Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Truk — the website, mobile-friendly web app, and related services (together, the “Service”) operated by Byte Digital, a California sole proprietorship (“Truk,” “we,” “us”). By creating an account, voting, following a vendor, booking a stall, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

These Terms apply to everyone who uses Truk: people browsing and voting (“Community Members”), vendors who list and sell through the platform (“Vendors”), and venues and market organizers who host them (“Venues” or “Hosts”). Some sections apply only to one of these groups, and say so.

1. What Truk is

Truk is a local-commerce platform that connects three things: a community that wants specific vendors nearby, vendors who are deciding where to show up, and venues that host them. Concretely, the Service lets a Community Member discover vendors and events, vote or ask for a vendor to visit their area, follow vendors and venues, and RSVP to events; lets a Vendor build a profile, declare where they travel and what they need from a space, hold credentials like insurance and health permits, and apply to or accept bookings; and lets a Venue list spaces and events, review applications, and book vendors based in part on demand data Truk computes from community activity.

Truk is a technology platform. We are not a food vendor, a venue, an employer of any Vendor or Venue staff, or a party to the arrangement a Vendor and Venue reach with each other. Section 6 explains what that means in practice.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be able to form a binding contract to use Truk. The Service is not directed at children, and we ask that you not use it, or provide us with information, if you are under 13. If you are between 13 and the age of majority where you live, you may only use Truk under the supervision of a parent or guardian who agrees to these Terms on your behalf. If we learn that someone under 13 has given us personal information, we will delete it — see our Privacy Policy.

You do not need an account to browse Truk, see public event pages, or cast a vote — a guest identity tracked through a cookie is enough for that, as described in the Privacy Policy. An account is required to follow vendors and venues, manage a Vendor or Venue listing, or receive notifications. You agree to provide accurate information, to keep your login credentials confidential, and to notify us if you believe your account has been compromised. You are responsible for activity that happens under your account, except activity you did not authorize and promptly reported to us.

An organization — the entity behind a Vendor or Venue listing — may have several people on its team with different roles. The organization is responsible for the actions of everyone it grants access to, and for removing access when someone leaves.

3. Voting and the demand system

At the center of Truk is a simple idea: your interest, pooled with your neighbors’, is a signal Vendors and Venues can act on. Here is what that means concretely, and what it does not.

• A vote or a request is never shown to anyone individually. It is combined with other people’s activity in the same area, and an area is only ever reported on once enough different people are in it. Below that threshold, we report that we cannot answer rather than showing a number that could identify individuals.
• A vote, a follow, or a request is an expression of interest, not a purchase, a reservation, a contract, or a promise that any Vendor will show up. Whether a Vendor or Venue acts on demand data is entirely up to them.
• Casting the same vote or request repeatedly does not multiply your influence in proportion to how many times you click. Repeated signals from the same person count for less each time, specifically so that one enthusiastic person cannot outweigh several different people. See Section 10 on vote manipulation.
• Forecasts, match scores, and “likely attendance” figures shown to Vendors and Venues are estimates built from past activity on the platform. They are not guarantees, and where we do not have enough history to estimate something responsibly, we say so rather than showing a number we made up.

4. Vendors

If you list a business on Truk — a food truck, a market stall, a mobile service, or any other format the platform supports — you are solely responsible for:

• Holding every permit, license, health certification, and insurance policy that the law, and any Venue you work with, requires for what you sell and how you operate.
• The accuracy of everything in your listing — your description, categories, offerings, prices, photos, service area, and the credentials you upload.
• Actually showing up to bookings you accept, or cancelling with enough notice that a Venue and its community are not misled.
• Complying with the law wherever you operate, including any location a Venue books you into or that you list under “where you’re already going.”

Truk provides demand data, match scores, and forecasts as decision support, not as a recommendation you are entitled to rely on instead of your own judgment. See Section 11 for what a “verified” credential does and does not mean.

If your account carries a paid subscription, Section 7 covers billing.

