General Terms and Conditions (GTC)
Last updated: November 2, 2026
rubra is a service operated by the Swiss company rubra AG (the «Provider») for discovering, collecting, and sharing content online.
These General Terms and Conditions (GTC) govern the rights and obligations of the Provider and of the users of rubra. These GTC apply to all services used in connection with rubra and, in particular, to any use of rubra. Users who do not agree with these GTC may not use rubra. Deviations from these GTC must be expressly approved by the Provider.
Different, special, or supplementary terms may apply to individual or additional features and services and prevail over these GTC in the event of any conflict. Features and services provided by third parties, such as app store operators and browser vendors, are additionally subject to the terms of those third parties. The German-language version of these GTC is authoritative. Versions in other languages are provided for information purposes only and are not binding.
Information on the processing of personal data and on the rights of persons whose data are processed in connection with rubra can be found in the Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy is provided for information purposes only. It does not constitute consent by data subjects, nor does it create any obligations for them.
1. Offering and Use
1.1
The Provider makes rubra available until further notice. The features and services of rubra are those offered or available from time to time. The Provider may change the features and services at any time, discontinue the operation of rubra in whole or in part, and restrict or deny access for individual users. The Provider may at any time make all or some features and services subject to a fee. Paid features and services are additionally subject to Section 3 of these GTC.
1.2
In particular, users can use rubra to collect content and make it available to a community of other users or other third parties («Creators»), or, as members of a community on rubra, to discover and use the content of Creators. Creators may make content and services available free of charge or, where the Provider enables this, for a fee (Section 3 of these GTC). Creators are also users within the meaning of these GTC.
1.3
rubra may be used by natural persons who have reached the age of majority, and in any case are at least 18 years old, and who have legal capacity. rubra may also be used by legal entities, partnerships, and other organizations acting through a duly authorized natural person. Anyone who uses rubra on behalf of an organization confirms that they are authorized to represent it and binds the organization to these GTC. The Provider may verify the age of users and their authority to represent, or have them verified by third parties.
1.4
Users may use rubra only for their own purposes and as intended. All use of rubra is subject to the Community Guidelines. The Community Guidelines form an integral part of these GTC.
1.5
Persons who are subject to sanctions imposed by authorities or international organizations may not use rubra. The Provider may at any time, in its sole discretion and without stating reasons, expressly restrict the permitted use of rubra to certain persons, jurisdictions, or regions.
1.6
The Provider may require that current or other specified versions of apps, operating systems, browsers, browser extensions, and other software be used to access rubra. Users are responsible for updating their software.
1.7
Users must have sufficient internet access, install any required apps and browser extensions, and be able to access websites in order to use rubra to its full extent. Users are responsible for ensuring that their use of rubra complies with all statutory and other requirements of applicable law. Such requirements may include import and export restrictions on goods for certain countries.
2. License
2.1
The Provider grants users a limited, non-exclusive, non-assignable, non-transferable, and non-sublicensable license to use rubra. The license is limited to the purpose or purposes set forth in these GTC. All other rights in rubra remain with the Provider.
2.2
If users breach these GTC or use rubra unlawfully, or are suspected of doing so, the Provider may revoke the license permanently or temporarily at any time. In any event, the license terminates automatically for users who do not comply with these GTC.
3. Paid Features and Services
3.1
The Provider publishes its prices for paid features and services together with the applicable contract terms and payment options. The prices applicable at the time of the order apply.
3.2
The Provider may offer paid features and services, in particular as subscriptions, for example, for Creators. The Provider may offer different subscriptions with different scopes of features and services («Subscription Tiers»). The features and services included in a Subscription Tier are those described at the time of the order.
3.3
Subscriptions have a term of one month or one year unless expressly offered or agreed otherwise. Subscriptions automatically renew for the same term unless they are canceled before the end of the current term. Users may cancel subscriptions at any time with effect from the end of the current term, in particular via their user account. For consumers, subscriptions renew for an indefinite period after the end of the first term and may be canceled at any time with one month’s notice.
3.4
Users may switch to a higher Subscription Tier at any time. In this case, the Provider credits payments already made for the remaining term on a pro rata basis. A switch to a lower Subscription Tier takes effect at the end of the current term.
3.5
The Provider may adjust prices and Subscription Tiers at any time. Price increases for active subscriptions take effect on the next renewal and are notified at least 30 days in advance. Users who do not agree with a price increase may cancel the subscription effective as of the date on which the price increase takes effect.
3.6
Payment is due immediately upon ordering and, for subscriptions, in advance for the entire term, unless expressly offered or agreed otherwise. Users authorize the Provider to charge subscription fees to the stored payment method on each renewal.
3.7
The Provider may engage third parties such as payment service providers or app store operators to process payments. The terms of such third parties apply in addition. Payment, renewal, cancellation, and refunds for subscriptions concluded via app store operators are governed by the terms of the respective app store operator.
