Terms & Conditions

1. Scope and contracting party

1.1 These General Terms and Conditions apply to all services of M-Tech Support, owner Tobias Michel, Bahnhofstraße 51, 66892 Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, Germany (hereinafter “TrustStar” or “we”) provided via the website truststar.eu and the associated interfaces.

1.2 Deviating conditions of the user or the company are not recognised unless we expressly agree to their validity in writing.

1.3 A consumer within the meaning of these conditions is any natural person who uses the platform for purposes that can predominantly be attributed neither to their commercial nor their self-employed professional activity (Section 13 German Civil Code, BGB). A business (Unternehmer) is any natural or legal person that maintains a company profile or books a paid plan (Section 14 BGB).

2. Definitions

• Platform: the website truststar.eu including company profiles, search function and interfaces.
• Review: a star rating submitted by a person, with optional text, about a company.
• Verified review: a review for which we could trace a connection to an actual business transaction.
• Google rating: the public overall score of a company profile fetched via the Google Business Profile API together with the number of Google reviews, labelled in the profile and linked to the Google profile. Individual Google review texts are not republished.
• Reply: the public statement of a company on a review.
• Profile: the overall presentation of a company on the platform.

3. Description of services

3.1 TrustStar provides a platform on which companies are presented and reviews are published. We do not broker orders, contracts or services between consumers and companies and do not become a party to the transactions concluded between them.

3.2 We give no guarantee for the accuracy of individual reviews. Reviews are expressions of opinion of the authors; we do not adopt them as our own.

3.3 Profiles are displayed according to objective criteria: search hits are sorted alphabetically or by relevance to the search term, reviews by date, star rating or source type. There is no purchasable influence on the order. Paid plans grant additional functions but never a better position.

3.4 There is no entitlement to availability at all times without interruption. We strive for availability of 99 % in the annual average; maintenance work between 22:00 and 06:00 and disturbances outside our sphere of influence are disregarded.

4. Use by visitors and reviewers

4.1 Reading profiles and reviews is permitted without registration and free of charge.

4.2 Prohibited in particular are: automated mass retrieval of data (scraping) without written permission, attempts to circumvent security mechanisms, uploading harmful files and any use that impairs the operation of the platform.

4.3 In case of violations we may block access and initiate legal steps. There is no entitlement to use.

5. Posting reviews

5.1 Reviews may only be submitted by persons who had an actual business contact with the reviewed company – as a customer, as a client or as a person who used a service. Also entitled are persons who witnessed the service first-hand (e.g. spouses and partners, family members, housemates or employees of the client); what matters is their own personal perception of the transaction. Invented reviews, pure hearsay reports without personal perception, reviews commissioned by third parties for payment, and reviews by employees of the reviewed company or by competitors are inadmissible. Details are set out in the review guidelines.

5.2 The content must be factual and relate to the experience made. Inadmissible are insults, defamatory criticism, untrue factual assertions, discrimination, naming personal data of third parties (e.g. full names of employees, private phone numbers, health data) as well as advertising and links to other offers.

5.3 Rewards for reviews – of any kind – are inadmissible. Companies may not ask exclusively satisfied customers for reviews.

5.4 By submitting, you assure that your details are truthful and confirm the Review Guidelines. Details on data processing can be found in section 5 of the Privacy Policy.

5.5 There is no entitlement to publication. We may reject reviews that violate these conditions, the guidelines or applicable law.

5.6 Reviews without a review code are published only after the company concerned has confirmed the customer relationship. Until that decision the content and rating of the review are not visible to the company; only display name and date are visible. This procedure protects the reviewer from influence and the company from reviews by non-customers.

5.7 The company is obliged to examine the customer relationship in the procedure under clause 5.6 to the best of its knowledge and conscience and to confirm it truthfully. Declining although the company recognises the reviewing person or the transaction, or can clearly match them from the details provided, is not permitted. In the objection procedure TrustStar may publish the review after a neutral individual examination even against the decline (label “✓ checked by TrustStar”); clause 6 remains unaffected. In cases of repeated abuse of the confirmation procedure, TrustStar is entitled to withdraw the verified status of the company profile, indicate this on the profile and block paid features.

6. Review, moderation and reports

6.1 Incoming reviews are checked for guideline compliance in the intake procedure; reports and concrete indications trigger an individual review. Reviews with a valid review code are published immediately as verified; reviews without a code follow the confirmation procedure under clause 5.6. The review does not replace legal advice and does not relieve authors of their own responsibility.

