BuzzMaker Terms of Service

1. Introduction and Acceptance of Terms

These Terms and Conditions (the "Terms") govern your access to and use of the BuzzMaker platform, including the website at buzzmaker.co.za and related domains, our mobile and installable web applications, and all associated features, tools and services (collectively, the "Platform"). The Platform is operated by Buzzplug (Pty) Ltd, trading as BuzzMaker™, a private company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa ("BuzzMaker", "we", "us", "our").

By creating an account, ticking the acceptance checkbox during onboarding, accessing, browsing, purchasing or redeeming a Ticket, listing an Event, or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by every policy incorporated into them by reference. If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.

These Terms constitute an electronic agreement concluded under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 ("ECTA"). Where you deal with us as a consumer, the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 ("CPA") applies, and nothing in these Terms limits, waives or excludes any right you have under the CPA that cannot lawfully be limited, waived or excluded. Personal information is processed in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

These Terms are written in plain and understandable language as contemplated by section 22 of the CPA. If any part is unclear to you, contact us at support@buzzmaker.co.za before you accept, and we will explain it.

2. Clauses Requiring Your Attention

Section 49 of the CPA requires that any provision limiting our risk or liability, imposing an obligation on you to indemnify us, or acknowledging a fact, be drawn to your attention in a conspicuous manner before you accept. The provisions below do that, and you should read them in full before continuing. They are highlighted here; each is set out in its own section.

• We are an intermediary, not the host of Events. We do not run, staff, insure or supervise Events, and the contract for admission is between you and the Organiser — see section 6 (Description of Services and Our Role).
• We do not vet Users. Except for the limited biometric verification described in section 25 (Identity and Biometric Verification), we do not screen the identity, age, character, criminal record or intentions of any User.
• You attend Events and meet other Users entirely at your own risk — see section 14 (Attendee Safety and Personal Responsibility).
• Our liability to you is capped, and we exclude indirect and consequential loss — see section 38 (Limitation of Liability).
• You indemnify us against claims arising from your use of the Platform, your Content and your Events — see section 39 (Indemnity).
• The Platform is provided "as is", without warranty that it will be uninterrupted, error-free or accurate — see section 37 (Disclaimers).
• Messages sent through the Platform are not end-to-end encrypted and may be accessed for safety and moderation purposes — see section 11 (Messaging and Chat Controls).
• Erasure of your account anonymises rather than destroys records we are legally obliged to keep — see section 29 (Privacy and POPIA Compliance).

None of these provisions applies to the extent that it would be unlawful under the CPA, POPIA or any other applicable law, and none of them excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our gross negligence, or for fraud.

3. Definitions

4. Eligibility and Account Registration

4.1 The Platform is strictly for persons aged 18 years or older. You must be at least 18 and have full legal capacity to contract under South African law. We collect your date of birth at onboarding and use it to enforce this restriction. Accounts found to belong to minors will be terminated and associated data deleted.

4.2 You must provide accurate, current and complete information when registering — including display name, date of birth and, where you provide them, gender, email address and mobile number — and keep that information up to date. Certain fields, including date of birth, are not freely editable after onboarding in order to preserve the integrity of age gating; contact support if a genuine correction is needed.

4.3 One natural person may maintain only one primary account. Duplicate, impersonating, automated or fraudulently created accounts may be suspended or terminated without notice.

4.4 Accounts are personal to you and may not be sold, rented, shared or transferred. Organiser accounts may grant scoped access to co-hosts, promoters and scanner staff through the Platform's own role features; access must never be shared by handing over credentials.

4.5 Registering as an Organiser, or upgrading an existing account to an Organiser account, may require additional verification, payout details and acceptance of the commercial terms in section 16 (Organiser Commercial Terms, Commission and Subscriptions).

4.6 We may refuse registration, or close an account, where we reasonably believe the applicant is a person previously removed from the Platform, or where registration would breach a law or sanction applicable to us.

5. Account Security, Recovery and Dormancy

5.1 You are solely responsible for the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity conducted under your account. Choose a strong, unique password and do not reuse it elsewhere.

5.2 Notify us immediately at support@buzzmaker.co.za if you suspect unauthorised access, and change your password. We may suspend an account, force a sign-out of all sessions, or require re-verification where we detect suspicious activity.

5.3 Account recovery operates through the email address on your account. If you lose access to that address you may be unable to recover the account, and we may be unable to restore Tickets, matches or message history. Keep your contact details current.

5.4 We record your last-active time and may treat an account with no activity for an extended period as dormant. Before deleting a dormant account we will attempt to notify you at your registered email address and give you a reasonable opportunity to reactivate it.

5.5 You must not attempt to access another User's account, and you must not use credentials obtained from a data breach, credential-stuffing list or any other unauthorised source.

6. Description of Services and Our Role

6.1 BuzzMaker is a social event discovery, matching and ticketing platform. Depending on the features enabled for your account, the Platform lets you browse, search and filter Events, view Events on a map, save Events, express interest in Events and other Users, receive automated recommendations, match and message other Users, post Vibes, comment on Events, reserve or purchase Tickets, receive and send Crew Invites, check in at Events, and submit post-Event reviews.

6.2 For Organisers, the Platform provides Event creation and drafting tools, venue selection and geocoding, Ticket Tier and Session management, capacity and sales-window controls, Promo Codes, paid promotional placements, door-scanning and check-in tooling including offline scanning, attendee roster and CRM views, announcements to Attendees, aggregated demographic and performance analytics, ticket manifest export, financial ledgers, and payout management.

6.3 BuzzMaker acts as a technology intermediary and ticketing agent. Unless an Event listing expressly states that BuzzMaker is the Organiser, we do not own, produce, host, control, staff, insure or supervise Events. The contract for admission to an Event is between the Attendee and the Organiser. We are not a party to that contract, and we do not guarantee that any Event will take place, will take place as described, or will meet your expectations.

6.4 The Platform is a social discovery service and is not a background-checking, screening, vetting or introduction agency service. Except where section 25 (Identity and Biometric Verification) expressly applies, we do not verify the identity, age, character, criminal record, marital status, health, intentions or statements of any User. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Users, on and off the Platform.

6.5 Certain features are enabled, restricted or withheld per account, per role or per region through feature flags, and some are released as beta or experimental. We may add, change, restrict, price, or discontinue any feature at any time, and beta features may be withdrawn without notice.

6.6 The Platform is offered for use in the Republic of South Africa. We make no representation that it is appropriate or available elsewhere, and you are responsible for compliance with local law if you access it from outside South Africa.

7. Acceptable Use and Community Standards

You agree that you will not, and will not permit anyone acting on your behalf to:

• Harass, stalk, threaten, intimidate, defame, bully or incite violence against any person, on or off the Platform.
• Post or transmit Content that is discriminatory, hateful, sexually explicit, violent, or that constitutes hate speech, harassment or incitement under South African law.
• Post intimate images of any person without that person's consent, or any content depicting the sexual exploitation or abuse of a child.
• Impersonate any person, misrepresent your age, gender or identity, or use another person's photographs, likeness or details as your own.
• Solicit money, gifts, sexual services or commercial services from other Users, or use the Platform for prostitution, trafficking, or the sale of unlawful goods or substances.
• Use the Platform to distribute unsolicited commercial communications, spam, chain messages, multi-level marketing, investment solicitations, pyramid schemes, phishing lures or malware.
• Scrape, crawl, harvest, index, mirror or bulk-extract data from the Platform; use bots, scripts, headless browsers or automated agents; or attempt to reconstruct our databases, embeddings, ranking weights or matching models.
• Circumvent, disable, probe or stress-test any security, rate-limiting, authentication, row-level security or access-control mechanism, or access data you are not authorised to access.
• Reverse engineer, decompile or attempt to derive the source code of the Platform, except to the extent that restriction is unenforceable by law.
• Create, buy or sell fake accounts, fake reviews, fake attendance, fake matches or fake engagement, or manipulate Event ranking, Buzz Score, social proof or review scores.
• Duplicate, forge, tamper with, resell screenshots of, or otherwise misuse Ticket QR codes or Crew Invite tokens.
• Interfere with the Platform's operation, including by overloading infrastructure, or by introducing any virus, worm or harmful code.
• Use the Platform in a manner that breaches any applicable law, municipal bylaw, or the rights of any third party.

We may remove Content, restrict features, suspend or terminate accounts, revoke Tickets, withhold settlement, and report conduct to law enforcement where we reasonably believe these standards have been breached. Where a breach is not serious and is capable of being remedied, we will ordinarily give you notice and a reasonable opportunity to remedy it first. Serious breaches — particularly those involving the safety of a person, fraud, or unlawful content — may result in immediate action without prior notice.

