Terms of Service
Overview
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern the use of the Sternify application (the “App”) and related services provided by:
Sternify GmbH, Dresdener Ring 40, 65239 Hochheim am Main, Germany, registered with the commercial register of the local court (Amtsgericht) of Wiesbaden under HRB 36150 (“Sternify”, “we”, “us”).
By installing or using the App, you (“Merchant”, “you”) agree to these Terms, including the Data Processing Annex at the end of this document.
1. Scope; business customers only
1.1 The App is offered exclusively to businesses (Unternehmer within the meaning of § 14 BGB) operating a store on the Shopify platform. The App is not offered to consumers.
1.2 These Terms apply exclusively. Deviating terms of the Merchant do not apply unless we have expressly agreed to them in writing.
2. The App; relationship to Shopify
2.1 The App provides conversion and merchandising features for Shopify stores, including product bundles, upsells, free gifts, product reviews, a cart drawer, announcement banners, AI-based page analysis, and related analytics (the “Services”). The current feature set is described on sternify.com and in the Shopify App Store listing.
2.2 The App is distributed through the Shopify App Store and operates on the Shopify platform. Your contract for the App is with Sternify GmbH, not with Shopify. Sternify is solely responsible for the App and its Services. Shopify Inc. and its affiliates are not a party to these Terms and are not liable for any fault in the App.
2.3 Your use of the Shopify platform itself remains governed by your agreement with Shopify. We are not responsible for the availability or functioning of the Shopify platform, Shopify APIs, or your store’s theme.
3. Account and installation
3.1 You install the App through the Shopify App Store using your Shopify account. During installation you grant the App the API permissions listed on the consent screen; these are required for the Services to function.
3.2 You are responsible for ensuring that persons using the App on your behalf are authorized to do so.
4. Fees, billing, and trials
4.1 The App is offered on the subscription plans and at the prices shown in the Shopify App Store listing and/or in the App at the time of subscribing. All prices are exclusive of VAT where applicable.
4.2 Billing is handled through Shopify. You expressly authorize Shopify to collect subscription fees on our behalf; charges appear on your Shopify invoice. The payment terms of your Shopify agreement apply to the collection process.
4.3 Where a plan includes a free trial, the trial period is stated at subscription. Unless you cancel (by downgrading or uninstalling the App) before the trial ends, the paid subscription begins automatically at the end of the trial. A free trial is granted once per store.
4.4 Subscription fees are charged in advance for each billing period. Refunds and credits are issued by Sternify (not Shopify) and are granted at our reasonable discretion; statutory rights remain unaffected. Refund requests can be sent to support@sternify.com.
4.5 We may change our prices. Price changes for existing subscriptions will be announced at least 30 days in advance and take effect at the start of the next billing period after the notice period. If you do not agree to a price increase, you may terminate the subscription with effect from the date the change takes effect.
5. Merchant obligations
5.1 You will use the App only in compliance with applicable law and with your agreements with Shopify. In particular, you are responsible for:
• the legality of the offers, prices, discounts, and marketing claims you configure through the App (including price-indication rules such as the German PAngV where applicable to your store),
• providing legally required information to your own customers, including your own privacy policy and, where required, a consent management solution for your storefront,
• ensuring that review request emails sent on your behalf are permissible toward your customers under the laws applicable to you.
5.2 You will not misuse the App, attempt to circumvent plan limits or trial restrictions, reverse engineer the App except as permitted by mandatory law, or use it to infringe third-party rights.
6. Data protection
6.1 We process personal data as described in our Privacy Policy (https://sternify.com/privacy).
6.2 To the extent we process personal data of your customers on your behalf, the Data Processing Annex below (GDPR Art. 28) forms an integral part of these Terms.
7. Intellectual property
7.1 We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the App for your own store(s) for the duration of your subscription.
7.2 All rights in the App, its code, design, and documentation remain with Sternify. Feedback you provide may be used by us to improve the Services without obligation.
7.3 You retain all rights to your store data. You grant us the rights needed to operate the Services (e.g., displaying your product data in widgets, processing order data for analytics and review emails).
8. Availability; changes to the Services
8.1 We aim for high availability of the Services but do not warrant uninterrupted availability. Maintenance windows, Shopify platform outages, and disruptions outside our control may temporarily limit the Services.
8.2 We may modify, extend, or discontinue individual features, provided the core functionality you subscribed to is preserved or a reasonable substitute is offered. We will give reasonable advance notice of material reductions.
9. Warranty and liability
9.1 We are liable without limitation for damages caused by intent or gross negligence, for injury to life, body, or health, under the German Product Liability Act, and to the extent of a guarantee we have expressly assumed.
9.2 For slight negligence, we are liable only for breaches of essential contractual obligations (obligations whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment the Merchant regularly relies), and in such cases liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract.
9.3 In all other respects, our liability is excluded. The above limitations also apply in favor of our legal representatives and agents.
9.4 The App provides tools and suggestions (including AI-generated recommendations); it does not constitute legal, tax, or business advice. Decisions you make based on the App’s output are your own responsibility.
10. Term and termination
10.1 The subscription runs for the billing period selected and renews automatically until terminated.
10.2 You can terminate at any time by uninstalling the App or downgrading in the App; termination takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Fees already paid for the current period are not refunded except as set out in Section 4.4 or required by law.
