iFreelancer Marketplace Rules
Last Updated: 23rd September 2008
General
The following Terms and Conditions (User Agreement) apply to the use of the iFreelancer ("iFreelancer" or "We") web site. Please review them carefully regarding your use of the iFreelancer web site ("Site"). This Web site may contain other proprietary notices and copyright information, the terms of which must be observed and followed. Information on this Web site may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Information may be changed or updated without notice. iFreelancer may also make improvements and/or changes in the offerings and/or services described in this information at any time without notice. Unless otherwise provided below, the revised terms will take effect when they are posted. By continuing to use the site, you are indicating your agreement to the terms of this user agreement and all revisions thereof.
Errors and Disclaimer of Warranties
1/ You ("You" or "User") understand that certain information on this web site, including information made available from third parties, is provided "as is." Although iFreelancer provides and/or makes available information from sources it believes to be reliable, iFreelancer does not warrant the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of the information provided, nor does it warrant the merchantability or fitness for a particular use, or make any other express or implied warranty, with regard to such information. Should you leave the iFreelancer site by way of a link and view content not provided by iFreelancer, you do so at your own risk. iFreelancer makes no representations whatsoever about any other web site which you may access through this one. When you access a non-iFreelancer web site, please understand that it is independent from iFreelancer, and that iFreelancer has no control over the content on that web site. In addition, a link to a non-iFreelancer web site does not mean that iFreelancer endorses or accepts any responsibility for the content, or the use, of such web site. It is up to you to take precautions to ensure that whatever you select for your use is free of such items as viruses, worms, trojan horses and other items of a destructive nature.
2/ iFreelancer does not want to receive confidential or proprietary information from you through our Web site. Please note that any information or material sent to iFreelancer will be deemed NOT to be confidential. By sending iFreelancer any information or material, you grant iFreelancer an unrestricted, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, display, perform, modify, transmit and distribute those materials or information.
3/ You understand that iFreelancer shall not be liable for damage or loss resulting, directly or indirectly, from any failure, delay or interruption of this web site due to a negligent act of iFreelancer or due to any act, event or occurrence beyond the control of iFreelancer. IN NO EVENT WILL iFreelancer BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES FOR ANY USE OF THIS WEB SITE, OR ON ANY OTHER HYPERLINKED WEB SITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY LOST PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF PROGRAMS OR OTHER DATA ON YOUR INFORMATION HANDLING SYSTEM OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF WE ARE EXPRESSLY ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Site for adults only
4/ Our services are available only to individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. You may use this site and the services available here during the time you are a registered user. The site is evolving
5/ We may modify or discontinue this Site and the services available at it without notice or liability to you.
Venue for freelance buyers and sellers
6/ iFreelancer functions as a venue to connect buyers and service providers in a virtual marketplace. As a neutral facilitator, iFreelancer is not directly involved in the actual transactions between users of the Site. As a result, iFreelancer has no control over the truth, accuracy, quality, legality, or safety of postings made by users. Because verifying the identity of a user on the Internet is difficult, iFreelancer cannot and does not confirm the identity of users. iFreelancer also does not confirm nor verify the qualifications, background, or abilities of users. Therefore, We recommend that You be careful and exercise common sense and good judgment when dealing with any User on the Site. Because iFreelancer assists service providers in finding buyers in need of services, iFreelancer is considered the official finder for each project accepted through the site and its associated buyer and charges a commission. iFreelancer service providers and buyers are responsible for meeting payroll, tax and legal requirements for any legal entity.
Relationship with Merchants, Advertisers and Users
7/ Your correspondence with merchants, advertisers, or users on the Site, including the development and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between You and such merchant, advertiser, or user. You agree not to hold iFreelancer liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such merchants, advertisers, or users on the Site.
