Since the beginning of 2021, doo has been working with Novalnet AG as payment service provider for online payment processing. In this article, we will give you some background information about Novalnet AG and the advantages a cooperation with Novalnet offers. In addition, we explain how the onboarding process works and what the requirements are.

1. Who is the new provider? Why did we choose them?

With Novalnet AG, we have found a new trustworthy partner for online payment processing. Novalnet AG is a leading European payment institution for professional electronic payment processing and, thanks to customer-specific flexibility, is now successfully active in a wide range of industries and companies, both nationally and internationally. It is one of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in Germany and serves e-commerce customers from various industries and countries worldwide. Thanks to BaFin (German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) licensing, escrow account management and PCI DSS certification, Novalnet enables secure and compliant payment processing. Unlike many payment service providers, Novalnet hosts the data in Germany.

2. Which advantages does a collaboration with Novalnet offer?

Efficiency and a high degree of automation

  • Seamless integration into the booking process (with and without booking approval)
  • Creation and sending of tickets/invoices as part of the booking process
  • Automatic cancellations & refunds (expected from H1 2022)
  • Setting a custom frequency for payment reminder emails directly in the system
  • Reasonable transaction fees

Transparency and security

  • Licensed provider from Germany
  • Payment status and invoice documents can be accessed online at any time by you as the organizer and by the bookers
  • Reporting & export functions
  • Wide range of payment methods: Visa/Mastercard, SEPA direct debit, prepayment, purchase on account, PayPal via your own PayPal business account
  • The booked payment methods can be activated/deactivated per event in the doo application itself
  • Account security guaranteed thanks to escrow account management
  • Optional additional modules for extended risk management and fraud prevention

3. What should I consider when choosing Novalnet?

Payment processing for the purchase of paid tickets takes place directly between you as the event organizer and the payment service provider Novalnet. Novalnet accepts payments and forwards them to you. Transactions of this kind must be contractually regulated.

An additional service agreement with Novalnet is therefore necessary for the payment processing. For legal reasons, you will have to complete a KYC process (“Know your customer”), in which we accompany you from the very beginning. Novalnet will provide you with our own account, where you can view all received transactions at any time.

Novalnet has a minimum withdrawal amount of 200 EUR (incl. 5% security deposit and the doo fees). If this amount is not reached, Novalnet withholds the payments until the minimum payout amount is reached. If you are an event organizer hosting only a few events with a low sales volume, Novalnet may not be suitable for you. We will be happy to advise you on our alternatives in this case.

4. What is the procedure for opening an account with Novalnet? 

4.1. Opening a Novalnet account

  1. As soon as you have ordered the payment module with Novalnet from us, you will receive an email from your doo contact person with an individual link to the Novalnet contract portal.
  2. Please register with your company name, email and password in the contract portal.
  3. There you will then be asked to enter some data that is required as part of the KYC process. All required data are listed in the doo Guide for the Novalnet Contract Portal – Data Entry (see attachments below, available only in German). In this guide you will also find instructions on how to fill in the data. If you wish to return to the contract portal at a later time, you can log back in at https://contract.novalnet.de.
  4. After you have filled in all data fields, you will be asked to upload some documents depending on the legal form. In the doo Guide for the Novalnet Contract Portal – Documents (see attachments below, available only in German) you will find a list with the required documents.
  5. Once the contract has been completed and submitted, it can be digitally signed by the authorized signatory. You will receive the link for this by email.
  6. In addition, the person signing must identify themselves. This is also done digitally via the Deutsche Post PostIdent procedure (e.g. via app). It is not necessary to go to the post office. You will receive the information on this from Novalnet by email as well.
  7. Novalnet will check the submitted documents and let you know as soon as the compliance check has been completed.
  8. Novalnet recommends that you refer to the data transfer of personal data to Novalnet in your privacy policy applicable to the events. You can obtain a non-binding suggested wording for this on the doo website under Legal > Downloads or by contacting Novalnet Support.
  9. As soon as you receive the message from Novalnet that your account can go live, please let us know.
  10. We will store your Novalnet account in our system. If necessary, you can then test the payment processing. Otherwise, we will have Novalnet switch the account to live mode and from then on you can start processing payments via Novalnet.

4.2. Special case PayPal

Due to PayPal’s requirements, a separate PayPal business account is necessary for processing PayPal payments via Novalnet. You will receive PayPal payments from bookers directly into your PayPal account, so they are not part of the Novalnet payout process. The doo transaction fees will be charged to your Novalnet account same as with other payment method. PayPal charges its own payment fees, which are deducted directly from the receipts in your PayPal account.

