Buyers Terms of Use

When you use our Services or buy from our platform, now or in the future, you are agreeing to the latest Terms of Use. There may be times where we do not exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Use; in doing so, we are not waiving that right or provision. These terms do contain a limitation of our liability. Any buyers in violation of the Terms of Use are subject to permanent ban from the marketplace at the discretion of FOKAL LLC. If we discover you are using our products for a restricted purpose, we will take action as necessary, including notifying appropriate authorities where warranted, when required under applicable law.

General Terms

Fokal provides a marketplace for buyers to discover and purchase directly from artists listed on our site. Fokal is not a part of that transaction. By purchasing on Fokal, you understand:

• You are engaging in a transaction with the seller of the artwork and not Fokal directly
• Fokal does not pre-screen art that is uploaded to its site. We do not endorse any artist or artwork on the platform
• Each seller on Fokal has their own processing times and delivery methods

As a member of the community, you have the opportunity to contact Fokal by emailing info@fokal.us if any item or seller seems to be in violation of Fokal's Terms of Use. A good rule of thumb is if you're not sure if something should be reported, then it probably should. Please help keep Fokal a safe place for all its community members.

Payment and Refunds

Fokal makes use of a third party payment processing service called Stripe for accepting payments. When purchasing a piece of artwork we will collect taxes on behalf of the taxing authority and remit those taxes to taxing authorities. Fokal may charge the buyer a delivery fee in addition to the sales price of the artwork to help facilitate the delivery of the piece to the buyer.

Fokal does not issue refunds. When you purchase a piece from an artist you are engaging in a monetary transaction with the seller facilitated by Fokal, therefore Fokal will not be held liable for any issues with the transaction. When purchasing a piece you are accepting the risk that comes with buying any item off of a marketplace. Any problems with the delivery or quality of the artwork and any requests for refunds must be handled between the artist and the buyer after the initial sale. Buyers may contact Fokal at info@fokal.us and Fokal may assist in the facilitation of refund discussions; however, Fokal reserves the right to refuse assistance in refund discussions for any reason at any time.

Delivery, Pickup, and Disputes

Each artist on Fokal is an independent seller and therefore the delivery or pickup experience of each artwork may differ. It is each artist's responsibility to coordinate with you (the buyer) to make arrangements for the delivery, shipment, or pickup of an artwork. While it is the artist's responsibility to make arrangements and handle details, it is also your responsibility as a buyer to work with sellers (the artists) to facilitate a smooth exchange process. This may look like giving artists multiple drop off options, communicating consistently with artists, offering pickup options for you to retrieve artwork, etc. You (the buyer) is partially responsible for receiving the artwork after purchase. Fokal cannot be held liable for successful artwork delivery.

In the case of a print purchase, Fokal will handle all the printing and delivering of that print on behalf of the artist. Fokal uses a third print on demand service to fulfill and ship artist prints. Please allow for a 5-7 business days for prints to ship. For questions about prints, or other related purchase please contact Fokal at info@fokal.us

After making a purchase on Fokal's marketplace, you will receive an email confirmation verifying your purchase. This email also serves as your receipt and proof of purchase, which you will need at the time of delivery. Upon delivery time you will be required to produce your email receipt to verify with the artist that you are the buyer of the piece. Artists are not required to make deliveries to buyers who are unable to produce their purchase receipt email. On this receipt email there will be a Delivery Confirmation QR Code as well as a 6 Digit Delivery Confirmation Numerical Code. These codes will need to be scanned or recorded by the artist to complete the delivery confirmation process.

These codes are designed to protect you and the artist against any potential fraud and ensure a smooth delivery process. Artists may mark the delivery completed at any time. Artists that have completed the delivery confirmation process using either your (the buyer's) unique QR code receipt or unique numerical code receipt will have 3 days until they are able to withdraw funds from Fokal in which time the buyer may file a delivery dispute with any concerns. Artists who don’t complete the delivery confirmation process will have 7 days (starting from the date of marked delivery) until they are able to withdraw funds from Fokal in which time the buyer may file a delivery dispute with any concerns. In both cases buyers will receive email notifications on the date that any artwork is marked as delivered. Disputes during the window of dispute can lead to holds on appropriate funds still within Fokal's control and the launch of an investigation on a case-by-case basis.

Frequent, inaccurate disputes from a buyer could result in suspension or termination of said buyer from Fokal's marketplace. Fokal reserves the right to take any steps necessary towards protecting all its users from fraudulent activity on it's platform.

