Terms of Service

Last updated: October 27, 2026

1. What Smuggl is

Smuggl connects "shoppers" who want goods from Smuggl-approved overseas retailers (including duty-free retailers) with "Smugglbears": travellers already flying a route who are willing to carry items back for them. Smuggl is a technology platform, and payments on it are processed by its third-party payment partners; Smuggl does not sell, own, store or transport any goods itself, and is not a customs broker. Smuggl does not determine, negotiate, or guarantee customs duty, import tax, or delivery outcomes for any transaction. These are matters between the shopper and the Smugglbear, informed by the customs-duty estimate, held payment, and after-delivery reconciliation process set out in Section 3.

Smuggl is operated by Rahul Ajit Gulrajani, sole proprietor, trading as Smuggl Technologies, 61 Sagar Tarang, Warden Road, Mumbai 400026, Maharashtra, India (GSTIN 27AKDPG2662F1ZF). In these terms, "Smuggl", "we" and "us" mean Smuggl Technologies.

References to "duty-free" on Smuggl, including in our marketing, describe where a product is sourced from: a retailer operating in a duty-free, customs-controlled zone. They are not a representation that any item is, or will remain, exempt from import duty once it reaches its destination. Whether duty is owed, and how much, depends on the destination country's own customs rules and the applicable duty-free allowance, as set out in Section 3.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use Smuggl. You're responsible for the accuracy of the information on your account and for keeping your login credentials secure. Smuggl may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms, engage in fraud, or repeatedly fail to fulfil confirmed requests.

To keep in-person handoffs safe and trustworthy, we may require you to verify your identity (including a government-issued ID and a live selfie) through our identity-verification partner, Didit, before you can act as a Smugglbear or complete certain requests. See our Privacy Policy for what that involves.

3. Shoppers and Smugglbears

Smuggl is not open to everyone: a shopper can only see and request from Smugglbears within their own personal network (a direct contact, someone you invited to Smuggl or who invited you, or a contact of a contact, i.e. friends and friends-of-friends), determined from the contacts (phone numbers and email addresses) and social connections you choose to sync, and from invite links. An invite connects only the two people involved, never their other contacts. Smuggl does not match shoppers with Smugglbears who fall outside this network, and if you have no synced connections or invites, you will not see any Smugglbears to request from.

As a shopper, you're requesting that another individual purchase and personally carry goods to you. Smuggl does not guarantee that any given item will be available, in stock, or delivered on the agreed timeline; availability depends entirely on the Smugglbear you're matched with.

How an item is bought. The Smugglbear buys each item in their own name, as an ordinary retail customer, and owns it until the handover. Ownership passes to the shopper when the shopper accepts the item at the handover. The Smugglbear is repaid exactly the price on the store's bill, plus any duty paid against a customs receipt, and earns a separate service fee for shopping and carrying (shown in the app as the Smugglbear reward). On orders delivered in India where the Smugglbear reward is paid through Smuggl, GST on that reward is charged to the shopper and is collected and paid by Smuggl Technologies as an Electronic Commerce Operator under Section 9(5) of the CGST Act, 2017; it is never deducted from the Smugglbear's reward. A Smugglbear never resells an item or adds anything to its price.

As a Smugglbear, you're personally responsible for complying with all customs, duty, and import/export laws of every country you travel through or into, including declaring goods and paying any duty owed. Neither Smuggl nor the shopper is responsible for a Smugglbear's violation of customs, duty, or import/export law, and neither Smuggl nor the Smugglbear is responsible for a shopper's violation of applicable law in connection with a request. It is each user's own responsibility, disclaimed by Smuggl to the maximum extent permitted by law, to be familiar with and comply with all customs and import/export laws and regulations that apply to their own conduct on Smuggl.

If the combined value of the items you are carrying, together with your own personal belongings, exceeds the applicable duty-free allowance, you are required to declare this at customs (using the Red Channel or equivalent declaration process, where applicable) and to pay any duty owed. Do not use the nothing-to-declare channel if you are carrying goods above the threshold. Smuggl provides customs-threshold information as a convenience; it is not legal or customs advice, and you remain solely responsible for compliance.

You may not use Smuggl to carry any item that is illegal, restricted, or requires a permit in the origin or destination country, including but not limited to weapons, controlled substances, counterfeit goods, or items exceeding personal-duty-free allowances without proper declaration.

