Terms of Service

TERMS OF SERVICE

Last updated: 03/01/2024

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PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF SERVICE (“TERMS”) CAREFULLY. BY ACCESSING THE BACKPACK WEBSITE OR USING THE BACKPACK SERVICES, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE (1) 529 STORE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, (2) 529 STORE PRIVACY POLICY, (3) 529 PURCHASE PROTECTION AND GUARANTEE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, (4) BACKPACK TERMS OF SERVICE, AND (5) BACKPACK PRIVACY POLICY WHICH ARE EACH INCORPORATED HEREIN BY REFERENCE.

They cover important information about Services provided to you and any charges, taxes, and fees we bill you. These Terms include information about future changes to these Terms, automatic renewals, limitations of liability, a class action waiver and resolution of disputes by arbitration instead of in court.

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR USE OF AND ACCESS TO OUR SERVICES ARE SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS; IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE FOLLOWING, YOU MAY NOT USE OR ACCESS THE SERVICES IN ANY MANNER.

ARBITRATION NOTICE AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER: EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DISPUTES DESCRIBED IN THE ARBITRATION AGREEMENT SECTION BELOW, YOU AGREE THAT DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND US WILL BE RESOLVED BY BINDING, INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION.

General

529store.com (“Website”) is owned and operated by Backpack Payment Technologies, Inc. and/or one of its divisions, affiliates, or subsidiaries ("Backpack", "we", “our”, "us") and provides information and shopping services for products and services intended to be eligible for purchase under most 529 College Savings Plans (each a “529 Plan” and collectively, “529 Plans”).

The following Terms of Service are between you and Backpack and constitute a legal agreement that governs your use of the Website and all services offered on the Website or by Backpack (the “Services”). You must agree to these Terms before you can use the Services. You can agree to these Terms by: (a) actually using the Services, including, without limitation, accessing any the Website, or (b) clicking a box that indicates you agree to the Service, where such a box is made available to you. If you do not agree to any of the following Terms, you may not use the Services and must leave the Website.

Eligibility

The Website is not intended for or directed to persons who are minors (typically persons under the age of 18). Because we cannot prohibit minors from accessing the Website, we must rely on parents and legal guardians to supervise minors and decide which materials are appropriate for minors to view and/or purchase. By accessing and using the Website, including, but not limited to, purchasing products from us, or providing us with any information, you represent and warrant to us that you are fully able and competent to enter into these Terms and legally permitted to enter into a binding contract (i.e., you have reached the legal age of majority under the applicable law of the jurisdiction of your primary residence), or, if you are under the legal age of majority, you have the express permission from your parent or legal guardian to do so, and that any information you provide to us is not inaccurate, deceptive or misleading.

We require that all purchases be made either (i) by individuals who are legally permitted to enter into a binding contract (i.e., have reached the legal age of majority under the applicable law of the jurisdiction of your primary residence), or (ii) by minors with the express permission of a parent or legal guardian to purchase items on the Website.

Changes

We reserve the right to change these Terms at any time. Any changes are effective immediately upon posting to the Website. Your continued use of the website constitutes your agreement to all such terms and conditions.

Privacy

We take your privacy extremely seriously. You can read our lates Privacy Policy here.

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Product

Affiliate Disclosure

This site is a participant in Amazon.com, Inc.’s Associate’s Program (the “Program”), an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As part of this Program, the Website will post customized links (the “Links”), provided by Amazon, to track the referrals to their website. This program utilizes cookies to track visits for the purposes of assigning commission on these sales.

By using this website and clicking on the customized links to Amazon.com, you also agree to Amazon’s Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy.

529 Eligibility

The products displayed on the Website are items that may satisfy the eligibility requirements set our by the IRS in its IRS Publication 970 to be a Qualified Higher Education Expense (”QHEE”). It is important to understand that there may be multiple criteria needing to be satisfied for a particular item to meet the eligibility criteria, and it is your responsibility to ensure that you, your beneficiary (if it is not you) and your 529 Plan qualify.

