Terms of Service

TBBN is operated by Trade By Barter Network, Inc. We are exchange infrastructure: we help people and businesses find trades, agree terms, and get to a checkout. We are not a shop. We do not own, stock, inspect, ship, or sell the items listed on the network.

When you trade with someone, the agreement is between you and them. TBBN matches you, tracks the state of the trade, and hands each side off to the right checkout — but TBBN is not a party to your trade and is not the seller of anything in it.

You need to be at least 18 to hold an account. We sign you in with a one-time code sent to your email or phone — there is no password to lose. Keep access to that inbox or number secure; anyone who has it can get into your account.

Give us accurate details and keep them current. One person, one account. You are responsible for what happens under your account. You can add more email addresses to your account — a school or work address, for example — once you prove you control each one with a code we send to it.

You may only list items you actually own and are legally allowed to sell or trade, and never anything covered by section 4. Describe things honestly. Condition, flaws, and what is actually included are the whole basis on which someone decides to trade with you.

Where a trade has a value difference, the side that owes pays it at checkout. On trades involving a merchant, that payment happens on that merchant's own checkout, under that merchant's terms — TBBN does not take the money and is not the merchant of record for it.

A listing a merchant sends to TBBN stays that merchant's to change, even when it is linked to your account: you can trade it on TBBN, but its details and status change only where the merchant listed it. A listing you create directly on TBBN is yours to edit, mark available, pending or sold, or remove — except while it is part of a trade in progress.

The marketplace shows you listings from across your country. Merchants' listings are shown country-wide; an individual member's listing may be shown only within a distance of where they are.

TBBN must never be used to trade, sell, give away, or arrange the exchange of anything that is illegal where you or the other side are, or that needs a licence, prescription, or age check you cannot provide through TBBN. In particular, you may not list or trade:

• drugs and controlled substances, including prescription medicines, cannabis and its products, and anything sold to make, take, or hide them;
• weapons, firearms and their parts, ammunition, explosives, and fireworks;
• tobacco, vaping products, and alcohol;
• hazardous materials, chemicals, and anything recalled as unsafe;
• stolen goods, counterfeits and replicas, and devices locked to someone else's account;
• protected wildlife and wildlife products, live animals, and human remains or body parts;
• medical devices and supplies that need a prescription, and personal medical information;
• identity documents, counterfeit money, payment card details, and account credentials;
• sexual services and adult content.

We screen listing titles and descriptions — on our website, through our API, and in catalogue feeds — for words that suggest a prohibited item. A listing that matches is not published. You can change it, or, if you are confident the item is allowed, submit it for review; it stays unpublished until our team decides. We may remove any listing, suspend any account, and report conduct to law enforcement where we believe this section has been broken, whether or not the screen caught it.

Anyone can report a listing, member, Space, booking, or message. When several people report a listing as a prohibited or dangerous item, it is taken off the marketplace until our team has looked at it.

TBBN Space is a network of real locations where traders can meet, work, or drop off an item. Some are free; some charge. Hosts set their own prices, rules, and opening hours. A host is not our employee or agent, and a Space is not a TBBN premises. Hosts are responsible for the safety and condition of their own location and for anything they agree to hold there.

What you pay. Before you pay, we show you the booking price (after any discount the host offers), a processing fee, and any tax that applies. Where tax applies to a booking, TBBN calculates, collects, and remits it. We hold your payment as a limited payment agent for the host, solely to complete that booking, until the booking is finished, then pay the host their share less our commission. Held funds are not a deposit, do not earn interest, and TBBN is not a bank.

The host's policy. Each host sets a refund and no-show policy: how long before the start you can cancel, how much of the booking price (and its tax) you get back if you do — all of it, or a percentage — what happens if you cancel later or don't show up, and how long after the start a booking counts as a no-show. The policy is shown to you before you book, you agree to it when you book, and the version you agreed to is the one that applies to that booking even if the host changes it later.

The processing fee is non-refundable when you cancel or don't show up. If the host cancels, you get everything back, processing fee included.

