Terms of Service

1. About these Terms and who can use the Service

The Service is provided by Release Guard Labs Limited, registered in Ireland under company number 652820 and VAT registration number IE3748873OH. You may contact us at hello@bessmap.com for any matter relating to these Terms.

The Service is offered exclusively to businesses, professionals, and self-employed individuals using the Service in the course of their trade, business, craft, or profession. By using the Service you represent and warrant that:

• you are at least 18 years of age;
• you are using the Service solely for purposes related to your trade, business, or profession and not as a consumer;
• if you are accepting these Terms on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you have full authority to bind that entity, in which case "you" refers to that entity;
• you are not located in, ordinarily resident in, or a national of any country or territory subject to comprehensive sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United Nations, the United Kingdom, or the United States;
• you have not been previously suspended or removed from the Service.

The Service is not directed at consumers. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, statutory consumer rights are excluded and these Terms shall be interpreted as a business-to-business agreement.

2. Definitions

• "Account" means the user account you create to access the Service.
• "Content" means all data, text, images, maps, scoring outputs, reports, alerts, and other materials made available through the Service.
• "Free Tier" and "Pro Tier" mean the access tiers described on our pricing page, as updated from time to time.
• "Subscription Fees" means any recurring fees payable by you for access to paid features of the Service.
• "Third-Party Data" means data sourced by us from third parties including but not limited to ESB Networks, EirGrid, local planning authorities, the National Planning Application Database, the Property Price Register, the Central Statistics Office, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, OpenStreetMap, and other public, governmental, or commercial data providers.
• "Outputs" means viability scores, grades, ranked site recommendations, PDF reports, alert digests, and any other derived outputs generated by the Service.

3. Your account and security

To access most features of the Service you must create an Account. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and to keep that information up to date. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials and for all activity that occurs under your Account, whether or not authorised by you. You agree to notify us immediately at hello@bessmap.com of any actual or suspected unauthorised access to or use of your Account.

Accounts are personal to a single named user. You may not share, resell, sub-license, or otherwise allow any other person to use your Account or the Service under your credentials. We may suspend or terminate any Account that we reasonably believe is being shared, accessed by automated means without authorisation, or otherwise misused.

4. The Service, plans, and changes

The Service is offered in tiers. The Free Tier provides limited access to certain map layers. The Pro Tier unlocks features such as site viability scoring, ranked site recommendations, PDF reports, and watchlist alerts. The specific features included in each tier, and any usage limits or fair-use thresholds, are set out on our pricing page and may change from time to time.

We may at our sole discretion add, modify, suspend, or remove features, datasets, scoring methodology, layers, or other aspects of the Service at any time. We will use reasonable efforts to notify you of material reductions in functionality that affect a paid plan.

Features marked as "beta", "preview", "experimental", or similar are provided for evaluation purposes only, may change or be withdrawn at any time without notice, and are excluded from any service-level commitment, warranty, or support obligation we might otherwise have.

5. Subscription fees, billing, and renewal

Pro Tier access is provided on a subscription basis. By subscribing you authorise us, through our payment processor (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.), to charge the payment method you provide for the applicable Subscription Fees plus any applicable taxes (including Irish VAT or equivalent reverse-charge VAT for non-Irish business customers, where applicable).

• Auto-renewal. Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current rate until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from the billing area in your Account; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period and you will retain Pro Tier access until that period ends.
• No refunds. Except where required by mandatory applicable law, all Subscription Fees are non-refundable. Partial periods, unused features, downgrades mid-period, and account deletions do not give rise to any refund or credit. You acknowledge that you are entering into this subscription in the course of your trade or business and waive any consumer cooling-off rights to the extent permitted by law.
• Price changes. We may change Subscription Fees by giving at least thirty (30) days' notice by email or in-Service notice. Changes take effect at the start of your next billing period after the notice period elapses. If you do not accept a price change you may cancel before it takes effect.
• Failed payments. If a payment fails we may suspend Pro Tier features until payment is brought current. After a reasonable period of non-payment we may terminate the subscription without further notice.
• Taxes. Subscription Fees are quoted exclusive of VAT and any other applicable taxes, which will be added where chargeable. You are responsible for all taxes and duties associated with your use of the Service other than taxes on our net income.
• Currency and chargebacks. Fees are charged in the currency stated at checkout. Initiating a chargeback in lieu of cancellation is a breach of these Terms; we reserve the right to recover the disputed amount and reasonable administrative costs and to suspend the Account pending resolution.