6.2 Any person and any company can report a review. The report must be substantiated. We review within five working days and communicate the outcome in writing.

6.3 With concrete indications of a legal violation we may temporarily hide the review (“under review”). If the report proves unfounded, the review becomes visible again immediately.

6.4 As a service provider we are responsible for third-party content under Sections 8 to 10 DDG only from the moment we become aware of a specific infringement. From that moment we remove unlawful content immediately.

7. Company account and profile claiming

7.1 Every company may request its profile. We verify ownership, usually via a confirmation link to the business e-mail address, in case of doubt via a commercial register extract or an invoice showing the company name.

7.2 The contract for the free profile comes into existence with our activation confirmation.

7.2.1 Paid plans – where and how the company confirms: A paid plan selected in the application form or assigned by the operator is first stored in the company portal as prepared. Until the company confirms it, the features of that plan remain locked; no payment obligation arises, no invoice is issued and no dunning procedure is started. The free basic profile remains fully usable during this time.

7.2.2 The company accepts the offer in a binding manner by reviewing the summary displayed in the portal section “Plan & Invoices” (or via the “Activate plan” card in the overview) – plan, billing cycle, net and gross price, invoice date, service period, next invoice, payment term and contract term – by providing the invoicing address, by setting the three confirmations (price and billing · terms and privacy policy · acting as a business pursuant to Section 14 BGB) and by confirming the subsequent confirmation dialog with “Yes, activate at a charge”. The contract comes into existence with this click; the features are unlocked immediately and the first invoice is created automatically as of the day of confirmation.

7.2.3 We confirm the conclusion of the contract without undue delay by e-mail in text form (order confirmation). For evidence purposes we store the time of the declaration, the declaring person, the version of these terms applicable at that time, the agreed prices and the wording of the consent; the IP address is processed exclusively as a salt-based checksum. The company can view this information at any time in the portal under “Contract data & evidence” and download it as a text file.

7.2.4 If, exceptionally, the order is placed outside the portal (e.g. by e-mail or signature), clause 7.2.1 applies with the proviso that the contract comes into existence with our written or electronic order confirmation. The operator subsequently records the order in the portal, creating the same evidence.

7.3 The company is obliged to keep its access credentials secret and to inform us immediately of any abuse. Actions via an access account are attributed to the company.

7.4 Replies of the company must remain factual and may not contain personal data of third parties. Companies may not influence reviews through incentives or demand their deletion under pressure.

7.5 If a company deposits a Google Place ID, it grants us the right to fetch the publicly visible data of this profile and display it on the platform.

8. Fees, billing and default

8.1 The basic profile is free of charge permanently and includes in particular the company profile with its own URL, Google synchronisation and unlimited public replies. The embeddable review widget (banner and carousel) is part of the paid plans from Basic Plus. For the Basis Plus, Professional and Enterprise plans the prices stated on the For Businesses page at the time of ordering apply (currently 9 € and 19 € per month; Enterprise is available on request), each plus statutory VAT. Basis Plus includes in particular the extended review widget, own review codes and the PDF export of codes. Professional additionally includes in particular own short links (e.g. tsta.eu/your-company), 10 % discount on printed review cards of M-Tech Support, analyses over 12 months, the CSV export of all reviews including campaign label, reply templates and priority support with the shortest response time compared to the lower plans. Enterprise additionally includes in particular individually agreed quotas for review codes and card orders, a personal account manager with prioritised availability, a setup service and API/custom integrations for your own evaluations and processes. The specific scope of functions results from the plan overview on the For Businesses page; for Enterprise additionally from the individual service description. Temporarily advertised introductory offers (e.g. “launch advantage”) apply exclusively to the plan periods and price components expressly stated in the offer; afterwards the regular price under this clause 8.1 applies automatically – no separate cancellation of the discount is required.

8.2 Billing is by invoice in advance, either monthly or, with yearly billing, as an annual amount of eleven monthly contributions for a twelve-month term (one monthly contribution is not charged as a discount).

8.2.1 Booking-day principle: All billing dates are based on the booking day, i.e. the day of confirmation under clause 7.2.2. Example: confirmation on 15 August → first invoice dated 15 August for the service period 15 August to 14 September, next invoice on 15 September, and thereafter on the same day of each month. If the booking day falls in a shorter month, the billing date for that month moves to the last calendar day (e.g. 31 → 30 April or 28/29 February); the original booking day applies again in the following month. The invoice date corresponds to the respective billing date.

