Terms & Conditions

Welcome to Coral Auctions. Please read these terms carefully before using our platform.

Section 1 – Introduction

These Terms and Conditions govern your use of the Coral Auctions website (“Site”) and your relationship with us as a buyer, seller, or guest. By using this Site, you agree to be bound by these terms.

The terms Coral Auctions, Coral-Auctions.co.uk, and Coral Auctions UK are used interchangeably throughout the platform and communications. They all refer to the same entity and official website.

Section 2 – About Coral Auctions

Coral Auctions is a marketplace that allows users to offer, sell and buy coral in the UK. Coral Auctions is not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. The contract for the sale is directly between buyer and seller. Coral Auctions is not a party to the transaction and is not a traditional auctioneer. Coral Auctions does not have possession of anything listed or sold through Coral Auctions.

Except for certain checks, including those designed to verify that listings do not include illegal content, Coral Auctions does not review users’ listings or content. While we may help facilitate the resolution of disputes through various programmes, Coral Auctions has no control over, and, unless expressly provided, does not guarantee the existence, quality, safety or legality of, items advertised; the truth or accuracy of users’ content, listings or reviews; the ability of sellers to sell items; the ability of buyers to pay for items; or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction or return an item.

Section 3 – Using Coral Auctions

In connection with using or accessing Coral Auctions you will not:

  • post, list or upload content or items in inappropriate categories or areas on our sites;
  • breach or circumvent any laws, third-party rights or our systems or policies;
  • upload illegal content or use the Coral Auctions in the facilitation or commission of a criminal offence;
  • sell any counterfeit items or otherwise infringe the copyright, trademark or other rights of third parties;
  • use Coral Auctions if you are not able to form legally binding contracts (for example if you are under 18), or are temporarily or indefinitely suspended from using Coral Auctions or are a person with whom transactions are prohibited under economic or trade sanctions;
  • fail to pay for items purchased by you, unless you have a valid reason as set out in an Coral Auctions policy, for example, where the seller has materially changed the item’s description after you bid, a clear typographical error is made, or you cannot contact the seller;
  • fail to deliver items sold by you, unless you have a valid reason as set out in an Coral Auctions policy, for example the buyer fails to comply with the terms posted in your listing, or you cannot contact the buyer;
  • manipulate the price of any item and/or interfere with any other user’s listings;
  • fail to comply with laws and applicable guidance on sale pricing and promotion of items;
  • post false, inaccurate, misleading, defamatory, libellous or illegal content;
  • take any action that may undermine the reviews or ratings systems
  • transfer your Coral Auctions account (including reviews) and username to another party without our consent;
  • share your log in credentials with any third parties. If you require that authorised third parties (employees, agents, etc.) have access to your account, please contact us directly
  • distribute or post spam, unsolicited or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
  • use the contact information of other users for any purpose other than in relation to a specific Coral Auctions transaction on the Coral Auctions site (which includes using this information to send marketing materials directly to Coral Auctions users unless the user has given explicit consent to receiving these materials);
  • distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm Coral Auctions, or the interests or property of Coral Auctions users;
  • use any robot, spider, scraper, data mining tools, data gathering and extraction tools, or other automated means to access Coral Auctions for any purpose;
  • bypass our robot exclusion headers, interfere with the working of Coral Auctions or impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
  • export or re-export any Coral Auctions application or tools except in compliance with the export control laws of any relevant jurisdictions and in accordance with posted rules and restrictions;
  • infringe the copyright, trademark, patent, moral, database or other intellectual property rights (collectively, “Intellectual Property Rights”) that belong to or are licensed to Coral Auctions. Some, but not all, actions that may be infringement are reproducing, performing, displaying, distributing, copying, reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, or preparing derivative works from content that belongs to Coral Auctions or someone else;
  • infringe any Intellectual Property Rights that belong to third parties affected by your use of Coral Auctions or post content that does not belong to you;
  • commercialise any Coral Auctions application or any information or software associated with such application;
  • harvest or otherwise collect or use information about users, such as email addresses, without their consent; or
  • circumvent any technical measures we use to provide Coral Auctions

If we believe you are violating any of our policies, you may be subject to a range of actions, including limits on your buying and selling privileges, restrictions on listings and account features, suspension of your account, application of fees for the introduction of seller to buyer, and recovery of expenses for policy monitoring and enforcement.

