Terms of Service

1. About the service

Philmarket is a Nordic marketplace for philatelic items (stamps, covers and related material). The service is provided by Philmarket Oy (business ID 3636423-6), Finland. By using the service you accept these terms.

2. Accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old to use the service.
• You are responsible for keeping the information in your account correct and up to date.
• You may not share your login credentials with others.
• We reserve the right to suspend accounts that abuse the service.

3. Seller responsibilities

• The seller warrants that the items are owned and may be sold freely.
• Descriptions, condition assessments and images must be accurate and not misleading.
• Forgeries, reference material and repaired or otherwise manipulated items may be sold, but only if this is clearly stated in both the title and the description. Offering such material as genuine, or concealing that an item is repaired or manipulated, is prohibited.
• Listing stolen goods or copyright-protected material without permission is prohibited.
• The seller is responsible for shipping and packaging after a completed sale.
• At registration the seller declares whether they sell as a trader or a private individual. This is shown to buyers and determines which consumer rights (e.g. the right of withdrawal) apply to the purchase. The declaration must be accurate.
• Commission is charged on the transaction value and depends on the seller's tier: STARTER 7%, HOBBY 6%, LITEN 5%, MEDIUM 4%, STOR 3.1%, EXPERT 2.5%. On the portion of a single sale that exceeds €500, 2.5% applies (two-part commission). For a Custom account the commission is agreed individually in writing. See the fee calculator in the knowledge centre for an exact calculation.
• The seller is solely responsible for calculating, declaring and paying any tax (e.g. VAT and income tax) attributable to the sale, as well as any customs and import duties. Philmarket acts as a marketplace operator and does not assume this responsibility on the seller's behalf — the exception is Philmarket's own commission, for which Philmarket is itself responsible and accounts for the applicable VAT. Where law requires Philmarket to report a seller's income data to a tax authority (e.g. DAC7), this is a separate undertaking and does not relieve the seller of their own tax responsibility.
• Stamps and postcards listed with a start price of €500 or more must include a photo of both the front and the back before the listing can be published.

4. Buyer responsibilities and right of withdrawal

• The buyer pays via Stripe within the time limit stated after a completed bid.
• For purchases shipped from a country other than your own, customs, import or other authority fees may apply on delivery, in addition to the purchase price. Such fees are determined and collected by the destination country's authorities or the carrier, not by Philmarket, and the buyer is responsible for them.
• Purchases from a trader: when the seller is a trader and the buyer is a consumer, the buyer has a 14-day right of withdrawal for distance contracts (Dir. 2011/83/EU). The right applies both to fixed-price sales and to online auctions — a pure online auction is not a "public auction" within the meaning of the law (Art. 2(13) and Recital 24), so the auction exemption does not apply. The right is exercised via the withdrawal function in the order (two steps) or with the model withdrawal form; the buyer receives a confirmation on a durable medium.
• Purchases from a private individual: for purchases between private individuals (consumer to consumer) there is no statutory right of withdrawal. The seller's status is shown in the buyer's view before the purchase.
• Digital services: when purchasing AI grading credits, the buyer consents to immediate delivery and acknowledges that the right of withdrawal is thereby lost (Art. 16(m)).
• Philmarket's own services: when you buy a paid tier subscription or an add-on (e.g. the storefront) directly from Philmarket, a private individual (consumer) has a 14-day right of withdrawal. If you withdraw within the period after the service began at your request, you pay a proportionate amount for the time used and the rest is refunded as soon as possible, and in any case no later than 14 days from the day we are informed of your decision to withdraw (Art. 13(1)/14(3)); the subscription then ends. Traders have no right of withdrawal on such purchases. Creating an account is free and there is nothing to withdraw.
• Cancelling a subscription. Beyond the right of withdrawal above, you may cancel an ongoing subscription at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period — the service continues until then and no further charges are made afterwards. No refund is given for the period already paid.
• Payment is held in escrow and released to the seller under the rules in §5 (after the buyer's protection/withdrawal period, or earlier upon confirmed receipt where applicable).

5. Payments, escrow and withdrawal

• Payments are handled via a payment service (Stripe/Mollie) and are held in escrow — funds are not paid out to the seller immediately.
• Purchases from a trader: the escrow is held throughout the buyer's withdrawal period (14 days from receipt of the item, but no longer than 28 days from payment). If the buyer withdraws within the period, the refund is settled directly from the held amount by Philmarket. Payout to the seller occurs only after the withdrawal period has expired.
• Purchases from a private individual: escrow is optional and, when used, provides a 14-day buyer-protection window from payment (no statutory right of withdrawal applies between private individuals). The buyer may confirm receipt and release the payment earlier.
• Offline payment (below the amount limit, the seller is paid directly): no escrow and no platform buyer protection. If the seller is a trader, the consumer's statutory rights (including the right of withdrawal) still apply — they are then settled directly with the seller.
• Commission on offline sales. Philmarket's commission is owed on every sale, including offline ones. It is collected by offsetting the seller's future payouts or, for offline-only sellers, billed directly (with a small payment-handling fee that covers the processing cost). Unpaid commission is a material breach and may lead to account restriction (§6).
• Philmarket charges commission on the transaction value according to the seller's tier (§3).
• In the event of a dispute, the payment is frozen until the matter is resolved.

