Terms of Service

1. Introduction and acceptance

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern access to and use of the Pitazz platform, available at pitazz.co (the "Platform"). "Pitazz", "we" and "us" mean the operator of the Platform, whose details are in our Legal notice.

By creating an account, posting a request, submitting a quote, or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms. You accept them when you create your account. If you are acting as a guardian on behalf of a minor, you accept these Terms on your own behalf and confirm that you have the authority to contract for that minor’s tuition.

Tutors are additionally bound by the Tutor Agreement, which sits alongside these Terms and governs the specific terms of supplying tutoring services through the Platform, including commission, payment, and conduct obligations. Where the Tutor Agreement and these Terms address the same subject for a tutor, the Tutor Agreement takes precedence for that tutor-specific matter; these Terms otherwise apply to all users.

Our collection and use of personal data is described in the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms by reference.

2. Definitions

Guardian: a parent, legal guardian, or adult learner acting on their own behalf, who posts a Request and is the contracting and paying party for any resulting Booking.
Learner: the person receiving tuition. A Guardian may be the Learner (adult learning) or may post on behalf of a minor Learner.
Tutor: an independent service provider offering tutoring services through the Platform.
Request: a structured post describing tutoring needs, created by a Guardian.
Quote: a structured response from a Tutor to a Request, stating an hourly rate, mode, place, and when the Tutor can start; the Quote is always the authoritative statement of price for a lesson. A Quote may instead offer a place in a Class.
Match: the relationship created when a Guardian accepts a Quote.
Booking: a specific scheduled lesson under a Match, with its own time, price, and payment record.
Class: a small-group lesson that a Tutor runs weekly for one school year, in which each family’s place is its own Booking.
Weekly Slot: a standing weekly lesson with one Tutor, held for a family week by week and paid lesson by lesson.
Platform: the Pitazz website and web application at pitazz.co, including the installable version of the app and any successor application.

3. Nature of the service

Pitazz operates a marketplace. We are not a tutoring agency, we do not employ Tutors, and we are not a party to the tuition itself. The agreement for each lesson is between the Guardian and the Tutor, who supplies it as a self-employed provider. Pitazz’s own obligations to a Guardian are the ones these Terms set out: taking and holding payment on the Tutor’s behalf, refunds, the cancellation terms, the first-lesson guarantee, the checks described in Section 7, and the handling of safeguarding reports described in Section 8. Tutors are independent contractors who set their own rates and availability, choose which Requests to quote on, and determine their own teaching methods and materials, subject to the verification, conduct, and platform rules described in these Terms and the Tutor Agreement.

Pitazz introduces Guardians to Tutors and takes payment on the Tutor’s behalf; it is not the teacher, the supervisor of any lesson, or the venue where a lesson takes place. We do not supervise lessons, do not guarantee learning outcomes, and are not responsible for the content or quality of any lesson beyond the trust mechanisms described in these Terms.

4. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. Minors are represented on the Platform only as Learners linked to a Guardian’s account; they do not hold accounts or agree to these Terms themselves.

A Maltese mobile number is required for Guardians and for Tutors. Pitazz may contact you on this number about your lessons; Tutors never see a Guardian’s number, and Guardians never see a Tutor’s. You must provide accurate information when registering and keep it up to date.

You are responsible for all activity under your account; the sign-in link or code we email you is for you alone. Notify us immediately at hello@pitazz.co if you suspect unauthorised use.

We may suspend or close an account at our reasonable discretion where these Terms, the Tutor Agreement, or applicable law are breached, where fraud, abuse of the service, or a safety concern arises, or where an account has been inactive for an extended period, subject to Section 19 (Suspension and termination).

5. Requests, Quotes and Matches

Pitazz shows a guide price band for one-to-one lessons and for a place in a Class; it is guidance only, and each Tutor sets his own rate.

Quotes expire automatically after 72 hours if not accepted. Quotes are shown in the order Tutors send them: Pitazz does not rank or promote Tutors, and no Tutor can pay for a better place.

A Guardian accepts a Quote to create a Match. Accepting a Quote automatically declines all other Tutors’ open Quotes on that Request, since one Request is matched to one Tutor at a time. If a Tutor you already know invites you, accepting the invitation creates a Match with that Tutor for the child you choose; the first-lesson guarantee and Find another tutor apply only to Tutors Pitazz found. A Match you accept and never pay for ends after seven days, and your Request reopens to matching Tutors. A Match with a Tutor who brought you to Pitazz himself does not end this way.