Before a shopper request can be confirmed, Smuggl will display an estimated customs duty exposure based on the declared value of the items and the destination country's current duty-free threshold. This estimate is provided for planning purposes only, is not legal or customs advice, and does not constitute a determination by Smuggl of the actual duty owed. Where a request includes multiple genuinely distinct items, Smuggl may suggest distributing individual items across more than one Smugglbear. This is only appropriate where each item is a separate, independent purchase. It may not be used to split what is functionally a single purchase or commercial quantity across Smugglbears to defeat a duty-free threshold.

Each Smugglbear carrying part of such a request must independently and honestly declare the items they personally carry under their own individual duty-free allowance, without coordinating with other Smugglbears on the same request to obscure the total value being brought in. Smugglbears and shoppers are responsible for agreeing on how any duty or customs cost will be handled, including whether it is built into the request price.

If an item costs more on the shelf than quoted (for example because an exchange rate moved or a sale ended), what happens is decided by the option the shopper chose at checkout, before the Smugglbear buys anything: (a) the shopper pays a refundable buffer up front (5%, 10% or 15% of the item cost, or an amount they choose of up to 25%), a higher price within what is left of it is bought, a rise bigger than that means the item is skipped and refunded, and any unused buffer is refunded automatically; or (b) a higher-priced item is skipped and refunded.

Under either option, a rise of up to 3% of the item cost is bought and settled at collection rather than skipped. The Smugglbear is shown the shopper's choice before buying. Item prices are converted at the prevailing mid-market exchange rate plus a 4.13% currency-conversion allowance (a typical 3.5% card or forex markup plus GST on it), applied however the Smugglbear pays. Where the final bill still differs after purchase, a difference of up to 3% of the item cost is settled automatically between the shopper and the Smugglbear before handoff; any larger unagreed difference is borne by the Smugglbear.

Where customs duty the Smugglbear actually paid at the border exceeds the amount held until handoff, the app automatically generates a claim for the difference, supported by the customs receipt, up to a maximum percentage of the value of the goods carried for that request, set separately for each product category. Only customs duty and import taxes shown on an official customs receipt are repaid. Penalties, fines and redemption fines are not, and stay with the Smugglbear. Any amount below the hold is refunded to the shopper. These amounts are applied by fixed rules, not by individual review, and are processed through the same third-party payment partner as the original order.

If the shopper does not pay such an amount, the Smugglbear chooses either to hand over the items, in which case the amount remains owed by the shopper, or to keep all items on that request, in which case the claim is withdrawn and the shopper is refunded everything still held for it (including any customs hold) and the Smugglbear receives no service fee. The keep option is not available once the shopper has paid any additional amount on that request. Smuggl does not itself determine, set, or remit any customs duty on any user's behalf.

The underlying duty is paid by the Smugglbear directly at the border, and this claim only reimburses that already-paid amount between the two users. A Smugglbear must report any customs duty paid within 7 days of the handoff; any customs amount held for the request that has not been reported by then is returned to the shopper.

Items kept by customs. If a Smugglbear declared an item and customs did not release it, the Smugglbear may report it in the app with the customs document recording the detention or seizure, which Smuggl checks automatically. Once the document is accepted, the item is treated as the shopper's import: the Smugglbear is reimbursed the item cost from the amount held and earns no service fee for that item, and the shopper is refunded that item's share of the service fee but not its cost. Without an accepted customs document, the Smugglbear may instead drop the item, in which case the shopper is refunded in full for it and the Smugglbear is not reimbursed.

Customs penalties and fines are never repaid in either case. If customs later releases the item, the Smugglbear must hand it over to the shopper.

Declared value must reflect the actual purchase price of each item. Smuggl does not permit shoppers or Smugglbears to declare, or agree to declare, a value lower than the actual purchase price of an item, or to divide a single item into separate declarations, for the purpose of avoiding duty. Smuggl does not permit or facilitate the avoidance of customs duties or import restrictions in any form; all users must comply fully with the customs and import laws applicable to their transaction.

4. Payments and held funds

Shopper payments are charged in full and held by Smuggl's designated third-party payment partner until delivery is confirmed by both parties through the in-app handshake step. When you pay as a shopper, your card or other payment method details are entered directly on our payment partner's own hosted checkout page. Smuggl does not see or store your full card number. If you act as a Smugglbear, you provide your bank account number, IFSC code, and/or UPI ID directly to Smuggl so we can set up and route your payout through our payment partner; Smuggl stores this payout information as part of your account. Our current payment partner is disclosed in our Privacy Policy and may change from time to time.

