Terms of Service

Contract and operator

These Terms form a contract between you and the legal operator identified in the operator and contact block on this page. In these Terms, that operator is referred to as The Vow, we, us, or our.

These Terms are published in English, and the English version is the authoritative version of this contract. Nothing in these Terms limits a right that applicable law does not allow us to limit, and the mandatory consumer protections of your country of residence apply whatever the language of this contract.

1. What The Vow is

The Vow is an adult dating and matchmaking service designed around one-person-at-a-time dating. It provides discovery, compatibility-based introductions, mutual-interest tools, private messaging, guided relationship milestones, and video dates.

The Vow does not sell access to a person or guarantee a match, response, confirmation, relationship outcome, identity, intention, conduct, or safety. Matching and verification tools can reduce risk and ambiguity; they cannot remove them.

Date is the complete free path. I’ve Got Criteria and The Vow are optional deeper paths. Each person may need a valid connection credit before a deeper-path introduction can activate.

2. Eligibility

You may use The Vow only if you meet every applicable eligibility condition.

• You are at least 18 years old and can lawfully enter a binding contract.
• You are seeking a monogamous relationship and are genuinely available to date one person at a time.
• You are not prohibited by law from using the service.
• You have not been removed from The Vow unless we have given written permission to return.
• You comply with these Terms and the Safety Standards.

3. Your account

Create and use only your own personal account. Keep verification codes and account-access details confidential, and tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised access.

Provide materially accurate information about identity, age, photos, location, relationship status, availability, and intent. Update information that would reasonably affect another member’s decision to connect. We may request proportionate evidence of age, identity, or account ownership and may combine, restrict, or remove duplicate, fraudulent, or evasion accounts.

4. The one-person-at-a-time rule

The service is built around one Focused Match at a time.

• Mutual interest alone does not activate a Focused Match; both people must separately and explicitly confirm.
• The shared confirmation period begins when interest becomes mutual.
• A person who confirms first is provisionally locked while waiting. The other person is not locked until they confirm.
• Neither person is shown the other person’s confirmation order, payment readiness, decline, withdrawal, expiry, or payment-failure state.
• If the introduction does not activate, both people receive the same neutral outcome and no connection credit is consumed.
• While a Focused Match is active, discovery is closed across every section.
• Limited pending messages from the first confirmer stay hidden unless the Focused Match activates.

5. Profiles, messages, and member content

You retain ownership of photos, profile text, survey responses, messages, reports, and other content you provide. You grant The Vow a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, technically adapt, moderate, and display that content only as needed to operate, secure, improve, and provide the service in accordance with your visibility choices, these Terms, and the Privacy Policy.

That licence ends when the content is deleted, except for lawfully retained safety, fraud, legal, backup, or accounting copies. You confirm that you have the rights needed to provide the content and that it does not violate another person’s privacy, image, intellectual-property, or other rights.

Visibility controls cannot prevent a recipient from taking a screenshot or acting outside our systems. Share carefully and report misuse.

6. The Vow Code and Community Standards

The Safety Standards form part of these Terms. They prohibit harassment, threats, hate, impersonation, scams, sexual coercion, exploitation, child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE), child sexual abuse material (CSAM), non-consensual intimate material, doxxing, unlawful activity, commercial solicitation, and attempts to bypass safety or one-person-at-a-time controls.

Use report and block tools when appropriate. In immediate danger, contact local emergency services first. The Vow is not an emergency, law-enforcement, medical, or crisis service.

7. Verification and personal safety

Phone verification confirms control of a phone number at that time. Selfie/profile review is a manual visual-consistency check unless we expressly state otherwise. It is not government identity verification, a criminal-background check, or a guarantee that someone is safe or truthful.

Use your own judgment. Consider meeting in public, telling someone you trust where you will be, controlling your transport, protecting home and financial information, keeping early communication in the service, and leaving any situation that feels unsafe.

8. Matching and recommendations

We use profile information, preferences, survey responses, market, availability, safety status, blocks, section eligibility, orientation compatibility, and one-person-at-a-time locks to decide which introductions may be shown and in what order. Paid status never buys ranking or visibility.

An authorised administrator may prioritise a potentially suitable introduction but cannot bypass safety, blocks, availability, compatibility, consent, eligibility, or lock rules. Compatibility signals are estimates, not promises. You decide whether to express interest, confirm, communicate, meet, or end a connection.

9. Video dates

An in-app video date is a required guided step in every active Focused Match. Each member may request the number of reschedules shown in the product.

