Terms of service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Vessel Hunter platform, website, mobile apps and related services (together, the “Service”), operated by Vessel Hunter (“Vessel Hunter”, “we”, “us”). By creating an account, clicking to accept, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you are entering into these Terms on behalf of a company or other organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that entity, and “you” refers to that entity.

1. The service

Vessel Hunter provides AIS-based vessel intelligence, vessel dossiers, company and fleet information, and verified contact records for maritime commercial teams. The Service is intended for business and professional use only. We may add, change, or remove features from time to time to improve the Service.

2. Eligibility & your account

You must be at least 18 years old and use the Service for legitimate business purposes. The Service is offered only to businesses and professionals; by using it you confirm that you are acting in the course of a trade, business, craft, or profession and not as a consumer, and that consumer-protection rules, including any right of withdrawal, do not apply. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for all activity that occurs under your account. Access is licensed per the number of users (seats) in your plan; you may not share a single seat among multiple individuals or allow access beyond your plan. Notify us promptly at contact@vesselhunter.io if you suspect unauthorised use of your account.

3. Plans & payment

Paid plans are billed in advance for the subscription term you select (for example, monthly or annually). Fees are stated exclusive of VAT and any other applicable taxes, which you are responsible for. Unless stated otherwise, subscriptions renew automatically for successive terms until cancelled. We may change pricing for future terms and will give you reasonable advance notice. Except where required by law or expressly stated in these Terms, fees are non-refundable, and no partial period, unused seat, or unused credit is refundable or exchangeable for cash.

You will pay each invoice by its due date without set-off, deduction, or withholding of any kind. If an invoice is overdue, we may suspend the Service after notice until payment is received, and, without further notice of default being required, the overdue amount accrues statutory commercial interest under Dutch law (article 6:119a of the Dutch Civil Code) from the due date until payment in full. You are also liable for all reasonable costs of collection, including extrajudicial collection costs and legal fees. You authorise us to charge the payment method on file for all amounts due and to retry failed charges.

You will not initiate a chargeback, payment reversal, or dispute with your card issuer or bank for any charge that is consistent with these Terms or your order; you will instead raise any billing question with us first at contact@vesselhunter.io. Initiating a chargeback for a valid charge is a material breach; we may immediately suspend or terminate your account, dispute the chargeback with evidence of your acceptance and use, and recover the disputed amount together with any fees and costs we incur. We may require prepayment or a reinstatement fee before restoring access.

4. Licence & restrictions

Subject to these Terms and payment of applicable fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to access and use the Service and the data it surfaces for your own internal business purposes. You may not resell, sublicense, redistribute, publish, or otherwise make the Service or any substantial part of the data available to third parties, or use it to build or train a competing product or dataset.

The licence is limited to the number of seats and the usage limits in your plan. You will not, and will not permit any person to: share credentials or a seat among multiple individuals; create, use, or maintain more than one account, or use trials, promotions, or the accounts of others, in order to exceed, evade, or circumvent any usage limit, rate limit, seat count, or access control; access the Service through any automated means (bots, scrapers, headless browsers, or scripts) except through an interface we expressly provide for that purpose; or remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notice, watermark, or attribution in the Service or its outputs. Each such act is a separate breach for the purposes of Section 13.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use the Service in violation of any applicable law or regulation;
• crawl, harvest, or bulk-extract data beyond the limits of your plan, or circumvent rate limits, access controls, or technical protections;
• reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code or underlying database structure of the Service;
• resell, redistribute, or commercially exploit the data except as expressly permitted;
• capture, publish, post, distribute, or otherwise make available to any third party or the public any screenshot, screen recording, photograph, mockup, or other image or reproduction of the Service, its interface, dashboards, or dossiers, or of any non-public data displayed in it, except to your own authorised users acting under these Terms;
• disclose, demonstrate, or provide access to the Service, its data sources, or its outputs to any competitor, or for the purpose of benchmarking, evaluation, or building a competing product or dataset;
• use the Service to harass, defraud, or otherwise harm vessel operators or any other person;
• use the Service to facilitate, conceal, or evade any breach of sanctions, export-control, or trade-control laws (including those of the EU, the Netherlands, the United Nations, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or in any sanctioned territory or by any sanctioned person;
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service, or breach its security or authentication measures;
• introduce malware or interfere with the integrity or performance of the Service.

