Terms & Conditions | Material Trader

These Terms & Conditions ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Material Trader marketplace ("Material Trader", "we", "us", "our"). By creating an account or using the platform, you agree to these Terms. Please also read our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

1. About Material Trader

The service is operated by Material Trader Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17238883, with its registered office at 66 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NA, United Kingdom. References in these Terms to "Material Trader", "we", "us" and "our" are to Material Trader Ltd.

Material Trader is an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of surplus and second-hand materials and equipment for the vehicle wrapping, signage, window tinting and paint protection film (PPF) trades in the United Kingdom. We provide the platform that enables transactions, but unless expressly stated we are not a party to the contract of sale between buyer and seller.

Material Trader operates on a local, region-based model. You buy and sell within your own region, in the local currency, with local delivery. Trades are domestic: items are delivered within the same region and are not shipped across borders, so ordinary orders involve no customs formalities or import duties. Each region is subject to its own local laws and tax rules, and the region that applies to you is the one associated with your account.

These Terms are the agreement between you and Material Trader for your use of the service. Our Privacy Policy (how we handle personal data), Cookie Policy, Copyright Policy, Buyer Protection and Dispute Resolution pages form part of these Terms and should be read with them.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a legally binding contract to use Material Trader. You are responsible for keeping your account details and password secure and for all activity that takes place under your account. You must not share your sign-in details with, or allow access to your account by, any third party - anything done through your account is treated as done by you. You must provide accurate information and keep it up to date.

Holiday Mode. You can pause your account from Settings by blocking out the dates you are away. While Holiday Mode is active your listings are hidden from other users and you cannot make new purchases. It does not pause anything already in progress: orders you have already placed or received, agreed collection times, dispatch expectations, dispute response windows and payment-release timers all continue to run as normal. If you enable Holiday Mode with transactions still open, you remain responsible for seeing them through, and scheduled releases or refunds may still take place while you are away. Holiday Mode ends automatically on your chosen date, or earlier if you end it from Settings.

3. Listing materials

You may only list items you legally own and are entitled to sell.
Listings must be accurate, including an honest description of the material's type, quantity, age and condition.
Second-hand and part-used materials must be clearly described as such, including any defects.
Photographs should represent the actual item being sold.
Prices must be displayed inclusive of any applicable VAT where you are VAT-registered (see clause 8).
You must have a valid dispatch and collection address saved to your account before you can create a listing. Listings cannot be created without one: it is used to calculate delivery costs, to tell buyers where an item is sent from or collected from, and to identify the seller in the event of a dispute. You must keep this address accurate and up to date for as long as you have active listings; removing it may prevent your listings from being purchased and may prevent you from listing further items.

Your content. You keep ownership of the content you post (photographs, descriptions, your profile and messages). By posting it, you grant Material Trader a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display, reproduce and communicate that content on and in connection with the marketplace - including in listings, search results, previews and service emails and notifications - for as long as it remains on the site. You confirm you have the rights needed to post the content and to grant this licence; our Copyright Policy explains what we expect and how rights holders can report infringing content.

4. Prohibited items and conduct

You must not list or sell:

counterfeit, stolen or illegally obtained goods;
materials that infringe a third party's intellectual property rights;
hazardous substances except where lawfully permitted and properly labelled;
any item whose sale is restricted or prohibited under UK law; or
items unrelated to the wrapping, signage, tinting and PPF trades that Material Trader serves.

Listings, photographs, profiles and messages must not contain content that is sexually explicit, pornographic, obscene, hateful, harassing, violent, defamatory or otherwise offensive, and images must depict the actual item being sold rather than any such material. You must not use Material Trader for any fraudulent, abusive or unlawful purpose, or to harass other users.

We may remove or hide any listing or content, and suspend or terminate any account, that we reasonably consider to breach these rules. If you believe content on Material Trader infringes copyright you own or represent, our Copyright Policy explains how to send a formal notification to our copyright agent.

