Terms of Service
Welcome to SME Marketplace Nigeria! We operate an online marketplace for locally owned Small, Micro, Medium business and the community that allows you to buy and sell items using our website. Have a good time buying and selling while following our rules.
Intro
Welcome to The SME Marketplace Ng platform (the ‘Site’). We’ll refer to our website and other services as “Our Services”, and the Marketplace will be addressed individually or collectively as “The Marketplace”, “SME Marketplace”, “SMEMPNG”, “We”, “Us”, or “Our”. Please read through the following Terms of Service carefully before using the Site or any of Our Services.
This document and any documents referred to within it will collectively make up the ‘Terms of Service’ and ‘End User Licensing Agreement’.
Our “Services” include (a) the site, (b) the services provided by the site, (c) all information, linked pages, features, data, text, images, photographs, graphics, music, sounds, video, messages, tags, content, programming, software, application services. Any new features added to or augmenting the Services are also subject to these Terms of Service. Content that is posted by Users using our Services will be “Your Content”. Your Content includes your usernames, shop names, profile pictures, listing photos, listing descriptions, reviews, comments, videos, etc.
Our services include an online platform service that provides a place and opportunity for the sale of goods or services between the buyer (“Buyer”) and the seller (“Seller” or “Vendor”), collectively known as “Users” or “Parties”. The actual contract for a sale is directly between the Buyer and the Seller. We are not a party to that contract or any other contract between Buyer and Seller. Parties to the transaction will be entirely responsible for the sales contract between them in accordance to the listing of goods, warranty of purchase, and the like. As such, We accept no obligations in connection to these contracts. However, if you have problems with your order, we may be able to step in to help (refer to section 10). We do not pre-screen Customer Users and We cannot ensure that Users will actually complete a transaction.
We reserve the right to change, modify, suspend or discontinue all or any part of this Site or Services at any time. We may release certain Services or their features while they are still considered to be a beta version, which may not work correctly or in the same way as how the final version may work, and cannot be held liable in such instances. We may also impose limit on certain features or restrict your access to parts of, or the entire Site or Service at its sole discretion without notice or liability.
We reserve the right to refuse to provide you access to the Site or Service or to allow you to open an Account for any reason.
Privacy
We know your personal information is important to you, so it’s important to us. Our Privacy policy details how your information is used when you use our Services. When using our Services or providing information on the site, you consent to our collection, use, disclosure, and processing of Your Content and personal data as described in the Privacy Policy.
Users in possession of another User’s personal data obtained through the use of the Services hereby agree that they will; (a) comply with all applicable personal data protection laws, (b) allow User (owner of personal data) the right to remove their collected data from User (receiver of personal data) from the database upon request.
Vendors are solely responsible for their handling of other Users’ personal data and are encouraged to research the legal requirements for data handling, especially if they move data from the platform to other locations.
Limited License
We grant you a limited and revocable license to access and use Our Services, subject to our Terms of Service. All proprietary Content, trademarks, service marks, brand names, logos, and other intellectual property displayed in the Site are the property of SME Marketplace Nigeria and where applicable, third parties proprietors identified in the Site. You agree not to copy, distribute, republish, mirror, frame or create derivative works without our prior written consent.
Your Account
You’ll need to create an account with Us to use most of Our Services. Here are a few rules about accounts with Us:
1. You must be 16 or older to use our Service. Otherwise, you may only use our Services under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian.
2. Be honest with us, and provide accurate information about yourself. It’s not OK to use false information or impersonate another person or company through your account.
3. You are responsible for your account. You’re solely responsible for any activity on your account. If you’re sharing an account with other people, then the person’s name on the account will ultimately be responsible for all activity. If you’re registering as a business entity, you personally guarantee that you have the authority to agree to the Terms on behalf of the business. Also, your account is not transferable. However, the account associated with a Vendor Store can be transferred upon request. We also offer Sub-Accounts (Staff account) to alleviate several account-sharing concerns, please see the Vendor Dashboard for more information.
4. As we’ve mentioned above, you’re solely responsible for any activity on your account, so remember to keep your login and password secure.
Your Content
Content that you post using Our Services is your content. This includes usernames, shop names, profile pictures, listing photos, listing descriptions, reviews, comments, video, etc.
1. You are solely responsible for Your Content. You represent that you have all the necessary rights to Your Content and you’re not infringing or violating any third party’s rights by posting it.
2. Posting Your Content through our Services, you grant us a license to use it. This license allows us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use, display, edit, modify, reproduce, distribute, store and prepare derivative works of Your Content to promote the Services or our Site. We do not claim ownership to Your Content, but we have your permission to use it to help us function and grow. Note: This does NOT give us permission to copy/reproduce your products or content for reselling.
