Terms and Conditions Update

Another heavy hit. Last update with payments I raised my prices. After this crap Im leaving. I mean WTF!?

It is sad. Very sad. I just deleted all my models. They gave some good passive income. But THEY ARE MINE! And by deleting them they stay mine.
You know what the sad part is? They probably have at least 2 backups for all site models. Even if you delete them they still have them, but at least they wont make profit anymore. I will stay in this forum just to see how this all unfolds. But yeah, my patience is full.

For fuck sake!
At the moment when big and small corporations are all feeding AI with all of the data they can get their hands on, you provide free access to all of our models for free bulk downloads "for verification or testing" seriously???

I Don't want cgtrader to own my product they are mine and I have right to keep and use them the way I want. And there’s no transparency regarding the pricing, how will I know at what price cgtrader selling the bulk product to the buys. They all seems shady.

There should be an option to opt out. It shouldn’t be a mandatory condition.

LMAO this is shady AF, for now i'm gonna raise my price by 5x, this site has become the shadiest & scummiest 3D marketplace i've ever seen

This is so much worse than the last change, where they reduced artists' pay.

Now, if I understand this correctly, they can legally do whatever they want with the models that we, the artists, created. They can sell them to whoever they want, for any price they choose, and with any license they decide.

We pretty much lose all control over our models being used for AI, mass production, or anything else.

If there’s no option to opt out of this agreement, you won’t be seeing me using this platform starting from the 14th of July.

They CAN'T change license at their own. It's copyright violation and EU courts have zero tolerance for that kind of activity. Royalty Free (so called Standard) license forbids reselling. And author only can set a license.

They CAN'T force people to sell their models on third market if they don't want it.

They CAN implement new license but that MUST BE free will for users to allow it. And in order to do that, they MUST let users set new price for resellers which is usually 100 to 500 times greater than usual standard price.

For any violation of EU laws it's jurisdiction of European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxemburg but you must sue them in front of Supreme Court of Lithuania, Vilnius and then they send case to Luxemburg. And don't worry, you can do everything online with no lawyer (www.lat.lt) and there's no chance to lose a case. Your job is just to set a price for settlement that can't be negotiated.

They have violated like 8 EU regulations and laws and at least 5 international laws when it comes to Copyright Violation, Financial Fraud and few more sections of individual laws.

The points in the update worry me. And these points are especially alarming:
- "...Seller shall not be compensated for such submission of the Products for verification or testing."
- "... In case the Seller removed the Product from the Site or changed the price or licence of the Product after it has been provided to the Buyer for verification or testing purposes, should the Product be selected by such Buyer for purchase, the Product can be sold to a Buyer after its removal from the Site and it can be sold at the price and with the licence which prevailed at the moment it was provided to the Buyer."
And this point gives me an ambiguous attitude and many questions:
- "When enterprise Buyer agrees to purchase the Products, the sale process may manually be completed at the Site as per Terms and Conditions established thereunder..."
How to understand all this? I'm just confused...

I've got the notifications of several of my models been bought starting from last month by "cgt-clients", I do not know if this is some legit user or
if cgtrader already started purchasing my models to resell them in future?

I do not agree to these new condition, I do not allow CGtrader to resell and sublicense my work in any shape or form without my consent.
After these and the changes at the payout rate this is a really concerning situation.

I'm pretty sure all that's illegal if there's no opt-out option. Maybe it's time for class action lawsuit against cgtrader? At some point we have to say loud and clear - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, STOP ROBBING US!

CGTrader, what is going on with you? why so many changes in a short period of time? Can we opt out? What should we expect in the next few months? Please explain..

Here we go again. Just when you thought CGT has hit rock bottom, the ground opens up to reveal a bottomless pit. You cannot forcefully take ownership of someone's intellectual property. Opt-out should be the default and those who for some strange reason want to relinquish the rights to their intellectual properties will be given the option to do so.

I sincerely hope that deleting one's models on this repulsive platform means they no longer have access/control. Judging form their recent nefarious actions, I wouldn't doubt they would still have access to your models to use as they please even after you have deleted them from the platform.

