Whiskybase Market General Terms and Conditions

Introduction

Whiskybase Market B.V. (“Whiskybase Market”, “we” or “us”, company details below) offers whisky enthusiasts an online marketplace that facilitates consumer-to-consumer sales of whisky bottles and allows and stimulates its members to contribute information about whisky bottles to the platform (“Service”). 

These General Terms and Conditions (“Terms”), as well as our Privacy Statement (“Privacy Statement”), apply to your (“you”, “User”) use of the Service (which includes visits to the Whiskybase Market websites).

By using our website(s) and registering for the Service, you expressly confirm acknowledgement and acceptance of the Terms and agree to be bound by them.

Our Service, age restrictions

Our Service is an online platform which provides Users the ability to sell and purchase (mostly) whisky bottles, post information (e.g. bottle facts, ratings, reviews, price or price information, collection tracking) on the platform. We ourselves do not sell or buy any goods on the Service and we are not a party to contracts for sale between sellers and buyers, nor are we an auctioneer of any kind.

The goods to be offered on the Service are restricted to closed whisky bottles.

Each User must be of legal drinking age in their country of residence to be allowed to use the Service. If no such law exists in a User’s country of residence, the User has to be over 21 years old to use the Service. We have the right to ask you to provide proof of your age and/or to provide further identification to prevent underage usage and/or for any other legal or legitimate purpose. By using the Service, and by creating an account you represent, warrant and confirm that you are of legal age.

You acknowledge that the Service is protected by copyrights and database rights. The Service and your account are for your personal use only and may not be shared with any third parties. We grant to registered Users a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable right to access and use the Service and to view its contents (“License”). Without limiting the foregoing, the License does not include (a) the right to resell the Service commercially, including but not limited to the use of the Service by anyone who, or any entity that is acting inside the scope of an economic activity (e.g. trade, business, craft, liberal profession), (b) the right to make the Service publicly available or use for public display, (c) any downloading, duplicating, or copying, collection and use of any contents of the Services, e.g. bottle information, descriptions, reviews, images, ratings, retail and secondary market price observations, values, etc., (d) the right to license, use, sell, archive, reproduce, distribute, modify, perform, publish, create derivative works from, offer for sale, or use of the Service. Further, you shall not circumvent, remove, alter, deactivate, degrade or thwart any of the content protections, decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble the Service and any software related to or used in or by the Service. However, the Service may allow you a download of your offers, bids, purchases, collections for your own personal use.

Without prejudice to the section Liability below, the Service may be temporarily unavailable during maintenance, updates, etc. We shall make reasonable efforts to inform you of any unavailability due to maintenance or updates.

User registration and accounts

You must create an account to be able to use our Service where the following personal information is required: username, a valid email address, country of residence and a password. Additional personal information may be provided by you if you wish to do so. Please read our Privacy Statement for more information on our use and processing of your personal information.

You are responsible for all activities through your account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information you provide to us in relation to your account, and for updating it where necessary. You are not allowed to create multiple accounts. We may terminate or temporarily suspend your account to protect you, ourselves or our partners from (suspected) identity theft or other (suspected) fraudulent (e.g. false, misleading, deceptive) activity. You have the obligation to keep your login credentials confidential. You shall not authorize any others to use or access your account.

Termination

You may terminate your account at any time. If you terminate your account, you will no longer have access to the Service and your Contributions (specified below), if any. We do not provide backups of your Contributions. To terminate your account, login to your account, go to the “settings page”, and follow the termination instructions].

We reserve the right to immediately and without prior notice deactivate, suspend and/or terminate your account if you do not abide by the Terms, if you act unlawful, if you do not act or use the Service in good faith, or if you cause any harm whatsoever to the Service, to other Users, to other persons or to us. You shall be notified of the deactivation, suspension, or termination via the email address linked to your account.

User behavior and User contributions

Regardless of whether the Service offers the functionality to contribute, you are solely responsible and liable for any content and information that you create, upload, post, publish, link to, duplicate, transmit, record, display or otherwise make available on the Service or to other Users, such as offers, bids, guarantees, agreements, chat messages, text messages, videos, audio, audio recordings, music, pictures, photographs, text and any other information or materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted (“Contributions”).

