TAPAPI (Pty) Ltd · Registration 2026/529514/07 · Pretoria, South Africa

Shop Terms

Version 1.0 · Effective 16 October 2026 · Read with the Terms of Use

Purpose

These Shop Terms add to the Terms of Use. Where the two differ for a shop, these apply.

The money a shop takes comes through banks, card schemes and payment processors. TapAPI keeps their rules in substance, and one shop that breaks them puts every other shop and wallet at risk.

• Who: every shop and agent on TapAPI, including shops signed up under a partner's brand.
• Two kinds of shop: an in-person shop sells at a till, by tag or by QR at the counter. An online shop also takes payment by payment link, by the Pay button on a website or social page, or through checkout. Online needs our approval (section 1.4).
• Acceptance: a shop ticks the box once when it registers. A shop opened before these terms accepts them in the till before its next sale.
• When each part starts: online payments, the holds in section 6.2 and the settlement runs in section 8 start on a date we announce in the till. Until then every shop pays out through Send to bank, as section 8 of the Terms of Use describes.
• In these terms, "you" is the shop, its owners and the people who run it.

1. Who may be a shop

A shop is one real business, run by an adult whose identity TapAPI has checked, trading only under the name and line of business it registered.

1. Age and identity. You must be 18 or older. The shop's wallet must be your own wallet, with your ID checked as section 4 of the Terms of Use describes. An online shop's wallet must be a Full wallet (SA Smart ID and live selfie).
2. The truth about the business. When you register, give us:
   • the legal name and trading name, and the CIPC registration number if the business is registered;
   • the physical address where the business operates;
   • a cell number and email that you answer;
   • the owners, and the person who runs the shop if that is someone else;
   • what you sell, and where you sell it (premises, market, website, social pages).
3. One business, one shop. Trade only under the name and the business you registered. Don't open a second shop to get around a limit, a hold or a freeze. Tell us in writing before you change what you sell, your trading name, your owners or your address.
4. Online shops need approval. Before you can take payment by link, button or checkout, we check:
   • what you sell, against section 2;
   • the website or page you will sell on, against section 4;
   • for a registered business, that its settlement account (section 8) is in the business's name.
   We may ask for more, such as proof of address, the IDs of directors, a recent bank statement, or a licence for what you sell.
5. We may refuse a shop, or refuse online approval, without giving a reason. This includes a business that a bank or payment processor has turned down or closed before.
6. You may not open a shop if you, an owner or the business is on a sanctions list, or if you act for someone who is.

2. Prohibited and restricted businesses

A shop may never sell, or take payment for, anything on the prohibited list. It may sell anything on the restricted list only with our approval in writing. The lists follow South African law and the rules of the card schemes, banks and payment processors behind TapAPI. We may add to them, and an addition applies from the day we tell you.

Prohibited

Restricted: approval in writing first

We may approve a restricted business with conditions: no card payments, lower limits, or longer holds on takings (section 6).

3. Taking payments

A shop takes payment only for its own real sales, at the true price, through TapAPI's own pages, and never handles a customer's card, bank or PIN details. These rules apply at the till and online alike.

1. Real sales only. Take payment only for goods or services your business sells and delivers, at the price shown, with the customer knowing what they pay for.
2. Your own sales only. Never take payment for another business or person. Don't let anyone else use your till, QR code, payment links or Pay button, and don't put your button on a site that isn't yours. A mall or marketplace that lists several sellers sends each buyer to that seller's own TapAPI shop.
3. No paying yourself. You, your owners, staff and family may not pay your shop with your own cards, wallets or accounts, or with any you control, to move money into the shop.
4. No cash. No cash back, no cash advance, no cash refund of a card payment, and no payment that is really a cash withdrawal.
5. One sale, one payment, the true amount. Don't split one sale into several payments, charge more than the price, add anything the customer didn't choose, or take payment twice for one sale.
6. No extra charge for paying by card. The price is the same whatever way the customer pays, and there is no minimum or maximum for a card payment. TapAPI's own fees are on tapapi.co.za/fees.php.
7. Never take payment details. Never ask for, write down or keep a card number, expiry date, CVV, one-time PIN, bank login or wallet PIN, by phone, chat, email, form or any other way. The customer enters them only on TapAPI's payment page.
8. Use our links and button as we give them. Make them only from your till. Don't change the amount or reference in a link, copy the payment page, show it inside a frame on your site, or make it look like any other business's page.
9. Paid means confirmed. A sale is paid only when your till or TapAPI's paid notice says so. A screenshot, an email or the customer's screen is not proof of payment.
10. Buyers in South Africa. A payment can't be started from outside South Africa (Terms of Use, section 12), so don't sell online to buyers abroad through TapAPI.
11. Deliver what you sold, when you said. If there is a delay, tell the customer at once and offer a refund.
12. Your shop's limits. Takings land in your shop's wallet until they are settled or paid out (section 8), and count towards its level's limits (Terms of Use, section 4) until then.

