Terms and conditions of use

These terms govern access to and use of the Meute marketplace, available online. Creating an account, posting an offer or launching a transaction constitutes full and unreserved acceptance of this text.

They apply to any natural person of full age and legal capacity. A minor may neither open an account, nor sell, nor buy on Meute.

Meute connects private individuals who wish to exchange goods or assets, and provides the tools that make that exchange verifiable: an offer book, a message thread attached to every transaction, a security deposit called Le Gage, a coverage stated in figures called Le Sceau, and a dispute procedure.

Meute is not a party to the contract concluded between the buyer and the seller. Meute sells nothing, buys nothing, delivers nothing and guarantees neither the existence, nor the quality, nor the conformity of what is exchanged.

No payment funds pass through the platform. Buyer and seller settle directly, by the means they have chosen. Meute neither holds nor escrows the price, and therefore acts neither as a payment institution nor as a financial trusted third party in the transaction.

The only sum Meute holds is the seller's Gage, deposited voluntarily by them, under the conditions of article 4.

An account is opened with a valid email address, or by linking a Discord account. One person holds one account only. Reserved or misleading usernames, and usernames impersonating a member of the team, are refused.

The member is responsible for keeping their access credentials confidential. Two-factor authentication is available and strongly recommended: it is required for any withdrawal from the Gage.

No identity verification is required at sign-up. It may become required beyond certain volume thresholds, or for certain categories, according to the levels published in the product.

Le Gage is a security deposit put up by the seller before they may sell. It remains the seller's property. It is not a payment, it funds no order, and it is never mixed with another member's funds in Meute's accounts.

Le Gage serves three purposes, and three purposes only:

• to guarantee the refund of a wronged buyer, without waiting for the seller's agreement;
• to bear the collection of the fees due under La Garde;
• to bear a seizure decided at the end of a dispute or a compliance procedure.

Any seizure is reasoned, dated, notified and open to challenge under the conditions of article 11. The available balance of the Gage can be returned on a withdrawal request; the share locked by transactions in progress cannot be, for as long as they are not closed.

A security delay may hold back a withdrawal after a sensitive change to the account. That delay protects against account takeover; it does not condition the right to withdraw.

Le Sceau is the coverage displayed on a seller's page: the amount their Gage can actually refund, increased where applicable by a bonus borne by Meute. It is computed at read time and published to the cent.

La Garde is the protection option on a transaction. Ticked, it locks the required coverage on the seller's Gage and gives rise to the buyer fee. Unticked, the transaction proceeds with no coverage and no fee: the buyer then bears the risk alone.

The coverage displayed is a refund ceiling, not insurance. It covers neither lost earnings, nor bank charges, nor indirect loss.

Selling in a professional capacity is prohibited on Meute. Posting an offer presupposes acting as a private individual, outside any commercial, industrial, craft or professional activity, and transferring goods owned in a personal capacity.

This prohibition is not a preference: as long as Meute cannot collect and verify the information required of a trader by Article 30 of the Digital Services Act, it cannot host a trader's listing. An account that sells habitually, in volume or for profit is suspended, its listings withdrawn, and its Gage returned less any sums owed.

The following are prohibited, without this list being exhaustive: unlawful goods and services; counterfeits; weapons, narcotics, medicines and protected species; stolen data, hacked accounts, misappropriated payment methods; hateful or violent content, child sexual abuse material, or content undermining human dignity; identity theft; attempted fraud or money laundering.

Also prohibited: soliciting settlement outside the platform in order to escape the Gage, disclosing personal contact details in a public listing, posting fake or purchased reviews, creating several accounts to circumvent a sanction, and artificially manipulating prices or reputation.

Anyone may report content they believe to be illegal, without holding an account. Open the report form

A transaction opens from an offer in the book or from a quote that has been taken. It immediately opens a dedicated message thread.

Only this thread constitutes evidence. An exchange held elsewhere — private message, social network, telephone — cannot be admitted in a dispute. This is not a formality: it is the only way to settle between two people on verifiable facts.

The order of settlement depends on how reversible the payment method is: the more easily reversible side pays first. After delivery an inspection window runs, whose length depends on the category and the payment method, during which the buyer may open a dispute. Once that window has passed without challenge, the transaction is deemed accepted and the coverage released.

