These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the MARS mobile application, related websites, and services (collectively, the "Service"), operated by Alif Retail Solutions Private Limited ("the Company", "MARS", "we", "us", "our"), a private limited company incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 2013, with its registered office at 1st Floor, H.No. 1, Ward No. 25, TS No. 239/6, Infantry Road 3rd Cross, Cantonment, Surya Colony, Ballari, District Ballari, Karnataka 583104, India.
- CIN: U62012KA2026PTC223257
- GSTIN: 29ABGCA0424N1ZJ
By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1. Eligibility
Use of the Service is available only to persons who can form legally binding contracts under the Indian Contract Act, 1872. Persons who are "incompetent to contract" within the meaning of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 — including minors and un-discharged insolvents — are not eligible to use the Service.
By using the Service, you represent and warrant that:
- you are at least 18 years of age;
- you are competent to enter into a binding contract under Indian law;
- you will use the Service in compliance with these Terms and all applicable laws of India.
If you are using the Service on behalf of a business entity, you further represent that you are authorised to bind that entity to these Terms.
We reserve the right to terminate any account that we reasonably believe was created by a person not competent to contract.
2. The Service
MARS is a discovery and listings platform that connects local retail shops ("Retailers") with shoppers ("Customers", and together with Retailers, "Users"). Through the Service, Retailers list products, offers, and short video clips, and Customers can browse, search, save, review, contact Retailers, and navigate to their physical store.
The Service does not include ordering, checkout, payment or delivery. MARS does not sell anything, does not take payment, and does not operate a cart or checkout. Any purchase you make from a Retailer you discovered on MARS is a transaction concluded in person, directly between you and that Retailer, outside the Service.
We are a technology and listings platform, and for the purposes of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 we act as a marketplace intermediary in respect of the listings we host. We are not the seller of products listed by Retailers, do not take title to products, and are not a party to any contract of sale between a Retailer and a Customer.
If we introduce ordering, payment or delivery in future, we will update these Terms and the Privacy Policy and give notice in the app before doing so.
3. Your Account
To use most features of the Service, you must register for an account using a valid Indian mobile number. We verify your number via a one-time password (OTP).
You are responsible for:
- keeping your phone number and OTP confidential;
- all activity that occurs on or through your account;
- promptly notifying us at support@themarsapp.com of any unauthorised access.
You may have one account at a time. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent restrictions is prohibited.
You may delete your account at any time via Profile → Delete account in the app. The effects of deletion are described in Section 9 of the Privacy Policy, including the limitation in Section 9.2(D) regarding media files already uploaded to our media host.
4. Acceptable Use
You agree not to use the Service to:
- post anything that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, obscene, hateful, or that violates the rights of others (including the rights set out in Section 79 read with Rule 3 of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021);
- impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
- list counterfeit goods, prohibited items, or items that require licences you do not hold;
- engage in fraud, including fake reviews or manipulation of analytics;
- interfere with the Service's operation (e.g., scraping at scale, reverse-engineering the app, bypassing rate limits, attempting unauthorised access);
- collect personal data of other Users beyond what the Service exposes for the legitimate purpose at hand.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that we reasonably believe to be in violation, in our sole discretion.
5. Retailer-Specific Terms
If you register as a Retailer, the following additional terms apply:
5.1 Listings
- You are solely responsible for the accuracy of every listing (product details, photos, price, availability, location).
- You must have the legal right to sell every product listed and to use every image you upload. Images must be of the goods you actually stock; stock photography that misrepresents what a shopper will find in your shop is a breach of these Terms and may be removed.
- You will comply with the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, including disclosing your legal name, principal place of business, contact information, and return / refund / exchange policies wherever applicable.
- You will not list goods or services prohibited under Indian law (narcotics, weapons, hate material, counterfeit goods, etc.).
- The payment modes you record on your store profile (for example Cash, UPI, Card) are a description of what your physical shop accepts. They do not create any payment facility on MARS, and you must honour them in store.
5.2 Reviews and ratings
- You may not solicit or post fake reviews, pay for reviews, or threaten reviewers.
- We may, but are not obliged to, remove reviews that violate these Terms.
5.3 Retailer features — free during the launch period
- Retailer features that the app describes as paid — product-listing plans and promotional ad slots — are currently provided free of charge during our launch period.
- The Service contains no payment gateway and takes no payment. Where a price in Indian Rupees (₹) is shown next to such a feature, it is indicative of intended future pricing only. Nothing is charged, no payment instrument is collected, and activating any such feature costs you nothing.
- Prices shown are exclusive of taxes unless stated.
- Because nothing is charged, no subscription auto-renews and no billing occurs. Activating a plan or booking a promotional slot creates no payment obligation on you.
- We may end the launch offer and begin charging for these features in future. If we do, we will give you notice in the app beforehand, publish the applicable terms, and obtain your agreement before taking any payment. No charge will ever be applied to a feature you activated while it was free.
5.4 Service standards
- You are responsible for honouring, at your shop, the prices, offers and availability you publish on MARS, and for dealing fairly with Customers who visit you as a result.
- Disputes between Retailers and Customers over an in-person transaction are between those parties; MARS may assist but is not obligated to arbitrate, and is not a party to that transaction.
