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General Terms of Service

Last updated: 28/11/2023

1. Introduction

This paragraph aims to provide an overview of this document and briefly explain what Yeppik® is, as required by European Union law.
First and foremost, Yeppik® is a chat - or an instant messaging application - available for your smartphone (and on other devices, soon!).
It allows you to communicate with other people through text messages, which could include the so called yeppiks, that are images embedded in a balloon along with the typed alphanumeric text: as a user, this means you will be able to upload your images from gallery or to take pictures and send them all together in a message, along with any word you are writing; basically, your pictures can become your emoticons.
Yeppiks sent this way are clearly displayed at the size of typed text; however, yeppiks also become stickers as long as you send them one by one!
This is just the beginning of a system we like a lot and we hope will end up getting you and other smartphone users thrilled as well!
Of course, this is only the first and main functionality among those available in app already and the many others we are going to implement in the future; however, Yeppik® provides only a few of the many useful functionalities nowadays included in many famous chat applications, such as attachments, calls, video-calls, voice messages and so on.
Due to this and other reasons, Yeppik® services are free of any cost and we will provide numerous illustrations that you can use in chat as yeppiks: those are already available grouped in Collections inside the Store section of the application.
You will be able to purchase similar contents, uploaded by Yeppik® or other kreators, as well as user creations that other users could sell from their profile; in order to do so, you will need coins that can be acquired as in-app purchases.
In order to publish your contents inside the Store of the Yeppik® mobile application, you can become a kreator through the registration process in the Kreator Portal: the Portal will allow you to upload creations and group them in collections, which you could sell or make available for free.
Users or are free to interrupt their relationship with Yeppik® by deleting their account and, later on, they will be able to use their deleted phone number or email address to register a new account.
This document may be subject to change on many occasions, for example based on any new Yeppik® feature or on any law change, therefore we always recommend reading the most recent version of General Terms of Service. We recommend that you download the present document on your device.
Please feel free to contact Yeppik® for any question, feedback or suggestion regarding the present document or the Yeppik® service.

2. The Service

Yeppik™ services are provided by Social Media Emotions Srl, whose contacts are detailed at the beginning of the present document, and therefore, whenever describing any kind of relationship between Yeppik® and the User or the Kreator, that refers to the relationship between the User and Social Media Emotions Srl as well.
The Service refers to any aspect of the Yeppik® product, such as for example the smartphone application, the trademarks, the in-app collections, the websites, the Kreator Portal, emails and communications and any element related to the product itself, independently from the usage.
In order to be able to use the Service and become a user or kreator, you will have to accept the present General Terms of Service during the account registration, by checking the corresponding box and you will have to accept our (user or kreator) Privacy Policy in the same way.
In addition, you have to be at least sixteen years old to accept the present General Terms of Service.
Users aged between sixteen and eighteen must use the Service with the authorization and supervision of a subject with legal guardianship over them; that subject is to be held responsible for every action, omission or behavior occurred during the supervised or not authorized usage of the Service. This provision applies both towards Yeppik® and third parties.
The Yeppik® mobile application needs a mobile phone number (which you will have the possibility to change at a later time) and internet connection: that will allow you to create a user account through a registration process that verifies you have access over that phone number, after you submit a number received via SMS.
Once you create a user account, you will be able to start chatting with your Yeppik contacts, that is anyone whose phone number you stored in your device Contacts List and that registered a Yeppik account.
The Service eventually allows you to start chatting with your Yeppik® contacts, using custom yeppiks, or any yeppik you downloaded from the Store, customizing your avatar and adding more creativity to your virtual communication.
In order to use the Yeppik Kreator Portal you need an email address (which you will have the possibility to change at a later time), a web browser and internet connection: that will allow you to create a kreator account through a registration process that verifies you have access over that email address, after you submit a number received via email.
Once you create a kreator account, you will be able to upload images and multimedia contents inside 5 collections, which can be sold or made available for free in the Store section of the mobile app, and then request any reward you might collect from sales.
The Service is currently available in Italian and English languages. It applies the national and European law currently in effect.

