Terms of Service

These Terms of Service are an agreement between you and Film Exchange (“Film Exchange,” “we,” “us”). By creating an account or using the service, you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, don't use Film Exchange.

To use Film Exchange you must:

• be at least 18 years old,
• live in the United States,
• have a valid invite: Film Exchange is an invite-only beta, and we may limit, revoke, or expire invites at our discretion, and
• use the service for tickets to film screenings and related events in the New York City area, which is all we currently support.

You're responsible for your account: keep your password to yourself, keep your email current, and tell us at support@filmexchange.nyc if you think someone else has gotten in. One account per person.

A few terms carry specific meaning everywhere they appear:

• Face value (established price): the price the venue or event operator set for the ticket, as printed on the ticket or shown in the original order. New York law calls this the “established price.”
• Original fees: the booking, service, or processing fees the seller actually paid the venue or its ticketing provider when they bought the ticket. Not fees they wish they'd paid, and not our fees.
• P2P (direct payment): the primary way exchanges happen today. The buyer pays the seller directly, off-platform, through the seller's own Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle (revealed as deep links and a QR code once a claim is accepted), and Film Exchange releases the ticket after the seller confirms they received payment. Film Exchange acts only as a coordination layer, never touches the money, and charges no fee. See section 8.
• Buyer-protected escrow (Trustap): coming soon. A planned option in which a neutral third-party escrow service (Trustap) holds the buyer's payment until the transfer is confirmed, adding buyer protection for exchanges that use it. Not available yet.
• Native mode (escrow): legacy; no longer offered for new listings. Film Exchange held the buyer's in-app payment via Stripe until the transfer was confirmed, then paid the seller out, with a flat $5 buyer fee. Retained here for older transactions and references.
• Coordination mode: legacy; hidden. Film Exchange introduced the buyer and seller after a claim was accepted and they arranged a free, in-person handoff directly between themselves; we never touched the money.
• Listing: one ticket offered by one seller for one screening.

Film Exchange is a marketplace where fans resell tickets to each other. When you buy a ticket here, the contract for that ticket is between you and the seller. Film Exchange is not a party to it. We don't own the tickets, we don't set their face value, we aren't the venue or the event operator or anyone's agent, and we never take title to a ticket, even in native mode, where we hold the ticket file and the money in escrow as a neutral intermediary.

We can't guarantee that any listing will sell, that any claim will be accepted, or that any particular ticket will be listed. What we do promise is narrow and real: the price rules in these terms, the escrow mechanics in section 6, and the refund guarantee in section 6.

You must have the ticket. By listing, you warrant that you possess the ticket you're selling: in hand or in your account, transferable, and yours to sell. Speculative listings (selling a ticket you hope to get) are banned. This is also what New York law requires of resellers (ACAL § 25.10).

The at-cost cap. Your asking price can never exceed what you paid: face value plus your original fees. This is a platform rule: New York no longer caps resale prices, but we do, because at-cost trading is the whole point of Film Exchange. The cap is enforced in the listing form and in our systems, and trying to collect more than your asking price by any side channel is a bannable offense (see section 9).

Accuracy. Describe the ticket truthfully: the screening, the seat if assigned, any restrictions you know about, and the real numbers for face value and original fees. If a ticket doesn't match its listing, the buyer gets a full refund and it comes out of your side of the transaction.

Transferability. Only list tickets you can actually transfer. Some venues and festivals issue account-bound or non-transferable tickets; listing one of those as transferable is a misdescription.

Stripe. Payment processing services for sellers on Film Exchange are provided by Stripe and are subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Services Agreement. By registering as a seller on Film Exchange, you agree to be bound by the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, as modified by Stripe from time to time. As a condition of Film Exchange enabling payment processing through Stripe, you agree to give us accurate and complete information about you, and you authorize us to share it and transaction information with Stripe.

One honest price. In native mode you pay the seller's asking price (capped at what they paid) plus a flat $5 service fee, our only fee, and the only money Film Exchange makes on a sale. We show you the all-in total, fees included, before you commit to a ticket, and it doesn't change during checkout. Coordination-mode claims are free.

