Vendor Agreement

This agreement is between the Gauteng Tourism Authority (the "GTA", "we", "us") and the business that accepts it as a vendor ("you"). You sell your own products to buyers through the Visit Gauteng Marketplace. The GTA acts for you only to list and promote your products, collect payment from buyers, store and dispatch consigned stock, and handle customer service and returns, as set out in this agreement. You are an independent business. Nothing in this agreement creates employment, partnership or a joint venture. The GTA may use its appointed service provider to carry out its obligations.

• You must be a registered business or a sole proprietor aged 18 or over, and able to sell your products lawfully in South Africa.

  • You must give accurate business, tax, identity, contact and banking details, and any documents we reasonably ask for.

  • You agree that we may verify these details, including your identity and bank account, using verification providers. We may approve or decline an application, or ask for more information.

  • Keep your details up to date. Payouts go only to a verified bank account in your or your business's name.

You confirm that:

• you are registered and tax-compliant, and hold every permit and licence needed to sell your products;

• your listings are accurate and lawful;

• your products are safe, authentic, lawful and properly labelled, and comply with the Prohibited & Restricted Items Policy; and

• you own, or are licensed to use, the content and intellectual property you upload.

You grant the GTA a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, edit for format, display and promote your listing content on the Platform and in the GTA's tourism promotion. We may edit or remove listings that break this agreement or the law.

Where you consign stock to the GTA's fulfilment warehouse:

• Delivering stock: you submit a consignment through your vendor dashboard and deliver the stock to the warehouse yourself, at your own cost and risk, at the address and times shown in the dashboard. The GTA does not collect stock from vendors.

• Ownership: consigned stock remains your property until it is sold to a buyer. The GTA holds it for you.

• Receiving and counting: we check and count stock on arrival and record it against your account. If you disagree with our count, tell us within 5 business days of the receipt notice; otherwise our count stands.

• Care of stock: we take reasonable care of consigned stock. If stock is lost or damaged in the warehouse through our negligence, we compensate you at your cost price for the affected items. Otherwise, risk in the stock stays with you, and you should insure it.

• Packaging and labelling: stock must be packed and labelled as set out in the vendor dashboard, fit to be stored and shipped.

• Storage fees: there are currently no storage fees. We will give you at least 30 days' notice before introducing any.

• Withdrawing stock: you may ask for unsold stock to be returned to you. We will make it available within 10 business days, and you pay the delivery cost.

• Slow-moving, expired or non-compliant stock: we may ask you to collect it. If it is not collected within 30 days of our notice, we may return it to you at your cost, or, after a further written notice, dispose of it.

If you dispatch orders from your own premises, you must pack them properly and have them ready for courier collection within the time shown in your dashboard, and keep them available for collection as booked.

• You set your prices, including VAT where you are VAT-registered.

  • The GTA charges commission on each sale at the rate shown in your vendor dashboard. The commission is kept when payment is collected.

  • Delivery charges paid by buyers are not part of your sale price, and no commission is charged on them. They are not included in your payout.

  • We will give you at least 30 days' notice before changing commission or fees. A change does not affect orders already placed.

• Buyers pay the GTA, as merchant of record, through Paystack. A buyer's payment to the GTA settles the buyer's obligation to pay you.

  • Your share of each sale, after commission, is paid by bank transfer to your verified bank account, on the payout schedule shown in your dashboard.

  • We may hold a payout while we investigate suspected fraud, a chargeback or a breach of this agreement, and will tell you why.

  • Amounts you owe us under this agreement (such as refunds and return costs) may be deducted from future payouts or invoiced to you, payable within 7 days.

You are responsible for your own income tax and VAT on your sales. The GTA gives buyers an order confirmation and an invoice or receipt for sales made through the Marketplace. The final tax-invoicing arrangements for Marketplace sales, including how your VAT details appear on buyers' invoices and how the GTA's commission and fees are invoiced to you, are being finalised and will be confirmed to you in writing before they take effect.

You must honour buyers' rights under the Consumer Protection Act and the ECT Act, including the 7-day cooling-off right and the rights for defective, unsafe or not-as-described goods, as set out in the Returns, Refunds & Defects Policy. Apart from loss or damage in transit (below), the GTA does not carry the cost of returns and refunds. You bear:

• the refund of the price for any cancelled, returned, defective, unsafe or not-as-described product;

• the return delivery cost for defective, unsafe or not-as-described products, and for wrong items you supplied (not where the GTA warehouse picked the wrong item); and

• for cooling-off returns, any return delivery cost not recovered from the buyer.

Loss or damage in transit. The GTA books the courier and runs fulfilment, so it handles orders that are lost or damaged in transit. It resolves the buyer's complaint and pursues any claim against the courier itself.

• Orders shipped from the GTA warehouse: your payout for the sale is not affected and does not wait for the outcome of any courier claim.

• Orders you dispatch yourself: the same applies, unless the loss or damage was caused by how you packed the order. In that case the refund is recovered from you.

A fault in the product itself, or in its own retail packaging, is treated as a defect, not transit damage.

You are responsible for your products, including under section 61 of the Consumer Protection Act. For higher-risk products, you must carry appropriate product liability insurance and show proof on request.

We process your personal information as set out in the Privacy Policy. If you receive buyers' personal information (for example to dispatch an order), you may use it only to fulfil that order. You must keep it secure, not use it for marketing, delete it when it is no longer needed, and tell us immediately of any security compromise.

You must comply with the Code of Conduct, the Acceptable Use Policy and the Prohibited & Restricted Items Policy. You may use the Visit Gauteng and GTA names and marks only as we permit, and must not suggest an official endorsement you do not have.

• We may suspend your listings or account, or end this agreement, if you breach it, break the law, or put buyers or the Platform at risk. Where appropriate, we will tell you why and give you an opportunity to respond first.

  • You may end this agreement on 30 days' written notice.

  • When the agreement ends, open orders must be fulfilled or refunded, amounts owing are settled, and unsold consigned stock is returned to you under clause 5. Clauses on liability, indemnity, tax, personal information and amounts owing continue to apply.

You indemnify the GTA against claims, losses and costs arising from your products, your content, your conduct or your breach of this agreement. Neither party is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing limits liability for fraud, gross negligence or intentional misconduct.

The parties will first try to resolve disputes in good faith. This agreement is governed by South African law. In disputes between you and a buyer, the GTA helps resolve the matter but is not the seller.

We may update this agreement on at least 30 days' notice. If you do not accept a material change, you may end the agreement before it takes effect. We will ask you to accept the updated agreement in your dashboard.