Terms of Service — MakeLocal

These Terms of Service (the Terms) govern your use of MakeLocal, the marketplace at makelocal.eu (the Platform). The Platform is operated by CODE THE CODE sp. z o.o., a limited liability company registered in Poland, ul. Dolnych Młynów 3/1, 31-124 Kraków, KRS 0000971640, NIP 6762617570 (MakeLocal, we, us). Our full company details are in the Legal notice.

By creating an account or using the Platform you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform. These Terms are also the terms and conditions (regulamin) for our electronic services under the Polish Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means, and the terms and conditions that Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 on platform-to-business relations requires us to give business users.

How we handle personal data is described in our Privacy Policy and what we store in your browser in our Cookie Policy. Those documents are not part of these Terms, but you should read them.

1. Words we use

Seeker: a person or business who asks for something to be made.
Maker: a person or business who makes things on the Platform: designing, 3D printing, finishing or assembling. A Maker acts through a Workspace, which holds their Production Locations, Production Assets and pricing, and which its members belong to.
Production Location: a place where a Maker works. Production Asset: a piece of equipment a Workspace owns, such as a 3D printer.
Coordinator: a user who builds a product or a workflow on the Platform and sells it to Seekers, contracting Makers to do the work.
Order: a Seeker's request, made up of one or more Stages. A Stage is one piece of work, such as Design, Make or Assemble, that is matched, priced, accepted, paid and approved on its own.
Work Time: how many calendar days a Maker says a Make or Assemble Stage takes them, from its Work Start. Work Start: the moment a Stage's work can begin, once it is paid for and every part it is made from has arrived.
Ready By: the moment a Stage's output will be ready to leave its Maker's Production Location. It is set at the Work Start, as that moment plus the Work Time, and the Maker may revise it afterwards.
Approve: the Seeker's confirmation, at the end of a Stage, that its output is what they asked for. Approving releases the Stage's payment to the Maker.
Delivery Point: the address an Order's finished item must reach.
Leg: one journey of a part, from one Maker's Production Location to the next Maker's, or from the last one to the Delivery Point. The Maker who sends the part carries the Leg, and the Leg Fee is what it is paid.
Production Payment: on a custom order, the one payment for every Stage after Design and every Leg together.
3D Model: a digital file describing the shape of an item to be made.
Content: anything you put on the Platform, including 3D Models, files, images, descriptions and messages.
Consumer: a natural person acting for purposes outside their trade, business, craft or profession.
Trader: a person or business acting for purposes of their trade, business, craft or profession.

2. What MakeLocal is, and who your contract is with

MakeLocal is an online marketplace. We connect Seekers with Makers and Coordinators, match work to Makers, host the files and conversations an Order needs, and collect and pass on payments. We do not make, sell or deliver the items ordered through the Platform, and we are not a party to the contracts for them.

Custom orders. When a Maker accepts a Stage of a Seeker's Order, a contract for that Stage is formed directly between the Seeker and the Maker's Workspace, on the terms shown on the Stage (what is to be made, the fee and, for a Make or Assemble Stage, the Maker's Work Time) and these Terms. The Leg that carries the Stage's output onward is part of the same contract, at the Leg Fee agreed for it. An Order with several Stages can therefore be several contracts with several Makers. By accepting a Stage of a custom order, the Maker's Workspace also undertakes to MakeLocal to complete it once the Production Payment is made (section 7).
Product orders. When a Seeker buys a product a Coordinator offers, the contract for the product is between the Seeker and the Coordinator. The Coordinator in turn contracts each Maker for the Stages of the product.
3D Model licences. When you buy a licence for a 3D Model, the licence is granted by its author, on the terms shown on the 3D Model.

Our contract with you covers access to the Platform and its tools: your account, matching, order chat, file hosting, the AI assistants, and payment collection.

Is the other party a Trader? A Maker or Coordinator acting for their business is a Trader. A private individual making something occasionally, outside any business, is not. Consumer protection law, including the right of withdrawal and the statutory rights for goods that do not conform to the contract, applies only to contracts with a Trader. If you are unsure whether the party you are dealing with is a Trader, ask them in the order chat before you accept.

Between you and the other party, they are responsible for performing the contract: the Maker for the work and the item, the Coordinator for the product they sold, the author for the licence. We are responsible for the Platform working as these Terms describe, for passing on payments as described in section 6, and for the other duties these Terms give us.

3. Your account

Who may register. You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into binding contracts. If you register for a business, you confirm that you are authorised to bind it, and the business is bound by these Terms.

Signing in. You sign in through our sign-in service at auth.webtree.org, with an email address and password or a third-party sign-in it offers. Keep your sign-in details secret. You are responsible for what happens under your account unless it happened because of our fault.

