Terms & Conditions

These Terms & Conditions (Ts&Cs) form a legal agreement between the end user (you, your) and Goose Services (Goose, our, us or we) for your use of our platform, which includes our software services, our content and advice services, our financial services, and any other services (including support) we make available to you (the Platform Services). We make the Platform Services available to you on the basis of these Ts&Cs. By signing up and sharing your contact email, you consent to the validity and applicability of these Ts&Cs when accessing and using the Platform Services, and – in future – when purchasing a paid membership.

1.1. These Ts&Cs apply to the Platform Services, including any updates or supplements (except where separate terms are stated to apply). They shall also apply to all future transactions between you and Goose even if Goose does not refer to them in each individual case. By using or accessing the Platform Services, you are deemed to have agreed to these Terms.

1.2. Individual agreements between you and Goose shall take priority over these Terms if mutually agreed to in writing. 1.2.1. Where these Terms use the expressions ‘in writing’, ‘in written form’ or variations thereof, this shall mean ‘in writing’ within the meaning of the German Civil Code. The electronic exchange of copies of documents signed by hand as well as documents signed with a simple electronic signature (e.g. DocuSign or Adobe Sign) shall suffice therefor. Unless expressly stated otherwise in these Terms, simple emails shall not suffice.

1.2.2. Unless stated otherwise in these Terms, any notices and declarations given or made by you to Goose, must be made at least via email or via other electronic methods in text form, as permitted by the German Civil Code.

1.3. We may change these Ts&Cs from time-to-time, including for the following reasons:

• to improve the Ts&Cs, or to have all our members on the same Ts&Cs;
• to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, such as mandatory laws that apply to us and our agreement with you, or where we're subject to a court order or judgment;
• where we need to make changes to the Platform Services in order to improve them, including where we expand the scope of the Platform Services by adding additional features, functionality or content;
• where we intend to change the way we structure our Platform Services, or our business structure and functions;
• for security reasons, including where we introduce additional security checks or software to protect the Platform Services.

1.4. We'll aim to notify you before making any material changes to these Ts&Cs, unless the changes need to be implemented quickly for legal or security reasons. In this case, we'll notify you of the changes as soon as we can. For all other changes, we'll generally notify you when you next access the Platform Services, at which point you'll be required to confirm that you've read and accepted the updated Ts&Cs in order to continue your use of the Platform Services.

1.5. If any change to these Ts&Cs will materially disadvantage you or materially impact the availability of the Platform Services, we'll provide you with 30 days’ notice before the changes come into effect.

1.6. From time-to-time, we may issue updates to the Platform Services. To get the best experience, we recommend that you accept the updates as and when they become available (which may also require you to update your device operating system). Depending on the update, you may not be able to use the Platform Services until you've accessed the latest version, and accepted any related new terms.

1.7. You confirm that you've obtained permission from the owner of any device which you do not own, and which you may use to access the Platform Services. You accept responsibility in accordance with these Ts&Cs for the use of the Platform Services on any device, whether or not it is owned by you.

1.8. You acknowledge that you have read and understood our privacy policy (as may be updated from time-to-time), available at Goose privacy. By using the Platform Services, you consent to our collecting and using technical information about the devices and related software, hardware and peripherals for the Platform Services that are internet-based (including your web browser, its version number, and details of any add-ons or plug-ins you're using) to improve and provide our Platform Services to you.

1.9. The Platform Services may contain links to, or the provision of products and services by, independent third-parties (Third-Party Services), which may be subject to separate, additional terms (Third-Party Terms). The fees for any Third-Party Services will be included in the fees for our Platform Services (if any) unless we or the relevant third-party tells you otherwise. The Third-Party Terms will form a separate contract between you and the provider of the Third-Party Services. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the Third-Party Services, or any advertising, products or other materials on, or available from them, and we won't have any liability under or in relation to the Third-Party Terms.

1.10. The Platform Services may contain open-source software which may – where specified – be governed by separate terms.

1.11. You may be accessing the Platform Services due to our partnerships with services, applications, or other organisations of which you are a member, or are affiliated with in some way (a Partner). These Ts&Cs form an independent contract between you and us in respect of the Platform Services, and we in no way accept any liability for or on behalf of a Partner.

