The agreement between Airballoon (a division of Lumvex Labs LLC) and conference organizers using Airballoon to run their conferences and process registration payments through Stripe.
This Platform Services Agreement ("Agreement") is entered into between Airballoon, a division of Lumvex Labs LLC ("Airballoon", "we", "us"), and the conference organizer who has signed up to use Airballoon ("Organizer", "you", "your"). This Agreement supplements Airballoon's Terms of Service and applies to use of the Airballoon Platform to operate one or more conferences, including processing registration payments through Stripe.
Airballoon provides a conference-management platform that enables you to manage registration, process payments through Stripe, communicate with registrants and committee members, and access registration analytics.
Payment processing is performed by Stripe, Inc. as an independent service provider. Stripe's services are governed by Stripe's own agreements between Stripe and you. Airballoon is not a payment processor and does not hold registrant funds.
You may either:
You represent that information you provide to Airballoon and Stripe in connection with the connected account is accurate, complete, and current. You will keep this information up to date.
Airballoon charges a single Platform Fee on each paid registration transaction. It is collected automatically from registration proceeds before disbursement to your Stripe account. There is no subscription and no setup fee, and a registration priced at zero (a free or waived ticket) owes nothing.
AirCore's 3% is currently waived. Registrations charged on or before December 31, 2026 are charged 2.9% + $0.99 per paid registration; registrations charged after that date are charged 5.9% + $0.99.
The rate is determined by the date of each individual charge. A conference whose registration period spans that date will therefore see both rates applied, each to the registrations charged while it was in effect. The end date may be extended at Airballoon's discretion; it will not be brought forward for registrations already charged.
The Platform Fee in §3.1 is the only recurring charge. Submission and peer review (including the AI Assistant Review), conference and program management, the website builder and website hosting, the call-for-papers listing, and the BalloonUp mobile app are included at no additional cost. Presentation materials storage is billed separately and once only, as set out in §3.6.
Stripe's fees are not included in the Platform Fee and are your responsibility. The Platform Fee is charged in addition to whatever Stripe charges on the transaction, and applies the same way whether your conference collects payments through your own Stripe account or through an Airballoon-managed connected account.
The costs you bear include Stripe's base per-transaction processing fee, its surcharges for international cards, manually entered cards and currency conversion, the processing fee Stripe retains when you issue a refund, and chargeback or dispute fees. Stripe's published rates are available at stripe.com/pricing.
You authorize Airballoon to deduct the Platform Fee from each registration transaction prior to disbursement to your Stripe account, and to adjust amounts to reflect refunds, chargebacks, or disputes processed through your account.
Storing presentation materials is billed once, per presentation that stores at least one item, and charged to the Organizer at the end of the conference rather than deducted from registrations:
This one-time charge covers storage for three years from the end of the conference, with no renewal fee during that period. After three years an additional fee may be required to continue storing the materials.
This charge requires a payment method on file for the Organizer, which is separate from the Stripe account that receives your registration proceeds.
All Platform Fees are non-refundable and are retained in full when a registration is refunded, whether in whole or in part. Stripe's processing fees are likewise not returned under Stripe's terms. In the event of a refund or chargeback you therefore bear the refunded amount, the Stripe fees, and the Platform Fee already charged.
Fees are stated in U.S. dollars (USD) unless otherwise specified. Cross-currency transactions may be subject to Stripe's currency-conversion fees and rates.
You authorize Airballoon to collect, store, and process registration data (including registrant names, emails, organizations, payment status, and metadata) for the purpose of operating the Platform on your behalf. Airballoon will display this information to you in administrative consoles and may use it to generate analytics for conference management.
As between you and Airballoon, you own conference registration data. Airballoon retains the right to use de-identified, aggregated data for service improvement, fraud prevention, and analytics.
Airballoon implements commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect Platform data. You are responsible for safeguarding your own credentials and access controls within your conference.
You are responsible for compliance with privacy laws applicable to your conference, including providing accurate privacy notices to registrants and obtaining any required consents. See Airballoon's Privacy Policy for our processing of personal data on your behalf.
You will comply with all laws applicable to your conference, including consumer protection, tax, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions laws, and with Stripe's terms (including its Acceptable Use and Restricted Businesses policies).
You are solely responsible for establishing, publishing, and honoring a refund policy for each conference, and for bearing all costs associated with refunds and chargebacks. See §9 (Refunds and Chargebacks).
You will not use the Platform for:
(a) Fraudulent or illegal activities; (b) Events promoting violence, discrimination, or illegal content; (c) Money laundering or terrorist financing; (d) Any activity prohibited by Stripe's Acceptable Use Policy.
We use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain Platform availability, provide technical support for Platform-related issues, deliver security updates, and communicate scheduled maintenance in advance.
