Minted, LLC ("Minted") provides service to you as an offeror and seller of commissioned art subject to the following Artist Commissioned Art Terms of Service (these “Terms of Service”), which may be updated by us from time to time without specific notice to you.

These Terms of Service apply to all artists who offer commissioned art on Minted.com website or any other websites or pages owned or controlled by Minted (collectively the "Website") to customers of Minted utilizing our art commissions service (“Minted Commissioned Art”).

The ability to participate as an artist in Minted Commissioned Art is not currently available to the general public and Minted reserves the right to allow only those artists that it chooses in its sole discretion to offer and sell art through Minted Commissioned Art. Minted reserves the right to refuse or terminate all or part of our Minted Commissioned Art service to anyone for any reason in our sole discretion.

Please read these Terms of Service carefully. By using and/or visiting the Website, you consent to both these Terms of Service as well as our general Website Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy, each of which are incorporated by reference. Minted cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with any provision of these Terms of Service. In addition, some services offered through the Website may be subject to additional terms and conditions published by Minted from time to time; your use of such services is subject to those additional terms and conditions, which are incorporated into these Terms of Service by reference.

Because these Terms of Service will be updated from time to time, we encourage you to review these Terms of Service whenever you offer or accept art commissions or otherwise use Minted Commissioned Art so that you may be informed of any updates. Amendments to these Terms of Service are effective immediately when posted. Your continued use of the Website after posting of amendments will be deemed your acceptance of the changes to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree with these Terms of Service, please do not use the Website.

You can determine when these Terms of Service were last revised by referring to the date it was “Last Updated” above.

General

Minted customers will be able to commission Minted artists to create original art. Minted customers will have the opportunity to request a completely new and unique piece or use an existing piece of art as a starting point. These physical pieces will be shipped directly from the artist to the customer.

How Minted Commissioned Art Works

Minted Commissioned Art permits you to engage in a direct relationship with Minted customers.

Here are the terms that govern that relationship:

• You must provide truthful information about yourself in your Minted Commissioned Art artist profile and the art commissions you are willing to take.
• Minted customers create art commissions proposals which are communicated to you through the Minted Commissioned Art service.
• You communicate with a customer who has submitted a proposal and you may either ultimately reject or accept a final proposal in your sole discretion. If you reject a proposal you have no further obligations with respect to the proposal.
• If your final proposal is accepted by the customer (creating an “Accepted Commission”) the customer will be charged the upfront payment required by the terms of the proposal.
• You will promptly begin work on creating the Accepted Commission, and if you have promised the work within a specific amount of time, adhere to that schedule.
• You will periodically provide feedback to your customer regarding the progress of the Accepted Commission through the Minted Commissioned Art service.
• If the Accepted Commission is over $500 in value you must provide progress reports at least on a weekly basis. Following the specified number of iterations (or fewer in the customer’s discretion) you will present to customer a reasonably clear photograph of the completed Accepted Commission for the customer’s approval.
• If the customer approves the Accepted Commission you will promptly ship the finished Accepted Commission to the customer. You must insure the shipment for at least the full value of the Accepted Commission and will be responsible for any loss or damage during shipping. You may require the customer to sign for the delivery in your sole discretion.
• If the Accepted Commission is damaged upon arrival or otherwise does not match the photograph previously approved by the customer, Minted will refund the customer in full at your expense provided that the you may require the customer to return the Accepted Commission to you before the refund. Minted will not refund the customer in full if you and the customer agree (i) that you will replace the Accepted Commission at no additional cost to the customer or (ii) that you and the customer will agree to a partial refund which Minted will process. You will need to contact your shipper in order to recover any proceeds of insurance. Please contact Minted Customer Support at www.minted.com/help with respect to any full or partial refund request from a customer.
  Following the completion of the Accepted Commission the customer may leave you a review through the Minted Commissioned Art service and you may respond publicly to any such review.
• You must also comply with the remainder of these Terms of Service in your use of the Minted Commissioned Art service.

