Terms of use of the Hike-Planet service

1. Definitions

In these Terms, the following words have the meaning set out below:

Publisher: HERONT IT, a société par actions simplifiée (French simplified joint-stock company) registered with the Nanterre Trade and Companies Register under number 912 033 974, publisher of the Service, also referred to in these Terms as “we” or “Hike-Planet”. Its full details are set out in the Legal notice accessible from the Application.
Service / Application: the overall Hike-Planet platform, made up of the web application, the Hike-Planet mobile application and all their features.
User: any natural person holding an account on the Application.
Visitor: any person browsing the Application without being logged into an account.
Hike: a hiking event created and published by a User on the Application.
Hiker: a User who searches for hikes and signs up for them.
Organiser: a User who has created a Hike. Organiser status is a local right, attached to a given Hike, and not a global role.
User Content: any content published by a User (hike listing, description, photos, files, comments, replies, “likes”, profile information).
Personal Area: the part of the application dedicated to each User, allowing them to view and change their personal data, access future Hikes they are signed up for or waitlisted on, access their Hike history, change their password, and request the deletion of their account.
Terms: these Terms of Use.

2. Purpose

The purpose of these Terms is to define the conditions under which the Service is made available, together with the respective rights and obligations of the Publisher and of Users.

Hike-Planet is a community platform connecting people around hiking, allowing its members to organise day hikes, search for hikes organised by other members, sign up for them and interact through comments. A blog is also provided, offering advice and information about hiking.

Hike-Planet acts solely as a technical intermediary. Hike-Planet does not itself organise hikes, does not take part in them, does not lead them and does not sell any travel or holiday service. Hikes are created, organised and carried out under the sole responsibility of the Users concerned (see article 9).

3. Acceptance and enforceability of the Terms

Use of the Service requires full and unreserved acceptance of these Terms.

When creating an account, the User accepts the Terms by ticking the box provided for that purpose and/or by confirming registration. That acceptance constitutes contractual consent.

The Terms are accessible at any time from the Application. A User who does not accept the Terms must not use the Service.

4. Access to the Service and registration conditions

4.1 Financial conditions

No payment is required to create an account, publish a Hike or sign up for one. Connection, equipment and communication costs required to access the Service remain payable by the User.

The Publisher reserves the possibility of offering paid options at a later date. Any such options would be optional, would be governed by separate terms of sale brought to the User’s attention before any subscription, and could not be taken out without the User’s express agreement.

4.2 Capacity and age

The Service is reserved for natural persons who are of full age (18 years or over) and have the legal capacity to enter into a contract. Because Hikes involve meeting other people and physical activity in real conditions, registration by minors is not permitted on the Application.

4.3 User account

Registration requires the following information: unique username, email address, password, language and country of residence.

The email address and the username are unique and cannot be changed once the account has been created.
The password must comply with the security policy displayed during registration (at least 10 characters, including one capital letter, one digit and one special character).
The account is created only once the email address has been verified by means of a single-use code sent by email. Until the email address is verified, the User can neither log in nor sign up for a Hike.

4.4 Accuracy and security of information

The User undertakes to provide accurate, truthful and up-to-date information, and to keep it current. The User is solely responsible for keeping their login credentials confidential and for all activity carried out from their account. Any suspicious use must be reported without delay to admin@hike-planet.com.

5. User roles

5.1 Visitor

Any Visitor may: run searches and view hike listings, and read blog articles.

5.2 User

Any logged-in User may: access the same features as a Visitor, and in addition sign up for a Hike, withdraw from a Hike under the conditions set out in article 6, post comments and “like” comments, and access their Personal Area.

5.3 Organiser

Any Hiker may become an Organiser by creating a Hike. Only in respect of the Hikes they have created, the Organiser may create them, delete them while they are not yet published, publish them, amend them, and cancel them (within the applicable time limits) once they are published.

Once their Hike is published, the Organiser is automatically registered as the first User signed up for it. The Organiser may neither delegate the organisation of a Hike nor withdraw from a Hike they are organising.

The Organiser is a private individual acting in a non-professional capacity. They receive no remuneration through the Application.

6. How Hikes work

6.1 Creation and publication

The Organiser enters the characteristics of the Hike (title, date, start, finish and meeting points, times, difficulty, distance, average pace, maximum number of Users signed up, description, images, attached documents). A Hike is first saved as a draft and then published. A Hike in draft mode is not visible to Visitors or Users and may be deleted in full. A published Hike is visible to Visitors and Users, cannot be deleted, but may be cancelled. Published information is the sole responsibility of the Organiser.

Signing up for a Hike takes place without manual approval, within the limit of available places. Once the Hike is full, the User is placed on a waiting list; when a place becomes available, promotion is automatic in order of arrival (first come, first served). Users on the waiting list are not entitled to take part in Hikes. Only confirmed registrations are. The Organiser may at any time increase the maximum number of places on their Hike and thereby promote all or part of the waiting list.