3. If content that you own or have rights to has been posted to the Services without your permission and you want it removed, please contact us. If your content infringes another person’s intellectual property, we will remove it if we receive proper notice.
4. You agree to not post any content that is abusive, threatening, defamatory, or otherwise in violation of our Prohibited Items/Services section. You also agree not to post any content that is false, misleading or uses the Services in a manner that is fraudulent or deceptive.
Your Use of Our Services
We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to use our Services. You agree that you will not violate any laws in connection without your use of the Services. This includes any local, state, federal, and international laws that may apply to you.
You are solely responsible for collection and/or paying any applicable taxes for any purchases or sales you make through our Services. This includes income taxes, state or local sales taxes, value-added taxes, etc.
You agree not to attempt to obtain source code of the services. You agree to not interfere with or disrupt/harm our services.
Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including any or all of the following: listing deletion, account suspension, or legal action; if necessary.
If you believe a User on our Site is violating these terms, please contact us.
Purchase and Payment
As a marketplace venue, Our role is to connect buyers with locally owned independent small businesses (sellers).
As a buyer when you place an order on our marketplace you enter into a transaction with an independent small business, facilitated by Us.
A transaction is created when a buyer has completed the Checkout process on Our marketplace. Both the buyer and the seller are sent a message from SME Marketplace NG about the order and a receipt record in their account.
A transaction is considered complete after the buyer received the item or service he paid for.
All sales on the platform are binding. The vendor is obligated to complete the transaction with the buyer in a prompt manner unless an exceptional circumstance arises.
We aims to keep the shopping experience consistent across the marketplace, however, since each shop is an independent business, there may be some differences between shops. Each shop may have their own specific policies for things like returns, exchanges and shipping methods; these shop policies may not conflict with our site-wide policies. Additionally, please take note that third-party services are probably involved in a transaction (for example: merchant services and shipping services), and these other services may have different policies regarding transactions or use of their services.
Vendor Commission
The seller of any item/service will pay us a commission on the total transaction amount received by the seller. Please see the Fees Policy for specific details.
Our commission will be deducted directly from your funds before the funds are settled into your account.
All third-party payment processors charge an additional fee for payment processing. This fee will be dependent on the buyer’s location (local or international). All payment processing fees will be included in the vendor commission that we charge and paid by the site admin. Depending on trends regarding actual fees charged pursuant to the buyer’s locations, we reserve the right to adjust and personalize the commission as necessary.
Vendor’s Responsibilities
Vendors will properly manage and ensure that relevant information such as the price and the details of items, inventory amount, and will not post inaccurate or misleading information.
The pricing of items/services for sale are determined by the Vendor at his/her own discretion. The price of an item and shipping charges will include any additional charges such as sales tax, value-added tax, tariffs, etc. Vendors will not charge Buyers such amounts additionally and separately.
Vendors are obligated to deliver items/services as described in a prompt manner unless there is an exceptional circumstance. If there are any exceptional circumstance the vendor is obliged to contact the Buyer to inform them of any delays or inability to complete the transaction and rectify the situation appropriately.
Vendors are encouraged to research their responsibilities regarding all potential tax issues and should consider obtaining a formal review by a licensed entity.
Shipping
We offer a variety of services to make it easier for sellers to get their one-of-a-kind items into the hands of buyers quickly and securely. This Shipping Policy explains your shipping obligations as a seller.
Advertising & Marketing
We believe ads should help vendors grow their businesses and contribute to their overall selling experience. We offer vendors various advertising channels to promote their webstores and listings. This Advertising & Marketing Policy explains your rights and responsibilities when using our advertising services.
Affiliate Program
Our Affiliates Program offers eligible affiliates, including blogs and other third party websites (“Affiliates”), the opportunity to earn commissions on qualifying sales and vendor signup that originate from links to SME Marketplace’s websites on an Affiliate’s site or social media channel. This Affiliates Policy explains your rights and responsibilities when participating in Our Affiliates Program.
Disputes with Other Users
If you find yourself in a dispute with another user of our Services or a third party, we encourage you to first contact the other party and try to resolve the dispute amicably.
Should you be unable to resolve the dispute between you and another user, we may step in to help resolve the dispute. If you would like us to get involved, please contact us. We will help in good faith based on our policies. However, we are unable to make judgments regarding legal issues or claims.
Whether you are a Buyer or a Vendor of an item/service, you must cooperate with us throughout the dispute resolution process. We ask that you provide all information relating to the dispute that we request for. Such requests will be directed to your designated email address. If we are unable to get a response from you we may close the investigation or determine that the investigation has been resolved in favor of the other party.