6. Acceptable use

You agree that you will not, and will not permit any third party to:

• access or use the Service or any Content other than as expressly permitted by these Terms;
• scrape, crawl, harvest, mirror, frame, or otherwise extract Content from the Service by automated means, except via APIs we expressly make available and within any documented rate or volume limits;
• resell, redistribute, sub-license, lease, lend, publish, or otherwise make available the Service or any Content to any third party, whether for a fee or free of charge;
• use the Service or any Content (including Outputs) to train, fine tune, evaluate, benchmark, or otherwise develop any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or large language model, or any dataset intended for those purposes;
• reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, attempt to derive source code from, or create derivative works based on the Service, except and to the extent that this restriction is prohibited by mandatory applicable law;
• circumvent, disable, or interfere with security, authentication, tier-gating, rate limiting, or other access-control mechanisms;
• use the Service to build a competing product, service, or dataset, or to assist any third party in doing so;
• share, sell, transfer, or otherwise make available your Account credentials, or use any other person's credentials;
• upload, transmit, or generate through the Service any material that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, harassing, malicious, or harmful (including malware, viruses, worms, ransomware, or time-bombs);
• use the Service in any way that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair our infrastructure or that of our suppliers, including denial-of-service activity;
• remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notice, watermark, or label on Content or Outputs;
• use the Service to violate any applicable law, regulation, court order, or sanctions regime, or in breach of any third party's rights including data protection, privacy, or intellectual property rights.

Breach of this Section 6 is a material breach of these Terms and may result in immediate suspension or termination of your Account without notice or refund. We may also take any other action available to us at law or in equity, including injunctive relief and recovery of damages.

7. Intellectual property

As between you and us, we own and retain all right, title, and interest (including all intellectual property rights) in and to the Service, the Content (subject to the rights of underlying data providers), the Outputs, our scoring methodology, our software, our databases, our user interfaces, our trademarks, and any feedback or suggestions you provide.

Subject to your continuing compliance with these Terms and payment of applicable Subscription Fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable licence to access and use the Service and the Outputs solely for your internal business purposes during the term of your subscription. PDF reports you generate may be shared with prospective investors, partners, or counterparties of your business in unmodified form, provided you do not redistribute them publicly, sell them, or use them in a manner that competes with the Service.

Third-Party Data made available through the Service is owned by the relevant third-party providers and is subject to their own terms, licences, and attribution requirements. Nothing in these Terms grants you any rights in Third-Party Data beyond those granted by the underlying data providers. We do not warrant that we have the right to sub-license any particular item of Third-Party Data to you and you are responsible for verifying the licensing position before using Third-Party Data outside the Service.

Any feedback, suggestions, ideas, or improvements you provide are assigned to us on a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free basis and we may use them without obligation or attribution.

8. Third-party data, accuracy, and your independent verification

The Service aggregates information from many third-party and public sources, including (without limitation) ESB Networks substation capacity heatmaps and ArcGIS endpoints, EirGrid published data, the National Planning Application Database, individual local-authority planning portals, the Property Price Register, the Central Statistics Office, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, OpenStreetMap, and other public datasets. These sources are outside our control. They may be incomplete, out of date, partially digitised, transcribed incorrectly, intermittently unavailable, withdrawn, repriced, relicensed, or factually wrong at source.

