Terms of service

Welcome to FreelancerPeople. These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are a binding agreement between you and FreelancerPeople (also "we", "us", or the "Platform"), an online marketplace operated from India where buyers commission freelance work from independent sellers and purchase downloadable digital products from seller stores. The Terms govern your access to and use of our website, applications, and related services.

By creating an account, browsing listings, placing an order, offering a service or product, or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms and to the policies referenced in them, which form part of this agreement: our Privacy Policy, Payment Terms, Refund & Cancellation Policy, Copyright & IP Policy, Community Guidelines, Prohibited & Acceptable Use Policy, and Cookie Policy. If you do not agree with these Terms, do not use the Platform.

1. Acceptance and changes to these Terms

These Terms apply to everyone who uses the Platform, whether you are buying, selling, or simply browsing. By using the Platform you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted these Terms and the referenced policies, and that you have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract. Your consent to these Terms is collected through an explicit, affirmative action at signup; we do not use pre-ticked boxes.

We may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in the Platform, the law, or our practices. When we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as an in-app notice or an email, and we will post the updated Terms with a new "Last updated" date. Your continued use of the Platform after an update means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not accept a change, you should stop using the Platform and may close your account.

At least once every year we will remind you that these Terms, our rules and our policies apply to your use of the Platform, and that failing to comply with them can lead to removal of your content or to suspension or termination of your account and access.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the Platform. The Platform is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to register or transact. If we learn that an account is held by someone under 18, we will close it.

In addition, to register and transact you must not be barred from using the Platform under any applicable law, sanctions program, or trade restriction, and you must not have been previously removed from the Platform unless we have expressly reinstated your access. If you use the Platform on behalf of a company or other organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind that entity to these Terms, in which case "you" refers to that entity.

3. Your account and security

To use most features you must create an account. Keep one account per person: registering multiple accounts to evade limits, enforcement, or fees is not allowed. You are responsible for all activity that happens under your account, including content, orders, contracts, and messages.

• Provide truthful registration details and keep your profile, contact, billing, and payout information accurate and up to date.
• Keep your login credentials confidential and do not share your account. Two-step verification options are available in your security settings, and we encourage you to enable them.
• Tell us promptly through the Support page if you suspect unauthorized access to your account. You can review and sign out of active sessions from your security settings.

Some actions require identity verification. Sellers must complete identity verification before withdrawing earnings, and buyers must complete identity verification before manually releasing escrowed funds. Identity verification is not required simply to sign up, browse, or list, and you should not assume that any particular user has been identity-verified. We may request additional documentation where we reasonably need it for verification, risk, or legal reasons.

4. Our role: an intermediary marketplace

FreelancerPeople is an intermediary. We provide the online marketplace, tools, escrow mechanics, messaging, and dispute-support features that allow buyers and sellers to find each other and transact. The Platform hosts several kinds of activity:

• SERVEs: packaged, fixed-scope services that sellers list and buyers purchase directly.
• Custom contracts: tailored fixed-price or hourly arrangements agreed between a buyer and a seller, including offers sent in chat and direct hire offers.
• Jobs: project briefs that buyers post and sellers respond to with proposals.
• Digital products: downloadable files, templates, and assets that sellers offer through their stores and buyers purchase under a license.

Sellers on the Platform are independent professionals. They are not our employees, agents, partners, or representatives. When a buyer orders a service or purchases a digital product, the contract for that work or product forms directly between the buyer and the seller; we are not a party to it. We do not initiate the transmission of seller content, we do not select its recipients, and we do not select or modify the information contained in it. We do not supervise sellers, and we do not guarantee the quality, legality, accuracy, or outcome of any listing, deliverable, or product.

