Terms of Service

CandlePaws is operated by [OPERATOR LEGAL NAME AND ADDRESS — to be completed before commercial launch] (“we”, “us”). These terms are the agreement between you and that operator. How we handle personal data is covered separately in our Privacy Policy.

CandlePaws lets you create a memorial page for a pet you have lost: their story, their photos, a gentle animated setting, and a link you can share. Anyone with the link can visit, light a candle, and leave a memory in the guestbook — no account needed for visitors. Creating and caring for a memorial requires an account, which works with emailed sign-in links.

• You sign in with a link sent to your email address — keep that address current and its inbox secure, since anyone who controls it can access your account.
• You are responsible for what is done through your account.
• You must be at least 16 to create an account.

A free memorial page stays up. We will never take down a free memorial because it is free, and we will never move an existing free page behind a paywall. Two honest caveats:

• We may remove or restrict content that violates these terms or the law (see acceptable use and moderation).
• If we ever had to discontinue the service entirely — we intend not to — we would give you reasonable advance notice and a way to save your memorial’s content first.

Premium is a one-time purchase of €49 per memorial (our launch price; the regular price is €59). It is not a subscription — you pay once, and that memorial keeps its Premium features. Premium unlocks the extras described on our pricing section at the time of purchase. Payment is handled by Stripe; prices are shown in euros at checkout.

Premium is digital content that is delivered immediately: the moment your payment completes, the upgrade is live on your memorial. EU consumer law (Directive 2011/83/EU) normally gives consumers a 14-day right of withdrawal — and allows it to be waived for digital content that the customer asks to receive right away. That is exactly what happens here, so we want to say it plainly:

By purchasing Premium, you expressly consent to the upgrade being delivered immediately, and you acknowledge that once delivery has begun you lose your 14-day right of withdrawal.

This does not touch your statutory rights if something is actually wrong: if Premium is faulty or not as described, EU digital-content rules (Directive (EU) 2019/770) still fully apply — contact us and we will make it right.

This is a place for remembering beloved animals, and everything about how it may be used follows from that:

• A memorial must be for your own pet, or one you have a genuine connection to with the owner’s blessing.
• Only upload photos and text you have the right to use.
• No unlawful content, and no content that harasses, threatens, demeans, or impersonates anyone — this applies to memorials, guestbook tributes, and candle names alike.
• No spam, no advertising, and no technical abuse of the service (such as scraping, probing, or attempting to disrupt it).

You keep all rights to what you create and upload. So that the service can work, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, store, display, and technically process your content — for example, showing the memorial page to visitors and generating link previews when it is shared. The licence ends for content you delete, except for the short time backups take to cycle out.

We may remove or hide content that violates these terms or the law — including guestbook tributes on any memorial. We do this with care: memorials are precious, and moderation exists to protect them, not police them. If you see content that shouldn’t be here, or a tribute on your memorial that hurts rather than helps, please contact us and we will look at it promptly.

We run CandlePaws with reasonable skill and care, but like any online service we cannot promise it will be available without interruption every moment. We may improve and evolve features over time; we will not remove Premium features you have paid for from your memorial without offering something at least equivalent.

Kept fair, and within what consumer law allows:

• Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that cannot legally be limited — including liability for intent or gross negligence, for death or personal injury, or your mandatory rights as a consumer.
• Beyond that, we are liable for damage that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care, and not for loss that was not foreseeable.
• Content posted by users — memorials, tributes, candle names — is the responsibility of the person who posted it. We act on violations as described under moderation.

These terms are governed by [GOVERNING LAW AND COURTS — follows the operator entity, to be completed before commercial launch]. If you are a consumer in the EU, you additionally keep the protection of the mandatory consumer-law rules of the country where you live, and nothing in these terms takes that away.

We may update these terms as the service evolves. The current version always lives at this address with its date at the top; if a change meaningfully affects your rights, we will give account holders reasonable notice by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use the service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.

Questions about these terms? Reach us at [contact email — goes live with our domain] — see also the contact section of our Privacy Policy.