You and the Tutor are never given each other’s contact details: Pitazz holds both, and any question on either side goes to hello@pitazz.co. This exists to protect the verification, payment, cancellation, and guarantee protections described in these Terms; arrangements made outside the Platform are not covered by them.

6. Pricing and fees to Guardians

Guardians pay only the price stated in the accepted Quote for each Booking, in euro, by card, at the time of booking; Pitazz holds the payment until it confirms the lesson (Section 9). Posting a Request, receiving Quotes, and using the Platform generally is free for Guardians, and no subscription is charged. Pitazz’s commission is charged to the Tutor out of the amount they receive, not added as a separate charge to the Guardian’s payment (Section 5 of the Tutor Agreement); the price a Guardian pays is exactly the price quoted. A Weekly Slot and a place in a Class are paid one lesson at a time, and no card is kept on file.

Guardians are not charged for withdrawing a Request, declining Quotes, or matching and then not proceeding to a Booking. A charge is made only when a Booking is made and paid for.

7. Verification and trust

Every Tutor is 18 or over, and must verify their identity and show us a police conduct certificate issued in the last 12 months before quoting on Requests. Pitazz also checks a Tutor’s qualifications itself: a Tutor sends us a copy of a degree, a teaching warrant or a subject grade certificate, and we show only the title of what we have seen, beside a tick. A tick means that Pitazz has seen evidence of that claim; it is not an endorsement or guarantee of teaching quality, or of the document’s authenticity. Every active Tutor also has at least one qualification that Pitazz has checked. Guardians compare what is shown to choose (see also the Tutor Agreement, Section 3). A Tutor’s Quotes show the languages he teaches in, as he states them. Guardians also see each Tutor’s ratings (Section 9).

We take reasonable steps to check the claims described above, using the evidence sent to us, but we cannot independently guarantee that every document is genuine or that a verified Tutor is suitable for every Learner’s needs. Guardians should use the information provided to make their own choice.

8. Conduct and safeguarding

All users must treat each other with respect and act lawfully. In particular:

Communication through the Platform, and through Pitazz, must be professional and appropriate at all times.
Tutors must not arrange to meet a Learner outside an agreed Booking. Lessons with a Guardian introduced through Pitazz are booked and paid for through the Platform, while the Match runs and for 12 months after it ends.
Any concern about a Tutor’s or Guardian’s conduct, including anything affecting the safety of a minor Learner, should be reported immediately to safeguarding@pitazz.co. If a child is in immediate danger, call 112 first. We treat safeguarding reports as a priority and may suspend an account pending review without prior notice where a safety concern is raised in good faith.
Guardians remain responsible for a minor Learner’s safety and supervision arrangements around a lesson, consistent with the mode and place selected on the Booking. At your home, a parent or another adult stays in the home for the whole lesson, and the lesson is held in a shared room.
No recording of a lesson without the Guardian’s consent, which the Tutor asks for and keeps.
Tutors follow the conduct rules in the Tutor Agreement, Section 11: among them, contact only through the Guardian and Pitazz, no photos of a child, no gifts or lifts, and a parent may sit in on any lesson.

Responsibility for a lesson. Pitazz introduces Guardians to Tutors and takes payment on the Tutor’s behalf; it is not the teacher, the supervisor of any lesson, or the venue. The Tutor alone is responsible for the conduct of each lesson, for the supervision and safety of a Learner in his care during a lesson and, for a Class or a lesson at his place, for the premises. By booking a lesson you accept that the Tutor, and not Pitazz, provides the lesson, and that, to the maximum extent permitted by Maltese law, Pitazz is not liable for the acts or omissions of a Tutor, or for anything that occurs between a Tutor and a Learner during or in connection with a lesson, beyond the verification, payment, cancellation, and guarantee mechanisms set out in these Terms.

Every Tutor shows us a police conduct certificate before quoting (Section 7) and declares that he is not on the register kept under Malta’s Protection of Minors (Registration) Act.

9. Payments and confirmation

Payments are processed by Stripe, our payment processor: the Guardian’s payment for a Booking is collected at the time of booking by Pitazz, which holds it on the Tutor’s behalf, and paying Pitazz counts as paying the Tutor for that lesson; when Pitazz confirms the lesson, the Tutor’s net amount (price less Pitazz’s commission) accrues to that Tutor’s payable balance, which is paid out weekly as described in the Tutor Agreement. Pitazz does not store your full card details; these are handled directly by Stripe under its own terms and PCI-compliant systems.

