Terms of use

These terms govern the use of the publocal.ca website and the PubLocal apps for Android and iPhone ("PubLocal"), operated by Francis Bourget-Guérin, who operates PubLocal as a sole proprietorship. By creating an account or posting a listing, you accept these terms and the privacy policy. The iPhone app is also governed by Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement.

1. Role of PubLocal

PubLocal is only a platform for posting listings. We do not sell any of the goods or services listed and we do not take part in any transaction between users. Prices, payments, deliveries, warranties and the quality of the goods or services are agreed on and assumed directly between the advertiser and the interested person. PubLocal takes no commission on these transactions.

2. Account

• You must be 14 or older and provide accurate information.
• Paid services (section 6) are reserved for people 18 and older. A person aged 14 to 17 may post listings and answer listings for free; we recommend that they make their transactions with a parent or a trusted adult.
• You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for the activity on your account.
• One account per person or per business, unless we allow otherwise. An account is personal: it may not be sold, lent or transferred.
• If we learn that a paid subscription was taken out by a person under 18, we cancel it and refund the unused portion to the cardholder.

3. Listings

By posting a listing, you guarantee that:

• you have the right to offer the good or service and the listing is accurate;
• the photos belong to you or you have the right to use them;
• the listing complies with the applicable laws, including the Consumer Protection Act when you act as a merchant.

The following are prohibited, among others:

• illegal, stolen or counterfeit goods, firearms, drugs and prescription medications;
• misleading, fraudulent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory listings;
• the sale of animals in breach of the applicable regulations;
• job offers that do not meet labour standards, and "jobs" that require a payment from the candidate.

A listing stays online for 30 days with the Free plan. With a paid plan, it stays online for up to 60 days with Pro and up to 90 days with Seller or Business, as long as the subscription is active (see "End of a subscription and listings", section 6). You can renew it at the end of that period, or remove it at any time. When the item is sold, you can mark the listing as sold (section 8): it leaves the search results, but stays on your profile with the "Sold" label until you delete it. A sold listing can no longer be edited.

Individuals and businesses. The Free, Pro and Seller plans are reserved for individuals selling their own belongings. Anyone who posts as part of a commercial activity (resale, inventory, services offered as work, vehicle dealing) must have the Business plan, and each listing shows whether it is posted by an individual or by a business. Presenting yourself as an individual while acting as a merchant is prohibited. Without the Business plan, a member may post at most 3 vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, boats, trailers) per 12-month period, and have only one services listing at a time. When listings look like a commercial activity, our team may ask you by email to switch to the Business plan or to explain yourself; without an answer after 14 days, your listings may be paused. You can contest this decision.

Vehicles. The vehicle identification number (VIN) is mandatory for a car, a truck or a motorcycle, and it is shown on the listing so that buyers can check that the vehicle is neither reported stolen nor subject to a debt. You guarantee that the VIN given is that of the vehicle offered.

Writing with AI. The "Fill in with AI" tool suggests a title, a description, a category and a price from your photos (see AI at PubLocal). It is a suggestion: you must read it over and correct it before posting. The published listing remains yours, and the guarantees above apply as if you had written it yourself. The suggested price is a general estimate, not an appraisal of the item. The number of suggestions per month depends on your plan.

"Wanted" posts. You can also post what you are looking for. A "Wanted" post follows the same rules as a listing (accurate and allowed content, checked by our team with the Free plan) and stays online for 30 days. The number of active "Wanted" posts depends on your plan. The budget you enter is never shown: it is only used to alert you to matching listings. A member who answers "I have one" writes to you through the site's messaging.

Local businesses. Only businesses on the Business plan can post in the "Local businesses" category (promotions and sales, new products and openings, events); everyone can view it. A listing in this category has no price, shows a start date and an end date, and goes offline after its end date, at most 90 days after it is posted. A business can have at most 3 listings online at a time in this category.

A false statement may lead to the removal of the listing and the suspension of the account. If you post as a merchant or a business, you are responsible for third-party claims caused by your listing and you agree to indemnify us for the reasonable costs they cause us. If you are a consumer, you are liable to us only for the harm caused by your fault, in accordance with the law.