Rules of conduct

Material Trader is a community of trade professionals. When using the service you must:

treat other users with respect - bullying, intimidation, harassment and abusive behaviour are not tolerated, whether in listings, messages, offers, reviews or disputes;
keep language professional - do not use profanity or inappropriate language on the service;
comply with all laws that apply to you, including your tax obligations arising from sales you make (see clause 8);
respect the rights of others, including their intellectual property rights (see our Copyright Policy) and their privacy - do not share another user's personal information beyond what is needed to complete a transaction;
be truthful - do not submit false or misleading information, including false listing reports, false dispute claims or false account details; and
not use the service for any illegal, immoral or unauthorised purpose.

Restricted content

In addition to the prohibited items above, content you submit to the service must not:

advertise or solicit for anything other than the item genuinely being sold in your listing - promotional or commercial content for other products, services or websites is not permitted without our prior written consent;
be unlawful, or infringe anyone's rights, including copyright and trade marks;
pose a risk to anyone's life, safety, security or health; or
involve, depict or exploit minors in any way. Material Trader is a service for adults (18+), and we will remove content and report accounts to the appropriate authorities where we believe a child is at risk.

Content moderation

We moderate content through a combination of automated screening (for example, image checks when a listing is created), reports from users and human review. Users can report a listing they believe breaks these rules using the Report option on the listing - including a dedicated option for content that uses their photos, text or brand without permission - and we review reports and act at our discretion. Where content is removed we will normally tell the user who posted it why, and account-level action is handled as described in clause 11, including the right to appeal.

Using the service

You must not abuse the service itself. In particular, you must not:

interfere with, disrupt or overload the service, or attempt to bypass its security or access accounts, data or systems you are not authorised to access;
access the service by automated means (bots, scrapers or similar) or harvest data from it, except as permitted by us in writing;
participate in fraud of any kind, on us or on other users; or
copy, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of the service, except to the extent that applicable law expressly prohibits this restriction.

The service and its content are for your use as a buyer or seller on the marketplace. You must not use or exploit the service or its content for any other commercial purpose, including (without limitation):

offering third parties a service of your own that uses the service or its content;
redistributing or selling any part of the service or its content;
creating a new product or service based on the service or its content;
integrating the service or its content with, or using it to augment, another product or service, without our prior written consent; or
creating a browser or border environment around the service or its content, for example through frames or inline linking.

5. Buying, selling and delivery

When a buyer places an order and payment is taken, a contract of sale is formed directly between the buyer and the seller. Sellers are responsible for dispatching items as described and should do so within 2–3 business days of a sale, and must maintain a valid dispatch and collection address on their account at all times while they have active listings. Buyers are responsible for providing an accurate delivery address and paying for their orders; an order cannot be completed without a valid delivery address.

Depending on the item, delivery is by tracked courier, by collection in person, or - for oversized hardware only - by palletised freight. Freight is not available for vinyl and film, which is always sent by courier or collected. Courier deliveries are booked through our shipping partner and tracking is provided automatically; sellers cannot enter or edit tracking details manually. The delivery method and any delivery charge are shown to the buyer at checkout before payment.

Collection in person. Where an item is collected in person, the buyer and seller agree a firm collection date and time through Material Trader. Either party proposes a time and the other accepts (or suggests an alternative); the agreed date and time is the commitment both parties are held to. Any accompanying note is for handover logistics only (for example where to park or which entrance to use) and does not change or qualify the agreed time. Both parties must attend at the agreed time; a party who cannot make it should arrange a new time in advance. After the agreed time, each party is asked to confirm whether the collection went ahead, and how the payment is released depends on those responses as set out in clause 7.

6. Consumer rights

Where a seller is acting as a business and the buyer is a consumer, the buyer may have rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, including rights relating to goods that are not as described. Nothing in these Terms affects a consumer's statutory rights.

7. Payments, payouts and fees

Payments are processed through our payment provider, Stripe. We may charge fees for the use of certain services; any applicable fees will be made clear before you incur them. You are responsible for any taxes arising from your transactions.

