Promoter Service Agreement

The commercial terms — fees, payouts, reserve, refunds and chargeback liability — for selling tickets through Rave Essentials.

Version 1.4 · Effective 29 September 2026

This Promoter Service Agreement (the “Agreement”) governs your use of the Rave Essentials ticketing platform (“the Platform”, “we”, “us”) to sell tickets to your events. Rave Essentials is a trading name of Eli Seidle, a sole trader. By accepting it you agree to these commercial terms. It sits alongside our consumer Terms of Service and the Promoter Data Sharing & Joint Controller Agreement.

1. Our role and yours

1.1 You are the principal. You (the “Promoter”) are the organiser of your events and the principal in every ticket sale: you supply admission to your events, and each buyer’s contract for the event is with you, not with us (as our consumer Terms of Service, clause 5.1, also say).

1.2 We are your disclosed agent. You appoint us as your disclosed agent to sell tickets to your events. You authorise us to negotiate and conclude ticket sales with buyers in your name and on your behalf, at the prices and on the terms you set on the Platform, and to collect payment for those tickets. In these sales we act only for you, never for the buyer.

1.3 Payment settles the buyer’s obligation. When a buyer pays us for a ticket, that payment settles the buyer’s obligation to you for the ticket. The ticket-price portion is then yours, held and paid out as clause 3 sets out.

1.4 Whose income is whose. Ticket face value is your income. Our commission, booking fee and resale fee are our own income for our agency and platform services. Products we sell alongside tickets, such as merchandise add-ons, and any carbon offset or charity donation a buyer adds, are sold or collected by us in our own right and are not part of your ticket sale.

1.5 Card processing. We take card payments through our payment provider, Stripe, using its Stripe Connect service, and we are the merchant of record to the card networks for ticket sales made through the Platform. That describes our card-processing role only; it does not make us the seller of admission to your events.

2. Fees

We charge the following on each ticket sold:

  • Commission: a percentage of the ticket price (your commission rate is set out in your account dashboard).
  • Booking fee: a small fixed amount per ticket.
  • Card processing fee: the cost of processing the payment.

You choose how these are borne, per event:

  • Buyer pays: the commission, booking fee and card processing fee are added on top of your ticket price at checkout. You receive the full ticket price.
  • Absorbed: the buyer pays only the ticket price and you bear all platform costs (commission, booking fee and card processing fee), deducted from your payout.

All fees are exclusive of VAT where applicable (see clause 8).

3. Payments and payouts

Buyers pay at checkout through our payment provider, Stripe. The ticket-price portion of each sale is transferred to your connected Stripe account at the time of sale, but that account is set to a manual payout schedule that we control: we hold your funds until after your event has taken place, and release payouts automatically once the event date plus a short settlement window (currently 5 business days) has passed, unless a chargeback on your sales is still open, in which case we release the payout once it is resolved (clause 4.4). This protects buyers and covers refunds and chargebacks. Your balance, reserve and payout history are shown on your Payouts page.

4. Rolling reserve (please read carefully)

4.1 What it is. When we release a payout, we withhold a rolling reserve: a percentage of the amount due to you in that payout. The reserve stays in your connected Stripe account balance and is simply not included in the payout until it is released. It exists to cover refunds, chargebacks and the fees and costs that go with them (clauses 5 and 6).

4.2 The rate. Our standard rates are 5% for new promoters and 0% for established promoters. Every promoter starts on the new rate. We move you to the established rate automatically once you have had three clean events and no chargeback, or bank enquiry that can lead to one, has been raised on your sales in the previous 120 days. An event is clean when it went ahead and has not been taken down from the Platform, at least 120 days have passed since it, at least 10 different buyers paid in full for tickets to it, those fully paid sales came to at least £250 in ticket prices (after any discount code, not counting fees), and no chargeback or such enquiry has ever been raised on any of its orders; events on the same date count as one. We never move you back to the new rate automatically: a higher rate for your account is set only under clause 4.3. We may agree with you that no reserve is held from your payouts; we may end that agreement by giving you 30 days’ notice, after which the standard rate for your tier applies. The rate that currently applies to you is shown on your Payouts page.

