Terms and conditions

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

These terms govern your use of feastmatch.co.uk and everything on it (the Platform), which is operated by FeastMatch, Bristol, United Kingdom. You can reach us at hello@feastmatch.co.uk.

By using the Platform — browsing it, posting a brief, listing a business, sending a message or making a payment — you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Platform.

These terms are between you and FeastMatch. They are not the terms of the catering itself; those are between you and the other party, and section 9 explains where the line falls.

2. The words we use

• Organiser — anyone posting a brief or booking catering through the Platform.
• Caterer — an independent catering business listed on the Platform.
• Brief — the description of an event an Organiser posts: date, postcode, guest numbers and what they want to eat.
• Match — a Caterer our matching engine puts in front of a Brief, opening a message thread between the two.
• Quote — a priced offer a Caterer sends an Organiser inside a thread.
• Booking — a Quote the Organiser has accepted.
• Catering Contract — the agreement to supply catering formed between an Organiser and a Caterer. See section 9.
• Commission — our fee, 10% of the Booking value, charged only on a Booking that completes.

3. What FeastMatch is, and what it is not

FeastMatch is an introduction service and a payment mechanism. We do three things: we take a Brief and put it in front of Caterers our matching engine judges suitable; we host the messages, quotes and booking record between the two of you; and we collect and hold the payment until the event is confirmed to have happened.

We are not a caterer. We do not cook, supply, staff, transport or supervise anything. We do not attend events. We are not an agent for the Organiser, we are not an employer of any Caterer, and no Caterer is our subcontractor.

We do not vet a Caterer's competence. We check a listing by hand before it is published, which means we look at whether it is a plausible catering business and not whether it is a good one. Food hygiene ratings, insurance and licensing are shown as the Caterer states them; where we have not independently confirmed something, we say so on the listing rather than implying otherwise.

We do not guarantee that a Brief will be matched, that a Match will reply, that a Quote will arrive, or that any price will be competitive.

4. Who may use the Platform

You must be 18 or over. If you use the Platform on behalf of a business, you confirm you are authorised to bind it, and "you" means both you and that business.

To list as a Caterer you must be a catering business that is lawfully able to trade in the United Kingdom, registered with your local authority as a food business where the law requires it, and able to supply the events you say you can.

The Platform is aimed at events in the United Kingdom and is not directed at anyone outside it.

5. Your account

Some things — browsing, posting a Brief — need no account. A Booking and a Caterer listing do.

Keep your password to yourself and tell us straight away if you think someone else has it. You are responsible for what is done through your account. Give us accurate details and keep them up to date; an out-of-date email address on this Platform means missed leads and missed replies, and that is your loss to bear, not ours.

Confirming your email address. When you create an account we send you a confirmation link, which lasts 24 hours and works once. You can send yourself a new one at any time from the banner shown while an address is unconfirmed. We use this to establish that we can actually reach you, because every notification this Platform sends — a Match, a reply, a Quote, a payment — arrives by email.

Posting a Brief without an account. If you do, we hand you a reference and an access link and email you a copy. Anyone holding that link can read and reply to that conversation, so treat it like a password. We cannot restore it if you lose it, though you can attach the Brief to an account created with the same email address at any time.

6. Posting a Brief

A Brief must be a real enquiry for a real event. Describe it accurately — the postcode, the guest numbers and the food you ask for are what the matching engine reads, and a Brief that misstates them wastes the time of every Caterer it reaches.

Do not post a Brief to gather market intelligence, to advertise, to recruit, or to reach Caterers about anything other than the event described.

Posting a Brief costs nothing and obliges you to nothing. You are never required to accept a Quote.

7. Listing a catering business

Listing is free, permanently. There is no subscription, no listing fee, and no charge to receive, read or reply to a Brief.

Everything on your listing must be true and yours: your trading name, your photographs, your prices, your hygiene rating, your insurance position. Do not upload an image you do not have the right to use, and do not upload a photograph of an identifiable person without their permission.

Keep what you cook, your travel radius and your availability current. They are what the matching engine reads, so a stale listing is one that either misses work or receives work you cannot do.

Listings are reviewed by hand before publication and are not visible or matchable until approved. We may decline or remove a listing, and we will tell you why.

8. Matching and messaging

When a Brief matches you, a message thread opens between the two parties. Messaging is free and unlimited, in both directions, permanently. A Caterer is never charged to receive a lead, to read it, or to reply to it. There are no credits and nothing to unlock.

Matching is automatic and is a judgement, not a promise. It is decided by the cuisines a Brief asks for and the distance between the event and the Caterer, with occasion, guest capacity, dietary capability and stated availability as secondary signals. We may change how it works at any time.

Use threads for the event at hand. Do not send abuse, spam, marketing, or anything unlawful; do not share another person's details; and do not use the Platform to contact anyone about anything other than the Brief they are attached to.

