Terms and Conditions

1. Who we are

AI Ward SAS is a company incorporated in France, with its registered office at 47 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France, registered with the Paris commercial registry under number 10760335900012 ("We", "Us", "Our", or the "Provider"). We operate under the brand name FairPatterns ("FairPatterns").

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") govern Your access to and use of Our products, as described in Section 2 (the "Products").

These Terms apply to all clients of FairPatterns ("You" or "Your"). If We also agree specific terms with You, and there is a discrepancy with these Terms, the specific terms will prevail.

By using Our website or the Products, You agree to these Terms.

2. Our products

We help organizations spot and remove all forms of deceptive design, but We do not provide legal advice.

The Products include:

• Dark Pattern Screening: a browser extension that scans Your live websites and apps for dark patterns and addictive design, maps findings to applicable regulations (such as the DSA or CCPA), prioritizes them by risk, and recommends fair design solutions.
• Deceptive Design AI Agent: an AI chat tool that reviews mockups, screenshots, URLs, interfaces, or code You upload, before a product goes live, to flag manipulation or compliance risks and suggest compliant design components.
• Consent Scanner: analyzes consent mechanisms and tracking practices on websites to detect invalid consent and unauthorized tracking.
• Figma Plug-in: detects addictive design, dark patterns, and compliance risks directly within Figma during the design process.
• Online Manipulation Observatory: continuously monitors digital platforms to detect manipulation patterns and regulatory risk over time.
• Fair User Lab: qualitative and quantitative research, including eye-tracking studies, producing evidence of digital manipulation and addictive design (see Section 10 for important limitations on how this output may be used).
• Training and curriculums: training content and curriculums made available to educational institutions, such as schools and universities, to help them fight against deceptive design and develop cognitive resilience among their students.

We use the term "FairPattern" to describe an interface that empowers users to make their own free and informed choices, a concept published by Marie Potel-Saville (our very own CEO!) (Potel, Da Rocha, 2023, Privacy Technologies and Policy: 11th Annual Privacy Forum, APF 2023, pp. 145 to 165, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61089-9_7).

We communicate with clients primarily by email. If You prefer another means of communication, please let Us know!

3. Accounts

Access to the Products requires an account, for example to access Your detection results or training content. If several people on Your team need access, We can typically set up multiple users under Your organization's account.

When You, or a member of Your team, create an account, please:

• provide accurate information;
• keep login details confidential, and avoid sharing a single login between multiple people;
• notify Us promptly if You believe an account has been accessed without permission.

You are responsible for activity that takes place under Your accounts. If a member of Your team leaves, please let Us know and We will deactivate their access.

4. Limitation of liability

We provide the Products with professional care and aim to deliver results You will be satisfied with. That said, in the unlikely event the Products cause You direct damage despite Our best efforts, the following limits apply:

• Direct damages only. We are only liable for direct damage caused by the Products. We are not liable for indirect losses, such as lost profits or lost goodwill.
• Cap on liability. Our total liability to You, including the liability of Our executives and personnel, is capped at the amount of subscription fees paid by You in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
• Exclusions. We are not liable if You use the Products for a purpose other than the one they are intended for, or if a third party uses them. We provide the Products to Our clients only, and We accept no liability where the Products or Our output are used by anyone other than Our client.
• Other compensation. If You are compensated for the same loss by an insurer or under another contract, We will deduct that amount from what We owe You.
• What this does not limit. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot legally be limited under French law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud.

5. Fees, costs and payment

Access to the Products is provided on a subscription basis, with fees payable upfront, in advance of each billing period.

Your subscription plan, pricing, and billing frequency (for example, monthly or annual) will be set out in the specific terms agreed with You or at the time of purchase. Unless cancelled in accordance with Section 12, Your subscription will automatically renew for successive periods of the same duration, at Our then-current fees, until cancelled.

We invoice in euros or US dollars, as agreed with You, usually by bank transfer or card payment. Invoices are payable upon receipt, and VAT is added where applicable. If You believe an invoice is incorrect, please notify Us within 7 days so that We can address it together. Overdue invoices are subject to interest at the legal rate under French law.

If a payment is not received by its due date, We may suspend Your access to the Products until payment is made in full.

