Acceptable Use & Listing Policy

Template notice: This document is a template for illustrative purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Before relying on it for an actual business, have it reviewed and adapted by a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction, particularly to align the takedown process in Section 7 with your local copyright law (e.g. the US DMCA or EU equivalents).

1. Purpose

This Acceptable Use & Listing Policy ("AUP") sets out the specific rules for how you may use the DockSpare Platform, what your listings must and must not contain, how intellectual property works here, and the etiquette we expect between Yacht Users and Suppliers. It expands on Section 5 ("Acceptable Use") of our Terms of Service and forms part of those Terms. If anything here conflicts with the Terms, the Terms control.

This single policy now covers what used to be three separate documents — Acceptable Use, our Intellectual Property & Copyright Policy, and our Community Guidelines — so that everything about how to behave and what to list on DockSpare lives in one place.

2. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to:

Register or maintain more than one account per person or business, except where DockSpare has approved multiple accounts (for example, separate Supplier accounts for genuinely separate businesses);
Impersonate another person, vessel, or business, or misrepresent your affiliation with one;
Harass, threaten, or discriminate against another user on any basis, in messages, reviews, or listings;
Attempt to access another user's account, an Order or RFQ you are not a party to, or any non-public part of the Platform;
Use automated means (bots, scrapers, scripts) to access or extract data from the Platform without our prior written consent;
Interfere with or disrupt the Platform's normal operation, including through excessive request volume, malicious code, or attempts to bypass rate limiting or verification.

3. Prohibited Content

You agree not to upload, post, or send through the Platform (including in listings, messages, reviews, or profile fields) any content that:

Is unlawful, fraudulent, defamatory, obscene, or infringes someone else's intellectual property or privacy rights — see Section 7 for how to report this;
Contains malware, malicious links, or code intended to damage or gain unauthorized access to a system;
Is a fake, duplicate, or incentivized review, or otherwise misrepresents a genuine transaction — see Section 8.4;
Misrepresents a product, service, price, vessel, or business (for example, listing counterfeit parts as genuine, or a vessel's specifications inaccurately to obtain preferential terms).

4. Listing & Content Rules

Beyond the general prohibitions above, a Supplier's product/service listings specifically must not:

Describe or depict counterfeit, stolen, or illegally sourced goods, or parts represented as genuine/OEM when they are not;
Offer goods or services that are illegal to sell, export, or use in the jurisdictions of either the Supplier or the Yacht User (for example, items restricted under maritime, customs, or hazardous-materials regulations) without the licensing or disclosures those regulations require;
Use pricing, quantities, or specifications materially different from what will actually be honored if ordered — a listing is a real offer, not a placeholder;
Use another business's name, logo, or product photography without permission (see Section 7.3);
Include contact details, off-platform links, or payment requests placed specifically to route a transaction around the Platform before an Order or RFQ has even been initiated (see Section 5 for the narrower rule on transactions already in progress).

Keep listings and your storefront profile current — an outdated category, stock status, or service area wastes a Yacht User's time and is itself a violation of this Policy, independent of anything listed above.

5. Marketplace Integrity

DockSpare exists to help Yacht Users and Suppliers find and trust each other. You agree not to use information or a counterparty found through the Platform to deliberately circumvent it — for example, moving an introduction made on DockSpare to an entirely off-platform transaction for the specific purpose of avoiding future platform fees, once fees are introduced. This does not restrict how you and a counterparty choose to arrange payment or logistics for a given Order — see our Marketplace Liability Terms.

6. Platform Security

If you discover a security vulnerability in the Platform, please report it responsibly rather than exploiting it — see our Security & Vulnerability Disclosure Policy. Unauthorized penetration testing, credential stuffing, or attempts to access data belonging to other users is a violation of this AUP regardless of intent.

7. Intellectual Property

This section explains how intellectual property works on the DockSpare Platform: what's ours, what's yours, and what to do if you believe your rights — or someone else's — have been infringed.

