Terms and Conditions – Sustainalists AB

1. About the Service

The Service is a platform which gives companies the opportunity to get in contact with, and contract, freelance journalists, photographers, and other media professionals on a case-to-case basis. The purpose of the platform is to connect companies and freelancers to help companies with their needs all around the world. Instead of sending a journalist, photographer, translator, editor or any other freelancer across the globe, Sustainalists gives companies the possibility to get the job done in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.

The Service also provides the tools the parties use to run an engagement once it has begun — the brief, the quote, messages, a shared production board, and the delivery of the finished work. What those tools are, and what they are not, is set out in the section “The tools for running an engagement”.

2. Account

In order to use the full Service, the User must create a user account (“Account”). Information on how to create an Account will be presented on our website, www.sustainalists.com.

An Account must be created regardless of whether you use the Service as a freelancer or on behalf of your company.

When creating your Account as a freelancer you will have the opportunity to present information about yourself, including the locations on which you are available.

The Service is for professional use. When creating an Account a User confirms that they are at least 18 years old and that they use the Service in the course of a trade or profession, whether as a company or as a sole trader. Where a User is nevertheless a consumer within the meaning of Swedish law, nothing in these Terms and Conditions limits the rights the law gives them.

When creating your Account on behalf of a company you will in the same way have the opportunity to present the company, including where it is based and who to contact. Whoever creates such an Account confirms that they are authorised to act for the company, and it is the company — not the person who created the Account — which is bound by these Terms and Conditions and by any engagement entered into through it.

All Users are responsible for protecting login credentials from unauthorized access, and for not sharing any login credentials with any third party or otherwise allowing any third party to use the Account or access the Service in any other way.

If a User has reason to believe that a third party has gained access to the Service, the User must notify Sustainalists immediately. We have the right, but no obligation, to suspend access to the Account if we have reason to believe that a third party has gained unauthorized access.

3. Personal Data

When a User uses the Service, we may process personal data regarding the natural person who uses the Service.

We process all personal data in accordance with the GDPR.

4. Cookies

We use cookies when you visit our services. Cookies are small blocks of data which are put on your device when visiting our website.

We use cookies which are required for the Service to function. Where we also use cookies which are not required — for example to understand how the Service is used — we will ask for your consent first, and the Service works whether or not you give it.

If you wish to limit the use of cookies on your device, you can do so under the cookie settings on your web browser.

5. The Service

The Service is a platform on which freelancers and companies can get in contact with each other and where companies have the possibility to hire freelancers on a case-to-case basis.

The use of the platform and creating an Account is free of charge for both companies and freelancers. If an agreement is struck between the parties, the company must pay the freelancer and Sustainalists in accordance with what is stated in the section below regarding “Payment”.

A company which wants to work with a freelancer creates an assignment and invites them to quote for it. A freelancer who wants the work quotes for it, and the parties work together if the company accepts that quote. Once the freelancer has completed the assignment and delivered the agreed materials or services to the company’s satisfaction, the company shall pay the agreed amount in accordance with the section “Payment”. The freelancer receives the agreed amount in full; our remuneration is charged to the company in addition to it.

Engagements which began here. Where a company and a freelancer were introduced through the Service, an engagement between them beginning within twelve months of that introduction is an engagement under these Terms and Conditions, and our remuneration under the section “Payment” applies to it whether or not it was arranged in the Service. This does not restrict how the parties work together; it settles what is owed where the work came from an introduction we made.

A company may invite quotes from several freelancers for the same assignment. Inviting a quote is not an offer to engage anybody, and a freelancer is under no obligation to quote. A quote is the freelancer's offer, at the price and on the terms it states.

The agreement between the company and the freelancer comes into existence when the company has accepted that freelancer's quote and the freelancer has confirmed it by starting the assignment. Until the freelancer has confirmed, the company may withdraw its acceptance and the freelancer is not obliged to begin. A company may accept only one quote per assignment; the quotes of the other freelancers invited lapse when one is accepted, and no engagement arises from them.

6. Payment

Payment will be made after the freelancer has completed the agreed work and delivered the agreed materials or services to the company’s satisfaction, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in writing.

