Artist Terms of Service

1. The platform's role

Vernissaria is the discovery layer between makers and buyers. We publish your catalogue, handle the Reserve / Inquire / Buy now mechanics, and route buyers to you. We do not stand between you and the buyer.

When a buyer purchases your work, the transaction is between you and that buyer. Payments go to your own Stripe Connect account. Shipping is arranged by you. Returns and refunds follow the commerce terms you publish on your own page.

This is a deliberate choice. It gives you the peer-to-peer purchase feel that makes Vernissaria different from a marketplace — and it places certain responsibilities squarely on you.

2. Eligible work — physical art only

Vernissaria is for artists whose work is delivered as a tangible, physical object. What counts is what the buyer receives — not how the work was made. Using digital tools to create a physical piece is completely fine.

Eligible: original one-of-a-kind works and physical reproductions or editions — paintings, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photographic prints, signed and numbered giclée prints, and the like — that are shipped to the buyer as a real object.

Not eligible, regardless of artistic merit:

• Works delivered as a digital file or that exist only on a screen (e.g. screen-only images, wallpapers, or video sold as the product itself).
• NFTs, crypto-tokens, or any blockchain-based representation of a work.
• Downloadable patterns, templates, or 3D-print files sold as the deliverable.

3. What you are responsible for

By using Vernissaria you accept that you, not Vernissaria, are responsible for:

• Tax and VAT. Registration, collection, and remittance in every jurisdiction where you have an obligation. Vernissaria does not collect or remit tax on your behalf.
• Refunds and returns. Decisions about refunds, partial refunds, and returns. Your published commerce terms are the contract; honour them in good faith.
• Chargeback defense. When a buyer disputes a charge with their bank, the chargeback is filed against your Stripe Connect account. You respond with evidence through Stripe's dispute UI. Vernissaria provides an evidence-bundling tool (when available) but does not respond to chargebacks on your behalf.
• Delivery. Packaging, shipping, customs, and tracking. Coordinate directly with each buyer.
• Authenticity and accuracy. Your listings must accurately describe the work — materials, dimensions, condition, and provenance where relevant. Misrepresentation is grounds for tier action.
• Your published terms. Keep the commerce terms on your settings page current. If you change your shipping windows or returns policy, update them before they apply to new buyers.

4. What Vernissaria does not do

For clarity, Vernissaria does not:

• Mediate or arbitrate individual disputes between you and a buyer.
• Hold or escrow buyer funds — payments flow directly to your Stripe Connect account.
• Ship, fulfill, or handle returns on your behalf.
• Collect, file, or remit taxes on your behalf.
• Guarantee any specific sales volume, conversion rate, or buyer reach.
• Respond to chargebacks on your behalf — but we will help you build a defense bundle when that tooling ships.

5. Pricing & fees

Free plan is free. Pro is a flat subscription with no commission on sales. We do not take a cut of Reserve / Inquire transactions, and we do not take a cut of Buy now transactions beyond a small platform fee on the Stripe Connect charge (documented on the Pro plan page).

Pricing is published on the public pricing page. Changes to subscription pricing are announced at least 30 days before they take effect for existing subscribers.

6. Buyer disputes

Vernissaria's full dispute policy is published separately. The short version: buyers are directed to (a) contact you first, (b) file a chargeback with their bank for payment disputes, or (c) contact their national consumer-protection authority for non-payment disputes. Vernissaria does not adjudicate the underlying transaction.

Buyers may also file a report with Vernissaria via the public report channel. Reports do not result in individual mediation, but they accumulate into signals that affect your account standing. You have 14 days to acknowledge a report through your admin dashboard — failure to acknowledge contributes to the standing signals (see §7).

7. Account standing & enforcement

Your account standing on Vernissaria is governed by an observable-signal model documented in the dispute policy. Tiers are driven by chargeback rates from Stripe, accumulated buyer reports, and Stripe Connect account health — never by case-by-case judgment of your individual transactions.

The full enforcement ladder is published verbatim on the dispute policy page. Tier 1 (warning) and Tier 2 (search demotion) transitions are automatic. Tier 3 and above (Buy now suspension, full suspension, removal) require sign-off from our team.

Vernissaria reserves the right to apply the enforcement ladder based on the signals defined there. The dispute policy is the authoritative source for thresholds and effects — this section refers to it rather than restating it, so the two never drift apart.

Read the full dispute policy →

8. Appeals

Any tier above 0 can be appealed from your admin dashboard. We aim to respond within 14 days.

The appeal evaluates whether the signal-to-tier mapping was applied correctly — for example, whether a chargeback Stripe confirmed as fraudulent should still count toward your rate. The appeal does not re-litigate the underlying transactions themselves. Vernissaria does not adjudicate transactions, on appeal or otherwise.

9. Closing your account & your data

You can leave Vernissaria at any time. Export your data first — your catalogue (CSV), images, and sales history are all exportable from the admin. Once you confirm closure, your tenant is hidden from public surfaces within 24 hours.

We retain the records required by law (tax invoices, audit logs of legally significant actions) for the periods required by applicable regulation, even after closure. GDPR requests for personal-data erasure are handled separately and on the legally required timeline — write to support@vernissaria.com.

10. Changes to these terms

When the substantive content of this page changes, the version is bumped. The new version is published with at least 14 days' notice for existing artists. On your next admin login after the new version is published, you'll be asked to re-accept.

Continued use of Vernissaria after the effective date of a new version, with acceptance recorded, constitutes agreement to the new terms.