Terms of service

# Terms of service **Version 1.0-pilot · controlled pilot** These terms have been written and approved by the founder of Digital Kitchen Marketplace for a small invitation-only pilot. They have not been reviewed by a lawyer, and they do not claim to have been. They make no claim of legal compliance, government approval, or professional certification. Later revisions are published as new versions. Published versions are never edited or deleted, and a change applies from the date it is published. --- ## 1. What this service is, and who you are contracting with Digital Kitchen Marketplace connects people who want food with Canadian Kitchens who cook it. During the pilot the service operates by invitation only. **The Kitchen is the seller.** When you order food, your contract for that food is with the Kitchen that prepares it. The Kitchen sets its prices, decides what it offers, prepares the food, and is responsible for it. **Digital Kitchen Marketplace is the marketplace and the software.** We run the place where you find the Kitchen, place the order and talk to them about it. We do not prepare, manufacture, own, store or handle the food, and we are not the seller of it. This distinction runs through everything below. Where a responsibility belongs to the Kitchen, saying so is not us avoiding it — it is a description of who actually does the thing. ## 2. Eligibility during the pilot Ordering requires an account and an active invitation issued to the account's email address. Invitations expire, can be revoked, and are matched on the email address — there is no code to enter or share. We may pause new orders, close ordering when capacity limits are reached, or close ordering when payment verification falls behind. Pausing never removes access to an order that already exists: you keep full access to your order, your messages, and its settlement status. You must be able to enter a contract in your province or territory, and the information you give us must be accurate. ## 3. Placing an order **An order is a request.** Submitting one asks a Kitchen to prepare food. It does not by itself commit the Kitchen to doing so — the Kitchen may accept or reject it. Fulfilment is promised when a Kitchen accepts, not when you submit. Separately, our capacity limits count orders from the moment they are placed rather than from acceptance, so that a Kitchen is not committed beyond what it said it could handle. That is an internal limit and not a promise to you. An order snapshot is immutable. Prices, allergen declarations, and the household dietary snapshot attached to an order are fixed at the time of ordering and do not change afterwards, even if the underlying listing or your saved profile changes later. ## 4. Prices, payment and taxes The Kitchen sets its prices. Checkout shows the item prices, quantities, any applicable charges, taxes where applicable, and the total before you confirm. **Digital Kitchen charges no commission and no fees during the pilot** — no service fee, no seller fee, and no deduction of any kind from a Kitchen. There is no hidden platform charge, because there is no platform charge. **You pay the Kitchen directly.** Online card payment through this service is not active. No card is charged by us and no payment is processed through us. The Kitchen tells you how to pay it, and approved methods may differ between Kitchens. Because the money does not pass through us, we do not hold it, and we cannot reverse or refund a payment we never received. What we do is record: when you tell us you have paid, that is shown to you, the Kitchen and our operators as *reported and not verified*. An order is treated as paid only after a person has checked that the money arrived and recorded that finding. **Taxes, where applicable, are determined by the Kitchen.** Each Kitchen is responsible for working out which taxes apply to its sales and for registering, collecting, reporting and remitting them where it is required to. We do not provide tax advice. We may introduce fees in future. If we ever do, they will be introduced on notice and will apply only to orders placed after they take effect. ## 5. Refunds and cancellations The Refund and Cancellation Policy sets out the minimum framework that applies to every order in the pilot, and forms part of these terms. In summary: - You may cancel yourself at any point before a Kitchen accepts. If you had already paid, the Kitchen refunds you in full. - If a Kitchen rejects, cancels, or cannot fulfil your order, you get a full refund of anything you paid. - Once preparation has begun, cancelling because you changed your mind is generally not available, because the food is perishable and has been made. - Missing items, incorrect items, quality problems and safety concerns are dealt with in the Refund and Cancellation Policy. Refunds are issued by the Kitchen, because the Kitchen received the money. We record what was asked for, what the Kitchen said, what was agreed, and that the Kitchen reported the refund issued. **Nothing in these terms removes rights you have under consumer-protection law that cannot be removed by agreement.** ## 6. Food safety and allergens The Food Safety and Allergens Policy forms part of these terms. Before a Kitchen may trade, we require documents and a person reviews them. What we require depends on how the Kitchen operates: a private chef cooking in your home and a restaurant with a dining room do not hold the same paperwork. A food handler certificate is required of every Kitchen as a condition of taking part in this pilot. **Document review is document review.