The company shall remunerate the freelancer in accordance with the agreement between the parties. Unless otherwise agreed, the company must make payment no later than 30 calendar days after delivery of the agreed materials or services. The freelancer receives that amount in full. Our remuneration for providing the Service is charged to the company in addition to the freelancer’s agreed amount, and amounts to 12% of that amount, or 6% where the company holds an Impact subscription during all phases of an assignment. That percentage is inclusive of card-processing costs; there is no separate payment-provider charge passed on to either party. In addition, a flat booking fee of EUR 19 is charged to the company for each engagement, together with the percentage and at the same time as it; until 31 December 2026 that fee is waived and shown as a discount before it applies.

The applicable rates and the total are shown to the company before it accepts a quote. We add VAT to our own remuneration where it applies, and to nothing else. Any VAT on the freelancer’s own amount or on expenses is a matter between the freelancer and the company: where the freelancer includes it in a quote it forms part of the quoted cost. Each party is responsible for its own tax position, and Sustainalists is not responsible for VAT which should have been charged and was not, or which was charged and should not have been. We may change our fees; a change takes effect only for engagements begun after we have informed the User, and never for an engagement already agreed.

Payment through the Service. Where payment is made through the Service, the company pays after it approves the delivered materials or services, and the freelancer’s amount is then released to the account the freelancer has set up. All such payments shall be processed via our payment provider, Stripe, and are subject to their payment terms, available here. To be paid through the Service a freelancer must complete Stripe’s onboarding and identity checks, which are Stripe’s requirements and not ours.

Direct payment. Where Stripe cannot pay out to the freelancer’s country, or where we have agreed an alternative with the freelancer, the company pays the freelancer directly by the method shown on the assignment, and the freelancer confirms in the Service when the money has arrived. In that case the freelancer’s amount does not pass through us at any point: we can assist with a dispute, but we cannot release, withhold or refund money we have never held. Our own remuneration is charged to the company separately, through Stripe, and becomes payable once the freelancer has confirmed receipt.

We do not guarantee payment. The obligation to pay the freelancer is the company's alone. Sustainalists does not guarantee, underwrite, insure or stand surety for it, holds no money on the freelancer's behalf, and gives no assurance as to any company's solvency or willingness to pay. A freelancer who is not paid has a claim against the company and not against us. Nothing in the Service — that a company holds an Account, has invited a quote, or has paid before — is a statement by us that it will pay. Where we remind a company, suspend its Account or pursue collection measures we act on our own behalf; doing so once puts us under no obligation to do so again, and carries no responsibility for the outcome.

If the company fails to make payment within the agreed period, Sustainalists reserves the right to suspend the company’s account and/or pursue collection measures. Sustainalists accepts no liability for payment disputes between the parties.

7. Responsibility and Liability

The Service is provided as is. Sustainalists makes no warranties regarding the availability, functionality, or accuracy of the Service. Sustainalists has the right to make changes regarding the layout and functions of the Service at any given time without informing the User.

Sustainalists is only a platform to connect companies with freelancers. In no way does Sustainalists guarantee that the making of an Account will lead to work for the freelancer.

The purpose of the Service is to help a company and a freelancer find each other and to give them tools for running the engagement between them. How they co-operate — what is agreed, how the work is carried out, whether it meets the company's requirements, and how any difficulty between them is resolved — is a matter for the parties alone. Sustainalists does not supervise, direct, check or approve the work, and carries no responsibility for it.

Sustainalists is never part of the agreement between the parties and can therefore not be held responsible for any breaches of contract committed in the relationship between the parties. Where payment is made through the Service we act only as a means of transmitting it, which does not make us a party to the agreement. It is solely up to the parties to agree on everything in the agreement, including the price for the service, and we therefore urge the User to see what laws may be applicable in the specific case. It is also solely up to the parties to make sure they comply with tax regulations in the country where each party is located. If VAT needs to be paid, the parties shall, in their discussions regarding price details, include VAT.

Under no circumstances is Sustainalists responsible for any material that the User adds to the Service. The User is solely responsible for the correctness of the information provided in the Service and guarantees that the information does not infringe the rights of third parties or otherwise constitute illegal material.

