SA Franchise Brands — Terms & Conditions

These Terms apply when you use www.safranchisebrands.co.za (the Website) or buy advertising from Active Media (Pty) Ltd t/a SA Franchise Brands (we, us). You accept them by ticking a box or clicking a button on an application, enquiry, newsletter or chatbot form. We record when you do. If you act for a business, you confirm you can bind it. If you do not agree, do not use those forms.

An Advertiser is a franchisor, supplier or service provider that lists with us. A Franchise Seeker is someone looking for a franchise. Package and Placement mean the advertising products in our current Rate Card. CPA, ECTA and POPIA mean the Consumer Protection Act, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and the Protection of Personal Information Act.

We are an advertising and introduction platform. We are not a franchisor or broker, and we are not part of any deal between a Franchise Seeker and an Advertiser.

Nothing on the Website is financial, investment or legal advice. We do not check what Advertisers say (including earnings and costs), and we do not promise that any franchise will succeed.

Franchise Seekers: before you sign, read the franchisor's disclosure document and franchise agreement, check the claims yourself, speak to existing franchisees, and get independent legal and financial advice. The CPA also gives you cooling-off rights.

Email info@safranchisebrands.co.za to report wrong, unlawful or harmful content. We will reply within 2 working days and fix or remove it where justified.

We review every application and we may accept, refuse or later remove a listing, acting reasonably. Applying does not guarantee approval.

Keep your information true and complete and tell us within 5 working days of any change. Your services start once we approve you and your payment has cleared.

Advertisers promise that: their content is accurate, lawful and not misleading; they have the right to use it; and they follow all laws that apply to them. PLEASE NOTE: the Advertiser alone is responsible for its content.

Enquiries. Once we pass an enquiry to an Advertiser, the Advertiser is responsible for that information under POPIA. It must use it only to answer the enquiry and to market its own franchise lawfully, not sell or share it, honour opt-outs, keep it secure, tell us within 48 hours of any breach, and reply promptly.

Your content. You allow us to use your name, logos, text, images and franchise details to run your listing, promote you on the Website, in newsletters and on social media, and to power our chatbot. Our service providers may do this for us. You keep ownership. When your term ends, we remove your listing within 30 days, but we need not recall emails or posts already sent.

Your services are those in the Rate Card in force when you order. Placements (such as banners or featured spots) rotate as the Rate Card says. We set the schedule and may reschedule it.

PLEASE NOTE: we do not promise any number, quality or conversion of enquiries, or any sales. You pay for advertising, not results. Visitor and database figures we quote are good-faith figures as at the date shown.

Endorsement. If your Package includes it, we check your franchise documents for apparent CPA compliance and may display an endorsement. PLEASE NOTE: this is not legal advice, not a check of earnings or finances, and not a recommendation to invest. It lasts only while you advertise with us, and our directors may withdraw it at any time, for example after complaints. Do not use the mark misleadingly.

Promotions (such as launch discounts) follow their stated conditions and cannot be combined or transferred. If we end a service you paid for, you get a pro-rata refund of the unused part.

Fees are those in the Rate Card on your order date and stay fixed for your term. Packages are paid yearly in advance, and Placements as the Rate Card says. We will tell you about price changes 30 days before renewal.

We email an invoice. Pay by EFT within [7] days and before your services start. We are not VAT-registered at 01 November 2026, so Fees exclude VAT. We will tell you if that changes.

If you pay late, we may suspend your listing after 7 days' notice and charge interest at the legal rate. Companies also pay our reasonable collection costs. You may not set off amounts against Fees. We do not require personal suretyships.

Fees are non-refundable, except where these Terms or the law say otherwise.

Packages last 12 months, and Placements as the Rate Card says. They do not renew automatically. We will send a renewal notice 30 days before expiry.

You may cancel at any time, but you get no refund for the current term. If you are a consumer, your right under section 14 of the CPA to cancel a fixed-term agreement stays.

We may suspend or end your listing immediately, with no refund, if you breach these Terms and do not fix it within 5 working days, do not pay, give false or unlawful content, become insolvent, or seriously harm our reputation or Users.

