Terms and Conditions

These Terms and Conditions govern access to and use of FERN RuleFinder.

Where FERN asks a User to accept these Terms during account creation, purchase, or activation, acceptance must be express and associated with the exact displayed document version and content hash.

Merely viewing or scrolling these Terms, receiving a notice, subscribing, using FERN, or continuing to use FERN does not by itself record acceptance of these Terms or a later version.

After valid acceptance, the User must use public pages, accounts, regulatory workspaces, publication modules, subscriptions, support services, and signed-in mobile access in accordance with these Terms and the policies that apply according to their subject matter.

A person using FERN RuleFinder on behalf of a company, organization, academy, institution, or other legal entity confirms that they are authorized to act for that entity.

If a User does not agree to these Terms, the User should not create an account, purchase access, activate paid access, or use protected FERN RuleFinder services.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits mandatory rights that cannot lawfully be excluded, including applicable consumer rights.

“FERN RuleFinder” or “FERN” means the software and service operated under the FERN RuleFinder name.

“PITIP-MITIM” means the operating or trading name used by ZASEBNI ZAVOD ZA POMORSKE INOVACIJE TEHNOLOGIJE IN PREISKAVE, the legal entity that operates FERN RuleFinder.

“User” means a person or entity authorized to access or use FERN under the applicable account or access arrangement.

“Consumer” means a natural person acting for purposes outside that person's trade, business, craft, or profession where applicable law treats that person as a consumer.

“Business / Professional User” means a person or entity acting wholly or mainly for trade, business, professional, institutional, educational, or organizational purposes.

The billing name, billing entity, account label, plan, organization name, or email domain does not by itself determine whether a person is a Consumer or a Business / Professional User. Status depends on the capacity in which the person contracts and applicable law.

ZASEBNI ZAVOD ZA POMORSKE INOVACIJE TEHNOLOGIJE IN PREISKAVE (The Maritime Innovation, Technology and Investigation Management Foundation) is the legal entity operating under the name PITIP-MITIM. PITIP-MITIM operates FERN RuleFinder.

Address: Rudarska 19, Petišovci, Slovenia.

Registration number: 9876693000. Tax identification number: 60734396. VAT status: not VAT registered.

Contractual and legal contact: clients@pitip-mitim.si.

FERN RuleFinder is an independent maritime regulatory research and reference platform designed to support structured search, source-context review, applicability review, publication-module access, and professional regulatory workflows.

FERN RuleFinder is not a downloadable publication archive and does not issue official publications, official interpretations, statutory decisions, flag administration requirements, classification decisions, or legal advice.

Users must provide accurate account information and keep it reasonably current.

Account access is linked to the registered email address and authentication credentials. Users are responsible for maintaining access to their registered email address, protecting their credentials, and preventing unauthorized use of their account.

Credentials must not be shared except through an organization-level access arrangement that expressly permits managed users.

Users should notify Contact Support promptly if they suspect unauthorized access, loss of credentials, or misuse of an account.

Password recovery and account communications may be sent to the registered email address.

If access to the registered email address is lost, account recovery or transfer to another email address may require reasonable identity, account-ownership, subscription, and transaction verification.

Verification information may include account details, billing information, transaction references, invoice references, or other evidence reasonably necessary to protect the account.

If account ownership cannot be verified, PITIP-MITIM may decline to transfer or restore protected access where reasonably necessary for account security.

A payment dispute or charge dispute does not by itself prove account ownership or create an automatic right to account restoration.

FERN RuleFinder may provide public access, a Free Plan with Preview Access, individual module subscriptions, separately granted module access, and Enterprise or Institutional access arrangements.

Public visitors may review public information, plans, module availability, Public FAQs, support options, and legal information without entering a regulatory search workspace.

A signed-in Free account with Preview Access may provide limited search and workspace functions subject to the applicable Free-account and Beta rules. Free Preview Access is not itself a paid subscription.

