Terms of Use

Last updated on June 24, 2022.

Welcome to HappyCow ("the Platform"), which is provided by HappyCow, Inc (collectively, "HappyCow", "we", "us", or "our"). HappyCow is a member of the "Green Monday Group" of companies (which includes, but is not limited to, Green Monday Holdings Limited, and one of its affiliates, Green Monday Foundation) and our parent entity is Green Monday Holdings Limited ("the Company").

You are reading the Terms of Use (the “Terms”), which is a customer agreement between you and us, and sets forth the terms and conditions by which you may access and use the Platform and our related websites, services, applications, products and content (collectively, the “Services”). For purposes of these Terms, “you” and “your” means you as the user of the Services.

The Terms form a legally binding agreement between you and us. Please read our Privacy Policy and these Terms of Use carefully before using the Services.

Acceptance of Terms

By accessing the HappyCow Platform, or by using any part of Services, you agree to become bound by these terms and conditions (including, without limitation HappyCow's Privacy Policy). If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions, then you may not access or use the content on the Services. The use of HappyCow's Services is expressly conditioned upon your assent to all these terms and conditions, to the exclusion of all other terms; if these terms and conditions are, at any point, considered or characterized as an offer by HappyCow, acceptance is expressly limited to these terms.

Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement, and any access to or use of Services will be governed by the laws of the state of California, U.S.A.

Intellectual Property

The contents of Services are protected by U.S. and International copyright and trademark laws. The contents of the Services are owned by or licensed to HappyCow or its affiliates. In the case of User Materials (as defined in the "User Materials" section below) the contents are licensed to HappyCow by the user. You may not reproduce, distribute, republish, upload, transmit, display, prepare derivative works of, publicly perform, sell, transfer, assign, license or use for commercial purposes any copyrighted material on the Services without the prior written consent of HappyCow, except as provided below. All rights not expressly granted in these Terms of Use are reserved to HappyCow.

You will not remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark, or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Services.

You may copy, or download, and print a limited amount of content, for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided that (a) you include, without modification, all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the content, (b) you do not modify the content, (c) you do not use the content in a manner that suggests HappyCow promotes or endorses your, or any third party's, causes, ideas, websites, products or services, and (d) you do not use the content in any way that is unlawful or harmful to any other person or entity. In addition, you may use apps, widgets and tools on the Services that allow selected User Materials to appear on your mobile device, personal, noncommercial website, weblog or other application, subject to the conditions in the preceding sentence. No quotes from any material on the Services may be used in any media without attribution to HappyCow.

Any other use of Services content requires prior written permission from HappyCow.

User Materials

Through the community features of the Services, users may post, upload, transmit and/or otherwise submit (hereinafter "Submit") comments, messages, text, photos, images, and other content materials, as well as make recommendations, on or through the Services of the Platform ("User Materials"). You agree to post only images of items you personally own or licensed and were not acquired through theft or other unlawful means. You acknowledge that User Materials may be routed through our servers, the servers of one or more third parties on our behalf, and the Internet, and may be viewed by the HappyCow staff and on the Services by the general public. You acknowledge that the Services are for public and not private communications.

HappyCow reserves the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit User Materials at any time and for any reason or no reason in its absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although it has no duty to do so. If HappyCow elects to screen User Materials, there may be a delay in the posting of such content to allow for a review process. If HappyCow has questions about your User Materials, HappyCow retains the right, but not the duty, to contact you for further information, including, for example, to verify that you own the copyright or otherwise have the rights to post the User Materials.

You retain the copyright and other ownership rights in any User Materials that you submit on or through the Services. However, by submitting User Materials on or through the Services, you are agreeing that the information and images submitted may be used by HappyCow and may be published on our websites and/or in all other mediums. By submitting User Materials, you hereby grant HappyCow, its affiliates, and their respective licensees, a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, transferable license to use, copy, sublicense, modify, transmit, publish, publicly perform, display, create derivative works of, host, index, cache, tag, encode, reproduce, edit, display, and/or adapt your User Materials in any and all media formats or channels, whether now known or hereafter devised, throughout the world and for any purpose including, but not limited to, the Platform, happycow.net, its linked pages, applications and services, third party licensee web sites, applications and services, over the air (on all forms of radio or television), HappyCow print publications, and other applications and services later devised, without payment and without further consent or notice to you. You further grant HappyCow, the Platform, happycow.net, and their licensees the right to contact you in connection with your User Materials and to use your member name, city and state, and other information that you have provided in connection with the User Materials as defined in our Privacy Policy.

In addition, you grant each user of the Services, third party websites (such Instagram, Facebook, and partner API sites where HappyCow data is shared and / or promoted), applications and services, a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to access your User Materials on or through the Services, third party websites, applications and services, and to use your User Materials pursuant to these Terms of Use and the terms of use of the third party websites, and as permitted by the functionality of the Services and third party web sites, applications and services (such as through widgets, RSS feeds and other methods similar or dissimilar, now known or later devised).

