Terms of Service
Effective date: 7 May 2026 Last updated: 7 May 2026
These Terms govern your use of darebay.com, the DareBay web app, our APIs, and related services (together, the "Service"). The Service is operated by Ruslan Bei, an individual based in Europe, doing business as DareBay (the "Operator", "we", "us"). A UK private limited company is planned; once it is registered, the operator role will transfer to that entity and these Terms will be updated to reflect the new entity and its registered office.
By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.
1. What DareBay does
DareBay is a platform where people and brands launch activities — tasks, battles, challenges, contests, and creative briefs. Someone (an Organizer) puts up a prize and sets the activity. Other people (Participants) submit work. Viewers watch, vote, comment. Winners get paid. The end.
We provide the platform and the wallet that moves value between Organizers and Participants. We are not a Participant in any contest, not a judge of taste (except when our rules require us to act), and not a marketing or PR agent for anyone.
2. Accounts
2.1 Eligibility
- You must be at least 13 years old to create an account.
- You must be at least the age of majority in your country to fund contests, accept prizes, or withdraw funds from your wallet.
- You must not be on a list of persons subject to UK / EU / UN sanctions.
- You may hold one active account. We reserve the right to merge or close duplicates.
2.2 Your account, your responsibility
- You're responsible for keeping your password and devices secure.
- You're responsible for everything that happens under your account unless you've reported it as compromised.
- You must keep your contact email up to date — that's how we reach you about your wallet, contests, and disputes.
2.3 Verification tiers
Three optional tiers — BLOGGER, STORE, COMPANY — give your account a verified badge after we (or our verification partner) check your identity or business documents. Verified accounts pay lower commission and are more visible. Verification is not required to use the Service.
3. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- Run scams — fake contests, fake prizes, contests you don't intend to pay out, prizes funded with money that isn't yours.
- Submit fake work — stolen content, AI-washed entries passed off as original craft, content created by someone else without permission.
- Game votes or selection — sockpuppet accounts, paid voting rings, manipulating likes or rankings.
- Post illegal, violent, or hateful content — anything that breaks applicable law, depicts minors in sexualized contexts, incites violence or discrimination, or harasses identifiable individuals.
- Harass other users — slurs, threats, doxxing, mass DMs after a loss.
- Reverse-engineer, scrape, or attack the Service, its API, or another user's account.
- Use the Service to launder funds, evade taxes, or process payments for goods and services unrelated to a real contest.
- Use the Service in any way that violates TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube terms when you connect those accounts.
We respond to violations on a sliding scale: warn, restrict, suspend, ban. Severe violations (scams, illegal content, fund-laundering, child safety) are immediate bans with no warning.
4. Contests
4.1 Roles
- Organizer — the user who creates and funds a contest.
- Participant — a user who submits a work to a contest.
- Viewer — anyone who watches, comments, votes, or reports.
4.2 Organizer commitments
When you publish a contest, you commit to:
- Funding the full prize amount at the moment of publication. The prize is locked in your wallet and cannot be spent on anything else.
- Honouring the selection method you chose:
- RANDOM — top-liked works are auto-selected;
- CREATOR_DECISION — you pick the winners manually within the selection window;
- VIEWER_VOTING — community votes decide.
- Honouring the rules you wrote in the contest brief.
- Delivering any ITEM prize within the agreed window after winner confirmation.
You cannot cancel a contest after it has started accepting submissions without our review and the consent of any affected Participants. Cancels before submissions begin return funds to your wallet (minus commission already taken — see Section 7).
4.3 Participant commitments
When you submit a work, you commit that:
- The work is yours, or you have permission to submit it.
- It complies with the contest brief and these Terms.
- For imported works from TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, you are the author of the source video, or you have the author's permission. Ownership must be verified through the connected-account flow before the submission counts.
- One submission per Participant per contest, unless the contest brief allows more.
4.4 Selection and prize lock
Once a contest closes:
- The selection mechanism runs (or the Organizer picks, depending on the selection type chosen).
- Winners are confirmed.
- Prize Coins move from the contest lock to the winners' wallets.
- Commission is settled with the Operator.
If the Organizer does not act within the selection window, fallback rules apply (typically the top-rated submissions auto-win, with possible escalation to platform review). The exact fallback for each selection type is documented in Getting Started → How winners are chosen.
4.5 Disputes
Disputes about a contest (e.g. "this winner submitted stolen work") go through:
- Reporting in the platform.
- Operator review, including evidence from both parties.
- A decision: stand, redo selection, refund, or ban.
The Operator's decision in a dispute is final, but you retain any rights you have under the consumer-protection law of your country.
5. The DareBay wallet and Coins
5.1 Coins
The Service uses an in-platform unit called DareBay Coins to fund contests and pay winners. Coins are not a currency, not a financial instrument, and have no value outside the Service.
You can obtain Coins through methods we offer from time to time (e.g. funding via supported payment methods). The exchange rate, fees, and supported methods are shown in the app at the time of purchase.
5.2 Wallet
Every DareBay account has a wallet that tracks:
- Your available balance — Coins you can spend or withdraw.
- Your locked balance — Coins committed to active contests.
- A history of all top-ups, contest funding, prize receipts, commission charges, and withdrawals.
