail to the following address: eBay S.à r.l., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg.
You may request a copy of any legally required disclosures (including these Payments Terms of Use) from us; we will then provide it to you in a format which allows you to store and reproduce the information (for example, by email) or, upon your request, on paper.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Payments Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. If you are acting as a consumer (rather than as a business) and if mandatory statutory consumer protection regulations in your country of residence contain provisions that are more beneficial for you, such provisions shall apply irrespective of the choice of Luxembourg law.
As a consumer, you may bring any judicial proceedings relating to the General Payments Terms and these Additional Payments Terms for Payment Services provided by eBay Sarl before the competent court of either your place of residence or eBay Sarl’s place of business in Luxembourg. If eBay Sarl wishes to enforce any of its rights against you as a consumer, we may do so only in the courts of the jurisdiction in which you are a resident. If you are acting as a business seller, you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
IV. ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR SERVICES PROVIDED BY ECCA
In addition to the General Payments Terms above, the following provisions apply with respect to Payment Services you receive from ECCA. Within this section, “we” or “us” refers to ECCA.
As between you and ECCA, these Payments Terms of Use incorporate by this reference the User Agreement. In the event of any conflict between the User Agreement and these Payments Terms of Use, these Payments Terms of Use will govern.
We may change, discontinue, enhance, or modify features of Managed Payments at any time.
1. Receipt and Settlement of Funds
After a Managed Payments transaction occurs, you will receive a notification confirming such payment transaction. In certain instances, your transaction may be declined, frozen, or held for any reason including for suspected fraud, high risk or potential violation of any eBay or ECCA policies, or a policy of one of our third-party payments services providers.
Funds received by us on your behalf represent an unsecured claim for payment against us, but do not constitute deposits. ECCA may combine your funds with the funds of other ECCA customers in pooled custodial accounts and invest the funds in accordance with applicable law. You do not have any ownership interest in these investments and any interest earned from these investments will be retained by us.
If we are your Payout Entity, we will initiate settlement of proceeds received to your Linked Financial Account. Your transaction proceeds, other than those being held in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use, and subject to the estimated settlement times set forth in the next sentence, will be aggregated to a batch for settlement to you on a regular basis (for example, a single daily settlement for all transactions ready for disbursement to you that day), unless otherwise requested by you and agreed to by us. We anticipate that Managed Payments transactions proceeds will generally be settled in your Linked Financial Account approximately two to seven business days after the buyer’s transaction, although actual settlement times may vary for individual transactions based on circumstances such as your bank’s processing times. However, we may diverge from this procedure as needed for compliance or operational reasons. Notwithstanding the foregoing, when you onboard to Managed Payments, we may initially place you on a different payout schedule (no less frequently than monthly) and will communicate the applicable payout schedule to you in My eBay or Seller Hub.
If we are unable to settle your proceeds, then, depending on the reason why we are unable to settle your proceeds, we may refund the buyer (e.g., in the event that we cannot process your information for technical reasons or you violate these Payments Terms of Use, etc.) or otherwise process these funds in accordance with applicable law or policies.
2. Authorization to Pay
The authorization to pay for Owed Amounts in accordance with Part I, Section 9 is an electronic pre-authorized debit agreement (“PAD Agreement”) that you are entering into for business purposes to allow eBay to debit your designated bank account, and is subject to the rules of Payments Canada.
By completing registration for Managed Payments, you hereby authorize ECCA (or its Affiliates) and the financial institution that has issued your Linked Financial Account to debit your Linked Financial Account for Owed Amounts in variable amounts at such intervals as when you have Owed Amounts that are due and owing and we are unable to collect such Owed Amounts from your current or future disbursements.
You agree to waive all pre-notification requirements under the Payments Canada rules in respect of any variable debits originated under this PAD Agreement. ECCA will notify you by email regarding any one-time or sporadic debits in order to obtain your authorization.
ECCA, or its Affiliates, will charge your account a CDN$ 7.00 fee by way of a separate debit for each and every debit transaction authorized above that is unsuccessful or returned unpaid by your financial institution. We shall have no liability to you whatsoever caused by a dishonored debit.
If you would like to cancel this PAD Agreement, you may do so at any time by contacting ECCA. If you cancel this PAD Agreement without providing a new authorization, we may suspend or cancel your Payment Services and eBay may suspend or cancel your eBay Services.
You have certain recourse rights if any debit does not comply with this PAD Agreement. For example, you have the right to receive reimbursement for any debit that is not authorized or is not consistent with this PAD Agreement. To obtain more information on your recourse rights, or for further information on your right to cancel this PAD Agreement and applicable forms, you may contact your financial institution or visit www.payments.ca.
3. Legal Disputes
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS AND WILL HAVE A SUBSTANTIAL IMPACT ON HOW CLAIMS YOU AND EBAY HAVE AGAINST EACH OTHER ARE RESOLVED.
