Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) govern your use of the website www.vinteuil.com and the services offered on it (together, the “Service”). The Service is operated by MARCANT SAS, a French simplified joint-stock company (SAS) registered in Paris under number 933 121 857, with its registered office at 60 rue François 1er, 75008 Paris, France (“Vinteuil”, “we”, “us”). Full company details are in our Legal notice.

By creating an account, buying a book, subscribing, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your personal data.

Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have as a consumer that cannot be waived or limited by contract under the law of the country or state where you live.

Vinteuil is an online library of classic ebooks whose texts are in the public domain. Books are read in your web browser by streaming: the Service does not provide downloadable files, and a subscription or a purchase gives you access to read, not ownership of any copy.

We regularly add, update, and occasionally remove titles. We do not guarantee that any particular title will remain available, and the catalog may vary depending on your country (for example, because a work that is in the public domain in one country may still be protected in another).

To use the Service you need a compatible device, a supported browser, and an internet connection, which you are responsible for.

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may only buy or subscribe with the permission of a parent or legal guardian, who accepts these Terms on your behalf and is responsible for any payment.

You can sign in with a one-time code sent to your email address, or with a supported third-party account (such as Google). You agree to provide accurate information, keep access to your email and sign-in accounts secure, and tell us promptly at contact@vinteuil.com if you believe your account has been used without your permission. Accounts are personal and may not be shared, sold, or transferred.

You can delete your account at any time from your Account page (“Delete my account”). This deletes your vinteuil.com data while retaining your shared Vinteuil sign-in identity and any vinteuil.fr account. Contact us to request deletion of the shared identity. Deletion also cancels your active vinteuil.com subscription immediately; the current billing period is not refunded, except where the law requires it.

Without a subscription or a purchase, you can read the first chapter of every book for free, with no account needed. The scope of the preview may change at any time. Reading the rest of a book requires a Vinteuil Reading subscription or the purchase of that book.

Plans and prices

We offer one subscription, Vinteuil Reading, which gives you unlimited reading of the full catalog available in your country while your subscription is active. It is available as:

• a monthly plan: US$4.99 per month (£4.99 in the United Kingdom); or
• an annual plan: US$39.99 per year (£39.99 in the United Kingdom).

The price, currency, billing period, and any applicable taxes (such as sales tax or VAT) are shown to you at checkout before you confirm your order, and that is the price you pay. Taxes may apply as shown at checkout. Your bank or card issuer may charge additional fees (for example for currency conversion), which are outside our control.

Payment

Payments are processed by our payment provider, Stripe. We do not see or store your full card number. By subscribing, you authorize us (through Stripe) to charge your chosen payment method for the subscription price at the start of each billing period.

Automatic renewal

Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or yearly), and you will be charged the then-current price, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time as described below. Where the law requires it, we will send you a reminder before a renewal or before a price change takes effect.

Free trial

We may offer a free trial for new subscribers. The length of any trial is shown at checkout (for example, 30 days). You will not be charged during the trial. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, your subscription will start automatically at the end of the trial and you will be charged the price shown at checkout for your chosen plan. Trials are limited to one per person and we may refuse a trial where we reasonably believe it has already been used.

How to cancel

You can cancel at any time from your Account page, which opens Stripe’s secure customer portal. You can also ask us to cancel by writing to contact@vinteuil.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period (or at the end of your free trial): you keep access until then and will not be charged again. Except as set out in the next two sections or where the law requires otherwise, we do not provide refunds or credits for partial billing periods.

Price changes

We may change subscription prices from time to time. We will give you reasonable advance notice of any price increase (at least 30 days) by email or on the Service. The new price will apply from your next renewal after the notice period. If you do not agree, you can cancel before the change takes effect.

Our refund commitment

If you are not satisfied, contact us at contact@vinteuil.com within 14 days of your first paid charge (after any free trial). If you have made only limited use of the Service in that period, we will refund that first charge and end your subscription. This commitment is in addition to any rights you have under applicable law.

Instead of subscribing, you can buy online access to a single book at the price shown on its page (currently US$2.99, or £2.99 in the United Kingdom, taxes shown at checkout). The purchase gives you a personal, non-transferable right to read that book in full through the Service, for as long as the Service operates, independently of any subscription. It does not include a downloadable file: the book is read in the Vinteuil reader only.

