Pool Restaurant Terms

This is everything you agree to when you join.

You authorize Pool to list your restaurant and take catering orders for it.
Pool runs a catering marketplace where campus groups order from restaurants. For now, you deliver your own Pool orders. Pool does not make food. This agreement starts when you agree and lasts until you or Pool ends it. The person who agrees confirms they may sign for the restaurant.
Only Pool makes your page live. Pool may decide not to list a restaurant, pause a listing, or lock the deal, fee, prices or other details it set up with you. If Pool changes something you set, Pool tells you.
No Pool fee through Dec 31, 2026. You pay the card processing fee on the order total, 2.9% plus 30 cents.
Customers pay your menu prices. Prices on Pool are no higher than your own catering menu prices for the same food. When you deliver yourself, the delivery fee is yours. Any Pool fee is on food only.
You are the seller of the food. Pool is your limited agent to collect payment, so a customer who pays Pool has paid you.
You report and pay the Illinois sales tax and the Chicago restaurant tax on your sales. Your payout includes the tax Pool collected. Once Pool's marketplace sales to Illinois buyers reach $100,000 over 12 months, Illinois marketplace facilitator rules apply to Pool. Pool then tells you at least 30 days before it switches, and from the switch Pool collects and pays the state and state-run local sales taxes on your Pool orders. From then on Pool also pays the Chicago restaurant tax to the City if the City's rule applies to Pool. For tax-free University orders, Pool keeps the exemption record and gives you a copy. Each side helps the other in a tax audit.
Customers pay Pool by card, invoice or purchase order, and Pool handles University tax exemptions. You need to do nothing for either. Either way, Pool pays you.
Cards are charged 24 hours before the event, or when you accept an order placed less than 24 hours ahead. You pay card processing, 2.9% + 30¢, on the order total, tax included. If a refund is your restaurant's fault, the fee on it is not returned. When a group cancels less than 24 hours before the event, the group pays the card fee only on what it pays, and Pool pays the rest of that fee. When it cuts its order then, it pays the card fee on what goes back to it.
Bank transfer and invoice orders: Stripe's bank fee, 0.5% of the order, up to $5. Invoices are Net 45.
Pool pays you for each delivered order through Stripe, which sends it to your bank every Tuesday once your payout setup is done, and each payout shows on your statement. Tell Pool within 30 days if a payout looks wrong. While a customer's problem report on an order is open, Pool holds the payout for that whole order until the report is settled. Pool never holds back your money because of a terms update.
If a group cancels less than 24 hours before the event, you keep 25% of the food price. The sales tax on that part is handled like the rest of the order's tax.
If a customer cancels 24 hours or more before the event, nothing is charged and nothing is paid to you. If the food arrives on time and no one is there to take it, you are paid in full.
A change to an order you accepted counts only once you confirm it. Until then, the order you accepted stands. You are closed to Pool orders on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day unless you open that day in your account.
If you cancel an order you accepted, tell Pool right away. You are not paid for it. Pool may ask you to cover the extra cost of replacing it at short notice, up to the order's food price. Repeated cancels can pause your listing.
If an order is missing items or never arrives because of your restaurant, the refund Pool gives the customer comes out of your payout and shows as a line on your payout and statement. A small refund for missing items (up to $40) can go to the customer right away. Late deliveries are handled case by case. You are never charged for a problem a Pool courier causes. You can ask Pool to review a refund within 30 days.
If a card dispute is lost because of your restaurant, the disputed amount and Stripe's dispute fee ($15 today) come out of your payout. Pool pays any other lost dispute, including fraud by the payer. If a customer paying by invoice or purchase order does not pay, Pool still pays you. Pool pays Stripe's fee for answering a dispute and Stripe's account and payout fees.
You make and pack the food, plus plates, cutlery and napkins when a group asks for them. You choose whether they are free, priced per person, or one price for the whole order.
You keep a valid Chicago food license and follow food safety and labeling laws. You list allergens on your menu and update them when a recipe changes. You tell Pool within 24 hours if your license is suspended or an inspector closes you.