3. User and kreator responsibility

Yeppik® heads towards being an application that can be called safe, reliable, fun and good for everyone, but it must live within some boundaries and limitations, therefore we recommend paying attention while using it, just like you would do in any other digital environment.
Every user and kreator should be aware of the fact that, by using our features or while interacting with other users or kreators, every involved subject could receive and view data originating from the use of the Service, such as messages, attachments, custom yeppiks or any available Profile information; these subjects could then archive (for example, received attachments), screenshot archive, other then share that kind of data.
As a user or kreator, you are responsible for data you make use of and for any potential direct or indirect consequences derived from their use, including the use that other users, kreators or third parties could make out of them, and independently from the fact that you can claim rights over them.
By accepting the present General Terms of Service, you commit yourself to hold Yeppik® - and the Company administrators, executives, employees, agents or collaborators, working for Yeppik® or in other related companies - harmless from any damage, loss or expense directly or indirectly deriving from your use of the Service, which is not compliant with provisions of this document. This responsibility does not compromise any right that users or kreators hold towards Yeppik®, unless the law provides otherwise.
Yeppik® safeguards users and kreators privacy and is not authorized to inspect or supervise contents that users share in their private communications, unless the law provides otherwise. Due to this reason Yeppik® cannot be held responsible for any type of action, omission or behavior that occurs within users private communications boundaries - being chats between two users, secret rooms inside those, or group chats - for example message contents, attachments, external links (such as those included in yeppiks and displayed in Tap! feed), etc.
By accepting the present General Terms of Service on behalf of any kind of subject with legal personality, for example a company, you guarantee that you are authorized to act in such a way and Yeppik® cannot be held responsible for any action, omission or behavior directly or indirectly related to usage lacking that authorization.
As a user or kreator, you should also save and archive any material you would like to preserve, such as sent and received attachments, other than the password you use to access your account, which must not be shared with others.

4. Using Yeppik™ safely

In addition to the aforementioned points, every user and/or kreator must observe the following provisions for Service protection:

A
You commit not to adopt manners, activities or pursue purposes that are illicit, obscene, offensive, discriminating, annoying, intimidating or deceptive, that could damage another user, kreator or person, while using any functionality offered by the Service. You also commit to respecting the law and not using Yeppik® to violate it or to wrong other people’s freedoms, rights and interests.
B
You must not counterfeit your and other people’s data and/or identity; do not create an account that represents third parties without their consent, so that you imitate them and/or with the purpose of misleading others.
C
You must not violate, take possession or share illegitimately other Yeppik® users, kreators or third parties data.
D
You must not alter the way the Service works, through any digital or physical means, yours or third parties’.
E
You must not use Yeppik® for unauthorized commercial purposes. Furthermore, you commit not to use the Service in order to violate Yeppik® intellectual property or industrial rights, or third parties’.
F
You must not use Yeppik® to upload or share damaging software, or to commit actions and behaviors that could alter, affect or block in any way the functioning of Yeppik® in general and/or for other users or kreators.
G
You must not exceed in the Service usage, in such a way that you could worsen or damage yours or other users, kreators or people health.
H
You must not use in-app purchases or rewards functionalities inappropriately, compromising or damaging Yeppik®, or other users or kreators, in any possible way.

5. License

Yeppik™ grants the user or kreator a personal, worldwide, free, non-exclusive and not-transferable license to use the provided software, for the sole purpose of allowing the user or kreator to enjoy the Service, as long as it happens in compliance with the present General Terms of Service.
By accepting this General Terms of Service, users or kreators grant Yeppik® a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and transferable license, to use, reproduce, distribute, view and show in any way the contents that are uploaded, recorded or transmitted during its usage. This license serves the only purpose of allowing Yeppik® to make the Service available for the user or kreator themselves.
Except for user or kreator contents, which are covered by the aforementioned license, every right, title and interest regarding the Service is exclusively property and copyright of Yeppik®. These rights cannot be used in any form or manner (for example sold, downloaded, transmitted, granted as a license, duplicated, distributed, etc.) without the prior consent from Yeppik®. The User is not entitled to use the Yeppik® name, logo, domain or other distinctive features of the trademark.
By downloading or using the Yeppik® software, you accept the possibility that updates or additional features will be downloaded and installed, for the purpose of improving the software.
When downloading collections from the Store or user creations, you must use them to chat with other users only, avoiding any other use that is unrelated to the application's regular use.

