These terms are an agreement between you and [Prends company name] ("Prends", "we", "us"). They apply when you use the Prends website and services. If you don't agree, don't use Prends.
1. What Prends is
Prends is a venue. It helps podcast hosts and guests find each other, talk and agree bookings.
Prends is not a party to any agreement between a host and a guest. We are not your agent, employer, employee, partner or representative. Hosts and guests make their own agreements and are responsible for keeping them.
We don't produce, edit, publish or control any podcast.
2. No guarantees
We don't guarantee:
- that a booking will happen,
- the size, quality or reaction of any audience,
- downloads, sales, leads, followers or any other result,
- that a listing, profile or audience figure is accurate,
- that the service will always be available or free of errors.
Verification badges show that a member linked an account or met a check at a point in time. They do not confirm a person's legal identity, and they are not an endorsement.
3. Your account
You must be at least 18 and able to make a binding contract. We ask for confirmation of this when you sign up. Give accurate information and keep it up to date. Keep your login secure. You are responsible for what happens on your account.
One person or organisation per account. Don't create accounts to get around a suspension or a strike.
4. Paid bookings
Paid bookings follow the Booking Terms, which form part of these terms. In short:
- Payments are processed by Stripe. Booking money is held by Stripe in Prends's Stripe platform balance until it is transferred to the payee or refunded. It is never moved into Prends's own bank account.
- Money is released to the person being paid after the episode is live and the review window has passed.
- Unpublished bookings are refunded automatically after 60 days.
- The payer can flag a problem inside the window. A flag freezes the money while we review it.
To receive money you must open a Stripe account through Prends and accept Stripe's own terms, including the [Stripe Connected Account Agreement]. Stripe may ask for identity and bank details and may refuse an account.
5. Flag first, before a chargeback
If something goes wrong with a paid booking, use the flag button first. Flags are free, fast and are the way we can hold money back.
If you file a card chargeback or bank dispute without flagging first, or after we have decided a flag, it counts as a strike:
- 1 strike: you can only pay by bank transfer.
- 2 strikes: paid bookings are suspended on your account.
We may remove a strike if your bank decides in your favour and the other member was at fault. We send booking records to the card issuer as evidence when a chargeback is filed.
If a dispute is lost after money was released because the person paid broke the agreement, we may recover that amount from them, including by reversing a transfer from their Stripe account.
6. Our decisions on flags
When a booking is flagged, we look at the booking terms, both members' messages, the recording confirmation, the episode link and the feed timestamp. We then release the money, refund it, or split it. Our decision on a flag is final within Prends. It does not stop you from going to court, but you agree to try our process first.
7. Disclosure of paid appearances
If a guest pays for a sponsored spot, the host must tell listeners clearly, in the episode itself, that the appearance is paid or sponsored. The disclosure must be spoken near the start of the episode and also written in the episode's show notes. This is required by laws such as the US FTC Act and the FTC's Endorsement Guides, the UK CAP Code and consumer protection law, and EU consumer law. If the show is also broadcast on radio or TV, broadcast sponsorship rules may also apply.
The same applies to any other paid connection a listener would not expect, for example when a host pays a guest an appearance fee and the guest promotes the host's products, or when a guest is paid by a company to talk about its stock, token or product.
A host can't accept a sponsored booking without committing to this. Hosts and guests are each responsible for the disclosure. Guests must not ask a host to hide it. Prends may check published episodes, and may remove a member or refund a payer when a required disclosure is missing.
8. Prohibited bookings and conduct
You must not use Prends to:
- pay for a false or misleading endorsement or review,
- pay for political or issue advertising that is not disclosed as paid,
- book anything on [Stripe's restricted business list] or anything illegal where either member lives,
- promote gambling, adult content, weapons, drugs, crypto investment schemes or financial products that need a licence you don't hold,
- harass, threaten or discriminate against anyone,
- send spam or bulk outreach,
- scrape the site or resell its data,
- impersonate someone or misstate your audience,
- take a booking off Prends to avoid the fee after meeting here.
We may remove content, cancel bookings, refund payers and suspend accounts that break these rules. When we do, we tell the member what we did and why, unless the law or safety reasons stop us, and the member can ask us to look at it again.