6. Customer-Specific Terms
6.1 Reviews
You may leave honest reviews and ratings of Retailers and products you have actually interacted with. Reviews must not be defamatory, deceptive, or paid-for.
6.2 Discovery, not purchase
- MARS shows you what local shops stock so you can decide where to go. It does not let you order or pay.
- Listings, prices, offers and availability are supplied by Retailers. We do not verify them and they may be out of date or incorrect. Confirm anything that matters to you with the Retailer before you travel.
- Any purchase is a direct, in-person transaction between you and the Retailer. Your rights in respect of that purchase — including return, refund, exchange and warranty — lie against the Retailer under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and other applicable law, not against us.
6.3 Saved items and wishlist
- Saving a product or shop does not reserve stock, hold a price, or guarantee availability.
7. Content You Submit
You retain ownership of the photos, videos ("clips"), text, reviews, and other content you submit ("User Content").
By submitting User Content, you grant the Company a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable licence to host, store, reproduce, modify (only as needed for compression / formatting / moderation), display, and distribute that content for the purpose of operating, promoting, and improving the Service.
You represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to grant the above licence, and that your User Content does not infringe any third party's rights.
You can withdraw the licence as to any specific item of User Content by deleting it from the Service, or in full by deleting your account (see Section 9 of the Privacy Policy). Deletion removes the content from the Service; as explained in Section 9.2(D) of the Privacy Policy, the underlying file on our media host is purged on request.
8. Intellectual Property — Ours
The Service itself — including the MARS name, logo, app code, user-interface designs, and the compilation of listings — is owned by Alif Retail Solutions Private Limited and protected by Indian and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws.
You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, or reverse-engineer any part of the Service, except as expressly permitted by these Terms or by law.
9. Charges
- The Service is free to use. We charge Customers nothing, and Retailer features are free during the launch period described in Section 5.3.
- We operate no payment gateway. We do not collect, see, transmit or store any card, UPI or bank credential, and no payment can be made through the Service.
- Because we take no payment, there is nothing for us to refund. Any refund, return or exchange relating to goods you bought from a Retailer is a matter between you and that Retailer, under their own policy and applicable consumer-protection law.
- If we begin charging in future, we will publish payment and refund terms and obtain your agreement before taking any payment (Section 5.3).
- Questions about charges, or about anything in these Terms, may be raised with us at support@themarsapp.com. If unresolved, you may approach the appropriate consumer-protection forum.
10. Third-Party Services
The Service uses third-party providers including Cloudinary (media hosting), Expo / Apple / Google (push notifications), WhatsApp Business (Meta), Google Maps & Places, MSG91 (SMS OTP), Google Cloud Platform and MongoDB Atlas. Your use of features that rely on these providers is also subject to their respective terms. We use no payment processor, because we process no payments.
11. Disclaimers
The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory, to the maximum extent permitted under Indian law.
We do not warrant that:
- the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure;
- any listing on the Service — including its price, availability, description or photographs — is accurate, complete, or up-to-date;
- a shop shown as nearby is open, or stocks what its listing shows;
- goods you buy from a Retailer will meet your expectations.
You use the Service at your own risk.
12. Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by Indian law, in no event shall the Company, its directors, employees, or contractors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including loss of profits, goodwill, data, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Service.
Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall not exceed ₹5,000 (five thousand Indian Rupees) or the amount you have paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim, whichever is greater.
Nothing in this section excludes liability that cannot be excluded under applicable Indian law.
13. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its directors, employees, and contractors from any claim, demand, loss, or damages, including reasonable legal fees, arising from:
- your User Content;
- your breach of these Terms;
- your violation of any law or the rights of any third party.
14. Suspension and Termination
We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, posed a risk to other Users, or used the Service unlawfully.
You may terminate your account at any time via Profile → Delete account.
On termination, certain sections of these Terms survive: Sections 7 (licence to your retained User Content where deletion is incomplete at the storage layer), 8 (IP), 11 (Disclaimers), 12 (Liability), 13 (Indemnity), 15 (Governing Law).
15. Governing Law and Disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of India. The courts at Ballari, Karnataka shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms, subject to mandatory consumer-protection forums available under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
16. Grievance Officer (Information Technology Rules, 2021)
In accordance with Rule 3(2) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, our Grievance Officer can be contacted at:
- Name: Syeda Shaistha Tarannum
- Designation: Grievance Officer, Alif Retail Solutions Private Limited
- Email: support@themarsapp.com
- Postal address: 1st Floor, H.No. 1, Ward No. 25, TS No. 239/6, Infantry Road 3rd Cross, Cantonment, Surya Colony, Ballari, District Ballari, Karnataka 583104, India
- Response time: Acknowledgement within 24 hours; resolution within 15 days.
17. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced in-app and via the "Last updated" date above. If you continue using the Service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms.
18. Contact
For any question about these Terms:
- Email: support@themarsapp.com
- Postal: Alif Retail Solutions Private Limited, 1st Floor, H.No. 1, Ward No. 25, TS No. 239/6, Infantry Road 3rd Cross, Cantonment, Surya Colony, Ballari, District Ballari, Karnataka 583104, India
These Terms describe the Service as at the effective date above and do not constitute legal advice. We recommend that a qualified Indian legal practitioner review them before publication, and that they be revised before any ordering, payment or delivery feature is enabled.