User Agreement

These terms are an agreement between you and Farm Fayre EMC Limited (Farm Fayre, we, us), an Irish company. They govern your access to and use of the Farm Fayre platform: our websites, apps and services (together, the Platform).

Farm Fayre connects farmers who want to sell cattle with farmers who want to buy them, and provides the rails that let the trade complete cleanly: listings, offers, secured payment through Trustap, our regulated payment institution (Trustap's Terms of Service: https://www.trustap.com/terms), transport by independent hauliers, and weighing on a certified weighbridge. Farm Fayre sells nothing on the Platform and never takes ownership or possession of any animal.

Every trade rests on direct relationships between the parties themselves. The contract for the sale of livestock is made directly between the buyer and the seller; Farm Fayre is not a party to it. The haulage of a lot is performed by an independent haulier who contracts to carry the animals for the buyer and seller; Farm Fayre is not the carrier. Payment services are provided to you by an authorised payment institution under its own terms; Farm Fayre never holds your money, which sits with the payment institution at all times. Farm Fayre provides the architecture within which each party completes its own obligations.

By registering, or by using the Platform, you accept these terms, our Privacy Policy, the Payments Terms, and, where they apply to you, the Seller Declaration, the Haulage Terms and the Connector Terms.

The Platform is for people trading livestock in the course of a farming business. By registering you confirm that you are at least 18, that you act in the course of a business (including farming as a sole trader or through a company), that you hold or are named on a valid herd number, and that you have authority to bind any company or partnership you register for.

Because every user trades as a business, consumer protection rules that apply to private consumers, including distance-selling cancellation rights, do not apply to trades on the Platform. If you are not trading as a business, do not register.

Registration requires a verified phone number and a valid email address. Buying requires a delivery address and a herd number. Selling additionally requires completion of your payout profile with the payment institution before any payout can be made to you.

Keep your details accurate and current. One account per person or business. You may not transfer your account, and you are responsible for everything done under it. We may decline, suspend or close registrations as set out in clause 17.

Sellers list cattle in lots at an asking price the seller selects. Every listing must be accurate, complete and honest: this is the foundation of the Platform, and it is backed by the Seller Declaration you sign at listing, which forms part of these terms.

You may only list animals you legally own and/or are entitled to sell. Each animal may appear in only one live lot at a time. Photographs and video must show the actual animals in the lot, all of them, and only them, clearly enough for a buyer to make an informed decision.

Listings state whether the lot is sold By Weight or Not By Weight. By Weight lots settle on the weight taken on a certified weighbridge as described in clause 12. Not By Weight lots are sold at a flat price per head with no weighing step; the issue window in clause 14 still protects the buyer against gross error or misdescription.

Listings must comply with animal health law. The Department of Agriculture rules in force govern farm-to-farm movements: you are responsible for ensuring every animal you list is eligible to move to the buyer under those rules, including any pre-movement TB test the rules require, and the consequences of listing an ineligible animal rest with you.

Once a lot is live and has an active offer, you cannot withdraw it. Cosmetic corrections are allowed and offerors are notified. You may lower your Seller's Buy Now Number at any time, but may not increase it. Material changes, including head count, weights or different animals, are not permitted: the lot is closed and a new lot is created.

An offer is a binding commitment to buy the whole lot at your offered price per head, on the terms of the listing. All offers are binding. There is no withdrawal of offers.

Every offer is valid for 24 hours exactly from placement. If you place a new higher offer on the same lot, your earlier offer is replaced. The offer history on each lot is public, with usernames masked for privacy.

Every sale is a negotiated agreement between buyer and seller. The seller may accept, counter, hold or decline any offer, and may accept any offer, not only the highest: the seller’s judgment decides.

You may only offer on a lot if you are independent of the seller. Offering on your own lot, or arranging for a connected person to do so to move the price, is prohibited and grounds for immediate closure of both accounts.

A seller sets one figure on a lot: the Seller's Buy Now Number, a public price at which any buyer may complete the trade instantly. It is the seller's ask, and there is no second figure, no reserve and no private floor. The Seller's Buy Now Number can only ever move down, and its full history is shown on the lot. When a buyer meets it, the sale is made at that moment; where two buyers act at once, the earliest received by our servers completes.

Buyers may offer below the Seller's Buy Now Number as often as they like, and the seller accepts an offer or moves the number down to meet the market. A buyer who completes at the Seller's Buy Now Number and then fails to pay is treated under clause 10; repeated or bad-faith non-payment leads to account closure and, where a deposit is held, forfeiture under the Payments Terms.

Every lot has a published closing time, visible from the moment it goes live. Closing times fall Monday to Saturday between 18:00 and 20:00.

