Terms of Service

SponsorZone is a marketplace for two kinds of users:

• Developer — a user who owns a website, creates a Zone (a defined ad slot) on it, and sells that Zone to a Sponsor.
• Sponsor — a user (or someone acting on behalf of a business) who pays to place a banner ad ("Creative") in a Developer's Zone for a fixed number of days (the "Run").

These Terms apply to both roles. Where a rule applies only to one role, we say so.

The Platform is for business use only. By using it, you confirm that:

• You are at least 18 years old.
• You are acting for the purposes of a trade, business, craft, or profession — not as a consumer buying for personal, family, or household use. If you're acting on behalf of a company, you confirm you're authorized to bind it to these Terms.
• Because SponsorZone is business-to-business only, statutory consumer-protection rules (for example, a right of withdrawal from distance contracts) do not apply to your use of the Platform.

• You need an account to create Zones or accept/reject Offers. We support signing in with GitHub or an email magic link.
• You're responsible for activity on your account and for keeping your sign-in access secure.
• Give us accurate information (including your email, and, for payouts, accurate details to Stripe). We may suspend an account that has false or misleading information.

1. A Developer creates a Zone: a name, size, price, and Run duration of between 7 and 75 days. The Developer embeds a snippet of code on their site; until a Zone is booked, it shows a generic "Advertise here" placeholder, not a paid ad.
2. A Sponsor submits an Offer for a Zone: a Creative (image), a destination link, and contact details. No payment is taken at this point.
3. We run automated checks on the Creative and the destination link before the Developer ever sees them (see Section 6). These checks are a safety floor only — they do not review brand fit, legality of the advertised product/service, or anything else. That review is the Developer's job.
4. The Developer accepts or rejects the Offer. The Developer has no obligation to accept any Offer. A pending Offer automatically expires after 48 hours if the Developer does nothing.
5. If rejected, the Sponsor isn't charged and the Zone stays available.
6. If accepted, the Sponsor gets a payment link and has 24 hours to pay before the approval expires. Once paid, the Zone is booked, the ad goes live via the embed for the agreed Run duration, and the Zone is unavailable to other Sponsors until the Run ends.
7. A Zone can only have one active or pending Offer at a time.

This section explains exactly how money moves. It's the part we most want you to read before booking or listing.

5.1 Who you're paying, and who pays you

• When a Sponsor pays for a booking, the charge is processed by Stripe and collected by SponsorZone, not directly by the Developer. The Sponsor's payment relationship (receipt, refund, dispute) is with SponsorZone.
• All prices are in US dollars (USD)
• SponsorZone keeps a platform fee of 10% of the Zone price. The remaining 90% is the amount owed to the Developer for that booking (the "Developer Share"). We may change this percentage for future bookings; it won't change for an Offer you've already accepted or paid for.

5.2 Getting paid as a Developer (Stripe Connect)

• To receive any money, a Developer must connect a Stripe account through Stripe Connect and complete Stripe's identity verification. We can't enable Zone creation or Offer acceptance until that's done.
• Stripe collects and verifies your identity/payout details directly — SponsorZone never sees or stores your bank account details.
• We use Stripe's "Separate Charges and Transfers" setup: the Sponsor's charge lands on SponsorZone's Stripe balance first. Your Developer Share is later sent to your connected Stripe account as a separate Transfer — it is not an automatic split of the original charge.
• We don't promise a fixed payout deadline. We aim to send your Developer Share promptly after the Run ends and we've confirmed the ad was displayed for the agreed duration. This is a manual confirmation step on our side, not an instant/automatic payout.
• SponsorZone is responsible for Stripe's processing fees on these charges; that's not deducted separately from your Developer Share on top of the 10% platform fee.

