01. Introduction and scope
Who these terms concern
These Terms of Service describe the proposed rules for accessing and using AREATO, an online marketplace intended to connect businesses seeking services with independent professionals offering them. They cover public browsing and, when enabled, registration, profiles, listings, communication and project collaboration.
Platform operator
The legal entity operating AREATO, its registered address and legally required contact particulars must be confirmed and inserted before these terms are adopted. The public-facing brand name alone does not identify the contracting entity.
Related documents
The Privacy Notice, Cookie Policy, Safety guidance and any future fee, payment or contract-specific terms should be read together with these Terms. In case of inconsistency, the order of precedence must be established before launch.
02. Definitions
Client
A person or organization using AREATO to identify professionals, publish an opportunity or commission services.
Professional
An independent individual or business offering services or seeking work through AREATO. This term does not itself determine employment or tax status.
Service Contract
An agreement between a Client and a Professional concerning scope, deliverables, timing, compensation and other project-specific obligations.
Platform Content
Profiles, job descriptions, messages, portfolios, reviews, files and other material submitted or displayed through AREATO.
03. Eligibility and authority
Who may register
Production account registration is intended for persons aged 18 or older who can legally enter binding agreements, and for organizations acting through duly authorized representatives. Local legal requirements and any jurisdiction-specific restrictions must be assessed before launch.
Acting for a company
If you act for an organization, you must have authority to register it and make commitments on its behalf. You should not represent that you have authority you do not possess.
Availability by location
AREATO may restrict access where required by applicable law, sanctions rules or operational limitations. Availability of a public page does not guarantee that transactional services are offered in every country.
04. Registration and account security
Accurate details
Users should provide accurate, current registration and profile information and update material changes. False identities, misleading qualifications and unauthorized use of another party's details are prohibited.
Credential protection
Users must protect passwords, authentication factors and recovery information. Suspected compromise should be reported promptly to support@areato.work. AREATO support will not request a password or private key by email.
Account types and teams
Client and Professional roles may have different capabilities. Team access, permissions and account recovery rules will be specified as those features are implemented.
Account access and recovery
Account administrators should grant access only to people who need it and remove access when roles change. The production service will define account recovery, security notifications and the responsibility for actions performed by authorized team members.
05. Verification and trust signals
Meaning of verification
A verification indicator should reflect only the checks actually performed, such as confirmation of specified identity or payment information. It must not be interpreted as a guarantee of skill, honesty, solvency or successful performance.
Cooperation
Where verification is required, users may need to provide appropriate documentation through approved secure channels. Verification data handling must be explained in the final privacy documentation.
Verification limitations
Verification checks may fail, expire or require repetition. Users should not interpret a badge as certification of professional competence, financial standing, licensing or the absence of risk. Where checks are provided by a third party, that provider’s terms and privacy notices may also apply.
Current stage
Example verification labels in public preview profiles are illustrative only; they are not evidence that real users or businesses have been verified.
06. Role of the marketplace
Intermediary service
AREATO is intended to facilitate discovery, communication and administration of work opportunities. Unless expressly stated in a separate agreement, AREATO does not itself provide the Professional's services and is not a party to the underlying Client–Professional Service Contract.
Independent decisions
Clients choose whom to engage and Professionals choose which opportunities to pursue. Neither side should assume AREATO has assessed the technical suitability or commercial merits of a particular engagement.
Employment and agency status
A marketplace introduction does not itself create employment, agency, partnership or joint-venture relationships between AREATO and a user. Actual worker classification depends on the facts and mandatory law and cannot be determined solely by these Terms.
No guaranteed outcomes
A listing, profile, introduction or search result does not guarantee employment, a contract, payment, work quality or any particular commercial outcome.
07. Client responsibilities
Clear opportunity information
Clients should describe required deliverables, technical context, constraints, estimated schedule, expected collaboration model and budget as accurately as possible.
Lawful instructions
Clients must not request unlawful activity, infringement of third-party rights, unauthorized access, discriminatory conduct or work that violates applicable safety or professional requirements.
Project cooperation
Clients should provide information and access reasonably needed for agreed work, review deliverables in a timely manner and honor their agreed payment obligations.
Access and dependencies
Clients should ensure they have authority to share project materials and provide necessary access. They should disclose security, regulatory and site-specific requirements before work begins, including any restrictions on subcontracting or handling confidential data.
08. Professional responsibilities
Truthful qualifications
Professionals should present their skills, experience, portfolio, availability and professional credentials accurately. They must not claim work performed by others as their own.
