Terms of Service

1. About Dahlia Market

Dahlia Market LLC, a Washington limited liability company (“Dahlia Market,” “the Platform,” “we,” “us”), operates a peer-to-peer marketplace that connects dahlia growers who want to buy and sell dahlia tubers, cuttings, and clumps. We provide the platform that hosts listings and processes payments — we are not the buyer or seller in any transaction, we do not take possession of plant material, and we do not inspect items before they ship.

2. Eligibility & Your Account

• You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, and at least 18 (or the age of majority where you live) to buy or sell. By using the Platform you represent that you meet these requirements.
• You are responsible for the accuracy of your account information and for keeping your login credentials secure. You are responsible for activity that occurs under your account.
• One person, one account, unless we agree otherwise in writing. Don't impersonate others or misrepresent who you are.
• We may suspend or close accounts that violate these terms, as described in Section 11.

3. Seller Responsibilities

By creating a listing on Dahlia Market, you represent and warrant that:

• You are the lawful owner of the items you are selling.
• You have the legal right to sell and propagate the variety you are listing. Some dahlia varieties are protected under US plant patents (35 U.S.C. § 163) or similar laws in other jurisdictions. Selling or propagating a patented variety without authorization from the patent holder may constitute infringement.
• Your listing is accurate and not misleading about the variety, condition, or quantity.
• You will only ship viable, healthy stock, and you will fulfill orders promptly and as described.
• You will comply with the shipping and plant-health rules in Section 5.

Dahlia Market is not responsible for listings that violate plant patents or other intellectual property rights. Liability for such violations rests solely with the seller.

4. Intellectual Property — Patents, Licensing & Breeder Royalties

Many collector-grade dahlia varieties carry intellectual property obligations beyond simply “can I grow this.” These include:

• Plant patents — A US plant patent grants the patent holder the exclusive right to asexually reproduce and sell the protected variety for up to 20 years from the filing date. Selling or propagating without authorization may constitute infringement.
• Breeder licensing agreements — Some breeders have established voluntary or contractual licensing programs under which propagators and resellers are expected to pay royalties or obtain permission before selling their varieties, regardless of patent status. These are private agreements between the breeder and growers, not platform rules — but sellers are responsible for honoring them.
• Propagation restrictions — Certain varieties are released for personal growing only and are not licensed for commercial propagation or resale. Check with the originating breeder if you are unsure about the terms under which you received a variety.

Dahlia Market does not track or enforce individual breeder licensing agreements. Compliance with any royalty obligations, propagation restrictions, or licensing terms is the sole responsibility of the seller. By listing a variety, you represent that you have satisfied any applicable breeder agreements.

Dahlia Market operates a notice-and-takedown program. Patent holders, breeders, or their authorized representatives may submit a report using the “Report this listing” link on any listing page. We will review and respond to valid notices within 48 hours.

5. Shipping & Plant-Health Compliance

Dahlia tubers and cuttings are live plant material, and moving them between states is regulated. Sellers are solely responsible for shipping lawfully. By listing and shipping on Dahlia Market, sellers agree to:

• Ship as clean and soil-free as you reasonably can. Knock off and shake or rinse excess soil before packing — soil can carry pests and disease and is restricted or prohibited in some states, so the cleaner the better. A little residual soil is normal; whole clumps of dirt don't belong in the box.
• Never knowingly ship diseased material, including stock known or suspected to carry Crown Gall, Leafy Gall, or tomato spotted wilt / tobacco streak virus (TSWV/TSV).
• Check the rules for both the origin and the destination. Several states (for example California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, and Florida) inspect or restrict incoming plant material, and shipments to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other US territories are generally prohibited or require a phytosanitary certificate. International shipments almost always require a phytosanitary certificate and an import permit.
• Obtain any inspection, certificate, or permit required by the origin or destination jurisdiction, and comply with all USDA APHIS and state Department of Agriculture requirements.
• Hold any nursery, plant-dealer, or business license your state or locality requires to sell plant material. Several states require a nursery or nursery-dealer license to sell live plants, even in small quantities. Whether one applies to you is your responsibility to determine; Dahlia Market does not provide legal or regulatory advice.
• Not ship invasive or noxious species prohibited by federal, state, or local law.

Our Shipping Guide offers plain-language help and links to official resources, but it is general information, not legal advice, and does not replace your duty to confirm current requirements. Dahlia Market does not verify, certify, or guarantee any shipment's compliance, and is not liable for shipments that violate agricultural or shipping law.