Entries submitted for posting are selected entirely at the discretion of HappyCow. You acknowledge and agree that HappyCow shall have no obligation to post, display or otherwise make publicly available any photo, information, or other content submitted by you, and may, in its sole discretion, remove, edit, modify or delete any photo, information, or other content that you submit to the Services.

By submitting any photo, content, or information to HappyCow, you represent that the submitted photo or information does not and shall not infringe on any copyright, any rights of privacy or publicity of any person, or any other right of any third party, and you have the right to grant any and all rights and licenses granted to HappyCow. You understand and intend that any photo, content, or information submitted by you to HappyCow may be available for viewing, rating, review and comment on by the public, and understand that comments or ratings with which you disagree or are unhappy about may be published or otherwise become associated with any photo, content, or information you submit to the Services.

HappyCow respects the intellectual property rights of others. It is, therefore, our policy to expeditiously process, investigate and address notices of alleged infringement, and to take appropriate action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other relevant intellectual property laws. These Terms of Use include and incorporate the Platform DMCA Compliance Notice (“DMCA Notice”) posted on the Platform and incorporated by this reference as if fully set forth herein.

Content (Restrictions on Use)

You agree that you will not:

  • use the Services for promotional or commercial purposes, except as expressly permitted by HappyCow;
  • modify, adapt, appropriate, reproduce, distribute, translate, create derivative works or adaptations of, publicly display, sell, trade, or in any way exploit the Services or Services Content (other than your own added content), except as expressly authorized by HappyCow;
  • reverse engineer any portion of the Services, except as may be permitted under the law;
  • remove or modify any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice on the Services or on any materials printed or copied off of the Services;
  • use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other automated device, process or means to access, retrieve, scrape, or index the Services or any Services Content with the exception of RSS feeds;
  • access, retrieve or index the Services to construct or populate a searchable database of business reviews;
  • reformat or frame any portion of the Services without consent by HappyCow;
  • take any action that (i) imposes or may impose, in HappyCow's sole discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure or server, including but not limited to, throttle violations; (ii) interferes or attempts to interfere with the proper working of the Services or any activities conducted on the Services; or (iii) bypasses any measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Services;

User Conduct

As a condition of use of the Services, you promise not to use the Services or any services available on the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms of Use, or any other purpose not reasonably intended by HappyCow. You understand that you are expected to respect the rights of others as a condition of your use of the Services.

Solely as examples, and not in any way limited to the following examples, you agree not to use the Services:

  • To abuse, harass, threaten, stalk, impersonate, or intimidate other users of the Platform
  • To post or transmit any content that is infringing, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, offensive, profane, or otherwise violates any law or right of any third party, or content that is degrading, intimidating, or hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age or disability
  • For any illegal or unauthorized purpose. If you are an international user, you agree to comply with all local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content
  • To post or transmit any communication or solicitation designed or intended to obtain password, account, or private information from any Platform user
  • To create or submit unwanted email or communications to any other users of the Platform
  • To use or access the Services in any manner that violates any laws in your jurisdiction
  • To submit links to or comments soliciting on behalf of multi-level marketing schemes (so-called pyramid schemes)
  • To attempt to impersonate another user or person
  • To sell or otherwise transfer your profile.

HappyCow Forums & Chat Room

HappyCow welcomes those who are:

  1. vegan, vegetarian, herbivore, raw foodist
  2. have a sincere interest in becoming vegan, eating healthy, and/or compassion towards animals.

Not allowed:

  • Trolls, Pro-meat/hunting/etc debate
  • Personal attacks on other members
  • Multiple accounts
  • Content inappropriate for minors: profanity, sexual content, promoting illegal activities, etc.
  • Members under 13 years of age
  • Posting private contact information (address/phone/email/etc) of others
  • Posting promotions unrelated to veganism
  • Posting promotion of animal abuse
  • Postings which promote consumption of animal by-products

Additional Forum Rules

  • Please stay on topic
  • Use descriptive thread titles
  • Please report any violations
  • Do not discuss private correspondence publicly (pm's, e-mail, etc) without permission from all parties involved.

Violators may be subject to warnings, suspensions, or banned from the Services at the discretion of HappyCow's administrators.

Additional Reasons for User Content Removal or Account Suspension: here

Right to Terminate

HappyCow reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, discontinue or terminate the Services, Application or Services or to modify these Terms, at any time and without prior notice. HappyCow may terminate or suspend any and all services provided to you, as well as the termination or suspension of your HappyCow Platform account immediately, without prior notice at any time and for any reason or no reason. All provisions of these Terms of Use, which by their nature should survive termination, shall survive termination, including, without limitation, intellectual property ownership provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability. You may cancel your Account at any time. See Privacy Policy.

International Users

HappyCow is based in the State of California, USA. HappyCow makes no representation that content, materials or products available on or through the Platform are appropriate or available for use outside of the United States. If you are accessing the Platform from a location outside the United States, then you are responsible for compliance with applicable laws, including local laws regarding online conduct and content, and U.S. export laws and regulations

Links and Search Results

The Services may automatically produce search results that reference or link to third-party sites throughout the World Wide Web. HappyCow has no control over these sites or the content within them. HappyCow cannot guarantee, represent, or warrant that the content contained in these sites is accurate, legal, and/or inoffensive. HappyCow does not endorse the content of any third-party site, nor do we warrant that it will not contain viruses or otherwise impact your computer. By using the Services to search for or link to another site, you agree and understand that you may not make any claim against HappyCow for any damages or losses, whatsoever, resulting from your use of the Services to obtain search results or to link to another site. If you have a problem with a link from the Services, please notify HappyCow, and HappyCow will investigate your claim and take any actions HappyCow deems appropriate at our sole discretion.

