Commercial

Terms of Service

Version 1.3 · Effective 2026-05-28 · Last updated 2026-05-28

The agreement between you and Social Bounty — how bounties work, what we charge, how money moves, what rights you grant when you submit content, and how we handle disputes.

Working draft. This document is a first draft intended for internal review. It must be reviewed by an admitted South African attorney before it governs a live user relationship.
On this page21 sections

1. Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms of Service (Terms) govern your use of Social Bounty (the Platform), operated by Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd (we, us, or Social Bounty). By creating an account, funding a bounty, submitting a claim, or otherwise using the Platform, you confirm that you have read and accepted these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Platform.

These Terms are a written agreement concluded electronically under section 22 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA). You accept these Terms by ticking the acceptance checkbox on the signup form and creating an account — that step is required, so your acceptance is an active choice rather than something that quietly applies by default.

When you tick the acceptance checkbox, we record the date, the IP address you ticked from, and the version of these Terms that was live at that moment. The current version number and effective date are shown at the top of this page. You can request a copy of your acceptance record at any time via legal@socialbounty.cash. SMS and email are used for service communications only — see Privacy Policy §Service communications for what those channels are used for. We do not send optional marketing communications without first asking for your specific consent.

We may amend these Terms from time to time. Material changes — changes that affect your rights, fees, data handling, or dispute routes — will be notified to you at least 14 days before they take effect, by email to the address on your account and by a prominent notice on the Platform. Non-material changes (typos, clarifications, updated contact details) take effect on publication. You remain free to close your account at any time if you do not accept a change.

2. Who we are

Social Bounty is operated by Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd, a private company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa.

This information is published in compliance with section 43 of ECTA. Our Information Officer, appointed under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), is listed in our Information Officer notice.

3. Eligibility

To use the Platform you must:

  • be 18 years or older and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract under South African law;
  • not have been previously suspended or terminated by us for breach of these Terms or any related policy;
  • if acting for a business, have authority to bind that business to these Terms.

To receive payouts as a hunter, you must additionally be a South African resident with a South African bank account in your own name. Our escrow partner, TradeSafe Escrow (Pty) Ltd, disburses funds only to verified South African bank accounts. Non-resident brands may fund bounties subject to our escrow partner's acceptance of their payment method.

We may require identity verification (including know-your-client checks through our escrow partner) before enabling payouts or releasing funds, in line with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 and our escrow partner's onboarding requirements.

4. Accounts

One person, one account. You may hold a single individual account on the Platform. A natural person may additionally act for one or more brands as a brand administrator; your individual account and your administrative access to a brand are governed by the same credentials.

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for all activity on your account. If you believe your account has been accessed without your permission, email legal@socialbounty.cash immediately so we can suspend the account.

You must provide accurate information during signup and keep it current. Impersonating another person, creating multiple accounts to circumvent our rules, or sharing an account with a person who would not themselves be eligible all breach these Terms.

5. Roles on the platform

The Platform connects three kinds of participant:

5.1 Brands

A brand is a business, agency, or individual that posts a bounty — a brief with a defined reward — and funds it in advance. Brands approve or reject completed submissions and decide which submissions earn a payout. A brand is acting in the course of its trade and is generally not a "consumer" under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA), unless the brand is a juristic person with an annual turnover below R2 million.

5.2 Hunters

A hunter is a natural person who claims a bounty, produces the content the brief asks for, and submits proof of delivery through the Platform. Hunters are treated as consumers under the CPA in respect of their use of the Platform, and the protections of the CPA apply in full (see clause 17).

5.3 Social Bounty

Social Bounty is a facilitator — we provide the software, verification, payment-orchestration, and dispute channels that let brands and hunters transact with each other. We are not the buyer of the hunter's content, not the employer of the hunter, not a party to any contract the brand forms with its own downstream audiences, and not a custodian of the funds in play. In the three-party escrow arrangement with TradeSafe Escrow (Pty) Ltd we act as AGENT (see clause 9).

