Acceptable Use Policy
Hifiverse.io — Last updated: 7 May 2026 · Version 1.0
Quick summary
- Be honest, be lawful, treat other people with respect.
- Don't post illegal content. Don't post hateful content. Don't post counterfeit listings.
- Don't scrape, don't bot, don't reverse-engineer the Platform. Use the API for that.
- Don't have more than one personal account, don't share your account, don't transfer it.
- Don't manipulate the Price Index, the search rankings, the reviews or the moderation system.
- We use a graduated strike system aligned with EU Digital Services Act Article 23: warning → time-out → suspension → termination.
- You can appeal any moderation decision through the internal complaint mechanism in the Notice-and-Action / Copyright / DSA Policy.
1. About this Policy
This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") sets the rules for what you may and may not do on the Service. It applies to everyone who accesses Hifiverse — signed-in users, signed-out visitors, dealers, API consumers, newsletter recipients — and to every part of the Service, including the editorial sections, the marketplace, the forum, dealer storefronts, the Authentication ordering flow, the API and mobile applications.
2. Eligibility and accounts
One account per person. You may hold only one personal user account. If you operate a business that needs to list more than three items at the same time, you also hold one dealer account, registered in the name of the business.
Account sharing is prohibited. Your credentials are personal to you. Dealer accounts can be configured with multiple named seats; each seat is its own credential.
Account transfer is prohibited unless we authorise it in writing.
Multiple accounts to evade limits, suspensions or bans is prohibited. We use technical signals — device fingerprints, IP patterns, payment-method overlap — to detect this and may suspend all linked accounts.
Accurate information. Information on your account must be accurate and current. Update it within 30 days of a material change.
Account security. Use a strong password and enable two-factor authentication. Notify us immediately at info@hifiverse.io if you suspect unauthorised access.
3. Content — what you may and may not post
Honesty. Content you post must be truthful and not misleading.
Lawfulness. You may not post content that is unlawful.
Intellectual property. You may post only content to which you have rights. You may not post photos belonging to other sellers or websites without permission, manufacturer manuals or software you don't have rights to redistribute, or content reproducing third-party logos in a way that suggests endorsement that does not exist.
Specific content prohibitions. You may not post:
- Hate speech targeting people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, age or serious illness.
- Hate-symbol or hate-group merchandise, regardless of "rare", "historical" or "collector" framing.
- Harassment, bullying or threats directed at any person, including Hifiverse staff and partners.
- Violent extremism — content promoting, glorifying or recruiting for terrorist organisations or hate groups.
- Sexual content involving minors — zero tolerance. Reports to law enforcement are mandatory and immediate.
- Doxing — publishing another person's home address, workplace, identity papers or other personal data they have not made public.
- Misinformation that creates a risk of physical or financial harm, including false safety information for mains-powered audio equipment.
- Spam — repetitive duplicate posts, mass private messaging, fake reviews, shill posts.
- Adult or sexually explicit content unrelated to hi-fi audio equipment.
- Personal data of third parties without their consent.
Marketplace-specific content must comply with the Marketplace Listing Terms, including the prohibited-items list in section 8 of those terms.
Forum and community content must comply with the Community Guidelines.
4. Behaviour — how you treat other people
Respect. Treat other users, dealers, Hifiverse staff and Authentication Partners with basic civility.
No coordinated abuse. Do not coordinate with others to brigade, mass-flag, mass-downvote or mass-report an individual.
No impersonation. Do not impersonate another person, a Hifiverse employee, an Authentication Partner, a manufacturer, a journalist or a celebrity. Parody is fine if clearly labelled.
No harassment via private messaging.
Reporting in good faith. Filing knowingly false reports, mass-reporting to harass an individual, or weaponising the reporting system to suppress competitors is itself a violation.
5. Technical use — automation, scraping and security
Automated access requires permission. Automated access (bots, crawlers, scripts that simulate user behaviour) requires either an API key issued under the API Terms of Use or our prior written consent.
Respect rate limits. Splitting load across multiple keys to evade a per-key limit is itself a violation.
Don't scrape the user-facing site to build a competing data product, populate listings on another platform, or retrain external machine-learning models.
Don't reverse-engineer the Platform or its mobile applications, except to the extent EU law permits (Directive 2009/24/EC, Article 6).
Don't probe security without permission. Submit findings through our coordinated-disclosure programme at info@hifiverse.io.
Don't spread malware or run denial-of-service attacks.
6. Manipulation of platform features
No Price Index manipulation. Don't post fake "sold" listings to inflate or deflate Price Index values.
No search-ranking manipulation. Don't keyword-stuff listing titles. Don't repost identical listings to get fresh-listing boost.
No review or rating manipulation. Don't write reviews of items you didn't buy. Don't trade reviews with other sellers. Don't threaten a buyer to remove a negative review.
No notice-and-action abuse. Don't file knowingly unfounded notices to take down a competitor's listing.
7. Misuse and the strike system
We follow a graduated approach aligned with DSA Article 23:
| Step | Action | Typical trigger | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warning | First minor violation, or content removal where the rule was not obvious | Decision is final; violation recorded |
| 2 | Time-out | Repeat of a minor violation after warning, or first major violation | Listing pause or feature restriction for 7 days |
| 3 | Suspension | Repeat of a major violation, or pattern of misuse | Account suspended for 30 days |
| 4 | Termination | Continued violations after suspension, or single severe violation | Permanent account closure, prohibition on re-registration |
Severe violations that may go straight to step 4: child sexual abuse material; violent threats against an identified person; large-scale counterfeit operations; coordinated fraud; sustained coordinated harassment campaigns; selling stolen goods knowingly; sanctions evasion.
Automated decisions. Some moderation steps may be taken with the assistance of automated tools. We do not make solely automated decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects on you within the meaning of GDPR Article 22. Suspensions (step 3) and terminations (step 4) always involve human review before taking effect, except where the law requires immediate removal.
Strike expiry. Warnings expire after 12 months without a further violation. Time-outs expire after 24 months. Suspensions remain on the record but the escalation ladder resets after 24 strike-free months.
8. Reporting violations
To report content, behaviour or accounts that violate this AUP, follow the Notice-and-Action / Copyright / DSA Policy.
For urgent safety matters — child safety, immediate physical threat — email info@hifiverse.io (subject: "Safety"). We reply within 4 working hours.
For coordinated disclosure of security vulnerabilities, email info@hifiverse.io (subject: "Security Disclosure").
9. Cooperation with authorities
We cooperate with lawful requests from regulators, tax authorities, customs authorities, IP rights holders, brand-protection departments and law-enforcement agencies in accordance with applicable law (DSA Articles 9 and 10).
10. Enforcement and remedies
In addition to the strike-system steps, we may: remove or hide individual pieces of content; demote content in search rankings; limit features; recover sums owed under the Subscription Agreement; pursue civil remedies for provable loss; refer matters to law enforcement.
11. Changes to this Policy
For material changes, we give 30 days' notice on the Platform. Minor clarifications take effect on publication.
Contact
- Email: info@hifiverse.io (subject: "Report — Abuse", "Safety", "Security Disclosure", "Moderation Appeal — case ID")
- Postal: Timelapse Games EOOD, Bulgaria