Terms & Conditions

DARCKED.COM

Version: 1.0 

Effective Date: 05 August 2026 

Last Updated: 05 August 2026 

Document Language: English

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I — GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Publisher Information and Legal Notice
2. Scope and Application
3. Acceptance of these Terms
4. Definitions
5. Eligibility and Capacity to Contract
6. Amendments to these Terms

PART II — THE SERVICES 7. Description of the Services 8. Accounts 9. Account Security and Permitted Access 10. Availability, Modification and Discontinuation of the Services

PART III — EDITORIAL FRAMEWORK 11. Editorial Independence and Editorial Responsibility 12. Nature of the Editorial Content 13. Criticism of Films, Television Works and Literary Works 14. Use of Artificial Intelligence as an Editorial Tool 15. AI-generated Illustrations 16. Corrections, Right of Reply and Editorial Complaints

PART IV — MEMBERSHIPS, SUBSCRIPTIONS AND PURCHASES 17. Formation of the Contract 18. Membership Plans and Subscription Periods 19. Automatic Renewal 20. Cancellation of a Membership 21. One-Time Purchases and Delivery of Digital Publications 22. Prices, Currency and Taxes 23. Payment and Payment Providers 24. Changes to Prices and Plans 25. Free Trials and Promotional Offers 26. Right of Withdrawal 27. Refunds, Failed Payments and Chargebacks

PART V — CONSUMER PROTECTION 28. Conformity of Digital Content and Digital Services 29. Additional Provisions for Consumers in Specific Jurisdictions 30. Mandatory Consumer Rights Unaffected

PART VI — INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND LICENCE 31. Ownership of Rights 32. Licence Granted to Users 33. Permitted Uses 34. Prohibited Uses 35. Technical Protection Measures and Watermarking 36. Reservation of Rights Concerning Text and Data Mining and AI Training 37. Trade Marks and Brand Assets 38. Third-Party Distribution Channels

PART VII — USER CONDUCT, USER CONTENT AND NOTICES 39. Acceptable Use 40. User Content 41. Content Moderation, Notice and Action 42. Notification of Allegedly Infringing Content 43. Repeat Infringers

PART VIII — COMMUNICATIONS AND THIRD PARTIES 44. Newsletter and Service Communications 45. Social Media Channels 46. Third-Party Links, Content and Services 47. Advertising, Sponsorship and Editorial Separation

PART IX — DATA, ACCESSIBILITY AND SECURITY 48. Privacy and Data Protection 49. Cookies and Similar Technologies 50. Accessibility 51. Security

PART X — LIABILITY, SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION 52. Disclaimers 53. Limitation of Liability 54. Indemnification 55. Force Majeure 56. Suspension and Termination by the Company 57. Termination by the User and Effects of Termination

PART XI — DISPUTES AND FINAL PROVISIONS 58. Export Controls, Sanctions and Territorial Restrictions 59. Complaints Procedure 60. Alternative Dispute Resolution 61. Governing Law 62. Competent Courts 63. Assignment and Transfer 64. Entire Agreement and Order of Precedence 65. Severability and Waiver 66. Notices and Electronic Communications 67. Language of the Terms 68. Contact Details

ANNEXES Annex I — Model Withdrawal Form Annex II — Information Required in a Notice of Alleged Infringement Annex III — Summary of Membership Terms

PART I — GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Publisher Information and Legal Notice

1.1 The Website and the Services are operated and published by:

1.2 Where the Company is not established in the European Union but offers the Services to recipients located in the European Union, the Company shall designate a legal representative in accordance with Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (the Digital Services Act). The designated legal representative is: Traverse Limited.

1.3 The single point of contact for the purposes of Articles 11 and 12 of the Digital Services Act, through which Member State authorities, the European Commission, the European Board for Digital Services and recipients of the Services may communicate directly and electronically with the Company, is: official@darcked.com. Communications with that point of contact may be conducted in English.

1.4 This Section 1 is also intended to satisfy applicable statutory provider-identification requirements, including Article 5 of Directive 2000/31/EC (the E-Commerce Directive) and equivalent national implementing provisions.

2. Scope and Application

2.1 These Terms of Service (the Terms) govern access to and use of the Website, the Editorial Content, the Digital Publications, the Memberships, the Newsletter and all other Services made available by the Company.

2.2 These Terms apply to all Users, whether or not they hold an Account, and whether access is obtained free of charge or against payment.

2.3 The following documents form an integral part of these Terms and are incorporated by reference:

(a) the Privacy Policy; (b) the Cookie Policy; (c) any plan description, order summary or checkout page setting out the specific commercial terms of a Membership or purchase; (d) any supplementary terms expressly designated as applying to a particular Service, campaign or publication.

2.4 These Terms do not apply to Digital Publications acquired through third-party distribution channels, including Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, which are governed by the terms of the relevant third party. Section 38 applies to such acquisitions.

2.5 These Terms are addressed to Users worldwide. The Company does not represent that the Services, or any part of the Editorial Content or Digital Publications, are appropriate, lawful or available for use in every jurisdiction. Users who access the Services do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with applicable local law.

3. Acceptance of these Terms

3.1 By accessing the Website, creating an Account, subscribing to the Newsletter, purchasing a Digital Publication, activating a Membership or otherwise using the Services, the User accepts these Terms and agrees to be bound by them.

3.2 A User who does not accept these Terms must not access or use the Services.

3.3 Acceptance of these Terms constitutes a framework agreement between the User and the Company governing the use of the Services. Individual contracts for the supply of Digital Publications or the provision of a Membership are concluded in accordance with Section 17 and are subject to these Terms.

3.4 Where the User acts in the course of a trade, business, craft or profession, the User confirms that the person accepting these Terms is authorised to bind that entity.

4. Definitions

In these Terms, the following expressions have the meanings set out below. Defined terms are capitalised throughout and are used consistently in all legal documents published by the Company.

Account — the personal user account created by a User in order to access the Services, administer a Membership or access Digital Publications.

AI-generated Illustrations — visual material produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence systems, commissioned, prompted, selected, reviewed and approved by the Company’s editorial staff for publication as part of the Editorial Content or a Digital Publication.

Company — Traverse Limited, as further identified in Section 1, together with its successors and permitted assigns. References to “we”, “us” and “our” are references to the Company.

Consumer — a natural person acting for purposes which are wholly or mainly outside that person’s trade, business, craft or profession.

Digital Publications — the digital works published and made available by the Company, including digital books, digital magazines, special editions, collected essays and other publications supplied in PDF format, EPUB format or such other electronic formats as the Company may introduce.

Editorial Content — all editorial material published by the Company, including long-form essays, literary criticism, philosophical criticism and essays, film criticism, television criticism, critical and academic-style essays, editorial commentary, AI-generated Illustrations, and subscription-only editorial material, whether published on the Website, within a Digital Publication or through the Newsletter.

Free Content — Editorial Content made available without payment and without a Membership.

Membership — a paid, recurring right of access to Paid Content and associated benefits, granted for a Subscription Period and subject to these Terms. The terms “Membership” and “subscription” are used interchangeably in commercial descriptions; the operative term in these Terms is “Membership”.

Newsletter — the electronic communications distributed by the Company to recipients who have provided their contact details and, where required, their consent.

Paid Content — Editorial Content and Digital Publications accessible only against payment, whether under a Membership or by one-time purchase.

Payment Provider — a third-party payment services provider engaged in connection with the Services, including Stripe, PayPal, Paddle and such other providers as the Company may engage from time to time.

Privacy Policy — the Company’s privacy policy published at https://darcked.com/privacy-policy/, as amended.

Services — the Website, the Editorial Content, the Digital Publications, the Memberships, the Newsletter, the Accounts and all related functionality, features and services made available by the Company.

Subscriber — a User who holds a current Membership.

Subscription Period — the recurring term of a Membership, being one (1), three (3), six (6), nine (9) or twelve (12) months, as selected by the User at the point of purchase.

Terms — these Terms of Service, including all Annexes and all documents incorporated by reference under Section 2.3.

User — any natural or legal person who accesses or uses the Services, including visitors, Account holders and Subscribers. References to “you” and “your” are references to the User.

User Content — any material submitted, uploaded, transmitted or otherwise made available to the Company by a User, including comments, correspondence, feedback and editorial submissions.

Website — the website operated by the Company at https://darcked.com/, including all subdomains and associated interfaces.

Words denoting the singular include the plural and vice versa. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation. The words “including”, “in particular” and “such as” are to be read without limitation.

5. Eligibility and Capacity to Contract

5.1 The Services are intended for adults. A User must be at least eighteen (18) years of age, or the age of majority in the User’s jurisdiction of residence if higher, in order to create an Account, activate a Membership or purchase a Digital Publication.

5.2 Users who have attained the age of sixteen (16) but who have not attained the age of majority may access Free Content, but may enter into a paid contract only with the consent of a parent or legal guardian and only where such consent is valid under the law applicable to that User.

5.3 The Services are not directed at children. The Company does not knowingly enter into contractual relationships with, or knowingly collect personal data from, children below the ages specified in Section 5.1 and 5.2. Where the Company becomes aware that an Account has been created in breach of this Section, it will close the Account and delete the associated personal data in accordance with the Privacy Policy.

5.4 By entering into a contract with the Company, the User represents that the User has the legal capacity to do so and that the information provided in connection with registration and payment is accurate, current and complete.

5.5 The Company may refuse to establish, or may terminate, any contractual relationship with a User where the Company is prohibited from dealing with that User under applicable law, including the measures described in Section 58.

6. Amendments to these Terms

6.1 The Company may amend these Terms in order to reflect changes in the Services, in the Editorial Content offered, in the Company’s technical or operational arrangements, in the Payment Providers engaged, or in applicable law, regulation, judicial decision or regulatory guidance, or for any other valid reason.

6.2 The Company will publish the amended Terms on the Website together with the version number and the date from which the amendment takes effect.

6.3 Where an amendment materially affects the rights or obligations of a Subscriber, the Company will notify the Subscriber by email to the address associated with the Account not less than thirty (30) days before the amendment takes effect. The notice will identify the substance of the change and the date on which it takes effect.

6.4 A Subscriber who does not accept a material amendment may terminate the Membership with effect from the date on which the amendment takes effect, by giving notice before that date in accordance with Section 20. Where the Subscriber terminates on this basis, the Company will refund the proportionate part of any amount paid in advance in respect of the unexpired part of the current Subscription Period.

6.5 Continued use of the Services after the date on which an amendment takes effect constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms. Amendments do not apply retroactively to contracts already fully performed.

6.6 The commercial terms applicable to an individual purchase of a Digital Publication are those in force at the time the contract for that purchase is concluded, and are not affected by subsequent amendments to these Terms.

6.7 This Section 6 does not permit the Company to amend the essential characteristics, price or duration of a Membership already purchased; those matters are governed by Sections 18 and 24.