Accurate information. Keep your account and Workspace details true and current. Matching reads a Maker's Production Locations, Production Assets, materials, skills and availability as section 8 sets out, so they must describe what the Maker can really do.

Roles. One account can act as a Seeker, a Maker and a Coordinator. A Workspace has members with roles (owner, admin, operator, viewer) that decide what each member may change. The Workspace is the contracting party and is responsible for Stages its members accept.

Closing your account. You may stop using the Platform and ask us to close your account at any time by writing to privacy@makelocal.eu. Orders already in progress must be completed or cancelled first. Closing your account ends these Terms between us, except for the sections that by their nature survive (payment owed, licences already granted, liability and disputes).

4. How an order works

Describe. The Seeker says what they need, in words, by uploading a 3D Model, or both, and chooses the material, the quantity and how much they value a lower price against a faster result. Before an Order can be matched, the Seeker gives its Delivery Point. Only the country is needed at first; the complete address is needed before the item is sent.
Design (when needed). If no usable 3D Model exists, a Maker who designs takes the Design Stage. The Seeker asks for changes or approves the design.
Matching. Each Stage is offered to eligible Makers one Workspace at a time, as described in section 8. On a custom order, the Stages after Design are matched all at the same time, once the 3D Model of every part exists. A Maker considering an offer sees the work and where its output goes next. For the last Stage, that is the city and postal code of the Delivery Point and how far, in a distance band, their Production Location is from it. For any other Stage, it is the same about the next Stage's Maker once that Stage has been accepted, and until then only that the next Stage is still being matched. They do not see the Delivery Point itself before they accept. If no Maker takes the Stage within the matching period, it is placed on the open board, where any Maker can take it, within the limits in section 8, and the Seeker may raise its fee (section 6). A Seeker can also run a Stage as an auction, where Makers bid and the Seeker chooses.
Acceptance and price. A Maker accepts a Stage at the fee shown, or proposes a different fee or other changes, which the Seeker accepts or declines. A Maker who declines may say what fee they would take it for. On accepting a Make or Assemble Stage, the Maker names its Work Time. The fee and the Work Time are part of the Stage's terms and do not change before the Work Start. On a custom order, a Maker accepting a Stage may take along with it the neighbouring Stages of the same item that nobody has accepted yet and that their Workspace can do at the same Production Location; an offer of one of those Stages to another Maker then ends. The Maker of the last Stage of a custom order receives the Delivery Point when they accept it, so that they can price the Leg to it; on a product order, when that Stage is approved. They keep access to it until the Order closes.
Legs. Wherever a part must travel, from one Maker to the next or from the last Maker to the Delivery Point, it travels as a Leg, carried by the Maker who sends it. On a custom order, once the Makers at both ends of a Leg have accepted their Stages, the sending Maker proposes how the part travels (delivery by them or a courier, collection by the receiver, or both) and the Leg Fee, and the receiver picks the method. On a product order, the sending Maker proposes it once their Stage is approved, and the Coordinator agrees the Leg Fee. Collection has a Leg Fee of zero. MakeLocal does not carry parts and does not set Leg Fees.
Payment. For custom orders, each Design Stage is paid for after a Maker accepts it. Everything after Design, every Stage and every Leg, is paid for together, in one Production Payment, once every one of those Stages has an accepted Maker and every Leg a Leg Fee. No work after Design starts before it. For product orders, the Seeker pays the full product price when ordering. See section 6.
Making. The Maker does the work from its Work Start, and the Ready By is set then. MakeLocal does not guarantee any date. The Seeker and the Maker (or, for product orders, the Coordinator) talk in the order chat, which supports files and images.
Approve. When a Stage is complete, the Seeker approves it or asks for a revision. If the Seeker does neither within 7 days, the Stage is approved automatically. In a product's workflow, the Coordinator may set a Stage to be approved without waiting for the Seeker.
Delivery. The sender marks a Leg sent, or ready for collection, and whoever receives it, the next Maker or the Seeker, confirms receipt. A Leg that is not confirmed counts as received 7 days after it was sent or handed over.

Free orders. A Stage can have a fee of zero, and no payment is taken for it. An Order in which every Stage has a fee of zero is a free Order. Its Stages are matched like any other, and its Legs are still paid for.

5. Approving is not giving up your rights

Approving a Stage confirms that its output, as shown to you, is what you asked for, and it releases the payment to the Maker. It does not waive your statutory rights against a Trader for an item that turns out not to conform to the contract, including defects you could not see when you approved.

