Cook Agreement

You are an independent seller. Nothing in this Agreement creates an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture, or franchise relationship. You decide what to cook, when to sell, what to charge, and which orders to accept. You sell food in your own name and at your own responsibility; Eatcircle provides the marketplace, order management, messaging, and payment tools, and is not the merchant of record for your sales.

To sell on Eatcircle you must:

• be at least 18 and legally able to sell food where you live;
• complete seller onboarding, including your kitchen profile and pickup address;
• complete Stripe onboarding, including the identity verification and banking details Stripe requires to pay you;
• complete the food-safety attestations in the app; and
• upload a valid food handler certificate.

Your exact address is never shown publicly — buyers see the neighbourhood until they hold a confirmed order.

You are solely responsible for the safety and legality of the food you sell. You represent and agree that you will:

• comply with all laws that apply to preparing and selling food from your kitchen, including (in Ontario) the Health Protection and Promotion Act, Ontario Regulation 493/17 (Food Premises) as it applies to you, and any requirements of your local public health unit;
• confirm with your local public health unit which foods you may lawfully sell from a home kitchen, and sell only those;
• prepare, store, and package food safely and hygienically;
• disclose all allergens and accurate dietary information (vegetarian, halal, etc.) on every listing — this is mandatory, not optional;
• describe dishes and ingredients truthfully and use photos of food you actually make;
• immediately stop selling an item and tell us at info@eatcircle.com if you learn of a possible contamination, allergen error, or food-safety incident involving your food.

Eatcircle does not inspect kitchens and does not assume any of these obligations on your behalf. Buyers see prominent home-kitchen labelling and our Food Safety Disclaimer.

• Keep listings accurate: price, portion, stock, pickup window, and availability.
• Accept only orders you can fulfil. Once you accept an order, honour it — buyers plan meals around your pickup window. If you must cancel, cancel as early as possible; the buyer is refunded in full.
• Mark order stages honestly (accepted, cooking, ready, picked up) — buyers see them live.
• Hand orders to the buyer (or their named pickup person) during the stated window.
• Repeated no-shows, late cancellations, or misdescribed food count against your kitchen and can lead to strikes or suspension.

You set your prices. Eatcircle charges a platform fee on each completed order; the current fee is always shown in the app before you publish a dish and in your payout breakdown. Payments are collected from buyers by Stripe and paid out to your linked account through Stripe Connect. Payouts for an order may be held for up to 48 hours after pickup to cover disputes. Where a refund is granted to a buyer under the Refund Policy for a problem attributable to you (missed pickup you caused, misdescribed or unsafe food), the refunded amount may be deducted from your pending or future payouts.

The free tier has listing and reel limits; the optional Pro subscription raises them. Current prices, limits, and any free-trial or founding-cook promotion are shown in the app and on the pricing page before you subscribe. Subscriptions renew automatically and can be cancelled any time in the app, effective at the end of the paid period. If your Pro subscription ends, listings above the free limit are hidden (oldest first), not deleted — they restore automatically if you re-subscribe.

You are responsible for all taxes on your sales — including income tax and, where your revenue requires it, GST/HST registration, collection, and remittance. Eatcircle provides order records you can use for bookkeeping but does not withhold or remit taxes for you and does not provide tax advice.

We strongly recommend you carry appropriate insurance (for example, home-based business or product liability coverage) — most home insurance policies do not cover commercial food sales by default. Eatcircle does not provide insurance for Cooks.

The content licence in the Terms of Service applies to everything you post, including dish photos and reels. Eatcircle may feature your public kitchen profile, dishes, and reels in the app and on eatcircle.com to help buyers discover you. Do not use the Eatcircle name or brand to suggest your food is prepared, inspected, or endorsed by Eatcircle.

You receive buyer personal information (name, order details, messages, and pickup coordination) solely to fulfil orders. Use it for nothing else — no marketing lists, no off-platform contact beyond what the order requires, no disclosure to anyone. Delete it when no longer needed. You are responsible for complying with PIPEDA in your handling of buyer information.

The Community Guidelines apply to you. Eatcircle operates a strike system: violations (unsafe or misdescribed food, allergen failures, harassment, review manipulation, directing buyers to pay off-platform) result in strikes, content removal, kitchen deactivation, or account termination depending on severity. We may suspend your kitchen immediately, before investigation, where food safety may be at risk.

This Agreement applies from the moment you accept it until your seller account closes. You may stop selling at any time; open accepted orders must still be fulfilled or cancelled with refunds. We may terminate this Agreement on the grounds in the Terms of Service. On termination, pending payouts for completed, undisputed orders are paid out through Stripe in the normal cycle.

You will indemnify and hold harmless Eatcircle and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claim, demand, damage, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from the food you prepare and sell, your violation of law (including food-safety and tax law), your listings and content, or your breach of this Agreement. The disclaimers and limitation of liability in the Terms of Service apply to this Agreement.

We may amend this Agreement with reasonable advance notice in the app; continuing to sell after the effective date constitutes acceptance. This Agreement is governed by the laws of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable in Ontario, with disputes handled as set out in the Terms of Service. Questions: info@eatcircle.com.