Terms of service

Last updated 27 September 2026.

These are the terms on which David Williams, trading as Common Chord, provides marketing services. Please read them before you engage us. If anything here does not match what you have been quoted in writing, the written quote wins.

1. Who these terms are between

These terms are between David Williams, trading as Common Chord ("we", "us") and the client named in the proposal or quote ("you"). They apply from the date you accept a proposal in writing, or when work starts, whichever happens first.

Where the proposal or a scope document sets out specific work, dates or fees, that document forms part of our agreement. If your own purchase order or paperwork says something different, these terms and the proposal take priority unless we agree otherwise in writing.

If you are a consumer, buying for yourself and not for a business, consumer law gives you rights that these terms cannot take away. Where that applies, it is noted below.

2. What we sell

Marketing audit (one-off)

A review of your marketing position and a written plan. The fee is €1,500. We agree the deadline in writing before we start, and the audit is delivered once.

Monthly retainer

Ongoing marketing work, starting at €1,500 per month. The retainer covers campaign planning and build, creative direction and copy, and a written read of the numbers. Extra hours are added by agreement and are quoted before they are worked. The minimum term and the hours included are set out in your scope document.

Ad management

Where we run paid campaigns for you, we charge 15% of the advertising spend we place or manage. Spend is measured from the advertising platform's own reported figures for the billing period.

AI assistant build (one-off)

A one-off build fee of €2,500. What is built, and the platform it runs on, are set out in your scope document. The build is accepted as complete when it is handed over and working as described.

Ongoing support and hosting

Optional monthly support for anything we have built for you. The price, the response times, and what is out of scope are set out in your scope document.

3. Fees and when they are payable

• All fees are in euro and are payable by bank transfer unless we agree otherwise.
• Audit: 50% on acceptance, the balance on delivery.
• Retainer and ongoing support: monthly in advance.
• Ad management: monthly in arrears, based on the spend actually incurred in that period.
• AI assistant build: 50% on acceptance, 50% on delivery.
• Invoices are due within 14 days. If an invoice is overdue we may pause work until it is paid, and we may charge interest on the overdue amount. For business clients, interest and recovery costs may be claimed under the European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2012.
• Bank charges and currency conversion costs are payable by you. Software, platform subscriptions and media budgets are not included in our fees.
• We may change our fees with 30 days' written notice. Changes do not apply to an agreed fixed-scope project already under way.

4. Changing or cancelling

• You can end a retainer or a support arrangement at any time with 30 days' written notice. Fees already invoiced for the current period remain payable.
• If you stop a one-off project part-way, you pay for the work done up to that point, and any deposit is applied to it. Anything already delivered stays with you.
• Either side can end the agreement immediately if the other commits a serious breach and does not put it right within 14 days of being told.
• We can end the agreement immediately for non-payment, for unlawful or abusive content, or where continuing would breach a platform's rules.

5. Your right to withdraw (consumers only)

If you are a consumer buying at a distance, you have 14 days from the day the contract is agreed to withdraw without giving a reason. Tell us by email and we will refund what you have paid within 14 days of your notice.

If you ask us in writing to start work inside those 14 days, and the work is then completed, the right to withdraw ends when the work is finished. If you withdraw after work has started, you pay a proportionate amount for the work done up to that point.

6. What is included and what is not

• Your advertising spend is yours. You pay it directly to the platform, on your own account. Our ad management charge is a fee for our work and is separate from the ad budget.
• Our fees do not include ad spend, media buying budgets, software or subscription costs, printing, framing, stock images or photography.
• We do not promise results. We cannot guarantee rankings, sales, enquiries, sign-ups or a particular return on ad spend. What we commit to is the agreed scope of work, the agreed deadlines, and reporting on what the numbers show.
• Out of scope unless we agree it in writing: website development beyond what is agreed, video production, event management, and legal or contract work.
• Extra work is quoted and approved in writing before it is done.

7. What we need from you

• Access to what we need to do the work: advertising accounts, analytics, website administration, social accounts, brand assets and any mailing list we are managing.
• Access within 5 working days of the start date, kept working during the engagement.
• Accurate information, and prompt sign-off on anything that needs your approval.
• If access is late or missing, dates move accordingly and fees for the period remain payable.
• You confirm you have the right to let us use any logos, images, data or text you give us.

8. Who owns what we deliver

• Once you have paid in full, you own the finished work we deliver for you. Ownership passes when payment clears.
• We keep our own methods, templates, frameworks and know-how, and we may reuse them on other work.
• You may use what we deliver for your own business, without time limit. Reselling it, or presenting it as your own product, needs our written agreement.
• Any fonts, images or platform components we use stay under their own licences, and those licences apply to you.
• We may show the work in our portfolio unless you ask us not to in writing.
• Copyright and design rights in Ireland protect the work we deliver.

9. Your data and privacy

• We handle personal data under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
• For your own contact details and account access, we act as the data controller. For personal data of your customers that we handle on your instructions, we act as a processor, and we follow your lawful instructions.
• What we handle: your contact details, account and analytics access, advertising platform data, and enquiry data where we manage enquiries for you.
• We keep data only as long as it is needed for the work, our legal obligations, and our accounting records.
• We share data only with the platforms and tools needed to do the work, and we do not sell personal data.
• You are responsible for the consents on your own mailing list, and for your own privacy notice.
• To ask for access, correction or deletion of your data, email us at the address below.

10. Confidentiality

Each side keeps the other's non-public information private and uses it only for this engagement. This does not cover information that is already public, that we already held, or that we must disclose by law. The duty continues for three years after the agreement ends.

11. Limits of our liability

• Our total liability under this agreement is limited to the total fees you have paid us in the previous 12 months.
• We are not liable for lost profits, lost sales, loss of goodwill, or losses caused by platform policy changes, account restrictions, or failures of third-party services.
• Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, and nothing here affects your statutory rights as a consumer. The Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980 and the Consumer Rights Act 2022 give consumers rights that these terms cannot remove.

12. Ending the agreement

• Either side can end the agreement with 30 days' written notice, or immediately for a serious breach as set out in section 4.
• On the end date: the final invoice is issued, accounts and assets we hold for you are handed over, and we pause or transfer any live campaigns as you instruct.
• We delete or return your data when the final invoice is paid, unless we must keep it by law.
• Confidentiality, ownership, data and liability clauses continue to apply after the agreement ends.

13. Complaints and governing law

• If something goes wrong, email us and we will reply within 5 working days. If it is not resolved, we will agree a written review with you before anything else happens.
• Irish law governs this agreement, and the Irish courts have jurisdiction.
• If you are a consumer, you also have the statutory complaint and redress routes that Irish consumer law gives you.