Disputes as a Buyer:
You may always pursue any disputes about a transaction through the third-party payment processor or contact your card provider to pursue any chargeback options that may be available to you from your card provider. In these situations, please contact your vendor first, followed by Us at the Contact Us link.
Disputes as a Vendor:
As a Vendor, we encourage you to communicate actively with your buyer especially if there are any exceptional circumstances. We encourage you to be prompt in responding to your Buyers in order to avoid any unnecessary disputes.
Any formal disputes by a buyer will come through the third-party payment processor used or their credit card provider.
Disputes with Us
If you are upset with us, please let us know, and hopefully, we can resolve your issue. If we are unable to resolve the issue, these rules will govern any legal dispute involving our Services:
1. Governing Law. SME Marketplace NG’s local laws govern the Terms of Service. These laws will then apply no matter where in the world you live.
2. You agree that any dispute or claim arising from the Terms will be settled by arbitration where possible. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court that has jurisdiction. Any arbitration under the Terms will take place on an individual basis: Class arbitrations and class actions are not permitted. Any decisions made by the arbitrator will be deemed final.
Changes to the Terms
We are constantly updating and improving the Service to try and find ways to provide you with new and innovative features and services. Improvements and updates are also made to reflect changing technologies, tastes, behaviors, and the way people use the Internet and our Service.
We may revise the Terms of Service but the most current version will always be at this link.
We will try, where possible and reasonable, to contact you to let you know about significant changes to any of the documents referred to in these Terms of Service. We may make contact through the system or via a separate email.
The current version of the Terms of Service contains the only terms that apply to our relationship with you. Older versions of the Terms of Service will no longer apply to our relationship and will be completely replaced by the current version.
Prohibited Items / Services
We prohibit certain types of items from our marketplace. Some of these items present legal risks to our community.
It is the Vendor’s responsibility to ensure that their proposed item complies with all laws and is allowed to be listed for sale in accordance with local laws’ of the marketplace’s incorporation. For the vendor’s convenience, we have provided a non-exhaustive guideline on prohibited and restricted items that are not allowed for sale. We will update this guideline from time to time where necessary.
If an item/service is found to be in violation of this policy, we may subject the Vendor to a range of adverse actions, including listing deletion, account suspension, account termination, and legal action.
The following types of items are prohibited:
i.
ii. Tobacco products, smokeable products, e-cigarettes and e-liquid
iii. Drugs and drug paraphernalia
iv. Medicine, medicinal instruments, and items with objectionable medical claims. Listings are prohibited to make claims such as having a causal relationship between a substance and the prevention, cure or treatment of a disease or condition.
v. Insects
vi. Items made or derived from animals, including, but not limited to, endangered species and exotic animals.
vii. Ivory or bones, including tusks, elk ivory, fossilized ivory and wooly mammoth ivory from ivory-producing animals.
viii. Human beings, human remains, body parts, and items made from human remains, except for hair.
ix. Hazardous materials which are flammable, explosive, corrosive, radioactive material, poisonous or otherwise dangerous
x. Items or listings that promote, support, or seek to engage users in illegal activity
xi. Items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred and seek to discriminate and/or demean on the basis of race, religion, gender, gender identity, disability or sexual orientation
xii. Items that infringe copyright laws including, but not limited to, unauthorized sales of eBooks
xiii. Counterfeit items
xiv. Unauthorized resale of tickets
xv. Stolen or Illegal goods
xvi. Illegal services not limited to prostitution
xvii. Used undergarments and intimate items
xviii. Recalled items or items that present an unreasonable risk of harm
xix. Mislabeled goods
xx. Any other objectionable content as determined by users or the admin.
And any other items illegal or restricted in the jurisdiction of the Buyer and/or the Seller or which otherwise encourage illegal or restricted activities.
If you see a listing that violates our policies, please report the listing using the link in the listing page. Any prohibited products will be removed within 24 hours.
Code of Conduct
All users of SME Marketplace NG are expected to treat each other with dignity and respect, therefore abuse or discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.
1. Report abusive or offensive product listings using the “Report Abuse” link on the product page.
2. Report abusive users by contacting the Site Admin using the “Contact” link.
Abusive posts, reviews, products, or users will be removed from The Marketplace within 24 hours of the report.
Contact, Feedback and Complaints
If you need to contact us please click on Contact Us for our contact details.
We value hearing from our users, and are always interested in learning about ways we can improve the Service.
Updated May 1th, 2020
