Terms of Use for PolAds.eu

1. Definitions

Unless otherwise explicitly stated in these terms of use (hereinafter "Terms of Use") the capitalized terms used in these Terms of Use shall have the meaning given in the definitions below.

"Advertiser"

means a natural or legal person at whose request or on whose behalf a Political Advertisement is prepared, placed, promoted, published, delivered or disseminated, or who engages in the provision of Political Advertising services, as defined in the Regulation, with the exception of purely ancillary services. For the purposes of these Terms of Use, "Advertiser" corresponds to the term "Sponsor" as defined in Article 3(10) of the Regulation, and the two terms shall be treated as equivalent;

"Customer"

means Advertisers, Representatives and Publishers, who have created an account on the Platform;

"Customer Materials"

means any designs, logos, trademarks or other branding materials uploaded by a Customer to the Platform, the intellectual property rights in which belong to the Customer or its licensors, as applicable;

"Data Collector"

means any natural or legal person, including vetted researchers (as defined in Article 40(8) of the Digital Services Act, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, as amended), members of civil society organisations whose statutory objectives are to protect and promote the public interest, political actors, national or international electoral observers recognised in a Member State, journalists, as well as representatives of national regulatory authorities and civil servants exercising oversight functions under the Regulation, who access the Platform to request or obtain data or information pursuant to the Regulation. Data Collectors must create an account on the Platform, and STEP may require the Data Collector to provide evidence demonstrating that the Data Collector falls within one of the categories set out in this definition, before granting access to requested data or information;

"Guest"

means any natural or legal person who accesses the Platform without creating a full Customer account, including members of the general public, citizens, non-registered Advertisers, Publishers, intermediaries and other commercial entities, who visit the Platform to view published Labels and Transparency Notices, consult publicly available Political Advertising information, or submit notifications of possibly non-compliant Political Advertisements. When submitting notifications of possibly non-compliant Political Advertisements, the Guest must create an account on the Platform by providing a valid e-mail address (email → login code) in order for the Platform to issue confirmation of receipt and communicate the outcome of the notification; otherwise, a Guest may access the Platform without registering;

"Implementing Regulation"

means Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1410 as amended;

"Label"

means the label, cf. Article 11 (3) of the Regulation, containing the information, and Transparency Notice or link thereto, stipulated in Article 11 of the Regulation;

"Platform"

means the platform polads.eu;

"Political Advertising"/"Political Advertisement"

means the preparation, placement, promotion, publication, delivery or dissemination, by any means, of a message, normally provided for remuneration or through in-house activities or as part of a Political Advertising campaign: (a) by, for or on behalf of a political actor, unless it is of a purely private or a purely commercial nature; or (b) which is liable and designed to influence the outcome of an election or referendum, voting behaviour or a legislative or regulatory process, at Union, national, regional or local level;

"Publisher"

means a provider of Political Advertising service that publishes, delivers or disseminates Political Advertising through any medium;

"Regulation"

means Regulation (EU) 2024/900 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 March 2024 on the transparency and targeting of Political Advertising as amended;

"Representative"

means any natural or legal person, including an agency, political consultancy or other provider of Political Advertising services, acting with delegated authority on behalf of an Advertiser to register a Political Advertisement and create a Transparency Notice via the Platform. A Representative who submits a Transparency Notice on behalf of an Advertiser confirms, by such submission, that the information provided is complete and accurate for the Advertiser on whose behalf the Representative acts;

"STEP"

means the owner of the Platform, the company STEP A/S registered in Denmark with Danish business registration no. 25506227;

"Transparency Notice"

means the structured registration of information about a Political Advertisement, cf. Article 12 of the Regulation, created via the Platform.

2. Background and purpose

2.1 These Terms of Use apply to all access to and use of the Platform as described below, whether by Customers, Guests or Data Collectors.

2.2 The Platform is a digital SaaS service (Software as a Service) that enables Advertisers, Representatives and Publishers to create, manage and publish Labels and Transparency Notices for Political Advertising in accordance with the Regulation and the Implementing Regulation. Furthermore, the Platform makes Political Advertisements and their Labels and Transparency Notices registered via the Platform publicly accessible, supporting compliance with the Regulation and Implementing Regulation in order to support openness in political communication, and the Platform enables Guests to notify Publishers, subject to the Regulation, if a particular political advertisement that a Publisher has published does not comply with the Regulation. However, the Platform is not designed to and does not facilitate compliance with applicable national law.

2.3 The purchase of services on the Platform is governed by separate General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service for polads.eu.