Resale notices. Film Exchange is a resale marketplace: you're buying from another fan, not from the venue. Before you pay in native mode, we show you the ticket's established price (face value), a notice that this is a secondary sale, and our refund policy, and we ask you to confirm you've read them. New York law requires this (ACAL § 25.23), and we think it's good manners anyway.

Your responsibilities. Pay within the checkout window (the ticket is held for you while you do), confirm receipt honestly, and show up with the understanding that the venue's own admission rules still apply.

P2P is how you pay today. Payment on Film Exchange is peer-to-peer: you pay the seller directly, off-platform, through their own Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle. Film Exchange never receives, holds, escrows, or transmits your money, and charges no fee on a P2P exchange. The platform releases the ticket only after the seller confirms they received your payment. Because the payment happens off-platform, the escrow and refund protections in the rest of this section do not apply to it. The full P2P terms, including that risk, are in section 8.

Buyer-protected escrow is coming soon. We plan to offer an option (Trustap) in which a neutral third-party escrow service holds your payment until the transfer is confirmed, restoring buyer protection for exchanges that use it. It isn't available yet.

Native escrow (legacy). In the legacy native-escrow flow (no longer offered for new listings), your payment went into escrow with Film Exchange (processed by Stripe). We held the funds until you confirmed the ticket worked, or until the confirmation window after the showing passed without a dispute, at which point the transfer auto-confirmed. Only then was the seller paid, with payouts coming from Stripe to the seller's connected account, normally within a few business days of confirmation.

The refund guarantee. For escrow-based transactions, you get a full refund of everything you paid, including all fees, ours and the seller's, if:

• the event is cancelled (and not rescheduled),
• the ticket turns out to be counterfeit, or
• the ticket doesn't match its listing description.

This implements the guarantee New York law requires (ACAL § 25.07), and our escrow is designed around it: because escrowed funds aren't released until after the showing, the money to make you whole is still there. P2P payments, made directly between buyer and seller off-platform, are not covered by this guarantee. See section 8.

If a screening is postponed or rescheduled rather than cancelled, the ticket is generally good for the new date; if you can't make it, open a dispute (section 11) and we'll sort it out case by case.

Coordination mode is the free option: after a seller accepts your claim, we reveal each party's chosen contact methods and you arrange payment and ticket transfer between yourselves: cash at the box office, a payment app, whatever you both agree to.

Coordination-mode exchanges are at your own risk. Film Exchange never touches the money, doesn't hold the ticket, and can't reverse a payment made outside the platform. The escrow protections and refund guarantee in section 6 do not apply. What we can do is what section 11 describes: investigate reports, resolve disputes on the record, and remove people who deal in bad faith. The at-cost price cap still applies in coordination mode: paying or charging more than face value plus original fees off-platform is a violation of these terms for both sides.

Film Exchange offers a P2P transfer option in which buyers pay sellers directly via third-party services such as Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle. Film Exchange never receives, holds, escrows, or transmits any funds in this mode. We provide a coordination interface, introducing the buyer and seller and surfacing payment handles and QR codes, but the payment transaction occurs exclusively between the parties through their chosen third-party service.

Film Exchange acts solely as a coordination layer connecting buyer and seller, consistent with the platform exemption in NY Arts & Cultural Affairs Law § 25.13, which exempts platforms that facilitate resale “solely between third parties” and do “not in any other manner engage in” the resale when they receive no fee and handle no funds. Because Film Exchange charges no fee and handles no funds in P2P mode, the platform does not act as a ticket reseller and is not subject to the DOS reseller-license requirements for this mode of use.

P2P payments are not protected by the § 25.07 refund guarantee or Film Exchange's escrow. Because payment is off-platform, the escrow protections and refund guarantee in section 6 do not apply to P2P payments. Buyers and sellers transact at their own risk. Film Exchange is not a party to the payment, cannot reverse, refund, or guarantee it, and has no ability to remedy a payment dispute. Resolve payment disputes directly through your payment provider's support channels.

