Effective: April 1, 2022
VERIFIABLE INC. – MASTER SERVICES AGREEMENT
This Master Services Agreement is between Verifiable Inc. with its principal place of business at 9901 Brodie Lane Ste 160 #1077 Austin, TX 78748 (“Verifiable”), and the Customer listed on the Order Form (“Customer”) which references this Master Services Agreement. The terms of any Order Form referencing this Master Services Agreement are incorporated herein by reference and such Order Forms and this Master Services Agreement are collectively referred to as the “Agreement”.
1. SERVICES AND SUPPORT
1.1. Subject to the terms of this Agreement, Verifiable will provide Customer with access to and use of the Services in accordance with the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. As part of the registration process to access and use the Services, each of Customer’s designated authorized users will use the specific username and password assigned to or created by them for the Services (each such user an “Authorized User”). Customer shall be responsible for any acts or omissions of each Authorized User (including any Customer’s authorized employees who use the Services) and Customer shall ensure that any log in usernames or passwords shall not be used or otherwise shared by multiple Authorized Users. Verifiable reserves the right to refuse registration of, or cancel passwords it deems inappropriate and shall have the right, upon reasonable request, to audit and verify the number of Authorized Users and Customer’s compliance with the terms of this Agreement.
1.2. During the applicable Order Term, Customer may from time to time purchase additional features of the services made available by Verifiable which will be described in an Order Form to be mutually executed by the parties and incorporated by reference into this Agreement. The Order Forms will be numbered consecutively starting from Order Form #1.
2. SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT
2.1. Platform
2.1.1. Verifiable is committed to an SLA Target Percentage of 99.5% uptime (“Uptime”). Uptime is defined as:
(total minutes in month - Downtime) / total minutes in month
2.1.2. Downtime is defined as the total number of minutes Verifiable was unavailable in a given month. Downtime excludes the following:
- Slowness or other performance issues with individual features
- Any products or features identified as pilot, alpha, beta or similar
- External network or equipment problems outside of our reasonable control
- Scheduled Downtime for maintenance
2.1.3. If Verifiable falls short of our Uptime SLA Target Percentage, Verifiable will apply a credit to each affected account according to the following table. Credits are not refunds and cannot be exchanged into a cash amount.
2.2. Credentialing
2.2.1. Verifiable is committed to an SLA Target of 20 business days for a provider to be fully credentialed (“Credential”), assuming Verifiable is not credentialing more than 1,000 providers at a time.
2.2.2. This excludes any providers who submit inaccurate information or incomplete information. Inaccurate or incomplete information will cause delays in the credentialing process that Verifiable will not be responsible for. In addition, this excludes any providers who experience delays due to pending verifications.
2.2.3. If Verifiable falls short of our Credential SLA Target, Verifiable will apply a credit to each affected account according to the following table. Credits are not refunds and cannot be exchanged into a cash amount.
3. DATA OWNERSHIP
3.1. Customer owns all rights, title and interest in and to the Customer Data. Verifiable owns all right, title and interest in and to the Services, Software and De-Identified Data and all improvements, enhancements or modifications thereto, and all intellectual property rights related thereto.
4. CUSTOMER DATA
4.1. “Customer Data” refers to any information or data provided by the Customer to Verifiable, or otherwise extracted from Customer and its systems and databases by Verifiable as permitted by Customer. Customer Data may include information that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person (“Customer Personal Data”), but excludes any publicly available information.
4.2. Verifiable shall maintain an information security program, including physical, technical, administrative, and organizational safeguards, designed to: ensure the security and confidentiality of Customer Data (as defined within); protect against any anticipated threats or hazards to the security or integrity of Customer Data; protect against unauthorized disclosure, access to, or use of Customer Data; maintain the integrity of Customer Data through back-ups; and, ensure that all employees, agents, and subcontractors of Verifiable, if any, comply with all the foregoing. Customer is solely responsible for the lawfulness of such customer data that is passed to Verifiable. Verifiable will not move data storage outside of the United States without the prior written consent of Customer.
