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Terms of Service

Effective: July 10, 2026

Welcome to Relay. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Relay website, the Relay mobile application (listed on the Apple App Store and Google Play as “Relay Marketplace”), and related services (collectively, the “Service”) provided by Relay(“Relay”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). By creating an account, joining the waitlist, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

These Terms make up the entire agreement between you and Relay regarding your use of the Service. The Service itself is currently provided free of charge; certain optional features (such as a Pro subscription and AI scan packs) are sold as in-app purchases through the Apple App Store and Google Play. We don't sell your personal data to advertisers, and we don't share information that directly identifies you with advertisers. Please also review our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create a Relay account or to list, buy, or sell on Relay. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you meet that requirement and that you are not otherwise barred from using the Service under applicable law. We try to make Relay available to everyone, but you may not use the Service if we have previously disabled your account for violations of these Terms or our other policies. If we disable your account for a violation, you agree not to create another account without our permission. Receiving permission to create a new account is at our sole discretion and does not mean or imply that the disciplinary action was wrong or without cause. We reserve the right to refuse to provide the Service to anyone at any time.

The Service is intended only for adults and is not directed to anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we become aware that a user is under 18, we will promptly disable their account and delete any associated personal information. If you believe someone under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at contact@therelay.app.

2. Your account

Relay accounts are created using a phone number, Sign in with Apple, Google Sign-In, or an email and password, and every account is linked to a phone number verified via SMS through Firebase Authentication. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials and the device(s) signed in to your account secure, and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to provide accurate information during signup and to keep that information up to date. Notify us at contact@therelay.app if you believe your account has been compromised, your phone number has changed, or someone is using your phone number on Relay without your authorization.

3. The waitlist and beta program

Before general availability, Relay may operate a waitlist and a private or invite-only beta program. Joining the waitlist is not a purchase, a subscription, or a guarantee of access to the Service on any particular date. We may invite waitlist members in batches as capacity allows, and we may decline or revoke beta access at our discretion.

4. Acceptable use

When using the Service, you agree not to:

We may remove any listing, message, or content, and may suspend or terminate any account, that we reasonably believe is violating these rules, with or without notice.

5. Marketplace conduct

Relay is a peer-to-peer marketplace. Relay is not a party to transactions between buyers and sellers; we provide the platform that lets buyers and sellers find each other, communicate, and arrange a sale. The contract for the sale of any item is solely between the buyer and the seller.

You are solely responsible for the items you list and the offers you make, and for complying with all applicable laws (including consumer-protection, tax, and licensing laws). You are responsible for the safety of any in-person meetup you arrange through the Service: meet in well-lit public places, bring a friend when reasonable, and do not share sensitive personal information beyond what is necessary to complete the transaction.

Relay does not inspect, authenticate, or warrant the items listed on the Service, the statements of any user, or the outcome of any transaction. We do not provide escrow, shipping, or payment services in-app today; if a transaction goes wrong (the item is not as described, the buyer doesn't show, payment fails, etc.), the buyer and seller must resolve the issue between themselves. You may use the in-app Report flow to flag listings or users that violate these Terms; reports are reviewed by our moderation team.

5a. Verification signals and item authenticity

Relay may display trust signals such as a “Verified Real Item” indicator, AI-generated authenticity assessments, or a “Verified Seller” badge. These signals are automated, informational aids only. They are generated by AI models and heuristics from the limited photos and data available to us, and they are not a guaranteeof an item's authenticity, legality, condition, quality, ownership, or value, nor a guarantee that any transaction will be safe or that any seller is trustworthy.

Automated authenticity checks can produce false positives and false negatives, and any signal may be incorrect or become outdated. You must not rely on any Relay trust signal as a warranty or as a substitute for your own inspection and judgment before buying or selling. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Relay disclaims all liability arising from your reliance on any such signal.

5b. In-person meetings and assumption of risk

Transactions arranged through Relay often involve meeting another person face-to-face. You understand and agree that you meet and transact with other users entirely at your own risk. Relay does not perform criminal-background checks on users, does not supervise meetings, and has no control over the conduct of buyers, sellers, or any third party.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you assume all risk arising from any in-person meeting or transaction you arrange through the Service, including risk of personal injury, death, or property loss, and you release Relay, its affiliates, and their officers, directors, employees, and agents from any and all claims, demands, damages, and liabilities of every kind arising out of or connected with any such meeting, communication, or transaction between you and another user. If you are a California resident, you expressly waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which provides: “A general release does not extend to claims that the creditor or releasing party does not know or suspect to exist in his or her favor at the time of executing the release, and that, if known by him or her, would have materially affected his or her settlement with the debtor or released party.”

6. Identity verification

Relay offers optional identity verification through our partner Persona. By starting verification, you authorize Persona to collect a government-issued ID and (where required) a selfie, to perform document and biometric checks, and to share the verification outcome (passed, failed, or expired) with Relay. Relay does not access the underlying document or biometric data; please review our Privacy Policy for details on what we do and do not store.

