Legal

COMPLAINTS POLICY

This is CrowdedHero’s Complaints Policy (“Policy”) applicable to the Services, as defined below. This Policy forms an integral part of CrowdedHero’s Terms and Conditions.

The Policy may be made available in several languages; all versions are legally binding, but in the event of inconsistency between the Latvian version and a translated version, the Latvian version prevails.

The version of this Policy is effective as of 27th of September, 2022.

1    DEFINITIONS

2    GENERAL INFORMATION

2.1      We, without taking on its own risk, operate and manage the Platform. At the date of the Policy, we have the crowdfunding service provider licence for the provision of the Services issued by the Financial Capital Market Committee of Latvia (for further information please see https://www.fktk.lv/en/market/crowdfunding-service-providers). The Services are provided in a professional, fair and transparent way, we apply the requirements of the ECSPR when rendering the Services and to our internal operations.

2.2      We recommend to download or print a copy of this Policy and store it for your records and future reference. If you want a copy of this Policy, please e-mail to [email protected] with the words ‘Complaints Policy’ in the subject line of your e-mail message.

2.3      Communications and notices between you and us must be in English or Latvian in writing via e-mail, or upon your request, in paper form via post.

3    PURPOSE AND SCOPE

3.1      If you have a complaint or you want to ask us a question about the Services, then we would like to hear it from you. Letting us know your concerns gives us the opportunity to put matters right for you and improve the quality of the Services.

3.2      This Policy explains how you can make a complaint to us or ask us a question about the Services.

3.3      This Policy shall apply to the handling and reporting of Client complaints arising in the provision of Services by or on behalf of us.

4    CONDITIONS FOR THE ADMISSIBILITY OF A COMPLAINT

4.1      Any Client who is dissatisfied with our Services, has found a deficiency, or identified dishonesty, may contact us to complain. This Policy does not cover complaints made by persons or organisations that are not our Clients.

4.2      If we receive a complaint from a person who is not our Client, we will follow normal support function protocol and redirect that person to the entity or intermediary against whom the person has made the complaint.

4.3      A complaint is inadmissible if the Client has lodged a complaint about the execution of the activity of which we are not responsible for.

4.4      We do not consider queries as complaints as they can be answered to the full satisfaction of the Client and us on the same day.

4.5     The Client is entitled to submit the Complaint regarding our services:

(i) within the period of three years from the transaction which is the subject of the Complaint; or

(ii)  if the Complaint is not connected with particular transaction three years for the event which is the subject of the Complaint or three years after closing the Account in the Platform, whichever obstacle comes first.

After this time period specified above  we shall not accept the Complaints and it shall be reviewed as lapsed.

5    HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT

5.1      Submitting a complaint to us and handling it by us is free of charge, however, you shall bear your own expenses (including obtaining external advice) in relation to submitting a complaint.

5.2      To submit a complaint, you should fill out the Complaint Form available here or download and fill out the Complaint Form available here and submit it to us pursuant to the procedure set out in Section 5.4 hereof. When filling the Complaint Form, please follow the instructions contained within it. 

5.3      You may fill out the Complaint Form in Latvian or English.

5.4      If you wish to make a complaint, please make sure that you contact us directly:

5.4.1     by filling online complain form available in the Section 5.2 above and submitting it to us;

5.4.2    via e-mail by sending an email message to: [email protected] with the words ‘Complaint’ in the subject line of your e-mail message and by addressing it to our Customer Support Service;

5.4.2      via post by sending a letter to: 58A - 8 Bauskas Street, Riga, LV - 1004, Latvia, by addressing it to our Customer Support Service.

5.5      Only complaints submitted in writing and containing all the information indicated below will be reviewed by us according to this Policy.

6    WHAT INFORMATION IS REQUIRED WHEN MAKING A COMPLAINT

6.1      We need to understand exactly what your complaint is about, so the more information you can give us, the better. In order to make sure that we investigate and resolve your complaint, please make sure that you give us the relevant evidence and information.

6.2      In the Complaint Form you should provide the following:

6.2.1      information about you:

-       if you are a natural person – your first name, last name, personal identification code or date of birth, and residential address;

-       if you are a legal person – company’s name, registration number and LEI (if applicable), and registered address;

-       phone number and e-mail address;

6.2.2      information about your legal representative (if applicable):

-       if your representative is a natural person – his/her name and last name;

-       if your representative is a legal person – company’s name and registered address, registration number and LEI (if applicable);

-       phone number and e-mail address;

6.2.3      information about the complaint:

-       a full reference of the investment and/or agreement to which the complaint relates;

-       a summary of what the complaint is about;

-       date of the facts that have generated the complaint;

-       damage, loss or detriment caused (where relevant);

-       other comments or relevant information (where relevant);

-       all the complaint supporting evidence available and copies of any relevant documents that you have (i.e., power of attorney of your legal representative, copies of the contractual documents, copies of e-mails, etc.).

6.3      Please make sure to indicate an accurate e-mail or postal address so that the reply reaches you. We accept no liability in case the contact information is incomplete or inaccurate.

7    ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF A COMPLAINT

7.1      We will acknowledge the receipt of your complaint and confirm whether the complaint is admissible within 10 (ten) Business Days of its receipt in the following way:

7.1.1      if you have contacted us by sending a letter - we will send you an e-mail confirming that your letter has been received;

7.1.2      if you have contacted us electronically - we will send you an e-mail confirming that your complaint has been received.

