Terms of Service

Welcome to MARTA. A marketplace for everyone to buy and sell unique things with ease. MARTA is also where people meet to contribute to the circular economy and a collaborative society. Please read and follow our Terms to keep things safe and fun.

This document and the other documents we reference below make up our Terms of Service, or “Terms” for short. MARTA and its services are operated by Hood Venture AG, incorporated and registered in Zürich, Switzerland, under company number UID CHE-421.864.089. We’ll refer to MARTA (or “we”, “our”, or “us”). The Terms are a legally binding contract between you and MARTA.

This contract sets out your rights and responsibilities when you use marta.market, and the other services provided by MARTA (we’ll refer to all of these collectively as our “Services”), so please read it carefully. By using any of our Services (even just browsing one of our websites), you’re agreeing to the Terms. If you disagree with the Terms, you may not use our Services.

These documents cover specific topics in detail and are part of our Terms:

Please read them as well.

We understand that your personal information is important to you, and so it is important to us. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and share your data when you use our Services. Using our Services, you agree that we can process your information following the Privacy Policy. Please read it carefully.

MARTA and sellers process users' personal information, such as buyer name, email address, and delivery address. As a result, each party is considered a separate and independent data controller of buyers' personal information under applicable data protection laws. It implies that each party is responsible for the personal information it processes while providing the Services. For instance, if a seller mistakenly discloses a buyer's name and email address while fulfilling another buyer's order, the seller, not MARTA, will be accountable for that unauthorized disclosure.

Suppose MARTA and sellers are joint data controllers of buyers' personal information. And MARTA is sued, fined, or incurs expenses for something you did as a joint data controller of buyers' personal information. In that case, you agree to indemnify MARTA for the costs it incurs concerning your processing of the buyer's personal information. For more information about your obligations to MARTA, please read the section on Indemnification below.

You need to create an account to use MARTA's services. Here are a few rules about your MARTA account:

A. You must be 18 years or older to use our Services. Minors under 18 and at least 13 years of age are only permitted to use our Services through an account owned by a parent or legal guardian with their appropriate permission and under their direct supervision. Children under 13 are not permitted to use MARTA or the Services. You are responsible for any and all account activity conducted by a minor on your account. There may be commercial products or services that you should consider limiting a minor's access to material online. If you would like more information, please see MARTA's Minors Policy.

B. Be honest with us. Provide accurate information about yourself. Using false information or impersonating another person or company through your account is prohibited.

C. Choose an appropriate name. If you decide not to have your full name serve as the name associated with your account, you may not use language that is offensive, vulgar, infringes someone's intellectual property rights, or otherwise violates the Terms.

D. You're responsible for your account. You're solely responsible for any activity on your account. If you share an account with others, the person whose financial information is on the account will ultimately be responsible for all activity. If you're registering as a business entity, you guarantee that you have the authority to agree to the Terms on behalf of the business. Also, your accounts are not transferable.

E. Protect your login information. As mentioned above, you're solely responsible for any activity on your account, so it's important to keep your account login information, like verification codes or passwords, secure.

F. These Terms don't create any agency, partnership, joint venture, employment, or franchisee relationship between you and MARTA.

Don't hesitate to contact [email protected] for help with your MARTA account.

The content you post using our Services is your content (let’s call it “Your Content”). We do not make any claim to it, including anything you post using our Services, such as shop names, profile pictures, listing photos, listing descriptions, reviews, comments, videos, and usernames.

A. Responsibility for Your Content. You understand that you are solely responsible for Your Content. You represent that you have all necessary rights to all parts of Your Content and that you’re not infringing or violating any third party’s rights by posting it.

B. Permission to use Your Content. By posting Your Content through our Services, you grant MARTA a license to use it. We don’t claim any ownership of Your Content, but we have your permission to use it to help MARTA function and grow. That way, we won’t infringe any rights you have in Your Content, and we can help promote it. For example, you acknowledge and agree MARTA may offer you or MARTA buyers promotions on the Site from time to time that may relate to your listings.

C. Rights you grant MARTA. (This is the legalese version of the last section). By posting Your Content, you grant MARTA 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. This allows us to provide the Services and to promote MARTA, your MARTA shop, or the Services in general, in any format and through any channels, including across any MARTA Services, our partners, or third-party website or advertising medium. You agree not to assert any moral rights or rights of publicity against us for using Your Content. You also recognise our legitimate interest in using it, under the scope of this license, to the extent Your Content contains any personal information.

Why is this necessary? Consider these examples: if you upload a photo or video of a listing on your MARTA shop, we have permission to display it to buyers, and we can resize or enhance it so it looks good to a buyer using our Services; if you post a description in English, we can translate it into German so a buyer in Berlin can learn the story behind your item; and if you post a beautiful photo or video of your favorite pre-loved item, we can feature it - often along with your shop name and shop picture - on our homepage, in one of our blogs or even on a billboard to help promote your sales and MARTA.

