iDealwine is a public, limited liability company governed by French law with its headquarters located at 190, rue d’Estienne d’Orves 92700 Colombes, France. It is registered with the trade and companies register of Nanterre under the number B431661628, and is represented by Mr. Lionel Cuenca, Deputy Managing Director.
The voluntary sales operator refers to the company authorized to operate a public auction in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions, in particular law "2011-855 from 20th July 2011".
The seller refers to the person who wishes to sell in the context of an auction or of a fixed-price sale organized by iDealwine and who, for these purposes, stores his wines or spirits at iDealwine’s warehouses or entrusts a carrier to do so.
In the context of an online auction or spirits auction, iDealwine provides licensed voluntary sales operators with a secured online platform, allowing them to perform public auctions by proxy. As such, iDealwine acts as a technical provider for voluntary sales operators. The statutory provisions L.321-1 to L.321-17 of the code of commerce regarding voluntary sales at public auction apply to auctions on the idealwine.com and finespirits.auction site.
Sellers accept the general terms and conditions listed below :
1 - Contractual relationships between the seller, iDealwine, and the voluntary sales operating company.
The signatory seller of the present deposit certificate grants iDealwine the right to store and asses the deposited wines and spirits in view of auctions. iDealwine does not organize auction sales but makes its internet platform available to a licensed voluntary sales operator in order to organize online auction sales. Before the beginning of the auction sale, the seller receives from the voluntary sales operating company a selling mandate called “sale requisition”. This mandate draws up lists of lots for sale with their description, their estimated prices, and their reserve price. For fixed-price sales, the deposit certificate constitutes a sales mandate. The seller expressly confers on iDealwine the right to advertise and/or photograph and reproduce, to engage any arrangement fees, handling, storage and shipping charges judged necessary and accepts that iDealwine may be represented by any experts or specialists of its choosing.
2 - Ownership of stored property
Sellers guarantee iDealwine and, when appropriate, the voluntary sales operating company, that as the uncontested owner of the property or as regular mandatory of the uncontested owner, he/she can validly deposit and transfer the property rights of the property offered for sale. He/she guarantees that the property offered for sale is in compliance with all French and European legal and regulatory provisions, especially those relating to custom regulations and tax provisions. He/she must guarantee that he/she has submitted to iDealwine all the information relative to the origin and authenticity of the property offered for sale. When depositing wine, a proof of identity is required. A copy of the I.D. will be retained by iDealwine. The person depositing the wines or spirits must provide a written authorization and a copy of the seller’s I.D., if the owner mandates him or her to do so.
3 - Estimation/reserve price
Wines or spirits deposited for online auctioning will undergo a pre-sale assessment that will set the low and high estimates. The Reserve price is the minimum price at which the seller has agreed to sell a lot; it cannot be higher than the low estimate. The seller can specifically ask for his property to be auctioned with no reserve price (the reserve price will be of €1); in this case no reclamation from the seller will be accepted if his property is sold at a price below the low presale estimate published
4 - Bottle assessment
After deposit or shipment, iDealwine’s experts appraise wines or spirits.
If necessary, iDealwine may call up an external expert, acting under iDealwine’s responsibility. The descriptive elements such as the state of the labels, the measure of the fill level, the condition of the capsule, the bottling origin (merchant bottling, chateau bottling, reconditioned bottles, etc.) are determined during the evaluation. IDealwine reserves the right to undertake all the necessary verifications to ascertain the wines and spirit’s authenticity and, if necessary, withdraw it from the sale. iDealwine may be obligated to remove from sale all bottles considered unsuitable for sale or consumption due to their condition (bottles with a level way below low shoulder, wine seepage past the cork, depigmentation, etc.). During assessment, if the level is deemed abnormally low for the vintage, the lot’s reserve price will be lowered by 5 to 20% of its estimate.
Cork resistance is systematically tested for vintages prior to the year 2000. Every bottle that has a depreciated or falling cork will be removed from sale. iDealwine is exempted of all liability if corks do fall during the evaluation. What’s more, iDealwine reserves the right to remove plastic film from bottles if need be for the appraisal.
iDealwine’s experts will divide the wines or spirits into lots, unless the seller has previously formulated a specific request prior to the deposit or shipment of his wines. After appraisal, you may ask for lots to be separated – depending on the average value per bottle – following the wines or spirits third appearance at auction and following a price decrease.