6. Bounties

6.1 What a brand must do

A brand creating a bounty agrees:

  • to write an accurate, complete, and lawful brief — including channel, format, reward, duration, eligibility filters, content rules, and any post-visibility requirement;
  • to fund the bounty in full via our escrow partner before the bounty goes live — bounties do not accept submissions until the funding deposit is confirmed;
  • to review submitted work within the response window stated in the brief (and in any event within a reasonable time);
  • not to use the Platform to procure content that is unlawful, misleading in a way that breaches the CPA's marketing provisions, or that infringes the rights of third parties.

6.2 What a hunter must do

A hunter claiming a bounty agrees:

  • that the submission is your own original work, or that you have all licences and permissions needed for the content you include in it;
  • to follow the brief (channel, format, required hashtags, tags, or mentions);
  • to comply with our Acceptable Use Policy and the content policies of the host platform the content is posted on;
  • if the bounty has a post-visibility requirement, to keep the post publicly accessible for the duration stated in the brief (a fixed maximum of up to 90 days — see clause 12).

6.3 Keeping a post live after you are paid

Where a bounty has a post-visibility requirement, keeping the post publicly accessible for the stated duration is a material condition of the payment. You give that undertaking when you claim the bounty and again when you submit, by a separate, express acknowledgement that is recorded with a timestamp and the version of these Terms in force — not merely by accepting these Terms at signup. The acknowledgement is brought to your attention conspicuously, in plain language, before you commit, in line with section 49 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008.

If you remove or hide the post during the visibility window after you have already been paid, you are required to restore the post or repay the net amount you received for that submission, because the continuing visibility of the post was the basis on which you were paid. This is a restitution obligation, not a penalty — it reflects the value you agreed to deliver and then withdrew, and it does not exceed the amount that was actually paid to you. Removing a required post in breach of this undertaking is also a breach of these Terms and of our Acceptable Use Policy, and may lead to suspension or a permanent ban. The full mechanism — the 7-day window we give you to put the post back, the netting of your future earnings, and the account consequences — is set out in clause 12.

7. Submissions & content licence

7.1 You keep ownership

Copyright and all other intellectual-property rights in a submission remain with the hunter (or their licensors). Submitting a bounty does not transfer ownership of your work to Social Bounty or to the brand.

7.2 Licence to Social Bounty and the brand

When you submit content through the Platform, you grant a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to:

  • Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd, for the purpose of operating the Platform, verifying your submission, displaying it in your account and in the brand's review tooling, and for internal analytics, audit, and dispute handling;
  • the brand that posted the bounty, for the specific commercial purpose described in the bounty brief — including the campaign or promotion the brand named in the brief, for the duration and territory stated or reasonably implied by it.

This licence is granted in writing for purposes of section 22(3) of the Copyright Act 98 of 1978: these Terms, together with the brief and your act of submission, are the written record of the licence.

The brand's use of your content beyond the scope described in its own brief requires your separate written consent and typically a separate fee — that is a matter between you and the brand.

7.3 AI training — our position

We do not use user submissions to train generative artificial-intelligence models, whether our own or third parties'. The licence in clause 7.2 is limited to the operational purposes described there and does not extend to model training.

If we ever propose to use submissions for model training, we will change this clause, give you notice under clause 1, and offer an opt-out or renewed opt-in as required by the CPA and POPIA.

7.4 Warranty of originality

You warrant that each submission is your own original work (or that you have all necessary licences for anything in it that is not), does not infringe the intellectual-property or privacy rights of anyone, and does not defame anyone. You indemnify us and the brand against third-party claims arising from a breach of that warranty, subject to the liability limits in clause 18.

8. Fees & charges

Social Bounty charges three platform fees on every bounty. All figures are in South African Rand (ZAR) and are disclosed on-screen before a brand confirms a bounty and before a hunter accepts one.