D. Reporting unauthorised content. MARTA respects intellectual property rights and is committed to following appropriate legal procedures to remove infringing content from the Services. If the content you own or have rights to has been posted to the Services without your permission and you want it removed, please follow the steps listed in our Intellectual Property Policy. If Your Content is alleged to infringe another person’s intellectual property, we will take appropriate action, such as disabling it if we receive a report of infringement that complies with our policies or terminating your account if you are found to be a repeat infringer. We’ll notify you if any of that happens.

E. Inappropriate, false, or misleading content. We do not want certain types of content posted on MARTA's Services. This is due to legal reasons or others. You agree that you will not post abusive, threatening, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, or otherwise offensive content. In addition, you agree not to post any false or misleading content or use the Services fraudulently or deceptively. Please review our prohibited items policy and our Terms for more information.

License to use our Services. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to use our Services - subject to the Terms and the following restrictions in particular:

A. Don't use our Services to break the law. You agree that you will not violate any laws concerning your use of the Services. This includes any local, state, federal, and international laws that may apply to you. For example, it's your responsibility to obtain any permits or licences that your shop requires and to meet applicable legal requirements in the applicable jurisdiction(s). This includes the sale and delivery of your items, such as age verification upon delivery, where required by law. You may not sell anything that violates any laws or engage in fraud (including false claims or infringement notices), theft, anti-competitive conduct, threatening conduct, or any other unlawful acts or crimes against MARTA, another MARTA user, or a third party.

B. Pay your fees and taxes. You are responsible for paying all fees that you owe to MARTA. Except as set forth below, you are solely responsible for collecting and/or paying applicable taxes for any purchases or sales you make through our Services. Where applicable, MARTA will calculate, collect and remit value-added tax or VAT and sales tax. Some countries may refer to VAT using other terms, e.g., Goods and Services Tax (GST), but we'll collectively refer to VAT, GST, and any local sales taxes as "VAT". Please read our Fees, Taxes and Debt Collection Policy for more information on taxes, including details on the taxes MARTA collects and remits from the buyers. Your fees, bills, taxes, and how you can pay them are fully explained in our Fees, Taxes and Debt Collection Policy.

C. Protect our property. You agree not to crawl, scrape, or spider any page of the Services or to reverse engineer or attempt to obtain the source code of the Services (including both MARTA Intellectual Property and Seller Content) without our express permission.

D. Keep our systems safe. You agree not to interfere with or try to disrupt our Services, for example, by distributing a virus, making excessive requests to our site or platform, or engaging in other malicious activity.

E. Do not misuse our brand. The name "MARTA" and the other MARTA marks, phrases, logos, and designs we use in connection with our Services (the MARTA Trademarks) are trademarks, service marks, or trade dresses of Switzerland and other countries.

F. Share your ideas. We love your suggestions and ideas! They can help us improve your experience and our Services. Any ideas or other materials you submit to MARTA (not including Your Content or items you sell through our Services) are considered non-confidential and non-proprietary to you. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use and publish those ideas and materials for any purpose without compensation to you.

G. Let's communicate online. From time to time, MARTA will provide you with certain legal information in writing. By using our Services, you agree to our Electronic Communications Policy, which describes how we provide that information. It says we can send you information electronically (such as by email) instead of mailing you paper copies. Your electronic agreement is the same as your signature on paper.

Termination by you. We're sorry to see you go, but if you wish to terminate your MARTA account, you can do so anytime from your account settings. If you need any assistance, please don't hesitate to contact our support team. Terminating your account won't affect the availability of any content you post through our Services before termination. You'll still be responsible for paying outstanding bills and fulfilling other open obligations.

Termination by MARTA. We may terminate or suspend your account (and any accounts MARTA determines are related to your account) and your access to the Services should we have reason to believe you, your Content, or your use of the Services violate our Terms. If we do so, it's essential to understand that you don't have a contractual or legal right to continue to use our Services. Generally, MARTA will notify you that your account has been terminated or suspended unless you've repeatedly violated our Terms or we have legal or regulatory reasons preventing us from notifying you.

If you or MARTA terminate your account, you may lose any information associated with your account, including Your Content.

We may discontinue the Services. MARTA reserves the right to change, suspend, or discontinue any of the Services for you, any or all users, at any time, for any reason, including those laid out in MARTA's policies under these Terms of Use. We will not be liable to you for the effect that any changes to the Services may have on you, including your income or your ability to generate revenue through the Services.

Survival. The Terms will remain in effect even after your access to the Service is terminated or your use of the Service ends.

Here are some things you can't sue us for:

Items you purchase. You understand that MARTA does not manufacture, store, or inspect any items sold through our Services. We provide the venue; the items in our marketplaces are produced, listed, and sold directly by independent sellers, so MARTA cannot and does not make any warranties about their quality, safety, authenticity, or legality. Any legal claim related to an item you purchase must be brought directly against the seller of the item. You release MARTA from any claims related to items sold through our Services, including for defective items, misrepresentations by sellers, or items that caused physical injury (like product liability claims).