A sale is made whenever an offer meets the Seller's Buy Now Number, or the seller accepts an offer. If the lot reaches its closing time without a sale, Farm Fayre may invite the seller and the leading offeror to conclude the trade within a short on-screen window on the terms shown to them at that time. Any acceptance in that window is a binding sale exactly as if made before close. If no sale is made, the lot ends unsold and the seller may relist.

At the moment of sale a binding contract for the sale of the lot exists directly between buyer and seller at the agreed price per head, on the listing terms, the Seller Declaration, and these terms. The Platform then generates the completion figures: the stock amount, the weight allowance where the lot is By Weight, the Farm Fayre fees, the haulage charge, and the payment institution line, each shown separately before the buyer confirms.

Listing is free, and an unsold lot costs nothing. Farm Fayre charges settlement fees to buyer and seller only when a trade completes, at the rates published on the Fees page at the time the sale is made. Fees are per head, plus VAT at the standard rate, and are collected within settlement by the payment institution; you never make a separate payment to Farm Fayre. We may change fees by publishing the new rates on the Fees page at least 14 days before they take effect; changes never apply to a sale already made.

The buyer pays the full completion amount by bank transfer to the payment institution, Trustap Ltd, within 48 hours of sale, measured in banking time: a sale made on Saturday evening is due Tuesday evening. One 24-hour extension is available. Sending or receiving money on the Platform also requires your acceptance of Trustap's Terms of Service at https://www.trustap.com/terms, as set out in the Payments Terms. The Payments Terms set out the full mechanics, including the verified-offeror deposit (a standing refundable deposit), what happens if funds arrive in instalments, and forfeiture.

No animal moves until the buyer’s payment has arrived in full with the payment institution. This protects the seller absolutely: your cattle never leave the farm unpaid.

Collection and delivery are performed by independent hauliers under the Haulage Terms. Both parties agree to provide safe, well-maintained loading facilities, to be present or represented at the notified times, and to have cattle and movement cards ready.

Animal identification and movement law places its obligations on the buyer and the seller, not on Farm Fayre: the seller completes the movement notification through the official channels, and the buyer accepts the animals into their herd. Buyer and seller each agree to provide all information, and take all actions, reasonably necessary to allow the other party, and the haulier, to comply with the regulations that apply to the movement.

By Weight lots settle on the weight taken on a certified weighbridge, with the figures recorded and visible to both parties. Farm Fayre is never the certifying authority: certified instruments certify, and the Platform records.

Checkout on a By Weight lot includes a 10 percent weight allowance, clearly shown, so that ordinary variation between the listed average and the certified weighbridge weight settles automatically: if the recorded weight is within 10 percent of the listed weight, the figures adjust, any balance from the allowance returns to the buyer at settlement, and the trade proceeds without drama.

If the recorded weight is outside 10 percent in either direction, the load pauses at the weighbridge and both parties negotiate a satisfactory resolution. The outcomes are: complete at the standing price, complete at a new price both agree, or the trade does not proceed. Where the weight is over and both agree to proceed, the buyer tops up the difference before funds release. A seller listing error never costs the buyer: the buyer bought in good faith from the listing, and the benefit of the doubt rests with the buyer.

Not By Weight lots involve no weighing step and settle at the agreed figures.

Funds are released by the payment institution when everything is complete: payment in full, delivery made, and no open issue. Release then happens 24 hours after delivery in banking time, or earlier if the buyer chooses to settle early and confirms the animals are accepted. On release, one settlement pays everyone at once: the seller receives their funds, any allowance balance returns to the buyer, and the Farm Fayre fees, haulage and any connector fee are paid. Settlement Figures issue to the buyer and to the seller, and Farm Fayre issues its own fee invoice.

If delivered animals do not match the listing and the Seller Declaration, the buyer may raise an issue on the Platform within 24 hours of delivery. Raising an issue pauses release of all funds immediately.

Farm Fayre reviews the listing, the Declaration, the weigh records, the media and both parties’ accounts of events, speaks to both sides, and decides the outcome. We take no sides: our only interest is that the listing was honest and the trade completes as described. Where the seller breached the Declaration or materially misdescribed the lot, the animals are returned at the seller’s cost and the buyer’s money is returned in full. Where the listing was accurate, the buyer accepts the animals and funds release. Both parties agree that Farm Fayre’s decision on an issue is final and binding, and that where delivered animals match the listing, no valid issue arises. There are no partial returns: a lot trades, and returns, as a whole.

If no issue is raised within 24 hours of delivery, both parties agree the trade is complete and funds release.

