terms of service

1. Acceptance of terms

matchaed is an Australian matcha cafe discovery and review platform. By creating an account or using the app you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use matchaed.

2. Eligibility

To use matchaed you must be able to form a legally binding contract. If you are using the app on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you are authorised to accept these terms for it.

3. Your account

We use passwordless sign-in: you enter your email and we send a one-time code to verify it. You are responsible for keeping access to your email secure and for activity that happens under your account.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to post content that is unlawful, abusive, misleading or defamatory. You must not misuse the app, attempt to disrupt or reverse engineer it, scrape or harvest data from it, or access it in ways we have not authorised.

5. Real reviews only

Reviews on matchaed must be genuine, first-hand accounts of matcha you have actually tried. You agree that you will not:

• post fake, fraudulent, incentivised or paid reviews, or reviews for a cafe you have a personal or commercial interest in;
• generate any part of a review or rating using AI, automation or bots, or submit content you did not write yourself from your own experience;
• review your own business, or arrange for others to post reviews on your behalf;
• manipulate ratings, vote brigade, or operate multiple or fake accounts to influence scores.

matchaed is built on trust. We use automated and manual checks to detect inauthentic activity, and we may remove any review, rating or account that we reasonably believe breaches this section, without notice. Repeated or serious breaches will result in a permanent ban (see section 11).

6. User content

You own the reviews, ratings and other content you submit. By posting, you grant matchaed a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display and share that content within the app so others can discover and use it. You are responsible for the content you post and confirm it is your own genuine experience and that you have the right to share it. We may moderate, edit for clarity or remove content that breaches these terms.

7. Accuracy of cafe information

Cafe details, menus, prices and reviews are community-sourced and provided for general guidance only. We do not guarantee that this information is accurate, complete or up to date. Please confirm details with the cafe directly before relying on them.

8. Intellectual property

The matchaed name, branding, design and software are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trade mark and other laws. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute or reuse them without our permission, except for content you have submitted yourself. You may not use any part of matchaed to train machine learning or AI models.

9. Copyright and takedown

We respect intellectual property rights and expect our users to do the same. If you believe content on matchaed infringes your copyright or other rights, email us at privacy@matchaed.com with a description of the work, the location of the content on the app, and your contact details. We will review genuine complaints and remove infringing content where appropriate. We may also remove content or terminate accounts of users who repeatedly infringe the rights of others.

10. Business and cafe accounts

If you represent a cafe or business, additional terms apply to you:

• you confirm you are authorised to act for the business and that the information you provide about it is accurate and kept up to date;
• you must not review your own venue, ask customers or staff to post reviews, offer incentives for reviews, or attempt to remove or suppress genuine reviews;
• reviews and ratings reflect the experiences of our community. We will not edit or remove genuine reviews simply because a business disagrees with them;
• you may respond to reviews where we provide that feature, but responses must be respectful, truthful and not used to harass or identify reviewers.

Breaching these business terms, including any attempt to game reviews, may result in removal of your listing or claim and a ban from the platform.

11. Suspension and bans

You may stop using matchaed and ask us to close your account at any time. We may suspend, restrict or permanently ban your access, and remove your content, if we reasonably believe you have breached these terms, posted fake or AI-generated reviews, manipulated ratings, harmed other users or the service, or used the app unlawfully. Serious or repeated breaches may result in a permanent ban without notice or refund. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will tell you why.

12. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

matchaed is provided on an "as is" basis. To the extent permitted by law, we exclude liability for any loss arising from your use of the app. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded. Where our liability cannot be excluded but can be limited, our liability is limited to resupplying the service.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia. You and matchaed submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that state.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we will revise the date at the top of this page. Continuing to use matchaed after a change means you accept the updated terms.

15. Contact

If you have any questions about these terms, contact us at privacy@matchaed.com.