Terms of Service

1 About Zapota

Zapota is an agricultural marketplace platform operated by ZAPOTA AGROTECH, based in Karnataka, India. The Platform connects farmers, agri-service providers, and buyers directly — enabling them to discover services, post listings, and establish contact with each other.

2 Eligibility

To use the Zapota Platform, you must:

• Be at least 18 years of age.
• Have a valid Indian mobile phone number capable of receiving SMS or WhatsApp messages.
• Be legally capable of entering into a binding contract under Indian law.
• Not be barred from using the Platform under any applicable law or previous account ban.

By registering, you confirm that all information you provide is accurate and that you meet these requirements.

3 Your Account

Registration

• You register using your mobile phone number, verified via a 4-digit OTP sent by SMS or WhatsApp.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and any activity that occurs under it.
• You must immediately notify us at support@zapota.in if you suspect unauthorised access.
• You may not create multiple accounts for the same person or use another person's number.

Account Termination

• You may delete your account at any time from Profile → Account → Delete Account.
• We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms, engage in fraudulent activity, or pose a safety risk to other users.
• On deletion, your data is soft-deleted for 30 days and then permanently purged.

4 Acceptable Use Policy

✅ You Must

• Provide accurate and truthful information in your profile and service listings.
• Post only genuine services and products that you can actually provide.
• Respond to service requests in good faith and in a timely manner.
• Treat other users with respect and professionalism at all times.
• Use the Platform only for lawful agricultural commerce and related services in India.

❌ You Must Not

• Post false, misleading, or exaggerated service listings.
• Submit fake or malicious service requests with no genuine intent.
• Harass, threaten, abuse, or harm other users through the Platform or via calls.
• Post content that is defamatory, obscene, or violates any third-party rights.
• Use automated tools, bots, or scripts to interact with the Platform.
• Attempt to hack, reverse-engineer, or disrupt the Platform or its servers.
• List items or services that are illegal under Indian law.
• Impersonate any person or organisation.
• Create multiple accounts to manipulate listings, ratings, or search results.

5 Service Listings

Seller Responsibilities

• You are solely responsible for the accuracy of your listings — title, description, price, photos, and delivery radius.
• You must hold any necessary licences or permits required to offer your listed services.
• You must honour your listed prices and descriptions when dealing with buyers.
• The Verified Zapota Partner badge indicates basic account checks only — not quality or safety guarantees.

Listing Standards

• Photos must accurately represent your actual products or services. Stock images are prohibited.
• Prices must be in Indian Rupees (INR) and reflect the actual cost to the buyer.
• Service area must reflect the genuine geographic area you are willing to serve.

6 Service Requests

The Request Process

• A buyer submits a Request Service — an expression of interest, NOT a binding order or purchase.
• The seller may Accept or Decline the request.
• Upon acceptance, both parties' in-app Call buttons activate for direct phone communication.
• All negotiation, pricing, delivery terms, and payment happen directly between buyer and seller — entirely outside the Platform.

Call Tracking

• After a call, users are shown a voluntary in-app prompt: "Were you able to connect?"
• This self-reported response is used for platform analytics only.
• Zapota does NOT record, listen to, or store the content of any phone calls.
• Zapota does NOT access your call logs. READ_CALL_LOG permission is never requested.

7 Payments & Transactions

• Buying and browsing on Zapota is free forever for farmers and buyers — no charges, no commission, ever.
• Zapota charges zero commission on any deal made between users.
• Sellers and service providers may be charged a listing fee to publish or promote listings. Any free trial period and the pricing that follows it are entirely at Zapota's discretion and may vary for new listings.
• If you have an active paid listing, it will remain live under the terms you paid for until the end of its current billing cycle, even if our pricing changes afterward. We will not cut short a cycle you've already paid for.
• Zapota is not responsible for payment disputes, non-payment, fraud, or financial losses arising between users conducting their own transactions.
• Users are responsible for complying with applicable tax laws (including GST) for their transactions.
• Zapota is not a payment aggregator, escrow service, or financial intermediary of any kind.

