Terms of Service

Usage rules, payments, and what you can expect from us.

The basics

We provide hosting services to customers who use them responsibly and in accordance with our terms and our Acceptable Use Policy.

By using our services, you agree to these terms. These terms, together with our Acceptable Use Policy, Privacy Policy, and Refunds & Cancellations page, form the entire agreement between you and Aluy regarding the services. No oral or written statement outside these documents forms part of the contract unless confirmed by us in writing.

Eligibility: You must be at least 18 years old or the age of majority in your jurisdiction to use paid services.

Service description & modifications

We provide virtual private servers (VPS, including storage VPS), dedicated servers (our own dedicated servers and resold Hetzner dedicated servers), Hetzner Storage Boxes, IP/ASN (LIR) services, and related infrastructure hosting. All services are provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. We do not warrant uninterrupted, error-free, or loss-free operation.

We reserve the right to modify, upgrade, or discontinue features, interfaces, or service components at any time for operational, technical, legal, or security reasons. Where a change materially reduces a service you have paid for, we will provide reasonable advance notice and, if applicable, a pro-rata credit or the option to cancel without penalty.

Fair use policy

Network/bandwidth is subject to fair use. Use it reasonably and don’t abuse it. On shared VPS hosts, disk and CPU are too, but only for rare, extreme cases (see below).

Network/Bandwidth fair use:

• Use bandwidth for legitimate hosting and business purposes
• Don’t use excessive bandwidth that impacts other users
• We may limit bandwidth on extensive usage
• We’ll contact you if usage is concerning and work together to find a solution

Disk and CPU (shared VPS, rare cases only):

• Normal use, including busy websites, databases and backups, is never affected
• Only if a server keeps a shared host’s disks or CPU maxed out for a long time and slows down other customers, we may briefly reduce that server’s disk speed or CPU share
• This happens automatically and lifts by itself once the load is normal again; the server keeps running and no data is affected
• Dedicated servers are never affected

In practice, normal hosting and business usage is fine. We’re reasonable and will work with you if there’s ever an issue.

Port speed vs. actual throughput: Any stated port speed (for example 1 Gbit/s, 10 Gbit/s, or similar) describes the physical uplink class or connection type to our network, not a guaranteed sustained transfer rate at all times. Network paths are shared with other customers and subject to fair use. Actual speeds depend on congestion, routing, remote endpoints, disk I/O, your own configuration, and third-party networks. Speed tests and benchmarks are indicative only and not a contractual performance guarantee.

Content & acceptable use

We do not routinely monitor or police your server content. You remain solely responsible for everything you store, process, distribute, or make accessible through our services and must comply with applicable law and our Acceptable Use Policy, which forms part of this agreement.

All services must be used in compliance with applicable laws, applicable trade sanctions and export controls, and payment processor requirements. Violations of the AUP or this agreement may result in suspension or immediate termination without refund and may be reported to relevant authorities. The detailed list of prohibited activities and the conditions for lawful adult content are set out in the AUP.

Sanctions, export controls & restricted jurisdictions

We are an EU-based provider and must comply with applicable EU and international sanctions and export-control law. As a condition of using our services, you represent and warrant that you, your company, your beneficial owners, and your end users are not (a) located, established, or ordinarily resident in a jurisdiction subject to a comprehensive embargo, nor (b) a person or entity that is the target of sanctions on any applicable restricted-party list (including the EU consolidated sanctions list).

Comprehensively restricted jurisdictions. We do not provide services to any customer whose billing country is a jurisdiction subject to a comprehensive embargo or export-control overlap with hosting/cloud services that makes compliant supply infeasible — currently including, but not limited to, North Korea, Iran, and Syria. This applies to both businesses and private individuals.

Business-only restrictions. For certain jurisdictions under sectoral (rather than comprehensive) sanctions — currently including Russia and Belarus — the restrictions principally target businesses and legal entities. We therefore do not provide services to business/legal-entity customers established there, but private individuals (non-business consumers) may use our services provided they are not otherwise a restricted party. These lists may change as the legal situation changes.