8.2.2 Invoices are created automatically; no separate instruction is required for each billing period. The payment term is 14 days from the invoice date without deduction. SEPA direct debit is currently not offered. Invoices and dunning letters are issued electronically and transmitted as PDF files by e-mail or made available in the company portal (invoicing via the accounting system Lexware Office by Haufe-Lexware GmbH & Co. KG, Freiburg, Germany). The company agrees to this electronic transmission; the mandatory particulars under Section 14 of the German VAT Act (UStG) remain ensured.

8.2.3 Exemption from invoicing: If we exempt a company from invoicing by mutual agreement – in particular charitable organisations (non-profit), beta testers during a testing phase, as a gesture of goodwill or for our own use – no invoice is automatically created for the period concerned and no claim falls due; the plan features remain available in full. The exemption applies for the agreed period or until revoked by us in text form. There is no entitlement to permanent free use; we announce the switch to regular billing in advance in text form and do not bill retroactively.

8.2.4 Plan changes (upgrade, downgrade, change of billing cycle) are also confirmed pursuant to clause 7.2.2 and are billed from the day of confirmation as the new booking day. There is no pro-rata billing or credit for the remainder of the current period; unless otherwise agreed, the change takes effect at the beginning of the new billing period. The contractually agreed price remains stable until a change pursuant to clause 8.4, even if the publicly stated prices change.

8.2.5 Invoicing address: When ordering, the company provides a complete invoicing address (company name, street and house number, postal code, city); the company data stored in the portal (registered office) is used as the basis. These details must be complete before ordering pursuant to clause 7.2.2, since otherwise neither a proper invoice under Section 14 of the German VAT Act (UStG) can be issued nor the accounting system populated correctly. The company keeps its company data up to date for as long as a paid plan exists. An address entered differently in the order form applies exclusively to that single order; the stored company data remains unchanged. A permanently different invoicing address is maintained by the company in the portal under “Plan & Invoices”.

8.3 In case of payment default we are entitled to charge default interest at the statutory rate (Section 288 BGB) and to block the additional functions until settlement. We proceed in comprehensible stages, each of which is notified to the company in text form. The stages are only triggered once the invoice concerned has been finalised and transmitted to the company; no dunning is carried out for invoices that have not yet been transmitted:

1. Payment reminder three days after the due date,
2. First dunning letter ten days after the due date,
3. Second dunning letter setting a final deadline twenty days after the due date,
4. Automatic conversion of the account to the free Basic plan if the outstanding amount is still unpaid 34 days after the due date.

8.3.1 In the case of a conversion under clause 8.3 sentence 2 no. 4, the company profile and the published reviews remain online and accessible; only the functions of the paid plan are blocked (in particular widget embedding, own review codes, exports and extended analyses). No data is deleted. Once the outstanding amount has been settled in full, we restore the previous plan without delay.

8.3.2 We do not charge dunning fees or default interest automatically, but only in individual cases and in accordance with the statutory provisions. The publication of existing reviews is not affected by any of the above.

8.4 We announce price increases at least six weeks in advance in text form. If the company objects, the previous price applies until the end of the current period; in this case a special right of termination arises for both sides.

8.5 Printed review cards are a separate, plan-independent product. The tier prices stated in the portal's order form apply, each plus statutory VAT and shipping costs. Shipping costs depend on the shipping option chosen by the company (standard shipping without tracking or insured parcel with tracking; current prices are shown in the order form). Before submitting the order the complete breakdown (cards, shipping, net total, VAT and gross total) and the possibility to check and correct the entries are displayed. A payment obligation arises only with our written order confirmation. For companies on the Professional or Enterprise plan, the discount under clause 8.1 applies (10 % on the first 300 printed review cards per calendar month, pro-rata per order; every further card at list price). The applicable discount, the remaining monthly budget and the full price breakdown are displayed in the order form before the order is submitted.

9. Term, termination and end of profile

9.1 The free profile use runs for an indefinite period and can be terminated by either side at any time without notice in text form.

9.2 Paid plans with monthly billing have a minimum term of one month and extend by one further month each unless cancelled in text form with one month's notice to month-end. With yearly billing the minimum term is twelve months; the contract extends by further twelve months each unless cancelled in text form with one month's notice to the end of the term. The right to extraordinary termination for good cause remains unaffected. Cancellation can be declared in text form in the company portal under “Plan & Invoices → Cancel contract”; the company immediately receives a cancellation confirmation stating the end of the contract. Billing ends automatically with the end of the contract without any further declaration; the free basic profile including published reviews remains in place.