After settlement both parties are invited to review each other. Reviews are exchanged blind: each side’s review publishes when both are in, or after seven days. Reviews must be honest and about the trade. Threatening a bad review to extract something not in the listing, demanding a good one, or trading reviews, is prohibited. Ratings and badges shown on the Platform are earned from real trades and real records, and no seller is ever ranked negatively in public.

Farm Fayre earns its fee only when a trade completes, and every protection in these terms, secured funds, the issue window, exists only on the Platform. You agree not to use the Platform, or contact details or information obtained through it, to make contact with another user off the Platform, to propose or complete a trade off the Platform, or to circumvent the fees. Contact details are never shown in listings or Q&A and may not be requested or shared there.

If you breach this clause, you agree to pay Farm Fayre, for each diverted trade, an amount equal to seven times the fees that would have applied to that trade. Both parties agree this is a genuine pre-estimate of the loss to Farm Fayre, reflecting the cost of building and maintaining the platform, the haulage network, the secured payment rails and the protections that made the trade possible, and not a penalty. Breach is also grounds for suspension or closure under clause 17.

We may restrict, suspend or close an account for breach of these terms, dishonesty, abuse of users, hauliers or staff, risk to the Platform or its users, legal risk, or failure to pay amounts due. Except where a breach is serious, creates safety, welfare, fraud or legal risk, or the law requires otherwise, we will give 7 days’ notice with reasons before closing a business user’s account, and you may use the complaints process in clause 18 to challenge a decision. Serious cases take effect immediately. Closure does not release either party from a sale already made.

If you are unhappy with the Platform or a decision we have made about your account or listing, contact support and tell us: complaints are logged, reviewed, and answered. If we cannot resolve a complaint between us, we each agree to mediation before any court proceedings, with a mediator agreed between us or nominated by the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland.

These terms are governed by the laws of Ireland and, subject to the above, the Irish courts have jurisdiction. Nothing in this clause affects clause 14, which governs issues between buyer and seller on a trade.

You keep ownership of the content you post. You grant Farm Fayre a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, use, display, adapt and promote that content for operating and marketing the Platform, for as long as your rights in it last. You confirm your content is yours, is accurate, and does not infringe anyone’s rights. We may edit or remove content that breaks these terms or the law, and we operate a notice mechanism: anyone may report unlawful content to us and we will review and act on properly substantiated notices.

The Farm Fayre name, brand and Platform are ours; nothing here transfers any of our intellectual property to you.

Search and browse results are ordered by factors including closing time, listing recency, completeness and quality of the listing, price, badges earned from trading records, and compliance with these terms. Sort controls let buyers reorder results themselves. No one can pay for a higher position.

Our Privacy Policy explains what personal data we process and why, including data shared with the payment institution, hauliers, herd data providers (with your consent) and our messaging providers.

Counterparty details are shared for completion of a trade only: the seller receives the buyer’s details at funds landed, and the buyer receives the seller’s details as completion proceeds. You agree to use those details only for that trade and in compliance with data protection law.

The Platform connects independent buyers, sellers and hauliers. Farm Fayre does not own, inspect or certify the animals, is not the certifying authority for any weight, and is not a party to the sale or the haulage. The seller is responsible for the accuracy of the listing under the Seller Declaration; the haulier is responsible for the transport; each party is responsible for its own legal compliance, including animal health, identification, movement and welfare law and tax.

We do not exclude or limit liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence. Subject to that, Farm Fayre is not liable for business losses such as loss of profit, opportunity or goodwill, for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable, or for the acts or omissions of buyers, sellers, hauliers, the payment institution or other third parties; and our total liability to you in any 12-month period is limited to the Farm Fayre fees you paid us in that period or €100, whichever is the lesser.

We may update these terms by posting the new version with at least 28 days’ notice before it takes effect, and for material changes we will notify you directly. Changes never apply retrospectively to a sale already made. If you do not accept a change, close your account before the effective date; continuing to use the Platform after it means you accept the new terms.

These terms, with the policies they reference, are the entire agreement between you and Farm Fayre about the Platform. If any provision is found invalid, the rest stand. A failure to enforce is not a waiver. We may assign this agreement on terms no less favourable to you. Notices to you go to your registered email, which is the notice of record. Nothing in these terms creates any partnership, agency or employment relationship between you and Farm Fayre.

Farm Fayre is a technology platform that enables private treaty sales agreed directly between buyer and seller. Farm Fayre does not conduct auctions, does not act as agent for buyer or seller, is not a party to any sale, does not take title to any animal, does not hold client funds, and does not operate a livestock mart. Every sale is a negotiated agreement between the buyer and the seller.