Terms of Service
Welcome to Girl Dinner Social. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and Girl Dinner Social Technology LLC (“GDS,” “we,” “us”). They govern your use of the Girl Dinner Social mobile app, our website, and related services (together, the “Service”) — including creating an account, joining events, buying tickets, and messaging other members. By using the Service, you agree to these Terms. Please read them.
These Terms include an agreement to resolve disputes by individual arbitration and a waiver of class actions (section 14). Section 14 also explains how to opt out of arbitration within 30 days, which you can do without affecting your account.
1. Who we are
Girl Dinner Social is a women-only friendship and event community based in Chicago, Illinois. The app is available to members in other cities, including New York. We host gatherings, partner with aligned communities and organizers to list theirs, and run an app that helps women meet, message, and attend events together. We may add new features as the platform grows.
2. Eligibility and accounts
- Girl Dinner Social is a women-only community for all women — trans women are welcome. You must be a woman and at least 18 years old to create an account or purchase tickets.
- You agree to provide accurate information and keep it up to date, and to complete identity verification — including a selfie check — when prompted. The selfie check uses automated face analysis with human review for ambiguous results; see the Privacy Policy for how that data is handled and how you consent to it.
- You sign in with your email address and a password. You're responsible for keeping your login secure and for everything that happens under your account.
- One account per person. Don't impersonate anyone else, create accounts for anyone but yourself, attempt to game verification, or use the Service if we have previously removed you.
- Availability varies by location. We may add, change, limit, or withdraw the Service — and may vary eligibility or membership requirements — in any city, state, or country, including where local law requires it of us.
3. Community conduct
GDS is built on trust and respect. We have zero tolerance for the following, whether in the app or at events:
- Dating or romantic solicitation — GDS is a friendship platform
- Multi-level-marketing recruitment, spam, commercial solicitation, or networking-as-cold-outreach
- Harassment, hate speech, threats, or discrimination
- Impersonation or fake accounts
- Sharing other members' private information without consent
- Disrupting events or violating a host's reasonable rules
- Any unlawful conduct
We moderate content with a combination of automated tools and human review, and every member can report or block others in the app. We may remove content, restrict features, or suspend or terminate accounts that violate these standards or endanger the community.
4. Tickets, payments, and refunds
- Ticket prices, availability, and event details are set by the host of each event.
- Payments are processed by Stripe; your purchase is also subject to Stripe's terms. We never see or store your full card number.
- GDS retains a platform commission (up to 5%) on paid ticket sales, deducted from the amount paid to the host — the price you see is the price you pay.
- Refunds follow the cancellation policy the host states on the event. If an event is cancelled by the host or by us, we'll refund your ticket to your original payment method.
- You're responsible for showing up. No-shows are not refunded, and repeated no-shows may affect your standing on the platform.
5. Events are run by hosts
Some events are hosted by GDS directly; others are hosted by independent organizers and partner communities who use our platform. The host is responsible for the event itself — venue, schedule, food, and conduct on-site. GDS is not the organizer of host-run events and, beyond what the law requires, is not liable for injuries, losses, or disagreements that happen at events we don't directly run.
6. In-person meetups & assumption of risk
GDS helps you meet people in real life. We do not conduct background checks on members and do not guarantee anyone's identity, conduct, or safety. You attend events and meet other members at your own risk. Always use good judgment, meet in public where possible, and report concerns through the in-app tools or hello@girldinnersocial.com.
Where the law of the state you're in limits agreements like this one — New York, for instance, restricts waivers of liability by operators of places of amusement or recreation that charge a fee — this section applies only as far as that law allows, and the rest of these Terms stay in force.
7. Member-created meetups
Alongside events we or our partners host, members can create their own meetups — free, public, in-person gatherings that other members can join. When you submit a meetup, we review it before it goes live. That review is only a basic check that the listing follows these Terms and our community standards; it is not a vetting or endorsement of the meetup, the member who created it, its location, or its safety, and approving a meetup does not make it ours.
Member-created meetups are organized and run by the members who post them, not by GDS. We are not the host, organizer, or sponsor of these meetups, we are not present at them, and — beyond what the law requires — we are not responsible or liable for them, for anything that happens at them, or for the conduct of anyone who attends. Whether to post, join, or attend any meetup is entirely your own decision, made voluntarily and at your own risk (see Section 6).
If you create a meetup, you're responsible for it — for choosing a safe, appropriate public place, describing it accurately, following applicable laws and any venue rules, and the conduct of your gathering. If you attend one, use the same good judgment you would for any event: meet in public, tell someone where you'll be, and report concerns through the in-app tools or hello@girldinnersocial.com. We may decline, remove, or unpublish any meetup at our discretion.
