Clearer, more concise and easier to navigate terms
As we grow our product suite, we’re streamlining our legal terms to make them more concise and easier to understand and navigate. Our newly restructured Stripe Services Agreement (which now aligns with our global contracting structure) contains (a) general terms that apply to each Stripe service and (b) additional services terms applicable to specific Stripe services, such as Payments, Connect, and Terminal. When you access or use a Stripe service, the Stripe Services Agreement and the relevant service terms for that service (if any) will apply.
A Data Processing Agreement is incorporated into our terms
Our Stripe Services Agreement now expressly incorporates a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) which governs the processing of personal data by Stripe. You can learn more about Stripe’s data processing activities by reading the DPA and by visiting the Stripe Privacy Policy and Stripe Privacy Center.
Protection for you against third-party claims regarding IP infringement
We’ve added a section explaining the protection we will provide you if a third party claims that your use of our technology or services infringes their intellectual property rights. Specifically, we’ve outlined a) when that protection will and will not apply, b) how that process will work, and c) some of the actions we may take in that case.
Greater clarity on the steps we may take to protect Stripe and others from risks related to your business
For each payment transaction we process for you, Stripe and our financial partners are exposed to financial and credit risk. Our updated terms enable Stripe to take certain actions to safeguard against this risk, including by establishing a reserve and suspending services to you. As part of this update to our terms, we provide greater clarity on when and how we may take these actions. We believe that our approach aligns with payment industry standards and aims to ensure we can continue to provide a robust, reliable, and sustainable service to all of our users.
Investment of funds
We clarify how we hold funds before making payouts to you. Funds are held in pooled accounts and may be invested into liquid investments in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Managing funds in a diversified portfolio of liquid assets of high credit quality is an important risk and liquidity management tool and is an integral part of how we are able to operate our business. Importantly, our payout obligations to you remain unchanged and will not be impacted by potential investments.
Greater clarity and optionality on how we collect fees and other amounts you owe to Stripe
We are not changing our fees as part of this update, but we provide greater clarity on how and when Stripe collects fees and other amounts you owe to Stripe under the updated terms. We typically collect fees on a per transaction basis before we transfer funds to you, but we may also issue an invoice to you or deduct amounts you owe us from any reserve we hold, your Stripe account balance or your bank account(s), or those associated with you (including those held by your affiliates). We also provide more information on how and when we can debit your bank account(s).
Increased clarity on the information we require about the financial condition or status of your business
Given the nature of the services we provide to you, we may need to request additional information from you to assess your financial condition and the risk associated with your business. The updated terms (i) more precisely describe the type of information we may request from you and (ii) oblige you to notify us immediately if your business experiences an insolvency event or a material change in your business or financial condition, there is a change in the regulatory status of your business, or you are notified that your business is under regulatory or other investigation.
More information on how we may use your trademarks (and how you may use ours)
We appreciate that you may sometimes want to mention your connection with us, and may want to use our name or logo to do so. So too for us – there may be times when we may want to use your trademarks to identify you as a Stripe user (for example, in our marketing materials, or on our website). Because it’s in both of our interests to have clarity around when we can each do so (and how), we’ve updated both the “Marks Usage” portion of the updated terms and our Marks Usage terms (which you can find here) to clarify exactly what we can (and can’t) do with each other’s trademarks.
Product Terms
We’ve restructured our terms so that additional terms for specific Stripe products (such as Payments and Connect) apply when you access or use those products. These terms are incorporated into the SSA, streamlining our contracting approach and enabling you to clearly understand the additional terms that apply to your use of each Stripe product. Since we last updated our General Terms, we’ve also added sections to our Stripe Connect Services Terms to cover new products and services such as attribute-based connected account types and Stripe Managed Risk Services. We’ve also added terms for the new Stripe Vault and Forward Service.
The prior versions of the terms can be found here.