6. Third parties rights

The user or kreator must respect third parties rights and should not undertake damaging activities or behaviors, nor publish or distribute any kind of material that could damage third parties. In case this happens, Yeppik® reserves the right to remove, at its sole discretion, any effectively or potentially harmful information or content.
In case it is your understanding that any form of abuse or violation of third parties rights occurred, you should promptly report that to Social Media Emotions Srl through contact forms provided in the Yeppik® mobile application or directly to legal@yeppik.com .
Whenever those violations concern intellectual properties or copyrights, you should immediately report the object of violation, by sending a statement explaining the belief, in good faith, that the violating behaviors were not authorized by the owner of those rights. The communication should include your contact information, especially the phone number or email address used to register the Yeppik® account.
As soon as any law infringement occurs, the Company will assess the possibility of informing the competent authorities and, based on the seriousness or on the circumstances of the specific situation, the possibility of disabling the account of any user or kreator involved in the violation. An account will be promptly disabled also after receiving such a directive from a judicial authority. In any case, Social Media Emotions Srl reserves the right to read, store and share relevant contents, if that would be considered necessary in order to grant compliance to law, or in order to adhere to directives or requests of the competent authorities.

7. Withdrawal

However sad for us, you have the right to rescind the relationship with Yeppik® and Social Media Emotions Srl, other than to stop using the Service: for this purpose, we made an easy and quick account deletion procedure available, which is going to require you only to verify the phone number, or email address, and password you use to access your account.
After you delete your account, you will be able to register a new one, even using the phone number you used for the deleted account. Data linked to a deleted account cannot be retrieved through a new account registration, while Yeppik® will preserve only data that is necessary to keep the functionalities correctly operative. More specifically, you will not be able to retrieve chats, created yeppiks, purchased collections or creations, purchased or earned coins, attachments or any other data produced during the Service use.
However, users that correctly purchased your creations or collections will be allowed to keep on using them after your account deletion.
The present General Terms of Service remain effective during the entire period of your relationship with Yeppik® and Social Media Emotions Srl, up to and including the termination, which can occur due to the account deletion, be it by your or Yeppik's initiative.
Yeppik® reserves the right (but no obligation subsists about it) to unilaterally suspend the account of any user or kreator, without needing to send a prior warning and based on Yeppik’s incontestable judgment, in case of violations of the present General Terms of Service or of law provisions.
Afterward, Yeppik® will proceed to reactivate or to permanently delete the account, provided that an investigation was completed internally and/or by the competent authorities, other than after evaluating potential replies by the user or kreator who owned the account.
In case Yeppik® not to keep the Service active in a certain country where a user or kreator is resident, or considers the service not to be convenient in that country anymore, it reserves the right to terminate the relationship at any time, without prejudice to user or kreator data protection rights, as expressed by our Privacy Policy (user or kreator).
Yeppik® reserves the right to unilaterally terminate the contract for just cause, which is presumed in every case in which a party involved the law, third parties rights or does not comply to the present General Terms of Service, and it is not reasonably plausible that the terminating party keeps the contract active until the agreed termination date or the end of the warning period, considering specific circumstances and after balancing both parties interests. The termination for just cause can be carried out only after a reasonable amount of time since the moment when the party came to know about the violation. However, in case of specific circumstances and after attentively balancing all interests, the termination can have immediate effect.
Obligations and responsibilities that the user or kreator is bound by, whose duration is considered to be indefinite, do not end in case of contract termination.

8. Other norms

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The Italian law is applicable to every case that is not covered by the present General Terms of Service. The parties accept submitting any litigation to Italian courts, which are entitled to the exclusive jurisdiction. In every jurisdiction Yeppik® will have the right to require monitory, precautionary or equivalent measures.
●
In case Yeppik® does not exercise any of the rights or legal remedies granted by the law in the present General Terms of Service or directly by law, that behavior cannot be interpreted as a renounce of those rights.
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Yeppik® has the right to transfer the rights and obligations that are related to the relationship with the user or kreator, for example in case of operations regarding Social Media Emotions Srl such as acquisitions, fusions, merges, trades, sales or others provided by the law. Based on that, Yeppik™ could ask you to accept such operations by providing your consent; however, in case you would not accept, you are required to interrupt the use of the Service or to delete your Yeppik® account.
●
The present General Terms of Service cannot be unilaterally modified by the user or kreator, and every modification or renouncement without Social Media Emotions Srl consent will imply the immediate Service termination. Similarly, obligations and responsibilities that the user or kreator is bound by, regarding the relationship with Yeppik®, cannot be transferred without Social Media Emotions Srl written consent.
●
The most popular messaging applications provide the functionality of phone calls, however Yeppik® has not implemented those yet. Therefore you do not have the possibility to start or receive phone calls, nor to contact emergency services, with the Yeppik mobile application.
●
In order to use the mobile application and the user functionalities, you need a smartphone that is compatible with the system minimum requirements listed in the Google Play Store or Apple Store application page; while in order to use the Kreator Portal, and kreator functionalities, you need a web browser. You also need to be connected to a mobile phone network service, whenever you perform activities affecting your account directly (such as registering, resetting passwords, changing number, deleting); the verification SMS or email used by those operations is billed to Yeppik®, however Social Media Emotions Srl does not take charge of additional costs associated with the provider or additional services. Instead, you need to be connected to an internet network for the regular use of the Yeppik® application, which costs are entirely based on your contract with your internet provider.
●
The present General Terms of Service are accepted based on articles 1341 and 1342 of the Italian Civil Code.

