Terms of Service

1. Scope and provider

These Terms apply to all contracts between the Provider and a user ("you", "User") concerning the use of the platform The Taurus and the public register TTAD.

Provider:

Expanse UG (haftungsbeschränkt) & Co. KG Bavariastr. 15, 80336 München, Germany Amtsgericht München, HRA 107329 · VAT ID: DE314197563 General partner: Kistner Management UG (haftungsbeschränkt), HRB 234250 Managing director: Hans-Peter Kistner Contact: contact@thetaurus.com

Terms or conditions of the User that deviate from, contradict or supplement these Terms will not become part of the contract unless we have expressly agreed to them in text form. This also applies if we render our services without reservation in knowledge of the User's terms.

2. Subject matter of the contract

The Provider makes available a web-based software-as-a-service platform that supports users in preparing, reviewing, managing, publishing and retaining transparency notices for political advertisements in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2024/900 (the "Regulation") and in handling associated complaints.

The platform is offered in two modes per entity (Sponsor or Publisher):

– Verified mode: free of charge. Allows managing externally published notices, receiving and answering complaints, and confirming identity. No publishing on TTAD.

– Ensured mode: subject to a flat fee per Ensured entity. Includes the full range of features, in particular drafting, publishing and listing notices on TTAD, API access (where made available), team features and publisher workflows.

A complete, up-to-date description of the scope of each mode is available at https://thetaurus.com/en/plans (and the German equivalent). The Provider reserves the right to further develop, expand or change features, provided this is reasonable for the User, does not materially degrade the agreed scope and does not result in a price increase without the User's right to terminate.

3. Binding language

The legally binding version of these Terms is the German text (Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen). The English version is a translation provided for convenience. In the event of any discrepancy between the German and English versions, the German version prevails.

4. User eligibility and account

The platform is aimed primarily at entrepreneurs (Unternehmer) within the meaning of § 14 BGB, in particular political parties, candidates, non-governmental organisations, publishers and their authorised representatives. Consumers (Verbraucher) within the meaning of § 13 BGB may also register; mandatory consumer-protection provisions remain unaffected.

To register, you must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into contracts. When acting on behalf of an organisation, you warrant that you are authorised to bind that organisation.

You must provide truthful and complete information during registration and keep that information up to date. You are responsible for the security of your access credentials and for all activity carried out under your account. You must notify us without undue delay if you become aware of any unauthorised access.

5. Conclusion of the contract

The presentation of our platform and plans does not constitute a binding offer. By submitting the registration form or the order form for Ensured mode, you make a binding offer to conclude a contract. The contract is concluded when we confirm the registration or order by email, or when we activate the account or the Ensured subscription, whichever occurs first.

Before submitting a binding order for Ensured mode, you will be shown a summary of the essential details of the order, including price, billing cycle and the applicable plan. You confirm acceptance of these Terms and of our Privacy Policy via a separate checkbox. The text of the contract (these Terms plus your order) is accessible to you in your account and will be sent to you by email.

6. Consumer right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer within the meaning of § 13 BGB, you have a statutory right to withdraw from the contract within fourteen days, without giving any reason.

Withdrawal instructions

You may withdraw your contract declaration within fourteen days in text form (e.g. letter, email) without giving any reason. The period begins on the day the contract is concluded. To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient that you send the communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the expiry of the withdrawal period to:

Expanse UG (haftungsbeschränkt) & Co. KG, Bavariastr. 15, 80336 München, Germany — contact@thetaurus.com

Consequences of withdrawal

If you effectively withdraw from this contract, we must refund all payments we have received from you, promptly and at the latest within fourteen days of the day on which we received notice of your withdrawal. For this refund we use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no event will you be charged fees for this refund.

Early expiry of the right of withdrawal for digital services

If you expressly agree that we begin performance of the service (activation of the Ensured plan) before the end of the withdrawal period, and you acknowledge that you lose your right of withdrawal on full performance of the service by us, the right of withdrawal expires accordingly (§ 356 Abs. 5 BGB). We will point this out to you at the time of order and obtain your express consent.

End of withdrawal instructions.

Model withdrawal form

To — Expanse UG (haftungsbeschränkt) & Co. KG, Bavariastr. 15, 80336 München, Germany, contact@thetaurus.com: I/We (*) hereby give notice that I/we (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract for the provision of the following service: ___. Ordered 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.