Changes happen through TBBN only. A booking can be moved, changed, or cancelled only through TBBN — by you, or by the host — never by arrangement outside TBBN. That is what keeps your refund rights and the host's payout intact. Messages between guests and hosts on TBBN Space are for questions and arrangements about the visit: they cannot be used to arrange payment another way, and contact details can be shared once you have a paid booking together.

Where a host agrees to hold an item between drop-off and pickup, TBBN does not take custody of it — that stays a direct arrangement between the host and you. A host chooses, for each Space, whether they accept liability for a held item, capped at an amount they set; a Space's listing shows whether the host has opted in and, if so, the cap. If a host has not opted in, you — the person who dropped the item off — carry the liability instead. Either way, a photo of the item is taken and required at drop-off and again at pickup; that photo pair is the record either side relies on if something is disputed.

Meeting a stranger to exchange goods carries risk that no platform removes. Read the safety guidance on our home page and use your judgement.

Listing and trading on the marketplace is free for individuals today. Businesses that build on the TBBN APIs pay for their plan, described in our pricing. Each plan includes an amount of usage each month; when it runs out, the service pauses until the business tops up its balance or moves to a larger plan. Paid Space bookings carry a processing fee and, for the host, a commission, both shown before anyone pays.

If we ever introduce a fee that affects you, we will tell you before it applies to you — not afterwards.

A Space host earns on a booking once it is finished: when the guest has completed it, or when the guest didn't show up or cancelled too late for a refund under the host's policy. An earning becomes payable once a short dispute window after the booking has passed, and is held while a report or dispute about that booking is open. Affiliates are paid on the same basis for the bookings they referred.

Payouts are automatic. We run a payout batch every Monday at 8:00 AM Pacific Time, covering every earning that is payable before that run begins. Anything that becomes payable after a batch has started is included in the following Monday's batch.

Payouts are sent to the payout account you connect with Stripe — a host connects one in their Business settings at business.tbbnetwork.com, and an affiliate in their affiliate dashboard on TBBN Space. Stripe verifies the account; your bank credentials are handled by Stripe and its banking partners and are never stored by TBBN. Until an account is connected, payable earnings are held and roll into the next batch once it is. Once a payout leaves us, the time it takes to appear in your account depends on your bank.

We may delay or withhold a payout where we need to investigate suspected fraud, a chargeback, or a breach of these terms, or where the law requires it. If we do, we will tell you why.

Some schools, employers, and communities run their own space on TBBN. You can join one by adding and verifying an email address on one of its domains. Members can see and post listings that only fellow members see, and can narrow the marketplace to fellow members.

Membership decisions belong to the Organization. It can restrict, suspend, or remove a member, and it sees the name and email address you joined with and your membership status. TBBN does not review or reverse those decisions; raise them with the Organization. You can leave an Organization at any time from your account settings.

Verified members and verified businesses can apply to earn a commission on bookings they refer to TBBN Space. Taking part is governed by the TBBN Space Affiliate Program Terms, which you accept when you apply, in addition to these terms.

When you check out with a merchant, book a host's Space, or join an Organization, that merchant, host, or Organization may have its own terms and privacy policy. These terms and our Privacy Policy do not replace or override theirs: they govern your use of TBBN, and theirs govern what they provide to you — their products, their checkout, their premises, their membership. Where a Space lists its own terms or privacy policy, it links to them on its page.

If a trade falls through, the item is not as described, or someone does not show up, raise it with the other side first. If that does not resolve it, report it to us and we will look at the accounts and the trade record.

For trades that settle on a merchant's own checkout, the money never passes through TBBN, so a refund is a matter between you and that merchant under their terms. Once the merchant has started fulfilling your side, your purchase stands even if the other side never completes their own checkout: you receive what you paid for, as agreed, and no refund is due for that reason. Returns and refunds otherwise follow that merchant's own policy. For paid Space bookings, where we do hold the funds, refunds follow the host's policy you agreed to when you booked (section 5). If you believe a booking went wrong in a way that policy doesn't cover, file a dispute and we will review it before the host is paid.

