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Terms of Use
§ 1 General information, definitions
LYNQ offers a geotracking-based social media app (application software) with an associated database, hereinafter referred to as the "Service." The Service enables its Users to get in touch with other Users in the area for private or business purposes via mobile app. A basic version of the app can be used free of charge. Certain additional services require a paid membership.
The provider of the Service is LYNQ GmbH & Co. KG, Josephinenstr. 17, 40212 Düsseldorf (hereinafter referred to as the "Provider" or "LYNQ").
Visitors are all app Users who access the Service. Partners are Users who have concluded a contract with the Provider for the use of the Service. Partners may in particular also be companies and tradespeople who also use the Service for advertising purposes and to present their company. "Users" refers to all Visitors and Partners. These Terms and Conditions apply to all current business relationships. They apply to all services within the scope of the Service.
§ 2 Scope of services
The Provider provides its registered Users with the linking, display, and search of new and existing contacts in list and/or map view with real-time position. There are essentially two types of use available: a) A closed, free forum and database (hereinafter referred to as "Free Membership") and b) A closed, paid communication and geo-based forum with features that go beyond the basic version, such as contacting other Users or creating groups (so-called "Circles") etc. (hereinafter "Premium Membership," so-called "LYNQ Member", "LYNQ Prime Member", "LYNQ Ambassador")
Advertisers or special paid memberships for events such as concerts, trade fairs, etc. are also generally Premium Memberships.
Details of the Premium Membership fees can be found in the LYNQ app in the "Memberships" section. Further products and services (e.g. so-called "LYNQ requests") can be purchased in the app for a fee. Constant availability of these services cannot be guaranteed. The Provider is entitled to change, interrupt, or completely discontinue services permanently or temporarily without prior notice to the User; in the case of chargeable services, a corresponding credit note will be issued.
The Provider may at any time add, modify, or remove features of any membership without prior notice. Such changes do not entitle the User to any refund, partial or full.
§ 3 Conditions for participation, conclusion of contract
The use of the Service is only permitted to persons aged 18 and over. At the request of the Provider, the User shall send sufficient proof of age to the Provider (e.g. copy of ID). Registrations by persons under the age of 18 are not permitted; where the Provider becomes aware that a User has not reached the age of 18, the Provider will terminate the account.
When registering for the Service, the User undertakes to provide only truthful information about themselves and to keep their data up to date at all times.
The contract between the Provider and the User for the use of the Service is concluded when the User begins the registration process and accepts these Terms. The contract for the use of chargeable services is concluded when the User places an order.
The selected term of membership shall commence upon activation by the Provider.
§ 4 Costs of the services
Registration by the User is free of charge. The operation of a basic module is also free of charge.
Further services are subject to a charge. The prices are based on a separate price list. All prices include statutory VAT. All payments must be made in advance.
Payments can be made through in-app purchases or the Appstore; in future these can also be made via the website by prepayment, direct debit, PayPal, or by credit card. Normally, however, billing takes place via the App Store. The User authorizes the Provider to debit the payments to be made by the User from an account or credit card to be designated by the User. The User is obliged to inform their bank of the direct debit authorization and to ensure that the account has sufficient funds. The costs of a chargeback for which the User is responsible plus a further processing fee of €5 shall be borne by the User.
§ 5 Cancellation policy
In the event that a User as a consumer concludes a fee-based part of a contract using exclusively means of distance communication, they may revoke this contractual declaration in text form (e.g. letter, e-mail) within two weeks without stating reasons.
The period begins after receipt of this instruction in text form, but not before conclusion of the contract and also not before fulfilment of our information obligations pursuant to Article 246 § 2 in conjunction with § 1 para. 1 and 2 EGBGB and our obligations pursuant to § 312g para. 1 sentence 1 BGB in conjunction with Article 246 § 3 EGBGB. Timely dispatch of the revocation is sufficient to comply with the revocation period. The revocation is to be sent to:
LYNQ GmbH & Co. KG
Josephinenstr. 17
40212 Düsseldorf
Germany
Email: support@lynq.me
Consequences of revocation
In the event of an effective revocation, the services received by both parties must be returned and any benefits derived (e.g. interest) surrendered.
