Terms of Service

Last updated July 15, 2026.

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of BLK-Mart ("BLK-Mart," "we," "us"), a nationwide directory of Black-owned businesses and an associated marketplace, available at blk-mart.com. By creating an account, submitting content, or making a purchase, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use the site.

1. What BLK-Mart is

BLK-Mart is a community-built directory: anyone can browse listings for free, and registered users can rate, recommend, and comment on businesses, and submit new businesses or suggest removals. Some listed businesses also operate storefronts in the BLK-Mart Marketplace, where you can purchase products directly from them. BLK-Mart is a platform that connects buyers and sellers and processes payment on the seller's behalf — we are not the seller of marketplace products, and we are not a party to the underlying sale between you and the business.

2. Accounts

You can create a free account using a Google sign-in or a one-time email link — we don't use passwords. You're responsible for keeping access to your email or Google account secure, since that's how you sign in. You must be able to form a binding contract to create an account; if you're under 18, you may only use BLK-Mart with a parent or guardian's permission. You're responsible for activity under your account.

We may suspend or ban an account for violating these Terms, submitting false information, abusive conduct toward other users, or fraudulent marketplace activity. A ban ends your active session and blocks new sign-ins immediately.

3. Business listings: "reported" vs. "verified"

Every listing on BLK-Mart carries a status. Reported listings are unverified — they come from community submissions, or from public datasets we import (such as certified-business directories and federal small-business registries) where the Black-owned designation is self-reported by the business itself, not independently confirmed by us. Verified listings are ones our team has reviewed against supporting evidence. We make no guarantee that a reported listing's Black-owned status, contact details, or other information is accurate, current, or complete, and we disclaim liability for decisions you make in reliance on a reported listing. If you believe a listing is inaccurate, incorrectly attributed, or should be removed, you can suggest a removal from the listing page.

4. Your content and submissions

When you post a comment, rating, recommendation, or business submission, you're representing that it's accurate and that you have the right to post it, and you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, reproduce, and distribute it on BLK-Mart. Business-add and business-removal submissions go through admin review before anything becomes (or stops being) publicly visible — submitting something doesn't make it public on its own.

You may not post content that is false, defamatory, harassing, illegal, infringing, or that discloses another person's private information without consent. Comments are public and display your account's name. We can remove any content or submission, and edit or unpublish any listing, at our discretion, including without prior notice.

5. Prohibited conduct

You agree not to:

• Submit a business you know is not Black-owned, or falsify supporting evidence
• Scrape, bulk-download, or systematically harvest listings or user data
• Attempt to bypass moderation, account bans, or security controls
• Use the marketplace for fraudulent purchases, chargebacks made in bad faith, or to sell prohibited, counterfeit, or stolen goods
• List or sell items restricted or prohibited under our payment processor's policies, including but not limited to firearms and weapons, cannabis/CBD or other controlled substances, tobacco or vaping products, alcohol, adult content or services, gambling products, cryptocurrency, financial lending or credit products, or multi-level-marketing schemes — see Stripe's Restricted Businesses list for the current full list
• Impersonate another person or business, or misrepresent your affiliation with a listed business

6. The marketplace, payments, and payouts

Listed businesses can apply to sell products through BLK-Mart; approved sellers set their own prices and inventory. Because BLK-Mart facilitates payment on sellers' behalf, some business categories aren't eligible to sell through the marketplace (listing in the directory is unaffected) and every seller must affirm, at application, that they won't sell items on our payment processor's restricted or prohibited list — see Section 5. All checkout payments are processed by Stripe, our third-party payment processor — you enter your card details on Stripe's hosted checkout page, never on a BLK-Mart-controlled form, and we never receive or store your full card number. BLK-Mart takes a commission on each completed sale (disclosed to the seller at the time of approval); the remainder is paid out to the seller via Stripe Connect. Sellers complete their own identity and bank-account verification directly with Stripe as part of onboarding — BLK-Mart does not collect or store sellers' bank account numbers, government ID numbers, or other verification documents.

Orders are confirmed once payment succeeds. If an item becomes unavailable after you pay (for example, it sold out in the moment between checkout and confirmation), we automatically refund that payment in full. Beyond that automatic case, refunds, returns, and order fulfillment are between you and the seller — BLK-Mart facilitates the transaction and payment but does not manufacture, ship, warehouse, or guarantee marketplace products, and disputes about product quality or delivery should be raised with the seller first. Sellers are responsible for any taxes owed on their sales.

7. Intellectual property

The BLK-Mart name, logo, and site design are ours. Business names, descriptions, and product listings belong to the respective businesses or submitters. Aggregated, publicly-sourced directory data we import remains subject to its original source's terms where applicable.

8. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

BLK-Mart is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind. We don't guarantee the accuracy of any listing, the availability or quality of any marketplace product, or uninterrupted access to the site. To the fullest extent permitted by law, BLK-Mart is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the site, reliance on a listing, or a marketplace purchase, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount (if any) you paid to us in the preceding 12 months.

9. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the site changes — for example, as the marketplace expands. We'll update the date above when we do. Continuing to use BLK-Mart after an update means you accept the revised Terms.

10. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States, without regard to conflict of law principles, to the extent applicable to a U.S.-operated online service.

11. Contact

Questions about these Terms, or to report a listing or a Terms violation, can be sent to legal@blk-mart.com.