Terms of service

1About these terms

These terms of service (the “terms”) are an agreement between The Pep Company (“we”, “us”) and the business that applies for or uses our services (“you”). The services are our website, the application, Payments, Storefront & Hosting, Compliance Monitor and Business in a Box.

You accept these terms when you submit an application or use the services. If you accept them for a business, you confirm that you're authorized to bind it.

Our Acceptable Use Policy is part of these terms, and our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information. A quote or launch plan we confirm with you in writing is part of these terms too. If it conflicts with these terms, the quote applies to that service.

2Who can use the services

• You must be a business or sole proprietor based in the United States, with a US bank account for payouts.
• The person applying must be at least 18 and authorized to act for the business.
• Everyone you name as an owner or manager must be a real person who knows you're sharing their details with us and with Stripe.
• What you tell us must be accurate and complete, and you'll keep it up to date. Tell us when your owners, address, products or store change.

3Applying and approval

Applying is free. We review your application, your store, your products and the claims you make, and we usually talk with you before we decide. We may approve your application, ask for changes first, or decline it, at our discretion.

Stripe verifies your identity and business separately and decides on its own whether to support your account, and so does RedFynn if we place you there. Our approval doesn't guarantee theirs, and none of us can promise approval. If we decline an application, we delete the Stripe account we created for it and its lead in RedFynn's CRM.

4Payment processing by Stripe

Payment processing services for merchants on The Pep Company are provided by Stripe and are subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Terms of Service (collectively, the “Stripe Services Agreement”). By agreeing to these terms or continuing to operate as a merchant on The Pep Company, you agree to be bound by the Stripe Services Agreement, as the same might be modified by Stripe from time to time. As a condition of The Pep Company enabling payment processing services through Stripe, you agree to provide The Pep Company accurate and complete information about you and your business, and you authorize The Pep Company to share it and transaction information related to your use of the payment processing services provided by Stripe.

Stripe holds the money from your sales and sends your payouts. Payout timing, reserves, holds and account reviews are Stripe's decisions under the Stripe Services Agreement, and we can't release funds that Stripe holds. Stripe charges its own processing fees to your Stripe account. They're separate from our fees.

You're responsible for refunds and disputes (chargebacks) on your payments, including responding to disputes on time.

5Merchant accounts through RedFynn

Some businesses are better served by a dedicated merchant account than by Stripe. We work with RedFynn Payments as an independent sales organization (ISO), and when we place you with RedFynn, your merchant account is provided by RedFynn and the bank and processor it places you with, under the merchant application and agreement you sign with them. That agreement, not the Stripe section above, governs your merchant account: approval, reserves, holds, payouts, processing fees and disputes are RedFynn's and its partners' decisions, and we can't release funds they hold.

RedFynn shares part of the processing fees you pay with us. Our own services, such as a monthly plan, still follow these terms.

6Fees and billing

• Our fees are set out in the quote we confirm with you in writing, usually in your approval email, before you're charged. We don't charge fees that aren't in your quote.
• Per-sale fees are taken from each payment when Stripe processes it. They aren't returned when you refund a payment or a customer wins a dispute. If your merchant account is with RedFynn, we don't charge per-sale fees: your processing rates are set in your RedFynn agreement.
• Your per-sale rate depends on our review of your business and on your monthly card sales. We review your sales every quarter, and when your three-month average reaches the next tier in your quote, we lower your rate.
• Monthly plans are billed in advance each month, through Stripe, to the card you add when you start your plan. They renew each month until you cancel.
• Build and setup fees are paid before work starts and aren't refundable once it has started.
• If a payment for your plan fails, Stripe retries it and we'll get in touch. If it stays unpaid, we may pause the services it pays for after telling you.
• Our fees don't include taxes. You're responsible for the taxes on your own sales, and we'll add sales tax to our fees where the law requires it.
• We may change our fees with at least 30 days' notice by email. If you don't agree to a change, you can cancel before it takes effect.

