Membership Terms & Conditions

These terms govern Standard Membership and Loyal Membership. (Standard Membership was previously called Basic Membership.) They form a binding contract between the member and DePierre Caviar Fish Trading L.L.C ("Caviar De Pierre", "we"). They sit alongside the Website & Account Terms, the Shop, Delivery & Refund Terms and the Privacy Notice. A Corporate membership is governed by the company's signed agreement with us, not by these terms. A Gift Membership is governed by these terms together with clause 10.

1. The membership and your allocation

1.1 The Caviar Annual Membership runs for a minimum term of twelve (12) months from its start date.

1.2 You choose a monthly allocation of 1 kg, 2 kg or 3 kg, in a single variety (Bester, Beluga or Sevruga) or in one of the combinations we offer. Your allocation and variety are recorded when you join and remain fixed for the term unless we agree a change in writing, or you change your plan for a later term under clause 6.5.

1.3 Your membership price is the price for that allocation and variety in the Membership Price List current on your start date. A Standard Membership is priced per month, a Loyal Membership for the full year. All prices include VAT at the rate in force, currently 5%, and the amount you will pay is shown before you confirm.

1.4 There are two ways to pay for the same twelve-month membership:

1.5 Paying monthly does not make this a monthly membership. A Standard member is contracting for twelve months and owes twelve instalments. The instalment option spreads the payment; it does not shorten the commitment. Clause 7 applies if you leave before the term ends.

1.6 Membership is personal to you. You may ask us to transfer it to another person, and we may allow the transfer on terms we set, but only where you have put the request to us in writing, we have reviewed and approved the person taking it over, and that person has accepted these terms in their own name. A transfer made without our written approval has no effect, and you remain liable under this contract until we confirm the transfer.

1.7 Membership gifts are handed over with one of your deliveries, and we record each handover in your account. They are personal to the member and have no cash value.

2. Starting your membership

2.1 You accept these terms when you choose your membership. Your membership begins on the day (Dubai time) our payment provider confirms your first payment, and we confirm the start by email.

2.2 The twelve-month minimum term runs from that start date. Your Expiry Date is the day before its first anniversary, extended by any pause taken under clause 5.

2.3 Your account shows at all times which membership you hold, your start date, your Expiry Date, your fee, your payment schedule and your allocation.

3. What your membership gives you

Your allocation

3.1 Each month of your term that has begun and been paid for, we add your allocation in your chosen variety to your account, and hold the caviar in our temperature-controlled storage until you ask for it.

3.2 You choose the tin sizes your allocation is delivered in (for example 2 × 500 g or 4 × 250 g, or any combination of the sizes we stock) when you book each delivery.

3.3 You may book up to five (5) included deliveries in each membership month, on a date and in a time range you choose in your account, at least twenty-four (24) hours ahead, to your home, office, an event or another address in Dubai. You may change the caviar, address or note of a booking, or cancel it, until two (2) days before its date, and move it to a later time while twenty-four hours remain. Deliveries are made on the terms in the Shop, Delivery & Refund Terms. Each booking asks you to confirm the Caviar storage acknowledgement.

Allocation you have not taken

3.4 Any part of a month's allocation you have not taken carries forward to the following months of the same membership term. Your account always shows your balance.

3.5 Carried-forward allocation must be taken before your Expiry Date. Any allocation still untaken on the Expiry Date is forfeited. It is not refunded, credited, or carried into a renewal term.

3.6 Where a carried-forward balance grows beyond what we can reasonably hold or deliver safely, we may ask you to book deliveries for it.

While we hold it

3.7 Caviar held for you remains our property until it is delivered to you. We keep it in controlled storage at a temperature between −4°C and 0°C.

3.8 While the caviar is in our storage, loss or deterioration is our responsibility and we will replace it. Risk passes to you on delivery.

3.8A After delivery the caviar must be kept between −4°C and 0°C until it is consumed. We are not liable for spoilage, deterioration, illness or food poisoning arising from caviar stored, transported or handled outside that range after it has left our control, or consumed after the date shown on the tin. This does not limit our liability for product that was already unfit when we delivered it, or your statutory rights.

