Secondary Market Terms & Conditions
These Secondary Market Terms & Conditions constitute a legal agreement between you, as the user of the Secondary Market, and Seedrs Limited, as the owner of the Website. Throughout these Terms & Conditions we will refer to you as “you”, and we will refer to Seedrs Limited as “we”, “us”, or “Seedrs”. You should read these terms carefully before agreeing to them. Please contact support@seedrs.com if you have any questions about these Terms & Conditions.
1. Application
These Terms & Conditions set out the general terms and conditions governing your use of the Secondary Market. They apply to you as soon as you first use the Secondary Market and you are deemed to have agreed to be bound by them upon your first use of the Secondary Market. If you do not wish to be bound by these Terms & Conditions, please do not use the Secondary Market.
2. Relationship to Other Agreements
Our Terms of Service, our Privacy Notice and our Referral Fee Terms apply to you and everyone else who uses the Website. We refer to the Terms of Service, the Privacy Notice and the Referral Fee Terms together as the “Website Agreements”. These Terms & Conditions are an additional Website Agreement that apply only when you use the Secondary Market. Please note that the Referral Fee Terms do not apply in respect of your use of the Secondary Market.
During the course of your use of the Website, you may choose to agree to be bound by certain other agreements: for example, if you wish to sign up to Seedrs, you will need to agree to a Membership Agreement, if you wish to invest in a business through Seedrs, you will need to agree to the relevant Investment Agreement, and if you wish to buy shares on the Secondary Market you will need to agree to the relevant Transfer Nominee Agreement. We refer to all of these other agreements as the “Platform Agreements”, because rather than just governing your technical use of the Website, they set out the substantive terms that govern your relationship with us when you make use of our platform.
The Website Agreements will continue to apply to you even after you have agreed to a Platform Agreement. However, if it turns out that there is a conflict between the Website Agreements and a Platform Agreement that you agree to, the Platform Agreement will take precedence.
3. Use of the Secondary Market
The Secondary Market operates as a bulletin board that enables you to make requests to other Seedrs members to sell or buy shares held under the Seedrs Nominee Structure. A request to sell or buy does not create a legally binding right or obligation. Each trade will require the execution of a Transfer Of Beneficial Ownership Agreement, after which the share purchase price paid by the buyer will be transferred to the seller (net of fees) and we will register the new ownership of the shares within the Seedrs Nominee Structure. The Secondary Market is not available in respect of shares held outside the Seedrs Nominee Structure. Please note that you are solely responsible for making decisions to sell or buy shares on the Secondary Market, and in no circumstances will Seedrs execute a trade automatically, or otherwise on your behalf, following a request to buy or sell. For the avoidance of doubt, the Secondary Market does not constitute a “multilateral system” as defined in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II.
You may request to sell your shares on the Secondary Market in accordance with paragraph 4 below, and you may request to buy shares on the Secondary Market in accordance with paragraph 5 below. Unless otherwise agreed with us, we will not facilitate any trades within the Seedrs Nominee Structure other than through the Secondary Market. Please note that shares may be traded at the value determined by our Valuation Policy or at a discount or premium of that value as chosen by the seller, subject to a minimum share price of £.01/share and maximum of 500% the current valuation share price. For the avoidance of doubt, the discount or premium will be calculated based on the Valuation Policy value, and not the price you may have paid for acquiring the shares. In addition, the total value of each trade must be at least £/€10 and no more than £/€25,000, or equivalent in another currency denomination. You may only sell fractional shares if you are selling the total amount of a fractional shareholding or if the valuation share price is greater than £/€100. You will not be permitted to request to sell shares on the Secondary Market if you already purchased the shares from another seller during the same Trading Cycle. We also recommend you read the Secondary Market FAQs.
Seedrs will have absolute discretion as to who is permitted to use the Secondary Market, and reserves the rights to cancel trades at any time. Please note that individuals with close links to a business whose shares are eligible to be traded on the Secondary Market, including but not limited to representatives of the business, their family, and friends, should not make requests to buy or sell shares in that business.
You should only use the API that Seedrs makes available in connection with the Secondary Market as Seedrs has intended, which is by using our web application through a web browser. Any unauthorised use of our API is prohibited and is a violation of our Terms of Service, and may result in you losing access to the Secondary Market, your ability to invest on the Seedrs platform, or other restrictive action by Seedrs.
Seedrs will charge each of the seller and the buyer a transaction fee of 1.5% of the share purchase price for trades successfully completed using the Secondary Market, as stated on the Website and as described in paragraphs 4 and 5 below.
