This document and the other documents that we reference below make up our house rules, or what we officially call our Terms of Use (the “Terms” for short). The Terms are a legally binding contract between you and Balkanica.

Please note that Section 8. Disputes with Balkanica , contains an arbitration clause and class action waiver. By agreeing to the Terms, you agree to resolve all disputes through binding individual arbitration, which means that you waive any right to have those disputes decided by a judge or jury, and that you waive your right to participate in class actions, class arbitrations, or representative actions.

This contract sets out your rights and responsibilities when you use Balkanica.us, so please read it carefully. By using any of our Services (even just browsing our website), you’re agreeing to the Terms. If you don’t agree with the Terms, you may not use our Services.

We know your personal information is important to you, so it’s important to us. Our Privacy Policy details how your information is used when you use our Services.

You’ll need to create an account with Balkanica to use most of our Services. Here are a few rules about accounts with Balkanica:

A. You must be a business customer – buyer for a store, restaurant, food distributor, etc. Balkanica doesn’t sell directly to end consumer. Minors under 18 and at least 13 years of age, who work with such professional establishments, are only permitted to use our Services through an account owned by a supervisor with their appropriate permission and under their direct supervision. Children under 13 years are not permitted to use Balkanica or the Services. You are responsible for any and all account activity conducted by a minor on your account, and there may be commercial products or services available that you may want to consider to limit a minor's access to material online.

B. Be honest with us. Provide accurate information about yourself. It’s prohibited to use false information or impersonate another person or company through your account.

C. Choose an appropriate name. If you decide to not have your full name serve as the name associated with your account, you may not use language that is offensive, vulgar, infringes someone’s intellectual property rights, or otherwise violates the Terms.

D. You're responsible for your account. You’re solely responsible for any activity on your account. If you’re sharing an account with other people, then the person whose financial information is on the account will ultimately be responsible for all activity. You’re registering as a business entity, but you personally guarantee that you have the authority to agree to the Terms on behalf of the business. Also, your accounts are not transferable.

E. Protect your password. As we mentioned above, you’re solely responsible for any activity on your account, so it’s important to keep your account password secure.

F. Let's be clear about our relationship. These Terms don't create any agency, partnership, joint venture, employment, or franchisee relationship between you and Balkanica.

License to Use Our Services. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to use our Services—subject to the Terms and the following restrictions in particular:

A. Don’t Use Our Services to Break the Law. You agree that you will not violate any laws in connection with your use of the Services. This includes any local, state, federal, and international laws that may apply to you. For example, it’s your responsibility to obtain any permits or licenses that your establishment requires, and to meet applicable legal requirements in applicable jurisdiction(s). You may not sell anything that violates any laws ; you may not engage in fraud (including false claims or infringement notices), theft, anti-competitive conduct, threatening conduct, or any other unlawful acts or crimes against Balkanica.

B. Pay Your Bills. You are responsible for paying all fees that you owe to Balkanica.

C. Don’t Steal Our Stuff. You agree not to crawl, scrape, or spider any page of the Services or to reverse engineer or attempt to obtain the source code of the Services.

D. Don’t Try to Harm Our Systems. You agree not to interfere with or try to disrupt our Services, for example by distributing a virus or other harmful computer code.

E. Follow Our Trademark Policy. The names “Balkan Gardens”, “Balkan Creamery”, “Dobrogea Lactate”, “TRADITII ROMANESTII”, “Balkanica” and the other Balkanica marks, phrases, logos, and designs that we use in connection with our Services (the Balkanica Trademarks), are trademarks, service marks, or trade dress of Balkanica in the US, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania and other countries.

F. Share Your Ideas. We love your suggestions and ideas! They can help us improve your experience and our Services. Any unsolicited ideas or other materials you submit to Balkanica (not including Your Content or items you sell through our Services) are considered non-confidential and non-proprietary to you. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, sub-licensable, perpetual license to use and publish those ideas and materials for any purpose, without compensation to you.

G. Talk to Us Online. From time to time, Balkanica will provide you with certain legal information in writing. By using our Services, you’re agreeing to our Electronic Communications Policy , which describes how we provide that information to you. It says that we can send you information electronically (such as by email) instead of mailing you paper copies (it’s better for the environment), and that your electronic agreement is the same as your signature on paper.

Termination By You. We'd hate to see you go, but you may terminate your account with Balkanica at any time.

Termination By Balkanica. We may terminate or suspend your account (and any accounts Balkanica determines are related to your account) and your access to the Services should we have reason to believe you, your Content, or your use of the Services violate our Terms. If we do so, it’s important to understand that you don’t have a contractual or legal right to continue to use our Services.

Termination By Balkanica. Generally, Balkanica will notify you that your account has been terminated or suspended, unless you’ve repeatedly violated our Terms or we have legal or regulatory reasons preventing us from notifying you.

If you or Balkanica terminate your account, you may lose any information associated with your account, including Your Content.

We May Discontinue the Services. Balkanica reserves the right to change, suspend, or discontinue any of the Services for you, any or all users, at any time, for any reason, including those laid out in Balkanica policies under these Terms of Use. We will not be liable to you for the effect that any changes to the Services may have on you, including your income or your ability to generate revenue through the Services.
Survival. The Terms will remain in effect even after your access to the Service is terminated, or your use of the Service ends.

Items You Purchase. You understand that Balkanica does not manufacture any of the items sold through our website. We import and store the items in our warehouse, and in most cases – deliver them to you on our trucks or by third party logistics providers, so Balkanica cannot make any warranties about their quality and safety, or even their legality. Any legal claim related to an item you purchase must be brought directly against the manufacturer of the item. You release Balkanica from any claims related to items sold through for items that caused physical injury (like product liability claims).

