Terms and Conditions

1. About these Terms

1.1 These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern your use of the TruzBiz website, directory and verification service (the "Service") and any verification application or paid verification you make through it.

1.2 By creating an account, submitting a verification application, or paying any fee, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service or make a payment.

1.3 These Terms should be read together with our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle personal data, and with the Trust Centre explanation of what verification means.

1.4 Where these Terms conflict with a right you have under mandatory applicable law, that right prevails. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any right that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

2. Who we are

2.1 The Service is operated by Mergershare Ltd (registered in England and Wales, company no. 14343247). Its registered office is Office 4544, 182–184 High Street North, East Ham, London, United Kingdom, E6 2JA. "TruzBiz", "we", "us" and "our" refer to that company.

2.2 General contact and support: truzbizco@gmail.com or the contact page. To report a concern about a listing or a verification, use the Report an issue route.

2.3 Our operating-company details are published on the Operating Company page.

3. The Service and its limits

3.1 TruzBiz operates a business identity, directory and verification platform. A business may appear as a Directory Listing (a profile, which may originate from a public record or a submission), a Claimed Business (a listing a user has asserted a relationship with), or a TruzBiz Verified business (a business that has completed our evidence-based verification and holds a current Verified status).

3.2 TruzBiz verification is an evidence-based administrative review. It is not a guarantee of business honesty, solvency, quality, performance, future conduct, or freedom from fraud. It is not an endorsement. A Verified status means only that we completed the applicable verification process for that business and the status is currently active.

3.3 Public listing does not by itself mean a business is verified. Verification status is shown separately on public profiles so visitors can tell the states apart.

4. Eligibility, accounts and authority

4.1 You must be able to enter into a binding contract to use the Service. The Service is a business platform and is not directed to children.

4.2 By creating an account and listing or claiming a business, you confirm that you are authorised to represent that business and that the information you provide is accurate, complete and not misleading.

4.3 You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for activity under your account.

5. How verification works

5.1 Verification is a review of the application and the evidence supplied, together with information from public and authoritative sources where available. You can read how our review works in the Trust Centre.

5.2 The evidence we may request, and the limits of what it can establish, are described in the Trust Centre. We may request corrections, further evidence or clarification before deciding.

5.3 A decision to grant or refuse verified status is an administrative decision made under our published process. It is not a statement about any matter outside that process.

6. Applying, and the application fee

6.1 The paid verification journey has distinct, separate steps:

1. You submit a verification application and pay the USD 5 application fee.
2. TruzBiz reviews the application.
3. If the application is not approved, the USD 44 activation fee is not charged and Verified status is not activated.
4. If the application is approved, you receive an approval notification and an opportunity to reconsider before deciding whether to proceed (see section 7).
5. Before paying the USD 44 activation fee you are shown the total applicable charge, the material Terms, the refund conditions and the consequences of proceeding (see section 8).
6. You give a clear, affirmative consent before the activation payment is taken.
7. Only after that consent and a successful payment may activation proceed.
8. The verification badge is issued only after the applicable activation process completes.

6.2 What the application fee covers. The USD 5 application fee covers administrative processing and our review of your application — the checking of your submission and supporting evidence against our verification process. It is a one-time fee for that application and does not guarantee approval. It is not credited against, and does not reduce, the activation fee.

6.3 When it is charged. The application fee is charged when you submit the application, before the review begins.

6.4 Refund position. The USD 5 application fee is intended to cover the verification review process and is generally non-refundable once the review service has begun, subject to applicable law and any mandatory consumer cancellation or refund rights. This applies whether or not your application is approved.

6.5 Abandoned, duplicated, withdrawn or unprocessable applications.

• Abandoned before submission. If you have paid the application fee but not submitted the application, you can resume it for 90 days. After that period the fee can no longer be used for that application; contact us and we will review the position. The fee is not automatically forfeited, and your mandatory rights are unaffected.
• Duplicated. If you were charged the application fee more than once for the same application in error, contact us. A duplicate charge is reviewed and refunded where appropriate.
• Withdrawn. If you withdraw an application before the review has begun, contact us. Whether a refund is due depends on whether the review service has begun and on applicable law.
• Cannot be processed. If the fee was taken but the application could not be processed because of a fault on our side, contact us; we will complete the processing or refund the application fee, subject to any mandatory requirements.