Listing Fees Paid to Zapota

• Listing fees payable to Zapota are collected through Razorpay Software Private Limited, a payment aggregator authorised by the Reserve Bank of India. Your payment is made on Razorpay's own checkout, subject to Razorpay's terms and privacy policy.
• Zapota never receives or stores your card, UPI, wallet or bank details. We receive only confirmation of whether a payment succeeded or failed.
• Where a payment fails but an amount is debited from your account, that amount is reversed by your bank or by Razorpay under their normal settlement process, ordinarily within 5 to 7 working days. Zapota does not hold the funds and cannot release them faster. If the amount has not returned after 7 working days, write to support@zapota.in with the date, amount and payment reference and we will pursue it with Razorpay on your behalf.
• Where a payment succeeds but your listing does not go live, notify us and we will either publish the listing or refund the fee in full.
• We do not store payment credentials for future use and do not operate recurring billing or auto-debit of any kind. Every payment requires an action by you.

8 Listing Lifecycle & Zapota Ārambha

Every listing on Zapota runs in 28-day cycles. This section explains what happens to a listing over time, and the terms of our launch programme.

Publishing & Free Trial

• When you publish a listing you may either pay the publishing fee immediately for a full 28-day cycle, or begin a 7-day free trial. In both cases your listing goes live at once.
• During a free trial your listing is fully visible to buyers. You may pay the publishing fee at any point before the trial expires to continue without interruption.
• If a free trial expires without payment, the listing is hidden from buyers. Your listing data is retained and you may pay to restore it.

Zapota Ārambha — Launch Programme

• Listings published under Ārambha still run in 28-day cycles, and may be renewed free of charge as many times as you wish for as long as the programme remains in effect.
• Zapota Ārambha is offered at our sole discretion and for a limited period. We may modify, suspend, or end the programme at any time.
• We will give reasonable advance notice in the app before the programme ends. When it ends, the standard 7-day free trial and the published fee for your category apply to new listings and to renewals.
• A listing already live under Ārambha remains live for the remainder of its current 28-day cycle at no charge, even if the programme ends during that cycle.

Standard Publishing Fees

Once Zapota Ārambha ends, publishing fees apply per 28-day cycle and vary by category and sub-category. Current tiers are ₹49, ₹99, ₹199 and ₹399. The exact fee for your listing is always displayed to you before you are asked to pay. Fees are subject to change, and any change applies only to new listings and renewals — never to a cycle you have already paid for.

Renewal Is Always Manual

Pausing, Expiry & Deletion

• Pausing hides a listing from buyers but does not stop the 28-day cycle. Time continues to run while a listing is paused, and no extension or credit is given for paused days.
• Expiry occurs at the end of a cycle if you do not renew. The listing is hidden from buyers but retained so you can renew it later.
• Deletion is permanent and cannot be reversed. No refund is given for the unused portion of a paid cycle.
• The category, service location and photographs of a published listing cannot be edited. Changing any of these requires deleting the listing and publishing a new one, for which the applicable publishing fee is payable again.

9 Refund Policy

This section applies only to listing fees or other charges paid directly to Zapota — it does not cover transactions between buyers and sellers, which Zapota is not a party to.

• Listing fees and other charges paid to Zapota are generally non-refundable once a listing has gone live or a paid feature has been activated.
• If your listing is rejected during our verification process before going live, any fee already paid for that listing will be refunded in full.
• Refund requests can be sent to support@zapota.in; approved refunds are processed to the original payment method within a reasonable timeframe.
• No refund is due for the unused portion of a cycle where you pause or delete a listing yourself, or where a listing is removed or an account suspended for breach of these Terms. See section 8 and section 11.
• Where a payment failed but an amount was debited, this is a payment reversal rather than a refund. See section 7.

10 Fraud Warning

• Be cautious of anyone claiming to represent Zapota and asking for payment via UPI, bank transfer, or any channel outside official, verifiable Zapota billing.
• Zapota does not guarantee, insure, or take responsibility for the identity, quality, or conduct of any buyer or seller on the Platform — verify who you're dealing with before making any payment or exchanging goods.
• If you suspect fraud, or receive a suspicious request claiming to be from Zapota, report it immediately to support@zapota.in or via WhatsApp.