Verification is voluntary. You can use Relay without verifying, though certain features (including ranking boosts in the explore feed, eligibility for higher-value transactions, and some seller controls) may favor verified users. Becoming a Verified Seller requires an active paid plan (a Pro subscription or the annual Verified Seller subscription described in Section 8); if that plan lapses, your verified status is paused until you reactivate it, though you are not required to repeat identity verification.

A Verified Seller badge confirms only that the user completed identity verification and holds an active paid plan. It is not an endorsement by Relay, and it does not represent that the seller is trustworthy, that their listings are authentic or accurately described, or that any transaction with them will be safe. You remain responsible for exercising your own judgment before transacting with any user, verified or not.

You agree to submit only identification belonging to you, and you acknowledge that any attempt to verify with someone else's ID, a forged document, or any other fraudulent submission is a material breach of these Terms and grounds for immediate account termination, in addition to any other remedies available to Relay or to law enforcement.

7. Your content

The Service allows you to create, store, and share content such as listings, photos, descriptions, prices, offers, messages, and other user-generated content. Any content (other than Feedback) that you post, upload, transmit, or otherwise make available through the Service is referred to as “User Content.”

We do not claim any ownership rights in any User Content. You retain ownership of the content you create and share through the Service, and nothing in these Terms will be deemed to restrict any rights that you may have to your User Content.

7a. License grant for User Content

By making any User Content available through the Service, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, worldwide, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, modify (e.g., resize photos), and otherwise use your User Content solely in connection with operating, providing, and promoting the Service to you and other users. This license terminates when you delete your User Content or close your account, except: (a) where your User Content has been shared with other users who have not themselves deleted it; (b) where it has been incorporated into another user's shared records (such as messages in an offer thread); or (c) where we are required to retain it by applicable law.

7b. Your responsibility for User Content

You are solely responsible for all of your User Content and for the consequences of sharing it through the Service. You represent and warrant that: (a) you have, and will continue to have, all rights necessary to grant us the license set forth in these Terms with respect to your User Content; (b) neither your User Content, nor your use or submission of your User Content through the Service, nor any use of your User Content by us on or through the Service, will infringe, misappropriate, or violate any third party's intellectual property rights, rights of publicity or privacy, or result in a violation of any applicable law or regulation; and (c) any item you list is yours to sell, is accurately described, and is legal to sell in your jurisdiction.

7c. Removal of User Content

You may remove your User Content by deleting it from the Service. Please be aware that, in certain instances, some User Content (such as messages in an offer thread, or copies cached by other users' devices) may not be completely removed, and copies of your User Content may continue to exist on the Service or on third-party services where it has been shared with or accessed by other users prior to deletion. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we are not responsible or liable for the removal or deletion of (or the failure to remove or delete) any of your User Content.

7d. AI-assisted listing creation

When you use the optional “scan” feature, Relay sends your listing photos to a third-party AI model provider, which returns a suggested title, description, and category. You are responsible for reviewing the suggested text before publishing and remain solely responsible for the final content of your listing. We do not permit our model providers to train their general-purpose models on your photos or generated text, and we do not use your data to train any AI or machine-learning models ourselves.

We also use automated systems, including AI models, to screen listing photos and text for prohibited content and to assess item authenticity. Content that fails these checks may be blocked from publishing, and repeated or serious violations may result in warnings, listing removal, or account suspension as described in Sections 4 and 12.

7e. Our intellectual property

We make available through the Service content that is subject to our intellectual property rights, including but not limited to the Relay name, logo, software, text, graphics, and other materials developed or owned by us (the “Relay IP”). We retain all rights, title, and interest in and to the Relay IP. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right to use the Relay IP except as expressly set forth herein.

7f. Copyright complaints (DMCA)

We respect the intellectual property of others and expect our users to do the same. If you believe that content on the Service infringes a copyright you own or control, you may send a written notice to our designated agent that includes: (a) your physical or electronic signature; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed; (c) identification of the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to let us locate it (such as the listing id or URL); (d) your contact information (address, telephone number, and email); (e) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (f) a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

Send notices to our designated copyright agent at contact@therelay.appwith the subject line “DMCA Notice.” We may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing material and, in appropriate circumstances, terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. If you believe your material was removed by mistake or misidentification, you may submit a counter-notification to the same address.

8. Cost, subscriptions, and in-app purchases

The core Service (creating an account, browsing listings, listing items, sending offers, and exchanging messages) is currently provided free of charge. We reserve the right to introduce fees for any feature of the Service at any time. If a feature you are actively using becomes subject to a fee, we will provide you with advance notice prior to the fee taking effect, and your continued use of that feature following notice will constitute your agreement to pay all applicable fees.

