Terms of Service

Agreement

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legally binding agreement between you and the PetsMatchy operators described below. By creating an account, accessing, or using the PetsMatchy (PawMate) mobile app or petsmatchy.com, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, and our Community Standards. If you do not agree, do not use the service.

If any mandatory consumer or privacy law in your country of residence cannot be waived, that law still applies. Nothing in these Terms limits rights that the law does not allow us to limit.

The service

PetsMatchy lets pet owners create profiles, post updates, swipe and match, chat, follow others, report lost or found pets, browse adoption posts, and find veterinarians. Veterinarians can list a clinic, post, receive appointment requests, and receive reviews. Features may change. We do not guarantee matches, appointments, breeding outcomes, adoptions, or that a listed clinic is available or suitable for your animal.

PetsMatchy is a software platform only. We are not a veterinary practice, animal shelter, insurer, or emergency service.

Eligibility

• You must be at least 13 years old, and old enough to hold an online account under the laws of your country (16 in some EU states).
• Veterinarian and clinic accounts must be created and operated by a person who is at least 18 years old.
• You must provide accurate information. You may not impersonate another person or a licensed veterinarian.
• If you create an account on behalf of a clinic, you represent that you are authorised to bind that clinic.

Accounts

You are responsible for your login credentials and for activity on your account. Notify us at [email protected] if you believe your account is compromised. We may require password confirmation for sensitive actions such as scheduling account deletion.

One person should not operate multiple accounts to evade a restriction, inflate engagement, or impersonate others.

Licence to use the app

We grant you a personal, limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the app for its intended purpose, subject to these Terms. We and our licensors retain all rights in the app, branding, and software. You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, scrape, or circumvent technical limits except where the law expressly allows it.

User content

You retain ownership of photos, captions, reviews, messages, and other content you submit (“User Content”). You grant PetsMatchy a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute that User Content solely to operate, improve, secure, and moderate the service, including showing it to other users according to your visibility settings.

You represent that you have the rights needed to post the User Content (including photos of animals, people, or clinics) and that it does not infringe others’ rights or violate the law. You are responsible for User Content you post.

Deleting a post or your account removes it from the live service as described in the Privacy Policy. Copies others already saved (screenshots, downloads, shares) are outside our control. We may retain limited copies as described in the Privacy Policy for safety, security, or legal reasons.

Community Standards and acceptable use

You must follow the Community Standards, which form part of these Terms. You may not, among other things:

• post illegal content, sexual content involving minors, or content that exploits or abuses animals;
• harass, threaten, stalk, or dox other users;
• spam, scrape, or attempt to access other people’s accounts or our systems without authorisation;
• upload malware or interfere with the service;
• use the app to sell stolen animals, run fake adoptions, or otherwise defraud anyone;
• misrepresent a veterinary licence, clinic, or professional qualification.

Moderation and enforcement

We may, but are not obliged to, monitor User Content. You can report posts, comments, or users in the app. We may review reports and take action we reasonably consider appropriate, including:

• removing or limiting a post, comment, photo, review, or message;
• warning you;
• restricting features;
• suspending or permanently deleting an account;
• blocking access from certain devices or identifiers where reasonably necessary;
• emailing you about the decision and, where we consider it appropriate, about how to reply.

We may take these steps to protect users, animals, our staff, and the service, to comply with law, or to enforce these Terms. We may not provide advance notice when doing so would create a safety or legal risk. Repeat or severe violations may lead to permanent deletion without a further warning.

If you believe a decision was mistaken, email [email protected] from the address on your account. We will consider appeals in good faith. We do not guarantee that content or accounts will be restored.

Pets, health, and safety

PetsMatchy does not provide veterinary, medical, or legal advice. Appointments booked through the app are a contract between you and the clinic, not with us. Breeding, playdates, adoptions, and in-person meetings are at your own risk. Meet in public places, verify ownership and health records yourself, and follow local animal-welfare and public-health laws. Read our Safety page before meeting someone from the app.

Veterinarians

If you list a clinic, you are responsible for the accuracy of licence numbers, hours, fees, and services, and for complying with the professional and advertising rules that apply to you. Listing on PetsMatchy does not mean we have verified your licence. Owners should independently confirm that a clinic is appropriate for their animal.

Intellectual property

PetsMatchy, PawMate, our logos, and the app’s design and code are our property or that of our licensors. You may not use them without permission, except as needed to use the service.

If you believe content on the service infringes your copyright, email [email protected] with a description of the work, the URL or in-app location, and a statement of your rights. We may remove content and, where appropriate, take action against repeat infringers.

Third-party services

The app uses third-party infrastructure (including authentication, hosting, storage, email, push notifications, crash reporting, and map tiles). Their terms and privacy notices also apply to their processing. We are not responsible for third-party websites linked from user content.

Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, or that user content is accurate.

Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, PetsMatchy and its operators, officers, and contractors are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of the service, matches, chats, appointments, meetups, or User Content.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for the service in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) fifty US dollars (USD 50). If you have not paid us, the cap is USD 50. Some countries do not allow certain limitations; in those countries our liability is limited to the maximum extent allowed.

We do not exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Indemnity

You will indemnify and hold harmless PetsMatchy and its operators from claims, damages, and reasonable legal fees arising from your User Content, your misuse of the service, your violation of these Terms, or your impersonation of a veterinary professional, except to the extent caused by our wilful misconduct.

Termination

You may stop using the app at any time. You may schedule deletion of your account as described on Delete account (30-day cooling-off, cancellable by signing in). We may suspend or terminate access if you breach these Terms, if required by law, or if we discontinue the service. We will try to give notice when it is reasonable and lawful to do so.

Sections that by their nature should survive (including User Content licence for residual copies, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnity, and governing law) survive termination.

Changes

We may update these Terms. The “Last updated” date will change. We may also notify you in the app or by email. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the revised Terms, except where local law requires a different process (for example an explicit new consent).

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Qatar, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except that:

• mandatory consumer-protection and privacy rights of your country of residence still apply and cannot be waived by this clause;
• if you are habitually resident in Tunisia, you may also rely on Tunisian mandatory rules, including Organic Law n° 2004-63, and you may bring certain claims before competent Tunisian courts or the INPDP as the law allows;
• if you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may bring proceedings in the courts of your place of residence, and you benefit from mandatory protections of that law.

Before filing a claim, please contact [email protected]. If a dispute continues, courts of Qatar have jurisdiction, except where the law gives you the right to sue in your home courts, in which case that right prevails.

Miscellaneous

If a provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them in connection with a reorganisation or sale of assets. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Community Standards are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the service. A paper or electronic copy of these Terms may be used as evidence.

Contact

[email protected]

Related documents: Privacy Policy, Community Standards, Safety, Support.