Terms of Service

Version 1.0 · Effective 2026-08-04

Draft, not yet reviewed by a lawyer

This document was written to capture how Vecino actually works and to get the acceptance mechanics right. It has not been reviewed by an attorney and should not be relied on as legal protection until it has. Sections marked in the text still need professional drafting.

1. What Vecino is

Vecino is a marketplace connecting local businesses with creators. Businesses publish deals, creators claim them, and creators publish content in exchange for a discount, a comped item, cash, or a combination. Vecino operates the platform and processes payments. We are not a party to the deal itself, we do not employ creators, and we do not control what a creator says about a business.

2. Accounts

You must be at least 18 to use Vecino. You are responsible for what happens under your account and for the accuracy of what you tell us, including your follower counts, which determine your rank and what businesses agree to pay you. Misrepresenting your audience is grounds for removal.

3. The creator deal agreement

Every time a creator claims a deal they accept the terms below. We record the version accepted and the exact time of acceptance against that claim. These terms form a contract between the creator and the business, which Vecino facilitates and can enforce on the platform.

3.1 Who this is between

This is an agreement between you and the business offering the deal. Vecino runs the platform and processes payment, but is not a party to the deal itself and does not employ you. You are an independent creator, responsible for your own taxes on anything you receive, including the value of comped items.

3.2 Post what you agreed, on time

You will publish exactly what the deal describes within 48 hours of claiming it, unless the deal states a different window. Claiming a deal and not posting is a breach of this agreement, not a change of mind.

3.3 Leave it up

Stories must stay live at least 24 hours. Feed posts, reels and videos must stay live at least 30 days. Deleting, archiving, hiding or restricting the audience of your post before that period ends is treated the same as never posting it.

3.4 Disclose that it was paid or comped

Every post must clearly disclose the relationship, using #ad or a platform "paid partnership" label, visible before someone has to tap "more". This is required by the FTC Endorsement Guides, not by us, and it applies whether you were paid cash or simply given something free. Removing the disclosure breaches this agreement and the law.

3.5 Make it real

The content must be yours, made from your actual visit. No stock footage, no reposting someone else's content, no AI-generated depictions of a visit that did not happen. Your opinion must be your own. You are never required to say you liked something you didn't.

3.6 Your account is real

Your follower count and engagement must be genuine. Purchased followers, engagement pods and bot activity are grounds for immediate removal and reversal of any reward, because your rank determines what businesses agree to pay you.

3.7 Claim it yourself, once

The code is for you and is single use. Don't transfer or sell it. Turn up within the deal's stated dates and follow the business's normal rules, including age restrictions where alcohol is involved.

3.8 What the business owes you

The business must honour the reward exactly as described when you present a valid code, and must approve or dispute your post within 7 days of you marking it complete. If they refuse a valid claim, contact Vecino and we will investigate. The business may not ask you to change your opinion, remove your disclosure, or produce anything beyond what the deal states.

3.9 If you don't hold up your end

Missing the window, deleting early, or omitting the disclosure means: the reward may be reversed and charged back to you, your Vecino rank and reliability score are reduced, and repeated breaches result in removal from the platform. We would rather remind you than penalise you, so you'll get a nudge before the deadline.

3.10 Your content stays yours

You keep ownership of everything you make. You grant the business and Vecino a non-exclusive licence to reshare that specific post on their own channels, with credit. Neither of us may use it in paid advertising without asking you separately.

4. Business obligations

Businesses must honour a valid, unexpired code exactly as the deal describes. You must approve or dispute a creator’s submission within 7 days of them marking it complete, after which it may be approved automatically. You may not require a creator to say something positive, to remove a required disclosure, or to deliver anything the deal did not state.

5. Payment

Businesses keep a payment method on file and set a monthly spend cap. Vecino does not hold business funds. A charge is made when a claim is approved, consisting of the reward value plus the platform fee stated at the time of posting. Deals pause automatically when the cap is reached. Creator payouts are made through our payment processor and may require identity verification before funds are released.

The platform fee is a flat $3 for a story and $6 for a feed post or reel. Where a deal pays the creator in cash, the fee is instead 15% of that payout, charged on top of it. Deals that require no post carry no fee. Creators are never charged to use Vecino.

If a creator takes a reward and does not post within the stated window, no fee is charged, and Vecino credits the stated reward value against the business’s future fees, up to $75 per claim. This credit does not apply where the business vouched for the creator to bypass eligibility rules.

6. Disclosure and advertising law

Content published through Vecino is advertising. Creators must disclose the relationship clearly and conspicuously, in line with the FTC Endorsement Guides, whether they were paid in cash or given something free. Vecino adds a disclosure requirement to every deal, but the legal obligation sits with the creator and the advertising business, and both can be liable for a failure to disclose.

7. Content and licence

Creators keep ownership of everything they make. By publishing under a deal, a creator grants the business and Vecino a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to reshare that specific post on their own channels with credit. Use in paid advertising requires separate written permission from the creator.

8. Suspension and removal

We may suspend or remove an account for breach of these terms, fraudulent activity, fake engagement, abuse of another user, or repeated failure to deliver claimed posts. Where a reward was obtained without delivering the agreed content, we may reverse it.

9. Disclaimers and liability

[Needs attorney drafting.] Limitation of liability, warranty disclaimers, indemnification, dispute resolution, arbitration and class-action waiver, and governing law all belong here. These clauses carry the most legal weight and the most risk of being drafted unenforceably. Do not launch without a lawyer writing this section.

10. Changes

We will publish a new version number and effective date when these terms change, and creators accept the then-current version each time they claim a deal. Historic acceptances remain tied to the version that was shown at the time.

11. Contact

Questions about these terms: [legal@yourdomain.com]. Registered entity and address: [to be added on incorporation].