Terms of service

Version 2.1. It takes effect 30 days after the notice is sent to clients.

The current text, version 2.0, applies until this version takes effect. For a client who registers after this version is published, this version applies from registration.

These terms govern the rental of the Portican store. They are written to be read without a lawyer: what you get, what you pay for it, what we need from you, and what happens when we part ways.

1. Who provides the service

The service is provided by Nydrok LLC (the "provider", "we" or "us"). Our identification and billing details are on the Contact page. The address for anything done under these terms is info@portican.com.

The provider’s representative in the European Union under Art. 27 GDPR and legal representative under Art. 13 of the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) is Matúš Mikčo, Duplín 119, 091 01 Stropkov, Slovak Republic, matus@portican.com, +421 950 767 243.

2. What the words mean

The service is the Portican store operated as software delivered remotely, including the admin, the storefront your customers see, hosting, backups and updates.
The client is a business that ordered the service in the course of its business activity (clause 2a).
A store is one instance of the service with its own catalogue, domain and settings.
A market is a language and currency version of a store with its own domain, prices and tax rates.
The client’s customer is whoever buys from the client’s store. They have no contract with us.

2a. Who the service is for

We provide the service exclusively to businesses that order it in the course of their business activity and have their registered office or place of business in a member state of the European Union. A business is a person entered in a commercial, trade or other public register of businesses that has a business identification number (the Slovak IČO or its equivalent in the country of establishment). It does not have to be registered for VAT.

Before ordering a paid plan, the client provides their business identification number and, if they have one, their VAT number. We may at any time verify the entry in the public register and the VAT number in VIES; the client is responsible for the data being true and complete. The client will notify us without undue delay of any change to the data or of ceasing business. If the data are not true or the client ceases to be a business, we may suspend the paid service.

We do not provide the service to consumers. The Free plan may also be used, without a business identification number, by a person preparing to start a business who uses the service for that purpose; such a person also acts as a business, not as a consumer. A paid plan may be ordered only by a business within the meaning of the first paragraph.

3. How the contract comes about

The contract is formed when a store is registered and we confirm it, or on the first subscription payment, whichever happens first. By registering you confirm that you have read these terms and agree to them. By registering, the client also confirms that they are ordering the service as a business in the course of their business activity and that the identification details given (business registration number and, where applicable, VAT number) are their own.

The contract runs for an indefinite period with a monthly billing cycle, unless we agree otherwise.

4. What the service covers

The scope of the service is set by the plan published in the price list at portican.com: the one the client chose, under the price list at the time of the order, or the one the store moved to under clause 5, under the price list at the time of the move. The price covers running the store, hosting, backups, both security and feature updates, and support to the extent of the plan.

The Free plan carries every feature and no expiry date, and is limited to a total of 50 orders across the lifetime of the store. Once that number is reached the store keeps accepting orders, but the client sees and handles them in the administration only after moving to a paid plan; the data and the settings stay untouched.

We develop the service continuously. New features of the base service are made available to clients on the relevant plans at no extra charge; modules are paid for as stated in the price list. We reserve the right to change or withdraw a feature where we have a technical or legal reason to do so. If such a change were materially to the client’s detriment, we will give at least 30 days’ notice and the client may terminate as of that date.

Services beyond the rental, such as bespoke design, migration from an existing store or training, are ordered separately and charged once at a price agreed in advance.

5. Price and payment

Prices in the price list are stated exclusive of VAT. The service is an electronically supplied service to a business: its place of supply is the country where the client is established, and the client accounts for and pays the VAT on the price of the service under the rules of that country (Articles 44 and 196 of Directive 2006/112/EC). We issue invoices without VAT, bearing the note “Prenesenie daňovej povinnosti / Reverse charge, čl. 196 smernice 2006/112/ES” (reverse charge under Article 196 of Directive 2006/112/EC). The client declares that they order the service as a business and is solely responsible for meeting their own tax obligations, including any VAT registration. The client pays for the chosen plan or for the higher plan the store moved to under this clause, and for the modules they switch on, including on the Free plan. Paid plans and modules are billed monthly in advance at the start of the billing cycle. We issue the document electronically and send it to the client’s email address; the client agrees to receive it in that form.

Payments are processed by a payment gateway provider. Card details never reach us and we do not store them.

If a payment fails, we will notify the client and allow additional time. If that time passes without payment, we may suspend the store. A suspended store stops selling, but the data stays stored for the period set out in clause 11.

We may change the price. We will give at least 30 days’ notice and the new price applies from the next billing cycle. If you do not accept the change, you may terminate as of the date it takes effect.