We may investigate and take appropriate action, including suspension or termination, for any suspected breach.

6. Vessel & contact data; lawful use

The Service includes information about vessels, companies, and individuals, including personal contact data such as names, roles, and business contact details. With respect to contact data and any other personal data you obtain through the Service:

• you act as an independent controller and are solely responsible for your own use of that data;
• you must comply with all applicable data-protection and marketing laws, including the GDPR and the ePrivacy rules, when contacting individuals;
• you must have a valid legal basis for your processing, honour opt-out and erasure requests, and not use the data for unlawful surveillance, profiling, or any purpose incompatible with those laws;
• you must not use the contact data to send unsolicited communications in breach of applicable anti-spam rules.

We provide the data as an information service and do not direct or control how you use it. You are responsible for ensuring your use is lawful.

Where you upload or submit personal data to the Service and we process it on your behalf, you act as the controller and we act as your processor. That processing is governed by our Data Processing Agreement, which forms part of these Terms.

7. Intellectual property

The Service, including its software, design, compiled database, and all related intellectual property, is and remains owned by Vessel Hunter or its licensors. These Terms grant you a licence to use the Service, not any ownership rights. If you send us feedback or suggestions, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual licence to use them to improve the Service, without obligation to you.

8. Third-party sources

Vessel data is derived from publicly available AIS signals and third-party data providers. The availability, accuracy, and continuity of those sources are outside our control, and your use of the Service may be subject to applicable third-party terms. We are not responsible for third-party data, websites, or services.

9. Disclaimers; no warranty

The Service and all data are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that the data is accurate, current, or complete. Vessel positions, ownership, contact details, and other records may be incomplete, outdated, or incorrect. Any commercial decision you make based on the Service is made at your own risk.

The Service is a commercial intelligence tool only. It is not, and must not be relied on as, legal, compliance, sanctions, insurance, safety, or navigational advice, and its outputs are not a certification of any vessel, company, or person. You are responsible for independently verifying any information before you act on it. You have not relied on any statement, demonstration, roadmap, or representation that is not set out in these Terms, and any pre-contractual statement not stated here is excluded. Features described as beta, preview, trial, or experimental are provided without any warranty or service commitment and may change or be withdrawn at any time.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, goodwill, business, or data, arising out of or in connection with the Service, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages;
• our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, will not exceed the total fees you paid to us for the Service in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

These limitations apply to our liability only. They do not limit your payment obligations, your indemnity under Section 11, or your liability under Section 13, and they do not apply to your breach of Section 4 (Licence & restrictions), Section 5 (Acceptable use), Section 7 (Intellectual property), or Section 12 (Confidentiality), for which your liability is not capped.

Any claim you bring against us arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service must be brought within twelve (12) months after the event giving rise to it; after that period the claim is barred, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable Dutch law, including liability for intent or deliberate recklessness.

11. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Vessel Hunter and its affiliates, and their directors, employees, and agents, from and against any and all claims, demands, investigations, proceedings, damages, liabilities, fines and penalties (including those imposed by a supervisory or regulatory authority), settlements, and costs (including reasonable legal fees and the cost of responding to a regulator) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the Service or any data obtained through it; (b) your breach of these Terms; (c) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party, including any data-protection, privacy, marketing, or defamation claim arising from your communications or your processing of contact data; or (d) any content or data you upload or submit to the Service. This indemnity is not subject to the limitation of liability in Section 10.

We will notify you of any claim covered by this indemnity, and you will assume its defence with counsel reasonably acceptable to us; we may participate with our own counsel at our expense, and you may not settle any claim in a way that imposes any obligation or admission on us without our prior written consent.

12. Confidentiality

Each party may receive confidential information from the other. The receiving party will use it only to perform under these Terms and will protect it with reasonable care. This does not apply to information that is or becomes public through no fault of the receiving party, is independently developed, or is rightfully obtained from a third party, or where disclosure is required by law or by a competent authority.

Our Confidential Information includes, without limitation, the Service’s software, interface, look and feel, features, dashboards, vessel and company dossiers, contact records, compiled database, data sources and vendor identities, and any non-public data, analytics, or outputs the Service makes available to you. You will not publish, post, or otherwise make available to any third party or the public any screenshot, screen recording, photograph, or other image or reproduction of the Service, or of any data displayed in it, and you will not disclose the Service’s data sources or vendors, except with our prior written consent or to your own authorised users acting under these Terms.