You and ECCA agree that any claim or dispute at law or equity that has arisen, or may arise, between you and ECCA (including any claim or dispute between you and a third-party agent of ECCA) that relates in any way to or arises out of this or previous versions of these Payments Terms of Use, your use of or access to the Payment Services, the actions of ECCA or its agents, will be resolved in accordance with the provisions set forth in this Legal Disputes Section.
- Law and Forum for Disputes if you do not reside in Quebec – These Payments Terms of Use and any dispute or claim you have against eBay shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein. Except as otherwise agreed by the parties or as described in the Arbitration Option paragraph below you agree to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts located in Toronto, Ontario for the resolution of and all claims or disputes you may have against ECCA.
- Law and Forum for Disputes if you reside in Quebec – These Payments Terms of Use and any dispute or claim you have against ECCA shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the Province of Quebec and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein.
- Arbitration Option – For any dispute or claim (excluding claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of monetary relief sought is less than CDN$15,000, the parties may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost-effective manner through binding arbitration. In the event that the parties agree to arbitration, such arbitration shall be conducted pursuant to the simplified arbitration procedure set out in the arbitration rules of the ADR Institute of Canada, in force at the time of the dispute. Unless the parties agree or the arbitrator determines otherwise, the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses and shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions. Any judgement on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Improperly Filed Claims – All claims you bring against ECCA must be resolved in accordance with this Resolution of Disputes section. All claims filed or brought contrary to the Resolution of Disputes section shall be considered improperly filed. Should you file a claim contrary to the Resolution of Disputes Section, ECCA may recover attorneys’ fees and costs up to CDN$1500, provided that eBay has notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have failed to promptly withdraw the claim. Except as stated otherwise, legal notices to ECCA shall be served on ECCA’s national registered agent.
[Does not apply if you reside in Quebec] Any translation of these Payments Terms of Use and all related documents is done for our users’ convenience and in the event of a dispute between the English and French version, the English version of these Payments Terms of Use and all related documents shall govern.
If you are a resident of the Province of Quebec, the following clause applies: The parties hereby confirm that they have requested that these Payments Terms of Use and all related documents be drafted in English. Les parties ont exigé que la présente convention et tous les documents afférents soient rédigés en langue anglaise.
V. ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR SERVICES PROVIDED BY ECA
In addition to the General Payments Terms above, the following provisions apply with respect to Payment Services you receive from ECA. Within this section, “we” or “us” refers to ECA.
As between you and ECA, these Payments Terms of Use incorporate by this reference the User Agreement. In the event of any conflict between the User Agreement and these Payments Terms of Use, these Payments Terms of Use will govern.
We may change, discontinue, enhance, or modify features of Managed Payments at any time. If ECA is your Payout Entity, we will notify you of any material changes or modifications to the features of Managed Payments through eBay messages (in My eBay) or directly to the email address linked to your account.
1. Receipt and Settlement of Funds; Disabling Payment Methods
After a Managed Payments transaction occurs, you will receive a notification confirming such payment transaction. In certain instances, your transaction may be declined, frozen, or held for any reason including for suspected fraud or potential violation of any eBay or ECA policies, or a policy of one of our third-party payments service providers.
Funds received by us on your behalf represent an unsecured claim for payment against us, but do not constitute deposits. ECA may combine your funds with the funds of other ECA customers in pooled accounts and invest the funds. You do not have any ownership interest in these investments and any interest earned from these investments shall be retained by us.
If we are your Payout Entity, we will initiate settlement of proceeds received to your Linked Financial Account. Your transaction proceeds, other than those being held in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use, and subject to the estimated settlement times set forth in the next sentence, will be aggregated to a daily batch for settlement to you to be paid out as agreed with you (for example, a single daily settlement for all transactions ready for disbursement to you that day). We anticipate that Managed Payments transaction proceeds will generally be settled to your Linked Financial Account approximately two to seven business days after the buyer’s transaction, although actual settlement times may vary for individual transactions based on circumstances such as your bank’s processing times. However, we may diverge from this procedure as needed for compliance or risk reasons. If we are unable to settle your proceeds, then, depending on the reason why we are unable to settle your proceeds, we may refund the buyer (e.g., in the event that we cannot process your information for technical reasons etc.) or otherwise process these funds in accordance with applicable law or our policies.
We may disable specific payment method(s) available to buyers for all or some of your listings if we reasonably believe the use of such payment methods for your transactions will increase regulatory, financial, or other risk to us. For example, if you would like to offer a high-priced item with a new eBay account, we may disable such payment methods where the amount is credited with a time delay after the transaction (e.g. Buy Now Pay Later). In assessing the risk, we consider relevant factors such as your sales history, service status, eBay account history, risks associated with certain item categories, transaction value, and number and monetary amounts of eBay Buyer Protection cases. We will re-enable the affected payment method(s) for your listings once the risk no longer exists.
2. Unsuccessful Direct Debits
We will charge your account an AUD 8.00 fee by way of a separate debit for every debit transaction for an Owed Amount that is unsuccessful or returned unpaid by your financial institution. We shall have no liability to you whatsoever caused by a dishonored debit.