All other platform rules continue to apply in P2P mode. Listing rules, the face-value cap, the possession warranty, and the § 25.23 disclosure requirements remain in effect. The platform releases the ticket artifact only after the seller confirms receipt of payment, but makes no representation that payment occurred or that the amount was correct.

Don't do these things. We suspend or ban accounts that do (section 11):

• Bots. Don't list tickets acquired by circumventing purchase limits, queues, or access controls (the federal BOTS Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45c, makes knowingly reselling such tickets unlawful), and don't use automated tools to access Film Exchange, snipe listings, or scrape data.
• Above-cap side payments. Don't ask for, offer, or pay anything beyond the listed price by any channel: cash, payment apps, “tips,” bundled extras, anything. The cap is the deal.
• Circumventing native mode. Don't use a native listing to find a counterparty and then complete the sale off-platform to dodge escrow or the fee.
• Street resale near venues. Don't resell tickets in person within the buffer zone New York law draws around venues (ACAL § 25.11, 1,500 feet). Film Exchange is for arranging exchanges ahead of time, not curbside.
• Fraud and misuse. No counterfeit or double-sold tickets, no misrepresenting what you paid, no fake confirmations or abusive disputes, no multiple or throwaway accounts, no harassing other members.

You keep ownership of what you post: listing notes, profile details, uploaded ticket files. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and process that content as needed to run the service (for example, showing your listing to buyers, or reading a barcode from a vaulted ticket file). You promise your content doesn't infringe anyone's rights. We may remove content that violates these terms.

The Film Exchange name, design, and software are ours; don't copy or reuse them without permission. If you believe content on Film Exchange infringes your copyright, email support@filmexchange.nyc with the details and we'll act on legitimate notices.

Film metadata and poster images are supplied by The Movie Database. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Disputes between members. If a transaction goes wrong, start in the app: open a dispute from the claim. The other party is notified and you both get the chance to talk it through and resolve it directly. Most problems are misunderstandings. If you can't resolve it, a Film Exchange admin reviews the record (the listing, the messages, the evidence both sides attach) and makes a binding call on the escrowed funds: refund to the buyer or release to the seller. Dispute outcomes are recorded on members' track records.

Suspension and bans. We may suspend or ban an account for violating these terms, for fraud, or to protect other members. Suspended members can still view their existing claims and tickets but can't list, claim, or buy. We may also remove listings and cancel claims when necessary. If you believe we got it wrong, appeal to support@filmexchange.nyc. A human reads those.

You can close your account at any time in Settings. Sections that by their nature should survive (payment obligations, disputes in progress, sections 12–14) survive closure.

This is a beta. Film Exchange is provided “as is” and “as available.” Features may change or disappear, there may be bugs and downtime, and during beta we may need to reset or migrate data. We'll be careful with anything tied to money or live transactions, but you use a beta knowing it's a beta.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We don't warrant that any ticket will be valid (that's what the refund guarantee and escrow are for), that any event will happen, or that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Film Exchange's total liability to you for any claim arising out of the service or these terms is capped at the greater of (a) the fees you have paid to Film Exchange in the twelve months before the claim arose, or (b) the value of the transaction the claim relates to. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or missed screenings, even if we've been told they were possible. Some jurisdictions don't allow certain limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

Indemnification. You'll defend and hold Film Exchange harmless from third-party claims arising out of your listings, your transactions, your content, or your violation of these terms or of the law, including reasonable attorneys' fees.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.

If you have a dispute with Film Exchange itself (as opposed to another member, that's section 11), email us first at support@filmexchange.nyc and give us 30 days to try to fix it. If we can't, any claim must be brought in the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York, and both you and we consent to their jurisdiction. Either party may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies.

We may update these terms as the service evolves. For material changes we'll give you notice (email or an in-app notice) before they take effect, and the “last updated” date at the top will always be current. Continuing to use Film Exchange after a change takes effect means you accept it; if you don't, close your account.

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our not enforcing a provision isn't a waiver of it. These terms, with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between you and Film Exchange about the service.

Questions, notices, appeals, anything: support@filmexchange.nyc.