5. How orders are formed

A binding order between a buyer and a seller is created when payment is confirmed at checkout on the terms shown at that moment: the scope or product, the price, any selected extras or license tier, applicable fees and taxes, and the delivery timeline. The main paths are:

• SERVE orders. A buyer purchases a listed package, answers the seller's requirement questions, and the order funds into escrow. The seller delivers through the Platform, and the buyer has a review window, shown in the order details, to accept the delivery or request revisions within the agreed scope. If the review window passes without action, the order completes automatically and funds are released to the seller.
• Custom and hourly contracts. A seller can send a custom offer, or a buyer can send a direct hire offer, on fixed-price or hourly terms. Fixed-price contracts are funded into escrow up front. Hourly contracts are funded in advance in weekly periods: the seller logs time, the buyer reviews each week within the window shown on the contract, and unreviewed weeks settle automatically. Unused hourly funds are returned to the buyer when the contract ends. Where a project is organised into milestones, they are stages of one contract rather than separately funded orders.
• Jobs and proposals. Posting a job or submitting a proposal does not by itself create an order or move money. Hiring from a job happens through a funded contract as above.
• Digital product purchases. A buyer purchases a product at the price and license tier shown on the product page. Delivery is immediate: the files become available in the buyer's library after payment, and there is no escrow or acceptance step.

The detailed money mechanics, including escrow, clearance, and settlement, live in our Payment Terms, and cancellation and refund rules live in our Refund & Cancellation Policy. Both form part of these Terms.

6. Fees, payments and taxes

The Platform charges service fees on transactions. Every fee that applies to you is shown at checkout before you confirm, so you always see the total before you commit; sellers see the fee applied to their earnings in their earnings view. Fee rates can change over time, and the rates in force for a transaction are the ones displayed when you enter into it.

• All prices, fees, escrow balances, wallets, and payouts on the Platform are denominated in US dollars (USD). The Platform does not provide currency conversion; your bank or payment provider may apply its own conversion and charges.
• Buyers in India are charged 18% GST on top of the amounts shown, in line with Indian law. GST is not charged on purchases made from outside India. Any tax collected is shown as a separate line before you confirm.
• Seller earnings become available for withdrawal after a short clearance window shown in your earnings view, and withdrawal requires identity verification and a verified payout method.

Attempting to pay or be paid for Platform work outside the Platform, or otherwise circumventing our fees or escrow, is a serious violation of these Terms. Full payment rules, including wallets, top-ups, withdrawals, and holds, are in the Payment Terms.

7. Cancellations, refunds and your wallet

Orders can be cancelled and refunded in the circumstances described in our Refund & Cancellation Policy, for example by mutual agreement, through the Resolution Center, or, for digital products, within the refund window shown on the product page and in your order details.

When a refund is approved, the amount is credited promptly to your FreelancerPeople wallet balance. You can spend your wallet balance on the Platform or withdraw it; withdrawing requires identity verification and a verified payout method. Refunds are not sent back to the original card or bank account. Nothing in this section limits any right you may have under applicable consumer protection law.

8. Your content and the license you grant us

You retain ownership of the content you create and submit to the Platform, including listings, profiles, portfolios, product descriptions, files, and messages. So that we can operate the Platform, you grant FreelancerPeople a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute your content as needed to provide, secure, and promote the Platform and its listings. This license lasts for as long as your content remains on the Platform, plus any period we are required by law to retain it.

You are responsible for the content you submit. You must hold, or have permission to use, all rights in it, and it must not infringe anyone else's rights or break any law or any of our policies.

9. Intellectual property in deliverables and digital products

FreelancerPeople and its licensors own the Platform itself, including its software, design, branding, and the content we author. These Terms give you only a limited, revocable right to use the Platform as intended, and no other rights in our property.

For work and products traded on the Platform, the default rules are:

• Freelance deliverables. When an order is accepted by the buyer and paid in full, the intellectual property rights in the final deliverables created for that order transfer to the buyer, unless the listing or contract says otherwise. This transfer does not cover third-party assets included in the delivery, which remain subject to their own licenses, or the seller's pre-existing tools, methods, and general know-how.
• Digital products are licensed, not sold. Buying a digital product gives you a license to use it under the license tier you chose at purchase (for example personal, commercial, or extended), as described on the product page. Ownership of the product stays with the seller. Where a seller attaches their own product-specific license terms, those terms control over our standard license descriptions.

