Terms and Conditions

§ 2 Conclusion of contract and registration

The presentation of products in the ZapX shop does not constitute a legally binding offer, but a non-binding invitation for the customer to submit an offer. By submitting an order, the customer makes a binding offer to conclude a contract.

The contract is concluded once ZAP-Hosting confirms the order (e.g. by email or by provisioning the ordered product in the customer account).

A customer account is required to use ZapX. The customer is obliged to provide accurate information during registration and to keep their login credentials confidential.

§ 3 Services

Depending on the product ordered, ZAP-Hosting provides the customer with virtual or physical server resources and related management functions in the ZapX customer panel. Currently offered product categories are game servers, vServer/VPS, dedicated servers, TeamSpeak 3 servers, Discord bot hosting, domain registrations, and the ZapX Pass add-on subscription. The exact scope of each product results from the respective product description in the shop at the time of order.

ZAP-Hosting guarantees an annual availability of server services of at least 99.5%, unless force majeure, scheduled maintenance, or circumstances outside ZAP-Hosting's control (e.g. upstream network outages, DDoS attacks) affect availability.

ZAP-Hosting reserves the right to adjust services as part of technical improvements, provided this is reasonable for the customer and does not materially reduce the contractually agreed scope of functionality.

§ 4 Payment terms and prices

Unless stated otherwise, all listed prices include the statutory VAT applicable at the time.

Payments are processed via our payment provider Stripe. Depending on country and availability, payment methods include credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, and Amazon Pay; the payment methods actually shown at checkout are decisive.

For recurring products (e.g. monthly or annual terms, ZapX Pass), the amount due is automatically charged at the start of each new billing period. Lifetime products are paid as a one-time purchase instead (see § 8).

If a due payment is not made, ZAP-Hosting is entitled, after setting a reasonable deadline that passes without payment, to suspend the affected services and, after a further 7-day grace period, to permanently delete the associated data.

If ZAP-Hosting wishes to change the price of an existing contract with a recurring term (including the ZapX Pass), ZAP-Hosting will notify the customer of the new price in text form (e.g. by email or in the ZapX customer panel) no later than four weeks before the start of the term from which it is to apply. The new price only applies if the customer expressly agrees to it; silence does not constitute agreement. If the customer does not agree by the end of the current term, the contract ends at that time, provided that ZAP-Hosting, together with the notification, has declared termination under § 5 in the event that the customer does not agree; otherwise the contract continues at the previous price. Lifetime products (§ 8) are excluded.

Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, ZAP-Hosting may unilaterally adjust the prices of existing contracts with a recurring term (including the ZapX Pass) if, after conclusion of the contract, costs change that are decisive for providing the service and over which ZAP-Hosting has no influence. Only the following costs are relevant: (a) electricity and energy costs of the data centres used, (b) costs of data centre space and colocation, (c) costs of network connectivity, IP transit and IP addresses, (d) third-party licence costs incurred for the respective product (e.g. operating system or software licences), (e) personnel costs for operations and support, and (f) taxes, levies and other costs imposed by public authorities. An increase is only permitted to the extent that these costs as a whole have actually risen, and only in proportion to the share of the respective cost item in the price of the product concerned; cost reductions in other listed items are offset. An increase in profit is excluded. If these costs fall as a whole, ZAP-Hosting will reduce the price according to the same criteria. An adjustment under this paragraph is made no earlier than four months after conclusion of the contract, no more than once within twelve months, and applies from the first billing period that begins after the notice period has expired. ZAP-Hosting will notify the customer of a price increase in text form (e.g. by email or in the ZapX customer panel) no later than six weeks before it takes effect, stating the cost items concerned, their share in the price and their change. A price increase under this paragraph takes effect without the customer's consent; a mere objection does not prevent it. However, the customer may terminate the contract without notice with effect from the date the price increase takes effect, by declaring termination before that date; ZAP-Hosting will expressly point this out in the notification. Lifetime products (§ 8) are excluded. Price changes for other reasons are governed exclusively by the preceding paragraph.

§ 5 Contract term and termination

Contracts with a recurring term (e.g. servers billed monthly or annually, ZapX Pass) automatically renew for the agreed term unless terminated with one week's notice before the end of the term. Dedicated servers and domains are subject to a notice period of four weeks (28 days) before the end of the term.

Termination can be declared at any time via the ZapX customer panel and takes effect at the end of the booked term; there is no minimum term beyond the booked term. The right of either party to terminate for good cause remains unaffected.

ZAP-Hosting may terminate contracts with a recurring term (including the ZapX Pass) with four weeks' notice to the end of the respective term. This does not apply to Lifetime products (§ 8).

