Acceptable Use Policy

1. Purpose

This Acceptable Use Policy ("Policy") sets out the standards of behaviour expected of everyone who uses the Nodal Pay platform, operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] ("Nodal Pay", "we", "us"). It applies to the Nodal Pay mobile application, the Safe Deal Room, this website, and any related services we may offer.

Nodal Pay is currently under development. This Policy is published in draft form so that prospective users can see, before launch, the rules the platform is expected to operate under. A finalised version will be published before the app becomes available, and it will form part of our Terms of Use.

The purpose of these rules is simple: Nodal Pay is being designed to protect genuine buyers and sellers. That protection only works if the platform is not used to move money for unlawful, deceptive, or abusive purposes.

2. Permitted Use

Nodal Pay is designed for genuine transactions between consenting users. Acceptable use of the platform means:

• Agreeing the terms of a real transaction, goods, services, or other lawful dealings, with another user in the Safe Deal Room.
• Providing accurate descriptions, prices, timelines, and conditions on the Deal Card.
• Making and receiving payments only for transactions you genuinely intend to complete.
• Using your own identity and your own account, verified as described in our planned KYC and Verification Policy.
• Communicating with the other party respectfully and in good faith, including where a disagreement arises.

The final payment and fund handling structure of the platform will depend on applicable law and the regulated payment partners we work with, and will be described in detail before launch. Whatever that structure is, the expectations in this Policy will apply to every transaction.

3. Prohibited Transactions

You must not use, or attempt to use, Nodal Pay to pay for, sell, facilitate, or advertise any of the following. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive, and will be read together with our AML and Prohibited Activities Policy:

• Illegal goods or services of any kind, or anything that violates applicable law, including the Information Technology Act 2000 and rules made under it.
• Weapons, ammunition, explosives, or related components.
• Narcotics, psychotropic substances, drug paraphernalia, or prescription medicines sold outside lawful channels.
• Counterfeit goods, pirated content, or items that infringe intellectual property rights.
• Stolen property, or goods you do not have the right to sell.
• Any form of human exploitation, including trafficking, forced labour, or the sale of human organs.
• Wildlife contraband, including protected animals, plants, or products derived from them.
• Gambling, betting, or wagering of any kind, including games of chance played for money.
• Lotteries, sweepstakes, or prize chit schemes.
• Adult services or sexually exploitative content.
• Regulated financial products, including securities, derivatives, insurance, foreign exchange, lending, and virtual digital assets, unless expressly permitted by applicable law and by us in writing.
• Pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, multi level recruitment schemes, or any arrangement where returns depend primarily on recruiting others.

If we detect or reasonably suspect a prohibited transaction, we may decline, freeze, or reverse it to the extent permitted by law and by our payment arrangements, and take the enforcement steps described in Section 6.

4. Prohibited Conduct

Independent of what is being bought or sold, you must not:

• Commit fraud or misrepresentation. Do not deceive another user about the nature, condition, ownership, or delivery of what you are selling, or about your intention to pay or perform.
• Impersonate anyone. Do not pretend to be another person, business, or Nodal Pay itself, and do not use forged or borrowed identity documents.
• Harass or abuse others. Threats, intimidation, hate speech, stalking, and sexual harassment in the Safe Deal Room or anywhere on the platform are prohibited.
• Move agreed deals off platform to evade protections. Do not pressure another user to abandon a deal recorded in the Safe Deal Room and pay outside the platform. This is a common tactic in payment fraud and defeats the protections the platform is designed to provide.
• Interfere with the platform. Do not probe, disrupt, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to our systems, other users' accounts, or connected infrastructure.
• Scrape or harvest data. Do not use bots, crawlers, or automated tools to extract data from the platform, and do not collect other users' personal data.
• Introduce malware. Do not upload or transmit viruses, worms, or any code designed to damage or covertly monitor the platform or its users.
• Circumvent verification. Do not bypass, manipulate, or assist others in bypassing identity verification, transaction limits, or risk controls, and do not open multiple accounts to evade a restriction placed on you.

If you discover a security weakness rather than an abuse, please report it responsibly as described in our Security Disclosure Policy.

5. Content Standards for the Safe Deal Room

The Safe Deal Room is where buyers and sellers record what they have agreed. Everything you post there, descriptions, messages, images, and Deal Card terms, must meet these standards:

• Be truthful and accurate, and reflect the actual transaction being agreed.
• Be lawful, and free of content that is defamatory, obscene, hateful, or otherwise objectionable under applicable law.
• Not contain another person's personal data shared without their consent.
• Not contain malicious links, phishing attempts, or requests to communicate or pay outside the platform in order to avoid its protections.
• Not misuse the Deal Card to disguise a prohibited transaction as a permitted one.

Because Deal Room records are expected to be used as evidence when disputes are raised under our Dispute Resolution Policy, deliberately falsifying them is treated as a serious violation.

6. Enforcement

We plan to enforce this Policy proportionately, based on the severity and frequency of the violation. Depending on the circumstances, we may:

1. Issue a warning and ask you to correct the behaviour or content.
2. Limit specific features, such as restricting transaction sizes, pausing new deals, or holding a transaction for review.
3. Suspend your account while we investigate.
4. Terminate your account for serious or repeated violations.
5. Report the matter to law enforcement, regulators, or our payment partners where we are required or permitted to do so by applicable law.

Serious violations, such as fraud, exploitation, or attempts to launder money, may lead to immediate suspension or termination without a prior warning. Where the law allows, we will tell you what action we have taken and why, and you will be able to raise a complaint through the process described in our Grievance Redressal Policy.

How funds connected to a violating transaction are handled will depend on applicable law, the rules of our regulated payment partners, and the final payment structure of the platform, which will be published before launch.

7. Reporting Violations

If you encounter behaviour that you believe violates this Policy, please tell us. In app reporting tools are planned, including the ability to report a user, a deal, or specific content directly from the Safe Deal Room.

Until the app launches, and at any time afterwards, you can write to us at [SUPPORT EMAIL]. Please include as much detail as you can, what happened, when, and any supporting screenshots or references. We will not disclose your identity to the reported user except where required by law.

Reports made in good faith will never count against you, even if we ultimately find no violation. Knowingly false reports, however, are themselves a violation of this Policy.

8. Relationship to Other Policies

This Policy is part of a wider set of documents that will govern the use of Nodal Pay:

• Our Terms of Use, the overall agreement between you and us; this Policy forms part of it.
• Our AML and Prohibited Activities Policy, detailed rules on money laundering risk and restricted categories.
• Our KYC and Verification Policy, how identity verification is planned to work.
• Our Privacy Policy, how we handle personal data, consistent with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023.
• Our Dispute Resolution Policy, how disagreements between buyers and sellers are handled.

If there is any conflict between this Policy and the Terms of Use, the Terms of Use prevail. We may update this Policy as the product develops and as applicable law and our arrangements with regulated payment partners are finalised; the "Last updated" date above will always reflect the current version. For general questions about how the platform is intended to work, see the FAQ or visit our Help Centre.