Seller Agreement

1. Scope and acceptance

This Seller Agreement (“Agreement”) applies to anyone who opens or operates a store on AfricanDiscountFoods (“you”, “Seller”). It supplements the Terms of Use, Acceptable Use & Community Guidelines, Refund Policy and Privacy Policy, all of which also apply to you. If this Agreement conflicts with them, this Agreement prevails for sellers. You accept it by clicking “Open my store” (or similar), by listing an item, or by continuing to operate a store after being notified of changes. If you act for a company, co-operative, restaurant or other organisation, you confirm you are authorised to bind it.

2. Eligibility and verification

• You must be at least 18, hold a verified AfricanDiscountFoods account, and be legally entitled to operate a food business in the place where you prepare or dispatch goods.
• Before your first payout you must complete identity and business verification (KYC/KYB) through Stripe Connect, which collects your legal name, date of birth, address, government ID, tax identifier and bank details directly. We receive only status flags and your Stripe account id. Stripe's Connected Account Agreement and Services Agreement apply to you, and Stripe may request further information at any time.
• We may also ask you for copies of licences, registrations, hygiene certificates, product-registration numbers (for example NAFDAC, FSSAI, FDA facility registration, EU/UK food-business registration), insurance, or proof of origin, and may refuse or suspend a store until they are provided.
• Under the EU Digital Services Act and the US INFORM Consumers Act we collect and, where required, verify and display trader information (name, address, contact details, registration number, self-certification of compliance). You must keep it accurate; we may suspend stores whose information cannot be verified.
• You may not be located in, or ship from, a country subject to comprehensive sanctions, and you may not appear on any restricted-party list.
• One person or business may operate more than one store only with our written approval. Stores may not be transferred or sold without our consent.

3. Your legal and food-safety obligations

You are the food business operator for everything you sell. You represent, warrant and undertake that:

• you comply with all food-safety, hygiene, labelling, allergen, weights-and-measures, packaging, consumer-protection, advertising, tax and licensing laws in every jurisdiction where you prepare, store, sell or ship goods, including (as applicable) the US FDA Food Safety Modernization Act and state cottage-food laws, USDA rules for meat, poultry and egg products, EU Regulations 178/2002, 852/2004 and 1169/2011, UK food-hygiene and “Natasha's Law” labelling requirements, Canada's Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, Australia's Food Standards Code, Nigeria's NAFDAC Act, Ghana's Public Health Act, Kenya's Food, Drugs and Chemical Substances Act, South Africa's Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act, India's FSS Act, and their equivalents;
• you hold, and will provide on request, every registration, licence, permit, inspection certificate and insurance the law requires of a food business in your location and for your product types;
• every item is safe, wholesome, correctly stored at the required temperature, within date, and prepared in premises that meet applicable hygiene standards;
• every listing accurately states the product name, net weight or volume, ingredients in descending order, the presence of the major allergens recognised in the seller's and, where known, the buyer's country (at least: cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, peanuts, soybeans, milk, tree nuts, celery, mustard, sesame, sulphites, lupin, molluscs), country of origin, storage instructions, use-by or best-before date where required, and the name and address of the producer or packer;
• claims such as “organic”, “halal”, “kosher”, “gluten-free”, “vegan”, “sugar-free”, “fair trade”, “wild”, “grass-fed” or geographic-origin claims are true, substantiated and, where the law requires, certified by an accredited body whose certificate you hold;
• you make no medicinal, therapeutic, disease-prevention, weight-loss, fertility or health claims for any product unless authorised under the law of the buyer's country, and you do not sell any product as a medicine, drug or supplement;
• you use food-grade packaging, insulation and coolant appropriate to the product and transit time, and do not ship perishable goods to destinations where they cannot arrive safely;
• you comply with import and export rules for every shipment, including phytosanitary and veterinary certificates, CITES permits, and prohibitions on meat, dairy, bushmeat, seeds and plant material in the destination country, and you declare contents truthfully on customs documents;
• you notify us and affected buyers immediately (within 24 hours) of any recall, contamination, food-borne-illness report or regulatory action affecting products you sold, cooperate fully with authorities and with us, and bear the cost of the recall.