6. Prices, fees and payment

Prices. For custom orders, the fee for each Stage is set when the Seeker posts the Stage at a fixed fee, when the Seeker accepts a Maker's proposal, when the Seeker picks a bid, or when the Seeker raises it (below). Each Leg Fee is proposed by the Leg's sender, as section 4 describes. For product orders, the Coordinator sets the product price, which includes its Legs. Prices are shown in the currency of the Order, and include any VAT that the selling party charges. Seekers pay no commission to MakeLocal. The Production Payment, a Difference Payment and a Leg Fee paid on its own carry a card-processing service fee, which MakeLocal keeps to cover what processing the payment costs it. It is shown before you pay and added on top. It is never refunded.

The Production Payment. Once every Stage of a custom order after Design has an accepted Maker and every Leg a Leg Fee, the Seeker is asked to pay the total in one card payment. Until they pay, the Seeker may reject a Leg Fee, with a comment, and its sender proposes another; after the Seeker's second rejection on one Leg, they may have its sending Maker replaced. Each party has 48 hours for their turn on a Leg; a sender who does not propose a fee in time, or a receiving Maker who does not pick a method, is treated as leaving the Stage. If the Seeker does not pay within 48 hours of being asked, the Order lapses: every Stage after Design is cancelled and nothing is charged for them. We remind the Seeker after 24 hours, and the 48 hours start again each time the payment is asked for again because the total changed.

When nobody takes a Stage. When a Stage of a custom order reaches the open board, the Seeker is offered the chance to raise its fee, at a suggested price. A raise offers the Stage to Makers again from the start (section 8). If a Stage still has no Maker seven days after it reached the open board, the Order lapses as above, or, after the Production Payment, is cancelled as if the Seeker had cancelled it (section 7). We remind the Seeker every 48 hours.

The Difference Payment. If, after the Production Payment, a Stage's Maker is replaced and the replacement costs more, because the Seeker raised the Stage's fee or because the Legs to and from the new Maker cost more, the Seeker is asked to pay the difference in one payment, once the replacement has accepted and those Legs are priced. Paying it is the Seeker's choice: if they do not pay within 48 hours, the Order is cancelled as if the Seeker had cancelled it (section 7). If the replacement costs less, the difference is refunded.

Payment processing. Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card details. Payments are made to MakeLocal, and MakeLocal receives them on behalf of the Maker, Coordinator or author they are owed to. Once you have paid us, your debt to them is settled.

Holding and release. We hold each Stage's payment until the Stage is approved (by the Seeker, automatically after 7 days, or without waiting for the Seeker where the workflow provides it), and, where a Leg carries its output onward, until that Leg is received, and then pass it on to the Maker's payout account. We hold each Leg Fee until the Leg is received, and then pass it on to its sender. When one Maker holds several Assemble Stages of the same Order, we pass on their payments together, once the last of those Stages ends. For product orders, we pay each Maker their Stage fee in the same way, and pay the Coordinator the difference between the product price and the Stage fees once the Order is complete. For 3D Model licences, we pass the price on to the author.

Our service fee. From each amount we pass on, we keep a service fee of 5% and an estimated payment-processing charge of 3.25%, and pay out the rest. We keep no share of a Leg Fee. Payouts in another currency are converted by Stripe at its rate.

What a Workspace owes is set off. Before we pass on any payment for a Workspace's work, on any Order, we subtract what that Workspace owes MakeLocal under these Terms, such as a Withdrawal Fine (section 7), and pass on the rest.

Getting paid. To accept paid work or sell paid 3D Models, a Maker, Coordinator or author must set up a payout account with Stripe and accept the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Services Agreement. By setting one up, you authorise us to share information about you and your transactions with Stripe and to instruct transfers to your account. You do not need a payout account for free work.

Taxes. Makers, Coordinators and authors are responsible for their own taxes on what they earn, and for issuing any invoices or receipts the law requires for their sales. The law may require us to collect information about sellers on the Platform and their income and report it to tax authorities, under Council Directive (EU) 2021/514 (DAC7) and Polish law implementing it. If you sell on the Platform, you agree to give us that information when we ask.

7. Cancellation, refunds and withdrawal

Cancelling a Stage. A Seeker can cancel the work on any item of an Order that is not finished, at any point. This cancels every unfinished Stage for that item, and each of them is settled as follows:

If nothing has been paid for it yet, it is cancelled and nothing is charged.
If it has been paid for but its work has not started, because no Maker has accepted it yet or it is still waiting for its parts, the amount paid is refunded in full.
If its work has started but it is not yet approved, the Maker receives 50% of the Stage fee for the work begun, and the Seeker is refunded the other 50%. The Platform shows the split before you confirm.
After a Stage is approved, it cannot be cancelled on the Platform.

After the Production Payment, a custom order is cancelled whole or not at all. The Seeker can cancel it at any point until its last Stage is approved, and each Stage after Design is settled as above, an approved Stage being paid in full. The fees of Legs not yet sent are kept to bring the approved parts to the Seeker: the Maker of each approved part proposes a Leg to the Delivery Point, paid from that money, and what is left over is refunded. If that Leg costs more, the Seeker is asked for the difference as a Difference Payment, and not paying it within 48 hours counts as refusing the part. The Seeker may refuse an approved part: its Leg money is then refunded and the part stays with its Maker. A Leg already sent is paid to its sender.