4.3. In the event of any unauthorized access or theft of Customer Data, Verifiable is committed to taking all steps reasonably necessary to remedy or mitigate the effects of the data breach. Both parties shall coordinate and cooperate in good faith on developing the content of any related public statements or any required notices.
4.4. Customer grants to Verifiable the right and license to use of Customer Data in connection with provision of the Services to Customer, which includes the right to reproduce, create derivative works based upon, publicly perform, publicly display as needed to fulfill the Services. In addition, Customer agrees that Verifiable shall have the right to collect and analyze data and other information relating to the provision, use and performance of various aspects of the Services and related systems and technologies including, the Customer Data, and to create de-identified and/or aggregated data (“De-Identified Data”) and may use such De-Identified Data in any manner in which it sees fit. Verifiable shall own all rights in and to such De-Identified Data.
4.5. Verifiable shall: (1) implement and maintain commercially reasonable administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect Customer Data; (2) promptly notify Customer upon becoming aware of any unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of Customer Data; and (3) delete all Customer Data in accordance with Verifiable’s Privacy Policy.
4.6. Customer Data shall be deleted upon the termination of this Agreement and in accordance with any applicable data retention requirements. However, information collected from publicly available sources such as, but not limited to, government, private, or nonprofit organizations, for the purpose of verifying licenses or certification information will not be considered Customer Data.
5. CONFIDENTIALITY
5.1. Each party (the “Receiving Party”) understands that the other party (the “Disclosing Party”) has disclosed or may disclose business, technical or financial information relating to the Disclosing Party’s business that is designated in writing as confidential or which should otherwise be reasonably deemed confidential under the circumstances (hereinafter referred to as “Confidential Information” of the Disclosing Party). Confidential Information of Verifiable includes non-public information regarding features, functionality and performance of the Services. Confidential Information of Customer may include non-public data provided by Customer to Verifiable to enable the provision of the Services. The Receiving Party agrees: (i) to take reasonable precautions to protect such Confidential Information, and (ii) not to use (except in performance of the Services or as otherwise permitted herein) or divulge to any third person any such Confidential Information. For the avoidance of doubt, Verifiable may disclose Customer Data to third persons only as required for the performance of the Services. The Disclosing Party agrees that except for any trade secrets, which may be protected in perpetuity, the foregoing shall not apply with respect to any information after five (5) years following the disclosure thereof or any information that the Receiving Party can document (a) is or becomes generally available to the public, or (b) was in its possession or known by it prior to receipt from the Disclosing Party, or (c) was rightfully disclosed to it without restriction by a third party, or (d) was independently developed without use of any Confidential Information of the Disclosing Party or (e) is required to be disclosed by law.
6. RESTRICTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
6.1. Customer will not, directly or indirectly reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code, object code or underlying structure, ideas, know-how or algorithms relevant to the Services or any software, documentation or data related to the Services (“Software”); modify, translate, or create derivative works based on the Services or any Software (except to the extent expressly permitted by Verifiable or authorized within the Services); use the Services or any Software for purposes other than those intended or otherwise for the benefit of a third party; or remove any proprietary notices or labels.
6.2. Customer represents, covenants, and warrants that Customer will use the Services only in compliance with Verifiable’s standard published policies then in effect and all applicable laws and regulations. Customer shall also be responsible for maintaining the security of Customer account, passwords (including but not limited to Authorized User passwords) and files, and for all uses of Customer account with or without Customer’s knowledge or consent.
6.3. National Student Clearinghouse
6.3.1. Customer certifies that it is seeking this information in order to verify certain post-secondary education attributes only for individuals who have applied for employment or a product or service and who have represented the certain post-secondary educational attributes in the process of such application (the "Purpose"). Permission purposes are defined by Section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”).