PART II — THE SERVICES

7. Description of the Services

7.1 The Company is an independent digital publisher. The Company publishes original Editorial Content in the fields of literary criticism, philosophical criticism and essays, film criticism and television criticism, together with Digital Publications, and distributes a Newsletter.

7.2 The Services comprise, in particular:

(a) Free Content published on the Website; (b) Paid Content accessible under a Membership; (c) Digital Publications available by one-time purchase and direct digital download; (d) Digital Publications distributed through third-party channels, as described in Section 38; (e) the Newsletter; (f) Accounts and associated Membership administration functions; (g) the Company’s social media channels, as described in Section 45.

7.3 The composition, scope, frequency and editorial direction of the Editorial Content are determined by the Company in the exercise of its editorial discretion. Unless expressly stated in the description of a Membership plan, the Company does not warrant that any particular item, category, frequency or volume of Editorial Content will be published during a Subscription Period.

7.4 The Editorial Content is provided for informational, cultural, critical and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal, financial, medical, psychological, professional or other advice, and must not be relied upon as such.

7.5 The Company may make Digital Publications available in PDF format and, where announced, in EPUB format. The Company does not warrant that a given Digital Publication will be made available in every format, or that any format will be compatible with every device, application or assistive technology. Format and technical requirements applicable to a Digital Publication are stated on the relevant product page.

8. Accounts

8.1 Certain Services, including Memberships and access to purchased Digital Publications, require an Account.

8.2 An Account is personal to the User. An Account may not be shared, transferred, sold, assigned, licensed or made available to any third party, whether against payment or free of charge, except as expressly permitted by the Company in writing.

8.3 The User must provide accurate, current and complete information when creating an Account and must keep that information up to date. The Company may verify the accuracy of information provided.

8.4 A User may hold only one Account, unless the Company has agreed otherwise in writing. The Company may consolidate or close duplicate Accounts.

8.5 The Company may offer institutional, library, educational or corporate access under separate licence terms. Such access is not available under these Terms and requires a separate written agreement. Enquiries may be directed to official@darcked.com.

9. Account Security and Permitted Access

9.1 The User is responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the Account credentials and for all activity conducted through the Account.

9.2 The User must notify the Company without undue delay at support@darcked.com upon becoming aware of any unauthorised access to, or use of, the Account.

9.3 The Company may apply reasonable technical measures to detect and prevent credential sharing and unauthorised concurrent access, including limits on the number of devices or simultaneous sessions associated with an Account. Any such limits are stated in the description of the relevant Membership plan.

9.4 The Company may suspend access to an Account where it has reasonable grounds to believe that the Account has been compromised, that credentials are being shared in breach of Section 8.2, or that the Account is being used in breach of these Terms. Section 56 applies to such suspension.

9.5 The User is not responsible for unauthorised use of the Account occurring after the User has notified the Company in accordance with Section 9.2, save where the unauthorised use is attributable to the User’s own fraud or gross negligence.

10. Availability, Modification and Discontinuation of the Services

10.1 The Company will use reasonable endeavours to make the Services available on a continuous basis, but does not warrant uninterrupted or error-free availability. Access may be interrupted by scheduled maintenance, emergency maintenance, technical failures, security incidents, third-party service failures or events described in Section 55.

10.2 The Company will, where reasonably practicable, give advance notice of planned maintenance likely to cause material interruption, and will schedule such maintenance so as to minimise inconvenience.

10.3 The Company may modify, enhance, restrict or discontinue any feature or component of the Services. Where a modification would materially and adversely affect a Subscriber’s access to Paid Content for which payment has already been made, the Company will notify affected Subscribers in accordance with Section 6.3, and Section 6.4 applies.

10.4 The Company may withdraw individual items of Editorial Content or Digital Publications from publication where required for legal, editorial, ethical, contractual or rights-related reasons, including in response to a valid notice under Section 42, a court order, a regulatory direction, or the expiry or revocation of a necessary licence. Where a withdrawn Digital Publication has already been purchased and downloaded by a User, the licence granted under Section 32 continues in respect of the copy lawfully obtained, unless the withdrawal results from a court order or a finding that continued use would be unlawful.

10.5 The Company may cease to operate the Services in whole or in part. Where the Company ceases operation of a Service to which a Membership relates, the Company will give not less than thirty (30) days’ notice and will refund the proportionate part of any amount paid in advance in respect of the unexpired part of the current Subscription Period.

10.6 Users are responsible for the equipment, software, operating systems, applications and internet connectivity required to access the Services, and for all associated costs.

PART III — EDITORIAL FRAMEWORK

11. Editorial Independence and Editorial Responsibility

11.1 Editorial independence is fundamental to the Company. Editorial decisions concerning the selection, commissioning, treatment, publication, amendment and withdrawal of Editorial Content are taken by the Company’s editorial staff and are not subject to direction by advertisers, sponsors, commercial partners, subjects of criticism, rightsholders or Subscribers.

11.2 The Company retains full editorial responsibility for all Editorial Content published under its name. Editorial responsibility is exercised by a natural person identified in Section 1.

11.3 The holding of a Membership does not confer upon a Subscriber any right to determine, influence or veto editorial decisions, nor any entitlement to the publication of particular material.

11.4 The Company does not publish Editorial Content in exchange for payment, and does not permit commercial consideration to influence critical assessment. Section 47 governs advertising and sponsored material, which is separated from and clearly distinguished from Editorial Content.

12. Nature of the Editorial Content

12.1 The Editorial Content consists substantially of criticism, commentary, analysis and interpretation. It expresses the honest opinions of the Company and of its named contributors on matters of cultural, literary, philosophical and artistic interest.

12.2 The Company distinguishes interpretation from factual description. Statements of fact are verified prior to publication in accordance with the Company’s editorial process. Statements of opinion, evaluation, interpretation and critical judgement are presented as such and are not to be construed as assertions of fact.

12.3 Every item of Editorial Content and every Digital Publication is reviewed, edited, verified and approved by a human editor prior to publication.

12.4 Critical assessments contained in the Editorial Content are expressions of opinion honestly held on the basis of the material identified in the relevant publication. Nothing in the Editorial Content is intended to disparage any person otherwise than by way of honest critical comment on published or publicly available works and on matters of legitimate public interest.

12.5 The Editorial Content may address themes, works and subject matter of an adult, distressing or controversial character, including in the course of criticism of films, television works and literary works. Where the Company considers it appropriate, advisory notices are provided.

12.6 Views expressed by named external contributors are those of the contributor and are not necessarily those of the Company. The Company nonetheless retains editorial responsibility for material published under its name in accordance with Section 11.2.

13. Criticism of Films, Television Works and Literary Works

13.1 The Company’s analysis of films, television works and literary works is based primarily upon works that have been lawfully released, published, broadcast or otherwise made available to the public.

13.2 Where the Editorial Content reproduces quotations, extracts, stills, frames, cover images or other protected material for the purposes of criticism, review, quotation, illustration or reporting, such reproduction is made:

(a) in reliance upon Article 5(3)(d) of Directive 2001/29/EC and the corresponding national exceptions for quotation for purposes such as criticism or review; (b) in reliance upon sections 30, 30A and 32 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 in the United Kingdom; (c) in reliance upon the doctrine of fair use codified at 17 U.S.C. § 107 in the United States; and (d) in reliance upon equivalent exceptions and limitations in other applicable jurisdictions.

13.3 Reproduction under Section 13.2 is limited to the extent required by the specific critical purpose, is accompanied by identification of the source and, where practicable, the author, and does not constitute an assertion of ownership of the underlying work.

13.4 The Company is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or otherwise connected to any film studio, television network, streaming service, distributor, publisher, production company, author or rightsholder whose works are the subject of criticism, unless expressly stated. References to titles, characters, trade marks and other identifiers of third parties are made for the purposes of identification, criticism and commentary only.

13.5 A rightsholder who considers that material published by the Company exceeds the scope of an applicable exception or limitation may submit a notice in accordance with Section 42.

14. Use of Artificial Intelligence as an Editorial Tool

14.1 The Company uses artificial intelligence solely as an editorial tool. Artificial intelligence may assist with:

(a) research; (b) drafting; (c) editing; (d) translation; and (e) the generation of illustrations, as described in Section 15.

14.2 Artificial intelligence is not the author of the Editorial Content or of any Digital Publication. The Company does not represent, and does not permit any representation, that artificial intelligence is the author of material published by the Company.

14.3 Every publication is reviewed, edited, verified and approved by a human editor before publication. Editorial responsibility for all published material rests with the Company and with the natural person identified in Section 1, irrespective of the tools used in its preparation.

14.4 Because all text published by the Company is subject to human review and editorial control, and because a natural person and the Company hold editorial responsibility for it, the disclosure obligation applicable to artificially generated or manipulated text under Article 50(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the Artificial Intelligence Act) does not apply to the Editorial Content. The Company nonetheless publishes this Section 14 and Section 15 in the interest of transparency.

14.5 The Company does not use artificial intelligence to fabricate quotations, sources, citations, interviews, statistics or events. Factual assertions generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence are verified against primary or otherwise reliable sources prior to publication.

14.6 The Company does not permit User personal data, User Content or the content of Accounts to be used to train third-party artificial intelligence models. The Company’s commitments in this regard are set out in the Privacy Policy.

14.7 Section 36 sets out the Company’s reservation of rights concerning the use of its own material for text and data mining and for the training of artificial intelligence systems.

15. AI-generated Illustrations

15.1 Certain illustrations, cover images and other visual material published by the Company are AI-generated Illustrations, produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence systems under the direction, prompting, selection, curation and editorial approval of the Company’s editorial staff.

15.2 The Company labels AI-generated Illustrations where they appear, or discloses their use in the credits or colophon of the relevant publication, save where the AI-generated Illustration is manifestly artistic, stylised or abstract and its character is self-evident. Where a label would materially impair the display or enjoyment of a manifestly creative work, disclosure is provided in the accompanying credits.

15.3 AI-generated Illustrations are not photographic records and do not depict real events, persons, places or objects. AI-generated Illustrations must not be interpreted as documentary evidence, as authentic images, or as depictions of identifiable individuals.

15.4 The Company does not knowingly generate or publish AI-generated Illustrations that depict identifiable living individuals in a manner that would falsely appear authentic, that reproduce the protected expression of identifiable third-party works, or that infringe the trade marks, personality rights or moral rights of any person.

15.5 Where required, the Company procures that AI-generated Illustrations are marked in a machine-readable format identifying them as artificially generated, in accordance with Article 50(2) of the Artificial Intelligence Act as implemented by the providers of the relevant systems.

15.6 The Company asserts such rights in AI-generated Illustrations as arise from the human creative contribution embodied in their conception, direction, selection, arrangement and editorial treatment, and in their compilation within the Editorial Content and the Digital Publications. Without prejudice to the extent of any copyright subsisting in an individual AI-generated Illustration under the law of a particular jurisdiction, the restrictions set out in Section 34 apply to AI-generated Illustrations as a matter of contract.