7Your responsibilities

• You're responsible for your products, how they're labeled, the claims you and your store make, and your customer service, refunds and shipping. That stays true when we build or host your store or suggest wording.
• You'll follow the laws that apply to your business, including FDA, FTC and state rules, our Acceptable Use Policy, and Stripe's rules for restricted businesses.
• You'll tell us before you add new product types, change what you sell, or sell through a store we haven't reviewed.
• You'll keep the records your products need, such as a certificate of analysis for every batch, and records of your orders, and share them with us or Stripe when asked.
• You'll protect your customers' personal information and have a privacy policy on your store.
• We email you links instead of using passwords. Keep them private, since anyone with a link can use it until it expires, and keep the email address on your account working.

8Stores, hosting and compliance checks

For Storefront & Hosting and Business in a Box, we build and host your store as your quote and launch plan describe. Launch dates are estimates. They depend on you sending content, product details and approvals on time, and on Stripe's review.

You review and approve your store before it launches. Changes we make afterwards, such as fixes from a compliance check, are made on your behalf, and your store's content stays your responsibility.

Compliance Monitor and our reviews point out problems we find and suggest fixes. They can't catch everything, they aren't legal advice, and they don't guarantee that you comply with the law or that Stripe or the card networks will keep supporting your business.

If something on a store we host creates a serious legal or payment risk, we may take it down right away and tell you why.

9What's yours and what's ours

Your brand, domain, product content, customer list and sales data are yours. You let us use them only to provide the services. Domains we register for you are registered in your name, or transferred to you when you ask. When we host your store, we handle your customers' information on your behalf, only to run the store.

Our website, software, templates, designs, tools and brand are ours, and these terms don't transfer them to you. If you leave, we'll give you an export of your store's content and your customer list and help you move them.

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without owing you anything.

10Canceling and ending services

You can cancel any service at any time with 30 days' notice by emailing billing@thepepcompany.com. Monthly fees are due until the notice period ends.

We may end a service with 30 days' notice for any reason. We may suspend or end services sooner, with notice where we can give it, if you break these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, if your products or claims create legal or regulatory risk, if Stripe or a card network requires it, or if we suspect fraud.

When a service ends, you pay any fees you owe, we send your export, and Stripe pays out your remaining balance as the Stripe Services Agreement provides. Parts of these terms that by their nature should continue, such as fees owed, ownership, disclaimers, limits on liability and indemnity, continue after they end.

11Disclaimers

We provide the services “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

We're not a bank or a law firm. We don't hold your funds: Stripe does. We don't guarantee approval, uninterrupted payment processing, sales, or that our reviews will find every problem. Nothing we say about compliance is legal advice, so talk to your own lawyer about your products and claims.

12Limits on liability

To the extent the law allows, neither you nor we are liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or data, even if warned that they were possible.

To the extent the law allows, our total liability for all claims about the services is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose. Stripe's fees don't count toward that amount.

These limits don't apply to your obligations to pay fees or to indemnify us.

13Indemnity

You'll defend and indemnify us, including reasonable legal fees, against third-party claims, fines and penalties that arise from your products, your claims and marketing, your breach of these terms or the Acceptable Use Policy, or your breaking the law.

14Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For material changes, we'll email you at least 30 days before they take effect, unless a change is needed sooner for legal reasons or because Stripe or a card network requires it. If you keep using the services after a change takes effect, you accept it. If you don't agree, you can cancel before then.

15General terms

• Email and notices. We can email you about your application, setup and account, and notices we email count as written notice. We send them to the email address on your account. Send notices to us at legal@thepepcompany.com.
• Transfers. You can't transfer these terms without our written consent. We may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of our business.
• Events outside anyone's control. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by events beyond reasonable control, apart from paying fees owed.
• The whole agreement. These terms, the policies they mention and your quotes are the whole agreement about the services. If part of them can't be enforced, the rest still applies, and not enforcing a part isn't a waiver of it.