Delivery and communication
Professionals should evaluate the scope before accepting work, disclose material constraints, communicate significant delays promptly and deliver in accordance with the agreed Service Contract.
Legal and tax duties
Professionals remain responsible for applicable licensing, professional duties, business registration, taxes and other legal obligations, subject to any mandatory rules and the final contractual allocation.
Subcontracting and professional standards
A Professional should disclose any intended subcontracting where it affects confidentiality, quality or contractual responsibilities. Regulated services must only be offered by appropriately qualified persons, and users must comply with applicable professional and export-control requirements.
09. Listings, search and proposals
Job listings
Listings should be genuine, sufficiently specific and not misleading. AREATO may moderate or remove listings that breach platform rules or applicable law.
Proposals and invitations
A proposal or invitation should clearly identify its commercial and technical assumptions. Submitting an expression of interest does not itself create a Service Contract unless the parties expressly agree otherwise.
Search and ranking
Search results may depend on relevance, filters, availability and other disclosed factors. Final ranking transparency requirements must be assessed before production release.
Misleading listings and artificial activity
Repeated duplicate listings, fabricated urgency, sham offers, manipulated search signals and unsolicited bulk proposals undermine the marketplace and may be restricted. Sponsored placement, if introduced, must be identified appropriately.
10. Service Contracts between users
Formation
A Service Contract should arise only after the Client and Professional have agreed on the essential terms and affirmatively accepted the engagement through an approved process.
Project terms
The parties should record deliverables, acceptance criteria, milestones, schedule, dependencies, compensation, revision limits and termination conditions before work starts.
Separate legal relationship
The parties are responsible for their agreement and performance, subject to applicable law. Any standard contract templates offered by AREATO must be reviewed independently before use.
No automatic authority to bind another user
No user may accept work, promise payment, grant rights or waive claims on behalf of another party without appropriate authority. A platform status label does not substitute for the parties’ written agreement.
11. Fees and commercial terms
Transparency
Any AREATO service fees must be disclosed before a user commits to a charge. The final fee schedule, applicable taxes and any conversion charges must be published separately.
Changes
Fee changes should be communicated in advance where required and should not be applied retroactively contrary to agreed terms or applicable law.
Fee schedule versioning
A production fee schedule should identify the service covered, payer, calculation method, currency, tax treatment, payment trigger and effective date. Material changes should be archived so that users can identify the version applicable to an engagement.
Not yet active
This public prototype does not establish a binding fee schedule or activate paid marketplace transactions. See Pricing for the current status.
12. Payments, invoicing and taxes
Payment infrastructure
The production payment provider, merchant-of-record model, safeguarding of funds and responsibility for payment processing have not yet been selected or finalized. AREATO must not describe funds as held in escrow without a legally compliant arrangement.
Invoices and taxes
The parties' invoice and tax responsibilities will depend on their location, status and the final payment architecture. Any tax collection or withholding obligations require separate assessment.
Failures and refunds
Rules for failed payments, chargebacks, refunds and payout delays will be documented before transactions are enabled; no present payment-protection guarantee is made.
Payment disputes and chargebacks
Chargeback and refund procedures must not prevent users from exercising non-waivable statutory rights. AREATO will publish the applicable payment-provider arrangements, dispute timelines and evidence requirements before activating payments.
13. Milestones, delivery and acceptance
Milestone planning
For milestone-based work, the parties should define the deliverable, due date, acceptance standard and associated payment before beginning the milestone.
Review process
A client should assess a delivered milestone against agreed criteria and raise concrete objections within an agreed review period. Silence should not automatically constitute acceptance unless validly agreed and legally permitted.
Revisions and change requests
Work outside the agreed scope should be documented as a change request, including any impact on cost and timing. The platform's final milestone mechanics remain to be specified.
Non-delivery and partial completion
The parties should define how incomplete work, missed milestones and partial delivery are assessed. Any release of funds, rejection, refund or termination consequence will depend on the agreed contract and the finalized platform payment rules.
14. Intellectual property and licensing
Background materials
Each party retains rights to materials, tools, know-how and technology it owned or licensed before a project, unless the parties expressly agree otherwise.
Project deliverables
Ownership, assignment or licensing of newly created deliverables should be set out in the Service Contract. Applicable national rules may limit assignments or require particular formalities.
Third-party components
Professionals should disclose third-party, open-source or restricted components where they affect the Client's intended use. The parties should agree on license compliance and delivery of source files where relevant.
Payment and rights
Whether and when rights transfer in relation to payment must be expressly agreed and reviewed for the applicable law; AREATO does not impose a universal transfer rule at this draft stage.
