Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms, User Roles, and Platform Role

By accessing and using CASE, you agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms and Conditions. You must be at least 18 years old and possess the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract to create an account. While community projects may actively support or benefit minors, the registered account holder managing the project or making donations must be a legal adult. If you are registering on behalf of an organization or NGO, you represent and warrant that you are an authorized representative with the authority to legally bind that entity to these Terms.

User Roles: The platform serves two distinct legal entities. "Donors" are individuals or organizations utilizing the platform to allocate funds toward civic initiatives. "Organizers" are individuals or organizations creating projects, assuming full responsibility for physical execution, and receiving programmatic disbursements. The rights and responsibilities of Donors and Organizers are distinct and governed accordingly within these Terms.

Platform Role: CASE Technologies LTD is a civic-technology and software infrastructure provider. CASE does not operate a traditional corporate bank account for user funds. We do not accept or hold custodial banking deposits. Project execution is the sole responsibility of the Organizer, acting as an independent contractor. CASE’s role is strictly limited to providing the technological infrastructure, auditing verification data, and facilitating the programmatic routing of funds.

Electronic Communications: By using the platform, you consent to receive all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications electronically (via email or platform notification), satisfying any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Privacy Policy Incorporation: Your use of the platform is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which details how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in compliance with the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).

2. Donor Ledgers, Master Balance, and Account Management

• Donor Ledgers & Paystack Custody: To facilitate easy contributions, donors are provisioned a digital visual ledger. Any unspent money, unallocated balances, and funds pending transfer are not kept in a traditional corporate bank account owned by CASE. Instead, they are securely held within a regulated master holding balance managed entirely by our payment provider (Paystack). This balance represents the aggregate total of unallocated fiat funds across the platform, which remain the users' property until successfully disbursed.
• No Interest: Unallocated funds held in the payment provider's master balance do not accrue interest, and CASE does not pay any yield, dividends, or interest to users.
• Direct Transfers and Zero Escrow: CASE does not operate as an escrow agent. When a donor funds a project, the transaction is processed via our payment provider. Once settlement is triggered, funds belong entirely to the verified project organizers.
• Organizer Payout Accounts: Organizers must complete mandatory identity verification via a compliant external commercial bank account to receive disbursements.
• KYC Data Sharing Consent: By providing your BVN, NIN, or corporate registration documents, you explicitly consent to CASE securely transmitting this data to our licensed payment partners (e.g., Paystack) solely for the purposes of identity verification, AML/CFT compliance, and payout account provisioning as required by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
• Identity Lock: To prevent fraud and impersonation, once an account is successfully verified, the profile name and associated legal identity are permanently locked at the database level and cannot be altered without administrative compliance review.
• Account Closure: Users may initiate account closure at any time. Donors must request a refund of any unallocated ledger balance prior to closure. Organizers cannot close their accounts while actively running a project or if they have pending post-spend documentation obligations for previously disbursed milestones.
• Account Security Liability: You are solely responsible for safeguarding your login credentials, passwords, and One-Time Passwords (OTPs). CASE Technologies LTD shall not be liable for any unauthorized access, loss, or diversion of funds resulting from your failure to secure your account, email, or physical devices.

3. Project Responsibilities, Verification, and In-Kind Contributions

• Organizers as Independent Contractors: Project Organizers are legally classified as independent grantees or project contractors receiving platform disbursements to execute stated civic initiatives. Organizers are explicitly not employees, agents, or partners of CASE Technologies LTD.
• Project Verification Policy: CASE retains the right to review, approve, or reject projects based on our official Project Verification Policy. To be deemed acceptable, a project must demonstrate a clear community benefit, present feasible milestones, and comply with all local laws. Projects lacking operational clarity, demonstrating high fraud risk, or failing to meet our baseline verification standards will be rejected.
• Project Reclassification & Misrepresentation: CASE reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to unilaterally reclassify a project designated as a "community project" to a "personal project" if we determine that the initiative has been misrepresented, primarily serves individual interests, or otherwise fails to meet the platform's criteria for a community project.
• In-Kind Contributions & Valuation Disclaimer: The platform allows for non-monetary, in-kind contributions (e.g., goods, materials, volunteer time). CASE does not record unfulfilled donor pledges on the platform. An in-kind contribution is only recorded on the public ledger by the Organizer after they have successfully received and confirmed the physical contribution. CASE does not inspect, warrant, or guarantee the quality or safety of physical in-kind deliveries. Monetary values assigned to in-kind contributions on the platform ledger are good-faith estimates provided by the Organizer for transparency, not audited cash equivalents.
• Post-Spend Documentation Requirement: The milestone aspect of our platform is strictly a post-spend software requirement, not a financial escrow lock. After an organizer receives the money, our platform requires them to upload their itemized receipts and photographic evidence to the public ledger to prove the work was done. Failure to provide this documentation will result in a permanent platform ban.
• User-Generated Content & Warranties: By uploading descriptions, photos, videos, and milestone proof of work, you retain ownership of your content while granting CASE a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to display, host, distribute, and promote this content across the platform. You represent and warrant that you own, or have the necessary legal permissions to use, all intellectual property in the content you upload. CASE reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to remove, edit, or reject any content it deems inappropriate, misleading, or in violation of these Terms, without prior notice.
• The Core Deletion Lock & Record Retention: To preserve the integrity and auditability of the platform ledger, organizers cannot delete funded projects or funded milestones. Once financial contributions have been allocated to a milestone, the ledger entry is immutable. Furthermore, to comply with AML/CFT record-keeping laws, financial transactional data is retained for a minimum of five (5) years following the transaction or account closure, which supersedes standard NDPR data erasure requests during this statutory period.

