Effective from 2 August 2026
These Live Auction Terms apply to auction events organised and operated directly by Looties on the page looties.io/auction. In a live auction, Looties is the seller of the item presented and your contracting party. Looties' separate role as an intermediary for user-to-user marketplace transactions does not apply to an auction purchase.
Each auction session concerns a single identified item, presented live by Looties (typically over an external video stream). Looties' legal identity and contact details are available in the Legal Notice.
Watching an auction is open to everyone. Placing a bid requires a Looties account and a valid payment card saved through our payment provider, Stripe. Card details are collected and stored by Stripe; Looties never sees your full card number.
By saving a card for the auction, you authorise Looties to charge it automatically, without further action on your part, for the final amount of your winning bid if you win the auction. Your card is charged only in that case. You can ask us to remove your saved auction payment method at any time by contacting support, provided no auction you are winning is in progress or pending settlement.
Every auction starts at a fixed price of €1. Each bid must exceed the current highest bid by at least the minimum increment displayed on the auction page. Bids are validated server-side; a bid that does not meet these conditions, or arrives after the auction has ended, is rejected.
A bid is a binding offer to buy the item at the amount you entered. Bids cannot be withdrawn or reduced. To deter last-second sniping, any bid placed in the final 90 seconds of a session automatically extends the session by 90 seconds; the displayed end time is therefore indicative and can move.
Looties may suspend or exclude a bidder, or cancel a session, in case of suspected manipulation, technical failure, or conduct that undermines the fairness of the auction.
Some sessions carry an undisclosed reserve price. If the highest bid at closing does not reach the reserve, the item is not sold, no one is charged, and bidders are notified that the auction ended without a sale.
When the session closes, the highest bidder wins and their saved card is charged automatically for the final bid amount. The winner receives a confirmation by email and in their Looties notifications.
A failed payment is final: there is no retry and no second attempt. If the charge on the winner's saved card is declined or otherwise fails, that bidder immediately loses all claim to the item and the item is offered automatically to the next-highest bidder, whose saved card is charged at the amount of their own highest bid, and so on down the ranking (up to five bidders). Looties does not re-attempt a failed card, does not wait for the bidder to fix it, and does not hold the item while they do. The bidder whose payment failed is notified by email and in their Looties notifications, and Looties may contact them separately, but that contact never restores their claim to the item.
A bidder is only ever charged for an item they are actually awarded. If a cascade bidder's payment also fails, the item passes on again; if no bidder in the ranking can be charged, or if the highest bid does not reach an undisclosed reserve, the item is not sold and nobody is charged.
All amounts are in euros and include VAT where applicable. No fee is added to the winning bid. All bids are placed and charged in euros (EUR). If your payment card is denominated in another currency, your bank converts the charge at its own exchange rate and may apply conversion fees; any USD amount shown on the auction page is indicative only and is never the charged amount.
After payment, Looties contacts the winner to arrange delivery (or hand-over at a Looties event where offered). Shipping to an address in the euro area is included in the final price unless stated otherwise on the auction page before opening.
Shipping outside the euro area and customs charges are not included. For delivery outside the euro area, the additional shipping cost is quoted to the winner before dispatch and is payable by the winner. Any customs duties, import taxes, brokerage or handling fees levied by the destination country are the winner's responsibility and are not included in the final bid price.
Auction purchases are direct distance sales by Looties. Consumers in the European Union benefit from the statutory 14-day right of withdrawal from delivery, and from the legal guarantees of conformity and against hidden defects, under the same conditions as described in the Boutique Terms of Service and the Refund & Cancellation Policy. Items are one-of-a-kind collector pieces sold in the condition presented during the live session.
Auction outcomes (won, not won, payment issue) are notified by email to your account address and in your Looties notifications. Leaving your email on the auction page to be alerted when a session opens is optional and separate from bidding; you can unsubscribe at any time.
Questions about a live auction: contact us via the contact page.