VesselFinder Terms of Use

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern access to and use of the VesselFinder websites, mobile applications, widgets, APIs, data feeds, and related services (collectively, the “Service”) operated by VesselFinder Ltd (“VesselFinder”, “we”, “us”, “our”).

By accessing or using the Service, creating an account, purchasing a subscription, or using an API key or data feed, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you use the Service on behalf of an entity, you represent and warrant that you have authority to bind that entity, and “you” includes that entity.

1. Definitions

• “AIS” means Automatic Identification System transmissions and related messages as broadcast by vessels, shore stations, and other transmitting sources.
• “AIS Data” means vessel positions, identity, voyage-related fields, and related information derived from AIS and other sources, including historical and real-time data.
• “API” means any programmatic interface, key, token, endpoint, SDK, data feed, stream, webhook, or similar mechanism for machine access to Content.
• “Content” means all data, information, analytics, text, images, maps, graphics, vessel tracks, charts, software, code, and other materials made available through the Service, including AIS Data.
• “Documentation” means any technical documentation, guides, usage policies, plan descriptions, and attribution/branding rules applicable to the Service, including API documentation.
• “Order” means a one-time prepaid purchase, online checkout, invoice-based order, or written commercial order for a Paid Service subscription term.
• “Paid Services” means any paid subscription, premium feature set, API plan, enterprise plan, data feed, or other paid offering.
• “Permitted Purpose” means (i) personal informational use; or (ii) for business users, internal informational and internal operational use for your own organization, in each case strictly within the scope of your plan and these Terms.
• “User Content” means any content you submit to the Service (e.g., AIS data, photos, comments, corrections, reviews, feedback).
• “Derived Data” means outputs you generate by processing Content (e.g., alerts, KPIs, aggregated statistics), excluding any output that enables reconstruction of underlying AIS Data or substitutes for access to the Content.
• “You” / “User” means any individual or entity accessing or using the Service.

2. Nature of the Service and Safety Disclaimer

2.1 Informational Service. The Service provides informational vessel tracking and maritime intelligence derived from AIS Data and other sources.

2.2 Not for Navigation / Safety-of-Life / Compliance. The Service and Content are not intended for:

• navigation, collision avoidance, safety-of-life, or emergency response decisions;
• compliance decisions where accuracy, completeness, or timeliness is required (including port entry/arrival compliance, sanctions screening, and regulatory reporting); or
• any purpose where errors, omissions, or delays could reasonably result in personal injury, death, environmental harm, or property damage.

You are solely responsible for verifying information through appropriate official and operational channels.

2.3 Coverage and Latency. AIS Data may be delayed, incomplete, inaccurate, spoofed, or unavailable. Coverage varies by geography, reception conditions, and upstream sources.

2.4 Service Changes. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any portion of the Service at any time.

3. Eligibility, Accounts and Security

3.1 Eligibility. You must be legally capable of entering into a binding agreement to use the Service.

3.2 Account Information. If you create an account, you must provide accurate information and keep it current.

3.3 Credential Security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity under your account. You must promptly notify us of any unauthorized access.

3.4 Use by Minors. If you are under the age of legal majority in your jurisdiction, you may use the Service only with involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian.

4. Service Tiers

The Service may include:

• Free Web Access (including limited features);
• Paid Subscriptions (premium features for a fixed term);
• API and Data Feed Services (programmatic access).

Where a clause applies only to a specific tier, this is stated in the clause.

5. Free Web Access

5.1 License Grant. Subject to these Terms, VesselFinder grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service via the web interface for the Permitted Purpose.

5.2 No Commercial Exploitation. Except as expressly permitted in writing, Free Web Access does not grant any right to use the Content for commercial resale, redistribution, or third-party benefit.

5.3 Limited Internal Copies. You may print or save reasonable excerpts of Content for internal, non-redistributable use consistent with the Permitted Purpose. You may not systematically collect, archive, or build datasets from the Service.

5.4 Reservation of Rights. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by VesselFinder and its licensors.

6. Paid Services

This section applies if you purchase or use Paid Services.

