Terms of Service

1. Who we are

The Pingle services are provided by Pingle Software LTD, a private company limited by shares, registered in England and Wales. Our company number and registered office are on our company details page.

"We", "us" and "our" mean Pingle Software LTD. "You" means the person or business using the services.

You can contact us:

• through our contact page; or
• by post to our registered office, whose address is on our company details page.

2. About these terms

These terms are the contract between you and us for the Pingle services. Please read them before you buy or use anything. They explain what we provide, what you pay, how to cancel, and what happens if something goes wrong.

If you are a consumer, nothing in these terms takes away your legal rights. Where a term says otherwise, the law wins. You can get advice on your rights from Citizens Advice (England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 0808 223 1133; Scotland: Consumer Advice Scotland).

These terms work together with:

Cancelling and refunds are in section 10, the rules on acceptable use in section 15, and a model cancellation form in the Annex.

If these terms and another document disagree, these terms apply, except that the data processing agreement we provide to Business Customers with their contract (section 14.2) wins on data protection matters.

3. Words we use

4. Who can use the services

You must be at least 18 years old to create an Account, buy a Plan or use the Marketplace. A Family Plan holder may let family members under 18 use the VPN Service, as section 7.1 explains.

You must not use the services if:

• you are a person named on the UK Sanctions List, or owned or controlled by one;
• using them would break the law that applies to you or to us, including UK sanctions and export control law;
• we have previously closed your Account for breaking these terms, unless we agree otherwise.

We may decide not to offer the services, or some of them, in certain countries or regions. If so, we will tell you before you buy.

Your local law. Laws about VPNs differ between countries, and some restrict or ban them. You are responsible for checking and following the law where you are. We do not give legal advice about any country's laws.

5. Your Account

5.1 Creating an Account

You can create an Account without giving us an email address or phone number. If you do give us contact details, we will use them as our Privacy Policy explains.

5.2 Keeping it safe

The details that identify your Account, such as an account number, access key or login, are the only way to reach it. Keep them private.

• If you lose them and did not give us any way to recover the Account, we may not be able to restore it, because we hold little or no information that would let us prove it is yours.
• Tell us straight away if you think someone else has access.
• You are responsible for what happens under your Account, unless it happens because we failed to take reasonable care.

5.3 How we contact you

The law requires us to send you certain information on a "durable medium": something you can keep, such as an email, or a message in the App or your Account that you can save. This includes your order confirmation and the confirmation that you have ended a Plan (section 9.3).

If you have given us contact details, we may send these notices there. If you have not, we will send them to your Account, in the App or on our website. Please check it regularly.

6. The services

6.1 VPN Service

The VPN Service routes your internet traffic through our servers in an encrypted tunnel. Features include automatic routing (supported national services can bypass the tunnel while the VPN is on) and connection to our server locations.

You can use the VPN Service with a Plan, or without one: an Account without a Plan gets the free daily allowance and can then pay for traffic per gigabyte from its prepaid balance (section 7.4).

Every Plan includes every location, and so does using the VPN Service without a Plan. The current list of locations is shown on our website and in the App. It may change (see section 17).

What a VPN can and cannot do. The VPN Service hides your traffic from your local network and internet provider, and shows websites one of our IP addresses instead of yours. It does not make you anonymous in every situation. Websites can still recognise you if you sign in, and through cookies or your device's settings. Some websites and streaming services block VPN connections. We work to keep access open, but we cannot promise that any particular third-party service will accept a VPN connection at all times.

6.2 Marketplace

The Marketplace lets users list, buy and sell VPN services and digital goods and services. It is available on our website and as a Telegram Mini App. Section 13 sets out the rules.

6.3 Control Panel

The Control Panel lets Business Customers run VPN nodes and manage their own user accounts. Section 14 sets out extra terms for Business Customers.

6.4 Services not yet available

Our Apps are not yet released. When they are, our download page will list the platforms they support.

"Create your service" (our white-label offering), the Pingle SDK and our developer documentation are in development. At the moment you can only join a waitlist. Joining the waitlist does not create a contract to supply those services and does not reserve a price. When they launch, we will publish terms for them.

Other services described in these terms may also not be available yet, or not in your country. These terms apply to each service from when we make it available to you.

6.5 Free services

Some parts of the services, such as our websites, the waitlist and the free daily allowance (section 7.4), are free. Where you pay nothing, sections 11 and 12 still apply to the extent the law requires.

7. Plans and prices

7.1 Plans

All Plans include unlimited devices and all server locations, and differ in monthly traffic; the Pro and Family Plans also include whitelists. You can buy a Plan for one month (monthly) or for twelve months in one payment (yearly).

A yearly Plan costs 20% less than twelve monthly payments: its price per month is 80% of the monthly price, rounded down to the cent, and you pay twelve times that at once.

Unlimited devices. You may connect as many of your own devices as you like. A Plan is for you or, on the Family Plan, for you and your family. It is not for resale or for sharing with the public. The Family Plan holder is responsible for how family members, including anyone under 18, use it.

Traffic. Traffic means the data sent and received through the VPN tunnel. The allowance is per billing month on both monthly and yearly Plans: each billing month's allowance is for that month and does not carry over.

