Vendor Agreement

This is the agreement between BackMyTown Ltd, registered in England and Wales (company number 17360461, registered office 10 Beaufort Close, Reigate, RH2 9DG, United Kingdom) ("we", "the platform") and the business accepting it during sign-up ("you", "the vendor"). You accept it by ticking the box in vendor sign-up; the version you accepted is recorded.

1. What BackMyTown is

BackMyTown is a community-commerce marketplace: local businesses sell to local people, and a share of the platform's fee on qualifying sales goes to local community groups as fundraising. You sell in your own name; we are the marketplace, never the seller.

2. Getting set up: Stripe

To sell, you must complete onboarding to a Stripe Connect account and accept Stripe's Connected Account Agreement. Stripe runs the identity and bank checks; we cannot process sales for you until your Stripe account is fully onboarded and in good standing. Keep your business, bank and contact details current with Stripe and with us.

3. You are the merchant of record

Every sale you make through the platform is a contract between you and the customer. Payments are direct charges to your own Stripe account; we never hold customer money. You set your prices, issue your own receipts (and VAT invoices where applicable), and are responsible to the customer for what you sell.

4. Your responsibilities

You will:

• keep every listing accurate, lawful and not misleading, including price, description, and allergen and ingredient information where relevant;
• tell us what we need to present the legally required pre-contract information, including whether an item is exempt from the consumer's 14-day cancellation right (for example perishable goods or dated event tickets);
• fulfil orders as described and on time, and tell us and affected customers promptly if you cannot;
• handle refunds, cancellations and complaints in line with UK consumer law (the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013), refunding through Stripe to the original payment method;
• hold every registration, licence and insurance your trade needs (food business registration, hygiene compliance, alcohol licensing, product and event safety, age-restriction rules), and show us evidence if we reasonably ask;
• handle your own tax affairs, including VAT on your sales if you are VAT-registered.

5. Our fee and the group share

The fee. We charge you a platform fee on each completed sale, at the rate in your town's schedule (for Reigate: 4% of the sale value). It is collected automatically as the Stripe application fee, deducted from your proceeds before payout.

VAT on the fee. The fee is for our service to you and is priced plus VAT where applicable. Once we are VAT-registered, VAT is charged on the fee (so a 4% fee costs 4.8% all-in) and we issue VAT invoices. We account for VAT on our fee only, not on your sale; VAT on your sale is your affair as the seller.

The group share. Where a customer has chosen a community group, we pay that group a share of our fee under our separate agreement with the group. The share is our cost: it never changes the customer's price or your payout, and it creates no obligation from you to any group.

Refunds and chargebacks. When a sale is refunded or reversed, we refund the application fee to you to the extent Stripe supports it. Chargeback liability and Stripe's dispute fees rest with you as merchant of record.

Changing the schedule. We can revise your town's fee schedule on at least 30 days' written notice; changes apply only to sales after the notice period.

6. Listings and branding

You give us a non-exclusive licence to use your name, logo and product images to list and promote your products on the platform and in its communications (such as the weekly digest and your supporter badge). We can decline, suspend or remove a listing we reasonably consider unlawful, unsafe, misleading or harmful to the platform's or a group's reputation.

7. Customer data

Both of us comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are each independent controllers: we for running the marketplace and the group scheme, you for fulfilling orders and your own legal obligations.

We share with you the customer details needed to fulfil an order (name, contact details, order contents, delivery or collection details). You will use them only for the order and your legal obligations, keep them secure, delete them when no longer needed, and never use them for marketing unless the customer has separately given you their own consent. Tell us without undue delay about any data breach affecting shared data, and give reasonable help with data subject requests that concern it.

8. Suspension and ending the agreement

This agreement starts when you complete onboarding and runs until ended. Either of us can end it on 30 days' written notice, or immediately if the other seriously breaches it and does not put things right within 14 days of being asked, or becomes insolvent.

We can suspend your listings immediately if we reasonably suspect fraud, a food or product safety risk, loss of a required licence, a restricted Stripe account, or serious customer harm, and will lift the suspension once resolved.

When the agreement ends: outstanding orders must still be fulfilled or refunded, fees already accrued remain payable, listings come down, and each side stops using the other's branding.

9. Liability

You are responsible for what you sell, and you indemnify us against third-party claims arising from your products, services, listings or breach of law (in plain terms: if we are sued because of your products or your breach, you cover the cost). Neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you in any 12-month period is capped at the platform fees you paid us in that period. Nothing limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything the law does not allow to be limited.

10. General

You may not transfer this agreement without our consent; we may transfer it to a group company or a buyer of the business. This agreement plus your town's fee schedule is the whole agreement on its subject. Changes must be in writing. No one else has rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. The agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales and its courts have exclusive jurisdiction.

Town fee schedule