16. Corrections, Right of Reply and Editorial Complaints

16.1 The Company corrects material factual errors promptly upon becoming aware of them. Where a correction materially alters the substance of a published statement, the Company publishes a correction notice identifying the nature of the correction and the date on which it was made.

16.2 The Company may amend, update, annotate or withdraw Editorial Content. Substantive post-publication amendments to material assertions of fact are identified as such.

16.3 A person who considers that Editorial Content contains a material inaccuracy concerning that person, or who wishes to exercise a right of reply available under applicable law, may submit a request to support@darcked.com, identifying the publication, the passage complained of, the alleged inaccuracy and the factual basis of the complaint.

16.4 The Company will acknowledge such a request without undue delay and will provide a reasoned response within a reasonable period. The Company’s response does not limit any right the complainant may have under applicable law.

16.5 Nothing in this Section 16 obliges the Company to alter or withdraw an expression of opinion, a critical assessment or an interpretation, which are protected as legitimate comment and, in the European Union and the United Kingdom, by the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

PART IV — MEMBERSHIPS, SUBSCRIPTIONS AND PURCHASES

17. Formation of the Contract

17.1 The presentation of Memberships and Digital Publications on the Website does not constitute a binding offer. It constitutes an invitation to the User to submit an offer.

17.2 The User submits a binding offer by completing the order process and activating the button designated as an order subject to payment. Before submitting the offer, the User is given the opportunity to review and correct the details of the order.

17.3 The contract is concluded when the Company accepts the User’s offer, which occurs upon the earlier of:

(a) the Company’s dispatch of an order confirmation to the email address associated with the Account; and (b) the Company making the Digital Publication or the Paid Content available to the User.

17.4 The Company will provide the User with confirmation of the contract on a durable medium within a reasonable time after conclusion and in any event before performance begins or, in the case of digital content supplied immediately, without undue delay after conclusion. The confirmation will include these Terms and the pre-contractual information required by applicable law.

17.5 Before the User submits an offer, the Company presents in a clear, comprehensible and prominent manner: the principal characteristics of the Membership or Digital Publication; the total price inclusive of all taxes and charges; the duration of the contract; where applicable, the Subscription Period and the fact that the Membership renews automatically; the conditions for termination; and the existence or absence of a right of withdrawal.

17.6 The Company does not conclude contracts by pre-ticked boxes. Any optional charge requires the express affirmative consent of the User.

17.7 Where a Payment Provider acts as merchant of record in respect of a transaction, the contract of sale for that transaction is concluded between the User and that Payment Provider, and the Company supplies the Digital Publication or Paid Content pursuant to its arrangements with that Payment Provider. Section 23 applies.

18. Membership Plans and Subscription Periods

18.1 A Membership grants the Subscriber a personal, non-transferable right of access to the Paid Content included in the selected plan, for the duration of the Subscription Period, subject to these Terms.

18.2 The Company offers Subscription Periods of one (1), three (3), six (6), nine (9) and twelve (12) months. The Subscription Period selected by the User at the point of purchase is stated in the order confirmation.

18.3 The Subscription Period begins on the date on which the Membership is activated and expires at the end of the corresponding calendar period, unless renewed in accordance with Section 19 or terminated in accordance with Section 20 or Section 56.

18.4 The scope of Paid Content included in each Membership plan is set out in the plan description on the Website. The Company may add Paid Content to a plan at any time. The Company will not materially reduce the scope of a plan during a Subscription Period for which payment has already been made, except where Section 10.4 applies.

18.5 A Subscriber may upgrade or downgrade a Membership plan where the Company makes that functionality available. Unless otherwise stated at the point of change:

(a) an upgrade takes effect immediately, and the Subscriber is charged the difference in price for the remainder of the current Subscription Period on a proportionate basis; (b) a downgrade takes effect at the beginning of the next Subscription Period, and the Membership continues on the existing plan until then.

18.6 A Membership confers a right of access for the duration of the Subscription Period. It does not confer ownership of, or a perpetual licence to, the Paid Content accessed under it. Upon expiry or termination of a Membership, access to Paid Content ceases, save in respect of Digital Publications separately purchased or expressly designated as retained by the Subscriber after termination.

18.7 Where a Membership includes an entitlement to download Digital Publications, the licence granted under Section 32 in respect of each Digital Publication lawfully downloaded during the Subscription Period continues after termination of the Membership, unless otherwise stated in the plan description.

19. Automatic Renewal

19.1 A Membership renews automatically. At the end of each Subscription Period, the Membership renews for a further Subscription Period of the same duration, and the Company charges the then-applicable price to the payment method associated with the Account, unless the Subscriber cancels in accordance with Section 20 before the end of the current Subscription Period.

19.2 The automatic renewal, the recurring charge, the renewal frequency and the method of cancellation are disclosed clearly and conspicuously before the User submits an offer, and the User’s affirmative consent to those terms is obtained separately from the User’s consent to any other term.

19.3 The Company sends the Subscriber a renewal reminder by email, before the renewal date, stating the Membership plan, the Subscription Period, the renewal date, the amount to be charged and the means of cancelling. Reminders are sent not less than [7] days before the renewal date and in any event within the periods required by applicable law.

19.4 The Company sends the Subscriber an acknowledgement of the contract, retainable by the Subscriber, containing the automatic renewal terms, the cancellation policy and the means of cancelling, in a manner capable of being retained.

19.5 The Company will notify the Subscriber before any renewal at a price higher than the price applicable to the expiring Subscription Period, in accordance with Section 24.

19.6 Where the Company is unable to collect the renewal charge, Section 27 applies.

19.7 This Section 19 is intended to give effect to, among other provisions, the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 8401–8405, the California Automatic Renewal Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17600 et seq., as amended, and equivalent automatic renewal statutes in other United States jurisdictions, together with applicable European Union and United Kingdom consumer protection legislation.

20. Cancellation of a Membership

20.1 A Subscriber may cancel a Membership at any time, without giving reasons and without incurring a cancellation fee.

20.2 Cancellation is effected through the Account settings, using an online cancellation function that is available at all times, requires no more steps than were required to activate the Membership, does not require the Subscriber to speak to any person, and does not require the Subscriber to navigate any retention offer before the cancellation is completed.

20.3 A Subscriber may alternatively cancel by sending an unequivocal statement to support@darcked.com. The Company will give effect to such a statement upon receipt and will confirm the cancellation in writing.

20.4 Effect of cancellation: cancellation prevents the Membership from renewing. Access to the Paid Content included in the Membership continues until the end of the Subscription Period for which payment has already been made, and ceases at the end of that period. Cancellation does not of itself give rise to a refund of amounts paid for the current Subscription Period, without prejudice to Sections 26, 27, 28 and 30.

20.5 The Company confirms each cancellation by email without undue delay, stating the date on which access will cease.

20.6 A Subscriber whose Membership was purchased through a third party, including where a Payment Provider acts as merchant of record, may be required to cancel through that third party. The Company will state the applicable cancellation route in the order confirmation and will provide assistance on request.

21. One-Time Purchases and Delivery of Digital Publications

21.1 A Digital Publication may be purchased individually by way of a one-time payment. A one-time purchase grants the licence described in Section 32 and does not create a recurring payment obligation.

21.2 Digital Publications are supplied electronically. Delivery is effected by making the Digital Publication available for download through the Account, or by transmitting a download link to the email address associated with the order, without undue delay after conclusion of the contract and receipt of payment.

21.3 The Company may limit the number of downloads or the period during which a download link remains active, for the purposes of security and rights protection. Any such limit is stated on the product page. Where a download link expires before the User has obtained the Digital Publication, the Company will issue a replacement link on request at no charge.

21.4 The Company recommends that Users retain their own copies of purchased Digital Publications. The Company will use reasonable endeavours to maintain access to purchased Digital Publications through the Account, but does not warrant perpetual availability of the download function, save that the Company will give not less than thirty (30) days’ notice before permanently discontinuing access to previously purchased Digital Publications.

21.5 Technical requirements, file formats and file sizes applicable to each Digital Publication are stated on the product page. The User is responsible for ensuring that the User’s devices and software are compatible before purchase.

22. Prices, Currency and Taxes

22.1 Prices are stated on the Website in USD and, where the Company offers alternative currencies, in the currency selected by the User.

22.2 Prices displayed to Consumers are inclusive of all taxes and mandatory charges, or, where the applicable tax cannot be reasonably calculated in advance, the fact that additional tax may be payable is disclosed before the order is submitted. The total price payable, including all taxes, fees and charges, is displayed before the User submits an offer. The Company does not apply undisclosed charges at a later stage of the order process.

22.3 The Company charges value added tax, goods and services tax, consumption tax, sales tax or equivalent indirect taxes where required by applicable law, including in respect of electronically supplied services under the European Union value added tax rules applicable to business-to-consumer supplies, the United Kingdom value added tax rules, and equivalent regimes in other jurisdictions. Tax is determined by reference to the place of supply as established under applicable law, for which purpose the Company may require the User to provide and confirm the User’s country of residence.

22.4 Where the User is a taxable person in a jurisdiction operating a reverse charge mechanism, the User must provide a valid tax identification number before completing the order. The Company is entitled to rely on the information provided.

22.5 Where a Payment Provider acts as merchant of record, that Payment Provider is responsible for the calculation, collection and remittance of applicable indirect taxes in respect of the relevant transaction.

22.6 The User bears any charges levied by the User’s own bank, card issuer or payment service provider, including currency conversion charges, cross-border transaction fees and similar charges. Such charges are not levied by the Company.

22.7 Where a price is displayed as reduced from a prior price, the prior price stated is the lowest price applied by the Company during the thirty (30) days preceding the reduction, in accordance with Article 6a of Directive 98/6/EC as amended by Directive (EU) 2019/2161, save where a different reference period is prescribed by applicable national law.

23. Payment and Payment Providers

23.1 Payment is made through the Payment Providers made available at checkout, currently including Stripe, PayPal and Paddle, and such other providers as the Company may engage from time to time. The available payment methods are displayed before the User submits an offer.

23.2 The Company does not collect, process or store full payment card numbers. Payment card data is collected and processed directly by the relevant Payment Provider in accordance with that provider’s terms and privacy notice and with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The Privacy Policy describes the categories of payment-related data received by the Company.

23.3 By submitting an order, the User authorises the Company or the relevant Payment Provider to charge the total price to the selected payment method, and, in the case of a Membership, to charge the then-applicable price upon each automatic renewal until the Membership is cancelled.

23.4 The User must ensure that the payment method associated with the Account remains valid and that sufficient funds or credit are available. The User must update the payment details without undue delay upon expiry or cancellation of the payment instrument.

