General terms of use and of sale (the "Terms")

1. Legal notice

The Service is published by Alexis Le Pin (trading as "Lexu"), sole trader under the French micro-entreprise regime, registered under SIREN 101 283 273 (SIRET 101 283 273 00015), whose registered office is at 7 rue Marceau, 44000 Nantes, France. VAT not applicable, article 293 B of the Code général des impôts (French General Tax Code). Reachable at alexis@lexu.fr. Hosting: Netlify Inc. (United States) for the website, Supabase for the database and the storage. Publication director: Alexis Le Pin.

2. Purpose of the Service

Lexu is a social reading tracking application that lets you manage your library, track your sessions, share your impressions, talk with other readers and access personalised recaps. A free plan lets you discover the essential features. A paid Premium plan unlocks advanced features (unlimited library, advanced statistics, etc.).

Professional offers (Lexu Pro Access, advertising formats, Author Pack and Combo included, and Lexu Author when it opens), sold to authors, publishing houses and advertisers, are governed by the Pro Terms of Sale (in French), which prevail over these Terms for those purchases. Ticking the box accepting the terms on the payment page of a Pro offer constitutes acceptance of those Pro Terms of Sale.

3. User account

• You must be at least 15 years old to create an account. Minors must have the authorisation of their parents.
• One account per person only. Creating multiple or fraudulent accounts is prohibited.
• You are responsible for the confidentiality of your credentials and for all actions carried out from your account.
• The information provided on registration must be accurate. You undertake to keep it up to date.
• We reserve the right to suspend or close an account in the event of a breach of these Terms. Suspension or closure takes place without notice or refund in the event of fraud or unlawful use; in other cases of breach, we inform you beforehand.

4. Premium subscription

4.1. Subscribing

• Premium subscriptions are available on a monthly or a yearly plan. The prices in force are shown at the time of purchase (including tax, in euros).
• On iOS, billing is handled by Apple Inc. through the App Store; on Android, by Google LLC through the Play Store; on the web, by our payment provider Stripe. No banking data is collected or stored by Lexu.
• Payment is taken when the purchase is confirmed on the App Store, the Play Store or the Stripe payment page.
• A free trial period may be offered. If you do not cancel before the end of the trial, the paid subscription starts automatically.

4.2. Automatic renewal

• The subscription renews automatically at each due date, unless you cancel it at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.
• The renewal is billed at the rate in force at the time of the renewal.

4.3. Cancellation

• You can cancel your subscription at any time from:
  • iOS: Settings → [Your name] → Subscriptions → Lexu → Cancel subscription.
  • Android: Play Store → Menu → Payments and subscriptions → Subscriptions → Lexu.
  • Web (Stripe): by writing to alexis@lexu.fr; the cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period.
• After cancellation, you keep Premium access until the end of the period already paid for. No pro rata refund is made for the remaining period.

5. Right of withdrawal and refunds

5.1. Right of withdrawal (EU consumers)

In accordance with article L. 221-18 of the Code de la consommation (French Consumer Code), you have a period of 14 days from subscribing to exercise your right of withdrawal, without having to give a reason for your decision.

Important: by starting to use the digital content of the Service immediately after the purchase, you expressly waive your right of withdrawal in accordance with article L. 221-28-13° of the Code de la consommation. For a purchase on the web, a tick box at the time of payment records that waiver; on the App Store and the Play Store, it is the conditions of Apple and of Google that apply.

5.2. Refunds

For purchases made through the App Store or the Play Store, refund requests are addressed directly to those platforms, which collect the payment. For a purchase made on the web, write to alexis@lexu.fr: the refund is handled by Lexu through Stripe, within the 14-day right of withdrawal described above, unless immediate performance has been accepted.

• Apple (iOS): go to reportaproblem.apple.com, select the purchase concerned and explain the reason. Apple decides case by case according to its own rules. Most of the time, Apple accepts requests made within a reasonable time (often 14 to 90 days depending on the case).
• Google (Android): open the Play Store → Menu → Payments and subscriptions → Recent purchases → select the purchase → Request a refund.

Recommendation for the stores: to maximise your chances of obtaining a refund, make your request within 48 hours of the purchase or of the renewal. Beyond that, the decision rests entirely with Apple or Google.

5.3. Cases of major unavailability

In the event of prolonged unavailability of the Service caused by us (more than 7 consecutive days), you can contact us at alexis@lexu.fr with your proof of purchase. We will examine your request: for a web purchase, we refund it ourselves through Stripe; for a purchase through the stores, we will approach Apple or Google.

6. Advertising

The Service contains advertising. Sponsored placements, bought by authors, publishing houses or their representatives, are displayed among the content, to all users. Each one carries the mention "Sponsored" followed by the name of the advertiser who pays for it.

These placements cover only books and authors. Each campaign is reviewed before it runs and may be refused or stopped if it breaks the law, harms third parties or spoils the reading experience. An advert can be reported directly from the placement, by tapping the mention "Sponsored".

The order in which these placements are presented takes account of the themes of your reading. This ranking can be turned off at any time from Settings then Privacy, without losing anything of the Service. The details are set out in the privacy policy.