4. Selling Shares
You may request to sell shares from your Portfolio at any time. No requests to sell will be accepted by email or any other channel. Your Portfolio will indicate which of your shares are eligible for the Secondary Market at that time and, when making the request, you will need to accept the terms set out in the draft version of the Transfer of Beneficial Ownership Agreement provided, as well as these Terms & Conditions. You may request to sell shares at the price you choose as permitted by Seedrs, but your request to sell is not guaranteed to result in the shares being made available on the Secondary Market, and will be subject to eligibility checks that will be completed prior to the start of the next Trading Cycle. Eligibility will be determined at Seedrs’ absolute discretion and, if the eligibility of the shares changes during the Trading Cycle, Seedrs reserves its right to cancel the sale request at any time. Even if shares are eligible to be traded on the Secondary Market, your ability to sell shares will depend on buyer demand. It can be difficult to find a buyer and you should not assume that you will be able to sell your shares on the Secondary Market. The status of your share sale requests may be tracked through your Portfolio.
If a buyer requests to buy your shares on the Secondary Market, you will be required to execute the final version of the Transfer Of Beneficial Ownership Agreement directly with the buyer. In the event you cancel a share sale after a buyer has requested to buy your shares, you will not be permitted to make any additional requests to sell shares in the same business for the next two Trading Cycles.
After we have been notified that the Transfer of Beneficial Ownership Agreement has been agreed, we will register ownership of the shares in the buyer’s name, and the sale proceeds will be deposited in your Investment Account, less the 1.5% seller transaction fee and any fee owed to us for administering the shares as your nominee pursuant to the relevant Investment Agreement you entered into when you made your investment in the sold shares (which is calculated net of the seller transaction fee). All rights to future returns from the sold shares will be passed to the buyer. If a buyer does not request to buy your shares on the Secondary Market, and if you chose automatic re-listing of your shares when you submitted your request to sell, your shares will be re-listed for sale on the same terms in the next Trading Cycle unless the shares are not eligible to be traded in that Trading Cycle or the share price changes. Seedrs can decide not to re-list your shares for any reason, and if your shares are not re-listed you will be notified via email. If you did not choose automatic re-listing of your shares and you wish to re-submit them for sale again, you will need to do so from your Portfolio.
5. Buying Shares
You may request to buy shares through the relevant business page, accessible on the Secondary Market. To make request to buy shares, you must (i) select the shares you wish to buy, (ii) accept the terms of the Transfer Of Beneficial Ownership Agreement with the Seller and the Transfer Nominee Agreement with Seedrs, as well as these Terms & Conditions, and (iii) commit to pay for the shares and the buyer transaction fee of 1.5% of the share purchase price using one of the options available on the Website. Requests will be submitted on a “first come first served” basis, meaning that if you were the first to make a request, you will have priority to buy the shares from the seller. If the seller accepts your request to buy shares he or she will also be required to accept the Transfer Of Beneficial Ownership Agreement. If we are notified prior to or during the Trading Cycle that the Transfer Of Beneficial Ownership Agreement has been agreed between you and the seller, and the shares are still eligible to be traded on the Secondary Market, the trade will be completed in the Trading Cycle: the share purchase price will be transferred to the seller (less any fees owed to us by the seller, as referred to in paragraph 4), and we will register ownership of the shares in your name. Please note that no trades will be completed outside the Trading Cycle. If the Transfer of Beneficial Ownership Agreement is not agreed between you and the seller, the shares may be made available to another buyer who has expressed an interest.
All investment-authorised Seedrs members are able to buy shares on the Secondary Market, subject to any restrictions set out in these Terms & Conditions. Please note that existing shareholders in a particular business within the Seedrs Nominee Structure have access to “updates” and “discussions” sections on the Website where they can receive information from, and communicate with, the businesses they have invested in; however, if you are not currently a shareholder in a particular business, you will not have access to these sections until after you have successfully bought shares. Seedrs does not perform due diligence in respect of trades on the Secondary Market. The only information provided by Seedrs to buyers on the Secondary Market is on the relevant Secondary Market webpage, and buyers should obtain sufficient other information before making decisions to buy shares. Seedrs takes no responsibility for any other information you obtain to make your decision to buy shares on the Secondary Market, from the relevant business (including but not limited to the “Updates” and “Discussions” sections on the Website), the business’s website, in social media profiles, news articles, third party providers (including that made available through the Website) or elsewhere. Seedrs will not accept liability for any claims, losses or damages you suffer as a result of not undertaking your own reasonable due diligence.
6. Personal Data
This paragraph supplements paragraph 3 of the Privacy Notice. In order for you to trade shares on the Secondary Market, we may be required to share certain of your personal data (name, address, email address and user number) with the other party to the trade.
