Cookie Colony · Terms & Privacy

By accessing or placing an order on this website (the "Site"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use ("Terms"). If you do not agree, do not use the Site or place an order. We may update these Terms from time to time (see Section 27); continued use after a change means you accept the updated Terms.

You must be at least 18 years old, or placing an order with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, to use the Site or place an order. By placing an order you represent that you meet this requirement and that all information you provide is accurate.

Cookie Colony is a home-based cottage food operation making custom, made-to-order cookies. We are not a licensed commercial bakery and our kitchen is not subject to state food safety inspection — see the disclosure in Section 4, which is required by Virginia law to appear on every order and on product packaging.

"NOT FOR RESALE — PROCESSED AND PREPARED WITHOUT STATE INSPECTION."

Products are made in a home kitchen that is not licensed or inspected by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, per Va. Code § 3.2-5130. Producer: Cookie Colony LLC, 3618 Elderberry Place, Fairfax, Virginia 22033-1214, (724) 987-2924.

We currently sell and ship only within VA, directly to the individual placing the order, for their own use. This isn't a preference — it's a requirement of Virginia's cottage food law (Va. Code § 3.2-5130), which does not permit interstate shipment of home-produced food. Orders with a shipping address outside VA cannot be accepted, and we reserve the right to cancel and refund any order that reaches us with an out-of-territory address despite that check.

The Site is currently private: signing in requires either a Google account on our allowlist or a one-time beta-access code issued by us. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity under your account. Beta-access codes are single-use and personal to whoever redeems them — don't share one you've been given.

All sales are final because our products are perishable and made to order. Placing an order is an offer to buy, which we accept by charging payment. Prices, ingredient availability, and shipping/tax estimates shown before checkout are subject to change without notice until an order is actually placed. Payment is processed by Stripe; we do not store your full card details ourselves. All prices are in U.S. dollars.

We reserve the right to refuse or cancel any order for any reason, including suspected fraud, an out-of-territory shipping address, ingredient unavailability, or an error in the posted price — if we cancel an order you've already paid for, you'll receive a full refund. You may cancel an order free of charge any time before we begin baking it; once baking has started, cancellation is handled case by case and may not be possible.

All sales are final and we do not accept returns. Refunds or replacements are considered solely at Cookie Colony's discretion, and only when something is wrong with an order or product — for example, an item arrived damaged or spoiled, an item was missing or incorrect, an order was not delivered, or there is a food-safety concern. A preference about taste or flavor, by itself, is not a basis for a refund or replacement.

You may submit a request through the refund request page and should contact us promptly after delivery with your order number, the email used to place the order, details of the problem, and supporting photos when relevant. Submitting a request does not guarantee a refund or replacement. We review each request and decide whether any remedy is appropriate. If we issue a refund, it goes to the original payment method and may take several business days to appear depending on your bank or card issuer.

We ship using standard carriers and package products to minimize damage in transit, but we are not responsible for delays caused by the carrier, weather, or other events outside our control, nor for spoilage caused by an incorrect or inaccessible delivery address. Please double-check your shipping address before submitting an order — we ship to exactly what you enter at checkout, and we are not liable for orders delivered to an address you provided incorrectly.

Our kitchen handles wheat, dairy, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, and soy, and products may contain or come into contact with any of the nine major food allergens (milk, egg, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame). Every product page lists known allergens for that item, but our home kitchen is not a dedicated allergen-free facility — if you have a severe allergy, contact us before ordering rather than relying solely on the listed ingredients. You are responsible for reviewing ingredient and allergen information before consuming any product.

Nutrition figures shown on this site (see the Nutrition page) are estimates modeled from typical ingredient data, not a laboratory analysis of our finished, baked products. They are provided for general planning purposes only and should not be relied on for precise dietary, medical, or allergen-avoidance decisions.

We try to describe and depict our products accurately, but photos are representative, not exact — actual appearance, size, and decoration may vary between batches. We do not warrant that product descriptions or other content on the Site are accurate, complete, or error-free.

All content on the Site — text, graphics, logos, product designs, and the Site's design itself — is owned by Cookie Colony or its licensors and is protected by copyright and trademark law. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from this content without our prior written permission, except as necessary to place and receive an order.