If we seriously breach these Terms and do not fix it within 10 working days of your notice, you may cancel and get a pro-rata refund.

We are the responsible party under POPIA. Please see our Privacy Policy.

We collect contact and business details, enquiry details, billing information, technical data (IP address, device, cookies), chatbot chats and bookings, and your marketing choices. We use them to run the Website, process applications and payments, deliver enquiries to Advertisers, run the chatbot, communicate with you, keep things secure and follow the law.

Sharing. When you send an enquiry about an Advertiser, you consent to us sharing your details and enquiry, including chatbot chats, with that Advertiser. You can withdraw consent at any time. We will stop sharing and tell the Advertisers, but we cannot recall what was already delivered. We otherwise share information only with our service providers (some outside South Africa, under the protections POPIA requires), with your consent, or where the law requires.

We send marketing only if you opt in and every message has an unsubscribe link. You can manage cookies through the banner and your browser.

We use reasonable safeguards, will tell the Information Regulator and affected people about a breach as POPIA requires, and keep information only as long as needed. The Website is for adults (18 or older).

You may ask our Information Officer for access, correction or deletion, or object to processing, and we will reply within 30 days. You may complain to the Information Regulator (www.inforegulator.org.za).

Chatbot. It is automated, may use AI and can be wrong. Its answers are not advice. Do not share ID numbers or bank details. We keep chats and bookings to deliver your enquiry, improve our service and resolve disputes. Where the law (RICA) allows, you consent to us recording and reviewing messages you send through the Website. Video meetings are recorded only if the participants agree.

You may use the content for personal, non-commercial purposes. We own the Website's content and trademarks (Advertisers own theirs). Do not copy or republish them without permission.

No bots, scrapers or crawlers (except search engines), and no use of our content to train AI models or for data mining, without our written consent.

Do not use the Website unlawfully, disrupt or hack it, send viruses or spam, pretend to be someone else, harass or defame anyone, or post unlawful or infringing material. You must be 18 or older. We may suspend your access if you breach these rules.

Reviews and comments you post must be honest, based on genuine experience, and disclose any relationship with the Advertiser. No fake or paid reviews. You allow us to publish and edit them for length, and we may remove them at any time.

PLEASE NOTE: to the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss (including lost profit or opportunity) arising from using or being unable to use the Website, relying on Advertiser content or an endorsement, deals between Users and Advertisers, user reviews, or events outside our control.

This does not exclude liability for fraud, gross negligence or intentional misconduct, or anything the law (including the CPA) does not allow us to exclude.

PLEASE NOTE: our total liability to an Advertiser is limited to the Fees it paid for the term in which the claim arose.

PLEASE NOTE: Advertisers must cover (indemnify) us against claims and costs arising from their content, their breach of these Terms, their dealings with Users (including franchise sales) or their handling of enquiry data.

We may update these Terms by publishing a new version. For Users, continued use means acceptance. For Advertisers, we give 30 days' email notice of any material change that is adverse. Until their current term ends, the old terms continue to apply unless the law requires otherwise or they accept the new ones. New terms apply on renewal.

We communicate by email. A notice sent to the address you gave us is received the next working day.

Email complaints to info@safranchisebrands.co.za. We will acknowledge within 2 working days and aim to resolve within 10 working days.

Disputes with Advertisers go first to negotiation for 10 working days, then to arbitration under the expedited rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa (AFSA) before one arbitrator in Cape Town or by video. The award is final. Either of us may go to court for urgent relief, and we may sue for unpaid Fees.

Consumers keep all their CPA rights (the National Consumer Commission, the National Consumer Tribunal, an ombud, the small claims court or any court). Arbitration is optional for them.

These Terms, the Rate Card and your order are the whole agreement. The Rate Card prevails on price and Package description, and these Terms on everything else. An invalid part is removed and the rest stays. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver. We may transfer our rights to a successor, but you may not without our consent. Neither of us is liable for events beyond reasonable control, but this does not excuse payment.

South African law governs these Terms. Subject to clause 11, the High Court Western Cape Division, Cape Town and any magistrates' court with jurisdiction may hear disputes. The Website is for use in South Africa and internationally. The English text prevails.