Business Listings, Vendors & Commission

These standard terms apply when a business, organiser or other provider (“you”) submits, purchases or manages a listing or promotion through What’s On Aotearoa and its regional pages (“we”). The General Terms & Conditions also apply. The description, price, duration and specific deliverables accepted for a particular listing or promotion form part of that purchase. A provider may activate bookings or product orders through one recorded acceptance of these standard terms and a completed, accepted Supplier Account Record. That record holds your private commercial settings and can cover multiple offers; it need not be a separately negotiated document for each listing.

A business appearing in a directory entry assembled from public information does not, merely by being listed, accept these terms, grant us an agency appointment or incur a fee or commission. You accept the applicable listing terms when you submit or purchase a service after being given a reasonable opportunity to review them. Booking or product-sales participation requires a separate, recorded opt-in to the account settings and authority described below.

1. Relationship & Authority

You operate your own business independently. These terms do not create employment, a partnership, joint venture or franchise. An agency relationship for bookings or product orders exists only when you activate the relevant service and expressly accept its Supplier Account Record. Where appointed, we may advertise the agreed offers, take and administer orders and payments, send confirmations and process customer cancellations and refunds within that authority. You remain the provider responsible for delivering each offer. Our appointment does not transfer your staff, site or operational duties to us, or remove our own duties under law.

The provider’s trading identity must be correctly given to us so it can be identified in the relevant customer offer and purchase process. We may identify ourselves as the booking and payment agent where appropriate. Neither party may tell customers that the other supplies an offer it does not actually supply.

2. Free & Paid Listings

We may offer free discovery listings and paid listing or promotional packages. The accepted offer sets out any price, duration, covered town or location, publication period, featured placement, social posts or other promised deliverable. Unless expressly promised, we do not guarantee a particular ranking, reach, engagement, sales or bookings. If a paid package includes an agreed post or placement, we will use reasonable care to deliver it in the agreed form and timeframe or provide an appropriate remedy if we cannot.

We may make reasonable editorial and category changes to keep listings accurate and usable. We may decline or suspend content for substantiated accuracy, rights, customer-safety or legal concerns, or material breach. Where practicable we will explain the concern and allow a correction. If we stop providing an undelivered part of a paid package for reasons within our control, we will address the prepaid part fairly under the agreed offer and applicable law. We do not promise to host a free informational entry indefinitely.

3. Information, Authority & Permissions

You must have authority to submit the listing and use the business name and details provided. Information you supply must be accurate, lawful and kept reasonably current, including prices, dates, location, availability, material restrictions and any GST status represented to customers. Tell us promptly about changes, cancellations, complaints or circumstances that may make an offer misleading or unsafe. You are responsible for obtaining permission for supplied images, text, music, logos, identifiable people and other material you authorise us to publish.

We may edit, excerpt, crop, format or clarify supplied content for presentation, accessibility and promotion while taking reasonable care not to change its material meaning. We remain responsible for our own copy and representations. If either party learns of an error or rights complaint, it will notify the other promptly; we may temporarily disable affected content while reasonably investigating it.

4. Content Licence & Promotion

You retain ownership of material you own. For material you supply with permission to use it, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence during your participation to display, format, excerpt and promote it for the relevant listing, event, offer and the platform, including ordinary organic posts and editorial features on our channels. This licence also covers reasonable records of past campaigns, but does not transfer ownership of your underlying material.

If a purchased package expressly includes specified social posts, purchase authorises us to use the supplied material to deliver those posts, subject to any material restrictions stated with the package. Other paid third-party advertising using your supplied material requires a separate express opt-in or agreed advertising package. An opt-in to possible advertising does not itself promise ad spend, placement, reach or results. If you withdraw permission, we will stop new discretionary uses within a reasonable time; completed posts, lawful records and commitments already performed may remain, subject to rights or safety concerns.

You warrant that the permissions you grant cover the relevant uses. Please identify any credit requirements, cultural restrictions, privacy restrictions or expiry dates when supplying material. Neither party may knowingly publish content that infringes another person’s rights.

5. Bookings, Product Orders & Delivery — Only Where Enabled

We will not accept bookings or product orders on your behalf solely because you have a listing. Before either is enabled, you must accept the standard supplier terms and a Supplier Account Record identifying your business, commission plan and calculation base, tax and payout settings, payment and refund authority, and support contact. Each activated offer must also carry its own current price, availability or stock, cancellation or returns policy, delivery or collection responsibilities and material customer conditions. Those offer details may differ between your products without requiring a new master agreement each time. We will keep the accepted version and date of the account terms and a history of material offer-policy changes.

Once enabled, you must maintain accurate availability or stock, promptly notify us of changes, honour confirmed orders and supply the advertised goods or service with the care, skill, qualifications, licences, permissions, insurance and safety procedures required for your business. You control your staff, site, fulfilment and on-site service. We will take reasonable care with our own order system and customer communications. Both parties will cooperate promptly to correct order or availability errors and to minimise harm to customers.