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Product and Service Changes, Misprints, Errors, and Cancellations

Subject to applicable law, and notwithstanding any information, slogans, or materials displayed on the Website, we: (a) reserve the right to change the products and services advertised or offered for sale through the Website, the prices or specifications of such products and services, and any promotional offers and any other Website content at any time and from time to time without any notice or liability to you or any other person; (b) cannot guarantee that products or services advertised or offered for sale on the Website will be available when ordered or thereafter; (c) reserve the right to limit quantities of products and services sold or made available for sale; (d) do not represent or warrant that Website content related to any products or services advertised or offered for sale (including without limitation product descriptions or photographs) is accurate, available, complete, reliable, current, or error-free; (e) do not represent or warrant that any specific products or services advertised or offered for sale through the Website, as of the time of purchase or delivery, will in fact be an eligible product or service for purchase under your 529 Plan. Some jurisdictions may not allow the exclusions and disclaimers of certain implied warranties, so some of the provisions of this section may not apply to you. We have made reasonable efforts to ascertain general eligibility of products and display accurately the colors or appearances of the products on the Website. If a product offered on the Website is not as described, your sole remedy is to return it in unused condition for a refund.

The posting of prices on our Website is not an offer for sale of goods. We do not guarantee the accuracy of the product information and the products are subject to change at Amazon's discretion.

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Payment using Backpack

Using a Backpack account, as described in Backpack’s Terms of Service, to pay for QHEE’s through Amazon.com may make you eligible for additional services, protections and guarantees.

If you purchased an item from Amazon.com using a direct link from the Website, and used a Backpack account as your payment method, that purchase will be eligible under Backpack’s 529 Eligibility Guarantee. The Terms and Conditions for this service can be found here. This service only applies to purchases made directly from a Backpack account, using Amazon’s “Add a Personal Checking Account” payment method. For the avoidance of doubt, purchases made with a credit or charge card that is later paid off using a Backpack account are not eligible.

Restrictions

You represent, warrant and agree that you will not provide or contribute anything to the Services, or otherwise use or interact with the Services, in a manner that:

infringes or violates the intellectual property rights or any other rights of anyone else including Backpack;
violates any applicable law, statute, regulation, or ordinance, including, without limitation, any applicable export control laws, privacy laws, or otherwise breaches this Agreement or any other agreement or policy you have with Backpack;
provides false, inaccurate or misleading information, or is otherwise dangerous, harmful, fraudulent, deceptive, threatening, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or objectionable;
provides information belonging to any person other than yourself or uses an account that belongs to another person for yourself or on behalf of another person;
attempts, in any manner, to obtain the password, account, or other security information from any other user of the Services;
jeopardizes the security of your Backpack account or anyone else’s (such as allowing someone else to log in to the Services as you);
aids you in the purchase of (i) ammunition, firearms, certain firearm parts or accessories, and certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law; (ii) narcotics, steroids, controlled substances, quasi-pharmaceuticals, or drug paraphernalia; (iii) currency in any form, including virtual and digital currency; or (iv) any goods or services deemed unacceptable by Backpack or its Bank Partner(s), in their sole discretion;
uses any device, software, routine, file or other tool or technology, including, but not limited to, any viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs or cancelbots, intended to damage or interfere with the Services or to surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information from the Services;
uses the Services to accomplish a cash advance, wire or money transfer;
“crawls,” “scrapes,” or “spiders” any page, data, or portion of or relating to the Services (through use of manual or automated means);
decompiles, reverse engineers, or otherwise attempts to obtain the source code or underlying ideas or information of or relating to the Services;
makes unauthorized use of Backpack's Services including but not limited to unauthorized entry into Backpack's systems, misuse of passwords, or misuse of any information posted to a site; and
involves any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure, including but not limited to denial of service attacks, "spam" or any other such unsolicited overload technique.

A violation of any of the foregoing is grounds for termination of your right to use or access the Services.

