Soda is a trade-only network. Every business, and the person who operates its account, is verified before they can list, bid, message or trade. This policy explains our Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) checks. It forms part of our Terms of Service, and our Privacy Policy explains how we handle the personal information involved.
1. Why we verify
- Trust. Dealers need to know that everyone they deal with is a real, accountable business.
- Safety. Verification makes fraud, counterfeit trading and account takeover much harder.
- Compliance. High-value goods such as luxury watches carry anti-money-laundering (AML) and sanctions risk. Verification helps us, and you, meet legal obligations.
2. Who must be verified
- The business (KYB): every dealer business that holds an account.
- The account owner (KYC): the person who opens the account and anyone who has authority to bind the business.
- Beneficial owners: people who own or control 25% or more of the business, where the law or our risk assessment requires.
- Employees added to a company account (Team plan) verify their email and phone and complete an identity check (a government-issued photo ID, front and back, and a selfie, reviewed by our team) before they can bid, Mark as Sold or message. They are always shown as linked to their company.
3. What we ask for
You apply through a step-by-step form that explains why we need each item. You can save and resume at any time, on any device, and take document photos with your phone camera. Requirements may vary by country and risk level. Typically:
Account and contact
- Full legal name and preferred name.
- Email address (verified) and mobile phone number.
- WhatsApp number and country of residence.
Identity (KYC)
- A valid government-issued photo ID (passport, national ID card or driving licence), front and back.
- A selfie of you holding that ID. Selfies are currently reviewed manually by our team. We may later use a specialist identity-verification provider or liveness check.
- Date of birth and residential address, with a proof of address (such as a utility bill or bank statement) dated within the last 3 months.
Business (KYB)
- Legal business name, trading name and business type (for example sole proprietor, corporation or partnership), and your role in the business.
- Business registration number and registration document: for example articles of incorporation, a business licence, a commercial registration (CR) certificate, or a trade licence.
- Tax identifiers: for example an EIN, business number, VAT/GST/TRN number or reseller certificate.
- Business address and a business proof of address, and whether you are Brick & Mortar or Online Only.
- For Brick & Mortar businesses (optional): photos of the storefront and interior.
- Years in business, brands you deal in, typical price range and estimated monthly volume.
- Details of directors and beneficial owners, where required.
Trust signals
- The dealer groups you are active in (for example WhatsApp, Facebook or Signal groups) and for how long.
- Your profiles on other platforms (for example Chrono24 or eBay), your website and your social media accounts (such as Instagram).
- How you heard about us, or your referral code.
Payment and billing
- The payment details your company uses to receive payments from other dealers (for example bank wire, Zelle or crypto), with an account holder name that matches the business or the applicant.
- Your shipping address(es).
- A payment card for your subscription, collected securely by Stripe. The card is saved but not charged until your account is approved. If your application is declined, the card is removed and you are never charged.
Agreements
- Your acceptance of our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines and Auction Rules, recorded with the version and time.
We may ask for more information at any time, for example if your trading volume grows significantly or our screening returns a potential match.
4. What we check
- That documents are genuine, current and unaltered.
- That the person applying matches their ID.
- That the business exists, is active, and that the applicant is authorised to act for it.
- Screening against international sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEP) lists and adverse media.
- That the business is genuinely engaged in the watch trade, including through your presence in dealer groups and on other platforms.
- That details are consistent across your application, for example that the name, country and address on your payment card match your application, and that your phone, email and ID are not already linked to another account.
Mismatches are flagged for manual review, not rejected automatically. For example, business owners often pay with a personal card, so a different cardholder name is a reason for our team to look more closely, not a reason to decline.
Some checks may be carried out by a specialist identity-verification provider acting on our behalf.
5. Decisions
- We aim to decide on complete applications within 2 business days.
- We may approve, ask for more information, or decline. If we need more information we tell you exactly which items to update, and you only need to fix those. Because verification involves fraud-prevention and compliance judgements, we may not always be able to give detailed reasons for a decline.
- When you are approved, your chosen plan starts and your card is charged for the first time. If you are declined, you are not charged and your saved card is removed.
- You may reapply after 6 months, or ask us to review a decision through our contact form.
A verified badge means you completed our checks at a point in time. It is not a guarantee of your future conduct and other dealers should still use their own judgement.
6. Ongoing monitoring and re-verification
- We may re-screen verified accounts against sanctions and PEP lists from time to time.
- We may ask you to re-verify when documents expire, when business details change, when ownership changes, or when we detect unusual activity.
- You must tell us promptly about changes to your business name, ownership, address or legal status.
If you do not provide requested information within 14 days, we may restrict your account until you do.
7. How we protect verification data
- Documents are encrypted in transit and at rest.
- They are stored in private storage that is never publicly accessible, and are served only through short-lived signed links.
- Only authorised staff whose role allows it can view them, on a need-to-know basis, for reviewing applications, support, fraud prevention and dispute resolution.
- Staff must give a stated reason to open your file, and every access is logged with who viewed what, when and why. These logs are reviewed.
- Other dealers never see your documents. They see only your verified status and the business profile you publish.
- We keep a full history of each application, including every submission, re-submission and staff decision.
- We keep verification records for approved dealers for 5 years after the relationship ends, or longer if the law requires, then delete them securely.
- If your application is declined, your documents are kept for 1 year after the decision and then deleted automatically.
8. Your responsibilities
You must provide true, complete and current information and must not submit forged, altered or borrowed documents. Providing false information is a serious breach of our terms and may be reported to the authorities.
9. Contact
Questions about verification: contact us.