Any guidance we provide as part of the Services, information on whisky bottles or other goods, current and historical prices, offers, bids, indexes, shipping information (cost, delivery estimates), listings, etc. is solely informational and you may decide to follow it or not. We may help, but we are not obliged to facilitate the resolution of disputes between Users. We have no control over and we do not guarantee any offers and bids by Users, including but not limited to the actual existence of the goods, source of the goods, value, quality, safety or legality of goods, the truth or accuracy of Users’ Contributions, the ability of Users to sell and/or pay for goods, the ability of Users to ship and/or receive goods, or that a User will actually complete a transaction or return any goods.

You shall not contribute any discriminatory, racially offensive, abusive, offensive, threatening, intimidating, inaccurate, incomplete, obscene, profane, harassing, off-topic, irrelevant, or illegal material and/or Contributions, or any other Contributions that infringes, or may infringe, or violates or may violate, any third party’s rights, including intellectual and industrial property rights, rights of privacy and publicity. Further, deliberate or undeliberate manipulation of information on the Service (such as offers, bids, ratings, etc.), any activity with the intent to influence such information, value or reviews on products (e.g. bottles, brands, distilleries, bottlers or shops) are not allowed.

You acknowledge, understand and agree that we are not obligated to review, check or monitor any Contributions, but we may do so. Furthermore, we may (without prior notice and without giving reasons) change, delete or alter any Contributions, whether in whole or in part, that in our sole judgment and discretion violates these Terms, is unlawful, is in any way harmful to you, Users, us, the Service or any third parties.

You hereby grant to us (including our parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, (sub)licensees, assignees, successors, authorized third party contractors), the worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, unlimited in any way, non-exclusive, transferable, free of charge and fully paid-up, right and license to duplicate, copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, display, make available, perform, use, store, record, play, adapt, alter, modify, make derivative works of, or in any other way exploit your Contributions (including any past Contributions you already posted/created on the Service (and any previous version thereof)), through any and all means and media, whether now known or hereafter devised, including but not limited to the internet, websites, print, magazines, books, mobile applications, games, commercials, etc. We have the right to transfer, assign the license granted by you to us, or grant licenses and sublicenses to our licensees, or have and allow them granting sublicenses to licensees to any other parties. 

You hereby represent and warrant that you are authorized to make any Contributions, that your Contributions and the use by us will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party. You will defend (at our option), indemnify and hold harmless us and our parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, (sub)licensees, assignees, successors, authorized third party contractors from any and all loss, damage, claim, liability or expense (including reasonable outside legal fees and costs) actually incurred as a result of a third party claim arising out of a breach or alleged breach of your obligations, representations and warranties made herein.

Further,

each offer may only involve one (1) good (item, e.g. a bottle).
the title and text of any offers made by you shall not be misleading, inaccurate or incorrect and shall accurately and clearly describe the goods being offered for sale.
it is not allowed to add photos that are not related to the goods offered.
it is not allowed to list an offer that involves an advertisement for goods or services outside the Service, e.g. for the purpose of directly or indirectly promoting a company, website, social media.
it is not allowed to include links to websites, social media, etc. outside the Service.

Additionally, in connection with using the Services and/or buying or selling goods on the Service, you hereby acknowledge and agree that you,

are a consumer, meaning that you are acting outside the scope of an economic activity (e.g. trade, business, craft, liberal profession), or that if you are not a consumer, you consent to the “trader clause” below.

will ship any goods you sold on the Service.
will pay for any goods you bought on the Service.
will handle any goods received by you with the utmost care until acceptance or return of the goods.
are able to conclude legally binding contracts.
will refrain from any action that may lead to false or unjust reviews, or that may undermine the feedback or ratings systems.
will not manipulate prices of any goods offered by other Users.
will not offer or entice any other User to complete a sale/purchase outside the Service.

Trader

If you are not a consumer and you offer any goods on the Service, you accept and agree that you shall be solely responsible and liable against any other user of the Service, e.g. a buyer, for ensuring and meeting any applicable rights the buyer may have (e.g. consumer rights, such as the right to withdraw, right to information before making a purchase, etc.). You warrant us that you shall fulfill any obligations you may have. You hereby indemnify us and hold us harmless (including our parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, (sub)licensees, assignees, successors, authorized third party contractors) from any loss, damage, claim, liability or expense (including reasonable outside legal fees and costs) incurred as a result of a third party claim arising out of a breach or alleged breach of your obligations, representations and warranties made herein.

