Terms of Service

The Ship Engineer platform is operated by [Legal Entity Name], a private company limited by shares (Ιδιωτική Κεφαλαιουχική Εταιρεία / IKE) incorporated under the laws of Greece under company registration number (Γ.Ε.ΜΗ.) [Registration Number], with its registered seat at [Registered Address], Greece ("Ship Engineer," "we," "us"). The entity name, registration number, and address are placeholders pending completion of incorporation and will be filled in once the company is formally registered with the Greek General Commercial Registry (Γ.Ε.ΜΗ.) and has an active tax registration with the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (ΑΑΔΕ).

By accessing or using the Ship Engineer platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to these terms, you may not access or use the platform. These terms apply to all users, including engineers, buyers, and administrators.

We reserve the right to update or modify these terms at any time without prior notice. Your continued use of the platform following any changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised terms. It is your responsibility to review these terms periodically.

Ship Engineer operates a marketplace that connects buyers (shipping companies and vessel operators) with independent engineers. Service agreements formed through the platform are between the buyer and the engineer directly; Ship Engineer is not a party to that agreement and does not itself perform, supervise, or guarantee the engineering work delivered. Ship Engineer's role is limited to facilitating matching, communication, invoicing as described in Section 5, and dispute mediation as described in the platform.

Ship Engineer is an intermediary information-society service: it hosts job postings, quotes, messages, and related content supplied by buyers and engineers, and does not itself select, modify, or endorse that content beyond the automated verification and matching features described elsewhere in these terms. This distinction matters for how intermediary-liability frameworks such as the EU Digital Services Act apply to the platform, and is maintained consistently throughout these terms and in how the platform is operated. Nothing in this section limits Ship Engineer's own obligations as a provider of an online platform under applicable law.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials. You agree to provide accurate and complete information when creating an account and to update such information as necessary. You are solely responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

You agree not to use the platform for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable laws or regulations. You may not interfere with or disrupt the platform, its servers, or networks connected to the platform.

Engineer status. Engineers register and act on the platform as independent contractors, not as employees, workers, or agents of Ship Engineer. Engineers control whether to bid on a given job, set or negotiate their own price, choose their own working methods, and are not subject to Ship Engineer's direction or control over how engineering work is performed. Engineers are free to work for other clients, including direct competitors of buyers found through the platform, and are not required to accept any minimum volume of work.

Ship Engineer offers AI-powered features, including Smart Match, to assist buyers in identifying suitable engineers for a posted job. These features use third-party AI models and rely on the job and profile information described in our Privacy Policy.

AI-generated suggestions and content are provided for informational purposes only and should be reviewed by qualified professionals before being relied upon for critical decisions. The platform does not replace professional judgment in maritime engineering matters, and neither buyers nor engineers should treat AI output as a certification of a candidate's suitability, qualifications, or fitness for a given job.

Ship Engineer acts as a disclosed agent for invoicing purposes only, and does not itself provide, supply, or resell the engineering services performed under a service agreement. For jobs completed through the platform, Ship Engineer issues invoices on a self-billing basis: the buyer, through the platform, issues a self-billed invoice on behalf of the engineer for the engineering services rendered, and Ship Engineer separately issues a commission invoice to the buyer for its own platform fee, disclosed at the time the service agreement is formed. By using the platform to complete a paid job, engineers authorize Ship Engineer to issue self-billed invoices on their behalf in this manner, and both parties acknowledge that the underlying supply of engineering services is between the buyer and the engineer, not Ship Engineer.

The VAT treatment applied to each invoice (including any high-seas exemption, reverse-charge treatment, or local VAT) is determined from the vessel and buyer information on file at the time of invoicing. Where the platform cannot determine the correct VAT treatment automatically, the invoice will be flagged for manual review before it is finalized. Buyers and engineers remain responsible for confirming that the VAT treatment applied to their transactions is correct for their own circumstances and for seeking their own tax advice where needed.

Non-circumvention. Buyers and engineers who are matched through the platform agree not to intentionally structure a job, or a series of jobs, outside the platform for the purpose of avoiding Ship Engineer's commission on a matter first introduced through the platform. This provision is aimed at deliberate circumvention, not at preventing a buyer and engineer from working together again on unrelated matters through ordinary, independent business dealings unconnected to a platform introduction.

Ship Engineer charges a commission on jobs completed through the platform, as disclosed at the time a service agreement is formed. Settlement is dual-track, and the buyer chooses the track when it awards a job. There is no mutual-approval requirement and no escrow veto: an engineer agrees to a job by quoting it, and the buyer's choice of settlement track at award concludes the fee terms for that job. Escrow-style payment protection (currently provided via a third-party processor referred to on the platform as Mongopay) is optional, not mandatory.

Protected Escrow. The engineer-side commission is 3.5% of the agreed price, capped at EUR 2,500, and is deducted from the amount payable to the engineer. The buyer additionally pays a separate “Escrow Facility Fee” of 1.5% of the agreed price, which reflects the cost of holding and releasing funds; that fee is billed to the buyer and is not deducted from the engineer's payout.

Direct Settlement. No funds are held or moved by the platform on this track; buyer and engineer settle the job price between themselves. The engineer-side commission is 2.5% of the agreed price, subject to a minimum of EUR 150 and a maximum of EUR 1,500, and is invoiced to the engineer on 14-day terms rather than deducted at payment. No buyer-side fee applies on this track.

A flat surcharge of EUR 500 applies to jobs marked as emergency jobs, in addition to the applicable engineer-side commission, and Direct Settlement is not available for emergency jobs — emergency jobs are awarded on Protected Escrow only. The applicable fees are disclosed to both parties before a job is awarded. Funds associated with a job are tracked through the platform's payment-status workflow (Authorized, Released, etc.); this reflects the state of an agreement between buyer and engineer and is not, at this time, a regulated payment or escrow service provided by a licensed payment institution, whether or not payment protection was requested for that job. We are working to integrate a licensed payment processor to handle the movement of funds directly, and this section will be updated once that integration is live.

Insurance as a condition of quoting. Each job posted on the platform is assigned a risk tier, and engineers must hold professional indemnity insurance coverage meeting or exceeding the minimum amount published for that risk tier before they can submit a quote or accept an assignment on it. This is enforced at the time a quote is submitted or a counter-offer is accepted, not only checked once at initial verification, so that an engineer's ability to take on higher-risk jobs stays tied to their current coverage. An engineer whose coverage lapses below the required minimum for jobs already in progress may still complete or withdraw from those jobs, but may not accept new assignments or counter- offers requiring a higher coverage level than they currently hold. Minimum coverage amounts by risk tier are set out in the platform and may be revised from time to time; they are currently provisional pending underwriting and legal review and are not a representation that the stated amounts are adequate for any particular job or vessel.

You may stop using the platform at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access to the platform if we reasonably believe you have violated these terms, engaged in fraudulent or unlawful conduct, or posed a risk to other users. Provisions of these terms that by their nature should survive termination, including Sections 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11, will survive.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Ship Engineer shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or relating to your use of the platform. The platform is provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis without warranties of any kind. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.

We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free. Any reliance you place on information provided through the platform, including AI-generated content, is at your own risk. Ship Engineer is not a party to, and does not warrant the quality, safety, or outcome of, any engineering work performed by an engineer for a buyer.

These terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to your use of the platform, are governed by the laws of Greece, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles, consistent with Ship Engineer's place of incorporation identified in Section 0.

This section describes two different kinds of disputes and sets a different resolution path for each, reflecting that a dispute over the quality or performance of engineering work is a different kind of matter from a dispute about the platform itself.

Disputes between a buyer and an engineer arising under a service agreement formed through the platform (for example, a disagreement over the work performed, a claimed defect, or the final price) should first be raised through the platform's dispute-resolution workflow described elsewhere in these terms. If that process does not resolve the matter, the buyer and engineer agree that the dispute will be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration under the terms of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA), given the maritime-specific subject matter of the underlying work. This is a matter for the buyer and engineer as the parties to that agreement, and is separate from any claim against Ship Engineer itself.

Disputes against Ship Engineer — for example, a claim that the platform itself breached these terms, or a claim about the commission charged, the invoicing described in Section 5, or the operation of the platform — will be resolved by arbitration administered by an institutional arbitral body to be confirmed by counsel (for example, the International Chamber of Commerce or the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry's arbitration center), seated in Athens, Greece, rather than through LMAA, since these are not maritime technical disputes. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking interim injunctive relief from a court where necessary to preserve the status quo pending arbitration.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that any arbitration or proceeding brought under Section 10 will be conducted only on an individual basis and not as a class, collective, or representative action, and you waive any right to participate in a class, collective, or representative action against Ship Engineer. If any part of this waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim in a particular jurisdiction, that finding affects only that claim, and the remainder of this waiver, and the arbitration agreement in Section 10, remain in full effect.

Information about how long we retain the records described in these terms (including job, service agreement, and invoicing records) is set out in our Privacy Policy, which references a data retention schedule maintained alongside these terms. That schedule is itself a draft pending legal review and is expected to be finalized alongside the rest of this document.