Tipping and Gratuities Policy

1. Purpose

ASCA supports clear, fair, and pressure-free transactions for student organizations and their communities. A customer must be able to understand the complete price of a covered product or service before authorizing payment, without being asked to decide whether paying extra will affect service, treatment, access, quality, speed, recognition, or future opportunity.

For that reason, ASCA does not support or facilitate tips, gratuities, or tip-like payments in covered transactions. A commercial partner must price its product or service to cover the compensation it requires rather than relying on discretionary payments from students.

2. Scope

This policy applies to a transaction conducted through ASCA when an external business, service provider, seller, venue, contractor, or other commercial partner offers a product or service to a student organization, student participant, or student community under an ASCA relationship.

It applies to checkout interfaces, invoices, order forms, payment links, point-of-sale prompts, event transactions, bookings, reservations, service requests, partner benefits, and communications connected to the covered transaction.

This policy does not convert ASCA into the seller, employer, service operator, payment processor, or responsible party for an independently provided product or service. The applicable listing, order, partner agreement, and Marketplace and Merchandise Terms identify the responsible parties.

3. Prohibited tipping and gratuity practices

A covered transaction must not include:

• A suggested, preset, custom, or automatic tip.
• A gratuity field, tip screen, tip jar, or request to add an extra payment.
• A mandatory gratuity described as voluntary.
• A service charge, convenience charge, appreciation payment, or similar amount used to disguise a tip.
• A request for cash, a peer-to-peer transfer, a separate payment link, or an off-platform payment intended to avoid this policy.
• A donation request presented during the covered purchase when the request could reasonably imply that payment affects the transaction.
• A statement or interface that pressures, shames, rewards, ranks, or disadvantages a customer based on whether the customer pays more than the disclosed price.

A partner may not ask ASCA, an organization administrator, an event operator, or another intermediary to solicit or collect a prohibited payment on the partner's behalf.

4. Transparent and complete pricing

The displayed price must reflect the amount required to provide the covered product or service. Before authorization, the transaction must identify the seller or provider, item or service, currency, price, discounts, taxes, required fees, shipping or fulfillment charges, and other material amounts.

A mandatory charge must be included in, or clearly disclosed with, the presented total and must have an accurate purpose. A mandatory charge is not a tip merely because it compensates labor, but it may not be described as voluntary or used to create a misleading advertised price.

Partners may set sustainable prices, offer clearly defined packages, establish minimum order amounts, or use approved group pricing. Those methods must remain consistent, disclosed, and unrelated to a customer's willingness or ability to pay an undisclosed extra amount.

5. No pay-for-preference

A partner must not provide better treatment, priority, access, seating, availability, speed, recognition, eligibility, or service quality because a student offered or paid an extra amount outside the disclosed price.

A covered benefit or paid upgrade is permitted only when it is an actual, consistently available offering with a disclosed price, defined deliverables, and equal purchase terms. Relabeling a gratuity as an upgrade does not make it permitted.

This restriction protects both actual fairness and the appearance of fairness. Students who decline or cannot afford an additional payment must not be made to feel that ordinary service depends on personal generosity.

6. Donations, contributions, rewards, and sponsorships

A genuine voluntary contribution is governed by the Donation and Support Contribution Policy. It must be separate from the covered purchase, must not purchase preferential treatment, and must not be represented as necessary to receive what was already bought.

Rewards, discounts, credits, sponsorships, and partner benefits must identify their sponsor, eligibility rules, funding, scope, redemption conditions, and effect on the transaction. They must not be used to recreate a tipping prompt or to penalize a person who does not make an extra payment.

Fundraising associated with a transaction requires clear identification of the beneficiary and amount or allocation method. A contribution may not be silently deducted from seller proceeds or added to a customer's total.

7. Employee, contractor, and representative conduct

A partner is responsible for communicating this policy to personnel who interact with covered customers. Personnel must not solicit, accept, retain, or route a prohibited payment in connection with a covered transaction.

If a customer attempts to provide a tip, the partner must decline it or use an approved reversal or return process. A partner may direct a person who wishes to support ASCA or an organization to a separate, authorized contribution route, provided that the direction is not made during service in a way that creates pressure or an expectation of better treatment.

8. Records, refunds, and reporting

Transaction records must separately identify item price, discounts, taxes, required fees, shipping, processor charges, platform charges, rewards, contributions, refunds, and other material components. A partner must maintain records sufficient to explain the charged amount and resolve a complaint.

A prohibited amount collected through error, interface configuration, or misconduct may be reversed or refunded. ASCA may request transaction information, require correction of a checkout, suspend an affected listing or payment path, notify the responsible organization, or preserve records needed for support, security, dispute, or legal purposes.

Questions or reports concerning a covered transaction may be sent to [email protected]. Reports must include enough transaction detail to locate the payment without sending a full payment-card number, password, access token, or unrelated private information.

9. Enforcement

Failure to follow this policy may result in checkout correction, refund review, listing restriction, partner review, loss of access to student-facing transactions, suspension, or termination under the applicable agreement.

ASCA may consider the nature, frequency, amount, customer impact, cooperation, remediation, and evidence of intentional evasion. Correcting one charge does not prevent action concerning repeated or deliberate conduct.

Nothing in this policy limits a customer's non-waivable rights, a payment provider's dispute process, or any remedy available under an applicable agreement or law.

10. Relationship to other terms

This policy operates with the Terms of Service, Commercial Service Terms, Marketplace and Merchandise Terms, Refund and Cancellation Policy, and the transaction-specific terms presented before purchase.

If a more specific accepted instrument expressly prohibits additional conduct, the more protective restriction remains applicable. A separate instrument may not authorize a tip in a transaction covered by this policy unless ASCA expressly amends this policy through a later effective version.

11. Governing law and contact

This policy and any dispute arising from or relating to it are governed by the laws of Singapore, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Subject to mandatory law and any expressly accepted dispute procedure, the courts of Singapore have exclusive jurisdiction.

Policy questions may be sent to [email protected]. Transaction and account support requests may be sent to [email protected].