New registrations and orders. Registrations and orders are blocked automatically where the declared country and customer type fall under the restrictions above. Providing false location, identity, customer-type, or beneficial-ownership information to circumvent these controls is a material breach and grounds for immediate termination without refund.

Existing customers. If your account becomes restricted (because your billing country/customer type falls under the rules above), we will not renew your services or process new orders, upgrades, or term changes for the account. Your current paid period is not clawed back, but the affected services will lapse at the end of that period unless you update your client data to reflect a non-restricted, lawful position (and we may ask you to substantiate it). You may continue to access and cancel existing services in the meantime.

Ongoing compliance. We may refuse, suspend, or terminate services where required by applicable sanctions or export-control law, and may require evidence of your lawful establishment. Nothing in this section limits our other rights to suspend or terminate under these terms or the AUP.

Violations & enforcement

Consequences of violation:

• Immediate service suspension without refund
• Termination of account and data deletion
• Reporting to law enforcement for illegal activity
• Cooperation with payment processors for fraud cases
• Permanent ban from our services

We may take any of the above actions at our reasonable discretion and are not required to give advance notice where we reasonably believe there is an ongoing or imminent violation, risk to third parties, risk to our infrastructure, or a legal obligation to act.

Reporting violations: Report alleged illegal content on our hosting service via the DSA Art. 16 notice form. We confirm receipt without undue delay and notify you of our decision. Network abuse (spam, malware, phishing) can also go to abuse@aluy.net. We investigate operational abuse reports and respond within 48 hours. For all other inquiries (refunds, account changes, etc.), please open a support ticket in the customer portal.

Restrictions, content moderation & complaints (DSA Art. 14)

These terms, together with the Acceptable Use Policy, set out any restrictions on information you provide through our hosting service.

What we restrict. We do not allow illegal content or the activities listed in the AUP. We may suspend, restrict, or terminate a service, disable specific content or network access, or refuse an order where required by law or these terms.

How we moderate. We do not generally monitor customer content. We act on (a) notices submitted through the Art. 16 form, (b) orders from Member State authorities (Arts. 9 and 10) sent to legal@aluy.net, and (c) operational abuse reports to abuse@aluy.net. Decisions are taken by a human. We do not use algorithmic decision-making to restrict your information.

Complaints. If we restrict your service or reject a notice, we tell you why (Art. 16(5) / Art. 17). You can seek an internal review by opening a support ticket or writing to legal@aluy.net. Court remedies and out-of-court dispute settlement under Art. 20 DSA remain available.

Law enforcement cooperation: We comply with valid legal requests from law enforcement agencies. Requests must be submitted with proper jurisdiction and legal basis.

Law enforcement, courts, and government authorities must contact legal@aluy.net only. Do not send preservation requests, disclosure orders, subpoenas, warrants, or any other official request to our abuse mailbox (abuse@aluy.net). The abuse mailbox is an operational queue that is automatically triaged and forwarded; messages sent there may be processed by automated systems and will not reliably reach our legal team. Only requests sent to legal@aluy.net are treated as legal correspondence.

Payment compliance: We comply with all applicable laws regarding payment processing, fraud prevention, and anti-money laundering. All transactions are subject to verification and monitoring.

Payment

Methods: PayPal (including card payments) and cryptocurrency (via a crypto payment processor named in our Privacy Policy)

Charging: Advance billing monthly or yearly

Fees: Prices are final; no hidden surcharges. We reserve the right to adjust prices for future billing periods with at least 30 days’ advance notice. If you do not agree with a price change, you may cancel before the new price takes effect.

Late: Reasonable grace period; service may suspend after notice

Refunds: Per our refund policy

Auto-renewal: Subscriptions auto-renew until cancelled

Compliance: We cooperate with law enforcement and regulators as legally required

Third-party services

Our services depend on third-party infrastructure, upstream networks, payment processors, and software. We are not liable for any failure, outage, delay, data loss, or degradation caused by a third party, except to the extent mandatory law provides otherwise. You acknowledge that third-party services are subject to their own terms and conditions, which you accept by using those services through us.