You may report other Users, messages, conversations, comments, Vibes and Events through the in-app reporting tools, and you may block any User. Blocking is enforced across discovery, matching, messaging, social proof and attendee visibility, in both directions.

8. Your Content and the Licence You Grant Us

8.1 You retain ownership of the Content you submit — including profile photos, avatars, bios, captions, Vibes, comments, reviews, messages and Event listings. You are solely responsible for it, and you warrant that you have all rights necessary to submit it and that it does not infringe any third party's rights.

8.2 You grant BuzzMaker a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable licence to host, store, cache, reproduce, adapt (including resizing, transcoding, cropping and thumbnailing), publish, display and distribute your Content solely for the purposes of operating, securing, moderating, promoting and improving the Platform and the Events to which the Content relates. This licence ends when the Content is deleted, except for (a) copies retained in backups until they expire in the ordinary backup cycle, (b) Content that other Users have lawfully re-shared or that appears in another User's conversation history, and (c) records we must retain under section 29 (Privacy and POPIA Compliance).

8.3 Where a Vibe has become permanent under section 12 (Vibes and the Vibe Vault), the licence in clause 8.2 continues for as long as that Vibe remains published, subject to your right to request removal.

8.4 Where you appear in a photograph or video posted by another User, you may request its removal through the in-app reporting tools or by emailing support@buzzmaker.co.za, and we will assess the request promptly.

8.5 We may, but are not obliged to, review, moderate, age-gate, restrict, demote or remove Content. We are not responsible for Content posted by Users. Where we host Content as an intermediary, we rely on the protections afforded to service providers under Chapter XI of ECTA, and we operate a take-down notification process. Take-down notifications may be sent to support@buzzmaker.co.za and must contain the particulars required by section 77 of ECTA.

8.6 Feedback, suggestions, feature requests and bug reports you send us may be used without restriction, attribution or compensation.

9. Event Listings, Venues and Drafts

9.1 Organisers are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of every Event listing, including title, description, cover image, date and time, Sessions, venue and address, capacity, age restriction, line-up, inclusions, accessibility information, Ticket Tiers, pricing and refund conditions.

9.2 Venue information, including address, coordinates and place identifiers, is resolved through our mapping and geocoding provider. Geocoded positions are indicative. Organisers must confirm that the pinned location is correct, and Attendees should not rely solely on the map pin for navigation.

9.3 Event drafts are stored temporarily to let you resume creation, and expire automatically after their retention window. A draft is not a listing, confers no rights, and may be deleted on expiry without notice.

9.4 Where an Event has co-hosts, promoters or scanner staff, the primary owner is responsible for the conduct of those persons in relation to the Event and for ensuring that each has only the access they need. Adding a person to an Event grants them access to attendee information appropriate to their role, subject to section 15 (Organiser Obligations and Event Safety) and Attendees' own visibility settings. The Platform distinguishes two kinds of role: co-host roles, which share in the Event's commercial and payout arrangements, and access-control roles (admin or scanner), which are purely for managing entry and the listing and carry no financial entitlement. Only the primary owner can grant or revoke either kind of role.

9.5 We may edit, demote, unpublish or remove a listing that is inaccurate, misleading, unlawful, unsafe, duplicated, or in breach of these Terms, and we may correct obvious formatting or classification errors.

9.6 Listing an Event does not guarantee it will be recommended, ranked, surfaced or promoted to any User. See section 24 (Rankings, Buzz Score and Social Proof).

10. Discovery, Matching and Recommendations

10.1 Discovery and matching are generated automatically from the information you supply and the activity you generate — profile fields, interests, topics, music genres, preferred event types, archetypes, availability status, Event activity, swipe history and, where you have consented, location. These inputs are converted into machine-learning representations ("embeddings") and scored by a ranking service using weights we set and adjust. See section 30 (Automated Processing, Recommendations and AI Features).

10.2 Expressing interest in another User is private until it is reciprocated. A Match is created only where interest is mutual, and only a Match unlocks direct messaging.

10.3 You may exclude yourself from the matching pool entirely at any time, without deleting your account, using the "hide from matching" control. Doing so removes you from other Users' discovery results.

10.4 Recommendations, match suggestions, compatibility indicators and ordering are automated, approximate and imperfect. They are suggestions only and carry no assurance of compatibility, safety, suitability or availability. Ordering may be influenced by paid placement, which is disclosed under section 17 (Promotions and Paid Placement).

10.5 Matches, chats and social proof are conveniences, not endorsements. BuzzMaker does not vouch for any User and gives no assurance about the identity, safety, intentions or conduct of anyone you meet.

10.6 Unmatching or blocking removes the Match and prevents further messaging. Blocking additionally hides you from the blocked User across discovery, social proof and attendee lists.

11. Messaging and Chat Controls

11.1 Direct messaging is enabled between Users who have matched, and within Event-related conversations where the Platform permits. Messages may include text, media and emoji reactions.

11.2 A Crew Chat does not require a Match. Any User may form a Crew Chat by searching for other Users by display name and adding them directly. Where a User you attempt to add has turned on the "require approval for Crew Chat invites" setting, they are sent a pending invite and are added only if they accept it; otherwise they are added immediately, without needing to have matched with or previously messaged the founder. A User who has blocked, or been blocked by, the Crew Chat's founder cannot be added. Once in a Crew Chat, the same Acceptable Use standards under section 7 (Acceptable Use and Community Standards) apply to what is posted there as in any other conversation.

11.3 Messages are transmitted and stored on our infrastructure. They are encrypted in transit and protected by database access controls, but they are not end-to-end encrypted. We may access message content where strictly necessary to investigate a report, enforce these Terms, comply with a lawful request, or protect the safety of a person. Such access is restricted, logged and audited under section 31 (Administrative Access, Moderation and Enforcement).

11.4 You control, at minimum: who may message you, whether you require approval before being added to a Crew Chat, whether read receipts are sent, whether your online status and last-seen time are visible, your notification level, quiet hours during which notifications are suppressed, and whether media downloads automatically. These controls are applied server-side.

11.5 Do not send unlawful, harassing, threatening or unsolicited commercial messages. Do not share another person's Personal Information, intimate images or contact details without their consent. Screenshotting and republishing another User's private messages may itself breach POPIA or their privacy rights.

11.6 Messages remain available in a conversation until deleted or until the account is closed. Deleting a message removes it from your view; a copy may remain in the other participant's conversation and in backups until those expire. We do not guarantee that a message can be recalled once sent.

11.7 Never send money, banking details, one-time passwords or identity documents to another User. We will never ask you for your password or a one-time password.

11.8 A Crew Chat may contain polls, with two or three selectable options, created by any member unless the Crew has restricted poll creation to its admins. A poll closes automatically after a set period, or immediately when the Event it is linked to begins, whichever is applicable. Your vote is locked in once cast — you cannot change it — and is visible to every other member of that Crew Chat; polls are not anonymous. The poll's creator or a Crew admin may close or delete it early.

12. Vibes and the Vibe Vault

12.1 Vibes are photo or video posts. By default a Vibe is ephemeral: it expires automatically at the end of its retention window and is then removed from public surfaces. Visibility of each Vibe is controlled by the setting you select when posting.

12.2 The Vibe Vault is a separate, expressly accepted arrangement. If — and only if — you have accepted the Vault terms, Vibes you link to an Event are treated as permanent: they remain on that Event's public gallery indefinitely rather than expiring. Nothing is opted in on your behalf; the Platform records the date and time you accepted, and permanence is derived server-side from that record rather than set by your device.

12.3 Because Vault Vibes are shown publicly on an Event page for an indefinite period, consider carefully whether a Vibe contains information you would not want associated with you in the long term, including your appearance, location, companions or attendance at a particular Event.

12.4 You may delete your own Vibes at any time. Deleted and expired Vibes are soft-deleted and then purged after the retention period configured in the Platform's retention policy. Permanent Vault Vibes may be removed on request under section 29 (Privacy and POPIA Compliance), subject to any lawful basis we have to retain them.

12.5 Do not post Vibes containing other identifiable people without their agreement, and do not post content depicting unlawful activity. Organisers and moderators may remove a Vibe from an Event gallery where it breaches these Terms; removal by an Organiser does not delete the Vibe from your own account unless we also remove it.