5. Venues and hosts

If you list a space or run events on Truk, you are solely responsible for the accuracy of your listing, the space and requirements you describe, the credential requirements you set for Vendors, and your own compliance with zoning, permitting, and any other law that applies to hosting vendors at your location. Truk’s credential review helps you see what a Vendor has submitted; it does not substitute for your own judgment about whether that is enough for your event.

When you book a Vendor, or a Vendor accepts your opportunity, the resulting arrangement is between you and that Vendor. Section 6 explains Truk’s role in that arrangement.

6. Truk is a marketplace, not a party to your deal

Truk connects Vendors, Venues, and the community, and gives them tools — discovery, matching, credential tracking, booking workflows, notifications — to reach an arrangement with each other. We are not a party to that arrangement. When a Venue books a Vendor, the contract for that booking is between the Venue and the Vendor, on whatever terms they agree to. Truk does not sell, prepare, transport, or deliver any product or service a Vendor offers, is not responsible for food safety, product quality, or the condition of any space, and does not guarantee that a booking will happen, that it will go well, or that either side will honor it.

Nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, joint venture, or partnership relationship between Truk and any Vendor, Venue, or Community Member, or between a Vendor and a Venue.

7. Payments and subscriptions

Voting, following, RSVPing, and browsing are free. Some Vendor and Venue features are offered on paid subscription plans. Payments are processed by Stripe; Truk does not receive or store your full card number. By subscribing you authorize us, through Stripe, to charge your payment method on a recurring basis until you cancel.

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period unless you cancel before renewal. Cancelling stops future charges; it does not refund the current period except where the law requires it or we say otherwise in writing. We may change subscription pricing prospectively, with notice before it applies to your next renewal.

Some Vendor accounts may also pay a fee tied to sending a message to their followers (a “blast”), calculated from the size of the audience at the time it is sent. That fee is disclosed before you send.

8. SMS and push notifications

Text messages are not available yet. The Service does not send SMS to anyone today, and no part of it will until we say so. If you would like text notifications when they arrive, email hello@usetruk.com.

When they are available, the rules below will apply. We will only send SMS to a phone number after the person who controls it has confirmed the number and opted in to hear from a specific Vendor or Venue, and every message will include a way to stop them. Replying STOP to any message ends messages from that sender; message and data rates may apply.

Push notifications are available. They require your device’s own permission, which you can revoke at any time in your browser or device settings, or by turning off notifications for a specific Vendor or Venue in your account.

9. Content you submit

“Content” means anything you upload or enter — listing text, photos, offerings, credential documents, reviews, or anything else. You keep ownership of your Content. By submitting it, you grant Truk a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, and display it as part of operating the Service — for example, showing your photos on your public vendor page. Credential documents are an exception: they are private by design and are not displayed publicly. See the Privacy Policy for how they are stored and who can access them.

You represent that you have the rights to everything you submit, and that it does not infringe anyone else’s rights or violate the law.

Copyright complaints (DMCA). If you believe Content on Truk infringes your copyright, send a notice to hello@usetruk.com identifying the work, the material you believe infringes it, and your contact information, along with the statements required under 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3). We review every notice we receive, and remove or disable access to material that is the subject of a valid notice. If we remove your Content on that basis we will tell you, and you may send a counter-notice to the same address.

We will also terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe.

10. Rules for using Truk

You agree not to:

• Submit fraudulent votes or requests, use multiple accounts or automated tools to inflate demand signals, or otherwise try to manipulate what the Service reports about community interest.
• Attempt to re-identify an individual within a suppressed or aggregated cohort, or otherwise circumvent the privacy protections described in the Privacy Policy.
• Impersonate another person or business, or misrepresent your affiliation with one.
• Upload a credential document that is forged, altered, or does not belong to your business.
• List a product, service, or location that is illegal where you intend to operate.
• Scrape, harvest, or bulk-collect data from the Service, or use it to build a competing product.
• Probe, disrupt, reverse-engineer, or attempt unauthorized access to the Service, or interfere with its rate limiting, authentication, or other security controls.
• Upload malicious code, or use the Service to harass, threaten, or discriminate against anyone on the basis of a protected characteristic.

