Terms of Service

1. Definitions

• "Platform" means the FriendaPet website, mobile experience, and related services.
• "Member" means any registered user of the Platform.
• "Seller" means a Member who lists an animal or related service for a fee or adoption, including Breeders, Private Owners (Home to Home), Shelters, and Rescues.
• "Buyer" means a Member who inquires about, negotiates for, or pays for an animal or service through a Listing.
• "Listing" means a posting created by a Seller describing an animal available for sale, adoption, or rehoming.
• "Order" means a transaction initiated through the Platform's payment flow, including pet sale payments, negotiated-price payments, and delivery/miscellaneous invoices.
• "Buyer Protection Hold" means the process described in Section 6 by which FriendaPet captures a Buyer's payment and holds it in FriendaPet's own Stripe balance pending a release condition, before transferring the applicable amount to the Seller.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account on FriendaPet or to complete any payment or transaction through the Platform. By creating an account or completing a transaction, you represent that you are 18 or older and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract. This age requirement applies regardless of your role as a Buyer, Breeder, Private Owner, Shelter, or Rescue representative, and reflects both our own policy and the requirements of our payment processor, Stripe, for anyone initiating or receiving funds through Stripe Connect.

You must provide accurate, current, and complete information when registering and using the Platform, and you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity under your account.

3. FriendaPet's Role — We Are a Technology Platform, Not a Party to the Sale

FriendaPet is a technology platform that connects Buyers with Breeders, Private Owners, Shelters, and Rescues (each, a "Seller"). FriendaPet is not a breeder, kennel, shelter, rescue, veterinarian, or seller of animals, and we do not own, possess, or take custody of any animal listed on the Platform at any time.

FriendaPet is not a party to the sale, adoption, or rehoming of any animal. The contract for the sale or adoption of an animal is formed directly between the Buyer and the Seller. FriendaPet does not broker animal sales, does not arrange or supervise the physical transfer of any animal, and does not verify, guarantee, or take responsibility for:

• the health, temperament, genetics, breed, age, vaccination status, or medical history of any animal;
• the accuracy of any description, photo, video, or claim in a Listing or in messages between Members;
• a Seller's licensing, permits, breeding practices, or compliance with state or local animal-sale laws;
• a Shelter's or Rescue's nonprofit status, intake practices, or adoption screening criteria; or
• the conduct of any Member, whether online or in connection with an in-person meeting, pickup, or delivery.

You are solely responsible for exercising your own judgment and diligence — including asking for health records, requesting a veterinary exam, and meeting in a safe location — before completing any transaction or taking possession of an animal.

Sellers alone are responsible for identifying and complying with all federal, state, and local laws applicable to their Listings, including any breeder licensing requirements, health certificate requirements, and state consumer-protection or "pet lemon laws" that may impose warranty or disclosure obligations on the sale of an animal. Several states impose such requirements on retail pet sales, and Sellers are responsible for knowing which apply to them. FriendaPet recommends that Sellers and Buyers consult applicable state law and, where appropriate, an attorney.

4. Accounts and Listings

FriendaPet uses a single, unified account type: Buyers and Sellers share one account. Sellers are categorized as a Breeder, Private Owner, Shelter, or Rescue, and this category determines the commission rate that applies to their sales under Section 5. Any Member may act as a Buyer at any time.

When creating a Listing, Sellers agree to:

• provide accurate, current, and non-misleading information about the animal, including photos and videos that fairly represent its condition;
• promptly update or remove a Listing once an animal is no longer available;
• disclose their own refund, return, and health-guarantee policy using the options provided in their profile (see Section 7); and
• comply with all laws applicable to the sale, adoption, or transport of the animal.

Shelters and Rescues may be asked to provide an EIN and nonprofit status as part of registration, consistent with our fee structure described below.