To count traffic, we keep a running total of the bytes each Account uses in the current billing month or, without a Plan, in the current day (section 7.4). We do not record which sites you visit or what you do (see our Privacy Policy).

Unlimited Family traffic and resale prevention. Family has no fixed monthly traffic allowance. If usage exceeds 3,000 GB in a billing month and the service security team suspects resale of access, it may restrict the Account. Exceeding 3,000 GB alone does not automatically trigger a restriction or Extra Usage charges. Notice, enforcement and appeals follow sections 15.8, 15.9 and 18.2.

7.2 When you reach your allowance

This section applies only to Lite, Standard and Pro. Family has unlimited traffic; allowance-based pauses and Extra Usage do not apply.

When you use all of your Plan's traffic, one of two things happens:

1. Extra Usage is off (the default). Your VPN traffic pauses until your next billing month starts, unless you upgrade your Plan or switch on Extra Usage. If your paid period ends first, section 7.4 applies from then.
2. Extra Usage is on. You keep going and pay US$0.20 per GB of extra traffic.

7.3 Extra Usage

This section applies only to Lite, Standard and Pro. Family has unlimited traffic; allowance-based pauses and Extra Usage do not apply.

Extra Usage is off unless you switch it on. We will never charge you for Extra Usage you have not chosen.

• Price: US$0.20 per GB, charged in exact proportion to the bytes you use, with no rounding up to a whole GB. 1 GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes, so the price is US$0.0002 per MB.
• Before you switch it on, we will show you how Extra Usage is measured and how you pay for it.
• You can switch Extra Usage off at any time. It stops at once for future traffic. You still pay for traffic you have already used.

The same price per GB applies to traffic without a Plan (section 7.4). Extra Usage itself is only for Lite, Standard and Pro Plans.

7.4 Using the VPN Service without a Plan

An Account with no active Plan can still use the VPN Service, with unlimited devices and every location. Its traffic is counted in this order:

1. Free daily allowance. The first 200 MB (200,000,000 bytes) of traffic each day are free. The allowance is per Account and shared by all its devices. It resets at 00:00 UTC, does not carry over, and is a hard limit.
2. Prepaid balance. After that, traffic costs US$0.20 per GB, paid from your prepaid balance (section 7.5). As with Extra Usage, the charge is in exact proportion to the bytes you use, with no rounding up to a whole GB (US$0.0002 per MB).
3. Empty balance. If your balance runs out, your VPN traffic pauses until the free daily allowance resets at 00:00 UTC or until you top up.

While you have an active Plan, its allowance applies instead of the free daily allowance. When a Plan's paid period ends and you have not paid for the next one, your Account goes back to the rules in this section.

7.5 Prepaid balance

You can add money to your Account in advance (a top-up). The minimum top-up is US$5, paid by bank card or in cryptoassets (section 8).

Your prepaid balance can only be spent on our own services, such as traffic without a Plan (section 7.4) or Extra Usage. It cannot be used to pay Marketplace sellers, transferred to other users or withdrawn as cash, except as a refund under section 10.4.

Bonus amounts. Our support team may add a bonus amount in US dollars to your Account. A bonus is kept separate from the money you paid in and is spent first, before your own money. It cannot be withdrawn and is not refundable. When your Account is closed, any unspent bonus lapses, and the unspent money you paid in is refunded as section 10.4 says.

7.6 Taxes

Before you pay, the checkout shows the total price you will pay, including any VAT or similar tax we must charge. Unless your order says otherwise, prices for Business Customers exclude VAT, which is added where it applies.

7.7 Currency

Prices are in US dollars. If you pay in another currency or in cryptoassets, the amount charged is shown at checkout before you pay. Your bank or card issuer may charge conversion fees. We do not control these.

7.8 Referral programme

Inviting a friend. Once your Account has made at least one payment, you get a personal referral link. A new Account that has never made a payment and signs up through your link (your friend) gets 20% off its first Plan payment. When your friend signs up, we tell them they joined through a referral link.

Sharing your link. Share it only with people who may want it, never by spam (section 15.2), and never in a way that suggests you speak for Pingle or promises anything these terms do not. If you share it publicly, make clear that you earn a reward when people sign up: the law on advertising may require it.

Your reward. You earn 20% of each payment your friend makes for Plans, traffic without a Plan and Extra Usage, for 6 months from your friend's first payment. The reward is worked out on the money we actually receive, after any discount. Bonus amounts (section 7.5), payments from a referral balance and Marketplace deals do not count. A yearly Plan payment earns its reward one twelfth at a time, in each billing month within those 6 months.

When it is credited. Each reward is added to your referral balance 30 days after your friend's payment. If that payment is refunded in full or charged back, the reward is cancelled; if it is refunded in part, the reward is reduced in proportion. If you have already withdrawn or spent the reward, we take it off your referral balance or your future rewards. We do not otherwise ask you to pay it back, unless you broke the rules below.

Your referral balance. You can spend it on Plans, traffic without a Plan and Extra Usage. It is kept separate from your prepaid balance (section 7.5), which cannot be withdrawn, and from bonus amounts.