8.1 Brand-side charges

On top of the face-value reward, the brand pays:

  • a 15% brand admin fee (Free plan) — reduced on paid plans;
  • a 5% transaction fee;
  • a 3.5% global platform fee, charged as a separate line item.

8.2 Hunter-side deductions

From the face-value reward, the hunter has deducted:

  • a 20% hunter commission (Free plan) — reduced on paid plans;
  • the same 3.5% global platform fee.

8.3 Worked example — a R1,000 bounty on Free plans

For a bounty with a face-value reward of R1,000:

  • The brand is charged R1,235.00 at checkout (R1,000 reward + R150 admin fee + R50 transaction fee + R35 global platform fee).
  • The hunter receives R765.00 on payout (R1,000 less R200 commission less R35 global platform fee).
  • Total platform take on the gross bounty value is 43.5%.
  • Payment-processing or banking charges levied by our escrow partner or the paying bank are passed through at cost and disclosed at checkout.

Plan-tier reductions (Pro Hunter / Pro Brand are coming soon) may lower the commission or admin fee, but the 3.5% global platform fee applies to every transaction regardless of plan. Until Pro plans are live, every transaction is priced at the Free-plan rates above. The plan in force at the moment of bounty funding (for the brand) and at the moment of submission approval (for the hunter) is recorded on the transaction and is not changed by subsequent plan changes.

8.4 VAT status

Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd is not currently registered for Value-Added Tax under the Value-Added Tax Act 89 of 1991, as our taxable supplies are below the R1 million compulsory-registration threshold. No VAT is charged on our fees and no VAT invoices are issued. If our turnover reaches the threshold we will register and give at least 30 days' notice before any VAT is added.

9. Custody of funds

Bounty funds are held in escrow by TradeSafe Escrow (Pty) Ltd (TradeSafe), a registered South African digital-escrow service. Funds move from the brand to the hunter via TradeSafe's escrow account. Social Bounty does not take custody of the funds at any point, and bounty funds are not held in Social Bounty's own bank account.

In TradeSafe's three-party model, the brand is the BUYER, the hunter is the SELLER, and Social Bounty is the AGENT on the transaction. As AGENT we instruct TradeSafe to release funds from escrow to the hunter only after submission validation is complete and the brand explicitly approves the submission through the automatic TradeSafe payout process; we do not receive, hold, or re-transmit the funds ourselves.

TradeSafe's own service terms apply to the holding and release of funds in escrow. Full payout mechanics, payment methods, clearance times, and refund paths are set out in our Payout & Escrow Terms. You can read TradeSafe's service terms at tradesafe.co.za.

10. Verification

To keep bounties honest, we verify submissions automatically where the bounty brief contains checkable rules (follower thresholds, required hashtags, required mentions, post format, engagement floors, and the like). Automated verification is performed by Apify, a third-party social-media-scraping processor operating outside South Africa.

Verification reads only information that the content platform makes publicly available, uses it to check the specific rules in the brief, and writes the result (pass, fail, with reasons) to your submission record. Details of this cross-border processing and the safeguards we apply under section 72 of POPIA are in our Privacy Policy.

Automated verification is a first-pass filter, not a judgement. A failed check may reflect a transient issue with the scrape (platform rate limits, caching, a private account toggle) rather than a real breach of the brief. You can request a human re-review through the submission details page, and the brand retains the final decision on approval.

11. Approval & payout

A submission moves to the brand's review queue once every required proof URL has been verified or manually reviewed. The brand then approves, rejects, or returns the submission with feedback. Only an approved submission earns a payout.

After validation is complete and the brand explicitly approves the submission, Social Bounty instructs TradeSafe through the automatic payout process to release the hunter's net earnings from escrow to the hunter's registered bank account. TradeSafe's own settlement window applies. A clearance period set out in the hunter's plan may delay release — current plan terms are published on the Platform.