2.1. Subject to our Ts&Cs and any other terms which are incorporated into these Ts&Cs by reference, we hereby grant you a non-transferable, non-exclusive right to access and use the Platform Services, and licence to use the Services solely for personal and non-commercial purposes (Licence). We reserve all other rights. 2.2. Goose will offer the Platform Services as described on Goose's website, including the user on-boarding process (if any) and the frequently asked questions section (if any), in each case as updated from time-to-time (Documentation). 2.3. Proprietary Rights and User Data – Database rights, patent, trade secret, trademark and all other intellectual property rights and technical solutions, in and to the Platform Services, including but not limited to any Templates and offered administrative methods. You acknowledge that the rights granted under these Ts&Cs do not provide you with title to or ownership in the Platform Services. 2.2. You acknowledge that you are using the Platform Services in a business capacity (which may include use as a "sole trader" or "freelancer"). 2.2.1. You may download and/or access the Platform Services through your device or web browser in order to view, use, display, and access the Platform Services for your own internal business purposes only. You agree not to use the Platform Services for any resale purposes. 2.3. You may not (and may not permit any Third-Party to), directly or indirectly: (a) sublicense, sell, resell, transfer, assign, distribute, share, lease, rent, make any business or commercial use of, outsource, or otherwise generate income from the Platform Services; (b) copy the Platform Services onto any public or distributed network; (c) decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble any portion of the Platform Services, or otherwise attempt to discover any source code, object code or underlying structure, ideas, know-how or algorithms or other operational mechanisms of the Platform Services, in each case, unless expressly permitted by mandatory law; (d) modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works based on all or any part of the Platform Services (except to the extent expressly permitted by Goose in writing or authorised within the Platform Services); (e) modify any proprietary rights notices that appear in the Platform Services or components thereof; (f) use any Platform Services in violation of any applicable laws and regulations or outside of the scope of the rights granted under these Ts&Cs; or (g) use the Platform Services to (i) store, download or transmit infringing, libellous, or otherwise unlawful or tortious material, or malicious code or malware; or (ii) engage in phishing, spamming, denial-of-service attacks or other fraudulent or criminal activity; (iii) interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of third-party systems, or the services or data contained therein; (iv) gain unauthorised access to the Platform Services or Goose's systems or networks; or (v) perform, or engage any third-party to perform, penetration testing, vulnerability assessments or other security assessments. 2.4. You may not duplicate, process, distribute, share, or publicly reproduce any content of the Platform Services without our prior written consent, unless expressly permitted by sharing options that may be integrated in the Platform Services. 2.5. Goose may monitor your use of the Platform Services and may prohibit and/or suspend any use of the Platform Services that Goose believes may be in violation of these and/or our other Ts&Cs. 2.6. Some of our Platform Services include providing templates of legal agreements, and commercial documents such as invoices, and application materials (Templates). We'll use reasonable endeavours to ensure that all Templates are accurate and up-to-date, however you understand and agree that:

• we do not provide legal, accounting, financial, tax or other professional advice, and are not a registered legal or financial services adviser;
• we are not responsible for ensuring that any of the offered Templates are suitable for your particular needs or requirements;
• we are not responsible for ensuring that any of the Templates are compliant with, or properly executed in accordance with, applicable law; and
• subject to our liability Ts&Cs, we are not responsible for any loss, damage or cost resulting from your use of the Templates, or any decisions taken by you made in reliance on the Platform Service.

3.1 You shall be responsible for obtaining and maintaining any equipment and related ancillary services required to connect to, access or otherwise use the Platform Services, including, without limitation, hardware, software (System), and networks and internet connections, at your own cost.

3.2 When and where applicable, you must keep the information in your User Account up to date and correct. You must ensure that user identities, passwords and similar credentials used for accessing the Platform Services are used and stored in a secure manner, cannot be accessed or used by unauthorised third-parties, and are immediately changed in the event of unauthorised disclosure. You must notify Goose promptly of any unauthorised use of any password or User Account or any other known or suspected breach of security or misuse of the Platform Services. 3.3. You shall be solely responsible for the content of all data and any other material displayed, posted, uploaded, stored, exchanged or transmitted by you by or through the Platform Services (User Content). Goose cannot control the information submitted by you when using the Platform Services and cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information that you submit. 3.4. You shall retain all right, title and interest in and to your data and any User Content, as well as any data that is based on or derived from your data and any User Content. You grant to Goose a non-exclusive, non-transferable, sublicensable, worldwide and unlimited right and licence to use your data and any User Content solely in connection with providing the Services. Goose shall have no liability arising out of your data and any User Content. 3.5. Goose may, without notice or liability, investigate any complaints or suspected violations of these Ts&Cs that come to its attention, and may take any action that it believes is appropriate, including, but not limited to, rejecting, refusing to post, or removing any User Content or other data, or restricting, suspending, or terminating your access to the Platform Services. 3.6. Subject to our liability Ts&Cs, you shall be liable for losses or damage incurred by Goose if you intentionally or negligently reveal your user identification/password to a third-party, or if your user identification and password has otherwise become known to an unauthorised party. 3.7. You may upload or input User Content to the Platform Services, for example your profile image, details of your work and education experience, and/or your business portfolio. More information about the User Content you may upload or input is set out in our privacy policy. 3.8. For the purposes of our job offer and acquisition Platform Services, you understand that certain related User Content will be shared with other users of the Platform Services when you upload or input it, as set out in our privacy policy. 3.9. You retain all your ownership rights in your User Content, and you grant to us a perpetual and irrevocable worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence to host, use, reproduce, distribute, modify, prepare derivative works of, display and publish all aspects of that User Content in connection with the provision of the Platform Services. 3.10. You are solely responsible for your own User Content. We do not endorse it and we disclaim all liability in connection with your User Content (or that of any third-party). 3.11. You confirm that you have (and will continue to have during your use of the Platform Services) all necessary licences, rights, consents, and permissions required to enable us to display your User Content for the purposes of the provision of the Platform Services by us, and otherwise to use your User Content in the manner contemplated by the Platform Services and these Ts&Cs. 3.12. You acknowledge that you will not receive financial compensation of any type for your User Content. 3.13. We reserve the right (but shall have no obligation) to decide whether User Content complies with the content requirements set out in these Ts&Cs and may remove, modify or delete such User Content or terminate or suspend your access without prior notice and at our sole discretion, on becoming aware of any potential violation of these Ts&Cs.