If you are a seller and you offer or reference your contact information or ask for the buyer’s contact information in the context of buying or selling outside of Coral Auctions, you will be liable for all final value fees in consideration for the introduction to a buyer for that item on the Coral Auctions site, even if the item does not sell. You may also face permanent suspension from Coral Auctions.

Additionally, we reserve the right to vary or terminate all or part of Coral Auctions and/or not provide all or part of Coral Auctions to anyone for any reason and/or period of time, at our discretion.

Section 4 – Abusing Coral Auctions

Without limiting other remedies, we may limit, suspend, or terminate your user account(s) and access to Coral Auctions, restrict or prohibit access to, and your activities on Coral Auctions, cancel bids, remove or demote or otherwise restrict the visibility of listings, delay or remove hosted content, remove any special status associated with the account, reduce or eliminate any discounts, and take technical and legal steps to keep you from using Coral Auctions if:

  • we think that you are creating problems or possible legal liabilities for us, our users, suppliers or other third parties;
  • we think that such restrictions will improve the security of the Coral Auctions community or reduce our or another Coral Auctions user’s exposure to financial liabilities;
  • we think that you are infringing the rights of third parties;
  • we think that you are acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of these Terms & Conditions or our policies or abuse our employees or users;
  • despite our reasonable endeavours, we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to us
  • you circumvent, or seek to circumvent, any fees that may be payable when using Coral Auctions
  • you fail to make, or it is evident that you are unable to make, full payment of any fees due to Coral Auctions by your payment due date; or
  • we think that this is necessary in order to protect other users from illegal content being posted or listed on the Coral Auctions site.

We may offer a process allowing users to report claimed violations for us to consider and handle through one or more of these options, all in our sole discretion.

When a buyer or seller issue arises we may consider the user’s performance history and the specific circumstances in applying our policies. We may choose to be more lenient with policy enforcement, and to do the right thing for both buyers and sellers.

Section 5 – User Accounts

To access certain features (such as bidding or listing), you must register for an account. You agree to provide accurate information and keep your login details secure. Vendors are responsible for all content they upload, including product listings and images. We reserve the right to suspend or delete accounts that violate our terms or local laws.

We may cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a long time.

To help ensure a fair experience for all users, Coral Auctions requires bidders to have a valid payment method saved to their account. All bids must be made in good faith. Repeated failure to honour bids or disruptive bidding behaviour (e.g., bidding excessive amounts with no intention to pay) may result in account suspension or permanent removal from the platform.

Section 6 – Listings & Auctions

Sellers are responsible for describing their coral accurately. Auctions must be real, honest, and not misleading in any way. Coral Auctions is not a direct seller; we provide the platform to connect sellers and buyers. We do not guarantee the accuracy of any auction or listing content.

When listing an item, you agree to comply that:

  • you are responsible for the accuracy, content and legality of the item listed;
  • your listing may not be immediately searchable by keyword or category for up to 24 hours. Coral Auctions does not guarantee exact listing durations;
  • unless otherwise specified by law, you are responsible for all taxes (including but not limited to the tax amount itself, as well as any penalties, fines, charges, or late payment interest) related to your sales on the Coral Auctions site, where applicable, and you agree to use Coral Auctions in accordance with the UK tax laws. To the extent possible under English law, you shall pay to us as a debt on demand all costs incurred by us, including but not limited to tax, penalties and interest, levied by any competent tax authority due to your failure to provide a valid VAT registration number and/or your failure to pay any such taxes, penalties or interest;
  • Sellers must ensure they are legally allowed to sell live coral in their region and comply with any local or international regulations (including CITES if applicable).
  • content that violates any of Coral Auctions policies may be modified, obfuscated or deleted at Coral Auctions discretion;
  • we may revise product data associated with listings to supplement, remove, or correct information;
  • we strive to create a marketplace where buyers find what they are looking for. Therefore, the appearance or placement of listings in search and browse results will depend on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:
    • buyers’ location, search query, browsing site and history;
    • item’s location, listing format, price and shipping cost, terms of service, end time, history, and relevance to the user query;
    • seller’s history, including listing practices, Coral Auctions policy compliance, reviews, and defect rate; and
    • number of listings matching the buyer’s query
  • to drive a positive user experience, a listing may not appear in some search and browse results regardless of the sort order chosen by the buyer;
  • meta-tags and URL links that are included in a listing will be removed or altered so as to not affect third-party search engine results;
  • Coral Auctions may advertise the site and provide other third parties with access to your listings and content for this purpose. This includes, for example, the display of listings and content of users;
  • artificial intelligence-based tools may be used by Coral Auctions – the availability and accuracy of these tools and content are not guaranteed;

We will perform checks on listings to ensure they comply with our Prohibited Items Policy. While we use limited AI and automated tools to assist in identifying potential issues—such as inappropriate keywords, images, or non-compliant content—these systems are supplementary and not relied upon exclusively. Listings may be flagged for manual review by Coral Auctions investigators or, in rare cases, automatically blocked. We also carry out regular manual reviews of existing content to uphold site standards.

If content is determined to be illegal, non-compliant or otherwise to violate Coral Auctions policy, it is blocked or removed. If requested, the user will be notified with an explanation as to why. Coral Auctions has also developed robust measures to help stop bad actors and deter repeat policy violations, with penalties up to, and including, permanent suspension.

Our safeguards are also designed to minimise the length of time for which illegal content is present on the Coral Auctions site. This includes terrorism content, child sexual exploitation and abuse content and other illegal content.

We will swiftly take down content where we are alerted to or become aware of the presence of any content on the Coral Auctions site which we believe to be in breach of our policies (including illegal content prohibited by our policies). Content may be taken down automatically if our algorithm flags the content as being illegal; where content is flagged for review by an Coral Auctions investigator we will prioritise review of content that is likely to be of most harm to users.

You can report content on the Coral Auctions site which you consider to be illegal by contacting us on info@coral-auctions.co.uk.

6.1 Bidding

Usernames on Coral Auctions are not automatically masked or anonymised when bidding. We recommend updating your account to use a display name that does not reveal your real name if you are concerned with your name being displayed. You can do this within your account settings.

Coral Auctions uses a proxy bidding system to make the bidding process fair and efficient for all users.

When you place a bid, you are entering the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item. The system will then automatically place the lowest possible bid on your behalf to maintain your winning position, up to your maximum bid amount. This means you may win an item for less than your maximum bid if no other users place higher competing bids.

If another user places a higher bid, you will be notified and given the opportunity to increase your maximum bid.

Important Notes:

  • All bids placed via proxy bidding are binding.
  • Once your maximum bid is reached and exceeded by another user, your bid will no longer be active unless you manually raise it again.
  • Proxy bidding is enabled for all auctions by default and cannot be disabled on individual listings.

By participating in an auction, you acknowledge and accept the use of proxy bidding on the Coral Auctions platform.