Without limiting the disclaimers and limitations elsewhere in these Terms, you specifically acknowledge and agree that:

• substation capacity figures are typically published quarterly, may reflect a snapshot that is months old by the time you view it, do not represent a binding offer of grid capacity by ESB Networks or EirGrid, and do not in any way pre-qualify, reserve, allocate, or guarantee a grid connection;
• planning application data is sourced from records published by 31 separate local authorities and the National Planning Application Database; coverage, classification, and update frequency vary and an absence of records does not mean an absence of activity;
• land price information is derived from the Property Price Register and Central Statistics Office reports, reflects historical transactions only, is not an appraisal, valuation, or offer, and does not predict the price at which any particular parcel can be acquired, leased, or optioned;
• environmental constraint layers (including SAC, SPA, and NHA polygons sourced from the National Parks and Wildlife Service) are indicative and do not substitute for site-specific environmental assessment, ecological surveys, or competent-authority consultation; the absence of a designation in our data does not mean a site is unconstrained;
• site viability scores, factor scores, grades (A to F), and ranked recommendations are informational outputs of an algorithm operating on imperfect data; they are not an opinion, recommendation, or certification of suitability, profitability, deliverability, constructability, or financeability of any site, and they take no account of project-specific factors including (without limitation) grid offer status, network reinforcement requirements, queue position, landowner willingness, title and access, ground conditions, archaeology, hydrology, flooding, aviation, residential amenity, community engagement, route to market, debt or equity availability, or future regulatory change;
• PDF reports and email alerts are convenience products that assemble Third-Party Data and Outputs at a point in time; they are not reviewed, signed off, or certified by any chartered, licensed, or accredited professional, and they may become out of date the moment they are generated.

You acknowledge that the Service is a screening and discovery tool only and is no substitute for professional advice, due diligence, or on-the-ground investigation. Before making any commercial, investment, contractual, planning, design, financing, or development decision you must independently verify all relevant information with the original source, the competent authority, and your own qualified advisors (including legal, planning, engineering, environmental, ecological, financial, and tax advisors). You shall not be entitled to rely on the Service or any Output as the basis for any such decision and any reliance you place on them is at your own risk.

Nothing in the Service constitutes legal, planning, engineering, environmental, financial, tax, accounting, investment, or professional advice of any kind, and no fiduciary, advisory, agency, partnership, joint venture, or trust relationship is created by your use of the Service.

Map basemap attribution: the interactive map tiles are served by CARTO (basemaps.cartocdn.com) and derived from OpenStreetMap data. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL) at openstreetmap.org/copyright. Basemap styling © CARTO, available at carto.com/attributions.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Service, the Content, the Outputs, the Third-Party Data, and any associated materials are provided strictly on an "as is" and "as available" basis, with all faults and without warranty of any kind.

We expressly disclaim all representations, warranties, conditions, terms, and undertakings of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or arising from custom, course of dealing, or course of performance, including without limitation any warranty of merchantability, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability, timeliness, availability, uninterrupted operation, error-free operation, security, non-infringement, title, or that defects will be corrected.

Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, we do not warrant that:

• any Third-Party Data is accurate, complete, current, or fit for any purpose;
• any substation has, or will have, the capacity, voltage, availability, or characteristics indicated in the Service;
• any planning application status, decision, or precedent shown is accurate or final;
• any land price information reflects achievable acquisition cost;
• any constraint layer reflects the full set of environmental, archaeological, ecological, aviation, defence, residential amenity, or other constraints that may apply to a site;
• any site, score, grade, or ranking will result in a successful grid connection offer, planning permission, financial close, or operational project;
• the Service will be available continuously, in any specific region, on any specific device, browser, or network configuration, or to any specific quality of service;
• the Service or any associated infrastructure will be free of viruses, vulnerabilities, malicious code, or unauthorised access.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will we, our directors, officers, employees, contractors, agents, affiliates, suppliers, or licensors be liable to you or to any third party, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, restitution, or under any other theory of liability, for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive loss or damage, or for any of the following losses, however arising and even if foreseeable or if we have been advised of the possibility of them:

• loss of profits, revenue, sales, or anticipated savings;
• loss of revenue from any electricity market, ancillary service, balancing service, capacity market, frequency-response service (including DS3, DS3 successor schemes, day-ahead, intraday, balancing, capacity remuneration mechanism, or equivalent service in any market);
• losses arising from a refused, withdrawn, modified, delayed, non-firm, partially firm, or unaffordable grid connection offer or grid connection agreement;
• losses arising from a refused, modified, delayed, judicially reviewed, appealed, or revoked planning permission or other consent, or any condition attached thereto;
• losses arising from environmental, ecological, archaeological, heritage, hydrological, aviation, defence, residential amenity, or community-engagement issues identified after acquisition, option, or development commitment;
• losses arising from inability to acquire, lease, option, or secure access to land, including failed negotiations, title defects, covenants, easements, rights of way, or wayleave issues;
• losses arising from changes to law, policy, regulation, market rules, network charging methodology, taxation, subsidy, or grant regime;
• development costs, design costs, survey costs, due-diligence costs, consultant fees, legal fees, financing costs, abortive costs, and any other transaction or project costs incurred or wasted;
• losses arising from a missed, mispriced, or otherwise unsuccessful opportunity, including any opportunity to acquire, develop, finance, sell, or refinance a site or project;
• losses arising from delay, downtime, business interruption, or failure of the Service or of any Third-Party Data source;
• loss of, corruption of, or unauthorised access to data, content, or communications;
• loss of goodwill, reputation, or business opportunities;
• losses arising from any third party's reliance on Outputs you have shared (including PDF reports shared with investors, lenders, counterparties, or co-developers).

Subject to the foregoing exclusions, our aggregate liability to you arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, restitution, or otherwise, will not exceed the greater of (a) the total Subscription Fees actually paid by you to us in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred euro (EUR 100). Multiple claims will not enlarge this cap.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including (where applicable) liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any non-excludable consumer rights to the extent that, despite Section 1, they are determined to apply.

You acknowledge that the allocation of risk in this Section 10 and in Section 9 is a fundamental element of the bargain between us, that the Subscription Fees reflect this allocation, and that we would not be willing to provide the Service to you on different terms.

11. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Release Guard Labs Limited, its directors, officers, employees, contractors, agents, affiliates, suppliers, and licensors from and against any and all claims, actions, proceedings, demands, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees on a full indemnity basis) arising out of or in connection with:

• your access to or use of the Service or any Content or Output;
• your breach of these Terms or any applicable law;
• any decision made, action taken, or omission by you or by any third party relying on Outputs originated by you, including any commercial, investment, planning, financing, or development decision;
• any claim by a third party (including a co-developer, investor, lender, vendor, landowner, regulator, or competent authority) that arises out of your use of the Service or your distribution of Outputs;
• any claim that your use of the Service, your inputs, or your distribution of Outputs infringes the rights of any third party (including intellectual property rights, data protection rights, or confidentiality rights).

We may, at our option and at your cost, assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter for which you are obliged to indemnify us; you agree to cooperate with our defence and not to settle any such matter without our prior written consent.

12. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, or any portion of it, at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe that:

• you are in breach of these Terms;
• your use of the Service poses a security, legal, regulatory, or reputational risk to us, our suppliers, or other users;
• you have failed to pay Subscription Fees when due and have not cured the failure within a reasonable period;
• you are subject to insolvency, bankruptcy, examinership, receivership, liquidation, or similar proceedings;
• we are required to do so by law, court order, or competent authority.

You may terminate your subscription at any time from the billing area of your Account; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. You may delete your Account at any time from the privacy area of your settings, which will trigger irreversible deletion of your data as described in our Privacy Policy.

