Terms of Use

1. Agreement to these Terms

By checking the acceptance box and creating an account, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge our Privacy Notice. If you do not agree, do not create or use an account. We record the policy versions and server time associated with account acceptance.

A user who is 13–17 represents that a parent or legal guardian has given permission to use Empeerium. A parent or legal guardian who separately accepts these Terms for that user agrees to supervise the user's participation. A minor's confirmation is not a substitute for any separate consent or verification required by Stripe, a school, or applicable law.

2. Eligibility and age

• You must be at least 13 years old.
• You must use a valid email issued by a school domain supported by Empeerium.
• You must be currently enrolled and authorized to use that email account.
• If you are 13–17, you must have permission from a parent or legal guardian.
• You may not create an account for someone else or provide false eligibility information.

Empeerium is not intended for children under 13. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we may suspend the account and delete or restrict associated information, subject to records we must retain for safety, fraud prevention, transactions, or law.

3. What school verification means

Verification confirms control of an email address on a supported school domain. It does not prove a user's age, legal name, current enrollment, background, trustworthiness, or good standing. Empeerium does not perform criminal background checks.

A school's name or domain identifies a marketplace community. Unless Empeerium expressly says otherwise, no school sponsors, operates, endorses, or guarantees Empeerium. Users must follow all applicable school rules. Some listing information may be visible through public share or preview links even though account and transaction features are school-gated.

4. Accounts and security

Keep your credentials confidential and promptly contact info@empeerium.com if you suspect unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity you authorize or negligently permit, but nothing in these Terms makes you responsible for activity caused solely by Empeerium's breach of applicable duties.

You may maintain only the accounts Empeerium permits. You may not evade a suspension, impersonate another person, scrape the service, probe security controls, introduce malicious code, or interfere with another user's access.

5. Marketplace role

The buyer and seller—not Empeerium—enter the agreement for the item. Sellers are responsible for title, possession, description, legality, condition, authenticity, and delivery of their items. Empeerium provides marketplace, communication, reporting, and payment-technology services, but does not own, inspect, manufacture, warehouse, or insure listed items.

Empeerium may remove content, restrict transactions, or suspend users, but does not guarantee that it will identify every prohibited item, false statement, unsafe user, or policy violation.

6. Listings and seller promises

By creating or maintaining a listing, the seller represents that:

• the seller owns the item or is authorized to sell it;
• the listing and photos are accurate and disclose material defects;
• the item is authentic, lawful, safe to transfer, and not recalled or stolen;
• the sale and meetup comply with applicable law and school policy; and
• the seller will not move a protected transaction off-platform to avoid fees or safeguards.

Empeerium currently supports sales of physical items, not rentals. A seller may prepare a private draft before Stripe onboarding, but must complete the payout setup required by Empeerium before publishing an active protected listing.

7. Campus Protected payment flow

At checkout, the buyer asks Stripe to authorize the purchase amount on the buyer's card. An authorization reserves available credit or funds but is not a completed charge. Issuers sometimes show it as a pending charge.

The buyer and seller then meet in person. The buyer should inspect the item before confirming receipt. Buyer and seller must each separately confirm the handoff. After both confirmations, Empeerium asks Stripe to capture the authorized payment. Seller proceeds are then sent by a separate transfer to the seller's connected Stripe account.

Card authorizations expire under issuer and card-network rules. The handoff must be completed before the earlier of the transaction deadline shown by Empeerium and the authorization's actual expiration. If an authorization is canceled or expires before capture, no completed sale occurs; the issuer controls how quickly the pending hold disappears.

Empeerium does not operate a bank account or regulated escrow service for users. References in technical systems to an “escrow” state describe delayed card capture, not legal escrow.

8. Fees, Stripe onboarding, and seller payouts

The fee model and the exact amounts shown in the listing or checkout flow at the time of the transaction control that transaction. Empeerium shows the quote before you commit. The accepted quote and fee-model version are stored with the transaction. An existing transaction is not repriced if the fee schedule later changes.

Two protected-checkout models exist in the product. The live default is the split model. The former flat model remains available only if Empeerium explicitly re-enables it. The fee model and amounts shown at checkout control that transaction.