Unless clearly disclosed before a call, The Vow does not record or transcribe video dates. Participants must not record, stream, or distribute a call without every participant’s prior consent and a lawful basis.

10. Paid connection credits

A connection credit is a single-use digital right for an eligible deeper path. It is not a subscription, does not buy a person, ranking, or visibility, and does not guarantee an introduction or relationship.

Each person independently needs their own valid credit for a paid-path Focused Match. A purchased credit becomes available only after verified provider confirmation. It is reserved during final confirmation and consumed exactly once only if both people confirm and the Focused Match activates.

If an introduction does not activate because it is declined, withdrawn, expires, or cannot establish payment readiness, the reservation is released and the credit returns. No credit is consumed.

Before a web purchase, we show the product, total price including applicable taxes, currency, credit lifecycle, accepted payment methods, withdrawal information, and a payment control that clearly communicates the obligation to pay. We provide purchase confirmation on a durable medium. Web purchases are processed by Stripe. Native purchases are processed through Apple or Google and supported by RevenueCat.

11. Withdrawal, refunds, and credit returns

For an eligible web distance contract, a consumer may have a statutory 14-day right to withdraw without giving a reason. The purchase flow provides the approved withdrawal instructions and model form. Any exception for immediate digital performance applies only when the legal requirements for that exception have been satisfied.

A credit returning to an in-app balance because an introduction did not activate is not the same as a monetary refund. A consumed credit is not automatically returned merely because an active Focused Match later ends. Mandatory remedies for a defective service, unauthorised payment, provider error, our breach, or other legal rights remain available.

For Apple or Google purchases, use the relevant store’s refund process when that store controls the transaction. Contact support if the in-app credit state does not match a verified store decision.

12. Service availability and changes

We may maintain, secure, correct, or improve the service and may change non-essential features. We do not promise uninterrupted availability. We give reasonable notice of material adverse contract changes unless an urgent legal, security, safety, or abuse issue requires faster action.

If a material change requires renewed agreement or consent, we ask before relying on the new version. Continued use does not replace explicit consent where the law requires it.

13. Moderation, restrictions, and appeals

We may review, limit visibility, remove content, warn, temporarily restrict, suspend, or terminate an account when reasonably necessary to enforce these Terms, protect people, comply with law, or secure the service. We consider severity, context, repetition, evidence, and risk; a report alone is not automatic proof.

Where required, we provide a statement of reasons and a free way to request human review. We may withhold details when disclosure would endanger someone, compromise an investigation, expose confidential information, or be prohibited by law.

14. Ending your account

You may stop using The Vow at any time and may initiate full account deletion through Privacy Controls. The public Account Deletion page explains the process for people who cannot access the app. Deletion is not merely deactivation.

We may restrict or end an account for serious or repeated breaches, safety risk, fraud, unlawful activity, or a legal requirement. Where appropriate, we provide notice and an appeal path.

15. Intellectual property

The service software, design, brand, non-member content, and documentation belong to The Vow or its licensors. These Terms give you a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable right to use the service for its intended purpose. Do not copy, sell, scrape, automate access to, reverse engineer, or exploit the service except where law expressly permits it.

16. Complaints and conformity

Use the Contact page for service, payment, or consumer complaints. Include your account email or phone, the date, the issue, and the resolution you seek, but never send a password, one-time verification code, or full payment-card details.

We are responsible for conformity of digital services and content to the extent required by applicable consumer law. Support, moderation, refund, and complaint tools do not waive statutory remedies.

17. Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including mandatory consumer protections and liability for fraud or intentional misconduct.

Subject to those protections, The Vow is responsible for foreseeable loss caused by our breach. We are not responsible for loss caused solely by another member, information you choose to disclose outside the service, an event outside reasonable control, or use contrary to clear safety guidance, except where law provides otherwise.

18. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by German law, because the operator is established in Germany. If you are a consumer habitually resident in another country of the European Union, that choice does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence. For members in Poland, mandatory Polish consumer protections continue to apply in full.

Courts are determined by applicable law; these Terms do not force a consumer into a forum that mandatory law does not permit. A consumer may bring proceedings in the courts of their own country of residence.

Please contact us first so we can try to resolve a concern. This does not restrict any right to contact a consumer authority, data-protection authority, Digital Services Coordinator, approved out-of-court body, or court.

19. General terms

If one provision is unenforceable, the remainder continues to apply. A delay in enforcing a term is not a waiver. You may not transfer your account or these Terms. We may transfer the contract as part of a legitimate business reorganisation only with legally required notice and without reducing your rights.

These Terms, the Safety Standards, approved purchase disclosures, and incorporated notices form the agreement for the service.