9. Data protection policy

In case you would like to learn more about our data management system to provide the Yeppik™ Service, we recommend reading our Privacy Policy (user or kreator).

10. Contents

Users can sell their creations to their contacts, just as kreators can do it in the Store (uploading them in collections through the kreator portal).
Yeppik® does not admit the publication of contents:

●
including sensitive data of other users, kreators or third parties without their permission, or that directly or indirectly damage their image, reputation or sensitivity;
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violating law, rulings, judgements or other norms or public authority provisions;
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that might violate the public order, morality or decency;
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illegitimately take advantage of or harm third parties intellectual property, such as copyrights, trademarks, patents, or any other right that is granted by the law or a contract with Yeppik® or third parties;
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transmitting explicit or allusive expressions of excessive violence, abuse or damage towards people, animals or objects;
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encouraging bullying or cyberbullying;
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inducing users or kreators to provide personal data or representing any form of fraud, scam or deception;
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showcasing any form of sexuality, pornography, child pornography or abuse, violence and negative or discriminatory suggestions over a person’s body;
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representing direct or indirect forms of racial, religious, gender, social, political, or other forms of discrimination
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encouraging or inducing suicidal behaviours, or any other behaviour that might directly or indirectly prove harmful of the very person publishing contents or of another person;
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potentially inducing a discomfortable feeling in other people;
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suggesting or encouraging alcool, smoke or drugs, bets or gambling activities;
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portraying other people without their permission or against their will;
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representing, highlighting or suggesting illicit or criminal behaviors.

Also, it is forbidden:
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to implement behaviors that provide a false representation of Yeppik® or fake news concerning the Service;
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to send repetitively the same contents or similar messages to a great number of users, or to add users to group chats, without their authorization, or to implement any other ‘spamming’ behavior;
●
to compromise Service security in any manner;
●
to to extract data or contents from the platform through software or automatic systems, or to illegitimately access other users’ accounts;
●
to use the Service to perform or facilitate conducts that violate law provisions.

This list is not exhaustive and is applied to multimedia contents or links inside a yeppik, an avatar or other creations that are published by kreators or users.
Yeppik® is not responsible towards users or third parties for the creation or sale within the Service of contents that violate the aforementioned provisions.
Yeppik® reserves the right to remove other types of content violating the aforementioned provisions and guidelines, or being even only partially in violation of the law, or that could represent a source of discomfort for other users or kreators. Similarly, Yeppik® is going to consider the removal of reported contents (other users, creations, collections, etc.) and will evaluate undertaking other measures, also considering the dedicated paragraph of this General Terms of Service.

11. Coins

A coin is a virtual object, purely artificial and valid only within the in app transactions. In fact, coins can be used to pay for digital contents created and sold by Yeppik®, by you as a user or as a kreator in the Store.
In the mobile application you can purchase coin packs as in-app purchases or, alternatively, you can earn them from any creation you upload in your profile.
Purchased coins can be used to directly acquire Store collections or creations from your contacts profiles. Instead, you can choose to add earned coins to your Store coins pool, or to redeem them after reaching certain amounts.
It is forbidden to use coins for different purposes and to gain different advantages than those provided by the Service.
Terms and conditions regarding coin usage, other than the amount and value of coin packs, their distribution and any other form of management regarding coins, are defined by Yeppik® and cannot be modified unilaterally by the user or kreator.

