Terms of Service

Effective Date: [DATE] Last Updated: [DATE] Version: 1.0 (Draft)

1. Agreement to Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and Lumvex Labs LLC, doing business as Airballoon ("Airballoon", "we", "us", or "our"). They govern your access to and use of:

• The airballoon.com website, the Airballoon web application, the Airballoon mobile application(s), and any conference websites we host on your behalf;
• The conference-management services we provide, including Submission & Review, Registration, Presentation, and Social/Networking, and any related APIs (collectively, the "Services").

By creating an account, accessing the Services, signing a Platform Services Agreement, registering for a conference run on Airballoon, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

If you accept these Terms on behalf of an organization (for example, as an Organizer signing up a conference, or as an employee accepting on behalf of your employer), you represent that you have authority to bind that organization, and "you" refers to that organization.

2. Definitions

• Organizer — an organization, institution, or individual using the Services to plan and run a conference, including conference chairs, program chairs, and other roles they designate.
• Conference — an event run on the Services by an Organizer.
• Author — a user who submits a paper, abstract, poster, proposal, or other work for a Conference.
• Reviewer / PC Member / Area Chair — a user invited by an Organizer to evaluate Submissions.
• Attendee / Registrant — a user who registers for or attends a Conference.
• User — any natural person who accesses the Services in any role above.
• Content — any data, text, file, software, image, audio, video, message, code, or other material submitted, uploaded, generated, or transmitted through the Services.
• Submission — a paper, abstract, poster, proposal, or comparable academic work submitted to a Conference, including supplementary files, reviews, rebuttals, decisions, and camera-ready materials.
• Platform Services Agreement — the commercial agreement between Airballoon and an Organizer, which supplements these Terms with fees, payment terms, and conference-specific provisions.

3. Eligibility and Accounts

3.1 Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old (or the age of digital consent in your jurisdiction, whichever is higher) to use the Services. If you are using the Services on behalf of an organization, you must have authority to bind that organization. The Services are not intended for individuals barred from receiving them under U.S. or other applicable law.

3.2 Account Registration

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information when you create an account, and to keep that information up to date. You are responsible for safeguarding your password and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately at support@airballoon.ai (mark it Attn: Security) if you suspect unauthorized access.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that contain false information, are used to impersonate others, or are operated in violation of these Terms.

3.3 Roles and Permissions

The Services are role-based. Permissions and visibility differ across roles (Organizer, Author, Reviewer, Attendee, etc.) and are configured by Organizers. You agree to use the Services only within the role(s) granted to you and not to attempt to access data, features, or conferences for which you have not been granted access.

4. The Services

4.1 Packages and Services

Airballoon is provided as a single platform that includes the full conference-management feature set; features are not gated behind paid service tiers. The platform is organized into packages:

• AirCore — the shared participant identity and data layer that carries across submission, review, registration, and the mobile app (required);
• AirMaster — conference setup and management (included at no additional charge);
• AirReview — paper submission, peer review, and AI-assisted review tooling (the "Submission & Review" service; included at no additional charge — see Section 5.1);
• AirReg — attendee registration and payment collection (the "Registration" service; a percentage-based platform fee applies — see Section 5.1);
• AirUp — storage and delivery of presentation materials (the "Presentation" service; a one-time storage fee applies — see Section 5.1);
• BalloonUp — the companion event/networking mobile app (the "Social/Networking" service; included at no additional charge).

Conferences created under earlier pricing keep their original terms (see Section 5.1 and your Platform Services Agreement).

Airballoon may add, modify, or remove features over time, and will provide reasonable notice for material changes that adversely affect a Conference in progress.

4.2 Beta and Preview Features

We may identify some features as "beta", "preview", or "experimental". Such features are provided as is, may be unstable or incomplete, may be discontinued, and are excluded from any service-level commitments.

4.3 Availability

We use commercially reasonable efforts to keep the Services available and performant. We may schedule maintenance, and may suspend access without notice where required for security, legal, or operational reasons. We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation.

5. Fees and Payments

5.1 Service Fees (Organizers)

Organizers pay the platform fees set out in their Platform Services Agreement, which currently are:

Service	Fee
AirMaster (Conference management)	Free — conference setup and management are included at no charge.
AirReview (Submission & Review)	Free — paper submission, peer review, and AI-assisted review tooling are included at no charge. We may, in the future, charge a per-submission fee to unlock or download submissions; it is not currently charged and would be disclosed in advance in your Platform Services Agreement.
AirReg — full conference (Registration)	2.9% + $0.99 once per transaction.
AirReg — standalone (Registration)	3.0% + $0.99 per registration (registration run without the full conference platform).
AirCore — full conference	Free on or before December 31, 2026; 3.0% after that date.
AirUp (Presentation system)	A one-time storage fee per presentation that stores materials — $5 per presentation for documents (paper / slides / abstract) plus $5 per 200 MB of video — summed across the Conference and billed to the Organizer once, at the end of the Conference. Storage is permanent, with no renewal fee.
BalloonUp (Event app)	Free — the companion event / networking app is included at no additional charge.

The combined registration platform fee for a full conference is therefore AirReg 2.9% + AirCore 3.0% = 5.9% + $0.99, with AirCore waived during the promotional period (through December 31, 2026, subject to change). The rate applied to a given registration is determined by the date it is processed, so a Conference whose registrations span the promotional end date may be charged the promotional rate before that date and the standard rate after it.

Airballoon's platform fees are pure platform revenue and do not include payment-processing costs. Stripe's processing fees (currently 2.9% + $0.30 per card transaction in the United States, plus international, cross-border, and currency-conversion fees where applicable) are borne by the Organizer — as are any processing fee Stripe does not return on a refund and any dispute or chargeback fees — in both the Organizer-direct and platform-facilitated payment configurations. Fee schedules are subject to change with notice as set out in the Platform Services Agreement.

Organizers authorize Airballoon to deduct registration platform fees from registration proceeds before disbursing the balance to the Organizer's connected Stripe account, and to charge the one-time AirUp storage fee to the Organizer's payment method on file at the end of the Conference. All platform fees are non-refundable, even where the Organizer refunds a registrant.

5.2 Registration Fees (Attendees)

Registration fees are set by, and payable to, the Organizer. Airballoon facilitates payment via Stripe but is not a party to the registration contract between the Organizer and the Attendee. Refund eligibility, cancellation deadlines, transfer rights, and on-site policies are set by the Organizer; review the Conference's registration page before paying.

5.3 Taxes

Each party is responsible for its own taxes (sales, VAT, GST, withholding, income, and similar) arising from its use of, or revenue from, the Services. Where Airballoon is required to collect tax on behalf of itself or an Organizer, we will do so in addition to the displayed fees.

5.4 Disputes and Chargebacks

If a registrant initiates a chargeback or payment dispute, Airballoon may withhold the disputed amount from Organizer disbursements pending resolution. Organizers agree to cooperate in good faith, including providing evidence and registration records as requested.

6. Use of the Services

6.1 License Grant

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, Airballoon grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use the Services for your internal use in running, participating in, or attending Conferences. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

6.2 Acceptable Use

You agree not to, and not to permit anyone else to:

• use the Services in violation of any law or third-party right (including intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, anti-spam, export-control, or sanctions laws);
• use the Services for fraudulent activity, money laundering, terrorist financing, or any activity prohibited by Stripe's Acceptable Use Policy;
• upload or transmit Content that is unlawful, defamatory, harassing, threatening, hateful, infringing, obscene, or that contains malware;
• interfere with or disrupt the Services, attempt to gain unauthorized access, probe for vulnerabilities outside an authorized program, or evade rate limits;
• scrape, crawl, or harvest data from the Services except as permitted by an Organizer for their own Conference;
• use the Services to send unsolicited bulk communications outside the legitimate operation of a Conference;
• copy, modify, reverse-engineer, or create derivative works of the Services, except to the extent applicable law prohibits this restriction;
• use the Services to compete with Airballoon, including by benchmarking it for a competing offering, without our written consent;
• misuse review-system features, including by submitting reviews you did not author, deliberately undermining peer review, or violating Conference-specific blind-review rules;
• bypass conference-specific configurations such as blind-review, conflict-of-interest controls, registration-eligibility checks, or paper-coverage limits.

We may suspend or remove Content or accounts that violate these rules and, where serious or repeated, terminate access.

6.3 Reviewer Confidentiality

If you accept a reviewer, area-chair, or program-committee role, you agree that submissions, reviewer identities (where blind), reviews, scores, discussions, and decisions are confidential and that you will use them only to perform your duties for the Conference. You will not disclose, copy, or retain such materials beyond what the Organizer authorizes, and you will follow the Conference's COI rules.

6.4 Author Representations

By submitting a Submission, you represent and warrant that:

• you have the right to submit the work and to grant the rights described in Section 7;
• the work does not infringe any third party's intellectual-property, privacy, or publicity rights;
• co-authors have been accurately listed and have authorized the submission;
• you have disclosed conflicts of interest where required by the Conference;
• the work complies with the Conference's policies on plagiarism, dual submission, and AI-assisted authorship.