23.5 Merchant of record. Where a Payment Provider acts as merchant of record, that provider is the seller of record in respect of the transaction, is responsible for billing, tax determination and the issuance of invoices, and is the counterparty to the contract of sale. The Company remains responsible for the supply of the Editorial Content and Digital Publications and for its obligations under these Terms. The merchant of record applicable to a given transaction is identified at checkout and in the order confirmation. Paddle.com Market Ltd., Paddle Payments Ltd., Paddle. com Inc.

23.6 Payment is due upon conclusion of the contract, or, in the case of a Membership, upon activation and upon each renewal.

23.7 The Company issues an invoice or receipt in electronic form. Where a Payment Provider acts as merchant of record, the invoice is issued by that provider.

24. Changes to Prices and Plans

24.1 The Company may change the price of a Membership plan with effect from the beginning of a future Subscription Period.

24.2 The Company will notify the Subscriber of a price change by email to the address associated with the Account not less than thirty (30) days before the date on which the new price takes effect. The notice will state the current price, the new price and the date from which the new price applies, and will inform the Subscriber of the right to cancel.

24.3 A Subscriber who does not accept a price change may cancel the Membership in accordance with Section 20 with effect from the end of the current Subscription Period. Where the Subscriber does not cancel before the new price takes effect, the Membership renews at the new price.

24.4 A price change does not affect the price payable in respect of a Subscription Period for which payment has already been made.

24.5 A change in the rate of value added tax or an equivalent indirect tax, or the introduction of such a tax, may result in a corresponding change in the total price payable. The Company will notify Subscribers of any such change.

24.6 Changes to the price of Digital Publications available by one-time purchase take effect prospectively and do not affect purchases already concluded.

25. Free Trials and Promotional Offers

25.1 The Company does not currently offer free trials.

25.2 Where the Company introduces a free trial in future, the following provisions apply, and the specific terms of the trial will be disclosed clearly and conspicuously before the User accepts it:

(a) the duration of the trial and the date on which it ends will be stated; (b) the fact that the trial converts into a paid Membership at the end of the trial period, the price payable on conversion and the Subscription Period will be stated; (c) the User’s affirmative consent to conversion will be obtained separately; (d) the Company will send a reminder before the end of the trial period stating the date of conversion, the amount to be charged and the means of cancelling; (e) the User may cancel at any time before the end of the trial period in accordance with Section 20, in which case no charge arises; (f) a free trial is available once per User and once per Account.

25.3 Promotional prices, introductory offers, discount codes and gift subscriptions are subject to the specific terms disclosed at the time of the offer. Unless otherwise stated:

(a) a promotional price applies only to the first Subscription Period, after which the Membership renews at the standard price then applicable, and this is disclosed before the order is submitted; (b) promotional offers may not be combined; (c) promotional offers are not transferable and are not exchangeable for cash.

25.4 The Company may withdraw or amend a promotional offer at any time in respect of future orders. Withdrawal does not affect orders already concluded.

26. Right of Withdrawal

This Section applies to Consumers resident in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, and to Consumers in other jurisdictions conferring an equivalent right. Users who are not Consumers have no right of withdrawal.

26.1 Right of withdrawal

A Consumer has the right to withdraw from a distance contract concluded with the Company within fourteen (14) days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period expires fourteen (14) days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

26.2 Exercise of the right of withdrawal

To exercise the right of withdrawal, the Consumer must inform the Company, at support@darcked.com, by means of an unequivocal statement of the decision to withdraw from the contract. The Consumer may use the model withdrawal form set out in Annex I, but is not obliged to do so. To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for the Consumer to send the communication concerning the exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

26.3 Effects of withdrawal

If the Consumer withdraws from the contract, the Company will reimburse all payments received from the Consumer, without undue delay and in any event not later than fourteen (14) days from the day on which the Company is informed of the decision to withdraw. Reimbursement will be made using the same means of payment as the Consumer used for the initial transaction, unless the Consumer has expressly agreed otherwise; in no event will the Consumer incur any fees as a result of the reimbursement.

26.4 Digital Publications supplied by immediate download

The right of withdrawal is lost in respect of the supply of a Digital Publication not supplied on a tangible medium where performance has begun and the Consumer has:

(a) given prior express consent to the beginning of performance during the withdrawal period; and (b) acknowledged that the right of withdrawal is thereby lost.

The Company obtains that consent and that acknowledgement by means of a separate, unticked confirmation presented before the order is submitted, and confirms both in the order confirmation supplied on a durable medium. This provision gives effect to Article 16(m) of Directive 2011/83/EU as amended by Directive (EU) 2019/2161, and to regulation 37 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

Where the Consumer does not give that consent and acknowledgement, the Digital Publication is made available upon expiry of the withdrawal period.

26.5 Memberships

Where a Consumer expressly requests that the supply of Paid Content under a Membership begin during the withdrawal period, and the Consumer withdraws within the withdrawal period, the Consumer shall pay an amount which is in proportion to the Paid Content supplied up to the moment the Company was informed of the withdrawal, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract. That amount is calculated on the basis of the total price agreed. The Company will reimburse the balance in accordance with Section 26.3.

Where the Consumer expressly consents to immediate commencement and acknowledges the loss of the right of withdrawal upon full performance, and the Membership is fully performed within the withdrawal period, the right of withdrawal is lost upon full performance in accordance with Article 16(a) of Directive 2011/83/EU.

26.6 Withdrawal from the Newsletter and from free Services

Contracts for the supply of Free Content and the Newsletter involve no payment obligation. A User may discontinue such Services at any time in accordance with Section 44, and no right of withdrawal arises.

26.7 Purchases through third parties

Where a Digital Publication is purchased through a third-party distribution channel, including Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, the right of withdrawal or return is exercised against that third party in accordance with its terms. Section 38 applies.

27. Refunds, Failed Payments and Chargebacks

27.1 Refund policy

Digital products are non-refundable. Save as required by mandatory law and without prejudice to Sections 26, 28 and 30, amounts paid for Digital Publications and Memberships are not refundable once access has been granted or the download has commenced.

27.2 Refunds required by law

Nothing in Section 27.1 affects:

(a) the right of withdrawal under Section 26; (b) the statutory remedies for non-conformity under Section 28; (c) the refunds payable under Sections 6.4, 10.5 and 56.6; (d) any refund required by mandatory consumer protection law applicable to the User.

27.3 Discretionary refunds

The Company may grant a refund in circumstances not covered by Sections 27.1 and 27.2, including where a technical failure attributable to the Company has substantially prevented access to Paid Content. The grant of a discretionary refund does not constitute a waiver of these Terms and does not create an entitlement in any other case.

27.4 Method of refund

Refunds are made to the original payment method, unless that method is no longer available, in which case the Company will agree an alternative method with the User. Refunds are made without undue delay and in any event within fourteen (14) days of the date on which the entitlement is established.

27.5 Failed payments

Where a payment fails, the Company or the relevant Payment Provider may re-attempt collection over a reasonable period. The Company will notify the Subscriber of the failure and will allow a reasonable opportunity to provide a valid payment method. Where payment is not received, the Company may suspend access to Paid Content and, following a further notice, terminate the Membership in accordance with Section 56.

27.6 Chargebacks

A User who considers a charge to be incorrect is requested to contact the Company at support@darcked.com before initiating a chargeback, so that the matter may be resolved directly. This request does not affect the User’s rights against the User’s card issuer or Payment Provider. Where a chargeback is initiated in respect of a charge that is subsequently established to have been validly incurred, the Company may suspend the Account pending resolution and may recover the amount of the charge together with any fee levied by the Payment Provider.

PART V — CONSUMER PROTECTION

28. Conformity of Digital Content and Digital Services

28.1 The Company supplies Editorial Content, Digital Publications and Memberships in conformity with the contract. Where a Consumer is resident in the European Economic Area, the rights conferred by Directive (EU) 2019/770 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services, as implemented in national law, apply. Where a Consumer is resident in the United Kingdom, Chapter 3 of Part 1 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies.

28.2 Accordingly, the Digital Publications and the Paid Content supplied shall:

(a) correspond to the description, quantity, quality, functionality, compatibility, interoperability and other features required by the contract; (b) be fit for the particular purpose for which the Consumer requires them, where that purpose was made known to the Company before conclusion of the contract and accepted by the Company; (c) be supplied with all accessories, instructions and customer assistance required by the contract; (d) be fit for the purposes for which digital content or digital services of the same type would normally be used; (e) be of the quality and possess the features which the Consumer may reasonably expect, given the nature of the digital content or digital service and any public statement made by the Company; (f) where applicable, be supplied in the most recent version available at the time of conclusion of the contract.

28.3 Where the supply is continuous over a period of time, as in the case of a Membership, the Paid Content shall be in conformity throughout that period.

28.4 Where a lack of conformity arises, the Consumer is entitled to have the digital content or digital service brought into conformity, or to a proportionate reduction of the price, or to termination of the contract, in accordance with the conditions and sequence prescribed by the applicable law. Termination is not available where the lack of conformity is only minor.

28.5 The Consumer’s statutory remedies are exercised free of charge and without significant inconvenience. The periods of liability, the burden of proof and the limitation periods are those prescribed by the applicable national law.

28.6 The Company will provide updates, including security updates, necessary to keep the Paid Content in conformity for the period required by applicable law, and will inform Consumers of such updates.

28.7 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits the Company’s liability for lack of conformity to the extent that such exclusion or limitation is prohibited by applicable law.

29. Additional Provisions for Consumers in Specific Jurisdictions

29.1 United States. Users resident in the United States retain all rights conferred by the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 8401–8405, by Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, and by applicable state automatic renewal statutes and unfair or deceptive acts and practices legislation, including the California Automatic Renewal Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17600 et seq., as amended. Nothing in these Terms limits those rights.

29.2 Australia. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law contained in Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. Where the Company’s liability under the Australian Consumer Law may be limited, it is limited, at the Company’s election, to the resupply of the relevant Services or the payment of the cost of having them resupplied.

29.3 Canada. Users resident in Canada retain the rights conferred by applicable federal and provincial consumer protection legislation, including provincial legislation governing internet agreements and distance contracts. Users resident in Quebec are advised that the Consumer Protection Act (Quebec) applies and that its mandatory provisions prevail over any inconsistent provision of these Terms.

29.4 Japan. Users resident in Japan retain the rights conferred by the Consumer Contract Act (Act No. 61 of 2000) and the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions (Act No. 57 of 1976). Any provision of these Terms that would be void under the Consumer Contract Act does not apply to such Users.

29.5 Brazil. Users resident in Brazil retain the rights conferred by the Consumer Protection Code (Law No. 8,078/1990), including the right of repentance within seven (7) days of conclusion of a contract concluded outside commercial premises, and the rights conferred by the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Law No. 12,965/2014).

29.6 Switzerland. Users resident in Switzerland retain the rights conferred by the Federal Act against Unfair Competition and by the Swiss Code of Obligations.

