Seller Policy

1. Akuba's seller model

Akuba is a marketplace directory for discovering African products and sellers in Canada.

Akuba is not an ecommerce checkout platform. Akuba does not process orders, payments, shipping, delivery, pickup, refunds, returns, or buyer-seller disputes.

Sellers use Akuba to present their business, list products, and provide external contact methods so buyers can contact them directly.

All transactions, payments, pickup, delivery, returns, refunds, warranties, and disputes happen directly between sellers and buyers outside Akuba.

2. Seller eligibility

To apply as a seller, you must:

• have a valid Akuba account;
• provide accurate and complete application information;
• have the right to represent the business or seller profile you are creating;
• offer products or services that are appropriate for Akuba;
• comply with applicable laws, regulations, and Akuba policies;
• be able to provide at least one valid public contact method for buyers.

Akuba may reject, suspend, or remove sellers at its discretion.

3. Seller applications

Submitting a seller application does not guarantee approval.

Akuba may review information such as:

• your identity and contact information;
• your business name and business type;
• your city and province;
• your products or services;
• your product sources;
• your product descriptions;
• your sample product images;
• your social media or website presence;
• your food safety or compliance-related answers, where applicable;
• your agreement to marketplace rules and quality standards;
• any other information relevant to marketplace quality, trust, and safety.

Akuba may approve, reject, request clarification, or take no action on an application at its discretion.

Application information must be accurate when submitted. If your information changes, you may need to update your seller profile, withdraw and resubmit your application, or submit a new application where permitted.

4. Pending sellers

A pending seller may be allowed to prepare seller profile information, contact methods, product listings, and product images before approval.

Pending seller content is not publicly visible until the seller is approved and all visibility requirements are met.

Creating listings while pending does not guarantee seller approval or public listing visibility.

5. Approved sellers

If your seller profile is approved, your seller profile may become publicly visible.

Approved sellers may create, edit, hide, unhide, or remove product listings, subject to Akuba policies, moderation status, technical limits, and applicable law.

Approval does not guarantee:

• continued approval;
• public visibility forever;
• featured placement;
• traffic, inquiries, sales, or revenue;
• that Akuba endorses every product listed by the seller.

Akuba may suspend or remove approved sellers if we believe it is appropriate for safety, quality, compliance, legal, moderation, or marketplace integrity reasons.

6. Seller profile requirements

Your seller profile must be accurate, clear, and not misleading.

You are responsible for keeping your seller profile up to date, including:

• business or display name;
• description;
• city, province, and country;
• logo or seller image;
• public contact methods;
• any other seller information you provide.

You may not create a seller profile that:

• impersonates another person or business;
• uses a business name you do not have the right to use;
• misrepresents your identity, location, products, experience, or affiliations;
• contains illegal, abusive, hateful, discriminatory, sexually explicit, graphic, misleading, spammy, or fraudulent content;
• violates another person's intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights.

7. Contact method requirements

Every approved seller should provide at least one valid public contact method.

Contact methods may include:

• email;
• phone;
• WhatsApp;
• website;
• Instagram;
• Facebook;
• other external links or contact details approved by Akuba.

You are responsible for ensuring your contact methods are accurate, functional, appropriate, and safe for public display.

You may not provide contact methods that:

• impersonate another person or business;
• send users to scams, malware, phishing pages, illegal content, or deceptive pages;
• contain abusive, hateful, sexually explicit, graphic, or illegal content;
• violate third-party rights;
• mislead buyers about who they are contacting.

Buyers contact sellers outside Akuba. Sellers are responsible for all buyer communications conducted through their provided contact methods.

8. Product listing requirements

Product listings must be accurate, current, lawful, and not misleading.

Each listing should clearly describe the product being offered.

Where applicable, product listings should include:

• clear title;
• accurate description;
• appropriate category;
• product images;
• fixed price or contact-for-price status;
• current availability status;
• product size, if relevant;
• product origin country or custom origin label, if relevant;
• any important limitations, conditions, or details buyers should know.

You are responsible for keeping listings updated, including price, availability, description, and contact expectations.

9. Pricing rules

Each product must either:

• have a fixed listed price; or
• be marked as contact-for-price.

If a fixed price is listed, it must be accurate and not misleading.

If a product is marked contact-for-price, buyers should reasonably understand that they must contact the seller externally for pricing.

You may not use misleading prices, bait-and-switch tactics, fake discounts, hidden mandatory fees, or deceptive price claims.

Unless Akuba adds specific support for other currencies, listed fixed prices should be in Canadian dollars.

10. Availability rules

You are responsible for keeping product availability accurate.

If a product is unavailable, temporarily unavailable, low stock, seasonal, made-to-order, or otherwise limited, you should update the listing or clearly explain this to buyers.

Akuba does not guarantee product availability to buyers.

11. Product origin and seller location

Seller location and product origin are different.

Seller location describes where the seller is based.

Product origin describes the cultural, geographic, or country origin associated with a product, where applicable.

You may not misrepresent product origin, seller location, source, authenticity, or cultural/geographic association.

12. Product images

You may upload product images only if you own the images or have the necessary rights and permissions to use them.

Product images must accurately represent the product.

You may not upload images that:

• you copied without permission;
• infringe copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
• are misleading or unrelated to the product;
• contain illegal, hateful, abusive, sexually explicit, graphic, or prohibited content;
• contain personal information that should not be public;
• show unsafe, illegal, or prohibited conduct.