4. Zero Platform Fees and Financial Mechanics

• 0% Platform Fees: CASE Technologies LTD operates on a 0% platform fee model. We do not charge any administrative or platform fees for any project-related transactions.
• Third-Party Payment Provider Fees: While CASE is free to use, standard payment processing and network transfer fees charged by our payment provider (Paystack) still apply. These third-party gateway fees are dynamically deducted from the transaction before the final payout is settled into the Organizer's verified external bank account.
• No Card Data Storage: CASE Technologies LTD does not capture, store, or process raw credit or debit card numbers on its servers. All payment card data is securely captured and tokenized directly by our PCI-DSS compliant payment provider.
• Currency and Foreign Exchange: All platform targets and payouts are denominated in Nigerian Naira (NGN). Donors using international cards are subject to the exchange rates and foreign transaction fees determined by their banks and the payment provider. CASE is not liable for FX fluctuations or conversion costs.
• Tax Liability: Organizers are solely responsible for assessing, collecting, reporting, and remitting all applicable local, state, and federal taxes (including VAT or personal income tax) associated with funds received through the platform. CASE acts strictly as a technology provider and does not withhold taxes on direct platform disbursements.
• Tax Deductibility: CASE Technologies LTD makes no representation or warranty regarding the tax-exempt or tax-deductible status of any project or Organizer. Donors are solely responsible for determining whether their contributions are tax-deductible in their respective jurisdictions and should consult a qualified tax professional.
• Public Ledger & Anonymity Controls: All financial allocations made to platform initiatives are recorded on a publicly verifiable ledger. Registered donors funding a project are identified by default, unless they explicitly elect to mark their contribution as anonymous.

5. Refunds, Chargebacks, and Erroneous Transfers

• FCCPA Compliance & Refund Rights: In compliance with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA), donors have the right to request refunds for duplicate payments, technical payment gateway errors, or withdraw unallocated funds remaining in their personal visual ledger.
• Refund Processing Timeline: Because platform donations are routed directly to Organizers, refund requests for erroneous project donations must be submitted strictly prior to the technical settlement of funds to the Organizer's bank account (which typically occurs within 24 hours). Unallocated funds remaining in your CASE visual ledger can be refunded at any time upon request.
• Disbursed Funds & Chargeback Liability: Because funds are transferred directly to the project organiser, donations become the legal property of the Organizer immediately upon settlement. Consequently, CASE cannot reverse or refund donations once they have been successfully disbursed to the Organizer's bank account. If a donor initiates a successful credit card chargeback after funds have been disbursed, the Organizer is legally and financially liable for the chargeback amount and associated bank fees. CASE reserves the right to recover chargeback deficits from the Organizer's future milestones or pursue external legal recovery.

6. Prohibited Content, Compliance, and Conduct

To protect donors and project beneficiaries, the following conduct is strictly prohibited:

• Dangerous or Illegal Activities: The platform must never be used to finance dangerous, harmful, or unlawful activities. This strictly includes, but is not limited to, extortion, ransom mobilization, weapons manufacturing or procurement, fraud, or terrorist financing.
• Sanctions & Watchlists: By using the platform, you represent and warrant that you are not located in a comprehensively sanctioned jurisdiction, nor are you listed on any government watchlist of prohibited or restricted parties (including but not limited to the EFCC, NFIU, or OFAC lists).
• AML/CFT Compliance & Reporting: In strict alignment with Nigerian Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations, CASE and its payment partners actively monitor platform transactions. We reserve the right to freeze accounts, block transactions, and report suspicious activities to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), or other relevant authorities without prior notice.
• Circumvention & Off-Platform Payments: To guarantee data integrity and public ledger transparency, organizers are strictly prohibited from soliciting, posting, or diverting payments to unauthorized accounts outside official platform channels. Bypassing the verifiable ledger constitutes a severe violation.
• General Account Termination: CASE reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to suspend, restrict, or terminate any user account immediately and without prior notice if we determine that you have violated these Terms, engaged in abusive behavior, or pose a risk to the platform's integrity or community.

