Terms of use

Last updated: 26 September 2026

These terms of use are a legal agreement between you and marketcity ("marketcity", "we", "us", "our"), the operator of marketcity.co.uk (the "Site"). By visiting the Site, creating an account, placing a listing, bidding, buying, selling or messaging another member you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy, which forms part of them. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

1. What marketcity is, and what it is not

• marketcity is an online venue. It lets people place advertisements for goods, property, vehicles, jobs and services and lets other people find them and contact the advertiser.
• marketcity is not a party to any transaction between members. We do not own, hold, inspect, store, deliver or sell the items listed. We do not act as agent, broker, auctioneer, escrow agent, payment provider, insurer or guarantor for anyone.
• Every sale, purchase, rental, job offer, booking or service is a contract directly between the buyer and the seller (or the advertiser and the enquirer). Its terms, its performance and any dispute about it are matters between those two people only.
• We do not verify the identity of members, the accuracy of listings, the quality, safety or legality of items, the truth of feedback, or the ability of any member to complete a deal. Anything we do check is done to protect the Site and is not a promise to you.

2. Definitions

"Member" means anyone with an account. "Listing" means any advertisement placed on the Site, including its text, photos, price and details. "Content" means anything you post or send through the Site, including listings, messages, feedback, forum posts, profile details and files. "Business seller" means a member who lists in the course of a trade, business, craft or profession. "Private seller" means any other member.

3. Who can use the Site

• You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract.
• You must use the Site in the United Kingdom or be able to trade lawfully with people in the United Kingdom.
• We may refuse, limit or withdraw access to anyone at our discretion, including where an account was opened from outside the country, through an anonymising service, or breaks these terms.
• Accounts opened from outside the United Kingdom may be held for review before they can be used.

4. Your account

• Give true, current and complete details and keep them up to date. One person, one account, unless we agree otherwise in writing.
• You are responsible for everything done through your account and for keeping your password and devices secure. Tell us straight away if you think your account has been used by someone else.
• If you sign in with Google or Facebook, those services confirm who you are and send us your name and email address. Your relationship with them is governed by their terms, not ours.
• Business sellers must say that they are a business, show a trading name and a contact address, and comply with every law that applies to their trade, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

5. Listings

• You may only list what you own or are lawfully entitled to sell, let, offer or advertise.
• Describe items honestly and completely: condition, faults, size, age, the full price and all delivery costs. No hidden fees, drip pricing, fake urgency or misleading photos.
• Place each listing in the right category, once. Do not repeat the same listing, keyword stuff, or use another member's photos or text.
• Property: estate and letting agents must belong to a government approved redress scheme and show it. Sale listings should carry the material information buyers need (tenure, council tax band, price or price guide, lease details where relevant). Rental listings must state the rent. Under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 landlords and agents must not invite or accept offers above the advertised rent, and deposits must follow the legal caps and be protected in an approved scheme. Discriminatory letting conditions are not allowed.
• Vehicles: state clearly if a vehicle is an insurance write off (Category S or N), give the MOT status and mileage honestly, describe known faults, and hold the V5C or the right to sell. Dealers must identify themselves as dealers.
• Jobs: adverts must describe a genuine vacancy, comply with the Equality Act 2010 and must never charge a candidate to apply. Agencies must say they are an agency and follow the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003.
• Services and regulated activities: anything that needs a licence, registration or authorisation (for example gas work, electrical certification, consumer credit, insurance, legal or financial advice, letting agency work) may only be advertised by a person or firm that holds it.
• We may edit, move, hide or remove any listing at any time, with or without telling you, if we think it breaks these terms, the law or the spirit of the Site.

6. Prohibited items and adverts

The following may not be listed or offered, whatever the price: anything illegal to sell, own or supply in the United Kingdom; stolen, counterfeit or unlawfully copied goods; weapons of any kind including knives sold to under 18s, firearms, imitation firearms, ammunition, pepper spray and stun guns; fireworks and explosives; drugs, drug paraphernalia, prescription medicines, unlicensed medicines and supplements making medical claims; tobacco, vapes and nicotine products sold to under 18s; alcohol sold without the required licence; recalled or unsafe products; products that breach safety standards or lack required markings; animals bred or sold in breach of licensing or welfare law, endangered species and their parts; human remains and body parts; personal data, account credentials, hacked or unlocked devices and tools designed to circumvent security; adult services, escort services and pornography; gambling and lottery tickets; financial products offered without FCA authorisation; get-rich-quick, pyramid, multi-level marketing and other schemes; anything that promotes hatred, violence, terrorism, or discrimination against a protected group; anything else we consider unsuitable for a family marketplace.