Withdrawing. Once your referral balance reaches US$20, you can withdraw it in USDT on the TON network: all of it, or any part of at least US$20. We pay the network fee, so the full amount arrives. Give us a TON address that can receive USDT and, if your exchange needs one, the comment (memo) for your deposit. We send to exactly what you give us, and coins sent to a wrong address or without a needed comment may be lost. We aim to send a withdrawal within 3 working days; checks under section 10.8 can delay it, and we will tell you if they do.

What each of you sees. You see how many people signed up and paid through your link, and each reward with its date, amount and status. You never see who your friend is, or their contact details, Plan, traffic or location, and your friend does not see your account identifier. Our Privacy Policy explains what we keep.

The rules.

• The programme has one level: you earn nothing from people your friend invites.
• Each Account can have only one referrer.
• You cannot refer yourself, including through another Account of your own. We may cancel rewards earned by breaking these rules or section 15.2.

Discounts do not add up. One discount applies to each payment: if you have both a promo code and the referral discount, the larger one applies. Together with the yearly discount (section 7.1), the total discount is never more than 35%.

When your Account closes. Your rewards stop when your Account closes. Before you close it, you can spend your referral balance or withdraw it. When it closes, we pay out a credited balance of US$20 or more to a TON address you give us; a smaller balance, and rewards not yet credited, lapse. If we close your Account for a reason other than a breach of these terms, or end the programme or the services, we pay out your whole credited balance, and the rewards still waiting once they fall due, whatever the amount. If we close it because you broke these terms, rewards earned by the breach are cancelled and the rest is paid out as above.

Taxes. Rewards may count as income where you live. Any tax on them is yours to report and pay.

If the programme changes. We may change or end the referral programme for the future, with reasonable notice. Rewards for payments made before the change are still credited as this section says.

8. Paying us

8.1 How you can pay

The payment methods available to you are shown at checkout. They may include bank cards and cryptoassets. We may stop accepting a payment method, for example where the law requires it.

8.2 Paying in cryptoassets

• The amount due is fixed in US dollars. The number of coins you must send, and how long that quote is valid, are shown at checkout.
• You must send the exact amount, on the network shown, to the address shown. Coins sent on the wrong network, to the wrong address or after the quote expires may be lost. We will help where we reasonably can, but we cannot always recover them.
• You pay the network fee for sending the payment. We pay the network fee for any refund we owe you.
• A payment counts as received once the blockchain has confirmed it to the level shown at checkout.

8.3 If a payment fails

We never take a payment automatically. If a payment you make does not go through, we will tell you. Nothing is bought until we receive the payment, and your current Plan, if you have one, still ends at the end of the period you have paid for.

9. Paid periods and ending a Plan

9.1 Nothing renews automatically

A Plan covers the period you paid for: one month, or twelve months on a yearly Plan. It never renews automatically, and we never take a payment you have not made yourself.

To keep your Plan, pay for the next period before the current one ends. If you do not, your Plan ends at the end of the period you have paid for, and your Account goes back to using the VPN Service without a Plan (section 7.4).

9.2 Reminders

Because nothing renews automatically, there are no renewal payments to remind you of. We may still tell you, in your Account or the App, when your paid period is about to end.

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4, Chapter 2 (sections 253 to 281) will set rules for subscription contracts, including reminders. The Government has said the new rules will start in January 2027. Our Plans never renew automatically, so we do not expect these rules to apply to them. If they do, we will follow them and update this section.

9.3 Ending a Plan early

You never need to cancel to avoid a payment: if you do not pay for the next period, none is taken. You can still end a Plan before its paid period is over, and it takes no more steps than buying it did:

• in the App or your Account, where you manage your Plan; or
• by message through our contact page. We will confirm.

We do not refund the rest of the period you have paid for unless you are within your 14-day cancellation period (section 10), the service was faulty (section 12), or the law otherwise requires it.

We will confirm that you have ended your Plan on a durable medium straight away.

9.4 Changing your Plan

• Upgrading to a Plan with more traffic applies immediately once you pay the difference in price for the rest of your current period, in proportion to the time left. For the rest of the current billing month, the new Plan's full allowance applies, and the traffic you have already used that month counts against it.
• Downgrading, or switching between monthly and yearly, is something you choose when you pay for your next period. It applies from the start of that period. We do not refund any part of the current period.

Your rights under sections 10 and 12 are not affected.

9.5 Price changes

We may change Plan prices for future periods. A price change never affects a period you have already paid for: the price of your next period is shown before you pay for it.

9.6 Free trials and introductory prices

The free daily allowance (section 7.4) is not a trial: it never turns into a paid Plan, and nothing is charged when you use it up.

If we offer an introductory price, the checkout will show the price after it ends and the date the full price starts.

10. Cancelling and refunds

This section sets out your right to cancel as a Consumer and how refunds work for each product. It comes from the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 ("the 2013 Regulations") and the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Sections 10.1 to 10.6 are for Consumers. Sections 10.7 to 10.9 apply to every refund we make. Refunds to Business Customers follow section 14.5.