Artist Eligibility Requirements

In addition to being selected by Minted to offer art on Minted Commissioned Art, you must meet the following eligibility requirements:

• You must be a legal resident in the United States and all completed art commissions must be shipped from an address within the United States
• You must have had one Editor’s Pick or win in a Minted design challenge, and you must complete at least the basic set-up your Artist Store (see Artist Stores FAQ)
• You must be willing to promptly and courteously correspond with customers

Minted Commissioned Art is a Venue

Minted Commissioned Art acts as a venue to allow artists who comply with these Terms of Service to offer and sell certain commissioned original art within a framework provided by Minted. Minted is not directly involved in the transactions between artists and customers. As a result, Minted has no control over the quality, safety, morality or legality of any aspect of the items listed, the truth or accuracy of the statements made by artists or customers, or the ability of artists to create the commissioned art. Minted does not pre-screen content or information provided by artists or customers. Minted cannot ensure that an artist or customer will actually complete a transaction.

Consequently, the sale of art on Minted Commissioned Art is directly between you and the customer and at no point will Minted take possession or have any ownership rights to the artwork produced.

Because Minted Commissioned Art is merely facilitating a transaction between you and a customer, Minted will not be able to resolve disputes between you and a customer except to the extent set forth in these Terms of Service.

You agree that Minted Commissioned Art is a venue and as such is not responsible or liable for any content, for example, your profile information, listing information, data, text, information, usernames, graphics, images, photographs, profiles, audio, video, items, and links posted, transmitted or otherwise communicated by you, customers, or outside parties on through Minted Commissioned Art. You use the Minted Commissioned Art service at your own risk.

Intellectual Property and Ownership

You retain full copyright for the artwork you produce for Minted Commissioned Art projects. However, because you have created the unique artwork for the exclusive use of the customer, you may not distribute, reproduce or otherwise profit from the artwork without the customer’s express, written permission, or as agreed upon prior to the acceptance of the commission.

Minted does not take any ownership or license of your commissioned artwork under this program. The customer may not distribute, reproduce, or otherwise profit from the artwork, beyond the resale of the original artwork. The customer may not edit, alter, or trace the artwork without your express, written permission, or as agreed upon prior to the acceptance of the commission.

Because Minted is merely facilitating the transaction between you and the customer and will not take any ownership or license to the commissioned artwork, Minted will be unable to enforce these provisions. Consequently, any dispute between you and a customer regarding the intellectual property of the commissioned artwork must be resolved exclusively between you and the customer.

Minted respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. Thus, you must not accept or produce any art commission that contains copyrighted material belonging to others, or any material that infringes the intellectual property right of others, without obtaining the holder’s prior written consent. Minted reserves the right, in its discretion, to cancel any art commission if we believe it may infringe any right of a third party, and/or to terminate the account of any user that we reasonably believe may be infringing our or any third party’s rights.

Fees

Minted Commissioned Art charges the artist a fee of 20% of the final value of the commissioned art sold on Minted Commissioned Art in exchange for providing a venue for customers to find you and for providing a trusted transaction system that protects both artist and customer. We may change this fee (and add additional fees) from time to time and changes will become effective immediately for art commissions which have not yet commenced. Any such changes will not impact commissioned art which is in process prior to such change. During the BETA period, we are not charging a listing fee.

Payments and Taxes

Minted will withhold fees owed by you with respect to Minted Commissioned Art prior to distributing payments to you with respect to Minted Commissioned Art.

Customer payments for commissioned art orders will be remitted to you as follows:

• After the project upfront payment is made by the customer, we will remit 50% of the payment less Minted’s fees via PayPal no later than 30 days after the month of payment (e.g. February 28th for an upfront payment made on January 12th).
• After the final payment is made by the customer and confirmation of the delivery is obtained by you, we will remit the remaining 50% of the payment less Minted’s fees via PayPal no later than 30 days after the month of customer payment and delivery (e.g. April 30th for a sale completed on March 5th).