6.3.2. Customer has reviewed both the Notice to Users of Consumer Reports and Summary of Rights under FCRA.
6.3.3. Customer will provide the individual whose Consumer Information was requested a copy of the Consumer Information provided by the Verifiable, as well as the Summary of Rights under FCRA prior to taking any adverse action when an Customer’s Permissible Purpose is for employment purposes.
6.3.4. Customer shall submit Consumer Disputes to Verifiable, and immediately provide any Dispute Investigation Report to the individual whose Consumer Information is the subject of dispute.
7. PAYMENT OF FEES
7.1. Customer will pay Verifiable the then applicable fees described in the Order Form for the Services, in accordance with the terms therein (the “Fees”). Customer shall be responsible for all taxes associated with Services other than U.S. taxes based on Verifiable’s net income.
7.2. All invoices must be paid within thirty (30) days after the invoice date unless otherwise specified. If any payment is not timely made by the due date, in addition to the sum due there shall be a late payment penalty due in an amount equal to one percent (1.5%) of the payment due for each month after the date due through and including the date paid. In addition, Verifiable reserves the right to pause any work for Customer until all late invoices are resolved. This pause of work will not be subject to SLAs cited above.
7.3. Applicable overage fees (“Overages”) or pass-through fees (“Pass-Through Fees”) will be issued on the first day of each month. Each invoice will be due on the 16th of the month.
7.4. Verifiable reserves the right to include an annual increase in product fees (rounded to the nearest dollar) upon Order Form renewal. Verifiable will inform Customer via email at least 30-days prior to the change goes into effect.
8. TERM AND TERMINATION
8.1. Subject to earlier termination as provided below, the term of Agreement for each Order Form is as specified on the Order Form.
8.2. Upon any termination, the Vendor will make all Customer Data available to Customer for electronic retrieval for a period of thirty (30) days and shall delete stored Customer Data after such retrieval period. In the event of termination or expiration of this agreement for any reason, Verifiable will continue to support certificates issued under this agreement. Furthermore, Customer agrees to support the validity of issued credentials indefinitely.
8.3. Subject to the termination provisions in the Service Level Terms, in addition to any other remedies it may have, either party may terminate this Agreement upon thirty (30) days’ notice if the other party materially breaches any of the terms or conditions of this Agreement. Upon termination or expiration, Customer will pay in full for the Services up to and including the last day on which the Services are provided. All sections of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination or expiration will survive termination or expiration, including, without limitation, accrued rights to payment, confidentiality obligations, warranty disclaimers, and limitations of liability.
9. WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER
9.1. Verifiable shall use reasonable efforts consistent with prevailing industry standards to maintain the Services in a manner which minimizes errors and interruptions in the Services. Services may be temporarily unavailable for scheduled maintenance or for unscheduled emergency maintenance, either by Verifiable or by third-party providers, or because of other causes beyond Verifiable’s reasonable control, but Verifiable shall use reasonable efforts to provide advance notice in writing or by e-mail of any scheduled service disruption, and shall use reasonable efforts to perform any scheduled maintenance during the weekend between the hours of 12:00am and 3:00am EST.
9.2. HOWEVER, VERIFIABLE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE; NOR DOES IT MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM USE OF THE SERVICES.
9.3. EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND VERIFIABLE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
10. INDEMNITY
10.1. Verifiable shall hold Customer harmless from liability to third parties resulting from infringement by the Services of any United States copyright or misappropriation of any trade secret, provided Verifiable is promptly notified of any and all threats, claims and proceedings related thereto and given reasonable assistance and the opportunity to assume sole control over defense and settlement; Verifiable will not be responsible for any settlement it does not approve in writing.The foregoing obligations do not apply with respect to portions or components of the Services (i) not supplied by Verifiable, (ii) made in whole or in part in accordance with Customer specifications, (iii) that are modified after delivery by Verifiable, (iv) combined with other products, processes or materials where the alleged infringement relates to such combination, (v) where Customer continues allegedly infringing activity after being notified thereof or after being informed of modifications that would have avoided the alleged infringement, or (vi) where Customer’s use of the Services is not strictly in accordance with this Agreement.If, due to a claim of infringement that Verifiable is responsible to indemnify Customer, the Services are held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be or are believed by Verifiable to be infringing, Verifiable may, at its option and expense (a) replace or modify the Services to be non-infringing provided that such modification or replacement contains substantially similar features and functionality, (b) obtain for Customer a license to continue using the Services, or (c) if neither of the foregoing is commercially practicable, terminate this Agreement and Customer’s rights hereunder and provide Customer as its sole remedy (other than indemnification) a pro-rata refund of any prepaid, unused Fees for the Services.