If a brand does not review a submission within the response window stated in the bounty brief, we may escalate the submission to our review team and, where the submission objectively meets the brief, approve it on the brand's behalf. That escalation path is a fallback, not a substitute for timely review; brands that repeatedly miss response windows may have their posting rights suspended.

11.4 Administrative review by the Platform

We may, where the surrounding context warrants it, process review decisions on more than one submission in a single administrative action — for example where a brand cancels a campaign that affects multiple pending submissions, or where our team needs to address a clearly-defined pattern across a small set of submissions. Each submission processed this way is still treated individually: it receives its own structured rejection reason, its own audit log entry, and its own notification email citing the rule that was applied. Your right to appeal an individual decision under our Acceptable Use Policy is unchanged regardless of whether the decision was processed individually or as part of an administrative batch. We retain the audit record of each decision — including any administrative-batch purpose statement — for at least 7 years, subject to any applicable data-subject rights under the Protection of Personal Information Act.

12. Post visibility, refunds & hunter liability

Some bounty briefs require the hunter's post to stay publicly accessible for a defined duration after approval (for example "must remain live for 30 days"). Where that rule applies, it is disclosed in the brief, and the hunter accepts it by an express, recorded acknowledgement when claiming and submitting (see clause 6.3). Visibility requirements are limited to a fixed maximum duration of up to 90 days from approval. We do not offer indefinite or lifetime visibility requirements. After the monitoring window ends, we no longer monitor whether the post remains accessible, and no liability under this clause can be opened in respect of a removal that occurs after that point — the hunter is then free to remove the post.

We re-check the live post on a schedule after approval. If our scheduled re-checks find that the post is no longer publicly accessible on two consecutive occasions at least six hours apart, and neither re-check was during a known third-party outage, we treat the post as taken down. What happens next depends on whether the payout has already been released to the hunter.

12.1 Before payout — automatic refund to the brand

If the removal is detected before the hunter has been paid (the funds are still in escrow during the clearance period), we automatically reverse the escrow allocation back to the brand by posting a compensating ledger entry. No money has reached the hunter, so the brand is made whole for that submission. We notify both the brand and the hunter by email before and at the point of reversal and write a full audit record of the decision.

12.2 After payout — hunter liability (released funds cannot be reversed)

Once a payout has been released to a hunter's bank account it cannot be reversed. The bank transfer is final, and there is no hunter wallet for us to debit. If a hunter removes a post in breach of a visibility requirement after the payout has been released, the hunter is required to restore the post or repay to Social Bounty the net amount they were paid for that submission, because the continuing visibility of the post was a material condition of the payment. This is a restitution obligation, not a penalty: it is the value the hunter agreed to deliver and then withdrew, it is the same amount that was paid to them, and it arises both as a debt for breach of the hunter's contractual undertaking (clause 6.3) and, in the alternative, in restitution for a payment whose basis has fallen away.

When a post-payout removal is detected, Social Bounty will:

  • (a) ask the hunter to restore the same post within 7 days. This window is a practical opportunity to remedy the breach; it is not a statutory cooling-off or cancellation period. If the post is restored and kept live for the remainder of the visibility window, the amount owed that we have not yet recovered is cleared;
  • (b) withhold and apply the hunter's future bounty earnings toward the amount owed (see clause 12.3); and
  • (c) suspend or permanently close the hunter's account if they do not comply, under our Acceptable Use Policy. A suspension or ban does not cancel the amount owed.

What this means for brands. A brand is reimbursed only to the extent that Social Bounty actually recovers funds from the hunter. We do not guarantee reimbursement of amounts we cannot recover, and we are not ourselves liable to fund the shortfall from our own resources. The amount we can recover from a hunter is the net sum that hunter received, which is less than the total you paid for the bounty: platform fees are earned at the moment of payout and are not recoverable, so a brand may not be repaid in full even where recovery succeeds. If a hunter never earns again on the Platform, recovery by netting may not be possible at all. The full payout and recovery mechanics are in our Payout & Escrow Terms.

