Europe's specialist marketplace for collectible model aircraft
Model Plane Zone

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for Model Plane Zone (MPZ)

Last updated: 1 July 2026

This Privacy Policy explains, in plain language, what we do with your personal data when you use Model Plane Zone. We have tried to keep it short and clear. Many of our users do not have English as their first language, so we have avoided legal jargon where we can. If anything is unclear, please ask us at the privacy email below.

1. Who we are

Model Plane Zone ("MPZ", "we", "us") is an online marketplace. People use it to buy and sell collectible model aircraft, kits, spare parts, and related aviation items. We run the marketplace.

MPZ is a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) based in the Netherlands.

  • Trading name: Model Plane Zone / MPZ

  • Chamber of Commerce (KVK) number: 99213974

  • Postal address: Nieuwe Achtergracht 69-3, 1018 WL Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  • General contact: modelplanezone@gmail.com

  • Privacy questions and data-rights requests: modelplanezone@gmail.com

We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer. Our size and the way we work do not require one. The privacy email above reaches the person responsible for data protection at MPZ.

This policy covers what we do with your data when you visit the site, hold an account, buy, sell, message other users, or contact us. It does not cover what sellers, payment providers, carriers, or other independent parties do with your data. They have their own privacy notices.

2. What MPZ is, and what it is not

MPZ gives buyers and sellers a place to find each other, agree a sale, pay, and arrange delivery. We are not a party to the sale.

In practice this means:

  • The seller owns the item and sells it. The contract of sale is between the buyer and the seller, not with MPZ.

  • We do not inspect, check, hold, or ship the items listed.

  • We do not check every statement a user makes, and we do not guarantee any user or any transaction.

  • Tools like checkout, messaging, tracking, and dispute handling do not make MPZ an escrow agent or a guarantor of any sale.

Where we do offer a service ourselves, we explain it at the point where it applies.

3. Our role, and the seller's role

For running the marketplace, MPZ is the data controller. That means we decide how your data is used for things like: running and securing the site, managing accounts and listings, providing search and messaging, handling our own support, preventing fraud, running payments and shipping, keeping records the law requires us to keep, and communicating with you.

When a seller receives a buyer's details to complete an order, the seller decides for themselves how they use that information to finish the sale, keep their own records, and meet their own legal duties. For that use, the seller is a separate controller and is responsible for it. We set rules for how sellers may use buyer data (these are in our General Terms and Conditions and Seller Terms), but we cannot control everything an independent seller does off the platform. Business sellers may have their own privacy duties, including giving buyers their own privacy information.

Our service providers (payment, shipping, hosting, email, and analytics) act either as our processors (handling data on our instructions) or as separate controllers under their own notices, depending on the service. Sections 8 to 10 name them.

4. The personal data we collect

What we hold depends on how you use the site.

Account. Your name, username or store name, email address, and (if you give it) telephone number. The password you set, which we keep only as a hash, plus login and security information such as verification codes and sign-in records. Your account type (buyer, private seller, or, where allowed, business seller) and your settings. A record of which terms and consents you have accepted.

Listings and other public content. The titles, descriptions, prices, condition, model details, and photographs you upload, plus your public profile and any reviews or ratings where those features exist. Listings and profiles are public. Search engines can index or cache them. So please do not put anything in a listing, photo, or message that you would not want shown in public.

Orders and transactions. Order numbers and dates, the items and prices, our fees, payment and delivery status, and any cancellations, returns, refunds, or disputes linked to an order.

Payments and payouts. For buyers, the payment status and a payment reference from our payment provider. For sellers, the onboarding, verification, and payout information our payment provider needs in order to pay you. We never receive or store your full card number or security code (see section 9).

Shipping. The delivery and return details needed to make a shipping label and track a parcel, including names, addresses, and a contact detail where a carrier needs one. See section 7 and section 10 for how this is shared.

Messages and support. The messages you send through the site and their attachments, with the sender, recipient, and time. Your contact with our support. And any reports, complaints, or appeals, with our moderation notes.

Technical and usage data. Your IP address and the rough location it suggests, your browser and device type, the pages and listings you view, session identifiers, error and security logs, and your cookie and consent choices. Section 13 covers cookies.

Trust and safety. Signals we use to keep the marketplace safe: risk indicators linked to accounts, devices, or transactions; failed logins; reports made by or about users; moderation and enforcement decisions; and records connected to suspected fraud, rule breaches, or legal requests.

We do not ask for special-category data (such as health, religion, ethnicity, or political views), and you should not send it to us. If it reaches us anyway, for example in a message, we only process it where we have to and the law allows it. Please do not put identity documents, full payment details, or passwords in listings or messages.

