Model terms of sale

1. What these terms are

These are model terms of sale. They apply between the seller and the buyer of an item on Philmarket. Philmarket wrote them and makes them available, but is not a party to the contract of sale — see §9.

They become part of your contract because each of you adopts them by your own act: the seller when the listing is published, the buyer when a bid, a purchase, an offer or the acceptance of a purchase request is made. The version that applies is the one in force when the listing was published. A later change does not reach a listing already online, and never reaches a contract already concluded.

Where the seller sells in the course of a business and the buyer is a consumer, these are the seller's standard terms. Nothing in them takes away a right the buyer has by law.

2. When the contract is concluded

A contract of sale arises between seller and buyer, with no further step:

• Auction — when the auction closes and the highest bid is at or above any reserve price.
• Fixed price — when the buyer completes the buy-now step.
• Offer — when the seller accepts the buyer's offer.
• Purchase request — when the buyer accepts a request the seller sent after an auction that did not meet its reserve.

From that moment the seller must deliver and the buyer must pay. Neither may withdraw unilaterally. A statutory right of withdrawal is a separate matter, and §7 says when it applies.

3. A bid binds as an offer

A bid is binding as an offer to the seller. While the auction runs it cannot be taken back, and it cannot be lowered below the current price.

This does not set aside the grounds the law gives for challenging a declaration of intent. A bid made in error as to its content, or brought about by fraud, duress or the exploitation of another's situation, may be attacked on those grounds like any other declaration — §§ 30–33 of the Finnish Contracts Act, § 119 and § 123 BGB, and the corresponding rules of whichever law governs the contract. No term here removes that, and a term that purported to would be void in that part.

Bidding also binds you to Philmarket under its own Terms of Service (§4). That is a separate relationship, and it does not decide the questions in this section.

4. If the listing changes, the offer is released

An offer is made on the item as it was described at that moment. If the seller then materially changes the listing — the title, the description, the item shown, the year or the motifs — an offer already made no longer binds the buyer who made it.

On Philmarket this is carried out, not left to argument. A material edit to a listing with an outstanding offer withdraws that offer and tells the buyer. An auction that has received bids cannot be edited at all, except in two cases: an addition that only corrects or qualifies what was already said, after which anyone who bid before it may retract that bid; and a withdrawal of the lot on one of the stated grounds, which cancels every bid.

A change to the seller's own reference number is not a material change.

5. Dispatch, delivery and proof

The seller dispatches the item to the address the buyer gave, within the time stated in the listing, and tells the buyer the date of dispatch.

• Risk passes to the buyer on delivery, not on dispatch.
• Where the seller sells in the course of a business, the seller must show that the item was delivered and when. A record of dispatch is not proof of delivery.
• Where both parties are consumers, each keeps what they reasonably can: the seller keeps proof of dispatch, and the buyer tells the seller without undue delay if nothing arrives.

6. Payment

The buyer pays through the platform's payment flow within the time stated in the listing. The seller is not required to dispatch before payment is secured.

If the buyer does not pay within that time, the seller may treat the sale as not completed. What that means for the buyer's account is a matter for Philmarket's own Terms of Service, not for this contract.

7. Right of withdrawal

This section applies where the contract is covered by European Union consumer law — in short, where the seller sells in the course of a business and the buyer is a consumer whose protection follows from that law. It does not create a right of withdrawal where none exists.

Where it does apply:

• The period runs from the day the buyer, or a person the buyer named, takes physical possession of the item. Not from the invoice, and not from dispatch.
• If the shipment is not tracked, delivery is presumed to have taken place after a transit window measured from dispatch: 14 days within the EU and EEA, 21 days elsewhere in Europe, 45 days for the rest of the world. Either party may show that the true date was another, and a date of receipt stated by the buyer prevails over the presumption.
• The buyer bears the direct cost of returning the item only if the seller said so before the contract was concluded. If the seller did not, the seller bears that cost and cannot claim it afterwards.

The statutory information and the model withdrawal form are on the Terms page.

8. Which law applies

Where the seller sells in the course of a business and directs that business to the country in which the buyer lives, the contract is governed by the law of the buyer's country. Any other choice of law cannot deprive a consumer buyer of the protection given by the mandatory rules of that country (Art. 6 of the Rome I Regulation).

Otherwise the contract is governed by the law of the country in which the seller has their habitual residence (Art. 4(1)(a) of that Regulation).

9. Philmarket's role

Philmarket operates the marketplace, provides these model terms, and handles payment, escrow and dispute holds under its own Terms of Service. It is not the seller, and it is not a party to this contract.

How responsibilities are divided between the marketplace and the seller is set out in §15 of those Terms.