6.6 Unresolved question. Whether, and to what extent, a consumer may cancel within a statutory cancellation period and recover the application fee after the review has begun is a matter of law and is flagged for our legal review; it is not decided by these Terms. See section 13 and section 28.

7. Approval, and your decision to activate

7.1 If your application is approved, you receive an approval notification. Approval does not oblige you to pay anything further: you may reconsider and decide not to activate. No activation fee is charged unless you choose to proceed.

7.2 If you choose to proceed, you must be shown, before payment, the total charge, the material Terms, the refund conditions and the consequences of proceeding.

8. Activation, consent and the activation fee

8.1 The activation fee is USD 44. Paying it activates TruzBiz Verified for 12 months from the date the payment succeeds, provided the verification conditions continue to be met. The first-year total for a new application is USD 49 (USD 5 application fee plus USD 44 activation, charged separately).

8.2 Consent is required. We will not treat your silence, a pre-ticked box, or merely opening a payment page as consent. Before the activation payment is taken you must give a clear, affirmative consent to proceed.

8.3 If payment is taken without the required consent, we will not activate Verified status. We will flag the payment for immediate review and refund. See section 10.

8.4 We record the applicable Terms version, the date and time, the consent given and the transaction reference so that consent can be evidenced later. If you are a consumer, any express request to start the service within a cancellation period is recorded too (see section 13).

9. If activation cannot be completed

9.1 If your USD 44 payment succeeds but we cannot complete activation because of a technical fault on our side, we will make reasonable efforts to resolve the fault.

9.2 If the fault cannot be resolved and activation cannot be completed, we will refund the USD 44 activation fee, subject to any mandatory legal requirements.

9.3 Completion milestone. Successful issuance of the verification badge is the standard completion milestone for the activation service. Once the badge has been issued, we do not offer a discretionary refund simply because you change your mind.

9.4 Statutory rights preserved. Nothing in these Terms removes your statutory cancellation rights, your remedies for a service that is not performed with reasonable care and skill or is not as described, your rights arising from misrepresentation, or any other right that cannot lawfully be excluded. A technical fault on our side is not the only circumstance in which the law may require a refund or other remedy.

9.5 How to escalate a technical failure. Report the problem through the contact page or Report an issue, quoting your transaction reference. We will investigate, keep you informed, and complete activation or refund the activation fee as above.

9.6 Service-level targets (pending company decision). We aim to acknowledge a reported activation failure within [ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TARGET — CEO DECISION REQUIRED] and to resolve it, or refund the activation fee, within [RESOLUTION TARGET — CEO DECISION REQUIRED]. These targets concern how quickly we act, not a guaranteed timeframe for funds to clear with your bank.

10. Payment taken without the required consent

If an activation payment is received without the required affirmative consent, we will:

• not activate the badge;
• flag the transaction for immediate review and refund;
• initiate the refund within 24 hours of identifying the missing consent, and, where operationally possible, before the payment settles;
• return the amount using the original payment method, unless applicable law or our payment provider requires otherwise;
• record the reason, the initiation timestamp, the provider reference and the final refund status.

The 24-hour commitment concerns the initiation of the refund. It is not a promise that cleared funds will reach your bank account within 24 hours.

11. Fees and pricing

• Application fee: USD 5 (one-time, per application).
• Activation fee: USD 44 (after approval; activates Verified).
• First-year total for a new application: USD 49.
• Annual renewal: USD 49 per year thereafter.
• Verification term: 12 months, beginning on the successful activation or renewal payment date.

11.1 Renewal is not an automatic recurring charge. We do not take a recurring charge from your card. You renew by making a fresh payment (see section 15).

11.2 Prices are stated in US dollars. [Tax treatment — for example VAT or sales tax and how it applies to customers in different countries — is pending tax advice (DEC-6). Where tax is chargeable it will be shown before payment.]

