Terms of Service

These terms govern your use of Merit List (“the board”), operated by [LEGAL_ENTITY_NAME] (“we”, “us”, “the operator”). By submitting a listing or making a payment, you agree to them.

1. What a listing is

A listing is a paid advertising placement on a public leaderboard. Merit List is not an auction, a wager, or a prize competition, and no listing is entered into a game of chance. You are buying a position on a page and the visibility that position carries; nothing is won or drawn.

2. Scoring and rank

Every payment against a listing (a “bid”) adds to that listing’s cumulative total for the current season. This running total is the listing’s score. A new listing requires a minimum bid of ₹99, and topping up an existing listing requires a minimum of ₹99.

Rank is derived from score, not stored or assigned directly. Listings are ordered by score, highest first. Where two listings hold the same score, the listing that reached that score first holds the higher rank. Because rank is computed at the moment the board is viewed, it can change between one payment and the next — if another bidder’s payment confirms first, you may end up ranked lower than the position you saw when you started paying. This is disclosed at checkout as well as here.

3. Seasons and the Hall of Fame

Merit List runs in seasons. Season 1 began at launch. Within a season, scores only ever go up — there is no mechanism to reduce a listing’s score other than a season ending.

A season ends only by a decision of the operator, and never sooner than seven days after the operator publishes the season’s end date. The end date will be published before the season ends, giving at least seven days’ notice.

When a season ends, the board is frozen at that instant and the top finishers — currently the top 10 — are recorded permanently in the Hall of Famewith their final score and rank for that season. This record does not change afterwards.

The next season then opens with every listing’s score reset to zero. A listing’s name, URL, tagline, logo and page slug are carried forward so its owner can re-enter with a single top-up, but a position in the new season is earned with new bids — a score from a previous season does not carry over. We are stating this reset upfront, before you make your first payment, so that a Hall of Fame placement is understood as a permanent record of that season, while an active-season rank is understood as belonging to the season currently running.

4. Pricing

Displayed and charged amounts are inclusive of GST at the applicable rate. The score shown on the board is the gross amount paid; no separate tax figure appears there. A tax invoice or receipt is generated for each payment and can be requested by contacting us at the address on our Contact page.

5. Payment finality

Bids are non-refundable advertising spend, with one exception described in full in our Refund Policy. A bid only affects your score once payment is confirmed; a payment that fails or is abandoned before confirmation is never charged and never counted.

6. Content and moderation

You are responsible for the accuracy and legality of what you submit. We reserve the right to refuse, remove, or reject a listing at our discretion, including listings that are illegal, fraudulent, adult, gambling-related, or that we otherwise judge to fall outside what the board should host. If you believe a listing breaches these terms, raise it with us at the address on our Contact page. Removal for a policy violation is handled under the Refund Policy’s exception, not as a standard refund.

7. No accounts

Merit List does not use accounts or passwords. Control of a listing is granted solely by a secret edit link, generated when you check out and intended to be delivered to the email address you provide. Keep it private — anyone holding that link can manage your listing.

8. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the product evolves. Material changes affecting how scoring, seasons, or refunds work will not be applied retroactively to bids already placed.

9. Contact

Questions about these terms can be sent to the address on our Contact page.