Refunds go back to the payment method used, through Stripe.

When a Maker hands a Stage back. A Maker may decline a Stage before accepting it, or, for a Design or Make Stage, hand it back when the Seeker asks for a revision. The Stage then goes back to matching and that Workspace is not offered it again unless the Seeker raises its fee. On a custom order, a Maker who has accepted a Stage after Design may leave it at no cost until the Production Payment is made, and the Stage is matched again. Otherwise, a Maker who has accepted a Stage may cancel it while the Seeker's payment for it is still pending; the Stage is then cancelled rather than matched again, and nothing has been charged for it. Once work has started, a Maker cannot simply cancel, except by leaving a custom order's Stage as described below. If the item cannot be made, the Maker reports it, and the Stage goes back to design or matching, or is cancelled with a full refund to the Seeker. A Maker who cannot or does not perform a Stage receives nothing for it.

Leaving after the Production Payment: the Withdrawal Fine. By accepting a Stage of a custom order, a Maker's Workspace undertakes to MakeLocal to complete it once the Order's Production Payment is made. A Workspace that leaves such a Stage after that payment, for whatever reason, owes MakeLocal a Withdrawal Fine:

10% of the Stage fee if the Stage's work has not started, and 25% once it has. A Stage whose part has been sent back to its designer for revision counts as started. A Maker who stops answering after their Stage is approved and does not send its part within 14 days of that approval also owes 25%.
At least 10 zł, or its equivalent in the Order's currency, for each leaving, however many Stages it covers, including Stages with a fee of zero.

The fine is the same whatever the reason, a broken machine or illness included, and the Platform shows its amount before the Maker confirms. The Workspace authorises MakeLocal to set the fine off against every payment we pass on for its work, on any Order, starting with the next one, until it is paid. If no such payment follows, the fine remains a debt; we do not charge a card or account for it, and owing it does not stop the Workspace from being offered work. The fine is MakeLocal's: the Seeker receives none of it. The Stage is matched again at its fee, the Seeker's payment stays on it, and if the replacement costs more, section 6 applies.

Complaining about a fine. Within 14 days of a fine being written, the Workspace may complain about it on the Platform, if it says it did not leave the Stage or that the amount is wrong. A person answers within 7 days. A fine overturned is cancelled, and anything already set off is repaid.

The Withdrawal Fine applies only to Stages accepted on or after 17 November 2026.

Your statutory rights come first. The rules above are how the Platform handles cancellation. They do not limit any right that mandatory law gives a Consumer against a Trader:

Right of withdrawal. A Consumer buying from a Trader at a distance usually may withdraw within 14 days without giving a reason. This right does not apply to items made to the Consumer's specifications or clearly personalised, which covers most custom orders. It also ends for a service fully performed with the Consumer's prior consent, and for digital content (such as a 3D Model download) once supply has started with the Consumer's prior express consent and acknowledgement. Where the right does apply, for example to a standard product a Trader sells, the Trader must refund the Consumer as the law requires. Send your withdrawal statement to the Trader in the order chat, or to us at privacy@makelocal.eu, and we will pass it on.
Non-conforming items. A Trader is responsible to a Consumer for an item that does not conform to the contract, under the Polish Consumer Rights Act or the law of your country. You can ask for it to be repaired or replaced, or for a price reduction or a refund. Raise it with the Maker or Coordinator first. If that does not work, contact us (section 14) and we will help where we can.

Sole traders in Poland. A natural person running a sole-trader business in Poland who orders something not of a professional character for their business has the consumer protections that Polish law extends to them.

8. How Makers are matched and how listings are ordered

This section sets out the main parameters that decide which Maker is offered work and how listings are ordered, and why, as Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 and consumer law require.

Who is offered a Make Stage. A Make Stage is matched in two steps. First, every Workspace that may not or cannot take the work is filtered out. Then the Workspaces that remain are ranked, and the Stage is offered to the highest-ranked one. If it declines, hands the Stage back or lets the offer lapse, the remaining Workspaces are ranked again from the beginning, because the facts the ranking uses change as other work is matched.

Step 1: who is filtered out. A Workspace's Production Location takes part only if all of the following hold. Nothing else excludes anyone.