4. Moderation

Listings posted with the Free plan are checked by our team before they go online, except those of "Verified by PubLocal" members. Any signed-in member can report a listing, a conversation or a review with the "Report" button. A listing reported by three members is hidden until our team checks it.

PubLocal has zero tolerance for objectionable or prohibited content (section 3) and for abusive members (harassment, threats, hateful remarks, fraud). Such content is removed and its author may be suspended or excluded from PubLocal. Our team usually handles reports within 24 hours. You can also block a member in a conversation (and, in the app, on their page, listing or search): you can no longer write to each other, their listings no longer appear in your results, their searches and reviews are also hidden from you in the app, and our team is notified.

We may refuse or remove a listing, and suspend or close an account, in particular for: prohibited content (section 3), fraud or attempted fraud, false statements, harassment of other members, mass or duplicate posting, or use of the site for anything other than listings. The reason for a refusal is given to you and you can correct the listing. The reason for a suspension is shown in "My account", where you can contest it once; our team reviews every appeal. The closing of an account is confirmed to you by email. Our decision can be challenged before the courts. For a subscriber, an account may be closed only for a breach on their part or another serious reason, and the unused portion of the paid period is refunded (section 6).

The business profile (Business plan) is also checked by our team before it is shown, after every change. We may refuse or remove it for the same reasons as a listing, or if it is misleading, for example a name or a logo that is not yours. The reason is given to you and you can correct the profile. At the end of the Business plan, the page is no longer shown; your information is kept and the page comes back if you take this plan again.

"Verified by PubLocal" badge. Any member can ask for it for free in My account. A person from our team then checks by hand that you are the person on your profile, on Facebook or in person. The badge gives the free Verified plan: the rules of the Free plan, but 10 listings at a time instead of 5, put online without waiting for our review. We may refuse the request or remove the badge at any time, in particular after reports; your listings already online then stay online, and new ones follow the rules of the Free plan again. The badge only confirms this check: it does not vouch for the member, their listings or any transaction, and does not replace the safety advice of section 7.

5. Licence on your content

You remain the owner of your content. You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display, reproduce and adapt it (for example, resizing photos) on PubLocal and in search engine results, for as long as the listing is posted, including the time a sold listing stays on your profile. The same licence applies to your reviews (section 8), as long as they are published. We do not use your content in advertising outside the site without your consent. When you delete a listing, a review or your account, the licence ends and the content is removed from the site; search engines may take a few days to update their results.