11 Reporting, Blocking & Content Enforcement

Reporting a Listing or User

Every listing carries a Report option. You may report any listing or user you believe breaches these Terms. We ask you to report content that is fraudulent or misleading, dishonestly priced, placed in the wrong category, contains contact details or external links, uses photographs belonging to someone else, or is abusive or unlawful.

• Reports are reviewed by Zapota. We may request further information from you before acting.
• Submitting a report does not guarantee a particular outcome, and we are not obliged to disclose the result of a review to the reporting user.
• Reports made in bad faith — including to harm a competitor or to harass another user — are themselves a breach of these Terms and may result in action against your account.

Blocking Another User

• Blocking is a personal setting. A blocked user's listings will no longer appear to you, and the blocked user is not notified.
• Blocking is not a report. If a user is breaching these Terms, please report them as well, so that other users are protected.

Prohibited Content in Listings

• Listings are checked automatically for prohibited content at the point of creation and at every edit. Non-compliant content is rejected.
• Photographs must be of the actual item, service or land offered, and must be your own. Stock images, images taken from the internet, and images bearing contact details or watermarks are not permitted.
• Listings must not advertise anything unlawful, nor any goods or services whose sale is restricted or requires a licence you do not hold.

Enforcement Actions

Where we find a breach of these Terms, we may take any of the following actions, with or without prior notice, at our discretion depending on severity and repetition:

• Remove or hide the offending listing or content;
• Reject an edit or prevent republication of the same content;
• Restrict your ability to publish new listings or send service requests;
• Suspend your account temporarily; or
• Terminate your account permanently in cases of fraud, repeated breach, or conduct that endangers other users.

No refund is payable for listing fees where a listing is removed or an account is suspended or terminated for breach of these Terms.

Retention of Data for Banned Accounts

Where an account is suspended or permanently terminated for fraud, abuse, or repeated breach of these Terms, we retain the account identifiers, the reports and content concerned, and a record of the enforcement action. We do this to prevent the same person re-registering, to protect other users, and to comply with legal obligations. This retention continues after the account is closed and applies notwithstanding a request for deletion, to the extent permitted by applicable law. See our Privacy Policy for further detail on retention.

12 Conduct During Calls

When a service request is accepted, contact details are exchanged and the parties speak directly by telephone. Zapota is not a party to that call, does not record, monitor or store call audio, and has no visibility of what is discussed. The following terms nonetheless apply to conduct on those calls.

Expected Conduct

• Call at reasonable hours, and identify yourself and the listing you are calling about.
• Be truthful about price, quantity, quality, variety, condition and availability. Statements you make on a call are your responsibility.
• Respect a clear refusal. If the other party declines, do not call repeatedly.

Prohibited Conduct

• Contact details obtained through Zapota may be used only in relation to the service request concerned. Using them for unsolicited marketing, adding a person to a broadcast list or group, reselling or sharing them with third parties, or contacting a person about unrelated matters, is prohibited.
• Do not attempt to move a transaction off the Platform in order to avoid publishing fees, nor solicit users to a competing service.
• Never disclose a one-time password (OTP), PIN or banking credential to anyone on a call, including a person claiming to represent Zapota. Zapota will never ask you for an OTP or password.

Reporting Misconduct on a Call

Report call misconduct through the Report option on the listing, or by writing to support@zapota.in or messaging us on WhatsApp. Because we hold no record of the call itself, please include the listing name, the approximate date and time, and what occurred. You may also block the user. Where conduct may be criminal we encourage you to report it to the police, and we will co-operate with a valid request from law enforcement.

Allocation of Risk

Any agreement reached on a call is solely between the buyer and the seller. Zapota is not a party to it, gives no warranty as to either party's performance, and accepts no liability for loss arising from conduct on a call or from any agreement made during one.

