Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Mini Locals is a ZAUBAR product provided by Zaubar UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Nollendorfstraße 20, 10777 Berlin, Germany, registered with the Amtsgericht Berlin (Charlottenburg) under HRB 209288, VAT ID DE326016451 ("we", "us", "our"). Contact: hello@zaubar.com, +49 176 45709672. More details are in our imprint.

These terms apply to the Mini Locals website minilocals.com, the Mini Locals web app, the Android and iOS apps and every related feature, content and communication (together the "Service"). By creating an account, buying anything or using the Service, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

Also part of your agreement: our Refund and Withdrawal Policy. How we handle personal data is explained in our Privacy Policy, which is not a contract. For purchases on the web, the buyer terms of our reseller Paddle.com apply in addition; for purchases in the apps, the terms of Google Play or the Apple App Store apply in addition.

2. The Service

Mini Locals offers short, entertaining stories about real places: audio stories and guided walks that play where you are, short videos about places near and far, and answers to questions you ask along the way. Parts of the narration, voices, images, video, music and answers are created or assisted by artificial intelligence (see section 15).

What you need. An internet connection, a supported device and a current operating system or browser. Content streams and is not available offline unless the app says so. Features that work with your location need you to allow location access. Data charges from your mobile provider may apply.

Where. The Service is available worldwide. Stories about specific places, such as walks, are available where we have made them, starting with San Francisco; videos about places can be watched from anywhere. The catalogue grows and changes, and individual stories, walks or features may be changed, replaced or removed. Where the law requires it, the Service is not offered: in particular, it is not offered to people in mainland China and is not directed at them, and it is not available where sanctions laws forbid it (section 3).

Entertainment, not a guide. The Service is for personal entertainment. It is not a navigation system, a travel guide with guaranteed facts, or professional advice of any kind.

3. Who may use Mini Locals

• You must be at least 16 years old, or at least 13 years old with the permission of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to these terms for you. If a higher minimum age applies in your country, that age applies.
• Children under 13 may use the Service only together with a parent or guardian, on the adult's account. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.
• You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under applicable law, including if you are located in a country subject to a comprehensive embargo, or you are on a government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• If you use the Service for a business, you confirm that you may bind that business, and the parts of these terms written for consumers do not apply to it.

4. Your account

You can start as a guest. To keep your walks, replays and purchases across devices, you can create an account with Google, Apple (on Apple devices) or your email address. Please give correct information, keep access to your sign-in method safe, and tell us at hello@zaubar.com if you think someone else is using your account. You are responsible for what happens under your account unless it was not your fault. Each account is for one person and may not be sold or transferred.

You can delete your account at any time in the app or as described on delete your account. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription bought in a store.

5. Free use and paid access

Mini Locals is free to try with a limited amount of listening and watching time, as shown in the app. We may change the free allowance for the future. Paid access removes the limit:

• Ticket: a one-time purchase that gives unlimited access for a fixed time, shown before you buy. It does not renew and ends automatically.
• Explorer (monthly) and Pioneer (yearly): subscriptions that renew automatically, see section 6.
• Gift codes: a one-time purchase of a fixed number of months for someone else, see section 8.

The features, duration and price of each offer, including taxes, are shown on our pricing page and before you confirm a purchase. What you buy is personal access to the Service for its duration; it is not a purchase of individual stories, and no content is transferred to you.

6. Subscriptions, free trials and automatic renewal

Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel. Unless you cancel before the end of the current period, your subscription renews for another period of the same length (a month for Explorer, a year for Pioneer), and the price for that period is charged to your payment method at the start of it.

• Before you buy we show you the plan, its length, the price per period including taxes, the length of any free trial, the date of the first charge, and how to cancel. You confirm the purchase with an active click.
• Free trials. If an offer includes a free trial, you pay nothing during the trial. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, the paid subscription starts automatically when it ends and the first period is charged. A free trial is available once per person, account and payment method.
• Reminders. Where the law of the place you live requires it, we remind you before a free trial ends, before a yearly plan renews, and of any material change to your subscription, using the email address of your account or of your purchase.
• Cancelling. You can cancel at any time online, see section 9. The subscription then ends at the end of the current paid period, and you keep access until then.
• Consumers in Germany. After the first year, a yearly subscription continues for an indefinite period, and you can cancel it at any time with one month's notice; we refund the part of a renewal payment that covers the time after your subscription ends.
• Price changes. We may change the price of a subscription for future periods for valid reasons, such as higher costs for licences, hosting, AI services, payment processing or taxes. We tell you at least 30 days in advance, by email or in the app, and explain your options. If you live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, a price increase only applies to you if you agree to it; if you do not agree, we may end your subscription at the end of the period in which the new price would have applied, and we tell you so in the notice. Elsewhere, the new price applies from the first period starting after the notice period unless you cancel before; where your local law requires your consent, we ask for it. For store subscriptions, Google and Apple also apply their own rules on price changes.

