Terms

1. Provider and application

These Terms apply to AOA membership. A contract is formed when your order is confirmed. Please retain these Terms and your order confirmation.

2. Consumer or business customer

A consumer is a natural person purchasing mainly outside their trade, business or profession. A business customer purchases mainly in connection with a profession, business or professional artistic practice. Chamber of Commerce registration alone is not decisive; classification depends on the actual context of the purchase.

You may optionally provide business, billing and VAT details at or around Checkout. We may request reasonable information to assess business or tax status. Provisions expressly stated to apply to consumers do not automatically apply to business customers.

3. The service

AOA is a research, information and opportunity-matching service for creative professionals and other users. It may provide researched and verified information about grants, residencies, prizes, programmes, open calls and other professional opportunities, selected using your practice, profile and preferences.

“Verified” means AOA takes reasonable care to check key information at the time of research. The external provider remains responsible for its programme.

4. External opportunities and your responsibility

AOA does not guarantee eligibility, suitability, availability, funding, acceptance, selection, an award or any other outcome. External providers may alter conditions, criteria, amounts and deadlines or withdraw an opportunity.

Before applying, check the current source, deadline, conditions and required documents with the external provider. You decide whether an opportunity is appropriate and remain responsible for your application.

5. Free Founding Pilot, membership and prices

The free Founding Pilot normally lasts four weeks from submission of your onboarding and profile, unless a different pilot duration was expressly stated in your invitation. Any pilot duration previously expressly offered to you remains applicable. No payment details are required for the pilot. The pilot ends automatically at the end of your applicable pilot duration and does not convert automatically into a paid membership. If you want to continue afterwards, you activate the paid Founding Artist Membership yourself in a separate, deliberate step.

After your Founding Pilot ends, you have 14 calendar days to activate the offered Founding Membership at the Founding rate applicable to you. After this period, the Founding rate is no longer guaranteed. A paid membership only starts when you actively choose to purchase it. Billing begins on the actual paid activation date, not retroactively from the end of the pilot.

The pricing, payment and business/professional versus consumer purchasing rules below apply only when you activate a paid membership. Any applicable fourteen-day consumer withdrawal right relates to that later paid agreement, not to a charge for the free pilot, because no charge is made during the pilot.

The Founding offer is available only to members who join during the Founding period. Fixed monthly Founding prices are EUR €5.99; USD $6.99; GBP £4.99; CHF 5.90, and fixed annual prices are EUR €49; USD $59; GBP £39.99; CHF 49. These are fixed commercial prices, not live exchange-rate quotations or promised standard prices for new members.

You see the selected currency before payment; that agreed subscription or purchase currency governs the charge. Taxes included where applicable. The displayed price remains the agreed fixed commercial price. Founding-rate continuity applies in the agreed subscription currency. Currency choice does not alter the B2B/B2C classification.

Taxes

Dutch VAT is applied to customers in the Netherlands where legally required. For consumers in other EU countries, Dutch VAT currently applies to this service. For business customers in other EU countries, VAT may be reverse charged when the legal conditions are met and a valid VAT identification is available.

Customers outside the EU are not charged Dutch VAT when the place-of-supply rules produce that result; local taxes may still apply. The final tax treatment depends on customer type, country of establishment or residence and the available tax information. Reverse charge does not automatically reduce the fixed commercial price.

6. Keeping the Founding rate

The Founding rate that applied when you joined remains in effect while membership continues without interruption. For annual membership, this means electing and paying for the next annual period in time before the current one expires.

Cancellation, expiry without timely renewal or another interruption does not preserve a right to the former Founding rate on a later new subscription.

7. Monthly membership

For consumers and business customers, monthly membership recurs monthly until cancelled. You can cancel online through the available customer portal or by emailing info@b-essential.nl. Cancellation stops the next renewal; access continues until the end of the period already paid for.

8. Annual consumer membership

For consumers, the first fixed subscription period is twelve months. After it ends, you are not automatically committed to a new fixed twelve-month period. You may elect to renew for another annual period before expiry. Timely renewal without interruption preserves the applicable Founding rate.

9. Annual business membership

For business customers, annual membership is also a one-time payment for a fixed twelve-month period and does not renew automatically. A new annual period can be selected and paid for before expiry. Timely renewal without interruption preserves the applicable Founding rate.

10. Consumer right of withdrawal

A consumer who purchases an online subscription generally has fourteen days from conclusion of the contract to withdraw without giving a reason. Within that period, send an unambiguous statement with enough order information to info@b-essential.nl.

As AOA’s launch policy, a timely and valid exercise of this right within fourteen days receives a full refund of the subscription amount paid. Service beginning immediately does not by itself waive this right. This consumer right does not automatically apply to a business purchase.

11. Payment through Stripe

Stripe processes subscription payments, invoices and refunds. Available payment methods may vary by country, currency, browser or device. You must provide accurate payment and billing information and ensure payment can be made. If payment fails, we may reasonably suspend access after giving you an opportunity to resolve it.

12. Use and intellectual property

You may use AOA information for your own personal, professional or artistic practice. AOA content, selection, structure, research format, branding and original materials are protected. Without prior permission, you may not systematically copy, scrape, resell or republish the service, or use it to build a competing database or service. Rights in third-party information and materials remain with those third parties.

13. Changes, availability and maintenance

We may reasonably change features and how opportunities are presented to maintain or improve the service, without arbitrarily removing the core of a current paid service. Maintenance, outages and matters beyond our reasonable control may cause interruptions. We aim for reasonable availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation.

14. Liability

AOA is not responsible for external providers’ decisions, selection outcomes, funding decisions, changed deadlines, withdrawn opportunities or other third-party changes. To the extent permitted by law, liability is limited to reasonably foreseeable loss directly caused by us.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including mandatory consumer rights and remedies.

15. Complaints and contact

Send questions or complaints to info@b-essential.nl, with enough information to identify your membership and concern. We will respond within a reasonable time. Statutory complaint and dispute rights remain available.

16. Law, severability and changes

Dutch law governs the contract. Consumers retain any mandatory protections of the law of their habitual country of residence where applicable, as well as competent judicial and out-of-court remedies.

If a provision is invalid, the others remain effective. We may change these Terms prospectively because of service or legal changes. We will communicate material changes appropriately in advance and will not apply materially adverse changes retroactively to a period already paid for. The date above identifies the current version.