10.1 The 14-day cancellation period

If you are a Consumer, you can cancel a new Plan, monthly or yearly, within 14 days of the day you bought it, without giving a reason (regulations 29 and 30 of the 2013 Regulations). This applies to the first payment for a Plan, not to paying for a further period of a Plan you already have (section 10.3).

10.2 If you start using the service straight away

For Family, we use only the share of the period you paid for that has passed: this Plan has no traffic allowance. The traffic-share calculation and loss of the right to cancel through exhaustion of the allowance described below apply only to Lite, Standard and Pro.

Because the VPN Service is a service, we would normally have to wait 14 days before starting it. At checkout we will ask whether you want it to start immediately.

If you ask us to start immediately and then cancel within 14 days:

• you pay for what you received up to the time you told us you were cancelling, in proportion to the whole of what you bought (regulation 36(4)); and
• we refund the rest (section 10.7).

How we work out "what you received": the higher of (a) the share of the period you paid for that has passed and (b) the share of that period's traffic allowance you have used. For a monthly Plan, the period is the billing month. For a yearly Plan, the period is the 12 months, and its traffic allowance is the allowance of all its billing months together, so using one month's allowance counts as a twelfth. We round the amount you pay down to the cent, in your favour.

If you use up all the traffic you bought within the 14 days (on a yearly Plan, the traffic of all its billing months), the service has been fully performed and your right to cancel ends. This applies only if you asked for the service to start immediately and acknowledged at checkout that you would lose the right to cancel once it was fully performed (regulation 36(2)).

If we did not give you the cancellation information the law requires, or did not ask for your express request, you pay nothing for the service you received and get a full refund (regulation 36(6)).

The Apps. Our Apps are free to download: you pay for the VPN Service, not the App. If we ever sell paid digital content on its own, your right to cancel it ends once the download or streaming starts, but only if you gave your express consent and acknowledged that you would lose the right (regulation 37).

10.3 Further periods

Under the current law there is no new 14-day cancellation period when you pay for a further period of a Plan you already have. Nothing renews automatically: if you do not want a further period, do not pay for it, and your Plan ends at the end of the period you have paid for (section 9.1).

Part 4, Chapter 2 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (the Government has said January 2027) will give a 14-day renewal cooling-off period after some automatic renewals and after trials that turn into paid contracts. Our Plans never renew automatically, and the free daily allowance never turns into a paid Plan, so we do not expect that period to apply. If the rules turn out to cover our Plans, we will follow them, update these terms and tell you.

10.4 Extra Usage, traffic without a Plan and prepaid balances

• Extra Usage is off unless you switch it on, and you can switch it off at any time (section 7.3). Traffic you have already used is not refundable, because the service has been performed.
• Traffic without a Plan paid from your prepaid balance (section 7.4) is not refundable once used, for the same reason.
• Unused prepaid balance. You can cancel a top-up within 14 days of making it and get back the unused part of it. After 14 days, you can ask for the unused balance to be refunded when you close your Account. Bonus amounts (section 7.5) are not refunded and lapse when your Account is closed.
• If we end the service or close your Account, we refund any unused balance as section 18 explains.

10.5 Marketplace deals

Your right to cancel a Marketplace purchase depends on who the seller is (section 13.9). While the payment is locked in Deal Protection, a buyer whose item is not delivered or not as described can open a dispute, and we decide on the evidence whether to refund the buyer in full or in part or to release the payment to the seller (section 13.5). Once the payment is released, the buyer's claim is against the seller, not against Pingle (unless Pingle was the seller).

Any Marketplace fee we charge is refunded when the buyer is refunded in full through a dispute. Blockchain network fees already paid to the network cannot be recovered from the network. Section 10.7 says who pays the fee for a refund.

10.6 How to cancel

Tell us clearly that you want to cancel. You can:

• cancel in the App or your Account, where you manage your Plan;
• send us a message through our contact page;
• write to Pingle Software LTD at our registered office, whose address is on our company details page;
• use the model cancellation form in the Annex (you do not have to).

To meet the 14-day deadline, you only need to send your message before the 14 days run out. Include your account number or other account identifier so we can find your Account. We do not need your name if you have not given it to us.

10.7 How and when you get your money back

This applies to every refund we make under these terms.

• When: without undue delay and within 14 days of the day you told us you were cancelling (regulation 34(4) and (6)), or of our agreeing a refund for a faulty service (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 56(4)).
• How: to the same payment method you used, unless you expressly agree to something else (regulation 34(7)).
• Fees: we do not charge you for making a refund (regulation 34(8)).
• Cards: we send card refunds within the time limits above. How long the money then takes to reach your account depends on your bank.
• Cryptoassets: we refund in the same cryptoasset, on the same network, that you paid with, and the same number of coins you paid, less the proportion you owe for the service you used. This way neither of us gains or loses from price movements. We pay the network fee for the refund. Blockchain payments often come from exchange addresses that cannot receive refunds, so we will ask you for a refund address. Sending the refund to the address you give us counts as your agreement to that means of refund. We may check the address against sanctions lists before sending.

10.8 When we cannot refund straight away

We may need to delay or withhold a refund where the law requires it, for example if a payment or address matches a sanctions list, or if we must report suspected crime. We will tell you if we can.