9.3 A good cause exists for us in particular in case of: gross or repeated violations of these conditions, untrue information about ownership, payment default of more than two periods or criminal acts in connection with the platform.

9.4 After termination we deactivate the profile on request or delete it completely. Reviews by third parties remain as expressions of opinion insofar as they are lawful; they are assigned to a profile that is no longer active. Access credentials and billing documents are deleted after expiry of the statutory retention periods.

10. Rights in content

10.1 By posting a review you grant us a simple, spatially and temporally unlimited right to reproduce, distribute and make publicly available the entry on the platform and in extracts in search engines, aggregators and our own marketing materials. No remuneration is paid. The right expires with the deletion of the review, unless statutory retention obligations exist.

10.2 You remain the holder of your rights and assure that your entry does not infringe third-party rights.

10.3 Replies of companies are published under the same conditions. We may process the profile contents (company name, address, industry, Google overall rating) for presentation and to ensure findability.

10.4 All rights in the platform, in the TrustStar logo (blue circle with white star), in design, source code and database structure lie with TrustStar. Adopting content into your own offers requires written permission; adoption by search engines and private use are permitted.

10.5 Review badge and “✓ Verified” badge – rules of use. The review badge (web, print sheet, PDF) and the verified badge are self-labelling by the TrustStar platform; no examination by an independent third party takes place. Companies may use the badge exclusively (a) during the ongoing contractual relationship, (b) unchanged and complete (including source and status information), (c) only for the licensed company and (d) only with the current review status. Any use that creates the impression of an independent testing or certification body is inadmissible. We may revoke badge use at any time in case of abuse or after the end of the contract; with the end of the contract the right of use ends automatically and provided print templates must be destroyed or deleted.

11. Warranty and liability

11.1 We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for fraudulent concealment, for damages from injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act and to the extent of a guarantee assumed.

11.2 For simple negligence we are liable only for breach of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations), limited to the foreseeable, contract-typical damage at the time of conclusion of the contract. Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfilment makes the proper execution of the contract possible in the first place and on whose compliance the contractual partner may regularly rely.

11.3 We assume no liability for the accuracy and completeness of reviews posted by users nor for content of linked external websites.

11.4 The above limitations of liability also apply in favour of our legal representatives, employees and vicarious agents.

12. Right of withdrawal for consumers

12.1 Consumers have a 14-day right of withdrawal without giving reasons for distance contracts on paid services. The period begins with the conclusion of the contract.

12.2 The withdrawal is to be addressed to: M-Tech Support, owner Tobias Michel, Bahnhofstraße 51, 66892 Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, Germany, e-mail info@truststar.eu. To meet the deadline, timely dispatch suffices.

12.3 Consequences of withdrawal: In case of a valid withdrawal, the services received on both sides are to be returned. If you demanded that the service begin during the withdrawal period, you owe an appropriate amount for the service already provided up to the withdrawal.

12.4 Model withdrawal form: “I/we hereby withdraw the contract concluded by me/us for the provision of the following service: ______. Ordered on ______. Name of the consumer, address, signature (only for paper notification), date.”

12.5 The right of withdrawal does not exist for contracts with businesses within the meaning of Section 14 BGB.

13. Data protection

The collection, processing and use of personal data is governed by our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these conditions. Consents to optional processing (statistics, marketing) can be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future.

14. Final provisions

14.1 The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Towards consumers this choice of law applies only insofar as mandatory protective provisions of the country of residence are not restricted.

14.2 Exclusive place of jurisdiction for disputes with businesses, legal persons under public law or special funds under public law is the registered office of the provider (Bruchmühlbach-Miesau).

14.3 We announce changes to these conditions to companies at least six weeks before they take effect in text form. If the company does not object within this period, the changes are deemed accepted; we expressly point out this consequence in the notification. Towards consumers, changes apply only if they are reasonable.

14.4 Should individual provisions be wholly or partially ineffective, the validity of the remaining provisions is unaffected. The statutory provision takes the place of the ineffective provision.

14.5 We are neither obliged nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

---

Version of 28 September 2026. Older versions are archived for traceability; they can be requested at recht@truststar.eu.