Terms of Service & Acceptable Use Policy

These terms are between you and MercureHosting. They're written to be read. If something is unclear, ask us at support@mercurehosting.com before you order.

1. Acceptable use: prohibited in every location

Privacy is not a licence for abuse. Whatever the jurisdiction, the following lead to immediate suspension without refund:

• Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in any form, including links to it. We report it to the relevant authorities.
• Malware distribution, command-and-control servers, botnets and ransomware infrastructure
• Phishing, credential harvesting, carding and fraud of any kind
• Unsolicited bulk email or messaging spam, and hosting sites advertised through spam
• Launching DDoS attacks, or scanning, brute-forcing or exploiting systems you don't own or aren't authorised to test
• Terrorist content, and threats or incitement to violence against people
• Non-consensual intimate imagery and doxxing
• Sale of weapons, drugs or other goods that are illegal in the hosting jurisdiction
• Any other content or activity that is illegal in the jurisdiction where the server is located

2. Restricted activities

These are allowed only with our written approval in advance:

• Tor exit relays (middle relays and onion services don't need approval)
• Outbound SMTP on port 25 (opened after a short review)
• Authorised security testing that generates scan traffic

3. Complaints, copyright and legal orders

Every complaint is reviewed under the law of the country where the server is located. Foreign notices, including US DMCA notices, don't cause automatic takedowns. Where a complaint is valid under local law we contact you and give you a reasonable chance to respond, unless the law or the severity of the issue requires us to act immediately. Copyright infringement as defined by the hosting jurisdiction's law is not allowed. We comply with valid court orders issued in the hosting jurisdiction.

4. Your account

You need to give us one working contact method and keep it current. You're responsible for your credentials, for everything that runs on your services and for the actions of anyone (or any software agent) you give access to. You must be at least 18 years old.

5. Orders and payment

• Services are prepaid in cryptocurrency at the USD prices shown when you order.
• Invoices are valid for a limited time. Underpaid invoices are topped up or credited to your balance.
• Discounts for 3, 6 and 12-month terms apply to the whole term paid up front.
• Renewals are billed at the price in effect at renewal. We give at least 30 days' notice of any price increase.

6. Late payment and deletion

Services that aren't renewed are suspended at the end of the paid term and permanently deleted 7 days later. Deleted data can't be recovered.

7. Refunds

If a service can't be delivered, you get a full refund to your balance or your wallet. Otherwise you can ask for a pro-rata refund of unused full months within 14 days of ordering. Services suspended for AUP violations aren't refunded. Refunds are made in the original coin at the USD value paid.

8. Availability

We target 99.9% monthly network availability, excluding announced maintenance. This is a target, not a guarantee, and service credits apply only where agreed in writing. Current status is on our status page.

9. Fair use of resources

"Unmetered" bandwidth means we don't bill per gigabyte, not that a port can be saturated indefinitely at the expense of other customers. Cryptocurrency mining on shared VPS, and sustained CPU or I/O load that degrades service for others, aren't allowed. We'll contact you before taking action unless the load is harming the network.

10. Backups

You're responsible for backing up your own data unless you've bought a backup service from us.

11. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate services that break these terms. Where it's safe and lawful, we tell you why. You can cancel at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid term.

12. Liability

Services are provided "as is". To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid for the affected service in the three months before the claim.

13. Governing law

Disputes about these terms are governed by the law of the jurisdiction where the operating company is registered. Matters about a specific server's content are assessed under the law of the jurisdiction where that server is located.

14. Changes

We may update these terms. Material changes are announced to active customers at least 14 days before they take effect. The effective date above always shows the current version.

15. Reporting abuse

Send reports with evidence (URLs, IP addresses, timestamps, headers) to abuse@mercurehosting.com. We review every report, usually within one business day.