Purchases, payment and payment methods, shipping, delivery, fees and taxes

We charge a fee from each User that sells any goods on the Service, for each sale made (“Fee”). The Fee is charged on a per sale basis and shall only be charged if a sale is made. The Fee amount is specified on the [Selling fees section of the] Service. Where applicable, and regardless of whether the Service offers such functionality, we may charge Users for additional services provided to a User (“Additional Fees”). We may change the Fees and Additional Fees at our discretion. The Fees and the Additional Fees specified on the Service include applicable taxes. Shipping rates, insurances, shipping conditions, taxes and duties (e.g. import duties) purchase price currency, etc. are to be agreed between Users and are borne by either one of them as agreed between them.

The User that offers goods on the Service is liable for payment of the Fee and Additional Fees, even if a purchase agreement between Users is completed outside the Service. Further, if a User provides contact information or asks another User for their contact information in the context of buying or selling outside of the Service, that User is liable to pay the Fee (and Additional Fees) applicable to the offer of the good(s) involved, whether or not the goods have been sold.

Payments between Users (buyer and seller) are to be made only through the payment methods offered on the Service. Each User must have a payment method on file when using our Services. If a payment method fails or is expired, we may place restrictions on your account. In addition, you will be subject to late fees. Availability of payment methods may be dependent on User’s location and User’s acceptance.

When Users (buyer and seller) have agreed on a purchase price for goods, the purchase price shall be paid by the buyer through the payment methods offered on the Service. The amount of the purchase price is then put in escrow with the payment method chosen by the Users. Once the amount is put in escrow, the seller is obliged to ship the goods to the buyer. Once the goods have been received by the buyer, the buyer then has seven (7) days to either accept or decline the goods. If the goods have not been declined by the buyer within that period of seven (7) days, the goods shall be deemed to have been accepted by the buyer.

If the buyer accepts the goods (or did not decline the goods within the seven (7) day period), the purchase price is released to the seller, minus the Fee and Additional Fees (if applicable). 

If the buyer declines the goods, the buyer is obliged to return the goods to the seller at buyer’s costs and in the same condition as received and to be shipped within fourteen (14) days from receipt. The purchase price is released to the buyer once the seller has confirmed receipt of the goods. 

A buyer does not have the right to cancel an order unless agreed between a buyer and a seller. However, a buyer may request a seller to cancel the order anyway and the seller may then agree to cancel the order or not, at its own discretion. A seller does not have the right to cancel an order unless agreed between a buyer and a seller. However, a seller may withdraw an offer until that offer has been accepted by a buyer, and a seller may request a buyer to cancel the order anyway where the buyer may then agree to cancel the order or not, at its own discretion.

We do not guarantee that (other) Users will abide by these Terms or otherwise fulfil their obligations arising from purchase agreements with other Users. For example, and without any limitations, this also means that (a) we do no guarantee that a seller will deliver the goods, deliver the goods in agreed condition, or on agreed terms, that (b) we do not guarantee that a buyer will pay for the goods and that (c) we do no guarantee the goods will meet your expectations.

Dispute resolution

Users shall first try to resolve any disputes amongst themselves. 

If Users are not able to resolve a dispute, either one of them may reach out to us and we will give a preliminary, non-binding view on the matter provided the dispute involves one of the following situations (“qualifying disputes”): (a) goods received are not the goods offered (different goods have been received), (b) the goods are damaged, (c) the goods are lost during shipping, 

Users shall then try again to resolve the dispute amongst themselves. If Users again are not able to resolve the dispute, each of them may request us to provide a binding solution in the conflict that involves a qualifying dispute, under the following terms:

Through the acceptance of these Terms, both Users have consented to us providing a binding solution and both Users waive the right to submit their dispute to any court, unless both Users agree in writing to submit their dispute to a court of their choice after the dispute has arisen but before the dispute is submitted to use to provide a binding solution.

