Terms of Service

1. Who we are

UAE Business Circle ("UAE Business Circle", "we", "us") operates a business networking platform for entrepreneurs, professionals, SMEs and organisations in the United Arab Emirates. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of our website, member platform, events and related services (together, the "Platform").

By creating an account, submitting a membership application, or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.

2. Eligibility and membership

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract. Membership is subject to approval. We may accept, decline, suspend or revoke a membership at our discretion, including where information provided is inaccurate or where conduct breaches these Terms or our Community Guidelines.

You are responsible for the accuracy of the information on your profile and business listing, and for keeping it up to date. You must not impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with any organisation.

3. Your account

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately at our contact page if you believe your account has been compromised. Do not share your account with others.

4. Membership plans, fees and billing

The Platform offers a free membership tier and one or more paid tiers. The features, limits and prices of each tier are shown on our Pricing page and may change from time to time. Prices are stated in UAE Dirhams (AED) and are exclusive of any applicable taxes unless stated otherwise.

Paid memberships are billed in advance on a recurring basis (monthly or annually, as selected) and renew automatically until cancelled. Payments are processed by our payment provider, Stripe. We do not store your full card details.

You may cancel a paid membership at any time from your Billing page. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period; you retain paid features until then, and you will not be charged again.

4.1 Refunds

You may request a full refund of a membership payment within 14 days of that payment. Where a refund is granted, your paid membership ends immediately and your account reverts to the free tier.

Event tickets are refundable where you cancel your registration more than 48 hours before the event begins. Cancellations within 48 hours of the event are not refundable. If we cancel an event, paid ticket holders are refunded in full.

[LEGAL REVIEW: confirm this refund policy against UAE consumer protection law.]

5. Events

Event registration is subject to capacity and to the limits of your membership tier. Attending an event may require you to comply with the rules of the venue. We may change or cancel an event; where we do, we will notify registered attendees and refund paid tickets.

6. Your content

You retain ownership of the content you upload (profile information, business listing details, images, and messages). By uploading content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce and display that content for the purpose of operating and promoting the Platform.

You are responsible for your content. You must have the rights to everything you upload, and it must not be unlawful, misleading, infringing, or in breach of our Community Guidelines. We may remove content or listings that breach these Terms.

7. Acceptable use

You must not:

• use the Platform for spam, bulk unsolicited messaging, or harvesting member data;
• scrape, crawl or extract data from the Platform by automated means;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to any account, system or data;
• interfere with or disrupt the Platform's operation or security;
• use the Platform to promote unlawful, fraudulent or misleading offerings; or
• resell or commercially exploit access to the Platform without our written consent.

8. Directory and member data

Business listings, once verified, are publicly visible — including the contact details you choose to publish. Do not publish contact details you do not wish to be public. You may control certain visibility settings from your account settings.

Contact information you obtain through the Platform may only be used for legitimate business networking. It must not be used for unsolicited bulk marketing.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access if you breach these Terms, if your conduct harms other members or the Platform, or if required by law. You may close your account at any time from your account settings; deletion is permanent and removes your profile, listing, messages and other associated data.

Termination does not entitle you to a refund except as set out in section 4.1 or as required by law.

10. Third-party services

The Platform relies on third parties including Stripe (payments), Resend (email) and cloud hosting and storage providers. Your use of the Platform is also subject to their terms where applicable. We are not responsible for third-party websites linked from member listings or content.

11. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided "as is". We do not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We do not vet, endorse or guarantee any member, business, product or service listed on the Platform, and we are not a party to any dealings between members. You are responsible for your own due diligence before entering into any business relationship.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profits, revenue, data or business opportunity, arising from your use of the Platform. Our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

[LEGAL REVIEW: confirm the enforceability of this cap under UAE law.]

13. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify us against claims, losses and costs arising from your content, your use of the Platform, or your breach of these Terms.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Where changes are material we will take reasonable steps to notify you. Continued use of the Platform after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

15. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates and the applicable laws of the Emirate of [EMIRATE]. The courts of [EMIRATE/JURISDICTION] have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute.

[LEGAL REVIEW: complete the jurisdiction, and confirm free-zone applicability.]

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Contact us.