Terms of Service

1. Parties

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are between you and:

"We", "us" and "our" refer to icelabz solutions ltd. "You" and "your" refer to the individual registering for or using the Mandarin Audio service (the "Service").

2. Acceptance

By creating an account, subscribing to the Service, or otherwise accessing the Mandarin Audio audio lessons, you confirm that:

• You have read and understood these Terms.
• You agree to be bound by them.
• You are at least 13 years old (see section 4).
• You are legally able to enter into a binding contract under the laws of England and Wales.

If you are accepting these Terms on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have authority to bind that organisation, in which case "you" refers to that organisation.

3. The service

The Mandarin Audio Service provides guided audio lessons designed to help you build Mandarin Chinese listening comprehension through an audio-first, Michel-Thomas-influenced method. The Service includes access to a sequence of audio lessons, supporting transcripts and progress tracking, delivered through our website at mandarinaudio.com and through our Android mobile application.

The Service is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis and is subject to change as we improve and expand it. We may add, modify or remove features from time to time, provided that we do not materially diminish the core audio-lesson functionality on which you have relied.

4. Eligibility and age

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. Users aged between 13 and 16 should review these Terms with a parent or guardian before creating an account, and the parent or guardian should accept these Terms on the user's behalf. By accepting these Terms, the parent or guardian agrees to be responsible for the user's compliance.

We do not knowingly allow anyone under 13 to create an account. If we learn that an account is held by someone under 13, we will close the account and delete the personal data associated with it. See our Privacy Policy for the procedure to follow if you believe this has happened.

5. Subscription, billing and renewal

Where the Service is offered on a subscription basis:

• Subscription fees are quoted in pounds sterling (GBP) and are inclusive of UK VAT where applicable. Other applicable taxes are shown at checkout.
• Payment is processed by Stripe Payments Europe Ltd. By providing a payment method you confirm that you are authorised to use it.
• Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or annual, depending on the plan you select) unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date.
• You can cancel at any time from your account settings or by emailing support@icelabz.co.uk. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you keep access until then.
• If a payment fails, we will retry twice over 7 days and notify you by email. If payment remains unsuccessful, your subscription may be suspended or cancelled.
• Price changes: if we change the price of a recurring subscription, we will notify you at least 30 days before the change takes effect. You can cancel before the new price takes effect.

6. 14-day right of withdrawal

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 ("CCRs") you have a 14-day right of withdrawal from a digital subscription contract, starting from the day the contract is concluded.

The right of withdrawal does not apply to digital content that is not supplied on a tangible medium if, before the right expires, you have given your express consent and acknowledgment that your right of withdrawal is lost as soon as the lessons start, and we have sent you a confirmation email within a reasonable time after the contract was concluded.

At checkout we ask you to tick a checkbox reading:

"I agree to immediate access to the digital Mandarin Audio lessons and acknowledge that my 14-day right of withdrawal under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 will be lost as soon as the lessons start."

If you do not tick this checkbox — for example, you subscribed but never opened a lesson — your right of withdrawal remains in force for 14 days. To exercise it, email support@icelabz.co.uk with the subject "Cancellation" within the 14-day period; we will refund you within 14 days of receiving your notice using the same payment method you used.

For convenience you may also use the model cancellation form at the end of these Terms, but you do not have to use it.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Resell, share, redistribute, or make publicly available any part of the Mandarin Audio lessons or supporting materials.
• Record, copy, scrape, or attempt to extract our audio or text content for redistribution.
• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable local, national or international law.
• Attempt to disrupt, harm or reverse-engineer the Service, our servers, or any related infrastructure.
• Use any automated means (bots, scrapers, agents) to access the Service except for bona-fide search-engine indexing.
• Share your account credentials with anyone else.
• Post or transmit any content that is defamatory, obscene, hateful or otherwise objectionable through our support or community channels.

We may suspend or terminate your access if we reasonably believe you have breached this section.