Before any customer payments are remitted, you must provide the following:

• A completed W-9 dated within the last twelve months.
• A PayPal account accepting terms with Minted to receive funds.

Sales Tax

As a venue, Minted Commissioned Art is unable to provide specific tax advice. It's up to you to research your local laws about collecting and reporting taxes. Tax regulations can vary greatly by location. If you're unsure how to charge tax, we encourage you to consult an accountant or other expert in your area.

Returns and Refunds

In connection with refunds permitted or required under these Terms of Service from time to time you may owe payments to Minted.

If your account is past due, we may collect fees or payments you received in respect of refunded commissioned art by invoicing you directly and you will be expected to pay any such amounts due within 30 days. For accounts over 60 days past due, deduct the amount owed from any sales commissions, prize payments or any other payments you may otherwise be eligible to receive from Minted.

We strongly recommend that you insure any return shipments from the artist back to you.

Minimum Pricing

Minted values your work and seeks to create a marketplace that supports fair prices for artists. Minted sets minimum prices for art offered and sold on Minted Commissioned Art, in order to protect artists from undercharging by other artists and the “race to the bottom” seen on other marketplace sites. The minimum prices vary based on medium and will be set forth by the Minted Commissioned Art service. You may, at your sole discretion, set your prices above these minimum prices. We do not set maximum prices on Minted Commissioned Art.

We may change these minimums from time to time and changes will become effective immediately for commissioned art which has not yet been proposed. Any such changes will not impact commissioned art projects which have already been accepted by you and the customer.

Changes, Cancellations, and Returns

Once an art commission proposal is accepted in Minted Commissioned Art, the customer’s initial payment is non-refundable without your consent other than in Minted’s sole discretion in the event of a breach of these Terms of Service by you or if you and the customer mutually agree to terminate the art commission.

You have the right to cancel a commission due to poor communication, rude/inappropriate behavior, an inability to effectively communicate in the English language, or a breach by the customer of the Website Terms of Service.

During the course of an art commission you and/or the customer may initiate a change in the terms of the commission (including number of iterations, medium, size or other change in scope) that you and the customer mutually agree will result in a change in the value of the art commission. Once you and the customer use the built-in messaging system to mutually agree on any such change in payment, you may contact www.minted.com/help in order to obtain any additional payment or, if applicable, apply a partial refund.

Once the customer’s final payment has been made following the customer’s approval of the photograph of the finished art commission, you acknowledge and agree that the customer’s payments will be non-refundable other than (i) in Minted’s sole discretion in the event of a breach of these Terms of Service by you, (ii) if the art commission arrives damaged, (iii) if you fail to ship the art commission within seven days of the customer making the final payment without the customer’s prior approval, or (iv) upon the mutual agreement of you and the customer. If you wish to initiate a refund in connection with any of clauses (ii) through (iv) above please contact Minted at www.minted.com/help.

How We Create a Safe Marketplace for Artists

It is very important to Minted that our marketplace is trusted, fair, and safe for our participating artists.

• We take 50% of the customer payment up-front, at the time that the customer accepts your project proposal.
• We provide a private one-to-one messaging system that allows you to keep a written record of conversation and agreements between you and the customer. We strongly encourage you to use this messaging system for all communication with the customer. If a customer insists on speaking to you via the phone, we recommend that you follow it up with written documentation of your conversation, using our messaging system.
• We enable you and the customer to exchange significant amounts of information up-front and throughout the time that you’re working on the project. We strongly encourage you to share photos, sketches, and updates to the customer throughout the project timeline, especially in the early stages of the project. Proactive communication with the customer should help ensure that both parties are in agreement and happy with the direction of the project.
• We give artists the opportunity to respond publicly to all customer reviews.
• Any abusive or harassing communication from customers will not be tolerated.

