Legal

Merchant Terms of Use

Last updated: 20 May 2026

These terms govern your use of Althemax as a merchant — listing products on the marketplace at www.althemax.com, connecting external sales channels (Shopify, eBay, Amazon, etc.), using the merchant dashboard, and integrating with the AI-agent surface. By creating a merchant account or otherwise using the merchant Service, you (the “Merchant”) agree to these terms.

1. Eligibility and account

• You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter into a binding contract. If signing up on behalf of a company, you warrant authority to bind that entity.
• You must provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date (legal name, contact, business address, tax registration where relevant).
• You are responsible for all activity under your account, including activity by your employees, contractors, and AI agents you authorise.

2. The marketplace role

Althemax provides a marketplace, an AI-agent surface, and channel sync tools. We are not a co-seller or fulfilment partner; sales contracts form between you and the buyer. We do not take title to products, hold inventory, or process payments except when an Althemax-hosted checkout is explicitly enabled. You remain responsible for product quality, fulfilment, returns, refunds, customer support, and tax compliance.

3. Listings and content

• You grant Althemax a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, copy, display, distribute, summarise, embed, and process your listing content (titles, descriptions, images, prices, inventory data, attributes) for the purpose of operating the Service, including AI-agent retrieval and AI-generated summaries.
• You warrant that your content does not infringe any third-party right (copyright, trademark, publicity, privacy) and complies with applicable consumer-protection, advertising, and labelling laws.
• You are responsible for accurate prices, quantities, descriptions, barcodes (EAN/UPC/ISBN/GTIN), shipping costs, and tax handling on each listing.

4. Prohibited products and conduct

You agree not to list, advertise, or sell on Althemax:

• Illegal goods or services, weapons, ammunition, drugs (recreational or prescription), tobacco/vape products where local restrictions apply, hazardous materials, or counterfeit / replica items.
• Items that violate third-party intellectual property, publicity, or privacy rights.
• Adult / NSFW content, items targeting minors with adult themes, or goods that glorify violence, hatred, or self-harm.
• Items the connected channel (eBay, Shopify, etc.) itself prohibits.

You also agree not to manipulate ratings or reviews, run wash-buying schemes, abuse the AI agent surface to spam responses, or attempt to circumvent rate limits, billing, or product caps.

5. Channel connections

When you connect an external channel (Shopify, eBay, etc.), you authorise Althemax to read and write on your behalf through that channel's API for the scopes you granted (listings, inventory, orders, business policies, identity). You remain bound by the connected channel's own terms; we do not override or assume those obligations.

Connection tokens may expire, be revoked by the channel, or be invalidated by you at any time. We are not liable for downstream channel outages, API changes, or suspensions imposed by the channel.

6. Subscription, trial, billing

• Each merchant gets a 7-day free trial starting on signup. After the trial ends, an active paid subscription is required to keep creating products, importing channel listings, or using the merchant tools.
• Subscription tiers and prices are published at /pricing. We may change pricing on 30 days' notice; existing paid periods are honoured at the prior rate.
• Fees are billed monthly in advance in USD via Stripe and are non-refundable except where required by law. You authorise Althemax (via Stripe) to charge your saved payment method automatically on renewal.
• If a payment fails, your subscription enters a past-due grace period; persistent failure leads to suspension and eventual cancellation of paid features.
• You may cancel at any time. Cancellation stops the next renewal; the current period continues to its end.

7. Product caps

Each tier has a product cap (currently 100 / 500 / 2,000 for Basic / Growth / Pro, with Enterprise on contract). Marketplace product count includes active, draft and archived listings on your Althemax catalogue. Going over the cap blocks creation of new products until you either trim the catalogue or upgrade tier.

8. Orders and fulfilment

• You are solely responsible for accepting, fulfilling, shipping, and supporting orders, regardless of which channel they originated on.
• You must comply with consumer-protection law in the buyer's jurisdiction, including any statutory rights to cancel, return, or refund.
• Althemax surfaces order data captured from connected channels but is not a party to the sale and not liable for fulfilment failures.

9. Taxes and compliance

You are responsible for determining, collecting, reporting, and remitting all taxes (VAT/GST/sales tax) on your sales. Althemax does not act as a marketplace facilitator unless explicitly stated in writing for a particular product or jurisdiction.

10. Suspension and termination

• Althemax may suspend or terminate your account or specific listings at any time, on notice or immediately if you breach these terms, abuse the Service, harm buyers, violate a connected channel's terms, or expose Althemax to legal risk.
• You may close your account at any time by emailing enquiry@althemax.com. We will help you offboard cleanly; any unused subscription period is non-refundable except where required by law.
• On termination, channel connections are disconnected and product listings on the Althemax marketplace are removed. Channel listings on eBay / Shopify / etc. stay live on those channels.

11. AI-agent surface and AI-generated content

Your listings are made discoverable to AI shopping agents through public endpoints (agent API, llms.txt, OpenAPI, agents.json) and a marketplace chat that may synthesise, summarise, or paraphrase your listing content. You acknowledge that AI-generated descriptions may differ from your original copy and accept this as part of operating on an AI-agent-native marketplace.

12. Intellectual property

Althemax retains all rights in the marketplace UI, agent API, merchant dashboard, documentation, and underlying technology. You retain ownership of your listing content subject to the licence in section 3.

13. Data handling and privacy

Buyer data captured from connected channels (names, shipping addresses, contact info, etc.) is processed under our Privacy Policy and the relevant channel's terms. You are a data controller for the personal data you receive about your buyers and must comply with the applicable data-protection laws (UK GDPR, GDPR, CCPA, etc.).

14. Disclaimers and liability

The Service is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We disclaim all warranties to the maximum extent allowed by law, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for purpose, and non-infringement. We do not guarantee uninterrupted operation, accurate channel sync at all times, or any particular sales outcome.

To the maximum extent allowed by law, Althemax's aggregate liability to you in any 12-month period is capped at the greater of (a) the fees you paid Althemax in that period and (b) USD 100. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost goodwill, or business opportunity, regardless of the cause of action.

15. Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold Althemax harmless from third-party claims, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from: (a) your listings, (b) your breach of these terms, (c) your violation of a third-party right or applicable law, or (d) your handling of buyer orders or buyer data.

16. Changes

We may update these terms from time to time. Material changes are communicated by updating the “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, by email to your registered merchant address or notice in the merchant dashboard. Continued use of the merchant Service after a change means you accept the updated terms.

17. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of England & Wales. The courts of England have exclusive jurisdiction over any disputes, subject to mandatory rules in your jurisdiction.

18. Contact

Email enquiry@althemax.com with any question about these terms or about your account.

These terms are a plain-English starting point and not a substitute for legal advice. Have qualified counsel review before relying on them in disputes — particularly the liability cap, indemnity, and tax-handling sections, which depend heavily on your jurisdiction and merchant base.