11.3 We may change our prices in future. For existing Verified businesses we will give notice of a price change before it applies to a renewal (see section 24).

12. Cancellation and refunds

12.1 These are different things, and they have different effects:

• Withdrawing an application — ending your application before a decision. See section 6.5.
• Cancelling activation — deciding not to pay the activation fee, or not to proceed after approval. No activation fee is charged unless you proceed.
• Exercising a statutory cancellation right — cancelling under consumer law within the applicable cancellation period. See section 13.
• Cancelling future renewal — telling us you do not wish to renew. This does not by itself entitle you to a refund for a term that has already been completed or has already begun. See section 15.
• Requesting a refund — asking for a specific payment to be returned. See below.

12.2 Your statutory rights are not affected. This section describes our policy; it does not replace or limit your mandatory rights under applicable law.

12.3 How to submit a cancellation or refund request. Contact us at truzbizco@gmail.com or through the contact page. Please include the information we need to identify the transaction: the transaction reference, the business name and the email address on the account.

12.4 How we acknowledge and process requests. We will acknowledge your request, tell you what we have understood you to be asking for, and explain what will happen next and when. Where a refund is due, we initiate it using the original payment method unless applicable law or our payment provider requires otherwise, and we record the outcome.

12.5 How refunds are returned and communicated. Refunds are returned to the original payment method and communicated to you with the amount and the provider reference. Bank processing times are outside our control.

12.6 Complaints. If you are unhappy with how a request was handled, tell us; complaints are escalated under section 21.

12.7 These Terms do not claim that TruzBiz complies with the law of every country. The applicable-law and jurisdiction questions for customers outside the United Kingdom, and the treatment of business customers compared with consumers, are flagged for legal review in section 14, section 26 and section 28.

13. Consumer cancellation rights

13.1 If you are a consumer, you may have a legal right to cancel within 14 daysof entering into the contract for a service. A fee being described as not refundable does not remove that right.

13.2 Where you ask us to begin providing the service during that period, the law requires specific information and an express request from you. Our payment screens ask you whether you are paying as a business or as a consumer, and, for consumers, ask you to expressly request that the review or activation starts now. If you then cancel after the service has started, you may have to pay for the service provided up to that point, where the law allows.

13.3 The exact scope of these rights — including how they apply to the application fee and the activation fee — is a matter of law and is flagged for legal review (section 28). Your statutory rights are not affected by anything in these Terms.

14. Business customers

14.1 If you are acting for a business, trade or profession, some consumer-only protections (such as a statutory cancellation period) may not apply to you, and business-to-business terms may differ. Whether separate provisions are needed, and how they should read, is flagged for legal review (section 28). This question is not decided by these Terms.

15. Annual renewal, grace period and expiry

15.1 Verification is valid for 12 months from the applicable successful activation or renewal payment date.

15.2 The standard renewal fee is USD 49. There is no application fee on renewal.

15.3 Renewal is not an automatic charge. You renew by making a fresh payment.

15.4 Reminders. We aim to email the account contact approximately 30, 14 and 7 days before the renewal date. Reminders are a courtesy and their delivery is not guaranteed; it remains your responsibility to renew in time.

15.5 Grace period and expiry. After the renewal date there is a 30-day grace period. During the grace period your credential still reads as current, with a note that renewal is in progress. If the renewal is not completed by the end of the grace period, Verified status lapses, the public badge is no longer shown, and the business remains in the directory without a current Verified status. Renewal is the only route back to Verified status; there is no new application and no new application fee.

15.6 Cancelling a future renewal. You may tell us that you do not wish to renew. That stops any future renewal; it does not by itself entitle you to a refund for a term that has already been completed or has already begun. Your mandatory rights are unaffected.