5. Fees

FriendaPet's current fee structure is as follows:

• Listing an animal on FriendaPet is free. There are no membership, subscription, or listing fees.
• Seller commission (charged only on a completed sale): Breeders and Private Owners are charged 6.5% of the sale price. Shelters and Rescues are charged 0% — FriendaPet does not take a commission on adoptions.
• Buyer platform security fee (charged on every Order regardless of Seller type): the greater of 3.25% of the price or a $5.00 minimum, shown to the Buyer as a separate line item at checkout and never bundled into the displayed price.

All payment processing is provided by Stripe. FriendaPet never receives or stores your full card number; that information is collected and stored directly by Stripe. Fees charged by Stripe or other payment processors, where applicable, are separate from and in addition to FriendaPet's fees described above.

6. Payments, Buyer Protection Hold, and Payouts

6.1 How payment works

When a Buyer pays for an animal, a delivery charge, or any negotiated price through the Platform, the payment is processed through Stripe. FriendaPet captures the payment immediately into FriendaPet's own Stripe platform balance — not a third-party escrow account — and holds it until the applicable release condition below is met, at which point FriendaPet initiates a separate transfer of the Seller's proceeds to the Seller's connected Stripe account.

6.2 Release conditions

• Pet sale and negotiated-price payments: held in the Buyer Protection Hold until the Buyer clicks "Confirm Receipt" and uploads a photo confirming receipt of the animal, at which point FriendaPet automatically initiates the transfer of the Seller's proceeds.
• Delivery and miscellaneous invoices: captured and transferred to the Seller automatically at the time of payment, without a receipt-confirmation step.

By using the Platform's payment feature, Buyers authorize FriendaPet to hold their payment on these terms, and Sellers authorize FriendaPet to hold and later transfer their proceeds on these terms.

6.3 Money transmission

Holding a Buyer's payment before disbursing it to a third party (the Seller) is a pattern that can, depending on the state and the specific facts, implicate state money-transmission licensing requirements. This Terms of Service does not assert that FriendaPet's payment structure is exempt from or compliant with any particular state's money-transmission laws.

7. Refunds, Cancellations, and Disputes Between Users

7.1 Seller-set policies

Each Seller sets their own refund and health-guarantee policy, chosen from a fixed set of options displayed on their profile: no guarantee; 7-day health guarantee; 30-day health guarantee; genetic health guarantee; accepts returns; or no returns, final sale. FriendaPet displays these policies for transparency but does not enforce, interpret, arbitrate, or guarantee compliance with any Seller's stated policy. Disputes about whether a Seller has honored their own policy must be resolved directly between the Buyer and Seller.

7.2 Refunds before payout

If a Buyer requests a refund before the Seller has been paid out (i.e., before the release condition in Section 6.2 has occurred), a FriendaPet admin may issue a standard refund through Stripe.

7.3 Refunds after payout are not guaranteed

Once a Seller has been paid out, issuing a refund requires FriendaPet to reverse the underlying Stripe Transfer. This is not always possible. If the Seller's Stripe balance has already been paid out to their bank account, there may be insufficient funds in their Stripe balance to reverse, and FriendaPet cannot guarantee that a post-payout refund can be completed. FriendaPet will make reasonable efforts to work with the Seller to resolve a valid refund request, but a refund after payout depends on funds actually being available to reverse, and is not something FriendaPet can promise in every case.

7.4 Card-issuer disputes (chargebacks)

FriendaPet tracks chargebacks filed with a Buyer's card issuer for internal visibility, but does not adjudicate chargebacks on the Buyer's behalf. If you have a payment issue, we encourage you to contact FriendaPet and the other party directly before filing a chargeback.

7.5 Disputes between Members generally

You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Members. FriendaPet has no obligation to mediate a dispute between a Buyer and a Seller, but reserves the right, at its discretion, to review conversation and order records for moderation and dispute-review purposes as described in our Privacy Policy.