5.3 Withdrawals
Withdrawal of Coins (where supported by the methods we offer) is subject to:
- A minimum withdrawal threshold (shown in the app).
- Identity verification where required by law.
- The processing time of the chosen method.
- Any fees disclosed before you confirm the withdrawal.
We may pause withdrawals to investigate suspected fraud or in response to a legal hold. We will notify you and document the reason.
5.4 Refunds
Top-ups are generally final. We may issue refunds if a payment fails on our side, if you were charged in error, or if applicable consumer- protection law requires it.
5.5 Taxes
You are responsible for any taxes due on prizes you win or income you earn through the Service. We may issue tax reports as required by the law of our jurisdiction.
6. Content licensing
6.1 You keep your rights
You keep ownership of everything you submit to DareBay — your contests, works, comments, profile content. Submitting doesn't transfer copyright.
6.2 Licence you grant DareBay
To run the Service, you grant DareBay a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, display, and transmit your submitted content, only to the extent necessary to:
- Show your contests and works to other users;
- Generate previews, posters, and thumbnails;
- Recommend and surface contests in feeds;
- Promote DareBay (e.g. featuring a great submission in marketing) — but only with content you've made public, and we'll credit you.
This licence ends when you delete the content, except to the extent we need to retain copies for legal, dispute-resolution, or backup purposes.
6.3 What you can't license to us
You can't grant us a licence over content you don't actually own. If a third party complains and shows they own it, we'll take the content down and may suspend the account that posted it.
6.4 DMCA-style takedowns
If you believe content on DareBay infringes your copyright, send a takedown notice to legal@darebay.com with:
- Your contact details and signature.
- Identification of the work being infringed.
- The DareBay URL of the infringing content.
- A statement, under penalty of perjury, that you have the right to act on the rightsholder's behalf and that your claim is in good faith.
We act on valid notices and inform the user who posted the content. Repeat infringers are banned.
7. Commission
DareBay charges a commission on contests. It's:
- Deducted from the prize, not added on top.
- Shown to you in your currency before you confirm, so there are no surprises.
- Lower for verified accounts.
The exact rates and the verification-tier discounts are listed in Getting Started → What fees does DareBay charge? and in the contest creation flow.
8. Connected social accounts
8.1 What connecting does
When you connect a TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube account, you authorize DareBay to verify that you own a video you've submitted to a contest by matching your authenticated handle against the public author handle of the source video.
8.2 What we won't do
We won't post on your behalf, message anyone from your account, read your private messages, or use your platform data for anything other than ownership verification. Details are in our Privacy Policy, Section 3.
8.3 Disconnecting
You can disconnect at any time in Settings → Connected accounts. Disconnecting deletes the stored connection record. Submissions previously verified through that connection remain attributed to you, but no further verification flows from that link.
9. Suspension and termination
9.1 By you
You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Account → Delete account. Deletion:
- Removes your profile and personal data per our Privacy Policy, Section 6.
- Pays out any winnings or unlocked balance through the methods you have configured, if available, or holds them under standard unclaimed-property rules.
- Anonymizes your name in public contest history to "Deleted user".
You cannot delete an account while you have active contests, locked prize funds, or unresolved disputes.
9.2 By us
We may suspend or terminate your account if:
- You've violated these Terms or our Acceptable Use rules.
- We're legally required to (court order, sanctions, etc.).
- We have a credible suspicion of fraud, money laundering, or platform abuse.
For non-emergency suspensions we'll explain the reason and give you a chance to respond. For emergencies (active fraud, illegal content), we act first and explain afterwards.
If we terminate for cause, we may forfeit unwithdrawn balance to the extent it represents fraud proceeds; if we terminate without cause, unwithdrawn balance is returned through your normal withdrawal methods.
10. No warranty / liability
10.1 As-is
The Service is provided "as is". We don't warrant that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that any specific contest will succeed in attracting Participants. We don't underwrite the quality of any work or the taste of any judge.
10.2 Limit of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability to you for any claim arising out of the Service is limited to:
- The amount of commission we earned from your activity in the 12 months before the claim, or
- £100,
whichever is greater.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.
10.3 Indemnity
You agree to indemnify DareBay against third-party claims arising from your breach of these Terms, your unlawful use of the Service, or content you submitted that infringed someone else's rights.
11. Governing law and disputes
11.1 Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules, and without prejudice to mandatory consumer-protection rights you may have in your country of residence.
11.2 Where you can sue
You may bring a claim against us:
- In the courts of England and Wales; or
- In the courts of your country of residence, where the law of that country gives you the right to sue locally as a consumer.
11.3 First, write to us
Before filing anything, please email legal@darebay.com describing the issue. Most disputes are resolved this way within a few business days.
12. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms when the platform or the law beneath us changes. Material changes are announced by:
- Updating the Last updated date at the top.
- Email to your account address for material changes.
- A banner notice on the site for 30 days after the change.
If you don't agree with a change, you can stop using the Service and delete your account. Continuing to use DareBay after the effective date of a change means you accept it.
13. Contact
| General | hello@darebay.com |
| Legal & disputes | legal@darebay.com |
| Privacy | privacy@darebay.com |
| Operator | Ruslan Bei (sole operator), trading as DareBay |
| Postal address | Available on written request to legal@darebay.com |