6.1 Orders and Scope. Paid Services are provided on a prepaid basis pursuant to an Order. Your access is limited to the plan, term, and usage limits stated in your Order and applicable Documentation.

6.2 Fees and Taxes. All fees are payable in advance. Fees are non-cancellable and non-refundable except where required by applicable law or expressly stated in writing by VesselFinder. You are responsible for all applicable taxes, duties, and similar governmental assessments.

6.3 Fixed Term. Paid Services are provided for a fixed subscription term stated in the Order. Subscriptions do not automatically renew. When the term ends, access to the Paid Services expires, and you must place a new Order to continue access.

6.4 Expiration. Upon expiration, we may downgrade your account to any free tier (if available) and/or restrict access to premium features (including satellite coverage, historical ranges, exports, alerts, and API capabilities associated with the expired plan).

6.5 Plan Changes. We may change plan features, limits, and pricing for future Orders. Changes do not apply retroactively to an active, prepaid term.

6.6 No Proration. Except as required by law, VesselFinder does not provide prorated refunds or credits for partial periods, unused time, or early termination.

6.7 Trials / Promotions. Trials or promotional access may be offered on additional terms. Unless you place a new Order, trial access ends automatically when the trial period ends.

6.8 Expiration Notices. We may send expiration reminders as a courtesy, however, you remain responsible for monitoring your subscription term and status.

7. API and Data Feed Terms

This section applies if you access APIs or data feeds, including via API keys.

7.1 API Credentials. API credentials are personal to your account/entity. You may not share, sell, transfer, sublicense, or publish credentials. You must keep credentials secure and rotate or revoke them promptly if compromised.

7.2 Plan Limits and Enforcement. API use is subject to plan-based limits (e.g., calls, throughput, concurrency, endpoints, fields, geographic scope, retention). We may enforce limits via throttling, rate-limiting, suspension, or blocking.

7.3 Permitted Use. You may use API/data feed Content solely for the Permitted Purpose and strictly within the plan purchased under your Order.

7.4 Prohibited Uses (API/Data). Unless expressly authorized in writing, you may not:

• resell, redistribute, publish, or sublicense Content to any third party, including through a product, platform, portal, marketplace, or data-as-a-service offering;
• provide “service bureau” access or otherwise make Content available to third parties in any form;
• mirror, cache beyond agreed retention, or build a substitute dataset for ongoing use outside your plan;
• use Content to build, train, fine-tune, evaluate, or benchmark machine learning or AI models (including LLMs), or to create embeddings or datasets for such purposes;
• use Content to build or support a competing vessel-tracking, AIS, maritime intelligence, compliance, or analogous service;
• remove or obscure timestamps, identifiers, attribution, source fields, watermarks, or metadata.

7.5 External Display and Attribution. If your plan permits external display of Content (e.g., on your website/app), you must follow the attribution/branding rules in your Order. Failure to comply is a material breach.

7.6 Monitoring. We may monitor usage for compliance, security, and service integrity. You consent to such monitoring to the extent permitted by law.

7.7 Suspension. We may suspend or revoke API access immediately if we reasonably believe you breached these Terms, exceeded plan limits, or pose a security/stability risk, or if required by law.

7.8 No SLA Unless Expressly Stated. Unless an Order expressly includes a service level commitment, no SLA is provided.

8. Derived Data and Aggregation

8.1 Internal Derived Data Allowed. You may generate Derived Data for internal use only, provided it does not:

• enable reconstruction of underlying Content (including AIS Data);
• function as a substitute for providing Content to third parties; or
• violate these Terms or plan limits.

8.2 No Reconstruction or Re-identification. You may not attempt to reconstruct, reverse engineer, re-identify, or recreate Content from Derived Data or outputs.

8.3 Public Outputs. Any public use of Derived Data must not disclose underlying AIS Data unless your plan explicitly permits such disclosure and you comply with attribution requirements.

