Terms of Use

1. The service

polyomino.io ("the service") is a free, ad-supported, browser-based multiplayer game operated by Victor Löwen, Germany ("we", "us"). For full contact details see the Impressum. The service is offered worldwide and provided as-is, without any guarantee of continued availability.

2. Eligibility

The service is intended for general audiences. By using the service you confirm that you are at least 16 years old, or that a parent or legal guardian has consented to your use of the service on your behalf. The age of digital consent for non-essential data processing varies by country (16 in Germany under Art. 8 GDPR / § 25 TTDSG; lower in some other EU Member States and outside the EU). Where the local age threshold is lower, that threshold applies.

3. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the service for unlawful purposes or in any way that violates these terms.
• Choose nicknames that are offensive, hateful, infringing, or that impersonate real people.
• Use bots, automation, scraping, or third-party tools that interact with the game server in ways the standard web client does not.
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to other players' sessions, the server, or its infrastructure.
• Transmit content that is malicious, harassing, or violates the rights of others.
• Interfere with, disrupt, or impose an unreasonable load on the service.

We may, at our sole discretion and without notice, refuse service, terminate sessions, block IP addresses, or remove content that we believe violates these terms.

4. User-supplied content

You are solely responsible for any content you provide to the service, in particular the nickname you choose. You grant us the non-exclusive right to display that nickname to other players for the duration of your game session.

5. Advertising

The service is funded by advertising. We use Google AdSense and the Google H5 Games Ad Placement API to display advertisements before, during, and after game sessions. See our Privacy Policy for details on how data is processed in this context.

6. Intellectual property

All rights, title, and interest in and to the service (including code, graphics, logos, and game design) are reserved by us, except for third-party components used under their respective licenses (such as the Ubuntu font from Google Fonts and the open-source libraries listed in our package.json). You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works from the service without our prior written consent, except as permitted by mandatory copyright exceptions.

7. Disclaimer of warranties

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or uninterrupted operation. We do not warrant that the service will be free of bugs, errors, or security vulnerabilities, or that it will be available at any particular time or location.

8. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by mandatory German law, our liability is limited as follows:

• We are liable without limitation for damages caused by intent or gross negligence, for damages from injury to life, body, or health, and for liability under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz).
• For damages caused by simple negligence, we are liable only for the breach of a material contractual obligation (cardinal duty), and only up to the amount of foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract.
• Any further liability for simple negligence is excluded.

9. Changes to the service and to these terms

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue the service at any time without notice. We may also amend these terms; the current version will always be available at this URL. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the amended terms.

10. Governing law and venue

These terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). If you are a consumer with habitual residence in another EU/EEA Member State or in another country, the mandatory consumer protection rules of that country remain unaffected by this choice of law (Art. 6 (2) Rome I Regulation).

If you are a merchant, a legal person under public law, or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contract is our place of business in Germany.

EU consumers may also use the European online dispute resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. We are not obliged and not willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

11. Sanctions and export

You may not use the service if doing so would violate sanctions or export-control laws of the European Union, Germany, the United States, or any other jurisdiction applicable to you.

12. Severability

If any provision of these terms is or becomes invalid or unenforceable, the validity of the remaining provisions shall not be affected. The invalid provision shall be replaced by a valid provision that comes closest to the economic intent of the original.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms? Contact us at [email protected]. For our full legal contact details see the Impressum.