7. Payment, prices and taxes

Purchases on our website and web app. Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns. Paddle's buyer terms apply to the purchase, and your payment details go to Paddle, not to us. Your receipt comes from Paddle.

Purchases in the apps. Purchases in the Android app are processed by Google Play and purchases in the iPhone app by the Apple App Store, under their terms. Billing, payment methods, cancellation and refunds for those purchases are handled by Google or Apple.

Prices and taxes. Prices include VAT or sales tax where we are required to charge it. Prices may be shown in your local currency; your bank or card provider may charge conversion fees. Prices in the stores can differ from prices on our website.

Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails, the payment provider may try again for a short time. If it still fails, paid access ends, and you can buy again at any time.

Promotions. Discounts, trials and promotional offers have their own conditions, shown with the offer, and cannot be combined unless the offer says so.

8. Gift codes

• A gift code is a one-time purchase of access for a fixed number of months. It never renews and never turns into a subscription.
• It can be redeemed once, with a Mini Locals account, on the web. It is valid for 3 years from the date of purchase. Its months start when it is redeemed; if the account already has paid access, the months are added on top.
• Gift codes cannot be exchanged for cash or credit, except where the law requires it. Treat a code like cash: anyone who has it can redeem it. We are not responsible for codes that are lost, shared or redeemed by someone else, unless we are at fault.
• Unredeemed gift codes can be refunded within 14 days of purchase, see our refund policy. Codes obtained by fraud or resold without our permission may be cancelled.

9. How to cancel

You can cancel any contract with us online at any time, in the same easy way you entered into it:

• Web purchases: use our cancel contracts here page, which is always available without signing in and confirms your cancellation right away, or the link in your Paddle receipt email, or paddle.net.
• Google Play: Play Store, Payments and subscriptions, Subscriptions.
• App Store: Settings, your name, Subscriptions, on your iPhone.
• By email to hello@zaubar.com or by post to our address.

We confirm every cancellation, including the date on which the contract ends.

10. Right of withdrawal and refunds

If you are a consumer in the European Union, the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you have a statutory right to withdraw from a purchase within 14 days. You can exercise it online at any time during that period with our withdrawal function at minilocals.com/withdraw ("withdraw from contract here"), or in any other clear way. The full withdrawal information, the model withdrawal form and the cases in which the right ends early for digital content and services are in our Refund and Withdrawal Policy.

In addition, for purchases on our website we give everyone a voluntary 14-day refund promise, described in the same policy.

11. Your licence to use Mini Locals

As long as you follow these terms, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable and revocable right to use the Service and its content for your own private, non-commercial enjoyment, on devices that you own or control, for as long as you have access. You may not copy, download (except where the app offers it), record, rebroadcast, publicly perform, sell, rent, lend or otherwise make the content available to others, or use it to train or test AI models.

12. Our content and intellectual property

The Service and all stories, scripts, films, images, characters, voices, music, maps we created, software, designs, names and logos are owned by us or our licensors and protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. "Mini Locals", "ZAUBAR" and our logos are our trademarks. All rights not expressly granted to you are reserved.

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely and without payment, without any obligation to you. This does not give us ownership of your own photos or content (section 13).

13. Your content

Some features let you create or add content, for example photos on a walk, replays, a profile, likes and follows, questions you ask, or messages to us ("Your Content"). You keep all rights you have in Your Content.

You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, process, adapt (for example resize or crop) and display Your Content, only as far as needed to provide the Service to you and to the people you share it with, and to keep the Service safe. This licence ends when you delete Your Content or your account, except for copies we must keep by law or that others have already received through a share link you created.

Sharing. When you share a replay, anyone with the link can see it, including your route and photos. Think about what you share, especially about where you live and photos of other people. You can stop sharing or delete a replay at any time.

You are responsible for Your Content. You promise that you have the rights to it, that sharing it does not violate the law or anyone's rights, including privacy and image rights of people shown, and that it follows section 14.