5. How we collect it

Most of what we hold comes straight from you: when you register, set up as a seller, create a listing, place or fulfil an order, message someone, contact support, or change your settings.

Some is collected automatically through cookies and server logs when you use the site (section 13).

Some comes from the other party to a transaction: a buyer or seller giving us information about each other to complete an order, or one user reporting another.

Some comes from our providers: Stripe (payments and seller verification), Sendcloud and the carriers you choose (delivery and tracking), and our hosting, email, and analytics providers. Where the law allows, we may also check public sources such as the KVK register or VAT-validation systems, or act on information from courts or authorities.

6. Why we use your data, and what allows us to

We rely on the legal grounds set out in the GDPR (in Dutch, the AVG). The "contract" we mention below is your agreement with MPZ to use the marketplace. It does not make us a party to the sale between buyer and seller.

To run the marketplace: creating and managing your account, publishing listings, and providing search, messaging, checkout, and support, and connecting buyers with sellers. What allows us: we need to do this to provide the service you signed up for (our contract with you).

To support transactions: recording orders, passing the necessary details between buyer and seller, processing payments and payouts, making shipping labels, providing tracking, and handling cancellations, returns, refunds, and disputes. What allows us: our contract with you; the legitimate interest you, other users, and we have in completing and documenting a sale; and, for the records we must keep, a legal duty.

To keep the marketplace safe: securing accounts, preventing fraud and abuse, spotting suspicious or linked accounts, moderating listings and messages, hiding contact details, investigating reports, and enforcing our rules. What allows us: our legitimate interest in a safe and trustworthy marketplace, and where it applies, a legal duty.

To meet our legal duties: in particular accounting and tax record-keeping, and platform tax reporting under DAC7. Under the EU platform-reporting rules (Directive 2021/514, known as "DAC7", as applied in the Netherlands), we must collect and check certain seller information and report sellers to the Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax authority) once they reach the reporting thresholds in a calendar year: 30 or more sales, or more than 2,000 euro in proceeds. We also answer lawful requests from authorities. What allows us: a legal duty.

To communicate with you: sending account, security, order, payment, shipping, and dispute messages, and telling you about important changes to the service or these terms. What allows us: our contract with you, a legal duty, or our legitimate interest in running the service.

To improve the site: finding and fixing errors, monitoring performance, understanding how the marketplace is used, and building new features. What allows us:our legitimate interest in keeping and improving the service. Where this relies on non-essential cookies, your consent.

To send marketing, where you have asked for it or the law otherwise permits it. You can unsubscribe at any time. What allows us: your consent, or another lawful permission.

To handle legal claims: resolving disputes, taking advice, recovering money owed, and bringing or defending claims. What allows us: our legitimate interest, and where it applies, a legal duty.

Where we rely on legitimate interest, we weigh it against your interests and rights, and you can object (see section 18).

7. What buyers and sellers see of each other

We share between buyer and seller only what the sale needs.

Addresses are not swapped inside the site. When a buyer pays, the delivery address goes to the carrier through Sendcloud to make the shipping label. Depending on the carrier, the buyer's name and delivery address are printed on that label, so a seller handling the parcel may see them. The seller's return address is on the same label, so a buyer may see that. This is the normal way parcel delivery works.

Beyond the label, a seller sees the buyer's username, the order and item details, the shipping method, and any messages or dispute information tied to the order. A buyer sees the seller's username or store name, their seller status, any business or contact details the law requires a business seller to give, and the order, shipping, and tracking information. Neither side gets the other's payment or payout banking details from us.

Information passed for a transaction may be used only for that transaction: completing it, communicating about it, shipping and returns, the parties' own accounting or legal duties, and resolving a dispute. If a seller misuses buyer data, that is the seller's responsibility, and we can investigate, restrict, or remove a seller who breaks the rules.

8. Who else receives data

We share personal data with the following, and only as far as needed.

Stripe processes payments and handles seller onboarding, verification, and payouts (section 9).

Sendcloud and the carriers you choose make labels and deliver parcels. Because MPZ is a cross-border marketplace, the carrier depends on the country and on the option chosen at checkout. Sendcloud and the carriers act as processors or as separate controllers depending on the step. Sendcloud is based in the Netherlands.

Cloudways hosts the site. Our servers are in Amsterdam (on DigitalOcean infrastructure), so the data we host sits in the EU.

Google receives analytics data through Google Analytics, but only after you agree to analytics cookies (section 13).

Email and notification providers send the account, order, and security messages described in section 14.

Professional advisers (our accountant, and where needed lawyers or other advisers) receive data where that is necessary.