The service of the site, content and Services are provided on an "As Is" basis, without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement.

Spam Policy

You understand and agree that sending unsolicited email advertisements or posting unsolicited advertisements in the comments or through the Services' computer systems in any way is expressly prohibited by these terms. Any unauthorized use of the Platform computer systems is a violation of these Terms, as well as certain federal and state laws, including, without limitation, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (18 U.S.C. § 1030 et seq.), Section 502 of the California Penal Code and Section 17538.45 of the California Business and Professions Code. Such violations may subject the sender and his or her agents to civil and criminal penalties.

Children Under Age 13:

HappyCow's Services are not directed to children. Persons under the age of 13 are not permitted to use our Services without parental consent. If you are a country that has different regulations you expect to abide by your applicable local laws. HappyCow has no actual knowledge that it collects personal information from anyone under the age of 13. Any information found to be collected from someone under age 13 will be deleted promptly, and without notice. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under age 13, please contact our Privacy Officer.

Indemnity

By your use of the Services, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless HappyCow, its customers, officers, and employees from any liability, damage, or cost (including reasonable attorneys' fees and cost) from any claim or demand made by any third party related to or arising from your access to the Services, use of the services available on the Services, violation of these Terms of Use, or the infringement by you, or any third party using your account or Platform User ID, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

Limitation of Liability

You agree that in no event shall HappyCow be liable under contract, tort or strict liability, negligence or any other legal theory (i) with respect to the Services, the services available on the Services or any content available on the Services for any lost profits or special, indirect, incidental, punitive or consequential damages of any kind whatsoever, (ii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or (iii) for any direct damages in excess of (in the aggregate) $100. If your state does not allow for the limitation or exclusion of incidental or consequential damages, the above provision may not apply to you.

Disclaimer

If you create an account on the Services, you are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and its content, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in connection with the Services. You must not describe or assign content to your account in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and HappyCow may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful. You must immediately notify HappyCow of any unauthorized uses of your account or any other breaches of security. You agree that HappyCow will not be liable for any acts or omissions by you, including any damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.

HappyCow has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material posted on or linked to the Services, and cannot therefore be responsible for user posted content, use or effects. By operating the Services, HappyCow does not represent or imply that it endorses the user material posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate, useful or non-harmful. You are responsible for taking all necessary precautions to protect yourself and your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and any harmful or destructive content.

You acknowledge that HappyCow has no control over, and no duty to take any action regarding: which users gain access to the Services or use the services available on the Services; what effects the content may have on you; how you may interpret or use the content; or what actions you may take as a result of having been exposed to the content. You release HappyCow from all liability for you having acquired or not acquired content through the Services or the services available on the Services. The Services may contain, or direct you to sites containing, information that some people may find offensive, inappropriate or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, violations of privacy or publicity rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights of third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated. HappyCow makes no representations concerning any content contained in or accessed through the Services or services available on the Services, and HappyCow will not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, copyright compliance, legality or decency of material contained in or accessed through the Services or the services available on the Services and disclaims responsibility for any resultant harm.

Contact Us

If you see content you believe to be objectionable or have any questions about these Terms of Use, please contact HappyCow.

Jurisdiction

You expressly agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any dispute with HappyCow or in any way relating to your use of the Services, resides in the Courts of the State of California, and you further agree and expressly consent to the exercise of personal jurisdiction in the Courts of the State of California in connection with any dispute including any claim involving HappyCow directors, Ambassadors, contributors, and content providers. These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the State of California, without respect to its conflicts of law principles. If any provisions of these Terms of Use are found to be invalid by any court having competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use, which shall remain in full force and effect. No waiver of any of these Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or any other term or condition.

Changes to Terms of Use

We reserve the right to amend the Terms of Use from time to time. Please check this page periodically for changes. If we make any material changes to the Terms of Use, we will post the changes here. Please review the changes carefully. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes to this Terms of Use will constitute your consent and acceptance of those changes.

Entire Agreement

These Terms of Use, the DMCA Notice and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire and exclusive understanding and agreement between HappyCow and you regarding the Services. These Terms of Use supersede and replace any and all prior oral or written understandings or agreements between HappyCow and you regarding the Services.

The failure of HappyCow to enforce any right or provision of these Terms of Use will not constitute a waiver of future enforcement of any right or provision. The waiver of any such right or provision will be effective only if in writing and signed by a duly authorized representative of HappyCow. Except as expressly set forth in these Terms, the exercise by either party of any of its remedies under these Terms will be without prejudice to its other remedies under these Terms or otherwise. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of these Terms invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the other provisions of these Terms will remain in full force and effect.