4. Your website, page or listing

Every website, social page, catalogue or listing where your Pay button or a payment link appears must show the customer who you are, what they are buying, what it costs in full, and how to cancel and get a refund, before they pay. This is what the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA, section 43) and the card schemes require of an online seller.

It must show:

• your legal name and trading name, and your CIPC registration number if the business is registered;
• a physical address (not only a PO box), and a phone number and email for customer service;
• a true description of what you sell, with the full price in rand, including VAT and delivery;
• where you deliver, how, and how long it takes;
• your refund, return and cancellation policy, including the customer's right under ECTA section 44 to cancel within 7 days;
• your terms of sale and your privacy policy;
• that payment is made through TapAPI, using the button as we supply it. Show card brand logos only once card payments are approved for your shop.

On a social page or WhatsApp catalogue where all of this does not fit, show your name, contact details, the price, delivery and refund terms on the profile or the listing, with a link to the rest.

Sell only on the website or pages we approved, and tell us before you add another. We check them when you apply and may check them, or make a test purchase, at any time. A shop whose page stops meeting this section can't take online payments until it does.

5. Refunds, disputes and chargebacks

The shop carries the cost of its own refunds, disputes and chargebacks. The money comes out of the shop's wallet, the same way it came in.

1. Your refund policy. It must meet the Consumer Protection Act and ECTA. For an online sale, ECTA section 44 lets the customer cancel within 7 days, and you must refund them within 30 days of the cancellation. You may charge only the direct cost of returning the goods. A "no refunds" policy is not allowed.
2. Refund the way it was paid. Refund from your till: to the same card for a card payment, to a bank account for a bank payment, to the wallet for a wallet payment. Until your till offers refunds, ask us under Help in your wallet and we make the refund. Never refund in cash, or to a different card or account. The refund comes out of your shop's wallet, and it fails if the wallet does not hold enough.
3. When a payment is disputed. A customer may dispute a payment, or their bank or card issuer may raise a chargeback. We then move the amount from your shop's wallet into a hold and ask you for evidence. Send it within 1 business day: the invoice, proof of delivery or of the service, your messages with the customer, and anything else that shows the sale was real.
4. If the dispute is lost. If the dispute goes against you, or the payment is reversed, the held amount is taken. The chargeback fee on tapapi.co.za/fees.php is charged for each chargeback, whether it is won or lost. If your wallet does not hold enough, you owe us the shortfall. It is taken from your next takings, and the shop may be frozen until it is paid.
5. Payments that turn out to be fraud. If a payment to you was made with a stolen card or is otherwise fraudulent, the money is held or taken back (Terms of Use, section 12), even if you delivered. Be careful with large orders from new customers, a delivery address that doesn't match, a rush to deliver, or a request to change the delivery after payment.
6. Fines. Any fine or penalty a card scheme, bank or payment processor charges because of your sales or a breach of these terms is charged to you.

6. Monitoring, holds, suspension and closing

We watch every shop's sales, refunds, declines, disputes and fraud reports. We act at once on a breach, without waiting for a loss.