Reporting illegal content
Anyone can report content they think is illegal or breaks these terms, using the "Report" link or by emailing [abuse@prends.app]. Tell us where the content is, why you think it is illegal, and how to reach you. We review reports and tell the reporter what we decided. Authorities can contact us at [legal@prends.app].
Copyright complaints
If you think something on Prends infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent: [name, address, email]. Include the work, where the copy is on Prends, your contact details, a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised, and a statement under penalty of perjury that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner. We remove infringing material and close the accounts of repeat infringers.
Sanctions
You may not use paid features if you are located in, or ordinarily resident in, a country or region under comprehensive US sanctions, or if you are on a US, UK, EU or UN sanctions list, or are owned or controlled by someone who is. Stripe and Prends may screen members and block payments to meet these rules.
9. Listings built from public sources
Some show and guest listings are built from public sources, such as podcast directories, public RSS feeds, public websites and encyclopaedia entries. These listings are marked as unclaimed until the person or show claims them. An unclaimed listing does not mean the person or show uses Prends, endorses it, or is available to book.
If a listing is about you or your show, including a guest profile about you as a person, you can:
- claim it and edit it,
- ask us to correct it, or
- ask us to remove it.
Email [removals@prends.app] or use the "Request removal" link on the listing. We act on removal requests within 7 days and don't re-add a removed listing from public sources unless you ask. To make sure of that, we keep a short record of the removed listing (its name, source link and the date of the request) and nothing else.
10. Your content
You keep ownership of what you post. You give Prends a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, show and share it as needed to run the service. This licence ends when you delete the content, except for copies kept for records, disputes or the law.
You are responsible for your content. Don't post anything you don't have the right to post.
Prends does not own or control any episode. Hosts and guests should agree between themselves who owns the recording and how each of them may use it, for example clips for social media. A host who records a guest must get the guest's consent to record and follow the recording consent laws where each person is.
11. Fees, payments and refunds
All payments, payouts and refunds are processed by Stripe, Inc. and its affiliates under their own terms, which you accept when you pay or set up payouts. Booking money waits in Prends's Stripe platform balance, held by Stripe, until it is transferred or refunded. It is never moved into Prends's own bank account. Prends is not responsible for how long Stripe, your bank, a card network or a crypto network takes to process a payment, payout or refund, for amounts withheld or reversed by them, for exchange rates, or for fees they charge. Questions about a processed refund go to Stripe and your bank.
Prends charges a platform fee of at least 3% of the booking amount, paid by the payer. Payment, payout and currency conversion costs are passed through to the payer and shown as one total before paying. Prends's fee and these costs are not refundable. Fees for subscriptions and other paid features are shown before you buy. We may change fees with [30 days'] notice. Changes don't apply to bookings already accepted.
12. Taxes
You are responsible for your own taxes on money you receive. To pay you, Prends or Stripe on our behalf may ask for tax information, such as a US Form W-9 or W-8, a tax identification number and your address. Where the law requires, we or Stripe will issue tax forms and report what you received to tax authorities, for example in the United States, the European Union (under the DAC7 rules) and the United Kingdom. Prends is responsible for tax on its own fee, and the price you see may include sales tax or VAT on that fee where it applies.
13. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows:
- Prends is provided "as is" and "as available".
- We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive losses, or for lost profits, revenue, audience, data or goodwill.
- We are not liable for what hosts and guests do or fail to do.
- Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the greater of (a) the fees you paid Prends in the 12 months before the claim and (b) [USD 100].
Some places don't allow these limits. In those places the limits apply only as far as the law allows. Nothing here limits liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.
14. Indemnity
You agree to defend and compensate Prends, and its owners, staff and contractors, for claims, losses and costs (including reasonable legal fees) that come from:
- your content,
- your conduct on or off Prends with members you met here,
- your bookings and episodes, including missing disclosures,
- your breach of these terms or the law.
15. Suspension and ending
You can close your account at any time. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, creates risk for other members or for Prends, or is required by law or by Stripe. Bookings in progress are settled under the Booking Terms.
16. Changes
We may update these terms. We will tell you about important changes at least [30 days] before they take effect. If you keep using Prends after that, the new terms apply.
17. Law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of [State / country]. Disputes go to the courts of [venue], unless the law where you live gives you the right to use your local courts. [Consider an arbitration clause and class action waiver for US users; check enforceability for EU and UK consumers.]
18. Contact
[Prends company name], [address]. Email [legal@prends.app].