Moving to a higher plan based on orders. Each paid plan has a monthly order allowance in the price list. We count the average orders of the whole store over three calendar months, the last of which is the current month. When the average goes over the plan’s allowance, we tell you by email, normally within that same month and at the latest on the first day of the next month, and from the next calendar month the store moves to the lowest plan in the price list that fits the average. We charge the new price from the next billing cycle after the move, with no top-up for the days before it. We also warn you by email in advance, when the average reaches 80% and 100% of the allowance. On the highest plan, which has no plan above it, orders over the allowance are charged according to the price list. We only ever raise the plan automatically. If average orders fall, the store does not move to a lower plan on its own.

Above the allowance of a paid plan we do not stop or suspend the store, and you keep handling orders. If the payment gateway or the bank requires approval of the payment at the new price, for example card authentication, we send you a link; you can approve it at any time from the notice until the billing date. Until the approval comes, the store keeps running on its current plan at its current price, the increase waits, and we remind you of it. A payment that really fails is governed by the third paragraph of this clause; so is an invoice that remains unapproved and unpaid 30 days after the request.

A move under this clause is not a price change under the fourth paragraph of this clause, nor a change of terms under clause 12. If you do not accept the higher price, you may terminate the contract under clause 11 as of the end of the current billing cycle, and the new price will not be charged.

6. What we do

Run the store and keep it up to date.
Back the data up every night and keep a copy of the backups off the server as well.
Monitor availability and respond to outages.
Provide support to the extent of the plan.

We aim for the highest possible availability of the service; we do not guarantee a specific level of availability unless one is agreed in an individual contract.

7. What you do

Give us accurate and current details, billing details included.
Protect your credentials and do not share them outside the people who run your store.
Take responsibility for the content you put in the store: products, copy, photographs, prices, and their compliance with the law.
Take responsibility for your obligations towards your own customers, in particular your store’s terms, complaints handling, taxes and recording of sales.
Do not use the service for unlawful content, or in a way that threatens its operation or other clients.

Where we suspect a serious breach, we may suspend the store temporarily. We will tell the client without delay and give the reason.

7a. Client content, notices and moderation (DSA)

What is prohibited. A store must not contain content that is illegal under the law of the European Union or of the country in which the store sells, in particular dangerous or prohibited products, counterfeits and content infringing intellectual property rights, fraudulent offers and unlawful advertising. The client is responsible for the content under clause 7.

Reporting illegal content. Anyone may notify us of content they consider illegal by email to info@portican.com or using our report form. The notice should contain an explanation of why the content is illegal, the exact web address of the content, the name and email address of the person submitting the notice, and a statement that the information in the notice is accurate and complete to the best of their knowledge. A name and email address are not required where the notice concerns child sexual abuse. We will confirm receipt of the notice and inform the person who submitted it of our decision, together with the available means of redress.

How we decide. Notices are assessed by a person, without automated decision making. We decide in a timely, diligent, objective and impartial manner. If we find the content illegal or contrary to these terms, we may restrict its visibility, remove it, suspend payments, suspend the store or terminate the contract, in proportion to the seriousness of the breach.

Statement of reasons. We inform the client of every restriction at the latest when we apply it. The statement of reasons sets out:

the measure we took (restriction of visibility, removal, suspension of payments, suspension of the store or termination of the contract), its territorial scope and its duration,
the facts and circumstances relied on, and whether the decision was based on a notice or on our own review,
whether we used automated means in making the decision,
for illegal content, the legal provision under which the content is illegal, and an explanation of why,
for a breach of these terms, the clause the content breaches, and an explanation of why,
the means of redress available to the client.

Complaint. The client may contest the decision at info@portican.com. The complaint is reviewed by a person and we will deal with it within 14 days. The client always has the right to go to court.

Point of contact. The single point of contact for the authorities of the member states, the Commission, the European Board for Digital Services and the users of the service is info@portican.com. We communicate in Slovak, Czech and English.

8. Rights to the software and to the content

The software remains ours. The client receives a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service for the duration of the contract and to the extent of the plan. The software may not be sub-let or made available to third parties outside the people who run the store.

The content you put into the store remains yours. We process it only as far as providing the service requires.

9. Personal data

In relation to data about the client we act as controller; the detail is in the Privacy notice. The processing of data about the client’s customers is governed by the Data processing agreement, which forms part of these terms and also contains the standard contractual clauses.

10. Liability

We are liable for damage caused by breaching our obligations. Total compensation is capped at the amount the client paid for the service in the twelve months preceding the damage.

We are not liable for lost profit, lost business opportunity or indirect damage. We are not liable for the client’s content, for the client’s relationships with their customers, or for outages caused by third parties beyond our control.