1. Questions. We may ask at any time for invoices, proof of delivery, stock, licences, or the ID of the people behind the shop. Answer within 2 business days.
2. Holds for new online shops. For an online shop's first 90 days, card takings can be sent to a bank only 7 days after each payment. We may also keep back up to 10% of an online shop's card takings for up to 180 days as a reserve against disputes. Each part is released when its period ends.
3. Dispute levels. In any calendar month:

   Level	What happens
   3 or more chargebacks or fraud reports, or chargebacks above 0.5% of card payments	Card payments are switched off until we review the shop
   Chargebacks above 1% of card payments	The shop is suspended and its takings are held while we review it

4. Acting at once. We may hold takings, switch off card or online payments, lower limits, or suspend a shop without notice when:
   • it sells anything on the prohibited list, or anything restricted without our approval (section 2);
   • it breaks section 3;
   • it gave us false information;
   • we see fraud or a pattern of it;
   • a bank, card scheme, payment processor or the law requires it;
   • it is linked by owner, phone, address, bank account or money to a frozen wallet or a closed shop.
5. Closing a shop. You may close your shop at any time, and we may close it for a breach of these terms. After a shop closes, card takings may be held for up to 180 days to cover chargebacks. The rest is paid out as section 13 of the Terms of Use describes. The shop sign-up fee and till-day fees are not refunded when a shop is closed for a breach.
6. Reporting. We may report a shop and its owners to payment processors, banks, card schemes, the police and regulators. A shop closed for a breach, and its owners, may be added to the industry's lists of terminated merchants, which other payment providers check.

7. Records, data and responsibility

The shop is the seller. It keeps the proof of its sales, protects its customers' information, and carries the losses its sales cause.

1. Records. Keep each sale's invoice, proof of delivery and customer messages for 5 years. Give them to us when we ask.
2. Customer information. Use a customer's details only for the sale, the delivery and after-sales service, as the Protection of Personal Information Act requires. Never store card details. Tell us at once of any data breach.
3. Cooperation. Help us, our payment processors and the authorities with any investigation. This includes letting us or a processor visit your premises or make a test purchase.
4. You are the seller. You are responsible for what you sell, for your licences, tax and VAT, and for your customers' claims. TapAPI records the payment and is not the seller of anything you sell.
5. You cover our losses. You indemnify TapAPI against losses, chargebacks, fines and claims that arise from your sales, your website or pages, or a breach of these terms.
6. Partner brands. A shop signed up under a partner's brand is a TapAPI shop under these terms. The partner cannot change them.
7. Changes. Section 17 of the Terms of Use applies to these Shop Terms. We tell you in the till 30 days before a material change, unless a law, bank, card scheme or payment processor requires it sooner.

8. Settlement and pay-outs

How a shop's takings reach a bank depends on whether the business is registered with CIPC. A registered business is settled to its own business account in a daily batch run; an unregistered shop sends its takings to the bank itself, as a person.

• Unregistered shop. The shop is personal. Takings stay in the shop's wallet, and the owner sends them to their own bank account as section 8 of the Terms of Use describes, recorded against the owner's ID.
• Registered business. Takings are settled to the business's bank account and recorded against its CIPC registration number, not the owner's ID. The rules below apply.

1. Your settlement account. One South African bank account in the registered business's name. We check that the account belongs to the business before the first settlement.
2. Recorded against the business. Your takings and settlements are recorded under your trading name and CIPC registration number. The owner's ID stays on file only as the identity check behind the shop (section 1.1).
3. Batch runs. Each business day a batch run settles the takings that have cleared by the time it runs, less refunds, holds, the reserve (section 6) and the settlement fee on tapapi.co.za/fees.php. A settlement goes only to your settlement account, never to another account or person.
4. Changing the account. Only the owner can change it, in the till with the wallet PIN. We check the new account again and tell the owner by phone and email, and nothing is settled to it for 48 hours.
5. A settlement that fails or comes back. The money returns to your shop's wallet and is settled again once the account is put right.
6. Registering later. An unregistered shop that registers with CIPC sends us its registration and business bank account, and moves to settlement once we have checked them.

Related documents

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Fees
• PAIA Manual

TAPAPI (Pty) Ltd · CIPC 2026/529514/07 · tapapi.co.za · help@tapapi.co.za · PAIA Manual