10.9 Chargebacks

If you think a card payment was wrong, please contact us first. It is usually faster. You still have the right to ask your card issuer for a chargeback. If a chargeback is made for a payment you did in fact authorise and received the service for, we may suspend your Account until it is resolved.

11. Our commitments to you

11.1 Quality

We will provide the services with reasonable care and skill (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49). Our Apps, which are digital content, will be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described (sections 34 to 36).

11.2 What we tell you is part of the contract

Anything we say or write about the services, including on our website, that you take into account when deciding to buy is part of our contract with you (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 50). We have tried to make sure our website and these terms say the same thing.

Our main commitments, as described on our website:

11.3 When the law requires otherwise

We will keep our privacy commitments unless the law requires something different of us. For example, a UK authority can require a telecommunications operator to keep certain communications data (Investigatory Powers Act 2016, section 87), and the law may prevent us from telling you it has done so. If that happens, we will comply only to the extent the law requires.

11.4 Service levels

We aim to keep the VPN Service, the Control Panel and support available at all times, and we monitor them. These are objectives we work to meet on a best-effort basis: we do not guarantee a particular availability or response time. We may need to interrupt the services for maintenance, which we announce in advance where we can, and we tell users about significant incidents that affect them on our website or in the App. This does not reduce your rights as a Consumer under section 12. Business Customers: see section 14.4.

12. If something goes wrong (consumers)

This applies whether or not your 14-day cancellation period has passed.

If the VPN Service is not provided with reasonable care and skill, or not as we described it, you can ask us to put it right at no cost to you (repeat performance). If we cannot do that within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you, you can ask for a price reduction, which can be up to a full refund for the affected period (Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 49 to 56). We will refund you within 14 days of agreeing that you are due one (section 56(4)), as section 10.7 describes.

If an App is faulty, you can ask for a repair or replacement and, if that does not fix it, a price reduction (sections 42 to 45). If an App damages your device or other digital content because we did not use reasonable care and skill, we will repair the damage or compensate you (section 46).

13. Marketplace

13.1 Our role

The Marketplace is a place where buyers and sellers deal with each other. Unless a listing says it is sold by Pingle, we are not the seller. The contract for the item is between the buyer and the seller. Our role is to run the platform and the Deal Protection process described below.

We show on each listing whether the seller has told us they are a trader (selling as a business) or a private individual. This matters because consumer law protects you against traders, not against private sellers.

13.2 Who can sell

To sell, you must:

• be at least 18;
• tell us truthfully whether you are selling as a trader;
• if you are a trader, give us the information the law requires traders to show buyers (your name, geographic address and contact details), and your tax information where section 13.8 requires it;
• follow these terms, including section 15.

13.3 Listings

Your listing must describe accurately what you are selling, its price (including any fees or taxes the buyer pays), how and when it will be delivered, and any conditions. You must own it or have the right to sell it. You must not list anything section 15.6 prohibits.

We may review, refuse, edit for format or remove any listing, and suspend any seller, as section 18 explains.

13.4 Deal Protection: how it works

Every Marketplace purchase goes through five steps:

Where the payment is held. The buyer pays in a cryptoasset the deal accepts, on the TON blockchain. The payment is locked in a smart contract. It is released to the seller when the buyer confirms delivery or the confirmation period ends, or refunded or split as decided in a dispute under section 13.5.

Before the buyer pays, each deal shows the accepted cryptoassets, the confirmation period, our Marketplace fee (if any) and who pays it, and who pays blockchain network fees.

Confirmation period. After the seller marks the deal as delivered, the buyer has the confirmation period shown in the deal to confirm or open a dispute. If the buyer does neither, the payment is released to the seller automatically.

13.5 Disputes

If what the seller delivered is not what was described, does not work, or never arrives, the buyer can open a dispute within the confirmation period.

1. Both sides can send us evidence through the deal chat.
2. We decide, acting fairly and on the evidence, whether to release the payment to the seller, refund the buyer, or split it.
3. We aim to decide as quickly as the evidence allows, and we tell both sides the outcome.
4. We carry out the decision through the escrow mechanism.

Our decision decides where the escrowed payment goes. It does not stop either of you going to court or using your legal rights against each other afterwards, and it does not take away any consumer rights you have against a trader.

13.6 What Deal Protection is not

Deal Protection is a contractual process between you, the other party and us. It is not insurance, not a bank deposit, and not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. It protects the payment only while it is locked. After release, a buyer's remedies are against the seller.

We are not responsible for losses caused by the blockchain network itself (for example, network outages or forks), by the wallet you use, or by a fault in the smart contract that we could not reasonably have prevented. This does not limit our liability for our own negligence where the law does not allow that.

13.7 Things buyers and sellers must not do

• Take a deal off the Marketplace to avoid Deal Protection or our fees.
• Confirm delivery before checking what was delivered, then ask us to reverse it.
• Open a dispute in bad faith, or deliver something different from the listing.
• Use the Marketplace to move money rather than to buy and sell real goods and services.

13.8 Information we must collect and report

The website says the Marketplace needs "No KYC". For most buyers that is true. However:

• we may be required by law to collect information about sellers and report their sales to HM Revenue & Customs (the Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023), and to give sellers a copy of what we report;
• we may be required to check deals and users against UK sanctions lists.