6.5 Organizer Responsibilities

Organizers agree to:

• comply with the Platform Services Agreement and these Terms;
• provide accurate Conference information and use the Services only for legitimate conferences;
• maintain a valid Stripe account in good standing if using the Registration service, and keep KYC and bank-account information current;
• establish and publish their own registration, refund, code-of-conduct, and accessibility policies, and apply them consistently;
• ensure all necessary consents from authors, reviewers, and attendees are obtained and honored, including for use of the platform and any Conference-specific data sharing;
• comply with applicable privacy and data-protection laws (GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and others) in their capacity as controller of Conference data;
• not use the Services for events promoting violence, discrimination, illegal content, or any activity prohibited by Stripe's Acceptable Use Policy.

7. Content and Intellectual Property

7.1 Your Content

You retain ownership of Content you submit to the Services. By submitting Content, you grant Airballoon a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, copy, transmit, display, adapt (including format and resolution conversion), and otherwise process the Content solely as necessary to provide the Services to you and to the relevant Conference. This license ends when the Content is deleted, except for backups retained for the period set out in the Privacy Policy and except for Content that has been shared with third parties (e.g., co-authors, reviewers) who have already received it.

7.2 Conference Data

As between Airballoon and the Organizer, Conference data (Submissions, reviews, registration data, attendee information, and Conference content) belongs to the Organizer or to its respective users. As between an Organizer and its users, ownership and licensing of Submissions are governed by the Conference's published policies (e.g., copyright transfer, Creative Commons election, ACM/IEEE policies), not by these Terms.

7.3 Aggregated and De-Identified Data

Airballoon may create and use aggregated, de-identified data (e.g., usage statistics, performance metrics) that does not identify you or any Conference, including for product improvement, security, benchmarking, and reporting. We will not attempt to re-identify such data and will not disclose Conference-identifying analytics without the Organizer's consent.

7.4 Feedback

If you give us suggestions, ideas, or feedback about the Services, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use them without restriction or compensation. You waive any moral rights in feedback to the extent permitted by law.

7.5 Airballoon IP

The Services, including all software, design, text, graphics, logos, and trademarks, are owned by Airballoon, Lumvex Labs LLC, or our licensors, and are protected by intellectual-property laws. "Airballoon", the Airballoon logo, and related marks are our trademarks. Nothing in these Terms grants you a right to use them without our prior written consent.

7.6 Copyright Complaints (DMCA)

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Send notices to support@airballoon.ai (mark it Attn: DMCA), including the information required by 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3). We may terminate accounts of repeat infringers.

8. AI-Assisted Features

Some features use AI services (e.g., AWS Bedrock / Amazon Nova, third-party LLMs, LibreTranslate) to generate review summaries, suggest keywords, translate text, or perform similar tasks. You acknowledge that:

• AI output may be inaccurate, biased, or incomplete; you remain responsible for any decision you make using it.
• AI features are intended to assist, not replace, human judgment in peer review, decisions, and other consequential workflows.
• Conferences may have policies restricting or requiring disclosure of AI-assisted authorship or reviewing; you must follow those policies.
• We do not use your Content to train general-purpose AI models, and we contractually require our AI sub-processors to use your Content only to return a result for your request.

Misuse of AI features — for example, generating reviews you did not meaningfully author, or violating a Conference's AI-disclosure rules — is a breach of these Terms.

9. Third-Party Services

The Services integrate with third-party services, including Stripe (payments), AWS (hosting and platform services), AWS Chime SDK (in-platform calls), Zoom / Microsoft Teams / Google Meet / Cisco Webex (live sessions, where the Organizer connects their own account), ORCID, institutional SSO, and others. Your use of those services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies. Airballoon is not responsible for third-party services, and a failure or change in a third-party service does not constitute a breach by us.

10. Disclaimers

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY STATED, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY. AIRBALLOON DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, AIRBALLOON DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE OF MALICIOUS CODE, OR THAT ANY DATA WILL BE COMPLETE OR ACCURATE. AIRBALLOON IS NOT A PARTY TO THE CONTRACT BETWEEN AN ORGANIZER AND ITS REGISTRANTS, AUTHORS, OR REVIEWERS, AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE QUALITY, SAFETY, OR LEGALITY OF ANY CONFERENCE.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES; IN THOSE JURISDICTIONS, THE EXCLUSIONS APPLY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

11. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AIRBALLOON, LUMVEX LABS LLC, AND OUR OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, GOODWILL, DATA, OR USE, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER THEORY, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE PLATFORM FEES YOU PAID TO AIRBALLOON IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

THESE LIMITATIONS REFLECT THE ALLOCATION OF RISK BETWEEN THE PARTIES AND APPLY EVEN IF A LIMITED REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES; IN THOSE JURISDICTIONS, OUR LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

12. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Airballoon, Lumvex Labs LLC, and our officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to:

• your breach of these Terms or the Platform Services Agreement;
• your Content or your use of the Services;
• your violation of any law or third-party right (including intellectual-property and privacy rights);
• a Conference you organize, including registrant disputes, refund claims, and on-site incidents;
• your negligence or willful misconduct.