7.1 DockSpare's Intellectual Property

The DockSpare name, logo, and the platform's software, design, and underlying code are the property of DockSpare and may not be copied, reverse-engineered, or used (including for a competing product) without our prior written consent.

7.2 Your Content

You retain ownership of the content you submit — product photos, listing text, offer documents, messages, and reviews. By submitting it, you grant DockSpare a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and distribute it as necessary to operate the Platform (for example, showing a Supplier's product photo to a Yacht User browsing the marketplace). You confirm you have the rights necessary to grant this license for everything you upload.

7.3 Respecting Third-Party Rights

You agree not to upload or share content through the Platform that infringes someone else's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights — for example, a manufacturer's product photography used without permission, or a counterfeit part represented as genuine (see also Section 4).

7.4 Reporting Infringement

If you believe content on DockSpare infringes your intellectual property rights, send a notice to the contact in Section 12 including:

Identification of the work you claim is infringed;
The specific URL or location of the allegedly infringing content on the Platform;
Your contact information;
A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized;
A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorized to act on their behalf;
Your physical or electronic signature.

We will review valid notices and may remove or disable access to the reported content.

7.5 Counter-Notice

If your content was removed and you believe this was a mistake or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notice with your contact information, identification of the removed content, and a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the content was removed in error. We may reinstate the content after a reasonable waiting period unless the original complainant informs us they've filed a legal action.

7.6 Repeat Infringers

We may suspend or terminate the account of a user who is the subject of repeated, valid infringement notices, consistent with the enforcement approach in Section 9.

8. Community Guidelines

DockSpare works because Yacht Users and Suppliers trust the people on the other side of a transaction. Where the rest of this Policy tells you what's prohibited, this section is about what good looks like.

8.1 For Everyone

Be honest about who you are, your vessel or business, and what you're offering or requesting.
Respond to messages and RFQs in a reasonable time, even if the answer is "no" or "not right now."
Treat the other party the way you'd want to be treated if the roles were reversed — professionalism matters even when a deal doesn't close.
Assume good faith first; most delays and miscommunications in marine logistics are not personal.

8.2 For Yacht Users

Give Suppliers accurate vessel, delivery, and timing details — bad information wastes everyone's time and can create real logistical problems at a dock or marina.
Only send an RFQ or place an Order you genuinely intend to follow through on.
If your plans change (different port, different date), let the Supplier know as early as you can.

8.3 For Suppliers

Quote prices and lead times you can actually honor, and flag it immediately if something changes after a quote is accepted.
Keep your listings, categories, and service areas current — an inaccurate listing wastes a Yacht User's time and reflects poorly on the whole marketplace.
Deliver what was agreed. If you can't, communicate proactively rather than going silent.

8.4 Reviews & Ratings

Reviews should reflect a genuine transaction you were actually party to. Don't write, solicit, or incentivize a review that doesn't reflect a real experience, and don't retaliate against a counterparty for leaving an honest negative review. Fake or incentivized reviews are also a violation of Section 3 of this Policy.

8.5 Messaging Etiquette

Keep in-app messages focused on the Order or RFQ they're attached to. Unsolicited marketing, repeated follow-ups after a clear "no," and off-topic messages are discouraged and, if excessive, may be treated as harassment under Section 2.

9. Enforcement

Violating this AUP may result in content removal, a warning, loss of verification status, or suspension or termination of your account, at our discretion and depending on severity. A one-off shortfall against Section 8's guidelines alone usually won't result in enforcement action on its own — we look at patterns; conduct that also breaches Sections 2–7 is handled under this Policy's enforcement process regardless of pattern. We may also archive an account rather than immediately delete it, consistent with our general archiving practice described in the Terms of Service.

10. Reporting a Violation

If you believe another user has violated this AUP, contact us with as much detail as possible (the account or listing involved, and what happened) at the email below. We review reports but cannot guarantee a specific outcome or timeline.

11. Changes

We may update this AUP from time to time. We will update the "Last updated" date above; material changes will also be reflected in the Terms of Service's own change notice.

12. Contact

Questions, reports, or intellectual-property notices related to this AUP can be sent to legal@dockspare.example.