Terms of Service
Last updated: [EFFECTIVE DATE]
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Schreibly grammar-, spelling-, and style-checking service, including the website, browser extension, desktop applications, and API (together, the "Service"). The Service is operated by [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], [LEGAL FORM], [REGISTERED ADDRESS], [COUNTRY] ("we", "us", "our"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
1. The Service
Schreibly analyses text you submit and returns suggestions for spelling, grammar, articles, punctuation, and style, for English (British and American) and German (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland variants). The analysis is performed by automated AI systems. See Section 8 for important limitations.
2. Eligibility and accounts
2.1 You must be at least 16 years old, or the age of digital consent in your country, and able to enter into a binding contract, to use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are authorised to bind that organisation.
2.2 You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly of any unauthorised use.
2.3 You agree to provide accurate account information and to keep it up to date.
3. Purchases and billing
3.1 Merchant of Record. Purchases are sold and processed by Paddle, which acts as the Merchant of Record (the seller of record) for transactions. Paddle's buyer terms also apply to your purchase. Paddle handles payment processing and applicable taxes.
3.2 The Service is sold as word allowances ("words") — one-time word packs and/or recurring subscriptions, as described at the point of purchase.
3.3 Prices, available products, and word allowances are shown at checkout and may change for future purchases.
3.4 Refunds are governed by the separate Refund Policy, which forms part of these Terms.
4. Word validity and expiry
4.1 Each word pack has a validity period chosen at purchase (up to a maximum of 365 days). The validity period starts on the date of purchase.
4.2 When you make a new purchase, your remaining word balance and the new words take on the validity period of the new purchase.
4.3 Words that are not used before the validity period ends expire and are forfeited. Expired words are not restored and are not refundable. This expiry is a core term of the word-pack product and you accept it when you purchase.
Review note: the enforceability and required disclosure of expiring prepaid balances can attract consumer-protection scrutiny in the EU. Confirm this clause with your lawyer.
5. Organisation (team) accounts
5.1 An account holder may create an organisation and add members. The organisation owner controls the shared word balance and each member's allocation.
5.2 The organisation owner is responsible for their members' use of the Service and for ensuring members are authorised to use the organisation's account.
6. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- use the Service for any unlawful purpose, or submit content you have no right to submit;
- submit content that infringes the rights of others or violates applicable law;
- attempt to disrupt, overload, reverse engineer, or gain unauthorised access to the Service;
- use automated means to access the Service beyond the provided clients and API, or exceed published rate limits;
- resell, sublicense, or commercially redistribute the Service without our written agreement;
- share a single individual account between multiple people.
We may suspend or limit access if we reasonably believe this section has been breached. The full Acceptable Use Policy sets out further detail.
7. Your content and the licence you grant us
7.1 You retain all rights in the text you submit ("Your Content").
7.2 You grant us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to process, transmit, and temporarily store Your Content only as necessary to provide the Service — including transmitting it to our AI provider(s) to perform the analysis and caching results to improve performance. This licence ends when the relevant processing is complete, except as described in the Privacy Policy. We do not use Your Content to advertise to you or sell it to third parties.
7.3 How Your Content is handled is described in the Privacy Policy.
8. AI-generated suggestions — important limitations
8.1 The Service's suggestions are generated by automated AI systems. They may be incomplete, inaccurate, or inappropriate for your context.
8.2 The Service does not guarantee that all errors will be detected or that suggestions are correct. It is a writing aid, not a substitute for professional review where accuracy is critical.
8.3 You are solely responsible for reviewing and deciding whether to accept any suggestion and for the final text you use. The Service is provided as a tool to assist you, not to make decisions for you.
9. Intellectual property
The Service, including its software, design, and branding, is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by intellectual property law. These Terms grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable right to use the Service; they do not transfer any ownership to you.
10. Service availability
We aim to keep the Service available but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. We may perform maintenance, and may modify or discontinue features. We will give reasonable notice of material changes where practicable.
11. Disclaimer of warranties
To the extent permitted by applicable law, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose. This Section does not exclude any warranty or right that cannot be excluded under mandatory law, including mandatory consumer rights.
12. Limitation of liability
12.1 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law — including liability for intent, gross negligence, injury to life, body or health, fraudulently concealed defects, or under mandatory product liability or consumer protection law.
12.2 Subject to Section 12.1, and to the extent permitted by law: we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss; and for the breach of a material contractual obligation (an obligation essential to the proper performance of the contract and on which you may reasonably rely), our liability for slight negligence is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract.
12.3 We are not liable for errors that the Service did not detect, or for decisions you make based on its suggestions (see Section 8).
Review note: German and EU law strongly constrain limitations of liability. This Section must be reviewed and rewritten by a German-qualified lawyer.
13. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to hold us harmless from claims arising out of your unlawful use of the Service or your breach of these Terms. This does not apply where you are a consumer and such an obligation is not permitted by law.
14. Suspension and termination
14.1 You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time.
14.2 We may suspend or terminate your access if you materially breach these Terms or use the Service unlawfully.
14.3 On termination, unused words may be forfeited as described in Section 4 and the Refund Policy. Sections that by their nature should survive (e.g. 7, 8, 9, 11, 12) will survive termination.
15. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. We will post the updated version with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, give reasonable notice. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.
16. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the law of [GOVERNING LAW — e.g. Germany], excluding its conflict-of-law rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Where you are a consumer, you also keep the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence, and mandatory consumer jurisdiction rules apply.
17. Contact
[COMPANY LEGAL NAME], [REGISTERED ADDRESS], [COUNTRY]
Email: [CONTACT EMAIL]
See also: Refund Policy and Privacy Policy.