Terms of Use

1. Akuba is a marketplace directory

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

Akuba helps visitors and buyers browse products, discover sellers, view seller profiles, save favorite products, read reviews, and contact sellers outside the platform.

Akuba is not an ecommerce checkout platform.

Akuba does not:

• sell products directly;
• own, inspect, store, or ship products listed by sellers;
• process payments;
• provide checkout, cart, order, refund, return, shipping, delivery, pickup, escrow, or buyer protection services;
• guarantee product availability, pricing, legality, quality, authenticity, safety, condition, delivery, or seller performance;
• participate in negotiations, transactions, payments, delivery, pickup, returns, refunds, or disputes between buyers and sellers.

Any purchase, payment, delivery, pickup, return, refund, negotiation, communication, or dispute happens directly between the buyer and the seller outside Akuba.

2. Eligibility

You may use Akuba only if you can legally enter into these Terms.

You must not use Akuba if:

• you are prohibited by law from using the platform;
• your account has been suspended or terminated by Akuba;
• you are using the platform for illegal, fraudulent, abusive, misleading, or harmful purposes.

Akuba is not intended for children under the age of 14. If you are under 14, you may not create an account or submit personal information through Akuba.

3. Accounts

Some features require an account, including saving favorites, applying to become a seller, managing seller content, leaving reviews, and submitting moderation reports.

You are responsible for:

• providing accurate account information;
• keeping your login credentials secure;
• all activity that happens through your account;
• promptly notifying us if you believe your account has been compromised.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, our Seller Policy, our Community Guidelines, applicable law, or the integrity of the platform.

4. Buyer accounts

Buyer accounts are lightweight accounts intended for browsing, saving favorites, and leaving seller reviews.

Buyer accounts do not include:

• order history;
• payment history;
• purchase tracking;
• internal buyer-seller messaging;
• buyer protection;
• refund or return processing.

If you contact a seller or purchase a product from a seller, you do so directly with that seller and at your own discretion.

5. Seller accounts and approval

A user may apply to become a seller through Akuba's seller application process.

Submitting a seller application does not guarantee approval.

Akuba may approve, reject, suspend, or remove sellers at its discretion, including for quality, trust, safety, compliance, marketplace fit, incomplete information, suspicious activity, user reports, or violations of Akuba policies.

Sellers may be allowed to prepare seller profiles, contact methods, product listings, and product images while their seller status is pending. Pending seller profiles and listings are not publicly visible until the seller is approved and all visibility requirements are satisfied.

Approved sellers are responsible for their own seller profiles, listings, product information, contact methods, transactions, compliance obligations, and interactions with buyers.

Seller-specific requirements are described in our Seller Policy.

6. Product listings

Product listings on Akuba are created and managed by sellers.

Sellers are responsible for ensuring that their listings are accurate, current, lawful, non-misleading, and compliant with Akuba policies and applicable laws.

A product listing may include information such as title, description, images, category, price information, contact-for-price status, availability status, size, product origin, seller information, and contact options.

Akuba may hide, remove, edit, restrict, or moderate product listings if we believe they violate these Terms, our Seller Policy, our Community Guidelines, applicable law, third-party rights, marketplace quality standards, or user safety.

Akuba does not guarantee that any listed product is available, accurately described, legal, authentic, safe, properly priced, or suitable for any purpose.

7. Seller contact methods and external transactions

Sellers may provide contact methods such as email, phone, WhatsApp, website, Instagram, Facebook, or other external links.

When you use seller contact information, you are leaving Akuba's controlled platform environment. Any communication, negotiation, transaction, payment, delivery, pickup, return, refund, or dispute is between you and the seller.

Akuba is not responsible for:

• seller responses or lack of response;
• communications outside Akuba;
• payments made outside Akuba;
• product pickup, delivery, or shipping;
• returns, refunds, warranties, or exchanges;
• disputes between buyers and sellers;
• conduct that occurs on third-party websites, apps, or services.

Use caution when communicating with sellers or arranging purchases outside the platform.

8. Reviews

Authenticated users may leave reviews for approved sellers, subject to our Community Guidelines.

Reviews are seller-level reviews. A review may reference or be associated with a product for context, but the review is about the seller, not a verified product purchase through Akuba.

You may not:

• leave fake, misleading, abusive, defamatory, spammy, or fraudulent reviews;
• review your own seller profile;
• submit reviews in exchange for improper compensation;
• submit reviews that violate privacy, intellectual property, or other rights;
• submit reviews containing hate, harassment, threats, or illegal content.

Akuba may hide, remove, or moderate reviews at its discretion.

Akuba does not verify every review and does not guarantee that reviews are accurate, complete, current, or representative.

9. User content

"User content" means any content submitted, uploaded, posted, or provided by users, buyers, sellers, or reviewers, including seller profiles, product listings, descriptions, images, logos, contact methods, reviews, review images, reports, and other materials.

You retain ownership of content you submit, subject to the rights granted in these Terms.

By submitting content to Akuba, you grant Akuba a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to host, store, use, reproduce, display, publish, distribute, modify for formatting or technical purposes, and otherwise use the content as needed to operate, provide, improve, promote, moderate, and display Akuba.