Intellectual Property Policy
8/ iFreelancer respects the intellectual property of others and expects our account holders to do the same. At our discretion and in appropriate circumstances, iFreelancer may terminate the accounts of users who infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others. Posting of Information on the Site 9/ As a User, You will be allowed to post information, data and text to publicly accessible areas of the Site. In order to operate the Site, iFreelancer must have certain rights. Consequently, when You post information, text, files, links, attachments, software or other materials ("Content") to publicly visible areas of the Site, You are granting, or warranting that the owner of such Content has expressly granted, a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, fully sub-licensable, non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, modify, transmit, distribute, perform, display and delete such Content (in whole or in part) and/or to incorporate such Content in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed. You must use good judgment when posting information, remarks or other Content regarding other users, service providers, iFreelancer or any other third party. You may be held legally responsible for damages suffered by other Users, iFreelancer or third parties as a result of legally actionable or defamatory comments, remarks or other information or Content which You post to the iFreelancer Site. iFreelancer is not legally responsible for any remarks, information or other Content posted or made available on its Site by any User or third party, even if such information or Content is defamatory or otherwise legally actionable. iFreelancer is not responsible for and does not monitor or censor Content for accuracy or reliability. However, iFreelancer reserves the right to remove or restrict access to any information or Content posted or made available on its Site by its users or any third party if ordered to do so by a court or if iFreelancer considers such information or Content to be in violation of its User Agreement or posted rules or policies, including information or Content We consider to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, illegal, overly disparaging or deprecating of iFreelancer or other users or otherwise objectionable. You also agree to all iFreelancer policies on the release of contact information between users, as described herein and elsewhere on the Site. You are restricted from releasing your telephone number, email address, URL and other such contact information to other users of the iFreelancer Site until such time as You agree to make a transaction with another user. At that time, You may release your contact information to that user only. Provide
Accurate Information
10/ You agree to provide true, accurate and complete information, and maintain and update such information to maintain its truth, accuracy and completeness. Whenever You post any information on or to the Site (including but not limited to posting a request for services, bidding on a posted project, and/or posting your profile), You agree to provide true, accurate and complete information. iFreelancer reserves the right to terminate Your account upon the discovery that the information You provided or posted is not complete or accurate. Further, your iFreelancer account (including feedback) and User ID may not be transferred or sold to another party.
Safe keeping of Password
11/ You must safeguard the Username and password You use to access this Site. You authorize us to assume that any person using the Site with Your Username and password either is You or is authorized to act for You.
User Obligations
12/ You agree NOT to do any of the following while using the Site: Violate any applicable law or regulation; Access, tamper with or use non-public or non-authorized areas of the Site. Unauthorized individuals attempting to access these areas of the Site may be subject to prosecution; Tamper with postings of other users; Post logos, seals or slogans from third parties on any part of the Site unless they are provided by iFreelancer; Solicit or gather any user's information available from the Site, such as other users' names and email addresses, for any commercial or business purposes or to transmit any unsolicited advertising, "junk mail", "spam" or "chain letters; Do anything which would create or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large burden or load on the Site; Frame or link to the Site except as permitted in writing by iFreelancer; Post false or misleading information about a product, service or service request; Post or transmit any Content that infringes a third party's intellectual property rights or rights of publicity or privacy; Post or transmit any Content that is unlawful, untrue, fraudulent, harassing, libelous, defamatory, abusive, tortious, threatening, pornographic, harmful (including but not limited to viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs), overly disparaging or deprecating of iFreelancer or other users or otherwise objectionable; Repeat any action after you receive warning or request to desist from iFreelancer, whether or not that action is explicitly stated in policies. This includes continuing to use the iFreelancer service under the same account, a different account or reregistering under a new account after your membership has been temporarily suspended, indefinitely suspended or terminated. Fail to respond to an email from iFreelancer regarding violation, dispute or complaint.
Buying and Selling Services on iFreelancer
13/ You agree to:(a) be financially responsible for Your use of iFreelancer and purchase of services; (b) abide by iFreelancer's guidelines on posting projects and bidding on projects, which may be updated from time to time; and (c) perform your obligations and complete the transaction as specified by the terms of your posted project and or your bid or Business Terms agreement, whichever is more recent, once you have selected a service provider or and the service provider has accepted a project, respectively, unless such transaction is prohibited by law or by this Agreement. Specifically, upon acceptance of a bid, the buyer agrees to purchase the services and the service provider agrees to provide the services according to the terms of the final bid or Business Terms agreed to by the parties, subject to any further increase or decrease in project scope. If the scope of the project increases beyond the final bid price after the project begins, the parties are bound to report that higher amount through the iFreelancer, and iFreelancer's commission will increase proportionally to the contract value.