9. Acceptable Use

You may not, directly or indirectly:

• access or extract Content using automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers) except through authorized APIs;
• circumvent paywalls, authentication, usage metering, rate limits, or technical measures;
• probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service;
• interfere with or disrupt the Service or its users (including excessive load, denial-of-service, or abusive traffic);
• reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code or underlying methods (except to the extent such restrictions are prohibited by law);
• use the Service to transmit malware or perform unlawful activities;
• impersonate another person or entity or misrepresent affiliation.

We may use technical measures to prevent abuse, including IP blocking, rate limiting, CAPTCHAs, and other controls.

10. Intellectual Property

10.1 Ownership. The Service and Content are owned by VesselFinder or its licensors and protected by intellectual property laws.

10.2 No Transfer. Except for the limited licenses granted in these Terms, no rights are granted to you.

10.3 Feedback. If you provide feedback or suggestions, you grant VesselFinder a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free right to use them without restriction and without compensation.

11. User Content, AIS Contributions, and Photos

11.1 User Content. “User Content” includes anything you submit to the Service, including photos/images, comments, corrections, feedback, and any AIS-related data you transmit from equipment you operate.

11.2 License. By submitting User Content, you grant VesselFinder a worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, process, adapt/modify (for technical purposes), distribute, display, and otherwise use User Content to operate, secure, improve, and commercialize the Service and VesselFinder’s products and services.

11.3 AIS Station Data. If you provide AIS data from an “AIS Station”, VesselFinder may receive, aggregate, normalize, filter, and use such data and derived outputs as part of the Service (including making them available to subscribers and through VesselFinder’s products and services). AIS Station data is not submitted in confidence unless expressly agreed in writing. You also authorize VesselFinder to use AIS Station metadata (e.g., station identifier, approximate location, technical characteristics, uptime/quality metrics) for coverage modeling, service quality, and fraud prevention; VesselFinder will not publish precise station coordinates unless you opt in or authorize it in writing.

11.4 Warranties. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to submit User Content and grant the above rights, that it does not infringe third-party rights or violate applicable law, and that you will not submit malicious, falsified, or intentionally misleading data.

11.5 Removal, Filtering, Contributor Benefits. VesselFinder may remove User Content and may filter, throttle, discard, or suspend acceptance of AIS Station data for legal, security, integrity, quality, or operational reasons, and has no obligation to retain User Content. Any Premium access or other benefits provided in connection with AIS contributions are discretionary and may be modified, suspended, or terminated (including if contributions stop, quality materially decreases, or misuse is suspected).

11.6 Photos. Photos are User Content. By submitting Photos, you grant VesselFinder a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, host, publish, display, distribute, adapt/modify (including cropping, compression, watermarking, and formatting), create derivative works from, and otherwise exploit Photos in any media for any purpose in connection with VesselFinder’s business, including making Photos available to users, subscribers, affiliates, service providers, and partners. You may not submit Photos subject to terms that conflict with this license (e.g., “non-commercial only” or “no derivatives”). VesselFinder may, but is not required to, provide attribution. You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights and consents for Photos (including from depicted persons where required) and that Photos do not infringe third-party rights.

12. Third-Party Data and Services

The Service may incorporate, depend on, or link to third-party data sources or services. VesselFinder is not responsible for third-party services, content, availability, or accuracy.

13. Sanctions, Export Controls, and Restricted Parties

13.1 Compliance Required. You represent and warrant that you will use the Service in compliance with applicable sanctions, export controls, and trade laws and regulations (collectively, “Trade Laws”).

13.2 Restricted Parties. You may not use (and may not permit others to use) the Service if you or your organization is:

• located in, organized under the laws of, or ordinarily resident in a jurisdiction subject to comprehensive sanctions where use would be prohibited under applicable Trade Laws; or
• listed on, owned or controlled by a person/entity listed on, or acting on behalf of a person/entity listed on, a restricted party list maintained under applicable Trade Laws (including lists administered by the EU, United States, United Kingdom, and the United Nations), to the extent applicable.

13.3 Prohibited End Uses. You may not use the Service for prohibited end uses under Trade Laws, including where the Service or Content would be used in support of sanctioned activities.

13.4 Termination for Compliance. We may suspend or terminate access immediately if we reasonably believe continued provision of the Service would violate Trade Laws or expose VesselFinder to compliance risk.