13. Comments, Reactions and Social Interactions

13.1 Where enabled, you may comment on Events, like comments and reviews, react to messages, save Events, and send or accept Crew Invites. These interactions are Content and are subject to section 7 (Acceptable Use and Community Standards) and section 8 (Your Content and the Licence You Grant Us).

13.2 Comments on an Event are visible to other Users who can see that Event. Do not post another person's contact details, ticket resale offers, or unrelated promotion in comments.

13.3 Crew Invites are tokenised links. Anyone holding the link may be able to act on it, so share invite links only with the person you intend to invite. We may invalidate an invite token that appears to have been circulated publicly or misused.

13.4 Saved Events, likes and reactions may be used as signals in ranking and recommendations, and — subject to your visibility settings — may contribute to aggregate counts shown to other Users and to Organisers.

13.5 Organisers may moderate comments on their own Events. We may remove any interaction that breaches these Terms.

14. Attendee Safety and Personal Responsibility

14.1 You attend Events and meet other Users entirely at your own risk. Meet in a public place first, tell someone you trust where you are going and who you are meeting, arrange your own transport, keep your drink with you, and never share financial details, identity documents or one-time passwords with another User.

14.2 BuzzMaker does not supervise Events and is not responsible for the conduct of Organisers, venues, security staff, performers, vendors or other Attendees, whether on the Platform or in person.

14.3 If you are in immediate danger, contact the South African Police Service on 10111, or emergency services on 112 from a mobile phone. Please also report the incident to us through the in-app reporting tools or at support@buzzmaker.co.za so that we can act on the accounts involved. We may cooperate with law enforcement and preserve relevant records where we are lawfully required or permitted to do so.

14.4 You must comply with the Organiser's and the venue's conditions of entry, including age restrictions, searches, dress codes, capacity limits and alcohol policies. Refusal of entry or ejection by an Organiser or venue is a matter between you and them, subject to their obligations under the CPA.

14.5 You are responsible for your own health, safety and insurance at an Event, including any medical condition, accessibility need or dietary requirement, which you should raise with the Organiser in advance.

15. Organiser Obligations and Event Safety

15.1 The Organiser is solely and fully responsible for its Event, including obtaining all permits, licences, liquor authorisations, music and performance rights, and municipal approvals; preparing and implementing an event safety and emergency plan; providing adequate security, crowd control, medical cover, sanitation and accessible facilities; maintaining valid public liability insurance appropriate to the Event; and complying with all applicable laws and municipal bylaws, including the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act 2 of 2010 ("SASREA") where it applies to the Event.

15.2 The Organiser warrants that every Event listing is accurate and not misleading as to date, time, venue, line-up, age restriction, capacity, inclusions, pricing and refund conditions, as required by the CPA. Material changes must be communicated to Ticket holders promptly through the Platform.

15.3 The Organiser must not oversell an Event or Session beyond its lawful or stated capacity, and must honour every valid Ticket it has sold.

15.4 Attendee Personal Information made available to an Organiser through rosters, scanning tools, manifest exports or CRM views may be used only for direct management of that specific Event — entry control, capacity, safety, and Event-related service messages. Organisers must not use it for unrelated marketing, must not sell, rent, publish or share it, must protect it with appropriate safeguards, and must not retain it beyond what is necessary for that Event and their own legal obligations.

15.5 In relation to attendee data received through the Platform, the Organiser processes Personal Information as a separate Responsible Party under POPIA and is independently responsible for its own POPIA compliance, including lawful basis, security safeguards, responding to data subject requests, and breach notification to the Information Regulator. Marketing communications to Attendees require a separate lawful basis and, where required, the Attendee's opt-in — which the Platform surfaces as the "allow organiser communications" setting and which Organisers must honour.

15.6 Exported ticket manifests contain Personal Information and leave the Platform's access controls. The Organiser is responsible for securing, limiting and destroying any export it makes.

15.7 The Organiser indemnifies BuzzMaker against all claims, losses, fines, penalties and costs arising from the Event, from the Organiser's Content or conduct, from its staff or co-hosts, or from its handling of attendee Personal Information.

15.8 We may remove an Event listing, suspend ticket sales, restrict scanning, or withhold settlement where we reasonably believe an Event is unlawful, unsafe, fraudulent, materially misdescribed, oversold, or in breach of these Terms.

15.9 An Organiser may import historical sales and attendance data for an Event from another platform. Before an import is committed, the Organiser must confirm it has a lawful basis to import that data, and that confirmation is itself recorded. Only aggregate statistics are kept from an import — no row-level, individually identifiable attendee record is retained, and demographic breakdowns below a minimum sample size are suppressed rather than shown. The uploaded source file is deleted once the import is committed.

15.10 The Organiser warrants that it has the right and authority to list the Event, whether it is the venue, the promoter, or another party acting with the venue's and any performers' permission, and that where it lists an Event on behalf of a company, close corporation or other entity, it is authorised to bind that entity to these Terms and to accept payments, refund obligations and liability on its behalf.

15.11 Attendee Personal Information made available to an Organiser through the Platform (rosters, CRM views, exports) may be used only for direct management of the specific Event a Ticket was bought for. Every export of an attendee roster is logged (who exported it, and when); an Organiser must not retain an export beyond what is necessary for that Event and its own legal obligations, and any pre-signed download link the Platform provides for an export expires automatically rather than remaining available indefinitely. By purchasing a Ticket, the buyer acknowledges the Organiser will receive their name, ticket details and any demographic details they have chosen to share for this purpose. The buyer's email address is additionally shared with the Organiser only where the buyer has switched on "allow organiser communications" in their privacy settings; the Platform does not share a buyer's phone number with the Organiser through this roster at all. This is disclosed again, in plain language, at the point of checkout.

15.12 Without limiting clause 15.1, the Organiser is solely responsible for lawful conduct at its Event, including preventing the service of alcohol to minors, intoxication-related incidents, the use, sale or supply of illegal drugs, and any other unlawful activity on-site, and for holding whatever licence or permit the Event legally requires (including a valid liquor licence where alcohol is served) whether or not the Platform requested proof of it at listing stage. The Platform's Event-creation flow may ask the Organiser to answer compliance questions and, optionally, attach supporting documents for its own records — doing so, or not doing so, does not transfer, reduce or satisfy any part of the Organiser's obligations under this clause or clause 15.1, and the indemnity in clause 15.7 extends expressly to claims, fines, penalties, losses and costs arising from underage drinking, alcohol service, drug-related conduct, or any other illegal activity at the Event.

15.13 Where an Attendee reaches an Event through one of the Platform's tracked one-click share links (for example, an Instagram Story, TikTok bio link, or WhatsApp share), the Organiser's Conversions Timeline shows which of those channels, if any, is associated with the resulting Ticket purchase, so the Organiser can measure the effectiveness of its own promotion of the Event. This attribution is limited to the named channel categories, is recorded against the purchase rather than against the Attendee's profile generally, and does not include any additional contact detail or identifying information beyond what clause 15.11 already covers.

16. Organiser Commercial Terms, Commission and Subscriptions

16.1 BuzzMaker charges a platform commission on the base ticket price, calculated at the commission rate of the Organiser's subscription tier in force at the time of sale. As at the effective date of these Terms the tiers are: Free / Starter (pay-as-you-go) at a 7% commission with no monthly charge; Pro / Growth Monthly at a 3% commission for R299 per month; and Pro / Growth Yearly at a 3% commission for R2 499 per year. The pricing that applies is always the pricing displayed in the Platform at the time of the transaction.

16.2 Subscriptions bill automatically on a recurring basis through our payment gateway until cancelled, and the gateway manages the billing schedule, retries and invoices. You may cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period, after which the account reverts to the pay-as-you-go tier and its commission rate. Subscription fees already paid are not refundable except where the CPA or other applicable law requires a refund.

16.3 If a recurring subscription payment fails, we may retry it, and we may downgrade the account to the pay-as-you-go tier after a grace period. Downgrade changes the commission rate applied to subsequent sales; it does not retrospectively change commission already charged.

16.4 Ticket payments are collected by BuzzMaker through the payment gateway. The buyer's card payment is not split to the Organiser at the time of sale. After the refund cutoff and the settlement hold shown in the Platform have passed, BuzzMaker pays the Organiser the ticket proceeds net of platform commission and the payout transfer fee in clause 16.5, by a later transfer to the Organiser's verified bank account. The gateway processing fee added at checkout is paid by the buyer and is not deducted again from the Organiser. A Ticket that is still refundable, disputed, or already included in a payout is not paid out again. Settlement is subject to a successful transfer and to any hold under clause 16.7. Any sale already settled by an earlier split arrangement is not paid a second time.