Once a delivery is confirmed, the held funds are released to the Smugglbear, minus Smuggl's service fee. Refunds are available if a Smugglbear cancels, fails to deliver by the agreed deadline, or if a dispute is filed under Section 6.

Payment limit for new accounts. Smuggl may limit how much a new account can pay through our payment partner in any 30 days, until its first completed handover. Any limit that applies is shown at checkout. Orders paid directly to a Smugglbear by UPI don't count towards it.

5. Smuggl's fees

Smuggl charges a platform fee on completed transactions and offers an optional paid subscription tier ("Captain") with reduced fees and other benefits. The applicable fee for your specific request or subscription is always shown in-app before you confirm it, and may vary by market.

Captain renews automatically each month or year until you cancel. To avoid the next charge, cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends, in your App Store account settings; you keep Captain until that period ends. A free trial shown in the app becomes a paid plan when it ends unless you cancel before then. Apple handles Captain payments, and refunds follow Apple's rules.

6. Disputes

Smuggl does not review, adjudicate or override individual disputes. Every outcome below is decided by a fixed rule that both users accept by using Smuggl, and is applied automatically by the app.

Items at handoff. A shopper inspects each item before sharing the handoff PIN with the Smugglbear. The Smugglbear enters that PIN and then hands the item over. A shopper may refuse an item before sharing the PIN by giving a reason, backed by their photo of the item. If the item is damaged or is not the item ordered, the shopper is refunded the item cost and its share of fees, and the Smugglbear receives no payout on it. For any other reason, the shopper is refunded the item cost minus a 10% restocking fee, which is paid to the Smugglbear with their service fee for that item, and Smuggl's platform fee is not refunded.

A refusal because the item is damaged or is not the item ordered also needs a close-up photo of the problem. Smuggl may compare the shopper's photos with the Smugglbear's photo at purchase and the store receipt; where they clearly show the ordered item, or no visible damage, the refusal is treated as one for any other reason.

Customs duty the Smugglbear paid on a refused item is repaid from the amount held for duty, unless the item was damaged or not the item ordered, in which case the Smugglbear bears it. Either refund is made to the original payment method once the Smugglbear confirms they have the item, or automatically if the Smugglbear does not respond within 24 hours. There is no contest process. Because every item is purchased new from one of Smuggl's whitelisted, verified retailers, a refused item stays with the Smugglbear, who is not repaid its cost and is free to keep, gift or otherwise dispose of it; Smuggl does not broker, facilitate, or take a share in that.

Refusals apply per item, not per order. Once the Smugglbear enters the handoff PIN, the handoff of the remaining items is complete and final. A fault that could not be seen at the handoff is a matter for the manufacturer's or retailer's warranty; the store receipt is kept in the order's delivery record. A shopper who refuses two or more items within any 60-day period for a reason other than damage or a wrong item (including a refusal treated that way after the photo check) cannot place new requests until the oldest of those refusals is more than 60 days old; a refusal on a request for which the Smugglbear has rated the shopper does not count toward this limit.

Three refusals within 180 days whose photos do not show the claimed problem lead to suspension of the shopper's account. Smugglbears can see a shopper's rating as a shopper and number of recent refusals before accepting a request, and can rate a shopper after any order, including one that ended in a refusal, a missed handoff or an unresponsive shopper. Where an order ends in a refusal or an unresponsive shopper and the Smugglbear does not rate the shopper within 48 hours, the shopper automatically receives a strike that lowers their shopper rating by 0.1. There is no separate chargeback or partial-refund process outside these rules.

Requests not accepted before departure. A request that the Smugglbear has not accepted by the time their flight departs is cancelled and the shopper refunded in full.

Missed handoffs. If a shopper reports that a Smugglbear did not show, or if no handoff has taken place 7 days after the Smugglbear lands (unless the unresponsive-shopper process below has started), the Smugglbear has 24 hours to respond. No response, or a response that they cannot deliver, results in a full refund and a strike. If the Smugglbear instead proposes a new meetup and it is not accepted within 24 hours, the party whose response was awaited bears the outcome: if the shopper did not accept the Smugglbear's proposal, the order proceeds to the unresponsive-shopper process below; otherwise the shopper is refunded in full, the Smugglbear receives a strike and keeps the items.

Unresponsive shoppers. If, 72 hours or more after the Smugglbear lands, the Smugglbear has proposed a meetup and messaged the shopper without a response for 48 hours, the shopper receives a final warning. The shopper then has 24 hours to accept a meetup, and may extend this once per request by 48 hours in the app. If no meetup is accepted by the deadline, the shopper has the collection period stated in the final warning to collect the items (the app shows the date). The Smugglbear must hand them over if the shopper arranges a meetup in that time.

