Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

Creating an account, or simply using the App as a guest, means you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you're using the App on behalf of someone else (for example, a family member), you confirm you have their permission to do so.

2. Eligibility

The App does not currently apply a specific minimum age requirement. If you are a minor under the law that applies to you, please make sure you have permission from a parent or legal guardian before using the App, and especially before making any purchase.

3. Description of the Service

Shahrzād is a structured Persian-language course: adaptive vocabulary and grammar exercises, pronunciation audio, spaced review of words you find difficult, and supplementary cultural content, organized into daily lessons across a set of themed subjects. The App can be used entirely as a guest, with progress kept only on your device, or with an optional account (Section 4) that syncs your progress across devices.

4. Accounts and Account Security

You can create an account via Google, Apple, or email. You're responsible for keeping your sign-in credentials confidential and for activity that happens under your account. Contact us at support@shahrzadonline.com promptly if you suspect unauthorized use of your account.

5. Learning Content and Intellectual Property

The App's course content, illustrations, audio, and software are owned by us or our licensors and protected by copyright and other intellectual property law. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the App for your own language learning. You may not extract, republish, or redistribute the course content.

Historical and cultural content in the App reflects our own original writing about publicly known history, provided for general interest and education — it isn't professional historical, religious, or academic advice.

6. Acceptable Use

When using the App, you agree not to:

• •Use it for any unlawful purpose or in a way that breaches these Terms
• •Attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract its source code or course content for redistribution
• •Use bots, scrapers, or other automated means to access it outside of normal, individual use
• •Interfere with or disrupt the App's servers or infrastructure
• •Impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone

7. Free Access

The course is designed so that an initial portion is available free of charge to everyone, with the remainder available through a paid subscription once purchases are enabled for your platform (see Section 8). Right now, in-app purchases aren't yet live on any store, so the full course is available free of charge. Once paid tiers are enabled, we'll make clear in the App and on the relevant app store which content requires a subscription.

8. Paid Subscriptions and Purchases

When enabled, the App will offer optional paid subscriptions (monthly, yearly, or a one-time lifetime purchase) unlocking the full course, referred to internally as the "shahrzad_app_pro" entitlement. All purchases are made through, and processed by, the Apple App Store or Google Play — never directly by us.

9. Pricing, Billing, Automatic Renewal and Cancellation

Prices are shown in the App and on the relevant app store before you buy, and may vary by region and currency. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled before the renewal date. Because subscriptions are billed by Apple or Google, you manage and cancel them through your Apple ID or Google Play account settings — we do not have the technical ability to cancel a subscription on your behalf. The App may also offer a subscription-management screen where you can view your billing history and certain subscription details, but the subscription itself always remains controlled through your Apple ID or Google Play account.

If we change pricing, it will apply to future billing periods only, with reasonable advance notice.

10. Apple App Store and Google Play

Your purchase is also subject to the usage terms of the app store you bought it through (Apple's or Google's own terms and policies apply to billing, refund handling, and payment method management). Those terms exist alongside these Terms, not instead of them.

11. Refunds

Refund requests for purchases made through the Apple App Store or Google Play are handled by Apple or Google according to their own refund policies — we don't have the ability to issue refunds for those purchases directly. This does not replace or limit your statutory rights as a consumer under Dutch and EU law, described in Sections 12–13 below, which continue to apply regardless of any store's own refund policy.

12. Your Consumer Rights Under EU/Dutch Law

If you are a consumer, mandatory Dutch and EU consumer-protection law applies to your purchase and cannot be excluded by these Terms. This includes your rights regarding digital content and digital services that don't conform to what was agreed (Book 7 of the Dutch Civil Code, implementing the EU Digital Content Directive), such as the right to have the issue fixed, to a price reduction, or in some cases to end the contract.

13. Right of Withdrawal for Digital Content and Services

As a consumer in the EU, you normally have a 14-day right to withdraw from a distance purchase without giving a reason. For digital content and digital services like a Shahrzād subscription, this right ends earlier if you expressly ask for the subscription to start immediately and acknowledge that doing so means you lose the right of withdrawal once the service has begun — which is generally what happens when you complete a purchase through the App Store or Google Play and start using the unlocked content right away.

This early loss of the withdrawal right only concerns your right to change your mind — it does not affect your separate, non-waivable rights under Section 12 if the digital service turns out not to conform to what was agreed.

14. Service Availability and Changes

We aim to keep the App available and working well, but we don't guarantee that it will always be available, uninterrupted, or free of errors — like any software, it can need maintenance, updates, or occasional downtime. We may add, change, or remove features over time; where a change materially reduces what a paid subscription includes, we'll give you reasonable notice.

15. Termination and Account Deletion

You can stop using the App at any time. Settings lets you reset your progress, clear the data stored locally on your device, or delete your account and the data we store on our servers ("Delete my account"), immediately and yourself. Deleting your account does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription, which you manage in your store account. You can also write to support@shahrzadonline.com — see the Privacy Policy for details.

We may suspend or terminate your access if you seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms, giving notice where reasonably possible.

16. Intellectual Property Rights

Shahrzād, its logo, and its branding are owned by us. Nothing in these Terms transfers any of our intellectual property rights to you beyond the limited usage right in Section 5.

17. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains what personal data we process and why. It forms part of these Terms — please read it.

18. Liability

To the extent permitted by mandatory Dutch and EU law, our liability for damages arising from your use of the App is limited to direct damages, and we exclude liability for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for intent or gross negligence on our part, for death or personal injury, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable mandatory law — including your statutory rights described in Sections 12–13.

19. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Netherlands. If you are a consumer habitually resident in another EU member state, you continue to benefit from any mandatory consumer-protection rules of that country that cannot be set aside by agreement.

20. Disputes and Your Statutory Rights

If you have a complaint, please contact us first at support@shahrzadonline.com so we can try to resolve it directly. Disputes that can't be resolved this way may be brought before the competent Dutch court, or, if you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the EU, before the courts of your own member state, at your choice. Nothing in this section limits any statutory right you have as a consumer.

21. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will let you know through the App or by other reasonable means before they take effect. Continuing to use the App after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

22. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to support@shahrzadonline.com or info@shahrzadonline.com.

About This Document

These Terms are meant to set out the rules for using Shahrzād in plain, fair language — they are not legal advice, either to us or to you.