Intellectual property complaints

If you have a valid legal complaint regarding intellectual property, contact legal@aluy.net with sufficient detail (work, URLs, authority to act). We will review valid legal requests.

Delivery & reliability

Provisioning timelines: VPS are provisioned instantly after payment verification. Dedicated servers and LIR services are not instant but we act fast (typically 24–72h subject to stock and configuration requirements). Provisioning timelines are estimates, not binding deadlines.

Uptime: Targeting high availability; no specific SLA guaranteed unless separately agreed in writing

Outages: We fix fast and communicate

Data & backups

Your responsibility: You are solely responsible for your content, databases, and configuration. We provide infrastructure only. Unless a product page explicitly states otherwise for a specific paid add-on, we do not provide guaranteed backups of your virtual machines or data. You must maintain your own independent backups (off-server or with another provider). Service availability, hardware, and human operations can never be risk-free.

No warranty of data recovery: We do not warrant that any particular file, snapshot, or service state can be restored after deletion, corruption, or outage.

Support & manual operations

When you ask us to perform actions on your account (cancellation, refunds, rebuilds, migrations, deletions, or similar), we act in good faith based on the identifiers and instructions you provide (order IDs, IPs, hostnames, ticket text). You are responsible for verifying that those identifiers match the service you intend to change. Ambiguous or conflicting instructions may delay or mis-route an operation; clarify before we proceed when in doubt.

Manual and support-led actions are performed with reasonable care but are not instantaneous or error-free in every case. Nothing in these terms promises a specific turnaround time for manual tasks unless we confirm one in writing for that specific request.

Customer responsibility & indemnification

You are solely responsible for your use of the services, including all content you store, distribute, or make accessible, and all activity under your account (including by third parties who access your account, whether authorised or not due to your failure to secure credentials).

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Aluy and its owner from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to: (a) your use of the services; (b) your content or your customers’ content; (c) your violation of these terms, the AUP, or applicable law; or (d) any third-party claim relating to the foregoing. This indemnification obligation does not apply to the extent that the claim results from our own intent or gross negligence.

For consumers within the EU/EEA, this clause applies only to the extent permitted by the mandatory consumer-protection rules of your country of residence.

Force majeure

Neither party is liable for delay or failure to perform obligations (other than payment obligations) caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to: natural disasters, pandemics, war, terrorism, cyberattacks (including DDoS), government action, sanctions, embargoes, failure of third-party infrastructure or upstream providers, power outages, fire, flood, or other events of force majeure. Performance obligations are suspended for the duration of the event. If the event persists for more than 60 days, either party may terminate the affected service without liability.

Limitation of liability

Where mandatory law does not provide otherwise, our liability for damages arising from or in connection with these terms and the services is limited as follows:

• We remain liable without limitation for intent (Vorsatz) and gross negligence (grobe Fahrlässigkeit), for injury to life, body, or health, under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz), and to the extent mandatory law (including consumer law) requires liability that cannot be excluded or limited.
• For breach of material contractual obligations (wesentliche Vertragspflichten / Kardinalpflichten) caused by simple negligence, our liability is limited to compensation for the typical, foreseeable damage for this type of contract, and in any case to an amount not exceeding the fees you paid us for the affected service in the twelve (12) months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.
• For all other cases of simple negligence, our liability is excluded to the extent permitted by law.
• We are not liable for lost profits, lost revenue, lost business opportunities, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, loss of goodwill, or loss of data to the extent you failed to maintain adequate independent backups as described above — except where mandatory law forbids such exclusion or limitation.
• We are not liable for damage caused by force majeure events, failures of third-party services or upstream infrastructure outside our control, or your own acts or omissions (including failure to keep software updated, failure to secure access credentials, or provision of incorrect instructions).

These limitations apply collectively to all claims arising under or in connection with these terms, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), strict liability, or otherwise.

