# DRAFT — FOR LEGAL REVIEW — NOT APPROVED FOR PUBLICATION # Proposed PLOCAL Terms of Service **Status:** Working draft based only on locked owner product facts. It is not counsel-approved, is not effective, and must not replace the live Terms until owner and counsel approve a version, effective date, jurisdictional provisions, and publication/consent plan. ## 1. PLOCAL and the service PLOCAL provides a local Business Evaluation service and public Business discovery/Recognition platform. A purchaser pays for PLOCAL to evaluate a submitted Business; the purchaser never pays to win, rank, receive a favorable score, obtain verification, or receive Recognition. ## 2. Eligibility, authority, and submitted information The submitter must be authorized to submit the Business and must provide accurate, lawful, non-misleading information. The submitter is responsible for rights necessary to provide Business information, website links, screenshots and other evidence. Counsel must finalize representations, prohibited content, intellectual-property/license language, indemnity, and the process for challenged or third-party submissions. ## 3. Evaluation purchase and payment The PLOCAL Evaluation base fee is $250.00 USD. Applicable taxes are added separately by Stripe Checkout. Payment occurs after a completed Business Submission. Stripe is financial payment-success authority; a browser redirect does not establish payment. PLOCAL does not receive authority to alter scores, voting, rankings, Recognition, or Awards because payment occurred. ## 4. Activation and 96-hour Evaluation The Evaluation begins only after Stripe confirms payment and PLOCAL successfully activates the Evaluation lifecycle. The EvaluationWindow lasts exactly 96 elapsed hours. During the Evaluation, PLOCAL may review the submitted Business, website, screenshot and applicable evidence using the current Digital, Service and Trust model. Technical or operational delay does not automatically create a refund; PLOCAL receives a reasonable opportunity to cure and complete the service. No numerical definition of “reasonable period” is approved in this draft. ## 5. D/S/T and PLOCAL Score PLOCAL evaluates Digital, Service and Trust using a public 0–10 model and may publish a PLOCAL Score. Evaluation methodology, evidence availability, judgment, and policy versions may affect results. Counsel must finalize appropriate methodology disclaimers and limitation language without misrepresenting the actual versioned calculation. ## 6. Public voting and qualification Public voting contributes only to qualification/verification signals under PLOCAL’s anti-abuse controls. Votes do not choose winners and payment does not affect votes. PLOCAL may invalidate abusive ballots and recompute qualification state. ## 7. Recognition authority PLOCAL/its authorized Administrator makes final Recognition decisions. Nominee and Honors are possible public statuses and do not carry badges. Official Award levels are Business of the Day, Business of the Month, and Business of the Year. Month/Year progression and selection are discretionary PLOCAL decisions under the applicable workflow. Payment never guarantees or influences any score, Qualification, Honors, badge, Award, ranking, placement, recommendation, or verification outcome. ## 8. Business Profile and Award history An accepted Business receives a public Profile intended to remain as historical directory/evaluation context through wins and losses. Permanence is subject to owner/counsel-approved correction, suspension, unpublishing, removal, fraud, safety, legal-order, rights, and takedown exceptions that are not finalized here. Refunds and chargebacks do not automatically delete a Profile, Evaluation, score, vote, badge, Award, or Award history. ## 9. Submitted content and screenshot use The final Terms must grant PLOCAL the rights actually needed to privately store and review submitted screenshots/evidence and to publish authorized Business/Profile information and public-safe evidence. Counsel must determine license scope, duration, sublicensing/service-provider needs, warranties, takedown, fair-use/public-source treatment, and post-removal retention. This draft intentionally does not invent those legal conclusions. ## 10. Refund rules The separate proposed Refund Policy is incorporated only after approval. Locked rules are: verified duplicate successful charges for the same Evaluation purchase receive a full refund; before Evaluation starts PLOCAL may approve a refund when appropriate, but no refund is automatic; after the 96-hour Evaluation starts the fee is normally non-refundable except where legally required or under an approved exceptional/service-not-provided determination; service delay is not automatic entitlement; if PLOCAL ultimately cannot provide the service after a reasonable cure opportunity, the fee will be refunded subject to applicable law. Evaluation outcome never creates refund entitlement. ## 11. Disputes and chargebacks Stripe manages the financial dispute/chargeback process. PLOCAL separately controls Profile, Evaluation, scores, votes, badges and Awards. A dispute does not automatically change product/Recognition state. Counsel must finalize cooperation, evidence, deadlines, fees, fraud, account action, and legally required notice language. ## 12. Support requests Public Contact, Support, Accessibility, Fraud, Billing and Legal/privacy forms create durable Cases for PLOCAL review. A Case is a request, not automatic approval, refund, takedown, ballot invalidation, Profile suspension, or Award revocation. No response SLA is promised unless later approved. ## 13. Corrections, suspension, removal, and enforcement PLOCAL must retain discretion to correct inaccurate information and address fraud, illegality, safety, rights, abuse, court/government orders and operational mistakes. The substantive triggers, process, notice, appeal, effect on Evaluation/Award history and retention are counsel/owner placeholders and must be completed before publication. ## 14. Third parties Stripe, hosting, mail, analytics, security, Business websites and other service providers may have separate terms/privacy practices. Counsel must finalize third-party disclaimers and processor/controller allocations. ## 15. Disclaimers and limitation of liability **COUNSEL PLACEHOLDER:** Draft jurisdiction-appropriate warranty disclaimers, reliance/safety language, limitations/exclusions, remedy limitations and non-waivable rights. PLOCAL Evaluation/Recognition is not a guarantee of Business performance, licensing, safety, availability or customer outcome. Do not publish an AI-generated limitation clause without review. ## 16. Governing law and dispute resolution **COUNSEL PLACEHOLDER:** Determine contracting entity, address, governing law, venue, arbitration/class-action provisions if any, consumer exceptions, informal dispute procedure and contact. No jurisdiction is selected by this draft. ## 17. Changes, notices, severability, assignment, entire agreement **COUNSEL PLACEHOLDER:** Finalize change notice, effective/version dates, consent transition, severability, waiver, assignment, survival and entire-agreement language. Publication must bind a server-defined approved version to recorded consent evidence. ## 18. Contact Current established general contact: `info@plocal.com`. Counsel must approve legal notice/contact mechanics and any departmental address before publication.