16.5 Each payout to an Organiser is subject to a fixed transfer fee of R3.00, deducted from the amount paid out. Payouts are only made once the Organiser's accumulated balance meets the minimum payout request threshold displayed in the Platform; balances below that threshold carry over to the next payout cycle.

16.6 Organisers must provide accurate bank account details for payout and must complete any account-name and bank verification we or the gateway require. We are not liable for funds misdirected because of details you supplied incorrectly. Payout details may only be changed by the account holder, and a change may trigger re-verification and a temporary settlement hold.

16.7 We may withhold, delay, offset or reverse a payout where there is a chargeback, dispute, refund obligation, suspected fraud, an unresolved safety or legal complaint, a regulatory or court order, or a breach of these Terms. Where a refund or chargeback is funded from our balance, the Organiser must reimburse us, and we may set that amount off against current or future payouts.

16.8 The Organiser is responsible for chargebacks, disputes and refunds arising from its Events, including where an Event is cancelled, postponed or materially changed.

16.9 The Platform's financial ledger, payout records and transaction history are our records of account and are made available to the Organiser in the Platform. Organisers should query any discrepancy within 30 days of the transaction appearing; we will investigate queries raised later, but records may be harder to reconstruct.

16.10 We may be required to collect verification information about an Organiser and its beneficial owners, and to screen against sanctions lists, in order to comply with financial-crime obligations imposed on us or on our payment partners. We may suspend payouts pending that verification.

16.11 We may change commission rates, subscription pricing and settlement schedules on reasonable prior notice under section 41 (Changes to These Terms). Changes do not apply to Tickets already sold.

16.12 We may offer a free introductory trial period to a new Organiser account. A trial may be claimed once per account and cannot be reclaimed by closing and reopening an account or by other means of circumvention. The trial period and what happens when it ends — including any subscription it converts to — are shown to you in the Platform at the time the trial is granted.

16.13 Where a Ticket is refunded or charged back after the Organiser's share has already left our control — whether because a payout to the Organiser was completed, or because the payment gateway settled the Organiser's share directly to the Organiser at the time of sale — we fund that refund from our own balance. The amount we fund is a debt owed by the Organiser to us, is immediately due, and is recovered by set-off against the Organiser's current or future proceeds under clause 16.7, by direct payment on demand, or under any suretyship given in respect of the Organiser under clause 16.16. This balance, where it exists, is shown to the Organiser in the Platform's financial dashboard together with the reason for it.

16.14 An Organiser who already had a verified payout account in place before we introduced the verification described in clause 16.10 is not automatically required to complete that verification retroactively, and may continue to receive payouts on that basis. This does not exempt such an Organiser from any future verification requirement we introduce, from clause 16.10 generally, or from being required to complete verification if we later determine, at our discretion, that a review of their account is necessary — including because of a change in their beneficial ownership, a regulatory development, or a concern raised about their account.

16.15 We may withhold a portion of each sale as a refund reserve until the refund window for that Event has closed. The reserve remains the Organiser's money and is shown to the Organiser in the Platform, together with the date on which it is released. It is applied only to refunds, chargebacks, and amounts the Organiser owes us under clause 16.13. The proportion withheld depends on the Organiser's history with the Platform and is shown to the Organiser before the Event is published. Releasing the reserve does not waive any right of set-off under clause 16.7.

16.16 Where an Organiser is a company, close corporation or other juristic person, we may require a director, member or owner of that Organiser to sign a deed of suretyship in our favour, as a condition of direct settlement of its ticket proceeds, of an increased limit under clause 16.17, or of continued use of the Platform. A suretyship is given in a separate signed document and not by acceptance of these Terms. Nothing in this clause applies to an Organiser trading as a natural person, who is in any event personally liable for the Organiser's obligations.

16.17 We may set, vary and enforce a limit on the total value of Tickets an Organiser may sell before its proceeds are settled, and on the total amount of unsettled proceeds it may hold at any time. Where an amount is owing under clause 16.13, we may also suspend the publishing of new Events by that Organiser until it is cleared. Limits are shown to the Organiser in the Platform.

17. Promotions and Paid Placement

17.1 Where we offer promotional placements, Organisers may purchase them to increase the visibility of an Event. This feature is not available on every account and may be introduced, withdrawn or limited at our discretion. Where offered, promotions run for a defined period against a defined budget, and the Platform records impressions, clicks and spend.

17.2 Where offered, promotional placement affects where and how prominently an Event appears. It does not alter reviews, ratings or verified attendance figures, and it does not guarantee ticket sales, a minimum number of impressions or clicks, or any particular return.

17.3 Promoted placements are identified as such where required by law or by our own disclosure practice. We may decline, pause or withdraw a promotion for an Event that breaches these Terms, and we may refund unspent budget in that case.

17.4 Impression and click metrics are measured by our own instrumentation, are subject to filtering for invalid or automated traffic, and are our records of account for billing purposes.

17.5 Organisers are responsible for the lawfulness of promotional content, including compliance with the CPA's provisions on misleading advertising and with any advertising code applicable to their sector.

18. Independent Contractor Relationship and Tax Obligations

18.1 Organisers operate as independent merchants and contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, partnership, joint venture or franchise relationship between BuzzMaker and any Organiser or User.

18.2 Organisers are solely responsible for determining, declaring, reporting and paying all taxes arising from their activity on the Platform, including income tax, provisional tax, Value-Added Tax where they are or become liable to register, and PAYE, UIF and SDL in respect of any staff they employ. BuzzMaker does not withhold, calculate, deduct or remit employee taxes on an Organiser's behalf, and has no mechanism to do so.

18.3 Amounts displayed to Attendees are in South African Rand and are inclusive of VAT where the Organiser is a VAT vendor and has indicated so. The Organiser is responsible for the correctness of its own VAT treatment and for issuing any tax invoice a customer is entitled to receive.

18.4 BuzzMaker's commission, subscription fees and promotional fees are charged by BuzzMaker in its own right and, where applicable, include VAT. We will make available records of amounts we have charged.

18.5 Organisers must retain their own records as required by the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 and the Companies Act 71 of 2008. The Platform's ledger is a convenience, not a substitute for the Organiser's own accounting records.

19. Tickets, Tiers, Sessions and Capacity

19.1 A Ticket is a revocable licence to attend an Event on the conditions set by the Organiser and the venue. It is not a security, an investment or a transferable instrument.

19.2 Tickets are sold in Ticket Tiers, each with its own price, capacity and sales window. A Tier closes when it sells out or its sales window ends. Free Tiers may be offered; a free Ticket carries the same conditions as a paid one, save that no refund of price arises.

19.3 Where an Event has Sessions, a Ticket may entitle you to admission to specific Sessions only. Your entitlements are shown on the Ticket. A Session entitlement may be revoked where the Ticket is refunded, the Session is cancelled, or the Ticket is found to have been misused.

19.4 Tickets are issued as cryptographically signed QR codes bound to your account and, where applicable, to a Tier and Session. Each code is valid for a single admission per Session unless the Event expressly permits re-entry.

19.5 Screenshotting, duplicating, forging or altering a QR code, or presenting a Ticket you did not lawfully obtain, is prohibited. Where a duplicate is detected, only the first valid scan is admitted and subsequent presentations are refused. We may revoke Tickets obtained fraudulently, without refund.

19.6 A Ticket may be transferred once, free of charge, to another BuzzMaker account using the Platform's transfer feature, where the Organiser has enabled transfers for that Event and the transfer deadline shown on the Ticket has not passed. On transfer, the original QR code is permanently invalidated and a new one is issued to the recipient. Transfers made through the Platform are free; we do not facilitate payment between Users for a Ticket.

19.7 Commercial resale and scalping remain prohibited. Selling, advertising or offering a Ticket for more than the amount paid for it, whether on or off the Platform, is a breach of these Terms, and we may cancel the affected Ticket without refund and suspend the accounts involved. Crew Invite is a separate social feature and does not transfer ticket ownership.

19.8 Transferring a Ticket ends the transferor's right to request a refund of it, and a Ticket subject to a pending refund request may not be transferred. Where a refund of a transferred Ticket nonetheless becomes due — for example because the Event is cancelled — it is paid to the person who originally paid for the Ticket, not to the current holder. This is disclosed to the recipient before they accept a transfer. A recipient who paid the transferor anything for the Ticket must recover it from the transferor; we are not a party to that arrangement and hold no money in respect of it.