Violating this section may result in suspension or termination under Section 17, removal of the affected content, and, where the law allows it, forfeiture of the demand signals involved.

11. Credentials and “verified” status

Vendors can add credentials — insurance policies, health permits, and similar — and upload supporting documents. When Truk marks a credential “verified,” that means the document was reviewed against the information the Vendor entered and matched it at the time of review. It does not mean Truk independently confirmed the document with the issuing insurer, agency, or government body, or that the coverage or permit remains valid, current, or adequate for a specific event. A Venue that requires a credential is responsible for deciding whether what a Vendor has on file is sufficient for its own event and its own risk tolerance.

12. Intellectual property

The Service — its software, design, text, and the Truk name and logo — belongs to Truk or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property law. These Terms give you a limited, personal, non-transferable license to use the Service as intended; they do not give you any ownership interest in it.

13. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE, INCLUDING ALL DEMAND DATA, MATCH SCORES, FORECASTS, AND CREDENTIAL INFORMATION, IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT A FORECAST WILL BE ACCURATE, THAT A VENDOR OR VENUE WILL HONOR A BOOKING, OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE.

14. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, TRUK AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, A DECISION MADE USING DEMAND DATA OR A FORECAST, OR ANY ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN A VENDOR AND A VENUE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED the greater of (a) the total fees you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars ($100).

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law. Under California Civil Code section 1668, that includes liability for fraud, willful injury, and violations of law, whether wilful or negligent. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusions above at all, in which case they apply only to the extent the law permits.

During the pilot, Truk charges most participants nothing. Where no fees have been paid, the cap is the $100 figure above.

15. Indemnification

You agree to defend and indemnify Truk against any claim arising from your Content, your violation of these Terms, your violation of the law, or — if you are a Vendor or Venue — your failure to hold a required permit, license, or insurance policy, or your conduct at a booking.

16. Disputes, arbitration, and class action waiver

Talk to us first. If you have a dispute with us, email hello@usetruk.com describing the problem and what you would like us to do. We will do the same before bringing a claim against you. Most disputes can be resolved this way, and we ask that you give us 30 days to try before starting a formal proceeding.

We do not require you to arbitrate, and we do not ask you to waive class actions. If informal resolution fails, either of us may go to court. Section 19 says which courts. Small-claims court remains available to either of us for any claim that qualifies, and nothing here prevents you from reporting a concern to a regulator.

This is a deliberate choice rather than an oversight. Truk is a small pilot, and binding arbitration clauses carry notice, opt-out, and fee-allocation requirements that are easy to get wrong and often unenforceable when they are. If that changes, we will say so under Section 18 before it applies to you.

17. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms, if we reasonably believe your account is being used fraudulently or abusively, or if required by law. You may stop using the Service, or delete your account, at any time from your account settings; see the Privacy Policy for what account deletion does and does not remove.

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms as the Service changes. If a change is material, we will make a reasonable effort to tell you before it takes effect — for example, by email or an in-app notice. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept it.

19. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. You and we agree that the state and federal courts located in California have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute not resolved under Section 16, except that either of us may bring a qualifying claim in small claims court.

If you are a consumer resident outside California, this section does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory consumer-protection rules of the place where you live.

20. Miscellaneous

If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Truk regarding the Service.

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms: hello@usetruk.com.

Formal notices. Truk is operated by Byte Digital, a California sole proprietorship. We do not maintain a public business address, so notices to us must be sent by email to hello@usetruk.com, and are effective on the day they are sent. If you need a postal address to serve a legal document, email us and we will provide one.

Notices to you are sent to the email address on your account, and are effective on the day they are sent. Keeping that address current is your responsibility.