Ebook Marketplace Terms

These Ebook Marketplace Terms are an addendum to the Platform Terms of Service and the Platform Privacy Policy. They apply whenever you use the Ebook Marketplace inside the ChefSphere apps or website — as a Buyer, Author, or both. Where this addendum is silent, the Platform documents control. Where this addendum conflicts with the Platform Terms on an ebook-specific matter, this addendum controls for that matter.

1. Who the parties are

• ChefSphere means ChefSphere OÜ, Estonian registry code 17470129 (Tartu County Court Registration Department, business register card No. 1), with service address c/o E-Residency Hub OÜ, Ahtri tn 12, 10151 Tallinn, Harju maakond, Estonia. ChefSphere operates the Marketplace, the payment flow, and the apps that host ebooks.
• Author means a user who has completed the author onboarding described in the Ebook Author Agreement and whose author account has been approved by ChefSphere. An Author can be either an individual or a registered business.
• Buyer means a user who purchases an ebook through the Marketplace for personal, non-commercial use under the Buyer License.
• Official Ebooks are ebooks where ChefSphere is itself the author or exclusive licensee. For Official Ebooks ChefSphere acts as seller directly, not as intermediary; otherwise the same Marketplace rules apply to the buyer side.

2. What the Marketplace is — and what it is not

The Marketplace is a hosted technical platform that:

1. lets approved Authors list, describe, and sell cookbook ebooks to Buyers;
2. hosts the ebook file, metadata (title, description, cover, sample), ratings, and reviews;
3. processes the sale using a payment service provider (currently Stripe, including Stripe Connect for split payouts to Authors) or, for in-app purchases on iOS and Android, using Apple App Store / Google Play billing; and
4. provides the reader experience (download, offline reading, reading progress, bookmarks, highlights) inside the ChefSphere apps and website.

For ebooks authored by third-party Authors, ChefSphere acts as an intermediary between Buyer and Author and does not author, curate for editorial quality, fact-check, or guarantee recipes or nutritional information beyond the automated checks described in section 6. The Author is the content provider; ChefSphere is the technical and commercial intermediary.

For Official Ebooks, ChefSphere is both content provider and seller.

3. Eligibility

You may use the Marketplace only if you already have a ChefSphere account meeting the requirements in the Platform Terms and the Children & Age Policy:

• To buy an ebook you must be at least 13 years old (or older where local law requires), have an active ChefSphere account, and agree to the Buyer License.
• To sell (become an Author) you must be at least 18 years old (commercial-author floor — see the four-tier age policy in /legal/children), legally able to enter binding contracts in your country of residence, and complete the onboarding described in the Ebook Author Agreement, including identity verification and payout setup through Stripe Connect.

4. Orders, currency and pricing

• Prices are displayed in the ChefSphere apps and website at the moment you open the ebook detail page. The price shown includes applicable VAT for consumer buyers in jurisdictions where ChefSphere is required to collect it (see Tax Information).
• The reference currency is EUR. Other currencies may be shown for convenience; the actual charge may be converted by your payment method or by the store at the exchange rate that applies at the moment of payment.
• An order is formed when you confirm payment and your payment service provider authorises the charge. At that moment you obtain immediate access to the ebook file in your ChefSphere library, subject to the Buyer License.
• Authors set their own prices within the technical minimum and maximum limits described in the Fee Schedule. Authors may also run promotional prices and free offers, which are clearly labelled as such at checkout.

5. Payment, fees and payouts

• Payments are processed by Stripe (web purchases), Apple App Store (iOS in-app purchases), or Google Play (Android in-app purchases). Each provider's own terms and privacy policy apply to the processing of your payment data. ChefSphere never stores full card numbers.
• When you purchase from a third-party Author, ChefSphere appears on the receipt as the limited payment agent of that Author, and funds are split between the Author's Stripe connected account and ChefSphere according to the Fee Schedule. For Official Ebooks, ChefSphere is the direct seller.
• Author payouts, reserves and withdrawals are governed by the Fee Schedule and the Author's acceptance of the Stripe Connected Account Agreement and the Stripe Services Agreement. Stripe is the regulated financial service provider for this flow.