6. Paid services

• Prices and taxes. Prices are in Canadian dollars and include all fees. PubLocal is not registered for GST and QST (small supplier): no tax is charged for now. If PubLocal registers, GST and QST will be added to payments made from the registration date. We will notify you by email at least 30 days before, or as soon as possible if registration becomes mandatory sooner, and the amount of the taxes will be shown separately on your invoices.
• Payment and activation. Payment is processed by Stripe: we neither receive nor keep your card number. Plans are digital services, activated in your account as soon as the payment is confirmed. No goods are shipped. The payment appears on your statement under the name PUBLOCAL.CA.
• Term and renewal. Pro, Seller and Business subscriptions are paid in advance for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months. A 1-month subscription renews automatically every month. A 3-, 6- or 12-month subscription does not renew for the same term: at the end of the period, it continues month to month, for an indefinite term, at the monthly rate in effect, until you cancel it. You can also choose a new 3-, 6- or 12-month period at the reduced rate shown.
• Notices. For a 3-, 6- or 12-month subscription, we write to you between the 90th and the 60th day before the end of the period to remind you of its date. If the monthly rate that will follow is higher than the reduced rate you pay, we also write to you 7 to 10 days before the end of the period, with the date and the new price. Likewise, if a promo code or an offer reduced the first payment of a 1-month subscription, we write to you 7 to 10 days before the end of that month, with the date and the regular price that will follow.
• Cancellation and termination. You can end your subscription at any time with the "Cancel my subscription" button on the My subscription page. You choose between: a) stopping the renewal: you keep your plan until the end of the paid period, then you move to the Free plan; b) terminating immediately (3-, 6- or 12-month subscription): the plan ends at once and we refund you, within 15 days and on the card used, the price of the unused portion of the period, prorated to the remaining days, minus a termination fee equal to the lesser of $50 or 10% of that portion. This fee does not apply when you stop the renewal, nor when we end the subscription or you refuse a change to the terms (section 12). A one-month subscription is not refunded: it ends at the end of the paid month.
• Abuse. In case of abuse of terminations or refunds, we may refuse future subscriptions and paid features from the member concerned. The reason is given to them by email, and they can contest it by writing to us (section 14). This measure affects neither a current subscription nor a refund already owed, and the Free plan remains available.
• Changing plans. A higher plan applies right away, and the difference for the rest of the period is charged on a prorated basis. A lower plan takes effect at the end of the period already paid. In every case, you keep the right to terminate under the previous paragraph.
• Declined payment. If a payment is declined, you keep your plan for 3 days and we retry the payment. We write to you on the day it is declined, then on the 3rd day, before that period ends. Without payment after 3 days, the plan's benefits are suspended until payment, and your listings beyond the Free plan's limit are paused, without being deleted. If payment is made later, the plan and those listings come back. Without payment, the subscription ends.
• End of a subscription and listings. At the end of a subscription, your listings follow the rules of your new plan. The most recent ones stay online up to the plan's limit, for that plan's duration at most (30 days with Free). The others are paused: they are hidden, but not deleted. You choose which ones to put back online; with the Free plan, they are then checked again by our team. If you subscribe again, they come back automatically.
• Featuring. Featuring is a one-time purchase for 2 days. It is refunded in full if we cannot provide it, and prorated to the remaining days if we remove the listing before the end, unless the removal is due to a serious breach of these terms on your part.
• Included features. The Pro, Seller and Business plans include 1, 3 and 5 two-day features respectively per month of subscription. They do not accumulate: those not used during the month are lost. They are neither refundable nor exchangeable for money.
• Closing by PubLocal. If we close a subscriber's account, we refund the unused portion of the paid period, minus, where applicable, the harm caused to us by a breach on their part (art. 2129 of the Civil Code of Québec). To end a subscription that continues month to month without a breach on your part, we give you 60 days' written notice.
• Refund requests. Write to us (section 14). A refund owed is paid within 15 days.

7. Messaging and safety

Messaging is only for discussing listings. Never send banking information. Be wary of requests for payment in advance and meet other users in a public place.

Meeting spots. We offer a list of public places where you can make your exchanges (for example a town hall or a police station), and you can suggest others to us. We check each place before showing it, but we do not monitor these places and cannot guarantee your safety there. Choose a time when people are around, bring someone along if you can, and leave if something seems wrong. Meetups are arranged between members.

Anti-scam shield. To protect users against fraud, some messages are analyzed automatically by artificial intelligence (see AI at PubLocal). If a message looks like a known scam, a warning is shown to the person who receives it and, in case of high risk, our team is alerted and may read the conversation. No message is blocked or deleted automatically, and no measure is taken against an account without review by a person on our team. These warnings are an aid: they do not catch every scam and can sometimes be wrong. The absence of a warning does not mean that a message or an offer is risk-free.

Listing shield. Each listing, and each change to its text, price or photos, is also analyzed by artificial intelligence to detect scams and prohibited goods. Its opinion is shared only with our team. A listing already online that the AI judges very risky may be taken off the site and sent back for review until a person on our team examines it; it comes back online if the team approves it. You are notified by email, and you can write to us to learn the reasons for this automated decision and to submit your observations. A listing is never refused or deleted without this review.

New accounts. To slow down fraudsters who create an account and write to many people, an account may start at most 5 conversations during the 48 hours following its creation (first message to a seller or answer to a "Wanted" post). It can write without limit in conversations already open. This limit does not apply to the paid plans. Our team is alerted when a new account reaches 5 conversations.

8. Sales and reviews

Handover code. In a conversation about a listing, the buyer has a 4-digit code. If they give it to the seller at the time of the exchange, the seller can enter it to record the sale, which is then marked "confirmed" and lets the buyer leave a review. Give your code only once you have the item in hand and the exchange is settled.