19.9 Availability is subject to capacity and to concurrent demand. A Ticket is reserved only once payment is confirmed under section 21 (Pricing, Payments, Gateways and Promo Codes); until then, another purchaser may take the last available place.

19.10 Losing access to your account may prevent you from presenting a Ticket. Contact support before the Event if you have an access problem.

19.11 An Organiser may create a Ticket Tier that is not shown in the Event's public listing and is purchasable only by someone who has an access code for it, for example a complimentary or guestlist tier. Holding an access code does not guarantee a Ticket — ordinary capacity and sales-window limits still apply — and once obtained, a Ticket from a hidden Tier is subject to the same terms as any other Ticket.

19.12 A transfer under clause 19.6 may only be accepted by a recipient who meets every condition of admission to the Event, including any age restriction. A transferred Ticket carries the same conditions, Tier and Session entitlements as it did before the transfer. A Ticket that has already been scanned, that has been cancelled, or that belongs to an Event that has been cancelled, may not be transferred.

20. Check-In, Door Scanning and Offline Sync

20.1 Admission is recorded by scanning your Ticket QR code at the door. The scan records the time, the scanning device or staff member, and the Session admitted.

20.2 Door scanning may operate offline where connectivity is poor and synchronise later. In the event of a conflict between a device record and the server, the server record prevails. Offline scanning may briefly permit a duplicate admission that is detected on synchronisation; the Organiser is responsible for door decisions taken in that window.

20.3 Check-in creates a record of your attendance which is used for entry control, capacity management, review eligibility under section 23 (Reviews, Ratings and Organiser Responses), and — subject to your privacy settings — social proof and Organiser analytics. You may hide your checked-in status from other Users at any time.

20.4 Admission remains at the discretion of the Organiser and the venue, subject to the CPA and applicable law. A valid Ticket does not override a lawful refusal of entry — for example for intoxication, failure to meet an age restriction, or refusal of a lawful search.

20.5 Organiser staff who scan Tickets see the attendee information necessary for admission and no more. Scanner access is scoped by role and is logged.

21. Pricing, Payments, Gateways and Promo Codes

21.1 All prices are displayed in South African Rand (ZAR). The total payable, including any processing fee added at checkout, is shown to you before you confirm payment. Prices for a Tier may change over time; the price that applies is the one displayed at the moment you confirm.

21.2 Payments are processed by a third-party payment gateway integrated with the Platform. BuzzMaker does not receive or store your full card number, CVV or banking credentials; card data is handled by the gateway under its own PCI-DSS controls and its own terms, which apply to you in addition to these Terms.

21.3 Ticket prices are set by the Organiser. The gateway's processing fee is added to the ticket price and payable by the purchaser at checkout, and is separately disclosed before you confirm. Platform commission is deducted from the Organiser's proceeds and is not an additional charge to the purchaser.

21.4 Promo Codes reduce the base ticket price — by a percentage or a fixed amount — before fees and commission are calculated on it. Codes are subject to their own validity period, usage limits and active status, are not transferable or redeemable for cash, may not be combined unless expressly stated, and may be withdrawn if misused or issued in error.

21.5 A purchase is complete only once the gateway confirms payment and the Platform issues your Ticket. Where a payment fails, is reversed, is duplicated, or is later found to be fraudulent, the associated Ticket may be cancelled. Duplicate gateway notifications are deduplicated so that you are not charged or issued twice for the same transaction; if you believe you have been double-charged, contact us.

21.6 You must use a payment method you are lawfully entitled to use. Fraudulent transactions will be reported and may result in account termination and reversal of any Tickets issued.

21.7 Where an obvious pricing error occurs — for example a Tier listed at a manifestly incorrect amount — we or the Organiser may cancel the affected transaction and refund it in full rather than honour the erroneous price, as permitted by law.

22. Refunds, Cancellations and Postponements

22.1 If an Event is cancelled by the Organiser, Ticket holders are entitled to a refund of the ticket price in accordance with the CPA. The Platform does not currently have a distinct "postponed" status or an automated keep-the-Ticket-or-take-a-refund choice. Where an Event is postponed or materially changed — including a change of date, venue, or a material change to the advertised line-up — the Organiser must cancel the original listing, which refunds every Ticket holder in full, and create a new listing for the rescheduled Event; Ticket holders then decide for themselves whether to buy a Ticket to the new listing. This does not reduce an Attendee's rights under the CPA in respect of the original Event.

22.2 Where the Organiser has enabled self-service refunds for an Event, an Attendee may request a full refund of the amount charged for that purchase at any time up to the Event's refund cutoff, without needing the Organiser's approval. The refund cutoff is set by the Organiser per Event and defaults to 4 hours before the Event's start time where the Organiser has not set one; it is shown on the Event listing. Where the Organiser sets the refund cutoff to zero hours, there is no self-service refund window at all for that Event, from the moment of purchase — this is shown on the Event listing and at checkout, and a refund must instead be requested from the Organiser or through the support route under clause 22.9. Once the refund cutoff has passed, a refund reverts to the Organiser's discretion under clause 22.4, or to the support route under clause 22.9. A self-service refund is subject to the same treatment as any other refund under clause 22.6.

22.3 Section 17 of the CPA governs cancellation of an advance booking by a consumer and permits the supplier to impose a reasonable cancellation charge, having regard to the nature of the booking, how far in advance it is cancelled, and the likelihood of resale. Section 47 of the CPA governs the supplier's failure to supply. The Organiser is the supplier of the Event; BuzzMaker facilitates refunds through the payment gateway on the Organiser's instruction, or where we determine a refund is due.

22.4 The ECTA section 44 cooling-off right for electronic transactions does not apply to tickets for services to be rendered on a specific date or within a specific period, which is what an Event Ticket is. Outside the self-service refund window in clause 22.2, change-of-mind refunds are therefore at the Organiser's discretion and subject to the refund policy stated on the Event listing.

22.5 Despite clause 22.4 and any refund policy stated on the Event listing, no cancellation charge may be imposed and no refund may be refused, in accordance with section 17 of the CPA, read with subsection (5) of that section, where an Attendee is unable to attend the Event because of the death or hospitalisation of the Attendee, or of the person for whose benefit the Ticket was bought. A request under this clause must be made to the Organiser through the Platform, or to support@buzzmaker.co.za, together with reasonable supporting proof (such as a death or hospital admission certificate). We action this manually: our support team processes a full refund of that Attendee's own Ticket under clause 22.6. The Platform's only automated, self-service refund tool for this specific ground operates at whole-Event level — it cancels the Event and refunds every Ticket holder — so we do not use it to action a single Attendee's request under this clause.

22.6 Where a refund is due, it is made to the original payment method for the full amount charged for that purchase, including the ticket price and the gateway processing fee added at checkout. Self-service refunds, refunds under clause 22.5, and refunds when an Event is cancelled through the Platform, are full refunds of that charge. The Platform does not offer a partial refund as a product feature. The gateway may not return its own processing fee to BuzzMaker; that does not reduce the amount refunded to you. Where the corresponding amount has already been paid to the Organiser, clause 16.13 applies and the refund may need manual attention instead of an automatic second payment. Refunds are typically processed within 10 Business Days of approval, although gateway and bank timelines apply and are outside our control.

22.7 A refunded Ticket is cancelled, and its QR code and any Session entitlements are revoked immediately. Attempting to use a refunded Ticket is a breach of section 7 (Acceptable Use and Community Standards).

22.8 Subscription fees paid by Organisers are governed by clause 16.2, and promotional spend by section 17 (Promotions and Paid Placement).

22.9 Refund requests outside the self-service window should be directed first to the Organiser through the Platform, and to support@buzzmaker.co.za if unresolved. Nothing in this section limits your right to approach the forums listed in section 40 (Complaints, Dispute Resolution and Governing Law).

22.10 Marking an Event cancelled removes it from sale and from discovery, but does not by itself refund, revoke or otherwise touch Tickets already issued — refunds under clause 22.1 must still be initiated, by the Organiser or by contacting support@buzzmaker.co.za, in the same way as any other refund under this section.

23. Reviews, Ratings and Organiser Responses

23.1 Reviews may be submitted only by Users whose attendance was verified by check-in, and only after the Event has ended. Reviews are captured across three dimensions — the Event, the venue and the Organiser — and are marked as verified where these conditions are met.

23.2 Reviews must be honest, first-hand and free of unlawful, defamatory, discriminatory or personally identifying content about third parties. Buying, selling, incentivising, coordinating or retaliating over reviews is prohibited. We may remove reviews that breach these Terms and may act against the accounts involved.