Content You Access. You may come across materials that you find offensive or inappropriate while using our Services. You release us from all liability relating to that content.

Third-Party Services. Our Services may contain links to third-party websites or services that we don’t own or control (for example, links to Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest). You may also need to use a third party’s product or service in order to use some of our Services (like a compatible mobile device to use our mobile apps). When you access these third-party services, you do so at your own risk. The third parties may require you to accept their own terms of use. Balkanica is not a party to those agreements; they are solely between you and the third party.

Promotions. By participating in a special offer or promotion, you agree that you may not later claim that the rules of that special offer or promotion were ambiguous.

WARRANTIES. BALKANICA IS DEDICATED TO MAKING OUR SERVICES THE BEST THEY CAN BE, BUT WE’RE NOT PERFECT AND SOMETIMES THINGS CAN GO WRONG. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT OUR SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT ANY KIND OF WARRANTY (EXPRESS OR IMPLIED). WE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMING ANY WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AS WELL AS ANY WARRANTIES IMPLIED BY A COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, COURSE OF DEALING, OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT:

(I) THE SERVICES WILL BE SECURE OR AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME OR LOCATION;

(II) ANY DEFECTS OR ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED;

(III) THE SERVICES WILL BE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL MATERIALS; OR

(IV) THE RESULTS OF USING THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. YOU USE THE SERVICES SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

LIABILITY LIMITS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER BALKANICA, NOR OUR EMPLOYEES OR DIRECTORS SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR REVENUES, OR FOR ANY CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS. IN NO EVENT SHALL BALKANICA’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED ($100) US DOLLARS(USD) OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID BALKANICA IN THE PAST TWELVE MONTHS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

We hope this never happens, but if Balkanica gets sued because of something that you did, you agree to defend and indemnify us. That means you’ll defend Balkanica (including any of our employees) and hold us harmless from any legal claim or demand (including reasonable attorney’s fees) that arises from your actions, your use (or misuse) of our Services, your breach of the Terms, or you or your account’s infringement of someone else’s rights.

We reserve the right to handle our legal defense however we see fit, even if you are indemnifying us, in which case you agree to cooperate with us so we can execute our strategy.

If you’re upset with us, let us know, and hopefully we can resolve your issue. But if we can’t, then these rules will govern any legal dispute involving our Services:

A. Governing Law. The Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, without regard to its conflict of laws rules, and the laws of the United States of America. These laws will apply no matter where in the world you live, but if you live outside of the United States, you may be entitled to the protection of the mandatory consumer protection provisions of your local consumer protection law.

B. Arbitration. You and Balkanica agree that any dispute or claim arising from or relating to the Terms shall be finally settled by final and binding arbitration, using the English language, administered by the American Arbitration Association (the “AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (the “AAA Rules”) then in effect (those rules are deemed to be incorporated by reference into this section, and as of the date of these Terms you can find the AAA Rules here), unless otherwise required by law. **Arbitration, including threshold questions of arbitrability of the dispute, will be handled by a sole arbitrator in accordance with those rules. Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court that has jurisdiction.

C. Costs of Arbitration. Payment for any and all reasonable AAA filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees will be in accordance with the Consumer Arbitration Rules. If the value of your claim does not exceed $10,000 USD, Balkanica will pay for the reasonable filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees associated with the arbitration, unless the arbitrator finds that either the substance of your claim or the relief sought was frivolous or brought for an improper purpose.

D. Forum. We’re based in New Jersey, so any legal action against Balkanica related to our Services must be filed and take place in Passaic County, New Jersey. For all actions under the AAA Rules, the proceedings may be filed where your residence is, or in Passaic County, New Jersey, and any in-person hearings will be conducted at a location which is reasonably convenient to both parties taking into account their ability to travel and other pertinent circumstances. For any actions not subject to arbitration or mediation, you and Balkanica agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of a state or federal court located in Passaic County, New Jersey.

E. Government Exception. If you are a government agent or entity in the United States using the Services in your official capacity, and you are legally unable to agree to the clauses in this section, then those clauses do not apply to you. In that case, the Terms and any action related to the Terms will be governed by the laws of the United States (without reference to conflict of laws) and, in the absence of federal law and to the extent permitted under federal law, the laws of the State of New Jersey.

F. Modifications. If we make any changes to this “Disputes with Balkanica” section after the date you last accepted the Terms, those changes will not apply to any claims filed in a legal proceeding against Balkanica prior to the date the changes became effective. Balkanica will notify you of substantive changes to the “Disputes with Balkanica” section at least 30 days prior to the date the change will become effective. If you do not agree to the modified terms, you may send Balkanica a written notification (including email) or close your account within those 30 days. By rejecting a modified term or permanently closing your account, you agree to arbitrate any disputes between you and Balkanica in accordance with the provisions of this “Disputes with Balkanica” section as of the date you last accepted the Terms, including any changes made prior to your rejection. If you reopen your closed account or create a new account, you agree to be bound by the current version of the Terms.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll definitely let you know by posting the changes through the Services and/or sending you an email or message about the changes. That way you can decide whether you want to continue using the Services. Changes will be effective upon the posting of the changes unless otherwise specified. You are responsible for reviewing and becoming familiar with any changes. Your use of the Services following the changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms.

The Terms, including all of the policies that make up the Terms, supersede any other agreement between you and Balkanica regarding the Services. If any part of the Terms is found to be unenforceable, that part will be limited to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms will otherwise remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any part of the Terms is not a waiver of our right to later enforce that or any other part of the Terms. We may assign any of our rights and obligations under the Terms.

If you have any questions about the Terms, please email us at info@balkanica.us.