Terms of Service

1. Acceptance & Binding Agreement

By creating an account, browsing, or transacting on the VettaLux platform (the "Platform"), you enter a binding agreement with Eremine Holdings, LLC (EIN 36-5059758), a Delaware limited liability company operating the VettaLux platform. You must be at least 18 with legal capacity to contract. If you act for a business, you warrant authority to bind that entity. These Terms incorporate our Privacy Policy, Provider Terms, and Review Policy.

We may update these Terms for legal, product, or operational reasons. For material changes we will give registered users at least 30 days' prior notice by email and in-app banner. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance. Otherwise, discontinue use and close open bookings first.

2. Definitions

"Platform" means VettaLux's web, mobile, and API services. "Customer" is an end user who books a service. "Provider" is a verified business or professional offering services. "Affiliate" is a partner enrolled in our referral program. "Booking" is a confirmed service order between a Customer and a Provider. "Escrow" means the segregated holding of Customer funds until release conditions are satisfied.

"Success Fee" is the transaction fee VettaLux retains on a completed Booking, separate from any Provider subscription. "Trust Score" is the composite quality and reliability metric we compute for each Provider. Capitalized terms not defined here carry the meanings given elsewhere in these Terms.

3. Account Registration & Verification

Providers must submit a valid professional or trade license (where applicable), proof of general liability insurance meeting category minimums, government-issued photo ID, and pass a third-party background check before listing. Customers verify identity via government ID for higher-value bookings and mobile-number attestation for all bookings. Affiliates must submit IRS Form W-9 (US) or W-8BEN (non-US) before payout.

Keep account information current and re-verify on request. We may suspend accounts with expired credentials, failed re-verification, false information, sanctions hits, or fraud indicators. You are responsible for password confidentiality, multi-factor authentication where offered, and all activity under your credentials. Notify us immediately of unauthorized access.

4. Services Overview

VettaLux operates a two-sided marketplace. We facilitate discovery, verification, secure escrow, communication, and dispute resolution. We are not a service provider, contractor, licensee, employer, or agent of any Provider. Every Booking is a direct contract between the Customer and the Provider, who are solely responsible for performance, licensure, site safety, quality, and statutory obligations.

VettaLux does not guarantee any outcome, availability, or match quality beyond the escrow protections and money-back guarantee herein. Third-party content, listings, and Provider representations are not endorsed or independently verified beyond documented onboarding checks. Use reasonable judgment when selecting a Provider, confirming scope, and reviewing estimates or change orders before work begins.

5. Escrow & Payments

Every payment flows through VettaLux. Customers pay the full booking amount into bank-grade escrow at the time of booking. This includes, without limitation, the initial diagnostic or problem-check fee, any service-visit or travel fee, the full service price or hourly rate, any quoted amount accepted by the Customer, milestone payments on multi-step jobs, change-order additions, and tips. Funds sit in a segregated account, not commingled with VettaLux capital. Release occurs when the Customer approves completion, when defined milestones clear for multi-stage jobs, or automatically 48 hours after the Provider marks the job complete if no dispute is opened. Approved refunds return to the original payment method, typically within 5-10 business days. No interest accrues.

No direct customer-to-provider payments. Providers may not request or accept cash, Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, Cash App, check, ACH, or any other direct payment from a Customer sourced through VettaLux. Additional work discovered during a job is routed through the Platform as a change order, not as an outside payment. Every booking, regardless of size, category, or complexity, routes through VettaLux escrow — there are no exceptions, product modes, or opt-out tiers. Chargebacks outside our dispute flow may trigger suspension pending review. If reversed in VettaLux's favor, fees pass to the responsible party and future bookings may require pre-authorization. Provider payouts are delivered to the business bank account on file.

6. Success Fees & Payouts

Providers pay a monthly subscription plus a Success Fee on each completed Booking. The subscription grants listing access, tooling, and baseline visibility; the Success Fee aligns VettaLux with Provider outcomes. Fee rates are disclosed before a Booking is confirmed and itemized on every receipt. Rate changes take effect only for Bookings created after a 30-day notice period.

Payouts are issued weekly on a rolling schedule for jobs that have cleared escrow release. Payouts route to the verified business bank account on file. Failed transfers due to bad account data will be retried, and Providers are responsible for any returned-transfer fees charged by intermediary institutions.