4. Listings, photos and store content

• Listings must be for a specific, physical food item you have in stock or can prepare within the time stated. No placeholders, pre-orders without a clear date, or listings used to advertise off-platform sales.
• Photos must show the actual product or a faithful representation of it. AI-generated or stock imagery must not misrepresent the product, its portion, packaging or origin. You must own or hold a licence for every photo, logo and text you upload, and you indemnify us for any infringement claim.
• Prices must be complete and in USD, inclusive of any tax you are required to charge (or clearly stated as exclusive where the law permits), and not misleading (no fictitious “was” prices). You may not charge buyers any amount outside the platform.
• AI-generated taglines and descriptions offered by our tools are drafts. You must review them and are fully responsible for their accuracy once published.
• Restaurant menus, dietary tags and spice levels must be accurate and kept current. Menu dishes are sold under this Agreement like any other item.
• Store names must not infringe trademarks, impersonate another business, or include words such as “official”, “licensed” or a certification mark you do not hold.
• We may edit, categorise, translate, re-format or remove any listing to comply with law or policy, and may use your store content to promote your store and the marketplace under the licence in the Terms.

5. Orders, fulfilment and buyer service

• Accept or cancel each shipment promptly. Dispatch within the time your listing states, and in any case within 2 business days for shelf-stable goods and within the stated preparation time for perishable or prepared items. Update shipment status (Processing → Shipped → Delivered) accurately and promptly; the buyer is notified at each step and inaccurate statuses are a breach.
• Use a tracked service wherever available and keep proof of dispatch and delivery for at least 12 months.
• Communicate with buyers only through the platform tools or the contact details they gave for the order, only about that order, and never to solicit off-platform sales or reviews.
• Respond to buyer problems within 3 business days, honour the Refund Policy, and accept our decision on escalated claims as final under this Agreement.
• Pickup: state a collection window, hold items safely for that window, and dispose of uncollected perishables responsibly.
• Never dispatch alcohol, tobacco, medicines or anything on the prohibited list, even if a buyer asks.

6. Prohibited and restricted items

6.1 Prohibited

• Alcoholic beverages of any strength, including palm wine, beer, spirits, wine, liqueurs, and foods containing alcohol above 0.5% ABV; tobacco, nicotine, shisha, e-liquids, snuff, betel or areca nut;
• Cannabis, CBD, THC, kratom, khat (miraa), kava for consumption, psilocybin, or any controlled or psychoactive substance, and foods or drinks infused with them;
• Medicines, drugs, pharmaceuticals, injectables, and any product marketed with a medicinal, therapeutic or disease claim; “sexual enhancement”, weight-loss and “detox” products; dietary supplements, vitamins and nutraceuticals;
• Bushmeat and any meat, part or product of wild animals (including grasscutter, antelope, monkey, pangolin, bat, snake, crocodile, tortoise) unless commercially farmed, legally slaughtered, inspected and permitted for sale and export in both origin and destination country with documentation on request;
• Products of endangered, threatened or CITES-listed species, ivory, shark fin, sea turtle, certain sea cucumber and abalone, and protected plants;
• Raw or unpasteurised milk and products made from it where their sale is illegal, unregulated or unlicensed;
• Home-canned low-acid foods, home-cured meats or fish, and home-fermented products where local cottage-food law prohibits them;
• Products subject to an active recall, past their use-by date, adulterated, mislabelled, counterfeit, stolen, or diverted;
• Live animals (other than where the law permits shipping live crustaceans or molluscs for food), pets, animal feed, seeds and plants for growing, and soil;
• Weapons, knives sold other than as kitchen tools, ammunition, fireworks, chemicals, fuel, and any hazardous material;
• Any non-food item, including clothing, cosmetics, electronics, currency, gift cards, tickets, services, digital goods, real estate and financial products;
• Anything whose sale, import or export is unlawful in the seller's or the buyer's country, or that is intended to facilitate fraud, money laundering, sanctions evasion or tax evasion.