The applicable durations and amounts are those displayed before confirmation. See the full sequence and time limits

The buyer fee is due when La Garde is enabled. It is announced before confirmation, for the quantity requested, and taken from the seller's Gage. No fee is added in the course of a transaction.

The rates in force are not copied out here: they are published in the product and on the explanation page, and the ones displayed at the moment of confirmation are those that apply. A contract that copies out a price ends up lying about the price.

Any change to the fee schedule is announced before it applies and does not act retroactively on transactions already launched.

A review may only be left once a transaction has actually been completed, by a party to that transaction, and only once. Its author answers for it.

Meute does not remove a review because it is unfavourable. A review may, on the other hand, be taken down if it is abusive, off topic, defamatory, or if it stems from manipulation. The removal is reasoned and open to appeal.

The buyer opens a dispute from the transaction, during the inspection window. Both parties file their documents: screenshots, statements, exchanges. Each document is timestamped and fingerprinted on filing; it can no longer be modified or deleted, by anyone — not even by Meute.

The case is examined by a Meute mediator, who issues a reasoned decision notified to both parties. Depending on the case, the decision may order the buyer's refund out of the seller's Gage, the release of the coverage to the seller, or a split.

Every decision can be appealed once, free of charge. The appeal shall be reasoned and filed within six months of the notification. The re-examination is entrusted to a person other than the one who took the decision. The internal remedy bars no judicial recourse.

Every report receives an immediate time-stamped acknowledgement of receipt, bearing the case reference and the handling deadline. The reported content is examined, and the decision is notified to the reporter and to the person concerned alike, with its reasons and the available means of appeal.

The possible measures are: removal or delisting of content, restriction of an offer's visibility, temporary suspension of an account, limitation of certain features, and as a last resort permanent closure of the account.

Internal complaint handling is free of charge and open for six months from the notification. It excludes neither recourse to a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body nor recourse to the courts.

Meute may restrict, suspend or close an account in the event of a breach of these terms, of proven or seriously suspected fraud, of a legal obligation, or of an immediate risk to other members.

Every measure carries a written reason, a date, and an end date when it is temporary. Some measures are triggered automatically — for instance the pausing of sales after a run of incidents. They remain reasoned, dated, and open to appeal before a human being.

Closing an account does not entail forfeiture of the Gage: the available balance is returned, after deduction of the sums owed in respect of transactions in progress, refunds ordered or fees due.

The Meute trademark, its visual identity, its vocabulary and the site's code belong to the publisher. No reuse, reproduction or imitation is permitted without written agreement.

The texts and images published by a member remain theirs. The member grants Meute, for the duration of the publication, the right to display, resize and index them for the purposes of the service.

Data processing activities, their purpose, their legal basis and their retention period are detailed in the privacy policy. Read the privacy policy

Certain data cannot be erased on request, because the law or the requirements of evidence forbid it: the ledger entries, the evidence filed in a dispute and the audit log. This limit is explained and justified in the privacy policy, rather than passed over in silence.

Meute is a host of the content published by its members. It carries out no general monitoring of that content and is liable for it only from the moment it becomes aware of its manifestly unlawful character and fails to act promptly.

Meute undertakes to use reasonable means to ensure the availability of the service, without guaranteeing the absence of interruption. Interruptions for maintenance are announced when they are scheduled.

Meute is not liable for the non-performance of a contract entered into between two members, beyond the coverage shown by Le Sceau at the time of the transaction.

Every new version carries a number and an effective date, shown at the top of this page. Members are informed of it before it takes effect; continuing to use the service after that date constitutes acceptance.

A member who refuses a new version may close their account and recover their available Gage, free of charge.

The contract is entered into for an indefinite term. The member may terminate it at any time, provided they have closed their transactions in progress.

These terms are governed by French law. In the event of a dispute with Meute, a prior complaint is sent to the contact address; a reply is due within a reasonable time.

Failing an amicable solution, a consumer member may refer the matter free of charge to a consumer mediator. The competent mediator is published on the legal notice page as soon as they are appointed; until they are, this route is not open and the prior complaint, together with the internal appeal against decisions, remain the only amicable paths.

The competent courts are those designated by the ordinary rules of jurisdiction. Nothing in these terms deprives a consumer of the right to bring proceedings before the court of their place of residence.