7. Prices, payment, default

Verified mode is provided free of charge.

Ensured mode is offered at the price stated on the plans page at the time of order, per Ensured entity (Sponsor or Publisher), billed monthly or annually in advance. All prices are stated in euro and, in the case of consumers, include the statutory value-added tax where applicable. Towards entrepreneurs, prices are stated net; VAT applies in addition where payable.

The Provider makes use of the small-business regulation under § 19 UStG where applicable; in that case no VAT is shown and may not be deducted as input tax.

Payment is made by credit card or other means offered by our payment provider (Stripe). The invoice amount is due upon issue of the invoice. If you are in default of payment, we may charge default interest at the statutory rate (§ 288 BGB) and claim further damages caused by default; your right to prove that the damage was lower remains unaffected.

We are entitled to adjust fees of ongoing Ensured subscriptions at reasonable notice of at least six weeks before the beginning of the next billing period. If the adjustment is to your disadvantage by more than five per cent compared with the agreed price or more than the official cost-of-living index since the last adjustment, you may terminate the subscription for good cause with effect from the date on which the adjustment is to take effect. We will inform you of this right together with the change notice.

8. User obligations and prohibited use

You agree to use the platform only lawfully and in accordance with these Terms. In particular you will:

– provide truthful, complete and up-to-date information in your transparency notices;

– not publish content that is unlawful, infringes third-party rights or violates the purpose of the Regulation;

– not circumvent technical access controls, rate limits or authentication mechanisms;

– not interfere with the availability or integrity of the platform, in particular by automated mass requests beyond the documented API limits, scraping or denial-of-service techniques;

– not use the platform to send unsolicited commercial communications.

We are entitled to temporarily or permanently block accounts that materially violate these Terms, after prior warning where proportionate. Statutory claims (damages, injunctive relief) are reserved.

9. Content, licence and responsibility

You retain all rights in content you upload to the platform, in particular in the text and data of your transparency notices. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable licence — limited in time to the duration of the contract and, where required by Regulation (EU) 2024/900, to the period of statutory retention — to host, reproduce, display, transmit and make available to the public that content for the purpose of operating the platform and fulfilling our statutory obligations.

You remain responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the content of your transparency notices. Where the Regulation allocates responsibility to a specific party (e.g. the political advertising publisher under Art. 11 of the Regulation), that allocation is not altered by these Terms. The Provider acts as an intermediary hosting service within the meaning of Art. 6 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065; liability for user content is governed by Articles 6 to 8 of that Regulation.

10. Availability

We endeavour to make the platform available at a monthly average of 99% (twenty-four hours by seven days), excluding planned maintenance and events beyond our reasonable control (force majeure, third-party outages of infrastructure or payment providers, attacks on the system).

Planned maintenance will, where possible, be scheduled outside of typical business hours in Central Europe and announced in good time. Short-term urgent maintenance to address security vulnerabilities may be carried out at any time.

11. Warranty (Gewährleistung)

The Provider owes the provision of the platform in a condition suitable for contractual use throughout the term of the contract. For paid contracts, rental law is applied by analogy to the extent not displaced by specific provisions on digital services (§§ 327 ff. BGB).

For contracts with consumers regarding digital services, the statutory provisions on conformity and updates apply (§§ 327e–327r BGB). Towards entrepreneurs, claims for defects are subject to the statutory warranty period, which we do not curtail below the minimum required by law.

Strict liability of the Provider for defects already existing at the time of conclusion of the contract (§ 536a Abs. 1 Alt. 1 BGB) is excluded; the statutory fault-based liability remains unaffected.

12. Liability

The Provider is liable without limitation:

– for damages arising from injury to life, body or health caused by intentional or negligent breach of duty;

– for other damages caused by intentional or grossly negligent breach of duty;

– in accordance with the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz);

– in the event of fraudulent concealment of a defect or the assumption of a guarantee.

In all other cases, the Provider's liability for damage caused by slight negligence is limited to the breach of material contractual obligations (cardinal duties — those whose fulfilment characterises the contract and on whose fulfilment you may regularly rely). Liability in such cases is limited to the damage typically foreseeable at the time of conclusion of the contract.

Any further liability of the Provider — in particular for indirect damages, lost profits, loss of data or third-party claims — is excluded to the extent permitted by law.