29.7 South Africa. Users resident in South Africa retain the rights conferred by the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and by the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

29.8 Other jurisdictions. Users resident in jurisdictions not expressly identified in this Section 29 retain all rights conferred by the mandatory consumer protection law applicable to them.

30. Mandatory Consumer Rights Unaffected

30.1 Where a User is a Consumer, these Terms apply without prejudice to any mandatory provision of the law of the country in which the Consumer is habitually resident from which the parties may not derogate by agreement, in accordance with Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I) and equivalent conflict-of-law rules.

30.2 Where a provision of these Terms conflicts with a mandatory consumer right, the mandatory right prevails and the remainder of these Terms continues in effect.

30.3 Nothing in these Terms is intended to exclude or limit any right or remedy which cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

PART VI — INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND LICENCE

31. Ownership of Rights

31.1 All Editorial Content, all Digital Publications, the Website, and all text, images, AI-generated Illustrations, typography, layout, design, structure, selection, arrangement, compilation, source code, databases and other material comprised in the Services are the property of the Company or of its licensors, and are protected by copyright, database rights, trade mark law, unfair competition law and other intellectual property rights.

31.2 The Company asserts the moral rights of its authors, contributors and editors to be identified as such, and asserts the right to object to derogatory treatment of their works, to the extent conferred by applicable law, including sections 77 and 80 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and equivalent provisions in other jurisdictions.

31.3 The compilation, selection, arrangement, editorial treatment and presentation of the Editorial Content constitute protected subject matter in their own right, independently of the protection subsisting in individual items.

31.4 Where the Company reproduces third-party material under Section 13, the rights in that material remain with the respective rightsholders.

31.5 Nothing in these Terms transfers any intellectual property right to the User. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

32. Licence Granted to Users

32.1 Subject to the User’s compliance with these Terms and, in the case of Paid Content, subject to payment of the applicable price, the Company grants the User a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to access, read and use the Editorial Content and the Digital Publications for the User’s own personal, non-commercial purposes.

32.2 In respect of a Digital Publication lawfully obtained by one-time purchase, the licence granted under Section 32.1 is perpetual, subject to Sections 10.4 and 32.4.

32.3 In respect of Paid Content accessed under a Membership, the licence granted under Section 32.1 subsists for the duration of the Membership and terminates upon its expiry or termination, save as provided in Section 18.7.

32.4 The licence terminates automatically upon material breach of Sections 33, 34, 35 or 36 by the User. Termination of the licence does not affect the Company’s other rights and remedies.

32.5 A Digital Publication is licensed, not sold. The supply of a Digital Publication does not constitute a transfer of ownership in the work or in any copy of it, and does not exhaust the Company’s distribution rights.

33. Permitted Uses

33.1 A User may, within the scope of the licence granted under Section 32:

(a) access and read the Editorial Content and the Digital Publications; (b) download a Digital Publication which the User has lawfully obtained, and store it on a reasonable number of devices under the User’s personal control; (c) print a single copy of a Digital Publication, or of an item of Editorial Content, for the User’s own personal, non-commercial use; (d) create a backup copy for personal archival purposes; (e) share a link to a publicly accessible page of the Website; (f) quote short extracts from the Editorial Content for the purposes of criticism, review, quotation, teaching, scholarship or news reporting, accompanied by clear attribution to the Company and, where practicable, to the named author, and by a link to the source, provided that such quotation is fair, does not substitute for the original and complies with the applicable exception under the law governing the User’s use; (g) use the Company’s article-sharing functionality, where offered, in accordance with the terms of that functionality.

33.2 A User who wishes to exceed the scope of Section 33.1, including for the purposes of course packs, institutional distribution, reprographic licensing, republication, translation, adaptation or commercial use, must obtain a written licence from the Company. Requests may be directed to official@darcked.com.

34. Prohibited Uses

34.1 Except as expressly permitted by Section 33 or by a mandatory exception under applicable law, the User must not:

(a) reproduce, republish, distribute, communicate to the public, make available, broadcast, perform, display or otherwise exploit the Editorial Content or the Digital Publications, in whole or in substantial part; (b) sell, resell, rent, lend, licence, sublicense, assign or otherwise transfer the Editorial Content, the Digital Publications or access to them; (c) upload, post or otherwise make available the Editorial Content or the Digital Publications to any file-sharing service, cloud repository, aggregation service, shadow library, torrent network, messaging channel or other platform accessible to persons other than the User; (d) share Account credentials, or permit any other person to access Paid Content through the User’s Account; (e) systematically download, index, harvest, scrape, crawl, mirror, cache for redistribution, or otherwise extract the Editorial Content or the Digital Publications, whether manually or by automated means, including through the use of robots, spiders, crawlers, scripts, data extraction tools or artificial intelligence agents; (f) extract or re-utilise a substantial part of the contents of any database comprised in the Services, or repeatedly and systematically extract or re-utilise insubstantial parts, contrary to Directive 96/9/EC and equivalent legislation; (g) create adaptations, translations, abridgements, summaries substituting for the original, derivative works or compilations based on the Editorial Content or the Digital Publications; (h) use the Editorial Content, the Digital Publications or the AI-generated Illustrations for any commercial purpose, including in advertising, merchandising or promotional material; (i) remove, obscure, alter, deactivate or circumvent any copyright notice, authorship credit, watermark, digital identifier, rights-management information or technical protection measure; (j) use the Editorial Content or the Digital Publications for the purposes described in Section 36; (k) use the Services in any manner that infringes the rights of any third party or contravenes applicable law.

34.2 The restrictions in Section 34.1 apply to the AI-generated Illustrations as a matter of contract, irrespective of the extent of copyright protection subsisting in any individual AI-generated Illustration under the law of a particular jurisdiction.

34.3 Nothing in this Section 34 restricts an act which is permitted by a mandatory exception or limitation under the law applicable to the User which may not be excluded by contract, including exceptions for quotation, criticism, review, parody, private study, non-commercial research, or accessibility for persons with disabilities under Directive (EU) 2017/1564 and equivalent legislation implementing the Marrakesh Treaty.

35. Technical Protection Measures and Watermarking

35.1 The Company may apply technical measures to Digital Publications for the purposes of rights protection, security and the detection of unauthorised distribution. Such measures may include digital watermarking, including watermarking which encodes information identifying the transaction or the licensed User, together with access controls, download limits and file integrity measures. https://darcked.com/privacy-policy/ Section 18.

35.2 Where watermarking is applied, the categories of information encoded, the purposes of the processing, the legal basis and the retention period are described in the Privacy Policy. Watermarking is applied for the purposes of protecting the Company’s intellectual property rights and detecting infringement, and not for the purposes of profiling or behavioural advertising.

35.3 The User must not remove, alter, obscure, degrade or circumvent any technical protection measure, and must not distribute any tool, service or information intended to enable such circumvention. This Section gives effect to Article 6 of Directive 2001/29/EC, 17 U.S.C. § 1201 and equivalent provisions.

35.4 Where the Company detects the unauthorised distribution of a watermarked Digital Publication, the Company may suspend or terminate the Account concerned in accordance with Section 56 and may pursue such remedies as are available at law.

36. Reservation of Rights Concerning Text and Data Mining and AI Training

36.1 The Company expressly reserves all rights in the Editorial Content, the Digital Publications and all other material comprised in the Services for the purposes of text and data mining. This reservation is made pursuant to Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, and constitutes an express reservation in an appropriate manner for the purposes of that provision.

36.2 Without prejudice to Section 36.1, the User must not, and must not permit or facilitate any third party to, use the Editorial Content, the Digital Publications, the AI-generated Illustrations or any other material comprised in the Services:

(a) to train, fine-tune, pre-train, ground, evaluate, benchmark or otherwise develop any artificial intelligence or machine learning model or system, including any general-purpose AI model, large language model, text-to-image model or generative system; (b) to build, populate or supplement any dataset, corpus, index or vector database intended for use in connection with any such model or system; (c) for the purposes of retrieval-augmented generation, model distillation or synthetic data generation; (d) for any other text and data mining purpose, whether commercial or non-commercial, save to the extent that a mandatory exception under applicable law permits such use notwithstanding an express reservation of rights.

36.3 The reservation in Section 36.1 is additionally expressed by machine-readable means, including through the robots exclusion protocol, HTTP response headers, metadata embedded within the Digital Publications and such other machine-readable signals as the Company may implement. The absence, failure or non-recognition of any such machine-readable signal does not derogate from the reservation expressed in this Section 36, which applies in all cases.

36.4 Providers of general-purpose AI models are required, pursuant to Article 53(1)(c) of the Artificial Intelligence Act, to put in place a policy to comply with Union law on copyright and related rights and, in particular, to identify and comply with reservations of rights expressed pursuant to Article 4(3) of Directive (EU) 2019/790. The Company relies upon this Section 36 as such a reservation.

36.5 Any licence to use the Editorial Content or the Digital Publications for text and data mining or artificial intelligence training must be obtained in writing from the Company. Enquiries may be directed to official@darcked.com.

36.6 The Company reserves the right to pursue all available remedies in respect of unauthorised text and data mining, including injunctive relief, damages and account of profits.

37. Trade Marks and Brand Assets

37.1 The name DARCKED.COM, the Company’s logos, the titles of its Digital Publications and periodicals, and all associated brand assets, whether registered or unregistered, are trade marks of the Company.

37.2 The User must not use the Company’s trade marks or brand assets without prior written consent, save for the purpose of accurate identification and reference in the course of criticism, review or news reporting, in a manner that does not suggest affiliation, endorsement or sponsorship.

37.3 The User must not register, or apply to register, any trade mark, domain name, social media handle or business name which is identical or confusingly similar to the Company’s trade marks or brand assets.

37.4 Third-party trade marks referred to in the Editorial Content are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification and critical purposes only.

38. Third-Party Distribution Channels

38.1 The Company may make certain Digital Publications available through third-party distribution channels, including Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and such other retailers, platforms or distributors as the Company may engage.

38.2 A purchase made through a third-party distribution channel constitutes a contract between the User and that third party, or between the User and such other party as that third party’s terms provide. The Company is not a party to that contract.

38.3 Accordingly, in respect of purchases made through a third-party distribution channel:

(a) the terms of sale, pricing, delivery, licence, permitted uses, device restrictions and technical protection measures are determined by that third party; (b) returns, refunds, cancellations and customer support are handled by that third party in accordance with its policies; (c) the right of withdrawal, where applicable, is exercised against that third party; (d) the third party determines independently the purposes and means of processing personal data collected in connection with the transaction, and acts as an independent controller in respect of that processing; (e) these Terms do not apply to that transaction, save for Sections 31, 34, 36 and 37, which apply to the User’s use of the Digital Publication as a matter of the Company’s reservation of rights.

38.4 The Company does not receive from third-party distribution channels the identity or contact details of purchasers, and is therefore unable to link a purchase made through such a channel to an Account or to grant access to the Services on the basis of such a purchase, unless the Company expressly offers a verification mechanism for that purpose.