Integrity. The Production Asset does not belong to the Seeker, its owner's account is active, and its Workspace has not declined, handed back or let the offer lapse for this Stage, or, if the Seeker has raised the Stage's fee, has not done so since the last raise. A raise opens the Stage again to every Workspace.
Capability. The Production Location has an active Production Asset that can do the work, with the manufacturing process and the material the Stage asks for, either as it stands or after a setup change, and the Production Asset's owner has said they have manufacturing skills. What a Production Asset can do is read from our catalogue: the manufacturing processes and materials its model runs, together with the modules and kits fitted to it and the spare parts at its Production Location. A Workspace may dispute a process or material the catalogue gives its machine, and that line then no longer counts for that Workspace's Production Assets. Where the catalogue records no process or no material at all for a model, that is no restriction. A paused Production Asset does not count. A setup change does not exclude a Workspace: it adds setup time, which counts in Step 2.
Delivery. The parts from earlier Stages of the Order can be delivered to the Production Location, and the item can be delivered from there to where it must go next. Only a delivery that cannot be made excludes; one whose end has no known place yet does not.
The Maker's own limits. The Stage falls inside what the Workspace declared: its working hours, its unavailable periods, which members may work at which Production Locations, and, for a free Order, the number of free Stages it said it will hold at once, in total and, where it set one, at that Production Location.

These come before any ranking because a Maker who cannot do the work, cannot deliver it, or has said they do not want it should not be asked, however well they would rank. The Maker's own limits and disputes can only narrow what they are offered. What a Maker records about their machine, such as its model, the modules and kits fitted to it and the spare parts beside it, can widen it, and they are held to that record through Commitment Reliability, below.

Step 2: how the remaining Workspaces are ranked. The ranking combines four groups of facts. None of them is a figure the ranked Workspace writes about its own quality or speed. The only figures it supplies are the Work Times it names, the Ready Bys it moves to once the work has started, and its record of what is loaded on its Production Assets; we work out every score from them.

Cost. Our estimate of what delivering the parts to the Production Location and the item from it would cost. The parts are counted from the Makers already accepted for the Stages before it. The item is counted to the Maker accepted for the Stage after it, or, until that Maker has accepted, to the Delivery Point. It is used only to rank, is shown to no one, and is never charged; delivery itself is agreed as section 4 describes. Where a delivery cannot be estimated yet because one of its ends has no known place, it counts as costing and taking as much as the most expensive and slowest estimate another remaining Workspace has for it.
Time. How soon the Seeker would have the item: how long those deliveries take; Asset Load, the time still to run on work already committed to the Production Assets that could do the job, counted as its Work Time until that work has started and up to its Ready By after, shared across those of them that are active; and Skill Load, the same for the work held by the members who have the skill, shared across those who may work at that Production Location, including any setup this Stage would need. So a Workspace with more machines or members able to do the work carries a lighter load, and moving a Ready By changes its loads.
Reliability and approval. Date Reliability, how late the work was ready against its Ready By. A Stage's Ready By is set when its work can start, as that moment plus the Work Time the Workspace named, so the time a Stage waits for other Makers, for the Seeker's payment or for its parts is not read. Finishing early is never held against it, and only lateness counts. After that, a Ready By may be changed at any time, and each one counts for as long as it stood, so a wrong date corrected early costs less than one corrected late, and one never corrected costs most. For 24 hours after the last part a Stage is made from arrives, its Ready By may be moved freely, and only the one standing when those hours end counts, because only then has the Maker seen the parts. Seeker Approval, whether Seekers liked the Workspace's work, given as one like or dislike per Stage.
Commitment. Commitment Reliability, how reliably the Workspace takes on work it has said it is open to. A declined or lapsed offer counts, and so does handing back a Stage it had accepted. Leaving a Stage of a custom order before the Seeker has paid for it counts as a hand-back only within 72 hours of accepting it; leaving it after the payment always counts, and counts more. Nothing counts for an offer on a paused Production Asset or outside the Workspace's own limits.

Why cost and time matter as much as the Seeker says. Cost and time both matter to the Seeker, and only the Seeker knows which matters more for their order. Each Seeker sets a Speed Preference between a lower price and a faster result, and it moves the balance between the cost facts and the time facts. Work already committed is time: a Workspace with a long queue really does deliver later. This is also what spreads work across Workspaces instead of sending it all to one.

Why Date Reliability and Seeker Approval do not move with the Seeker's preference. They describe the Maker, not the order, so they count the same for every order. If a Seeker's preference could weigh them down, an unreliable Workspace would have a way back to the front.

Why commitment matters. A Workspace whose description of itself outruns the work it takes sends every Seeker matched to it back to the start of matching, so we prefer a Workspace whose description matches what it will actually do. Pausing a Production Asset, or narrowing the Workspace's limits, costs it nothing.

Why little history counts for little. Date Reliability is judged on the Workspace's recent Stages, reaching further back when recent history is thin. Seeker Approval counts every like and dislike the Workspace has received. The less history behind any figure, the loads included, the closer we treat it to the average across all Workspaces, and every figure is read cautiously rather than at its best guess. An empty queue and a short record are not evidence of good work. Treating them as such would hand every new Workspace the first offer, and would let a Workspace with a bad record start again under a new name.

Why who placed an order matters. Each order's contribution to the history behind Date Reliability, Seeker Approval and both loads is weighted by its Order Weight, which follows the Seeker Standing of the Seeker who placed it. A new Seeker account has little standing, so orders from accounts made to praise a Workspace move its figures very little, and a Workspace's real history cannot be pushed aside by them.

How a new Workspace gets started. No Workspace is moved up the ranking for being new. A new Workspace builds its history through free Orders: Makers put paid work first, so fewer Workspaces compete for free work, and a Workspace that offers to hold free Stages can be offered one while it still ranks low. Free Orders are ranked in the same way as paid ones.

After a raise. When a Seeker raises the fee of a Stage nobody has taken, the Stage is offered first to the Workspaces that said, in declining it or in a counter-offer the Seeker refused, that they would take it for that fee or less, ranked among themselves as above, and only then to the rest.

Stages that must go to one Maker. When several Make Stages of one Order must be made by the same Maker, they are offered together to a Workspace that can take every one of them at one Production Location, chosen by how well it ranks across all of them taken together, so it need not be the one ranked first for any single Stage. If no Workspace can take them all, they go to the open board together.

Near-equal Workspaces. Workspaces whose rankings are almost equal are treated as level, and are ordered by a fixed value derived from the Stage, the Workspace and the Production Location. That order favours no one, stays the same if a round is repeated, and differs from one Stage to the next, so no Workspace takes every similar Stage for a small lead.

What does not count. Payment to us, whether a Maker is online, how quickly a Maker answers offers, and any rating, speed or quality a Maker claims for themselves play no part. No Workspace is offered work for having waited longest, because that would reward declining.

Auctions. When a Seeker runs a Stage as an auction, this ranking decides which Workspaces are invited to bid, and the Seeker then chooses among the bids.

To accept a paid Stage it has been offered, a Workspace also needs a payout account (section 6).

Design Stages. A Design Stage is offered to users who have said they design, other than the Seeker and anyone who already declined it. Designers who have also said they manufacture are offered it first, because a designer who makes things too is better placed to draw a part that can be made. Within each of those two groups, the order follows no further parameter. When several Design Stages of one Order must go to the same designer, they are offered together to a designer who can take all of them, without that preference and in no set order.

Assemble Stages. An Assemble Stage is offered to users who have said they do post-production work, other than the Seeker and anyone who already declined it, and, for a free Order, only to those whose Workspace has room within its number of free Stages. No Production Asset or availability is checked, because the work needs a person's skill rather than a particular machine. They are ranked as Step 2 above describes, each Workspace at its Production Location nearest to the Makers already accepted for the neighbouring Stages, and that Production Location is where the Stage's parts are sent. A Workspace with no Production Location is ranked with its deliveries unknown, and cannot accept a Stage that parts are sent to until it adds one.

Open board only. A Seeker can switch automatic matching off for an Order. Its Stages then go straight to the open board.

The open board. Any Maker can take a Stage from the open board; the Step 1 filters above are not checked again there. Two limits apply: a Stage of a free Order counts against the Workspace's number of free Stages, and a Workspace that has completed fewer than 5 Stages may hold at most 2 paid Stages taken from the open board at once, so that a newcomer cannot take on more paid work than it has shown it can finish.

Offer and review times. For Make and Assemble Stages, the Maker offered a Stage has 5 minutes to pick it up, and then up to 1 hour (Make) or 4 hours (Assemble) to accept it, propose changes or hand it back. A lapse counts as declining, and the offer moves to the next candidate. Matching continues for up to 24 hours, less the more the Seeker values speed over price, before the Stage goes to the open board. On a custom order, a raise of the Stage's fee starts its matching again from the beginning.

Catalogue listings. No one can pay to be listed higher. 3D Models in the catalogue are listed newest first, and products in no set order, unless you choose to sort them by price. When you search, results are ordered by how closely they match your words.

Changes. We will tell business users about any change to these parameters at least 15 days in advance, as section 17 describes.

Where else listings appear. Public 3D Models and products may also be shown through our public interfaces, including our public read-only API and our MCP server, which lets other software, such as AI assistants, search the public catalogue.

9. Your obligations

Everyone must:

use the Platform lawfully and as these Terms allow;
tell the truth about who they are, what they need and what they can do;
respect other users and communicate respectfully in chat;
not upload Content they have no right to share; and
not interfere with the Platform's security or operation, access it by automated means other than our public interfaces, or try to reach data they are not entitled to.

Makers must:

make what was agreed, with due care and skill, and keep the Seeker informed in the order chat;
name a Work Time they can keep, and once the Ready By is set, revise it as soon as they know it will not hold;
complete the Stages of a custom order they accept once its Production Payment is made, or pay the Withdrawal Fine (section 7);
as Traders, comply with the law that applies to the items they make and sell, including product-safety rules under Regulation (EU) 2023/988, and give any warnings or instructions an item needs;
use a Seeker's Delivery Point only to send that Order; and
use a Seeker's 3D Model only to perform the Order it was shared for, unless its licence allows more.

Seekers must:

describe what they need accurately and give the information the Order needs, including a complete Delivery Point before the item is sent;
pay for the Stages and Legs of their Orders as section 6 describes;
approve each Stage, or ask for a revision, in good time; and
have the rights to any 3D Model or file they supply.

MakeLocal does not test, inspect or certify items. A 3D Model shared on the Platform records its shape and the details its author gives, not whether the item is fit for any particular use. If an item must be safe or certified for a use, such as contact with food, medical use or load-bearing parts, the Seeker must say so and agree it with the Maker. The Seeker and the Maker are responsible for that, not MakeLocal.

10. What you may not make or share

You may not use the Platform to order, make, sell or share:

firearms, their essential components or ammunition, or other weapons or items designed to injure;
items whose making, possession, sale or shipping is illegal where they are made or where they go;
counterfeit goods, or items or 3D Models that infringe someone's intellectual property, design or trademark rights;
items intended to circumvent safety, security or anti-copying measures, or keys made from images of keys you do not own;
Content that is illegal, sexual content involving minors, content that incites violence or hatred, or harassment; or
malware, spam or deceptive content.

11. Content and intellectual property

You keep your rights. You keep ownership of the Content you upload. You confirm you have the rights needed to upload it and to grant the licences below.

What you allow us to do. You grant MakeLocal a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence, for as long as your Content is on the Platform and for as long afterwards as we need to keep it for legal reasons or to settle a dispute, to host, store, copy, process, render (including previews and thumbnails) and display it, and to share it with the users you choose, all only to run, secure and improve the Platform. We do not sell your Content or use it for advertising.

What you allow Makers to do. When you share a 3D Model or file with an Order, you allow the Makers and Coordinator of that Order to use it to perform it, and for nothing else unless the 3D Model's licence allows more.

Visibility. You choose who sees a 3D Model: only you, your Workspace, people with a share link, or everyone. A share link works for anyone who has it, so share it carefully. Public 3D Models and products may be read by anyone, including through our public interfaces (section 8).

Licences you choose. When you publish a 3D Model, you choose the licence other users get, such as all rights reserved, a Creative Commons licence, or terms of your own, together with options such as whether it may be used commercially, in products, or for derivatives, and whether a royalty is due per copy. The licence is between you and the user who takes it. We show it but do not enforce it.

Selling a 3D Model. If you sell a paid licence to a 3D Model, we collect the price for you and pay it out as section 6 describes. The user who buys it gets the licence shown at the time of purchase.

Our rights. The Platform, its software, design and brand belong to MakeLocal or its licensors. These Terms give you no right to them beyond using the Platform as intended.

12. AI features

Some features use artificial intelligence: help describing an Order, suggested order details and titles, matching your description to catalogue items, and research about equipment and materials. These features are provided by third-party AI services, currently Google Gemini and Exa web search, reached through OpenRouter. What you send to them is processed as our Privacy Policy describes.

AI can be wrong. AI output is a suggestion. Check it before you rely on it, especially sizes, materials, quantities and prices. You are responsible for what you submit, even if an AI feature suggested it. An AI never accepts, prices or approves work on anyone's behalf.

13. Reporting illegal content, and what we may do

Reporting. Anyone can report Content or behaviour on the Platform that they believe is illegal or breaks these Terms, by writing to privacy@makelocal.eu. Please include where it is (a link or the Order), why you believe it is illegal or breaks these Terms, your name and email address (unless the report concerns child sexual abuse material), and a statement that you believe the report is accurate and complete. We will confirm receipt, review the report diligently and without arbitrary decisions, and tell you what we decided.

What we may do. If Content or conduct is illegal or breaks these Terms, or if we must act to protect users, third parties or the Platform, or to comply with the law, we may:

remove Content or make it unavailable;
stop an Order or a Stage, or hold a payment that is not yet released while we look into it;
limit what an account or Workspace can do, or stop it from being offered work; or
suspend or terminate an account or Workspace.

We decide by people, not automatically, and in proportion to what happened, considering how serious it is, whether it was repeated, and the rights and interests of everyone involved. We act against people who repeatedly share clearly illegal Content, and against people who repeatedly send clearly unfounded reports.

Reasons. When we restrict, suspend or terminate your account, Workspace or Content, we tell you, on a durable medium such as email, before or when it takes effect, with the specific facts and the grounds for our decision and how you can challenge it. We may withhold reasons only where the law or an authority requires us to, or where giving them would endanger someone.

Termination for business users. If you use the Platform as a Trader, we will give you at least 30 days' notice before ending your access entirely, unless the law requires us to end it sooner, or you have repeatedly broken these Terms, or we have a duty to end it immediately under the law. You may use the notice period to challenge the decision (section 14).

What a restriction is not. Not being offered a particular Stage, because another Workspace was eligible first or yours was not eligible, is not a restriction. Nor is a Withdrawal Fine: it is a sum owed, and it limits nothing the Workspace may do.

14. Complaints and disputes

Complaints to us. You can complain about the Platform, about a decision we made about you or your Content, about how a matching decision affected you, about a technical problem, or about our compliance with the law, by writing to privacy@makelocal.eu. Tell us who you are, what happened and what you would like us to do. Complaining is free. We will answer within 14 days, individually and in plain language, and a person will review it. If your complaint concerns a decision we made, we will reverse it without delay if it proves wrong.

Disputes with other users. If something goes wrong with an Order, talk to the other party in the order chat first. If you cannot resolve it, contact us. We are not a party to the contract and do not decide disputes between users. We can look at the Order's record and chat and help both sides reach a solution. While a payment is still held, we may keep holding it until the parties agree or a court or other competent body decides.

Mediation. If a complaint from a business user is not resolved, we are willing to try mediation in good faith.

Consumers may also use out-of-court dispute resolution. In Poland, you can turn to a municipal or district consumer ombudsman (rzecznik konsumentów) or the Trade Inspection (Inspekcja Handlowa), which offers mediation and consumer arbitration courts. Elsewhere in the EU, your national consumer authority can tell you which bodies are available. Using them is voluntary for both sides.

15. Availability and changes to the Platform

We work to keep the Platform available and secure, but it may be unavailable at times for maintenance, upgrades or reasons beyond our control. We may change, add or remove features. Where a change significantly affects how you use the Platform, we will tell you in advance.

Technical requirements. To use the Platform you need an internet connection, an up-to-date web browser (such as current versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge) with JavaScript and cookies enabled for signing in, and an email address. Using any online service carries risks, such as malware or unauthorised access to accounts. Keep your device and browser updated and your password safe.

16. Liability

Contracts between users. We are not responsible for the work, the items, the delivery, the 3D Models or the licences that users provide to each other, or for whether a user performs the contracts they enter into. Those are the responsibility of the party providing them.

Our liability to you. We are liable for damage we cause by breaching these Terms, according to the law. If you use the Platform as a Trader, we are not liable for lost profits or indirect loss, and our total liability to you in any 12 months is limited to the service fees we kept from your payouts in that period. These limits do not apply to damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence, to personal injury, or wherever the law does not allow liability to be limited.

If you are a Consumer, nothing in these Terms limits the rights that mandatory law gives you.

Your liability. You are responsible for the Content you upload and for your use of the Platform. If you are a Trader, you will compensate us for claims third parties make against us because of your Content or your breach of these Terms.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms for good reason, such as a change in the law, in how the Platform works, or in how we must protect users. We will tell you of a change by email, to the address on your account, and on the Platform, at least 15 days before it takes effect, and longer where you need more time to adapt to it.

If you do not agree to a change, you may close your account before it takes effect, at no cost. If you keep using the Platform after the change takes effect, the changed Terms apply to you. A change never applies to an Order already accepted.

We may make a change sooner where the law or an authority requires it, or to address an unforeseen and imminent danger to users, the Platform or its security. Changes that only correct errors or improve wording, without changing anyone's rights or duties, take effect when published. That last rule never applies to the part of section 8 that describes how Makers are matched: any other change to it, however small, is announced as above.

18. Law, courts and language

Law. These Terms, and any dispute about them, are governed by Polish law. If you are a Consumer, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live.

Courts. Disputes with business users go to the courts competent for our registered office. If you are a Consumer, you may also bring proceedings in the courts where you live, and we may only sue you there.

Language. These Terms are written in English, and the English version is the reference version. We provide translations into the other languages of the Platform for your convenience. If a translation differs from the English text, the English text prevails, unless the law gives a Consumer the right to rely on the version in their own language.

Severability. If a court finds any provision of these Terms invalid, the rest remain in force.

19. Contact

Questions, complaints and reports: privacy@makelocal.eu
Personal data and privacy requests: the same address
Post: CODE THE CODE sp. z o.o., ul. Dolnych Młynów 3/1, 31-124 Kraków, Poland

The email address above is also our single point of contact for users and for authorities under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (the Digital Services Act). You can write to us in English or Polish.