16. The badge: issuance, display and status

• The badge is issued only after the applicable activation process completes successfully.
• The badge signifies that our verification process was completed and the status is currently active; it is not an endorsement and carries no guarantee beyond that.
• The badge may be displayed only while the status is current and only in the form we provide.
• Verified status is subject to our verification process and may be suspended, revoked or allowed to expire in accordance with these Terms and the Trust Centre.
• Where a refund of an activation payment is made, the Verified status that payment activated ends (the underlying approval may be retained, so a later activation payment can reactivate it).

17. Your responsibilities

• Provide accurate, current and complete information, and evidence that is genuine and yours to provide.
• Keep your details up to date so the review reflects your current position.
• Use the Service and any badge lawfully and only as permitted by these Terms.
• Respond to reasonable requests for clarification or correction.

18. Fraud, abuse, duplicates and misuse

18.1 We may refuse, suspend or withdraw access, an application, or a Verified status where we reasonably believe there is fraud, abuse, a duplicate or misleading application, or misuse of the Service, a badge or a verification number. Where we can, we will tell you and explain how to ask us to review the decision.

19. Availability, maintenance and support

19.1 We aim to keep the Service available, but we do not promise uninterrupted availability. The Service may be unavailable during maintenance or because of events outside our control. Support is available through the contact page.

20. Intellectual property and permitted use

20.1 The TruzBiz name, badge, platform, content and underlying technology are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by applicable intellectual property law. You may use the Service and display the badge only as these Terms and the Trust Centre permit. You retain rights in the content you supply, and grant us the licence we need to operate the Service and conduct verification.

21. Complaints and disputes

21.1 If you have a complaint, contact us first at truzbizco@gmail.com or the contact page, with the reference and a short description. We will acknowledge it and tell you who is handling it and what happens next. If you remain dissatisfied we will explain any further escalation available to you.

22. Privacy and data processing

22.1 Our Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why, how we protect it, who we share it with, and your rights. It forms part of the context of these Terms.

22.2 When online card payments are enabled, the payment processor we use will be named in the Privacy Policy before any payments are taken.

23. Liability

23.1 Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any consumer right that cannot be excluded.

23.2 Subject to section 23.1, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, our liability arising out of or in connection with the Service is limited to the fees you paid to us for the affected verification, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss. The precise wording of any limitation requires legal review (section 28).

23.3 Verification does not guarantee business honesty, solvency, quality, performance, future conduct, or freedom from fraud, and we do not accept liability for decisions you take in reliance on a Verified status beyond what applicable law requires.

24. Changes to these Terms

24.1 We may update these Terms to reflect changes to the Service or the law. When we make a material change we will change the version and date at the top of this page and notify affected users through the Service or by email. Where a change affects a price or a renewal, we will give notice before it applies to you.

25. Mandatory rights and severability

25.1 Nothing in these Terms limits any mandatory right you have that cannot lawfully be excluded or waived. If any provision is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest of these Terms continues to apply, and the invalid provision will be read down only as far as necessary.

26. Governing law and jurisdiction

26.1 Subject to legal advice, these Terms are intended to be governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales are intended to have jurisdiction — without affecting any mandatory consumer protection you have in your country of residence, which may allow you to bring proceedings, or to be sued, in your local courts. This provision is provisional and awaits legal confirmation (section 28), particularly for consumers outside the United Kingdom.

27. Contact

27.1 Email: truzbizco@gmail.com · Contact page. Company: Mergershare Ltd (registered in England and Wales, company no. 14343247).

28. Matters still pending

The following are flagged as requiring legal review or a company decision before these Terms become operative. They are not resolved by anything above:

• the exact wording and scope of consumer cancellation and refund rights, including for the application fee and the activation fee (DEC-5, open);
• the treatment of business customers compared with consumers, and whether a separate business journey is required;
• applicable law and jurisdiction, including for consumers outside the United Kingdom;
• the service-level targets in section 9.6 [CEO DECISION REQUIRED];
• tax treatment and how tax is displayed (DEC-6, open);
• the durability and format of recorded consent (section 8.4).

Related information

What verification means and its limits is explained in the Trust Centre. How personal data is handled is explained in our Privacy Policy. The operating company is identified on the Operating Company page. To raise a concern, see Report an issue.