We can read message content where we need to — investigating a report, resolving a dispute, or meeting a legal obligation. We do not read it otherwise.

9. Taking the job off the Platform

You may deal with each other however you like. But if you were introduced through FeastMatch and you then arrange the same event elsewhere in order to avoid Commission, that is a breach of these terms, and we may suspend or remove the accounts involved.

This is not a restraint on either of you trading. It is the one thing our model cannot survive: messaging is free precisely because Commission on a completed Booking is the only thing we charge for.

10. How a catering contract is formed

A Quote is an offer from the Caterer to the Organiser. When the Organiser accepts it on the Platform, a Catering Contract is formed directly between the Organiser and the Caterer on the terms of that Quote, together with any of the Caterer's own terms provided to the Organiser before acceptance.

FeastMatch is not a party to that contract. We do not perform it, we do not guarantee it, and we are not liable for either side's failure to perform it. Our role in it is limited to holding and releasing the payment as set out below.

Cancellation charges, deposits, menu changes, final numbers, timings, access, power, staffing and equipment are matters for the Catering Contract. Agree them in writing in the thread, where both of you keep a copy.

11. Payment, and how the money is held

When an Organiser accepts a Quote, they pay the full Booking amount through Stripe. The payment is made to FeastMatch, not to the Caterer.

We collect that payment as the Caterer's agent. Payment to us discharges the Organiser's obligation to pay the Caterer that amount under the Catering Contract, so the Organiser cannot be asked to pay twice for the same Booking.

We hold the funds — they sit in our Stripe balance and are not passed on — until both the Organiser and the Caterer confirm on the Platform that the event went ahead. On that confirmation we release the Booking amount less Commission to the Caterer's connected Stripe account. Stripe typically settles to a UK bank account within two working days; that timing is Stripe's, not ours.

We do not pay interest on held funds. We do not lend them, invest them or use them as working capital.

Card details are entered on Stripe's own pages and never reach FeastMatch. Your use of Stripe is also subject to Stripe's terms, and a Caterer taking payouts must complete Stripe's identity checks before we can pay them.

12. Our commission

Commission is 10% of the Booking amount. It is charged once, on release, and only on a Booking that completes.

There is no charge for listing, for being matched, for messaging, for quoting, or for a Booking that is cancelled or refunded. If a Booking does not complete, we earn nothing from it.

Commission is shown on the Booking before a Quote is accepted and on every Booking record afterwards. We may change the rate for future Bookings, and a change never applies to a Booking already made.

13. Cancellation, changes and refunds

Cancellation between an Organiser and a Caterer is governed by the Catering Contract. Agree the terms before you accept a Quote; a caterer who has bought stock for Saturday has a legitimate claim on a Friday cancellation, and that is a matter between you.

Where a Booking is cancelled before funds are released, we refund the held amount to the Organiser and take no Commission — unless both parties tell us in the thread that a different split has been agreed, in which case we follow that.

Once funds are released we hold nothing, and any refund is a matter for the Caterer directly.

Refunds go back to the original payment method. Stripe's processing timescales apply.

14. If you are a consumer

If you are an Organiser acting outside a business, you have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 which nothing here removes.

Our own service to you — the introduction and the payment handling — is supplied online and is free to you, so there is nothing for you to cancel and nothing to refund. You may close your account at any time.

Your cancellation rights against a Caterer are a matter for the Catering Contract, and you should know that catering for a specific date is one of the contracts the Consumer Contracts Regulations exempt from the usual 14-day cancellation right (regulation 28(1)(h) — leisure services for a specific date). Do not assume a 14-day cooling-off period applies to a booked event. Ask the Caterer what their cancellation terms are before you accept the Quote.

15. Disputes about a booking

If an event did not happen as agreed, do not confirm completion. Raise it in the thread and email us. Funds stay held while a Booking is disputed and are never released automatically.

We will look at the Booking, the thread and the Quote, and we will take a view on releasing, refunding or splitting the held amount. That view is a practical decision about money we are holding. It is not an arbitration, it does not decide the Catering Contract, and it does not stop either of you pursuing the other.

We may hold funds for as long as a dispute is genuinely live, or for as long as the law requires.

16. Reviews

A review can only be written by an Organiser after a Booking has completed and funds have been released. This is deliberate: a review on this Platform is evidence of a transaction that actually happened.

Reviews must be your own honest experience of that Booking. Do not write, buy, exchange or solicit reviews, and do not offer anything in return for one.

We may remove a review that is unlawful, abusive, irrelevant to the Booking, or that identifies a person who is not a party to it. We do not remove a review for being unfavourable.

Where sample content appears on a listing rather than a real review, it is labelled as sample content on the page.