38.5 The Company is not responsible for the acts, omissions, terms, policies or availability of any third-party distribution channel.

PART VII — USER CONDUCT, USER CONTENT AND NOTICES

39. Acceptable Use

39.1 The User must use the Services lawfully, responsibly and in accordance with these Terms.

39.2 The User must not:

(a) use the Services for any unlawful purpose, or in furtherance of any unlawful activity; (b) submit, transmit or make available any material which is unlawful, defamatory, fraudulent, obscene, harassing, threatening, abusive, discriminatory, or which incites violence or hatred; (c) submit, transmit or make available any material which infringes the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, personality rights or confidentiality of any person; (d) impersonate any person, misrepresent an affiliation, or use a false identity; (e) submit material which the User knows or ought reasonably to know to be false, where its dissemination is capable of causing harm; (f) transmit any virus, worm, trojan horse, logic bomb, malicious code or other harmful component; (g) attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Services, to any Account, or to any system, server or network connected to the Services; (h) probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Services, or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measure, save under a written authorisation granted by the Company; (i) impose an unreasonable or disproportionate load on the Services, or interfere with their proper functioning, including by means of denial-of-service techniques; (j) use the Services to send unsolicited commercial communications; (k) use any automated means to access, monitor, copy or interact with the Services, save for search engine crawlers operating in accordance with the Company’s published robots exclusion directives and subject to Section 36; (l) engage in any conduct prohibited by Section 34 or Section 36.

39.3 The Company may investigate suspected breaches of this Section 39 and may take the measures described in Section 56.

39.4 The Company may report unlawful conduct to the competent authorities and may disclose information to the extent required by law or necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of the Company, its Users or third parties.

40. User Content

40.1 Where the Company makes available functionality permitting the submission of User Content, this Section 40 applies.

40.2 The User retains ownership of the intellectual property rights subsisting in the User Content.

40.3 By submitting User Content, the User grants the Company a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable and sublicensable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for technical purposes, publish, display, communicate to the public and distribute the User Content, in whole or in part, in connection with the Services and the promotion of the Services, in all media now known or hereafter developed. This licence subsists for the duration of publication of the User Content and, thereafter, for such period as is necessary for archival, evidential and legal compliance purposes.

40.4 By submitting User Content, the User represents and warrants that:

(a) the User owns or controls all rights necessary to grant the licence in Section 40.3; (b) the User Content does not infringe the rights of any third party; (c) the User Content complies with Section 39; (d) the User has obtained all consents necessary in respect of any identifiable person depicted or identified in the User Content.

40.5 The Company does not undertake to publish, retain, monitor or review User Content prior to publication, save as required by law or as provided in Section 41. The Company does not endorse User Content and is not responsible for its accuracy.

40.6 Unsolicited submissions. The Company does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions or manuscripts, save through such channels as it may expressly designate. Unsolicited material submitted outside a designated channel may be deleted without review. The Company assumes no obligation of confidentiality in respect of unsolicited material, and the submission of such material does not create any relationship, entitlement to consideration, or entitlement to payment. Where the Company independently develops or publishes material similar to unsolicited material received, no liability arises.

40.7 Where the Company invites editorial contributions, the terms applicable to those contributions, including the rights granted and any remuneration, are governed by a separate written agreement between the Company and the contributor, and not by this Section 40.

40.8 The User may request the removal of the User’s own User Content at any time. The Company will comply without undue delay, subject to any legal obligation to retain the material.

41. Content Moderation, Notice and Action

41.1 This Section applies to material stored by the Company at the request of a User, and does not apply to the Editorial Content, for which the Company bears editorial responsibility under Section 11.2.

41.2 Restrictions imposed. The Company may remove, disable access to, demote, restrict or refuse to publish User Content which:

(a) breaches these Terms, and in particular Section 39; (b) is unlawful under any applicable law; (c) is the subject of a valid notice under Section 42 or a valid order of a competent judicial or administrative authority.

41.3 Means of moderation. Content moderation is carried out by human review. The Company may use automated tools to detect spam, malicious links, duplicated submissions and manifestly unlawful material; decisions to restrict User Content on the basis of automated detection are subject to human review upon request. The Company does not use fully automated decision-making producing legal effects concerning Users without human involvement.

41.4 Notice and action mechanism. Any person may notify the Company of the presence on the Services of specific items of information which that person considers to be illegal content, by submitting a notice to official@darcked.com containing:

(a) a sufficiently substantiated explanation of the reasons why the person considers the information to be illegal content; (b) a clear indication of the exact electronic location of that information, including the precise URL or URLs; (c) the name and email address of the person submitting the notice, save where the notice concerns an offence referred to in Articles 3 to 7 of Directive 2011/93/EU; (d) a statement confirming the bona fide belief of the person submitting the notice that the information and allegations contained in it are accurate and complete.

This mechanism gives effect to Article 16 of the Digital Services Act. Notices concerning alleged copyright infringement should be submitted in accordance with Section 42.

41.5 Confirmation and decision. The Company will confirm receipt of a notice without undue delay and will process notices in a timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective manner. The Company will notify the person submitting the notice of its decision and of the possibilities for redress.

41.6 Statement of reasons. Where the Company imposes a restriction under Section 41.2 in respect of User Content provided by a User, the Company will provide that User with a clear and specific statement of reasons, containing:

(a) the nature and scope of the restriction imposed, and its territorial scope and duration; (b) the facts and circumstances relied upon in taking the decision, including whether the decision was taken pursuant to a notice or on the Company’s own initiative, and whether automated means were used; (c) where the decision relies on the alleged illegality of the content, the legal ground relied upon and an explanation of why the content is considered illegal on that ground; (d) where the decision relies on the incompatibility of the content with these Terms, the contractual ground relied upon and an explanation of the incompatibility; (e) information on the possibilities for redress available to the User.

This provision gives effect to Article 17 of the Digital Services Act.

41.7 Internal complaint handling. A User whose User Content has been restricted, or whose Account has been suspended or terminated, may lodge a complaint with the Company at support@darcked.com within six (6) months of being informed of the decision. Complaints are examined in a timely, non-discriminatory, diligent and non-arbitrary manner, under the supervision of appropriately qualified staff and not solely by automated means. Where the complaint establishes that the decision was unfounded, the Company will reverse it without undue delay.

41.8 Out-of-court dispute settlement. Recipients of the Services within the European Union may be entitled to select a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body pursuant to Article 21 of the Digital Services Act in respect of decisions referred to in Section 41.7. The list of certified bodies is maintained by the European Commission. This possibility does not affect the right to bring proceedings before a court.

41.9 Misuse. The Company may suspend, for a reasonable period and after prior warning, the processing of notices and complaints submitted by persons who frequently submit notices or complaints that are manifestly unfounded.

41.10 The Company acts as a hosting service provider in respect of User Content within the meaning of Article 6 of the Digital Services Act and section 512(c) of Title 17 of the United States Code, and does not thereby assume editorial responsibility for User Content.

42. Notification of Allegedly Infringing Content

42.1 The Company respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects Users to do the same.

42.2 A rightsholder, or a person authorised to act on behalf of a rightsholder, who believes that material published or hosted on the Services infringes copyright or another intellectual property right may submit a notice to the Company’s designated contact:

Designated agent / rights contact: Traverse Limited Email: support@darcked.com Postal address: Not applicable

42.3 A notice must contain the information set out in Annex II. A notice which does not substantially comply with Annex II may not be actionable.

42.4 Upon receipt of a valid notice, the Company will act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the material identified, and will notify the User who submitted the material, where the material is User Content. Where the material forms part of the Editorial Content, the Company will review the notice against the exceptions relied upon under Section 13 and will respond with reasons.

42.5 Counter-notification. A User whose material has been removed or disabled may submit a counter-notification to the address in Section 42.2, containing:

(a) identification of the material removed and the location at which it appeared before removal; (b) a statement, under penalty of perjury where applicable, that the User has a good faith belief that the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification; (c) the User’s name, address, telephone number and email address; (d) a statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the appropriate court, or, where the User’s address is outside the United States, of any judicial district in which the Company may be found, and consenting to accept service of process from the person who submitted the notice.

Upon receipt of a valid counter-notification, the Company may restore the material in accordance with applicable law, unless the person who submitted the original notice notifies the Company that proceedings have been commenced.

42.6 Misrepresentation. A person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material is infringing, or that material was removed by mistake or misidentification, may be liable for damages, including costs and legal fees, under section 512(f) of Title 17 of the United States Code and equivalent provisions.

42.7 This Section 42 operates without prejudice to Section 41 and to any other remedy available to a rightsholder at law.

43. Repeat Infringers

43.1 The Company has adopted and implements a policy providing for the termination, in appropriate circumstances, of the Accounts of Users who are repeat infringers of intellectual property rights.

43.2 In determining whether termination is appropriate, the Company considers the number and nature of the infringements, whether they were deliberate, whether the User has responded to prior warnings, and the effect of termination on the User’s access to lawfully acquired Digital Publications.

43.3 Termination under this Section 43 is effected in accordance with Section 56, and the User is entitled to lodge a complaint under Section 41.7.

PART VIII — COMMUNICATIONS AND THIRD PARTIES

44. Newsletter and Service Communications

44.1 The Company distributes a Newsletter containing Editorial Content, notices of new publications and information concerning the Services.

44.2 Subscription to the Newsletter requires the recipient’s consent, obtained by an affirmative act, where consent is required by applicable law, including Article 6(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Article 13 of Directive 2002/58/EC and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Where permitted by applicable law, the Company may send the Newsletter to existing customers in respect of its own similar publications on the basis of the soft opt-in, subject in every case to the right to object.

44.3 The Newsletter is distributed using a third-party email service provider acting as a processor on behalf of the Company. The provider is: Hostinger Reach. The Privacy Policy describes the processing carried out.

44.4 A recipient may withdraw consent and unsubscribe at any time, without cost, by using the unsubscribe link contained in every Newsletter or by contacting support@darcked.com. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

44.5 The Newsletter may include tracking mechanisms recording whether a message has been opened and whether links have been followed, where such tracking is lawful and, where required, consented to. The Privacy Policy describes this processing and the means of objecting to it.

44.6 Service communications. Independently of the Newsletter, the Company sends communications necessary for the performance of the contract, including order confirmations, payment receipts, renewal reminders under Section 19.3, notices of price changes under Section 24.2, notices of amendments under Section 6.3, security notices and notices concerning the Account. These communications are not marketing communications, are sent on the basis of Article 6(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, and may not be opted out of while the contractual relationship subsists.

44.7 The Company complies with applicable electronic marketing legislation, including the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 in the United States and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation.

45. Social Media Channels

45.1 The Company maintains channels on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest.

45.2 Those platforms are operated by third parties. The Company does not control their terms, functionality, availability, algorithms, advertising or content moderation practices. Use of a platform is governed by the terms of that platform, in addition to these Terms in respect of material published by the Company.