Where this applies, we collect only what the law requires. Our Privacy Policy (section 4.10) explains what we may collect and how long we keep it. If a seller does not provide it, we may withhold payouts or suspend selling until they do, as far as the law allows.

13.9 Buyers' rights

• If the seller is a trader and you are a Consumer: you have your full consumer rights against the seller, including, for most online purchases, a 14-day right to cancel. The seller, not Pingle, owes you those rights. We will help you contact the seller and, while the payment is locked, can refund you through Deal Protection.
• If the seller is a private individual: consumer law does not apply to the sale in the same way. Deal Protection is your main protection.
• If Pingle is the seller: sections 10 to 12 apply.

13.10 Illegal content and reporting

Users can post listings and messages on the Marketplace that other users see. We take steps to stop illegal content and activity, as the Online Safety Act 2023 requires of services like ours:

• You can report any listing, message or user through the Marketplace's reporting tools, where available, or through our contact page.
• We review reports, remove illegal content quickly when we become aware of it, and may suspend accounts.
• If you disagree with a decision we made about your content or Account, or with how we handled your report, you can complain through our contact page. We will look at it and tell you the outcome.

Section 15 sets out what is not allowed, how we enforce it and how to appeal.

14. Business Customers and the Control Panel

This section applies to Business Customers, including everyone who uses the Control Panel. Sections 10.1 to 10.6 and section 12 (consumer rights) do not apply to you.

14.1 Your order

Your order form, plan or online checkout sets out what you get, the price and the term. Where it differs from these terms, the order form wins.

14.2 Your users

If you use the Control Panel to provide VPN access to your own users:

• they are your customers, not ours, and you are responsible for your contract with them, your support to them, and their compliance with section 15;
• you must not make promises to them on our behalf;
• where we handle their personal data for you, we do so as your processor under the data processing agreement we provide to you with your contract (UK GDPR, Article 28);
• you are responsible for your own legal and regulatory position in the countries where you offer your service.

14.3 Nodes

If you connect your own servers as VPN nodes, you are responsible for those servers, their hosting and their lawful use. Nodes we host for you are covered by section 14.4.

14.4 Service levels

Our service objectives are best effort (section 11.4). Any availability commitments and service credits for your business are those set out in your order form or plan. Where your order form provides service credits, they are your sole financial remedy for missing the availability commitment they relate to, but they do not limit your other rights for other breaches of contract.

14.5 Payment and term

We invoice as set out in your order. Invoices are due by the date shown on them. We may charge interest on late payments under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. Your subscription renews for the same term unless either of us gives notice before the renewal date, as your order sets out. The 14-day cancellation right is for Consumers only: refunds to you follow your order form, and are paid as section 10.7 describes.

14.6 Confidentiality

Each of us will keep the other's confidential information secret and use it only for this contract, except where the law requires disclosure.

14.7 Indemnity

You will compensate us for losses arising from a claim by a third party (including your users) that results from your breach of section 15 or from your service to your users, except to the extent caused by our breach.

15. Using the services properly

These rules apply to everyone who uses the VPN Service, the Marketplace, the Control Panel or our websites, including our Business Customers' users. They keep our network usable and our IP addresses off block lists, and stop the services being used to hurt anyone.

15.1 Illegal activity and attacks on computers

You must not use the services for anything that is illegal in the United Kingdom or in the place where you are, or to help someone else do so. Section 4 explains your responsibility for the law on VPNs where you are.

Wherever you are, you must not do anything that would be an offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, including:

• getting into systems without permission (section 1), for example guessing or stuffing passwords, using stolen credentials, or exploiting vulnerabilities in systems you are not authorised to test, or doing so to commit further crimes (section 2);
• impairing a computer's operation (sections 3 and 3ZA), for example denial-of-service attacks, deploying malware or ransomware, or deleting or encrypting other people's data;
• making, supplying or obtaining tools for these offences (section 3A), for example distributing malware, running botnet command-and-control, or selling exploit kits or stolen access.

Even where it might not be a crime where you are, you must not:

• scan or test the security of systems you do not own, unless you have the owner's written permission and have told us in advance through our contact page;
• run open proxies, open relays or Tor exit nodes through our network, or send traffic with forged source addresses;
• probe, scan or test the security of Pingle's own systems. If you find a security problem in them, please report it to us through our contact page and do not exploit it.

15.2 Spam and fraud

You must not:

• send unsolicited bulk messages (email, SMS, messenger or social media), or run the infrastructure for it;
• send marketing in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003;
• run phishing sites, fake shops or investment scams, or impersonate anyone;
• create accounts in bulk, or use automation to abuse other services' sign-ups, promotions or rate limits;
• commit card fraud, chargeback fraud or payment fraud, including against us.

15.3 Harmful and illegal content

You must not use the services to create, upload, store, share or access child sexual abuse material or anything that sexualises children; terrorist content; content that encourages or assists suicide or serious self-harm; intimate images shared without consent; unlawful threats, harassment, stalking or hate content; content that infringes someone else's copyright, trade marks or other rights; or anything else that is illegal content under the Online Safety Act 2023. If we become aware of child sexual abuse material, we report it to the relevant authorities.