2.4 These Terms of Use, together with STEP's privacy policy, constitute the legal basis for and govern all access to and use of, the Platform by Customers and Guests, other than those for the purchase of services. All Customers shall at all times respect the Core Platform Principles as set out in clause 2.6 of the General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service. For the purposes of these Terms of Use, the "Core Platform Principles" are the principles which govern the Platform's ethical approach and will underpin any code of conduct set up, comprising: Accuracy & Substantiation; Advertiser Responsibility & Accuracy in Declaration; Integrity; Honesty and Truthfulness; Publisher due Diligence and Process; and Privacy. The full descriptions of each principle are set out in clause 2.6 of the General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service.

3. Access

3.1 For Customers, these Terms of Use become binding upon the Customer's creation of a user account on the Platform and acceptance of these Terms of Use. For Guests and Data Collectors, these Terms of Use apply from the moment the Guest or Data Collector accesses the Platform. Guests and Data Collectors do not acquire any rights to purchase services or to create, amend or delete transparency notices on the Platform.

3.2 Customers gain access to the Platform's registration and management functionality upon account creation and in accordance with the General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service. Guests may access the Platform's publicly available content, including published Labels and Transparency Notices of Political Advertising registered on the Platform, without creating an account or registering. Guests who wish to submit notifications of possibly non-compliant Political Advertisements pursuant to clause 8 must create an account on the Platform by providing a valid email address (email → login code) at the time of submission for the purpose of receiving confirmation of receipt and information on the outcome of the notification. Such email address and account data shall be processed in accordance with STEP's privacy policy and retained only for the duration necessary to process the notification. Data Collectors must create an account on the Platform and complete the verification process referred to in the definition of Data Collector in clause 1.1 before submitting information requests. STEP shall use the verified account to communicate with the Data Collector and to transmit requested data or information.

3.3 Guests and Data Collectors shall access and use the Platform in accordance with these Terms of Use and applicable laws and EU regulations, including the Regulation and Implementing Regulation.

3.4 The Customer's access to and use of the Platform is conditional on compliance with these Terms of Use, the General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service and the Core Platform Principles. Violations may result in actions by the Platform, including restricted access to the polads.eu Platform and tools, ad suspension, a public record of non-compliance, and referral to competent public authorities, as further set out in clause 5.2 of the General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service. STEP may furthermore restrict or suspend a Guest's or Data Collector's access to the Platform in the event of misuse or non-compliance with these Terms of Use or applicable law.

4. Platform availability

4.1 STEP makes the Platform available as an online service accessible via a standard web browser on all standard devices.

4.2 The Platform's uptime depends on the availability of external service providers and maintenance work. Planned maintenance will be notified at least 48 hours in advance via the Platform or email. Temporary unavailability does not constitute a delay in delivery.

4.3 STEP is not liable for unavailability caused by circumstances beyond STEP's control, including those referred to in clause 6 (Force Majeure).

4.4 STEP reserves the right to make updates, improvements and changes to the Platform's functionality. Material changes affecting the Customer's, Guest's or Data Collector's use will be notified at least thirty (30) calendar days in advance. During the Platform's development period (until STEP has notified via the Platform that the Platform has achieved full regulatory compliance), updates and improvements may take place on an ongoing basis without prior notice, provided they do not reduce existing functionality.

5. Right of use and intellectual property

5.1 The Customer obtains a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Platform in accordance with these Terms of Use and the General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service. Guests and Data Collectors obtain a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and view publicly available content on the Platform in accordance with these Terms of Use.

5.2 All intellectual property rights to the Platform, including software, design, logos and trademarks, belong to STEP. Nothing in these Terms of Use transfers intellectual property rights to the Customer, Guest or Data Collector.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, any Customer Materials shall remain the intellectual property of the Customer or its licensors, as applicable. The Customer hereby grants STEP a non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use, store, process, publish, reproduce, adapt and transmit such Customer Materials in accordance with the Regulation and Implementing Regulation. This license shall terminate upon the earlier of (i) the Customer's removal of the relevant Customer Materials from the Platform, or (ii) the termination or expiry of the Customer's account, provided, however, that in either case, STEP may retain and use such Customer Materials to the extent required by statutory retention obligations under the Regulation.

5.3 The Customer retains ownership of the substantive data registered by the Customer via the Platform. The Customer, however, grants STEP a non-exclusive licence to store, process, publish and transmit such data to the extent necessary to fulfil the Regulation's requirements and deliver the Platform's services.

5.4 Upon termination or expiry of the Contract, as defined in the General Terms of Sale and Delivery of Service, confirmed Transparency Notices will remain publicly available for the statutory retention period of seven (7) years, cf. Article 12(4) and Article 13(1)(b) of the Regulation. The Customer cannot demand deletion of confirmed Transparency Notices before the expiry of this period. This applies regardless of whether the Political Advertisement is ongoing, completed or terminated. The Customer may amend a Transparency Notice, cf. the Regulation.