13 Future Paid Features & Monetisation

Buying and browsing on Zapota is free forever. Selling and listing services may involve fees, with any current trial or pricing at Zapota's discretion — see Section 7 (Payments) for details. To sustain and grow the platform, we plan to introduce or evolve paid features over time. These may include:

14 Verified Zapota Partner Badge

Some sellers display a ✓ Verified Zapota Partner badge. This badge indicates that the account has undergone basic verification checks by our team. It does NOT constitute:

• A guarantee of quality, safety, or fitness of the seller's services or products.
• An endorsement by Zapota of the seller's business practices.
• A warranty that the seller holds all required licences or permits.

Zapota reserves the right to revoke the Verified badge at any time if a seller violates these Terms.

15 Intellectual Property

Zapota's IP

The Zapota name, logo (including the leaf-incorporated 'p' mark), app design, website design, and all related content are the exclusive intellectual property of ZAPOTA AGROTECH. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from any Zapota IP without our express written consent.

Your Content

You retain ownership of content you post (listings, photos, descriptions). By posting, you grant Zapota a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display and distribute that content to operate and promote the Platform. You warrant that you have the right to post all content you submit.

Trade Marks

ZAPOTA, the Zapota word mark, the leaf-incorporated 'p' logo, and Zapota Ārambha are trade marks of ZAPOTA AGROTECH. Applications for registration have been filed with the Trade Marks Registry, Government of India. Use of these marks, or of any mark or name confusingly similar to them, without our prior written permission is prohibited. This includes use in a business or trading name, a domain name, an application name, a social media handle, advertising, or metadata and keywords.

Copyright in the Platform

The Zapota application and website, including their source code, design, layout, category taxonomy, illustrations, icons, photographs and written content, are protected by copyright and are the exclusive property of ZAPOTA AGROTECH. You must not copy, scrape, mirror, decompile, reverse engineer, or create derivative works from any part of the Platform, nor extract or reuse listings or other data from it, whether manually or by any automated means, without our prior written consent.

Content You Are Responsible For

• You must not upload photographs, text, logos or other material belonging to another person without their permission. Uploading images taken from the internet, from another seller's listing, or from a manufacturer's catalogue is a breach of these Terms and may infringe third-party rights.
• You indemnify Zapota against any claim arising from content you post, including any claim of copyright or trade mark infringement.

Enforcement

Infringement of our intellectual property, or of a third party's rights through content you post, may result in removal of the content, suspension or permanent termination of your account without refund, and any legal remedy available to us or to the rights holder, including injunctive relief and damages. We reserve every right and remedy available under the Trade Marks Act 1999, the Copyright Act 1957, and the Information Technology Act 2000.

Notice of Infringement

If you believe content on the Platform infringes your intellectual property, write to support@zapota.in with details of the work, the infringing listing, and confirmation that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them. We will review and act on valid notices.

16 Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

We Are Not Liable For:

• The quality, safety, legality, or fitness of any listed service or product.
• Disputes between buyers and sellers, including payment disputes or delivery failures.
• Financial losses arising from transactions between users.
• Platform downtime, data loss, or interruptions caused by technical or third-party failures.
• Actions taken by users in violation of these Terms.

Maximum Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by Indian law, Zapota's aggregate liability for any claim shall not exceed INR 1,000 (One Thousand Rupees), regardless of the nature of the claim.

17 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless ZAPOTA AGROTECH, its directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from:

• Your violation of these Terms.
• Content you post on the Platform.
• Any dispute between you and another user.
• Your violation of any applicable Indian law.

18 Governing Law & Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India, including:

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 and its amendments.
• The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (where applicable).
• The Indian Contract Act, 1872.

Disputes shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Shivamogga, Karnataka, India. Before legal proceedings, both parties agree to attempt amicable resolution within 30 days. Unresolved disputes may be referred to arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

19 Changes to These Terms

We reserve the right to update these Terms at any time. Material changes will be communicated via in-app notification at least 7 days before they take effect. Continued use of the Platform after the effective date constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.

20 Contact Us

For any questions about these Terms: