1Who we are and what these terms cover
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a legal agreement between you ("you", "your", the "Customer" or "User") and DDcheck ("DDcheck", "we", "us", "our"). They govern your access to and use of the DDcheck website, web application, application programming interface (API) and any related reports, data, scores and documents (together, the "Service").
By creating an account, accessing or using the Service — or by clicking to accept these Terms — you confirm that you have read and agree to be bound by them, and that you have authority to do so on behalf of any organisation you represent. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
You confirm that you are using the Service for business, professional or organisational purposes and not as a consumer.
In these Terms: an "Authorized User" is a person you permit to access the Service under your account; a "Search Subject" is any company or individual you screen, search for or look up through the Service (for example a prospective client, counterparty, director or beneficial owner). You are responsible for your Authorized Users' use of the Service as if it were your own.
2What the Service is — and what it is not
DDcheck is a know-your-business (KYB) and anti-money-laundering (AML) screening and pre-check tool. It aggregates and presents information about companies and individuals drawn from a wide range of public and private third-party sources — including official business registries, sanctions and watchlists, politically-exposed-person (PEP) data, adverse-media and other open and commercial data providers — and may apply matching, scoring and reporting on top of that information.
The Service is a support tool only. It is not:
- a source of truth, register of record, or substitute for the underlying source data;
- legal, regulatory, compliance, financial, tax, investment or professional advice of any kind;
- a recommendation, instruction or decision to accept, decline, continue or terminate any customer, transaction, account or business relationship;
- a credit reference, background-check or consumer-reporting service (see clause 6); or
- a guarantee that any person or company is, or is not, sanctioned, a PEP, insolvent, fraudulent or otherwise high-risk.
3No warranty — information is provided "as is"
The information presented by the Service originates from third-party, public and private sources that we do not control, author or independently verify. Those sources may be incomplete, out of date, duplicated, mis-keyed, mistranslated, ambiguous or simply wrong, and coverage varies by country and source.
Accordingly, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service and all information, matches, scores, reports and outputs are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis, without warranty of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory. We specifically disclaim any warranty as to:
- accuracy, completeness, correctness, currency, timeliness or reliability of any information or result;
- the results that may be obtained from use of the Service, or that the Service will identify every relevant record, hit or risk;
- any implied warranties of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement; and
- uninterrupted, secure, timely or error-free operation, or that defects will be corrected.
A "no hit", "clear" or low-risk result means only that no matching record was found in the sources screened at that time; it is not confirmation that no such record exists. You must not treat any result as definitive or rely on it without your own verification.
4Your responsibility — the decision is always yours
The Service supports, but does not replace, your own judgement and obligations. You acknowledge and agree that:
- output is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any nature;
- the Service is not a substitute for your own customer due diligence (CDD), KYC/KYB checks, enhanced due diligence, risk assessment, record-keeping or independent verification;
- you remain solely responsible for all decisions, conclusions and actions you take based on the Service, and for the consequences of those decisions;
- you are solely responsible for your own compliance with all laws and regulations applicable to you, including AML/CTF, sanctions, data-protection and consumer-protection law; and
- you will independently verify any result against the underlying official source before relying on it.
We do not warrant that the Service will accurately predict risk or prevent a faulty decision, and we are not responsible for the consequences of any decision you make.
The Service — including any risk score, flag or rating — is decision-support, not an automated decision. It must not be used as the sole basis for any business decision, and we do not make any decision that produces legal or similarly significant effects for a Search Subject. A person in your organisation must review the information and make the decision.
5Acceptable use and prohibited use
You may use the Service only for your own legitimate AML/CTF, KYC/KYB, sanctions-screening, fraud-prevention and risk-assessment activities, and only in a lawful manner. You must not, and must not permit anyone else to:
- use the Service or any output for any unlawful, fraudulent, discriminatory, harassing or abusive purpose;
- use the Service or any output to make or support a decision that unlawfully discriminates against a Search Subject, or in any way that breaches equality, anti-discrimination or human-rights law;
- scrape, crawl, harvest, bulk-extract or systematically download data, or use any automated means beyond the documented API and within your plan limits;
- circumvent or attempt to circumvent rate limits, quotas, access controls or security (including by using multiple accounts, keys or IP addresses);
- resell, redistribute, sublicense, publish, broker or otherwise make the Service or its data available to any third party, except your own internal authorised users;
- use the Service to build, train or improve a competing product or dataset, or to benchmark against a competitor;
- copy, store or re-use the data to create or update your own database or source of the information, or to re-identify individuals;
- use the data for marketing, advertising, list-building, cold-contact or commercial solicitation;
- reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any part of the Service, or misuse our names, logos or trade marks; or
- share account credentials or API keys; you are responsible for all activity under your account and must keep your credentials secure and deactivate access for leavers.
We may suspend or terminate access immediately, without notice, if we reasonably believe you have breached this clause.
6Not a consumer reporting agency
DDcheck is not a consumer reporting agency, and the Service and its outputs are not "consumer reports" within the meaning of the US Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.) or any equivalent law. You must not use the Service, in whole or in part, as a factor in establishing any individual's eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing or tenancy, education, a licence or benefit, or for any other purpose regulated by the FCRA or comparable consumer-protection legislation. You are responsible for ensuring your use complies with all such laws and you indemnify us against any claim arising from a breach of this clause (see clause 12).
7Data, privacy and retention
Our handling of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, which form part of these Terms.
We do not retain your search data. Search queries and the results returned to you are processed on a transient, pass-through basis to deliver the result, and are not retained, sold or re-used for any other purpose. We keep only the limited operational and security logs necessary to run, secure and bill the Service, and any records we are required by law to keep (for example, AML record-keeping obligations). Where you choose to save a case, dossier or monitoring entry, that content is held for your convenience, is under your control, and you may export or delete it under your own retention policy.
As between you and us, you remain responsible for the lawful basis for, and the consequences of, the searches you run and any onward use of the results — including notifying data subjects where your own law requires it.
Where we process personal data on your behalf as a processor — for example the search terms you submit — we do so only on your documented instructions, and data-processing terms reflecting UK GDPR Article 28 apply and are available on request.
8Accounts, plans and fees
Certain features require an account and a paid subscription plan. You agree to provide accurate registration information and to keep it current. Plan inclusions, quotas and prices are as described at sign-up or in your order. Unless stated otherwise, fees are exclusive of taxes, are payable in advance, and are non-refundable except where required by law. We may change plans, features and prices on reasonable notice; changes do not affect a paid period already running.
9Availability and changes to the Service
We aim to keep the Service available but do not guarantee any particular uptime or availability. We may modify, suspend, limit or discontinue any part of the Service, including data sources and coverage, at any time. Third-party sources may change, become unavailable or restrict access, which can affect coverage and results. We are not liable for any such change or unavailability.
10Intellectual property
The Service, including its software, design, scoring logic, reports, compilation and arrangement of data, and all related intellectual property, is and remains owned by DDcheck or its licensors. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service for your internal business purposes during your subscription, in accordance with these Terms. You retain ownership of the inputs you submit. The underlying source data may be subject to its originators' own rights and licence terms.
11Limitation of liability
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or (c) any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.
Subject to that, to the fullest extent permitted by law:
- we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive or exemplary loss; nor for any loss of profits, revenue, business, contracts, anticipated savings, goodwill or opportunity; nor for any loss or corruption of data; nor for any pure economic loss — in each case however arising, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, misrepresentation or otherwise, even if we were advised of the possibility;
- we shall not be liable for any decision made, or action taken or not taken, in reliance on the Service, or for the inaccuracy, incompleteness or unavailability of any source data; and
- our total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Service and these Terms shall not exceed the greater of (i) the total fees you paid to us for the Service in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (ii) £100.
You acknowledge that the fees reflect this allocation of risk and that the limitations are reasonable.
12Indemnity
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless DDcheck and its officers, employees, contractors and suppliers against any claims, liabilities, losses, damages, fines, penalties and costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with: (a) your use of the Service or any output; (b) your breach of these Terms or of any law or regulation (including AML/CTF, sanctions, FCRA/consumer-protection and data-protection law); (c) your processing of personal data or failure to notify any data subject; or (d) any decision you make in reliance on the Service.
13Suspension and termination
You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access, in whole or in part, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms, if required by law, or to protect the Service or other users. On termination, your licence ends and you must stop using the Service; clauses that by their nature should survive (including 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 15) will survive.
14Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the updated version here and change the "Last updated" date. Material changes will be notified by reasonable means. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
15Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them (including non-contractual disputes) are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, save that we may bring proceedings in any jurisdiction where you are established to protect our rights.
16Contact
Questions about these Terms can be sent to legal@ddcheck.uk.