3. Legal Disputes
If a dispute arises between you and ECA, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost-effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. We strongly encourage you to first contact us to seek a resolution. If your dispute is not resolved by contacting Customer Service, all legal notices and formal disputes should be sent to ECA’s registered agent in accordance with the “Notices” section below. We will consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation or arbitration, as alternatives to litigation.
Law and Forum for Legal Disputes
These Payments Terms of Use will be governed in all respects by the laws of New South Wales. We encourage you to try and resolve disputes using certified mediation (such as online dispute resolution processes). If a dispute cannot be resolved then you and ECA irrevocably submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales, Australia.
Notices
Legal notices must be served on ECA’s registered agent (in ECA’s case) or to the registered email address associated with your account (in your case). Notice will be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid or that the email has not been delivered. Alternatively, we may give you legal notice by mail to the address provided by you during the registration process. In such case, notice will be deemed given three business days after the date of mailing.
Any notices to ECA’s registered agent must be given by registered ordinary post (or if posted to or from a place outside Australia, by registered airmail) or by facsimile transmission to eBay Commerce Australia Pty Ltd c/o Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Quay Quarter Tower, 50 Bridge Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Fax: (02) 9210 6611.
VI. ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR SERVICES PROVIDED BY ECUK
In addition to the General Payments Terms above, the following provisions apply with respect to Payment Services you receive from ECUK. Within this section, “we” or “us” refers to ECUK.
As between you and ECUK, these Payments Terms of Use incorporate by this reference the provisions of the User Agreement to the extent applicable to this agreement. In the event of any conflict between the User Agreement and these Payments Terms of Use, these Payments Terms of Use will govern.
1. Payment Service; Disabling Payment Methods
You authorize ECUK to acquire and settle payments that it receives on your behalf. When you sell an item on eBay, you are deemed to be a payee, with ECUK acting as your payment service provider. In a refund, chargeback, or similar scenario, or if you use your funds to pay, you may be deemed to be a payer, again with ECUK acting as your payment service provider. If ECUK is your Payout Entity, ECUK will open and hold a payment account for you.
The acceptance of a buyer’s payment instrument (for example, their Visa card), once it has been authorized for payment, satisfies the buyer’s payment obligation to you, regardless of whether we actually settle such payment to you. In the event that we do not make any such payment to you as described in these Payments Terms of Use, you will have recourse against us only and not against the buyer. To the extent permissible under the rules of any third-party or governmental body with jurisdiction over us, you agree that we are not liable for your acts and omissions and you understand that we disclaim any such liability.
We may disable specific payment method(s) available to buyers for all or some of your listings if we reasonably believe the use of such payment methods for your transactions will increase regulatory, financial, or other risk to us. For example, if you would like to offer a high-priced item with a new eBay account, we may disable such payment methods where the amount is credited with a time delay after the transaction (e.g. direct debit or payment upon invoice). In assessing the risk, we consider relevant factors such as your sales history, service status, eBay account history, risks associated with certain item categories, transaction value, and number and monetary amounts of eBay Buyer Protection cases. We will re-enable the affected payment method(s) for your listings once the risk no longer exists.
2. Execution of Payment Transactions
When you, as a payee or payer, use Managed Payments, the payment transactions will be executed in accordance with the payment schemes rules and procedures, or as otherwise agreed.
Required Information
Your payer (for example, the buyer of an item you sell on eBay) must ensure we are provided with the data required for us to execute the payment transaction. If we do not have sufficient data to execute such transaction, we reserve the right to ask your payer’s payment service provider for the required information.
We require the following information for the execution of a payment transaction:
- Your name,
- Your eBay username,
- The buyer’s name (where applicable),
- The buyer’s eBay username, and any other data about the buyer which the buyer’s payment service provider or we may require (where applicable),
- The currency of the payment transaction (if possible, in abbreviated form),
- The amount of the payment transaction, and
- The beneficiary’s payment details.
We may also require specific information, such as a one-time authorization code sent to your verified phone number or email address, to authenticate a payment transaction (or to allow you to access certain information related to Managed Payments on eBay).
To the extent reasonably possible, we will automatically utilize the information stored in our systems. Where the required information provided by you or your payer is not fully available or is inaccurate, we will not bear any liability for any damage, delay, or other consequence from the non-execution or defective execution of the relevant payment transaction.
Receipt of Payment Orders
A payment order will be deemed to have been received by us if:
- Carried out by means of a payment card, then in accordance with the card schemes rules; or
- Received by our available electronic communication channels, then on the business day when it is actually received by us.
If the payment order is not received on a business day, it will be deemed to be received on the next business day. “Business days” in this Part III of these Payments Terms of Use shall mean the days on which banks in London are open for regular business.
You may not revoke a payment order after we have received it. However, if we have agreed that a payment order will be executed on a certain future date, the business day prior to this future date will be the latest you can revoke the payment order.
