New pledge procedure and payment gateway on Emphas.is

Dear backers and photographers,

We regret to inform you that Emphas.is has been forced to suspend its operations for the last 48 hours due to a unilateral freeze of our account by PayPal. We have now implemented a temporary solution while we work on a new permanent solution with another Payment Gateway.

We would like to stress that this freeze is entirely without merit. In fact, PayPal’s move seems to have been prompted by Emphas.is’ success. Now that we have raised more than $400,000 in the 18 months since our launch, PayPal apparently deems that its financial risk has increased.

In order to continue the important work on Emphas.is, and to make sure that the photojournalists and their backers are not impacted by PayPal’s decision, we have provided a temporary solution while we implement the new one. You can now pledge your backing to a project and will receive payment details once the project is fully funded.

In the meantime we have appealed Paypal’s decision and are working constructively with our Paypal Account Manager there to resolve the matter.

So what happens now? How are you impacted?

• In the ideal situation Paypal will restore service and business as usual can be resumed soon. In that case all active projects will be extended by the time backings were delayed.
• In the meantime, backers will be asked to simply pledge their support for a specific project. Pledges are commitments to pay at a later date, i.e. when the project is fully funded.
• Once a project is fully funded, backers will receive payment instructions. Payments will be treated either trough bank transfer, or trough an alternative payment gateway.
• All active projects will be extended by the time backings were delayed.
• Backers of open projects that were not successfully funded will of course be refunded according to our standard policy and procedures.

We thank you for your support and for your patience while we find of a solution to a problem that is not of our making.