Lifetime products are subject to the special rules in § 8; they are not "terminated" in the conventional sense, but are subject to the lock rules described there (lock and retention rules).

§ 6 Right of withdrawal

Consumers have a statutory right of withdrawal for contracts concluded at a distance. ZAP-Hosting voluntarily grants it to the same extent to customers who are businesses.

Withdrawal notice

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period is fourteen days from the day the contract was concluded.

To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us (ZAP-Hosting GmbH, Hafenweg 8, 48155 Münster, Germany, email: info@zap-hosting.com) of your decision to withdraw from this contract by means of a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax, or email). To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient that you send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Alternatively, you can declare the withdrawal within the withdrawal period directly in the ZapX customer panel: in the details of the respective order via “Cancel order” in the “Right of withdrawal” section. This withdrawal is executed immediately.

Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse all payments received from you for the order without undue delay and no later than fourteen days from the day on which we received notice of your withdrawal. We make no deduction from this refund, with one exception: if you received a credit for a pause of this order or for a switch to a cheaper plan, we take that credit back. The part you have not yet used is debited from your customer balance. The part you have already used is offset against the refund. We do not charge compensation for the service provided up to the withdrawal and no withdrawal fee, regardless of whether and for how long you have already used the service.

We will use the same means of payment you used for the original transaction for this reimbursement; the part you paid with ZapX credit is credited back to your credit balance. If a refund to the original means of payment is technically not possible, we will credit the amount to your ZapX credit balance.

The withdrawal ends the order, the associated service is deleted immediately, and the data stored on it is permanently removed. Please back up your data before you withdraw.

No early expiry

Within the withdrawal period, the right of withdrawal does not expire prematurely — not even because you already use the service or because we have already provided it.

Special cases

• Lifetime product with ZapX Pass: if you bought a Lifetime product together with a ZapX Pass in the same order, withdrawing the Lifetime product does not include the ZapX Pass; we refund the amount paid for the Lifetime product. You can withdraw the ZapX Pass separately via its own order. Without an active ZapX Pass you cannot use the Lifetime product; your Lifetime servers are then locked.
• Plan change: if you changed your plan after ordering (upgrade), we refund the total amount actually paid for the order, including the payment for the plan change.
• Pre-orders: you can cancel a pre-order for a game that has not been released yet at any time until the game is unlocked and receive the full amount back.
• Dedicated servers: you can cancel an order for which the hardware has not been handed over yet until the server handover and receive the full amount back to the original means of payment.
• Move from the legacy customer panel: moving an existing lifetime service (vServer or dedicated server) is not a purchase and cannot be withdrawn. You can withdraw the ZapX Pass ordered for it, including the Dedicated Lifetime slots booked in it, through its own order. Slots you add later to an existing ZapX Pass are refunded only together with that Pass, if you withdraw the Pass order within its withdrawal period. Without an active ZapX Pass the moved lifetime servers are locked (stopped, no access). Your Lifetime entitlement remains in place; the periods in § 8 of the terms apply to the data (kept fully intact for at least 14 days, then archived or, for dedicated servers, the hardware is released). As soon as you have an active ZapX Pass and a free Lifetime slot again, they are unlocked automatically and you start them yourself; the IP address and port may change. Returning to the legacy customer panel is not possible after a withdrawal either.
• Domains: § 9 applies to domain registrations; they are excluded from withdrawal via the customer panel.

Model withdrawal form

(If you want to withdraw from the contract, please fill out this form and send it back.)

To ZAP-Hosting GmbH, Hafenweg 8, 48155 Münster, Germany, email: info@zap-hosting.com:

I/We (*) hereby give notice that I/We (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract for the provision of the following service (*):
— Ordered on (*):
— Name of consumer(s):
— Address of consumer(s):
— Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper)
— Date
(*) Delete as appropriate.

§ 7 ZapX Pass

ZapX Pass is an account-wide, monthly-billed add-on subscription available in several tiers. Depending on the tier booked, it grants, among other things, additional backup allowances, priority support, a Discord role, access to the AI assistant, and — as a core requirement — the ability to use Lifetime products under § 8.

An upgrade of the ZapX Pass tier takes effect immediately. A downgrade only takes effect at the end of the current billing period and can be reversed until then.

ZapX Pass can be cancelled at any time via the ZapX customer panel, effective at the end of the current billing period. The current tiers, prices, and entitlements are available on the ZapX Pass product page in the shop.

