Payhound Website Terms & Conditions
1. Introduction
1.1 Welcome to the Terms and Conditions (the "T&Cs") of our website, www.payhound.com (the "Website"). This Website is owned and managed by Payhound Limited, a private limited liability company registered under the laws of Malta, having company registration number C-86493 and its registered address situated at Level 0A, Centris Business Gateway II, Triq is-Salib tal-Imriehel, Zone 3, Central Business District, Birkirkara, CBD3020, Malta ("Payhound", the "Company", "us", "we" or "our").
1.2 Payhound is a Class 3 Virtual Financial Assets Services Provider which is licensed and regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority to provide virtual financial assets services in terms of the Virtual Financial Assets Act (Chapter 590 of the Laws of Malta (the "VFA Act")) and the Virtual Financial Assets Regulations (Subsidiary Legislation 590.01 of the Laws of Malta (the "VFA Regulations")).
Accordingly, Payhound provides the following services to individuals and legal persons, such as companies (the "Payhound Clients")):
i. The receipt from a person of orders to buy, sell or subscribe for virtual financial assets and the transmission of such orders to a third party for execution;
ii. Acting to conclude agreements to buy, sell or subscribe for one or more virtual financial assets on behalf of other persons;
iii. Dealing on own account;
iv. Custodian or nominee services in relation to a virtual financial asset and/ or a private cryptographic key; and
v. The transfer of virtual financial assets
Collectively, the abovementioned services shall hereafter be referred to as the "Payhound Services".
1.3 Payhound Clients have an account with Payhound (the "Client Account") which allows them to access a dedicated 'client only' area on the Website (the "Client Portal") on which each approved Payhound Client is able to access and utilise the Payhound Services.
2. General Terms
2.1 The provisions of these T&Cs will govern the entry, access, connection to or use of our Website by general users, as well as Payhound Clients holding a Client Account (the "Users", "you", "your" or "yours"). For the avoidance of doubt, any reference in these T&Cs to 'use' shall refer to any sort of use of the Website, inclusive of simple entry, access or connection to the same Website. These T&Cs form a legally binding agreement between the User and Payhound and you should therefore take the time to read them carefully. By entering, accessing, connecting to or using this Website or the Client Portal in any manner, you are deemed to have read, understood and agreed to these T&Cs. If you do not agree with these T&Cs, please refrain from using our Website or the Client Portal.
2.2 By using this Website or the Client Portal, you warrant that you are at least eighteen (18) years of age. If you have not yet attained the age of eighteen (18), please desist from using this Website or the Client Portal. You are also instructed not to use this Website or the Client Portal if you are still a minor in your country of residence.
2.3 The use of this Website does not imply that you can utilise any of the Payhound Services. Should you wish to use such services, you will be required to pass our client acceptance and onboarding procedures in line with Payhound's policies, as well as enter into a contract with Payhound for the provision of the Payhound Services (the "Payhound Services Agreement"). If you do intend to use the Payhound Services, please contact us.
3. Access and Use
3.1 While all Users may access the public areas of this Website, only Payhound Clients having a Client Account may access the Client Portal in order to make use of the Payhound Services. For more information in this regard, please read section 4 entitled 'Client Account Set-up and Use' below.
3.2 You understand that we are providing you with access to our Website and, if you are a Payhound Client, the Client Portal on an "as is" and "as available" basis and Payhound expressly disclaims any and all warranties, express or implied, in relation to the Website and Client Portal.
3.3 You agree that any use of the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services shall be for the legitimate purposes expressly permitted and contemplated by these T&Cs and, where applicable, by the Payhound Services Agreement in place between Payhound and yourself. You may not use the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services for any other purpose without our express written consent.
4. Client Account Set-up and Use
4.1 Client Accounts are only set up for Payhound Clients who have entered into a Payhound Services Agreement with Payhound.
4.2 You are fully and solely responsible for the use and security of your Client Account and any associated credentials, which you must keep safe and secure. Payhound shall bear no liability whatsoever in the event that your credentials are incorrectly, improperly and/ or illegally used through no fault of Payhound.
4.3 Control or use of your Client Account and associated credentials may not be assigned, leased, novated or in any manner transferred or sold to any third party. In such an event, Payhound reserves the right to block access to your Client Account and take any action as it may deem fit in terms of the Payhound Services Agreement and/ or as it may be so permitted to do at law.
4.4 Prior to opening a dedicated Client Account, Payhound shall request due diligence documentation regarding the applicant who wishes to utilise the Payhound Services. This shall include identification documentation, proof of residence, professional references, tax domicile information, financial status information and information about your source of wealth and source of funds. This data is collected in terms of and for the purpose of Payhound's legal obligations as deriving from the VFA Act, the VFA Regulations and the Virtual Financial Assets Rulebook published by the Malta Financial Services Authority (the "VFA Rulebook"). For more information on our data protection practices, please refer to section 24 entitled 'Data Protection' below.
4.5 Payhound reserves the right to refuse to accept you as a Payhound Client and to open a Client Account dedicated to you, without providing any reason for such refusal. In such an event, Payhound shall not be liable, in any manner whatsoever, for any damages, costs, suits, proceedings, fines, fees or penalties incurred by you as a result of such refusal.
5. Warranties
5.1 Upon using the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services, you warrant that:
i. you are over eighteen (18) years of age and are not classified as a 'minor' in your country of residence;
ii. you will not use the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services in any illegal, fraudulent, improper or immoral ways, or for any illegal, fraudulent, improper or immoral purposes;
iii. you will not use the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services in any manner prohibited under section 8 entitled 'Acceptable Use' below;
iv. you have the legal capacity to enter into these T&Cs with Payhound; and
v. you shall not do or omit to do any such thing that shall be in breach of these T&Cs.
6. Market Data
6.1 You understand and agree that, due to technical and other limitations, the virtual and fiat currency values displayed on the Client Portal and other market data may be delayed and therefore fail to reflect the current, live market value of such currency, and that Payhound holds no liability for any such data deficiencies.
6.2 You understand that Payhound's market data is valuable and proprietary and, to the extent that you receive access to such data, you hereby agree that you will not redistribute, retransmit, duplicate, publish or otherwise make such data available in any manner to third parties, either through automated, manual or any other means, for any purpose, including for the purpose of generating revenue, either directly or indirectly.
6.3 You agree that Payhound shall not be responsible for any adverse consequences that you may experience, or costs that you may incur, arising from any delay, inaccuracy, lapse, failure, outage, or error in receiving live market value data from Payhound.
7. Financial Crime
7.1 We take financial crime extremely seriously. Discovery that any Payhound Client or Client Account has received or is sending (or intending so to do) cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies that are the proceeds of crime, or otherwise unlawfully received funds or funds used in violation of any laws or regulations, will result in the notification of the appropriate law enforcement agencies and may result in the suspension or termination of said Client Account. In such event, you shall forfeit any payment or fees you may have made to the Company. We will, at our sole and absolute discretion, cooperate fully with requests from any law enforcement agency or any other competent authority. We hereby disclaim any liability for any damage that the Payhound Client may incur as a result of these actions.
7.2 While we may implement certain monitoring procedures designed to alert us to fraudulent activity on our Client Portal, we shall not be responsible for any unauthorised use of your Client Account and you agree that you are entirely and solely responsible for any and all activities conducted through your Client Account and for protecting the confidentiality of your Client Account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your Client Account, as well as any other breach of security related to the Website or the Client Portal.
8. Acceptable Use
8.1 When accessing or using the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services, you agree that you will not violate any law, contract, intellectual property or other rights, and that you are solely responsible for the conduct carried out through your Client Account at all times. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, you agree that you will not:
i. use the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services in any manner which could interfere with, disrupt, negatively affect or inhibit other users from fully enjoying the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services, or that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the functioning of said Website, Client Portal or Payhound Services in any manner;
ii. use the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services to fund, support or otherwise engage in any illegal gambling activities, fraud, money laundering or terrorist activities, or any other illegal activities;
iii. use any robot, spider, crawler, scraper or other automated means or interface not provided by us to access the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services or to extract data;
iv. transmit, or attempt to transmit, any malware, virus, trojan, worm, timebot, cancelbot, corrupted file or other kind of malicious software or code to the Website or the Client Portal;
v. breach, or attempt to breach, any of the security measures imposed by Payhound on this Website or the Client Portal;
vi. use or attempt to use a Client Account other than your own without the authorisation of the Payhound Client to whom such Client Account pertains;
vii. attempt to circumvent any content-filtering techniques we may employ, or attempt to access any service or area of our Website, Client Portal or Payhound Services that you are not authorised to access; xiii. encourage or induce any third party to engage in any of the activities prohibited under this section 8 entitled 'Acceptable Use'.