An individual module subscription activates paid access to one available publication module after valid payment and entitlement processing. Enterprise or Institutional access may provide managed users, assigned modules, customized access arrangements, and organization-level access oversight.

Current online commerce is limited to individual module subscriptions expressly made available during checkout. Any other plan, bundle, or access arrangement exists only if FERN expressly offers it with applicable terms at the time of purchase or activation.

Available functions, publications, search allowances, storage, workspace features, and account controls depend on the active access level, module availability, account status, and applicable subscription terms.

The signed-in mobile workspace is search-focused and may provide Search, Saved, and More functions according to the active account rules. It is not a public Visitor interface and does not provide module purchasing or subscription-management controls.

Prices, billing periods, included modules, access periods, taxes, renewal conditions, and material subscription terms should be displayed before a User completes a purchase.

Where recurring billing is enabled and selected, charges may recur at the displayed billing interval until the subscription is cancelled, expires, or is otherwise terminated under the applicable terms.

Payment credentials may be processed directly by the applicable payment provider. FERN RuleFinder may receive limited transaction, subscription, and billing-status information required to administer access.

Cancellation methods and the effect of cancellation depend on the applicable plan, payment method, Payment and Refunds Policy, and mandatory law.

Where cancellation becomes effective at the end of a paid billing period, access may normally continue until that period ends unless the applicable plan or mandatory law provides otherwise.

Consumers may have statutory withdrawal, conformity, refund, termination, or other mandatory rights concerning distance contracts and digital services. Nothing in these Terms removes rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Acceptance of these Terms or the Beta / Pre-release Conditions during free account creation does not by itself waive or remove a statutory withdrawal right relating to a later paid transaction, request immediate performance of a paid service, or provide any separate acknowledgement that applicable law may require during paid checkout.

Any loss or waiver of a statutory withdrawal right following immediate performance of a paid digital service must depend on a legally compliant purchase and consent process. These Terms alone do not remove that right.

Billing disputes, reversals, or chargebacks may result in review or temporary restriction of the associated access while the transaction and account status are investigated.

The Payment and Refunds Policy applies to payment and refund subject matter according to the document relationship described in these Terms.

FERN RuleFinder is currently provided as a pre-release Beta service. The Beta version is made available with Preview Access and, where separately offered, introductory paid pre-release access while the platform, regulatory modules, search functions, regulatory-intelligence functions, user interfaces, and supporting services continue to be developed, tested, refined, and expanded.

These Beta / Pre-release Conditions apply to the creation and use of a FERN Beta or Preview account, use of Beta functionality, and, where applicable, the later purchase, activation, or use of paid Beta access. Creating or using a Free account with Preview Access does not by itself create a paid subscription or payment obligation.

By expressly accepting these Beta / Pre-release Conditions through the acceptance action presented by FERN, the User acknowledges that the service is not represented as a final production-complete version and accepts the Beta characteristics and limitations described in these Conditions and the Terms and Conditions.

Merely viewing or scrolling these Conditions, receiving a notice, subscribing, using FERN, or continuing to use FERN does not by itself record acceptance of these Conditions or a later version.

During the Beta period, the User may encounter temporary defects, incomplete functionality, interface inconsistencies, performance variations, temporary interruptions, module-specific limitations, indexing or cross-reference imperfections, and functions that are modified, replaced, or improved as the service develops.

FERN RuleFinder is a professional regulatory research and decision-support tool.

During the Beta period, an individual query may:

- return no result;

- require additional context or reformulation;

- return incomplete or less relevant results;

- omit a potentially relevant provision;

- identify more than one potentially applicable provision;

- produce a result that is subsequently improved as the regulatory-intelligence system is refined.

These characteristics may affect Search, Advanced Answer, Professional Interpretation, Crossmatch or related results, and future regulatory-intelligence functions where those functions are made available.

The availability of a regulatory module does not constitute a guarantee that every possible question concerning that module will produce a complete or definitive answer.

The User remains responsible for reviewing the source material presented by FERN RuleFinder and, where required by the circumstances, verifying the applicable official publication, amendments, applicability, and regulatory requirements before relying upon the information professionally.

