Terms of Service

1. Scope and acceptance

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") form a binding agreement between Apia Business Affairs Co., Ltd. (the "Company", "we") and any person or organisation that registers for or uses Factdock (the "Service", and such person or organisation the "User", "you").

By creating an account, or by using the Service, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.

Where you use the Service on behalf of a company or other organisation, you represent that you are authorised to bind that organisation, and "you" refers to that organisation.

2. The Service

The Service searches, retrieves, translates and summarises publicly available primary sources and other third-party material, and presents the results together with links to the underlying sources.

The Service is an information tool. It does not produce professional advice, and it is not a substitute for the independent judgement of a qualified professional. Section 8 sets out the specific limits that apply to professional fields.

3. Accounts

You must provide accurate registration information and keep it up to date. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account and for keeping your credentials confidential.

Accounts are issued to a single named user unless your plan expressly permits use by multiple members of one organisation. You may not share, resell or transfer an account.

You must be of the age of majority in your country of residence, or have the consent of a legal guardian, to register.

4. Plans, points and fees

The Service is provided on a monthly subscription basis. Each plan grants a monthly allowance of points, which are consumed as you use the individual research engines.

Points are valid within the month in which they are granted and do not carry over to the following month. Additional points may be purchased separately where that option is offered.

The applicable prices, point allowances, taxes and any introductory discount are those displayed on the pricing page and on the checkout screen at the time of your purchase. The currency shown at checkout applies to your purchase.

Fees are charged in advance for each billing period and recur automatically until the subscription is cancelled.

Any introductory discount — for example a reduced price for the first month — is limited to one use per customer and applies only to a customer's first subscription.

A customer who has already received an introductory discount is not entitled to receive it again, including after closing an account and registering again, and including where the same payment method or payment identifier is used. Where the Company identifies such a repeat application, it may decline the order or apply the standard price without prior notice.

5. Cancellation and refunds

You may cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings. Cancellation stops the next renewal; the Service remains available until the end of the billing period already paid for.

Because the Service is a digital service that is made available immediately, fees already paid and points already granted are non-refundable, except where a refund is required by applicable law or where the Service was not made available for reasons attributable to the Company.

This clause does not affect any statutory right of a consumer that cannot be waived by agreement.

If you close your account while a paid period is still running, the closure is scheduled rather than immediate: you keep full access until the end of that period, after which your account and all of its data are permanently deleted. Deleted data cannot be restored. You may cancel a scheduled closure from your account settings at any time before that date.

Where a subscription has ended and has not been renewed, the account is retained for ninety (90) days in a restricted state. If no new subscription is taken out within that period, the account and all of its data are deleted. A notice is sent to the registered email address before that happens, and taking out a plan again at any time before the deletion date stops it.

6. Your content, confidentiality and data handling

You retain all rights in the text, files and images you submit to the Service ("User Input").

You grant the Company the limited right to process User Input solely to operate the Service for you — for example to run a search, translate a source, or generate a report.

The Company does not use User Input to promote or advertise to third parties. How User Input is handled is described in the Privacy Policy.

Security and data handling:

• No use for AI training. The Company does not use User Input — including the text, documents and other data you submit — for training, retraining or otherwise improving AI or machine-learning models, whether its own or those of any third party, or for any other secondary purpose. Analysis is carried out in business-grade AI processing environments under terms that do not permit User Input to be used for model training.
• No retention of input or results. The Company does not permanently store or accumulate User Input, or the analysis and generation results derived from it ("Processed Data"), in its databases. Processed Data is discarded promptly once the processing needed to provide the Service and display the result is complete. Items that you choose to save in your account (for example, saved reports) are kept until you delete them or close your account.
• External search services. When the Service searches publicly available information, only search keywords derived from User Input are sent to external search services. The text you enter and the documents you upload are not provided to external search services.
• Execution records. For the stable operation of the Service, the investigation of faults, incident response and the accurate management of points, the Company keeps system execution records that contain none of the content of User Input or Processed Data (for example, the date and time, the processing status and the points consumed). These records are kept in an encrypted, access-controlled environment for 30 days and are then deleted automatically.
• Automatic cancellation on system failure. If a search or analysis fails for system reasons — an internal error, or an outage or timeout of an external service used by the Service — so that no result can be returned, the points for that request are not consumed; the error screen shows a reference number that you may quote if you contact us.