Price protection

3.9 The price agreed at the start of your membership is fixed for its full twelve-month term. Any increase we make to our prices during that term does not apply to you. A renewal term is priced at the rates current when we send your renewal notice under clause 6.2, and that notice tells you the fee.

Availability

3.10 Your allocation stays yours for the whole term. Each delivery needs the tins you choose to be in stock when you book it; if a size or variety is temporarily out of stock, you can choose other sizes or another date, and the grams remain in your balance.

3.11 If a variety you have chosen is going to become unavailable, we will give you at least one (1) week's written notice. You may then: switch to another variety, priced under your protected pricing; reduce or suspend your allocation for the affected period, with no payment due for what is suspended; or end your membership for that reason with no Early Exit Charge and a refund of all fees for the unexpired term.

3.12 Caviar is a farmed natural product. Grain size, colour, firmness and flavour vary between harvests. Variation of that kind is a characteristic of the product and is not unavailability.

Member pricing

3.13 Beyond your allocation, you buy in the Private Shop at member prices, which are below our standard prices. Member pricing is for your own use and your household's, and not for resale.

4. Paying

4.1 Annual payment (Loyal). The full year's fee is charged when you join, on the start date.

4.2 Monthly instalments (Standard). The first instalment is charged when you join, on the start date, and each later one on the same day of each following month. You authorise us to take each instalment from the card registered on your account on its due date, and you must keep a valid card registered for the whole term. Each month's allocation is added to your account once that month's instalment has been received.

4.3 If a payment fails, we tell you and our payment provider tries again. The allocation for an unpaid month is not added until its instalment is received; caviar already in your balance can still be booked. You cannot start a pause while a payment is overdue.

4.4 No interest or late fee is charged on a missed payment. Your membership and your liability for the remaining instalments continue while a payment is outstanding.

4.5 If a payment remains unpaid thirty (30) days after its due date, our team reviews your membership, and we may treat you as having ended your membership early, in which case clause 7 applies in full.

4.6 When an outstanding instalment is received, the allocation for that month is added to your account.

4.7 All amounts include VAT at the rate in force, and are payable without set-off or deduction.

4.8 Any cost we reasonably incur in recovering money you owe us, including bank charges and legal fees, is payable by you.

5. Pausing your membership

5.1 A pause suspends your membership for whole membership months. A Standard member may pause for up to three (3) months in each term, one month at a time. A Loyal member may pause for up to five (5) months in each term, in pauses of one to five months. One pause can be planned at a time.

5.2 You ask for a pause in your account or by writing to us. A pause always begins at the start of your next membership month (and never in a month that has already been invoiced); it does not take effect at once. You may cancel a planned pause until it begins.

5.3 During a pause: no allocation is added for the paused months; no deliveries can be booked in them, and a delivery already booked inside the pause must be moved before the pause can be confirmed; and for a Standard member no instalment is charged for a paused month. Any balance already carried forward under clause 3.4 is unaffected and remains available to you after the pause. Your access to the Private Shop and your invitation rights continue.

5.4 A pause extends your term and your Expiry Date by the paused months. For a Standard member it does not reduce the number of monthly payments you owe; it postpones the last ones. For a Loyal member it moves the renewal date later.

5.5 A pause must begin within your current term, and cannot be started while a payment is overdue.

5.6 A pause cannot be extended once it has begun. Your membership restarts automatically at the end of the paused months and the payment schedule resumes. A member wanting further months must ask for a new pause from their remaining allowance.

5.7 The pause allowance applies to each term. Unused pause months do not carry into a renewal term.

6. Renewal

6.1 Unless ended under clause 7 or 8, your membership renews automatically at the end of its term for a further twelve months, on the same payment basis (or on the plan you chose under clause 6.5). A Gift Membership does not renew automatically (clause 10).

6.2 We email you seven (7) days before the end of your term, telling you the renewal date, the fee that will apply and how to stop the renewal.

6.3 You can stop the renewal in your account, or by writing to us, during the final seven (7) days of your term. Your membership then ends at the end of the term and no Early Exit Charge is payable: running the full term and leaving at its end costs you nothing extra. Until that final period begins, your account shows the date from which you can stop the renewal.

6.4 A renewed membership is a fresh twelve-month term, and clause 7 applies to it as it did to the first.

6.5 You may ask in your account to move to the other plan for your next term. The new plan starts at the renewal, at the price shown when you confirm, and you can undo the request until the date shown. Nothing changes or is charged before then.

