Terms and Conditions

1. Definitions

1.1 Provider — Mykhailo Torcheniuk, Demianiplatz 41, 02826 Görlitz, Germany (further details in the Imprint).

1.2 Service — the SaaS solution ReviewChef: guest page via QR code, routing of ratings, SMS alerts, weekly reports with AI summary, customer account, ordering of printed cards.

1.3 Customer — a natural or legal person acting exclusively as a business customer within the meaning of Section 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB) — that is, entering into the contract in the course of its trade, business or profession and not for private purposes — for its hospitality venue.

1.4 Venue — the Customer’s specific location linked to the account via a Google Maps listing.

1.5 Rating — a guest’s selection of a value from 1 to 5 on the guest page after scanning the QR code. Ratings submitted by the Customer or its staff for testing purposes count as Ratings within the meaning of clause 7.2.

1.6 Guest Data — rating, table number, time, chosen channel and comment of the guest.

1.7 Anonymised Aggregates — statistics per calendar day (distribution of ratings, number of sessions, channel choice) from which an individual Rating with table and time reference cannot be reconstructed.

2. Scope and conclusion of contract

2.1 These Terms apply to all contracts between the Provider and the Customer concerning use of the Service. Conflicting or deviating terms of the Customer do not apply unless the Provider has agreed to them in writing.

2.2 The Service is intended exclusively for businesses. By registering, the Customer confirms that it is acting in the course of its business activity.

2.3 The contract is concluded upon the Customer’s registration in the Service and the Provider’s confirmation by email. Upon registration, the Customer accepts these Terms and the Data Processing Agreement (DPA, Annex 1) under Art. 28 GDPR in electronic form. Both documents can be saved before acceptance.

2.4 Transfer of the account and of the rights and obligations under the contract to third parties is permitted only with the Provider’s prior consent in text form. Where the Venue passes to a new owner, consent may not be withheld without good reason.

3. Scope of services

3.1 The Provider grants the Customer access to the Service via the internet for the term of the contract. The scope of functions is as described on the website and in the customer account at the time of conclusion of the contract; the guest page is available in German, English and Ukrainian.

3.2 Availability. The target availability of the guest page is 99.5 % averaged over a calendar month, measured at the handover point in the hosting provider’s data centre. The following do not count as downtime: maintenance windows announced in advance (no more than 4 hours per month, preferably at night CET), force majeure, and disruptions outside the Provider’s sphere of influence (the Customer’s or guest’s internet connection, unavailability of Google). No credits or penalties are provided for unavailability; the Customer’s statutory rights in the event of defects (price reduction, termination) remain unaffected.

3.3 The Provider’s strict liability for initial defects under Section 536a(1) BGB is excluded.

3.4 Backups. The Provider creates backups of the Service data at least once a day and retains them for at least 7 days.

3.5 Development of the Service. The Provider may change and add to the functions of the Service provided the scope of the core service (receiving and routing Ratings, alerts, reports) is not reduced. The Customer is informed of material changes by email.

3.6 Third-party services. The Service depends on external providers (hosting, SMS, email, payments, Google services, printing), which are listed with their roles in the Privacy Policy. The Provider is not liable for disruptions of these providers that lie outside its sphere of influence; otherwise clause 10 applies.

4. Intellectual property

4.1 All rights in the program code, user interface design, templates and SVG card designs belong to the Provider. The Customer receives a simple, non-transferable licence to use the Service for the term of the contract to the extent necessary for its purposes.

4.2 Guest Data and data entered by the Customer belong to the Customer. The Customer grants the Provider, for the term of the contract, a simple licence to use the name and (if uploaded) the logo of the Venue solely for providing the services, including card printing.

4.3 Naming the Customer as a reference (name, logo) on the Provider’s website or in its materials requires the Customer’s prior consent in text form, which may be revoked at any time.

5. Data and confidentiality

5.1 The Provider processes Guest Data in the name and on behalf of the Customer as a processor. The details are governed by the DPA. Guest Data is stored for the term of the contract and deleted automatically 180 days after deactivation of the account, or immediately if the Customer deletes the account.

5.2 Anonymised Aggregates. The Customer instructs the Provider to continuously derive Anonymised Aggregates from the Guest Data (this instruction is repeated in the DPA). The Aggregates are not personal data; the Provider obtains an exclusive, perpetual right to use them for monitoring the Service, product analytics and industry benchmarks. Industry benchmarks are published or shared with third parties only in aggregated form without the possibility of identifying the Customer. The Aggregates are retained after termination of the contract.

5.3 The parties shall treat each other’s business and technical information obtained in the course of the contract as confidential for 3 years after termination of the contract. Exceptions: publicly available information, information lawfully obtained from third parties, and disclosures required by law or by a public authority.

5.4 The Provider complies with the Privacy Policy and provides guests with the information under Art. 13 GDPR on the Customer’s behalf via the guest page; the Customer instructs the Provider to do so in the DPA and is responsible for keeping its contact details displayed in that information up to date.

6. Customer obligations and acceptable use

6.1 The Customer undertakes to provide accurate information upon registration, to keep its contact details, delivery address and SMS phone number up to date, and to protect its login credentials from access by third parties. The Customer shall report any compromise of access without delay.

6.2 Compliance with platform rules and law. The Customer is solely responsible for ensuring that its use of the Service complies with Google’s policies for reviews and Google Business Profile, Section 5 of the German Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) and other applicable rules. In particular, the Customer undertakes:

• not to offer guests any reward, discount or other benefit for leaving a review or for its content;
• not to use the Service or its functions to selectively solicit reviews (review gating) and not to assure guests that a negative rating “will not” reach public platforms;
• to place cards only in its own Venues;
• not to encourage or tolerate staff influencing guests in their choice of rating or channel.

6.3 The Customer undertakes not to circumvent the Service’s documented anti-abuse mechanisms (limits on Ratings per table and per IP address) by technical or other means and not to generate artificial Ratings.

6.4 Staff response to alerts. The SMS alert about a negative rating serves solely to enable the Customer’s staff to resolve the guest’s issue on the spot (go to the table, ask what is wrong, fix it). The Customer shall ensure that staff do not mention reviews, ratings or external platforms, do not ask the guest to change their rating, and do not offer anything in exchange for a review. The Customer shall communicate this rule to staff who receive alerts. The Customer is liable for the conduct of its staff as for its own (Section 278 BGB).

6.5 The Customer shall instruct its staff, in a documented manner, that feedback received through ReviewChef is to be used solely to resolve the specific concern raised by the guest. Staff shall neither encourage guests to submit, amend or delete public reviews (e.g. on Google or Tripadvisor) nor discourage them from doing so. In particular, asking a guest not to publish a review constitutes a material breach of these Terms. The Customer shall indemnify the Provider against any third-party claims arising from a breach of this clause.

6.6 Third-party data. By providing a phone number for SMS alerts, the Customer warrants that it is entitled to do so and that the holder of the number has been informed of the processing of their data (Art. 13/14 GDPR). The Customer shall indemnify the Provider against claims by the holder of the number and reimburse the associated reasonable costs to the extent the Customer is responsible for the breach.

6.7 Data subject requests. The Customer is solely responsible for matching “table + time” to a specific guest; the Provider does not collect identifying guest data and supports the Customer within the scope of the DPA.

6.8 Suspension. In the event of material breaches of clauses 6.2 to 6.4 or payment default beyond the grace period (clause 7.5), the Provider may temporarily suspend access to the Service after a warning by email with a reasonable deadline (without warning in the case of serious breaches). The obligation to pay for the suspension period remains if the suspension is due to a breach by the Customer.

7. Prices, payment, term

7.1 Prices are those in the price list at the time of conclusion of the contract and are net prices. As long as the Provider is subject to the small business scheme under Section 19 of the German VAT Act (UStG), no VAT is charged or shown. If Section 19 UStG ceases to apply, statutory VAT is charged in addition; the Customer is informed at least 30 days in advance.

7.2 Start of the billing period. The subscription is charged from the recording of the first Rating in the Venue, but no later than 21 days after the order confirmation. Card orders are paid at the time of ordering.

7.3 Term and renewal. The subscription is concluded for the billing period of the chosen plan — one month, three months or twelve months — and renews automatically for the same period unless cancelled before the end of the current period. The fee for the billing period is due in advance at its beginning.

7.4 Cancellation is possible at any time via the customer account or in text form and takes effect at the end of the current paid period. No pro-rata refund is made for the unused remainder of the period. Both parties’ right to terminate for good cause (Section 314 BGB) remains unaffected.

7.5 Payment default. If the automatic payment fails, the Provider retries and notifies the Customer. During a grace period of 7 days the Service remains fully available. After the grace period, the account is deactivated: guest pages no longer accept Ratings. Deactivation does not terminate the contract and does not release the Customer from paying outstanding amounts; the contract ends 180 days after deactivation unless the Customer has resumed payment.