23.3 Organisers may publicly respond to reviews of their own Events. Responses are subject to the same standards. Organisers must not threaten, dox, or attempt to suppress a reviewer, or condition any benefit on the removal or alteration of a review.

23.4 We send post-Event review prompts by push notification, in-app notification and email to verified checked-in Attendees. Review-prompt emails are direct marketing (see section 27 (Notifications and Marketing Communications)) — you can turn them off in your settings, and every prompt email carries a one-click unsubscribe link that requires no login.

23.5 Reviews and ratings contribute to public averages and to Organiser and venue reputation. We do not remove a review merely because it is unfavourable.

23.6 Organisers may send announcements to Attendees of their own Events. Announcements must relate to that Event and must not be used for unrelated marketing.

24. Rankings, Buzz Score and Social Proof

24.1 The Platform ranks and surfaces Events using automated signals including saves, expressed interest, ticket sales, check-ins, comments, Vibes, reviews, recency, proximity and Buzz Score, weighted by parameters we set and adjust from time to time.

24.2 Buzz Score and similar indicators are computed metrics, not editorial ratings, endorsements or guarantees of quality, safety or popularity. They may be recomputed, corrected or reweighted at any time, and historical values are not preserved.

24.3 Social proof — indications that people you have matched with, or a number of Users, are interested in or attending an Event — is shown only where the Users concerned have not opted out, are not blocked by or blocking the viewer, and where the applicable minimum-cohort threshold is met. You may remove yourself from social proof at any time.

24.4 Ranking may be influenced by paid placement under section 17 (Promotions and Paid Placement). Ranking is not a representation about any Event or Organiser, and we give no assurance of visibility, reach or placement to any Organiser.

24.5 Attempting to manipulate ranking signals — including through fake accounts, coordinated saves, or automated interaction — is a breach of section 7 (Acceptable Use and Community Standards).

25. Identity and Biometric Verification

25.1 Certain features — principally Organiser onboarding, payout enablement and trust-and-safety escalations — require identity verification using a facial biometric check performed through our third-party verification provider. This involves capturing a live selfie, a passive liveness check, and a face-match comparison against a stored reference photograph. Where you have no reference photograph, the first capture establishes one and a second capture is compared against it.

25.2 Biometric data is special personal information under section 26 of POPIA. We process it only on the basis of your express, specific and informed consent, given at the point of capture, and we record the fact and timestamp of that consent. Verification is optional; declining it means the gated features remain unavailable, but it does not affect your general use of the Platform.

25.3 We store your reference photograph, the verification outcome, a confidence score, provider reference identifiers, the verification context and any warnings returned. Provider responses are sanitised before storage. We do not receive or store the provider's underlying biometric templates.

25.4 Where the reference photograph is periodically refreshed so that verification remains accurate as your appearance changes, the refresh is governed by a policy with minimum-score thresholds and a cooldown period, and each refresh is recorded. The previous reference is superseded.

25.5 You may withdraw your biometric consent at any time by contacting support@buzzmaker.co.za. On withdrawal we delete the reference photograph and cease biometric processing; verification-dependent features will be disabled, and we may retain a minimal, non-biometric record that a verification occurred where we need it for fraud prevention or legal compliance. Withdrawals are counted and audited.

25.6 Verification results are indicative and can produce false accepts or false rejects, and accuracy can vary between individuals. A verification outcome is not a guarantee of any person's identity or trustworthiness, and must not be relied on by any User as such. Where verification runs in a non-production or sandbox configuration for testing, results carry no assurance at all and are labelled in the interface.

25.7 An adverse automated verification result may be reviewed by a person on request — see section 30 (Automated Processing, Recommendations and AI Features).

26. Location Data and Visibility Controls

26.1 With your device permission and your recorded location consent, we collect your approximate or precise location to show nearby Events, place Events on the map, resolve your suburb, and improve recommendations. You can withdraw device permission at any time in your device settings, and your location consent in the Platform; core browsing continues to work without it, with reduced relevance.

26.2 Coordinates are converted into a suburb name through our mapping and geocoding provider. Whether your suburb is shown to others is controlled by your suburb visibility setting. Distances shown to other Users are computed in a privacy-preserving way and are not a live position feed. We do not broadcast your real-time location to other Users, and we do not offer a feature that shows your live position on a map to anyone else.

26.3 You control, at minimum: profile visibility, attendance visibility, demographic visibility and suburb visibility — each settable to everyone, matches only, organisers only, or nobody — together with whether you appear in social proof and checked-in counts, whether you are excluded from the matching pool, who may message you, whether you require approval before being added to a Crew Chat (see section 11 (Messaging and Chat Controls)), whether your online status is visible, and whether Organisers may view your profile or contact you.

26.4 Defaults are set conservatively and are never widened on your behalf. Where we introduce a new sharing feature, it is off until you turn it on.

26.5 Blocking a User overrides visibility settings in that User's favour: a blocked User cannot see you in discovery, matching, social proof or attendee lists, and cannot message you.

26.6 Demographic information shared with Organisers for Event insights is aggregated and subject to a minimum-cohort threshold set per Event, so that small groups are not re-identifiable. Sharing demographics for insights is a separate, revocable consent, and revoking it removes you from future aggregates.

27. Notifications and Marketing Communications

27.1 We send transactional messages that are necessary for the service — account, security, ticket and payment messages — by email, push notification and in-app notification. These are not direct marketing and cannot be fully disabled while your account is open, although channel-level controls, notification levels and quiet hours are available.

27.2 Organiser announcement emails and post-Event review-prompt emails are direct marketing, sent only where you have opted in (respectively, "allow organiser communications" and review prompts in your settings), or as otherwise permitted by section 69 of POPIA and section 45 of ECTA. Every marketing email carries a one-click unsubscribe link that requires no login and takes effect immediately, in addition to the setting itself. Unsubscribing suppresses all direct marketing to that email address, not only the message you unsubscribed from, and the suppression is retained even if you later delete your account, so the address cannot be re-added to a marketing list by mistake.

27.3 Organiser communications to you are controlled by your "allow organiser communications" setting and are limited to Events you have engaged with. Organisers may not use Platform data to contact you outside the Platform without a separate lawful basis.

27.4 Push notifications depend on a subscription registered by your browser or device and on a third-party delivery provider. Delivery is not guaranteed, and you should not rely on a push notification alone for time-critical Event information.

27.5 Some scheduled communications, including morning-after review prompts, are dispatched by automated jobs. Each dispatch is recorded so that you are not sent the same prompt twice.

28. Third-Party Services and Cross-Border Transfers

28.1 We use third-party Operators to run the Platform. As at the effective date these include, by category: cloud database, authentication, file storage and serverless functions; application hosting and content delivery; payment processing and later organiser payouts through our payment gateway; identity and biometric verification; mapping, search and geocoding; media processing and transcoding — including private chat video as well as public Vibes; transactional email delivery; push notification delivery; product analytics; third-party observability, error and performance monitoring; and AI providers, including Google (Gemini), used for text embeddings, drafting assistance, image generation, and the "Ask The Buzz" event Q&A feature described in clause 30.6.

28.2 Each Operator processes Personal Information only on our documented instructions and under a written agreement as required by section 21 of POPIA. The current list, and any subsequent changes, is maintained in our Privacy Policy.

28.3 Several Operators process data outside South Africa. Where Personal Information is transferred cross-border, we do so in accordance with section 72 of POPIA, on the basis of the data subject's consent, the necessity of the transfer for the performance of the contract, or a binding agreement with the recipient providing an adequate level of protection.

28.4 Third-party services are governed by their own terms and privacy policies. The Platform may link to third-party websites, venue pages, ticket partners and social media. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party content, products, availability or practices.

28.5 We use cookies and similar local-storage technologies for authentication, session persistence, security, preferences and analytics. You can control cookies through your browser, but disabling essential cookies will prevent you from signing in.

29. Privacy and POPIA Compliance

29.1 Buzzplug (Pty) Ltd, trading as BuzzMaker, is the Responsible Party for Personal Information processed on the Platform. Our Information Officer is Aidan Matthews, contactable at support@buzzmaker.co.za. This section summarises our processing; the full Privacy Policy governs where the two differ.