viii. develop any third-party applications that interact with our Website, Client Portal or Payhound Services without our prior written consent;
ix. provide false, inaccurate, or misleading information;
x. annoy, harass, threaten, intimidate or molest any Payhound employee assisting you;
xi. copy, modify, reverse engineer, create derivative works or in any other way make any unauthorised use of the Intellectual Property (as defined under section 12 entitled 'Intellectual Property' below) of Payhound;
xii. use the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services to cause damage or disrepute to Payhound; and
xiii. encourage or induce any third party to engage in any of the activities prohibited under this section 8 entitled 'Acceptable Use'.
9. Third-Party Content
9.1 In using our Client Portal or the Payhound Services, you may view content provided by third parties, including, potentially, links to webpages pertaining to such third parties ("Third-Party Content"). We do not control, endorse or adopt any Third-Party Content and shall have no responsibility for Third-Party Content, including, without limitation, material that may be misleading, incomplete, erroneous, offensive, indecent or otherwise objectionable. In addition, your business dealings or correspondence with any such third parties are solely between you and said third parties. We are not responsible for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of any such dealings, and you understand that your use of Third-Party Content and your interactions with such third parties are at your own risk.
10. Liability
10.1 To the extent allowed by law, Payhound shall not be liable, in any event, for any direct, indirect or consequential damages, losses or liabilities whatsoever incurred or suffered by the User, or any third party, including, without limitation, damages for loss of profit, loss of information, business interruption, or loss of revenue or goodwill, as a result of or in connection with any of the following:
i. any loss of credentials or loss of access to your Client Account through no fault of Payhound;
ii. any downtime or reduced service availability attributable to any third party;
iii. any instructions from the User received by Payhound that contain incorrect, missing or improperly formatted information; and/ or
iv. any unforeseen circumstances or other circumstances outside of Payhound's control preventing the proper performance of the Website or the Client Portal despite any reasonable security precautions taken by Payhound, including any event of Force Majeure (as defined under section 14 entitled 'Force Majeure' below).
10.2 Without prejudice to the provisions of section 10.1 directly above, to the extent allowed by law, in no event of a breach by Payhound of these T&Cs shall Payhound's liability exceed €5,000.
11. Indemnity
11.1 To the maximum permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company and each of its officers, directors, shareholders, members, partners, employees and agents (collectively, the "Indemnified Parties") from and against any claims, actions, loss, liabilities, expenses, costs or demands, including legal fees (collectively, the "Losses"), arising as a direct or indirect result of your breach of these T&Cs.
12. Intellectual Property
12.1 For the purpose of this section 12, "Intellectual Property" shall include, without limitation, and whether registered, unregistered or registrable in Malta or elsewhere, any trademark, tradename, logo, design, mark, industrial design, copyright or copyrightable material, patent, graphics, images, software, source code, graphical user interface, internet domain name, website address, mask work, trade secret, knowhow, technical data, market data, method or specification.
12.2 Any and all Intellectual Property related in any manner whatsoever to the Website, the Client Portal and/ or the Payhound Services is the sole and exclusive property of Payhound and is subject to protection under the applicable law.
12.3 The User is prohibited from copying, editing, amending, redistributing, displaying, modifying, adapting, sub-licencing, emulating, reverse-engineering, decompiling, disassembling, combining, processing, encoding, translating, selling, or in any other way using any of the Intellectual Property of Payhound, without Payhound's express written consent.
13. Disclaimers and Warnings
13.1 Payhound does not provide investment advice of any kind. The use of the Payhound Services is at the Payhound Client's own discretion. Investment in cryptocurrencies is a risky business due to the volatility of the market, which may result in you losing a part or all of your investment.
13.2 Cryptocurrencies are classified under Maltese law as virtual financial assets and, as such, are not regulated under investment services legislation.
13.3 Unless you are an Experienced Investor (as defined in the VFA Rulebook), you should consult with a professional advisor before investing in cryptocurrency.
13.4 For the avoidance of doubt, Payhound does not provide any fiduciary, advisory, exchange or other similar services with respect to the Payhound Client, to any person related to or affiliated with the Payhound Client, or any transaction carried out on the Client Portal.