If any part of this section is or becomes invalid under applicable law, the remainder remains in effect to the fullest extent permitted.

Limitation period

This shortened limitation period applies only to business customers (Unternehmer). For consumers, the statutory limitation periods apply without modification. Subject to mandatory rules (including § 202 BGB), claims by business customers arising under or in connection with these terms must be brought within twelve (12) months from the date on which the claimant became aware (or ought reasonably to have become aware) of the circumstances giving rise to the claim. This shortened period does not apply to claims for injury to life, body, or health, to claims based on intent or gross negligence, or where mandatory law prescribes a longer minimum period.

Consumer right to cancel

If you are a consumer, you have the right to cancel your purchase within 14 days without giving any reason. The cancellation period expires 14 days from the day after completion of the transaction.

To exercise your right to cancel, open a support ticket in the customer portal or contact lain@aluy.net before the expiration of the 14-day period.

Effect of cancellation: If you cancel, all payments received from you will be reimbursed without undue delay and no later than 14 days after we are informed of your cancellation decision. The reimbursement will use the same payment method as your original transaction at no additional cost to you.

Exception — loss of withdrawal right: If you expressly consented to the immediate provision of the service before the withdrawal period expired and acknowledged that you would lose your right of withdrawal upon full performance of the contract (§ 356 Abs. 4 BGB), you cannot withdraw once performance has begun. For digital content not supplied on a tangible medium, the right of withdrawal is also lost if performance has begun with your express consent and acknowledgment of the loss of the withdrawal right (§ 356 Abs. 5 BGB).

For full refund policy details, see our Refunds & Cancellations page.

Cancellation & data deletion

You may cancel subscription services in line with our Refunds & Cancellations page and the customer portal options.

Routine termination (end of billing period): Where you cancel so that the service runs until the end of the current paid period, customer data is typically scheduled for deletion within seven (7) days after that service end date. This is an operational target for our standard automated workflow, not a guarantee in every edge case.

Immediate termination: If you choose immediate cancellation or immediate deletion, or if we must terminate without notice for abuse, fraud, serious breach, non-payment, legal requirement, or operational necessity, data may be removed without waiting for that seven-day window.

Support-requested or manual changes: If you ask us in a ticket or otherwise to delete, migrate, or refund specific services, we will follow your confirmed instructions. Deletion may occur as soon as the action is carried out and may not follow the routine seven-day schedule. Confirm order/service identifiers carefully before we execute.

Errors and events beyond our control: Hardware failure, software bugs, third-party outages, or operational mistakes can result in loss of data despite our efforts. The backup and liability rules in these terms apply.

Applicable law & jurisdiction

Operator: These terms are offered by Julian Achter (Einzelunternehmer), trading as Aluy, Am Hang 55, 85737 Ismaning, Germany.

Governing law: Unless mandatory rules provide otherwise, these terms and the contractual relationship are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), and applicable European Union law (including GDPR and EU consumer rules where they apply to you).

EU consumers: Mandatory consumer protection rules of your country of residence remain unaffected where they apply and cannot be validly waived.

Jurisdiction: If you are a consumer, you may bring proceedings in the courts of your place of residence or in Germany as permitted by EU law. For business customers, the exclusive place of jurisdiction is Munich, Germany, unless otherwise required by mandatory law.

For legal identity, tax numbers, and contact details, see our Imprint.

Severability

If any provision of these terms is or becomes invalid, unenforceable, or void under applicable law, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect. The invalid provision shall be replaced by a valid provision that achieves the intended economic purpose as closely as possible. The same applies to any gaps in these terms.

Assignment

You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these terms to any third party without our prior written consent. We may assign our rights and obligations under these terms to a successor or affiliate, provided your rights are not materially reduced.

Changes

We may amend these terms at any time. Material changes will be notified to you by email or through the customer portal at least 30 days before they take effect. If you do not object within the notice period and continue to use the services, the amended terms are deemed accepted. We will specifically inform you of this consequence in the change notification. If you object, we may terminate the affected service at the end of the current billing period.

Updated 20 November 2026