7.6 Plan changes initiated by the Customer take effect from the next billing period, without immediate charges or recalculations.

7.7 Price changes by the Provider are permitted no more than once in 12 months with 30 days’ notice before the start of the billing period from which the new price applies; the Customer may cancel the subscription as of that date.

7.8 Invoices are issued electronically and provided in the customer account and by email. Invoices and transaction records are retained for 10 years (Section 14b UStG, Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code (AO)), including after deletion of the account.

8. Printing and delivery of cards

8.1 Cards with QR codes are produced and shipped by the independent contractor Cloudprinter.com B.V., a company registered in Barendrecht under number 63851636, having its seat at Singel 159, 2992 BN Barendrecht, the Netherlands. The Customer’s contractual partner for the card order is the Provider.

8.2 The Customer checks and confirms the print file (name, table numbers, code scheme) before ordering. Errors in data confirmed by the Customer do not constitute a defect.

8.3 The risk of accidental loss or damage passes to the Customer upon handover of the print run to the carrier (Section 447 BGB). The Provider does not provide a free reprint in case of loss or damage in transit, but assists the Customer in asserting claims against the carrier.

8.4 Inspection and notice of defects. The Customer inspects the print run upon receipt and reports obvious defects (printing errors, wrong quantity, unreadable QR codes) within 5 working days in text form with photos (Section 377 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) applies accordingly). In the case of proven production defects, the Provider arranges a reprint at its own expense; further claims are governed by clause 10.

9. No guarantee of results

9.1 The Provider supplies a tool, not a result. The number, content or persistence of Google reviews, an improvement in rating, or other business metrics of the Customer are not guaranteed.

9.2 The Provider is not liable for changes to the policies of Google or other platforms, removal of reviews, restrictions on or suspension of the Customer’s listing, or for the consequences of the Customer’s use of the Service contrary to clause 6.2.

10. Liability

10.1 The Provider is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, for fraudulent concealment of defects, to the extent of guarantees assumed, and under the German Product Liability Act (ProdHaftG).

10.2 In cases of simple negligence, the Provider is liable only for breach of material contractual obligations — obligations whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance the Customer may regularly rely. In such cases, liability is limited to the typical, foreseeable damage and does not exceed the fees paid by the Customer in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the damage.

10.3 Otherwise, the Provider’s liability is excluded, in particular for lost profit and indirect damage.

10.4 For loss of data, the Provider is liable in cases of simple negligence only up to the cost of restoration from the backups created under clause 3.4.

10.5 The limitations in clauses 10.2 to 10.4 also apply in favour of the Provider’s employees and agents.

11. Changes to these Terms

11.1 The Provider may amend these Terms where the amendment is prompted by a change in the law, in case law or in the development of the Service and does not affect the core service or the price (for prices, clause 7.7 applies). The Customer is informed by email at least 30 days before the amendments take effect, with the amended provisions highlighted.

11.2 If the Customer does not object in text form before the amendments take effect, they are deemed accepted. The Provider specifically points out this consequence and the right of cancellation in the notice. In the event of an objection, the contract continues on the previous terms; the Provider may terminate it at the end of the current period.

11.3 The Provider gives at least 30 days’ notice by email of the addition or replacement of processors; the right to object and its consequences are governed by the DPA.

12. Data Protection and Data Processing

12.1 With respect to personal data of guests collected through the feedback function, the Customer is the controller and the Provider acts as processor under Art. 28 GDPR, processing such data solely on the Customer’s documented instructions. The Data Processing Agreement (Annex 1) forms an integral part of these Terms and is concluded upon their acceptance. In the event of conflict on data protection matters, Annex 1 prevails over these Terms. With respect to the Customer’s own data (account information, billing, notifications), the Provider is the controller; the Privacy Policy applies.

13. Final provisions

13.1 Notices under the contract are given in text form (to the email address stored in the account or via the customer account). The Customer keeps its email address up to date.

13.2 Force majeure releases the parties from their obligations for its duration; if it lasts longer than 30 days, either party may terminate the contract.

13.3 The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

13.4 The place of performance is Görlitz. The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contract is Görlitz if the Customer is a merchant within the meaning of the German Commercial Code (HGB), a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, or has its seat outside Germany (Art. 25 of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012); otherwise the statutory place of jurisdiction applies.

13.5 In the event of discrepancies between the language versions of the contractual documents, the German version prevails.

13.6 Should any provision of these Terms be invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions remains unaffected.