7. Buying and selling between members

• When a buyer wins an auction, uses Buy Now, has an offer accepted or otherwise agrees a deal with a seller, a contract is formed between those two members. marketcity is not part of that contract.
• Buyers should inspect items before paying, ask questions, meet in safe public places, and never pay in advance to someone they have not verified. Sellers should not hand over goods until payment has cleared in their account.
• If you buy from a business seller you have the rights the law gives you against that seller, including under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and, for most distance sales, the 14 day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Those rights are enforceable against the seller, not against marketcity.
• If you buy from a private seller, the item must match its description, but the statutory consumer protections for business sales generally do not apply.
• Bids and offers are binding on the person who makes them. Bidding on your own listing, or arranging for someone else to, is prohibited.

8. Payments, delivery and collection

• Payment is arranged and made directly between buyer and seller by whatever method they agree, such as bank transfer, cash on collection or a third party payment service. marketcity does not take, hold, process or refund payments and does not offer buyer or seller protection.
• Delivery, collection, packaging, insurance in transit and customs are the responsibility of the buyer and seller as they agree between themselves.
• Any payment or courier "protection" message that claims to come from marketcity is a scam. We never ask a seller to pay a fee to release funds and we never send payment confirmations.

9. Fees

Placing a standard listing is free. Any optional paid feature is shown with its price before you confirm it. Prices are in pounds sterling and include VAT where VAT applies. Fees for optional features are not refundable once the feature has been provided, unless the law requires otherwise.

10. Disputes between members

• Disputes about an item, a payment, a delivery, a property, a job or a service are between the members involved. We encourage members to resolve them directly and in good faith through the Site's messaging.
• marketcity does not adjudicate disputes, does not compel a member to refund, return, pay or perform, and is not liable for the outcome. Where we choose to help, for example by passing on information or removing a listing, we do so voluntarily and without accepting any responsibility.
• Members may use the courts, the Small Claims Track, Trading Standards, Citizens Advice, the Financial Ombudsman or any other lawful route against the other member. Where the law requires it we will disclose a member's details to a court or competent authority.

11. Feedback and reviews

Feedback must be honest, about a real transaction, and free of abuse, personal data and threats. We may remove feedback that breaks these terms or the law, and we may keep feedback after a listing or account has ended. Buying, selling, trading or manipulating feedback is prohibited and is an offence under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

12. Messages and contact between members

Use messages only for the listing in question. No spam, no offers to take a deal off the Site to avoid its rules, no harvesting of contact details and no abusive, threatening or discriminatory content. We may review messages that are reported or that our systems flag, to keep the Site safe.

13. Your content

• You keep ownership of your content. You grant marketcity a worldwide, royalty free, non-exclusive licence to host, store, copy, adapt, display and distribute it for the purposes of running, promoting and improving the Site, including in search results, emails, notifications, social media previews and marketing. The licence ends when the content is deleted, except for copies already received by other members, copies we must keep by law, and backups that roll off in the normal course.
• You confirm that you have every right needed to post your content, that it is accurate, and that it does not infringe anyone's rights or the law. You must not post other people's personal information without their permission.
• We host content posted by members. We do not pre-check it and we are not its author or publisher. We act as a host within the meaning of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 and comply with our duties under the Online Safety Act 2023.

14. Intellectual property

The Site, its name, logo, design, software, databases and all content we create are owned by or licensed to marketcity and protected by copyright, trade mark and database rights. You may not copy, scrape, crawl, frame, mirror, reproduce or create derivative works from the Site or its content except as these terms allow. Search engines and AI crawlers may index public pages in line with our robots.txt. If you believe content on the Site infringes your rights, tell us through Support with details and we will act promptly.

15. Prohibited conduct

You must not: break any law or these terms; use the Site to defraud, mislead, harass, threaten, stalk or discriminate; impersonate anyone or misrepresent your affiliation; use bots, scrapers or automated tools without our written consent; interfere with the Site's operation or security, probe or test its vulnerabilities, or overload it; bypass any block, ban, rate limit or country check, including through VPNs, proxies or fresh accounts; collect other members' data; post malware or malicious links; use the Site for money laundering, sanctions evasion or any criminal purpose.

16. Reporting, moderation and enforcement

• Every listing, message, feedback and member can be reported. We review reports, remove illegal content quickly and act on other reports as we see fit, in line with the Online Safety Act 2023.
• We may warn, restrict, suspend or permanently close any account, remove any content, and block any device, IP address or network, at any time, with or without notice, for any breach or suspected breach of these terms or the law, or to protect the Site or its members. Our decision is final. If we remove your content or restrict your account you may ask us to review the decision through Support.
• We may share information about serious wrongdoing with the police, Trading Standards, other authorities and, where lawful, with affected members.

17. Third party links and services

The Site may link to or integrate other websites and services, including Google and Facebook sign-in, payment providers, couriers and social networks. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content, availability, policies or actions. Your use of them is at your own risk and subject to their terms.

18. Privacy

Our privacy policy explains what personal data we collect, why, how long we keep it and your rights. When you deal with another member you receive that member's personal data for the purpose of the deal only; you must not use it for anything else, share it, or add it to a marketing list.