Circumvention of iFreelancer's Fee Structure
14/ You agree not to engage in any action or activities meant to circumvent our site or our stated fees. Prohibited systems or techniques include (but are not limited to) the following: Services offered directly to the buyer and not through iFreelancer; Any agreement between buyer and seller to mislead or defraud iFreelancer by conducting a transaction at different cost than the price agreed upon through iFreelancer; Failing to report changed bid amounts or final project prices to iFreelancer; Placing low value or place-holder bids, with unreasonably high final project charges; Posting contact information - email address, phone number, ICQ, your URL or a URL that points to your contact information - in any public areas of the site. Contact information may only be posted on a private message board shared between a buyer and seller for a specific project after the buyer has chosen the seller's bid and the seller has accepted the project. URLs of previous work are permitted in public areas of the site; Advertising, spamming or offering services to buyer outside of iFreelancer without receiving request for contact from buyer; Suggesting/soliciting buyer contact you directly to buy services outside of iFreelancer Any agreement (whether stated or implied) between buyer and service provider to conduct future transactions outside of iFreelancer. Buyers and service providers who make initial contact through iFreelancer are required to conduct any resulting, follow-up or new transactions through iFreelancer for at least twelve (12) months from the date that the first project is awarded by the buyer to the service provider. This includes posting of the project on iFreelancer.
Penalties
15/ Without limiting iFreelancer's other remedies, We may issue a warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership and refuse to provide any services to You (a) if You breach any terms and conditions of this User Agreement or the agreements incorporated herein by reference, including our written policies and procedures posted on the Site; (b) if We are unable to verify or authenticate any information You provide to Us; or (c) if We believe that your actions may cause legal liability for You, our users or for iFreelancer.
Notices
16/ iFreelancer will provide notices by posting them on the Site and You agree to check the Site for notices. You also authorize iFreelancer to send notices to You, at iFreelancer's discretion, via electronic mail unless You otherwise indicate in writing to customer service.(set link) Regardless of whether iFreelancer sends an email notification, You will be considered to have received a notice when it is made available to You by posting on the Site.
Feedback System
17/ As a User, you will be able to post public feedback about Users with whom you have transacted. You also agree to receive public feedback from Users with whom you have transacted. You acknowledge that your feedback may consist of comments and ratings left by other users and that iFreelancer may calculate a composite feedback number based on these individual ratings. Service providers agree to be rated by buyers along several criteria, as determined by iFreelancer. iFreelancer provides its feedback and rating system as a means through which users can express their opinions publicly, and iFreelancer does not monitor or censor these opinions or investigate any remarks posted by users for accuracy or reliability. Please note that you may be held responsible for damages suffered by other iFreelancer users. iFreelancer is not legally responsible for any feedback or comments posted or made available on its site by any users or third parties, even if that information is defamatory or otherwise legally actionable. You agree NOT to take any actions that undermine the integrity of the feedback system.
Commissions
18/ iFreelancer charges a per project flat rate commission of USD2 for project buyers, and 3.8% of the winning bid, or USD5, whichever is greater for project providers. The commission is charged and deducted from your account as soon as the provider of a project accepts the offer from a buyer "Project Manager". It is the responsibility of the project buyer and provider to ensure the accuracy of the bid amount. In case, due to unforeseeable circumstances, the final project charge is less than the bid amount resulting in a lesser final commission, iFreelancer will not be responsible for refund of the commission difference resulted thereof. iFreelancer service providers and buyers are responsible for meeting payroll, tax and legal requirements for any legal entity. It is the Service Provider's and the Buyer's responsibility to determine whether sales or use taxes apply to the transactions and to collect, report and remit the correct tax to the appropriate tax authority. iFreelancer is not obligated to determine whether sales or use taxes apply and is not responsible to collect, remit or report any sales or use taxes arising from any transaction. We reserve the right to change the method of calculating the commission at any time. However, the new commission will apply only to projects accepted after notification of the changed commission.
Requirement on Account Balance
19/ Buyers and Providers are required to maintain a zero or positive balance to their account. For any account whose balance is below zero dollars for more than 30 days, iFreelancer will freeze it without further notice. Users of frozen account will not be able to place any new bids on projects or create any new projects. The money balance in User's account is neither transferable nor withdrawable, even at the time when account is closed or terminated by us.
Project Payment
20/ iFreelancer will not involve in the arrangement of project payment between buyer and seller. Buyer and Seller should, before the confirmation of bid, reach a mutual agreement as to the time, arrangement and method of payment on the project.
Disputes Between Buyers and Service Providers
21/ Any disputes in connection with services provided by Service Providers or payments made by Buyers remain between such Buyers and Service Providers. iFreelancer will not be a party to any such dispute or be obligated to take any action or refrain from taking any action toward resolving any such dispute.
Modifications
22/ iFreelancer reserves the right to change the member Terms and Conditions at any time. It is the member's responsibility to check these Terms and Conditions from time to time for such changes. In the event iFreelancer offers any additional or replacement services then this agreement shall apply to such services in the absence of any new agreement specific to such services which is entered into between the parties
Questions
23/ If You have any questions, suggestions, or reports of problems, please contact us