You can file a dispute directly from a trade or booking, or by contacting us. Filing a dispute is a real review, not a formality — see section 19 for what happens if it does not resolve the issue.

Do not post anything unlawful, abusive, deceptive, or that infringes someone else's rights. Do not scrape the network, probe it for weaknesses, or use it to spam other members. Do not try to move a trade or a booking off-platform to dodge safety features or fees.

When you report a message, or a post on our developer community, it is hidden immediately, pending review. That is deliberate: we would rather briefly hide something acceptable than leave something harmful visible. Our team then reviews it and either restores it or removes it permanently.

We may remove content, suspend an account, or close one where we reasonably believe these terms have been broken, or where leaving it would put other people at risk.

If you integrate TBBN into your own product, you also agree to keep your API credentials secret, to only submit seller data you are entitled to share with us, and to tell your own sellers that their listings may be matched and shown across the network. You remain responsible for your own checkout, tax, shipping, and customer relationships.

We work hard to keep TBBN accurate and available, but we provide it on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not guarantee that a trade will be matched, completed, or worth what either side hoped, and we do not vouch for any member, merchant, host, or item. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, TBBN is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, or loss of goodwill, arising from your use of the platform.

Our total liability to you for any claim relating to the platform is limited to the greater of the amount you paid TBBN in the twelve months before the claim arose, or one hundred US dollars.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

TBBN matches trades and hands each side off to the right checkout, but we are not a party to your trade and do not control the other side of it. Because of that, you release TBBN, and our officers, employees, and agents, from claims, demands, and damages of every kind, known or unknown, arising out of or connected with a dispute with another member, merchant, Space host, or Organization — including a trade that fell through, an item that was not as described, a missed meeting, or a disagreement over a payment or value difference.

This release does not cover a claim arising from TBBN's own breach of these terms, fraud, or gross negligence, and does not cover any right that the law does not allow to be released.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless TBBN, and our officers, employees, and agents, from any claim, demand, loss, liability, or expense — including reasonable legal fees — arising out of: your use of TBBN; the items, listings, content, or information you provide; your breach of these terms; your violation of any law or of another person's rights; or a dispute between you and another member, merchant, or Space host. We will tell you about a claim covered by this section and may take part in defending it at our own expense.

We cooperate with law enforcement and comply with valid legal process. Where required by law — including a subpoena, warrant, or court order — we will access, preserve, and disclose information about your account and your activity on TBBN to the requesting authority. Our Privacy Policy explains this in more detail.

We may also suspend or close your account, withhold a payout, or remove content where we reasonably believe it is necessary to comply with the law or to cooperate with a law enforcement or regulatory investigation.

Before either of us takes a dispute between you and TBBN anywhere else — including to a court, a regulator, or law enforcement — the other side must first be given a real opportunity to resolve it directly, through the dispute process described in section 11. Most issues are resolved this way, and we intend to keep it that way.

Where that process does not resolve a dispute, and we reasonably believe the underlying issue could expose TBBN to liability, damage our reputation, or involve conduct that may be criminal, we may pursue civil claims, refer the matter to law enforcement or another authority, or both. We do this only after the internal process above has been given a real chance, not in place of it — except where section 4 or the law calls for an immediate report.

We reserve the right to choose the venue and jurisdiction for any claim we bring, and for any claim brought against us by a user, a business, or their agents or representatives who have agreed to these terms. Where the law requires a specific venue or jurisdiction instead, that requirement controls.

You can close your account whenever you like. We may suspend or close an account for a breach of these terms, or where we are required to. Any earnings already payable and owed to you at closure are paid out in the normal weekly cycle, subject to the checks in section 7. Anything already owed, and the sections that by their nature should outlive the account, survive it.

If we change these terms in a way that materially affects you, we will let you know before it takes effect. Continuing to use TBBN after that means you accept the change.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Questions, or notice of a problem: legal@tbbnetwork.com.

See also our Privacy Policy, which explains what we do with your data.