The public-information exception above does not apply to the particular selection, arrangement, and presentation of data within the Service, or to our data sources and vendor identities, all of which remain confidential even where individual underlying facts (such as raw AIS signals) are publicly available elsewhere.

13. Breach, injunctive relief & your liability

You acknowledge that the Service’s interface, dashboards, vessel and company dossiers, compiled database, data sources, and outputs are valuable, non-public, and confidential, and that any unauthorised capture, disclosure, publication, or redistribution of them — including of screenshots, screen recordings, or other images — would cause Vessel Hunter serious and irreparable harm for which monetary damages alone would be an inadequate remedy. Accordingly, in addition to any other right or remedy available to us:

• we are entitled to seek immediate injunctive and other equitable relief, including provisional measures in summary proceedings (kort geding), to prevent or stop such conduct, without the need to post security or to prove actual damage;
• you are liable to us for all loss, damage, and costs (including reasonable legal fees and the cost of investigation and mitigation) we suffer as a result of your breach of these Terms, and in particular of Section 4 (Licence & restrictions), Section 5 (Acceptable use), Section 7 (Intellectual property), or Section 12 (Confidentiality);
• for each breach of Section 4, 5, 7, or 12, you forfeit to us an immediately payable penalty of €25,000 per breach, increased by €2,500 for each day the breach continues or is repeated, up to a maximum of €100,000 per breach, without any notice of default being required. This penalty is without prejudice to our right to instead claim full compensation for the actual damage we suffer where that damage exceeds the penalty, and any penalty paid is set off against such compensation.

Nothing in this Section limits any right or remedy available to us at law.

14. Usage verification & audit

We may monitor and log your use of the Service to operate it, enforce these Terms, and detect misuse. We may embed identifying markers or watermarks (including your account or user identifier) in the Service and its outputs so that any leaked or redistributed material can be traced to the account responsible. If we reasonably believe your use exceeds your plan or breaches these Terms, you will, on our written request, provide within thirty (30) days the information reasonably needed to verify your compliance, including the number of users and how the Service and its data are being accessed and used. If verification shows usage beyond your plan, you will promptly pay the fees for the excess use at our then-current rates, without prejudice to Section 13 and our other rights.

15. Non-disparagement & publicity

You will not make or publish any statement about Vessel Hunter or the Service that you know to be false or misleading, or that misrepresents the Service, in order to harm our business or reputation. This does not restrict truthful statements, good-faith reviews, disclosures required by law, or reports to a competent authority. You will not use our name, logo, or trademarks without our prior written consent, except to identify us factually as your supplier.

16. Suspension

We may suspend your access to the Service, in whole or in part, if (a) your account is overdue, (b) we reasonably believe the Service is being used in breach of these Terms or in a way that poses a security or legal risk, or (c) we are required to do so by law. Where practical, we will give you notice and an opportunity to resolve the issue.

17. Term & termination

These Terms apply for as long as you use the Service. You may stop using the Service and cancel your subscription at any time, effective at the end of your current term. We may terminate or suspend these Terms or your access if you materially breach them and do not cure the breach within a reasonable period after notice. On termination, your right to access the Service ends; on request and within a reasonable period, we will make your account data available for export. If we terminate without cause, we will refund any prepaid, unused fees. Sections that by their nature should survive, including those on accrued payment obligations, data use, intellectual property, confidentiality, breach and injunctive relief, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law, survive termination.

18. Changes to the service & these terms

We may update the Service and these Terms from time to time. We will post any material changes here with an updated effective date and, where appropriate, notify you in-product or by email. Your continued use of the Service after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

19. Force majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including acts of God, outages, network or third-party failures, labour disputes, or governmental action.

20. General

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, our Data Processing Agreement, and any plan-specific or order terms, are the entire agreement between you and Vessel Hunter regarding the Service. If there is a conflict, a written order form or enterprise agreement signed by both parties controls over these Terms, and these Terms control over any other document, to the extent of the conflict. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Notices to you may be given in-product or by email.

21. Governing law & disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Netherlands. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with them or the Service will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent Dutch court.

22. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact Vessel Hunter at contact@vesselhunter.io. Formal legal notices to us should be sent to Vessel Hunter, De Wijper 16, 4726 TG Heerle, The Netherlands (KvK 80638090), with a copy by email to the address above.