6. Prohibited Items

• Invasive or noxious plant species prohibited by federal, state, or local law.
• Items misrepresented as a different variety than what is being sold.
• Plant material known to be infected with Crown Gall, Leafy Gall, or TSWV/TSV.
• Any item whose sale or shipment is prohibited by applicable law.

7. Buyer Protection

Payments run through secure Stripe checkout — never off-platform. Sellers must list the correct variety, form, and condition and ship viable stock. If something arrives misrepresented or you have a problem with an order, use the “Report” link so we can review it. See Seller Standards & Buyer Protection for the full standards we hold sellers to.

8. Acceptable Use & User Content

Dahlia Market includes profiles, listings, photos, reviews, garden entries, and community posts created by users (“User Content”). You retain ownership of your User Content, and you grant Dahlia Market a non-exclusive, worldwide license to host and display it for the purpose of operating the Platform.

There is zero tolerance for objectionable content or abusive behavior. You agree not to post content that is unlawful, harassing, hateful, threatening, sexually explicit, fraudulent, or that infringes anyone's rights, and not to harass, abuse, or harm another person on the Platform.

Every listing, profile, and post can be reported using the in-app “Report” link. We review reports of objectionable content and abusive users and will remove content and remove or ban offending accounts, typically within 24 hours of a valid report. By using the Platform you agree to this enforcement.

9. Platform Content, Copyright & Permitted Use

Everything that makes up Dahlia Market — our name, logo, and brand marks; the site design and software; our original photographs; the written variety descriptions, guides, and editorial content we create; and the selection, arrangement, and presentation of the Dahlia Library as a whole — is owned by Dahlia Market and protected by copyright and other intellectual-property laws (including database rights where they apply). Individual facts about a variety are not owned by anyone, but our compiled, curated collection of them is.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Platform for your own personal, non-commercial use as a grower, buyer, or seller. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

As a condition of using the Platform, you agree not to:

• scrape, harvest, crawl, or bulk-extract data, images, or other content from the site;
• copy or reproduce the Library (or a substantial part of it), or download, bulk-copy, or republish our images;
• use our content or data to build or train any competing database, dataset, product, service, or machine-learning / AI model;
• access the Platform with automated tools, bots, or scripts, except a search engine's standard indexing;
• use any content for commercial purposes without our written permission; or
• reverse-engineer or attempt to derive the source code of the Platform.

To protect the service and our community, we use technical measures such as rate-limiting and abuse detection, and we may suspend or block access that violates this section. This does not affect your ownership of your own User Content under Section 8.

10. Transactions, Fees & Taxes

All transactions are directly between buyers and sellers. Dahlia Market facilitates payment processing through Stripe but is not a party to the sale. Disputes between buyers and sellers are the responsibility of the parties involved. We collect a transaction fee on completed sales to fund platform operations; current fees are disclosed before you list or check out.

Taxes are the seller's responsibility. Sellers are responsible for determining, collecting where required, and reporting any income or other taxes arising from their sales. Depending on your sales volume and state, our payment processor may be required to issue you a Form 1099-K. Where Dahlia Market is required by law to collect and remit sales tax as a marketplace facilitator, we will do so and indicate it at checkout.

11. Termination

You may stop using the Platform and delete your account at any time from your account settings. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, that create risk or legal exposure for the Platform or its users, or as required by law. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution) will survive.

12. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant the quality, health, viability, variety accuracy, or legality of any item listed by a seller, and we do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Dahlia Market and its operators are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any damages arising from transactions on the Platform, misrepresented listings, plant patent infringement by sellers, plant disease, shipping failures or violations, or any other dispute between users. To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim relating to the Platform will not exceed the greater of the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim or US $100.

14. Dispute Resolution, Governing Law & Arbitration

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

Please read this section carefully — it affects your legal rights. Except for small-claims matters and requests for injunctive relief, you and Dahlia Market agree to resolve any dispute relating to these terms or the Platform through binding individual arbitration, rather than in court, administered under the rules of a recognized arbitration provider in Washington. You and Dahlia Market waive the right to a jury trial and the right to participate in a class action or class-wide arbitration. If this class-action waiver is found unenforceable, the remainder of this section will not apply to that dispute.

15. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we make material changes we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you. Continued use of the Platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

16. General

These terms, together with any policies referenced in them, are the entire agreement between you and Dahlia Market regarding the Platform. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign or transfer these terms; we may assign them to an affiliate or successor (for example, in a merger or sale of the business). Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, agency, or employment relationship between you and us. Section headings are for convenience only.

17. Contact

Questions or legal notices: admin@thedahliamarket.com