Moral rights and reusable tools
Moral rights and other non-transferable rights may remain with the creator under applicable law. The parties should separately identify reusable frameworks, pre-existing libraries, open-source dependencies and any license needed to operate the delivered work.
15. Confidentiality and personal data
Project confidentiality
Parties should identify confidential project information and limit its use to the agreed purpose. Separate non-disclosure agreements may be appropriate for sensitive technical or commercial material.
Security practices
Users should share only necessary information, use appropriate access controls and avoid posting secrets or sensitive personal data in public profiles.
Data protection
The final privacy and data-processing arrangements, including roles of Client, Professional and platform operator, must be defined. See Privacy.
Return and deletion of confidential material
At project completion or termination, the parties should follow agreed return, deletion and archival requirements, subject to lawful retention duties. Confidentiality should continue for the period specified in their agreement or required by law.
16. Prohibited conduct
Misuse
Users must not engage in fraud, identity deception, harassment, unlawful discrimination, malware distribution, unauthorized system access, scraping in breach of applicable rules or manipulation of ratings and reviews.
Platform integrity
Users must not interfere with service availability, circumvent access controls or submit misleading listings or fabricated endorsements.
Enforcement
AREATO may investigate reports and take proportionate action, including content restriction or account suspension, in accordance with the final terms and applicable legal obligations.
Off-platform circumvention — policy under legal review
AREATO may consider rules against using introductions obtained through the marketplace to evade disclosed service fees or agreed payment safeguards. The scope, duration, exceptions, conversion options and enforceability of any such rule are NOT yet decided; no binding non-circumvention period or conversion fee is imposed by this draft.
17. Reviews, ratings and user content
Authenticity
Reviews should reflect genuine experiences and must not be purchased, fabricated or submitted in exchange for undisclosed benefits.
User responsibility
Users are responsible for material they submit and should have the rights necessary to share it. Material must not infringe privacy, intellectual-property or other legal rights.
Moderation and complaints
Production rules should explain content reporting, notice, moderation decisions and any applicable appeals process, including requirements under relevant platform regulation.
Notice and appeal
Where content or accounts are restricted, production procedures should provide appropriate reasons, reporting channels and review opportunities as required by law. Automated detection alone should not be described as conclusive evidence of misconduct.
18. Disputes and complaints
Between Client and Professional
The parties should first try to resolve disagreements by reference to the agreed scope, milestones, records and communications. A future AREATO assistance process, if offered, must state its scope and limitations.
Platform complaints
Complaints about accounts, content or platform conduct can be directed to support@areato.work; safety concerns to trust@areato.work.
No invented arbitration process
No binding arbitration clause, exclusive jurisdiction or mandatory dispute timetable is established by this draft. These issues require jurisdiction-specific legal review.
Evidence and cooperation
Users should retain agreed scope, change requests, milestone submissions and communications needed to explain a dispute. Any future mediation or dispute-assistance feature must distinguish optional platform support from formal legal remedies.
19. Suspension, termination and records
Account action
Where justified by security, misuse or legal requirements, AREATO may need to restrict content or suspend access. Notice, reasons and appeal opportunities will follow applicable law and the finalized policies.
User closure
Account closure procedures, active contract treatment, pending balances and retained records must be specified before transactional features launch.
Continuing obligations
Termination may not remove accrued payment obligations, confidentiality duties or legally required record retention; the final rules will define the applicable scope.
Access to records after closure
The production service must define a reasonable method for retrieving necessary records, invoices and contract history, subject to security, data protection and retention requirements. Account closure should not be represented as immediate deletion of every record.
20. Liability, law, changes and contact
Service availability and liability
AREATO will seek to provide a reliable service, but the final liability framework must reflect applicable mandatory law, consumer/business distinctions and the actual operator and services. No blanket waiver of statutory rights is intended.
Governing law and courts
The governing law, dispute forum, mandatory consumer protections and cross-border considerations remain open for legal review and must not be inferred from the website's language or domain.
Updates and effective date
Final terms must state their effective date, change-notification process and method of acceptance. This working draft has no production effective date.
Severability and language
The final terms should state how invalid clauses are treated, which language version controls and how mandatory local rights are preserved. These matters remain subject to counsel’s review.
Contact and related policies
Legal notices and questions about these Terms: legal@areato.work. For compromised accounts use support@areato.work; for abuse reports use trust@areato.work; for privacy rights requests use privacy@areato.work. Related pages: Privacy, Cookies, Safety and Imprint.