17. Food safety, allergens and insurance

This section is a Caterer's responsibility and it is not one we can take on.

Each Caterer is responsible for its own registration as a food business, its food hygiene practice, its allergen information and labelling, its public liability and employer's liability insurance, its licensing, and its compliance with food law including the Food Information Regulations.

The Platform records dietary and allergen requirements a Brief states, and asks the Caterer to acknowledge them on a Booking. That record is a communication tool, not a safety control. It does not verify that a Caterer can safely serve an allergic guest, and it is not a substitute for a direct conversation between the Organiser, the Caterer and the guest concerned.

If someone at your event has a severe allergy, speak to the Caterer about it directly and get their answer in writing.

18. Content you put on the Platform

You keep ownership of everything you upload — listing text, photographs, messages, reviews.

You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce and display that content for the purpose of operating and promoting the Platform, for as long as you keep it there and for as long afterwards as we are required to retain records. You confirm you have the right to give us that licence.

We may remove content that breaches these terms or the law.

Everything else on the Platform — the name, the branding, the design, the code, the matching engine and the taxonomies — belongs to us. You may not copy it, scrape it, or use it to build a competing service.

19. Things you must not do

• Post anything false, misleading, unlawful, abusive, discriminatory or obscene.
• Impersonate anyone, or list a business that is not yours.
• Use another person's account, or let anyone use yours.
• Scrape, crawl, harvest or bulk-download the Platform or its listings.
• Attempt to interfere with the Platform's security, or access data that is not yours.
• Use the Platform to send marketing to anyone who did not ask for it.
• Circumvent Commission on a Booking you were introduced to here.

20. Suspension and closing an account

You may close your account at any time by emailing us from its address. Closing it does not end a Catering Contract you have already entered, and does not release funds we are holding on a live Booking.

We may suspend or remove an account that breaches these terms, that we reasonably believe is being used unlawfully or fraudulently, or that puts other users at risk. Where we can, we tell you why and give you a chance to put it right first. Where a suspension is urgent we may act first and explain afterwards.

21. Availability

We try to keep the Platform available and we do not promise that it always will be. We may change, suspend or withdraw any part of it, and we may take it down for maintenance. Nothing here entitles you to compensation for the Platform being unavailable.

We are not responsible for a failure caused by something outside our reasonable control, including an outage at Stripe, Cloudflare or our email provider, or a failure of your own connection or device.

22. Our liability to you

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. If you are a consumer, nothing here affects your statutory rights.

Subject to that:

• We are not liable for the performance of any Catering Contract, or for anything a Caterer or an Organiser does or fails to do. That includes food that did not arrive, food that was not as described, illness, damage at a venue, a no-show, or a dispute about price.
• We are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of goodwill or loss of anticipated savings, or for any indirect or consequential loss.
• Our total liability in connection with any one Booking is limited to the amount we held for that Booking.
• Where no Booking is involved, our total liability to you in any twelve-month period is limited to £100.

These limits are the reason the service can be free at the point of use, and they reflect what we actually do: we introduce and we hold money. We do not cater.

23. Your liability to us

If you are using the Platform in the course of a business, you agree to cover our reasonable losses, costs and legal fees arising from your breach of these terms, from your content, or from a claim brought against us because of something you did or supplied. This does not apply to consumers.

24. Your data

How we handle personal data is set out in our privacy and cookie policy, which forms part of these terms. In short: we collect what the Platform needs to work, we do not sell it, we do not run advertising trackers, and you can ask us for a copy or ask us to delete it.

Caterers and Organisers each act as independent controllers of the personal data they receive about each other through the Platform, and each is responsible for handling it lawfully.

25. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. The current version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top.

Where a change materially affects you and you have an account, we will email you before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Platform after that means you accept the new version. A Booking already made stays on the terms in force when it was made.

26. Complaints

Email hello@feastmatch.co.uk with the Booking reference or the Brief reference and what went wrong. We aim to acknowledge within two working days and to reach an answer within ten.

A complaint about the catering itself should go to the Caterer first. Tell us as well if money is still held, because that is the point at which we can still do something about it.

27. General

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.

If we do not enforce something straight away, we have not given up the right to enforce it later.

You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our consent. We may transfer ours if the business is sold, and your rights are unaffected.

Nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms.

These terms, and any dispute arising from them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the United Kingdom you may also bring proceedings in your own country's courts.

28. Where this deployment stands

FeastMatch is being built in the open and this deployment is a working prototype. Two things follow, and we would rather say them here than have you discover them.

Caterer listings labelled as sample content are illustrative and are not businesses you can book. Anything not so labelled is a real listing.

These terms are the current working version. They have been written to be complete and to be relied on, and they have not yet been through a final review by a qualified solicitor. When they have, this paragraph will say so and will be dated.