In the event of a delivery dispute, Fokal reserves the right to gather evidence on behalf of both the buyer and seller (including delivery confirmation completion) and turn all evidence over to proper legal authorities. Fokal will not be held liable for any costs incurred related to disputes or complaints of any kind.

Fokal does not guarantee that disputes will lead to reimbursement of any kind. Fokal reserves the right to rule on reimbursement on a case by case basis. Fokal does not hold any liability from its rulings on delivery disputes. Any further attempts at reimbursement must be taken up with the independent seller in which the buyer was doing business.

The buyer incurs all risk when making a purchase on Fokal's marketplace, and while we do our best to ensure that you have a safe and secure buying experience, we recommend that you shop and do business responsibly.

There are some cases in which it is possible the delivery process is made challenging by the seller of the artwork. If you experience difficulty working with an artist, please file a complaint by emailing us at info@fokal.us. Complaints may lead to Fokal helping assist with the communication or delivery of said artwork on a case-by-case basis.

Messaging and Communication

Some cases may require you to message an artist directly via their preferred method of communication. Cases such as facilitating delivery of purchased artwork, requesting artists for commissions, asking general questions etc. In doing so, you are required to be a good shepherd of Fokal's community values. Using communication for any of the purposes listed below will not be tolerated and could lead to a permanent ban from the Fokal marketplace and a cancellation of all in progress communications, deliveries, transactions, etc.

• Sending unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations, or spam
• Harassing or abusing another member or otherwise behaving in any discriminatory manner
• Contacting someone after they have explicitly asked you not to; or interfering with a transaction or the business of another member
• Exchanging personal contact, financial or other information for the purposes of evading the checkout process on Fokal, including phone number, address, email, social media handles, external URLs, instructions for money transfer, etc.
• Always use caution when exchanging any personal information which is not strictly necessary for the completion of a transaction

If you receive communication that violates any of these policies, please let us know right away by emailing us at info@fokal.us.

Harassment and Discrimination

Any use of communication to harass other members is strictly prohibited. Similarly, communication may not be used to support or glorify hatred. If you receive communication that violates this policy, please let us know right away by emailing us at info@fokal.us.

Security, and Privacy

Your use of the Services is at your sole risk. We provide these Services on an “as is” and “as available” basis. When you use our Services, you entrust us with your data. You agree that Fokal may process your data as described in our Privacy Policy and for no other purpose. Fokal makes use of a third party payment processing service called Stripe for accepting payments. Fokal never stores your credit card information on our servers. If Fokal is audited by a tax authority, we only share the bare minimum billing information needed to complete the audit.

We use third party vendors and hosting partners to provide the necessary software, networking, storage, and related technology required to run Fokal.

Copyright and Content Ownership

All content posted on the Services is protected under U.S. copyright law. You may not copy or reproduce any of the artwork listed on our site. You may not use any images of artwork listed on our site with the intent of personal gain without express written permission from the Artist that owns the artwork. Any attempt to reproduce or fraudulently pass off any artwork as your own could result in permanent ban from the marketplace.

The names, look, and feel of the Services are copyright© to the Company. All rights reserved. You may not duplicate, copy, or reuse any portion of the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or visual design elements without express written permission from the Company. You must request permission to use the Company's logo or any Service logos for promotional purposes. Please email info@fokal.us with requests to use logos. We reserve the right to rescind this permission if you violate these Terms of Use.

You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit any portion of the Services, use of the Services, or access to the Services without the express written permission by the Company.

You must not modify another website so as to falsely imply that it is associated with the Services or the Company.

Features and Bugs

We design our Services with care, based on our own experience and the experiences of customers who share their time and feedback. However, there is no such thing as a service that pleases everybody. We make no guarantees that our Services will meet your specific requirements or expectations.

We also test all of our features extensively before shipping them. As with any software, our Services inevitably have some bugs. We track the bugs reported to us and work through priority ones, especially any related to security or privacy. Not all reported bugs will get fixed and we don't guarantee completely error-free Services.

Liability

You expressly understand and agree that the Company shall not be liable, in law or in equity, to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, lost profits, special, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses (even if the Company has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from: (i) the use or the inability to use the Services; (ii) the cost of procurement of substitute goods and services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or messages received or transactions entered into through or from the Services; (iii) unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data; (iv) statements or conduct of any third party on the service; (v) or any other matter relating to this Terms of Use or the Services, whether as a breach of contract, tort (including negligence whether active or passive), or any other theory of liability.

If you have a question about any of the Terms of Use, please contact us at info@fokal.us.