12.3 Set-off against future earnings

Where a hunter has an outstanding amount owed under clause 12.2, Social Bounty may set off the whole or part of any future bounty payout due to that hunter against the amount owed, and pay any recovered amount to the affected brand. This is a contractual right of set-off, not an extension of credit or a credit facility — Social Bounty does not lend money to the hunter and does not defer a debt owed by the hunter, so nothing in this clause is a credit agreement under the National Credit Act 34 of 2005. We net what the hunter would otherwise have been paid; we do not advance anything.

12.4 Disputing a removal finding

A hunter may dispute an automatic refund (clause 12.1) or a liability we have opened (clause 12.2) through our complaints process. Where the underlying check was a false positive (for example the post is live but the scraper could not reach it, or the post was removed by the host platform rather than by the hunter), we reinstate the payout or cancel the liability, as the case may be, and reverse any set-off already applied.

13. Reversals & corrections

Social Bounty may reverse, hold, or re-route a payout in any of the following situations:

  • Financial Kill Switch. During a financial-integrity incident (suspected duplicate postings, reconciliation drift, or webhook storms) we may pause all payouts until the underlying cause is understood and corrected.
  • Post removal in breach of a visibility requirement. Before payout, an automatic refund to the brand; after payout, the hunter-liability and set-off mechanism — both as set out in clause 12. Released payouts are not reversed.
  • Super-admin override. A super-admin may post a compensating ledger entry to correct a balance error, recover a mis-directed payout, or comply with a lawful demand. These overrides require a typed confirmation and a written reason, and are recorded in the platform audit log.
  • Dispute resolution. Where a dispute is decided in the brand's favour after review, the escrow release for that submission may be reversed.
  • Suspected breach. Where we reasonably suspect fraud, breach of these Terms, or breach of our Acceptable Use Policy, we may hold a payout pending investigation.

Every reversal or correction is written to the audit log and, where it affects you, is communicated to you by email with a short reason and a link to raise a complaint. We do not adjust balances silently.

14. Acceptable use

You must not use the Platform to: post or promote unlawful content; harass, stalk, or defame another person; circumvent Platform verification (including by buying followers, views, or likes); use automated tools to scrape, replay, or reverse-engineer Platform functionality; or do anything that breaches applicable law in South Africa or the jurisdiction where the content is hosted.

The full list of prohibitions and our enforcement escalations is in the Acceptable Use Policy. A breach of that policy is a breach of these Terms.

15. Intellectual property

All rights in the Platform itself — including the software, database structure, user-interface design, Social Bounty word marks, and related branding — belong to Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd or our licensors. Nothing in these Terms transfers those rights to you. You may use the Platform only for the purposes contemplated by these Terms.

If you believe content on the Platform infringes your copyright, follow the process in our IP & Copyright Takedown Policy. Valid takedown notices are actioned in line with ECTA section 77 (ISP liability limitation) and our internal escalation timelines.

16. Suspension & termination

We may suspend or terminate your account, withhold a payout, or remove a bounty if we reasonably conclude that you have materially breached these Terms, our Acceptable Use Policy, or applicable law — including where the underlying conduct is identified through our verification pipeline, a third-party report, or an order from a competent authority.

Where a breach is deliberate, fraudulent, or repeat-offending, any rewards earned through the breaching conduct may be forfeited and refunded to the affected brand. Forfeiture does not affect amounts owed to innocent third parties and is not applied to good-faith hunters whose submissions were objectively compliant.

You may close your account at any time from your account settings or by emailing legal@socialbounty.cash. Closure does not affect amounts already owed, reporting obligations we have in respect of past transactions, or the audit retention periods in clause 20.

Suspended or terminated users may appeal through our complaints process.

17. Disputes & governing law

17.1 Talk to us first

We try to resolve disputes informally. Before starting any formal proceeding, email us at complaints@socialbounty.cash with a short description of the issue and what you want us to do about it. We commit to the response timelines in our Complaints & Dispute Resolution policy.

