The Club Cult is operated by AGENCY CULT SASU, a simplified joint-stock company incorporated under French law.
These terms govern how a Service is booked and paid for on the Platform, the Commission, the payout to the Expert and the handling of disputes. They apply to Members who book a Service and to Experts who provide one. Terms written with a capital letter have the meaning given in the Legal Definitions Master.
For a Service, The Club Cult is an intermediary. The Expert is the provider of the Service and the merchant of record for the payment. The Service contract is between the Member and the Expert.
Agency Cult SASU does not hold the Member funds for a Service and does not act as a payment institution. The Service Fee is collected by Stripe directly into the Expert own Stripe account. At no point does Agency Cult SASU hold, receive or control the Service Fee. Its only entitlement is the Commission. Payment is processed by Stripe Technology Europe, Limited, an authorised payment institution.
Payment for a Service uses Stripe Connect in a direct charge model. When the Member confirms a Booking, the Service Fee is charged and settles to the Expert connected account. Agency Cult SASU receives only its Commission, deducted automatically through the Stripe application fee at the moment of charge, before payout to the Expert. The Service Fee is never charged to an account held by Agency Cult SASU. Automatic payout from the Expert connected account is disabled, so the net amount is held in that account until release under section 5.
4.1 Commission. Agency Cult SASU charges a Commission on each Service. The Commission is 20 percent of the Service Fee for a freelance Expert, so the Expert net payout is 80 percent of the Service Fee. For an agency-represented Expert the Commission is 10 percent and the Expert receives 90 percent of the Service Fee through the platform payout; any fee owed by the Expert to their agency is handled separately between the Expert and the agency, outside the Platform.
4.2 Basis. The Commission is calculated on the Service Fee inclusive of VAT (TTC), that is to say on the total amount paid by the Member, and is deducted through Stripe Connect before payout to the Expert.
4.3 VAT. All prices on the Platform are stated in euros inclusive of French VAT at 20 percent (TTC), shown with the VAT as a separate line. VAT on the Commission is treated as follows: an Expert established in France is charged French VAT at 20 percent; a VAT-registered Expert established elsewhere in the European Union self-accounts under the reverse charge, and the invoice is issued without VAT with the mention of autoliquidation; a non-VAT-registered Expert in the European Union is charged French VAT collected through the One Stop Shop scheme; an Expert outside the European Union is outside the scope of EU VAT.
The Expert payout is released when the Expert marks the Service complete and the Member confirms it, or automatically 48 hours after the confirmed end of the Service if no dispute has been raised. Release is an instruction to Stripe. The time for the funds to reach the Expert bank account depends on Stripe settlement and on the bank.
5.1 Maximum holding period. The payout is held for at most 90 days from the charge. A Booking may therefore only be made for a Service date within 90 days, and a Booking cannot be rescheduled to a date more than 90 days after the charge.
5.2 Reservations. Where a Member requests a Service for a date more than 90 days ahead, the Expert may accept a Reservation. A Reservation holds the date. It is not a Booking, it creates no Service contract, no payment obligation and no cancellation or refund entitlement, and either party may release it at any time at no cost. At 90 days before the Service date the Member receives a payment link and has 7 days to pay, with reminders. The Booking is created when payment succeeds. If it is not paid, the Reservation lapses automatically and the Expert is notified.
5.3 Payout configuration. Agency Cult SASU configures the payout settings on the Expert connected account, including setting the payout schedule to manual, and initiates payouts on the Expert behalf. The Expert authorises this in the Expert Terms.
6.1 Who may raise a dispute. Either the Member or the Expert may raise a dispute on the Platform within 48 hours of the confirmed end of the Service, or of the time the Service was due to end where it did not take place.
6.2 What goes to dispute. Any matter arising once the Service was due to start is determined through this process and is not settled automatically by either party. This includes a claim that the Service was not provided, that it was not provided as agreed, that the Expert did not attend, and that the Member did not attend.
A no-show is a contested fact. It is established through this process on the evidence available, and neither party settles it by assertion.
6.3 Effect of raising a dispute. While a dispute is open the payout is frozen and is not released, whether by confirmation or by the automatic 48 hour release. Agency Cult SASU notifies the other party that a dispute has been raised and gives that party the opportunity to respond before the matter is resolved.
6.4 Resolution. Agency Cult SASU reviews the matter and resolves it in one of the following ways:
Where a dispute finds that the Expert did not provide the Service, the Member receives a 100 percent refund of the Service Fee including the Commission, whatever the timing.
6.5 Window. The 48-hour window matches the release window, because once the payout has been released the Platform holds no funds and cannot execute a refund.
6.6 Rights preserved. This is the internal process of the Platform only. It does not affect the rights of the Member against the Expert under the general law, nor the right of the Member to bring a matter before a consumer mediator or a court, nor any right the Member may have against their card issuer.
Refund rights for a Service are set out in the Cancellation and Refund Terms.
Where a Service is refunded before the Expert payout is released under section 5, the refund is executed from the held amount, the Commission attributable to the refunded part is returned, and the refund reaches the Member in full.
Once the Expert payout has been released, Agency Cult SASU holds no funds for that Booking and cannot execute a refund. The Commission is earned and is not returned. Any refund after release is a matter between the Expert and the Member. The Platform may pass on a request and will provide the Booking record, and it is not a party to the outcome and is not financially responsible for it.
Payment processing fees charged by Stripe are not returned by Stripe when a payment is refunded; as merchant of record the Expert bears these fees and any dispute fee. No fee and no Commission is deducted from a refund amount owed to the Member: the Member always receives the amount defined in the Cancellation and Refund Terms in full.
Agency Cult SASU issues a valid invoice for each Commission charge, in accordance with Article 289 of the Code général des impôts. The Expert is responsible for issuing any invoice required for the Service to the Member and for the Expert own tax, social security and VAT obligations.
The Commission, the ranking parameters and the conditions of access are disclosed in the Platform Transparency Notice and at Expert and Curator onboarding, in accordance with the P2B Regulation. We give at least 30 days written notice before a change to these terms takes effect, including a change to the Commission.
The Expert is responsible for the quality and delivery of the Service, for holding any licence, qualification or insurance required for it, and for compliance with applicable tax and professional rules. Further Expert obligations are set out in the Expert Terms.
Agency Cult SASU is responsible for operating the payment infrastructure with reasonable care, for the correct deduction of the Commission and for the release of the payout under section 5. It is not responsible for the quality, delivery or outcome of the Service. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total liability of Agency Cult SASU to a business User under these terms does not exceed the total Commission paid by or to that business User in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. This limit does not apply to liability that cannot be limited under French law, including liability for personal injury caused by negligence or for fraud, and it does not reduce any mandatory consumer right.
General contact hi@theclubcult.com. Formal and regulatory matters legal@theclubcult.com. These terms are governed by French law. A Member who is a consumer keeps the protection of mandatory law and may bring proceedings in the courts of their place of domicile in the European Union under Article 18 of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012.