The full framework, including how to report infringement and how our takedown and counter-notice process works, is in our Copyright & IP Policy.

10. Prohibited conduct

You agree to use the Platform lawfully and honestly. In line with the rules that apply to intermediaries in India, you must not host, upload, share, publish, or transmit content or offer services that:

• belong to another person and that you have no right to use;
• are obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, invasive of another person's privacy (including bodily privacy), insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that encourage money laundering or unlawful gambling;
• are harmful to children;
• infringe any patent, trademark, copyright, or other proprietary rights;
• are deceptive, or knowingly and patently false or misleading;
• impersonate another person or entity;
• threaten the unity, integrity, defence, security, or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order, or incite any offence;
• contain viruses or any other malicious code designed to disrupt or damage software, hardware, or data; or
• violate any law in force.

In addition, on this Platform you must not:

• solicit, arrange, or accept payment for Platform work outside the Platform, or move a transaction off-Platform to avoid fees, escrow, or these Terms;
• post fake, incentivized, or traded reviews, pose as a customer of your own listings, or manipulate ratings in any way;
• sell or distribute pirated, cracked, or plagiarised digital products, or content you do not have the right to sell;
• harass, threaten, or discriminate against other users, or spam the Platform; or
• probe, breach, or interfere with the Platform's security or normal operation, or scrape it without permission.

The complete list, with examples, is in our Prohibited & Acceptable Use Policy and Community Guidelines, both of which form part of these Terms.

11. Content moderation and enforcement

We moderate content using automated pattern checks (keyword, format, and signal-based filters) together with human review. Some listings and products are held for human review before they go live, particularly from new sellers; others publish immediately and remain subject to review and reports. We do not review every message, listing, or file before it appears, and our checks are not a guarantee that content is safe, accurate, or lawful.

When we find a violation, or a report is upheld, we may take action proportionate to the issue, including removing or hiding content, holding a listing pending changes, recording a formal warning on the account, restricting features, suspending the account, or, for serious or repeated violations, banning it. We tell you when we take action against your account or content, and our Trust & Safety page describes how reporting works.

• Warnings are recorded on your account with the reason, so you can see your standing.
• Suspension restricts your account to a single door: you can sign in only to open a support ticket about the suspension and appeal it. Everything else is unavailable while the suspension lasts.
• Ban is a final decision for the most serious cases and does not come with a self-serve appeal.

If action is taken against your content or account following a report, you can appeal through the case shown in your account, or, if you are suspended, through the support ticket door described above.

12. Removal orders and cooperation with authorities

Where a court of competent jurisdiction or an appropriate government agency orders or notifies us that specific content is unlawful, we will remove or disable access to that content within 36 hours of receiving the order or notification, as required by Indian law. We will also provide information under our control to government agencies that are lawfully authorized to seek it, within 72 hours of receiving a lawful order, for purposes such as verification of identity or the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of offences. How we handle personal data in these situations is described in our Privacy Policy.

13. How search results are ordered

When you search or browse the Platform, results are ordered by factors such as relevance to your query, ratings and review history, sales and order activity, and how recently a listing has been active or updated. Sellers cannot pay to rank higher in search results, and we do not offer paid placement in search. Where a sort option is labelled (for example price or rating), results follow that label.

14. Reviews and ratings

Reviews exist so that future buyers and sellers can rely on them. You may leave a review only for a transaction you were actually part of, and it must reflect your genuine experience. Offering or accepting anything of value for a review, reviewing your own listings through another account, coordinating reviews between accounts, and pressuring another user to change or remove a review are all prohibited. Reviews that break these rules or our content rules may be hidden or removed, and the accounts involved may face enforcement action. Sellers may post a professional public reply to reviews of their own work.