Access is immediate after payment, from the book’s page and from your Account. Payments are processed by Stripe under the same conditions as subscriptions. If we permanently discontinue the Service, we will tell you in advance and refund purchases made in the previous 12 months where the law requires it.

If you are a consumer living in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you normally have a right to withdraw from a distance contract within 14 days of concluding it, without giving any reason.

Vinteuil Reading and single-book purchases give you immediate access to digital content. When you subscribe without a free trial or buy a book, we ask you at checkout to (i) expressly request that your access start immediately, before the end of the 14-day withdrawal period, and (ii) acknowledge that you lose your right of withdrawal once access to the digital content has begun. We will confirm this in the order confirmation we send you by email.

If you start with a free trial, you can cancel at any time during the trial at no cost, from your Account page.

Where you still have a right of withdrawal, you can exercise it by sending us a clear statement (for example by email to contact@vinteuil.com) within the withdrawal period. We will refund the payment received for that contract within 14 days, using the same payment method, at no cost to you.

The literary texts in our catalog are in the public domain. However, the Vinteuil editions of those texts, including their selection, editing, layout, formatting, typography, covers, illustrations, introductions, metadata, and the Service itself (its software, design, and branding, including the name and logo “Vinteuil”), are owned by MARCANT or its licensors and protected by intellectual property laws.

Subject to these Terms and, where applicable, an active subscription or a purchase, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to read the content through the Service for your own private, non-commercial use. Your use of the underlying public-domain texts obtained from other sources is not restricted by these Terms.

You agree not to:

• copy, scrape, download in bulk, redistribute, sell, or publicly display the Vinteuil editions or other content of the Service, except as allowed by law;
• bypass or attempt to bypass any access control, preview limit, or technical protection measure;
• use robots, crawlers, or automated tools to access the Service, other than standard search engine indexing that respects our robots.txt;
• share your account or sign-in codes with others, or resell access to the Service;
• interfere with the security or operation of the Service, or use it for any unlawful, fraudulent, or harmful purpose.

We work to keep the Service available and working well, but it may occasionally be interrupted for maintenance, updates, or reasons beyond our control. We may change or improve features of the Service. If we make a change that materially reduces what you get from a paid subscription, we will tell you in advance where reasonably possible and you may cancel; where the law requires, we will refund the unused part of any prepaid period.

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time.

We may suspend or terminate your account if you seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms (for example, account sharing or bulk copying of content), if required by law, or to protect the Service or other users. Except where the breach is serious or urgent action is needed, we will notify you first and give you a chance to fix the problem. If we terminate your account without cause, we will refund the unused part of any prepaid subscription period.

The texts in our catalog are historical works, presented for literary and educational interest. Some contain language, ideas, or depictions that reflect the time in which they were written and that readers may find offensive. Their inclusion does not mean that we endorse them.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, and we disclaim any implied warranties, such as merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This does not affect any statutory guarantees you have as a consumer (for example, the legal guarantee of conformity for digital content in the EU and the UK), which cannot be excluded.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for gross negligence or willful misconduct, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Subject to the paragraph above and to the fullest extent permitted by law: (a) we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable when you started using the Service; and (b) our total liability to you in connection with the Service is limited to the greater of the amounts you paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or US$50 (or £50).

These Terms are governed by French law. However, if you are a consumer, you also benefit from any mandatory protections of the law of the country or state where you live, and choosing French law does not deprive you of them.

If you have a complaint, please contact us first at contact@vinteuil.com or through our Support page. We aim to resolve complaints quickly and amicably.

If you are a consumer living in the European Union and we cannot resolve your complaint, you may refer it free of charge to a consumer mediator. The details of our consumer mediator will be published on this page. [Consumer mediator: to be completed.]

You may also bring proceedings before the courts that have jurisdiction under applicable law, including the courts of the place where you live if you are a consumer. Otherwise, the courts of Paris, France, have jurisdiction.

We may update these Terms, for example to reflect changes to the Service or to the law. If we make material changes, we will notify subscribers by email or on the Service at least 30 days before they take effect, unless a shorter period is required for legal or security reasons. Changes will not apply retroactively. If you do not agree to the new Terms, you can cancel your subscription and stop using the Service before they take effect.