10.3 We may terminate for good cause, in particular in the event of material breach of these Terms, misuse of the Services, or non-payment.
10.4 Upon termination, your data is handled as described in the Privacy Policy and the Data Processing Annex.
11. Changes to these Terms
We may amend these Terms with effect for the future where necessary for legal, technical, or product reasons. We will notify you of material changes at least 30 days before they take effect (in the App or by email). If you do not object before the effective date, and we have pointed out the consequences of not objecting in the notice, the amended Terms are deemed accepted. If you object, either party may terminate as per Section 10.
12. Final provisions
12.1 German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).
12.2 Exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with these Terms is Wiesbaden, Germany, provided the Merchant is a merchant (Kaufmann), a legal entity under public law, or has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany.
12.3 Should individual provisions of these Terms be invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions remains unaffected.
Contact: support@sternify.com
Data Processing Annex
This Data Processing Annex (“Annex”) forms part of the Terms of Service between Sternify GmbH (“Processor”, “Sternify”) and the Merchant (“Controller”) and governs the processing of personal data by Sternify on behalf of the Merchant pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. It is accepted by installing or continuing to use the App.
A.1 Subject matter, duration, nature and purpose
Subject matter: provision of the App’s features that involve personal data of the Merchant’s store visitors and customers (“End Customers”), namely widget analytics, review request emails, and review collection.
Duration: the term of the Terms of Service. This Annex ends when the App is uninstalled and the data has been deleted in accordance with Section A.8.
Nature and purpose: collection, storage, and transmission of End Customer data strictly as needed to render widgets, measure their performance in aggregate, send review request emails on the Merchant’s behalf, and store submitted reviews in the Merchant’s Shopify store.
A.2 Categories of data and data subjects
Data subjects: visitors and customers of the Merchant’s online store.
Categories of personal data:
• pseudonymous usage data (random session identifier, widget interaction events, store domain),
• for review request emails: customer name, email address, order number, and purchased items,
• for submitted reviews: reviewer name, email address, rating, review text, and optional images (stored in the Merchant’s own Shopify store).
No special categories of data (Art. 9 GDPR) are intentionally processed.
A.3 Instructions
Sternify processes End Customer data only on documented instructions from the Merchant. The Terms of Service, this Annex, and the Merchant’s configuration of the App constitute the Merchant’s instructions. Sternify will inform the Merchant if, in its opinion, an instruction infringes the GDPR or other applicable data protection law.
A.4 Confidentiality
Sternify ensures that persons authorized to process the personal data have committed themselves to confidentiality or are under an appropriate statutory obligation of confidentiality.
A.5 Security (Art. 32 GDPR)
Sternify implements appropriate technical and organizational measures, including: encryption of data in transit (TLS) and at rest; access controls and authentication for production systems, with access limited to authorized personnel; separation of production and development environments; logging and monitoring of production systems, including error monitoring; and regular review of security measures.
A.6 Sub-processors
The Merchant grants general authorization for the engagement of the sub-processors listed in the Privacy Policy (https://sternify.com/privacy) (Section 6, “Recipients and sub-processors”). Sternify will inform Merchants of intended additions or replacements of sub-processors (in the App or by email), giving the Merchant the opportunity to object on reasonable data protection grounds. If an objection cannot be resolved, the Merchant may terminate by uninstalling the App. Sternify imposes data protection obligations on sub-processors that are substantially equivalent to those in this Annex.
A.7 International transfers
Where processing involves transfers to countries outside the EU/EEA without an adequacy decision, Sternify ensures appropriate safeguards pursuant to Art. 44 ff. GDPR, in particular the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and, where applicable, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.
A.8 Deletion and return
Upon uninstallation of the App or termination of the Terms, Sternify deletes the End Customer data processed on the Merchant’s behalf within 30 days, unless statutory retention obligations require otherwise. Sternify honors Shopify’s GDPR compliance webhooks: upon receipt of a customers/redact or shop/redact request, the relevant End Customer data is deleted within 30 days; upon customers/data_request, Sternify provides the Merchant with the data held about the requesting customer.
A.9 Assistance
Taking into account the nature of the processing, Sternify assists the Merchant with appropriate technical and organizational measures in fulfilling data subject rights (Art. 12–23 GDPR) and in complying with Art. 32–36 GDPR (security, breach notification, data protection impact assessments), insofar as the Merchant cannot do so via the App itself.
A.10 Personal data breaches
Sternify notifies the Merchant without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal data breach affecting End Customer data processed under this Annex, providing the information required by Art. 33(3) GDPR as it becomes available.
A.11 Audits
Sternify makes available the information necessary to demonstrate compliance with Art. 28 GDPR and allows for and contributes to audits, including inspections, conducted by the Merchant or an auditor mandated by the Merchant, at reasonable intervals, upon reasonable notice, and at the Merchant’s expense. Sternify may satisfy audit requests by providing current certifications, audit reports, or written self-assessments where appropriate.
A.12 Miscellaneous
In case of conflict between this Annex and the remainder of the Terms of Service, this Annex prevails with respect to data protection. German law applies; Sections 11 and 12 of the Terms of Service apply accordingly.
Contact for data protection matters: support@sternify.com