Akuba may remove images that violate this Seller Policy, the Community Guidelines, the Terms of Use, or applicable law.

13. Prohibited products and listings

You may not list products or content that are illegal, unsafe, misleading, fraudulent, counterfeit, stolen, or inappropriate for Akuba.

Prohibited listings include, but are not limited to:

• counterfeit or fake goods;
• stolen goods;
• products you do not have the right to sell;
• illegal products or services;
• dangerous or restricted products where listing or sale would violate applicable law;
• misleading product claims;
• products that violate intellectual property rights;
• products that invade privacy or expose personal information;
• hate-related, abusive, harassing, or discriminatory content;
• sexually explicit, adult, or graphic content;
• spam, scams, phishing, malware, or deceptive offers;
• listings in the wrong category where the miscategorization is misleading or abusive.

Akuba may remove or restrict any listing that we believe is inappropriate for the platform, even if it is not specifically listed above.

14. Food, homemade products, imported products, and compliance

Some sellers may offer food, homemade products, imported products, or locally sourced products.

Sellers are solely responsible for understanding and complying with all laws, regulations, permits, licenses, labeling requirements, safety requirements, food safety requirements, import rules, tax obligations, and other obligations that apply to their products and business.

Akuba does not verify, certify, inspect, license, or guarantee seller compliance.

If you make claims about ingredients, allergens, origin, health, safety, authenticity, certification, compliance, or product source, those claims must be accurate and supportable.

Akuba may remove listings or suspend sellers where compliance concerns arise.

15. Transactions outside Akuba

All buyer-seller transactions happen outside Akuba.

Sellers are responsible for:

• communicating with buyers;
• arranging payment;
• arranging pickup, delivery, or shipping if offered;
• handling returns, refunds, exchanges, warranties, complaints, and disputes;
• complying with taxes and applicable business obligations;
• ensuring products are lawful, safe, accurately described, and suitable for sale.

Akuba is not responsible for external transactions, buyer behavior, seller behavior, payment issues, delivery issues, refunds, returns, disputes, or communications outside the platform.

16. Taxes and business obligations

Sellers are responsible for all taxes, filings, registrations, licenses, permits, business requirements, and legal obligations that apply to their activity.

Akuba does not provide tax, legal, food safety, import/export, product compliance, business, or professional advice.

You should consult qualified professionals where needed.

17. Seller reviews

Buyers may leave reviews for approved sellers.

Reviews are seller-level and may optionally reference a product for context.

You may not:

• review your own seller profile;
• ask users to submit fake or misleading reviews;
• pressure users to remove honest reviews;
• threaten, harass, or retaliate against reviewers;
• offer improper compensation for positive reviews;
• manipulate ratings or reviews.

If you believe a review violates Akuba's policies, you may report it through available reporting tools or contact Akuba.

Akuba may moderate reviews at its discretion.

18. Reports and moderation

Users may report sellers, products, or reviews.

A report does not automatically mean Akuba will take action.

Akuba may review reports and take action at its discretion, including:

• dismissing a report;
• resolving a report;
• hiding or removing a product;
• hiding or removing a review;
• suspending or removing a seller;
• contacting the seller for clarification;
• taking other appropriate action.

Akuba is not required to provide detailed explanations for moderation decisions.

19. Seller visibility and product visibility

Seller profiles and product listings are publicly visible only when all applicable visibility requirements are satisfied.

A product may be hidden if:

• the seller profile is pending, rejected, or suspended;
• the seller has hidden the product;
• Akuba has hidden the product for moderation reasons;
• the category is inactive;
• the listing violates Akuba policies or applicable law;
• Akuba otherwise determines that hiding the product is appropriate.

Akuba may also remove or restrict listings for administrative, technical, legal, safety, or marketplace quality reasons.

20. Featured sellers and products

Akuba may feature certain sellers or products.

Featured placement is curated by Akuba and may be changed, removed, or reordered at any time.

Sellers are not entitled to featured placement.

Featured placement does not mean Akuba guarantees, certifies, endorses, or assumes responsibility for a seller or product.

21. Intellectual property and seller content

You retain ownership of the content you submit, subject to the license granted in Akuba's Terms of Use.

You must have all necessary rights to submit seller profile content, product descriptions, product images, logos, branding, social links, and other materials.

You may not upload or submit content that infringes copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights.

If Akuba receives a complaint or believes content violates rights or policies, we may remove or restrict the content.

22. Seller suspension or removal

Akuba may suspend, restrict, reject, or remove a seller at any time if we believe it is appropriate.

Reasons may include:

• false or incomplete application information;
• misleading seller profile information;
• misleading or prohibited listings;
• user complaints or reports;
• suspicious, abusive, fraudulent, or unsafe conduct;
• legal or compliance concerns;
• violation of the Terms of Use, Seller Policy, Privacy Policy, or Community Guidelines;
• conduct that harms buyers, sellers, Akuba, or marketplace trust.

Suspension or removal may make your seller profile and listings non-public.

23. No guarantee of results

Akuba does not guarantee that sellers will receive traffic, inquiries, followers, customers, sales, revenue, reviews, featured placement, or any business results.

Marketplace performance may depend on many factors outside Akuba's control.

24. Changes to this Seller Policy

We may update this Seller Policy from time to time.

When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above. If changes are material, we may provide additional notice where appropriate.

Your continued use of seller tools after an updated Seller Policy becomes effective means you accept the updated Seller Policy.

25. Contact

For questions about this Seller Policy, contact:

info@akuba.ca