6. Customer Cancellations, Provider Cancellations & Errors

The voluntary customer-cancellation or returns policy you set for an offer must be disclosed to the customer before purchase. You authorise us to administer cancellations, returns and refunds permitted by the version disclosed for that order, the customer terms and applicable law. You may update a policy for future orders, but must not impose a stricter policy on an existing order without a lawful agreement with the customer. We may offer goodwill at our own expense without changing your obligations unless you agree.

If you cancel, cannot honour or materially fail to supply a confirmed order, or if a genuine availability, stock or administrative error prevents it from being supplied as purchased, you must notify us promptly and cooperate in arranging the full refund of the affected payment taken through our platform, subject to any additional remedy required by law. You authorise us to issue a refund that is due under the customer terms, your disclosed policy or law without awaiting a separate approval for each case, after reasonable consultation where time permits. The Supplier Account Record must specify how the parties fund such refunds, reverse commission and account for any amount already paid out. Neither party may delay a customer remedy solely because the supplier payout has already occurred.

If a customer complaint, chargeback or alleged service failure is disputed, we will share relevant details, give you a reasonable opportunity to respond where practicable, and take proportionate steps to protect customer and payment rights. The parties will allocate the final cost according to responsibility, their accepted schedule and applicable law.

7. Fees, Commission & Payouts

The fee for a paid listing or promotion is the amount shown and accepted for that purchase. Booking or product-sale commission, its calculation base, GST treatment, payment-processing costs, adjustments, payment frequency and payout dates must be set out in the private Supplier Account Record or another separately accepted written agreement before transactions go live. We do not publish your confidential commercial rate in customer-facing terms. Fees and rates cannot be changed retrospectively for an existing order without an agreed basis.

We will provide a reasonably clear accounting of bookings, commission, adjustments, refunds and payments. We may temporarily hold only the amount reasonably connected to a genuine chargeback, refund obligation, fraud concern or disputed transaction; we will explain the reason and release any remaining amount when that concern is resolved, subject to lawful payment-service requirements. We will not withhold unrelated payouts indefinitely.

8. Tax, Privacy & Compliance

Each party is responsible for its own taxes and legal obligations according to the actual transaction and applicable law. You must give us the supplier identity and tax information reasonably needed to handle orders and supply information to customers. Special GST rules may treat an online marketplace as the supplier for short-stay accommodation or other listed services for GST purposes, regardless of an agency description. The parties will agree the correct treatment before enabling affected bookings; these terms do not assign tax obligations contrary to law.

We may share the customer information reasonably needed for fulfilment, support, safety and refunds. You must use order information only for those purposes or another lawful purpose with an appropriate basis and notice; keep it secure; limit access; and notify us promptly of a relevant data incident or mistaken disclosure. Direct marketing to a customer requires an independent lawful basis and any consent required. Each party remains responsible for its own obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 and other applicable law.

9. Consumer Law & Business Purchases

Nothing in these terms removes a customer’s statutory rights. Where you acquire our platform services in trade and a written contracting-out agreement is permitted by law, the parties agree to contract out of the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 only to the extent that doing so is fair and reasonable in the circumstances. This provision concerns the business-to-business platform service only and does not alter a customer’s rights. The Fair Trading Act and unfair-contract-terms rules still apply as relevant.

10. Platform Material & Appropriate Use

Rights in our original platform-created copy, layouts, branding, software and compilations remain with us or the relevant rights holder. You retain rights in your own underlying content. Neither party obtains a right to copy the other’s protected material for unrelated commercial republication. Do not scrape personal data, interfere with the platform or republish its protected compilation without permission, except as permitted by law.

11. Responsibility for Claims

Each party remains responsible for its own acts, omissions, staff and legal duties. You will reimburse us for reasonable, properly evidenced third-party claims, losses and costs to the extent caused by your breach of these terms, negligent delivery, unlawful operations or unauthorised content you supplied, excluding amounts caused by our own breach or negligence. We will notify you promptly of a claim where practicable and take reasonable steps to limit loss. A mere allegation does not establish your liability. Customer refunds and chargebacks are allocated under the applicable Supplier Account Record and applicable law.

Neither party is responsible to the other for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable at the time of agreement, subject to applicable law and any specific, fairly agreed limits in the relevant Supplier Account Record. No clause caps or removes liability that cannot lawfully be limited. A separate commercial schedule may address insurance and limits for the actual risks of a booking arrangement.

12. Suspension, Ending Participation & Existing Bookings

Either party may end participation with reasonable written notice, subject to an accepted fixed paid package and any Supplier Account Record. We may suspend an offer promptly where there is a reasonable customer-safety, legal, fraud or rights concern or a material breach, and will explain the concern when practicable. Ending a listing does not erase earned fees, customer remedies or the obligation to honour or lawfully resolve existing orders. The parties will coordinate customer notices, refunds and records. We will deal fairly with any prepaid, undelivered listing service.

Provisions that reasonably need to continue after participation ends, including payment reconciliation, privacy, ownership and responsibility for earlier claims, continue for that purpose.

13. Law & Contact

These terms are governed by New Zealand law, subject to mandatory rights. Contact us through the platform for listing corrections, rights concerns or commercial disputes. We may keep a record of the version accepted for a paid package or Supplier Account Record.