Platform policy · ADR-0313

Your fee rate is locked in. If we lower it, you benefit automatically.

Every creator economy platform has raised its take rate after lock-in. We're making it structurally impossible to do that to you — and writing it into our constitution so no future owner can undo it.

Effective: 6 April 2026 · Version 1.0 · Governing document: ADR-0313

The guarantee in plain English

🔒

Your fee rate is locked at activation The platform fee schedule active on the day you first activate a paid group becomes your permanently locked rate for that group. We call this your granted fee schedule.

🛡️

Upward immunity — fee increases cannot touch you If SocialPoints raises its platform fee in future — whether the percentage or the band thresholds — those changes do not apply to your group. Your granted rate is permanent.

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Downward benefit — fee reductions apply automatically If SocialPoints reduces its platform fee, your billing cycle automatically uses the lower rate. You never need to ask, claim, or do anything. The lower rate wins.

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Unconditional for five years minimum The guarantee runs for at least five years from your paid group's activation date. During this period, SocialPoints cannot initiate any review of your rate, for any reason.

How the calculation works

On every billing cycle, two fee calculations are run against your monthly group revenue. The lower result is what you pay.

fee_charged = min(
your_granted_schedule.apply(monthly_revenue),
current_platform_schedule.apply(monthly_revenue)
)

This is automatic. It runs on every billing cycle for the lifetime of your group. There is no opt-in, no annual renewal, no form to submit.

Each payout statement shows which schedule was applied — either "your guaranteed rate" or "current rate (lower than your guaranteed rate)" — so you can always verify that the correct calculation was used.

The fee schedule locked in today

This is the schedule that will be locked in for any paid group activated from 6 April 2026 onwards, until the platform schedule next changes. All amounts are monthly group revenue in GBP. Payment processing costs are included — we absorb Stripe's fees within this rate rather than passing them to you.

Monthly group revenue	Platform fee
First £500	15%
£500 – £2,000	12%
£2,000 – £5,000	10%
Above £5,000	8%

The guarantee covers the complete fee structure — both the rate percentages and the band thresholds. If a future schedule were to raise the 8% rate or lower the £5,000 threshold (both making the fee worse), your locked schedule would apply to the revenue in that range. The guarantee protects the whole structure, not just the headline rate.

What the guarantee covers — and what it doesn't

✓ Covered

The SocialPoints platform fee percentage applied to your paid group's monthly subscription revenue — both the rates and the band thresholds.

Not covered

Payment processing costs. Stripe fees are currently absorbed within your platform fee. If Stripe makes material structural changes to its fee model that fundamentally alter the economics, this carve-out applies — though we intend to absorb ordinary Stripe fee movements.

✓ Covered

All existing paid groups — including groups created during the beta. If you activated a paid group before this policy was published, you are grandfathered on the schedule in force at your activation date.

Not covered

Creator Studio subscription pricing (£19/month Starter, £49/month Studio). These are separate products from the platform fee on group revenue, and are not covered by this guarantee.

✓ Covered

Any future paid group you create — each one locks in the schedule at its own activation date.

Not covered

Genuinely new fee categories for optional capabilities that didn't exist at your activation date. If SocialPoints introduces a new optional feature with its own fee structure, the guarantee does not prevent that fee applying to groups that choose to use the new feature.

When the guarantee attaches

The guarantee attaches at the moment your paid group is first activated — not when you sign up for Creator Studio.

If you cancel a paid group and later create a new one, the new group gets a fresh guarantee anchored to its own activation date. There is no mechanism to transfer a locked schedule from a cancelled group to a new one. This prevents gaming through deliberate churn.

The guarantee is per-group, not per-creator. Your three paid groups may have three different locked schedules if you activated them on different dates.

The five-year minimum term

The guarantee is unconditional for a minimum of five years from your paid group's activation date. During this period, SocialPoints may not initiate any review of your guaranteed rate, for any reason.

After five years, SocialPoints may initiate a review. This is not a commitment to change rates — it is a reserved right. The procedure, if SocialPoints ever exercises it, is:

90 days' written notice SocialPoints sends written notice of a proposed schedule change. Your guaranteed rate continues unchanged throughout the notice period.

Your right to exit At any point during the 90-day notice period, you may cancel your paid group and receive a full refund of your current Creator Studio subscription month. No penalty. No questions.

If you don't cancel The new schedule applies from the end of the 90-day period. If the new schedule is lower than your granted schedule, the new schedule applies immediately (downward benefit rule).

The five-year minimum term is the credible commitment period. Any business that has survived five years and is considering raising creator fees has presumably built sufficient value that the conversation is materially different. We expect to extend the guarantee beyond five years in practice, and to review rather than revoke in virtually all scenarios.

Constitutional protection

This guarantee is a platform invariant under Article I of the SocialPoints Constitution. It cannot be removed or materially weakened by any of the following acting alone: the board of directors, a majority shareholder, an acquirer, or management. The specific constitutional protection reads:

"The Creator Fee Guarantee, as defined in ADR-0313, constitutes a platform invariant. No fee schedule change that would disadvantage an existing creator relative to their granted schedule may be applied without completing the full constitutional amendment process."

The full constitutional amendment process requires: a supermajority (≥75%) trust-weighted Community vote, Foundation approval, and Director approval — all three. In practice, this means the community itself must agree to a fee increase before it can apply to existing creators. We believe this is the only honest way to make this commitment credible.

How we make this visible

The guarantee is not a buried clause. We make it visible at every relevant moment:

Before you activate: when creating a paid group, you are shown your guaranteed rate and what it means before confirming. You must acknowledge the guarantee before proceeding.
In your account at all times: the "Your fee guarantee" section in creator account settings shows your locked schedule, the current platform schedule, which is currently lower, and your guarantee expiry date.
On every payout statement: each payout statement shows "Platform fee applied at your guaranteed rate" or "Platform fee applied at the current rate (lower than your guaranteed rate)" — so you can see exactly which calculation was used and why.
On this page: the guarantee is published as a standing platform policy, not only in individual contracts. This page is the canonical public record of the commitment.

Questions

If you have questions about how the fee guarantee applies to your group, contact us at creators@socialpoints.com. If you believe a payout statement has applied the wrong schedule, include your group ID and the payout reference — we will investigate and correct it within 5 business days.

This policy is governed by the laws of England and Wales. The Ethics Company Ltd, registered in England and Wales. Version 1.0 · Effective 6 April 2026.