8. Your content
You keep ownership of the content you post — photos, profile info, messages, community posts, and answers to event questions. You grant GDS a non-exclusive license to host and display it as needed to operate the Service. Don't post anything you don't have the rights to share.
9. Our content
The GDS name, logo, copy, designs, and code belong to us. You may use the app and site as intended, but please don't copy, scrape, or rebrand them.
10. Termination and account deletion
You may delete your account at any time in the app (Profile → Settings → Delete Account). Deletion takes effect after a 30-day grace period during which you can change your mind by signing back in; after that, your personal data is permanently deleted as described in our Privacy Policy. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these Terms or to protect the community.
11. Disclaimers
The Service is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. We don't guarantee the Service will always be available or error-free, or that any specific friendship will result from using it. We do our best, but the internet exists.
12. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent allowed by law, GDS is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the Service or attendance at events, or for the conduct of other members or hosts. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose or $100.
Some of these limits don't apply where the law doesn't allow them. Nothing in these Terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that can't lawfully be excluded or limited. Some states don't allow the exclusion of certain damages, so parts of this section may not apply to you.
13. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict of laws principles. Any dispute will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois. This applies wherever you live or use the Service — it sets which law governs our agreement, not where GDS operates.
If the consumer-protection laws where you live give you rights that can't be waived by agreement, nothing in these Terms takes those rights away.
14. Disputes and arbitration
Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to bring a claim in court and to have a jury trial.
Talk to us first. Most problems are quicker to fix directly. Before starting a formal proceeding, email hello@girldinnersocial.com with a short description of the problem and what you'd like us to do, and give us 30 days to respond. We'll do the same before bringing a claim against you.
Arbitration. If we can't resolve things informally, you and GDS agree to settle any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. Arbitration is less formal than a lawsuit: there is no judge or jury and review is limited. The arbitrator can award the same individual relief a court could and must follow these Terms.
Where and what it costs. Arbitration will take place in the county where you live, or by phone or video, or on written submissions alone if we both agree. For claims under $10,000, GDS pays the filing and administration fees unless the arbitrator decides the claim is frivolous.
No class actions. You and GDS agree to bring claims only individually, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any representative proceeding.
Coordinated filings. If 25 or more similar claims are brought against GDS by or with the coordination of the same lawyers or organisation, the claims will be arbitrated in batches of up to 50, each batch before one arbitrator, with fees assessed per batch. Both sides will then work in good faith to resolve the remaining claims using the outcomes of the earlier batches.
What this doesn't cover. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either of us may ask a court for an injunction to protect intellectual property or stop misuse of the Service. Nothing here stops you from reporting conduct to any government agency.
How to opt out. You can decline this arbitration agreement by emailing hello@girldinnersocial.com with your name, your account email, and the words “arbitration opt-out,” within 30 days of first accepting these Terms or of the date we tell you this section was added. Opting out changes nothing else in these Terms and has no effect on your account.
If part of this doesn't hold. If the no-class-actions paragraph is found unenforceable for a particular claim or type of relief, that claim proceeds in court and the rest of this section still applies to everything else. If this whole section is found unenforceable, section 13 governs.
15. Changes
We may update these Terms as the platform evolves. We'll change the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, give notice in the app or by email. Continued use after changes means you accept them.
16. App stores
The GDS app is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play. However you install it, your use of the app is also subject to the terms of the store you got it from, and that store handles the download itself under its own terms and privacy policy. Apple and Google don't operate GDS — we alone are responsible for the app, its content, and support for it. If something goes wrong, contact us at hello@girldinnersocial.com rather than the store.
Where you installed the app from the Apple App Store, Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms and may enforce them against you, and Apple has no obligation to provide support or maintenance for the app.
17. Copyright complaints
If you believe something on GDS infringes your copyright, email hello@girldinnersocial.com with a description of the work, where it appears on GDS, your contact details, and a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn't authorised. We remove infringing content and may disable accounts that repeatedly infringe.
18. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to cover our reasonable losses and legal costs if they arise from your misuse of the Service, your breach of these Terms, content you post, or a meetup you create or host. This doesn't apply to losses caused by our own wrongdoing, and we'll tell you promptly about any claim we expect you to cover.
19. Electronic communications
We communicate with you electronically — in the app, by email, and by push notification. You agree that electronic notices satisfy any legal requirement that a communication be in writing. Keep your email address current; notices we send to the address on your account count as received.
20. General terms
- Severability: if any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, that part is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in force.
- Entire agreement: these Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and GDS about the Service, replacing anything said earlier.
- Assignment: you can't transfer your account or your rights under these Terms. We may transfer ours to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
- No waiver: if we don't enforce part of these Terms right away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
- Events outside our control: we're not liable for failures or delays caused by things we can't reasonably control, such as outages, natural disasters, or venue closures.
21. Contact
Questions? Email hello@girldinnersocial.com.