If Groupon were devious, they could go around town and sign up various merchants with very generous terms and never run them, just to keep them out of the hands of competitors. Merchants are bound by this exclusivity even if Groupon never runs their offer. Read literally, merchants couldn’t even Tweet out an offer to followers about a special they were offering for the night (in a typical commercial agreement, exclusivity would be limited to a list of named competitors, such as LivingSocial and Google Offers. Because merchants have no control over the scheduling of the offer, they could be tied to an exclusivity for months in which they can’t run any other online deals. Note that the agreement has two dates, the date of the agreement and the date that the offer runs. It’s weird to see exclusivity buried under a heading of “Term and Termination”.

Groupon can terminate the voucher and the entire agreement at its discretion, but the merchant cannot. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

Groupon merchant sign in