Refusal of Payment Orders
We reserve the right to refuse the execution of a payment order when:
- The payment order information contains factual errors and/or is incomplete;
- You have not satisfied your obligations under these Payments Terms of Use or any other agreement between you and us;
- There are doubts about the validity of the instruction, or the identity or authority of the person giving the payment order; or
- The payment order, if executed, would lead to a breach of the applicable rules, laws, or regulations.
We may charge a reasonable fee for such a refusal.
You acknowledge that when executing a payment transaction, we may have to disclose information mentioned above and your legal address to the other party’s payment service provider and, where relevant, also to intermediaries involved in the execution of the payment transaction. You expressly accept and instruct us to disclose such data.
Where you are the payer, the execution of the transaction may depend on us having received the respective amount from you prior to the execution.
3. Settlement of Funds
If we are your Payout Entity, we will initiate settlement of proceeds received to your Linked Financial Account. Your payments will generally be initiated either automatically according to the schedule you have pre-selected or “on demand” based on an individual payment instruction we receive from you. However, if your payment account is not configured to include a regularly scheduled settlement, we may periodically sweep available funds out of your payment account and send them to your Linked Financial Account.
Your transaction proceeds, other than those being held in accordance with these Payments Terms of Use, will be aggregated to a batch for settlement to you according to the payout schedule agreed with you. For example, if you select weekly payouts, a single settlement will be initiated automatically once a week for all transactions ready for disbursement to you on that day. If you request a payout on demand, a single settlement will be initiated for all transactions ready for disbursement to you on that day. You may be able to choose to have only a portion of your available transaction proceeds paid out to your Linked Financial Account, leaving the rest in your payment account. We anticipate that your transaction proceeds will be available on your payment account and ready for disbursement approximately one to two business days after the buyer’s completion of the order, although actual availability may vary for individual transactions depending on the buyer’s payment method, and when the payment transaction is received by us. We may diverge from the settlement process as needed for compliance or risk reasons. The balance on your payment account is not a deposit. You will not receive interest or any other earnings on the money held in your payment account.
If we are unable to settle your proceeds, then, depending on the reason why we are unable to settle your proceeds, we may refund the buyer (e.g., in the event that we cannot process your information due to technical reasons etc.) or otherwise process these funds in accordance with applicable law.
We will provide you with monthly statements of your transactions free of charge, which can be accessed in the Seller Hub.
4. Liability for Unauthorized Payment Transactions
You will be fully liable for all losses relating to an unauthorized payment transaction if you acted fraudulently with respect to such a payment transaction, or if you failed to fulfill one or more of the obligations under this agreement (such as keeping your credentials safe or notifying us without undue delay) with intent or gross negligence.
5. Our Liability
We will refund you in full and are liable for losses directly and reasonably foreseeably incurred by an incorrectly or non-executed payment transaction, provided that you have informed us of such transaction without undue delay after becoming aware of the defect and in no event later than thirteen (13) months after the transaction was executed, unless we failed to make information about the transaction available to you.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we and our Affiliates (and our and their respective employees, directors, agents and representatives) will not be liable for any direct lost profits, any indirect lost profits, or any special, incidental or consequential damages (including without limitation damages for loss of data or loss of business) arising out of or in connection with these Payments Terms of Use or Managed Payments (including the inability to use Managed Payments). In addition, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will aggregate liability of us or our Affiliates (and our and their respective employees, directors, agents and representatives) arising out of or in connection with these Payments Terms of Use, the transactions contemplated hereby, or Managed Payments exceed the actual amount of direct damages (excluding direct loss of profits), whether in contract, tort (including negligence, product liability or other theory), warranty, or otherwise.
Without limiting the foregoing, in no event will we or any of our Affiliates be liable to you for any failure or delay by us (or our employees, agents, or representatives) in performing our obligations under these Payments Terms of Use, where such failure or delay is caused by abnormal and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which would have been unavoidable despite all reasonable efforts to the contrary, or where we are bound by other legal obligations covered by applicable law.
6. Shipping Labels
If buyers purchase a return shipping label at their own expense on the eBay website, eBay may automatically deduct the label costs from the refund amount a buyer receives from you. If this occurs, you agree (as a debtor to the buyer for the refund) to be delegated as a debtor to the shipping carrier for the label costs, and authorize us to use the relevant part of the refund amount to pay the shipping carrier on your behalf. You will not bear any additional shipping costs in this event.
7. Corrective Measures
If we become aware of suspected or actual fraud or other security threats affecting your eBay account, we will notify you by email and provide you with instructions on how to protect such account.
8. General Provisions
If you are using these payment services of managed payments as a business, you agree that Articles 66(1), 67(3), 67(4), 75, 77, 79, 80, 83, 91, 92, 94 and Part 6 of the Payment Services Regulations 2017 shall not apply to your use of the Payment Services.
Individuals
If you are an individual acting in your own capacity and not on behalf of a business, you may not use the Payment Services to receive or transfer funds on behalf of another natural person or a legal entity.
Complaints
Any complaints about ECUK or the services it provides should first be addressed to ECUK. You agree that all responses from ECUK relating to such complaints may be sent to you by email.