The limits in this clause do not apply to damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence, nor anywhere the law does not permit them.

11. Ending the contract, and what happens to the data

The client may terminate at any time, effective at the end of the billing cycle, without giving a reason. Subscription already paid for a cycle that has started is not refunded.

We may terminate on 30 days’ notice. Where the client seriously breaches these terms, we may withdraw with immediate effect.

What happens to the store and the data. Once the contract ends, the store stops selling. The client keeps access to the admin for a further 90 days and can export the data there. After that we keep the data for a further 90 days without client access; at the client’s request we will make it available again during that period. Then we delete the store. Copies in backups expire no later than 90 days after deletion. Accounting documents and records are kept for as long as the law requires.

If a store goes over the limit of the Free plan, or does not have the plan it needs for a reason other than the number of orders, and the client does not move to a higher plan, the store keeps selling for another 30 days, is then suspended, and the procedure in the previous paragraph applies from there. While that period runs, the client may move to a higher plan and the store carries on. A store with an active subscription to a paid plan is not suspended because of its number of orders.

Switching to another provider and exporting data. The client may at any time ask to switch to another provider, to move to their own infrastructure, or to have their data exported and erased. The request states which option the client chooses and, when switching to another provider, that provider’s details. The notice period for this purpose is at most two months.

The notice period is followed by a transitional period of at most 30 calendar days. During it the service runs without interruption, we assist with the switch and with the exit strategy, inform the client of known risks to continuity and maintain the security of the data. If the switch is technically not feasible within that period, we will say so within 14 working days and propose an alternative period of at most seven months. The client may extend the transitional period once, by a period of their own choosing.

The contract ends when the switch has been successfully completed or, where the client asks only for erasure, when the notice period expires. We will notify the client that the contract has ended. After it ends, the periods in the paragraph “What happens to the store and the data” apply; the client therefore has at least 90 days to retrieve the data.

What the export contains. The store’s staff can prepare an export in the admin at any time while they have access to it, and repeatedly. A finished export can be downloaded for 7 days; after that we delete it and it can be prepared again. It contains the catalogue (products, variants, translations, prices, stock locations, options, attributes, collections and the list of images), customers with their addresses and groups, orders with their lines, shipping, shipments, payments, status history and an overview of documents, and promotions.

Export format. A ZIP archive. It contains a README.txt file with a description in the staff member’s language, a manifest.json file with the format version, and CSV tables separated by semicolons, encoded in UTF-8 with a BOM. Columns carry English names following the fields of the Vendure system. Amounts are integers in the smallest currency unit (cents), times are in ISO 8601 format in UTC, lists are separated by the “|” character, custom fields and rules are in JSON format, and links between tables run through columns ending in “_id”. When the columns change, we increase the format version in manifest.json.

Export limitations. Images are included in the export as a list with their details and the web addresses of the files, not as the files themselves. The archive can be at most 2 GB. The export contains only the data listed above; in particular it does not contain store settings, content pages, passwords, credentials, integration keys or payment card details, which Portican does not hold.

Where the infrastructure is, and how we protect data against access by third-country authorities. The stores’ server and database are hosted by netcup GmbH in Vienna (Austria). Images, private files, exports and backup copies are stored by Cloudflare in its R2 storage, and the website is delivered over the Cloudflare network. Further suppliers and countries are listed in Annex 2 of the Data processing agreement. The provider is established in the USA. We protect the data with encrypted connections, separate permissions for each store, encryption of integration keys and two-factor authentication for platform administrators. We handle requests from third-country authorities for access to client data only to the extent permitted by Union law, and we inform the client of them unless the law prohibits it.

We charge nothing for switching, for exporting, or for terminating the contract for that purpose.

12. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. We will notify clients of a change by email; the new version takes effect 30 days after the notice is sent. If you do not accept the change, you may terminate as of the date it takes effect; continuing to use the service after that day means you accept the changed terms.

We archive previous versions and will provide them on request.

13. Governing law and disputes

The contract is governed by the law of the Slovak Republic. Disputes are decided by the courts of the Slovak Republic.

14. Language versions

These terms are published in several languages. Should the versions differ in meaning, the Slovak version is the reference text and prevails.

15. Transitional provision

For a client who entered into the contract before version 2.0 took effect, this version applies from the date it takes effect. A client on a paid plan who is not a business within the meaning of clause 2a keeps the contract under the previous terms (version 1.1) until the end of the billing cycle the client has paid for as of the date version 2.0 takes effect; after that, the client may continue on the Free plan.

16. Final provisions

If any provision turns out to be invalid, the rest remain in force and the invalid one is replaced by the provision closest to its intent.

These terms take effect on the date stated at the top.