3.8
All prices are in Swiss francs (CHF), unless expressly offered or agreed otherwise. Prices for consumers include any value added tax (VAT). For other users, prices exclude any VAT. Where the tax liability passes to the recipient (reverse charge procedure), users are responsible for accounting for the tax.
3.9
Users who fail to pay by the due date are automatically in default without any reminder. The Provider may charge users in default the legitimate costs of debt collection and statutory default interest. The Provider may engage third parties to collect debts or assign claims against users to third parties for collection. If users are in default, the Provider may block paid features and services or limit the user account to the free features and services.
3.10
Payments already made are not refunded, in particular in the event of cancellation during the term, non-use, or measures taken due to a breach of these GTC. This is without prejudice to withdrawal under Section 3.12 of these GTC. If the Provider discontinues rubra or paid features and services prematurely through no fault of the users, or deletes a user account without good cause, it refunds payments already made for the unused term on a pro rata basis.
3.11
When a subscription ends, the corresponding paid features and services are no longer available to users. After 90 days, the Provider may delete content that exceeds the scope of the free features and services.
3.12
Consumers may withdraw from contracts for paid features and services within 14 days of concluding the contract without giving any reason. If consumers expressly request that the Provider begin performance before the end of the withdrawal period and then withdraw, they must pay a pro rata amount for the services provided up to the withdrawal. The details are set out in the Withdrawal Policy. Any further mandatory statutory rights of withdrawal remain unaffected.
3.13
The Provider may enable Creators to offer content and services to members of their community for a fee, for example, as one-off purchases or memberships (collectively «Creator Offerings»). Contracts for Creator Offerings are concluded exclusively between the respective Creators and the members of their community. The Provider is not a party to the contract.
3.14
Creators are solely responsible for their Creator Offerings, in particular for services and prices, for compliance with consumer protection law, for providing the required information about their identity and contact details, and for taxes and other levies. Creators must label advertising content as such.
3.15
The Provider may have payments for Creator Offerings processed by third parties such as payment service providers and may receive a share of Creators’ revenue or a fee for the use of the relevant features. The details, in particular the amount of shares or fees and the payout, are set out in the special terms for Creator Offerings.
3.16
The Provider may withhold or set off payouts to Creators and reclaim amounts already paid out to the extent that payouts are based on content or services that are unlawful or breach these GTC, or to the extent that members of the community reclaim their payments.
4. User Account
4.1
The Provider may require users to register for a user account in order to use rubra or individual features and services. The Provider may use third-party registration services, either exclusively or in addition to its own. The terms of those registration services apply.
4.2
The Provider informs users of the information required for a user account on rubra. Registration with false, fictitious, or misleading information is prohibited. Registration with misleading or infringing usernames is prohibited. The Provider may verify information provided by users at any time or have it verified by third parties. Users must keep their information accurate, complete, and up to date at all times.
4.3
Registered users must keep the login credentials for their user account confidential and use them exclusively for their own purposes. Registered users are responsible for all activities in connection with their user account.
4.4
The Provider may restrict, block, or delete user accounts in the event of a breach of these GTC or for other good cause (Section 7 of these GTC). In addition, the Provider may delete user accounts at any time with 30 days’ notice, and, for user accounts with an active subscription, no earlier than the end of the current term.
4.5
Users may delete their user account at any time. Upon deletion of the user account, the content of the users concerned is also deleted, unless the Provider is required or entitled to retain it, for example, in connection with an order from an authority or a report of an infringement. Payments already made for active subscriptions are not refunded.
4.6
Automated access to rubra, for example, with bots, AI agents, scripts, or comparable means, is prohibited. The Provider may provide interfaces for access to rubra, for example, an application programming interface (API) or a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.
4.7
If users breach these GTC or use rubra unlawfully, or are suspected of doing so, the Provider may deny them access to rubra permanently or temporarily at any time. The procedure is governed by Section 7 of these GTC.
5. Data and Communication
5.1
The Provider may process user data for the purposes of the features and services offered and in any other current or future connection with rubra. In particular, the Provider may display advertising based on user data.
5.2
The Provider may process user data for its own legitimate, security-related, statistical, technical, or commercial purposes. In particular, the Provider may use anonymized user data to train AI models.
5.3
The Provider may send users notifications and communications in connection with rubra by postal mail, email, instant messaging, SMS, and other communication channels. Users may object to receiving such notifications and communications at any time. This does not apply to notifications and communications required for the use of rubra.
5.4
Users are responsible for backing up their data unless expressly offered or agreed otherwise.