There may be occasions where the Service will not be available including, but not limited to, maintenance or circumstances beyond our control (force majeure), for which Sustainalists is never responsible. Regarding planned maintenance of the Service, Sustainalists will perform these during times that should cause as little inconvenience as possible for the User.

What we are liable for, and up to what amount. Nothing here limits our liability for anything which cannot be limited under Swedish law, including loss caused intentionally or by gross negligence and liability for personal injury.

Subject to that, and so far as the law allows: we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, for loss of profit, of production, of an opportunity or of goodwill, or for the loss or corruption of data. Our total liability for all claims arising from or in connection with one engagement is limited to the higher of the remuneration we received for that engagement and EUR 1,000, and our total liability to one User for everything arising in any period of twelve months is limited to EUR 2,000.

A claim must be made in writing within twelve months of the day the User knew, or ought to have known, of the circumstances giving rise to it. A claim made later than that lapses.

Claims by third parties. Where somebody makes a claim against Sustainalists arising from material a User added to the Service, from work a User carried out or failed to carry out, or from a User's breach of these Terms and Conditions or of an agreement with the other party to an engagement, that User shall hold Sustainalists harmless: they shall meet the claim and reimburse what it reasonably costs us to deal with it, including legal costs. We will tell the User about the claim promptly, will not settle it without asking them first, and will let them conduct the defence of it if they wish to.

The User is responsible for all damages caused to us, or third parties, due to the User’s violation of these Terms and Conditions.

8. Intellectual Property

The User understands that the Service contains material provided by us and third parties and that such material may constitute intellectual property rights.

The User may under no circumstances change, modify or copy anything in the Service, or otherwise use the Service and intellectual property rights in violation of these Terms and Conditions.

Material a User puts on the Service. What a User adds to their own profile — a portrait, a header image, production photographs, a showreel, a CV, a description of their work — remains theirs. By putting it on the Service the User grants Sustainalists a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store it, display it, resize and re-encode it, show it in the Service and in search results, and use it in material promoting the Service and the User's presence on it, such as a link preview or a share card. The licence lasts for as long as the User keeps the material on the Service, and afterwards only for copies already distributed or cached which we cannot recall. Removing the material ends the licence for any further use. The User confirms that they hold the rights needed to give this licence, including where a photograph was taken by, or shows, somebody else.

Any attempt of infringement to our intellectual property rights can lead to the suspension of a User’s Account. Sustainalists may also take legal action.

9. Misuse of the Service

If the User violates what is stated in these Terms and Conditions, Sustainalists has the right to suspend the User from continued use of the Service. This means that the User loses access to the Service and that information the User has added to the Service may be lost.

Telling us about unlawful content. Anyone may report content on the Service which they consider unlawful, by e-mail to admin@sustainalists.com, saying what the content is, where it is and why. We consider every report, act on it where we conclude we should, and tell the person who reported it what we decided.

When we act, we say why. Where we remove content, limit who can see it, suspend an Account or withdraw access to a function, we tell the User affected what we did, what it applied to and on what basis — these Terms and Conditions or the law — unless telling them would itself be unlawful. The User may answer us at the same address; we consider what they say, and where we conclude we were wrong we undo it. A decision to remove content or suspend an Account is taken by a person, not automatically.

Where an Account is closed or deleted, records we are required to keep — in particular invoices and payment records, which Swedish bookkeeping law requires us to retain for seven years — are kept for as long as the law requires, with personal details removed where that is possible. Messages written by the other party to an engagement are that party’s own record and are not deleted with your Account.

10. Ownership of the material produced

The freelancer keeps the copyright and any other intellectual property rights in the material they create, together with their moral rights, which under Swedish law cannot be waived in general terms.

On delivery, the freelancer grants the company a worldwide, non-exclusive licence to use, reproduce, edit, distribute and publish the delivered material for the purpose the company commissioned it for, including in the production concerned and in promoting it, and to sub-licence it to broadcasters and distributors for that purpose. Credit is given as the parties agree.

The licence takes effect on delivery and not on payment, because news and current affairs are frequently broadcast or published before payment falls due. Until payment has been made in full the licence is revocable: if the company has not paid within the period agreed under the section “Payment”, the freelancer may withdraw the licence by written notice, and from the date of that notice the company must stop using the material and must not grant any further sub-licence. Withdrawal does not undo a use already made — a transmission already broadcast, an edition already published, a copy already distributed — and it does not affect the company’s obligation to pay. On payment in full the licence becomes perpetual and irrevocable.