8. Health, Temperament, and Breed Representations

FriendaPet does not guarantee or warrant the health, temperament, genetics, or breed accuracy of any animal listed on the Platform. Any health guarantee, warranty, or representation about an animal is made solely by the Seller, not by FriendaPet, and any dispute about such a representation must be resolved directly between the Buyer and the Seller, subject to Section 7. FriendaPet's display of a Seller's stated policies, credentials, or self-reported practices is not independent verification of those claims and is not an endorsement by FriendaPet.

9. Messaging, Content Monitoring, and Prohibited Conduct

FriendaPet provides an in-platform messaging system so Buyers and Sellers can communicate before, during, and after a transaction. To help keep transactions on-platform (which supports the fee model in Section 5) and to reduce fraud risk, FriendaPet uses automated detection to identify messages that appear to contain off-platform contact information (such as a phone number or email address) and may warn users when this is detected. This is a form of automated content monitoring, described further in our Privacy Policy.

You agree not to:

• harass, threaten, or discriminate against another Member;
• post false, misleading, or fraudulent information in a Listing or message;
• attempt to solicit or complete a payment for an animal outside the Platform in a way designed to avoid FriendaPet's fees;
• use the Platform to sell an animal in violation of applicable law; or
• scrape, harvest, or misuse other Members' information.

10. User Content and Listings License

You retain ownership of the photos, videos, descriptions, and other content you upload ("User Content"). By posting User Content, you grant FriendaPet a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, display, and reproduce that content for the purpose of operating and promoting the Platform. You represent that you own or have the rights necessary to post your User Content and that it does not infringe any third party's rights.

Listing content (including photos and videos) is stored in a public storage bucket and is visible to anyone browsing the Platform, including visitors who are not logged in.

11. Reporting, Blocking, and Platform Safety

Members may block other Members platform-wide and may report a conversation or a Listing. Listings may be reported by any visitor to the Platform, whether or not they are logged in; because reporting a Listing does not require an account, a reporter's contact information is optional and self-supplied, and FriendaPet does not verify it.

FriendaPet staff have read-only access to conversation and order records for the limited purposes of moderation, safety review, and dispute investigation, as described in our Privacy Policy. This access is not general and is not used to browse Member communications outside of these purposes.

12. Taxes

Sellers are solely responsible for determining and paying any income tax, sales tax, or other tax obligations arising from their use of the Platform, except to the extent FriendaPet is required by law to collect and remit sales tax as a marketplace facilitator in a given jurisdiction, in which case FriendaPet will display that tax to the Buyer at checkout.

13. Term, Termination, and Suspension

You may request deletion of your account at any time through your account settings, and you may cancel a pending request at any time before it is processed. Submitting a request does not change your account immediately — your account remains active and usable until our team processes the request. Once processed, your public-facing profile information is anonymized and your ability to log in is permanently disabled, while certain records are retained internally as described in our Privacy Policy. See the Privacy Policy for the full description of this process, including what is retained and why.

FriendaPet may suspend or terminate a Member's account, with or without notice, for violation of these Terms, suspected fraud, or conduct that FriendaPet believes in good faith poses a risk to other Members or to the Platform. Termination does not relieve either party of obligations that arose before termination, including completing an in-progress Order.

14. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. FRIENDAPET DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE PLATFORM WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, FRIENDAPET WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS OR DATA, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM, YOUR PURCHASE OR SALE OF AN ANIMAL, OR YOUR INTERACTIONS WITH ANY OTHER MEMBER, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY. FRIENDAPET'S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE FEES YOU PAID TO FRIENDAPET IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

15. Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Agreement

These Terms will be governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, except as preempted by federal law such as the Federal Arbitration Act.

16. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless FriendaPet and its officers, employees, and agents from any claim, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your Listing or purchase of an animal, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

17. General Provisions

• Changes to these Terms: FriendaPet may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the updated Terms and revise the "Last Updated" date; material changes will be highlighted where required by law.
• Severability: if any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect.
• Entire agreement: these Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and FriendaPet regarding the Platform.
• No agency: nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, or agency relationship between FriendaPet and any Member.