When you mark a listing as sold, you can name the buyer among the members who wrote to you about it, or indicate that the sale took place outside PubLocal. You must name the person who actually bought the good or service. It is prohibited to name another of your accounts, a relative or a person who bought nothing, in order to obtain a review. You can change the buyer or cancel the sale as long as the buyer has not left a review.

The named buyer can leave a review of the seller, from 1 to 5 stars with an optional comment, within 90 days of the sale. The review is public: it is shown on the seller's profile with your display name and the listing's title. You can edit or delete it at any time. A review must:

• be about your own experience with this seller and this transaction, and be honest;
• contain no insult, threat, hateful or discriminatory remark, or content prohibited by section 3;
• contain no personal information (address, phone number, email, etc.) of the seller or of another person;
• not be given in exchange for a payment, a discount or another benefit, nor be demanded or prevented by threats or pressure.

A review expresses the opinion of its author, not that of PubLocal. We do not check reviews before they are published and we do not edit them. The seller cannot delete a review about them, but any member can report it (section 4). Our team removes a review that breaks these rules; the reason is given to its author in "My purchases and reviews". A review is not removed merely because it is negative. Abuse of sales or reviews may lead to the removal of the reviews concerned and the suspension of the accounts involved.

Search alerts and favourites are optional. You can edit or delete an alert, and stop its notifications or emails, at any time in your account.

9. Personal information and cookies

We handle your personal information in accordance with the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (Law 25) and our privacy policy, which explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it and how to exercise your rights. Advertising and audience measurement cookies are turned on only with your consent, which you can change at any time with the "Manage cookies" link.

We disclose information to the authorities (police, courts) only when the law requires or allows us to, for example under a court order or in case of danger to a person's life or safety.

10. Liability

Listings, messages and reviews are written and published under the sole responsibility of their authors. PubLocal acts as an intermediary: we are not a party to transactions between users, and we are not liable for content posted by a user or for their conduct, unless, having become aware of the unlawful nature of a content, we did not act promptly to make it inaccessible. We are, however, liable for our own fault and that of our representatives, including in checking listings and handling reports. We make reasonable efforts to keep the site running without interruption. If it is unavailable through our fault for more than 24 hours, a subscriber can obtain an equivalent extension or a prorated refund.

We are not responsible for a failure caused by superior force (for example a general outage of a supplier, a natural disaster or a decision of the authorities). If such an event deprives a subscriber of their service for more than 7 days, the paid period is extended accordingly or, at their choice, the unused portion is refunded.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for bodily or moral injury, or for injury caused by an intentional or gross fault. If you are a consumer, nothing in these terms limits the rights granted to you by the Consumer Protection Act and the Civil Code of Québec.

11. Intellectual property

The PubLocal name, the logo, the design and the code of the site belong to us. You may not copy them, or extract listings from the site by automated means (bots, scraping), without our written permission.

12. Changes

We cannot change the price, the plan or the length of a 3-, 6- or 12-month period you have already paid for. While the subscription continues month to month, we may change only the following: the monthly rate, the number of active listings, how long listings are shown, the number of photos and the included features. We then send you by email, at least 30 days before it takes effect, a clearly written notice that contains only the new clause and the former version, the date it takes effect and your rights. If the change increases your obligations or reduces ours, you can refuse it and terminate your subscription without cost, penalty or indemnity, by notifying us no later than 30 days after it takes effect. We will then refund the unused portion.

Other changes to these terms (for example moderation or safety) are published on this page with their date and announced by email at least 30 days in advance. You can ask for the deletion of your account at any time by writing to us.

13. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of Québec and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. In case of a dispute, first write to us at info@publocal.ca: we will look for a solution. If you wish, we agree to use mediation before going to court; mediation is never mandatory for a consumer. A consumer may apply to the court of their domicile, including the Small Claims Division of the Court of Québec for a claim of $15,000 or less, and keeps their right to bring or take part in a class action. For a customer who is not a consumer, the dispute falls under the courts of the judicial district of Beauharnois.

14. Contact us

PubLocal is operated by Francis Bourget-Guérin, a sole proprietorship doing business under the name PubLocal. General questions: info@publocal.ca. Reporting illegal content: signalement@publocal.ca. Personal information: confidentialite@publocal.ca.