Skip to content

Terms of Service

Effective date: July 2026  ·  Version 1.0  ·  Groningen, the Netherlands

1. Scope and Acceptance

Welcome to coup. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the coup mobile application and all related services (together, the “Platform”). During the beta phase, the Platform is operated by Henry Buchhalla, Sinan Ceviker and Tuan-Dai Do as private individuals (“we”, “us” or “coup”), based in Groningen, the Netherlands.

coup is a community exchange platform that enables the exchange of physical goods between users through a closed, platform-internal token system, and that facilitates discount/deal offers from local partner businesses.

By creating an account or using the Platform in any way, you confirm that you have read and understood these Terms and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree, you must not use the Platform.

2. Definitions

  • “Platform”: the coup mobile application including all features, content and related services.
  • “User”: any natural person holding a registered coup account.
  • “Partner”: local businesses that provide discount/deal offers to Users via the Platform.
  • “Tokens”: platform-internal, digital units of account with no monetary value. There are two types: Tokens (for the marketplace) and Payback Tokens (earned by redeeming Partner discounts/deals, convertible into Tokens).
  • “Listing”: an offer of a good posted by a User.
  • “Exchange”: the handover of a good in return for Tokens, agreed directly between Users.

3. coup’s Role: Pure Intermediary Platform

This section is central to understanding the Platform:

coup is exclusively a neutral intermediary platform. We provide the technical infrastructure through which Users can exchange goods among themselves and through which Partners can publish discount/deal offers. coup never becomes a party to the agreements concluded between Users, or between Users and Partners.

In particular:

  • Every Exchange between Users is concluded exclusively between the Users involved. The Users involved are solely responsible for the content, performance, quality, safety and legality of the Exchange.
  • Every redemption of a discount/deal takes place exclusively between the User and the respective Partner. The underlying purchase of goods or services from the Partner is a transaction exclusively between the User and the Partner.
  • coup does not verify, broker, guarantee or assume responsibility for the identity, reliability or authority of Users or Partners, the existence, quality, safety or legality of the goods or discounts/deals offered, or the accuracy of Listings or offers.
  • coup is not involved in the performance, settlement or reversal of Exchanges and discount/deal redemptions and owes no performance in that respect.

coup is an intermediary service (hosting service) within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act, “DSA”). The liability exemption of Art. 6 DSA applies to information posted by Users or Partners: coup is not liable for third-party content, provided that coup has no actual knowledge of illegal content and, upon obtaining such knowledge, acts expeditiously to remove or disable access to it.

4. Registration and Account

Use of the Platform requires the creation of an account. You must be at least 18 years old.

You undertake to provide truthful and complete information when registering and to keep it up to date. Your account is personal and non-transferable. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. If you suspect unauthorised use, notify us without delay.

Only one account per person is permitted. Accounts created under false information or to circumvent a suspension may be removed without prior notice.

5. The Token System

Tokens are exclusively platform-internal units of account. The following applies:

  • Tokens have no monetary value and do not constitute legal tender.
  • Tokens are not electronic money within the meaning of Directive 2009/110/EC and not a crypto-asset within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA). They are not issued against money, are not redeemable for money, and can be used exclusively within the Platform.
  • Tokens cannot be bought, sold, paid out, transferred (except within the platform-internal features) or traded outside the Platform. Any attempt to trade Tokens for money is prohibited.
  • There is no entitlement to a specific number of Tokens, to the preservation of their value or to their continued existence. coup may adjust the token system (including conversion ratios, earning opportunities and token types) at any time, where this is necessary for the operation, further development or integrity of the Platform.
  • Upon termination of the account (for whatever reason), all Tokens lapse without compensation. Tokens cannot be inherited, pledged or assigned.
  • Manipulation of the token system — for example through sham transactions, coordinated exchanges without actual performance, multiple accounts or technical interference — is prohibited and will result in suspension of the account.

6. Exchanges Between Users (P2P Marketplace)

Through the Platform, Users can offer goods and exchange them for Tokens. No money flows between Users; monetary payments between Users are not provided for on the Platform and are prohibited outside the Platform in connection with Listings.

The following applies to every Exchange:

  • The agreement on the Exchange is concluded directly and exclusively between the Users involved. coup is neither a contracting party nor an agent, messenger or vicarious agent of any party.
  • The offering User warrants that they are entitled to hand over the good, that the good is not stolen, counterfeit or unfit for circulation, and that the Listing describes the good truthfully.
  • Users are themselves responsible for assessing the condition of the good offered before an Exchange. Exchanges take place at the participants’ own risk.
  • Any claims arising from or in connection with an Exchange (e.g. for defects, non-performance, damage or injury) must be asserted exclusively between the Users involved.
  • Each User is responsible for reviewing and complying with any tax or trade-law obligations that may arise from their activity on the Platform. The Platform is intended for private, non-commercial exchange; commercial trading via the Platform is not permitted for Users.

coup may provide optional features to support Exchanges (e.g. chat, ratings, confirmations). These do not alter coup’s role as a pure intermediary.

7. Partner Discounts/Deals and Payback Tokens

Partners may publish discount/deal offers via the Platform, which Users can redeem on site at the Partner. For each redemption, the User receives Payback Tokens.