6.3 Lock-in, withdrawal and cancellation

Sign-ups and withdrawals are blocked 2 hours before the departure time (T-2h). That deadline is recalculated if the Organiser changes the date or time. From T-2h onwards, Hikes no longer appear in search results.
Up to T-2h, the Organiser may increase the maximum number of places on their Hike and thereby promote Users from the waiting list.
The Organiser may cancel a published Hike up to 2 hours before the departure time (T-2h). After that point, cancellation through the Application is no longer possible.
A Hike is automatically archived 24 hours after its departure time. An archived Hike is read-only (only comments remain possible). It remains accessible only to those Users whose participation was confirmed at the time of lock-in, including the Organiser. Access is possible only from the User’s Personal Area.

The Publisher remains a third party to the relationship formed between the Organiser and the Users signed up for a Hike. It does not guarantee that a Hike will actually take place, that it will be held on the dates, at the times and in the places announced, or the conditions in which it takes place.

7. User Content

7.1 Responsibility for content

The User is solely responsible for the User Content they publish (hike listings, descriptions, photos, PDF/GPX/KML files, comments, profile items). They warrant that they hold all rights necessary for its publication and that such content infringes no third-party right and no legal provision.

7.2 Prohibited content

The following User Content is prohibited in particular:

content that is unlawful, defamatory, insulting, hateful, discriminatory, violent or sexual in nature, that infringes the privacy or image rights of third parties, or that is misleading, infringing, or contains viruses or malicious code.
descriptions of outings that are manifestly dangerous or that encourage unlawful practices, in particular breaches of local rules on wild camping, access to protected areas, movement or fire prevention.
advertising, solicitation and content unrelated to the purpose of the service. Impersonation and the creation of fake accounts are also prohibited.

Where prohibited User Content is published, the Publisher may remove the content concerned and, depending on the seriousness of the breach and whether it is repeated, suspend or terminate the account of its author, under the conditions set out in article 11. The User is informed of the measure taken and of the reasons for it, and may challenge it at admin@hike-planet.com.

The most serious breaches, in particular the publication of manifestly unlawful content, impersonation and the creation of fake accounts, may result in immediate termination of the account, without notice.

7.3 Licence over User Content

By publishing User Content, the User grants the Publisher a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence for the duration of publication, allowing the hosting, reproduction, display and technical adaptation of the content for the sole purpose of providing and operating the Service (for example resizing images, caching, display to other Users). Those adaptations are strictly technical and do not affect the User’s moral rights in their content.

That licence may be exercised through the Publisher’s technical subcontractors (hosting, file storage, content delivery network), for the same purposes and within the same limits. Those subcontractors are listed in the Personal data protection policy.

The licence ends when the content is withdrawn, subject to technical backups and statutory retention obligations.

Any use of User Content for the purpose of promoting the Service, in particular on the public website, on social media or on any other communication medium of the Publisher, is excluded from this licence. Any such use requires the User’s prior and express agreement, sought on a case-by-case basis and revocable at any time by simple request to admin@hike-planet.com.

The User remains the owner of the rights in their content.

7.4 Hosting provider status, reporting and moderation

In accordance with article 6 of the French LCEN Act (Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 on confidence in the digital economy) and with Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act), the Publisher acts as a hosting provider of User Content: it carries out no general prior monitoring of published content.

Reporting content. Any individual or entity, whether or not they hold an account, may report content they consider unlawful or contrary to these Terms by writing to admin@hike-planet.com. To be actionable, a report includes:

the exact address (URL) of the content concerned;
the reasons why the content is considered unlawful or contrary to the Terms;
the name and email address of the person submitting the report, except where the report concerns an offence referred to in articles 3 to 7 of Directive (EU) 2011/93;
a statement confirming the good faith belief of the person submitting the report that the information provided is accurate.

Handling. The Publisher acknowledges receipt of the report without delay, examines it in a diligent and non-arbitrary manner, and informs the person who submitted it of the decision taken and of the available means of redress. It reserves the right to remove promptly any manifestly unlawful content, or any content contrary to the Terms, of which it becomes aware, and to suspend the account concerned.

Statement of reasons. Any User whose content is removed, or whose account is suspended or terminated, receives a statement of reasons specifying the measure taken, the facts on which it is based, the provision of the Terms or the rule of law applied, and the means of challenging it at admin@hike-planet.com.

8. Publisher’s intellectual property

The “Hike-Planet” trade mark, the logos, the architecture, the interfaces, the texts, the graphic and software elements of the Application are protected by intellectual property law and remain the exclusive property of the Publisher or of its partners.

No provision of these Terms may be construed as a transfer of intellectual property rights to the User. Any unauthorised reproduction, representation or exploitation, in whole or in part, is prohibited.