6.2 Editing Listings After Bids Have Been Placed

Sellers are advised to review their auction listings carefully before publishing. However, if a seller needs to make edits after a bid has already been placed, the following rules apply:

  • Transparency: Any edits made to a listing after a bid has been placed must be clearly necessary (e.g. correcting an obvious mistake) and must not mislead or significantly alter the nature of the listing.
  • Impact on Buyers: If a listing is edited after a bid has been placed, affected bidders have the right to request removal of their bid if they no longer wish to proceed based on the revised information.
  • Requesting Bid Removal:
    • Buyers must contact Coral Auctions within 12 hours of the edit being made.
    • Requests should be sent to info@coral-auctions.co.uk with the subject line “Bid Removal Request”, and must include the listing link and a short explanation.
  • Seller Responsibility: Frequent or unnecessary changes after bidding has started may lead to a warning or restriction of selling privileges. Sellers who knowingly alter listings in a misleading way may be removed from the platform.

Section 7 – Purchase Conditions

When buying an item, you agree to comply that:

  • you are responsible for reading the full item listing before making a bid or commitment to buy;
  • you enter into a legally binding contract to purchase an item when you commit to buy an item, or if you have the winning bid (or your bid is otherwise accepted);
  • All transactions must be completed through approved payment methods listed on the site

7.1 Buyer requested cancellations

Buyers who have won an auction but no longer wish to proceed with the purchase must contact the seller directly to request a cancellation. Coral Auctions does not facilitate auction cancellations and it is at the seller’s discretion whether to grant your request.

7.2 Non-Payment by Buyers and Account Suspension

Winning buyers must pay within 48 hours of auction close, unless a different timeframe is agreed directly with the seller. Failure to pay may result in order cancellation and account suspension or removal. Coral Auctions also reserves the right to permanently ban users for non-payment.

Section 8 – Information Shared Between Buyers and Sellers

To facilitate the smooth processing and delivery of auction items, limited information is shared between buyers and sellers after a purchase is completed.

When a buyer wins an auction, the seller will receive:

  • The buyer’s full name
  • Delivery address
  • Contact email address
  • Contact phone number (if provided during checkout)

This information is provided solely for the purpose of fulfilling the order and must not be used for any other purpose, including marketing or unsolicited communication.

The buyer does not receive any of the seller’s personal information, other than store name and email address to facilitate delivery, and except where applicable for arranging collections. In such cases, sellers may voluntarily provide a collection address or contact number for coordination.

Both parties are expected to keep this information private and secure, and to use it only in accordance with Coral Auctions’ policies and relevant data protection laws.

Section 9 – Pay-outs

Buyers are required to pay for their winning bid promptly after an auction ends. Payment will be released to the seller three business days after the order has been successfully paid for.

All payments and pay-outs on Coral Auctions are processed securely via Stripe. If you are a seller, please ensure your Stripe account is correctly set up and verified to receive pay-outs. Payments will appear in your account under the name “Coral Auctions”, “Stripe” or a related Coral Auctions/Stripe descriptor.

For UK accounts with Stripe, the first pay-out is typically made within 7 – 14 calendar days, but subsequent pay-outs are usually 3 business days.

Section 10 – Fees

We may change our fees, or introduce new fees from time to time by posting the changes on the Coral Auctions site or via email to all active user accounts 15 days in advance. You may close your account without penalty within 30 days of such notice being given.

You are liable for any applicable fees arising out of all sales made using some or all of Coral Auctions, even if sales terms are finalised or payment is made outside of Coral Auctions. In addition, if you are a seller and you offer or reference your contact information or ask for a buyer’s contact information, you may be liable to pay a final value fee in consideration for the introduction to a buyer for that item on the Coral Auctions site, even if the item does not actually sell.

If your payment method fails or your account is overdue, we may collect fees owed by charging other payment methods on file and retaining collection agencies or legal counsel.

You authorise Coral Auctions to automatically charge your chosen payment method in accordance with these Terms & Conditions and the applicable billing agreement(s) you agree to when setting up or changing your payment method, for future charges and fees incurred in relation to Coral Auctions. This includes, but is not limited to, amounts owed for Coral Auctions fees. Coral Auctions will notify you of these charges. If payments or amounts owed to Coral Auctions cannot be completed through the payment method on file for any reason, you are still required to pay Coral Auctions for all unpaid amounts and Coral Auctions reserves the right to seek reimbursement through other means plus any additional costs incurred by Coral Auctions in seeking reimbursement. You can change your payment method in My Account at any time.