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Miscellaneous

Warranty Disclaimer

Backpack and its licensors, suppliers, partners, parent, subsidiaries or affiliated entities, and each of their respective officers, directors, members, employees, consultants, contract employees, representatives and agents, and each of their respective successors and assigns (Backpack and all such parties together, the “Backpack Parties”) make no representations or warranties concerning the Services, including without limitation regarding any content contained in or accessed through the Services, and the Backpack Parties will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, or decency of material contained in or accessed through the Services or any claims, actions, suits procedures, costs, expenses, damages or liabilities arising out of use of, or in any way related to your participation in, the Services. The Backpack Parties make no representations or warranties regarding suggestions or recommendations of services or products offered or purchased through or in connection with the Services. THE SERVICES AND CONTENT ARE PROVIDED BY BACKPACK(AND ITS LICENSORS AND SUPPLIERS) ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR THAT USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, TORT, CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE) SHALL ANY OF THE BACKPACK PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY OTHER PERSON FOR (A) ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, ACCURACY OF RESULTS, OR COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, (B) ANY SUBSTITUTE GOODS, SERVICES OR TECHNOLOGY, (C) ANY AMOUNT, IN THE AGGREGATE, IN EXCESS OF THE GREATER OF (I) ONE-HUNDRED ($100) DOLLARS OR (II) THE AMOUNTS PAID AND/OR PAYABLE BY YOU TO BACKPACK IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTH PERIOD PRECEDING THIS APPLICABLE CLAIM OR (D) ANY MATTER BEYOND OUR REASONABLE CONTROL. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL OR CERTAIN OTHER DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION AND EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold the Backpack Parties harmless from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages (actual and consequential), losses and expenses (including attorneys’ fees) arising from or in any way related to any claims relating to (a) your use of the Services (including any actions taken by a third party using your account), and related banking or other financial products and services provided by Bank Partners (or other financial institutions) through the Services, and (b) your violation of these Terms. In the event of such a claim, suit, or action (“Claim”), we will attempt to provide notice of the Claim to the contact information we have for your account (provided that failure to deliver such notice shall not eliminate or reduce your indemnification obligations hereunder).

Assignment

You may not assign, delegate or transfer these Terms or your rights or obligations hereunder, or your Services account, in any way (by operation of law or otherwise) without Backpack’s prior written consent. We may transfer, assign, or delegate these Terms and our rights and obligations without consent.

Proprietary Rights

All technology, content, designs, graphics, compilation, magnetic translation, digital conversion, templates, materials, algorithms, code, or software used to provide the Services and any other matter related to the Services are protected under applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights (including but not limited to intellectual property rights) and are owned by Backpack or one of its affiliates. The copying, redistribution, use or publication by you of any part of the Services, unless expressly permitted in this Agreement, is strictly prohibited. Use of the Services does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in any of the content, documents or other materials you access. The posting of information or materials on the Services does not constitute a waiver of any right in such information and materials.

Law

These Terms are governed by and will be construed under the Federal Arbitration Act, applicable federal law, and the laws of the State of New York, without regard to the conflicts of laws provisions thereof.

Arbitration Agreement

Arbitration Agreement. Please read the following ARBITRATION AGREEMENT carefully because it requires you to arbitrate certain disputes and claims with Backpack and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from Backpack. Both you and Backpack acknowledge and agree that for the purposes of any dispute arising out of or relating to the subject matter of these Terms, Backpack's officers, directors, employees and independent contractors (“Personnel”) are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and that upon your acceptance of these Terms, Personnel will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as the third-party beneficiary hereof.