These limitations apply correspondingly to the Provider's legal representatives and vicarious agents.

You are responsible for regularly exporting or backing up your own content where such export functionality is made available. The Provider's liability for loss of data is limited to the effort typically required to restore data from properly maintained back-ups by you; this limitation does not apply in the cases of unlimited liability set out above.

13. Indemnification

You shall indemnify the Provider on first demand against all third-party claims, including reasonable costs of legal defence, that are asserted against the Provider on the basis of content you have uploaded or of a breach of these Terms attributable to you. This does not apply insofar as you are not responsible for the infringement. You shall support the Provider in good faith in defending against such claims and provide the information and documentation reasonably required.

14. Term, termination and effect on content

The Verified contract is concluded for an indefinite term and may be terminated by either party at any time with effect from the end of the current month.

The Ensured subscription is concluded for the billing cycle you select (monthly or annually) and renews automatically for the same period unless terminated by either party no later than one month before the end of the current cycle. For consumers, the minimum-term and renewal rules of § 309 Nr. 9 BGB apply: the maximum initial term towards consumers is 24 months, the renewal period cannot exceed one year, and the notice period cannot exceed one month.

Consumers can terminate the Ensured subscription electronically via the "Kündigungsbutton" provided on the platform in accordance with § 312k BGB.

The right to extraordinary termination for good cause (§ 314 BGB) remains unaffected for both parties.

On termination of the contract, your account is deactivated. Published transparency notices and the associated records will remain publicly available on TTAD for the statutory seven-year retention period (Art. 13 of Regulation (EU) 2024/900); this follows from law and cannot be avoided by termination. Personal data that is not subject to a statutory retention obligation is deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

15. Intellectual property

All rights in the platform, its software, its design, trademarks, logos, documentation and database content compiled by us (excluding your own notice content) belong exclusively to the Provider or its licensors.

For the duration of the contract and subject to your payment obligations (where applicable), we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use the platform for the purposes set out in these Terms. Any use going beyond that, in particular reverse engineering, circumvention of technical protection measures, reselling, or white-label redistribution, is prohibited unless expressly permitted by law.

16. Data protection

The processing of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, available at https://thetaurus.com/en/privacy (German: /de/privacy). Where, in the course of operating the platform on your behalf, we process personal data for which you are the controller within the meaning of Art. 4 no. 7 GDPR, we will conclude a data-processing agreement with you in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR on request.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may amend these Terms (i) to reflect changes to legal or regulatory requirements, (ii) to take account of decisions of courts or competent authorities, (iii) to address new technical developments or new or changed features of the platform, (iv) to close ambiguities or loopholes, or (v) for other legitimate reasons, provided that the amendment is reasonable for the User.

We will notify you of the amendment in text form (typically by email and in-product banner) at least six weeks before it takes effect. If you do not object to the amendment in text form within that period, the amendment is deemed accepted. We will point out in the notification that silence is deemed acceptance and that you have the right to object and terminate.

If you object in time, the contract continues on the existing Terms; in that case we may terminate the contract at the end of the notice period. Changes that are only favourable to you, or that are required to comply with mandatory law, take effect without the objection procedure.

18. Dispute resolution

The European Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution (OS) at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. Our email address for such purposes is contact@thetaurus.com.

We are not obliged and not willing to participate in dispute-resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration body (Verbraucherschlichtungsstelle) within the meaning of § 36 VSBG.

19. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms and all contracts concluded under them are governed by the substantive law of the Federal Republic of Germany, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). Towards consumers, this choice of law applies only insofar as no mandatory consumer-protection provisions of the law of the country of habitual residence of the consumer are thereby set aside (Art. 6(2) Rome I Regulation).

For merchants (Kaufleute), legal entities under public law and special funds under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with the contract is Munich, Germany. The Provider remains entitled to sue at the User's general place of jurisdiction. Towards consumers, the statutory places of jurisdiction apply.

20. Final provisions

Written-form requirements in these Terms are satisfied by text form (§ 126b BGB), unless mandatory law requires otherwise.

Should any provision of these Terms be or become invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The invalid or unenforceable provision shall, insofar as legally permissible, be replaced by a provision that comes economically closest to what the parties intended and would have agreed had they been aware of the invalidity.

Assignment of rights and obligations under the contract by the User to a third party requires our prior consent in text form; § 354a HGB remains unaffected.