Content you access. You may come across materials that you find offensive or inappropriate while using our Services. We make no representations concerning any content posted by users through the Services. MARTA is not responsible for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality, or decency of content posted by users that you accessed through the Services. You release us from all liability relating to that content.

People you interact with. You can use the Services to interact with others online or in person. However, you understand that we do not screen users of our Services other than to meet certain compliance and legal obligations, and you release us from all liability relating to your interactions with other users. Please be careful and exercise caution and good judgement in all interactions with others, especially if you are meeting someone in person.

Third-party services. Our Services may contain links to third-party websites or services we don’t own or control (for example, links to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest). You may also need to use a third party’s product or service to use some of our Services. When you access these third-party services, you do so at your own risk. The third parties may require you to accept their own terms of use. MARTA is not a party to those agreements; they are solely between you and the third party.

What happens if you get us sued? We hope this never happens, but if MARTA gets sued for something you did, you agree to defend and indemnify us. That means you’ll defend MARTA (including any of our employees) and hold us harmless from any legal claim or demand (including reasonable lawyer’s fees) that arises from your actions, your use (or misuse) of our Services, your breach of the Terms, or you or your account’s infringement of someone else’s rights.

We reserve the right to handle our legal defence however we see fit, even if you are indemnifying us, in which case you agree to cooperate so we can execute our strategy.

Suppose you are in a dispute with another MARTA Services user or a third party. In that case, we encourage you to contact the other party and resolve the dispute amicably.

Case system. Buyers and sellers who cannot resolve a dispute related to a transaction may open a dispute case through our support team. MARTA will attempt to help you resolve disputes in good faith and based solely on our interpretation of our policies. In our sole discretion, we will not judge legal issues or claims. MARTA has no obligation to resolve any disputes.

Release of MARTA. You release MARTA from any claims, demands, and damages arising from disputes with other users or parties.

If you’re upset with us, let our support team know, and hopefully, we can resolve your issue informally. But if we can’t, then these rules will govern any legal dispute involving our Services:

A. Governing law. The Terms are governed by Swiss law. These laws will apply no matter where you live, but if you live outside Switzerland, you may be entitled to the protection of the mandatory consumer protection provisions of your local consumer protection law.

B. Arbitration. You and MARTA agree that any dispute or claim arising from or relating to the Terms shall be finally settled by final and binding arbitration administered by the applicable Swiss arbitration board. Judgement on the arbitration award may be entered in any court that has jurisdiction.

C. EU seller dispute resolution. EU sellers facing issues related to the Platform-to-Business ("P2B") Regulation and MARTA can share their concerns with our support team. You or MARTA may also refer qualifying disputes to mediation before the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution or resolution through the European Commission's online dispute resolution platform.
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D. Costs of arbitration. Payment for any and all reasonable filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees will be in accordance with the consumer arbitration entity and in the case of CEDR, its rules. If the value of your claim does not exceed 10,000 CHF, MARTA will pay for the reasonable filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees associated with the arbitration, unless the arbitrator finds that either the substance of your claim or the relief sought was frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. For mediation through CEDR, the parties will pay their share of mediation costs, and under certain conditions, such fees may be refundable to you, depending on the outcome of the mediation.

E. Forum. We’re based in Zürich, so any legal action against MARTA related to our Services must be filed and take place in Zurich, Switzerland. For any actions not subject to arbitration or mediation, you and MARTA agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts of Zürich, Switzerland.

F. Modifications. If we make any changes to this “Disputes with MARTA” section after the date you last accepted the Terms, those changes will not apply to any claims filed in a legal proceeding against MARTA prior to the date the changes became effective. MARTA will notify you of substantive changes to the “Disputes with MARTA” section at least 30 days prior to the date the change will become effective. If you do not agree to the modified terms, you may send MARTA a written notification (including email) or close your account within those 30 days. By rejecting a modified term or permanently closing your account, you agree to arbitrate any disputes between you and MARTA in accordance with the provisions of this “Disputes with MARTA” section as of the date you last accepted the Terms, including any changes made prior to your rejection. If you reopen your closed account or create a new account, you agree to be bound by the current version of the Terms.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll definitely let you know by posting the changes through the Services and/or sending you an email or message about the changes. That way, you can decide whether to continue using the Services. Changes will be effective upon the posting of the changes unless otherwise specified. You are responsible for reviewing and becoming familiar with any changes. Your use of the Services following the changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.

The Terms, including all of the policies that make up the Terms, supersede any other agreement between you and MARTA regarding the Services. If any part of the Terms is found unenforceable, that part will be limited to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms will otherwise remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any part of the Terms is not a waiver of our right to later enforce that or any other part of the Terms. We may assign any of our rights and obligations under the Terms.

If you have any questions about the Terms, please email us at [email protected].