Terms and Conditions

1. Who operates Apna Local

Apna Local at www.apnalocal.co is operated by Hitesh Wagle as an individual in Australia ("Apna Local", "we", "us" or "our"). These terms describe our directory service and the conditions for submitting business listings. Contact the operator through the contact form; you do not need to sign in to contact us.

You agree to these terms when you expressly accept them while submitting or updating a listing. The version and time of that acceptance are recorded with the submission. If you browse without submitting, the sections describing our service, permitted use of our content and statutory rights remain relevant; we do not treat merely reading this page as consent to unrelated data uses.

The Privacy Policy explains personal information handling. It does not remove any privacy rights or replace any consent required by law.

2. Our role as a directory

Apna Local helps people discover businesses, services and products relevant to the Indian community around the world. It is an advertising and information directory. We currently do not arrange bookings, negotiate quotes, sell the listed services, hold customer payments for businesses, provide escrow or employ the listed providers.

Any enquiry, quote, contract, payment, delivery, refund or work arrangement is between you and the relevant business. A listing does not create an agency, partnership, employment, franchise or joint venture between that business and Apna Local.

We do not guarantee a business's identity, ownership, qualifications, licence, insurance, solvency, availability, pricing, honesty, safety or quality of work. Descriptions, catalogue items, images, prices, hours, addresses and map pins are supplied by owners and may be inaccurate or become outdated. A business is responsible for its own statements and services. These explanations do not exclude responsibility that the law places on us for our own conduct.

3. What admin review means

"Admin reviewed" means a listing has passed our administrative moderation process at that time. It is not identity verification, professional accreditation, a background check, an endorsement or a warranty. A map pin or tax identifier supplied by an owner is not proof of legitimacy.

New listings and edits are held for moderation. The business country must be accurate. We currently do not accept business listings located in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China (including Tibet) or Bhutan. Country preferences and approximate IP location are not identity or business-location verification. We may check for apparent duplicates, missing details or prohibited content, ask an owner for reasonable supporting information, or investigate a report. We cannot detect every impersonation, false statement, infringement or scam, and we do not promise continuous monitoring.

Search order and category suggestions are generated from listing information and search relevance and may change. There is no promise of a ranking, traffic, leads, sales, exclusivity or continuing publication. Financial support does not purchase approval, a verification badge or priority placement.

4. Who may list and owner responsibilities

You must be at least 18 and own or personally operate the business you list, with authority to publish its information. An agency, unrelated person or other user must not create, edit or delete a listing on someone else's behalf. Keep your sign-in account secure and contact us promptly if it is compromised or ownership changes.

• Use your genuine business identity. Provide accurate, current details and promptly correct misleading information, including prices, fees, opening hours and locations.
• Create one genuine entry for each distinct business or independently operated location. Do not duplicate listings, keyword-stuff, impersonate competitors or manipulate search visibility.
• Hold any licences, registrations, permissions, insurance and qualifications required for your services. Follow consumer, advertising, workplace, safety, tax and sector-specific laws that apply to you.
• Use only images, logos, descriptions and catalogue content you own or are authorised to publish. Obtain any necessary permission from identifiable people in images.
• Publish business contact details you are comfortable making public. Do not upload identity documents, full payment-card details, patient or customer records, confidential information or sensitive personal information about others.
• Make any testimonials or claims genuine, supportable and lawful. Do not suggest Apna Local or a regulator endorses you unless that is actually true and authorised.

Only the signed-in owner can change or delete their listing through the owner tools. Administrators can moderate or restrict publication but do not become the business's representative.

5. Safe and lawful use

Before engaging a business, independently check its identity, relevant licence or professional registration, insurance, references, quote, contract and payment instructions. Confirm bank-detail changes through a trusted channel. Be cautious about unusual advance-payment demands. A directory entry or shared language is not a substitute for those checks.

Listing content is not legal, financial, medical, migration or other professional advice from Apna Local. Obtain advice from an appropriately qualified provider for your situation. The site and contact form are not monitored as emergency services.

You must not use the site for fraud, discrimination, threats, harassment, unlawful goods or services, deceptive advertising, defamation, privacy invasion, intellectual property infringement, malicious code or unauthorised system access. Do not scrape personal contact details for unsolicited marketing, bypass owner access controls or overload the service. This does not restrict lawful reporting, fair criticism, accessibility tools or rights you have under law.

6. Your content and our website

You retain ownership of content you provide. You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free permission to host, reproduce, display and technically adapt it only as reasonably needed to operate, search, moderate and secure the directory. This includes cropping and compressing images, displaying your catalogue and map pin, and using hosting and contact-management providers described in the Privacy Policy.

This permission does not give us ownership of your brand or an unrestricted right to use your content in unrelated advertising. It ends when the content is removed, except for copies reasonably needed for backups, handling complaints, evidence or legal obligations. Public copies made by independent search engines or third parties may remain outside our control.

Our site branding, layout and original materials are protected by applicable intellectual property laws. You may view and share links for ordinary directory use. Other copying or reuse requires permission unless the law allows it. Third-party marks and map data remain subject to their owners' rights; Apna Local is not affiliated with Yellow Pages.