Split model (split_6_4), the live default: the seller service fee is 6% of the item price, with a minimum of $0.49 and a maximum of $4.99. The buyer service/protection fee is 4% of the item price plus $0.49, with a maximum of $3.99. Protected checkout requires an item price of at least $10.00. Under this model the buyer pays the item price plus the displayed buyer fee, and the seller receives the item price minus the displayed seller fee, subject to refunds, reversals, disputes, reserves, offsets, and applicable law.

Flat model (flat_299), former default: Empeerium retains a $2.99 seller service fee from seller proceeds after a successful capture. There is no separate buyer-protection fee. Protected checkout is unavailable where the item price does not leave a positive seller payout after that fee; the current minimum eligible item price is $3.00. This model applies only if Empeerium explicitly re-enables it, or to transactions already quoted under it.

A buyer service/protection fee is a platform fee. It is not insurance, a warranty, or a promise that every claim will be approved. If Empeerium approves a full refund under the applicable policy, the buyer's displayed buyer fee is also refunded unless the law or an expressly disclosed exception allows otherwise. Empeerium may reverse or offset the corresponding seller transfer or balance when issuing a refund.

Ordinary Stripe processing or operating costs are not an additional Empeerium line deducted from the seller unless the product actually discloses and charges them separately. The seller payout stored with the transaction is the amount Empeerium instructs Stripe to transfer to the connected seller account.

Seller payment services are provided by Stripe. Empeerium currently creates Express connected accounts. By onboarding for payouts, a seller also agrees to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement and applicable Stripe terms, and authorizes Empeerium and Stripe to exchange account and transaction information needed to provide payment services.

Stripe may require identity, tax, bank, and guardian information. Sellers under 18 must complete any guardian process required by Stripe. Transfer initiation and bank payout are separate steps, and Empeerium does not guarantee settlement on a particular calendar day.

9. Inspections, cancellations, and returns

Before confirming, the buyer must make a reasonable inspection and may decline an item that is materially different from its listing. The parties should not confirm until the item has actually been delivered and accepted.

After both parties confirm and payment is captured, completed sales are generally final. Empeerium does not offer returns for buyer's remorse, fit, preference, or defects that a reasonable inspection should have revealed. This rule does not waive rights that cannot legally be waived and does not protect fraud, counterfeit or stolen goods, unauthorized or duplicate charges, or Empeerium's own payment error.

For a serious issue, contact info@empeerium.com promptly with the transaction and supporting evidence. Empeerium may investigate, preserve evidence, restrict accounts, or take payment action where required by law, payment-network rules, or an applicable written protection policy. These Terms do not promise a post-capture refund for every disagreement between users.

10. Chargebacks and amounts owed by sellers

A cardholder may have rights to dispute a charge with the card issuer. The issuer and card network—not Empeerium—make the final chargeback decision. A QR scan or user confirmation is evidence of the exchange, but it is not automatically conclusive. Users must provide truthful, reasonably available evidence when Empeerium investigates a transaction.

A seller authorizes Empeerium, to the extent permitted by law and Stripe, to reverse a related transfer or offset future seller proceeds for refunds, chargebacks, dispute fees, fraud, duplicate payouts, prohibited items, or the seller's material breach of these Terms. If recovery is unavailable, the seller remains responsible for amounts properly owed. This authorization does not permit Empeerium to punish a buyer for a good-faith exercise of lawful dispute rights. Knowingly false or abusive disputes may lead to account action.

11. In-person safety

• Meet only where you are lawfully permitted to be.
• Prefer public, well-trafficked locations and daylight or supervised hours.
• Do not share a home address, private room, or unnecessary precise location.
• For minors, involve a parent, guardian, or trusted adult when appropriate.
• Leave immediately and contact appropriate help if a situation feels unsafe.

Empeerium does not arrange, attend, supervise, or guarantee a meetup. Suggested meetup labels are informational and do not mean the school or Empeerium has reserved, monitored, or approved that location.

12. Prohibited items and conduct

Users may not list, request, buy, or transfer illegal, stolen, counterfeit, recalled, or unsafe goods; weapons or weapon components; alcohol, tobacco, vaping products, cannabis, controlled substances, prescription drugs, or drug paraphernalia; explicit adult material; hazardous materials; fireworks; live animals; stolen school property or credentials; or anything prohibited by applicable school policy. Listing titles must name a real item. Threats, hate, sexual content, and joke or troll titles are not allowed.

