Section 15 contains a binding arbitration provision and a class action waiver that affect your legal rights. Most disputes must be resolved by individual arbitration rather than in court. You may opt out within 30 days of first accepting these Terms.

1. Definitions

2. Accounts

2.1 Registration. When you create an account, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information, and to keep it up to date.

2.2 Account Security. You are responsible for safeguarding your account credentials and any integration tokens or API keys issued to you, and for all activity carried out through your account.

You may add users to your account. You must ensure those users comply with these Terms, and their acts and omissions are treated as your own.

Tell us promptly at support@merithyre.ai if you become aware of unauthorized access to your account or any compromise of your credentials.

2.3 Eligibility. We may refuse, suspend, or discontinue the Services to any Organization that we reasonably believe is using them unlawfully, engaging in deceptive or discriminatory hiring practices, or creating a security or compliance risk.

3. The Services and Your License

3.1 License. Subject to these Terms and to payment of applicable fees, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Services for your own internal purposes during your subscription term.

3.2 Description of the Services. MeritHyre conducts structured interviews by voice, video, and text message, handles Candidate communication, generates transcripts and evaluations, and can connect to systems you already use. Feature availability may vary by plan.

3.3 Restrictions. By registering for and using the Services, you agree that you and the users you add will not do any of the following:

• License, sell, rent, lease, or otherwise commercially exploit the Services;
• Modify, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or create derivative works from the Services;
• Use the Services, or any output or documentation from them, to build or improve a competing product;
• Remove, obscure, or alter any proprietary notice;
• Copy or redistribute any part of the Services except as expressly permitted;
• Access the Services in order to benchmark or publish performance results without our written consent.

3.4 Changes and Availability. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue any part of the Services. Where a change may materially affect your use, we will give reasonable advance notice by email, through the Services, or by posting notice on our website. We work to maintain high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted operation.

3.5 Support. We provide support by email and in-platform messaging during our normal business hours. We do not guarantee any particular response or resolution time unless separately agreed in writing.

3.6 Beta Features. Beta and trial features are provided “as is,” may be modified or withdrawn at any time, and should not be relied on for hiring decisions.

3.7 Candidate Age. We do not verify a Candidate’s age. Where a Candidate is a minor under applicable law, you are responsible for obtaining any required consent and for complying with the rules that apply to recruiting or employing minors.

4. Subscriptions and Billing

4.1 Fees and Renewal. Subscription fees for the Services (“Fees”) are billed in advance for the billing cycle you select. You authorize us to charge the payment method on file for the Fees on a recurring basis until you cancel.

Subscriptions renew automatically for successive periods of the same length unless you cancel before the current period ends. If a payment fails, we will notify you and allow a reasonable opportunity to update your payment method before we suspend access.

4.2 Pricing Changes. We may change pricing with at least 30 days’ notice. Changes take effect at your next renewal.

4.3 Refunds. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law or expressly agreed in writing. You may cancel at any time, effective at the end of the current billing period. We do not provide prorated refunds.

4.4 Taxes. Fees are exclusive of any sales, use, VAT, or similar taxes. Where applicable, we will calculate and add these to your invoice or charge at checkout.

5. Ownership and Content

5.1 Our Rights. Excluding User Content, all intellectual property rights in the Services, including underlying models, software, documentation, and trademarks, belong to MeritHyre or its licensors. These Terms transfer no rights except the license granted in Section 3.1.

5.2 Your Content. You retain ownership of your User Content. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, store, transmit, process, and display User Content solely to operate, secure, and support the Services for you. This license ends when the User Content is deleted, subject to Section 11.3.

We do not use Interview Data to train or fine-tune AI models, as described in our Privacy Policy.

5.3 Your Responsibility for Content. You are solely responsible for your User Content. You represent that you have all rights, consents, and permissions necessary to submit it and to have it processed as described in these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

5.4 Feedback. If you give us feedback or suggestions about the Services, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use them without restriction or obligation to you.

6. Acceptable Use

6.1 Prohibited Conduct. You must not use the Services to:

• Upload or transmit content that is unlawful, fraudulent, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or that infringes a third party’s intellectual property or privacy rights;
• Make or support hiring decisions that unlawfully discriminate against Candidates;
• Interfere with, disrupt, or place an unreasonable load on the Services or their infrastructure;
• Circumvent or attempt to circumvent any security measure, access control, or usage limit;
• Transmit malicious code, or scrape or harvest data from the Services without authorization;
• Violate any applicable law or regulation.

6.2 Enforcement. We may review, refuse, or remove User Content, and may investigate and act against accounts we reasonably believe violate this Section.

7. AI Technology and Your Oversight

The Services use artificial intelligence and machine learning, including third-party voice, language, and transcription components. AI-generated outputs are probabilistic and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or affected by bias.

