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Business Terms
Version 2026-11-01
These Business Terms apply when you use a Ladder business account. They add to our Terms of Use (ladder.ink/terms) and Community Guidelines (ladder.ink/guidelines), which apply to business accounts too. If these Business Terms and the Terms of Use say different things about a business account, these Business Terms apply.
1. Who we are
Ladder is run by JAIN GEOGO VALAVI, JÖLLENBECKER STR 1, 33613 BIELEFELD, Germany ("Ladder", "we", "us"). Contact: support@ladder.ink.
2. Business accounts are for businesses only
- A business account is for a real business, organisation or self-employed person with a real place where customers can find it (for example a shop, café, studio or office).
- By creating a business account you confirm that you act for your trade, business or profession, not as a private consumer, and that you may act for the business.
- You choose the account type when you sign up. A business account cannot be changed into a personal account later, or the other way round.
- The person who creates the account must be 18 or older.
3. Your business page
- Your page shows what you enter: name, category, description, logo, cover photo, address, phone number, website, opening hours, the place of your business, photos, your catalogue, offers, events and "Live" updates. All of this is public.
- Keep it true and up to date. Do not use another business's name, logo or photos.
- The place of your business must be where your customers can really find you.
- Your price group and currency follow the country where your business's map location is, not the country you choose in the setup. If you move the location to a country with a different price group after your plan has started, the new price applies from your next billing period; we tell you by email when that happens. If plans there are billed in another currency, your current plan ends at the end of its period and you can then start the plan for the new country. If you think the country was found wrongly, write to support@ladder.ink.
- People see your page only while your plan is active (including the free month and the grace period) and the page is not suspended. You can prepare your page before that.
4. The business plan
- A business page is shown to other people only while the business has a plan. Personal accounts are free.
- The plan is a monthly subscription that renews every month until you cancel.
- Your first month is free. The free month is given once per business and once per payment card: a card that already had a free month cannot get another one, and the plan then starts as a paid plan at once.
- After the free month, the monthly price is charged to your card at the start of every month of the plan.
- Prices are not shown in the Ladder app. We tell you the price for your country and currency by email, and you see the exact amount, including any taxes, on the payment page before you start. You must enter a billing address there.
- You start the plan from the link in our email. A link works once and for 48 hours; we can send you a new one.
5. Payments by Stripe
- Payments are processed by Stripe, our payment provider. You enter your card details only on Stripe's pages. We never see or store your full card number.
- Stripe's own terms and privacy policy also apply to the payment.
- Stripe sends you receipts and invoices by email.
- Only payment cards are accepted.
6. Cancelling and refunds
Cancel anytime. No refunds for part-months. If you were charged by mistake, write to support@ladder.ink within 14 days.
- You can cancel from the plan settings link in our emails, or by writing to support@ladder.ink.
- When you cancel, your page stays live until the end of the month you have paid for. Then it is paused.
- If you cancel during the free month, you pay nothing.
- If we charged you by mistake (for example twice for the same month), we refund that charge.
7. When a payment fails (grace period)
- If a payment fails, we tell you by email.
- Your page stays live for 7 days so you can fix the payment. After that it is paused until the payment is made.
- Nothing on a paused page is lost: your page, photos, catalogue and followers are kept, and everything is back as soon as the plan is active again.
8. Price changes
We may change the price for future months, for example because of costs or taxes. We tell you by email at least 30 days before a new price applies to you. If you do not agree, you can cancel before the change; the old price applies until then.
9. No right of withdrawal for businesses
- The business plan is offered only to businesses. Under EU law, the 14-day right of withdrawal for online purchases is a consumer right; it does not apply to contracts made for a trade, business or profession.
- If the law of your country nevertheless treats you as a consumer, you keep every right that law gives you, and these Business Terms do not take it away.
10. Verification
- You can ask for a "verified" badge. To get it, you pass any 2 of these 4 checks: a business registration document, a code sent to an email address at your business's own website domain, a phone call to your business number, and a photo of your shop front taken at your business.
- Documents and photos for verification are stored privately. Only Ladder staff can open them, only for the check. They are deleted 30 days after our decision.
- We tell you our decision by email. If we refuse, we tell you why, and you can try again or write to us.
- The badge means that we checked the details above at that time. It is not a recommendation and not a guarantee of quality. We may remove it if your details change or turn out to be wrong.
11. Business rules
These rules keep Ladder pleasant for the people who use it. Ladder's systems enforce most of them automatically.
Messages
- A business cannot write to a person first. It can reply once the person has written to it, or start a chat with someone who is mutual with it (see "Follow-back").
- Photos, videos and files can be sent in a chat with a business only between mutuals; otherwise chats with a business are text only.
- Chats with a business have no disappearing-messages timer and no view-once media.
- You may set a greeting and an away message. They are sent at most once per chat (the greeting) or once per chat per day while you are closed (the away message), and are labelled as automatic replies.
Follow-back
- People follow your page without asking. A business may ask to follow back only people who follow its page, at most 50 a day, and only while the page is live. The person decides whether to accept.
- If a person accepts and also follows your page, you are mutuals: you can see what they share with their mutuals and start chats with them.
- If a person stops following your page, your follow and any open follow request to them are removed.
Calls
- Calls with a business are audio only. Video calls and group calls with a business are not possible.
- People can call your business on Ladder only if you allow it, only while you are open (or at your live event), and at most 5 tries per person in 24 hours.
- A business cannot call people, except for one call back within 24 hours of a person's missed call to it.
Offers, events and Live
- Offers can run for up to 30 days. One offer can be pinned.
- Events can last from 30 minutes to 3 days, can start up to 30 days ahead, and may not overlap.
- "Live" updates (what is going on right now) last from 15 minutes to 6 hours. Up to 3 can run at once, you can start up to 3 per day, and only while you are open or at your event. Your followers get at most one notification from you per day.
- Everything must be real, current and yours. Do not post anything misleading, for example fake discounts or events that do not exist.
Links and Live chat
- No links in offers, events, posts, captions, catalogue items, event addresses or comments on business posts.
- A live business may post in Live chat as itself: text only, at most 3 messages per hour and 10 per day, and labelled as a business. People can choose to hide business messages in Live chat.
What a business cannot do
- A business account does not appear among the people on Nearby and cannot see them. It cannot post statuses.
- A business never sees who looked at its page, and never sees where a person is.
12. Statistics
- Statistics show totals only, for example how many people saw or opened your page in the last 7 days. Small numbers are shown as "fewer than 10".
- They never contain names or other information about individual people.
13. Your content and responsibility
- Your page content stays yours. The content licence in the Terms of Use applies.
- You are responsible for your page, your offers and events, and for following the law that applies to your business (for example consumer protection, price display, advertising, food and alcohol rules, and image rights).
- You are responsible for handling the personal data of customers you receive outside Ladder.
14. Suspension and pausing
- We may pause your page, remove content or the badge, or suspend or close your business account if you break these Business Terms, the Terms of Use or the law, if your details are false, or if your page puts people at risk.
- We act in proportion and tell you why by email, with the rule it is based on and how to appeal (Terms of Use, section 12). You can appeal by writing to support@ladder.ink.
- While a page is suspended it is hidden and cannot be changed. If we suspend a page for breaking the rules, we pause your plan's payments or cancel it; we do not refund the current month unless the law requires it or the suspension was our mistake.
15. Liability
The liability rules of the Terms of Use apply. We do not promise that a business page will lead to a certain number of customers, views or sales.
16. Ending the plan or the account
- You can cancel the plan at any time (section 6). You can delete the business account at any time in the app (Settings, Account, Delete account) or at ladder.ink/delete-account; the plan is then cancelled.
- We may end the business plan for everyone or in your country with at least 30 days' notice by email. You then pay nothing for the time after the end.
17. Changes to these Business Terms
We may update these Business Terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. We tell you about important changes by email or in the app at least 30 days before they apply. If you do not agree, you can cancel before they apply.
18. Law and courts
These Business Terms are governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply. For disputes with businesses, the courts at our place of residence or business have jurisdiction, as far as the law allows.
19. Languages
These Business Terms are written in English. If a translation says something different, the English version applies.