Should you not be satisfied with ECUK’s answer, you may also escalate your complaint to the FCA (www.fca.org.uk), which is the competent authority to receive out-of-court complaints by customers of payment service providers authorized in the UK. For further information please refer to our Complaints Procedure.
Communication
We will communicate with you in the language(s) in which we provided these Payments Terms of Use to you. You agree that we may give you notice or other information by posting it in your eBay Account, emailing it to your registered email address, mailing it to your registered physical address, calling your phone number, or sending you mobile messages.
Legal notices to ECUK (with the exception of a termination notice pursuant to Section 9) shall be served by mail to the following address: eBay Commerce UK Ltd, Hotham House, 1 Heron Square, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey TW9 1EJ, United Kingdom.
You may request a copy of any legally required disclosures (including these Payments Terms of Use) from us; we will then provide it to you in a format which allows you to store and reproduce the information (for example, by email) or, upon your request, on paper.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Payments Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. If you are acting as a consumer (rather than as a business) and if mandatory statutory consumer protection regulations in your country of residence contain provisions that are more beneficial for you, such provisions shall apply irrespective of the choice of English law.
As a consumer, you may bring any judicial proceedings relating to the General Payments Terms and these Additional Payments Terms for Payment Services provided by ECUK before the competent court of either your place of residence or ECUK’s place of business in the United Kingdom. If ECUK wishes to enforce any of its rights against you as a consumer, we may do so only in the courts of the jurisdiction in which you are a resident. If you are acting as a business seller, you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY COMPLAINTS
My Book Gems respects the intellectual property of others. If you believe that your intellectual property rights are being infringed, please follow our Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement.
RISK OF LOSS
All purchases of physical items from My Book Gems are made according to a shipment contract between the customer and the individual vendors/content providers. This means that the risk of loss and title for such items passes to you and the vendor/content provider and the agreement for shipping that the individual vendors/content providers offer upon delivery to the carrier.
RETURNS, REFUNDS AND TITLE
My Book Gems does not take title to returned items. Individual vendors/content providers on the My Book Gems platform/site/services decide their individual policies for refunds and returns. At our/their discretion, a refund may be issued with or without requiring a return on physical products. In this situation, Amazon does not take title to the refunded item. For more information about My Book Gems returns and refunds, please see our Returns Policy .
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS
My Book Gems attempts to be as accurate as possible. However, My Book Gems does not warrant that product descriptions or other content of any My Book Gems Service is accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free. If a product offered by My Book Gems itself is not as described, your sole remedy is to return it in unused condition upon communication with My Book Gems and approval of return.
PRICING
Pricing is solely on the individual vendor(s)/content provider(s) and My Book Gems has no control of setting price for products listed on individual vendor/content provider storefronts and/or product pages.
With respect to items sold by My Book Gems, we cannot confirm the price of an item and you must check with the individual vendor/content provider to confirm the price of an item you order. Despite our best efforts, a small number of the items in our catalog may be mispriced. If the correct price of an item sold by My Book Gems is higher than its stated price, please contact the individual vendor/content provider that you ordered through for instructions on if you chose to cancel before shipping or refund the difference of your order. Other merchants may follow different policies in the event of a mispriced item please read each vendor/provider store policy before ordering.
Individual vendors/content providers generally do not charge your credit card until after your order has entered the shipping process or, for digital products, until we make the digital product available to you.
APP PERMISSIONS
When you use apps created by My Book Gems, such as the My Book Gems App or our reader app, you may grant certain permissions to us for your device. Most mobile devices provide you with information about these permissions.
SANCTIONS AND EXPORT POLICY
You may not use any My Book Gems Service if you are the subject of U.S. sanctions or of sanctions consistent with U.S. law imposed by the governments of the country where you are using My Book Gems Services. You must comply with all U.S. or other export and re-export restrictions that may apply to goods, software (including My Book Gems Software), technology, and services.
REVIEWS, COMMENTS, COMMUNICATIONS, AND OTHER CONTENT
You may post reviews, comments, photos, videos, and other content; send e-cards and other communications; and submit suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, or other information, so long as the content is not illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights (including publicity rights), or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable, and does not consist of or contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of “spam” or unsolicited commercial electronic messages. You may not use a false e-mail address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as to the origin of a card or other content. My Book Gems reserves the right (but not the obligation) to remove or edit such content, but does not regularly review posted content.
If you do post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant My Book Gems a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, perform, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant My Book Gems and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content if they choose. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content that you post; that the content is accurate; that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity; and that you will indemnify My Book Gems for all claims resulting from content you supply. My Book Gems has the right but not the obligation to monitor and edit or remove any activity or content. My Book Gems takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted by you or any third party.
Feedback
While feedback is intended as an open forum, our guidelines and policies listed below are in place to ensure it’s used constructively and fairly.
Feedback Extortion
Buyers aren’t allowed to use threats of negative feedback or low detailed seller ratings to get something that wasn’t part of the original listings, and sellers can’t demand positive feedback from buyers.