7. Intellectual Property, Liability, Indemnity, and Law

• Platform Intellectual Property: All software, code, designs, logos, and trademarks associated with the CASE platform are the exclusive property of CASE Technologies LTD and are protected by applicable intellectual property laws.
• Copyright Infringement: If you believe your copyrighted work has been used on the platform in a way that constitutes infringement, please contact support@casebeheard.com with detailed evidence. CASE reserves the right to remove infringing content and terminate repeat infringers.
• Disclaimer of Warranties: The platform is provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis. CASE Technologies LTD expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not guarantee that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or completely secure.
• Assumption of Risk and Platform Neutrality: CASE Technologies LTD provides software infrastructure to enable community resource coordination. Donors acknowledge that contributing to a project carries inherent risks, and donors are ultimately and solely responsible for the risk taken by donating. We attempt to ensure projects are sufficiently represented by providing Organizers with structural tools, such as the ability to break projects into smaller milestones and provide milestone update posts, but the utilization of these features is entirely at the Organizer's discretion. We do not endorse, guarantee, or independently verify the ultimate success or execution quality of any independent project. Donors are responsible for evaluating milestone updates, organizer track records, and project documentation prior to allocating funds.
• Organizer Indemnity: Organizers assume full legal and operational responsibility for their initiatives. By creating a project, the Organizer agrees to fully indemnify, defend, and hold harmless CASE Technologies LTD, its officers, and its partners from any lawsuits, regulatory sanctions, chargebacks, fraud allegations, physical injuries, or damages arising directly or indirectly from the Organizer's conduct, mismanagement of funds, or execution of the project.
• No Third-Party Beneficiaries: These Terms do not and are not intended to confer any rights or remedies upon any person other than the registered Users. Beneficiaries of community projects have no legal right to enforce these terms against CASE Technologies LTD.
• Service Availability & Force Majeure: CASE is not liable for third-party payment partner downtimes, banking network clearing delays, or telecommunications outages. Furthermore, CASE shall not be held liable for any delay or failure resulting from causes beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, internet infrastructure failures, or sudden regulatory policy shifts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
• Total Exclusion of Liability for Damages: Because CASE operates on a 0% platform fee model and acts purely as a technological infrastructure provider, to the maximum extent permitted by Nigerian law, CASE Technologies LTD shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages (including but not limited to lost profits, lost data, or personal injury) arising out of or related to your use of the platform, projects, or these Terms. This complete exclusion of damages does not restrict a Donor's fundamental right to withdraw their unallocated ledger balance held directly by the payment provider.
• Modifications to Terms: CASE reserves the right to modify or update these Terms at any time. We will notify users of material changes via electronic communication. Continued use of the platform after such updates constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.
• Governing Law & Jurisdiction: These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Subject to the mandatory arbitration provisions detailed in Section 8, any necessary judicial proceedings (such as enforcing an arbitration award or seeking equitable injunctive relief) shall be brought exclusively in the competent courts of Kaduna State, Nigeria.
• Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

8. Complaints, Arbitration, and Class Action Waiver

Internal Complaints: We are committed to addressing consumer grievances and platform disputes appropriately. Users must first file formal complaints regarding platform usage, suspected fraud, project misrepresentation, or service issues by contacting our compliance team at support@casebeheard.com. Complaints will be acknowledged within 48 hours, and we aim to investigate and resolve standard disputes within 14 business days, in full alignment with Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) guidelines.

Notice of Dispute & Binding Arbitration: Prior to commencing any arbitration proceedings, you must send a formal written Notice of Dispute to support@casebeheard.com detailing the claim, with the explicit subject line "FORMAL LEGAL NOTICE - DISPUTE". If the dispute cannot be resolved informally within 30 days of receiving this properly formatted notice, both parties agree that the dispute shall be definitively resolved by binding arbitration under the Nigerian Arbitration and Mediation Act, 2023. The arbitration shall be conducted in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The language of arbitration shall be English.

Class Action Waiver: You agree that any claims against CASE Technologies LTD must be brought in your individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate another person's claims with your claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.