If the User is unable to return or surrender the service received and benefits (e.g. benefits of use), or is only able to return or surrender them in part or in a deteriorated condition, compensation must be paid in this respect. This may mean that the contractual payment obligations for the period up to the revocation must nevertheless be fulfilled.
Obligations to reimburse payments must be fulfilled within 30 days. The period begins for the User with the dispatch of the revocation declaration, for the Provider with its receipt. The right of revocation and return expires if the Provider has begun to perform the service with the express consent of the consumer before the end of the revocation period or if the consumer has initiated this themself.
Exceptions to the right to object
Some products and services may require the User to waive their right to object in order to be able to start using them immediately (e.g. consumption/use of purchased LYNQ requests). In such cases, we will proactively inform the User and ask for the waiver. The User must then explicitly confirm that they waive their right to object.
§ 6 Rights and obligations of users
The User is prohibited from distributing, providing, or making accessible any kind of pornography via the Service (§ 184 StGB) or otherwise violating laws or the rights of third parties (trademarks, name rights, copyrights, data protection rights, personal rights, etc.).
The content published by the User is the User's own content. If the User uploads their own photos, music files, etc. to the Service, they are responsible for having all the necessary rights to do so. The Provider merely provides the system and possibly storage space. The responsibility for all content that is transmitted and published by Users via the Provider's Service lies exclusively with the offering User. The Provider is not obliged to check the internet presences, names, or similar of the Users for possible legal violations.
If the Provider determines that certain content violates applicable law, the Provider is entitled to interrupt or delete the content in question and to block the User concerned without prior notice. However, this does not constitute grounds for a refund of the membership fee, and any subscription must be terminated separately by the User, in particular via the App Store.
The Provider shall provide an effective and transparent system for handling complaints about illegal content such as hate speech, false news, or other criminal publications. It must remove or block such content within 24 hours of receiving the complaint if the illegality is obvious. For more complex cases, the deadline is extended to seven days. In any case, the Provider reserves the right to provide a complaints management system in an efficient and speedy manner.
The Provider will inform Users about the decisions they have made with regard to their complaints. This includes information on whether and why certain content was removed or restored. The User shall indemnify the Provider against claims for compensation by third parties and all expenses arising from a breach by the User of the General Terms and Conditions or the Terms of Use. The rights of use granted by the User to the Provider in respect of their content, and the separate consent required for any use of that content outside the Service, are governed by § 6a.
Through certain actions (e.g. inviting friends), Users can enjoy benefits (such as a certain number of free LYNQ queries, free memberships, or membership extensions) that might otherwise be subject to a charge. All benefits are granted completely voluntarily. There is no entitlement to any benefits. None of the benefits granted can be paid out or passed on in any way.
§ 6a Rights to user content, promotional and marketing use
(1) User Content. "User Content" means all photographs, images, videos, audio recordings, texts, profile information, event and Circle contributions, and other materials that the User uploads to, posts on, or otherwise makes available via the Service.
(2) Ownership. The User retains ownership of and all rights to their User Content. The Provider does not acquire ownership of User Content and does not sell User Content to third parties.
(3) Licence for the operation of the Service. By making User Content available on the Service, the User grants the Provider a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right of use, unlimited in time and place, to store, host, reproduce, display, transmit, and make publicly accessible such User Content within the Service, and to make the technical adaptations required for this purpose (in particular changes of file format, resolution, compression, and cropping for display). This licence serves solely the operation, provision, security, and improvement of the Service. It ends upon deletion of the User Content or of the User's account, except for copies retained in routine backups until overwritten in the ordinary course, or which must be retained to comply with statutory retention obligations or to pursue or defend legal claims. The User warrants that they hold all rights required for this grant and that the User Content does not infringe any third-party rights.