12. In-app purchases

In-app purchases are managed through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store platforms (from now on, the “Platforms”), which allow you to use different payment methods, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay. In order to handle any purchase that is carried out by users or kreator aged between sixteen and eighteen, Yeppik® will comply with the platform's policies, which take into account parental control systems as well.
In-app purchases can be refunded based on Google Play Store and Apple Store terms and conditions, other than on the following conditions:

●
refund requests must be sent within the next 48 hours following the purchase, and,
●
the purchased coins must not be used to acquire in app contents.
Yeppik® reserves the right to evaluate a refund request legitimacy, before proceeding with the refund process. In case an in-app product is refunded, Yeppik® will take care of restoring the account and the amount of coins to the state before purchase.
In any case, Yeppik® users are important for us, so feel free to contact us in case of second thoughts over purchases, in order to help us evaluate your specific refund request.

13. Rewards

Rewards serve the purpose of remunerating users that create yeppiks to share them with their contacts and kreators that publish their contents in the Store.
Yeppiks, avatars or other Store contents can in fact be shared for free, but they can also be sold for a certain amount of coins.
Users or kreators deciding to sell their contents select a gross price at the moment of publishing their creation. 50% of that collection price represents the fee for both Yeppik® and the Platforms for each single transaction. The user or kreator will eventually collect the 50% of that price for every creation or collection sold.
For example, selling a creation or a collection for 100 coins will pay 50 coins to the user or kreator each time it is purchased.
Users and kreators aged between sixteen and eighteen can use the rewards functionalities only under parental supervision or other subjects with legal guardianship over them.
Users have the possibility to transfer earned coins to the Store coins balance. This operation cannot be undone.
Users, and kreators, have the possibility to ask for a payment as a reward, after reaching a certain amount of earned coins. Reward levels currently existing are:
- 10€ for 1.000 coins;
- 20€ for 2.000 coins;
- 50€ for 5.000 coins;
- 100€ for 10.000 coins;
In order to send the reward request you must provide a valid email address, which will be used to contact you and ask for your payment information. Currently, the only available payment method is the bank transfer using the Euro currency, therefore a valid IBAN is the only necessary detail you should provide.
User transferring earned coins to the Store coins amount cannot use those earned coins to ask for rewards.
Users and kreators aged between sixteen and eighteen could be asked for additional details for the sake of verifying that rewards functionalities are used with the authorisation and under supervision of parents or legal guardians.
Currently, the maximum amount of rewards you can request per day is 100€.
Your request will be processed within 30 working days since we received it.
Yeppik® is not responsible for any loss or damage caused by the payment service provider, except when it is a consequence of a malfunction of any part of the Service.
Rewards terms and conditions could be modified at any time for legal, functional or business reasons. Such changes could include the access to the functionality itself, how it is implemented or under what conditions it remains effective. In case this happens, we will take care of providing you with enough information in advance and before they become effective. In case you disagree with such changes, you can rescind the contract at any time, before they become effective, by deleting your account.

14. Measures and provisions

Yeppik's mission is to enrich creativity and freedom of expression, of open communication and of respectful sharing of thoughts.
In order to make this possible, we must guarantee a safe, welcoming and pleasant experience to every environment that is part of Yeppik®.
General Terms of Service applied to both users and kreators aim to handle potential harm or annoyance caused by any behavior that happens within our Service boundaries.
Therefore, Yeppik® reserves the right to apply any necessary measure, within law boundaries, to protect the Service, the Company and every user or kreator that is part of it.
This means that Yeppik® reserves the right to suspend or delete a user or kreator account, in case of results or evidence showing that it is the source of behaviors violating the present General Terms of Service or law. The suspended or deleted account will not be able to use any functionality, including the possibility to require rewards. We invite you to contact us directly in case of any limitation applied to your account and discuss any adopted provision towards it.
Although Yeppik® is not under any obligation of monitoring and supervising how functionalities are used, especially in regard to those involving user creations, in-app purchases or rewards, Yeppik® places trust in every user and kreator reports, and commits to quickly intervene and address them.
As a user, you have the possibility to report directly to Yeppik® any user, content or activity that you consider to be violating the Service, through the corresponding buttons in the app. In order to follow a report up, it is necessary to follow some procedures and perform an analysis, which require some time to be properly concluded: Yeppik® will
undertake any measure as soon as possible, in respect of the aforementioned procedures evaluations, and based on the amount of requests and reports.
Deleting a content will not imply its removal from the availability of users who purchased it. However, Yeppik® reserves the right to remove it from them as well, following up a report and its consequent evaluation.