Payment methods. You can pay for an order by debit or credit card, including via Apple Pay or Google Pay where available. Where a refund is due, it is returned the way you paid, back to the card used.

Getting paid as a seller. Before your first listing goes live you must set up payouts. Payouts are provided by Stripe: you will be asked to verify your identity and link a bank account, and by completing payout setup you also agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. When the payment for a sale is released from escrow (see below), your proceeds – the item price less the selling fee (see below), plus any delivery amount you charged for freight – are sent automatically to your linked bank account. There is no minimum amount, no withdrawal fee and nothing to request: payouts happen by themselves, and typically arrive within 2 business days of release depending on your bank. You are responsible for keeping your payout details accurate and up to date, and payouts may be paused while identity or verification checks are carried out (see clause 8).

Buyer Protection is a 5% charge applied to every transaction, subject to a minimum of £1 and capped at £250 per item, payable by the buyer in addition to the item price. It funds our secure escrow system, which holds your payment until you confirm receipt of your item, and also covers dispute resolution support, fraud protection, and the costs of running and maintaining the platform - including payment processing, shipping infrastructure, address verification, and ongoing development. The fee is shown clearly before you complete a purchase. It is non-refundable on a completed order, but where an order is refunded - for example it is cancelled before dispatch, or a dispute is resolved in your favour - your full payment, including the Buyer Protection Fee and any delivery charge, is returned to you the way you paid. We may review the fee rate from time to time; the rate applied to your order is the one shown at checkout. See our Buyer Protection page for more.

Selling fees. When your item sells, a selling fee of 7% of the item price, subject to a minimum of £1 and capped at £250 per item, is deducted from the sale proceeds before your payout. The amount you receive for an order is therefore the item price less the selling fee, plus any delivery amount you charged for freight; the exact figures are shown on each order and in your sales statement. Founding Members - accounts created during our founding period through a founding campaign link or a Founding Member's personal invitation - carry a permanent Founding Member badge on their profile. We may review fee rates from time to time; the rate applied to a sale is the one in effect when the order is placed.

Delivery contribution. On some orders - typically oversized parcels that are expensive to ship - we may put some or all of our fee income on the order toward the buyer's delivery cost. Any contribution is shown at checkout before payment and reduces the amount the buyer pays; it does not change the item price, the seller's proceeds or the fees described above. Contributions are discretionary, may vary by order and may be changed or withdrawn at any time; the amount applied to an order is the one shown at checkout.

Escrow and release of funds. Payment for an order is held in escrow and is not released to the seller until the buyer confirms they have received their item and are happy with it. For courier deliveries, if the buyer does not respond within three days of the item being delivered, the order is auto-confirmed on their behalf. Collection-in-person orders are not auto-confirmed and have no delivery event for us to detect, so release is governed by the agreed collection time (see clause 5). Once the buyer confirms they have collected the item, the payment is released after the standard two-day hold. If the agreed time passes without a confirmation, we ask both parties whether the collection went ahead. Where the seller reports that the buyer collected the item or did not attend the agreed collection, the buyer is notified and has 48 hours to confirm collection or open a dispute; if they do neither, the payment is released to the seller. Where the buyer reports that the seller was not present, no payment is released and the parties should agree a new time. Where the parties give conflicting accounts of the collection, the payment stays on hold and the matter is handled as a dispute (see clause 9). If a buyer never engages to arrange a collection at all, the seller may, after a reasonable period, mark the order as awaiting collection, which starts a seven-day period after which the payment is released to the seller unless the buyer confirms or opens a dispute; the buyer remains entitled to collect the item. In every case - whether the buyer confirms, a courier order auto-confirms, a collection window elapses, or a dispute is resolved in the seller's favour - funds are released to the seller only after a standard two-day hold, never the instant an item changes hands. Once released, the seller's proceeds are paid out automatically as described above. Before a courier order is delivered, the buyer's only order action is to report that an item has not arrived; this notifies the seller, and if it is not resolved within 48 hours the buyer may open a formal dispute (see clause 9).