6. Content and Conduct of Users
6.1
Users may only collect and share lawful content on rubra. The way in which they collect and share content, and any other conduct, must also be lawful. Users alone are responsible for their content on rubra. In particular, users may not collect and share any content that is discriminatory, false, misleading, pornographic, racist, harmful, criminal, or unsafe, or that glorifies violence. Using rubra for unsolicited or otherwise prohibited advertising is not permitted. The Community Guidelines apply in all cases.
6.2
Users may not collect and share any content on rubra that infringes intellectual property rights, personality rights, or other rights of third parties, for example, images or texts that infringe the «right to one’s own image», the «right to one’s own voice», or the copyright of third parties. The way in which content is collected and shared, and any other conduct, must not infringe such rights either. If in doubt, users must assume that content of the Provider, other users, and third parties is protected by copyright and other rights. If in doubt, users must obtain the express and verifiable consent of the respective holders of copyright and other rights in the content in advance.
6.3
Creators who make content available to a community or otherwise to third parties must obtain in advance all rights and consents required to do so, in particular the rights of the authors and any necessary consent of the persons depicted. Creators must be able to provide evidence of such consents and rights at the Provider’s request. Statutory exceptions, for example, for quotations, remain unaffected.
6.4
Users retain all rights to their content. For the period during which their content is stored on rubra, users grant the Provider a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide right, transferable and sublicensable to third parties who operate rubra on the Provider’s behalf, to store, reproduce, and technically adapt the content for the operation of rubra, for example, for display on different devices, and to make it available in accordance with the settings selected by users, including in recommendations and highlights under Section 6.7 of these GTC. In addition, the Provider may use excerpts of publicly accessible content to promote rubra.
6.5
Members of a community may use the content of Creators only within the features of rubra and in accordance with the requirements of the respective Creators. Any further use, in particular reproduction and further distribution outside rubra, requires the consent of the respective rights holders. The Provider does not grant any rights in user content.
6.6
With rubra, the Provider acts as a hosting provider and makes available a technical infrastructure that users can use to store and collect their own content and the content of others and to make it accessible to third parties. For the Provider, user content is third-party content. The Provider does not adopt such content as its own, including by recommending or highlighting it under Section 6.7.
6.7
The Provider may, at its own discretion, select, recommend, or highlight user content automatically or editorially, for example, in the Provider’s recommendations, communications, or overviews. The selection and order of content are based on factors such as timeliness, popularity, and interactions, as well as the settings and interests of users.
6.8
The Provider is not required to monitor the conduct of users on rubra. In particular, the Provider is not required to proactively check user content for lawfulness or other compliance. The Provider gives no warranty whatsoever for user content. The Provider may at any time block, restrict the visibility of, or delete user content that is suspected of being unlawful or in breach of these GTC (Section 7 of these GTC). In addition, the Provider may carry out random checks of content.
7. Reports, Moderation, and Complaints
7.1
Anyone who believes that content or conduct on rubra is unlawful or breaches these GTC may use the Infringement Report Form at any time. No user account is required to use the report form. Reports sent by postal mail or email to the contact details in the Legal Notice are also processed.
7.2
Reports must be sufficiently precise and substantiated to enable the Provider to identify the alleged infringement without a detailed legal examination. In particular, reports must contain the exact location of the content, for example, the URL, an explanation of why the content is unlawful or breaches these GTC, the name and email address of the reporting person, and a statement that the information is accurate and complete to the best of their knowledge. Reports concerning copyright infringements require additional information. For reports concerning the sexual exploitation of children, providing a name and email address is optional. The Provider may ask the reporting person to complete incomplete reports.
7.3
The Provider acknowledges receipt of reports and reviews them promptly, diligently, and objectively, taking into account the fundamental rights of all parties involved, in particular freedom of information and freedom of expression. Reports are reviewed in accordance with the notice-and-takedown procedure of SWICO’s Code of Conduct Hosting (CCH). The Provider may inform the users concerned of the content of a report and give them an opportunity to respond. The Provider may use automated means to process reports.
7.4
The Provider may block, delete, or restrict the visibility of content, restrict paid features and services, as well as warn users and temporarily block or delete user accounts if (i) the requirements of the notice-and-takedown procedure are met, (ii) a court or an authority requests the Provider to do so, (iii) the Provider could otherwise itself incur legal or criminal liability, or (iv) a random check reveals content that is highly likely to be unlawful or in breach of these GTC. The Provider chooses the measure that is proportionate in each individual case. In the case of obvious or serious infringements, in particular intimate images shared without the consent of the persons depicted or content that endangers minors, the Provider blocks the content immediately.
7.5
The Provider notifies the reporting person and the users concerned of its decisions on measures, stating its reasons, provided that it has the necessary contact details and no statutory requirements or official orders preclude this.
