This article covers the Know Your Customer (KYC) process. It is a required procedure for all Wish merchants within the European Economic Area (EEA). Wish merchants in the EEA must be registered in the Chamber of Commerce, and are therefore considered to be business merchants with a business registration document. As a result, these merchants will be asked to complete the KYC process as part of their store validation process. By successfully completing the KYC verification process, merchants will start receiving product impressions and, after further review, start receiving payments. Failure to complete this process will result in their payments being withheld.
1. Why do I have to complete the KYC process?
When merchants are selling their products on the Wish platform, they receive certain financial services (e.g. collecting funds from buyers and paying out sellers). Part of these financial services are provided to you by ContextLogic B.V., a Wish company (further referred to here as “Wish” or “we”).
2. Why do I have to complete the KYC process?
When merchants are selling their products on the Wish platform, they receive certain financial services (e.g. collecting funds from buyers and paying out sellers). Part of these financial services are provided to merchants by ContextLogic B.V., a Wish company (further referred to here as “Wish” or “we”).
ContextLogic B.V. is a regulated financial services provider and therefore must comply with specific regulations, including the Dutch Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism Act. In order to comply with this Act, we require certain information from our merchants. The Know Your Customer (KYC) process is a required procedure where we ask merchants to upload specific documentation in relation to their business in order to be able to accept merchants as our customers for the provision of financial services. During this process, we make use of two vendors: Fourthline and Dun & Bradstreet. These vendors collect (part of) this KYC information on behalf of Wish.
The KYC process is successfully completed once (i) merchants have provided us with all requested information and documentation, (ii) we have reviewed this information, and (iii) we have decided that we accept them as our customers for the provision of financial services.
All merchants located in the EEA that are selling on Wish are subject to the KYC process from the time they join through the time that they sell on the platform.
Once merchants have successfully completed the KYC process, they will start receiving impressions on their products, and will start to receive payments after further review. If merchants do not complete this process, or complete it with incorrect or false information, we are not allowed to provide our financial services to merchants. This means that merchants’ payments will remain blocked until the KYC process is successfully completed. We may also decide that we do not want to do business with merchants if they provide false information or if we consider them to have unacceptable risk for other reasons.
3. Am I a business merchant or an individual merchant?
Wish merchants in the EEA must be registered in the Chamber of Commerce, and are therefore considered business merchants. These merchants are obliged to select this option during the KYC process (even if they are self-employed or operate as sole traders).
Please note that selecting the incorrect option can have consequences for a merchants’ account.
4. I do not possess a business registration document. What should I do?
In certain countries, merchants are allowed to commercially trade without a business registration document as sole traders, specifically in Spain, Portugal, and Sweden. Exceptions are made for these countries, and thus merchants may be considered to be individuals.
5. What KYC information is required?
We require information about merchants and their business. In addition, we may also require proof that the information merchants provide is correct and legitimate.
We also ask merchants to provide the information of the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO). The UBO is the person (or persons) that directly (or indirectly) owns or controls more than 25% of the business.
In addition, we require information from the person that is completing the application. Official names (as recorded on their passport or ID), date of birth, nationality, and country of residence, as well as a selfie of the person holding their ID. Please note that the person that is completing the application must be allowed to represent the business.
To summarise, we require:
- Personal information of the person completing the form
- Ultimate Beneficial Owner information (UBO)
- A valid ID (Passport or National ID Card)
- A picture of the applicant holding their ID
- Business registration number
- A valid business address
- An extract from the Chamber of Commerce (no older than 6 months) or another valid business registration document (also no older than 6 months)
Please note that bank extracts are not considered an official business registration document and are not accepted.
6. Why was my KYC information rejected?
There are various reasons why KYC information could be rejected. Common reasons are listed below:
- The documents uploaded are not valid
- The documents uploaded are blurry or not complete
- The information provided is incorrect
Depending on the reason for rejection of KYC information, we will contact merchants to complete the process.
7. When is the KYC process completed?
Generally, it takes us a few days to complete this process after merchants have provided us with the requested information. However, in some cases, we will need additional information and will contact merchants to complete the KYC process. Once the process is completed, merchants will start receiving product impressions, and will start receiving payments after further review. However, we may continue withholding payments if we have compelling reasons to do so, such as discovering merchants have knowingly provided incorrect information.
8. What happens with my data?
The data merchants provide during the KYC process is used and stored for the specific purpose of “knowing our customer” as required by the applicable legislation. We take the protection of merchants' personal data seriously and process it in accordance with the applicable Data Protection Legislation. Merchants can learn more about this in our Privacy Policy.
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