In order to submit your PayPal account for payment processing through Novalnet, you need an API signature. How to get it is described here in PayPal’s help center. Once you have the data, log in to your Novalnet Admin Portal. Open the tab “Project” and click on the deposited external project. An overlay will open. Here you can store your PayPal configuration. At the end please save your changes.

5. How do payment processing and payouts work?

Your bookers register as usual via the doo widget or the event website. For payment, they will be redirected from the third step to a payment page where they can select the payment method and complete their payment. Under Event Settings > Payments, you can turn on and off per event the payment methods you have booked.

For a new booking, doo gross transaction fees are deducted directly from the amount at the time of payment. This means you will receive the booking price minus the transaction fees directly credited to your Novalnet account. You can track all payments at any time via the doo Manager App as well as view them in your Novalnet Admin Portal.

Novalnet payouts are made monthly in the middle of the month (15th of the month) for all transactions realized in the previous month to the bank account on file for the Novalnet account (exception PayPal, see point 4). A security deposit of 5% is withheld, which will be paid out after 180 days. You will receive a monthly invoice from doo for the retained transaction fees and, if applicable, for other fees incurred, for example for refunds or chargebacks.

6. Questions and answers

6.1. Why are payments for paid events processed through a payment service provider (Novalnet)?

We provide event organizers with the doo event management platform through which attendees can book tickets for events. For paid tickets, there is a specific payment process and doo wants to make the process of making the payment as easy as possible for you and your attendees.

The receipt and forwarding of funds generally constitutes a so-called money remittance business (Finanztransfergeschäft). In order to carry out such financial transfer transactions, permission is required from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This is regulated in the Payment Services Supervision Act (§ 1 ZAG Zahlungsdiensteaufsichtsgesetz).

Therefore, if doo were to first receive payments from participants in its own account and then transfer them to the organizer, doo would have to acquire a permanent permit from BaFin. Applying for and maintaining such a permit is administratively extremely time-consuming. In order to continue to focus on our core business, the further development of a future-oriented event management platform, we are supported in the processing of payment transactions by an experienced and certified partner: Novalnet.

Accordingly, our payment service provider Novalnet accepts the payments of the attendees of your
paid events and forwards the payments to you as the event organizer. doo provides the integration and interface to Novalnet via the doo event management platform to enable a seamless and simple payment. doo is therefore not involved in the processing of the payment itself.

6.2. Is payment processing via Novalnet secure?

When processing payments, especially with credit card data, security is of crucial importance. Novalnet regularly undergoes audits in accordance with the regulations of the PCI-DSS organization (PCI DSS = Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and has always successfully passed all previous audits.

Through the PCI-DSS certification of the highest level (Level 1), Novalnet offers the highest possible protection and security for the payments of your event participants.

6.3. Is Novalnet a data processor from a data protection perspective?

Novalnet carries out the processing of payments neither as a data processor of the respective event organizer nor as a sub-processor of doo, but as its own responsible party. The payment processing is not a processing of data on behalf, but an independent activity of the payment service provider. This has been confirmed by the data protection supervisory authorities, for example the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA) in an opinion on the delimitation of commissioned processing (statement in German).

The conclusion of an Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with Novalnet is therefore not required and Novalnet is also not subject to approval as a sub-processor of doo.

6.4. Why do I have to go through a KYC process to open a Novalnet account?

KYC stands for “Know Your Customer”. Payment processing, or so-called money remittance business, is a legally regulated area. As a payment service provider licensed by BaFin, Novalnet is required by the German Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz GwG) to verify the identity of its contractual partners. As part of this, verification of the identity of the organizers to whom payments are to be distributed is required.

As part of the verification, the presentation of qualified legitimation documents is required, for example, an excerpt from the commercial register, a business registration and a copy of the identity card or passport of the managing director/CEO.

6.5. Why can’t I log in to the Novalnet contract portal?

You will receive an individual registration link from us to log in to the contract portal with your email, company name and password. Once you have completed this, this link is no longer valid. From then on, you can log in at https://contract.novalnet.de.

After logging in, you have 14 days to complete the contract. After that, the login will expire. If you need longer, you can have your access reactivated by Novalnet. To do so, write an email to support@novalnet.de with the request to reactivate the link to the contract portal for your company.

7. Attachments (only available in German)