Our feedback system plays a key role in keeping My Book Gems a safe and trusted marketplace, and we’re committed to making sure that it isn’t misused.
What is the policy?
Buyers aren’t allowed to:
- Threaten to use feedback/reviews in an attempt to force sellers into meeting their demands. For example, buyers can’t threaten to leave negative feedback unless the seller pays for return shipping, when the seller’s return policy in the listing didn’t state free returns
Sellers aren’t allowed to:
- Demand that buyers take actions related to feedback in order to receive their purchased items, such as requiring a buyer to leave positive feedback/reviews before they’ll dispatch the order
- Offer refunds or other monetary compensation, or additional items or services that weren’t part of the original listing, in exchange for buyers leaving specific feedback or revising negative or neutral feedback
If you believe that a member might have breached this policy, you can contact us to let us know.
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems User Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
Why does My Book Gems have this policy?
This policy helps maintain trust between buyers and sellers, and protects the integrity of the My Book Gems feedback system.
Feedback manipulation
Members can’t exchange feedback solely for the purpose of increasing feedback scores, gaining My Book Gems privileges, or enhancing their reputation on our site. Neither can they influence another member’s feedback through a series of repeat purchases, or by leaving negative comments with a positive rating.
Sellers aren’t allowed to include terms and conditions in a listing that limit or restrict the buyer from leaving feedback.
“Feedback manipulation, which is any attempt to artificially increase your feedback score or lower another member’s, is not allowed.”
To help maintain trust in My Book Gems, we have rules to make sure feedback can’t be unfairly manipulated.
What is the policy?
Any attempt to manipulate feedback/reviews is not allowed. This includes:
- Offering to buy, sell, trade, or give away feedback
- Registering multiple accounts or working with others to exchange feedback with the purpose of artificially increasing a feedback score
- Referencing My Book Gems feedback in a listing title or description
- Conducting transactions with the purpose of increasing a feedback score
- Manipulating another member’s feedback through repeat purchases, or a pattern of leaving positive feedback with consistently low reviews
- Buying or selling My Book Gems user accounts
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems User Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
Feedback Misuse
Any misuse of feedback isn’t allowed. Feedback content should match the positive or negative rating that was given in both buyer and seller feedback. For example, a negative comment should not be left with a positive rating. Any pictures left in feedback should accurately represent the item purchased and follow our policies, including the Offensive Materials Policy, the Restricted Adult Items Policy, and the Illegal explicit content policy.
Leaving conflicting feedback and comments is not allowed. Feedback should only be related to the transaction.
To help protect our members, we have rules to make sure feedback can’t be misused.
What is the policy?
Any misuse of feedback is not allowed. Feedback comments should be consistent with the rating given to describe the overall experience. Positive feedback should accompany a positive transaction rating, and negative feedback should accompany a negative transaction rating. For example:
- Sellers must not leave buyers a negative comment with a positive transaction rating
- Buyers must not leave sellers a negative comment with a positive transaction rating unless they contacted the seller beforehand and the seller was not able to resolve the buyer’s concern
Follow-up or reply comments must also match the overall rating and can’t be used to change a rating.
Feedback content should only be related to the transaction. We don’t allow:
- Expressing opinions on any political, religious, or social issues
- Any links, URLs, or other content encouraging sales outside of My Book Gems
- Any implied or explicit threats or intimidation
- The publishing of any personally identifiable information
- Any inappropriate or offensive content
- Any infringement of third-party rights
- Any references to investigations
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable law
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems User Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
Why does My Book Gems have this policy?
This policy helps protect both buyers and sellers, and the integrity of the My Book Gems feedback system.
Offensive Materials Policy
Listings or content that promote or glorify hatred, violence, or discrimination aren’t allowed.
In order to promote trust and respect among our diverse community of members, My Book Gems does not allow items or content that promote or glorify hatred, violence, discrimination or intolerance based on the characteristics listed below or promote organizations that hold such views.
What is the policy?
Listings or content that promote, perpetuate or glorify hatred, violence, or discrimination, including on the grounds of race, ethnicity, color, religion, disability, national origin, sex, gender and gender identity or sexual orientation, aren’t allowed. This includes but is not limited to the following:
- Slurs or epithets of any kind
- Slavery items, including reproductions, such as tags, shackles, documents, bills of sale, etc.
- Items with racist, anti-Semitic, or otherwise demeaning portrayals, for example through caricatures or other exaggerated features, including figurines, cartoons, housewares, historical advertisements, and golliwogs
- Black Americana items that are discriminatory
- Confederate battle flag and related items with its image
- Historical Holocaust-related and Nazi-related items, including reproductions
- Any item that is anti-Semitic or any item from after 1933 that bears a swastika
- Media identified as Nazi propaganda
- Listings that imply or promote support of, membership in, or funding of a terrorist organization
The following items may be listed:
- Media such as historical photos, magazines, books and art, provided that such material doesn’t perpetuate or glorify violence, intolerance or racial stereotyping
- Items related to the Civil Rights Movement
- Stamps, letters, and envelopes displaying Nazi postmarks
- Currency issued by the Nazi Germany government, including military scripts
- Historically accurate WWII military model kits that have Nazi symbols
- Historical and religious items that bear a swastika if they are made before 1933 and are not related to Nazism
When offering shipping to other countries, make sure to first check our International Trading Policy to verify that the item is allowed.