7. Leaving before the term ends

7.1 You are committed for the full twelve months. You may ask to leave early at any time, in writing. If we accept, your membership ends on the date we confirm and the Early Exit Charge falls due immediately. Early exit is handled by our team: nothing is charged automatically.

7.2 Why the charge exists. Your twelve-month commitment is what the membership is priced on. Against it we reserve stock for the whole year, place forward orders with our producers, hold storage capacity for you, and fix your price for twelve months whatever happens to our own costs. Those commitments are made at the start of the term and cannot be unwound when a member leaves part-way through, and the member has had the benefit of them for every month served. The Early Exit Charge is a genuine pre-estimate of that loss, agreed between the parties in advance as compensation, as the civil law of the United Arab Emirates in force at the time allows. It is not intended as a penalty. Nothing in this clause limits a competent court’s power under that law to adjust agreed compensation, or your mandatory rights as a consumer (clause 9.3).

7.3 The Early Exit Charge is the total of all monthly payments remaining in your twelve-month term, at your protected monthly price, VAT included.

7.4 The Early Exit Charge is payable whether or not any allocation is delivered. You do not receive the allocations for the remaining months. Your membership, your allocation, your price protection, your storage and your member pricing all end on the date your membership ends.

7.5 Any allocation already carried forward under clause 3.4 and still undelivered on that date is forfeited.

7.6 Where you pay monthly, all remaining instalments fall due immediately and are payable at once.

7.7 Where you pay annually, no refund is due for the unexpired part of the term.

7.8 We will show you the calculation in writing before you commit to leaving.

7.9 No Early Exit Charge is payable, and fees for the unexpired term are refunded in full, where you leave because: we materially breached these terms and did not put it right within thirty (30) days of your written notice; a variety became unavailable and you chose to end your membership under clause 3.11; you rejected a material change under clause 7.2 of the Website & Account Terms; or the member has died or become permanently unable to receive deliveries.

7.10 We may waive or reduce the Early Exit Charge in any case. Doing so once does not oblige us to do so again.

7.11 If a court or authority finds the Early Exit Charge excessive in any particular case, it takes effect at the highest amount permitted and the rest of these terms is unaffected.

8. When we may end a membership

8.1 We may end your membership immediately, on written notice, if you: fail to pay thirty (30) days after a due date; resell our products or share member pricing in breach of clause 2.4 of the Website & Account Terms; give us false information; or behave abusively towards our staff.

8.2 Where we end a membership under clause 8.1, the Early Exit Charge applies as if you had left early, and no fees are refunded.

8.3 We may end any membership without cause on sixty (60) days' written notice. If we do, no Early Exit Charge is payable and we refund the fees for the unexpired part of the term in full.

8.4 Ending a membership does not affect any order already confirmed, nor any amount already owed.

9. General

9.1 These terms sit alongside the Website & Account Terms, the Shop, Delivery & Refund Terms and the Privacy Notice. Where they conflict on a question of membership, these terms prevail.

9.2 Notices to you go to the email address on your account. Notices to us go to wissamtaha@depierre.eu. Email is written notice for the purposes of these terms.

9.3 Your statutory rights as a consumer under UAE Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 are not affected by anything in these terms.

9.4 These terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates and the Emirate of Dubai, and the courts of Dubai have exclusive jurisdiction.

10. Gift Memberships

10.1 A member may buy a Gift Membership for someone they name. The buyer pays for it: for a Standard gift, the first month when buying and the remaining eleven monthly instalments, one month apart, from one month after the recipient accepts it; for a Loyal gift, the full year when buying. The buyer accepts the Shop, Delivery & Refund Terms and the payment terms of this clause for their purchase.

10.2 The recipient becomes the member only by accepting the Gift Membership themself, in their own account, under these terms. The buyer cannot accept these terms, or the membership, on the recipient's behalf.

10.3 A Gift Membership starts when the recipient accepts it and runs for twelve months. It does not renew automatically.

Who we are

DePierre Caviar Fish Trading L.L.C · Commercial Licence 1547522 · TRN 105197923300003

Unit 1710, Bayswater, Business Bay, Dubai, United Arab Emirates