Authorities (courts, regulators, the tax authority, or law enforcement) receive data where we are required or allowed to provide it.

A successor: if MPZ is ever sold, merged, or transferred, the relevant data may pass to the new operator under suitable safeguards.

Where a provider handles data for us, we have a processor agreement in place. Where a provider acts as its own controller, it does so under its own privacy notice.

9. Payments and payouts

We use Stripe, including Stripe Connect, to take payments and pay sellers.

Card details are entered into Stripe's own payment fields and handled by Stripe. They do not pass through our servers, and we never store your full card number or security code. From Stripe we receive what we need to run the marketplace: a transaction reference, the amount and currency, the payment status, the payment-method type or masked details, and any refund, chargeback, or fraud information.

To pay sellers, Stripe collects seller onboarding and verification details directly. This usually means legal name, date of birth, address, contact details, bank or payout account, and, where Stripe's checks require it, identity documents. Stripe collects most of this itself. We generally receive the verification result and payout status rather than the underlying documents. Stripe uses this information for payment processing, identity and fraud checks, and its own regulatory compliance, under its own terms and privacy notice.

Where a payout is delayed, held back, or released against delivery, we use payment, tracking, and dispute information to manage that. A delayed payout is not escrow and is not a guarantee of the sale.

10. Shipping and delivery

We use Sendcloud to make shipping labels and provide tracking. To do that, we pass on the names, delivery and return addresses, parcel details, and a contact detail where the carrier needs one. The carrier then uses that information to carry, deliver, and where needed clear the parcel, and to handle any claim. The carrier acts as a processor or as its own controller depending on the step.

We use tracking and delivery status to give order updates, support both sides of a sale, look into delayed or lost parcels, handle refunds and returns, decide payout timing where that applies, and keep transaction records. Items are packed and sent by the seller, not by MPZ.

11. Messages, moderation, and safety

Messages sent through the site are stored and processed by MPZ, including their content, attachments, and sender and recipient details. Please treat them as moderated, not private, and do not send identity documents, passwords, or full payment details through them.

We use automated filters and, where needed, manual review to catch fraud, spam, phishing, abusive content, banned listings, and attempts to take a deal off the platform or to share contact details to get around our rules. We may block, hide, or remove email addresses, phone numbers, links, or payment instructions in messages.

Authorised people at MPZ can access messages and related records where it is genuinely needed: to answer a support request, investigate a report, prevent fraud, protect an account, resolve a dispute, enforce our rules, or respond to a legal request. We do not read messages routinely or in real time. Moderation lowers risk but cannot catch everything. If you think we have got an enforcement decision wrong, you can ask us to look again.

12. Automated processing

We and our providers use automated checks to flag suspicious logins, assess payment or transaction risk, detect spam or banned content, and apply limited technical restrictions. These use things like account history, device and IP information, payment status, message patterns, and reports.

We do not make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you by automated means alone. If that ever changed, we would give you the information and safeguards the GDPR requires, including the right to ask for human review, give your view, and challenge the decision.

13. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies for two kinds of purpose.

Necessary ones keep you logged in, secure your account, remember your basket and your cookie choices, route traffic, and let payments work. These are needed to provide the service, so they run without consent.

Analytics ones, specifically Google Analytics, help us understand how the site is used. These are not essential, so we load them only after you have given consent. If you say no, they do not run, and the rest of the site still works normally. The US transfer involved is covered by the safeguards in section 16.

You can accept or refuse non-essential cookies, and change your mind later, through our cookie settings: cookie-settings link. Refusing them does not block the core marketplace. A separate Cookie Statement lists each cookie, its provider, purpose, and how long it lasts.

This follows the consent rule in Article 11.7a of the Telecommunicatiewet (the Dutch cookie law) and the GDPR.

14. Service messages and marketing

Some messages are part of running your account and the sales you are involved in: registration and security, order and payment updates, shipping and tracking, dispute and policy messages, and notices about changes to the service or these terms. You cannot opt out of these while you have an active account, because they are necessary. Optional notifications can be turned off in your settings where that feature exists.

Marketing, meaning newsletters or promotions, only goes to you where you have agreed to it or the law otherwise permits it. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing does not stop the service messages above. We keep a short suppression record (your email address and the date you opted out) so that we keep honouring your choice.

15. How long we keep data

We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy, and then we delete or anonymise it. In practice:

  • Accounting and tax records (invoices and transaction, payment, and payout records) are kept for 7 years. This is the Dutch fiscal retention period (article 52 AWR and article 2:10 BW, Dutch tax and commercial law).

  • Seller data needed for DAC7 is kept for at least 5 years, as the platform-reporting rules require.

