Terms of Service

1. Who can use Loops House

You must be at least 16 years old to use the Platform. By using it, you confirm that the information you give us is accurate and that you’ll keep it up to date. If you use Loops House on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you’re authorised to accept these Terms for that organisation.

2. Your account

You sign in with your email (via a one-time code) or through a connected account such as Google or GitHub. You’re responsible for activity that happens under your account, so keep your email and connected accounts secure. Let us know promptly if you believe someone has accessed your account without permission.

3. Acceptable use

When using Loops House, please don’t:

• Break the law or infringe anyone else’s rights, including intellectual property rights.
• Upload malware, attempt to disrupt the Platform, or probe it for vulnerabilities without permission.
• Misrepresent your identity, your work, or your affiliation with a person or organisation.
• Post content that is unlawful, harassing, hateful, or otherwise harmful.
• Scrape, resell, or misuse the Platform or other users’ data.

We may suspend or remove content or accounts that break these rules.

4. Your content and submissions

You keep ownership of the projects, text, images, links, and other content you submit (“Your Content”). By submitting it, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, display, and share Your Content as needed to operate the Platform — for example, showing your project in event galleries, on its public project page, and to hosts, sponsors, and judges involved in a hackathon you enter.

You’re responsible for Your Content and confirm you have the rights to share it. If a project page or gallery is public, anyone with the link may be able to view it.

5. Hackathons, bounties, and judging

Loops House helps hosts run hackathons and sponsors offer bounties, and it provides tools for judging submissions. Individual events, bounties, and prizes are defined by the hosts and sponsors who run them — not by us. We don’t guarantee any prize, bounty payout, or judging outcome, and we’re not a party to agreements between you and an event’s organisers or sponsors. Please review each event’s own rules before you take part.

6. AI-assisted features

Some features (such as ideation help, explanations, and automated judging assistance) use third-party AI models. AI output can be inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, and it doesn’t represent advice from us. Always review AI-generated content before relying on it, and don’t enter confidential information you wouldn’t want processed by a third-party model.

7. Our intellectual property

The Platform itself — including its software, design, branding, and the “Loops House” name and logo — belongs to Germina Labs GmbH or its licensors. These Terms don’t give you any right to use our branding without our written permission.

8. Third-party services

The Platform relies on third-party services (for example, sign-in, email delivery, AI models, and hosting). Your use of those features may also be subject to the relevant provider’s terms. We’re not responsible for third-party services we don’t control.

9. The Platform is provided “as is”

We work hard to keep Loops House running well, but we provide it on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the extent permitted by law, we don’t make warranties that the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for a particular purpose.

10. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Germina Labs GmbH won’t be liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, or for lost data, profits, or opportunities arising from your use of the Platform. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that can’t be limited under applicable law.

11. Suspension and termination

You can stop using Loops House at any time. We may suspend or end your access if you breach these Terms or if we need to for legal or security reasons. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (such as content licences already granted, intellectual property, disclaimers, and liability) will continue to apply.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we’ll update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, let you know. If you keep using the Platform after changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms.

13. Governing law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Switzerland. Any disputes arising from or related to these Terms or your use of the Platform are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Zürich, Switzerland — without prejudice to any mandatory consumer-protection rights you may have under the law of your country of residence.

14. Contact us

Questions about these Terms? Email us at contact@loops.house or write to Germina Labs GmbH, Herman-Greulich-Strasse 60, 8004 Zürich, Switzerland.