29.2 Categories of information we process include: account and profile data (display name, email address, mobile number, date of birth and derived age, gender, bio, avatar, profile photos and captions, city, suburb, province, country, timezone); preferences and interests (interests, topics, music genres, preferred event types, looking-for, archetypes, availability status) and the vector embeddings derived from them; location (device coordinates, geospatial point, resolved suburb); Event activity (saved Events, expressed interest, RSVPs, Tickets, Tiers, Sessions, check-in times and scanning records, reviews, comments and likes); social activity (swipes, matches, conversations, messages and reactions, blocks, reports, Vibes and Crew Invites); commercial data (payments, ledger entries, payouts, subscriptions, promo code usage, promotional spend, gateway customer identifiers, and Organiser bank details); identity and biometric verification records where section 25 (Identity and Biometric Verification) applies; consent and audit records including the IP address and user agent captured at the time of a consent change; and technical data (device and browser information, log, metric and trace data, analytics events, and error reports).

29.3 Our lawful bases are: performance of the contract with you (accounts, Tickets, check-in, matching, messaging, payouts); your consent (location, marketing, demographic insight sharing, biometric verification, Vibe Vault permanence, third-party sharing); our legitimate interests (security, fraud prevention, moderation, service improvement, aggregate analytics); and compliance with legal obligations (tax, accounting, financial-crime and law-enforcement obligations).

29.4 Consent is granular and independently revocable. Each consent change is written to a consent log recording the type of consent, the action, the value, and the time. Revoking a consent stops the associated processing prospectively; it does not make prior lawful processing unlawful.

29.5 Retention. Transaction, ticket and financial records are retained for approximately 5 years to meet tax and accounting obligations. When you request account deletion, your account is deactivated immediately and enters a 60-day restore window (see 29.7); if you sign back in and restore it within that window, it is reinstated exactly as it was. If the window lapses with no restore, erasure is carried out and the redacted account record is thereafter retained for approximately 3 years, matching the retention period for other account and profile records. Expired and deleted Vibes are purged after the configured soft-delete retention window. Consent, moderation and audit logs are retained for as long as needed to evidence compliance and to defend claims. Operational logs, metrics and traces are retained on shorter technical schedules. Backups age out on their own cycle.

29.6 Your rights under POPIA. You may request access to your Personal Information and details of who has had access to it; request correction or deletion of information that is inaccurate, irrelevant, excessive, out of date, incomplete, misleading or unlawfully obtained; object on reasonable grounds to processing based on legitimate interests; withdraw any consent you have given; object to direct marketing at any time; and request a copy of your data in a usable form. Requests may be submitted to support@buzzmaker.co.za and will be dealt with within a reasonable time, ordinarily 30 days. We may ask you to verify your identity before we act, and we will tell you if a request is refused and why.

29.7 What deletion actually does. Requesting deletion marks the account deleted and deactivates it immediately, but does not erase anything yet: you have 60 days to change your mind by signing back in and choosing to restore the account, in which case it is reinstated in full — nothing is lost. If you do not restore it within 60 days, erasure is then carried out: we redact your profile — display name, avatar, bio, email address, mobile number, date of birth, suburb, city, country, location, looking-for preferences and derived embeddings; we delete your attendance records, saved Events, matches, Vibes, profile photos and block lists; we remove you from the participant list of any conversation you were part of and delete chat media you uploaded; and we anonymise your identifier on financial, ticket-sale and ticket records that we are legally required to keep. Your account's email address is then freed for reuse — including signing up again as a new account, if you choose. The erasure event is itself recorded in our consent log. This is by design: complete destruction of financial records is not lawfully available to us, and content in another User's conversation history (including messages you sent them, which are redacted rather than removed) or in an Event's public record may persist in de-identified form.

29.8 Security. We apply technical and organisational safeguards including row-level security in the database, role-scoped access tokens, encryption in transit, restricted and audited administrative access, rate limiting, secure secret management, and centralised logging and monitoring. No system is perfectly secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

29.9 Breach notification. If a security compromise affecting your Personal Information occurs, we will notify the Information Regulator and affected data subjects as soon as reasonably possible after establishing the scope, as required by section 22 of POPIA.

29.10 Children. The Platform is not intended for and is not offered to anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly process the Personal Information of children. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.

29.11 You may lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator (South Africa) — enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za; complaints: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za.

30. Automated Processing, Recommendations and AI Features

30.1 The Platform uses automated processing to rank and recommend Events and Users, to compute Buzz Score and social-proof metrics, to generate vector embeddings of profiles and Event descriptions, to score candidate matches against ranking weights in a dedicated recommendation service, to assist Organisers with drafting listing copy, and to generate Event cover artwork. Some of these features send data to third-party AI providers, which act as Operators under section 28 (Third-Party Services and Cross-Border Transfers).

30.2 Recommendations, rankings and match suggestions are automated, approximate and imperfect. They are suggestions only and carry no assurance of compatibility, safety, suitability or accuracy. Ranking weights are tuned by us and change over time; no User or Organiser is entitled to a particular ranking outcome.

30.3 AI-assisted text and imagery may be inaccurate, generic or unsuitable, and may reflect limitations in the underlying models. Organisers remain fully responsible for the accuracy and lawfulness of anything they publish, including AI-assisted listing copy and generated cover artwork, and for ensuring that it does not infringe third-party rights or mislead consumers contrary to the CPA. AI-generated imagery must not be used to depict an Event, venue, performer or amenity in a way that misrepresents what Attendees will receive.

30.4 Section 71 of POPIA restricts decisions with legal or substantially similar effect being made solely by automated processing. Where an automated process — for example an identity verification result, a fraud signal, a payout hold, or an account restriction — would materially affect you, you may request that a person review it by writing to support@buzzmaker.co.za. We will provide the reasons for the decision, give you an opportunity to make representations, and have the outcome reconsidered by a person who was not responsible for the automated decision.

30.5 We do not sell your Personal Information, and we do not use your private messages to train third-party general-purpose AI models.

30.6 "Ask The Buzz" is an optional, event-specific question-and-answer feature available from an Event page. Your question, a short recent-conversation history, and factual details about that Event — including its description, category, tags, venue, pricing, engagement statistics, and a small number of recent public comments and reviews — are sent to Google's Gemini large language model to generate a reply. Ask The Buzz answers questions about the Event only; it is not used to make any decision about you, and section 71 of POPIA's human-review right is therefore not separately engaged by this feature. Answers may be cached, keyed to the question asked and the Event, so that the same question asked again is answered from the cache rather than sent to Gemini again.

31. Administrative Access, Moderation and Enforcement

31.1 A limited number of BuzzMaker personnel hold administrative or super-administrative roles that permit them to view and manage accounts, Events and Vibes, to act on reports, and to apply enforcement measures. Roles are assigned explicitly, are enforced in the database, and are kept to the minimum necessary.

31.2 Administrative actions — including role changes, account suspensions, content removals and access to User records — are written to an administrative audit log recording who acted, what was acted on, and when. These logs are retained and reviewable.

31.3 Administrative access to private content, including messages, is limited to what is strictly necessary to investigate a report, enforce these Terms, comply with a lawful request, or protect the safety of a person. It is not used for curiosity, commercial purposes or profiling.

31.4 Enforcement measures available to us include warning, Content removal, feature restriction, demotion in ranking, removal from social proof, Ticket revocation, settlement hold, account suspension and account termination. We aim to apply the least severe measure appropriate to the breach.

31.5 If you believe an enforcement decision against you was wrong, you may write to support@buzzmaker.co.za to ask us to reconsider it. We do not operate a formal appeals tribunal or guarantee a reasoned written decision on a fixed timetable, but we aim to respond within 30 days. Where the decision was substantially automated, section 30 (Automated Processing, Recommendations and AI Features) also applies, and that section's human-review right is not limited by this clause.

31.6 We may disclose account information where required by a court order, subpoena, statutory demand or other lawful process, or where we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to prevent imminent harm. Where we are lawfully permitted to notify you of such a request, we will endeavour to do so.

32. Security, Rate Limiting and Vulnerability Disclosure

32.1 We apply rate limits and abuse controls to the Platform's interfaces. Exceeding a limit may result in a temporary refusal of requests. Deliberately evading a rate limit is a breach of section 7 (Acceptable Use and Community Standards).

32.2 You must not perform penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, load testing or any other security assessment against the Platform without our prior written permission.

32.3 If you discover a security vulnerability, please report it privately to support@buzzmaker.co.za with enough detail to reproduce it, and give us a reasonable opportunity to remediate before any public disclosure. Do not access, modify, exfiltrate or retain any other person's data while investigating, and do not degrade the service. We will not pursue action against a researcher who reports in good faith and within these limits.

32.4 You are responsible for the security of the device and network you use to access the Platform, and for keeping your own software up to date.

33. Intellectual Property

33.1 The Platform, including its software, source code, design, interface, database structure, ranking models, brand, name, logo and all associated intellectual property, is owned by BuzzMaker or its licensors and is protected by South African and international law.