15. Third-party links and services

The Platform may contain links to third-party websites or services, and sellers may reference third-party tools or assets in their work. We do not control third-party sites and services and are not responsible for their content, policies, or practices. Your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their own terms.

16. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, and we do not warrant the conduct, quality, legality, or outcome of any buyer, seller, listing, deliverable, or digital product. Because we are an intermediary and not a party to the contracts formed between users, we are not responsible for the acts or omissions of buyers or sellers.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 or any other applicable law that cannot be limited or excluded by agreement.

17. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, FreelancerPeople and the people who operate it will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business opportunity, arising out of or related to your use of the Platform.

To the extent liability is not excluded, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform is limited to the total service fees you paid to FreelancerPeople in the six months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for willful misconduct, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, and nothing in these Terms limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 or other law that cannot be excluded.

18. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless FreelancerPeople and the people who operate it from and against claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Platform or breach of these Terms or any referenced policy; (b) content you submit, deliverables you provide, or services and products you commission, sell, or perform; or (c) your violation of any law or of the rights of any third party, including intellectual property, privacy, and contractual rights. We may assume the defense of any matter subject to this indemnity, in which case you agree to cooperate with us.

19. Suspension, termination and closing your account

You may stop using the Platform at any time and may close your account from your account settings, subject to completing open orders and contracts and settling wallet balances. We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access, and remove your listings or content, where we reasonably believe that you have breached these Terms or a referenced policy, that your activity poses a risk to other users or to the Platform, or that action is required by law or a valid legal request. Where reasonable, we act proportionately and explain the basis for the action.

On termination or closure: escrowed funds tied to open orders are handled under the Payment Terms and Refund & Cancellation Policy; provisions that by their nature should survive, including intellectual property, confidentiality of other users' information, indemnity, and liability provisions, continue to apply; and we retain your registration information for 180 days after cancellation or withdrawal of your registration, as required by Indian law, alongside any longer retention the law requires for records such as tax and transaction data. Our Privacy Policy has the details.

20. Grievance Officer and complaints

We maintain a grievance redressal mechanism for complaints about the Platform, its content, or violations of these Terms. Our Grievance Officer can be reached at support@freelancerpeople.com or through the Support page.

• Every complaint receives a ticket number you can use to track it.
• We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 15 days of receipt.
• Complaints about content showing a person in full or partial nudity, in a sexual act, or in an impersonated or artificially morphed form, shared without that person's consent, are actioned with removal or disabling of access within 24 hours of a complaint from the person or someone authorized on their behalf.
• Other complaints about content in the prohibited categories listed in section 10 are actioned within 72 hours where the law requires it.

Copyright and trademark complaints follow the notice process in our Copyright & IP Policy, and payment or order issues are usually fastest through the order's own tools and the Resolution Center.

21. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or your use of the Platform, are governed by the laws of India, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Subject to the next sentence, the competent courts in India will have jurisdiction over such disputes. Nothing in these Terms limits your right to approach the consumer fora under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, or affects any rights you have under that Act or any other law that cannot be excluded by agreement. These Terms do not impose arbitration on you and do not waive any right you may have to bring or join a claim.

22. General provisions

• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, it will be limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will continue in full force.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our written consent. We may assign these Terms as part of a reorganisation, merger, or sale, and will notify you if we do.
• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the policies referenced in them, are the entire agreement between you and FreelancerPeople about the Platform, and supersede any prior understandings on that subject. They do not override the separate contract formed between a buyer and a seller for a specific order.
• Relationship. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership, or joint-venture relationship between you and FreelancerPeople, or between the Platform and any seller.

23. Questions and contact

If you have questions about these Terms, need help with your account, or want to report a problem, contact us at support@freelancerpeople.com or through the Support page, where you can open a ticket and track it with its ticket number. For a disagreement on an active order, the Resolution Center on the order is the fastest path. For safety reports, see our Trust & Safety page.

Thank you for being part of FreelancerPeople. By using the Platform, you help keep it a safe, fair, and professional place to do great work.