AI-generated transcripts, summaries, and scores are intended to assist, not replace, human judgment. You must maintain meaningful human oversight of hiring decisions and must not treat an AI-generated output as the sole basis for a decision producing legal or similarly significant effects on a Candidate.

You are responsible for complying with applicable law when using the Services, including equal employment opportunity, anti-discrimination, automated employment decision, and data protection law, and for giving Candidates any notices and obtaining any consents required regarding AI processing, interview recording, and automated evaluation.

8. Messaging Compliance

8.1 Our Registration. The Services include SMS and, where enabled, WhatsApp messaging. MeritHyre maintains registration with The Campaign Registry as an Independent Software Vendor for U.S. A2P 10DLC messaging. Messaging through the Services is limited to interview and hiring-related communications.

8.2 Your Obligations. If you use messaging features, you must:

• Provide us with accurate business information about your Organization, on request, for campaign registration and vetting with mobile carriers and messaging providers, and keep it current;
• Obtain express written consent from each recipient before sending messages;
• Present consent language that identifies your organization, describes the message types and approximate frequency, states “Message and data rates may apply,” gives opt-out instructions, and states that consent is not required to apply for a role;
• Use unchecked, optional consent checkboxes only, and link to your privacy policy and terms in the consent form;
• State in your privacy policy that mobile numbers and opt-in data will not be shared with third parties for marketing purposes;
• Honor opt-out requests immediately, supporting STOP, QUIT, CANCEL, END, and UNSUBSCRIBE;
• Retain records of consent.

8.3 Permitted Use. Messaging is permitted for application status updates and confirmations, interview scheduling and reminders, conducting interviews by message, two-way communication between Candidates and interviewers, and interview questions and responses.

8.4 Prohibited Use. Messaging must not be used for marketing, promotions, or solicitations unrelated to the specific application, or for any purpose unrelated to interviewing and hiring. Prohibited content includes, but is not limited to, cannabis, tobacco, alcohol, firearms, adult content, gambling, loans and debt collection, hate speech, and fraudulent or deceptive content. You must not require messaging consent as a condition of applying.

8.5 Enforcement. We may suspend or terminate messaging capability for non-compliance. You are solely liable for violations of telecommunications law, including the TCPA, and for compliance with the terms of any messaging channel you use.

9. Third-Party Services

The Services may integrate with scheduling, communication, assessment, and other systems you choose to connect. You are responsible for maintaining valid credentials and complying with each provider’s terms. We are not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or practices of third-party services or linked websites.

10. Confidentiality

10.1 What Is Covered. “Confidential Information” means non-public information one party (the “Discloser”) makes available to the other (the “Recipient”) in connection with these Terms, whether or not marked confidential, that a reasonable person would understand to be confidential given its nature or the circumstances of disclosure.

Our Confidential Information includes the non-public components of the Services, our models and algorithms, security information, pricing, and product plans. Your Confidential Information includes User Content, Interview Data, Candidate information, and your business and hiring plans.

10.2 Obligations of the Recipient. The Recipient must:

• Protect the Discloser’s Confidential Information using at least the care it uses for its own information of similar importance, and in no event less than reasonable care;
• Use it only to exercise its rights and perform its obligations under these Terms;
• Disclose it only to its employees, Affiliates, and professional advisors who need it for that purpose and who are bound by confidentiality obligations at least as protective as these; and
• Remain responsible for any breach by those people.

10.3 Exclusions. These obligations do not apply to information that is or becomes public without fault of the Recipient, was lawfully known to the Recipient before disclosure, is lawfully received from a third party without a duty of confidence, or is independently developed by the Recipient without use of the Discloser’s Confidential Information.

10.4 Compelled Disclosure. The Recipient may disclose Confidential Information where required by law, regulation, or valid legal process, provided it gives the Discloser prompt notice where legally permitted, discloses only what is required, and cooperates with any reasonable effort by the Discloser to seek protective treatment.

10.5 Duration. These obligations apply for three years from the date of disclosure, and indefinitely for trade secrets and for personal information about Candidates, for as long as that information is held.

10.6 Return or Deletion. On the Discloser’s written request following termination, the Recipient will return or delete the Discloser’s Confidential Information, except for copies retained in routine backups or as required by law, which remain subject to this Section.

11. Term and Termination

11.1 By You. You may terminate your account at any time through account settings or by contacting support. Termination takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you remain responsible for charges already incurred.

11.2 By Us. We may terminate or suspend your account if you materially breach these Terms and do not cure the breach within 10 days of our written notice, or if you fail to pay fees when due.

We may suspend or terminate immediately, without a cure period, where we reasonably believe there is unlawful activity, a security risk, or a risk of harm to Candidates, to us, or to third parties. We give advance notice where practical.

11.3 Effect of Termination. On termination your right to use the Services ceases. You may request an export of your data before termination, subject to technical feasibility. We may delete account data and Interview Data after a reasonable retention period, as described in our Privacy Policy.