8. Intellectual property

All intellectual property rights in the Service — including the audio recordings, transcripts, lesson designs, the Mandarin Audio name, logo, and the Lumina design system — are and remain the property of icelabz solutions ltd or its licensors.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access the Service and use the audio lessons for your personal, non-commercial language-learning purposes. This licence ends automatically when your subscription ends or these Terms are terminated.

You may quote brief excerpts of the transcripts for personal study, with attribution to Mandarin Audio.

9. Third-party content and links

The Service uses third-party providers for payments (Stripe), email (Postmark), sign-in (Apple, Google), and audio content delivery (Amazon Web Services). Their terms and privacy policies apply to the data they handle and to the services they provide to you. We are not responsible for the acts of those providers, except to the extent required by law.

If we link to external sites for reference, those sites are not under our control and we do not endorse or accept responsibility for their content.

10. Availability, changes and termination

We aim to keep the Service available at all times but cannot guarantee uninterrupted access. We may need to suspend access for maintenance, updates, security incidents, or causes beyond our reasonable control.

We may make changes to the Service, including adding, modifying or removing features. Material changes that affect your access to paid content will be notified to you at least 14 days in advance by email and an in-product banner.

We may suspend or terminate your access if:

• You materially breach these Terms.
• You fail to pay subscription fees when due.
• You use the Service in a way that creates a security or legal risk for us or other users.

You may terminate these Terms at any time by closing your account from the account settings page or by emailing support@icelabz.co.uk.

11. No-guarantee outcome disclaimer

Subject to your statutory rights under section 12 below, the Mandarin Audio Service and the audio lessons are provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis. In particular:

• We make no warranty or representation that the Service will enable you to achieve any specific level of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, including any particular HSK level (HSK 1, HSK 2, HSK 3 etc.). Statements about the audio-first method and the design of the lessons describe our pedagogy, not a promised result.
• Your progress depends on factors outside our control, including the time you commit, your prior language-learning background, your consistency of practice, and your individual aptitude. We do not warrant any specific outcome.
• We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or that defects will be corrected within a particular time, except as required by the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Nothing in this clause limits any right you have under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, including your statutory rights to delivery, satisfactory quality, and fitness for purpose of digital content.

12. Liability cap

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for:

• Death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
• Fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
• Any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by the laws of England and Wales (including your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, including the statutory rights to satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose of digital content).

Subject to the above, our aggregate liability to you under or in connection with these Terms in any 12-month period shall not exceed the total amount you have paid us for the Service in that period.

Subject to the above, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, including loss of profits, loss of business opportunity, or loss of data, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such losses. This clause is reasonable under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 because it reflects the consideration exchanged and the limits of our insurance cover, and is transparent under section 64 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

13. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify us against reasonable losses, costs and expenses that we suffer as a result of any breach by you of section 7 (Acceptable use). This indemnity is limited to direct losses and does not extend to indirect or consequential losses. It does not apply where the breach is not your fault.

14. Data and privacy

Our handling of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. The Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

15. Governing law

These Terms, and any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with them, are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with these Terms, save that consumers resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland retain the protection of the mandatory laws of their country of residence.

16. Dispute resolution

If you have any concern or complaint about the Service, please email support@icelabz.co.uk first so that we can try to resolve it. We aim to acknowledge within 3 working days and respond substantively within 14 days.

If you are a consumer and we cannot resolve the dispute within 8 weeks, you may use the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform (https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr) for information about alternative dispute resolution. As Mandarin Audio is a UK-only service, UK-approved ADR providers may also be available to you.

Nothing in this section affects your right to bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales (or, if you are a resident of Scotland or Northern Ireland, in your local courts) under section 15 above.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The current effective date and version are shown at the top of this page. Material changes — meaning changes that affect your rights or obligations under these Terms — will be notified to active registered users at least 14 days before they take effect, by email to the address on file and via an in-product banner.

Continuing to use the Service after the effective date of a change constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not accept a change, your right and only remedy is to close your account before the change takes effect.

18. Contact

For any question about these Terms:

Model cancellation form

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, you may use this form to exercise your right of withdrawal. You do not have to use it.