On termination of these Terms or of your Account, all rights granted to you will cease immediately, you will stop accessing the Service, and any sections of these Terms which by their nature are intended to survive termination (including Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, and 19) will survive.

13. Confidentiality

Each party agrees to keep confidential any non-public information of the other party that is identified as confidential or that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential (including, on our part, the underlying scoring methodology, weights, factor formulas, and any non-public roadmap or pricing information shared with you), and to use such information only for purposes of performing under or exercising rights under these Terms. This obligation does not apply to information that is or becomes publicly available through no breach, was lawfully known prior to disclosure, is independently developed without use of confidential information, or is required to be disclosed by law (in which case the receiving party shall, where lawfully permitted, give prompt notice).

14. Privacy and data protection

Our processing of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Terms. By using the Service you confirm that you have read the Privacy Policy. To the extent that you upload or provide any personal data of third parties to the Service, you warrant that you have the lawful basis to do so and that you will comply with applicable data protection law in respect of that data.

15. Force majeure

We will not be liable for any delay or failure to perform under these Terms to the extent caused by an event beyond our reasonable control, including (without limitation) acts of God, fire, flood, storm, earthquake, war, terrorism, riot, civil unrest, strike, labour dispute, governmental action, change in law, sanctions, embargoes, pandemic, epidemic, public-health restriction, telecommunications failure, internet failure, third-party data-source failure or withdrawal, denial-of-service attack, cyberattack, or failure of any third-party hosting, storage, payment, email, or authentication provider.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may amend these Terms from time to time. The current version is identified by an effective date and version identifier at the top of this page. For material changes we will give reasonable advance notice by email to your Account email address or by in-Service notice. By continuing to use the Service after the effective date of the updated Terms you accept them. If you do not accept them you must stop using the Service and may terminate your subscription as described in Section 12.

17. Notices

Notices to us under these Terms must be sent by email to hello@bessmap.com. Notices to you may be given by email to your Account email address, by in-Service notification, or by posting on the Service. Notices are deemed received on the date of dispatch (for email) or posting (for in-Service notice) provided no delivery-failure response is received.

18. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute or claim (including non-contractual disputes or claims) arising out of or in connection with them, their subject matter, or their formation, are governed by the laws of Ireland. The courts of Ireland sitting in Dublin have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim. Nothing in this Section prevents us from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.

19. International users and additional terms

The Service is operated from Ireland and is intended for use by businesses worldwide that have a legitimate interest in Irish energy and land data. You are responsible for compliance with the laws of your own jurisdiction. If you access the Service from outside Ireland and are subject to local laws (for example, the California Consumer Privacy Act or the United Kingdom Data Protection Act 2018), see our Privacy Policy for the additional rights that may apply to you in respect of personal data. These Terms otherwise apply uniformly.

20. General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any other policies expressly referenced, are the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the Service and supersede all prior discussions, representations, and agreements. You confirm that you have not relied on any representation, warranty, or undertaking not expressly set out in these Terms.
• No third-party rights. Except as expressly stated (including in respect of our affiliates, suppliers, and licensors in Sections 9, 10, and 11), no person other than you and us has any right under these Terms or the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) regime.
• Assignment. You may not assign, novate, sub-licence, or otherwise transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign or novate these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganisation, or sale of assets, or to any affiliate.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and the offending provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable while preserving its commercial intent.
• No waiver. No failure or delay in exercising any right under these Terms operates as a waiver of that right.
• Independent contractors. The parties are independent contractors. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, employment, or fiduciary relationship.
• Anti-bribery and sanctions. Each party will comply with all applicable anti-bribery, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions laws.
• Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.
• Language. These Terms are concluded in English. If a translated version is provided for convenience, the English version prevails in the event of any inconsistency.

21. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to hello@bessmap.com. The contracting party is Release Guard Labs Limited, a private company limited by shares incorporated in Ireland under company number 652820 (VAT number IE3748873OH).