7. Third-party sources

Search results, source documents, statistics and images originate from third parties. The Company does not author them and does not warrant their accuracy, completeness, currency or fitness for any purpose.

Third-party sources may move, change, be withdrawn or become unavailable at any time. Where a source link cannot be reached, the Service may substitute an alternative link to the same document.

You are responsible for verifying any information against the original source before relying on it.

8. Professional fields — important limits

Certain engines address veterinary, medical, legal, financial, real-estate and regulatory subject matter. For those engines the following applies without exception:

• The Service does not diagnose, prescribe or treat. Veterinary and medical output is reference material intended to support — never to replace — the judgement of a licensed practitioner.
• The Service does not provide legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship arises from its use.
• The Service does not provide investment, tax or financial advice, and nothing it produces is a solicitation or recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument.
• Any decision taken on the basis of output from the Service, and its consequences, remain solely with you and, where applicable, with the qualified professional responsible for the matter.

9. Prohibited conduct

You must not:

• Use the Service in breach of any applicable law or regulation, or of the terms of any third-party source.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Service, other users' data, or any underlying system, or interfere with its normal operation.
• Use automated means to access the Service at a volume that degrades it for others, or circumvent point consumption, rate limits or access controls.
• Reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to derive the internal composition of the Service, except to the extent that such restriction is prohibited by law.
• Resell, sublicense or make the Service available to third parties outside the scope of your plan.
• Submit content that infringes the rights of others, or that you are not entitled to disclose.

10. Intellectual property

The Service, including its software, interface, structure, engine design and brand, is owned by the Company or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property law. Patent applications relating to the Service are pending.

Nothing in these Terms transfers any right in the Service to you. You receive a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service in accordance with your plan.

Rights in third-party source material remain with their respective holders. Reports generated by the Service may be used for your internal business or professional purposes; redistribution of third-party source material remains subject to that third party's own terms.

11. Availability, suspension and termination

The Company may modify, suspend or discontinue all or part of the Service, and may perform maintenance, with prior notice where reasonably practicable and without notice in an emergency.

The Company may suspend or terminate an account that breaches these Terms, that is used unlawfully, or where required by law. Where the breach is not material and is capable of remedy, the Company will normally give you an opportunity to remedy it first.

On termination your right to use the Service ends. Provisions that by their nature survive termination — including sections 7, 8, 10, 12, 13 and 15 — continue to apply.

12. Disclaimer of warranties

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Company disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and uninterrupted or error-free operation.

The Company does not warrant that any particular source, database or piece of information will be found, remain accessible, or be free of error.

13. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Company is not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of business opportunity, or loss of data, arising out of or in connection with the Service.

Where the Company is liable, its aggregate liability is limited to the total fees you paid for the Service in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law. In particular, where you are a consumer under the Consumer Contract Act of Japan, the limitations above do not apply to damage caused by the Company's intentional misconduct or gross negligence.

14. Amendments

The Company may amend these Terms where the amendment is consistent with the general interest of users, or is otherwise reasonable in light of the necessity and content of the change, in accordance with Article 548-4 of the Civil Code of Japan.

Material amendments take effect on the date stated in the notice published on this page or communicated to registered users. Continued use of the Service after that date constitutes acceptance.

15. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Japan.

Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Sendai District Court as the court of first instance.

16. Contact

Apia Business Affairs Co., Ltd., 1F, 4-8-17 Chuo, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi 980-0021, Japan. Contact details are published on the Company page and in the Legal Notice.