14. Acceptable use and AI rules

Please use Mini Locals with care for other people and places. You must not:

• break the law, or use the Service to plan or commit a crime, to stalk, track or harass anyone, or to enter places you are not allowed to enter;
• upload, share or ask for content that is illegal, sexual content involving minors, hateful, violent, harassing, defamatory, deceptive, or that infringes someone else's rights, including copyright, trademark, privacy and image rights;
• use the Service, including Hold to ask, to create or spread deepfakes or other content that makes a real person appear to say or do something they did not, or to generate instructions for causing harm;
• present AI answers or stories from the Service as verified facts, as professional advice, or as your own work for commercial purposes;
• get around the free limit, paywall, regional limits, technical protections or rate limits, share or sell your access, or create accounts to obtain repeated free trials;
• scrape, crawl, copy or extract content or data, or access the Service with bots or automated means, except search engines indexing our public website under our robots.txt;
• reverse engineer, decompile or modify the apps, except where the law allows this despite this restriction;
• interfere with, overload or attack the Service or its security, or introduce malware;
• impersonate anyone or misrepresent your connection with anyone.

You are responsible for the questions and prompts you enter and for how you use the answers.

15. AI-generated content and accuracy

Our stories are based on real places and real history, researched and shaped by our team and told for entertainment. Parts of them are created or assisted by AI, such as narration voices, images, video scenes, music, drafts and answers to your questions. Some scenes are dramatised or reconstructed, some people shown in videos never existed, and dialogue may be imagined. We label AI-generated content and AI interactions in the Service as the law requires and keep machine-readable marks where our tools provide them. More about this on how we make stories.

Answers to your questions are generated by AI and can be incomplete, outdated or wrong. Do not rely on stories or answers for decisions about your safety, health, legal matters, money or travel. Opening hours, access, routes and other practical details may have changed; please check them on site. If you find a mistake, tell us.

16. Safety and your responsibility on the way

You use walks and directions at your own responsibility. Always pay attention to your surroundings, traffic, weather and your own health. In particular:

• Obey traffic laws, signs and local rules. Directions and routes are guidance only; they may be inaccurate, outdated or unsuitable for you, and they do not tell you whether a place is open, accessible, safe or legal to enter. Never enter private property, closed areas or dangerous places.
• Never look at or operate the Service while driving, riding or cycling. Listen only where the law allows it, at a volume that lets you hear your surroundings.
• Choose walks that suit your fitness and abilities. Children may only take part in walks under adult supervision.
• Respect residents, places of worship, memorials and other people's privacy.

Our safety tips have more. This section does not limit our liability where the law does not allow it (see section 21).

17. Reports, moderation and account measures

Reporting. Anyone can tell us about content they believe is illegal or against these terms, as described on report content. We confirm receipt, review reports in a timely, careful and objective way, and tell the reporter what we decided.

How we moderate. We review reported content and, where needed, content in the Service, mainly by people. We may use automated tools to detect spam, fraud and abuse, but decisions that restrict your content or account are reviewed by a person. Where we remove or restrict Your Content or your account, we tell you why and how to object, unless the law forbids it or the content is spam or deceptive mass content. You can object by replying or writing to hello@zaubar.com, and we review our decision.

Measures. If you seriously or repeatedly break these terms or the law, we may remove content, limit features, suspend or terminate your account, as far as proportionate. We terminate the accounts of repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances. Where we end paid access because you broke these terms, you are not entitled to a refund for the remaining time, unless the law says otherwise.

18. Third-party services

The Service works with services of other companies, for example sign-in with Google or Apple, payment through Paddle, Google Play or the App Store, and maps. Their terms and privacy policies apply to their services, and we are not responsible for them.

Parts of the Service use Google Maps features and content. Your use of them is subject to the then-current Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.

Links to other websites are provided for convenience; we do not control their content.

19. Availability, updates and changes to the Service

We work hard to keep Mini Locals running well, but we cannot promise that it is always available, uninterrupted or error-free. Maintenance, updates, network problems or events outside our control can interrupt it.

We provide updates, including security updates, that are needed to keep the Service in line with our agreement. We may also change the Service beyond that, but only for a valid reason, for example to adapt it to new technology, devices or operating systems, to more users, to changed laws or court decisions, for security, because a licence for content or a third-party service ends, or to improve or add features. Such changes cost you nothing extra and we tell you about them clearly.