Sections 4, 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 6, 8.5, 10, 11.3, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17 survive termination.

12. Disclaimers

THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPTS, SCORES, OR RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR FREE FROM BIAS, OR THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.

The Services do not provide legal, employment, or professional advice.

13. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless MeritHyre and its Affiliates, and their officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors, licensors, successors, and assigns, from and against any third-party claim, and any resulting liabilities, damages, settlements, costs, and reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising from or related to:

• Your use of the Services;
• Your User Content;
• Your messaging practices;
• Your hiring or employment decisions;
• Your violation of these Terms or of any applicable law; or
• Your violation of the rights of any third party, including any Candidate.

13.1 Procedure. We will notify you promptly of any claim for which we seek indemnity. You will control the defense and settlement of the claim using counsel reasonably acceptable to us, and we may participate with our own counsel at our own expense.

If you do not promptly assume the defense, we may defend the claim ourselves and you will reimburse our reasonable costs. You must not settle any claim in a way that imposes an obligation, payment, or admission on us without our prior written consent.

14. Limitation of Liability

14.1 Excluded Damages. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST BUSINESS, LOST GOODWILL, OR LOSS OF DATA, REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY AND EVEN IF WE WERE ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

14.2 Cap on Our Liability. OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES WILL NOT EXCEED THE LESSER OF:

• THE TOTAL FEES YOU PAID FOR THE SERVICES IN THE THREE MONTHS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM; OR
• ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

THIS CAP APPLIES IN THE AGGREGATE ACROSS ALL CLAIMS AND IS NOT INCREASED BY THE NUMBER OF CLAIMS. IT APPLIES TO ALL LIABILITY OF OURS, INCLUDING ANY BREACH OF OUR CONFIDENTIALITY OR SECURITY OBLIGATIONS.

14.3 What Is Not Limited. Nothing in this Section limits your obligation to pay fees due under Section 4 or your indemnification obligations under Section 13. Nothing in these Terms excludes any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

15. Dispute Resolution

15.1 Governing Law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict of law principles. Proceedings not subject to arbitration will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Alameda County, California, and each party consents to the jurisdiction of those courts.

15.2 Informal Resolution First. Before starting arbitration, send written notice to support@merithyre.ai describing the dispute and the relief sought. Both parties will then attempt to resolve it in good faith for 30 days.

15.3 Arbitration. Disputes not resolved informally will be settled by binding arbitration before a single arbitrator administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, seated in Alameda County, California. The arbitrator’s award is final and may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

15.4 Class Action Waiver. Disputes will be resolved only on an individual basis. Each party waives any right to participate in a class, consolidated, or representative proceeding.

15.5 Opt-Out. You may opt out of arbitration by sending written notice to support@merithyre.ai within 30 days of first accepting these Terms. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms; disputes will instead be resolved in the courts identified in Section 15.1.

15.6 Exception. Either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect its intellectual property or Confidential Information.

16. Copyright Complaints

If you own a copyright, or are authorized to act for the owner, and believe material accessible through the Services infringes that copyright, send us written notice at support@merithyre.ai. Your notice should identify the copyrighted work and the material you say infringes it, give your contact details, and state that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized.

We will review any notice we receive, and may remove the material and terminate the account of anyone who repeatedly infringes.

17. General

17.1 Changes to These Terms. We may revise these Terms. For material changes, we will give reasonable advance notice by email, through the Services, or by posting the revised Terms on our website, and the notice will state when the changes take effect. If you continue using the Services on or after that date, the revised Terms apply. If you do not accept them, you may cancel your subscription before they take effect. Changes to pricing are governed by Section 4.2, and changes to the Services by Section 3.4.

17.2 Electronic Communications. You consent to receive communications from us electronically, and agree that electronic notices satisfy any requirement that a communication be in writing.

17.3 Geographic Scope. The Services are offered solely to Organizations operating in, and Candidates located in, the United States, and are controlled and operated from the United States.

17.4 Events Beyond Our Control. We are not liable for any delay or failure to provide the Services caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including outages at our hosting, messaging, or AI providers, network failures, natural disasters, and government action.

17.5 Assignment. You must not assign or transfer these Terms, or any of your rights or obligations under them, without our prior written consent. Any attempt to do so without that consent is void. We may assign these Terms to an Affiliate, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. These Terms bind and benefit each party’s permitted successors and assigns.

17.6 Entire Agreement. These Terms and our Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and MeritHyre regarding the Services, and supersede all prior discussions and agreements on that subject.

17.7 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, that provision will be limited to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions will stay in full effect.

17.8 No Waiver. A party’s failure or delay in enforcing any provision is not a waiver of that provision or of any other.

17.9 Independent Parties. The parties are independent contractors. These Terms create no partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship.

18. Contact