When you deliver yourself, you choose, pay and are responsible for your drivers, who must be able to drive legally. You deliver within the window shown on the order. Tips on orders you deliver are yours in full, shared with your staff as the law requires.
Pool is responsible for the couriers it books. If a courier Pool booked fails, Pool refunds the customer and still pays you for the food. You never cover harm caused by Pool's delivery, its couriers or contractors. Pool does. The food counts as handed over once a Pool courier or the group takes it.
You keep general liability insurance that covers the food you sell, at least $1,000,000 per occurrence, plus workers' compensation where the law requires it. If you deliver yourself, each vehicle you use is insured for delivery use. You show proof if Pool asks.
Neither side is responsible to the other for lost profits or other indirect losses. Each side's total responsibility to the other is limited to the greater of $10,000 or the Pool fees paid in the last 12 months. This limit does not apply to money owed for orders, refunds, cancels and card disputes, to the cover in the next sentence, to fraud or to deliberate wrongdoing. You cover Pool for claims caused by your food, packing or drivers, or by the menu, allergen and photo information you gave Pool. Pool covers you for claims caused by its delivery, couriers, website and app. Each side covers claims from its own staff.
Pool may show your restaurant's name, logo, menu, prices and photos while this agreement lasts, including photos from your own website or social pages, cropped or brightened. You confirm you have the rights to them. Pool removes any photo within 5 business days of your request and takes your page down when this agreement ends.
You use a customer's details only to make and deliver its order, and not for your own marketing from a Pool order. Groups that come to you directly are your own customers.
Pool emails you about orders. Once Pool sends texts, it texts only a phone number you confirmed, about orders and changes to these terms. Reply STOP to stop. Notices to you go to your account email. Notices to Pool go to support@pooluchicago.org. An email counts as written notice.
You can stop new orders at any time with Pause orders in your account or by emailing support@pooluchicago.org. Orders you already accepted are still made and sent as agreed, unless Pool agrees in writing to cancel or move them. To end this agreement, email support@pooluchicago.org. It ends once your last accepted order is done and paid, and Pool then takes your page down.
Pool can end this agreement with 15 days' notice by email, and accepted orders then still go ahead. Pool can pause your listing or end this agreement right away if a health inspector closes you or your license is suspended, expired or revoked, if someone becomes ill from your food or there is a serious food safety or allergen problem, if there is fraud, fake orders or misuse of customer details, if you seriously break this agreement or keep breaking it after Pool told you, if you keep cancelling accepted orders or missing delivery windows, or if you close or go out of business.
After this agreement ends, Pool pays you for every completed order on the normal schedule. If a refund or lost dispute comes after your last payout, Pool takes it from money still owed to you, or you pay it within 30 days of Pool's invoice.
Pool may change these terms, including its fee, with at least 30 days' notice by email. A change applies only to orders placed after the notice period ends. If you accept an order after that date, you agree to the change. If you do not want the change, you can stop new orders before then, as described above. You can also agree in your account at any time. A change that does not lower what you are paid or add to what you must do, like clearer wording or a correction, can apply right away. Pool still tells you by email.
Illinois law applies. If there is a disagreement, both sides first try for 30 days to settle it by talking. After that, either side may go to small claims court or to the state or federal courts in Cook County, Illinois. Claims are brought by one restaurant at a time, never as a class.
Tell Pool before you sell the restaurant. The new owner agrees to these terms before taking Pool orders, and money goes only to the new owner's bank account. Pool may pass this agreement to a company that buys or merges with Pool.
Neither side is at fault for severe weather, fire, power cuts, government orders or similar events nobody controls. If an accepted order cannot happen because of one, the customer is refunded and you are paid for food you already made. Pool and your restaurant are separate businesses, not partners. If one part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. These terms, with each order's details and your fee terms, are the whole agreement. The parts on money after the end, refunds, card disputes, the liability limit and cover, tax, customer details and disagreements keep applying after this agreement ends.

The Nov 1, 2026 version