7. Rules of use and user content

By using the Service, you undertake not to:

• publish unlawful, hateful, defamatory, racist, sexist, homophobic, harassing or pornographic content;
• impersonate a third party or create fake profiles;
• spam, send unsolicited advertising or circumvent the technical limits of the service;
• extract or copy the data of the Service on a large scale (scraping, bots, automation prohibited);
• attempt to circumvent the security measures or to access third-party accounts;
• publish content protected by copyright without authorisation (e.g. long book extracts going beyond the right of short quotation).

You keep ownership of the content you publish (impressions, quotes, photos). By publishing it, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free and transferable licence to display, store, reproduce and distribute it within the framework of the Service. This licence ends when you delete the content (save for temporary backup copies and legal obligations).

We reserve the right to moderate or to remove any content contrary to these Terms or to the law, without notice. Serious breaches may lead to the suspension or the closure of the account without refund.

7 bis. Works published by authors

Lexu allows authors to publish written works (title, summary, cover, chapters), which users can read free of charge in the reader of the application after validation by the team. The author remains the sole owner of the rights in their work. By submitting it, they grant Lexu a non-exclusive, worldwide and royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, display and distribute the work within the framework of the Service, for as long as it remains published. This licence carries no exclusivity: the author remains free to publish their work elsewhere. It ends when the work is withdrawn, at the request of the author or by decision of Lexu, save for temporary backup copies and legal obligations. Publication is free of charge and gives rise to no remuneration and no transfer of rights.

The author warrants that they are the author of the work or that they hold all the necessary rights, and that it is not plagiarism and infringes no third-party right. The review before publication is not a legal check and transfers no liability: the author remains solely responsible for their content. Lexu may refuse or withdraw a work at any time, in particular after a report or in the event of a breach of these Terms.

8. Reporting and moderation

As host of the content published by users, Lexu does not carry out any prior check, but provides reporting tools. You can report any unlawful content to us at alexis@lexu.fr. We reserve the right to remove any content that is manifestly unlawful or contrary to these terms, and to suspend the account concerned, without notice where the law so requires. An advert is reported directly from the placement, by tapping the mention "Sponsored", and a work published by an author is reported directly from the reader (reading settings).

9. Affiliate links

Lexu takes part in the Programme Partenaires Amazon EU (Amazon EU Associates Programme). Some links to Amazon (the "Buy this book" button on the book page and the "Where to find this book?" sheet) are affiliate links: we may receive a commission if you make a purchase on Amazon after clicking those links, at no extra cost to you. The notice also appears next to the links in the application.

Lexu also takes part in the affiliate programme of Fnac, operated by the Awin platform. Links to Fnac.com go through the Awin redirector, which attributes the visit to Lexu: here too we may receive a commission on a purchase made after that click, at no extra cost to you.

Lexu is neither the seller nor a payment intermediary for these purchases. The contract of sale, the price, the availability, the delivery, the legal warranty and the after-sales service are the exclusive responsibility of the merchant with whom you place your order.

10. Intellectual property

The app, its code, its design, its interfaces, its trade marks ("Lexu", logo, taglines) and its content (excluding user content) remain the exclusive property of Alexis Le Pin or of his licensors. No reproduction, modification, distribution or commercial exploitation is authorised without prior written agreement. The book covers, metadata and summaries displayed come from third-party databases (Electre, Open Library, Babelio, Google Books) and remain the property of their respective holders.

11. Limitation of liability

The Service is provided "as is", with no guarantee of uninterrupted availability or of freedom from error. We do everything we can to maintain a quality service, but cannot guarantee 100% availability. Within the limits allowed by law, our liability is limited to the direct and foreseeable damage resulting from a proven fault. We are not liable for indirect damage (loss of data, loss of turnover, damage to image, etc.) except in the event of gross negligence or wilful misconduct.

You acknowledge that the book recommendations, statistics, recaps and social content displayed are provided for information only and do not constitute professional advice.

12. Termination

You can stop using the Service at any time and delete your account from the app (Profile → Settings → Help & support → Delete my account) or by contacting us. We may suspend or terminate your access in the event of a serious breach, of fraud, or for technical or legal reasons, with reasonable notice where the circumstances allow. The provisions which, by their nature, must survive termination (intellectual property, limitation of liability, governing law) remain in force.

13. Mediation and dispute resolution

In the event of a dispute, we invite you to contact us first at alexis@lexu.fr to look for an amicable solution. In accordance with article L. 612-1 of the Code de la consommation, you can refer the matter free of charge to a consumer mediator. Lexu subscribes to the CM2C scheme (Centre de la Médiation de la Consommation de Conciliateurs de Justice), 49 rue de Ponthieu, 75008 Paris, telephone 01 89 47 00 14: online referral at cm2c.net ("Déclarer un litige" section) or by post, within one year from your written complaint to Lexu.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by French law. For purchases made through the App Store, the standard terms of Apple (EULA) apply in addition. Failing an amicable resolution, the competent court is that of the place of residence of the defendant or, for consumers, that of their place of residence (art. R. 631-3 Code de la consommation).

15. Changes to the Terms

We may change these Terms at any time. Substantial changes will be notified to you by email or through the app at least 15 days before they take effect. If you do not agree with the new terms, you can terminate your account. Failing that, continued use of the Service constitutes acceptance.

16. Contact

alexis@lexu.fr · Contact form (in French) · Privacy policy