7. Restrictions, removal and review requests

We may reject, hide, suspend or remove content, or restrict listing functions, where we reasonably believe it breaches these terms, is unlawful, duplicates another entry, creates a safety or security risk, infringes rights, or must be restricted to comply with a legal obligation. Technical or security incidents may also require temporary restrictions.

We aim to use measures proportionate to the issue. Where practical and lawful, we will explain the reason and allow the owner to correct the problem or request a review through the contact form. Immediate action may be necessary for urgent harm, suspected fraud, account compromise or a legal direction. We may withhold sensitive evidence where disclosure would compromise another person's privacy, safety or an investigation.

You may stop using the service and delete your listing at any time. Deleting a listing does not automatically delete separate account, complaint, audit or contact-management records; see the Privacy Policy for removal requests. Moderation decisions do not determine anyone's legal rights or liability.

8. Report a listing or harmful content

Use the report option on an approved listing, or the contact form without signing in. For impersonation, false information, copyright, privacy or defamation complaints, identify the business or content, its URL or enough detail to locate it, the specific concern, any supporting facts and a way to contact you. If you claim intellectual property rights, explain the rights you hold and the use you object to. Do not include passwords, payment-card details, sensitive records or more personal information than necessary.

We will assess reports and may request clarification, seek the owner's response, correct our own information or restrict publication while investigating. We aim to acknowledge complaints within two business days and deal with urgent harm promptly. This is a service target, not a statement that all material will be investigated or removed within a fixed time. We may share the substance of a complaint where reasonably necessary to investigate, with privacy and safety safeguards.

A business-service dispute should ordinarily be raised with the provider first. You can also contact your state or territory consumer protection agency or the appropriate regulator, police or court. Nothing here requires you to abandon those options, wait before seeking urgent help, or obtain our permission to make a complaint.

9. Voluntary financial support

Our support links lead to a Stripe-hosted contribution page. Contributions are voluntary and help with operating costs and improvements. They do not buy a business service, preferential listing treatment, ownership, a return on investment or a guarantee the website will operate for a particular period.

Review the amount, currency and any payment frequency displayed by Stripe before confirming. We do not represent that Apna Local is a registered charity or deductible gift recipient, or that a contribution is tax-deductible. A payment receipt is not a tax-deductible gift receipt.

If a contribution was duplicated, made by mistake or appears unauthorised, contact us promptly with a date and payment reference, without full card details. We will assess requests fairly and assist with any refund or payment issue where appropriate or legally required. Nothing here prevents a lawful chargeback or excludes a refund right you have under law.

10. Your Australian consumer rights

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies a consumer guarantee, remedy or other right under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. This protection applies regardless of any other wording on the site.

Businesses remain responsible for consumer obligations relating to the goods and services they supply. We remain responsible for legal obligations relating to the directory service and our own representations and conduct. A disclaimer about third-party businesses is not a waiver of those obligations.

If a non-excludable guarantee applies to a service we supply, the remedies available depend on the applicable law and circumstances. We do not impose a blanket "no refunds", zero-liability or mandatory private-arbitration rule.

11. Responsibility and limits of liability

Subject to the non-excludable rights above, we do not warrant that the site will always be available, uninterrupted, error-free or free from security risks, or that owner-supplied information and external websites will be reliable. We take reasonable steps appropriate to our service to maintain it and respond to problems brought to our attention.

To the extent permitted by law, Apna Local is not responsible for losses caused by a listed business's fraud, false identity, misleading information, unsafe work, failure to perform, goods, services or dealings with you merely because that business appeared in the directory. This exclusion does not apply to the extent the loss was caused or contributed to by our own breach of law, negligence or other conduct for which liability cannot lawfully be excluded.

To the extent permitted by law and where fair and reasonable, we exclude loss that is too remote or not reasonably foreseeable in connection with our directory service. This does not exclude reasonably foreseeable loss recoverable under consumer law, or liability for our fraud, wilful misconduct or other non-excludable liability.

You are responsible for your own unlawful content and conduct and for loss you cause, in proportion to your responsibility. You are not required to indemnify us for our own wrongdoing. Each party must take reasonable steps to reduce avoidable loss. We do not cap our liability at zero simply because the directory is free.

12. Changes, governing law and contact

We may make reasonable prospective changes to these terms or the directory for changes in law, security, functionality or how the service operates. We will publish a new version and date and give reasonable advance notice of material changes where practical, except where urgent legal or security action is necessary. We will seek renewed acceptance on a later listing submission. Changes do not retrospectively remove an accrued right or validate earlier unlawful conduct.

If you do not accept changed listing terms, you can stop submitting listings, remove your listing or contact us for help. You do not incur a cancellation penalty for leaving this free directory.

These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales and applicable Commonwealth laws. Courts in New South Wales have non-exclusive jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory consumer, tribunal or other jurisdictional rights you have elsewhere. If a provision is unlawful or unenforceable, it applies only to the lawful extent and the remaining terms continue where possible. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver.

For questions or a dispute about Apna Local itself, contact Hitesh Wagle and explain the outcome you seek. We will attempt to resolve it reasonably. You may seek legal advice, approach a regulator or tribunal, or exercise any statutory right without first agreeing to a private dispute process.