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
Why does My Book Gems have this policy?
We have a strict policy against hate and discrimination to ensure that our platform remains a safe, trusted and inclusive environment for our global community of buyers and sellers.
International Trading Policy
Listing items for sale internationally is a great way to help increase your sales, but it’s important to make sure your items aren’t prohibited on our global sites.
Members are responsible for checking that their transactions are lawful in the buyer’s country, as well as in their own.
Restricted Adult Items Policy
Some adult items are allowed when they follow our guidelines.
At My Book Gems, we have policies to ensure our platform remains a trusted and inclusive environment for our global community of buyers and sellers. Although most adult-only items are listed in the Adult section of our search, they are also listed with all of the books on the bookstore section, listings that show nudity on the covers or in the samples are not allowed, but inside the pages that are not show they must folow these guidelines below.
We’re committed to preventing bias in the application of our policies. All forms of adult content that don’t follow our policy will be removed. We’ll review the content of the listing, images, and the category of the items to determine if it is allowed.
My Book Gems defines nudity as showing any part of male or female genitalia, anus, or female breasts where the areola or nipple is visible. The following are also considered nudity:
- Modeled clothing that is see-through or very tight and shows human genitalia, the anus, or the nipple/areola of female breasts
- Male erections, even if the model is clothed
- People engaged in sexual contact or activity (this excludes kissing scenes).
What is the policy?
The following items are not allowed:
- Adult items with content that is illegal
- Sexually explicit materials, including items displaying sexual activities, are not allowed. This includes the following:
- Sexually explicit adult films with a rating of X, XXX, or unrated for an adults-only audience
- Sexually explicit video games with a rating of Adults Only 18+
- Sexually explicit magazines, books and comics that show displays of sexual activity
- Items that don’t comply with our Illegal explicit content policy, including nudist publications
- My Book Gems-hosted video content may not contain nudity
- Images included when leaving feedback may not contain nudity, even if the actual item or original listing included nudity
The following items are allowed only under the conditions outlined below:
- Adult magazines, books and comics that contain nudity are allowed only if they don’t contain sexual activity and if no images of nudity are showing in the listing
- Some examples of this include Bear (magazine), Blue (magazine), Butt (magazine), Gayletter, Mayfair, On Our Backs, Penthouse, Playboy, Playgirl, and Playguy. This isn’t an exhaustive list of magazines, books and comics we allow. Any adult magazine or comic that doesn’t contain sexually explicit content can be listed following the guidelines in this policy (and be created/written/own by an Independent author)
- Nude art listings that do not contain sexually suggestive poses or sexual acts are allowed, but they must include the item specific attribute Subject: Nudes. They can be listed only in the Art category
- Books about Sex toys and sex accessories can be listed in the Adult section but must follow the guidelines set by our policies, and must follow these guidelines:
- Sellers must be pre-approved. Seller accounts are automatically reviewed for pre-approval at the time of attempting to list in these categories
- Listings must not have any explicit images on the covers or go into detail on anything expilict in the listing (no images of sex toys of any kind on the covers without strict approval from My Book Gems)
- Listings must not include images of nudity or sexual content
- Educational materials that don’t contain sexually explicit content can be listed as long as the listing doesn’t show nude images, such as but not limited to, the human body for biology, health, reproduction, etc without My Book Gems strict approval.
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems User Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
Illegal Explicit Content Policy
My Book Gems never allows illegal content, including child pornography, torture, snuff films, or bestiality.
My Book Gems may use broad discretion when removing obscene material.
What is the policy?
- We never allow any listings or content depicting or describing real child pornography
- We never allow any listings or content depicting or describing real bestiality, torture, snuff films, necrophilia, rape, scat, incest, or other illegal or obscene content
Activity on My Book Gems is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the My Book Gems User Agreement
- Follow this My Book Gems policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, My Book Gems may take action consistent with applicable laws and the My Book Gems User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or canceling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
Why does My Book Gems have this policy?
My Book Gems never allows listings which include illegal material.
OTHER BUSINESSES
Parties other than My Book Gems operate stores, provide services or software, or sell product lines through the My Book Gems Services. In addition, we provide links to the sites of affiliated companies and certain other businesses. If you purchase any of the products or services offered by these businesses or individuals, you are purchasing directly from those third parties, not from My Book Gems. We are not responsible for examining or evaluating, and we do not warrant, the offerings of any of these businesses or individuals (including the content of their Web sites). My Book Gems does not assume any responsibility or liability for the actions, product, and content of all these and any other third parties. You should carefully review their privacy statements and other conditions of use.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
THE MY BOOK GEMS SERVICES AND ALL INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS (INCLUDING SOFTWARE) AND OTHER SERVICES INCLUDED ON OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THE MY BOOK GEMS SERVICES ARE PROVIDED BY MY BOOK GEMS ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED IN WRITING. MY BOOK GEMS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE OPERATION OF THE MY BOOK GEMS SERVICES, OR THE INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS (INCLUDING SOFTWARE) OR OTHER SERVICES INCLUDED ON OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THE MY BOOK GEMS SERVICES, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED IN WRITING. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE MY BOOK GEMS SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.
TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, MY BOOK GEMS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. MY BOOK GEMS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE MY BOOK GEMS SERVICES, INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS (INCLUDING SOFTWARE) OR OTHER SERVICES INCLUDED ON OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THE MY BOOK GEMS SERVICES, MY BOOK GEMS SERVERS OR ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS SENT FROM MY BOOK GEMS ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW, MY BOOK GEMS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF ANY MY BOOK GEMS SERVICE, OR FROM ANY INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS (INCLUDING SOFTWARE) OR OTHER SERVICES INCLUDED ON OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH ANY MY BOOK GEMS SERVICE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED IN WRITING.
DISPUTES
Any dispute or claim relating in any way to your use of any My Book Gems Service that is not resolved with Arbitration will be adjudicated in the state or Federal courts in Reed City, Michigan, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in these courts. We each waive any right to a jury trial.
APPLICABLE LAW
By using any My Book Gems Service, you agree that applicable federal law, and the laws of the state of Michigan, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Conditions of Use and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and My Book Gems.
SITE POLICIES, MODIFICATION, AND SEVERABILITY
Please review our other policies, such as our pricing policy, posted on this site. These policies also govern your use of My Book Gems Services. We reserve the right to make changes to our site, policies, Service Terms, and these Conditions of Use at any time. If any of these conditions shall be deemed invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that condition shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining condition.
OUR ADDRESS
mybookgems.com, 10027 S Hawkins Rd, Reed City, MI 49677
https://mybookgems.com
ADDITIONAL MY BOOK GEMS SOFTWARE TERMS
The following terms (“Software Terms”) apply to any software (including any updates or upgrades to the software) and any related documentation we make available to you in connection with My Book Gems Services (the “My Book Gems Software”).
- Use of the My Book Gems Software. You may use My Book Gems Software solely for purposes of enabling you to use the My Book Gems Services as provided by My Book Gems, and as permitted by these Conditions of Use and any Service Terms. You may not incorporate any portion of the My Book Gems Software into other programs or compile any portion of it in combination with other programs, or otherwise copy (except to exercise rights granted in this section), modify, create derivative works of, distribute, assign any rights to, or license the My Book Gems Software in whole or in part. All software used in any My Book Gems Service is the property of My Book Gems or its software suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws.
- Use of Third Party Services. When you use the My Book Gems Software, you may also be using the services of one or more third parties, such as a wireless carrier or a mobile software provider. Your use of these third party services may be subject to the separate policies, terms of use, and fees of these third parties.
- No Reverse Engineering. You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble, tamper with, or bypass any security associated with the My Book Gems Software, whether in whole or in part.
- Updates. We may offer automatic or manual updates to the My Book Gems Software at any time and without notice to you.
- Government End Users. If you are a U.S. Government end user, we are licensing the My Book Gems Software to you as a “Commercial Item” as that term is defined in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (see 48 C.F.R. § 2.101), and the rights we grant you to the My Book Gems Software are the same as the rights we grant to all others under these Conditions of Use.
- Conflicts. In the event of any conflict between these Conditions of Use and any other My Book Gems or third-party terms applicable to any portion of My Book Gems Software, such as open-source license terms, such other terms will control as to that portion of the My Book Gems Software and to the extent of the conflict.
HOW TO SERVE A SUBPOENA OR OTHER LEGAL PROCESS
My Book Gems accepts service of subpoenas or other legal process only for their part and not for the individual vendor/content provider through the My Book Gems support channels. Subpoenas or other legal process may be served by sending them to the following address: mybookgems.com, 10027 S Hawkins Rd, Reed City, MI 49677
Please note also that providing detailed and accurate information at the outset will facilitate efficient processing of your request. That information will include, for example, e-mail and/or credit card number used to make purchases for retail purchase information; the name, e-mail, and if available, physical address of a seller for seller information; device serial number for My Book Gems devices; and IP address and complete time stamps.
NOTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR MAKING CLAIMS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT
If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been infringed, please submit your complaint using our customer support. This email may be used to report all types of intellectual property claims including, but not limited to, copyright, trademark, and patent claims.
We respond quickly to the concerns of rights owners about any alleged infringement, and we terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.
We offer the following alternative to our online form for copyright complaints only. You may submit written claims of copyright infringement by phone: (719) 726-1493, e-mail: customersupport@mybookgems.com, or My Book Gems, mybookgems.com, 10027 S Hawkins Rd, Reed City, MI 49677
Written claims concerning copyright infringement must include the following information:
- A physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
- A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed upon;
- A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site;
- Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address;
- A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
- A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.