15.4 Sanctions and export controls

You must not use the services if you are, or act for, a person or organisation on the UK Sanctions List (published by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), or one owned or controlled by such a person. You must not use them to make money, cryptoassets or other economic resources available to such a person, to get around UK financial or trade sanctions or export controls or help anyone else do so, or to hide from us who you are or where you are from in order to evade those rules.

We may block access from, or refuse payments linked to, particular countries, regions, people, wallets or payment providers where we believe that is needed to comply with sanctions, and we may screen Marketplace deals and payment addresses against sanctions lists.

15.5 Our network

To keep the network fair and fast, you must not:

• resell, sublicense or publicly share access to your Plan (for example, selling logins, or running a public VPN or proxy on top of your Plan). Business Customers who want to offer VPN access to others should use the Control Panel;
• use one Family Plan for people outside your family;
• run cryptocurrency mining through the service in a way that harms other users;
• try to get around traffic allowances, billing or the counting of traffic;
• interfere with other users' connections.

15.6 Prohibited Marketplace items

You must not list, sell or buy:

We may add to this list. If in doubt, ask us before listing. You must also not manipulate ratings, reviews or disputes (see also sections 13.3 and 13.7).

15.7 Business Customers' users

If you use the Control Panel to serve your own users, you must have your own terms and acceptable use rules that are at least as protective as this section, and enforce them. You are responsible for your users' use of the services. You must respond promptly to abuse reports we forward to you, and within any time limit we give in the report, and you must not configure your nodes or service in a way that breaks this section.

15.8 How we find out about misuse and what we do

We do not monitor the content of your traffic or record the sites you visit (see our Privacy Policy). We learn about misuse from complaints and reports from users, other network operators, rights holders and authorities; from aggregate network signals that do not include the content or destinations of anyone's traffic (for example, a sudden flood of connections to one port from our servers, or one of our IP addresses being put on a block list); and from Marketplace listings, messages and reports, which we can see because they are posted on our platform.

We act in proportion to how serious the problem is and whether it is repeated:

We can go straight to level 3 or 4 where there is a risk to people's safety, an attack on a network, illegal content, fraud or a sanctions issue. We may also hold a payment in Deal Protection while we investigate; report suspected crime to the police or other authorities and respond to lawful requests from them (with only the limited information we hold); and report to Ofcom, the National Crime Agency or HM Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation where the law requires.

We will tell you what we have done and why, unless the law prevents us or telling you would help someone commit a crime. Refunds after enforcement follow section 18.2.

15.9 Reporting abuse and appeals

To report abuse (a listing, a message, a user, or an attack coming from one of our IP addresses), write to us through our contact page or use the Marketplace's reporting tools where available. For attacks, please include the IP address, the time (with time zone) and the ports involved.

To appeal a decision we made about your content or Account, write to us through our contact page. Someone not involved in the first decision will review it and tell you the outcome. This complaints route also covers complaints about how we handled a report, as the Online Safety Act 2023 (section 21) requires for user-to-user services.

16. Intellectual property

16.1 Ours

We (or our licensors) own the services, the Apps, our brand and our content. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the Apps on your devices, and to use the services, for as long as you have an Account and follow these terms.

You must not copy, modify, reverse engineer or resell the Apps or services, except as the law allows (for example, under sections 50A to 50C of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) or as open-source licences for included components allow. We make those licences available with the Apps.

16.2 Yours

You keep ownership of anything you post on the Marketplace (listings, messages, images). You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display and process it for as long as needed to run the Marketplace and to keep the records the law requires.

16.3 Feedback

If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them without paying you.

16.4 Other companies' marks

Apple, Android, Windows, Linux and other names and marks are trademarks of their owners. Android is a trademark of Google LLC.

17. Changes to the services

We keep improving the services. We may change features, locations and supported platforms, as long as the change:

• is for a valid reason (for example, a change in law, security, a supplier withdrawing, or a technical improvement); and
• does not materially reduce what you are paying for.

If a change materially reduces what you are paying for (for example, removing a location you told us you rely on, or reducing your Plan's traffic), we will give you reasonable notice beforehand where we can. You can then cancel and receive a refund for any period you have paid for but not received.

Sometimes we have to change things with little or no notice, for example to fix a security problem, to follow the law, or because a government blocks a location. If so, we will tell you as soon as we can, and the same right to cancel and get a refund applies.

18. Suspending or ending the services

18.1 Ending by you

You can close your Account at any time in the App or by contacting us. See section 9.3 for ending a Plan early, and section 10 for refunds.

18.2 Suspending or ending by us

We may suspend or close your Account, or part of the services, if:

• you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, including section 15;
• you do not pay (see section 8.3);
• we need to because of the law, a court order, a regulator or sanctions;
• we reasonably suspect fraud, or that your Account is being used to harm others or our network.

We will tell you why, unless the law stops us or telling you would help someone commit a crime. Where it is reasonable, we will give you a chance to put things right first. Section 15.8 sets out the steps.