Relay offers optional paid features sold as in-app purchases (“IAPs”) through the Apple App Store and Google Play, including:

Auto-renewal. Pro and Verified Seller subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current price unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscription at any time from your Apple ID or Google Play account settings, or via the in-app Profile → Settings → Manage Subscription link, which deep-links to the appropriate store. Cancellation is not provided through Relay directly; Apple or Google handle the cancellation, refund, and dispute process for in-app purchases.

Refunds. Refund requests for IAPs are handled by Apple and Google under their respective policies. Relay does not process refunds for IAPs directly. Where required by applicable consumer-protection law, you may have additional refund rights that these Terms do not limit.

We do not sell, license, or otherwise monetize your personal data to third parties for advertising purposes. You retain full control over the data associated with your account, including the ability to access, edit, and delete your information in accordance with these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

9. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains what information we collect and how we use it. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with that policy.

10. Feedback

Any suggestions, ideas, enhancement requests, recommendations, or other feedback you provide to us regarding the Service (“Feedback”) is entirely voluntary. You acknowledge that we may use Feedback for any purpose, including improving or modifying the Service, without any obligation to compensate you or keep it confidential. By submitting Feedback, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, and incorporate it into the Service or any future products.

11. Third-party services

The Service integrates with several third-party services. Your use of those services is also governed by the terms and privacy policies of the respective providers, and we are not responsible for the availability or accuracy of third-party services.

Identity verification. Identity verification is provided by Persona. By starting verification you agree to Persona's Terms of Service and Persona's Privacy Policy.

Authentication and infrastructure. Phone-number authentication, push notifications, and the underlying database are provided by Google Firebase / Google Cloud, subject to Firebase's terms. Server-side hosting is provided by Vercel.

Subscription management. Subscription and entitlement management is provided by RevenueCat.

Cross-posting extension.We offer an optional browser extension that helps you cross-post your Relay listings to other marketplaces (such as Facebook Marketplace). The extension acts on your behalf, under your own account on those marketplaces, to pre-fill listing details. Your use of any third-party marketplace is governed by that marketplace's own terms and policies, and you are responsible for complying with them. Relay is not responsible for third-party marketplaces or for listings you post to them.

App Store and Google Play. The Service is distributed on the Apple App Store and Google Play under the name “Relay Marketplace.”If you downloaded the Service through the Apple App Store, your use is also subject to Apple's Media Services Terms and Conditions. If you downloaded the Service through Google Play, your use is also subject to Google Play's Terms of Service. In the event of any conflict between those terms and these Terms, the applicable store's terms will govern solely with respect to your use of that platform. Relay, and not Apple or Google, is solely responsible for the Service and its content.

12. Termination

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time from Profile → Settings → Account → Delete user inside the app. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms or our published policies, if your continued use creates legal exposure or risk to the Service or its users, or if we discontinue the Service. Upon termination, the rights and licenses granted to you under these Terms will immediately end, but the provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including User Content licenses for content shared with other users, payment obligations, warranty disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution) will survive.

13. Beta features

From time to time we may offer features or functionality that are designated as “beta,” “experimental,” “preview,” or similar (“Beta Features”). Beta Features are provided as-is and may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time without notice. We make no representations or warranties regarding the reliability, accuracy, or fitness of Beta Features for any particular purpose, and your use of them is entirely at your own risk.

14. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE; THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED; OR THAT ANY ITEM LISTED ON, BUYER OR SELLER USING, OR TRANSACTION CONDUCTED THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THESE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

15. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL RELAY, ITS AFFILIATES, OR ITS LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100) AND (B) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO RELAY (NOT INCLUDING AMOUNTS PAID TO APPLE OR GOOGLE) IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, SO SOME OF THESE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

16. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Relay, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Service; (b) your User Content; (c) any item you list, sell, or buy through the Service or any in-person meetup you arrange through the Service; (d) your violation of these Terms or any law or regulation; or (e) your violation of the rights of any third party.

17. Dispute resolution

Informal resolution. Before initiating any formal legal proceeding, you agree to contact us at contact@therelay.app and provide a written description of the dispute, the relief sought, and your contact information. We will attempt to resolve the dispute informally within 30 days of receipt. Either party may proceed to formal resolution if the dispute is not resolved within that period.

Binding arbitration.Except for disputes that qualify for small-claims court, you and Relay agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. The arbitration will take place in San Mateo County, California, or remotely if mutually agreed. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Class action waiver.You and Relay each waive the right to bring or participate in any class action, collective action, or representative proceeding arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of class or representative proceeding.

Exceptions. Either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation, or violation of intellectual property rights, without first engaging in arbitration.

18. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Subject to the arbitration provisions in Section 17, you agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in San Mateo County, California, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

19. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you through the app, by email (where we have one on file), or by updating the effective date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Service after the updated Terms take effect constitutes acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service and may delete your account.

20. Miscellaneous

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any additional policies we publish in the app or on our website, constitute the entire agreement between you and Relay regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of that right or provision. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent; we may assign these Terms without restriction. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to contact@therelay.app.