Terms of Service

eatcircle is a pickup-only online marketplace that connects independent home cooks (“Cooks”) with nearby buyers (“Buyers”) in Canada. Cooks list dishes; Buyers order ahead and collect their food in person during a pickup window chosen by the Cook.

eatcircle is not a restaurant, food manufacturer, caterer, ghost-kitchen operator, delivery service, or employer or agent of any Cook. Each Cook is an independent seller responsible for the food they prepare. When you buy through eatcircle, the contract for the sale of food is between you and the Cook; eatcircle facilitates discovery, ordering, messaging, and payment processing. eatcircle is not the merchant of record for food sales.

You must be at least 18 years old and capable of forming a binding contract to use the Service. Accounts are registered with a valid mobile phone number verified by one-time passcode (OTP). You are responsible for all activity on your account and for keeping your device and phone number secure. Provide accurate information and keep it current. One person, one account: do not create accounts to mislead others, manipulate reviews, or evade a suspension.

When you place an order, you make an offer to purchase from the Cook. The order is confirmed when the Cook accepts it. Pickup details (the pickup window and the address) are shared with you after confirmation. You agree to collect your order within the stated pickup window. If you do not collect an order and do not arrange otherwise with the Cook, the order may be marked not collected and you may not be entitled to a refund.

Cooks may cancel orders they cannot fulfil (for example, ingredient issues or illness). Where a confirmed order is cancelled by the Cook, you will be refunded in accordance with our Refund Policy.

Prices are set by Cooks and shown in Canadian dollars. Payments are processed by Stripe; eatcircle does not store your full card number. By providing a payment method you authorize charges for orders you place, applicable platform fees shown at checkout, and any applicable taxes. Cooks are responsible for their own tax obligations on sales they make.

Do not solicit or accept payment for eatcircle orders outside the Service. Off-platform payment removes the fraud, refund, and safety protections these Terms provide and is grounds for account suspension.

Refunds are handled through in-app support and governed by the Refund Policy, which forms part of these Terms. Nothing in these Terms limits any non-waivable rights you have under applicable consumer protection law, including the Ontario Consumer Protection Act, 2002.

Cooks may purchase an optional Pro subscription with higher listing limits and additional tools. Current pricing and plan limits are shown in the app and on the pricing page before you subscribe. Unless otherwise stated, subscriptions include any advertised free trial, renew automatically at the end of each billing period, and can be cancelled at any time in the app — cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period, and paid periods already started are not refunded except as described in the Refund Policy. We will give reasonable advance notice of subscription price changes; continued renewal after the notice period constitutes acceptance.

You may post content on the Service — dish photos, reels, reviews, kitchen descriptions, and messages (“User Content”). You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant eatcircle a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for example, cropping or transcoding), publish, and display your User Content for the purposes of operating and promoting the Service, including on public web pages and share links, for as long as the content remains on the Service. You can end this licence for a piece of content by deleting it, except where it has been shared with others as part of a completed transaction record.

You are responsible for your User Content. Do not post content that is unlawful, deceptive, infringing, hateful, or harassing; that discloses another person’s private information; or that misrepresents food you sell. We may review, moderate, remove, or decline to publish any User Content, and we may use automated and human review to do so.

The Community Guidelines form part of these Terms. In short: no harassment or hate; no fraud, spam, or review manipulation; no scraping or reverse engineering; no interference with the Service or other users’ accounts; no use of the Service to break the law. We operate a strike system — serious or repeated violations lead to content removal, feature restrictions, suspension, or permanent removal.

Food on eatcircle is prepared by independent Cooks, typically in home kitchens that are not commercially licensed premises. Cooks — not eatcircle — are responsible for safe preparation, storage, accurate descriptions, and allergen disclosure. eatcircle requires Cooks to attest to food-safety practices and to accept the Cook Agreement, and may review food-handler certifications, but eatcircle does not inspect kitchens and does not guarantee any food’s safety or suitability. If you have food allergies or intolerances, review the listing’s allergen information and confirm directly with the Cook in chat before ordering. See the Food Safety Disclaimer, which forms part of these Terms.

Reviews must reflect a genuine order experience. Cooks may not offer incentives for reviews, and Buyers may not use reviews to extort refunds. We may remove reviews that violate these Terms and may publish aggregate rating data.

The Service — including the eatcircle name, wordmark, app, website, and design — is owned by eatcircle or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the app and website for their intended purpose. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service, or reverse engineer the app, except where the law permits it despite this restriction.

The Service depends on third-party providers — including Stripe (payments), Twilio (SMS verification), Google Firebase (push notifications), Amazon Web Services (hosting and media storage), and Google Maps (location and mapping). Their processing of your data is described in our Privacy Policy. Your use of Google Pay or Apple Pay at checkout is also subject to those providers’ terms.

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the maximum extent permitted by law, eatcircle disclaims all warranties and conditions, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, and does not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that any listing is accurate. eatcircle makes no warranty regarding food sold by Cooks. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

To the maximum extent permitted by law: (a) eatcircle will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill; (b) eatcircle’s total aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service is limited to the greater of CAD $100 and the amounts you paid to eatcircle (platform fees and subscription fees) in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; and (c) eatcircle is not liable for the acts or omissions of Cooks or Buyers, including illness, allergic reaction, personal injury, or property damage arising from food prepared by a Cook or from a pickup interaction. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law, including under Ontario consumer protection legislation.

You will indemnify and hold harmless eatcircle and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from claims, damages, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your User Content, your use of the Service in violation of these Terms, or your violation of law or the rights of a third party. For Cooks, indemnification obligations in the Cook Agreement also apply.

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time in the app or through the account portal. We may suspend or terminate your access — with notice where practicable — if you materially or repeatedly violate these Terms, create risk or legal exposure for us or other users, or where required by law. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including 7, 13, 14, 15, and 18) survive.

We are actively building eatcircle; features may change, be added, or be removed. We may amend these Terms from time to time. For material changes we will post the updated Terms here with a new effective date and give notice in the app to active users. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms; if you do not agree, stop using the Service.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario. Before starting a formal proceeding, contact us at info@eatcircle.com and we will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute within 30 days. Subject to any non-waivable right you may have to bring a claim in your local courts or before a consumer protection authority, disputes will be resolved in the courts of Ontario, sitting in Toronto or Brampton, and you attorn to their jurisdiction.

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remainder stays in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets with notice to you. These Terms, together with the policies they incorporate (Privacy Policy, Refund Policy, Community Guidelines, Food Safety Disclaimer, and — for Cooks — the Cook Agreement), are the entire agreement between you and eatcircle regarding the Service. We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

eatcircle — Brampton, Ontario, Canada
info@eatcircle.com