We will promptly notify you of any claim, allow you to control the defense (with counsel reasonably acceptable to us), and reasonably cooperate with you. You will not settle a claim that imposes a non-monetary obligation on us without our prior written consent.

13. Term, Suspension, and Termination

13.1 Term

These Terms apply from the date you first access the Services and continue while you use them. The Platform Services Agreement governs the term of an Organizer's Conference engagement.

13.2 Termination by You

You may stop using the Services at any time, and may close your account through your account settings or by contacting support@airballoon.ai. Organizers may terminate an engagement under the procedures in their Platform Services Agreement.

13.3 Termination or Suspension by Airballoon

We may suspend or terminate your access (in whole or in part), with or without notice, if:

• you breach these Terms or the Platform Services Agreement, including fee non-payment;
• your account or your Stripe account is suspended, terminated, or under investigation for fraud, abuse, or violation of Stripe's Acceptable Use Policy;
• your use poses a security, legal, or operational risk to Airballoon, other users, or third parties;
• we are required to do so by law or regulatory authority;
• we discontinue the Services (with reasonable notice).

13.4 Effect of Termination

On termination:

• your access to the Services ceases;
• outstanding fees become immediately due and payable;
• we will provide reasonable data-export assistance for a limited period (as set in the Platform Services Agreement) before deleting Conference data, subject to legal-hold and backup retention as described in the Privacy Policy;
• the provisions that by their nature should survive (including Sections 5 (final settlement), 7, 10, 11, 12, 13.4, 14, 15, and 16) will survive.

14. Modifications to the Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes we will:

• update the "Last Updated" date at the top of these Terms;
• post notice in-product or by email at least 30 days before the changes take effect (shorter notice may apply where required for legal or security reasons);
• where required by law, obtain your consent.

Continued use of the Services after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Services before the effective date.

15. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

15.1 Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of [STATE], United States, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

15.2 Informal Resolution

Before filing a claim, you agree to try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting support@airballoon.ai (mark it Attn: Legal) with a written description of the claim and the relief sought. We will try to resolve the dispute within 60 days of receipt.

15.3 Binding Arbitration

If informal resolution fails, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules (or, for consumer disputes, the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules), held in [County, State] or by remote means. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

15.4 No Class Actions

YOU AND AIRBALLOON AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, COLLECTIVE, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

15.5 Carve-Outs

Either party may bring an individual action in small-claims court for disputes within its jurisdiction, and either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in court for actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation, or violation of intellectual-property rights, confidentiality obligations, or unauthorized access.

15.6 Opt-Out

You may opt out of arbitration by sending written notice to support@airballoon.ai (mark it Attn: Legal) within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name, account email, and intent to opt out. Opting out does not affect the other provisions of these Terms.

16. General

16.1 Entire Agreement

These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and (for Organizers) the Platform Services Agreement and any order forms constitute the entire agreement between you and Airballoon regarding the Services and supersede prior agreements on the same subject. In a conflict between these Terms and a signed Platform Services Agreement, the Platform Services Agreement controls for the matters it covers.

16.2 No Waiver

Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.

16.3 Severability

If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and the unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable.

16.4 Assignment

You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, or to an affiliate, on notice to you.

16.5 Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond its reasonable control (e.g., natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, internet or utility outages, government action, pandemics).

16.6 Notices

We may give notices through the Services, by email to your account address, or by posting on our website. You must send legal notices to support@airballoon.ai (mark it Attn: Legal) with a copy by mail to the address in Section 17.

16.7 No Agency

Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, fiduciary, or employment relationship between you and Airballoon.

16.8 Export and Sanctions

You may not use the Services in violation of U.S. export-control or sanctions laws, and you represent that you are not located in, or a national or resident of, a country subject to U.S. embargo, and that you are not on any U.S. government restricted-party list.

16.9 U.S. Government Users

If you are a U.S. federal-government user, the Services are "commercial computer software" and "commercial computer software documentation" as those terms are used in 48 C.F.R. § 12.212 and 48 C.F.R. § 227.7202, and your rights are limited to those provided in these Terms.

16.10 Headings; Interpretation

Headings are for convenience only. "Including" means "including without limitation". References to documents are to the document as updated from time to time.

17. Contact

Lumvex Labs LLC, doing business as Airballoon [Street Address] [City, State, ZIP] [Country]

• All inquiries: support@airballoon.ai

We use a single contact address. For privacy, security, DMCA, or legal-notice matters, mark your email Attn: the relevant team (for example, Attn: Legal).

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Document Version: 1.0 (Draft) — Reference: docs/226-Terms-of-Service.md