6. Content controls and moderation

• Each ebook goes through automated pre-publication checks (text extraction, content moderation classifiers for profanity, hate, sexual content, self-harm, and copyright red flags). See the Ebook Content Policy. These are screening tools, not editorial review.
• Ebooks that fail a check may be rejected, held for review, or published with restrictions. The Author receives a reasoned notice and may appeal under the Platform Acceptable Use Policy and the EU Digital Services Act Notice.
• Any user can report an ebook, an author profile, or a review through the in-app "Report" action or by writing to [email protected]. Notice-and-action is handled under the EU DSA Notice. Copyright complaints follow the Platform Copyright & DMCA Policy and the Ebook Content Policy.

7. Buyer rights and refunds

• Every Buyer keeps the consumer protection rights granted by the law of their country of residence. Nothing in this addendum reduces those rights.
• The ebook-specific refund rules — including the 7-day post-purchase window, the reading-activity eligibility thresholds, and the fraud scoring bands — are set out in the Ebook Refund Policy.
• For purchases made through Apple App Store or Google Play, refund decisions are made by Apple or Google under their own policies. ChefSphere cannot override those decisions but will coordinate with the store in good faith when asked.
• The EU 14-day right of withdrawal for digital content supplied not on a tangible medium does not apply once performance has begun, provided the Buyer has given prior express consent to immediate performance and has expressly acknowledged that this consent causes the loss of the right of withdrawal (Art. 16(m) of Directive 2011/83/EU). ChefSphere collects these two express statements through two separate checkout controls (a consent control and an acknowledgement control) before any data is delivered, and provides confirmation of the consent and acknowledgement on a durable medium (Art. 8(7) CRD) as part of the purchase receipt. The 7-day Marketplace refund right in the Ebook Refund Policy is offered voluntarily on top of this statutory minimum and is more protective.

8. Author rights, obligations and payouts

Every Author signs the Ebook Author Agreement before publishing. That agreement covers:

• identity and tax onboarding (including Stripe Connect),
• the content warranties and originality obligations,
• the non-exclusive licence granted to ChefSphere to host, stream, index, sample, and promote the ebook,
• the Fee Schedule and payout lifecycle (pending, hold period, reserve, available, withdrawal),
• chargeback handling under the Chargeback Policy,
• suspension and termination rules.

Authors remain responsible for the accuracy of every price, allergen warning, attribution, and any claim made about the ebook.

9. Prohibited uses of the Marketplace

In addition to the Platform Acceptable Use Policy, you must not:

• resell, share, or redistribute any purchased ebook beyond what the Buyer License explicitly allows;
• attempt to bypass any technical protection (watermarking, download controls, reader controls);
• submit fake reviews, coordinate upvote/downvote rings, or create reviews from undisclosed commercial relationships;
• list content you do not own or do not have explicit rights to sell;
• abuse the refund system to read ebooks for free (see the Ebook Refund Policy for the activity thresholds that prevent this);
• use Marketplace communications to contact other users for purposes unrelated to a transaction.

Violations may result in removal of listings, withholding of payouts, account suspension, reserve increases, or termination. Serious or repeat violations are reported to authorities when required by law.

10. Liability allocation

• ChefSphere is not a party to the underlying contract between a Buyer and a third-party Author for third-party ebooks; ChefSphere's liability as intermediary is limited as set out in the Platform Terms.
• For Official Ebooks, ChefSphere is the seller and the mandatory consumer-law remedies apply to ChefSphere directly.
• Authors are liable to Buyers for the content they publish, including IP warranties and allergen/safety disclosures required by the Ebook Content Policy.
• Nothing in this addendum limits liability that cannot be limited under mandatory consumer law (for example, liability for gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or death and personal injury caused by negligence).

