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Draft: pending professional Philippine legal review. This describes how DinkingBuds actually works today but has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer, and is not a final, binding agreement. Sections marked ⚖ specifically await legal judgment.

DinkingBuds Terms of Service (DRAFT: not yet reviewed by counsel)

Effective date: [DATE]. Last updated: [DATE].

**This is a draft prepared for legal review. It is not currently in

effect and must not be presented to any real user as binding until a

Philippine lawyer has reviewed it, including the ⚖ items listed in

03-legal-review-checklist.md.**

DinkingBuds ("we," "us," "the Platform") is operated by

[LEGAL ENTITY NAME], [a sole proprietorship / corporation registered in

the Philippines], with a registered address at [ADDRESS]. These Terms

govern your use of the DinkingBuds website and services.

DinkingBuds connects players with pickleball courts and related

activities (open play, games, coaching, tournaments, leagues) operated

by independent venue partners. **DinkingBuds is a booking and

coordination platform. It is not the operator of any court, and it

does not process, hold, or move payments.** See §3 for how that works.

1. Who these Terms apply to

There are two kinds of accounts:

  • Players: anyone who books a court, joins a game, enrolls in

coaching, or registers for a tournament/league through the Platform.

  • Venue Partners: the business (and its staff) that owns or

operates a court facility and uses the Platform's owner console to

manage bookings, pricing, and payments verification for that venue.

1a. Age eligibility

[⚖ **Gap found during this review, not yet resolved anywhere in the

product or prior drafts**: the app collects no birthdate and enforces no

minimum age at signup (profiles has no age/birthdate field). Pickleball

skews toward a broad age range including minors playing in family/junior

sessions. Counsel needs to decide the minimum age for an account holder

(e.g. "13+ with a guardian's involvement for anyone under 18" is a common

consumer-app pattern, but the right line for a physical-activity/payment

context in the Philippines should be counsel's call), and whether a

minor can hold their own account and submit payment references at all,

or must book only through a guardian's account. Until this is resolved,

treat the Platform as intended for users who can lawfully enter a

contract in their own right, with venue staff responsible for their own

in-person judgment about supervising minors at the facility.]

Where a term applies to only one group, it says so. Venue Partners are

also bound by the 05-venue-partner-agreement.md, which is more

specific about the business relationship; where the two conflict, the

Venue Partner Agreement controls for venue-operational matters.

2. Accounts

  • You must provide a real name and a working mobile number to create an

account. We use your mobile number to identify you for bookings and to

contact you about them. See the Privacy Policy for what we collect

and why.

  • You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and

for all activity under your account.

  • We do not currently collect government-issued ID as part of signup.
  • There is no self-service "delete my account" feature today; account

deletion is handled manually. See the Privacy Policy §6.

3. What DinkingBuds Is and Isn't (Marketplace Disclaimer)

See 04-marketplace-disclaimer.md for the full text; summarized here:

  • The Venue Partner owns and is responsible for the court facility,

its condition, safety, staffing, and the quality of any coaching or

officiated event held there.

  • DinkingBuds is responsible for the booking workflow, the payment

verification tooling (not payment processing, see below), and

dispute-mediation tooling made available to Venue Partners.

  • Payments are not processed by DinkingBuds. When you pay for a

booking, membership, or event fee, you send money directly to the

Venue Partner via GCash, Maya, or bank transfer, using the payment

details the Venue Partner provides in the app. You then submit the

transaction reference number in the app. A staff member at that venue

manually confirms the payment against their own account before your

booking is confirmed. **DinkingBuds never receives, holds, or has

access to your payment credentials, and a screenshot or claim of

payment is never treated as proof of payment by itself.** Only the

venue's own confirmation against their own account confirms a booking.

  • Because DinkingBuds does not hold or move funds, there is no platform

"settlement" process. [If/when a platform fee is introduced, this

section must be revisited and re-reviewed for BSP payment-services

implications. See the legal-review checklist §2.]

4. Bookings

  • A booking is only guaranteed once its slot passes the Platform's

double-booking check at the moment you request it; a court can never

be double-booked for the same time by design, but a slot you're

viewing can be taken by someone else between when you look and when

you commit. If that happens, we'll tell you immediately, and no

payment claim is created for a slot you don't hold.

  • A booking becomes confirmed only after venue staff verify your

payment reference against their own account. Until then it is shown

as pending/awaiting payment and does not guarantee the court.

  • See 03-cancellation-refund-terms.md for what happens if you or the

venue cancels.

5. Games, Coaching, Tournaments, and Leagues

  • Public games, clinics, tournament matches, and league fixtures all

reserve real court time as an underlying booking. There is no

"phantom" reservation that isn't backed by an actual court slot.

  • Hosting or joining a public game, enrolling in coaching, or

registering for a tournament/league may carry its own fee, verified

the same way as a standard court booking (§3).

  • Reliability information (attendance/no-show history) that the Platform

tracks for games is visible only to venue staff, not to other players,

and is not published as a public score.

  • See 06-player-conduct-rules.md for conduct expectations in these

activities.

6. Fees

DinkingBuds does not currently charge players or venues a platform fee.

[If this changes, this section, the Privacy Policy, and the BIR item in

the legal-review checklist all need to be revisited before launch of any

fee.]

7. Player Conduct

See 06-player-conduct-rules.md for the full text.

8. Data & Privacy

See 02-privacy-policy.md for what we collect, why, and how it's used.

9. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

[⚖ Standard consumer-protection and limitation-of-liability language

for the Philippine market, to be drafted by counsel. Must not

disclaim liability for anything the Platform actually promises

elsewhere in these Terms, e.g. the no-double-booking guarantee.]

9a. Assumption of Risk (physical activity)

[⚖ Gap found during this review: pickleball is a physical sport with

an ordinary risk of injury (falls, collisions, strains), and no

assumption-of-risk or injury-waiver language exists anywhere in the

product today. There is no in-app acknowledgment step at signup or at

booking time. Counsel should draft standard sport-participation

assumption-of-risk language here, and confirm whether it's enforceable

as-is inside a clickthrough ToS under Philippine law or needs a separate

signed waiver (common for organized tournaments/leagues specifically,

even where casual open-play might rely on the ToS alone). Note this is

between the player and the Venue Partner as the facility operator in the

first instance (see the Marketplace Disclaimer). DinkingBuds itself

does not supervise play.]

10. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. [Notice mechanism to be defined, e.g. email/

SMS/in-app notice before changes take effect; current notification

system is notification_outbox, in-app + respects opt-outs, no email

channel exists yet.]

11. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of the Philippines.

[Venue/jurisdiction for disputes, to be set by counsel.]

12. Contact

[SUPPORT EMAIL / PHONE / ADDRESS]