4.3 The cap, and when we may go above the standard rate. We will never withhold more than 15% of a payout as reserve. We may set your rate above the standard rate, up to that cap, only where one or more of the following applies: (a) chargebacks or refund requests on your sales are running materially above the normal level on the Platform; (b) you have cancelled or postponed an event, or we reasonably believe an event may not go ahead as sold; (c) we or our payment provider identify fraud, credit-risk or account-integrity signals on your account or your sales; or (d) there is a material change in your events (for example a large step up in capacity or ticket price) or in your circumstances (including insolvency proceedings or a change of control). We will tell you in writing, by email or a notice in your portal, the new rate and the reason before it is applied to a payout, except that a change under (c) may take effect immediately with notice given at the same time. We will review an increased rate on your request and return you to the standard rate once the reason has passed.

4.4 Release. We release each reserve amount once 120 days have passed since the date of the last event covered by the payout it was withheld from. We may hold a release beyond that point only while (a) a chargeback on your sales is unresolved, (b) an amount you owe us under this Agreement is being set off (clause 10), or (c) the funds are not yet available in your connected Stripe balance or a payout to you is being reconciled with our payment provider; the release then follows as soon as that is resolved. Released reserve is paid with your next payout, or on its own if nothing else is due.

4.5 Statement. Every reserve hold and release is itemised, line by line, in the account activity on your Payouts page and in your downloadable remittance statement.

5. Refunds and cancellations

  • Buyer change of mind (where your event’s refund policy allows it): the buyer is refunded per your policy; the booking fee is non-refundable.
  • You cancel, or we cancel, an event: buyers are refunded in full, including all fees, so they are made whole. You bear the cost of your own cancellation: the non-recoverable payment-processing cost on those refunds is charged to your account and netted from your reserve or next payout. This reflects UK consumer law (a buyer who receives nothing through no fault of their own must be refunded in full).

6. Chargebacks (please read carefully)

If a buyer disputes a payment with their bank or card provider (a chargeback), the disputed amount and the dispute fee our payment provider charges us for receiving it (currently £20 per dispute, as updated by our provider from time to time) are for your account. Your liability arises when the chargeback is raised, whether or not you were at fault, because a chargeback is a cost of the sale made on your behalf. We recover these amounts by reversing the transfer for the disputed order, debiting your account ledger, and setting the balance off against your reserve and future payouts (clause 10); if those are insufficient you will pay the shortfall on request. Where the disputed order was resold through the Platform we deal with the chargeback case by case. We contest chargebacks on your behalf where we consider there is a reasonable prospect of success, and you agree to give us evidence (such as door-scan records) promptly when asked. If a dispute is resolved in your favour, the disputed amount is credited back to you. The dispute fee is not credited back, because our provider does not return it to us whether the dispute is won or lost.

7. Ticket resale

Where face-value resale is enabled, a buyer may list a ticket for resale at or below face value. When it sells, the seller is refunded the resale price less our resale platform fee, and the corresponding transfer to you for that seat is reversed (you keep the proceeds of the replacement sale). You will not be paid twice for the same seat.

8. VAT

Our fees (commission, booking fee and resale fee) are standard-rated for UK VAT where applicable and may be shown inclusive of VAT. You are responsible for the VAT treatment of your own ticket sales. If you are outside the UK or VAT-registered, please provide your country and VAT number so we can apply the correct treatment (including the reverse charge where it applies).

9. Your obligations

  • You have the right to sell tickets to the events you list and will honour every valid ticket.
  • You will keep your Stripe Connect account in good standing and your details accurate.
  • You will not list above face value where prohibited, nor engage in fraudulent or misleading sales.

10. Indemnity (please read carefully)

You indemnify us against losses, claims and costs arising from your events, your ticket sales, your cancellations, chargebacks on your sales, or your breach of this Agreement. We may set off any amount that is due and ascertained under this Agreement against funds we hold for you, including your reserve.