11. Governing law, courts and out-of-court dispute resolution

• These Marketplace Terms are governed by the law of Estonia, without prejudice to mandatory consumer-protection rules of your country of residence.
• Business-to-business disputes are referred to the Harju County Court (Harju Maakohus), Tallinn. Consumer buyers may also sue in the courts of their own country of residence.
• The European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform was discontinued on 20 July 2025 by Regulation (EU) 2024/3228. EU consumers may instead contact an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) entity notified under Directive 2013/11/EU in their country; the competent authority of each Member State maintains the list. EU users may also use an out-of-court dispute-settlement body certified under Article 21 of the Digital Services Act; see the EU DSA Notice.

12. EU regulatory compliance

ChefSphere operates the Ebooks Marketplace in alignment with the EU requirements in force in April 2026:

• Digital Services Act (Reg. (EU) 2022/2065). ChefSphere is a hosting intermediary. Trader traceability (Art 30) is enforced at Author onboarding via Stripe Express KYC; interface compliance-by-design (Art 31) is enforced at listing creation. The DSA single point of contact is [email protected].
• European Accessibility Act (Dir. (EU) 2019/882, applicable since 28 June 2025). E-books are expressly covered by Annex I of the EAA. We publish ebooks in accessible formats (EPUB 3 with semantic markup, reflow, text-to-speech compatibility, alt text on cover images) and align the storefront with WCAG 2.2 AA (EN 301 549 V3.2.1 for the web surfaces). Accessibility feedback may be sent to [email protected].
• Consumer Rights Directive (Dir. 2011/83/EU as amended by the Omnibus Directive (EU) 2019/2161). Every listing displays whether the Author declared professional or private at onboarding (Art 6a(1)(b)). Ranking parameters are disclosed below (Art 6a(1)(a)). Review verification is enforced by linking every published review to a paid transaction in our database (Art 6a(1)(c)); anonymous, paid, or unverified reviews are not accepted.
• Ranking of ebooks (CRD Art 6a(1)(a) and DSA Art 27). ChefSphere does not operate a blended relevance score on the Ebook storefront. Each sort option the Buyer selects corresponds to a single authoritative signal: newest / oldest (by Ebook.publishedAt), price-low / price-high (by Ebook.price), popularity (by Ebook.views), downloads (by Ebook.downloads), or sales (by Ebook.sales). The default sort when no preference is expressed is newest. OFFICIAL ChefSphere ebooks are surfaced above community ebooks when no explicit type filter is applied — this is a platform-curation decision disclosed transparently; within each type bucket the selected sort remains the single signal. The machine-readable disclosure of every sort option is published at /api/v1/legal/ebooks/ranking (backend API) and kept in lockstep with the runtime. Paid placement is not used; if ever introduced, it would be clearly labelled Ad or Sponsored.
• Digital Content Directive (Dir. (EU) 2019/770). A legal guarantee of conformity applies to digital content supplied to consumers by a trader for the period of supply and, for non-continuous supply, for at least the period during which the content is reasonably expected to remain usable (minimum 2 years for one-time supply). The Author (or ChefSphere for Official Ebooks) is liable for lack of conformity at supply and for updates required to keep the ebook in conformity. Remedies include bringing the content into conformity, reduction of the price, or termination of the contract.
• Right of withdrawal — prior express consent (Dir. 2011/83/EU Art. 16(m)). Download or streaming of an ebook is started only after the Buyer has given prior express consent to immediate performance during the withdrawal period and has expressly acknowledged that this consent causes the loss of the right of withdrawal. Both statements are collected as separate checkout controls; until both are confirmed, no ebook data is delivered and a full refund can be requested. The confirmation of the contract delivered on a durable medium (the purchase receipt) expressly records that consent was given and that the right of withdrawal is lost, as required by Art. 8(7) of the Directive. The platform-level Ebook Refund Policy offers a more generous windowed refund on top of this statutory minimum.