FERN RuleFinder is under continuous development. Search logic, result ranking, regulatory cross-referencing, answer generation, module structure, interface functions, and other technical features may be corrected, adjusted, expanded, or replaced during the Beta period.

Such improvements may alter the way in which a query is interpreted or the results presented for an equivalent query at a later date.

Reasonable changes may be made for security, reliability, regulatory accuracy, technical compatibility, performance, or continued development of the Beta service, subject always to applicable mandatory law and contractual rights.

Prices identified as Beta, pre-release, introductory, or early-access prices reflect the developmental status of the service and the Beta characteristics disclosed before subscription.

Pre-release pricing does not constitute a guarantee that the same price will remain available following the Beta period.

Any future change in subscription pricing applies only in accordance with the applicable subscription terms and mandatory law.

Except where mandatory law provides otherwise, payments for paid access to FERN RuleFinder are non-refundable once the applicable paid subscription or access period has commenced.

Accepting the Terms and Conditions or these Beta / Pre-release Conditions during free account creation does not by itself waive or remove a statutory withdrawal right relating to a later paid transaction, request immediate performance of a paid service, or provide any separate acknowledgement that applicable law may require during paid checkout.

Nothing in this section limits any remedy or right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Ordinary interruptions, scheduled maintenance, isolated function failures, failure of an individual regulatory module or query, reduced performance, or temporary Beta defects do not by themselves amount to complete service unavailability.

For descriptive incident assessment, complete service unavailability means a continuous FERN-controlled technical failure that prevents the affected User from authenticating to and accessing the paid FERN RuleFinder service as a whole.

A failure affecting only one query, one search result, one module, one secondary function, one unsupported technical environment, or an external network outside FERN's reasonable control does not by itself amount to complete service unavailability.

This description does not establish a fixed refund threshold, delay review of an interruption, or limit any mandatory conformity, withdrawal, refund, price-reduction, termination, or other remedy right that may apply.

FERN may temporarily restrict access where reasonably necessary for scheduled maintenance, emergency maintenance, cybersecurity protection, data-integrity protection, regulatory-content maintenance, infrastructure changes, or correction of technical defects.

Where reasonably practicable, planned maintenance that may materially affect service availability will be scheduled to minimize disruption.

FERN is not responsible for interruptions caused exclusively by circumstances outside its reasonable control, including failures of the User's internet connection, device, or browser environment, except to the extent responsibility cannot lawfully be excluded.

FERN RuleFinder does not guarantee that use of the service will produce a particular regulatory conclusion, inspection outcome, compliance determination, commercial decision, or decision by a flag State, port State, classification society, administration, court, or other competent authority.

The service assists the User in locating, reviewing, and analysing regulatory information. Final professional and operational decisions remain the responsibility of the User and, where applicable, the competent authority.

The separate Beta / Pre-release Conditions form part of the subject-matter contractual package when a User creates or uses a FERN Beta or Preview account, uses Beta functionality, or, where applicable, later purchases, activates, or uses paid Beta access. Free Preview Access does not by itself create a paid subscription or payment obligation.

When FERN asks a User to accept these Beta / Pre-release Conditions during account creation or before access to Beta functionality, acceptance must be express and associated with the exact displayed document version and content hash.

That express acceptance covers the disclosed Beta characteristics applicable to the User's Preview or Beta account and functionality and, where the User later purchases or activates paid Beta access under the same accepted version, the disclosed Beta characteristics applicable to that paid access.

Free Preview Access is not itself a paid subscription. Acceptance during free account creation does not by itself waive or remove a statutory withdrawal right for a later paid transaction, request immediate paid performance, or provide any separate paid-checkout acknowledgement required by applicable law.

Beta functions may continue to be corrected, adjusted, expanded, replaced, or withdrawn as the service develops, subject to applicable mandatory law and contractual rights.

FERN legal documents are versioned, and the version and content hash accepted by a User are preserved as historical evidence.

