Business Terms of Use

TrustGrade Business Terms of Use

Last Updated: April 29, 2024

This website and review platform located at www.trustgrade.com ("Site" or "Platform") is operated and maintained by Trustgrade, LLC ("TrustGrade," "we," "our," or "us"). By signing up for a TrustGrade business account, your company, partnership, corporation, organization, or entity and any subsidiaries and affiliates ("you" or "your") agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions ("Business Terms of Use," "Agreement," or "Terms"), including any additional terms, conditions, guidelines, and policies referenced or incorporated herein. These Terms constitute a legally binding Agreement between you and TrustGrade.

By signing up for a TrustGrade business account and through use of the Site as a business account (the "Service"), you agree to be bound by this Agreement. Please read these Business Terms of Use carefully before accessing or using our Site. If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, then you may not use the Site or Service.

1. BUSINESS ACCOUNT & PROFILE PAGE

To use the Service, you must create a business account. The business information you input and that will be shown on your business profile page must be correct, up-to-date, and not misleading. You may use the Service unless and until your business account is deactivated and deleted by you or access to it is terminated by us.

2. SITE USAGE

By creating a business account and profile page, you represent and warrant that you shall not: (a) use the Site for any (i) illegal or unauthorized purpose, or (ii) in any manner that is harmful, deceptive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, obscene, libelous, or otherwise objectionable in our sole discretion; (b) violate any laws in your jurisdiction or the rights of us or any third party; (c) remove any proprietary notices, labels, or marks on the Site; (d) attempt to derive any source code or underlying ideas or algorithms of any part of the Site; or (e) transmit any worms or viruses or any code of a destructive nature. You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell, or exploit any portion of the Service, use of the Service, or access to the Service or Site, or any contact on the site through which the Service or Site is provided, without express written permission by us. In accessing this Site and using the Services, you agree to comply with all applicable laws, including, but not limited to, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Consumer Review Fairness Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act. A breach or violation of any of the Terms will result in an immediate termination of your Services and access to the Site.

3. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

We own everything on our Platform except content we have licensed from others, such as the reviews on our Platform. Our ownership includes all rights in the design, compilation, and look and feel of our Platform, including any logos, graphics, and trademarks (our "Brand"). You agree not to copy, distribute, modify, or otherwise use any of our Platform content or our Brand in any way not expressly permitted by us. You shall not use our Brand or any other content on our Platform, including reviews submitted by other users, unless we otherwise specified in these Terms or was agreed to by you and us. Without limiting the foregoing, you expressly agree that you shall not use any robot, spider, search/retrieval application, or other automated device, process or means to access, retrieve, copy, scrape, or index any portion of the Site.

You own your logo, brand name, trademarks, and other intellectual property. Through use of our Services, you grant us a right to use your logo, brand name, trademarks, and other intellectual property for marketing purposes, for the purposes of providing, administering, and ensuring the proper operation of the Services, the Platform, and related systems, and to perform our rights and obligations under these Terms. Without limiting the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that your logo, brand name, trademarks, intellectual property, any reviews you receive, and any feedback you provide in any medium whatsoever, may be used and published in TrustGrade's marketing materials, including but not limited to, TrustGrade's advertisements, website, and social media. You acknowledge and agree that by using TrustGrade, you hereby grant TrustGrade a nonexclusive, royalty-free, transferable, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, copy, upload, store, distribute, perform and publicly display any feedback you provide, in whole or in part and any name, username, likeness, voice, or photograph provided in connection with your feedback without compensation, including in connection with the operation of TrustGrade's website or the promotion, advertising or marketing of TrustGrade, in any form, medium or technology now known or later developed, and including after your termination of your account or the services. You represent and warrant that you have all rights to grant such licenses to us without infringement or violation of any third-party rights, including without limitation, any privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademarks, contract rights.

4. DISPLAY OF NAMES, LOGOS, AND REVIEWS

You agree that, as part of the Service, you give us the right to display your business name and logo on our Platform. When you create a business account and use our Service, you grant us the right to use your name, logo, and examples and visuals of how you are using TrustGrade in the public domain (for example, on your website and in your ads) in corporate, promotional, and marketing material and content\.

During your use of our Service and as long as you retain an active account and Subscription in good standing with us, you are permitted to display reviews of your business and our Brand on your claimed domains, consistent with these Terms and applicable laws, only if you use the designs, widgets, images, and functionality that we make available to you in your business account. If you display your TrustGrade score on your website or domain, you must only display the most up-to-date grade as reflected on your business page on the Site, and you shall not manipulate any tools or widgets TrustGrade provides to display your grade on your Site.

We reserve the right to revoke your use of our logos, graphics, and trademarks at any time if we believe, in our sole discretion, that your use violates these Terms or Privacy Policy.

5. ACCOUNT SECURITY & AUTHORIZED USERS

You take responsibility for fully controlling who administrates and can access your business account, how it is managed, and how you use our Service. Such responsibility includes:

You control access to your business account. You decide who is allowed to use and access the Service through your business account ("Authorized User") and what kind of access each of those Authorized Users has. You can change or stop that access at any time.
You agree that you are responsible for all your Authorized Users' activity, their use of our Service, and their compliance with these Terms and our guidelines. You understand and agree that you are liable for their actions and omissions as if they were your own.
You agree that you will keep your business information, including a current email address, up to date.
You agree that you are responsible for providing true, accurate, and complete information.
You agree that you are responsible for protecting your username and password from getting stolen or misused, and you shall notify us at support@trustgrade.com immediately if your account becomes compromised.

6. PRICING, SUBSCRIPTION, AND AUTORENEWAL

Subscription. If you purchase an automatically renewing subscription to one or more of our paid Services (a "Subscription"), the following points will also apply to you:
- Subscription period: The specific duration of your Subscription ("Subscription Period") will be presented to you when you enroll.
- SUBSCRIPTION RENEWALS: AT THE END OF EACH SUBSCRIPTION PERIOD, YOUR SUBSCRIPTION WILL AUTOMATICALLY RENEW FOR ANOTHER SUBSCRIPTION PERIOD UNLESS WE HAVE AGREED TO AN ALTERNATIVE ARRANGEMENT WITH YOU IN YOUR QUOTE, ORDER FORM, OR SIMILAR DOCUMENT, OR YOU HAVE PROPERLY CANCELLED YOUR SUBSCRIPTION IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS TERMS OR WE TERMINATE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION. If your Subscription is not renewed, you will still have access to the Services provided in our free plan.
- Subscription renewal pricing: If we make any changes to the price of your Subscription, we will inform you in advance of the next renewal date of your Subscription Period, which is when the new price will take effect. If you do not cancel your Subscription before the next renewal, you agree to pay the updated price for each Subscription Period unless and until you cancel.
- Ending your Subscription: If you do not want your Subscription to automatically renew at the end of a Subscription Period, you must cancel your Subscription through your online account.
Free or Reduced-Cost Trial. We may offer you the opportunity to enroll in a free or reduced-cost introductory trial of the Services. Unless you cancel before the end of the trial period, you will be enrolled in a paid Subscription, through which you will be charged the full Subscription price on an automatically renewing basis unless and until you cancel.
No refunds or credit. We will not owe you any refund or credit if you or we terminate your Subscription in accordance with these Terms.
Taxes. Our prices are stated exclusive of taxes. You are responsible for paying all other fees and taxes associated with your use of our Service wherever levied, including value added tax, sales tax, or other similar charges if they apply.
Timely payments: To continue accessing the Services included in your Subscription, you must make timely payments. If your payment method is declined or we do not receive payment from you for a Subscription Period, then we may suspend or terminate your access to our Service. In cases of late payment for any unpaid amounts, we reserve the right to charge you interest or late fees on outstanding amounts in the maximum amount permitted by law, and you will also be responsible for any costs reasonably incurred by us in collecting such amounts, including collection costs and legal fees.

7. BUSINESS GENERATED CONTENT

You may post information about your business, reply to a review, upload an image, or post other content created by or originating from you ("Business Generated Content"). By posting Business Generated Content, you represent that you have the right to allow us to use your Business Generated Content, and agree that we may use and make such Business Generated Content available forever without restriction or payment to you. Unless Business Generated Content is removed by us for violating our guidelines, or removed by its author, all Business Generated Content will remain publicly displayed on our Service, our Platform, and any third-party services and networks (including search engines) even after your Subscription has ended.

8. REVIEW GUIDELINES

You agree to and are bound by the following guidelines:

Conflicts of interest. Site users who have had a genuine experience with your business can write a review. Site users with conflicts of interest may not review your business, and such conflicts of interest includes you, your employees, and your immediate family members. You and your employees are prohibited from reviewing a direct competitor to your business.
Solicitation of reviews. If you ask a Site user for a review, your invitation must be fair, neutral, and unbiased. You shall not provide incentives like discounts, monetary rewards, loyalty points, gifts, coupons, referral bonuses, or free products or services when asking for a review. You agree that the content of each invitation will comply with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and that you will have all the rights, permissions, and consents required for your invitations to be sent in compliance with applicable privacy laws. You agree to comply with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements and these guidelines in soliciting a review.
Fake reviews. Soliciting or generating false or fake reviews may lead to termination of your Services.
Respect others' rights. Site users may post a review as long as it is a reflection of their genuine experience. Site users are prohibited from posting anything harmful, hateful, discriminatory, defamatory, or obscene. You shall not threaten, harass, or engage in any illegal conduct.
Defamation. We reserve the right, but do not undertake the obligation, to take down false words and statements that are likely to cause serious harm to someone's reputation or serious financial loss to a business.
Interaction with customers: You agree that you shall not interact with any customers or Site users outside of the Site related to any review that the customer or Site user posted on the Site. You agree that TrustGrade has no obligations arising out of or related to any review left on your business page by a customer or Site user.
Final say. We shall have the final say with regard to the interpretation and application of these review guidelines, and we may update them at any time in our sole discretion. Further, you expressly agree that we are under no obligation to remove or hide reviews.

9. FLAGGED REVIEWS

Company-flagged reviews. Companies may flag reviews it believes are false ("Company Flagged Review"). If a Company flags a review, we may require a narrative response concerning why it believes the review to be false. We reserve the right to display the Company's response. The Company Flagged Reviews will still be used in the calculation of that company's star-rating, score, and/or grade. Additionally, companies are permitted to automatically flag reviews containing profanity or spam as "profane" or "spam" ("Automatically Flagged Review"). These Automatically Flagged Reviews will not be used in the calculation of that company's star-rating, score, and/or grade.
Final Say. We reserve the right to review all flagged reviews and decide in our sole discretion whether the review will remain on the Site and whether (and how) a review will be factored into a Company's star-rating, score, and/or grade. You expressly agree that we are under no obligation to accept a Company's flag. If we believe, in our sole discretion, that a Company has abused the flag function, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate the Company's account.

10. THIRD-PARTY LINKS AND SERVICES; ENDORSEMENTS; ADVERTISEMENTS

Your use of our Service and our Brand is not an approval, endorsement, or recommendation by us of either you or your products or services. You shall not market yourself or give public declarations to that effect.

We may use, present to you, and/or link to third-party technology, products, and/or services on our Platform. We do not endorse or make any guarantee or promise, and do not assume any responsibility for any such third-party technology, products, and/or services. Please note that we cannot guarantee that our Platform will be compatible with your browser, network, or computer set-up.

We may publicly display advertisements, paid content, and other information nearby or in association with your Business Generated Content. You are not entitled to any compensation for such advertisements. The manner, mode, and extent of such advertising are subject to change without notice to you.

11. TERMINATION & SUSPENSION

A. Termination For Subscription Purchasers

If you have a Subscription, we may terminate your Subscription at the end of any Subscription Period by notifying you before the end of the Subscription Period. In the event of a non-renewal by us, you will still have access to the Service included in your Subscription for the remainder of the applicable Subscription Period. You agree you will still be responsible for paying all Subscription fees for the entirety of the Subscription Period.

TrustGrade may also terminate your Subscription or access to your business account or all or any of our Service immediately if:

You materially breach any of these Terms or Privacy Policy and do not remedy the breach within 14 days after receiving notice of the breach;
You materially breach any of these Terms and the breach cannot be remedied; for example, creating reviews on your own business profile page, procuring fake reviews, misusing the review reporting functionality in your business account, inviting consumers to create reviews in a biased way, or using the brand marks to mislead consumers;
We determine, in our sole discretion, that you have acted in a manner that is abusive or disrespectful to a TrustGrade employee, partner, or Site user;
You fail to fulfill your payment obligations for your Subscription pursuant to these Terms and the terms of the applicable invoice; or
We determine, in our sole discretion, that your business values or core beliefs are in conflict with ours.

In the event of immediate termination, you shall still be responsible for paying all Subscription fees for the whole of the current Subscription Period. If you have already paid, then you will not be entitled to any refund or credit. Further, you shall immediately remove and cease using or publishing any TrustGrade reviews, grades, widgets, the TrustGrade name and/or badges, including but not limited to on your advertising or marketing material.

B. Suspension for Subscription Purchasers

We may suspend all or part of your access and use of our Platform and/or Services if we believe that you are in breach of any of these Terms or otherwise need to investigate whether to immediately terminate your Services for the duration of the time required to make such a determination.

12. PRIVACY POLICY AND YOUR BUSINESS INFORMATION

You understand, acknowledge, and agree that the operation of certain features of the Site may require or involve the submission, use, and dissemination of various items of business identifiable information, including, without limitation, your business contact information. Please refer to TrustGrade's Privacy Policy, available at trustgrade.com/privacy (as updated from time to time), for a summary of TrustGrade's policies and use practices regarding business identifiable information.

13. NOTICE OF TAKEDOWN PROCEDURES; COPYRIGHT ACT

If you believe that materials or content available on the Site infringes any copyright you own, you or your agent may send us a notice requesting that we remove the materials or content from the Site. If you believe that someone has wrongly filed a notice of copyright infringement against you related to your use of the Site, you may send us a counter-notice. Notices and counter-notices should be sent by email to us at support@trustgrade.com with the subject line "DMCA Notice" or "DMCA Counter-Notice," and the email must include all information and affirmations required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

14. DISCLAIMER AND LIABILITY

EXCEPT WHERE OTHERWISE INAPPLICABLE OR PROHIBITED BY LAW, THE PLATFORM, ALL CONTENT, AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS," "AS AVAILABLE," BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF TITLE OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. WE MAKE NO, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL, REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, QUALITY, SUITABILITY, AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, AND/OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION ON THIS PLATFORM. WE DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM THAT: (A) THE USE OF THE PLATFORM WILL BE SECURE, TIMELY, UNINTERRUPTED, OR ERROR-FREE, OR OPERATE IN COMBINATION WITH ANY OTHER HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, SYSTEM, OR DATA, (B) THE PLATFORM OR SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS, (C) ANY STORED DATA WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, (D) THE QUALITY OF THE PLATFORM WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS, (E) ERRORS OR DEFECTS IN THE PLATFORM WILL BE CORRECTED, OR (F) THE SITE OR THE SERVER(S) THAT MAKE THE SITE AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. ALL CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, AND WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS, ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.

15. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

This Agreement shall be governed by the law of the State of Florida, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. If any dispute arises under this Agreement, you agree to submit the dispute to binding arbitration in the State of Florida, conducted under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. Judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court with proper jurisdiction. Notwithstanding the foregoing, TrustGrade may initiate a dispute either by submitting it to binding arbitration or by filing in a state or federal court located in the State of Florida, or any other state where personal jurisdiction exists over you, at TrustGrade's sole discretion. You shall be responsible for the payment of all attorneys' fees and expenses incurred by TrustGrade to enforce this Agreement.

16. INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless TrustGrade, its directors, officers, employees, shareholders, licensors, independent contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, affiliates, parent companies, subsidiaries, successors, assigns, and agents from and against any and all claims, actions, loss, liabilities, damages, expenses, demands, and costs of any kind, including, but not limited to, attorneys' fees and costs of any litigation or other dispute resolution, arising out of, resulting from, or in any way connected with or related to (a) your use, misuse, or attempt to use the Site or Services; (b) information you submit or transmit through the Site; (c) your breach of these Terms, Privacy Policy, any guidelines TrustGrade provides to you, or the representations and warranties provided by you in this Agreement; or (d) your violation of any law or the rights of a third party, negligence, willful misconduct, and/or any infringement or misappropriation of any intellectual property of a third party.

17. NO WAIVER

No failure or delay on our part in exercising any right, power, or remedy under this Agreement may operate as a waiver, nor may any single or partial exercise of any such right, power, or remedy preclude any other or further exercise of such right, power, or remedy, or the exercise of any other rights, power, or remedy under this Agreement. A waiver of any right or obligation under this Agreement shall only be effective if in writing and signed by us.

18. FORCE MAJEURE

We will not be responsible to you for any delay, damage, or failure caused or occasioned by any act of nature or other causes beyond our reasonable control.

19. ASSIGNMENT

We may assign this Agreement or our rights hereunder at any time, without notice to you. Our assignee of this Agreement will have the same rights as we do hereunder. Your rights or obligations arising under this Agreement cannot be assigned without our (or our assigns') express written consent.

20. ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE

All information communicated on the Site is considered an electronic communication. When you communicate with us through or on the Site or via other forms of electronic media, such as email, you are communicating with us electronically. You agree that we may communicate electronically with you and that such communications, as well as notices, disclosures, agreements, and other communications that we provide to you electronically, are equivalent to communications in writing and shall have the same force and effect as if they were in writing and signed by the party sending the communication.

21. RELATIONSHIP

Your use of the Site does not create, and nothing contained in this Agreement will be deemed to establish, an employment, agency, franchise, join venture or partnership relationship between you and TrustGrade. Use of the Site does not provide you with the authority to enter into any agreements for or on behalf of TrustGrade. Moreover, use of the Site does not grant you the authority, either express or implied, to incur obligations or liability on behalf of TrustGrade. By using the Site, you agree that no attempts to subject TrustGrade to any such obligations or liability will be made.

22. CHANGES TO THIS AGREEMENT

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to update, change, or replace any part of the Agreement, including the Terms and Privacy Policy. We will notify you of such changes by posting updates and changes to our Site and/or emailing you at the email address you provide when you sign up or that you otherwise provide to the Site. Your continued use of or access to our Site and Services following the posting of any changes to the Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes.

23. SEVERABILITY

If any provision of this Agreement is found by an arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall not be affected thereby and shall continue in full force and effect and such provision may be modified or severed from this Agreement to the extent necessary to make such provision enforceable and consistent with the remainder of the Agreement.

24. ENTIRE AGREEMENT

These Terms, Privacy Policy, and any policies or operating rules posted by us on the Site or in respect to the Site and Services constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and your business and us and governs your access to and use of the Site and your attempted use of any service or product supersedes and replaces any prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, communications, and proposals, whether oral or written, between you and us. We may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through the Site. Such new features and/or services shall also be subject to these Terms and Privacy Policy and any policies, guidelines, or operating rules and additional terms for such services or features posted by us on the Site. Any ambiguities in the interpretation of these Terms and Privacy Policy shall not be construed against the drafting party.

25. CONTACT US

Please contact us with questions or comments about services or these Terms by sending an email to support@trustgrade.com. Notices to you may be made by posting a notice (or a link to a notice) on this web page, by email, by postal mail, or any other means, at our discretion