6.2 Restricted (allowed only with documentation and correct labelling)

• Meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs and dairy: only from licensed, inspected sources, shipped chilled or frozen with appropriate coolant, and only to destinations that permit their import;
• Honey, nuts, seeds for eating, dried fruit, spices and herbs: subject to phytosanitary and aflatoxin rules in the destination country;
• Fresh produce: subject to destination-country plant-health rules; no soil, no propagating material;
• Traditional herbs, teas, bitters and botanicals: sold as foods only, with no health claims, and only where they are not controlled substances or “novel foods” requiring authorisation in the destination country;
• Infant food, baby formula and food for special medical purposes: only branded, sealed products that meet the destination country's regulations;
• Energy drinks and high-caffeine products: with the warnings the law requires;
• Kitchen tools, cookware and utensils: allowed only as ancillary “merch” for a food store, food-contact safe, and never knives marketed as weapons.

We may add to these lists at any time to reflect law or risk. If in doubt, ask sellers@africandiscountfoods.com before listing.

7. Fees, commission and taxes

• Listing is free. We deduct a commission of 10% of the paid shipment subtotal (item prices, excluding delivery) from each paid order. Your dashboard shows gross, commission, net and available balance in real time.
• Payment-processing fees charged by Stripe on the buyer's payment are borne by the marketplace; Stripe's fees on Connect payouts, currency conversion and any chargeback fees are passed through to you.
• We may change the commission with at least 30 days' notice; the change applies to orders placed after the effective date.
• Taxes. You are responsible for registering for, charging, collecting, reporting and remitting all sales tax, VAT, GST, excise and income taxes that apply to your sales and earnings, in every jurisdiction where you are liable. Where the law makes AfricanDiscountFoods a deemed supplier or marketplace facilitator (for example US marketplace-facilitator laws or EU/UK deemed-supplier rules), we will collect and remit the relevant tax and tell you; you must still provide accurate product and location data so we can do so.
• We or Stripe may be required to report your sales and identity to tax authorities (for example US Form 1099-K, EU DAC7, UK reporting rules). You consent to that reporting and must provide the information needed.

8. Earnings, payouts and holds

• Earnings from a shipment become part of your available balance once the order is paid and after any hold period. Request payouts from your dashboard; transfers are made to the bank account linked to your Stripe Connect account. Where Stripe Connect is not enabled in your environment, payouts are simulated and no money moves.
• We may hold, delay or offset all or part of your balance: for new stores until a first delivery is confirmed; while a claim, chargeback, compliance review, recall or investigation is open; to cover refunds, chargebacks, fees or penalties you owe; where Stripe or a bank requires it; or where the law requires. We will tell you the reason and expected duration where the law allows.
• Refunds and chargebacks for your shipments are deducted from your balance. If your balance is insufficient you must pay the shortfall within 14 days of our request, and we may recover it from future earnings or by other lawful means.
• You are responsible for keeping your bank details current and for any bank fees or exchange-rate costs on payouts. Payouts are made in the currency your Stripe account supports.
• Balances are not deposits, are not insured, and earn no interest. Uncollected balances on closed stores are paid out to the last verified bank account after 90 days, subject to holds; balances that cannot be paid because verification is incomplete may be treated under applicable unclaimed-property law.

9. Buyer data and privacy

When you receive a buyer's name, address, phone number, email and order details you become an independent controller of that data under your local privacy law (and, where you act on our instructions, a processor). You must:

• use it only to fulfil, deliver and support that order and to meet legal obligations relating to it;
• not add buyers to marketing lists, contact them for any other purpose, sell or share their data, or use it to solicit off-platform sales;
• keep it secure, limit access to people who need it, and delete it when no longer needed for the order, tax or dispute purposes;
• notify us at privacy@africandiscountfoods.com within 48 hours of any data breach affecting buyer data, and cooperate with us and with buyers exercising their rights;
• comply with the GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, NDPA, POPIA, LGPD, PIPEDA and any other law that applies to you, including transfer rules if you are outside the buyer's country.