You represent and warrant that:

• you own or have the necessary rights to submit the content;
• the content is accurate and not misleading;
• the content does not violate applicable law;
• the content does not violate the rights of another person or business;
• the content does not violate these Terms, the Seller Policy, or the Community Guidelines.

We may remove or restrict user content at our discretion.

10. Prohibited uses

You may not use Akuba to:

• violate any law or regulation;
• post illegal, counterfeit, stolen, dangerous, prohibited, misleading, or fraudulent products;
• impersonate another person or business;
• submit false seller application information;
• misrepresent product origin, availability, pricing, safety, authenticity, or seller identity;
• harass, threaten, abuse, defame, discriminate against, or harm others;
• post hate speech, sexually explicit content, graphic content, spam, scams, malware, or deceptive content;
• collect, scrape, harvest, or misuse data from Akuba;
• interfere with Akuba's security, infrastructure, availability, or normal operation;
• attempt unauthorized access to accounts, systems, databases, or seller tools;
• manipulate reviews, reports, favorites, rankings, featured content, or marketplace visibility;
• use Akuba for any purpose that harms users, sellers, Akuba, or the integrity of the marketplace.

11. Moderation and reporting

Akuba may provide tools for users to report products, sellers, or seller reviews.

Reports are moderation intake records. Submitting a report does not guarantee that Akuba will remove, hide, suspend, or take action against the reported content or seller.

Akuba may review reports and take action at its discretion, including dismissing a report, resolving a report, hiding content, removing content, suspending a seller, or taking other appropriate action.

We are not required to provide detailed explanations of moderation decisions.

12. Featured content and marketplace curation

Akuba may feature certain products or sellers on the homepage or elsewhere on the platform.

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

Being featured does not mean Akuba guarantees the seller, product, price, quality, legality, safety, availability, or buyer experience.

Sellers are not guaranteed visibility, traffic, clicks, messages, sales, or featured placement.

13. Third-party links and services

Akuba may contain links to third-party websites, apps, social media pages, messaging services, seller websites, or other external services.

We do not control third-party services and are not responsible for their content, privacy practices, security, terms, availability, or conduct.

Your use of third-party services is at your own risk and may be governed by their own terms and policies.

14. Intellectual property

Akuba, including its branding, design, interface, software, text, layout, graphics, logos, and other platform materials, is owned by Akuba or its licensors and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws.

You may not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute, sell, lease, reverse engineer, or exploit Akuba or its platform materials except as permitted by these Terms or with our written permission.

User content remains subject to the license described in the "User content" section.

15. Privacy

Our collection, use, disclosure, storage, and protection of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy.

By using Akuba, you acknowledge that you have read our Privacy Policy.

16. No professional advice

Information on Akuba is provided for general marketplace discovery purposes only.

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

Sellers are responsible for understanding and complying with laws and obligations that apply to their products, business, advertising, food safety, taxes, consumer protection, and other activities.

17. Disclaimers

Akuba is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Akuba disclaims all warranties, representations, and conditions, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, security, reliability, and uninterrupted operation.

We do not guarantee that:

• Akuba will always be available, secure, or error-free;
• listings will be accurate, complete, current, or lawful;
• sellers will respond to messages;
• products will be available, safe, authentic, or suitable;
• buyers and sellers will complete transactions;
• disputes will be resolved;
• content will not be lost or removed.

18. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Akuba and its owners, operators, employees, contractors, service providers, and representatives will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, business opportunity, or reputation.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Akuba is not liable for damages arising from:

• buyer-seller transactions or disputes;
• products listed by sellers;
• seller conduct or buyer conduct;
• communications outside Akuba;
• payments, refunds, returns, pickup, delivery, or shipping;
• inaccurate, misleading, unavailable, unsafe, illegal, or counterfeit products;
• third-party websites, apps, or services;
• unauthorized access, security incidents, technical issues, or service interruptions;
• removal, hiding, moderation, suspension, or rejection decisions.

Where liability cannot be excluded, Akuba's liability will be limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

19. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Akuba and its owners, operators, employees, contractors, service providers, and representatives from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or related to:

• your use of Akuba;
• your content;
• your seller profile or product listings;
• your interactions, transactions, communications, or disputes with other users;
• your violation of these Terms, the Seller Policy, the Community Guidelines, or applicable law;
• your violation of another person's rights.

20. Suspension and termination

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to Akuba at any time if we believe you have violated these Terms, our Seller Policy, our Community Guidelines, applicable law, or the integrity of the platform.

We may also remove or restrict seller profiles, product listings, reviews, reports, images, contact methods, or other content.

You may stop using Akuba at any time.

Certain provisions of these Terms will continue to apply after account termination, including sections related to user content licenses, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, and disputes.

21. Changes to Akuba

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of Akuba at any time, including features, seller tools, categories, review functionality, reporting tools, featured content, account features, or public pages.

We are not liable for changes, interruptions, suspensions, or discontinuation of any part of Akuba.

22. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms 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, such as through the website or by email where appropriate.

Your continued use of Akuba after updated Terms become effective means you accept the updated Terms.

23. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Quebec and the applicable federal laws of Canada, unless a different jurisdiction is required by applicable law.

Any disputes will be handled by the courts located in Quebec, Canada, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

24. Contact

For questions about these Terms, contact us at:

info@akuba.ca