(4) Use outside the Service requires separate consent. The Provider would like to feature selected User Content — including photographs and videos showing the User — outside the Service in its own communication, in particular on the LYNQ websites (lynq.me, lynq.app), on the official LYNQ channels on third-party platforms (in particular Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook), in newsletters and in-app announcements, in App Store and Google Play listings, in press, partner and investor materials, and in presentations (together, "Promotional Use"). Promotional Use takes place exclusively on the basis of a separate, voluntary, specific, and informed declaration of consent by the User pursuant to Sec. 22 KUG (German Act on the Protection of Copyright in Works of Art and Photography) and Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. This consent is not given by accepting these Terms of Use and is not part of the contract for the use of the Service. It is obtained separately in the app or in text form and is documented by the Provider.
(5) No coupling. Granting or refusing consent to Promotional Use is entirely voluntary. Refusal or withdrawal has no effect on the conclusion or performance of the contract, on access to the Service, on membership status, or on any feature, and the User suffers no disadvantage as a result (Art. 7(4) GDPR).
(6) Scope of the consent, once granted. Where the User has granted consent under paragraph 4, the User grants the Provider a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right — sublicensable to the extent set out in paragraph 7 — to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, broadcast, and make publicly available the User Content covered by the consent for Promotional Use in all media, and to edit it for that purpose in a manner that does not distort its content. Permitted editing includes in particular cropping, resizing and reformatting, colour and image correction, the addition of the LYNQ logo, captions, subtitles and text overlays, the use of excerpts, and incorporation into collages, stories, reels, and other compilations. Not covered by the consent is any use that places the User in a false light, that is defamatory, that attributes political, religious, or ideological statements to the User which the User has not made, or that presents the User in an unrelated commercial context, in particular as an endorsement of a third-party product.
(7) Third-party platforms and service providers. The User acknowledges that Promotional Use on third-party platforms requires the Provider to grant the operators of those platforms the licence set out in their respective terms of service (for Instagram and Facebook, for example, Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd.). The consent therefore includes the right to grant such sublicences to the extent required by the terms of the platform concerned, and to engage agencies, photographers, and other service providers acting on the Provider's behalf. The User is aware that content published on third-party platforms leaves the Provider's technical control, may be viewed, saved, copied, and shared worldwide, including outside the European Economic Area, and is subject to the terms and privacy policies of the respective platform.
(8) No remuneration. Promotional Use takes place free of charge. The User receives no remuneration for the grant of rights under paragraph 6 and, having regard to the promotional benefit to the User's own visibility, has no claim to any fee, payment, or other consideration.
(9) Attribution. Where the User is named in connection with Promotional Use, the Provider uses the form of attribution selected by the User (for example first name, full name, profession, city, or social media handle). The User may request a change to the form of attribution at any time.
(10) Warranty and indemnity. The User warrants that they hold all rights required for the Promotional Use of the User Content concerned, and in particular that they have obtained the consent of every identifiable person depicted and of the photographer or other author for the Promotional Use described in this § 6a. The User shall indemnify the Provider against all third-party claims and reasonable costs of legal defence arising from a breach of this warranty.
(11) Age. Use of the Service, and accordingly any consent to Promotional Use, is reserved to persons aged 18 and over (§ 3).
(12) Withdrawal. The User may withdraw consent to Promotional Use at any time, free of charge, without giving reasons and with effect for the future — by message in text form to privacy@lynq.me, by reply to the message in which the Provider asked for consent, or via the corresponding setting in the app where provided. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of use carried out before the withdrawal. Following withdrawal, the Provider will cease further Promotional Use and remove the content concerned from the channels under its own control (in particular the LYNQ websites and the LYNQ profiles on third-party platforms) without undue delay, as a rule within 14 days. The Provider is neither able nor obliged to recall content that third parties have already saved, shared, reposted, or otherwise reproduced, that has been cached or archived by third-party platforms or search engines, or that has already been printed or otherwise physically produced. Where the content has become an inseparable part of a larger work, for example a video production, the Provider may continue to use the existing work but will not produce new material with it.
