We’ve updated the layout of our Terms of Service making it easier to navigate, as well as added clarification to some of the content.





Our updated Terms of Service will take effect on April 20, 2018 for new users and on May 20, 2018 for all other users. The updated User Agreement was posted on Upwork.com/legal#terms today.



What’s changed?

Nothing major has changed in our Terms of Service, mostly modifications to improve clarity and readability. We’ve added plain English intros to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy, as well as reorganized the Terms of Service to make them easier to read and understand. Here are some of the key changes to be aware of:

The Site Terms of Use covers more detail - including information on how visitors can use Upwork.com, whether or not they register for an account.





We reorganized the User Agreement so that topics are grouped in a more clear and understandable way - for example, now everything in the User Agreement that you need to know about fees is in Section 5 and everything about our escrow services is in Section 6. In addition:



You’ll note we’ve added a “plain English” intro to each major section explaining what the section is about.



We added a table of contents, making it easier to sort through the information and go directly to the section you’re looking for.



Section 8 of the User Agreement used to list out the default terms between Clients and Freelancers if they didn’t make another arrangement. We broke these out as a new agreement named the Optional Service Contract Terms .



We made the Circumvention and Opt-Out provisions more clear, and have raised the Opt-Out Fee from $2,500 to $3,500 per relationship.



We’ve made some clarifying changes to the arbitration agreement - but haven’t broadened the scope of the agreement.





We’ve also added Mark Use Guidelines so you know how you may use “Upwork” and our other trademarks. These are effective immediately.

Please read these updates carefully, including the updates to the arbitration provision.

We’ll be emailing customers later today to notify them of this change. Thank you for being a part of the Upwork community.