4.1. While using the Platform Services, you may share confidential information with us when entering your data or User Content, and you may become aware of confidential information about Goose. You and we both agree to take reasonable steps to protect the other party’s confidential information from being accessed by unauthorised third-parties. You or we may share each other’s confidential information with legal or regulatory authorities if required to do so. For the purposes of executing our Platform Services, we will also share your contact email and any other necessary User Content, per the Ts&Cs agreed to herein, and/or as set out in our privacy policy. 4.2. The processing and use of personal data by Goose is described in our privacy policy, which can be accessed here.

5.1. Your use of the Platform Services requires you to subscribe to a Goose membership (your Membership) and generally requires you to pay a fee (the Membership Fee) based on your Membership type and your Membership period (the Membership Period). We may, in our discretion, provide you with full or limited access to the Platform Services for free or for a discounted Membership Fee (a Free or Discounted Membership), for example if you are accessing the Platform Services via a promotional basis, or if you have been referred to use the Platform Services by another user or a Partner. 5.1.1. The Membership Fee (if any), together with currency, your Membership Period, auto-renewal information, your billing date and information about the Platform Services included in your Membership (the Membership Details), are indicated on the order pages when you place your order. We take all reasonable care to ensure that the Membership Details advised to you are correct. If we accept and process your order where an error is obvious and unmistakeable, we may end the contract and refund you any sums you have paid. 5.1.2. Once you complete your order, we will send you a confirmation email with your Membership Details. You can also view your Membership Details (including how to end your Membership) by visiting your account whilst signed into the Platform Services. 5.1.3. The Membership Fee will be charged to your nominated payment method on the billing date. The billing date will depend on the date that you signed up for your Membership and your Membership Period. 5.1.4. Your Membership (unless it is a Free or Discounted Membership) will automatically renew unless you cancel your Membership before the next Membership Period (unless it is otherwise terminated in accordance with our Ts&Cs or privacy policy). You will continue to be charged the Membership Fee for the next Membership Period on each billing date, and you authorise us to charge the Membership Fee to your nominated payment method for each Membership Period until your Membership is cancelled or terminated. 5.1.5. If you have a Free or Discounted Membership, your Membership will end on the date communicated by us to you in your Membership Details (unless you cancel your Membership sooner or it is terminated in accordance with our Ts&Cs or privacy policy). If you choose to continue using the Platform Services after that date, you will need to sign up for one of our normal Membership plans. 5.1.6. Payments are non-refundable and we do not provide refunds or credits for any partial Membership Periods. 5.1.7. From time-to-time we may change our Membership fees. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice prior to any increase in the price. If we notify you of a price change and you do not wish to continue your Membership at the new price, you can cancel your Membership before the start of the next Membership Period. Your continued use of the Platform Services and/or payment of the new Membership Fee shall be taken as your consent to a price change. Price increases will not be applied retroactively. 5.1.8. To use the Platform Services you must provide a valid payment method. You authorise us to charge any payment method associated to your account. If a payment is not successfully settled we may suspend your access to the Platform Services. 5.1.9. For some payment methods, the issuer may charge you certain fees, such as foreign transaction fees or other fees relating to the processing of your payment method. Local tax charges may vary depending on the payment method used. Check with your payment method service provider for details.

If the rate of VAT changes between your order date and the date we supply the Services, we will adjust the rate of VAT that you pay, unless you have already paid for the Platform Services in full before the change in the rate of VAT takes effect.

If you have any questions about these Ts&Cs or would like to exercise your related subject rights, please contact us at terms@goosefreelancer.com.