Editorial, formatting, clarification, or other non-material changes may be published without requiring a new acceptance where the applicable contract and law permit.

Material contractual changes may require notice and explicit reacceptance where required by the applicable contract or law.

Viewing a notification or a revised legal document does not by itself constitute acceptance of that revised version.

Historical accepted versions remain preserved and are not overwritten by a later version.

Subject to the applicable access level, users may use FERN RuleFinder for lawful internal professional, operational, compliance, research, training, or educational purposes.

Permitted use may include:

- performing regulatory searches;

- reviewing available source references and contextual excerpts;

- reviewing applicability and entry-into-force information;

- using saved searches, bookmarks, notes, references, and related workspace functions made available to the account;

- citing limited FERN RuleFinder results or references where permitted by law and these Terms;

- using publication modules and account tools for the user's own authorized work.

Organization-level access may be used only by authorized users within the agreed organization and account structure.

Any permitted copy, quotation, export, or reference must remain limited, contextual, lawful, and consistent with the applicable subscription and intellectual-property rights.

Users must not misuse FERN RuleFinder or assist another person to do so.

Prohibited activity includes:

- sharing, selling, lending, or transferring credentials or account access without authorization;

- scraping, crawling, harvesting, bulk extraction, systematic copying, or automated collection of platform content or metadata;

- using automated requests outside normal authorized platform use;

- reproducing, republishing, redistributing, reselling, sublicensing, or commercially exploiting protected platform content without written permission;

- using extracted content or platform structure to create or enhance a competing database, search service, reference product, or commercial information system;

- reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling, decoding, or attempting to discover non-public source code, architecture, search methods, ranking methods, internal logic, or security mechanisms, except where a mandatory law expressly permits a limited act that cannot be contractually excluded;

- bypassing or attempting to bypass authentication, access levels, module controls, quotas, subscriptions, payment controls, rate limits, or security protections;

- probing, scanning, testing, or exploiting platform vulnerabilities without prior written authorization;

- introducing malicious code, disruptive traffic, harmful instructions, or other material intended to damage, overload, disable, or interfere with the platform;

- removing ownership, copyright, trademark, source, security, or attribution notices;

- impersonating another user or misrepresenting account ownership, authorization, affiliation, or source authority;

- using FERN RuleFinder for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, threatening, harassing, or harmful activity.

Normal authorized search and workspace use is not prohibited merely because it involves professional research or comparison.

PITIP-MITIM owns or lawfully controls the rights in the original FERN RuleFinder platform elements, including its software, source code, interface and visual design, database structure and database rights, compilations, taxonomy, metadata selection and arrangement, search architecture and methods, source relationships, original documentation and explanatory materials, proprietary know-how, confidential methods, trade secrets, trademarks, trade names, logos, and branding, except where third-party rights apply.

Developers, contributors, licensors, and service providers retain their respective rights in material, software, services, or technology supplied by them.

Rights in third-party maritime conventions, codes, regulations, resolutions, circulars, manuals, handbooks, guides, and other source publications remain with their respective rights holders. Nothing in these Terms claims ownership of those third-party publications.

Access to FERN RuleFinder grants only a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the platform within the User's authorized access level and these Terms. No ownership right is transferred to the User.

Access does not authorize a User to use FERN, FERN RuleFinder, PITIP-MITIM, or associated names, marks, logos, or branding in a manner that misleadingly implies authorization, affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement, or official status. Accurate, lawful reference to FERN or a third-party source is not prohibited merely because it identifies the service or source.

Unauthorized copying, extraction, reproduction, redistribution, adaptation, commercial exploitation, or use of protected platform elements may result in access restriction, suspension, termination, and lawful enforcement action, subject to mandatory-law exceptions including any non-waivable limited right concerning reverse engineering, decompilation, or interoperability.

FERN RuleFinder may provide structured references, contextual excerpts, applicability information, entry-into-force information, related provisions, and explanatory workspace support developed from recognized maritime source material where available.

