Terms and conditions

1. Definitions

TROTTERA: the platform trottera.eu and the company that operates it. User: everyone with an account. Seller: the user who registers a horse. Buyer: the user with the highest bid at closing. Consumer: a natural person acting outside a trade or profession. Professional: a business, or a natural person acting in a trade or profession, listed as such. Lot: a horse in a session. Hammer price: the highest bid at closing.

2. Applicability and the role of TROTTERA

These terms, the auction rules and the privacy statement apply to every account, every registration, every bid and every purchase. A user's own terms do not apply.

TROTTERA offers a marketplace and acts as an intermediary. TROTTERA is not the seller or the buyer of any horse, does not become the owner of a horse, does not inspect horses and does not warrant anything about a horse, its health, its pedigree, its papers or its performance. Every statement about a horse is the seller's statement.

3. Account, verification and security

An account is personal. The user is 18 years or older, gives correct details and keeps them up to date. Before the first bid or sale the user's identity is verified as the auction rules describe; TROTTERA can ask for more documents and can refuse or end a verification without giving a reason.

The user keeps the password secret and reports misuse at once. TROTTERA can block an account in case of non-payment, fraud, abuse, a breach of these terms or a legal obligation. A blocked account can read, but not bid, sell or verify again.

TROTTERA can suspend the platform for maintenance and can change its functions. TROTTERA aims at availability during the sessions but does not guarantee it; the auction rules say what happens after a fault.

4. The seller

The seller warrants to be the owner of the horse or authorised by the owner, that the horse is free of claims and may be sold, that the horse is the horse described by the UELN and the chip number in its passport, and that the dossier is correct and complete. The seller answers questions from bidders through TROTTERA honestly.

The seller owes the listing fee for every registered horse as the auction rules describe, and the seller fee when the horse is sold. The seller gives TROTTERA a bank account for the payout and, where the law requires it, a tax identification number.

The seller keeps caring for the horse until the pickup, hands it over to the buyer with its passport and papers, and arranges the studbook transfer after the payment.

5. The buyer and binding bids

Every bid is an offer to buy the horse for that amount under these terms and the auction rules; it cannot be withdrawn. The buyer with the highest bid at closing is bound to the purchase. The buyer pays the hammer price, the buyer fee, the transaction costs and the VAT within the payment term.

The buyer has seen the total cost before placing the bid. The buyer takes the horse as described in the dossier and checks it as the auction rules describe.

6. The sales contract

At the closing of a lot with a bid, a sales contract is concluded between the seller and the buyer for the hammer price. TROTTERA records it in a written contract that both parties receive; the bid is the acceptance, no signature is needed. Dutch law applies to that contract. TROTTERA is not a party to it and is not liable for its performance by either party.

7. Fees, VAT and invoices

The fees are stated in the auction rules and on the fees page, ex VAT. TROTTERA charges VAT according to the law: 21% for customers in the Netherlands; reverse charged for a business elsewhere in the EU with a VAT number that TROTTERA has checked; for a consumer elsewhere in the EU the VAT rate of the country where the horse stands; no VAT outside the EU. A business whose VAT number does not check out is invoiced as a consumer until it does.

TROTTERA invoices only its own fees and costs; the hammer price is shown on a payment statement issued on behalf of the seller. Invoices are issued by De Grote Goudvis until Trottera B.V. exists, in a gap-free numbering, and are kept for the legal retention period. Objections to an invoice are made within fourteen days.

8. Payment, non-payment and collection

The buyer pays the total in one payment to TROTTERA within 5 days after the closing. TROTTERA's payment partner holds the amount; the hammer price is paid to the seller as the auction rules describe.

When the buyer does not pay within the term: a reminder on day 3, a formal notice on day 5 with a final period of fourteen days, and on day 19 the sale is dissolved for the buyer's failure. The buyer then owes TROTTERA the buyer fee and the seller fee on the failed sale with VAT plus a fixed compensation of € 250 for the seller, as an estimate of the damage; TROTTERA collects this claim, through a collection agency where needed, with the statutory costs and interest. The buyer's account is blocked. The seller is free from the sale and may register the horse again without a listing fee.