Confirmation. After each lesson we email you and the Tutor to ask whether it happened. Your Yes confirms the lesson. If neither of you tells us something went wrong within 2 days of the lesson ending, it is confirmed. If either of you says it did not happen, or that something went wrong, Pitazz decides what happened and applies Section 10 or Section 11, and nothing is paid on the lesson until then. All payment for lessons booked through Pitazz passes through the Platform: a Tutor asking to be paid outside the Platform (for example, in cash at the lesson) is in breach of their agreement with us, and money paid that way sits outside the Platform’s payment, cancellation, and dispute protections; please report any such request to hello@pitazz.co.

After a lesson is confirmed. If something about a confirmed lesson still needs our attention, press No on the link in your email while it works, or email hello@pitazz.co, and we will look into it.

Ratings. After a lesson is confirmed you may rate it from 1 to 5 stars, with an optional comment. Only a Guardian whose lesson with that Tutor was confirmed can rate them, so every rating comes from a family who had a lesson. We keep a rating as it was given and remove one only if it carries contact details, abuse or personal details about a child, or is not about the lesson; never because it is negative. Each Guardian has one rating per Tutor, which they may change after a later lesson. We show a Tutor’s ratings beside their name on their Quotes and Matches: once a Tutor has 3 ratings, their average as stars and how many ratings they have; before that, New on Pitazz. We do not show comments, single ratings or who gave them, and a rating we have removed is not counted.

Commission rates, payout timing, and the ledger mechanics that govern how a Tutor is paid are set out in full in the Tutor Agreement; they do not change what a Guardian pays for a Booking.

10. Cancellations and moving a lesson

This Section describes what happens when a booked lesson is cancelled or needs to move. Every outcome is applied by Pitazz, once you have asked us; our Help page says how to ask. The same terms are described from the Tutor’s side in the Tutor Agreement.

24 hours or more before the lesson: you may cancel for a full refund, credited back to the card you paid with.
Less than 24 hours before the lesson, move first: Pitazz first tries to move the lesson to a time within the next 7 days that the Tutor accepts, free of charge, once per Match per school term.
Less than 24 hours before the lesson with no valid reason, or the student does not turn up: you are refunded 75% and lose 25% of the lesson price (15% goes to the Tutor for the time reserved, and 10% to Pitazz). For example, on a €20 lesson you are refunded €15.00.
For a reason Pitazz accepts (such as an emergency, a medical appointment, or illness): you are refunded in full.
If the Tutor cancels or does not turn up, at any time: you are refunded in full, and the Tutor’s reliability record is affected (Tutor Agreement, Section 7).
If Pitazz moves a lesson (at the Tutor’s request or otherwise), you are told in the app and by email. If you cannot make the new time, you are refunded that lesson in full, on a one-to-one lesson and a place in a Class alike.
Your 14-day right to cancel. When you pay for a lesson, you ask for it to be given on the date booked; once it has been given, the EU right to cancel a service bought online within 14 days no longer applies to it. To use the right before a lesson is given, email hello@pitazz.co. Nothing in these Terms takes away a right you have under consumer law.

Where a split is shown, the exact amounts for any Booking use the commission rate frozen on that Booking when it was made.

11. First-lesson guarantee

If the first lesson on a Request with a Tutor Pitazz found is not the right fit, Pitazz will refund that lesson in full and reopen the Request for new quotes with priority, at Pitazz’s discretion following review; the Tutor of that lesson is not offered the reopened Request. The guarantee covers one first lesson per Request: if you change tutor before any lesson has taken place, the new Tutor’s first lesson is covered; a new Tutor on the same Request after a lesson has been confirmed is not covered again. It applies only to Matches made through a Pitazz Request, from the moment you accept a Quote; it does not apply where the Tutor brought you to the Platform himself. To make a claim, press No on the link we email you after the lesson, or email hello@pitazz.co, within 72 hours of the lesson being confirmed; Pitazz decides the claim, and the guarantee is capped at one upheld claim per Guardian per school term.

12. Classes and weekly slots

12.1 A place in a Class

A Tutor may offer your Request a place in a small-group Class. A Class runs only if enough students join, and you are refunded in full if it does not. A Class has one school year, up to 10 students, and runs online or at the Tutor’s place. Accepting a Class quote charges nothing and holds nothing: paying for the next lesson opens your place, and after that you pay week by week on the Weekly Slot terms in Section 12.2.

Call-off. A Class that has not reached the Tutor’s minimum may be called off by the Tutor up to 48 hours before its first lesson; you are refunded in full and your Request reopens.
The Tutor may end a Class. Lessons you have already paid for still go ahead, and your Request reopens after them.
Your late cancellation or no-show on a place costs the same 25% as in Section 10; for a reason Pitazz accepts, you are refunded in full.
If the Tutor cancels a Class lesson, you are refunded in full.
If Pitazz moves a Class lesson and you cannot make the new time, you are refunded in full, with no penalty. You cannot move your own place.