Because Minted Commissioned Art is merely facilitating a transaction between you and a customer, Minted will not be able to resolve disputes between you and a customer except to the extent set forth in these Terms of Service.

Other Prohibited Actions

In addition to other prohibited actions, you may not do any of the following:

• Take any action that infringes or violates other people’s rights, violates the law, or breaches any contract or legal duty you have toward anyone.
• Post any information you know is false, misleading, or inaccurate. Building trust with customers is critical, so please use your common sense.
• Distribute software viruses, or anything else designed to interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or equipment on the Website or on any customer’s computing device.
• Misuse any customer’s personal information. In connection with Minted Commissioned Art a customer may provide you with his or her personal information. You are required to limit your use and disclosure of that personal information only for the purposes for which it is shared and only in connection with Minted Commissioned Art. You may not use this personal information for any other purposes and may not abuse it. You will not need to collect a customer’s credit card information and you should never solicit or accept a credit card number from a customer. The Minted Commissioned Art service will handle the payment transaction.
• Violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance, or regulation.

Communicating with Customers

Minted cannot guarantee the true identity, age, and nationality of a user and encourages you to communicate directly with potential transaction partners through the messaging tools available on the Website. For your safety, please do not arrange to meet customers from the Website in person.

Communication starts with your artist profile: you must provide truthful and accurate information about you in your artist profile. In order to complete an art commission you will be required to communicate directly with your customers through the messaging features available through the Minted Commissioned Art service. The messaging features will permit you to discuss the terms of an art commission privately with customers, provided that any correspondence will be available to Minted for internal purposes including to review in connection with customer service requests and other matters relating to the art commission.

You may not use Minted’s communications features for any of the following activities:

• Sending unsolicited advertising, promotions or spam;
• Making any false, deceptive or intentionally misleading statements;
• Engaging in any harassment or abuse, including making any obscene or vulgar statements, making any threatening or defamatory statements, making any discriminatory statements based upon: race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation;
• Contacting a customer after they have explicitly asked you not to;
• Engaging in any form of extortion including offering additional goods, services, or compensation in exchange for a positive testimonial;
• Requesting a customer’s email address, phone number or social media information; or
• Circumventing any of the Minted Commissioned Art services or features.

Use of Minted Commissioned Art Review System

Feedback is a great way for you to build a reputation on Minted Commissioned Art. Customers can leave a review within 90 days after their approval of the art commission. Minted reserves the right to delete any review from a customer which violates the Terms of Service applicable to customers.

Maintaining accurate and credible reviews is extremely important to the success of Minted Commissioned Art. Minted reserves the right to remove any customer reviews that are determined, in Minted’s sole discretion, to be offensive, abusive, or otherwise in bad faith or in violation of Minted’s Terms of Service. If you believe a customer review meets these criteria for removal, please contact artists@minted.com. If you receive a critical review, please keep in mind that the occasional critical or negative review can actually help build trust and credibility with customers. You have the opportunity to publicly respond to all reviews of your work on Minted Commission Art.

Manipulation of reviews is strictly prohibited on Minted Commissioned Art. Minted considers review manipulation to be any actions taken by you to cause the creation of a positive review whether by creating additional user accounts or causing your friends, family or other acquaintances to provide positive reviews. You may not engage in any schemes with other artists to provide each other with an exchange of a positive review. Reviews must reflect the honest, unbiased opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the customer. You should feel free to encourage customers to leave reviews.

Minted reserves the right to remove any review which it suspects has been posted as a result of such manipulation.

If Minted determines that there is a pattern of manipulation or abuse by either customer or artist, we reserve the right to revoke your access to the Minted Commissioned Art service.

Enforcement

We may consider the artist’s and/or customer’s history with Minted as well as the applicable specific circumstances in applying our policies and these Terms of Service. We may choose to waive policies or terms where we believe doing so benefits both artists and customers.