10.2. Customer shall defend, indemnify and hold Verifiable harmless from any and all losses, damages, liabilities, penalties, or third party subpoena or governmental investigation or other costs (including reasonable attorney’s fees) arising out of any claim, suit, settlement, judgement, or action arising out of or related to (x) any materials provided by Customer, its representatives, or Customer’s clients (including Customer Data and any claims that such Customer Data has not been properly acquired in accordance with applicable laws); (y) any products liability or other claim arising from Customer’s products or services; (z) any breach or misuse of the Service and licenses granted by Verifiable.
11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
11.1. EXCEPT FOR CLAIMS OR LIABILITIES ARISING FROM ITS CONFIDENTIALITY OR INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS, VERIFIABLE AND ITS OFFICERS, AFFILIATES, REPRESENTATIVES, CONTRACTORS AND EMPLOYEES SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICES OR THIS AGREEMENT UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY (A) FOR ERROR OR INTERRUPTION OF USE OR FOR LOSS OR INACCURACY OR CORRUPTION OF DATA (INCLUDING ANY CUSTOMER DATA) OR COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS, SERVICES OR TECHNOLOGY OR LOSS OF BUSINESS; AND (B) FOR ANY INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES FOR ANY MATTER BEYOND VERIFIABLE REASONABLE CONTROL INCLUDING THE ACTIONS OR INACTIONS OF THE AUTHORIZED USERS.
11.2. EXCEPT FOR CLAIMS OR LIABILITIES ARISING FROM BREACH OF A PARTY’S CONFIDENTIALITY OR INDEMNIFICATION OBLIGATIONS, EACH PARTY’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT SHALL NOT EXCEED THE FEES PAID OR PAYABLE BY CUSTOMER TO VERIFIABLE FOR THE SERVICES UNDER THIS AGREEMENT IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACT THAT GAVE RISE TO THE LIABILITY.
12. MISCELLANEOUS
12.1. Customer provides Verifiable permission to identify Customer as a user of Verifiable’s products by name and logo in Verifiable’s sales and marketing collateral without prior written consent.
12.2. If any provision of this Agreement is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that this Agreement will otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable. This Agreement is not assignable, transferable or sub-licensable by Customer except with Verifiable’s prior written consent. Verifiable may transfer and assign any of its rights and obligations under this Agreement without consent. This Agreement is the complete and exclusive statement of the mutual understanding of the parties and supersedes and cancels all previous written and oral agreements, communications and other understandings relating to the subject matter of this Agreement. Verifiable may modify these Terms and Conditions by posting a revised version of these Terms and Conditions to the Services or otherwise communicating the revised Terms and Conditions to Customer. No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment is created as a result of this Agreement and Customer does not have any authority of any kind to bind Verifiable in any respect whatsoever. In any action or proceeding to enforce rights under this Agreement, the prevailing party will be entitled to recover costs and attorneys’ fees. There shall be no express or implied third-party beneficiaries capable of enforcing the terms of this Agreement other than parties whom execute this Agreement. All notices under this Agreement will be in writing and will be deemed to have been duly given when received, if personally delivered; when receipt is electronically confirmed, if transmitted by email; the day after it is sent, if sent for next day delivery by recognized overnight delivery service; and upon receipt, if sent by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Texas without regard to its conflict of laws provisions and the parties agree that any disputes will be settled in the state and federal courts in Austin, Texas.