7. Tax
Trades on the Secondary Market may result in a change to your tax position, which may include but not be limited to in respect of SEIS, EIS, capital gains tax, stamp duty and/or stamp duty reserve tax, or such equivalent taxes in another jurisdiction. In particular, please note that if you are selling SEIS or EIS eligible shares prior to the end of the three-year period from the date they were issued to you, you will be liable to repay any tax relief already claimed. If you are buying shares on the Secondary Market, you will not be able to claim SEIS or EIS relief in respect of those shares and, if you subsequently purchase newly-issued shares in the same business while you still hold the shares you bought on the Secondary Market, you will not be able to claim SEIS or EIS relief in respect of the newly-issued shares. You are entirely responsible for the payment of any applicable taxes, and we shall bear no responsibility whatsoever in respect of them (including, notifying you that they have or may have arisen), except in relation to shares in businesses registered in England and Wales that are traded for a total purchase price of over £1,000, in which case Seedrs shall pay the applicable stamp duty to HMRC and file the relevant stock transfer form. For the avoidance of doubt, for businesses registered outside England and Wales, you shall be responsible for paying any tax equivalent to stamp duty in that jurisdiction that arises when the shares are traded. Without prejudice to the foregoing, we reserve the right not to register a trade on the Secondary Market until we have been provided with evidence of a stock transfer form stamped by HMRC, or equivalent for businesses in a jurisdiction outside of England and Wales.
8. Severability
We have made every effort to ensure that these Terms & Conditions adhere strictly with the relevant provisions of the UK Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and other applicable laws. However, in the event that any of these provisions are found to be unlawful, invalid or otherwise unenforceable, that provision is to be deemed severed from these Terms & Conditions and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining Terms & Conditions. This clause on “Severability” shall apply only within jurisdictions where a particular term is illegal.
9. No Waiver
In the event that either you or we fail to exercise any right or remedy contained in these Terms & Conditions, that does not mean you or we (as applicable) have waived that right or remedy and so shall not be construed as a waiver.
10. Communications
If you wish to communicate with us about anything related to these Terms & Conditions, you may do so by sending an email to support@seedrs.com.
11. Revisions
From time to time we may update these Terms & Conditions , for example to make it easier to understand, to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, keep up with industry developments, reflect changes to our business, products, or services, or in respect of matters that do not affect your substantive rights. If we make a change that affects any of your substantive rights, we will notify you of the amendment or amendments at least 10 working days before they take effect with respect to you. Such notification may occur by email, by notice to you when you log onto the platform or by other means. If we provide you such notice and you do not object to an amendment by the means given in the notice prior to the amendment taking effect, you will be deemed to have agreed to the amendment. If you object to an amendment, such amendment will not be effective with respect to you, but you will not be permitted to use the Secondary Market.
12. Choice of Law
These Terms & Conditions, and the relationship between you and Seedrs created by it, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.
13. Jurisdiction
You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. This means that if you want to bring a legal action against us, or we want to bring a legal action against you, it must be done in one of these courts.
14. Definitions
We have used a few capitalised terms in this agreement, which means that they have specific definitions. In some cases the definition is set out when they are first used, but in a few cases we give the meaning below instead.
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API means application programming interface;
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Beta refers to the first version of the Secondary Market, which is subject to the restrictions described in paragraph 3 above;
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Investment Account means the section of your Seedrs account that displays the funds you hold with us for investment or withdrawal;
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Portfolio means the section of your Seedrs account that displays the shares you hold under the Seedrs Nominee Structure, found at Portfolio;
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Privacy Notice means the privacy notice of the Website, available at Privacy Notice;
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Referral Fee Terms means the referral fee terms of the Website, available at Referral Fee Terms;
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Secondary Market means the Seedrs Secondary Market hosted on the Website at https://www.seedrs.com/secondary-market;
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Seedrs Limited means Seedrs Limited, a private limited company registered in England and Wales under registration number 06848016;
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Seedrs Nominee Structure means the relationship between Seedrs and certain other Seedrs members whereby Seedrs is appointed as nominee in respect of those members’ investments;
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Terms & Conditions means these terms and conditions of the Secondary Market;
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Terms of Service means the terms of service of the Website, available at Terms of Service;
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Trading Cycle means the week that commences on the first Tuesday of every month, during which shares can be traded on the Secondary Market;
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Transfer Of Beneficial Ownership Agreement means the agreement by which a buyer and seller agree to transfer beneficial ownership of shares held under the Seedrs Nominee Structure;
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Transfer Nominee Agreement means the agreement by which a buyer appoints Seedrs to be nominee in respect of shares purchased on the Secondary Market;
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Valuation Policy means the policy used to determine a current valuation of a user’s Portfolio, available Valuation Policy;
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Website means the website that you are currently using (https://www.seedrs.com) and any sub-domains of this site unless expressly excluded by their own terms and conditions.