12.2 A Weekly Slot

You may make a lesson your Weekly Slot, which holds the Tutor’s hour for you week by week. It is paid lesson by lesson. 24 hours before a lesson that is not yet paid, the hour stops being held for you; after two unpaid weeks in a row, the slot ends. You may end it at any time; lessons already paid for stay booked.

13. Changing tutor

You may end a Match with a Tutor Pitazz found and reopen the same Request for new quotes ("Find another tutor"). This is not available while a payment is in progress, a paid lesson is still to come, a lesson is awaiting confirmation, a guarantee claim is open, or you hold a Weekly Slot with that Tutor; in those cases, email hello@pitazz.co. The first-lesson guarantee follows Section 11. A Match with a Tutor who brought you to the Platform himself cannot be changed this way.

14. Refunds

A refund goes back to the card you paid with. Every refund is made in full, and Pitazz bears the card processing fee.

15. Data protection

We process personal data as described in our Privacy Policy, including the data-minimisation approach we take for minor Learners: a first name, a level, a school year where the level has one, and any notes the Guardian adds; no date of birth, school name, or surname is collected for a minor Learner. A Request shows matching Tutors its subject, level, school year, locality, budget, times, and notes, and never the child’s name; only the Tutor you are matched with reads the child’s first name. By using the Platform you acknowledge the Privacy Policy.

16. Intellectual property

The Platform, its design, text, graphics, and underlying software are owned by or licensed to Pitazz and protected by intellectual property law. You may not copy, reproduce, or create derivative works from the Platform except as needed for your own personal, non-commercial use of the service. Content you submit (profile information, Requests, and messages) remains yours, but you grant Pitazz a licence to host, display, and use it as needed to operate the Platform, including showing a Tutor’s profile information to the Guardians he quotes.

17. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by Maltese law:

Pitazz is a marketplace facilitator. We are not responsible for the acts, omissions, teaching quality, or conduct of any Tutor or Guardian, or for the conduct of any lesson, except to the extent expressly set out in these Terms (such as the payment, cancellation, and guarantee mechanisms above).
We do not guarantee that any Request will receive a Quote, that a Match will be found, or any particular learning outcome.
Our liability for any claim arising from use of the Platform is limited, in aggregate, to the total fees you paid for the Booking giving rise to the claim (for a Tutor, the limit in the Tutor Agreement, Section 17, applies instead), save for liability that cannot be limited or excluded under Maltese law (including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud).
We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, including loss of opportunity or loss arising from a Tutor’s or Guardian’s own breach of these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, or any liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

18. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold Pitazz harmless from claims, losses, or expenses (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the Platform, or your violation of any law or third-party right, save to the extent caused by Pitazz’s own breach of these Terms or negligence.

19. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Platform, or close your account, at any time by contacting hello@pitazz.co, subject to settling any outstanding Bookings or payable balances. We may suspend or terminate access where these Terms are breached, where required by law, or where we reasonably believe continued access poses a safety, fraud, or integrity risk to the Platform, with notice where reasonably practicable; the grounds on which a Tutor may be paused or removed are in the Tutor Agreement. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including payment obligations for confirmed Bookings, data protection, liability, and dispute resolution) continue to apply after termination.

20. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, for example to reflect new features, legal or regulatory requirements, or operational changes such as tutor subscription tiers or prepaid credits. We will post the updated Terms with a new effective date and, for material changes affecting existing Bookings or your rights, notify you by email before the change takes effect. Continued use of the Platform after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

21. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of Malta. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Platform that cannot be resolved informally is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Malta. We encourage Guardians and Tutors to raise any concern with us directly at hello@pitazz.co before pursuing formal proceedings, so that we can attempt to resolve it, including through the guarantee and cancellation mechanisms described above.

22. General

Severability: if any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force.
No waiver: our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
Assignment: you may not assign your rights under these Terms without our consent; we may assign these Terms to a company through which Pitazz is later operated, or in connection with a sale, restructuring, or transfer of the business, with notice to you.
Entire agreement: these Terms, the Tutor Agreement (where applicable), and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement between you and Pitazz regarding use of the Platform.
Force majeure: neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond reasonable control.

23. Contact

Questions about these Terms, or complaints: hello@pitazz.co. Safeguarding concerns: safeguarding@pitazz.co. Data protection queries and rights requests are handled per the Privacy Policy; complaints about our handling of personal data may also be brought to Malta’s Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) at idpc.org.mt.