14. Force Majeure
14.1 For the purpose of this section 14, "Force Majeure" shall mean any unforeseen circumstance including, without limitation:
(i) acts of God, flood, drought, earthquake or other natural disaster;
(ii) epidemics or pandemics;
(iii) terrorist attack, civil war, civil commotion or riots, war, threat of or preparation for war, armed conflict, imposition of sanctions, embargo, or breaking off of diplomatic relations;
(iv) nuclear, chemical or biological contamination or sonic boom;
(v) any order, law or any action taken by a government or public authority, including without limitation imposing an export or import restriction, quota or prohibition, or failing to grant a necessary licence or consent;
(vi) collapse of buildings, fire explosion or accident;
(vii) any labour or trade dispute, strikes, industrial action or lockouts;
(viii) non-performance by suppliers or subcontractors;
(ix) interruption or failure of utility service;
(x) theft;
(xi) hacking attacks;
(xii) mechanical or systems failures; and
(xiii) downtime of the Website or the Client Portal or reduced service availability of the same.
14.2 Payhound shall not be liable to you, or to any third party, for any damages, liabilities, costs, suits, proceedings, fines, fees or penalties resulting from Payhound's inability to adhere to any of its obligations under these T&Cs and/ or any contract with you, where such inability arises as a result of Force Majeure.
15. Right of Set-Off
15.1 To the extent allowed by law, Payhound reserves the right to set off any damages or amounts owed to us by you for your breach of these T&Cs against funds in your Client Account.
16. Your Relationship With Payhound
16.1 Nothing in these T&Cs shall be deemed to constitute, create, imply, give effect to, or otherwise recognise a partnership, agency, employment, joint venture or formal business entity of any kind, or any other similar relationship between yourself and Payhound.
17. Enquiries and Complaints
17.1 Should you encounter any problem when utilising the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services, or wish to raise a complaint in relation to the same, kindly make use of and follow our Complaints Handling Process.
For any other enquiries, please contact us. We'd love to hear from you and would appreciate any feedback you may have for us, whether about the Website, the Client Portal and the Payhound Services generally.
18. Amendments to these T&Cs
18.1 Payhound reserves the right to make any changes to these T&Cs at any given time without incurring any liability towards you or any third party. Any such updated T&Cs shall become immediately applicable and enforceable upon publication on the Website and shall supersede any previously published T&Cs. Should we be required by law to obtain your consent or provide you with prior notice in respect of any such changes, we shall do so.
19. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
19.1 These T&Cs shall be governed by the Laws of Malta. Any disputes which may arise between yourself and Payhound in relation to these T&Cs shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Maltese Courts.
20. Waiver
20.1 No exercise or failure to exercise or delay in exercising any right or remedy available to Payhound under these T&Cs will constitute a waiver by Payhound of that or any other right or remedy available to it.
21. Severability
21.1 In the event that any provision, or part thereof, of these T&Cs is found by a competent adjudicatory body or court of law to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, then such provision, or part thereof, shall be severed from the remainder of these T&Cs, which shall continue to be valid and enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by law.
22. Assignment
22.1 No assignment, novation or transfer of any of the User's rights or obligations forming part of these T&Cs, whether in whole or in part, is permitted, unless with Payhound's express and prior consent.
23. Conflict of Interpretation
23.1 Should a conflict of interpretation or application arise between these T&Cs and the Payhound Services Agreement, the terms contained in the latter shall prevail over these T&Cs.
24. Data Protection
24.1 You acknowledge that we may process personal data in relation to you (if you are an individual) and personal data that you may provide to us in relation to your employees or associates or other individuals (if you are a legal person, such as a company) in connection with these T&Cs and your use of the Website, the Client Portal or the Payhound Services.
We shall process this personal data in strict compliance with all data protection and data privacy laws, particularly Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulation), and in accordance with our Privacy Policy or, if you are a merchant availing yourself of the Payhound Services, the Merchant Privacy Policy. Please contact us for a copy of the Merchant Privacy Policy.
25. Cookies
25.1 Payhound implements first party and third party cookies on the Website and the Client Portal so as to ensure that the Website and Client Portal function securely. Kindly refer to our Cookie Policy for further information about our use of cookies on the Website and Client Portal.