  • The content, scope, availability, conditions and duration of a discount/deal offer are determined and accounted for solely by the respective Partner. Partners may change, pause or end offers at any time.
  • coup does not guarantee that an offer is available, correctly displayed or redeemable. The Partner’s conditions on site are always decisive.
  • The purchase of goods or services from the Partner — including payment, warranty and any complaints — is exclusively a transaction between the User and the Partner. coup is not involved in it and assumes no responsibility for it.
  • An entitlement to be credited Payback Tokens exists only where a redemption has been properly confirmed via the feature of the Platform provided for that purpose.

8. User Obligations; Prohibited Content and Items

You undertake to use the Platform only in accordance with these Terms and applicable law. The following in particular are prohibited:

  • offering or requesting illegal, stolen, counterfeit or dangerous items, as well as weapons, drugs, medicines, alcohol, tobacco, live animals, perishable food without appropriate labelling, and age-restricted products;
  • insulting, discriminatory, violence-glorifying, youth-endangering or otherwise unlawful content;
  • infringement of third-party rights, in particular copyright, trademark and personality rights;
  • spam, harassment, deception, identity misuse or fraudulent conduct;
  • automated access (scraping, bots), reverse engineering, circumvention of technical protection measures or other interference with the integrity of the Platform.

coup reserves the right to remove Listings and content that violate these Terms or applicable law without prior notice.

9. User Content; Notice-and-Action Procedure

You are solely responsible for the content you post on the Platform (Listings, photos, texts, ratings). You grant coup a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use this content to the extent necessary for the operation, display and promotion of the Platform. This licence ends when the content or the account is deleted, except for technically required backup copies and content that has already become part of communications with other Users.

Users and third parties may report allegedly illegal content via the reporting feature provided in the app or by email to support@thecoup.app (notice-and-action procedure pursuant to Art. 16 DSA). We review reports promptly and diligently, decide on removal or blocking, and inform the reporting person and — where required — the affected User of the decision and its reasons.

10. Moderation, Suspension and Termination

We may warn, temporarily restrict or permanently suspend accounts if a User violates these Terms or applicable law, endangers the security or integrity of the Platform, or manipulates the token system. The measure taken will reflect the severity and frequency of the violation; the affected User will be informed of the measure and its reasons, unless legal reasons prevent this, and may object to the decision.

You may delete your account at any time in the app without giving reasons. We may discontinue the Platform, in whole or in part, at any time with reasonable prior notice. Upon termination, all Tokens lapse without compensation (see Section 5).

11. Changes

We may change, expand or remove features at any time. We will announce material changes that significantly affect Users in an appropriate manner. The Platform is provided “as is” and “as available”; there is no entitlement to any specific availability, to specific features or to their continued existence.

12. Liability

The following applies to the Platform, to the extent permitted by law:

  • coup is liable without limitation for damage caused by intent or deliberate recklessness (opzet of bewuste roekeloosheid) and for damage resulting from injury to life, body or health caused by a breach of duty by coup.
  • In all other respects, coup’s liability — on whatever legal grounds — is excluded. This applies in particular to damage arising from Exchanges between Users, from transactions between Users and Partners, from the conduct of other Users or Partners, from the loss of Tokens or content, and from the unavailability or defectiveness of the Platform.
  • Mandatory statutory liability provisions — including mandatory consumer protection provisions — remain unaffected.
  • The above limitations also apply for the benefit of the individual operators personally and any auxiliary persons.

13. Indemnification

If third parties assert claims against coup based on your culpable violation of these Terms or of applicable law (e.g. due to unlawful content or Listings posted by you), you shall indemnify coup against such claims, including reasonable costs of legal defence, to the extent you are responsible for the violation. Your statutory rights as a consumer remain unaffected.

14. Intellectual Property

The Platform, its software, design, trademarks (including “coup”) and content — with the exception of content posted by Users and Partners — are owned by the operators or their licensors and are protected by copyright and trademark law. You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the app for personal, non-commercial purposes in accordance with these Terms.

15. Data Protection

Information about which personal data we process and which rights you have can be found in our Privacy Policy, available in the app and at thecoup.nl. The Privacy Policy does not form part of these Terms; it is information required by law under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

16. Changes to These Terms

We may amend these Terms, in particular in the event of changes to features or legal requirements. We will inform you of material changes at least 14 days before they take effect, in the app or by email. If you do not object to the changes before they take effect and continue to use the Platform, the amended Terms are deemed accepted; we will point this out separately in the notification. If you object, either side may terminate the user relationship.

17. Governing Law; Consumer Protection; Jurisdiction

These Terms and the user relationship are governed by the laws of the Netherlands.

If you are a consumer and have your habitual residence in another country, the mandatory consumer protection provisions of the law of that country remain unaffected by this choice of law (Art. 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008, “Rome I”). The Platform is currently directed at users in the Netherlands; use from other countries is possible but takes place on your own initiative and at your own responsibility with regard to the legal situation there.

For claims brought against consumers, the statutory place of jurisdiction at the consumer’s place of residence applies. Consumers may bring proceedings against coup at our place of establishment or — where provided by law — at their own place of residence.

18. Final Provisions; Contact

Should individual provisions of these Terms be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected. The statutory provision shall apply in place of the invalid provision.

Contact and central point of contact (including within the meaning of Art. 12 DSA):

coup — Henry Buchhalla, Sinan Ceviker, Tuan-Dai Do
Groningen, the Netherlands
Email: support@thecoup.app
Languages of communication: Dutch, English, German

Want to know what we do with your data? Read the Privacy Policy.