Users may not harass, threaten, discriminate, defraud, impersonate, manipulate transaction confirmations, misuse reports, infringe rights, or use Empeerium for conduct that endangers another person.

13. User content and intellectual property

You retain ownership of content you create. You grant Empeerium a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, resize, display, and distribute that content only as reasonably needed to operate, secure, moderate, and promote the listing or service. The license ends when the content is deleted, except for reasonable backups, transaction evidence, legal retention, and content another user has independently retained or shared.

You must have the rights necessary to upload your content. Copyright or trademark concerns may be sent toinfo@empeerium.com with identification of the work, the material, its location, contact information, a good-faith statement, an accuracy/authority statement, and a signature. Empeerium may remove material and restrict repeat infringers. A complete statutory notice-and-counter-notice process may be published in a separate Copyright Policy.

14. Reports, moderation, and records

Users can report listings and certain communications using available product controls or by contacting support. Empeerium may investigate, preserve relevant records, remove content, limit features, cancel a pending transaction, or suspend an account. Reports do not guarantee a particular outcome or response time. We may cooperate with schools, guardians, law enforcement, payment providers, or others when reasonably necessary for safety, legal compliance, fraud prevention, or a transaction investigation.

15. Third-party services

Stripe, Supabase, email providers, hosting providers, and other third parties may provide parts of the service under their own terms and privacy notices. Empeerium is not responsible for an external service's independent acts, but this does not limit responsibility that applicable law places on Empeerium.

16. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Empeerium is provided “as is” and “as available.” We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, that every user is eligible or trustworthy, that listings are accurate, that items are safe or lawful, that a meetup or sale will occur, or that disputes will be resolved in a user's favor. Nothing in this section excludes warranties or duties that cannot legally be excluded.

17. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Empeerium LLC and its members, managers, employees, and agents will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or lost-profit damages arising from the service or a user transaction. Our aggregate liability to you for claims arising from the service will not exceed the greater of $100 or the platform fees you paid to Empeerium during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

These limitations do not apply where prohibited by law, including liability that cannot be limited for fraud, willful misconduct, violation of law, or certain personal injuries, and they do not eliminate any obligation to correctly account for captured payments or seller proceeds.

18. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you will defend and indemnify Empeerium LLC from third-party claims and reasonable costs caused by your unlawful item, infringement, fraud, material breach of these Terms, or misconduct during a transaction or meetup. You are not responsible under this section to the extent a claim was caused by Empeerium's own unlawful conduct. Empeerium will provide reasonable notice and will not require settlement of a claim in a way that admits your wrongdoing without your consent, which may not be unreasonably withheld.

19. Informal disputes and governing law

Before filing a non-urgent claim, please send a written description and requested resolution toinfo@empeerium.com and allow 30 days for an informal response. This does not prevent either party from seeking emergency relief, using an eligible small-claims court, or meeting a legal filing deadline.

California law governs these Terms to the extent it may lawfully do so, without overriding mandatory protections of another jurisdiction. These Terms do not require arbitration and do not waive any right to participate in a class action. A court with lawful subject-matter and personal jurisdiction will determine any dispute not resolved informally.

20. Suspension, termination, and deletion

You may stop using Empeerium and request account closure. Empeerium may suspend or terminate access for a material violation, fraud, safety risk, legal requirement, or misuse. We may retain transaction, payment, moderation, security, and legal records after closure as described in the Privacy Notice. Account closure does not cancel a captured payment, eliminate an amount already owed, or prevent completion of a legally required refund, dispute, or investigation.

21. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms prospectively. We will post the new version and provide reasonable notice of material changes. Where appropriate or legally required, we will ask account holders to affirmatively accept the revised Terms. Changes do not retroactively alter completed transactions unless the parties and applicable law permit it.

22. General terms

If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will continue. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer your account or these Terms without our consent. Empeerium may assign these Terms as part of a merger, financing, reorganization, or transfer of the service, subject to applicable law. These Terms, the Privacy Notice, and any transaction-specific disclosures are the agreement concerning the service, except for additional Stripe terms that apply to sellers.

23. Contact

Empeerium LLC
General, legal, privacy, and safety inquiries: info@empeerium.com