References are retained to support verification, but availability, formatting, coverage, and source quality may vary between publications.

FERN RuleFinder does not issue official interpretations and does not replace authoritative source publications, flag administration requirements, classification requirements, professional advice, or legal advice.

Users remain responsible for professional judgement, operational decisions, legal compliance, and verification against the applicable authoritative source publications and competent authorities where required.

Users must not rely solely on a search result or explanatory context where the official or controlling text is required.

Users must protect non-public information obtained through authorized access, including credentials, organization information, confidential support communications, security information, unpublished functionality, and other material identified or reasonably understood as confidential.

Users must not disclose vulnerability details, security mechanisms, authentication information, internal architecture, confidential developer information, or non-public operational material except through an authorized security or support channel.

A suspected security issue should be reported promptly through Contact Support with sufficient information for investigation.

Users must not publicly exploit or encourage exploitation of a suspected vulnerability.

PITIP-MITIM may preserve relevant technical, account, usage, security, and support records where reasonably necessary to investigate incidents, protect users and developers, maintain platform integrity, comply with law, or establish and defend legal claims.

This section does not prevent lawful reporting to a competent authority or other activity protected by mandatory law.

FERN RuleFinder may require maintenance, updates, security work, data review, provider changes, or temporary service interruption.

The platform does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free availability.

Features, module availability, access models, search functions, storage, support arrangements, and pricing may change prospectively as the platform develops.

Material changes affecting an active paid service should be communicated where required by the applicable contract or law.

PITIP-MITIM may make immediate changes where reasonably necessary for security, legal compliance, prevention of misuse, protection of users, or platform integrity.

Changes should not be applied in a manner that unlawfully removes mandatory consumer rights or remedies.

PITIP-MITIM may restrict, temporarily suspend, investigate, or terminate access where reasonably necessary to address an objective security, legal, financial, operational, safety, misuse, intellectual-property, confidentiality, fraud, impersonation, malicious-interference, or platform-integrity risk described in these Terms.

Grounds may include:

- a material or repeated breach of these Terms;

- unauthorized credential sharing, account transfer, impersonation, or misrepresentation;

- non-payment, payment reversal, suspected transaction fraud, or unresolved billing status;

- scraping, bulk extraction, reverse engineering, access-control circumvention, automated abuse, or unauthorized exploitation of platform content or functionality;

- conduct that threatens platform security, availability, integrity, or operation;

- harassment, threats, abusive communications, doxxing, or harmful conduct directed toward users, staff, developers, contributors, or service providers;

- disclosure or misuse of confidential information, credentials, security details, vulnerability information, non-public architecture, or protected business material;

- knowingly publishing or distributing materially false factual statements, fabricated evidence, impersonated communications, or deceptive claims about PITIP-MITIM, FERN RuleFinder, its developers, services, users, or business operations, where the conduct is reasonably likely to cause material harm;

- misuse of support, complaint, review, or communication channels for fraud, intimidation, coordinated disruption, or malicious interference;

- unlawful use, fraud, infringement, abuse, or activity reasonably connected with a legal, regulatory, or security risk;

- a lawful request from a court, regulator, law-enforcement authority, payment provider, infrastructure provider, or other competent authority;

- discontinuation or material restructuring of the relevant service or access arrangement.

Any restriction should be proportionate to the identified risk. Where appropriate, PITIP-MITIM may use a warning, temporary restriction, limited-function mode, account review, or suspension before permanent termination.

Immediate restriction or suspension may be applied where delay could create a material security, legal, financial, operational, or safety risk; permit continued fraud, impersonation, malicious interference, unlawful disclosure, unauthorized access, or knowingly fabricated or materially false factual representations causing a reasonably identifiable risk; compromise evidence; or expose users, developers, infrastructure, or confidential information to further harm.

Where reasonably possible and legally permitted, the affected user should receive notice of the principal reason for the action and an opportunity to provide relevant information or request internal review.

Notice may be delayed or limited where disclosure could compromise security, fraud prevention, investigations, confidential information, legal obligations, or the rights of another person.