Both Users shall be allowed to state their case once (in writing only) and provide proof (e.g. photos), to be submitted within a timeframe provided by us of at least one (1) month. We may ask one or both Users to provide additional information if needed. We also may ask both Users to provide additional arguments. We shall set timeframes for submission of such additional enquiries.

Our decision shall be made in writing (email) and shall be based on the principles of reasonability and fairness and shall be a final decision to settle the dispute. There is no option to appeal.

A User may be represented by a registered attorney-at-law, but is not under any obligation to have legal representation.

We do not charge any fees for dispute resolution and each User shall bear its own legal costs (if any), even if our decision favors one User.

Liability

Nothing in the Terms shall exclude or limit our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or for death or personal injury resulting from gross negligence or willful misconduct by us.

The Service has been prepared by us solely for information purposes to Users, to facilitate the marketplace that is part of the Service, and the Service is based on information we consider reliable and we obtain the contents of the Service from a number of different third party sources (including Contributions), but we do not endorse, support, represent, warrant or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the Services and any information therein.

The Service, including any information contained therein, does not constitute any advice (such as but not limited to investment advice, tax advice, financial, economic advice) and is not intended as recommendations (whether personal, in general, or otherwise) to invest in companies, buy or sell goods, products, services. Any investment and purchase and/or sales made, or action(s) taken based upon (information in) the Service may and will involve significant risk (such as, but not limited to loss, total loss). Past “performances” (e.g. values, ratings, etc.) of products (e.g. bottles, casks), Users and companies (e.g. distilleries) listed in the Services are not indicative of, nor are guarantee of future results.

Before making any decision (e.g. sale, purchase, investment) whatsoever based on the Service you should consider obtaining third party professional/expert advice on the matter, and you should consider whether such the decision is suitable and feasible with respect to (inter alia) your financial status and situation, your particular knowledge/experience on the matter (e.g. products, companies) involved.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we expressly disclaim all warranties and representations with respect to the Services (for avoidance of doubt, including but not limited to our dispute resolution and decisions made by us), whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, lack of viruses, accuracy or completeness of responses or results from use of the Services, that the Services will meet specific requirements, that the Services will be available or uninterrupted, secure or free of errors. You acknowledge and agree that the Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

Neither Whiskybase Market nor any of its group companies (including any subsidiary, affiliate or holding company), directors, officers and employees shall in any way be liable or responsible (whether directly, indirectly, consequential) for any costs, claims, damages, liabilities and other expenses, including any consequential loss, suffered by you resulting from your use of the Service. 

Miscellaneous

We may, but are not under any obligation, to release new functionalities and tools or other features for the Service every now and then. Any new functionalities, tools and features shall be part of and governed by the Terms from the moment they are launched and/or available. Further, we reserve the right to modify, change, discontinue the Service, add or remove features, update the Service, change its appearance, temporarily and permanently, at any time, in whole or any part thereof. 

We may change or update the Terms from time to time. You will be notified of any changes through the Service and/or by email. Your continued use of the Service after any such changes or updates take effect will constitute acknowledgement and (as applicable) acceptance of those changes or updates.

We may sell, license, transfer, assign or in any other way dispose of the Service (including Users) to any third party without any notification to you, e.g. (but without limitation) in connection with any reorganization, restructuring, merger or sale, or other transfer of assets.

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, the remainder of the Terms shall continue in full force and effect.

If we decide not to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms, such decision shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

No partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship is created as a result of your use of the Service.

Unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise, your use of and membership to the Service are exclusively governed by Dutch law. We shall first try to settle any dispute over a dram of whisky. Disputes that cannot be settled over multiple drams of whisky shall be solely submitted to the court of Rotterdam, The Netherlands unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise.

About Whiskybase Market and contact details

Whiskybase Market B.V. is the Dutch private limited liability company, having its statutory seat in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and its office at Zwaanshals 530, 3035 KS Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Whiskybase Market B.V. is registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce under no. 60207205.

Any questions, requests and inquiries may be directed at:

market@whiskybase.com

or at:

Whiskybase Market B.V.
attn. Customer Service
Zwaanshals 530
3035 KS Rotterdam
The Netherlands

Version 2.0, September 2022