If a change affects your access to or use of the Service more than insignificantly, we tell you in advance by email or in the app, with the features and the timing of the change. If you are a consumer, you may then end your contract free of charge within 30 days of the notice or of the change, whichever is later, and we refund any prepaid amount for the time after it ends.

We may discontinue the Service as a whole with at least 60 days' notice. We then refund prepaid amounts for the time after it ends, and unredeemed gift codes in full.

20. Your statutory rights and our warranty

Consumers in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. You have the statutory rights for digital content and digital services of the law that applies to you, for example the right to a Service that conforms to the contract and to the updates needed for that. Nothing in these terms limits those rights.

Consumers in Australia and New Zealand. Our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law, and the Consumer Guarantees Act applies in New Zealand. Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy under those laws.

Everyone else. To the fullest extent permitted by the law that applies to you, the Service and all content, routes, directions, stories and answers are provided "as is" and "as available", and we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, and any warranty that the Service will be accurate, safe, uninterrupted or error-free.

21. Liability

Consumers in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and contracts under German law. We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act, and where we have given a guarantee. For slight negligence we are only liable for breach of an obligation whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment you may regularly rely (an essential obligation); in that case our liability is limited to the damage that is typical and foreseeable for this kind of contract. Otherwise our liability for slight negligence is excluded. If you live in the UK, nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be excluded or limited by law.

Everyone else. To the fullest extent permitted by the law that applies to you: (a) we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data or goodwill, arising out of or relating to the Service or these terms; and (b) our total liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service or these terms is limited to the greater of the amounts you paid for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or 100 US dollars. These limits apply whatever the legal theory and even if we were told that the damage was possible. They do not apply to liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, such as liability for fraud, wilful injury or gross negligence where the law does not permit a limit.

Any limitation of our liability also applies to the personal liability of our employees, representatives and agents.

22. Indemnity

If you are not a consumer, or where the law that applies to you allows it, you agree to indemnify us against third-party claims, and the reasonable costs of defending them, caused by Your Content or by your culpable breach of these terms or of the law. This does not apply to consumers in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland.

23. Ending this agreement

You can stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. Paid contracts end as described in sections 6, 8 and 9.

We may end this agreement with you, or a free account, with at least 30 days' notice. If we do so, we refund any prepaid amount for the time after it ends. We may end it with immediate effect for good cause, in particular for serious or repeated breaches of these terms or the law, fraud, payment abuse, or where we are legally required to.

Sections that by their nature should continue after the end of the agreement continue, in particular sections 12, 13 (as far as described), 20, 21, 22, 25 and 27.

24. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms for valid reasons, for example to reflect changes to the Service, new features, changes in the law or court decisions, or to make them clearer. We tell you about changes that affect you at least 30 days before they take effect, by email or in the app, and show the changes. If you do not agree, you can cancel before the change takes effect. Where the law requires your consent for a change, we only apply it with your consent; otherwise the old terms continue to apply to your existing contract until it ends. Changes that only benefit you, or are required by law, can apply sooner. The current version is always at minilocals.com/terms.

25. Governing law and courts

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. If you are a consumer, this choice of law does not take away the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live, and you may bring proceedings in the courts of that country. If you are not a consumer, the courts of Berlin, Germany, have exclusive jurisdiction.

If you live in the United States, section 27 governs how disputes are resolved, and the Federal Arbitration Act governs that section.

26. Consumer dispute resolution

We are neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board. Please contact us at hello@zaubar.com; we will look for a solution with you.

27. Arbitration agreement for users in the United States

Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights. It applies only if you live in the United States. It requires you and us to resolve most disputes by binding individual arbitration instead of in court, and it waives your right to a jury trial and to bring or take part in a class action. You can opt out within 30 days.

a. Try to solve it first

Before starting arbitration or a small claims case, the person with the claim must send the other a written notice describing it and the relief sought: to us at hello@zaubar.com or our postal address, to you at the email address of your account or purchase. We both agree to try in good faith to resolve the dispute informally for 60 days after the notice. Time limits for bringing claims are paused during these 60 days.

b. Agreement to arbitrate

Except as stated in subsection c, any dispute, claim or controversy between you and us arising out of or relating to these terms or the Service, whether based on contract, statute, tort or any other legal theory ("Dispute"), will be resolved by binding arbitration on an individual basis. The arbitrator decides all questions about the interpretation, scope and enforceability of this section, except that a court decides questions about subsections c, e and g. By agreeing to arbitration, you and we each give up the right to sue in court and to have a judge or jury decide the Dispute.