All transactions must be completed through approved payment methods listed on the site.

Section 10.1 Commission Fees

Coral Auctions charges a commission on all successful sales made through the platform. Our standard commission fee is 7% of the final sale price, plus a £0.75 flat fee per transaction.

This fee is automatically deducted from the total amount paid by the buyer before the remaining balance is released to the seller. Payouts are processed via Stripe, and sellers will receive the net amount after fees.

By listing items on Coral Auctions, sellers agree to these commission terms. We reserve the right to review and update our fee structure; any changes will be communicated in advance via email or through the website.

Section 11 – Reviews and Feedback

At Coral Auctions, reviews play an important role in helping our community make informed decisions. To ensure the integrity and usefulness of reviews:

  • Eligibility to Review: Only buyers who have completed a successful purchase through the platform are permitted to leave a review for a seller
  • Honesty and Fairness: Reviews must reflect genuine, first-hand experiences and be based on factual, accurate interactions. Misleading, exaggerated, or false reviews are strictly prohibited.
  • No Inappropriate Content: Reviews containing offensive language, threats, personal attacks, or irrelevant commentary will be removed and may result in account restrictions.

Section 11.1 Reporting False or Inappropriate Reviews

If you believe a review is false, defamatory, or violates our policy:

  1. Contact us at info@coral-auctions.co.uk with the subject line “Review Concern”.
  2. Include the username of the reviewer, a link to the listing, and a short explanation of the issue.
  3. We will investigate and, where necessary, remove the review or take further action.

Note: Any user found to be abusing the review system (e.g. leaving fake reviews, review bombing, or soliciting dishonest feedback) may face account suspension or permanent removal from the platform.

Section 12 – Restricted Funds

Coral Auctions may temporarily place a hold on your funds in certain cases upon our notification. This is to ensure a safe and fair experience for both buyers and sellers and to allow time for dispute resolution or investigation.

Section 11.1 When Funds May Be Restricted

  • Active Dispute or Complaint: If a buyer raises a dispute, such as an item not arriving, arriving in poor condition, or not matching the listing description.
  • High-Risk Transactions: For first-time sellers or sellers with limited history on Coral Auctions, funds from initial transactions may be held until successful delivery is confirmed.
  • Violation of Policies: If a listing, sale, or transaction is under investigation for breaching Coral Auctions’ rules, the funds may be held while the matter is reviewed.
  • Multiple Refund Requests: If a seller has a high volume of refund requests, funds may be held while trends are reviewed to ensure platform safety.
  • Chargeback Notification: If a buyer raises a chargeback with their bank or card provider, relevant funds may be held until the dispute is resolved.

Section 11.2 How Restrictions Work

  • When funds are restricted, they will not be available for withdrawal until the restriction is lifted.
  • You will be notified by email explaining the reason for the hold and any steps you may need to take.
  • In most cases, funds are released within 2–5 business days once the issue is resolved or a review is complete.

Examples of common holds:

  • A coral is delivered damaged and the buyer raises a concern – funds may be restricted until evidence is reviewed and a resolution is reached.
  • A new seller receives their first order – funds may be held until Royal Mail tracking shows delivery or the buyer confirms receipt.
  • A seller is reported for violating shipping guidelines – funds from the sale in question may be held while the matter is investigated.

Section 11.3 Releasing Funds

  • Once the issue has been resolved in line with Coral Auctions’ policies, restricted funds will be released automatically.
  • If the outcome favors the buyer, a full or partial refund may be issued from the held funds.

Section 12 – Refunds & Disputes

Coral Auctions acts as a platform provider and is not responsible for resolving disputes between buyers and sellers. If you encounter an issue, you must first contact the seller directly to seek a resolution.