6. Force Majeure

6.1 STEP shall not be liable for failure to perform obligations under these Terms of Use to the extent that such failure is caused by circumstances beyond STEP's reasonable control (force majeure), including but not limited to:

• (a) war, terrorism, natural disasters or pandemics;

• (b) government orders, sanctions or legislative changes;

• (c) outages or unavailability of third-party infrastructure providers, including cloud providers (e.g. Vercel, Neon), payment services (e.g. Paddle), DNS providers and CDN networks;

• (d) cyberattacks, DDoS attacks or other IT security incidents;

• (e) changes to EU regulations or national law that materially affect the Platform's functionality or legality; and

• (f) platform restrictions or API changes imposed by third parties.

6.2 STEP shall use reasonable efforts to adapt the Platform to changes in applicable law within a reasonable time after such changes enter into force.

7. Defects in the Platform's functionality

7.1 Any Guest, Data Collector or Customer who becomes aware of any defect in the Platform's functionality is encouraged to notify STEP thereof via the Platform without undue delay.

7.2 STEP shall, at its sole discretion, remedy the defect or provide a temporary solution (workaround) within a reasonable time.

7.3 Errors in data or content registered or provided by a Customer do not constitute a defect of the Platform.

8. Notification of possibly non-compliant Political Advertisements

8.1 Guests may, free of charge, notify Publishers via the Platform's notification mechanism if a Political Advertisement published by such Publisher does not comply with the Regulation, cf. Article 15 of the Regulation. To submit a notification, the Guest must create an account on the Platform by providing a valid email address (email → login code) in accordance with clause 3.2. Upon submission of a notification, confirmation of receipt shall be issued to the notifying Guest via the account without undue delay. Information on the outcome of the notification shall furthermore be provided to the notifying Guest via same account. The Guest's email address and account data shall be processed in accordance with STEP's privacy policy and retained only for the duration necessary to process the notification, unless a longer retention period is required under the Regulation or applicable law.

8.2 When submitting notifications, Guests shall do so in an honest and truthful manner, including by presenting sufficient written evidence to substantiate the notification. The identity of the complainant will be kept confidential from the Advertiser and Representative.

9. Limitation of STEP's liability

9.1 STEP shall not be liable for inaccurate, incomplete or deficient information provided by a Customer, including consequences of a Customer's non-compliance with the Regulation and/or the Implementing Regulation.

9.2 To the fullest extent permitted by mandatory law, STEP shall not be liable for indirect losses, including but not limited to operational losses, loss of profit, loss of goodwill or consequential damages. This limitation shall not apply to losses or damages caused by STEP's gross negligence or willful misconduct.

10. Data protection and GDPR

10.1 STEP processes personal data in connection with the provision and operation of the Platform. For Customers, STEP is the data controller for personal data processed in connection with the Customer's use of the Platform, to the extent that the processing serves STEP's own purposes (operation, security, compliance). For personal data registered by the Customer in Transparency Notices, STEP acts as data processor on behalf of the Customer. For Guests and Data Collectors, STEP is the data controller for any personal data processed in connection with the Guest's or Data Collector's access to the Platform.

10.2 The processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679) as amended and applicable national data protection legislation.

10.3 STEP's privacy policy, describes in further detail which personal data is processed, the purpose of the processing, the legal basis, retention periods and data subjects' rights.

10.4 Where the Customer acts as data controller under applicable data protection legislation in respect of personal data processed by STEP on the Customer's behalf via the Platform, STEP shall, in its capacity as data processor, enter into a separate Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with the Customer specifying the technical and organisational security measures, STEP's obligations as data processor, and the terms for the use of sub-processors.

11. Miscellaneous

11.1 Amendments to these Terms of Use shall take effect thirty (30) calendar days after notification via the Platform or, for Customers, by email to the Customer's registered email address. The Customer's continued use of the Platform, or the Guest's or Data Collector's continued access to the Platform, after the amendments take effect constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms of Use.

11.2 If any provision of these Terms of Use is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in force.

11.3 STEP's failure to enforce a right under these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of that right.

11.4 The Customer may not assign its rights or obligations under these Terms of Use without STEP's prior written consent. STEP may freely assign its rights and obligations under these Terms of Use.

12. Governing law and dispute resolution

12.1 These Terms of Use are governed by Danish law, excluding Danish rules on conflict of laws.

12.2 Disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms of Use shall be settled by the City Court in Odense, Denmark, as the court of first instance, unless otherwise required by mandatory law or EU regulations.