We may change Our subscription fees from time to time. We will give You at least 30 days' notice before any price change takes effect on Your next renewal.

6. Using the products responsibly

You agree not to:

• use the Products for any unlawful purpose, or assist others in doing so;
• copy, reverse-engineer, or resell the Products without Our written consent;
• interfere with the proper functioning of Our website or the Products, for example through malware, excessive automated requests, or hacking attempts;
• represent the results of the Products as an official certification of legal compliance (see Section 10).

We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these rules.

7. Your information and data

If You submit content to Us for review (for example, screenshots, URLs, or interface designs), You retain ownership of that content. You grant Us a limited license to use it solely to provide the Products to You (for example, running Our detection tools or preparing Your report).

We retain Your content for the duration of Your subscription, plus a reasonable period afterward, after which it is deleted, unless the law requires Us to retain it for longer.

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to keep Your content secure. We may work with trusted subcontractors, such as cloud hosting providers, to help deliver the Products, always under confidentiality obligations at least as strict as these Terms.

No training. We will not use Your content to train any AI models.

8. Intellectual property

Our website, the Products, training content, brand, logos, and the FairPatterns methodology are owned by AI Ward SAS or Our licensors, and are protected by intellectual property law.

We grant You a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Products and any content We produce for You (such as reports, documents, or training content) for Your own internal purposes, for the duration of Your subscription or as otherwise agreed. This license does not include any right to modify, adapt, distribute, resell, or sublicense such content to any third party without Our prior written consent.

9. Important limitations of the products

The Products help identify and document deceptive, addictive, and predatory design practices. However:

• they do not constitute legal advice;
• the Products may identify laws that could potentially be breached by an identified issue, if applicable, but do not assess whether such laws actually apply to Your specific situation, and We make no representation or warranty in this respect;
• We do not guarantee compliance with any specific law or regulation, such as the GDPR, the EU Digital Services Act, or consumer protection law;
• results reflect Our methodology at the time of analysis and may not identify every instance of deceptive, addictive, or predatory design;
• We do not guarantee that any evidence or documentation the Products produce will be deemed admissible or sufficient by any court, regulator, or tribunal, as rules on admissibility vary by jurisdiction and are outside Our control.

We recommend using the Products alongside, not instead of, qualified legal counsel, and that any output they provide be independently reviewed before being relied upon in compliance or litigation matters.

10. Availability of the products

We aim to keep Our website and the Products available and functioning properly, but We do not guarantee uninterrupted access. We may need to suspend access temporarily for maintenance, updates, or reasons beyond Our control.

11. Ending your subscription or access

You may cancel Your subscription at any time, in accordance with the cancellation process described on Our website or agreed with You. If You cancel, We will not refund fees already paid, but Your access to the Products will continue until the end of the billing period You have already paid for.

We may suspend or terminate Your access if You seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms, or if payment is not received (see Section 6), with notice where reasonably possible.

Provisions of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination, such as intellectual property and limitation of liability, will continue to apply.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time, for example to reflect changes to the Products or the law. We will notify You of material changes, by email or via Our website, before they take effect. Continued use of the Products after such changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

13. Personal data

Our collection and use of personal data, such as details relating to Your employees or representatives, is described in Our [Privacy Policy link], which forms part of these Terms. We process personal data in accordance with the GDPR and applicable French law.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by French law. In the event of a dispute, We encourage You to contact Us first at helloFP@fairpatterns.ai so that We may seek to resolve it amicably. If this is not possible, disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Paris, France.

15. General provisions

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with any specific terms agreed with You, constitute the entire agreement between the parties and supersede any prior discussions or agreements on the same subject.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found invalid, the remaining provisions will continue in effect.
• No waiver. Failure to enforce a provision does not constitute a waiver of Our right to do so in the future.
• Notices. We will send important notices to the email address associated with Your account, unless otherwise agreed.
• Other clients. Nothing in these Terms prevents Us from providing the Products to other clients, including businesses operating in the same industry as You.
• Feedback. If You give Us feedback on the Products, We may use it without any obligation to You.

16. Contact us

If You have questions about these Terms, You can reach Us at:

AI Ward SAS (operating as FairPatterns)
47 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France
Email: helloFP@fairpatterns.ai