Legal

Terms of Service

Acceptance

By using CodeMarket, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the platform. You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter contracts.

What CodeMarket does

CodeMarket is an escrow marketplace for coding challenges. Task creators post bounties, deposit the reward into escrow, and developers compete to deliver solutions. CodeMarket holds the reward in escrow and releases it only when the creator accepts a submission.

Fees

• Platform fee: A 5% fee is deducted from the reward before the winning developer is paid.
• Entrance fee: Creators may add an entrance fee of up to 10% of the reward. Each developer pays it into escrow when they claim the task. It is refunded if they withdraw or the task is cancelled, and only on acceptance of a winner is the pooled fee split 75% to the creator and 25% to the platform.
• Payment processing: Stripe may charge separate processing fees. These are set by Stripe, not CodeMarket.

Escrow and payouts

• The creator must deposit the full reward into escrow when publishing a bounty.
• Funds remain locked until a submission is accepted or the task is cancelled according to the Refund Policy.
• When a winner is accepted, the net reward is released to the developer's wallet and can be withdrawn through Stripe Connect.
• CodeMarket is not a bank, escrow agent, or money transmitter. Wallet balances represent obligations payable by CodeMarket, held through our payment providers.

Creator obligations

• Provide clear, accurate, and lawful task briefs.
• Do not include links in task titles.
• Do not post malware, scams, illegal work requests, or prohibited content.
• Review submissions promptly and fairly.
• Comply with the Refund Policy when cancelling a task.

Developer obligations

• Submit original work you have the right to share.
• Include at least one image or video with every submission.
• Do not submit malware, exploits, or infringing material.
• Keep source archives sealed until acceptance; do not share them outside the platform.
• Communicate respectfully in chat and submissions.

Content and intellectual property

You keep ownership of content you create. By posting it on CodeMarket, you grant us a license to host, display, and moderate it. Source archives remain inaccessible to the creator until a submission is accepted. Upon acceptance, the winning submission's source archive is unlocked for the creator only.

Moderation and enforcement

We use automated tools and manual review to detect prohibited content, including NSFW imagery, hate speech, malware, and links in titles. We may remove content, suspend accounts, or ban users without notice for violations. We are not obligated to review all content before it is posted.

Reporting problems and contacting support

Every bounty, submission, claimant, and chat counterpart has a report button, and you can reach us any time from Contact support in your profile menu or at teamhourglass39@gmail.com. We aim to answer support requests within a few business days, and to look at safety, fraud, and money-related reports first. We do not guarantee a response time, an investigation, or a particular outcome, and we may dismiss a report without further explanation. Filing knowingly false reports, spamming support, or using reports to pressure another user is itself a breach of these Terms and can lead to a ban. Where an administrator removes a bounty or a submission, or bans an account, that decision stands unless we choose to reverse it.

Banned and restricted accounts

A banned account cannot post bounties, claim work, submit solutions, or send messages. Money already in the wallet remains yours: escrow held on your open bounties is unwound under the Refund Policy and any remaining balance can be withdrawn to your connected payout account, unless we are required to hold it for a fraud, chargeback, sanctions, or legal reason. A ban does not cancel a payout already released to a developer.

Eligibility, sanctions, and identity

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter contracts. You may not use CodeMarket if you are located in, or acting on behalf of anyone in, a country or on a list subject to Canadian, US, or other applicable sanctions or export controls. To send or receive money you must complete the identity and business verification our payment processor requires; we may pause or refuse a transaction, hold funds, or close an account where verification fails or where we suspect fraud, money laundering, or other unlawful activity.

Independent users, not employment

Creators and developers deal with each other directly as independent parties. CodeMarket is a venue and escrow facilitator only. Nothing here creates an employment, partnership, agency, or joint-venture relationship between you and Team Hourglass, and we are not a party to the agreement between a creator and a developer. We are not a bank, money transmitter, investment service, or fiduciary; all money movement is performed by our licensed payment processor.

Taxes

Amounts shown on CodeMarket are the amounts moved between accounts. You are solely responsible for determining, reporting, and paying any income tax, GST/HST, VAT, or other tax that applies to money you earn or spend through the platform, and for any filings required in your own jurisdiction. We do not withhold tax on your behalf. Where law requires it, we or our payment processor may collect tax information from you and report payouts to tax authorities. Any tax charged on our own platform fees will be shown at the time of the transaction.

Prohibited uses

You may not use CodeMarket to post, request, or deliver:

• malware, spyware, credential stealers, or code intended to damage or gain unauthorized access to systems;
• work that infringes copyright, trademarks, patents, or trade secrets, or that breaches someone else's contract or licence;
• sexual, hateful, harassing, violent, or otherwise illegal content;
• scraping, spam, fake accounts, vote or review manipulation, or attempts to move payment off-platform to avoid fees;
• gambling, cryptocurrency issuance, adult services, or other activity restricted by our payment processor;
• any attempt to break out of, attack, or exfiltrate data from the test sandbox or the platform infrastructure.

Chargebacks and payment disputes

Deposits fund escrow and are used to pay other users, so reversing a card payment after funds have been released causes real loss. If you initiate a chargeback instead of using our refund and dispute process, we may suspend your account, recover the disputed amount and any processor fees from your balance or future earnings, and pursue the debt. We will cooperate with the card network and provide transaction records.

Copyright complaints and takedowns

If you believe content on CodeMarket infringes your copyright or other rights, email teamhourglass39@gmail.com with a description of the work, the location of the content on the platform, your contact details, and a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorized. We will review, may remove or disable the content, and may suspend repeat infringers. Affected users may submit a counter-notice.