If we close your Account, we refund any period you have paid for but not received and any unused prepaid balance, less anything you owe us (for example, Extra Usage already used). If you broke these terms, we may also claim compensation for losses you caused us, in the normal way. Your referral balance is paid out as section 7.8 says.

18.3 Ending the services altogether

We may stop offering a service altogether. We will give you reasonable notice and refund any period you have paid for but not received, and any unused prepaid balance. Your referral balance is paid out as section 7.8 says.

18.4 Marketplace deals when an Account ends

If an Account is suspended or closed while a deal is locked in Deal Protection, the deal will be finished or refunded under section 13.5, unless the law or a sanctions restriction requires us to hold the payment.

19. Our liability

19.1 If you are a Consumer

We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this contract or failing to use reasonable care and skill. Loss is foreseeable if it is obvious it would happen, or if both of us knew it might happen when you ordered.

We do not exclude or limit our liability for:

• death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
• fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
• breach of your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (including sections 49 to 57 for services and sections 34 to 46 for digital content);
• anything else we cannot exclude or limit by law.

We only supply the services for domestic and private use. If you use them for business purposes, we are not responsible to you for loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or loss of business opportunity.

We are not responsible for:

• a website, app or streaming service blocking VPN connections;
• your internet connection, device or local network;
• things outside our reasonable control (section 21), though we will tell you and do what we reasonably can.

19.2 If you are a Business Customer

Nothing limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law.

Subject to that:

• we are not liable for loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill or anticipated savings, loss or corruption of data, or any indirect or consequential loss;
• our total liability in each contract year is limited to the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim;
• any service credits under your order form count towards that limit.

20. Third-party services

The services depend on or connect with services we do not control, including app stores, Telegram, blockchain networks (TON), cryptoasset wallets, payment providers and hosting providers. Their own terms apply to your use of them. We are not responsible for how they work, except where we have chosen them and are responsible for them as our suppliers.

Whether an App is available in a particular app store depends on that store's decisions, which we do not control.

21. Events outside our control

We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, for example government blocking of VPN protocols or of our servers, internet backbone failures, attacks on our network that we could not reasonably have prevented, power cuts, natural disasters or war. If this happens, we will tell you and work to limit the effect. If the problem continues for a significant time, you can cancel and receive a refund for any period you have paid for but not received.

22. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms:

• to reflect changes in the law or in regulators' guidance;
• to reflect changes in the services (section 17);
• to fix mistakes or make them clearer.

For changes that affect you, we will give you reasonable notice before they apply and explain what is changing. If you do not agree, you can cancel before the change takes effect and get a refund for any period you have paid for but not received. Minor changes that do not affect you (such as correcting a typo) take effect straight away.

Each version shows the date it was last reviewed at the top. You can ask us for a copy of an earlier version.

23. Complaints

If you are unhappy, please tell us first:

1. Contact us through our contact page or by post to our registered office (its address is on our company details page). Say what went wrong and what you would like us to do.
2. We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to give you a full answer as soon as we reasonably can.
3. When we give you our answer, we will also tell you about any alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that is available to you if you are not satisfied, and whether we will take part in it, as section 308 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 requires.

Complaints about Marketplace content and appeals against our decisions are handled under sections 13.10 and 15.9. Complaints about how we use personal data are covered by our Privacy Policy.

24. Which law applies and where to bring claims

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

• Consumers: you can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland, you can bring a claim in Scotland. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can bring a claim in Northern Ireland. If you live elsewhere, you may also have the protection of the mandatory consumer law of the country where you live.
• Business Customers: the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

25. General

Transferring this contract. We may transfer our rights and duties to another business. We will tell you, and if you are a Consumer and are unhappy with the transfer, you can cancel and get a refund for any period you have paid for but not received. You may not transfer your Account or this contract without our written agreement.

Nobody else has rights under this contract. Only you and we can enforce these terms, except where section 14.7 protects us. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 does not apply.

If a term is invalid. If a court decides that part of these terms is unlawful, the rest still applies.

Not enforcing straight away. If we do not insist on a term straight away, we can still insist on it later.

Language. These terms are written in English. We also publish translations in Russian, Arabic, Persian and Chinese. If there is a difference, the English version applies, except that if you are a Consumer, any unclear or conflicting wording will be read in the way most favourable to you (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 69).

Entire agreement (Business Customers only). These terms, your order form and the documents they refer to are the whole agreement between us about their subject matter.

Annex. Model cancellation form

If you are a Consumer and want to cancel under section 10, you can complete and send us this form. You do not have to use it: any clear statement that you are cancelling is enough (section 10.6).

To: Pingle Software LTD, registered office as shown on our company details page (or send this form through our contact page)

I/We [*] hereby give notice that I/We [*] cancel my/our [*] contract of sale of the following goods [*]/for the supply of the following service [*]: ________

Ordered on [*]/received on [*]: ________

Name of consumer(s): ________

Address of consumer(s): ________

Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper): ________

Date: ________

[*] Delete as appropriate.

This is the model cancellation form in Part B of Schedule 3 to the 2013 Regulations. If you have not given us your name or address, you may leave those lines out and give your account number or other account identifier instead, so that we can find your Account.