From a certain low unitary price estimate, and depending on the general condition of a lot, iDealwine reserves the right to affix bottles with WineDex certification, in the form of a red RFID chip placed on the capsule. For more information : https://www.winedex.io/
When bottles are judged unsuitable for sale (see above), sellers are notified. They have to collect their bottles or have them shipped – when possible – at their own expense within a period of 45 days. After this time, they agree for their bottles to be destroyed.
5 - Sales process
Auction sales are held online under the supervision of a licensed voluntary sale operator whose contact details are provided on the sales order signed by the seller. As acting technical provider, iDealwine grants sellers’ access to its customer service.
The seller is notified that their wines have been put for sale at auction by a sales order sent by email. This must be signed electronically and sent back as soon as possible. This order is valid for all auctions necessary for the sale of the wines concerned.
If the seller decides to remove their lots of wine and spirits during the first auction, they will be liable to pay the administrative and appraisal fees. These will be calculated based on the sum of the low price estimates of the bottles removed from sale
Sale results
SSale results are emailed to sellers, within 48 hours of the sale’s closing date.
Unsold wines are automatically reoffered for sale, unless the seller decides otherwise. The seller can choose to lower the reserve price or request his/her unsold wines to be returned (see related delivery charges and conditions). If the wines are unsold after three consecutive auctions, their reserve price will automatically be reduced by 10%. After 6 auctions, unsold lots will be reduced by 10%, applicable to the already-lowered reserve price and not the initial price. For example: if a bottle with a low estimate of 100 euros does not sell after three auctions, its reserve price will be lowered to 95 euros. If the lot is unsold after 6 auctions, the lot will then be put for sale for 85 euros.
6 - Sales commission - miscellaneous costs
The voluntary sales operator’s commission fee is 13% (pre-tax) or 15.6% (inclusive of tax) of the Hammer Price on auction case and 12.5% (pre-tax) or 15% (inclusive of tax) of the hammer price in spirits auction case. Additional transport charges may apply. Advertisement and catalogue fees are not charged. Storage is free during the first 6 months following the deposit. After six months, the lots will be removed from sale. The seller can then either collect his unsold lots or offer then for sale without a reserve price. If we do not receive a response from the seller, storage fees of 1 Euro (inclusive of tax) per month per bottle will be charged. Unsold bottles can be collected by their owner at iDealwine’s warehouse by appointment or if necessary, a quote for shipping can be arranged.
7 - Payment to seller
Sellers will be paid 35 days after the end of an auction. Payment is made by the voluntary sales operator (IWA SARL) for online auction and spirtis auction sales, either by cheque or bank transfer.
For private sellers whose fiscal residence is in France, and in accordance with article 150 UA of the CGI, the capital gain realized by a seller upon the sale of their goods will be taxed to the rate of 36.2% (19% as income tax and 17.2% as social insurance contributions) when the amount exceeds €5,000 per lot. The total of the capital gain is reduced by 5% per year since the seller has owned the good, from the second year on (article 150 VC, I-5 subparagraph of the CGI). In the case of taxable capital gain, the seller must make the declaration within one month of the sale (article 150 VG, I-4° of CGI).
8 - Insurance
iDealwine is insured against the risks associated with wine shipping, handling, and conservation, on the basis of the wine’s estimated value. Therefore, if a bottle is broken by iDealwine during its transportation or its storage, the seller will be reimbursed within 30 days, on the basis of the median estimate.
9 - Force majeure
iDealwine renounces all responsibility for any failure to meet its contractual obligations in the case of unforeseeable circumstances or force majeure, including, but not limited to, disaster, fire, internal or external strike, internal or external power outages, and generally speaking any event that would impede the execution of services.
10 - Allocation of jurisdiction
All contracts between a seller, iDealwine and the voluntary sales operator (IWA SARL), qualified to operate public auctions in which the seller’s wines are sold, in these general terms and conditions, will be governed by and construed in accordance with French law. The parties agree to any dispute or litigation which may arise over the validity, the interpretation or of the application of the present contract:
to the commercial court of Nanterre for professional mandators or buyerseither to a jurisdiction pursuant to the code of civil proceedings, or to the home jurisdiction at the moment when the contract was concluded or when the tort occurred, for private mandators of buyers In accordance with the law, all actions of civil responsibility undertaken during voluntary sales at public auction shall expire after 5 years of the hammer date.