Terms of Service

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract to use Sawa, whether as a buyer or a seller. By using Sawa you confirm that you meet this requirement. We may suspend or delete any account we reasonably believe belongs to a person under 18.

Buyers may use Sawa from most countries. We do not serve users in jurisdictions subject to comprehensive sanctions. Selling (creating gigs, submitting proposals, and receiving payouts) is available only to residents of the European countries we currently support for payouts; the up-to-date list is shown in the app.

2. Your account

You are responsible for the accuracy of your registration details, for keeping your credentials secure, and for all activity under your account. You may hold only one account unless we agree otherwise. You may delete your account at any time from your profile settings; where you have transaction history, we anonymise your personal data and retain the transaction records as described in our Privacy Policy.

3. Our role — a marketplace, not a party to your contract

Sawa provides the venue, tools, and payment facilitation that let buyers and sellers transact. The contract for any service ("order") is formed directly between the buyer and the seller. Sawa is not the employer, agent, or partner of any user and is not a party to that contract.

For payments, Sawa acts as a limited payment collection agent: funds are held and moved by our licensed payment processor (see the Payment Terms), not by Sawa. By selling on Sawa you appoint us as your limited agent solely to collect payments made by buyers on your behalf.

4. Buying on Sawa

To order, you send a request to a seller; no payment is taken until the seller accepts. Once accepted, you pay through our processor, and the funds are held until you accept the delivery (or the order is otherwise resolved). You may request a revision where the package or proposal includes one, accept the delivery, or open a dispute. Please review requirements and deliverables carefully and communicate through Sawa so your order stays protected.

5. Selling on Sawa

Sellers are responsible for the accuracy of their gigs and proposals, for delivering the work they agree to, and for complying with all applicable laws and taxes. To receive payouts you must complete onboarding with our payment processor, including identity verification; your gigs are only visible to buyers while your payout account is in good standing. You are solely responsible for your own tax obligations arising from your activity on Sawa.

6. Fees

Sawa charges sellers a commission on completed orders, deducted from the order amount, and buyers a service fee added at checkout. The current rates are set out in the Payment Terms, which form part of these Terms, together with payment, currency, refund, and payout terms.

7. Content, conduct, and prohibited uses

You are responsible for the content you post (gigs, messages, files, reviews). You must not use Sawa to post or exchange anything unlawful, infringing, deceptive, harassing, or harmful, to defraud others, or to facilitate transactions off-platform. We may remove content and restrict accounts that breach these Terms or our policies.

8. Keeping transactions on Sawa (anti-circumvention)

To protect both sides, orders, communication, and payment must stay on Sawa. Soliciting or taking a transaction off-platform to avoid fees or protections is prohibited. See our Anti-circumvention Policy for detail; breaches may lead to suspension or termination.

9. Intellectual property

The Sawa name, brand, and platform are owned by us and may not be used without permission. You keep ownership of the content you post, and grant Sawa a worldwide, non-exclusive licence to host, display, and use it as needed to operate and promote the service.

Unless the buyer and seller agree otherwise in the order, ownership of the final deliverables transfers to the buyer upon full payment; the seller retains ownership of pre-existing materials and tools. If you believe content on Sawa infringes your intellectual property, contact us at contact@sawamarketplace.com with details and we will act on valid notices.

10. Reviews

Reviews must reflect a genuine transaction and your honest experience. We may remove reviews that breach our policies. Reviews left by other users are their opinions, not Sawa’s.

11. Moderation, suspension, and termination

We may remove content or restrict, suspend, or terminate accounts that breach these Terms, our policies, or the law, or to protect users and the platform. Where we restrict your account or content, we will, where required, give you a statement of the reasons and the ways to challenge the decision. You can contact us about any such decision at contact@sawamarketplace.com.

12. Consumers — right of withdrawal and dispute resolution

If you are a consumer in the EU, you may have a 14-day right to withdraw from a service contract. Because freelance work is usually custom and begins promptly, by paying for and asking the seller to start you acknowledge that performance begins during the withdrawal period and that you lose the right of withdrawal once the service has been fully performed.

Consumers may use the European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution platform at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr and, for buyers in France, may refer an unresolved dispute to a consumer mediator (médiateur de la consommation). Details of our mediator will be provided here. Nothing in these Terms removes the mandatory protections available to you under the law of your country of residence.

13. Business sellers (platform-to-business)

Where you use Sawa in the course of a business, the following apply. Search results and rankings are based mainly on relevance to the buyer’s query, gig quality and completeness, seller performance and ratings, delivery time, and price. We will give at least 15 days’ notice of changes to these Terms that affect business sellers, unless a change is legally required or addresses a risk sooner. You may raise complaints with us at contact@sawamarketplace.com; if a complaint is not resolved, it may be referred to mediation.

14. Disclaimers and liability

Sawa is provided "as is". We do not guarantee the quality, safety, legality, or outcome of any service ordered between users, and each user is responsible for their own dealings. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Sawa is not liable for indirect or consequential losses; nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including your mandatory rights as a consumer.

15. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify Sawa against claims and losses arising from your breach of these Terms, your content, or your dealings with other users, to the extent permitted by law.

16. Governing law and language

These Terms are governed by French law, without depriving you of the mandatory consumer protections of your country of residence. Disputes are subject to the competent courts, subject to any consumer rules that apply to you. The French version of these Terms prevails; the English version is provided for convenience.

17. Changes and contact

We may update these Terms; we will post the new version with its date and, where required, notify you. Questions: contact@sawamarketplace.com.