45.3 The Editorial Content published by the Company on its social media channels remains subject to Sections 31 to 37. Functionality made available by a platform, such as resharing within that platform, is permitted to the extent that the platform provides it.

45.4 In respect of the statistical insights made available to the Company by certain platform operators concerning visitors to the Company’s pages, the Company and the platform operator may act as joint controllers within the meaning of Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, in accordance with the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-210/16, Wirtschaftsakademie Schleswig-Holstein. The allocation of responsibilities between the Company and the relevant platform operator, and the essence of the joint controller arrangement, are described in the Privacy Policy.

45.5 The Company moderates comments and messages on its social media channels in accordance with Section 39 and with the rules of the relevant platform. The Company may remove, hide or report material, and may restrict interaction by particular accounts, where the material breaches those rules.

45.6 The Company is not responsible for material published by third parties on its social media channels, or for the processing of personal data carried out by the platform operators for their own purposes.

46. Third-Party Links, Content and Services

46.1 The Services may contain links to third-party websites, publications, sources and services, including for the purposes of citation, reference and attribution.

46.2 Such links are provided for information and do not constitute an endorsement, verification or approval of the linked material. The Company has no control over the content, availability, accuracy, legality or privacy practices of third-party sites.

46.3 The User accesses third-party sites and services at the User’s own risk and subject to the terms and privacy notices of the relevant third party. The Company excludes liability in respect of third-party sites and services to the fullest extent permitted by law.

46.4 Certain components of the Services are provided by third parties, including hosting providers, the Payment Providers, the newsletter provider, the membership system provider, content delivery networks and Google Analytics. The Company selects such providers with due care and, where they process personal data on the Company’s behalf, engages them under written contracts satisfying Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, as described in the Privacy Policy.

47. Advertising, Sponsorship and Editorial Separation

47.1 Where the Company publishes advertising, sponsored material, affiliate links or other commercial communications, such material is clearly and prominently identified as such, in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) of Directive 2000/31/EC, Annex I to Directive 2005/29/EC, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 in the United Kingdom, and the Federal Trade Commission’s guidance concerning endorsements and testimonials in the United States.

47.2 Commercial arrangements do not influence critical assessment. Editorial and commercial functions are kept separate in accordance with Section 11.

47.3 Where the Company receives a review copy, a screener, press access, an advance copy or any other benefit in connection with a work that is the subject of criticism, that fact is disclosed in the relevant publication where its non-disclosure could reasonably affect the reader’s assessment of the criticism. The receipt of such material does not entail any commitment as to the content or tenor of the criticism.

47.4 The Company does not publish paid reviews, does not accept payment in exchange for favourable criticism, and does not publish or commission fake or incentivised consumer reviews.

PART IX — DATA, ACCESSIBILITY AND SECURITY

48. Privacy and Data Protection

48.1 The Company processes personal data in accordance with the Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms and is available at https://darcked.com/privacy-policy/.

48.2 The Privacy Policy describes the categories of personal data processed, the purposes and legal bases of processing, the recipients of personal data, international transfers and the safeguards applied to them, retention periods, and the rights available to data subjects.

48.3 Where a conflict arises between these Terms and the Privacy Policy in respect of the processing of personal data, the Privacy Policy prevails.

48.4 The Company processes personal data in the performance of these Terms as a controller. Where a User submits personal data relating to third parties, the User warrants that the User has a lawful basis for doing so.

48.5 Data subject requests may be addressed to the privacy contact identified in Section 1 and in the Privacy Policy.

49. Cookies and Similar Technologies

49.1 The Website uses cookies and similar technologies. Their use is described in the Cookie Policy, available at https://darcked.com/cookie-policy/.

49.2 Cookies which are not strictly necessary for the provision of a service expressly requested by the User are set only with the User’s prior consent, obtained through the consent management interface, in accordance with Article 5(3) of Directive 2002/58/EC and Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

49.3 The Company uses Google Analytics. Where consent is required, analytics cookies are set only after consent has been given, and consent may be withdrawn at any time through the consent management interface. The Privacy Policy describes the associated transfers of personal data and the safeguards applied.

49.4 Withdrawal of consent to non-essential cookies does not restrict access to Free Content or to Paid Content for which the User has paid.

50. Accessibility

50.1 The Company is committed to making the Services accessible to the widest practicable audience, including persons with disabilities.

50.2 The Company seeks to align the Website and its Digital Publications with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at Level AA, and, in respect of the European Union, with the accessibility requirements set out in Annex I to Directive (EU) 2019/882 (the European Accessibility Act) and the harmonised standard EN 301 549, as applicable to e-books and to e-commerce services.

50.3 Where a Digital Publication is supplied in EPUB format, the Company seeks to include accessibility metadata identifying the accessibility features of the publication, and to structure the publication so as to permit navigation, reflow, text-to-speech and use with assistive technologies.

50.4 The accessibility features and any known limitations of each Digital Publication are described on the relevant product page, where the Company has that information.

50.5 The Company’s accessibility statement is available at https://darcked.com/accessibility/. A User who encounters an accessibility barrier, or who requires content in an alternative format, may contact accessibility@darcked.com. The Company will respond without undue delay and will seek to provide a suitable alternative means of access.

50.6 Nothing in Section 34 restricts an act permitted under Directive (EU) 2017/1564, the Marrakesh Treaty or equivalent legislation providing for the making of accessible format copies for the benefit of persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled.

51. Security

51.1 The Company implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the Services and the personal data processed within them, as described in the Privacy Policy.

51.2 No method of electronic transmission or storage is entirely secure. The Company does not warrant that the Services will be free from unauthorised access, and its liability in respect of security incidents is limited in accordance with Section 53 and applicable law.

51.3 The Company welcomes the responsible disclosure of security vulnerabilities. Reports may be submitted to support@darcked.com. The Company will not pursue action against a person who identifies and reports a vulnerability in good faith, who does not access, modify, exfiltrate or destroy data beyond the minimum necessary to demonstrate the vulnerability, who does not degrade the Services, and who allows the Company a reasonable period to remediate before disclosure.

PART X — LIABILITY, SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION

52. Disclaimers

52.1 Subject to Section 52.5 and Section 53.5, and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

52.2 The Company does not warrant that:

(a) the Services will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free; (b) any defect will be corrected; (c) the Services or the servers on which they are hosted are free of harmful components; (d) the Editorial Content will meet the User’s particular requirements or expectations; (e) any particular item, category or volume of Editorial Content will be published.

52.3 The Editorial Content consists substantially of criticism, interpretation and opinion. The Company does not warrant that any interpretation, evaluation or critical judgement is correct, complete or shared by others. Factual statements are verified in accordance with Section 12, but the Company does not warrant that the Editorial Content is free from error.

52.4 The Editorial Content does not constitute professional advice of any kind, and no reliance should be placed upon it as such. The Company disclaims liability for decisions taken in reliance upon the Editorial Content, save as provided in Section 53.5.

52.5 Nothing in this Section 52 excludes or limits:

(a) the statutory conformity rights of Consumers under Section 28; (b) any warranty, guarantee, condition or term implied by law which may not lawfully be excluded; (c) the Company’s liability under Section 53.5.

53. Limitation of Liability

53.1 The Company is liable for damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence, and for damage arising from a breach of a material obligation the fulfilment of which is essential to the proper performance of these Terms and upon which the User may reasonably rely.

53.2 Where the Company breaches a material obligation through slight negligence, its liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical of contracts of this kind.

53.3 Subject to Sections 53.1, 53.2 and 53.5, and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Company shall not be liable for:

(a) indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damage; (b) loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business, loss of goodwill or loss of opportunity; (c) loss or corruption of data, save where caused by the Company’s failure to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures; (d) damage arising from the acts, omissions or content of third parties, including Payment Providers, platform operators, third-party distribution channels and the operators of linked sites; (e) damage arising from the User’s failure to maintain the confidentiality of Account credentials, save as provided in Section 9.5; (f) damage arising from an event described in Section 55.

53.4 Subject to Sections 53.1, 53.2 and 53.5, the aggregate liability of the Company arising out of or in connection with these Terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, shall not exceed the greater of:

(a) the total amount paid by the User to the Company in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim; and (b) EUR 100.

53.5 Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits the Company’s liability for:

(a) death or personal injury caused by negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (c) gross negligence or wilful misconduct; (d) liability under applicable product liability legislation; (e) any other liability which may not lawfully be excluded or limited, including under mandatory consumer protection law and under Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

53.6 The limitations in this Section 53 apply to the Company, its directors, officers, employees, contributors, agents and subcontractors.

53.7 Where a User is a Consumer, the limitations in this Section 53 apply only to the extent permitted by the mandatory law applicable to that Consumer. Consumers resident in jurisdictions which do not permit the exclusion or limitation of certain liabilities are unaffected by the corresponding provisions.

53.8 A claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms must be brought within the limitation period prescribed by applicable law. Nothing in these Terms shortens a limitation period applicable to a Consumer.

54. Indemnification

54.1 A User who is not a Consumer shall indemnify and hold harmless the Company, its directors, officers, employees and agents against all claims, proceedings, liabilities, damages, losses, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with:

(a) the User’s breach of these Terms; (b) the User’s User Content; (c) the User’s infringement of the intellectual property rights or other rights of any third party; (d) the User’s unlawful use of the Services.

54.2 This Section 54 does not apply to Consumers, whose liability is determined in accordance with the general law.

54.3 The Company will notify the User without undue delay of any claim in respect of which indemnity is sought, will not settle such a claim without the User’s consent (not to be unreasonably withheld), and will provide reasonable assistance to the User at the User’s expense.

55. Force Majeure

55.1 Neither party is liable for a failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms to the extent that the failure or delay results from an event beyond its reasonable control, including an act of God, natural disaster, epidemic, pandemic, war, armed conflict, act of terrorism, civil disorder, act of government, embargo, sanction, industrial action, failure of telecommunications or internet infrastructure, cyberattack, or failure of a utility or of a third-party service provider.

55.2 The affected party will notify the other without undue delay and will use reasonable endeavours to mitigate the effects of the event.

55.3 Where an event described in Section 55.1 prevents the Company from providing access to Paid Content for a continuous period exceeding thirty (30) days, either party may terminate the affected Membership, and the Company will refund the proportionate part of the amount paid in respect of the period during which access was unavailable.

55.4 This Section 55 does not excuse an obligation to pay amounts already due, and does not affect the Company’s obligations under applicable data protection law.

56. Suspension and Termination by the Company

56.1 The Company may suspend or terminate a User’s access to the Services, an Account, or a Membership where:

(a) the User is in material breach of these Terms, and in particular of Sections 8, 9, 34, 36 or 39; (b) the User is in repeated breach of these Terms following a warning; (c) payment due under a Membership has not been received following a reminder, in accordance with Section 27.5; (d) the Company is required to do so by law, by a court order or by a direction of a competent authority; (e) the User is or becomes subject to a measure described in Section 58; (f) continued provision of the Services would expose the Company to legal liability or to a material security risk.