7. Trust Score & Rankings

The Trust Score evaluates Providers across seven dimensions: quality, review integrity, verification status, reliability, response speed, activity, and territory relevance. Scores are recomputed daily from verified signals and are designed to be merit-first. Ranking in search and category feeds is driven primarily by the organic Trust Score.

Paid promotion is used only as a tie-break between Providers of comparable organic score and is always clearly labeled as "Sponsored" or "Promoted" in compliance with FTC guidance. No Provider may purchase top organic position. Attempts to manipulate the Trust Score through fake reviews, incentivized feedback, or synthetic activity will result in score reset and possible termination.

8. Customer Responsibilities

Customers must provide accurate job descriptions, site addresses, access instructions, and contact details. You agree to be reasonably available during the scheduled window, to grant safe property access, and to disclose known hazards (pets, structural risks, environmental concerns) before work begins. Services booked must be lawful and within the category scope the Provider is verified to perform.

Refund abuse — including repeated unfounded disputes, staged damage claims, or coordinated review retaliation — is prohibited and may result in account suspension, forfeiture of the Booking, and referral to collections. Tips and out-of-scope work must be handled through the Platform so escrow and guarantee protections remain in effect.

9. Provider Responsibilities

Providers must maintain valid licenses, certifications, and insurance throughout the engagement; respond to inquiries within the category SLA posted in the Provider dashboard; honor published pricing; and complete work per the agreed scope, code, and manufacturer specifications. Off-platform solicitation of Customers introduced by VettaLux is prohibited for at least 12 months after the introduction, and no customer-to-provider direct payment of any kind is permitted.

Off-platform payment conduct is enforced on a two-strike ladder described in Provider Terms §5. On a first confirmed violation, VettaLux issues a formal written warning and a clawback equal to the Success Fee VettaLux would have earned on the diverted amount. On a second confirmed violation, the Provider account is permanently terminated, all pending payouts are forfeited against confirmed clawback, and re-registration is banned under the same individual, legal entity, tax ID, bank account, or principal. Clawbacks may be withheld from pending payouts, charged to the payment method on file, or referred to collections. Providers are independent contractors, self-responsible for income, sales, payroll, and other applicable taxes, and must retain records for audit.

10. Affiliate Program

Affiliate partners earn referral compensation for qualifying Customer or Provider sign-ups under separate terms. Enrollment, tracking, commission structure, payout thresholds, cookie windows, disclosure obligations, and prohibited promotion methods are governed by the Affiliate Terms, incorporated by reference. In any direct conflict between these Terms and the Affiliate Terms regarding affiliate activity, the Affiliate Terms control for the affected subject matter.

Affiliates must disclose the referral relationship per FTC guidance, never impersonate VettaLux, and never bid on VettaLux trademarks in paid search. Commissions are clawed back for fraudulent, self-referred, or reversed transactions. Payouts require current W-9 or W-8BEN and a verified bank in the Affiliate's legal name.

11. Prohibited Uses

You may not use the Platform for fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion, harassment, stalking, hate speech, or unlawful discrimination on any protected basis. You may not list, book, or deliver services that are illegal in the jurisdiction of performance, that require a license you do not hold, or that violate building, health, or safety codes.

Scraping, crawling, harvesting, bot traffic, reverse engineering, unauthorized load testing, and any attempt to circumvent escrow, fees, verification, rate limits, or the Trust Score are strictly prohibited. Violations may result in immediate termination, forfeiture of balances subject to applicable law, injunctive relief, and civil or criminal referral to relevant authorities.

12. Reviews & Content

Reviews may only be submitted by Customers with a completed Booking on the reviewed Provider. By posting a review, photo, or other content, you grant VettaLux a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, display, reproduce, adapt for formatting, and distribute that content in connection with the Platform and related marketing.

We moderate content using automated fraud detection and human review for authenticity, defamation, and policy compliance. Providers may dispute a review within 30 days of publication through the formal workflow; outcomes include no action, annotation, or removal. Suspected incentivized, retaliatory, or fabricated reviews will be removed and may trigger score reset, suspension, or termination.