7.2      In the acknowledgement of the receipt of your complaint we will provide the following information:

7.2.1      whether or not we consider your complaint admissible or inadmissible;

7.2.2      if we consider your complaint inadmissible – we will provide you with a clear explanation of the reasons for such decision;

7.2.3      if we consider your complaint admissible – we will provide you with a timeframe within which our final decision on the complaint will be notified to you;

7.2.4      the identity and contact details, including e-mail address and phone number, of the person or department to whom or to which you may address any query related to your complaint;

7.2.5     the timeframe within which a decision on the complaint will be notified.

7.3   We will consider the Complaint as inadmissible if you have lodged a Complaint orally and/or about the execution of the activity of which we are not responsible for or the Complaint does not correspond to the criteria set in the Section 6.2.

8    HANDLING OF COMPLAINTS

8.1      Upon receipt of an admissible complaint, we will do our best to resolve it. We will assess whether it is clear and complete and includes all relevant evidence and information. We will gather and investigate all relevant evidence and information regarding your complaint. In doing so, we may request additional evidence and/or information necessary for the proper handling of your complaint from you and/or third parties.

8.2      Depending on the nature of the complaint, one or more of our employees will be assigned to review the complaint and communicate with you. We will ensure assigning appropriate resources and required involvement of senior management in reviewing your complaint.

8.3      We will keep you updated on the progress of handling your complaint and reply to your reasonable information requests made in this regard by you without any undue delay.

8.4      We will keep records of all complaints submitted by the Clients in accordance with this Policy and measures taken in connection to each complaint, to ensure that the decisions made for complaints presenting similar circumstances are consistent.

8.5      We will address all the issues stated in the complaint in a clear manner.

8.6      We will act with utmost effort to address all negative feedback submitted to us via phone, social media or other communication channels, which we believe would not require a formal follow-up. Please note that this type of feedback is valuable to us, however, this Policy does not apply to feedback of this nature. Furthermore, we give no guarantees and assume no liability for failing to reply to each and every complaint which is not submitted to us according to this Policy. Please note that only written replies to written complaints submitted to us according to this Policy and received by us shall have any legal consequences.

9    COMPLAINTS-HANDLING TIME LIMITS

9.1      We will do our best to resolve your complaint as soon as possible, but at the maximum within 30 (thirty) Business Days of the receipt of the Complaint.

9.2      We will review and reply to all admissible complaints within the timeframe that we have specified in the acknowledgement sent by us. However where, in exceptional situations, we are unable to provide the final decision within the timeframe that we have specified in the acknowledgement, we will send you a holding response by e-mail explaining the causes of the delay and indicating when we expect to be in a position to complete the review of your complaint.

10 OUR FINAL RESPONSE

10.1  After examining the evidence and information of your complaint, we will provide a written response to you by e-mail or via post, explaining:

10.1.1  what we have found;

10.1.2  what we plan to do as a result; and

10.1.3  why we reached a particular decision.

10.2  The final response will either:

10.2.1  accept the complaint and where appropriate, offer redress or remedial action;

10.2.2  offer redress or remedial action without accepting the complaint; or

10.2.3  explain our position in the event that we reject the complaint and give reasons for doing so;

10.2.4  explain rights to submit your complaint to our management board for revision, if you are dissatisfied with our response.

10.3  If you are dissatisfied with our final response, you may:

10.3.1 submit your complaint to the supervisory authority – the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC) – Kungu iela 1, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia, www.fktk.lv;

10.3.2 take civil actions and refer the matter to the court of the Republic of Latvia pursuant to the effective laws and regulations of the Republic of Latvia, to the extent permitted by law, except where any mandatorily applicable law requires a specific dispute to be exclusively resolved by the courts of another jurisdiction.

11 IF YOU WANT TO ASK US A QUESTION

11.1  For any additional question please contact the Customer Support Service. You can contact them via e-mail at: [email protected].

11.2  The Customer Support Service is available on Business Days from Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EET) for any questions you may have. If you contact our Customer Support Service, please provide the following information including:

11.2.1  your identification number (if such has been given to you by us);

11.2.2  if you are a natural person – your name and last name;

11.2.3  if you are a legal person – your company’s name, and your authorized representative’s name and last name;

11.2.4  your full phone number, including country code;

11.2.5  a brief message describing your question.

12 COMPLAINTS TO LEMONWAY

12.1  This Policy does not apply to payment services provided by Lemonway, a payment institution approved by the ACPR in France on 24 December 2012 under the number 16568.

12.2  In the event of the absence or the improper performance of a payment transaction executed by Lemonway, you should submit a complaint directly to Lemonway. You can do so by submitting your claims (disputes, rights of objection, access and rectification) to Lemonway free of charge:

12.3   through the claims form accessible at the following address:  www.lemonway.com/claim; or

12.4  by mail to the following address: LEMONWAY – Service Réclamation – 8 rue du Sentier, CS 60820, 75083 Paris CEDEX 2, France.

12.5  In addition, if you are not satisfied with the response to your complaint, you can appeal to an independent mediator, i.e. the Mediator of the AFEPAME, at 36 rue Taitbout 75009 Paris, website: https://mediateur-consommation-afepame.fr, to whom the matter can be referred free of charge.

13 REVISION AND MONITORING OF THIS POLICY

13.1  We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify, amend, supplement or replace this Policy at any time. We will review and revise this Policy when there are any material circumstances arisen that may affect our ability to apply this Policy pursuant to the provisions of statutory and law requirements. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.

13.2  We will inform our Clients on all material amendments to this Policy by publishing the updated version of this Policy on our Platform.

13.3  This Policy is adapted and monitored by our Customer Support Service , that is responsible for keeping this Policy up to date by including necessary corrections and clarifications to ensure clear and accurate complaint handling process.

13.4  The compliance with the measures set out in this Policy is controlled by the Board.