A late payment before day 19 is accepted; the sale then proceeds.

9. Payout to the seller

TROTTERA pays the seller the hammer price minus the seller fee, the listing fee and the VAT on both, 7 days after receipt of the buyer's payment, or after the withdrawal period of a consumer, to the bank account the seller gave. The seller settlement invoice is issued when the payment arrives and is settled by deduction.

Until the payout is sent, the buyer can report non-delivery on TROTTERA. TROTTERA then hears both parties and decides to pay out or to refund the buyer and dissolve the sale; TROTTERA's fees on a sale dissolved for the seller's failure stay due by the seller. A payout that cannot be sent because the seller gave no bank account waits until one is given.

10. Withdrawal right of consumers

When a consumer buys from a professional seller, the consumer has the statutory right to withdraw from the sales contract within 14 days after receiving the horse, without giving a reason. The period starts when the pickup is confirmed on TROTTERA. The consumer withdraws by a written statement to TROTTERA, which passes it on to the seller.

After a withdrawal the consumer returns the horse to the seller within fourteen days at the consumer's cost and risk; the seller, through TROTTERA, refunds the hammer price within fourteen days after receiving the horse back. TROTTERA refunds its own fees to the consumer as far as the law requires. The seller is paid out only after the withdrawal period, so no seller money has to be recovered.

No withdrawal right applies between two consumers, between two professionals, or when a professional buys from a consumer.

11. Buyback

The seller may bid on their own horse. When the seller wins, no sales contract is concluded; the seller owes 1% of the highest bid plus the listing fee, ex VAT, and the horse stays with the seller. Bidding on one's own horse to drive up the price and then stopping is allowed within the rules; TROTTERA marks every seller's bid and acts on abuse.

12. Liability

TROTTERA is an intermediary and is not liable for the horse, the dossier, the seller's or the buyer's statements or conduct, or the performance of the sales contract. TROTTERA is not liable for damage from an interruption, a fault or a delay of the platform, save for intent or gross negligence on its part; the auction rules say what TROTTERA does after a fault.

Where TROTTERA is liable nonetheless, its liability is limited to the fees TROTTERA received for the sale concerned. Nothing in these terms limits a liability that cannot be limited by law, or a consumer's statutory rights.

13. Incidents and voiding a lot

When a technical fault has affected the closing of a lot, TROTTERA can void the lot within 24 hours after the closing, as the auction rules describe. The sales contract of a voided lot is dissolved, no fees are due on it, the seller may register the horse again without a listing fee, and neither party has a claim against TROTTERA beyond that.

14. Ending an account

A user can delete the account from the account page when there are no open obligations: no unpaid invoice, no horse in an auction and no sale that is not finished. TROTTERA anonymises the personal data and keeps invoices, contracts and the audit trail for the legal retention period. TROTTERA can end an account in the cases of article 3, with the obligations from purchases and sales already made remaining.

15. Personal data

TROTTERA processes personal data as described in the privacy statement. Bidders are anonymous towards each other; the seller and the buyer of a sold horse receive each other's name and contact details for the pickup and the studbook transfer, and use them for nothing else.

16. Complaints, law and court

Complaints about TROTTERA are sent to info@trottera.eu; TROTTERA answers within fourteen days. Complaints about a horse are made to the seller as the auction rules describe.

Dutch law applies to these terms and to every agreement with TROTTERA. Disputes are brought before the competent court in the district of Noord-Nederland, unless the law gives a consumer the right to another court. A consumer in the EU can also use the European online dispute resolution platform.

17. Changes

TROTTERA can change these terms. A new version is published with its date; users accept it before the next bid or sale. The version accepted at registration and every later acceptance are kept with the account. Purchases and sales already made keep the version that applied at the closing.