Forter Service Level Agreement

1. Definitions

Capitalized terms not defined in the Merchant Services Agreement entered into between Forter and the applicable Merchant (the “MSA”) shall have the meaning set out below:

Business Hours: (i) for Merchants based in the Americas, 09:00 to 17:00, U.S. EST; (ii) for Merchants based in EMEA,  09:00 to 17:00 BST; (iii) for Merchants based in APAC,  09:00 to 17:00 SGT. 

Business Day: Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays).

Error: A reproducible failure of the Forter Platform to perform a function in accordance with the applicable technical specifications.

2. Support Services

Forter shall provide Merchant, during the term of the MSA, with certain Support Services in order to enable Merchant to notify Forter of any Error and seek assistance in inquiries regarding the Forter Platform, as set forth in this Section 2.

Error Classifications.

• • Critical/Urgent Error: A failure of the Forter Platform due to an issue with the Forter Decisioning APIs (defined below) which causes Forter to be unable to provide fraud and abuse decisions. This is the only Error where fraud and abuse decisions cannot be rendered by Forter.

• • High Priority Error: Merchant experiences a loss of key Forter Platform features due to an issue in Forter’s Decisioning APIs or customer-facing portal (the “Decision Dashboard”), rendering some operational functionality unavailable that impacts Merchant’s business operations. For example, the Decision Dashboard is down but Forter is still able to render fraud and abuse decisions, or Merchant is unable to provide feedback through the Decision Dashboard over an extended period of time.

• • Medium Priority Error: Merchant is experiencing a limited loss of functionality within the Forter Platform with no impact to fraud or abuse decision advice (e.g., an error in one of the sections of the Decision Dashboard that provides insight data, or issues with the quick search feature).

• • Low Priority Error: Minor issues that do not impact Merchant workflow significantly (e.g., single browser restrictions, usability enhancements). Any error that is not a Critical Error, a High Priority Error or a Medium Priority Error.

Error Reporting. In order to report an Error to Forter, Merchant must send Support Services requests using one of the following methods: (i) submit a ticket using the Decision Dashboard’s “Report An Issue” feature and select the applicable severity level (Critical/Urgent, High, Medium, or Low), (ii)  submit a ticket through the Forter Help Center located at https://forter.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals and select the applicable severity level (Critical/Urgent, High, Medium, or Low), or (iii) send an email to [email protected] with the severity level in the subject line. Merchant shall provide Forter with sufficient details to enable Forter to accurately diagnose and reproduce such Error, such as error logs, screenshots, browser and OS version, order identifiers, or other information reasonably requested by Forter to diagnose the issue.

Error Response Time. Once Merchant notifies Forter of an Error, Forter shall classify the Error as a Critical, High, Medium, or Low Priority Error, upon which the following initial response times shall apply (“Error Response Time”):

• • Critical/Urgent Error: Within one (1) hour, 24/7
  • High Priority Error: Within two (2) Business Hours
  • Medium Priority Error: Within one (1) Business Day
  • Low Priority Error: Within two (2) Business Days

Error Response Time Measurement. Error Response Times are measured by Forter from the time the Error is received by Forter with sufficient details about the Error via the relevant contact methods above. Otherwise, the Error Response Times will not apply. For the avoidance of doubt, when a Merchant reports an Error and selects the relevant severity level, upon review of the report, Forter reserves the right to change the severity level if Forter finds that the severity level chosen is not accurate based on the definitions provided herein.

Initial Contact: Forter may attempt to contact Merchant within the applicable Error  Response Time to request additional information, and to clarify the issue and the business impact. After Forter obtains all necessary information about the Error, Forter will initiate the resolution process to detect the root cause.

Error Correction: Forter will use reasonable efforts to confirm the existence of an Error and to correct the Error as soon as practicable, taking into account the severity of the Error, the details provided by Merchant and the cause of the Error, by providing a fix, patch, workaround, or any other reasonable solution. While Forter shall endeavor to correct all Errors, Merchant acknowledges that not all Low Priority Errors will be corrected or that a fix, patch, workaround, or any other offered solution will be found. Forter cannot and does not warrant or represent that any or all Errors can or will be corrected.