Anything wider than the above — an exclusive licence, a full transfer of rights, a buyout, or use in a different production — must be agreed in writing between the parties, normally in the assignment, and may be priced accordingly. Where the parties have agreed their own written terms, those terms prevail over this clause.

11. Ratings, reviews and recommendations

After a completed and paid engagement each party may rate the other once. Ratings are shown publicly on profiles and may affect where a freelancer appears in search results.

A User shall describe only what they have themselves experienced. A User may not publish a review of an engagement that did not take place, a review of themselves or of their own company, or a review that has been traded, bought or required as a condition of payment. A rated party may reply publicly.

Recommendations between freelancers. A freelancer may also recommend another freelancer on the Service, stating how they know their work. A recommendation is shown publicly on the recommended freelancer's profile and counted on their listing in search results. It is not a rating, does not come from a completed engagement, and does not affect the ★ rating, which only ever comes from paid work.

A freelancer shall recommend only someone whose work they actually know, and shall say truthfully how they know it. A User may not recommend themselves, recommend in exchange for being recommended in return, or arrange with others to recommend one another for the purpose of appearing more established than they are. A recommendation may be withdrawn at any time by the freelancer who gave it.

Sustainalists may remove a review or a recommendation which is unlawful, abusive, contains personal data it should not, was plainly not written by a party to the engagement, or was given in breach of the paragraph above. Sustainalists does not remove a review merely because its subject disagrees with it.

12. Delivered files, and who keeps a copy

This clause applies to material delivered through the Service. Delivery through the Service is available to companies on the Impact tier (see the section “Impact subscription”); other companies arrange delivery with the freelancer through their own channel, in which case Sustainalists neither receives nor holds the material and nothing in this clause applies to it.

Where material is delivered through the Service, the Service is a means of transferring it between the parties. It is not an archive, a backup service or a store of record, and it must not be relied on as any of those.

Files delivered through the Service are removed automatically. Unless otherwise stated in the Service, a delivered file is removed three days after it is uploaded.

Responsibility for keeping the material is allocated as follows, and it passes at one identifiable moment:

• Until the company has accepted the delivery, the freelancer keeps their own copy of the delivered material and is responsible for being able to supply it again if the transfer fails.
• From the moment the company accepts the delivery, responsibility for keeping the material passes to the company, which must download and store its own copy. The freelancer is under no obligation to retain a copy after that point, and may delete their own.

Sustainalists is not responsible for the loss, corruption or deletion of delivered material at any point, including material a company has not downloaded before it is removed. Neither party should treat the Service as its only copy of anything.

13. Impact subscription

Impact is a paid tier available to companies. A company on Impact:

• pays a reduced remuneration to Sustainalists under the section “Payment” — 6% instead of 12%, where the subscription is held during all phases of the assignment;
• can hold video calls with freelancers through the Service; and
• can receive delivery of the work through the Service, as described in the section “Delivered files, and who keeps a copy”.

A company which is not on Impact arranges delivery with the freelancer through its own channel, and the section “Delivered files, and who keeps a copy” applies only to material which actually passes through the Service.

Impact is bought in the Service and is billed annually in advance through Stripe. A company joining before 31 December 2026 pays EUR 99 for its first year; thereafter the price is EUR 159 per year. Those prices are exclusive of VAT, which is added at checkout where it applies, on the same basis as the section “Payment” describes for our remuneration. The subscription renews automatically each year until it is cancelled, and may be cancelled at any time with effect from the end of the year already paid for. Amounts already paid for a year which has begun are not refunded. The price applying to a renewal is shown before the renewal takes place.

Where the subscriber is a consumer within the meaning of Swedish law, the statutory right of withdrawal under the Distance Contracts Act (lag (2005:59) om distansavtal och avtal utanför affärslokaler) applies, and the subscription may be withdrawn within 14 days of it being entered into.