19. Featured and paid listings

Standard listings are free. Optional paid features, such as featuring a listing at the top of a category or refreshing it, are shown with their price and duration before you confirm. A featured listing is shown above standard listings for the period bought, and above other featured listings in the order they were bought, with the newest first. Paid features are non-transferable, are not refunded if a listing sells early, is withdrawn, is edited into a different item, or is removed for breaking these terms, and are not refunded for a change of mind. Where the law gives you a right to a refund, that right is not affected.

20. No spam

You must not send unsolicited commercial messages through the Site, to addresses you obtained from the Site, or that claim to come from marketcity. This includes bulk messages, chain letters, referral schemes and repeated identical listings. Doing so breaches the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and these terms, and results in the account being closed.

21. Disclosure of information

We may disclose your content and your personal information where the law requires or allows it: to comply with a court order, warrant, subpoena or lawful request from the police, a regulator or a government body; to investigate suspected fraud, illegal activity or a breach of these terms; to protect the rights, property or safety of marketcity, our members or the public; to identify the source of infringing content; and, if the Site is sold or merged, to the buyer, who will be bound by our privacy policy. Details are in the privacy policy.

22. Cookies

The Site uses only the cookies it needs to work: keeping you signed in, remembering your session and your choices, and security. We use no advertising or tracking cookies. Blocking cookies in your browser may stop you signing in. Our privacy policy lists each cookie.

23. Accessing and changing your information

You can update your name, contact details, location, addresses and listings at any time in your account. Your login email can be changed from Account, then Email, after confirming your password. You can download everything we hold about you, or delete your account and personal information, from Account, then Data and privacy. Records we must keep by law, such as completed order records, are kept without your personal details.

24. Security of your information and your account

All traffic to the Site is encrypted, passwords are stored only as salted one way hashes, and access to member data is limited to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we are not liable for loss caused by unauthorised access that results from your own password being shared, guessed or reused, or from malware on your device. You are responsible for everything done through your account until you tell us it has been compromised.

25. Availability and events outside our control

We aim to keep the Site available at all times but do not guarantee it. We may take the Site or any feature offline for maintenance, updates, security or any other reason. We are not responsible for any failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control, including network or hosting failures, attacks on the Site, power or telecommunications outages, strikes, natural disasters, epidemics or the acts of authorities.

26. Notices

We may give you notices by email to the address on your account, by a notice on the Site or in your account. You may contact us through Support or the email addresses at the end of these terms. Notices are treated as received the day they are sent.

27. No warranty

The Site and everything on it are provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows we give no warranty, condition or representation of any kind, express or implied, including as to availability, accuracy, completeness, fitness for purpose, satisfactory quality, security, freedom from viruses, or the conduct of members. We do not promise that any listing is genuine, that any item exists or is as described, that any seller will deliver or any buyer will pay, or that any job or service is real.

28. Limitation of liability

• Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, and nothing affects your statutory rights as a consumer in respect of the service we provide to you.
• Subject to that, marketcity is not liable to you or anyone else for any loss or damage arising from: any transaction, dispute or dealing between members; the conduct, statements or content of any member; any item, property, vehicle, job or service listed or supplied; any payment made or not made; any delivery, collection, meeting or inspection; any unauthorised access to your account; any third party service; any interruption, error, virus, data loss or unavailability of the Site; or any reliance you place on the Site or its content.
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill or data, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, even if foreseeable.
• Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability to you for all claims in any twelve month period is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in that period and £50.

29. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless marketcity, its owners, directors, staff and contractors from and against every claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, cost and expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or connected with your content, your listings, your transactions and dealings with other members, your use of the Site, or your breach of these terms or the law.

30. Release

If you have a dispute with one or more members, you release marketcity and its owners, directors, staff and contractors from every claim, demand and damage of every kind, known or unknown, arising out of or connected with that dispute.

31. Suspension, termination and closing your account

You can close your account, or delete your account and personal data, at any time from Account, then Data and privacy. We may suspend or end your access as described in section 16. The sections on your content, intellectual property, no warranty, limitation of liability, indemnity, release, general terms and governing law survive termination.

32. Changes to the Site and these terms

We may change, suspend or withdraw any part of the Site at any time. We may update these terms; if a change is important we will tell you by email or with a notice on the Site at least 14 days before it takes effect, or sooner where the law requires. Continued use after that date means you accept the new terms.

33. General

If any part of these terms is found invalid, the rest continues in force. Our failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours to a successor of the Site. These terms and the privacy policy are the entire agreement between you and marketcity about the Site. Nothing in these terms creates a partnership, employment, agency or joint venture between you and marketcity or between marketcity and any member.

34. Governing law and disputes with marketcity

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also rely on the mandatory rules of your home law and bring proceedings there. Please contact us first through Support; most concerns are sorted out quickly.

35. Contact

Support: marketcity.co.uk/support. Email: [email protected]. Privacy: [email protected].