9. Liability relating to Hikes and to safety

This article is essential. The User acknowledges and accepts the following:

Intermediary role. Hike-Planet does no more than put Users in contact with one another. The Publisher does not organise, lead, supervise or take part in Hikes. It does not check the skills, actual identity, insurance cover or physical fitness of Users.
Activity involving risk. Hiking is a physical activity that carries inherent risks (terrain, weather, exertion, falls, isolation and the like). Each User signed up for a Hike does so knowingly and at their own risk. It is for them to assess whether the Hike is suited to their physical condition, to equip themselves appropriately, to check local weather and regulatory conditions, and to hold appropriate insurance. The Application is neither a rescue service, nor an alerting system, nor a guarantee that a route is passable. The maps, tracks, distances, elevation figures and weather information displayed may be inaccurate or out of date. The Publisher provides no insurance and does not replace any personal cover.
Organiser’s responsibility. The Organiser acts as a private individual and not as a professional sports leader or travel organiser. They are responsible for the information they publish and for the proper running of the Hike they propose, within the limits of what a volunteer private individual can reasonably ensure. They may not be treated as a qualified professional guide.
No travel service. The Publisher does not sell, organise or offer for sale any travel, holiday or package travel service. Any paid options of the Service relate exclusively to features of the Application and in no case constitute the sale of a Hike or of a related service. On that basis, the Service does not fall within the scope of articles L.211-1 and L.211-18 of the French Tourism Code, which respectively define the operators concerned and their registration requirement.
Limitation of the Publisher’s liability. To the extent permitted by law, the Publisher may not be held liable for personal injury or for material or immaterial damage arising in connection with a Hike, for relations between Users, for the inaccuracy of information published by Users, or for the non-performance of undertakings given between them. However, nothing in these Terms operates to exclude the Publisher’s liability in cases of gross negligence, wilful misconduct, or harm to life or physical integrity where the law prohibits such exclusion.

10. Availability of the Service

The Publisher endeavours to keep the Service available but gives no guarantee of continuous availability. The Service may be suspended or interrupted, in particular for maintenance, update or security reasons or in the event of force majeure, without the Publisher being held liable. The Service is provided “as is”, with no guarantee that it is free of errors or fit for any particular purpose. However, nothing in this article operates to set aside the statutory guarantees from which the User benefits on a mandatory basis under applicable law.

11. Duration, suspension and termination

The Terms apply throughout the period of use of the Service.

The Publisher may suspend or terminate a User’s access, without notice, in the event of a breach of these Terms, in particular where unlawful content is published, where conduct endangers other Users, or where use is fraudulent.

Account deletion at the User’s initiative: the User may at any time request the deletion of their account on a self-service basis, from the dedicated page of the web application, accessible without logging in, after verification of the authenticity of their email address. As soon as the request is confirmed, the account is deactivated, the upcoming Hikes for which the User is the Organiser are cancelled and the User’s sign-ups for upcoming Hikes are cancelled. The User then has 30 days to reactivate their account; at the end of that period, the account is permanently deleted. A suspended account cannot be reactivated in this way. The procedure and its effects are described on the Account deletion page and in the Personal data protection policy. The User may also exercise their right to erasure by writing to admin@hike-planet.com.

12. Personal data

The processing of Users’ personal data is described in the Personal data protection policy, a document separate from these Terms.

That policy is accessible at any time, without creating an account, from the footer of every page of the website and of the Application, under the link “Personal data protection”, at https://hike-planet.com/gdpr/. It is also brought to the User’s attention when they create their account, before acceptance of these Terms.

For any question relating to their data, or to exercise their rights, the User may write to admin@hike-planet.com.

13. Changes to the Terms

The Publisher may amend these Terms to reflect legal, regulatory, technical or functional developments of the Service.

Any substantial change is brought to Users’ attention by a message in the Application and by email, at least 30 days before its effective date, which is stated in that information.

During that period, a User who does not accept the new Terms may terminate their account free of charge and without justification, by writing to admin@hike-planet.com. After the effective date, continued use of the Service constitutes acceptance of the amended Terms.

Purely formal changes, such as the correction of a clerical error or the update of a cross-reference, may take effect immediately.

14. Governing law, language and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by French law.

These Terms are drafted in French and translated into English. In the event of any discrepancy between the two versions, the French version prevails.

In the event of a dispute, the User is invited to contact the Publisher at admin@hike-planet.com in order to seek an amicable solution.

Failing an amicable resolution, the French courts have jurisdiction, subject to the mandatory rules of jurisdiction applicable to consumers.

A User who is a consumer resident in the European Union retains the benefit of the mandatory provisions of the law of their country of residence and may bring proceedings before the courts of that country.

15. Contact

For any question relating to these Terms or to the Service: Email: admin@hike-planet.com

Communications may be sent in French or in English. This address is the Publisher’s single point of contact within the meaning of articles 11 and 12 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.