14. Disclaimers

14.1 As-Is. THE SERVICE AND CONTENT ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”.

14.2 No Warranties. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VESSELFINDER DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND AVAILABILITY.

14.3 Data Limitations. AIS Data and other Content may be incomplete, delayed, inaccurate, or unavailable; vessel equipment, reception gaps, data spoofing, and third-party source limitations can affect accuracy.

15. Limitation of Liability

15.1 Exclusion of Damages. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VESSELFINDER SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST DATA, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR LOSS OF GOODWILL.

15.2 Liability Cap. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VESSELFINDER’S TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF:

• (a) the fees paid by you for the Paid Services giving rise to the claim in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to liability; or
• EUR 100.

15.3 Mandatory Rights. Nothing in these Terms limits liability where such limitation is prohibited by law.

16. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless VesselFinder and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claim, loss, liability, damage, and expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or related to:

• your use of the Service;
• your breach of these Terms;
• your violation of law or third-party rights; or
• unauthorized redistribution, publication, or commercialization of Content.

17. IP Notices and Takedown Procedure

17.1 Notice of Infringement. If you believe that Content on the Service infringes your intellectual property rights, you may submit a notice to us that includes:

• identification of the work or right claimed to be infringed;
• identification of the allegedly infringing material and sufficient information to locate it (URL preferred);
• your name, address, telephone number, and email;
• a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized by the rights holder, its agent, or the law; and
• a statement that the information is accurate and, where applicable, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the rights holder.

17.2 Response. We may remove or disable access to the material and may contact the uploader or relevant user. We may request additional information to process the notice.

17.3 Counter-Notice. If you believe material was removed in error, you may submit a counter-notice with sufficient information to support your position. We may restore the material at our discretion where appropriate and lawful.

17.4 Repeat Infringers. We may terminate accounts of repeat infringers.

18. Enterprise Verification and Compliance Checks

18.1 Applicability. This section applies to Paid Services and API/data feed customers, and to any use that appears (in VesselFinder’s reasonable judgment) to be commercial, automated, high-volume, or otherwise non-consumer in nature.

18.2 Verification. We may request reasonable information to verify compliance with these Terms and plan limits, including confirmation of the legal entity using the Service, number of authorized users, and use-case description.

18.3 Usage Review. We may review technical usage signals (e.g., API call logs, request rates, authentication events, IP ranges, user agent strings) to validate compliance. We will not require you to disclose confidential business information beyond what is reasonably necessary for compliance verification.

18.4 Remedies. If we determine (acting reasonably) that your use exceeds plan limits or violates these Terms, we may (a) require you to upgrade, (b) suspend access until remediation, and/or (c) terminate in accordance with these Terms.

19. Force Majeure

19.1 Force Majeure Event. VesselFinder will not be liable for any failure or delay in performance to the extent caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labor disputes, power or internet outages, governmental actions, sanctions, supply chain disruptions, upstream data source interruptions, satellite/network failures, or failures of third-party hosting or telecommunications providers (“Force Majeure Event”).

19.2 Mitigation. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to mitigate the effects of a Force Majeure Event.

20. Suspension and Termination

20.1 Suspension/Termination. We may suspend or terminate access to the Service immediately if we reasonably believe you breached these Terms, present a security/stability risk, fail to pay applicable fees (if any), or if required by law (including Trade Laws).

20.2 Effect. Upon termination, your licenses end and you must cease use of the Service and Content.

20.3 Survival. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including IP, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, dispute provisions, and compliance clauses.

21. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms periodically. The “Last updated” date indicates when changes were made. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

If changes materially reduce your rights for an active Paid Services term, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide notice; however, changes generally apply prospectively.

22. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Bulgaria, excluding conflict-of-law rules.

The competent courts in Sofia, Bulgaria shall have exclusive jurisdiction, except where mandatory law provides otherwise.

23. Contact

VesselFinder Ltd
Support: https://www.vesselfinder.com/contact
Address: Business Centre, Hadzhi Dimitar square, 8800 Sliven, Bulgaria
Website: https://www.vesselfinder.com