The subscription begins as soon as it is bought, at the subscriber’s own express request, so that what it gives can be used at once. Where it is withdrawn, the subscriber pays a proportionate amount for the period it has run, and anything already taken under it is settled: if the reduced remuneration under the section “Payment” has been applied to an assignment while the subscription was held, the difference between the reduced and the standard rate on that assignment becomes payable, and may be set against the amount refunded. This does not limit the right of withdrawal — it settles what has already been received under it.

14. The tools for running an engagement

The Service provides tools for running an engagement: messages, the brief, the quote, a shared production board for shoot days, deliverables, notes, checklists and shot lists, video calls, and the delivery step described in the section “Delivered files, and who keeps a copy”. Video calls and delivery through the Service are available to companies on the Impact tier; see the section “Impact subscription”.

These tools are provided for the convenience of the parties. Their availability does not make Sustainalists a party to the engagement, and does not mean that we supervise, approve, check, moderate or guarantee anything recorded in them. What the parties write in them is their own material, for which the section “Responsibility and Liability” applies in full.

Confidentiality agreements. A company may require the freelancer to agree to a non-disclosure agreement or other terms of its own before the work begins. Any such agreement is between the company and the freelancer. Sustainalists does not write it, does not check or approve it, and expresses no view on what it means or on whether it can be enforced. Where it is agreed in the Service we record which document was agreed, by whom and when, and fix that document so it cannot be changed afterwards; that record is a convenience for both parties and does not make us a party to the agreement or responsible for keeping it. A breach of it by either party is a matter between them, and Sustainalists is not responsible for a freelancer's or a company's confidentiality towards the other. The freelancer should read what is put in front of them before agreeing to it.

The record these tools create — what was briefed, what was quoted, what was agreed, what was delivered and when — is available to both parties and may be useful if there is later a disagreement between them. Sustainalists does not arbitrate such a disagreement, and providing the record does not make us responsible for the outcome.

We may change, limit or withdraw any of these tools at any time in accordance with the sections “Responsibility and Liability” and “Changes and Termination”. Where a tool depends on a subscription, that is stated in the Service.

15. Changes and Termination

We have the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time. We will inform the User about changes before the changes come into effect. Information about the changes will be sent to the User via e-mail or presented when visiting the website or when using the app. Where a change is material we may require the User to accept the changed Terms and Conditions before continuing to use the Service. Our current Terms and Conditions will always be accessible on our website.

Closing an Account. A User may close their Account at any time, in the Service or by writing to us. Closing an Account does not end an engagement already agreed and does not affect what is already owed: the company still owes the freelancer, the freelancer still owes the work, our remuneration on an engagement already begun remains payable, and a licence already granted under the section “Ownership of the material produced” stands. Where an engagement is still running we may keep the Account open in a limited form until it is finished, or until both parties tell us it will not be. What we keep afterwards is described in the section “Misuse of the Service”.

Sustainalists reserves the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or terminate, temporarily or permanently, the Service. By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions you agree that we cannot be held liable for modifications or termination of the Service.

Sustainalists can also, at any time, sell the company, Sustainalists AB, to a third party.

16. Applicable Law and Disputes

When interpreting and applying these Terms and Conditions, Swedish law shall apply. Disputes shall be settled by Swedish general court.

17. General

Notices. Where these Terms and Conditions require something to be in writing — a notice withdrawing a licence, a report, a claim — an e-mail is enough. A notice to a User is given when it is sent to the e-mail address on their Account, and a notice to us when it is sent to admin@sustainalists.com. Keeping the address on the Account current is the User's responsibility.

If a provision does not hold. If any provision of these Terms and Conditions is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the rest continues to apply and that provision applies so far as it can.

The whole agreement. These Terms and Conditions, together with what the Service states about a particular function, are the whole of what is agreed between a User and Sustainalists about the Service, and replace any earlier version the User accepted. What the parties to an engagement agree between themselves is a separate matter, to which Sustainalists is not a party.

Transfer. Sustainalists may transfer its rights and obligations under these Terms and Conditions to another company, including where the business is sold, having told the User. A User may not transfer theirs without our written consent.

18. Contact

If you have any questions regarding these Terms and Conditions please contact us via e-mail at admin@sustainalists.com.

Sustainalists AB, organizational number 559443–9183, Sparreholmsvägen 3, 125 71 Älvsjö, Sweden.