Terms of Use

1. About these terms

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the website at massagetherapist.me, every page published on it, and every related feature, including booking requests, messages, reviews, the question-and-answer chat, the therapist studio and dashboard (together, the "platform"). The platform is operated by the owners and shareholders, referred to in these Terms as "we", "us" or "our".

By accessing or using the platform in any way you agree to be bound by these Terms and by the Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Reviews Policy, Cookie Notice and Refunds and Cancellations Policy, each of which forms part of these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the platform.

You must be at least 18 years old to send a booking request, leave a review, leave a message, or hold a therapist page.

2. What the platform is, and what it is not

The platform only publishes pages and passes on requests. The owners and shareholders do not employ, engage, supervise, vet, certify, insure or recommend any therapist, and are not a party to any booking, agreement, payment or service between a therapist and a client.

Each therapist page is a personal website for an independent massage therapist. The platform does not operate a directory, does not rank or search therapists, and does not hold itself out as providing massage or any health, wellness or personal service.

A booking request sent through a page is an invitation from a client to a therapist to arrange a session. It is not a booking, a reservation, a contract or a confirmation. No session is arranged unless and until the therapist personally confirms it with the client, usually by WhatsApp. The platform does not quote prices or availability and does not take payments from clients.

Any agreement for a massage session is made solely between the client and the therapist. The therapist alone is responsible for the session, its conduct, its safety, its quality, its price, any travel cost, and any taxes, licences, registrations or insurance that may apply to her or his practice.

3. Travel costs, distance and weather

Where a therapist travels to clients, a page may display an estimated travel cost calculated by applying the therapist's own travel rule to a driving distance obtained from a third-party mapping service. Distances, routes and estimates may be inaccurate, incomplete or out of date. The therapist confirms the final amount directly with the client.

Weather information is supplied by a third-party forecast service for the therapist's general base location. Forecasts are estimates only and may be wrong. We accept no responsibility for any decision made in reliance on them.

4. The question-and-answer chat

Pages may include a chat that answers general questions about massage. Answers are produced automatically from a fixed body of general information and may be incomplete or incorrect. The chat does not give medical, health, legal or professional advice, does not quote prices or availability, and does not speak for any therapist. If you have any health condition, injury, are pregnant, or take medication, consult a qualified medical practitioner before booking a massage and tell the therapist directly.

5. Therapist pages and subscriptions

Therapist pages are created by invitation. A therapist may view a private preview of a page prepared for her and may choose to claim it. A page becomes publicly available only once it is claimed and made live in accordance with the subscription terms communicated at the time.

A therapist with a page warrants that all information she provides, including her name, area, mobile number, photos, note and travel rule, is true, accurate, lawful and her own or used with permission, and that she is lawfully entitled to offer massage services in the area she serves.

Subscription fees, launch pricing and any price lock are as stated on the platform at the time a therapist subscribes. Created photos beyond those included with the subscription are charged at the rate shown on the platform at the time of the request. Payment terms are governed by the Refunds and Cancellations Policy.

A therapist may pause her page at any time from her dashboard. We may suspend, pause, edit or remove any page, photo, note, review or other content, or end any subscription, if we reasonably believe that it breaches these Terms or any policy, that it creates legal, reputational or safety risk, or that we are required to do so by law.

6. Accounts and sign-in

Therapists sign in using a one-time code sent by SMS to the mobile number linked to their page. You are responsible for keeping your phone and codes secure and for all activity that takes place after you sign in. Tell us immediately if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

7. Content and licence

Content you submit, including photos, text, requests, messages and reviews, remains yours or your licensors'. You grant the owners and shareholders a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable and sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for display, publish and transmit that content for the purpose of operating, securing, improving and promoting the platform, for as long as the content remains on the platform and for a reasonable period afterwards for backup, legal and audit purposes.

Photos supplied from the platform's own library or created on a therapist's behalf are licensed to that therapist for use on her page for the duration of her subscription only, unless we agree otherwise in writing.

All rights in the platform itself, including its design, code, text, layout, look and feel, trade marks and name, belong to the owners and shareholders or their licensors. You may not copy, scrape, frame, reverse engineer or create derivative works of the platform except as expressly allowed by law.

8. No warranties

The platform is provided "as is" and "as available". To the maximum extent permitted by law, the owners and shareholders make no warranty or representation of any kind, express or implied, about the platform, any page, any therapist, any client, any session, or any information shown, including any warranty of accuracy, availability, fitness for purpose, safety, quality or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or free of errors, viruses or other harmful components, or that messages and requests will be delivered.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the owners and shareholders, and their respective agents, contractors and service providers, are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive loss, damage, injury, cost or expense of any kind, including loss of income, loss of bookings, loss of data, personal injury or damage to property, arising from or in connection with your use of the platform, any page, any request, any message, any review, any session, or the conduct of any therapist or client, whether in contract, delict, statute or otherwise, even if advised of the possibility of such loss.

Where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, the total aggregate liability of the owners and shareholders to you for all claims is limited to the amount of subscription fees, if any, that you paid to us in the three months before the event giving rise to the claim.

10. Indemnity

You indemnify and hold harmless the owners and shareholders, and their agents, contractors and service providers, against any claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, fine, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs on an attorney-and-own-client scale) arising out of or in connection with your use of the platform, your content, any session you provide or receive, or your breach of these Terms or any law.

11. Third-party services

The platform relies on third-party services including messaging, mapping, forecast, hosting, storage, SMS and automated text services. Use of those services may be subject to their own terms. Opening a WhatsApp link hands you over to WhatsApp, which we do not control. We are not responsible for the availability, content or practices of any third-party service.

12. Suspension and termination

We may restrict, suspend or end your access to the platform at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms or any policy, or to protect the platform, its users or the public. Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including those on licences, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity and governing law, survive.

Governing law and jurisdiction

This document, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it or its subject matter, is governed by and must be interpreted in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa. You agree that the courts of the Republic of South Africa have jurisdiction to hear and determine any such dispute, without prejudice to any right of the owners and shareholders to seek interim or urgent relief in any competent court.

Nothing in this document limits any right you may have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, or the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, to the extent that those Acts apply and cannot lawfully be limited.

Changes to this document

We may update this document from time to time to reflect changes in the platform, in the law, or in how we operate. The updated version takes effect when it is published on this page, and the date at the top will change. Where a change materially affects therapists with an active subscription, we will make reasonable efforts to tell them in advance through the contact details we hold. Your continued use of the platform after a change takes effect means you accept the updated document.

Severability, waiver and entire agreement

If any provision of this document is found to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, that provision will be severed and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect. Any failure or delay by us in enforcing a right does not amount to a waiver of that right. This document, together with the other policies linked in the footer of every page, constitutes the entire agreement between you and us on its subject matter.

Contact

Questions about this document can be sent to us using the contact details provided to therapists on onboarding, or by leaving a message through the platform. References in this document to "we", "us" and "our" are references to the owners and shareholders of the platform, collectively, and to no other person.