Terms of Use

Last updated: August 1, 2026

These Terms govern access to and use of Ships.trade (the Service). By accessing the Service, creating an account, publishing content, or purchasing a subscription, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Operator and contact

The Service is operated under the Ships.trade name. The operator's legal name, legal form, registration number, registered office, VAT number (if applicable), and trade-register details are currently available on request and will be published here when finalized.

Questions about these Terms may be sent to info@ships.trade or through the contact page.

2. Business and professional use only

The Service is intended only for business and professional use. By creating an account, publishing a listing, sending a marketplace message, or purchasing a subscription, you confirm that you act in the course of a trade, business, or profession, or that you are authorized to act for a legal entity.

You must be at least 18 years old and legally capable of entering into binding agreements.

3. Definitions

• Sale Listing: information about a vessel that a user or source indicates may be offered for sale.
• Wanted Request: requirements published by a prospective buyer or representative looking for a vessel. It is not an offer to sell a vessel.
• Vessel Record: structured vessel information, which may exist independently of an active commercial offer.
• User Content: text, data, images, files, messages, and other material submitted or supplied for publication or processing.
• Imported Listing: a record structured from commercial communications, public sources, partner sources, or other lawfully obtained information.
• Unclaimed Profile: contact or business information not yet connected to a confirmed account.
• Subscription: a Free, Pro, Enterprise, or other plan made available by the Service.

4. Role of the platform

Ships.trade provides marketplace publishing, search, communication, translation, statistics, and matching tools. Unless expressly stated otherwise for a specific engagement, Ships.trade:

• does not own a listed vessel;
• is not the seller, buyer, or a party to a vessel transaction;
• is not automatically a shipbroker, agent, classification society, insurer, escrow provider, financial adviser, or legal adviser;
• does not endorse a vessel, listing, contact, or transaction merely by publishing it; and
• does not guarantee that a listing contact owns the vessel or has authority or a mandate to sell or buy.

Any sale, purchase, brokerage, commission, inspection, financing, or other transaction agreement is made directly between the relevant parties.

5. Accounts and security

You must provide accurate account information, protect your credentials, and promptly notify Ships.trade of suspected unauthorized access. You are responsible for activity through your account unless applicable law provides otherwise. Accounts may not be transferred or used to impersonate another person or business.

6. Listings and user responsibilities

When you submit or maintain User Content, you represent that:

• you have the right to submit it and authorize its use under these Terms;
• you have authority to represent the stated owner, seller, buyer, broker, or company, where you claim such authority;
• the content is accurate to the best of your knowledge, is not misleading, and is kept reasonably current;
• photos, documents, contact details, and personal data are used lawfully;
• applicable commissions and intermediary roles are described honestly;
• the content and proposed transaction comply with sanctions, export-control, trade, and other applicable laws; and
• you will mark a vessel sold or unavailable, or remove a Wanted Request, when it is no longer current.

Missing fields mean that information was not provided or is not publicly available; they must not be interpreted as zero. A Vessel Record may remain after an active offer is removed where Ships.trade has a lawful reason to retain non-personal technical or historical vessel facts.

7. Imported listings and unclaimed profiles

Ships.trade may structure vessel and business information from commercial emails received by the Service, public sources, partner sources, and other lawfully available sources. An Imported Listing or Unclaimed Profile does not mean that the named person created an account or approved every displayed field.

Affected contacts may request that personal information be confirmed, corrected, hidden, or deleted by contacting info@ships.trade. An active commercial offer will be removed or deactivated when Ships.trade confirms that it is no longer current.

8. License to User Content

You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant Ships.trade a non-exclusive, worldwide license, for as long as reasonably needed to operate and promote the relevant marketplace content, to host, store, reproduce, format, translate, create thumbnails from, index, publish, display, distribute across language subdomains, include in search and matching results, and create structured HTML, JSON, Markdown, feed, and API representations of that content.

Ships.trade may allow technical service providers to process User Content only as needed to operate the Service. This license does not transfer ownership of your content or permit Ships.trade to sell your photographs or text as standalone works.

9. Translation, automation, verification, and matching

Translations, extracted vessel characteristics, duplicate detection, recommendations, and matching may be generated automatically and may contain errors. The original submitted material remains the primary source for interpreting a listing.

A verification label means only that the specified checks were completed using information available at the time. It is not an endorsement or a warranty of identity, ownership, authority, vessel condition, continuing availability, or continuing sanctions compliance.

Matching and similar-vessel results are approximate. They do not confirm technical suitability, buyer financing, a purchase mandate, or the likelihood of completing a transaction. Features marked "coming soon" are not currently available.

10. Search, ranking, and promotion

Search and category results may depend on the user's filters, category, vessel characteristics, listing status, recency, availability, completeness, and moderation state. Matching uses available listing characteristics and may be incomplete.

If paid promotion affects placement, promoted results will be identified as promoted or sponsored. Payment does not guarantee a particular rank, number of views, enquiries, or transaction.

11. Messages and company mailbox

Plan limits apply to outgoing messages as displayed on the current Pricing page or in the account. Messages may be processed for delivery, translation, spam and fraud prevention, malware detection, support, security, and investigation of complaints. The messaging service is not represented as end-to-end encrypted.

You must comply with applicable anti-spam, privacy, and direct-marketing laws. Mass unsolicited messaging, phishing, malware, contact harvesting, and use of a company mailbox as a general spam service are prohibited.

12. Subscriptions and billing

Current plans, prices, taxes, billing intervals, limits, and features are stated on the Pricing page and at checkout. Online paid subscriptions renew for the selected billing interval until canceled unless the applicable checkout or order expressly states otherwise.

• Upgrades may take effect immediately with a prorated charge.
• Downgrades and yearly-to-monthly changes may take effect after the current paid period.
• Cancellation may take effect at the end of the current paid period.
• Enterprise bank-transfer terms may be stated in the applicable invoice or order.
• Unused plan limits do not carry over unless expressly stated.
• Subscription fees are non-refundable except where required by applicable law, where a duplicate or incorrect charge occurred, or where Ships.trade expressly agrees otherwise.

"Unlimited" features remain subject to technical limits, storage constraints, security controls, these Terms, and reasonable fair use. Ships.trade may change future prices or plan features with notice where required by applicable law. Changes do not retroactively alter amounts already paid for a current billing period.

13. API

API access is available only where included in a plan or separately agreed. Credentials must be kept secure. Rate limits, permitted use, caching, attribution, access to personal data, and other requirements may be provided in separate API terms or technical instructions. Ships.trade may restrict or revoke API access for misuse, security risks, non-payment, or breach of applicable terms.

14. Prohibited use

You must not:

• publish false, fraudulent, unlawfully duplicated, or materially misleading listings;
• impersonate an owner, broker, buyer, company, or other person;
• substitute or falsify IMO, MMSI, identity, ownership, class, survey, or transaction documents;
• engage in fraud, phishing, malware distribution, spam, sanctions evasion, or unlawful trade;
• circumvent contact visibility, subscription, security, suspension, or access controls;
• scrape, harvest, bulk-copy, resell, or create a competing database from the Service without written permission;
• interfere with the Service or attempt unauthorized access; or
• use the Service for an unlawful transaction involving sanctioned, military, dual-use, or export-controlled assets.

15. Moderation, reports, and appeals

Ships.trade may use automated checks and human review to detect inaccurate, duplicate, fraudulent, illegal, or unsafe content. Depending on the circumstances, Ships.trade may request information, reduce visibility, disable messaging, hide or remove content, suspend an account, preserve evidence, or report conduct where legally required.

To report a listing or other content, send the exact URL, reason, supporting information, and your contact details through the contact page. Affected users may use the same channel to request review of a moderation decision.

16. Suspension and termination

Ships.trade may restrict or terminate access for breach of these Terms, fraud, spam, impersonation, repeated inaccurate listings, sanctions or security risk, non-payment, legal requests, or attempts to evade restrictions. Immediate action may be taken where needed to protect users, comply with law, preserve security, or prevent fraud. Where required by applicable law, Ships.trade will provide notice, reasons, and an opportunity to seek review.

You may stop using the Service and request account deletion. Some information may be retained as described in the Privacy Policy or where required by law.

17. Intellectual property and third-party content

The Ships.trade name, software, design, and original platform content are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws. Third-party links, documents, vessel data, and contact information do not imply endorsement. Third-party services have their own terms and privacy practices.

18. No warranty and limitation of responsibility

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" to the extent permitted by law. Ships.trade does not guarantee uninterrupted operation, error-free translations, listing accuracy, vessel availability, seller or buyer authority, response to a message, payment, financing, condition, class, survey status, transaction completion, or the conduct of another user.

Users must conduct independent technical, commercial, financial, sanctions, ownership, and legal due diligence. Nothing on the Service replaces professional advice or inspection. The separate Disclaimer supplements these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

19. Changes and general terms

Ships.trade may update these Terms to reflect changes to the Service, law, security, or business practices. Material changes will be communicated as required by applicable law. If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.

These Terms are governed by the law that applies to the operator and the relevant relationship, subject to mandatory rules that cannot be excluded. Until full operator details and a specific governing-law clause are published, no jurisdiction should be inferred from the Ships.trade domain or interface language.

20. Contact

Questions, notices, complaints, and review requests may be sent to info@ships.trade or through the contact page.