The only viable marketplaces for 3d models at the moment appear to be FAB, Unity Asset Store, Turbosquid (unfortunately with the 40% royalty rate),Superhive formerly Blender Market (Promotes 70% but pays 65%-66% royalty after fees), 3DExport (Promotes 70% but pays 65% royalty after 5% merchant fee). FlippedNormals has 75% royalty rate but the traffic over there is abysmal.

Yet another cash grab at our expense. This is completely unacceptable if there is NO OPT-OUT! Are they determined to get rid of us all?

How are these tests controlled?
In what form exactly is the model provided?
Is the file complete? With watermarks? Technical limitations?
How do they ensure that the customer does not use it without purchasing or that the model is modified or used as a basis for building variations?

The risk is that a complete file will be distributed to a company and never purchased, with no way for us to verify or prevent it.

If a vendor does not want to participate, it should have the right to refuse sublicenses and free testing.

These nefarious scum-bags are really hell bent on brazen intellectual property theft. First they asked "nicely" for us to give up our intellectual property rights with a default Ai opt-in and optional opt-out, many told them to kick rocks and opted out of that garbage. Then they hit us with mandatory discount with e-mail opt-out, while ignoring the opt-out option already implemented in the user settings, many again told them to go outside, take off their shoes and kick rocks.

As if those were not enough buffoonery, they decided to slash our royalty rates significantly with a harebrained imbecilic rating system. While we are already on the ground writhing in agonizing pain, these sadistic 4ks who have blatantly refused to take “no” for an answer decided to get in some licks with this new scheme that for now appears to be gearing toward forceful takeover of our intellectual properties against our wish, even after we delete and remove our 3d models from their marketplace. I am not a lawyer but I am pretty sure that is illegal af.

So what’s next, because I do not think we have hit rock bottom. Perhaps we’ll be mandated with no opt-out option to pay CGT a monthly subscription fee to publish our models which they will automatically own.

The only viable option is to delete all models from CGtrader before July 14 and get ready for a massive class action lawsuit, because one can reasonably infer from their previous dubious actions that they are very likely to retain possession of your 3d models and use them as they please, against your wish, even after deleting and removing them from CGTrader before July 14. Whatever they say cannot be trusted. Their assurances must me considered meaningless.

Looks like it is time to get the hell outta Dodge.

Possible pre-sale cleanup?
Interesting timing with all these changes – tighter license control, resale rights even after model removal, and free enterprise previews.
It looks like CGTrader might be preparing for a bigger move – acquisition, merger, or pivot?
Hard not to wonder if this is more about making the books look clean than supporting artists.

As far as I can see, they cannot legally do this retroactively - but I guess you (as an artist) will have to agree to this moving forward, or get the hell out of Dodge.

How do you understand this? My models are no longer mine?

The new enterprise sales system — which allows model testing and sublicensing without seller opt-in or compensation — combined with the updated royalty model, which in many cases lowers the percentage for experienced artists despite years of contribution, and the growing lack of control sellers have over how their work is used, priced, and distributed, raises serious concerns and uncertainty.

These changes may offer strategic long-term benefits for CGTrader, but they come at the cost of seller trust, motivation, and perceived fairness. When creators feel devalued or exploited, the natural response is to stop uploading, raise prices, or move to alternative platforms.

We, as creators, are not just content suppliers — we are the foundation of CGTrader. You’ve built a powerful platform, and many of us want to keep contributing, but we also ask to be respected and fairly rewarded.

Thank you for listening.

So big companies can bypass the regular market, analyze and test models for free and anonymously.
We, the creators and sellers, lose a large amount of control over our products at the expense of the interests of the big companies and at a time when you have reduced our share of profit on products sold.
I would like more transparency about who takes my models to test them and have the ability to approve or deny this on a case-by-case basis as well.

https://www.cgtrader.com/profile/sales#discounts at the bottom of the page I have long ago set up the settings to refuse to participate in sales programs. Also, for this reason, I have an old email confirmation from CGTrader that my wishes have been taken into account.
I also took screenshots from this page of my settings, which were set earlier, before receiving today's notification from CGTrader about the change in the "General Terms". This is my disagreement to participate in these programs, namely:
- Sell my models for equity, custom enterprise deals, revenue share, and other alternative compensation methods
- Sell my models on other platforms via CGTrader partnerships
These screenshots are proof that I did not agree to before the official notification from CGTrader by email about the change in the "General Terms" and do not agree at the moment either, and at the time of entry into force (July 14, 2025) of the new changes, my refusal to participate in these programs will be in effect.