• AI Act (Reg. (EU) 2024/1689) — transparency of synthetic content (Art 50). Where an ebook is produced with generative-AI assistance, the Author must disclose the extent and nature of AI use in the listing metadata (authoring aid, translation, cover image generation, full generation). Synthetic text, image, audio, or video included in an ebook must be labelled as artificially generated. ChefSphere may add machine-readable provenance markers to listings.
• Product Liability Directive (Dir. (EU) 2024/2853). The revised PLD — to be transposed by Member States by 9 December 2026 — treats software and digital content as products for defectiveness purposes. For third-party ebooks, the Author is the producer; ChefSphere, as hosting intermediary that neither authored nor modified the content, is not a producer under that Directive, without prejudice to residual marketplace liability expressly provided by national transposition.
• DSM Copyright Directive (Dir. (EU) 2019/790). Authors warrant that they hold all copyright, translation, adaptation, and image rights needed to sell the ebook on the Marketplace, as required by the Author Agreement. ChefSphere operates a notice-and-action procedure under the DSA and the DMCA / IP Policy; repeat infringers are suspended.
• VAT on electronic services. For consumer sales, ChefSphere uses Stripe Tax to collect VAT at the rate of the Buyer's country under the EU One-Stop-Shop (OSS) regime for telecommunications, broadcasting, and electronic services. Invoices itemise the rate, taxable base, and VAT amount. B2B transactions with a valid VAT number may be reverse-charged. See Tax Information.
• DAC7 (Dir. (EU) 2021/514). Annual seller reporting applies to Authors whose earnings flow through the platform; ChefSphere provides an annual DAC7 summary before the statutory deadline.
• General Product Safety Regulation (Reg. (EU) 2023/988). The GPSR targets physical consumer products and does not apply to purely digital content. Where an ebook bundle ever includes a physical component, GPSR will apply to that component and the Tools Marketplace Terms GPSR obligations are mirrored.
• Platform-to-Business Regulation (Reg. (EU) 2019/1150 — "P2B"). The Marketplace is an "online intermediation service" within the meaning of Art. 2(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150. Accordingly:
  • Terms of service (Art. 3). These Marketplace Terms, the Ebook Author Agreement, and the Ebook Fee Schedule together constitute the "terms and conditions" for business users (Authors). They are drafted in plain, intelligible language, are freely accessible at all stages of the contractual relationship, and set out the grounds for suspension, termination, or restriction of an Author account.
  • Changes to the terms (Art. 3(2)). Material changes to these Terms, to the Author Agreement, or to the Fee Schedule take effect no sooner than 15 days after notice, unless a legal obligation requires a shorter period or unless the change addresses an imminent security, fraud, or malicious-content risk.
  • Suspension and termination (Art. 4). Any suspension of an Author's listings, restriction of features, or termination of the Author account is accompanied by a statement of reasons on a durable medium, unless disclosure would defeat a legal obligation (e.g. ongoing fraud investigation).
  • Ranking (Art. 5). The main ranking parameters and their relative importance are disclosed in the "Ranking of ebooks" bullet above and, in machine-readable form, at /api/v1/legal/ebooks/ranking. No paid placement is used; if ever introduced, it would be clearly labelled.
  • Ancillary goods and services (Art. 6), differentiated treatment (Art. 7), specific contractual terms (Art. 8), data access (Art. 9), most-favoured-nation (Art. 10), internal complaints (Art. 11), mediation (Art. 12). We publish a standing statement on each of these topics in the Author Agreement; in particular, Authors have access to an internal complaints-handling system accessible from the Author dashboard and at [email protected], and we name at least two mediators with whom we are willing to engage on the same page.

13. Changes to this document

We will post a new version of this addendum when the Marketplace, the payment flow, or the applicable law changes materially. Material changes take effect no sooner than 30 days after we have notified you in-app or by email, unless the law or a safety concern requires a shorter notice period. The version and effective date at the top of this page control.

14. Contact

• Marketplace questions: [email protected]
• Billing / refunds: [email protected]
• Trust & safety / content reports: [email protected]
• Legal notices: [email protected]
• DSA single point of contact: [email protected]