Airballoon is not responsible for:
(a) Stripe service outages or payment-processing failures; (b) Third-party integrations or services outside our control; (c) Data loss resulting from your actions or those of your collaborators; (d) Events outside reasonable control (see §11.7 Force Majeure).
This Agreement is effective upon your acceptance and continues until the conference completes and all fees are settled, or until terminated under §7.2 or §7.3.
You may terminate by providing written notice, settling all outstanding Platform Fees, and completing any pending refund obligations.
We may suspend or terminate this Agreement if:
(a) You breach a material term of this Agreement; (b) Your Stripe account is suspended or terminated; (c) You engage in prohibited activities; (d) Required by law or regulatory authority.
The exclusions and limits in this Section 8 apply to every claim between us arising out of or relating to this Agreement or your use of the Platform, whatever legal theory or form of action it is brought under, whether contract, negligence, statute, or otherwise. They apply to each of us and to our affiliates and personnel, they survive termination or expiry of this Agreement, and they continue to apply even if a remedy set out elsewhere in this Agreement fails of its essential purpose.
The Platform is provided "as is" and "as available". To the maximum extent the law allows, we make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement.
In particular, we do not guarantee that:
(a) the Platform will be available without interruption, including at a submission deadline, during review, or on the days of your conference; (b) every email we send on your behalf, such as an invitation, review assignment, or decision letter, will be delivered, since delivery depends on recipients' mail providers; (c) automated or AI-assisted features, including review support and matching suggestions, will produce accurate or complete results. They assist your committee's judgement and do not replace it, and editorial decisions remain yours; (d) the Platform satisfies any accreditation, publication, accessibility, export, or other legal or regulatory requirement that applies to your conference.
We are also not responsible for delays or failures caused by services outside our reasonable control, including payment processing by Stripe, network or hosting providers, and any external site or system you connect to your conference.
Except where §8.5 says otherwise, neither of us is responsible to the other for indirect, incidental, special, or punitive losses, or for lost revenue, lost profits, lost goodwill, reputational harm, business interruption, or lost or corrupted data, whether or not those losses were foreseeable and whether or not we were told they were possible.
Except where §8.5 says otherwise, the total amount either of us can owe the other for everything arising out of this Agreement is limited to the greater of the Platform Fees you paid us in the three (3) months before the first event giving rise to the claim, or fifty U.S. dollars (US$50). This is one cumulative limit covering all claims together, not a fresh limit for each claim. It does not include amounts that merely passed through us, such as Stripe's processing fees or the registration proceeds paid to you, because those are not fees we earned.
Nothing in §8.3 or §8.4 limits responsibility for:
(a) fraud, gross negligence, or deliberate misconduct; (b) misuse of the Platform in breach of the restrictions in this Agreement, including using another conference's data; (c) breaking the confidentiality obligations that protect unpublished submissions, reviews, and reviewer identities; (d) the amounts either of us agreed to cover under §10; (e) infringing the other's intellectual property, including authors' and reviewers' work handled through the Platform; (f) anything the law does not permit us to limit or exclude.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranties to be disclaimed or certain losses to be limited. Where that is so, this section applies only as far as the law allows and the rest of this Agreement continues in effect.
You are solely responsible for refunds, chargebacks, and any dispute fees on registrations processed through your connected Stripe account, and for any cancellation, postponement, or material change of the conference. Airballoon is not a party to the contract between you and registrants and does not refund registrants or arbitrate disputes on your behalf.
Platform Fees and Stripe processing fees are non-refundable.
You authorize Stripe to debit your connected bank account for any negative balance arising from refunds, chargebacks, or fees in excess of available Stripe balance.
You must publish a refund policy that is visible to registrants at the time of payment. The published policy must comply with applicable law and Stripe's terms.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Airballoon and its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses arising from:
(a) Your breach of this Agreement; (b) Your violation of applicable laws; (c) Claims by registrants or attendees related to your conference; (d) Your negligence or willful misconduct.
This Agreement, together with the Terms of Service and any policies incorporated by reference constitutes the entire agreement between the parties regarding its subject matter and supersedes all prior agreements and understandings.
Airballoon may update this Agreement with reasonable notice. Continued use of the Platform after notice constitutes acceptance of updated terms.
This Agreement is governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
Any disputes arising under this Agreement shall be resolved through binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association.
If any provision of this Agreement is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force and effect.
You may not assign this Agreement without Airballoon's prior written consent. Airballoon may assign this Agreement in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
Neither party will be liable for any delay or failure in performance (other than payment obligations) caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, pandemics, war, civil unrest, internet or utility outages, third-party service failures (including Stripe and hosting providers), cyberattacks, or governmental orders. The affected party will use commercially reasonable efforts to mitigate the impact and resume performance as soon as reasonably practicable.