13. Dispute Resolution With VettaLux

Any dispute between you and VettaLux arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform shall be resolved by final, binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer or Commercial Rules. The seat is Wilmington, Delaware; awards may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

You and VettaLux each waive any right to class action, collective action, or class-wide arbitration. New users may opt out by emailing legal@vettalux.com within 30 days of account creation with subject "Arbitration Opt-Out" and their registered email. This section does not affect Booking-level disputes (in-app flow) or small-claims matters within that court's jurisdiction.

14. Intellectual Property

VettaLux owns the Platform, including software, design, copy, trust algorithms, models, documentation, and aggregated analytics. The "VettaLux" name and logo are our trademarks and may not be used without written permission. You retain ownership of content you submit, and grant VettaLux the license described in Section 12 to operate, improve, and promote the Platform.

We respect intellectual property and comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Send takedown notices and counter-notices to our DMCA designated agent at legal@vettalux.com with the statutory elements (identification of the work, location, good-faith statement, and signature). Repeat infringers will be terminated, and we forward counter-notices to the complainant under Section 512.

15. SMS, Email & Push Communications

By providing your mobile number and creating an account, you consent under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to transactional SMS, email, and push notifications for booking status, verification codes, receipts, and dispute updates. Typical accounts receive 2-10 transactional messages per week. Message and data rates may apply.

Reply HELP for help, STOP to opt out of marketing SMS; transactional messages for open Bookings cannot be fully disabled while a Booking is active. Email marketing is opt-in with one-click unsubscribe. Push notifications can be managed in device settings. Opting out of marketing does not affect transactional communications or verification codes essential to platform security.

16. Warranties & Disclaimers

The Platform is provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant uninterrupted, secure, or error-free operation, and we do not endorse any Provider.

Providers are independent contractors, not employees or agents of VettaLux. We make no guarantee regarding job outcomes, craftsmanship, timelines, or Provider behavior beyond the escrow release and money-back guarantee herein. Recommendations, Trust Scores, and ranking are informational, not professional advice. Some jurisdictions disallow exclusion of implied warranties; those limitations apply only to the extent permitted.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, VettaLux's aggregate liability for any claim not covered by an escrow refund is capped at five hundred US dollars ($500). The escrow-backed money-back guarantee is your sole and exclusive remedy for Booking quality issues. VettaLux will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, lost profits, or loss of goodwill.

These caps do not apply to VettaLux's willful misconduct, gross negligence, infringement of your intellectual property, or breach of confidentiality, nor to any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law. The allocation of risk in this Section is a material basis of the bargain.

18. Indemnification, Termination & General Provisions

Indemnification. You will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless VettaLux, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from any third-party claim, damage, loss, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your use of the Platform, your content, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or third-party right.

Modifications & Termination. We may modify or discontinue features with reasonable notice. Either party may terminate for convenience with 30 days' notice; VettaLux may terminate immediately for material breach, fraud, safety risk, or legal requirement. On termination, open Bookings continue until completion or cancellation, escrow balances settle per these Terms, in-flight payouts proceed on their normal schedule, and account data is retained for seven (7) years to meet tax, audit, and dispute obligations, then deleted or anonymized. Surviving provisions include indemnification, limitation of liability, dispute resolution, intellectual property, off-platform clawback, and confidentiality.

Force Majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure due to causes beyond reasonable control, including natural disasters, pandemics, war, terrorism, labor disruption, utility or carrier failures, government action, cyberattack, or widespread internet outages; obligations resume promptly once the event abates. Governing Law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflicts-of-law rules. Exclusive venue for non-arbitrable matters lies in the state and federal courts located in New Castle County, Delaware. Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions remain in full effect.

Entire Agreement. These Terms, with the policies incorporated by reference, constitute the entire agreement between you and VettaLux regarding the Platform and supersede prior understandings, proposals, and communications. No waiver of any provision is effective unless in writing and signed by an authorized VettaLux representative. Taxes. VettaLux will issue Form 1099-K or 1099-NEC to US Providers as required by applicable thresholds and reporting years; Affiliates are responsible for all taxes on referral income and must keep W-9/W-8BEN information current. Non-US users are responsible for local tax compliance, VAT/GST registration where applicable, and accurate tax residency declarations.

Contact. Eremine Holdings, LLC (EIN 36-5059758), a Delaware limited liability company operating the VettaLux platform. Questions, notices, DMCA, and arbitration opt-out: legal@vettalux.com.