  • Account and profile data is kept while your account is open, and for a reasonable period after you close it, so we can finish open transactions, handle disputes, prevent repeat abuse, and meet our legal duties.

  • Listings stay while published. Once removed or sold, they are kept in non-public form for a reasonable period for records, safety, and dispute handling. Copies outside our control, such as search-engine caches, may stay around for a while after we delete ours.

  • Messages, reports, and dispute records are kept while they are needed for the transaction, support, safety, or a claim. Anything tied to an open investigation, dispute, or legal hold is kept until that is resolved.

  • Technical and security logs are kept for short, limited periods, and longer only where they are tied to a security incident or a claim.

  • Cookie and consent records are kept as long as needed to show we had your consent. Cookie lifespans are in the Cookie Statement.

Data can survive briefly in secure backups until those are overwritten in the normal cycle.

16. Data outside the EU

The data we host sits in the EU (Amsterdam), and Sendcloud is in the Netherlands, so most of your data stays inside the EEA.

Two providers involve a transfer to the United States: Stripe and Google. For both, the transfer is covered in two ways: they are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and the underlying contracts also carry the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses as a backstop. If you want more detail on the safeguards for a particular provider, ask us at the privacy email.

17. How we protect data

We use technical and organisational measures suited to the data and the risk: access controls and login protections, encryption where appropriate, logging and monitoring, backups, up-to-date software, limited staff access, and checks on the providers we use.

No online service is completely secure, so we cannot promise absolute security. Please protect your own account too: use a strong, unique password, keep your email and devices secure, and tell us quickly at modelplanezone@gmail.com if you think someone has got into your account. If a data breach happens that is likely to affect your rights, we will act as the law requires, including notifying the authority and, where needed, you.

18. Your rights

Under the GDPR you can, subject to its conditions:

  • Ask what we hold about you and get a copy (access).

  • Correct information that is wrong or incomplete.

  • Have data deleted in the cases the law recognises. This is not absolute: we may keep what we need for tax and accounting, open disputes, payment and chargeback records, fraud prevention, protecting other users, or legal claims. So closing your account does not always erase everything at once.

  • Restrict certain processing in the cases the law allows.

  • Object to processing we base on legitimate interest, on grounds relating to your situation. We will stop unless we have compelling grounds or need it for legal claims. You can object to direct marketing at any time, and we will stop.

  • Receive data you gave us in a portable, machine-readable form, or have it sent to another controller where that is technically possible, for processing based on consent or contract.

  • Withdraw consent at any time, where we relied on it. This does not affect what we did lawfully before you withdrew it.

To use any of these rights, email modelplanezone@gmail.com. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will reply within the period the law sets. We may have to limit a response where it would expose someone else's information, undermine fraud or security controls, or conflict with a legal duty. Where your request is really about something a seller, carrier, or payment provider does as their own controller, you may need to go to them directly. We will deal with our own processing.

If you are not happy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl), or to the supervisory authority where you live or work. We would like the chance to sort it out first, but you do not have to come to us before you complain.

19. Minors

The marketplace is meant for adults aged 18 or over.

No account may be created for, or used by, anyone under 16.

A 16- or 17-year-old may use the marketplace only where a parent or legal guardian, aged 18 or over, creates and runs the account for them. In that case the adult is the account holder, is the party to our agreement and to any sale, is responsible for everything done on the account, and gives any consent this policy needs. A minor does not register, transact, or receive payouts in their own right.

When an account is created we ask for a date of birth and, where the user is under 18, confirmation that a responsible adult is running it. We do not carry out formal age verification and cannot guarantee the accuracy of what we are told.

We do not use profiling-based or targeted advertising, and we do not market to minors. The message moderation, contact-detail removal, and data-minimisation described in this policy also help protect younger users.

If we learn that an account is run by someone under 16, or by an unsupervised minor against these rules, we may restrict or close it and delete the relevant data, subject to our legal, transaction, safety, and retention duties. A parent or guardian who believes we hold a child's data against these rules can contact modelplanezone@gmail.com.

20. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the service, our providers, the law, or our practices change. The current version is always on the site, with the "Last updated" date at the top. If a change is significant, we will give extra notice, by email, an account notice, or a notice on the site. Where a new purpose needs your consent, we will ask for it rather than assume it.

21. Contact

For anything about this policy or your data:

  • Model Plane Zone (MPZ), eenmanszaak

  • KVK number: 99213974

  • Postal address: Nieuwe Achtergracht 69-3, 1018 WL Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  • General contact: modelplanezone@gmail.com

  • Privacy and data-rights: modelplanezone@gmail.com