Third-party and AI-generated code

Developers must disclose material use of third-party libraries, open-source components, or AI code generation in their submission notes, and must comply with the licences attached to anything they reuse. Delivering code that violates an open-source licence, includes undisclosed copyleft components, or reuses another client's proprietary work is a breach of these Terms. Creators are responsible for reviewing licences before using delivered code commercially.

Sandbox testing rules

The test sandbox exists so creators can evaluate a submission without receiving the source code. You may not attempt to extract source files, bypass sandbox isolation, reverse engineer the environment, run denial-of-service or crypto mining workloads, or use the sandbox to attack third parties. Sandboxes are temporary and may be reset or expire; we do not guarantee availability or data persistence within them.

Off-platform circumvention

Users who meet through CodeMarket must keep payment for that work on the platform. Soliciting or accepting off-platform payment to avoid fees, or moving a bounty relationship off-platform before payout, may result in suspension and forfeiture of pending balances, and removes the escrow and dispute protections described here.

Withdrawals, currency, and limits

Deposits and payouts are processed by Stripe and are subject to its verification, timing, and country availability rules. Where your payout currency differs from the transaction currency, the conversion rate and any conversion or transfer fee are set by the payment processor, not by us. We may apply minimum or maximum transaction limits, delay a payout while a verification or fraud review is in progress, or decline transactions we are required to block.

Inactive accounts and unclaimed funds

If your balance sits unused and we cannot reach you, we will attempt to contact you at your account email before taking any action. Unclaimed balances are handled in accordance with applicable Alberta unclaimed-property rules. Withdrawing your balance and closing your account is always available to you.

Electronic communications

By creating an account you consent to receive notices, agreements, receipts, and legally required disclosures electronically, by email or in the platform. You can opt out of marketing emails at any time; service, security, and transaction emails are required to operate your account and cannot be disabled while it is open.

Accessibility

We aim to keep CodeMarket usable with keyboard navigation, screen readers, and sufficient colour contrast. If something on the platform is not accessible to you, email us and we will try to provide an alternative way to complete the task.

Disclaimers

CodeMarket is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We do not guarantee that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure. We are not responsible for the quality, accuracy, or legality of user-posted tasks or submissions.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Team Hourglass will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from your use of CodeMarket. Our total liability is limited to the amount you paid to us in fees in the 12 months before the claim. Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, or anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

Your statutory consumer rights

If you are a consumer, you may have rights under Alberta's Consumer Protection Act, Canada's consumer legislation, or the mandatory law of your own country that cannot be waived by contract. Nothing on this page removes those rights, and where these Terms conflict with them, the law wins.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of Alberta, Canada, and any disputes will be resolved in the courts of Alberta.

Termination

Either party may terminate the account relationship. We may suspend or terminate your account immediately for violations of these Terms. Upon termination, any outstanding obligations related to escrow or payouts remain in effect.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Team Hourglass and its operators from any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and legal costs arising out of your use of CodeMarket, the content you post, the work you deliver or commission, your tax obligations, or your breach of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.

Force majeure

We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, including outages of hosting, payment, or AI providers, network failures, cyberattacks, changes in law, or natural events.

General

If any provision 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 your rights under these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a sale or reorganization of the business. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Refund Policy on this page, are the entire agreement between you and Team Hourglass regarding CodeMarket. Notices to you may be sent to the email on your account or posted in the platform.

Changes to the Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be announced through the platform or by email. Continued use after changes means acceptance.

Refund Policy

Refunds on CodeMarket are governed by the escrow lifecycle, not by a separate return window. The stage of the task determines whether and how a refund can occur.

Creator cancellation

The creator may cancel a task and receive a full refund of the reward from escrow at any time before they accept a solution. This applies whether or not developers have claimed the task and whether or not solutions have been submitted. No developer agreement and no admin ruling is required.

Entrance fees are held in escrow

Where a task carries an entrance fee, each developer pays that fee at the moment they claim the task and the money is held in escrow. It is not revenue to CodeMarket or to the creator while the task is open. If the creator cancels the task, every entrance fee held for that task is refunded in full to the developer who paid it.

Developer withdrawal

A developer may withdraw their claim at any time before a winner is accepted, including after submitting a solution, and their entrance fee is refunded in full. A withdrawn submission is removed from consideration.

Expired deadlines

If a bounty reaches its deadline without the creator accepting a solution, the platform closes it automatically: the reward is returned to the creator's wallet and every entrance fee is returned to the developer who paid it. Submissions on that bounty stop being eligible. This runs on a schedule, so a closed bounty may take a few minutes to show as refunded.

Bounties removed by moderators

If an administrator takes a bounty down — for a policy breach, fraud, or a valid report — the escrowed reward goes back to the creator and all entrance fees go back to the developers who paid them. Taking down an individual submission does not move money; the bounty carries on with the remaining submissions. Removal for policy reasons does not entitle anyone to compensation beyond these refunds.

After a winner is accepted

Accepting a solution is final. The reward, less the platform service fee, is released to the winning developer and cannot be recalled. At that moment the pooled entrance fees for the task stop being refundable and are split 75% to the task creator and 25% to CodeMarket. Developers who did not win cannot claim their entrance fee back after this point.

Dispute resolution

If a cancellation or payout dispute cannot be resolved between the creator and developer, CodeMarket support may review the task, submissions, and chat history and decide whether to release the escrow to the developer or refund the creator. This decision is final.

How to request a refund

Cancellation actions are handled inside the task page. For disputes or questions about refunds, use Contact support in your profile menu, or write to teamhourglass39@gmail.com.