Terms & Conditions

Last Updated: February 16 2025

IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE: PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE CHECKING THE AGREEMENT BOX OR COMPLETING YOUR PURCHASE. BY CHECKING THE AGREEMENT BOX AND UTILIZING THE SERVICES YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS WHICH INCLUDE A MANDATORY INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AGREEMENT AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IN SECTION 5. THIS MEANS YOU AGREE TO RESOLVE ANY DISPUTES WITH THE COMPANY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS UNDER THE UGANDA ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION ACT (CAP. 4) AND YOU EXPLICITLY WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO FILE A LAWSUIT IN A COURT OF LAW OR PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT.

1. AUTOMATIC BILLING AND SUBSCRIPTION RENEWALS

• 1.1 Billing Consent & Payment Authorization: By signing up for a hosting subscription the Client authorizes the Company to collect fees for the Services selected. Payments may be processed via:
  • Automated Payments: Where applicable automated charges against tokenized payment profiles or recurring Mobile Money billing profiles occurring on the first day of each billing cycle.
  • Manual Payments: Direct bank transfers electronic funds transfers (EFT) or manual Mobile Money merchant transactions initiated by the Client against issued invoices. For manual payments services are renewed only upon receipt and verification of full payment.
  • No Storage of Sensitive Card Data: Financial transactions are handled entirely through certified third-party payment gateways. The Company does not store raw credit card numbers CVV codes or sensitive banking credentials on its servers. Charges will occur at the then-current subscription rate for each billing cycle (monthly quarterly or annually).
• 1.2 Continuous Service & Renewal Scope:
  • For Automated Subscriptions: Hosting subscriptions configured with automated recurring payment methods (such as tokenized payment profiles or recurring Mobile Money authorizations handled via secure third-party gateways) will automatically renew indefinitely on a recurring basis until you explicitly submit a cancellation request through your Client Area dashboard. (The Company does not store raw credit card numbers or sensitive banking credentials on its servers).
  • For Manual Payments & Non-Recurring Services: Services or invoices paid via manual methods (such as direct bank transfers EFTs or manual mobile money pushes) do not auto-renew. It is the sole responsibility of the Client to review open invoices and manually initiate payments prior to the service expiration date to avoid service interruption or domain loss.
• 1.3 Cancellation Policy: To prevent the next automated charge cancellation requests must be submitted at least three (3) days prior to the upcoming renewal billing date. Cancellation requests made after a billing cycle has renewed are non-refundable and services will continue until the end of that paid cycle.
• 1.4 Failed Payments: If an automated recurring charge fails due to expired payment tokens insufficient Mobile Money balances or banking blocks the account will fall into arrears. The Company reserves the right to attempt to re-charge the payment method over a three (3) day grace period before executing an automatic service suspension.

2. DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION RENEWALS AND MANAGEMENT

• 2.1 Agency Status: The Company acts solely as an intermediary interface between the Client and country top-level domain registries (such as i3c for .ug domains KeNIC for .ke domains TZNIC for .tz domains RICTA for .rw domains or ZA Central Registry for .africa domains) as well as ICANN registrars for generic TLDs such as .com .net .info .biz and .co. Registrations are subject to the strict administrative policies of the respective registry.
• 2.2 No Guarantee of Availability: The Client acknowledges that submitting an application and payment for a domain name does not guarantee successful registration. The domain is not legally secure until the Client receives an explicit registration confirmation from the Company.
• 2.3 Client Responsibility for Renewal: It is the sole responsibility of the Client to maintain active domain renewals. The Company will attempt to send automated email renewal reminders but the Company assumes no liability for failed notifications. If a domain is not renewed before its exact expiration date it may enter a redemption period or be permanently released by the registry. The Company is not liable for any loss of business traffic or branding resulting from expired or dropped domain names.
• 2.4 Fees and Redemption: Domain registration and renewal fees are non-refundable. If a domain expires and enters a Redemption Grace Period the Client must pay any additional redemption fees mandated by the registry to recover the domain.
• 2.5 Trademark Disputes: The Client warrants that the registration of their chosen domain name does not infringe upon any third-party intellectual property or trademarks. The Company will not arbitrate domain name disputes and any legal challenges must be handled independently by the Client under applicable ICANN Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) or regional registry rules.