(13) Events. At events organised or co-organised by LYNQ, photographs and video recordings may be produced by the Provider or by service providers commissioned by the Provider and used for the Promotional Use described in this § 6a. The Provider will indicate this in the invitation and by notices on site, and will provide an opportunity to object on site, for example by a visibly marked identifier or by notifying the photographer or a member of staff. Persons who have objected will not be recorded intentionally and will not be shown in published material. Overview shots of the gathering as a whole and recordings on which individual persons appear merely incidentally alongside the location or the event may be used pursuant to Sec. 23(1) nos. 2 and 3 KUG, taking into account the legitimate interests of the persons depicted.
(14) No implied consent. The fact that User Content is publicly visible within the Service, or that a User takes part in an event, a Circle, or an editorial format, does not in itself constitute consent to Promotional Use.
§ 7 Termination of contract, notice periods
The free membership can be terminated at any time. Cancellation must be made in writing or by deleting the User's profile in the member area.
Paid membership can be terminated online by either party. Written notice of termination must be given within 7 days of the end of the contract. In any case, a membership must be terminated separately via the App Store. If the paid membership is not terminated within this period, the contract shall be extended by the same contract period originally selected by the User.
The contract may be terminated by the Provider without notice if the User provides false information when registering and/or subsequently changes their data, violates the General Terms and Conditions or the Terms of Use, or for any other good cause. Amounts already paid will not be refunded in the event of extraordinary termination.
§ 8 Liability
In the event of slightly negligent breaches of duty, the liability of the Provider shall be limited to the foreseeable, contract-typical, direct average damage according to the type of contract. This also applies to slightly negligent breaches of duty by the Provider's legal representatives or vicarious agents.
The Provider shall not be liable to entrepreneurs for slightly negligent breaches of insignificant contractual obligations.
The above limitations of liability do not apply to claims of the User arising from product liability. Furthermore, the limitations of liability do not apply in the case of warranted characteristics and physical injury and damage to health attributable to the Provider or in the case of loss of life of the User.
§ 9 Data protection
The data required for business transactions are processed and stored by means of an EDP system. Personal data will of course be treated confidentially and used exclusively for the stated purpose. The User expressly consents to the collection, processing, and use of personal data.
The User has the right to revoke their consent at any time with effect for the future.
Our data protection provisions apply in all other respects.
§ 10 Reporting and Moderation of Suspicious Content
Users can report suspicious or inappropriate content directly within the app. All reports are reviewed and moderated by our team to ensure compliance with our community standards and applicable laws.
We have a zero-tolerance policy toward content that depicts or promotes the sexual abuse or exploitation of children, including sexualised depictions of minors — even if fictional or artistic in nature. Such content will be removed immediately and reported to the relevant authorities, including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) where applicable.
In addition, we reserve the right to remove any content involving or promoting suicide or self-harm, harassment or bullying, illegal drugs, nudity, hate speech or hate symbols, spam, fraud, cam-related activities, mobbing, violence or dangerous organisations, or other unlawful or harmful behaviour.
Users who post or share such content will be permanently banned from the platform, regardless of any active subscription, and any paid subscription fees will not be refunded.
§ 11 Amendments to these terms of use
The Provider has the right to change the provisions regarding the service to be provided at its reasonable discretion, taking into account the technical requirements and market conditions, insofar as this is reasonable for the User.
Amendments to these terms of use shall be published in the Service. The User shall be informed in text form of any changes to the terms of use that do not fall under § 10 paragraph 1. The changes shall become effective unless the User objects to the respective changes within 14 days of receipt of the written notification of change.
§ 12 Final provisions
The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply. The provisions of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not apply.
If the User is a merchant, a legal entity under public law, or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contract shall be the Provider's registered office or Düsseldorf. The same shall apply if the User does not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany or if their place of residence or habitual abode is unknown at the time the action is filed.