11. Term, termination and no lock-in

11.1 No lock-in. This Agreement is non-exclusive: you may sell tickets to your events through anyone else as well, and we list other promoters’ events. There is no minimum term, no minimum number of events, no monthly charge and no exit fee.

11.2 Leaving. You may end this Agreement at any time by closing your promoter account in your portal or by emailing promoters@raveessentials.co.uk. If you have no upcoming events with tickets sold or a checkout in progress, closure takes effect immediately. If you do, you choose either to let those events run under this Agreement or to cancel them (in which case buyers are refunded under clause 5); this Agreement continues to apply to those events until they have taken place and been settled.

11.3 Ending or suspending by us. We may end this Agreement for convenience on 14 days’ written notice. We may suspend your account or your payouts, or end this Agreement immediately, where we reasonably believe there is fraud, a chargeback rate materially above the normal level on the Platform, a breach of this Agreement or of the Promoter Data Sharing Agreement, insolvency, or a legal, regulatory or reputational risk in continuing. Suspending a payout is a hold, not a forfeiture: the money is released once the reason for the hold is resolved, less any amount you owe us.

11.4 Your money when this Agreement ends. Ending this Agreement, for any reason, does not affect payouts for events that have taken place: they are released on the normal schedule (clause 3) and your reserve is released under clause 4, in each case less amounts due to us under this Agreement (clause 10). We will release everything we hold for you no later than 180 days after the date of your last event, unless a chargeback on your sales is unresolved, an amount you owe us is being set off, or the funds are not yet available in your connected Stripe balance or a payout to you is being reconciled with our payment provider, in which case the balance follows the resolution. Payouts are made to your connected Stripe account, so keep it open and able to receive payouts until your final release; if it is closed, tell us and we will agree another route. We will give you an itemised statement of your final settlement on request.

11.5 Survival. Clauses 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13 continue to apply to every sale made through the Platform, and the Promoter Data Sharing Agreement continues to apply to any attendee data you hold, including its requirement to delete that data within 30 days of closure.

12. Liability

Nothing in this Agreement limits liability that cannot be limited by law. Otherwise, neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability is limited to the fees we earned on the sales giving rise to the claim.

13. Governing law

This Agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

14. Force majeure

Neither of us is liable for delay or failure in performing this Agreement caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, epidemics, government action, war, terrorism, civil unrest, strikes, and power, internet, card-network or payment-provider failures, for as long as the event continues. This does not (a) excuse any payment already due from either of us; (b) change the refund treatment in clause 5, so a cancelled event is refunded to buyers whoever cancels it and whatever the cause, and the non-recoverable processing cost is borne as clause 5 provides; or (c) prevent us applying clause 4.3 or 4.4 where the event affects your events or our payment provider.

15. Changes to this Agreement

We may change this Agreement. For a change that materially affects you (including a change to the standard reserve rates, the cap, the release period, the notice periods or our fees) we will give you at least 30 days’ notice by email or in your portal and ask you to accept the new version at your next portal login; continued use of the Platform after the change takes effect is acceptance. A change that is only in your favour (for example a lower reserve rate or an earlier release) may take effect as soon as we publish it, with notice in your portal. An update to the dispute fee that only reflects a change by our payment provider, and corrections that do not change the substance, may be made without re-acceptance. A rate change for your account alone under clause 4.2 or 4.3 is not a change to this Agreement.

16. Your audience

16.1 No lock-in for your audience. Nothing in this Agreement stops you promoting your events through your own channels, and people who follow you on the Platform remain free to follow you anywhere else.

16.2 Buyer contact details stay with us. We never give promoters the email addresses, phone numbers or postal addresses of buyers or ticket holders that we collect. We hold them as a data controller under UK data protection law, as the Promoter Data Sharing Agreement sets out.

16.3 Reaching your audience. Where we make it available in your portal, you can tell people who follow you on the Platform about your events through messages that we send, only to people who have agreed to hear from us.

16.4 Reports. Reports we provide never contain buyer contact details.

Questions? Contact promoters@raveessentials.co.uk.