§ 8 Lifetime products

Lifetime products (available for game servers, vServers, TeamSpeak 3 servers, dedicated servers, and Discord bot hosting) are paid for as a one-time purchase and grant the right to use the respective product for an unlimited period — provided the following conditions continue to be met.

Lifetime products can only be used in conjunction with an active ZapX Pass. The number of Lifetime products that can be actively used at the same time ("Lifetime slots") depends on the ZapX Pass tier booked; the current entitlements per tier are available on the ZapX Pass product page in the shop.

If ZapX Pass is cancelled or downgraded to a tier with a lower slot entitlement, such that the number of actively used Lifetime products exceeds the new entitlement, the excess Lifetime products are automatically and immediately locked. If more than one Lifetime product is affected, the products to be locked are selected at random — in this case, the customer cannot choose which product is locked.

A locked Lifetime product is stopped and can no longer be accessed; the following paragraph applies to the stored data. As soon as an active ZapX Pass and a free Lifetime slot are available again (e.g. by re-subscribing to or upgrading ZapX Pass, or by freeing up another Lifetime slot), the product is unlocked automatically and, if it has already been archived, restored. It does not restart automatically: after the unlock, the customer starts the product themselves via the customer panel. The IP address and port of the product may change upon reactivation.

The Lifetime entitlement remains in place even if there is no longer a ZapX Pass or the slot entitlement is insufficient. The locked product and its stored data are kept fully intact for at least 14 days from the lock. After that, ZAP-Hosting may archive a locked vServer, game server, TeamSpeak server or Discord bot: the data is backed up and the resources are released. The archive is kept for at least six months; if the product is unlocked during this time, it is restored from the archive. After that, the archive may be deleted, and if the product is unlocked later, it is set up fresh without the previous data. For Dedicated Servers, the assigned hardware may be released once the 14 days have passed, in which case all drives are wiped; on an unlock, a server of the same model or an equivalent server is set up fresh. ZAP-Hosting informs the customer by email at least three days before an upcoming archiving or release, and at least 14 days before an archive is deleted. The right of either party to terminate for good cause (§ 5) remains unaffected.

Independently of the above, a customer with several Lifetime products may, if the booked ZapX Pass tier allows it, voluntarily lock a Lifetime product to free up a Lifetime slot for another product. A voluntarily locked Lifetime product is not unlocked automatically; it remains locked until the customer reactivates it themselves (provided a Lifetime slot is free). The preceding paragraph applies accordingly to its stored data.

§ 9 Domains

Domain registration is carried out via the respective responsible registry and is additionally subject to its registration terms. Domains are booked for the minimum term chosen when ordering (at least one year) and afterwards automatically renew for a further year at a time unless terminated in good time.

A domain's term usually ends five days before the expiration date recorded at the registry; the end of term shown in the ZapX customer panel is authoritative. The renewal for a further year is charged to the stored payment method when the notice period under § 5 expires, i.e. 28 days before the end of the term. Until the end of that day, the customer can switch off automatic renewal in the customer panel at any time; this counts as termination in good time at the end of the term.

If automatic renewal is switched off, or the renewal cannot be charged even after repeated payment attempts, the domain is deleted at the registry at the end of the term and is no longer available afterwards. Restoring a deleted domain is not guaranteed; where the registry offers it, it is subject to a separate charge.

Since registration is requested from the registry immediately after ordering, a domain that has already been successfully registered is excluded from termination during the current contract term; the right of withdrawal under § 6 expires accordingly upon successful registration.

§ 10 Customer obligations

• The customer is solely responsible for all content stored, processed, or made publicly accessible on the services they have booked.
• The customer may not use the booked services for unlawful purposes, in particular not for sending spam, distributing malware, or attacking third parties.
• The customer is obliged to keep their login credentials confidential and to inform ZAP-Hosting immediately if they become aware of unauthorized access to their account.

§ 11 Liability

ZAP-Hosting is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, as well as under the German Product Liability Act and for injury to life, body, or health. For damages caused by slight negligence, ZAP-Hosting is only liable for breach of a material contractual obligation (cardinal obligation) whose fulfillment is essential for the proper performance of the contract and on whose compliance the customer may regularly rely; in this case, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract at the time the contract was concluded.

§ 12 Data protection

Information on the processing of personal data can be found in our Privacy Policy.

§ 13 Final provisions

The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. For consumers, this only applies to the extent that the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the state in which the consumer has their habitual residence is not thereby withdrawn.

The contract language is the language of the version of these Terms that the customer accepted when concluding the contract (German or English). Translations into other languages are provided for information only. Mandatory consumer protection provisions of the state in which the consumer has their habitual residence remain unaffected.

Should individual provisions of these Terms be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected.