Terms & Conditions

1. Acceptance and eligibility

You may browse GemSwapper without accepting these terms. To create an account, check out, make an offer or list a stone, you must accept them and our Privacy Policy.

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a contract. If you act for a business, you confirm that you may bind it.

We record your acceptance with the date and time, your IP address and the version of the terms in force.

2. Key terms

A buyer is a member or guest who purchases or requests a stone. A seller is a member who lists stones. A member can be both.

A commitment is a binding action: publishing a listing, a formal offer or counteroffer, a bid, an acceptance, a payment, a shipping confirmation, activating a live call, or confirming a dispute.

A transaction is the sale of one or more stones between a buyer and a seller through GemSwapper.

3. Accounts, roles and tiers

You register with an email address, a unique username and a password, then choose to act as a buyer, a seller or both. Keep your password secret; you are responsible for activity under your account. Do not share it or create duplicate accounts.

Guests can browse previews and check out Buy Now purchases under US$5,000 with a shipping address, email and payment. Standard members can view 10 unique stones a day, keep two active requests and bid or make offers. Pro members get unlimited browsing, higher request limits, seller identity and reputation, and messaging and live video.

GemSwapper does not perform identity, business or gemological verification of members at launch. Nothing on the site means a member has been verified.

A private buyer can transact without showing their identity to sellers, within the limits of their tier. GemSwapper keeps account-level accountability and may disclose identity where the law requires it or to handle a dispute, fraud or a breach.

4. Pro membership

Pro is a monthly subscription billed through our payment provider. The price, any trial and the cancellation steps are shown before you subscribe and form part of these terms once you confirm.

If you cancel, you keep Pro until the end of the period already paid, then return to Standard. Open transactions are not affected.

5. Our role

GemSwapper is a marketplace. It connects buyers and sellers and provides tools for discovery, negotiation, payment and dispute handling. We are not the seller of listed stones, and the sale contract is between buyer and seller.

Sellers are responsible for their listings, descriptions, photos, treatments disclosed and for delivering what they describe. Reports and documents are provided by sellers. GemSwapper does not appraise, test or certify gemstones, and a stone's origin is never shown as confirmed without a supporting report.

Payments are processed by Stripe. GemSwapper records payment status and does not operate its own escrow.

6. Requests and listings

Requests and listings must be accurate and use the gemological descriptions provided. Every listing needs at least one image of the actual stone. You must own the stone or be authorized to sell it.

You can type a free-text request and have criteria suggested by software. You review and edit the criteria before saving, and your explicit filters override suggestions. Matching is a convenience and not a guarantee of fit.

Listings are shown only while available. GemSwapper makes the final determination of availability when a commitment is made. A fulfilled request is deleted the same day.

Prohibited items include stones obtained illegally, protected species or materials you may not lawfully trade, stones subject to sanctions, and counterfeit or misdescribed material.

7. Offers, bids and commitments

Terms are flexible while you negotiate, but formal offers, counteroffers, bids, acceptances, payments, shipping confirmations and publishing a listing are binding. Before each, we show you the obligation, its consequences and the terms version, and you must acknowledge it.

Auctions are timed and bids are commitments. In reverse bidding, a buyer's request invites sellers to improve their price or terms. Expiry, counteroffers and limited withdrawal follow the rules displayed with each mechanism at the time.

Shipping and inspection or return terms can be negotiated into the price and the total landed cost before you commit. The agreed terms are binding.

8. Breaches and sanctions

A first serious breach of a commitment brings a major reputation strike and a temporary loss of bidding, offering and listing privileges, by default 30 days. A second brings a suspension from transaction features of 12 months. A third brings a permanent ban.

Fraud or intentional material deception, such as a fake stone or certificate, leads to immediate suspension pending review and possibly a permanent ban. We may hold funds linked to the conduct while we review.

You can appeal a sanction by writing to support@gemswapper.com within 14 days. We aim to decide within 30 days. Administrators may adjust or reverse a sanction.

9. Payments

Prices and payments are in US dollars and processed by Stripe. Card details are handled by Stripe and are never stored by GemSwapper.

After you pay, funds are held in protected payment to validate the payment and let the seller ship, for at most 14 days. Funds are released to the seller as these terms provide and returned to the buyer if the sale is cancelled or refunded.

Taxes, customs duties and import charges that apply to a transaction are shown where known and are otherwise the responsibility of the party the law designates.

10. Fees

Any fee, who pays it and the applicable currency conversion are displayed before you confirm a transaction or subscription, and in the fee schedule once published. You are not charged an amount that was not shown to you.

11. Shipping

Sellers must ship with a tracked service and provide a tracking number, carrier link or label. A shipment without tracking is not accepted for protected payment.

Seller and buyer agree on carrier, method, insurance and who bears each cost before they commit. The seller must ship within the time agreed and in any case within the payment hold period.

Loss or damage in transit is a matter between the parties and the carrier. If the shipment is lost and never reaches its destination, the parties handle it with the carrier and its insurance. GemSwapper is not the carrier and is not liable for the carrier's acts.

12. Cancellation, refunds and final sale

Until the seller marks the stone as shipped, the buyer can cancel and is refunded in full. If the seller has not shipped when the hold period ends, the buyer is refunded.

Once the stone is shipped, the sale is final (vente finale). Changing your mind is not a reason for a refund or return. Before you pay, you acknowledge in writing that the listing cannot be returned.

This does not limit rights that the law gives you and that cannot be waived, such as against fraud or a stone that differs materially from its description.

13. Disputes

If a buyer and seller disagree, either can open a dispute and send evidence such as photos, messages, tracking data and documents. GemSwapper reviews what both sides provide and decides the outcome, which may include releasing, withholding or returning funds, and sanctions.

A buyer who claims a material difference from the listing must show it. Both sides must act honestly and respond in the time we set. A video call or conversation is not verification by GemSwapper.

14. Messaging and live video

If at least one party is Pro, that party starts the conversation, then both can write. Two Standard members cannot message each other directly. A Pro member can invite another to a live video call, which the other can accept or decline.

Video calls use a third-party service and are for the parties' evaluation of the stone. GemSwapper does not record calls and does not verify anything shown. Do not record others without consent.

15. Acceptable use

Do not misrepresent stones, manipulate reputation or reviews, use duplicate accounts to avoid sanctions, harass others, interfere with the service, scrape it at scale, or break the law.

Do not move a transaction off GemSwapper to avoid its protections or fees. Sharing off-platform contact details to complete a deal that started on GemSwapper, or asking others to pay outside the platform, counts as circumvention and can lead to sanctions.

16. Reputation

Reputation is calculated from completed transactions, payment completion, seller fulfillment, disputes, commitment breaches and account age. Standard members do not see it. Pro members do.

17. Your content

You keep ownership of what you post. You give GemSwapper a non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, display and use it to run and promote the marketplace. You confirm you have the rights to it.

GemSwapper's name, logo, software and site design belong to us or our licensors.

18. Suspension and closing your account

You can close your account at any time once your open transactions are completed. We may suspend or close an account for breach of these terms, fraud, legal requirements or security risk.

Sections that by their nature should continue, including commitments in progress, disputes, liability and governing law, survive closure.

19. Disclaimers and liability

Gemstones are natural products and descriptions come from sellers. The service is provided as available, without warranty that it will be uninterrupted or error-free, to the extent the law allows.

To the extent the law allows, GemSwapper is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profit, or the acts of sellers, buyers, carriers or payment providers, and our total liability to you for a claim is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before it. Nothing here limits liability for our intentional or gross fault, for bodily injury, or any right you have as a consumer that cannot be waived.

You agree to compensate GemSwapper for losses caused by your breach of these terms or by content you post that violates a third party's rights.

20. Changes and electronic communications

We may update these terms. We will post the new version with its date and ask you to accept it before your next binding action. Commitments already made stay governed by the version you accepted.

You agree to receive notices electronically, by email and on the site. Make sure your email address is current.

21. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Québec and the federal laws of Canada applicable there. Subject to the rights that consumers hold under mandatory law, the courts of the judicial district of Montréal have exclusive jurisdiction.

The parties have required that this contract and related documents be drafted in French and in English. Les parties ont exigé que le présent contrat soit rédigé en français et en anglais; la version française prévaut en cas de divergence.

22. Contact

9576-6127 Québec inc., 130, rue d'Ostende, Laval (Québec) H7K 3L1, Canada. Legal notices: legal@gemswapper.com. Support and appeals: support@gemswapper.com. Privacy: privacy@gemswapper.com.