c. Exceptions

• Either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies and stays there.
• Either of us may go to court to stop the infringement or misuse of intellectual property rights.
• Claims for public injunctive relief that may not be waived under the law of the state where you live are decided by a court, after any individual claims in the same matter have been arbitrated, and are paused until then.

d. Rules, place and costs

The arbitration is administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, and, where applicable, its Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules, in effect when the arbitration is started (available at adr.org). If the AAA is unavailable or declines to administer the arbitration, we will agree in good faith on another provider, such as JAMS under its rules and Consumer Minimum Standards; if we cannot agree, a court will appoint an arbitrator. The arbitration takes place by video, by phone or on written submissions, or in person in the county where you live if you prefer. For claims of 25,000 US dollars or less, it is decided on written submissions unless the arbitrator decides a hearing is needed. We pay all filing, administration and arbitrator fees beyond what you would have to pay to file a claim in court, unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, including attorneys' fees where the law allows. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

e. No class actions, no jury

You and we may bring claims against each other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims of more than one person or award relief to anyone but the individual party. You and we each waive the right to a trial by jury.

f. Opt-out

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement within 30 days after you first accept these terms, by emailing hello@zaubar.com with the subject "Arbitration opt-out", your name and the email address of your account or purchase. Opting out does not affect any other part of these terms or any other agreement to arbitrate you have with us.

g. If part of this section does not apply

If the class action waiver in subsection e is found unenforceable for a particular claim or request for relief, that claim or request (and only that one) is decided by a court and not in arbitration, and the rest of this section still applies. Any Dispute decided in court, other than in small claims court, will be brought in the state or federal courts for the county where you live, unless you and we agree otherwise.

h. Changes to this section

If we make a material change to this section, you may reject it by emailing us within 30 days of the change; in that case the version you last accepted continues to apply to you.

28. Additional terms for the App Store and Google Play

If you downloaded Mini Locals from the Apple App Store, the following applies in addition, and wins over anything else in these terms if there is a conflict:

1. These terms are between you and us only, not with Apple Inc. ("Apple"). We, not Apple, are solely responsible for the app and its content.
2. Your licence to use the app is limited to a non-transferable licence to use it on Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, except that it may also be accessed by other accounts associated with you through Family Sharing where available.
3. We, not Apple, are solely responsible for providing maintenance and support for the app. Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support.
4. If the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price of the app to you, if any. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation with respect to the app; any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to a failure to conform to a warranty are our responsibility, as far as they are not excluded by these terms.
5. We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims by you or a third party relating to the app or your possession or use of it, including product liability claims, claims that the app fails to conform to any legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws.
6. If a third party claims that the app or your possession and use of it infringes its intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, are solely responsible for the investigation, defence, settlement and discharge of that claim.
7. You confirm that you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. Government embargo or that has been designated by the U.S. Government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and that you are not listed on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
8. Developer contact for questions, complaints or claims: Zaubar UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Nollendorfstraße 20, 10777 Berlin, Germany, +49 176 45709672, hello@zaubar.com.
9. You must comply with applicable third-party terms when using the app, for example your mobile data contract.
10. Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms, and once you accept them, Apple has the right (and is deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

If you downloaded Mini Locals from Google Play, the Google Play Terms of Service apply to the download and to purchases made through Google Play in addition to these terms. Google is not responsible for the app or its content.

29. General

• Whole agreement. These terms, with the documents named in section 1, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Severability. If a provision is invalid or unenforceable, the rest stays in effect, and the statutory rules apply in its place.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a right, we have not given it up.
• Transfer. We may transfer this agreement to a company that takes over the Service, if your rights are not reduced; we will tell you, and if you are a consumer you may end the agreement before the transfer. You may not transfer it without our consent.
• Events outside our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as outages of networks or providers, natural disasters, strikes or government action.
• Notices. We may send you notices by email or in the app. You can reach us at hello@zaubar.com or by post.
• Language. These terms are written in English. Where we provide a translation, the English version applies unless the law that applies to you requires otherwise. The German withdrawal information in our refund policy is equally binding.
• Storing the terms. You can save or print these terms at any time from minilocals.com/terms.

30. Contact

Zaubar UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Nollendorfstraße 20, 10777 Berlin, Germany. Managing directors: Anne-Sophie Panzer, Stefan Marx. Email hello@zaubar.com, phone +49 176 45709672.