Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the MERIT platform operated from India ("MERIT", "we", "our", or "us"). By creating an account or otherwise using MERIT you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the platform.

1. About MERIT

MERIT is a recruitment platform that connects qualified finance professionals — principally Chartered Accountants — with employers, primarily Global Capability Centres and multinational companies operating in India. MERIT provides profile hosting, AI-assisted matching, masked candidate discovery, and job posting workflows.

2. Eligibility and accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old to use MERIT.
• You must provide accurate information about yourself and, if applicable, your employer.
• You are responsible for the security of your credentials and for all activity under your account.
• MERIT may verify identity, qualifications, employment, or organisation ownership at any time.

3. Two-sided platform

MERIT is a marketplace: candidates create profiles, and recruiters representing verified organisations post roles and view AI-generated candidate recommendations. Candidate identity is masked to recruiters until a defined commitment point (such as an application, mutual expression of interest, or paid workflow).

4. Acceptable use

You agree that you will not:

• Scrape, bulk-export, index, or reverse-engineer the platform, its match results, or masked candidate data.
• Attempt to unmask candidates outside the workflows MERIT provides, or use the platform to disintermediate MERIT once a match has been surfaced.
• Misrepresent your identity, employer, qualifications, or authority to hire.
• Upload content that is unlawful, discriminatory, defamatory, or infringes third-party rights.
• Introduce malware, probe, or interfere with the integrity or availability of the platform.
• Use MERIT to send unsolicited commercial communications outside the platform's messaging surfaces.

5. Content you submit

You retain ownership of the content you submit (resumes, job descriptions, profile information, messages). You grant MERIT a worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, process, analyse, and display that content solely to operate the platform, including AI parsing and matching. You are responsible for ensuring you have the right to submit any content you upload.

6. AI-assisted matching

MERIT uses AI to parse resumes and job descriptions, generate embeddings, rank candidates, and produce short rationales. AI outputs are decision-support only and are not the sole basis for any hiring decision. Recruiters remain responsible for their hiring choices; candidates remain responsible for the accuracy of their profiles.

7. Verification and moderation

MERIT may (but is not obliged to) verify organisations, work emails, phone numbers, qualifications, and role postings. MERIT may suspend or remove accounts, roles, or content that violate these Terms, appear fraudulent, or harm the integrity of the platform.

8. Fees and paid services

Some features — such as recruiter reach, premium candidate services, or MERIT Executive Search — require payment. Pricing, billing cycles, taxes, and refund policy will be disclosed at the point of purchase. Fees paid for a service already delivered are non-refundable except where required by law or explicitly stated.

9. Confidentiality

Candidate data, masked or unmasked, is confidential. Recruiters agree to use it only for evaluating candidates for the specific role for which it was surfaced, and not to share it externally, add it to third-party databases, or approach candidates outside MERIT-provided channels.

10. Data protection

MERIT processes personal data in accordance with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) and our Privacy Policy. Recruiters who receive candidate personal data act as independent data fiduciaries for their downstream use and must comply with applicable law.

11. No employment relationship

MERIT is not a party to any employment contract, offer, or arrangement that results from connections made on the platform. MERIT does not guarantee that a candidate will be hired or that a role will be filled, and does not vouch for the terms of any offer made outside the platform.

12. Disclaimers

MERIT is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, MERIT disclaims all warranties, whether express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, and non-infringement. MERIT does not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that AI matching results will be accurate or complete.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, MERIT and its personnel will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenues, data, goodwill, or hiring outcomes, arising out of your use of the platform. MERIT's total aggregate liability arising out of these Terms will not exceed the greater of (a) the fees you paid to MERIT in the twelve months preceding the claim, or (b) ₹10,000.

14. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold MERIT harmless from any claim arising out of your content, your use of the platform in breach of these Terms, or your violation of applicable law or third-party rights.

15. Termination

You may close your account at any time. MERIT may suspend or terminate your account for breach of these Terms, suspected fraud or abuse, or where required by law. On termination, sections that by their nature should survive (including sections on content licence, confidentiality, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and governing law) will survive.

16. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Subject to any mandatory rights you have as a consumer, the courts at Mumbai, India will have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or your use of MERIT.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified by email or in-product, and the updated version date will be reflected at the top of this page. Continued use of MERIT after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@merit.ledgerco.in.