6. Terms for traders (P2B Regulation)

For sellers who are traders (business users), the following also applies, in accordance with EU Regulation 2019/1150 on fair terms for business users (P2B):

• Grounds for account restriction. Philmarket may restrict, suspend or terminate a seller account on the following grounds: (a) forged, repaired or manipulated material offered as genuine or without clear disclosure; (b) stolen goods or unlawful provenance; (c) prohibited or sanctioned items; (d) repeated misleading descriptions or condition assessments; (e) repeated non-delivery; (f) fraud or payment/chargeback abuse; (g) incomplete identity/KYC verification; (h) abusive conduct; (i) an order from a court or authority; (j) suspected account compromise or security risk; (k) other material breach of these terms.
• Statement of reasons. On a restriction we provide a statement of reasons with the applicable ground and the specific circumstances on a durable medium (email). You may request a review by contacting support@philmarket.eu.
• Ranking. Search results are sorted according to the option the buyer selects — most recently published (default), price ascending/descending, or ending time. There is no paid placement, "boost" or sponsorship, and the seller's subscription tier does not affect the search order. The main ranking parameter is therefore the buyer-selected sort criterion.
• No differentiated treatment. Philmarket sells no items of its own and does not compete with sellers. No seller is favoured in ranking or search results. Differences between subscription tiers concern commission, listing volume and features (see §3) — not visibility in search.
• Access to data. As a seller you have access to your own sales and financial data and can export it (CSV, SIE and VAT/OSS) from your seller panel. You receive the buyer details required to fulfil the order. You do not have access to other sellers' data, and Philmarket does not sell your data on.
• Changes to the terms. Material changes are notified at least 30 days in advance (see §11). During the notice period you have the right to terminate the agreement before the changes take effect.
• Complaints. Philmarket is a small enterprise and is therefore exempt from the requirement for a formal internal complaint-handling system (Art. 11) and named mediators (Art. 12) under P2B. Complaints are nevertheless received and handled in good faith via support@philmarket.eu.
• Paid promotion and advertising. Separately from the ranking above, sellers may buy a clearly labelled ("Sponsrad") slot that features a listing in the front-page carousel for a limited time, and Philmarket may show clearly labelled ("Annons") advertising. Such paid promotion and advertising appear only in separate, marked areas and do not affect the organic search ranking or a listing's visibility in search results.

7. Prohibited content

It is prohibited to list:

• Items offered fraudulently — e.g. a forgery presented as genuine, or a repaired/manipulated item where this is concealed. (Forgeries and repaired items may be sold when clearly stated in both the title and the description — see §3.)
• Stolen goods.
• Items originating in sanctioned countries under the EU sanctions framework.
• Illegal items of any kind.

8. AI-based services and other tools

Philmarket offers AI-based condition assessments (Claude Vision). These are advisory and do not constitute a guarantee of an item's condition. Buyers are encouraged to review images carefully. In accordance with the EU AI Act (Art. 52) we disclose that AI is used and store which model version and confidence level were used.

Other tools in the service — such as the perforation gauge, the centering-assessment tool, bulk listing creation and the fee calculator — are aids intended to help buyers and sellers, but Philmarket does not guarantee that their results are correct or complete. The tools do not replace your own judgement or verification, and use is at the user's own risk. Philmarket's liability for any errors in these tools is governed by the limitation of liability in §9.

9. Limitation of liability

Philmarket acts as a marketplace operator and is not a party to the contract of sale between buyer and seller. We are not liable for the condition, authenticity or delivery of items beyond what follows from mandatory law. Maximum liability is limited to the transaction value of the purchase concerned.

10. Governing law and dispute resolution

These terms are governed by Finnish law. Consumer disputes may first be referred to the Consumer Disputes Board (Kuluttajariitalautakunta) in Finland; other disputes are heard by the competent Finnish court. The EU online dispute resolution (ODR) platform: ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

11. Changes to the terms

We may update these terms. Material changes are notified by email at least 30 days in advance. Continued use of the service after changes take effect means you accept the new terms. During the notice period, traders have the right to terminate the agreement before the changes take effect (§6).

12. Language

This document is provided in several languages. The English version is authoritative; in the event of any conflict or discrepancy between translations, the English version prevails.

13. Contact

Philmarket Oy · support@philmarket.eu