Common use of Internal Escalation Clause in Contracts

Internal Escalation. Any dispute involving this Agreement, the Processing Services or the obligations of either party under this Agreement (“Dispute”) shall be subject to the following escalation procedure, which shall begin upon written notification, which may be done via electronic mail (“email”): (a) Stage 1 – In the event Customer’s line manager and MasterCard’s account manager identify an issue and are not able to resolve the issue, the dispute must be immediately escalated to Stage 2. (b) Stage 2 – Customer and MasterCard’s senior managers shall meet within two (2) business days; if the dispute cannot be resolved within five (5) business days of referral to them, the dispute must be immediately escalated to Stage 3. (c) Stage 3 – Within five (5) business days of escalation from Stage 2, Customer and MasterCard senior executives shall meet for a period as mutually agreed. If the dispute cannot be resolved within fifteen (15) days of escalation to Stage 3, the dispute must be immediately escalated to Stage 4. (d) Stage 4 – If the dispute remains unresolved after thirty (30) business days of the original dispute notice, the parties may submit the Dispute to formal binding arbitration, in accordance with the arbitration provisions below, upon mutual agreement.