5.3 If the ad didn't actually run

• The Platform does not automatically track ad impressions or clicks, so we can't independently prove an ad was shown. If a Sponsor believes their ad never displayed on the Developer's site, they must tell us (support@sponsorzone.dev) before the Run's end date.
• We'll look into it and decide, acting reasonably and at our discretion, whether to refund the Sponsor instead of paying the Developer Share, or to pay the Developer Share as normal. Our decision is final.
• A report made after the Run has ended may not be eligible for a refund, since the Developer Share may already have been paid out.

5.4 Chargebacks and payment disputes

• If a Sponsor's payment is reversed, disputed, or charged back through Stripe after we've already paid a Developer Share for that booking, the Developer agrees that SponsorZone may recover that amount — by deducting it from a future payout, invoicing the Developer directly, or another reasonable means.
• We may hold or delay a Transfer while we investigate a suspected fraudulent payment, dispute, or breach of these Terms.

• Before a Developer sees an Offer, we automatically process the Creative (re-encoding it and stripping hidden metadata) and run an automated check that blocks images with a high confidence of explicit nudity, graphic violence, or similarly disturbing content, and we check the destination link against known-unsafe URL lists.
• This automated check is a safety floor, not a full content review. It doesn't check brand fit, legality of the product or service being advertised, trademark/copyright issues, or misleading claims. Reviewing those is the Developer's responsibility before accepting an Offer.
• By submitting an Offer, the Sponsor confirms that: they own or have the necessary rights to the Creative and the destination link; the Creative and destination are lawful in the jurisdictions where the ad will be shown; and the ad does not contain malware, phishing, or deceptive content.
• We may remove a live ad, reject an Offer, or suspend an account at any time if we reasonably believe content violates these Terms or the law, without owing a refund beyond what Section 5.3 provides.

By submitting an Offer, the Sponsor grants SponsorZone and the relevant Developer a limited, non-exclusive license to host, reproduce, and display the Creative solely to deliver the booked Run. This license ends when the Run ends (or the Offer is rejected/expires, in which case we delete the Creative).

• Keep the embed snippet installed, unmodified, and visible on the agreed page for the full Run — don't remove or cover the ad early without a valid reason (for example, a content violation you've reported to us).
• Describe your Zone (site, placement, size, traffic) accurately. Misrepresenting a Zone to get bookings is a breach of these Terms.
• You're responsible for your own website, including its legality and compliance with applicable law.

• You can stop using the Platform at any time. A Run that is already active must still complete (or be refunded per Section 5.3) before an account tied to it is closed.
• We may suspend or terminate an account, reject or cancel an Offer, or take down a live ad, if we reasonably believe you've breached these Terms, used the Platform fraudulently, or created legal risk for us or others.
• To close your account, contact support@sponsorzone.dev. We may delay closure while a Zone you own is booked or a payout/dispute is unresolved.

The Platform is provided "as is." We don't guarantee that any Zone will receive Offers, that traffic or results from a Run will meet expectations, or that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free. We're a booking and payment platform connecting Developers and Sponsors — we're not a party to, and don't endorse, the advertising content or the underlying transaction beyond what these Terms describe.

• Nothing in these Terms limits our liability for intent or gross negligence, for injury to life, body, or health, or under mandatory product liability law.
• For ordinary/slight negligence, we're only liable if we breach a material contractual obligation (one whose fulfillment you were entitled to rely on) — and even then, only for damage that was foreseeable and typical for a contract like this.
• In any event, our total liability to you arising from a specific booking is capped at the price paid for that booking (the Zone price for the Offer in question). We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses (for example, lost profits or lost business opportunities), except where the carve-outs above apply.

You agree to compensate SponsorZone for reasonable losses, damages, and costs (including legal fees) arising from a third-party claim caused by: your Creative or destination link, your website, or your breach of these Terms — except to the extent we caused the claim.

We may update these Terms from time to time. We'll post the updated version here with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, try to notify you by email. Continuing to use the Platform after a change takes effect means you accept it. Changes don't apply retroactively to an Offer you've already accepted or paid for.

These Terms are governed by the law of Germany.

Questions about these Terms: support@sponsorzone.dev.