Arbitration Rules. Applicability of Arbitration Agreement. The parties shall use their best efforts to settle any dispute, claim, question, or disagreement arising out of or relating to the subject matter of these Terms directly through good-faith negotiations, which shall be a precondition to either party initiating arbitration. If such negotiations do not resolve the dispute, it shall be finally settled by binding arbitration in New York. The arbitration will proceed in the English language, in accordance with the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (the “Rules”) then in effect, by one commercial arbitrator with substantial experience in resolving intellectual property and commercial contract disputes. The arbitrator shall be selected from the appropriate list of JAMS arbitrators in accordance with such Rules. Judgment upon the award rendered by such arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Costs of Arbitration. The Rules will govern payment of all arbitration fees. Backpack will pay all arbitration fees for claims less than seventy-five thousand ($75,000) dollars. Backpack will not seek its attorneys’ fees and costs in arbitration unless the arbitrator determines that your claim is frivolous.
Small Claims Court; Infringement. Either you or Backpack may assert claims, if they qualify, in small claims court in New York City, New York or any United States county where you live or work. Furthermore, notwithstanding the foregoing obligation to arbitrate disputes, each party shall have the right to pursue injunctive or other equitable relief at any time, from any court of competent jurisdiction, to prevent the actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation or violation of a party's copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, patents or other intellectual property rights.
Waiver of Jury Trial. YOU AND BACKPACK WAIVE ANY CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY RIGHTS TO GO TO COURT AND HAVE A TRIAL IN FRONT OF A JURY. You and Backpack are instead choosing to have claims and disputes resolved by arbitration. In any litigation between you and Backpack over whether to vacate or enforce an arbitration award, YOU AND BACKPACK WAIVE ALL RIGHTS TO A JURY TRIAL.
Waiver of Class or Consolidated Actions. ALL CLAIMS AND DISPUTES WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THIS ARBITRATION AGREEMENT MUST BE ARBITRATED OR LITIGATED ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT ON A CLASS BASIS. CLAIMS OF MORE THAN ONE MEMBER OR USER CANNOT BE ARBITRATED OR LITIGATED JOINTLY OR CONSOLIDATED WITH THOSE OF ANY OTHER MEMBER OR USER. If however, this waiver of class or consolidated actions is deemed invalid or unenforceable, neither you nor Backpack is entitled to arbitration; instead all claims and disputes will be resolved in a court as set forth in (g) below.
Opt-out. You have the right to opt out of the provisions of this Section by sending written notice of your decision to opt out to the following address: 169 Madison Ave #2477, New York, NY, 10016 postmarked within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms. You must include: (i) your name and residence address, (ii) the email address and/or telephone number associated with your account, and (iii) a clear statement that you want to opt out of these Terms’ arbitration agreement.
Exclusive Venue. If you send the opt-out notice in (f), and/or in any circumstances where the foregoing arbitration agreement permits either you or Backpack to litigate any dispute arising out of or relating to the subject matter of these Terms in court, then the foregoing arbitration agreement will not apply to either party, and both you and Backpack agree that any judicial proceeding (other than small claims actions) will be brought in the state or federal courts located in, respectively, New York City, New York, or the federal district in which that county falls.
Severability. If the prohibition against class actions and other claims brought on behalf of third parties contained above is found to be unenforceable, then all of the preceding language in this Arbitration Agreement Section will be null and void. This arbitration agreement will survive the termination of your relationship with Backpack.

Miscellaneous

You will be responsible for paying, withholding, filing, and reporting all taxes, duties, and other governmental assessments associated with your activity in connection with the Services, provided that the Backpack may, in its sole discretion, do any of the foregoing on your behalf or for itself as it sees fit. The failure of either you or us to exercise, in any way, any right herein shall not be deemed a waiver of any further rights hereunder. If any provision of these Terms are found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated, to the minimum extent necessary, so that these Terms shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable. You and Backpack agree that these Terms are the complete and exclusive statement of the mutual understanding between you and Backpack, and that these Terms supersede and cancel all previous written and oral agreements, communications and other understandings relating to the subject matter of these Terms. You hereby acknowledge and agree that you are not an employee, agent, partner, or joint venture of Backpack, and you do not have any authority of any kind to bind Backpack in any respect whatsoever.

Except as expressly set forth in the Sections above regarding the arbitration agreement, you and Backpack agree there are no third-party beneficiaries intended under these Terms.

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