If they are not collected in that period, or the final warning states no collection period, the order closes as a refusal of every item for a reason other than damage: the shopper is refunded the item cost minus the 10% restocking fee, and the Smugglbear keeps the items and is paid their service fee and the restocking fee. If the shopper asked to meet and the Smugglbear did not respond, no restocking fee is charged. This is applied automatically and cannot be appealed.

Delivery record and payment disputes. Every order has a delivery number. An item is delivered to you when the Smugglbear enters the handoff PIN you revealed in your app and you accept the item. Smuggl keeps a record of each order: payment, the store receipt, the handoff time and PIN confirmation, your location when you revealed the PIN, and the order's photos and messages. We email you a receipt, and we share the record with our payment partner and your bank if a payment is disputed.

If you ask your bank or card issuer to reverse a payment for an item you accepted at the handoff, instead of contacting help@smuggl.in, your account will be suspended and the amount reversed is a debt you owe Smuggl.

Items paid directly by UPI. Where part of an order is paid by the shopper directly to the Smugglbear by UPI, the shopper inspects the items, then pays, and the Smugglbear hands over once the payment is shown in their own UPI application. Handover is final. Smuggl never holds these amounts and does not decide any disagreement about them.

These rules apply without prejudice to either party's other legal rights against each other.

7. Prohibited conduct

• Requesting or carrying illegal, counterfeit, or prohibited goods, including but not limited to weapons, ammunition, and explosives; illegal drugs and other controlled substances; counterfeit or pirated goods; and any item requiring a government permit, license, or other special authorization that the requesting user does not hold
• Carrying any regulated item (including prescription medicines) without the documentation, age verification, or quantities required by the app and by applicable law, or above any limit Smuggl displays for the relevant destination
• Circumventing Smuggl's payment/held-funds system to transact outside the platform
• Providing false identity, flight, or verification information
• Carrying items for any request on a flight on which the Smugglbear is working as cabin or flight crew
• Harassing, threatening, or discriminating against another user
• Using the platform for any purpose other than genuine personal shopping requests. Requests must be for the shopper's own personal or household use, or a bona fide gift; commercial quantities or resale intent are not permitted, and Smuggl may reject or cancel a request that appears commercial in nature
• Declaring, or asking a Smugglbear to declare, a customs value lower than the actual purchase price of an item
• Dividing a single item into multiple declarations, or otherwise artificially fragmenting a purchase, for the purpose of avoiding duty

8. Limitation of liability

Smuggl is a platform connecting independent individuals; it does not control the conduct of shoppers or Smugglbears and is not liable for lost, damaged, delayed, or non-delivered goods, for customs seizures or penalties, or for disputes between users beyond the hold-resolution process above. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Smuggl's total liability for any claim is limited to the amount held for the transaction giving rise to that claim. This limitation of liability does not apply to claims arising from Smuggl's own fraud, willful misconduct, or gross negligence.

9. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of India, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of Smuggl is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of India.

10. Suspension and termination

You can close your account at any time from the app or by writing to help@smuggl.in. Smuggl may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, is used for fraud or prohibited items, repeatedly fails to complete confirmed requests, or reverses a payment for items accepted at the handoff. Before closing an account we will tell you why, unless the law or a fraud investigation prevents it. Orders already paid for are completed or refunded under our Refund & Cancellation Policy, and funds held for an order are never kept because an account is closed. Amounts you owe Smuggl, and sections 6, 8 and 9, continue after an account is closed.

11. Intellectual property

The Smuggl name, logo, bear mascot, app, website and their content belong to Smuggl Technologies, which has applied to register the Smuggl trademarks. We give you a personal, non-transferable licence to use the app and website for their intended purpose; you may not copy, modify, resell or reverse-engineer them, or use our name or marks without our written permission. You keep ownership of the photos, messages and other content you add, and you let Smuggl use them to run your orders, resolve disputes and meet legal requirements. Product names and brands shown on Smuggl belong to their owners and are used only to identify the products.

12. Changes to these terms

Smuggl may update these terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified in-app or by email before they take effect.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: help@smuggl.in. Full contact details are on our Contact page.

Complaints and grievances go to our Grievance Officer, Rahul Gulrajani, at grievances@smuggl.in. We acknowledge within 24 hours and aim to resolve within 15 days.