While we may, at our discretion, offer assistance in dispute resolution, we cannot guarantee an outcome. Please note that we will not intervene in any dispute unless the buyer has first attempted to resolve the matter directly with the seller.

For disputes involving refunds, please ensure that all steps outlined in our Shipping Policy have been followed before contacting us. In any decision we make, preference will be given to the party that has complied with the Shipping Policy.

To request our assistance with a dispute, please email info@coral-auctions.co.uk and include your Name and Order Reference Number. We are unable to provide support without this information.

If we are contacted directly regarding a dispute, all related payments will be temporarily placed on hold until the matter is resolved.

Section 13 – Prohibited Items

Any coral that is endangered, protected without appropriate licensing, or illegally obtained is strictly prohibited.

Coral Auctions is dedicated specifically to the sale of coral. While sellers are permitted to list related items—such as tanks, pumps, frag racks, and other equipment used in coral care—the sale of unrelated products is strictly prohibited.

Please note that the sale of fish or other livestock is not permitted at this time.

We reserve the right to remove any listing or ban any user who breaches this policy.

Section 14 – Marketing

By providing your email address, you agree to be added to our mailing list to receive notifications when new auctions are listed. If at any time you do not wish to receive these communications, you can opt out by replying to any of our emails and requesting removal from the mailing list, or email info@coral-auctions.co.uk with your request.

Section 15 – Limitation of Liability

We provide this marketplace “as is”. Coral Auctions is not liable for losses resulting from the use of this platform, including miscommunication, technical issues, or unfulfilled transactions.

We try to keep Coral Auctions and its site safe, secure, and functioning properly, but we cannot guarantee the continuous operation of or access to Coral Auctions. Bid updates and other notification functionality on Coral Auctions may not occur in real time. Such functionality is subject to delays beyond Coral Auctions control.

We (including our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, agents and employees) shall not be liable to you in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise for any business losses, such as loss of data, profits, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill, reputation or business interruption or for any losses which are not reasonably foreseeable by us arising, directly or indirectly from:

  • your use of or your inability to use our Services;
  • delays or disruptions to Coral Auctions
  • viruses or other malicious software obtained by accessing, or linking to, Coral Auctions
  • glitches, bugs, errors, or inaccuracies of any kind on Coral Auctions
  • damage to your hardware device from the use of any Coral Auctions service
  • the content, actions, or inactions of third parties, including items listed using Coral Auctions;
  • a suspension or other action taken with respect to your account or breach of the Abusing Coral Auctions section;
  • the duration or manner in which your listings appear in search results as set out in the Listings section; or
  • your need to modify practices, content, or behaviour or your loss of or inability to do business, as a result of changes to these Terms & Conditions or our policies.

You accept sole responsibility for the legality of your actions under laws applying to you and the legality of any items you list on any of our sites.

Although we use techniques that aim to verify the accuracy and truth of the information provided by our users, user verification on the internet is difficult. Coral Auctions cannot and does not confirm, and is not responsible for ensuring, the accuracy or truthfulness of users’ purported identities or the validity of the information which they provide to us or post on our sites.

Regardless of the previous paragraphs, if we are found to be liable, our liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greater of (a) any amounts due up to the price the item sold for on Coral Auctions and its original postage costs, (b) the amount of fees in dispute not to exceed the total fees which you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to the liability, or (c) £100.

Nothing in these Terms & Conditions shall limit or exclude our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation, for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or the negligence of our agents or employees, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

Section 16 – Compensation

You will compensate us in full (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures and employees) for any losses or costs, including reasonable legal fees, we incur arising out of any breach by you of these Terms & Conditions, your improper use of Coral Auctions or your breach of any law or the rights of a third party.

Section 17 – Modifications

We may update these terms at any time. Continued use of the site after changes are posted will constitute your acceptance of those changes.

Section 18 – Contact

If you have questions about these terms, please contact us at info@coral-auctions.co.uk.