You agree not to: use the Site for any unlawful purpose; attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site, other accounts, or our systems; interfere with or disrupt the Site's operation (including automated scraping or excessive request rates); submit false or fraudulent order or payment information; or use the Site to harass, abuse, or harm another person. We may suspend or terminate access for any account that violates this section.

The Site and its content are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, except as required by applicable law. We do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.

To the extent permitted by law, Cookie Colony's total liability for any claim relating to an order or the Site is limited to the amount you paid for the order giving rise to the claim. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost profits or lost data, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

You agree to indemnify and hold Cookie Colony harmless from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your violation of these Terms, your misuse of the Site, or your violation of any law or third party's rights.

If you have a dispute with us, please contact us first (Section 29) so we can try to resolve it directly — most order issues can be sorted out this way faster than any formal process. This section does not waive any right either party has to pursue a claim in court under Section 21.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute not resolved informally under Section 19 will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Virginia, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Cookie Colony regarding the Site and supersede any prior agreements on the same subject.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right or provision.

You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms without restriction, including in connection with a sale or transfer of the business.

We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from causes outside our reasonable control, including severe weather, natural disaster, labor dispute, or carrier disruption.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site at any time, with or without cause or notice, including for a violation of Section 15. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 14, 16–20, and 22) will survive.

We may update these Terms from time to time; the "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be reflected on this page — continued use of the Site after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

Cookie Colony operates under the legal business name Cookie Colony LLC.

Questions about an order or these Terms? Reach us through the contact page or at [business email once set up].

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information Cookie Colony collects through this Site, how we use and share it, and the choices you have. It applies to the Site and to orders placed through it. By using the Site, you agree to the collection and use of information as described here.

We collect the following categories of information:

• Account information: your Google account email and display name if you sign in with Google, or nothing beyond a one-time access code if you sign in with a beta code.
• Order information: name, email address, phone number, shipping address, and the contents of your order (items, gift messages).
• Support information: feedback messages and any name/email you choose to provide with them; refund requests include the order reference, email, reason, and details needed to review the request. Feedback can be submitted without a name or email.
• Payment information: handled entirely by Stripe — we receive confirmation that payment succeeded and a reference id, never your full card number.
• Technical information: standard web server logs (IP address, browser type, pages visited, timestamps) collected automatically for security and troubleshooting.

We use the information we collect to:

• Take, process, and fulfill your orders, including shipping and customer support;
• Send transactional emails — order confirmations and shipping notifications;
• Review feedback and order/refund concerns, and follow up when contact information is provided;
• Verify eligibility to sign in (Google allowlist / beta-access codes);
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents; and
• Comply with legal obligations, including tax recordkeeping.

We do not use your information for interest-based advertising, and we do not sell your personal information.

We share information only as needed to run the Site and fulfill orders:

• Stripe — payment processing;
• Resend — our transactional email provider, for order/shipping notifications;
• Cookie Colony administrators — access to feedback and refund-request details for support and review;
• Shipping carriers — your shipping address, to deliver your order;
• Google — your account email, to support Google sign-in; and
• Legal/safety — when required by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Cookie Colony, our customers, or others.

If the business is ever sold or transferred, customer information may transfer as part of that transaction, subject to the same protections described here.

The Site currently uses only strictly-necessary cookies (to keep you signed in and remember your cart) — no analytics or advertising trackers are in use as of this writing. If that changes, this section and, if required, an on-page cookie notice will be updated to disclose it before any such technology is added.

We retain order records for as long as needed for tax, accounting, and legal purposes (typically several years), and account information for as long as your account remains active. Feedback and refund-request records are retained as needed to respond, improve the service, and maintain a support history. You can request deletion of your account information at any time (Section 9); order records tied to a completed transaction may be retained as required by law even after such a request.

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) and a payment processor (Stripe) that is itself PCI-DSS compliant. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information by contacting us (Section 14). We are a small business and not currently subject to state-specific privacy statutes like the CCPA/CPRA, but we will honor reasonable requests on a best-effort basis regardless.

The Site may link to third-party sites (e.g. Stripe's checkout page). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites — review their own policies before providing information there.

We and our service providers (Stripe, Resend, Google, our hosting provider) process information within the United States. We do not currently serve customers or process data outside the U.S.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time; the "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be reflected on this page.

Questions about this Privacy Policy or your data? Reach us through the contact page or at [business email once set up].