3. CLIENT CONTENT DATA AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

• 3.1 Intellectual Property Ownership: The Client retains all intellectual property rights to the text software code graphics and data uploaded to their hosting space. The Client grants the Company a worldwide limited non-exclusive license to store copy transmit and display such content solely as necessary to provide and maintain the hosting services.
• 3.2 Client Data Backup Responsibility: The Client acknowledges and agrees that they bear sole responsibility for maintaining independent local backups of all website files databases and emails. The Company provides automated or on-demand backups as a convenience feature only and assumes zero liability or responsibility for any data loss corruption failure to backup or inability to restore data.

4. SSL CERTIFICATES

• 4.1 Provision of Certificates: The Company may offer both free (e.g. Let's Encrypt) and paid automated SSL certificates. While the Company automates the installation and renewal of these certificates the Client understands that third-party certificate authorities (CAs) control actual cryptographic issuance.
• 4.2 Limitation of Secure Transmission: The Company does not guarantee that any SSL certificate will be entirely error-free uninterrupted or invulnerable to advanced cyber threats or future cryptographic vulnerabilities.
• 4.3 Configuration and Validation Failure: If an SSL certificate fails to renew due to client-side DNS modifications custom server configurations domain expiration or proxy routing (such as Cloudflare) the Company is not responsible for the resulting browser security warnings dropped website traffic or e-commerce transaction interruptions.

5. SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA) AND UPTIME GUARANTEE

• 5.1 Uptime Target: The Company endeavors to maintain a 99.9% network and server uptime average calculated on a monthly basis. Uptime measurements exclude scheduled maintenance windows emergency security patching upstream network provider failures client-side script errors or Force Majeure events (e.g. nationwide fiber cuts regional power grid failures).
• 5.2 Service Credit Remedy: If the Company fails to meet the 99.9% uptime target in any given calendar month the Client’s sole and exclusive remedy shall be to request a Service Credit applied to their hosting account balance. Credits are scaled according to the duration of the unexcused downtime:
  • 99.0% to 99.8% uptime = 10% credit of the applicable billing cycle fee (pro-rated to a monthly equivalent).
  • 95.0% to 98.9% uptime = 25% credit of the applicable billing cycle fee (pro-rated to a monthly equivalent).
  • Below 95.0% uptime = 50% credit of the applicable billing cycle fee (pro-rated to a monthly equivalent).
• 5.3 Credit Request Procedure: To receive a Service Credit the Client must submit a written request to the support team within seven (7) days of the end of the month in which the downtime occurred. Credits are non-refundable non-transferable cannot be redeemed for cash and are capped at a maximum of 50% of the client’s applicable billing rate.

6. DISPUTE RESOLUTION BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER

• 6.1 Mandatory Pre-Arbitration Dispute Resolution: In the event of any dispute claim or controversy arising out of or relating to the Web Hosting Services server downtime data loss billing or this Agreement the client must first send a written Notice of Dispute to the Company’s support or legal department. The Parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute amicably within thirty (30) days from the date the Notice is received.
• 6.2 Agreement to Arbitrate: If the dispute cannot be resolved within thirty (30) days it shall be referred to and finally resolved by binding arbitration administered under the Uganda Arbitration and Conciliation Act (Cap. 4) (as amended). Both the client and the Company explicitly waive their right to litigate the dispute in a court of law.
• 6.3 Class Action and Representative Action Waiver: The client and the Company agree that any arbitral proceedings shall be conducted strictly on an individual basis and not as a class consolidated or representative action. The arbitral tribunal shall not consolidate the claims of more than one user or host account and may not preside over any form of a class or collective proceeding.
• 6.4 Appointing Authority & Administration: To ensure a fast and highly technical evaluation of web hosting infrastructure or data issues the appointing authority and administrative body shall be the International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation in Kampala (ICAMEK) operating under its established rules. If ICAMEK is unavailable the default appointing authority shall be the arbitration department within the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Uganda.
• 6.5 Tribunal & Location: The tribunal shall consist of one (1) neutral arbitrator mutually agreed upon or appointed by the administrative body. The single arbitrator must possess professional experience or qualifications in Information Technology (IT) Cloud Infrastructure or digital commercial law. The seat and venue of the arbitration shall be Kampala Uganda and the language of the proceedings shall be English.
• 6.6 Finality and Liability Cap: The decision of the arbitrator shall be final definitive and binding. The arbitrator's authority to award damages is strictly constrained by the Limitation of Liability provisions set forth in Section 7.

7. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND EXPORT CONTROL

• 7.1 Exclusion of Consequential Damages: To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law in no event shall the Company its directors employees or tech partners be liable to the Client or any third party for any indirect incidental special exemplary punitive or consequential damages. This includes but is not limited to loss of profits loss of revenue loss of data loss of business reputation or total website defacement or corruption even if the Company was advised of the possibility of such damages.
• 7.2 Maximum Liability Cap: The total aggregate liability of the Company for any and all claims arising out of or related to this Agreement whether in contract tort (including negligence) or otherwise shall be strictly limited to the actual total amount paid by the Client to the Company for the specific hosting services during the three (3) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the liability.
• 7.3 Export Control and Restricted Use: The Client certifies that they are not located in a restricted territory and will not utilize the hosting services to store or transfer software data or technology in violation of international export controls or trade sanctions laws.

8. ACCOUNT SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION

• 8.1 Right to Suspend or Terminate: The Company reserves the right to suspend or terminate your hosting account and deny access to the Services upon any material breach of this Agreement. For minor or curable breaches the Company will endeavor to provide reasonable notice and an opportunity to rectify the issue. However for severe violations or illegal activities under Section 8.2 the Company reserves the right to suspend or terminate services immediately with or without prior notice.
• 8.2 Grounds for Immediate Termination (Zero Tolerance Policy): Your account will be immediately terminated without notice and without any right to hosting credits or refunds if the Company discovers or reasonably suspects that your account is involved in any of the following activities:
  • System Abuse & Security Threats: Hosting malware viruses launching Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks port scanning or attempting to breach the infrastructure security of the Company or other networks.
  • Spamming: Sending unsolicited bulk emails running open email relays or causing the Company’s IP addresses to be blacklisted.
  • Impersonation & Spoofing: Engaging in identity theft creating fake login portals spoofing email headers domain name phishing or impersonating any individual business or entity (including Crystal Webhosting or its representatives) with intent to deceive or defraud.
  • Electronic Fraud & Financial Scams: Operating online investment schemes phishing websites deceptive digital storefronts or utilizing server email resources to conduct financial scams or electronic fraud in violation of Section 19 of the Uganda Computer Misuse Act (Cap. 92).
  • Cyber Harassment & Offensive Communication: Hosting or transmitting content that constitutes cyber harassment offensive communication hate speech or malicious data intended to threaten demean or abuse others under Sections 24 through 26 of the Uganda Computer Misuse Act (Cap. 92).
  • Copyright and Intellectual Property Infringement: Hosting distributing or linking to content that violates intellectual property rights or copyright laws pursuant to our standalone Copyright & Notice-and-Takedown Policy. Accounts identified as repeat infringers will face immediate termination.
  • Illegal Content: Hosting distributing or linking to content that violates Ugandan law including but not limited to the Computer Misuse Act (Cap. 92) and the Data Protection and Privacy Act 2019 (e.g. copyright-infringing content pirated software child exploitation material or unauthorized personal data disclosures).
  • Resource Abuse: Excessively consuming server CPU RAM or bandwidth beyond the allocated fair-use threshold of your specific hosting plan thereby degrading performance for other users.
• 8.3 Suspension for Non-Payment: If your subscription payment fails or is overdue by more than three (3) days the Company reserves the right to automatically suspend your web hosting services. Clients are strongly encouraged to maintain independent backups or request a data backup export from the support team during any grace period if they do not intend to renew. If the account remains unpaid for more than thirty (30) days post-suspension—during which time at least one (1) final reminder notice will be sent—the Company reserves the right to permanently terminate the account and permanently delete all server files databases and backup data without liability for data loss.
• 8.4 Effect of Termination: Upon termination your right to use the hosting services ceases immediately. The Company is under no legal obligation to maintain package or export your website files or databases to you post-termination.
• 8.5 SLA Waiver: Any downtime or service unavailability resulting from a suspension or termination executed under this Section is strictly excluded from the Uptime Guarantee and shall not qualify for Service Credits or Arbitration claims.