7.6
The reporting person and the users concerned may file a complaint against a decision free of charge within six months of being notified of it. Complaints are not decided solely by automated means. If a complaint proves to be justified, the Provider promptly reverses the measure. Mandatory legal remedies remain unaffected, for example, out-of-court dispute settlement for users in the European Union or a counter-notification under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Recourse to the courts remains available in any case.
7.7
The Provider blocks or deletes the user accounts of users who repeatedly infringe the rights of third parties, in particular copyright, or otherwise repeatedly breach these GTC. As a rule, the Provider warns the users concerned in advance. In the event of serious violations, the Provider may block or delete user accounts without prior warning. After issuing a warning, the Provider may temporarily stop processing complaints and reports from persons who repeatedly submit manifestly unfounded complaints or reports.
7.8
The Provider may report unlawful content and corresponding conduct to the competent authorities in Switzerland and abroad, for example, to the Swiss Federal Office for Cybersecurity (FOCS) or law enforcement authorities, and preserve the data required for this purpose. If ordered to do so by an authority or a court, the Provider is entitled to disclose the identity of users to that authority or court or to other third parties.
7.9
The Provider may charge Creators for the work involved in processing justified reports concerning their content. If a competent court or a competent authority determines that a measure taken by the Provider was not necessary, the users concerned may only require the Provider to lift the measure promptly. Any further claims, in particular for damages, are excluded to the extent permitted by law.
8. Warranty and Liability
8.1
The Provider operates rubra professionally and with due care. Nevertheless, rubra may at any time be temporarily unavailable in part or in full, in particular for technical reasons or due to maintenance work. The Provider endeavors to ensure the highest possible availability. However, the Provider gives no warranty for the features and services or for the availability of rubra.
8.2
The Provider is liable exclusively for direct damage caused by its own grossly negligent or intentional acts. Any further liability of the Provider for direct damage, in particular for slight and moderate negligence, is expressly and fully excluded. Any liability of the Provider for indirect damage and consequential damage caused by defects, for loss of data, for the content and conduct of users, for claims by other users or any third parties, and for lost profits is expressly and fully excluded. Any liability for the Provider’s auxiliary persons, employees, management, or members of its Board of Directors is excluded.
8.3
The liability of the Provider for slight or moderate negligence that cannot be excluded under mandatory applicable law is limited to the amount that the users concerned paid to the Provider in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the damage, but in any case to no less than CHF 100.00.
8.4
The Provider is not liable if it performs its obligations under these GTC only partially or incompletely due to force majeure and its consequences. Force majeure includes, in particular, lightning strikes and fires, floods and other natural disasters, magnetic storms, unforeseen weather conditions, strikes, assassination attempts, explosions and terrorist attacks, riots, wars and civil unrest, epidemics and pandemics, nuclear accidents, the restriction or interruption of the power supply and of telecommunications services, IT security incidents, and prohibitions imposed by authorities.
The limitation of warranty and liability under these GTC applies regardless of the legal basis. Any further mandatory liability, in particular for grossly negligent or intentional acts and under applicable data protection law, remains unaffected.
9. Indemnification
9.1
Users are expressly and fully liable to the Provider and any third parties for all direct and indirect costs and for any damage arising from breaches of these GTC or from unlawful or otherwise prohibited use of rubra. This liability applies regardless of fault. It also includes full indemnification against claims by other users and any third parties.
9.2
Users shall indemnify the Provider against all claims by other users and any third parties and must bear all costs incurred by the Provider in this connection, including attorneys’ fees and court costs, as well as any direct and indirect damage suffered by the Provider. Users must support the Provider, as instructed by the Provider, in defending against claims by other users and any third parties.
10. Final Provisions
10.1
The Provider may operate rubra, or have it operated, in whole or in part, by or together with third parties. The Provider may grant or transfer rights and obligations in connection with rubra to third parties.
10.2
The Provider may amend these GTC at any time. The Provider informs users of material changes to these GTC in an appropriate manner and, in the case of users with an active subscription, at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Users with an active subscription who do not agree with a material change may cancel their subscription effective as of the date on which the change takes effect and will receive a pro rata refund of payments already made for the unused term. The version of the GTC published on the Provider’s website at the relevant time applies to the use of rubra.
10.3
Should any provision of these GTC prove to be unenforceable, invalid, or ineffective, this shall not affect the enforceability, validity, and effectiveness of the remaining provisions. In this case, the parties shall replace the unenforceable, invalid, or ineffective provision with an enforceable, valid, and effective provision that comes closest to the parties’ original intention in content and economic terms.
10.4
These GTC are governed exclusively by Swiss law, with the exclusive place of performance and jurisdiction at the registered office of the Provider, if and to the extent that the users are not consumers. For consumers, mandatory provisions on the applicable law and the place of jurisdiction remain unaffected, in particular mandatory protective provisions of the law at their place of residence. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) does not apply.