The account "cgt clients" bought the models during sales event with 70% discount and on that sales the payout rate still applies, so they basically got the models for a fraction of their $ value. I do not have words.

There should be an option to opt out. It shouldn’t be a mandatory condition.

Hold on a minute. This an OPT OUT that is already there. I knew I hadn't agreed to any of this, and made a point of opting out of everything when they tried to cheat us by automatically opting everyone IN to sales and AI usage a while back.

https://www.cgtrader.com/profile/sales#discounts (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

Does the proposed change to T&C remove this option? We need clarification, now CGT! I know you read the forums, even if you don't reply at all.

I suggest everyone asks for clarification by messaging the author of this thread their question directly. :-https://www.cgtrader.com/designers/nabinthapaliya446

I am opting out from Discount sale events and heavily increasing prices on all my models in the hope that they take a step back on this, but I think I am alreay in a bad situation since they already bought my models with the cgt- client account.

Deleting your 3D models or raising prices for just one or two accounts won’t make much of a difference. If you really want to have an impact, it needs to be done in numbers. We need to stand together and take action as a group. All artist or creator need to unit specially those who have more than 100 models. Whether that means removing content or adjusting prices.

Deleting your 3D models or raising prices for just one or two accounts won’t make much of a difference. If you really want to have an impact, it needs to be done in numbers. We need to stand together and take action as a group. All artist or creator need to unit specially those who have more than 100 models. Whether that means removing content or adjusting prices.

@Judita
NewsReport:
"OpenAI and Microsoft are accused of training their artificial intelligence technology with illegally obtained personal data belonging to millions of online users in a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Reuters reports."

Just make a google search for companies who stole user data to train AI and you will find names like Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn - I guess you will call all these "credible enterprise buyers", but some of them are already facing lawsuits.

You simply can not guarantee that our models will not be used for that and that's why you have to provide us an option to opt out of these so called "Verification or testing" downloads, as this is just begging to be abused.

I still do not fully understand what is this all about... Cgtrader, please explain us making some better and simplier examples.

This is unacceptable. I'm done with cgtrader, there are better places to sell.

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Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your feedback - we appreciate your engagement! We understand that updates like this can raise questions, and we're here to provide as much clarity as possible.

First, you still fully own your 3D models. This update does not transfer ownership of your work to CGTrader. Instead, it allows CGTrader to purchase licenses from you in order to resell to large enterprise clients who often require bulk licensing agreements that can be complex to manage on a case-by-case basis. Models are sublicensed to a single enterprise buyer only. Each sale to a client equals a direct purchase from you, never multiple resales.

Why this change?
Large companies often need to buy many models at once and have specific procurement rules. Previously, such deals were difficult to facilitate on the platform, as the buyers did not want to use the site to purchase models, but rather make a purchase directly from us purely due to their internal procurement processes. This update opens a new channel for sales, potentially increasing your visibility and revenue opportunities with bigger clients.

Regarding pricing and transparency:
CGTrader will buy licenses at the prices and terms you set for your models. We do not alter your prices or licensing conditions. We will provide clear records of any sales made, so you can always track how your work is being sold.

Verification or testing:
This process is standard practice in many industries where buyers need to assess the product before purchase. The terms are designed to prevent misuse of your models but allow buyers to make informed bulk purchasing decisions. Rest assured, we collaborate only with credible enterprise buyers who adhere to licensing terms and handle procurement responsibly.

Can you opt out?
This is a platform-wide update designed to open up new sales channels without changing the price or license terms you’ve set for your models. Your models are sold exactly as listed, and you’re compensated accordingly.

Your trust is important to us, and we want to ensure these changes work for the entire community. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.