10. Reviews, ratings and promotion

• You may not review your own products or stores, have employees, family or friends do so, offer refunds, discounts, gifts or free products in exchange for reviews, or ask buyers to change or remove reviews. You may respond to reviews publicly and courteously.
• You may not post negative reviews of competitors or manipulate ratings or search results.
• You may promote your AfricanDiscountFoods store elsewhere, but may not use our name or logo in a way that suggests we are the seller, a partner, or that we endorse your products, and may not bid on our brand names in search advertising.

11. Compliance screening, monitoring and enforcement

• Every store is screened automatically at creation and may be re-screened at any time. Automated screening can grant a “verified” badge or flag a store for human review; it never removes or suspends a store on its own.
• We may request evidence, conduct mystery purchases, monitor communications sent through the platform, and share information with other marketplaces, payment providers and authorities to prevent fraud or unsafe food.
• For breaches of this Agreement or the law, or where a store poses a risk to buyers, we may, proportionately and depending on severity: warn you; remove or edit listings; remove the verified badge; demote the store in search; restrict features; hold payouts; suspend the store; or terminate this Agreement and close the store and your account, and we may recover our losses. We will give you a statement of reasons and a right to appeal within six months to a person not involved in the decision, except where the law forbids or where illegal activity is manifest.
• We may suspend immediately, without prior notice, for food-safety risks, prohibited items, fraud, sanctions issues, legal orders, or repeated breaches.
• Sellers who repeatedly infringe others' intellectual-property rights are terminated.

12. Relationship, insurance and indemnity

• You are an independent contractor. Nothing creates an employment, agency, partnership, joint-venture or franchise relationship, and you may not make statements or commitments on our behalf.
• You are strongly advised to hold product-liability and public-liability insurance appropriate to your products and volumes; we may require proof of cover for certain product categories or sales volumes.
• You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless [Operator legal entity name], its affiliates, officers, employees and agents from all claims, losses, fines, penalties, recall costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your goods, listings, content, fulfilment, taxes, data handling, breach of this Agreement, or violation of law or third-party rights, including claims of illness, injury, allergic reaction or death connected with your products.
• Our liability to you is limited as set out in the Terms of Use; in addition, we are not liable for lost sales, store downtime, search ranking, buyer conduct, carrier performance, customs actions or Stripe decisions, and our total liability to you in any 12 months is limited to the commission we earned from your store in that period.

13. Term, suspension and termination

• This Agreement lasts until terminated. You may close your store at any time from your dashboard or by emailing sellers@africandiscountfoods.com; you must first fulfil or cancel and refund open shipments.
• We may terminate for convenience with 30 days' notice, or immediately for the causes in section 11.
• On termination: listings are removed; open orders are completed or refunded; buyer data must be deleted by you as section 9 requires; and your balance is paid out after deductions once chargeback exposure has passed (typically 90 days, or 180 days for stores terminated for fraud or safety). Sections 3, 7 to 9 and 12 to 14 survive.

14. General

• We may change this Agreement with 30 days' notice for material changes (15 days for other changes, immediately where required by law or for safety). Continuing to sell after the effective date is acceptance. Changes do not apply retroactively to orders already placed.
• The dispute-resolution, governing-law and general provisions of the Terms of Use apply to this Agreement. For business sellers in the EU, Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 (Platform-to-Business) applies: this Agreement is our terms and conditions, the main ranking parameters are relevance to the search, price, rating, stock and verified status, our internal complaint-handling system is described in section 11, and mediators can be proposed on request to legal@africandiscountfoods.com.
• You must not assign this Agreement without our consent. We may assign it to an affiliate or successor.
• Notices to you go to your account email. Notices to us go to sellers@africandiscountfoods.com or, for legal notices, legal@africandiscountfoods.com.
• The English text prevails over any translation.