** We do not inspect kitchens, watch food being prepared, supervise, sample, or test. We hold documents, have a person read them, and record what they found. Our checks are our own participation requirements, and are not a statement that any authority has approved, certified or inspected a Kitchen. Allergen information comes from the Kitchen and is passed to you as given. A request for strict cross-contact avoidance is a request that the Kitchen reviews and then accepts or declines. **It is not a guarantee that food is free of an allergen, and we do not make one.** A Kitchen that declines because it cannot safely accommodate an allergy is doing the right thing. If you have a food-safety concern, tell us and tell the Kitchen. Safety reports are handled separately from ordinary complaints, and there is no time limit on making one. ## 7. Accounts and conduct Accounts are personal. Invitations are issued to a person and are not transferable. We may restrict, suspend or remove an account for legitimate reasons, including fraud, serious safety concerns, harassment or threats, manipulating reviews, repeated abuse of the refund process, unlawful activity, and serious or repeated breach of these terms. Where it is reasonable and safe to do so, we will explain the reason and give notice. We do not promise notice beforehand in every case, because some situations — a serious safety risk, a security incident, apparent fraud in progress — have to be acted on immediately. If your account is restricted you can write to us and ask us to look at the decision again. ## 8. Your personal information Handled as described in the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms. Two things worth stating here. Household dietary profiles stay private to you: a Kitchen sees only the snapshot attached to its own order, and is never joined to your live profile. And allergy and dietary information is treated as sensitive — it is never used for advertising, promotional targeting or profiling, and never sold. Marketing messages are optional and separate. You will not be opted in by default, and declining them does not stop you creating an account or ordering. ## 9. Changes to these terms We may change these terms. Changes are **prospective**: a new version is published, and it applies from its publication date. Published versions are never rewritten or deleted, so what you agreed to remains on the record. An order you have already placed continues under the terms in force when you placed it. ## 10. Our responsibility, and its limits We are responsible for the marketplace and the software — for operating the service described here, subject to these terms and to applicable law. The Kitchen is responsible for its food and its service: preparation, handling, storage, ingredient and allergen accuracy, the conduct of its staff, meeting the legal requirements of its own operation, and fulfilling the orders it accepts. We are not responsible for those things and do not undertake to be, because we do not perform them. We do not exclude liability for our own acts to the extent the law does not allow us to. In particular: **Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any right or liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded**, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, and any statutory consumer right. Subject to that, and to the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable, and our liability in connection with an order does not exceed the amount paid for that order. ## 11. Disputes and governing law If something goes wrong, tell the Kitchen first — most problems are settled between the two people who know the details. If it is not resolved, tell us. We will look at the records available to us and help reach an outcome. We may document the dispute, recommend a refund or replacement, warn a user, restrict a listing, suspend or remove a Kitchen, or restrict a customer who is abusing the process. **We cannot force the reversal of a payment we never held**, and we will not tell you we have done so. These terms are governed by the law of Ontario, and the courts of Ontario have jurisdiction. This does not deprive you of the protection of any mandatory consumer-protection law of the province or territory where you live. There is no arbitration requirement and no waiver of your right to take part in a class action. ## 12. Contact Digital Kitchen Marketplace is the marketplace operated by Digital Kitchen Marketplace. 400 Mississauga Valley Blvd, Mississauga, Ontario, L5A 3N6, Canada Telephone: +1 416-358-2594 - General and order support: support@digitalkitchenmarketplace.com - Policy and contract questions: legal@digitalkitchenmarketplace.com - Privacy and data requests: privacy@digitalkitchenmarketplace.com --- ## What this document deliberately does not claim - That a lawyer wrote or reviewed it - That any government body has approved, certified or inspected a Kitchen - That food is free of any allergen - That we inspect kitchens or watch food being prepared - That we process, hold or can reverse your payment - That we can guarantee a Kitchen's compliance with its own legal requirements - Any commission or fee, because there is none