Marketplace terms

Last updated: 16 October 2026

Draft for legal review. These terms have not yet been reviewed by a lawyer and are not yet in force. The marketplace is a beta and is not enabled for everyone; before it opens to all, this text will be reviewed and republished.

These terms apply in addition to the terms of use as soon as you buy or sell on the marketplace. How we handle your data is set out in the privacy policy.

1. Who contracts with whom

The contract of sale is formed between buyer and seller, not with Wine Circle. We are not the seller, not an intermediate dealer, and not an agent for either side. We provide the platform, broker the contact, and hold the payment until receipt is confirmed.

That means: for the bottle itself – that it exists, that it is as described, that it arrives – the seller is liable, not Wine Circle. For payment, the buyer is liable.

2. Who may sell

Any member aged 18 or over who has set up a payout account with our payment provider Stripe may sell. Without that account you cannot accept an offer – which makes sure that no buyer pays for a bottle whose seller could never receive the money.

The marketplace is intended for private sales from your own cellar. If you sell commercially – regularly, in larger numbers, with a view to profit – additional statutory duties apply to you: right of withdrawal, warranty, information duties under the Distance and Off-Premises Transactions Act (FAGG) and, depending on the case, a trade licence. You are responsible for that yourself and will tell us if you sell commercially.

3. Your listing

A listing describes exactly one kind of bottle in your possession. You provide 2 to 6 photos of the bottle taken by you (no catalogue images, no third-party photos), at most 24 bottles, the price per bottle and, if you ship, the shipping cost.

You describe the condition truthfully: fill level, label, capsule, storage. You state defects that affect the value. A listing is an invitation to negotiate, not a binding sale – it becomes binding only when you accept a request.

Counterfeit, stolen or refilled bottles, bottles that may not lawfully be traded, and anything you do not own are not permitted.

4. How a purchase runs

• Request and acceptance. A buyer makes a request; you accept or make a counter-offer. With acceptance the price is fixed, and the buyer protection fee is frozen for that transaction – a later change to the fee rate no longer affects it.
• Payment within 48 hours. If the buyer does not pay, the reservation lapses and the listing becomes available again.
• Contact details only after payment. The buyer's delivery address and the seller's contact details become visible only once payment has been made – not already on acceptance.
• Shipping within 5 days, with a tracking number. We send a reminder 24 hours before the deadline. You can extend once by 2 days; if the buyer refuses or the deadline passes, the purchase is cancelled and the buyer gets everything back.
• 48-hour inspection window. After receipt the buyer has 48 hours to inspect the bottle and either confirm receipt or report a problem.
• Release. On confirmation the money goes to the seller. If the buyer does not respond, we release the payment automatically 14 days after shipping at the latest.
• 14-day delivery deadline. If the parcel does not arrive within that time, the buyer gets the full amount back.

5. Escrow: where the money sits

The buyer pays Wine Circle, not the seller directly. The money stays in our account at Stripe until receipt is confirmed or the deadline for that has passed. Only then do we transfer it to the seller. If the purchase is cancelled beforehand, it goes back to the buyer.

In doing so we are not a payment service provider and not a bank. The payment itself, the card details and the payout run through Stripe; you enter your card details directly there and they never reach our server.

6. Price, fee and shipping cost

The buyer protection fee is 5 % and applies only to the price of the goods, not to the shipping cost. It is added to the price and is itemised separately before you pay.

The seller receives the full price of the goods and the full shipping cost – nothing is deducted from their price. The fee is therefore borne by the buyer.

If a purchase is completed, we keep the fee. If it is cancelled or fully refunded, the buyer gets the fee back as well; we then keep nothing.

7. Shipping

Parcels are sent with a tracking number, via Österreichische Post, DPD, DHL, GLS or Hermes. The seller enters the tracking number in the app; without it the shipping deadline counts as not met.

The seller packs the bottle so that it survives transport unbroken. The seller sets the shipping cost in the listing; the buyer pays it on top.

Wine is goods subject to excise duty. Shipping across a national border may attract excise duty, import charges, reporting and accompanying-document duties, and some countries prohibit the private shipment of alcohol or delivery to minors. The seller is responsible for ensuring that their shipment is permitted.

8. When something is wrong

Buyer and seller should first settle it between themselves – in the chat for the transaction, which stays open for that. The app provides three routes:

• Report a problem. The buyer describes what is wrong, with photos.
• Partial refund. The seller can return part of the price if the bottle was not quite as described but the buyer wants to keep it.
• Return. If the seller takes the bottle back, the buyer has 7 days to send it. For return postage we charge a flat 7 €.

If one side does not respond for 72 hours, the other can hand the case to us. The team then decides, on the statements and photos of both sides, whether the payment goes to the seller or back to the buyer. That decision is not an arbitral award: the route to the courts remains open to both.

9. Ratings

After a transaction both sides can rate each other. A rating becomes visible once both have rated, and after 14 days at the latest – so that no rating influences the other. Ratings must relate to the transaction and must not be insulting; we may delete them if they do not.

10. What we may do and what we do not provide

We may hide or delete a listing and exclude a member from the marketplace if they breach these terms – from three reports the app hides a listing automatically at first, and the team takes a look.

We do not check bottles for authenticity, do not inspect them and do not appraise them. The price and value figures in the app are estimates derived from catalogue and market data and say nothing about a specific bottle. We do not promise that a listing leads to a sale, nor that a transaction comes about.

Otherwise point 10 of the terms of use (liability) applies.

11. Taxes

Everyone is responsible for their own taxes. The occasional sale of individual bottles from your own cellar is generally not taxable in Austria; with regular sales, with profit from short-term resale, or with commercial activity it may be different. We do not give tax advice and do not report turnover to the tax authorities unless we are obliged to.

12. Changes and contact

Point 12 of the terms of use applies to changes to these terms. A transaction already under way is always completed under the terms that applied when it was accepted.

Questions about the marketplace and reports: to be added.