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ShieldMarc

Terms of Service

Last updated: 1 May 2026

1. Introduction

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the ShieldMarc platform, website and services (collectively, the "Service") operated by ShieldMarc ("we", "us", or "our"), a UK-based business.

By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.

Consumers vs business users.Where these Terms distinguish between consumers and business users, "consumer" has the meaning given in section 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (an individual acting wholly or mainly outside that individual's trade, business, craft or profession). Most ShieldMarc accounts are registered by businesses, but the free Starter plan is open to anyone, and the consumer-specific provisions below (sections 5 and 10) apply if you are signing up as an individual outside a trade or profession.

2. Accounts & Free Tools

Certain features of the Service ("Free Tools") are available without creating an account. By using the Free Tools you still agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

To access the full dashboard and monitoring features, you must create an account. You must provide accurate and complete information when registering. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.

You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service. By creating an account, you represent that you meet this requirement.

3. Subscriptions & Billing

We offer a free Starter plan with no time limit. Paid plans are billed monthly or annually in advance via Stripe. All prices are displayed in GBP and exclude VAT where applicable.

You may cancel your subscription at any time from your dashboard. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. No refunds are provided for partial months.

We reserve the right to change pricing with 30 days' written notice. Existing subscribers will be notified by email before any price change takes effect.

4. Domain Slots, Brand Protection & Expansion Buckets

Each paid plan includes a set number of domain slots that determine how many domains you can actively monitor. The following rules apply:

  • Brand domain grouping (MSP only): On the MSP plan, TLD variants and subdomains of the same brand are counted as a single domain slot at no extra cost. For example, example.com, example.co.uk andmail.example.com all count as one slot. This is our brand protection promise: securing your brand across regions should never cost you extra slots.
  • Expansion buckets (MSP only): The MSP plan includes 100 domain slots. If you need more, additional slots are available in buckets of 50 for £39.99 per month each. Buckets are added to your subscription and billed alongside your base plan. There is no upper limit on the number of buckets you can purchase.
  • Other plans: Domain slots on the Professional plan count each domain individually. Brand domain grouping and expansion buckets are not available on this plan. To manage more domains, upgrade to MSP.
  • Tools & monitors: All lookup tools (DMARC checker, SSL checker, DNS lookup, SPF flattener, domain trust rating and others) are free and unlimited on every plan, including MSP. Continuous monitors (SSL, DNS, uptime) and team member seats are unlimited on the MSP plan and are not affected by domain slot limits.

We sell capacity in fixed buckets. There are no per-domain surcharges, overage fees, or hidden metered charges. The price you see is the price you pay.

5. Free Trial and Cancellation Rights

New organisations registering before 1 July 2026 are eligible for a 90-day free trial of the ShieldMarc platform under our early access programme. New organisations registering on or after 1 July 2026 are eligible for a 30-day free trial. Existing organisations retain the trial length honoured at the time of sign-up. No credit card or payment information is required to start a trial.

The following conditions apply to the free trial:

  • One free trial is available per email domain. If an organisation already exists for your company's email domain, you are not eligible for a new trial. Request an invitation from your organisation's administrator instead.
  • Trials last 30 or 90 calendar days depending on eligibility. Days are counted from midnight UTC on the day after sign-up, decrementing by one at midnight UTC each day.
  • At the end of the trial period, your account will automatically revert to the Free plan. Domains and monitors that exceed the Free plan limits will be suspended (not deleted) and will be restored upon upgrading to a paid plan.
  • We reserve the right to terminate or restrict a trial if we reasonably believe it is being used to circumvent paid plan limits, or if any term of this agreement is breached.
  • Trial availability and duration may change for new sign-ups at any time. Existing trials are unaffected by any such change.

Cancellation rights for consumers.If you are a consumer in the United Kingdom (an individual acting outside a trade or profession), the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you a right to cancel a contract for the supply of digital services within 14 days of entering into it (the "cancellation period"), without giving any reason and at no charge.

ShieldMarc is supplied as a digital service. You can exercise this right by contacting support or emailing billing@shieldmarc.com within the cancellation period and stating that you wish to cancel.

Express request for immediate supply. If you ask us to begin providing the paid Service before the 14-day cancellation period ends (for example by activating a subscription immediately so that monitoring runs straight away) and you acknowledge that doing so will cause you to lose the right to cancel under regulation 36(2) once the Service has been fully performed, then by clicking the relevant confirmation at checkout you give that express consent and acknowledgement. If you cancel during the 14-day period after requesting immediate supply, you may be required to pay an amount proportional to the Service already provided, in line with regulation 36 of the 2013 Regulations.

None of the above limits or affects your statutory rights under UK consumer law.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

  • Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law.
  • Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Service or its infrastructure.
  • Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service.
  • Use automated tools to scrape, crawl or extract data from the Service beyond normal API use.
  • Deliberately circumvent rate limits, access controls, or security mechanisms.
  • Resell or redistribute the Service without our prior written consent.

We apply rate limits to protect the Service. Repeated or deliberate attempts to exceed these limits may result in temporary or permanent suspension of your access.

7. Intellectual Property

All content, trademarks, logos and software comprising the Service are owned by ShieldMarc or its licensors. You may not copy, modify, distribute or reverse-engineer any part of the Service without our express written permission.

8. Your Data

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy. We process data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

You retain ownership of all data you submit to the Service (domains, DMARC reporting addresses, team member information, etc.). DMARC report data is retained for 365 days on all plans, then automatically purged. Enterprise customers may negotiate extended retention as part of a custom plan. Upon account or organisation deletion, your remaining data will be removed within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.

9. Service Availability

We aim to keep the Service available at all times but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. Scheduled maintenance, infrastructure incidents, or events beyond our control may cause temporary downtime. We will make reasonable efforts to notify you in advance of planned maintenance.

10. Limitation of Liability

Statutory carve-out. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for: (a) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (c) any matter for which it would be unlawful for us to exclude or restrict liability under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or any other applicable law.

Statutory rights of consumers. If you are a consumer (as defined in section 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015), you have legal rights in relation to the Service that cannot be limited by contract. These include the right to services performed with reasonable care and skill (Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49) and remedies if those rights are not met. Nothing in these Terms affects those statutory rights; advice on consumer statutory rights is available from your local Citizens Advice or from the Trading Standards Service.

Business users.Subject to the carve-out and consumer-rights provisions above, where you are using the Service in a business capacity: (i) the Service is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, and all warranties, conditions or other terms implied by statute or common law are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law; (ii) ShieldMarc shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenues, business, goodwill or anticipated savings, whether incurred directly or indirectly.

Aggregate cap.Subject to the carve-out and consumer-rights provisions above, our total aggregate liability to you for any and all claims arising out of or in connection with the Service or these Terms (whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty or otherwise) shall not exceed the greater of: (a) the amount you have paid us under your subscription in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim; or (b) one hundred pounds sterling (£100).

11. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time if you breach these Terms. Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Limitation of Liability, Intellectual Property, and Governing Law) will remain in effect.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by email or by posting a notice on the Service. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

13. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. Any disputes arising from these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

14. Contact

If you have any questions about these Terms, open a support ticket.