33.2 We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Platform in accordance with these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

33.3 You may not use our name, logo or brand assets without our prior written permission, except that Organisers may state that their Event is ticketed through BuzzMaker.

33.4 Organisers warrant that they hold all rights necessary for the images, artwork, music, trade marks and performer names used in their listings and promotions, and that any AI-generated artwork they publish does not infringe a third party's rights.

33.5 If you believe Content on the Platform infringes your intellectual property, notify us at support@buzzmaker.co.za with the particulars required under section 77 of ECTA and we will act on it. We may terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.

34. Availability, Changes and Beta Features

34.1 We aim to keep the Platform available but do not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation. Access may be suspended for maintenance, upgrades, migration or security, and we will give notice of planned downtime where reasonably practicable.

34.2 Features may be enabled or disabled per account, role or region through feature flags. Beta and experimental features are provided "as is", may behave unpredictably, and may be withdrawn without notice.

34.3 We may change the Platform's functionality, appearance and technical requirements. We will not make a change that materially reduces the value of something you have already paid for without offering you a remedy.

34.4 You are responsible for maintaining a compatible device, browser and internet connection, and for any data charges you incur.

35. Force Majeure

35.1 Neither party is liable for failure or delay in performing an obligation under these Terms to the extent caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including network, gateway, hosting or third-party provider outage, load-shedding or power failure, natural disaster, fire, flood, epidemic, civil unrest, industrial action, war, terrorism, cyber-attack, or governmental or regulatory action.

35.2 This section does not excuse an obligation to pay an amount already due, and it does not affect a consumer's right to a refund where an Event does not take place.

35.3 Where a force majeure event prevents an Event from proceeding, the refund position in section 22 (Refunds, Cancellations and Postponements) applies as between the Attendee and the Organiser.

36. Suspension and Termination

36.1 You may close your account at any time from your profile settings, or by contacting support@buzzmaker.co.za. Closure does not entitle you to a refund of Tickets already purchased or subscription fees already paid, except as required by law, and does not cancel Events you have listed — Organisers must first resolve their obligations to Ticket holders.

36.2 We may suspend or terminate your access, with or without notice depending on the seriousness of the circumstances, where you materially breach these Terms, where your conduct endangers another person, where we are required to do so by law, or where we reasonably suspect fraud. Where practicable and lawful, we will give reasons and an opportunity to remedy.

36.3 We may also discontinue the Platform as a whole, on reasonable notice, in which case we will make reasonable efforts to allow you to retrieve your data and to settle outstanding Tickets and payouts.

36.4 On termination, the sections that by their nature should survive remain in force — including clause 8.2 (licence in respect of Content still published), section 18 (Independent Contractor Relationship and Tax Obligations), section 29 (Privacy and POPIA Compliance), section 33 (Intellectual Property), section 37 (Disclaimers), section 38 (Limitation of Liability), section 39 (Indemnity) and section 40 (Complaints, Dispute Resolution and Governing Law).

36.5 Organisers whose accounts are terminated remain liable for outstanding refunds, chargebacks, taxes and obligations to Ticket holders, and we may retain and apply funds held to meet them.

37. Disclaimers

37.1 To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and we disclaim all implied warranties not expressly given in these Terms.

37.2 We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, currency or reliability of Event listings, User profiles, Content, comments, reviews, recommendations, rankings, Buzz Scores, verification outcomes, analytics, geocoded positions or AI-generated output.

37.3 We do not warrant that the Platform will meet your requirements, that defects will be corrected, or that the Platform or its infrastructure is free of harmful components.

37.4 Nothing in this section limits your rights under the CPA, including your rights in respect of goods and services supplied to you, or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our gross negligence, for fraud, or for any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

38. Limitation of Liability

38.1 To the fullest extent permitted by South African law, including the CPA, BuzzMaker is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of data, loss of goodwill or loss of opportunity, however arising.

38.2 To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms or your use of the Platform is limited to the greater of (a) the total amount of fees you paid to BuzzMaker in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) R5 000 (five thousand Rand).

38.3 We are not liable for the acts or omissions of Organisers, venues, other Users, payment gateways, verification providers or other third parties, nor for anything that occurs at an Event, nor for any interaction between Users on or off the Platform.

38.4 These limitations apply regardless of the form of action, whether in contract, delict, statute or otherwise, and apply to our directors, employees and agents as well as to us.

38.5 These limitations do not apply to liability for death or personal injury caused by our gross negligence, to fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, to a breach of POPIA for which liability may not be limited, or to any liability that may not be limited or excluded under the CPA or other applicable South African law.

39. Indemnity

39.1 You indemnify and hold BuzzMaker, its directors, employees and agents harmless against all claims, demands, losses, damages, fines, penalties and reasonable legal costs arising from your use of the Platform, your Content, your Events, your breach of these Terms, your breach of any applicable law, or your infringement of any third party's rights.

39.2 This indemnity does not apply to the extent that the claim arises from our own gross negligence, wilful misconduct or breach of these Terms.

39.3 We will notify you of any claim to which this indemnity may apply, and will not settle it in a way that admits your liability without your consent, which you may not unreasonably withhold.

40. Complaints, Dispute Resolution and Governing Law

40.1 Please raise complaints with us first at support@buzzmaker.co.za. We aim to acknowledge within 5 Business Days and to resolve within 15 Business Days, and we will tell you if a matter will take longer.

40.2 If a dispute is not resolved, the parties will attempt in good faith to settle it by negotiation between senior representatives, and then by mediation, before commencing litigation. Nothing prevents either party from seeking urgent interim relief from a court at any time.

40.3 Consumers retain the right to refer a complaint to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, the National Consumer Commission, or a consumer court, and privacy complaints to the Information Regulator. Nothing in these Terms requires you to give up those forums or to arbitrate a consumer dispute.

40.4 These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Subject to the above, the parties consent to the jurisdiction of the High Court of South Africa, Western Cape Division, Cape Town, and to the jurisdiction of the Magistrates' Court where the claim falls within its jurisdiction — without prejudice to a consumer's right to sue in the court of their own area of residence or business.

40.5 Each party bears its own costs of negotiation and mediation unless otherwise agreed.

41. Changes to These Terms

41.1 We may amend these Terms. The version number and effective date at the top of this document identify the current version, and the version you accepted is recorded against your account.

41.2 Where a change is material — for example a change to fees, commission, refunds, liability, dispute resolution, or how Personal Information is processed — we will give reasonable advance notice by email or in-app notification, and where the change requires it, ask you to accept the new version before continuing.

41.3 Continued use of the Platform after the effective date of a non-material change constitutes acceptance of it. If you do not accept a change, your remedy is to stop using the Platform and close your account, and — where the change materially disadvantages you in respect of something you have already paid for — to request a proportionate refund.

41.4 Changes do not apply retrospectively to Tickets already sold or to transactions already completed.

42. General Provisions

42.1 Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the Vibe Vault terms and any Event-specific or Organiser-specific terms, constitute the whole agreement between you and BuzzMaker regarding the Platform, and supersede any prior understanding.

42.2 Severability. If any provision is found unenforceable, it is severed or read down to the minimum extent necessary and the remainder continues in force.

42.3 No waiver. Our failure or delay in enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it, and a waiver on one occasion does not waive it on another.

42.4 Assignment. You may not assign or cede your rights under these Terms. We may assign or transfer ours as part of a merger, acquisition, restructuring or sale of assets, on notice to you, provided your rights are not diminished.

42.5 No third-party rights. These Terms confer no benefit on any person who is not a party to them, except that the limitations and indemnities in favour of our directors, employees and agents may be enforced by them.

42.6 Notices. We send notices to the email address on your account or through in-app notification; you send notices to support@buzzmaker.co.za. A notice is deemed received on the Business Day after it is sent, unless the sender is aware it did not arrive. Each party chooses the addresses set out in the statutory disclosures at the end of these Terms as its address for the service of legal documents.

42.7 Electronic communications. You consent to receiving communications from us electronically. In accordance with ECTA, electronic records, data messages and electronic acceptance have the same legal force as writing and signature for the purposes of these Terms.

42.8 Language. These Terms are concluded in English. Any translation is provided for convenience, and the English version prevails in the event of a conflict.

42.9 Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation. The words "including", "such as" and "for example" are not words of limitation. References to legislation include amendments and re-enactments. No provision is interpreted against a party merely because that party drafted it.

43. Statutory Disclosures (ECTA Section 43)