56.2 The Company will give the User prior notice of the intended suspension or termination, together with reasons and a reasonable opportunity to remedy the breach, save where:

(a) the breach is incapable of remedy; (b) immediate action is necessary to prevent unlawful conduct, to protect the Services or the rights of third parties, or to comply with a legal obligation; or (c) prior notice is prohibited by law.

Where prior notice is not given, the Company will provide reasons without undue delay following the measure.

56.3 A statement of reasons is provided in accordance with Section 41.6 where the measure concerns User Content or the suspension or termination of an Account, and the User may lodge a complaint under Section 41.7.

56.4 Suspension is applied for no longer than is necessary and is lifted once the circumstances giving rise to it have ceased.

56.5 Termination by the Company does not affect any right or liability accrued before termination.

56.6 Where the Company terminates a Membership other than for a reason attributable to the User, the Company will refund the proportionate part of the amount paid in respect of the unexpired part of the current Subscription Period. Where termination is for a reason attributable to the User, no refund is payable, save as required by mandatory law.

57. Termination by the User and Effects of Termination

57.1 A User may terminate these Terms at any time by cancelling any Membership in accordance with Section 20 and requesting deletion of the Account.

57.2 An Account may be deleted through the Account settings or by request to support@darcked.com. Deletion of an Account terminates any current Membership with effect from the end of the Subscription Period for which payment has been made, unless the User requests earlier termination.

57.3 Upon termination:

(a) the licence granted under Section 32.1 in respect of Paid Content accessed under a Membership terminates; (b) the licence granted in respect of Digital Publications lawfully purchased, or lawfully downloaded under Section 18.7, continues; (c) access to the Account and to any download functionality within it ceases, and the User is advised to retain copies of purchased Digital Publications before deletion; (d) personal data is deleted or anonymised in accordance with the Privacy Policy, subject to retention required for the performance of legal obligations, including accounting and tax obligations, and for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

57.4 The following Sections survive termination: 4, 12, 16, 26 to 30 (in respect of accrued rights), 31 to 38, 40.3, 42, 48, 52 to 55, 57, and 58 to 68.

PART XI — DISPUTES AND FINAL PROVISIONS

58. Export Controls, Sanctions and Territorial Restrictions

58.1 The User must comply with all applicable export control, economic sanctions and trade restriction laws, including those administered by the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United Nations and the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

58.2 The User represents that the User is not located in, and is not ordinarily resident in, a jurisdiction subject to comprehensive sanctions, and that the User is not a person with whom dealings are prohibited under any applicable sanctions programme.

58.3 The Company may refuse to supply, may suspend supply, and may terminate an Account where necessary to comply with the measures described in this Section 58.

58.4 The Company may restrict access to particular Digital Publications in particular territories where required by the terms of a licence, by a court order or by applicable law. Where such a restriction affects a Membership already purchased, Section 10.4 applies.

58.5 Nothing in this Section 58 authorises unjustified geo-blocking or discrimination on the basis of nationality, place of residence or place of establishment contrary to Regulation (EU) 2018/302, to the extent that Regulation applies to the Services.

59. Complaints Procedure

59.1 A User who is dissatisfied with the Services, with the handling of an order, or with any other matter arising under these Terms may submit a complaint to official@darcked.com, identifying the User, the subject matter of the complaint and the outcome sought.

59.2 The Company will acknowledge a complaint without undue delay and will provide a substantive response within thirty (30) days, or, where the matter is complex, will inform the User of the reason for the delay and of the date by which a response will be provided.

59.3 Complaints concerning Editorial Content are handled in accordance with Section 16. Complaints concerning content moderation decisions are handled in accordance with Section 41.7.

60. Alternative Dispute Resolution

60.1 The European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution platform, established under Regulation (EU) No 524/2013, was discontinued with effect from 20 July 2025 pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2024/3228. No complaint may be submitted through that platform.

60.2 Consumers resident in the European Union may nonetheless refer a dispute to a national alternative dispute resolution entity certified under Directive 2013/11/EU. A list of certified entities in the Member States is maintained by the European Commission and by the competent national authorities.

60.3 The Company is not obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board, and is not willing to participate in such proceedings.

60.4 Consumers resident in the United Kingdom may refer a dispute to a certified alternative dispute resolution body under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015.

60.5 Recipients of the Services in the European Union may, in respect of content moderation decisions, select a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body under Article 21 of the Digital Services Act, as described in Section 41.8.

60.6 Recourse to alternative dispute resolution is voluntary and does not affect the right of either party to bring proceedings before a competent court.

61. Governing Law

61.1 These Terms, and any non-contractual obligation arising out of or in connection with them, are governed by the law of RS, excluding its conflict of law rules and excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

61.2 Where the User is a Consumer, the choice of law in Section 61.1 does not deprive the Consumer of the protection afforded by provisions that cannot be derogated from by agreement under the law of the country in which the Consumer is habitually resident, in accordance with Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 and equivalent conflict-of-law rules.

62. Competent Courts

62.1 Where the User is not a Consumer, the courts of RS have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms.

62.2 Where the User is a Consumer:

(a) proceedings may be brought by the Consumer against the Company either in the courts of RS or in the courts of the Consumer’s place of domicile; (b) proceedings may be brought by the Company against the Consumer only in the courts of the Consumer’s place of domicile.

This provision gives effect to Articles 17 to 19 of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 and to equivalent rules of private international law.

62.3 Nothing in this Section 62 restricts the right of a Consumer to rely upon a mandatory rule of jurisdiction applicable in the Consumer’s place of residence.

62.4 Either party may seek injunctive or other interim relief in any court of competent jurisdiction in respect of the infringement of intellectual property rights or the misuse of confidential information.

63. Assignment and Transfer

63.1 The User may not assign, transfer, charge or otherwise deal with any right or obligation under these Terms without the prior written consent of the Company.

63.2 The Company may assign or transfer its rights and obligations under these Terms to an affiliate, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganisation or sale of all or substantially all of its assets, provided that the assignment does not diminish the rights of the User. The Company will notify Users of any such assignment. Where the User is a Consumer and the assignment would materially affect the Consumer’s position, the Consumer may terminate the Membership in accordance with Section 6.4.

63.3 The Company may engage subcontractors in the performance of its obligations. The Company remains responsible for their performance.

64. Entire Agreement and Order of Precedence

64.1 These Terms, together with the documents incorporated by reference under Section 2.3, constitute the entire agreement between the parties in respect of the subject matter, and supersede all prior representations, understandings and agreements relating to that subject matter.

64.2 Nothing in this Section 64 excludes liability for fraudulent misrepresentation, and nothing in this Section 64 limits the rights of a Consumer in respect of pre-contractual information required by law, which forms part of the contract.

64.3 In the event of conflict, the following order of precedence applies:

(a) any mandatory provision of applicable law; (b) the specific commercial terms of an individual order, as set out in the order confirmation; (c) the Privacy Policy, in respect of the processing of personal data; (d) these Terms; (e) any other document incorporated by reference.

65. Severability and Waiver

65.1 Where a provision of these Terms is or becomes invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, that provision is severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect.

65.2 A severed provision is replaced by a valid provision which most closely reflects the commercial intention of the severed provision, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

65.3 A failure or delay by the Company in exercising a right or remedy does not constitute a waiver of that right or remedy, and does not preclude its later exercise.

65.4 A waiver is effective only if given in writing and is limited to the circumstances for which it is given.

66. Notices and Electronic Communications

66.1 The Company gives notice to a User by email to the address associated with the Account, or by publication on the Website where the notice is of general application and no material change to the User’s rights is involved.

66.2 A User gives notice to the Company at the addresses set out in Section 1 and Section 68.

66.3 A notice sent by email is deemed received on the day of transmission, unless transmitted outside business hours, in which case it is deemed received on the next business day, and unless the sender receives an indication of non-delivery.

66.4 The User consents to receive communications from the Company in electronic form, and agrees that electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that a communication be in writing. This consent does not affect the Company’s obligation to supply information on a durable medium where required by law, nor the User’s right to receive such information in that form.

66.5 The User must maintain a valid email address in the Account and must notify the Company of any change.

67. Language of the Terms

67.1 These Terms are concluded in English. The Website and the Services are provided in English.

67.2 Where the Company publishes a translation of these Terms, the translation is provided for convenience only. In the event of a discrepancy, the English version prevails, save where mandatory law applicable to a Consumer requires that a translation in the language of the contract or of the Consumer’s residence prevail.

67.3 Correspondence with the Company may be conducted in English.

68. Contact Details

ANNEX I — MODEL WITHDRAWAL FORM

(Complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract. This form corresponds to Annex I(B) to Directive 2011/83/EU and to Schedule 3 to the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.)

To: Traverse Limited – DARCKED.COM Traverse Limited, Nikole Spasica 3/1, 11000 Belgrade, RS Email Address: support@darcked.com

I/We () hereby give notice that I/We () withdraw from my/our () contract of sale of the following goods () / for the provision of the following service (*):

Ordered on () / received on (): _______________________

Name of consumer(s): _______________________________

Address of consumer(s): _____________________________

Order or invoice reference: __________________________

Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper): _______________________

Date: _______________________

() Delete as appropriate.*

ANNEX II — INFORMATION REQUIRED IN A NOTICE OF ALLEGED INFRINGEMENT

A notice submitted under Section 42 must contain the following:

1. A physical or electronic signature of the rightsholder, or of a person authorised to act on behalf of the rightsholder.
2. Identification of the copyright work or other protected subject matter claimed to have been infringed, or, where multiple works are covered by a single notice, a representative list of such works.
3. Identification of the material claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the Company to locate that material, including the precise URL or URLs.
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the Company to contact the person submitting the notice, including name, postal address, telephone number and email address.
5. A statement that the person submitting the notice has a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the rightsholder, its agent or the law.
6. A statement that the information in the notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury where applicable, that the person submitting the notice is authorised to act on behalf of the rightsholder.
7. Where the material forms part of the Editorial Content, an explanation of why the person submitting the notice considers that the use falls outside the exceptions for quotation, criticism and review relied upon under Section 13.

This Annex reflects the requirements of section 512(c)(3) of Title 17 of the United States Code and, in respect of notices concerning illegal content generally, Article 16(2) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.

ANNEX III — SUMMARY OF MEMBERSHIP TERMS

This summary is provided for the convenience of Users and forms part of the pre-contractual information supplied under Section 17.5. It does not replace the operative provisions of these Terms.

End of document.

© DARCKED.COM. All rights reserved. This document is published as the Terms of Service applicable to the Services and does not constitute legal advice to any User.