PITIP-MITIM may preserve relevant account, transaction, usage, technical, security, and support records where reasonably necessary to investigate suspected misconduct, protect users and the platform, enforce contractual rights, comply with lawful obligations, or establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Suspension or termination does not automatically remove payment, refund, withdrawal, data-protection, or other rights that apply under mandatory law.

Any refund or continuation of paid access will be determined under the applicable plan, Payment and Refunds Policy, contract terms, and mandatory legal requirements.

Protected lawful activity

Nothing in these Terms prohibits or penalizes:

- honest opinions or reviews;

- good-faith criticism;

- genuine customer complaints;

- reporting suspected unlawful conduct to a competent authority;

- exercising consumer, privacy, employment, or other legal rights;

- protected whistleblowing;

- making or defending a lawful legal claim;

- responsible security reporting through an appropriate channel.

Such activity does not become prohibited merely because it is unfavorable to PITIP-MITIM or FERN RuleFinder.

This protection does not extend to threats, harassment, impersonation, knowingly false factual claims, fabricated evidence, unlawful disclosure of confidential information, or malicious interference.

FERN RuleFinder is provided as a regulatory research and reference service.

Reasonable efforts may be made to maintain structured, traceable, and useful information, but completeness, availability, formatting, applicability, currency, and error-free operation cannot be guaranteed for every publication, source, query, jurisdiction, vessel, operation, or factual situation.

Users remain responsible for verifying controlling requirements and making professional, operational, commercial, and legal decisions.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, PITIP-MITIM is not responsible for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or purely economic loss arising from unauthorized use, failure to verify source material, interruption outside reasonable control, misuse of the platform, or reliance beyond the platform's stated purpose.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, death or personal injury where caused by negligence, or mandatory consumer rights and statutory remedies.

These Terms are intended to be governed by Slovenian law.

This choice of law does not deprive a consumer of mandatory protections that apply under the law of the consumer's country of habitual residence or other applicable mandatory law.

Users should first submit account, subscription, payment, access, or service concerns through Contact Support so that the matter can be reviewed in good faith.

Any dispute that cannot be resolved informally will be handled by the courts or dispute-resolution bodies having jurisdiction under applicable law.

Nothing in this section restricts a consumer's mandatory right to bring a claim before a court or authority having jurisdiction under applicable consumer-protection rules.

The Terms and Conditions provide the general contractual framework for FERN RuleFinder. The Beta / Pre-release Conditions address the disclosed characteristics of Preview and Beta access. The Payment and Refunds Policy addresses payment and refund subject matter. The Subscription Policy addresses the lifecycle of module subscriptions. Any plan, order, checkout summary, or purchase-specific terms provide the commercial details expressly presented for that transaction.

These documents apply according to their subject matter and should be read together where more than one applies. They do not create a broader hierarchy or remove a right merely because the same subject is addressed in another document. Any unresolved inconsistency must be interpreted in accordance with the applicable transaction and law, and mandatory law prevails wherever it cannot lawfully be excluded.

The legal documents and transaction-specific information identified in the Relationship with other legal documents section apply according to their subject matter.

If one provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain effective to the extent permitted by law.

A failure or delay in enforcing a provision does not automatically waive the right to enforce it later.

The user may not assign or transfer an account, subscription, or contractual right without authorization. PITIP-MITIM may transfer the service or agreement as part of a lawful organizational, operational, or business transfer, subject to applicable notice and user rights.

FERN legal documents are versioned, and the version and content hash accepted by a User are preserved as historical evidence.

Editorial, formatting, clarification, or other non-material changes may be published without requiring a new acceptance where the applicable contract and law permit.

Material contractual changes may require notice and explicit reacceptance where required by the applicable contract or law.

Viewing a notification or a revised legal document does not by itself constitute acceptance of that revised version.

Historical accepted versions remain preserved and are not overwritten by a later version.

Questions about these Terms can be submitted through Contact Support.