17.2 CPA acknowledgement (hunters and other consumers)

If you use the Platform as a natural person for your own purposes, you are a consumer under the CPA and you have the rights the CPA gives you. Nothing in these Terms waives, limits, or deprives you of those rights. You remain free to lodge a complaint with the National Consumer Commission (thencc.gov.za) under section 52 of the CPA, and that right cannot be contracted out.

17.3 Arbitration is voluntary

We offer private arbitration as a voluntary alternative to litigation, by mutual agreement and at our cost, through the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa or a comparable body. You are not required to arbitrate. If arbitration is not agreed, or if the dispute is unsuitable for arbitration, either party may pursue the matter in court.

17.4 Governing law & jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Subject to clause 17.2, the parties consent to the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa as the court of first instance for any dispute that is not resolved informally or by arbitration.

18. Warranties & liability

18.1 Facilitator warranties

We take reasonable care to run the Platform competently, keep it secure, and make the features described on it available in substance. We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, free of third-party service failures, or that every automated verification will agree with every human review. Read our full Disclaimer for the detail.

18.2 Liability cap

To the extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability to any one user for all claims arising out of or in connection with the Platform in any rolling 12-month period is limited to the greater of ZAR 10,000 (ten thousand Rand) and the fees actually paid to Social Bounty by that user in the preceding 12 months.

We are not liable for indirect, special, consequential, or purely economic loss (including lost profit, lost marketing impact, or reputational harm) however arising. We are always liable for loss caused by our gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or fraud, and for any liability that cannot be limited by law.

18.3 Consumer rights preserved

For hunters and other users who are consumers under the CPA, the liability cap in 18.2 does not apply where the CPA prescribes a different — and more favourable — outcome. Sections 51 and 55–57 of the CPA (safe and quality services, implied warranties) apply with full force, and we do not purport to disclaim them.

19. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for delay or failure in performance caused by events outside its reasonable control, including natural disaster, war, strike or industrial action, pandemic (including its mitigation measures), load-shedding or other grid instability, failures of major telecoms or cloud providers, failures of the escrow partner or banking system, and lawful acts of government or a regulator. The affected party will give prompt notice and use reasonable efforts to mitigate and resume performance.

20. General

20.1 Entire agreement

These Terms, together with the other documents referenced in them — our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, Payout & Escrow Terms, Complaints & Dispute Resolution policy, Consumer Rights notice, IP & Copyright Takedown Policy, and Disclaimer — are the entire agreement between you and Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd on their subject matter.

20.2 Severability

If any clause is held by a competent court or regulator to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining clauses continue in force. Where possible the offending clause is read down to the extent needed to remove the defect.

20.3 Assignment

You may not assign your rights under these Terms without our written consent. We may assign ours to a successor in the business (for example on a corporate restructure or sale), provided we give you notice and the successor accepts these Terms.

20.4 Notice & address for service

Our address for formal service of legal notices (domicilium citandi et executandi) is our registered office: 2 Alyth Road, Forest Town, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa. Notices to you are sent to the email on your account. Notices are deemed received on the business day after sending.

20.5 Relationship of the parties

Nothing in these Terms makes you and Social Bounty (Pty) Ltd partners, joint venturers, employer and employee, or principal and agent in any sense beyond the AGENT role described in clause 9 for the narrow purpose of escrow with TradeSafe. Each party acts as an independent contractor in its dealings with the other.

20.6 Record retention

We retain financial records for at least five years from the date of the transaction (or longer where the Tax Administration Act 28 of 2011 or another Act requires), and account-lifecycle records for as long as your account is active plus a reasonable tail for dispute and regulatory purposes. See the Privacy Policy for detail.

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email us at legal@socialbounty.cash or write to us at 2 Alyth Road, Forest Town, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2193, South Africa.

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