What is KYC and why is it necessary?

KYC (Know Your Customer) is a documents’ verification procedure so you confirm your identity. KYC is required for the Client (a legal entity, registered in any country, or a person, having its place of living in any country that wishes to use EasyStart service).

Why verification is needed:

  1. After passing the KYC procedure, you will have access to operations on our platform.
  2. We protect our platform from money obtained illegally via terrorism or money laundering.

Initial verification for the Freelancer applicable in any case:

1. When you act as the Freelancer (any contractor, acting independently, performing services and receiving payments by EasyStart) and create an account on our platform, you provide the passport or ID, and your photo. The Freelancer’s passport or ID are uploaded in Get ID.

2. Freelancers also provide his / her name and surname, address, phone number, date of birth, and email when registering on our platform. If the Freelancer provides the address, which is unacceptable for our platform according to the applicable EU-law, we may ask him / her to replace the address. If the Freelancer does not provide the new address, we may refuse further cooperation.

3. We may also ask the Freelancer to provide links to your profiles in social networks or to your portfolio, so we are able to verify that you are a real person, who acts as the Freelancer.

4. If you do not agree to provide the documents and information mentioned in paras. 1−3 above, we are entitled to refuse cooperation with you.

5. Besides, if the Freelancer wishes to receive payments from the Customer (a legal entity or natural person that wishes to pay for the services provided by the Freelancer), he / she provides the following information:
5.1. Company name;
5.2. Tax ID;
5.3. The address;
5.4. Contact email.

6. If the Freelancer wishes to withdraw his / her funds from our platform, we ask him / her to provide payment information (number of your card or banking account).
If we are not able to provide a payment according to information that you provide or you do not comply with our requirements to a «Trusted user» (as the criterion is described below), we may ask you to provide alternative payment information.

Verification for payments by banking transfers:

If you are going to make payments on our platform as the Customer, we may ask you to provide your payment order for the transfer.
Besides, a bank or payment system, which operates your transfer, may demand the following documents within its compliance:

1. A contract, which the Customer concludes with our platform;

2. Corporate documents including but not limited to:
a. Certificate of incorporation or its equivalent in your jurisdiction;
b. Certificate of directors and secretaries or its equivalent in your jurisdiction;
c. Incumbency certificate or its equivalent in your jurisdiction;
d. Certificate of registered address or its equivalent in your jurisdiction.

Verification for payments by PayPal:

If you are going to make payments on our platform as the Customer, we may ask you to pass the authorization using your email.

Verification for payments by banking cards:

  1. If you are going to make payments on our platform as the Customer, we may ask you to pass the authorization using your email.
  2. If you are going to pay by a banking card, we may ask your name and surname of the card’s holder so we may verify that the name and surname of the Customer stated on your card equal the name and surname, which you stated when having authorized by an email account.

Request of additional payment information if you pay by a banking card or via PayPal:

We may ask you to provide additional documents, if your operation has any of the following markers:

1. A name and surname of the Customer mismatch a name and surname, which the Customer stated, when the Customer has authorized by an email account; or your invoice is issued on behalf of the legal entity, whereas the payer is a natural person (Situation No. 1).

2. Our payment system indicated your operation by a mark «high-risk fraud» (Situation No. 2).

3. Both the Customer and the Freelancer are in the same country (Situation No. 3)

4. Our system does not qualify you as a «Trusted user» because you do not comply with the following markers:
a. You do not have any chargebacks for last four months;
b. You received payments from at least three Customers;
c. You received at least twenty payments;
d. Total amount of payments that you received is EUR / USD 3,000 or more. (Situation No. 4)

5. A country, which we find based on the Customer’s device’s IP, differs from the country, which is stated in the invoice (Situation No. 5).
All the documents shall be submitted through the same email-address, which the Freelancer and the Customer indicated when having registered by our payment system.

A list of documents that we ask you to provide in Situation No. 1:

  1. Passport or ID and a photo of the Customer with these documents.
  2. Photo of the banking card, which the Customer uses to make the payment (except for PayPal payments).
  3. Any proof, which confirms that the payer is an owner, a director, or an employee of the company, which is the Customer, if the payment is processed on behalf of the legal entity.
  4. Any proof, which confirms that the services are duly provided by the Freelancer.

A list of documents that we ask you to provide in Situation No. 2:

  1. Passport or ID and a photo of the Customer with these documents.
  2. Photo of the banking card, which the Customer uses to make the payment (except for PayPal payments).
  3. Any proof that confirms the Freelancer’s and the Customer’s places of residence.
  4. A document, which confirms that the services are duly provided. 

A list of documents that we ask you to provide in Situation No. 3:

  1. Information regarding the economic rationale behind your payment.
  2. Passport or ID and a photo of the Customer with these documents.
  3. Photo of the banking card, which the Customer uses to make the payment (except for PayPal payments).
  4. Any proof that confirms Freelancer’s and the Customer’s places of residence.

A list of documents that we ask you to provide in Situation No. 4:

  1. Passport or ID and a photo of the Customer with these documents.
  2. Photo of the banking card, which the Customer uses to make the payment (except for PayPal payments).
  3. Any proof that confirms Freelancer’s and the Customer’s places of residence.
  4. A document, which confirms that the services are duly provided.

A list of documents that we ask you to provide in Situation No. 5:

  1. Information regarding the economic rationale behind your payment.
  2. Passport or ID and a photo of the Customer with these documents.
  3. Photo of the banking card, which the Customer uses to make the payment (except for PayPal payments).
  4. Any proof that confirms Freelancer’s and the Customer’s places of residence.

Consequences of failure of the Freelancer to pass KYC or failure of the Freelancer or the Client to provide the required documents if there are circumstances provided by Situations No. 1−5:

If the Freelancer does not pass our KYC, or the Freelancer / the Customer does not provide the documents, which we requested, or the documents that you provided are not sufficient to pass our verification under the present KYC we may refuse from the payment. In this case we refund your money to the banking card or the banking account, from which we received your payment.

We are not liable for any losses, which the Freelancer or the Customer may suffer in regard with our refusal from the cooperation.

Additional ground for non-acceptance of the payment

We may refuse to accept your payment in any case if you transferred money from one of the countries, which is listed as a «high risk third country» by the European Commission. You may find the list by the following link:
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32023R2070