8. Taxes, VAT and seller income reporting

Sellers are responsible for their own taxes. As a seller you are responsible for determining, charging where required, reporting and paying any taxes that arise from your sales - including VAT or other sales taxes and any income or corporation tax. Material Trader does not provide tax advice, and you should take your own advice where you are unsure.

VAT-registered sellers. If you are VAT-registered you must tell us and keep your registration details accurate. Your listed prices must be inclusive of any VAT you are required to charge, and, where the law requires a VAT invoice to be issued for a sale, you are responsible for issuing it to the buyer.

Marketplace facilitator tax. In some regions the law requires a marketplace operator to calculate, collect and remit sales tax or VAT on certain transactions on a seller's behalf ("marketplace facilitator" rules). Where such rules apply to a sale, we will collect and account for the relevant tax as required and make clear at checkout where tax is being handled in this way. Where they do not apply, responsibility for the correct tax treatment of the sale remains with the seller.

Seller identity and income reporting. In some regions we are legally required to collect information about our sellers and to report seller identity and income to the relevant tax authority - for example under the UK and EU rules implementing the OECD Model Reporting Rules for digital platforms (commonly called "DAC7"), or the 1099-K regime in the United States. By selling on Material Trader you agree that, where these rules apply, we may collect the information we need from you (which may include your name, address, date of birth or business registration number, and your tax identification or VAT number) and report it, together with your sales and payout totals, to the appropriate authority. You must provide this information promptly when we ask for it; we may hold payouts or restrict selling until you do.

Identity checks and payouts. To meet anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer obligations and to protect the platform and its users, identity and verification checks are carried out by our payment provider, Stripe, when you set up payouts and from time to time afterwards. We or Stripe may verify your identity before enabling or continuing payouts to you, and may pause a payout while these checks are carried out.

Verification badges. We offer optional verified seller and verified installer statuses. Documents you submit in support of an application must be genuine, accurate and current, and we may decline an application, or withdraw a badge already granted, where they are not. Documents are handled as described in our Privacy Policy, which includes how long we keep them.

Tax on our fees. Where we are required to charge VAT or an equivalent tax on the fees we charge you (such as the Buyer Protection Fee), we will do so at the applicable rate, and the amount shown to you at checkout is the amount payable.

9. Disputes between users

If a problem arises with a transaction, buyers and sellers should first try to resolve it between themselves. Before an item is delivered, a buyer who has not received their order can report this to prompt the seller for an update; if it remains unresolved after 48 hours, the buyer may open a formal dispute. For a collection in person, a buyer who attends but finds the seller was not present, or who disagrees with the seller's account of the collection, may open a dispute; where the two parties give conflicting accounts, the payment is held and the matter is reviewed as a dispute. After delivery, a buyer who is not happy can report a problem instead of confirming receipt, which opens a dispute and keeps the payment on hold. Material Trader provides a disputes process and reviews each case impartially - see our Dispute Resolution page - but we are not obliged to resolve disputes and any resolution is at our discretion.

10. Our liability

Material Trader is provided "as is". To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for the quality, safety or legality of items listed, the accuracy of listings, or the conduct of users. We do not exclude or limit liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence or for fraud.

11. Suspension and termination

We may suspend your account while we review concerns about your activity (for example, multiple unresolved complaints or signs of abuse). While suspended you can still sign in, but you cannot start new activity - listing, buying, making offers or messaging - and your active listings are hidden. Any orders already in progress continue to be handled normally, and funds already held in escrow stay protected and are released, refunded or disputed in the usual way; suspension never affects money already in escrow.

For serious or repeated breaches we may permanently ban an account, which closes it and prevents sign-in. We keep a record of any suspension or ban, these actions are taken at our discretion, and they can be reversed if a review or appeal supports it - to appeal, contact hello@materialtrader.co. You may also close your own account at any time.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified through the platform, and the "last updated" date above will be revised.

13. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, except that consumers may bring proceedings in their local courts where the law allows.

14. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to hello@materialtrader.co.