3. Service Availability

3.1 Forter’s Decisioning APIs

Subject to the below, the Transaction Validation API, Accounts API, Adaptive Authentication Authorization API (other than with respect to 3DS execution), and Compensation API  (collectively, the “Decisoning APIs”) will maintain an uptime of 99.99%, measured on a quarterly basis (excluding planned maintenance). The Decisioning APIs are used to provide Merchant with Forter’s fraud and abuse decision at the time of the Transaction or relevant decisioning event, as applicable. 

Forter will maintain the uptime levels for the Decisioning APIs, provided Merchant has integrated properly according to Forter’s guidelines and meets the following requirements: 

Retry Policy – Internet network failures (not necessarily caused by Forter or the Merchant) are not uncommon, so a delay or other issue that appears to be an error may just be a network connectivity issue. Therefore, in the event of a perceived Error, Merchant must retry the API call twice and Forter must fail to respond within 2 seconds before any Decisioning API is considered unavailable (in addition to the other requirement provided herein).

Query Rate Limit –The availability for the Decisioning APIs are based on a query rate limit of 75 queries per second. In the event that Merchant requires a higher query rate limit, Merchant must contact Forter regarding such needs and the parties may mutually agree in writing to a higher limit. If the parties mutually agree to a higher query rate limit, that query rate limit will apply. 

3.2 Forter Decision Dashboard 

The Decision Dashboard will maintain an uptime of 99.5%, measured on a quarterly basis (excluding planned maintenance) (the “Decision Dashboard Uptime”).

4. Maintenance

From time to time Forter may conduct planned or emergency maintenance of the Forter Platform (including the Decision Dashboard) (“Maintenance”). Except in the event that emergency Maintenance is required, Forter will use reasonable efforts to communicate planned Maintenance at least 3 days in advance and shall conduct planned Maintenance on weekends only between 01:00 to 06:00 ET.   For the avoidance of doubt, any downtime of the Forter Platform as a result of such Maintenance shall not be considered downtown for the purpose of calculating availability. Nothing herein shall prevent Forter from conducting emergency Maintenance at any time if required in Forter’s sole discretion. 

5. Exclusions

The Support Services set forth herein shall not include, and Forter shall not be responsible or liable to correct, any Error or failure to meet its obligations herein, where such Error or failure is caused by: (i) Merchant’s failure to use the Forter Platform and Services, or any part thereof, in accordance with the Documentation; (ii) negligence, misuse, abuse or mishandling of the Forter Platform or Services by Merchant or any third party acting on Merchant’s behalf; (iii) inappropriate environmental conditions (such as network problems, power and air-conditioning failures) or failure of Merchant to maintain the configuration environment set out in the specifications provided by Forter; (iv) any technical issue unrelated to the Forter Platform; (v) failure of devices not provided by Forter; (vi) actual or attempted modification or alteration to the Forter Platform other than by Forter or a person acting on Forter’s behalf;  (vii) any issue in the integration or communication of Merchant properties with the Forter Platform or Services; or (viii) any failure to meet service levels caused by a third party and not Forter or a person acting on Forter’s behalf.

For the avoidance of doubt, if Merchant uses a third party plug-in or tool to integrate with Forter and such plug-in or tool experiences any failures, errors or issues (collectively, “Issues”), Forter shall not be responsible for such Issues and Forter shall not be in breach of this SLA to the extent such Issues impact Forter’s ability to adhere to the terms of this SLA.

6. Force Majeure

Forter shall not be liable for any failure to perform its obligations hereunder when such failure is due to events beyond its reasonable control, such as, without limitation, flood, earthquake, fire, acts of God, military insurrection, civil riot, labor strike, government imposed shutdown, epidemic or pandemic.