1 · What the house is

Olive Auction is a neutral online marketplace operating timed auctions and fixed-price allocations as electronic auction brokerage. The house is not an auctioneer, holds no licence to conduct public auctions and does not need one for this activity; it never owns, holds, stores or takes title to any lot. The contract of sale forms directly between the winning bidder and the consigning mill when a lot closes sold. The house is not a party to that contract.

2 · Accounts

Prices and bidding are visible to registered members only. Bidders appear to others as paddle numbers. Producer accounts warrant that the person registering is entitled to consign for the named mill. The house may suspend accounts that provide false information or fail to honour bids, sales or shipments.

3 · Bidding and sale mechanics

The amount entered is a sealed maximum; the house's system bids the minimum needed on the bidder's behalf, one increment at a time. The earliest-placed maximum wins ties. A bid in the final two minutes extends the lot by two minutes. Lots may carry a confidential reserve; a lot closing under reserve is passed, except that where the closing bid reaches at least half the reserve, the consignor and the leading bidder receive a 24-hour salvage window in which the consignor may accept the standing bid or the bidder may raise to the reserve. Bids are binding offers to purchase.

4 · Fees

In the house's first year the only fee is a flat 22% commission on the hammer price, invoiced to the consigning mill after settlement. There are no listing, catalogue, photography or buyer fees. On lots refunded for transit damage the house retains 10% of hammer; where the lot was shipped outside the packaging standards in §7, the full commission stands.

5 · Payments

The buyer pays the mill directly. The house never receives, holds or transmits the buyer's payment and provides no escrow or payment guarantee; it separately invoices the mill for its commission as an ordinary business fee. Non-payment by a buyer or non-delivery by a mill is a matter between those parties; the house may assist and may suspend accounts involved.

6 · Consumer withdrawal right

EU and UK consumers buying from professional sellers have the statutory 14-day right of withdrawal on auction wins and allocations. That right does not extend to bottles or tins whose seal has been broken after delivery, for hygiene and food-safety reasons. Nothing in these terms limits mandatory consumer protection of the buyer's country of residence.

7 · Food information, shipping and damage

The consigning mill is the food business operator responsible for the lot: for the accuracy of the listing's food information, for compliant labelling on the delivered goods including date of minimum durability, for traceability and for any recall. Listings must show the mandatory food particulars before bidding opens. Consigned lots ship in tins, wood cases or moulded-pulp shippers, tracked, within five working days of settlement. Damage claims require photographs of bottle, packaging and label within 48 hours of delivery; the mill reships or refunds.

8 · Shipments to the United States

US-bound shipments are exported by the mill. FDA Prior Notice is required for every food shipment regardless of value or quantity and is the shipping mill's (or its courier's) obligation. The house bears no liability for refusal, hold or destruction of a shipment lacking Prior Notice.

9 · Provenance and descriptions

Millennial and monumental designations refer to official catalogue entries (tree number, measured trunk), never to certified age. Laboratory values are displayed as reported by the named laboratory and method. Consignors warrant the accuracy of dossier data and indemnify the house against claims arising from inaccurate declarations.

10 · Contact and notices

The house provides a single point of contact for members and authorities via the contact form. Illegal-content notices are reviewed and answered with reasons. These terms are governed by the law of the house's establishment without prejudice to §6.

What the house keeps

An account stores your email, a hashed password, your name and — for producers — mill, country and region. Bids, listings and orders are kept as the trading record the service exists to provide. A single session cookie keeps you signed in; there are no analytics trackers, no advertising pixels and no third-party scripts on this site.

When a lot settles, buyer and seller each see the other's email address, because the mill ships direct and the buyer pays the mill — that exchange is the purpose of the sale. Emails are never published on the site or shared beyond the two parties to a settlement.

Transactional email (outbid notices, wins, settlements, password resets) is sent from the house's own mail server; nothing about you is handed to a third-party mail provider. Consignment enquiries are kept until handled. Photographs uploaded with a listing are published with the lot.

You can ask for your account and its personal data to be deleted via the contact form; records of completed sales are retained as legally required.

One cookie

This site sets exactly one cookie: oa_session — a random identifier that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. It is HTTP-only, sent over HTTPS only, and holds no personal data itself. It is strictly necessary for the members area to work, which is why no consent banner interrupts you: there is nothing optional to consent to.

There are no analytics cookies, no advertising cookies, no third-party cookies, no fingerprinting and no cross-site tracking of any kind. Signing out deletes the session cookie's validity immediately; the browser copy expires on its own.

If that ever changes, this page changes first — and anything beyond strictly-necessary would then ask for consent before being set.

Marketplace disclaimer

Olive Auction is an intermediary. Lots are described by their consignors; the house checks dossiers for completeness, not laboratory truth, and does not inspect, taste, store or handle any oil. Laboratory values, awards, catalogue references and photographs are the consignor's declarations, displayed as received with their stated source.

Age and heritage claims

"Millennial", "monumental" and similar designations are heritage attributions from official catalogues and registers. Tree age cannot be laboratory-certified; published radiocarbon research on living olives has never dated recovered wood much beyond ~680 years. The house presents catalogue numbers and measured trunks, never certified ages, and no listing should be read as claiming one.

Health and nutrition

Polyphenol figures are analytical values, not medical advice. The only health statement the house repeats is the authorised EU claim — olive oil polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress, at 20 g of qualifying oil a day — and only where a lot's verified assay meets its threshold. Nothing on this site diagnoses, treats or prevents any condition.

Prices and estimates

Hammer prices are set by open bidding; estimates, references to retail prices and market commentary in the Journal are information, not investment advice or a promise of resale value. Content is provided as-is; the house's liability is limited to the fullest extent the applicable law allows, and nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

Photography

House imagery is used under Creative Commons and self-hosted with attribution. Lot photographs are supplied by consignors and remain theirs.

• Ancient olive of Vouves (registry) — Avsa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
• Ancient olive grove, Corfu (journal) — Gareth Williams, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• Ancient olives, Lun, Croatia — Andrzej Mlynarz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
• Olive grove, Salento, Puglia — Pava, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Picking olives by hand — Maarten Heerlien, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• Olive oil pouring — RDNE Stock project, Pexels
• Olive oil and olives — Damir Mijailovic, Pexels