This is Stripe's master legal contract that governs how businesses can use Stripe's payment processing and financial tools, including how Stripe can hold, delay, or withhold your business's money if it suspects risk. The most important thing for business owners is that Stripe can place a reserve on your payouts — holding back a percentage of your funds for up to 180 days — without needing to give you advance notice. If you disagree with Stripe's decisions, you are generally required to resolve disputes through individual arbitration rather than a lawsuit or class action.
The Stripe Services Agreement (SSA) General Terms governs the contractual relationship between Stripe, Inc. and businesses ('Users') accessing Stripe's payment processing, financial, and technology services, forming a binding agreement upon account registration under California law. The agreement imposes significant obligations on Users including compliance with Stripe's Acceptable Use Policy and card network rules, maintaining accurate business information, bearing full liability for their end customers' transactions, and indemnifying Stripe against third-party claims arising from User's business operations. Notable deviations from industry standard include Stripe's broad unilateral right to withhold or reserve funds from User payouts without prior notice based on risk assessment, the ability to terminate or suspend accounts immediately without cause upon notice, and expansive license grants over User data for product improvement. The agreement engages the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, Bank Secrecy Act, FinCEN regulations, card network rules (Visa/Mastercard), GDPR (for EU/EEA Users), CCPA for California residents, and state money transmission licensing frameworks; compliance teams must note the cross-border data transfer implications and the layered regulatory structure spanning Stripe's financial provider partners. Material compliance considerations include the reserve/withholding provisions which may conflict with state escheatment laws, the mandatory arbitration clause which eliminates class action rights for US Users, and the incorporation by reference of multiple subsidiary documents including Services Terms and a separate Data Processing Agreement.
(1) REGULATORY EXPOSURE: The SSA engages multiple regulatory frameworks: the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. § 1693 et seq.) and Regulation E govern electronic payment obligations; the Bank S…
(1) REGULATORY EXPOSURE: The SSA engages multiple regulatory frameworks: the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. § 1693 et seq.) and Regulation E govern electronic payment obligations; the Bank Secrecy Act (31 U.S.C. § 5311) and FinCEN regulations (31 CFR Chapter X) apply to AML/KYC obligations…
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Regulatory exposure, material risk, and due diligence action items.