SINOTECH MARINE TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR USE OF WEB PORTAL WWW.SHIPINSPECTORS.COM OR FOR PROVISION OF MARINE SERVICES

1. SINOTECH Marine Corporation (HK) Ltd., (hereinafter called “SINOTECH”) offers Portal services through www.shipinspectors.com in accordance with following Terms and Conditions of Services, unless otherwise specifically agreed in writing, and accordingly all offers, or tenders of services are made subject to this user agreement.
2. SINOTECH is a Maritime Independent consulting company engaged in various marine Technical and Consulting Services through service performed by its staff and/or sub-contractors, freelancers registered on its portal www.shipinspectors.com ( hereinafter called “Portal”) Scope of the service may include Vessel Inspections, Marine Audits & Surveys, Engineering Consulting, Marine Consulting, Vessel Condition assessment, and Ship Owner /operator representation attendances, Dry-dock Project Management or Repair supervision.
3. Shipinspectors.com

   These Website Terms & Conditions (“T&Cs”) apply to your access and use of www.shipinspectors.com (the “portal”), including all software, data, reports, text, images, sounds, video, and content made available through any portion of the portal (collectively, the “Content”). Content includes all such elements, as well as individual elements and portions thereof

4. Acceptance of Terms.

   The portal permits you (“User” or “you” or “your”) to access and use the Site and Content, subject to these T&Cs. By accessing or using any portion of the portal, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these T&Cs. If you are entering into these T&Cs on behalf of a company or other legal entity (“User Entity”), you must have the legal authority to contractually bind such User Entity to these T&Cs, in which case the terms “you” or “your” or “User” or “inspector” will refer to such User Entity. If you lack such legal authority to contractually bind or you do not agree with these T&Cs, you must not accept these T&Cs or access or use the site or content.

5. In this user agreement,

   "Account" means the account associated with your email address.

   “Client" means a User that purchases Marine Inspection Services or through the Portal. A User may be both a Client and a Ship Inspector under this agreement.

   “ShipInspectors.com", Sinotech Marine, "we", "our", "company" or "the company" or "us" means Sinotech Marine Corporation (HK) Limited.

   Shipinspectors.com provides organizations (Clients) network of diligent ship inspectors worldwide for carrying out ship inspections, marine and engineering superintendency services.

   Ship Inspector Verified" Users have been satisfactorily verified under the Know your Customer and Identity Verification Policy.

   "Inactive Account" means a User Account that has not been logged into for a 6-month period, or other period determined by us from time to time

   "Intellectual Property Rights" means any and all intellectual property rights, existing worldwide and the subject matter of such rights, including: (a) patents, copyright, rights in circuit layouts (or similar rights), registered designs, registered and unregistered trademarks, and any right to have confidential information kept confidential; and (b) any application or right to apply for registration of any of the rights referred to in paragraph (a), whether or not such rights are registered or capable of being registered and whether existing under any laws, at common law or in equity.

   "Local Job" or "Local Jobs" means a service we provide to match an Inspector with a Client in relation to the provision of location specific services.

   "Project" or "Listing" means a job offered or awarded by a Client via the Portal, which may include a Project by a Client, a Project awarded by a Client, and a service bought by a Client from a Inspector.

   "Inspector" means a User that offers and provides services or identifies as an Inspector through the Portal.

   "Inspector Services" means all services provided by us to you. "User", 

   "you" or "your" means an individual who visits or uses the Portal, including via the API.

   "User Contract" means: (1) this User Agreement; (2) the Code of Conduct as amended from time to time; (3) any other contractual provisions accepted by both the Seller and Buyer uploaded to the Website, to the extent not inconsistent with the User Agreement and the Code of Conduct; (4) the Project terms as awarded and accepted on the Website, to the extent not inconsistent with the User Agreement and the Code of Conduct; and (5) any other material incorporated by reference from time to time.

   "Website" means the Websites operated by Shipinspectors.com and any of its regional or other domains or properties, and any related Shipinspectors.com service, tool or application, specifically including mobile web, any iOS App and any Android App, or API or other access mechanism.

6. T&Cs Updates.

   Shipinspectors.com reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change or modify portions of these T&Cs at any time. Shipinspectors.com will post the changes to these T&Cs on the Site and will indicate at the top of this page the date these terms were last revised. It is your responsibility to check the T&Cs periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Site and Content after the date any such changes become effective constitutes your acceptance of the new or revised T&Cs.

7. General Conditions/Access and Use.

   Authorization to Access and Use Site and Content. Subject to your compliance with these T&Cs and the provisions hereof, you may access or use the Site and Content solely for the purpose of your evaluation of Shipinspectors.com and its products and services. You may only link to the Site or Content, or any portion thereof, as expressly permitted by shipinsectors.com.

   Ownership and Restrictions. All rights, title and interest in and to the Site and Content will remain with and belong exclusively to shipinspecttors.com. You will not (a) sublicense, resell, rent, lease, transfer, assign, time share or otherwise commercially exploit or make the Site and any Content available to any third party, (b) use the Site and Content in any unlawful manner (including without limitation in violation of any data, privacy or export control laws) or in any manner that interferes with or disrupts the integrity or performance of the Site and Content or their related components, or (c) modify, adapt or hack the Site and Content to, or try to, gain unauthorized access to the restricted portions of the Site and Content or related systems or networks (i.e., circumvent any encryption or other security measures, gain access to any source code or any other underlying form of technology or information, and gain access to any part of the Site and Content, or any other products or services of shipinspectors.com that are not readily made available to the general public). You are not permitted to copy, modify, frame, repost, publicly perform or display, sell, reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works of the Site and Content, except that you may download, display, and print one copy of the publicly available materials (i.e., the Content that does not require an Account name or password to access) on any single computer solely for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you do not modify the material in any way and you keep intact all copyright, trademark, and other proprietary notices. You agree not to access the Site or Content by any means other than through the interface that is provided by shipinspectors.com to access the same. You may not use any “page-scrape,” “deep-link,” “spider,” or “robot or other automatic program, device, algorithm or methodology, or any similar manual process, to access, copy, acquire, or monitor any portion of the Site or any Content, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the presentation or navigational structure of the Site or any Content, to obtain or attempt to obtain any Content or other information through any means not made generally available through the portal. Shipinspectors.com reserves the right to take any lawful measures to prevent any such activity. You may not forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any message or transmittal you send to shipinspectors.com on or through the Site or any service offered on or through the Site. You may not pretend that you are, or that you represent, someone else, or impersonate any other individual or entity.

   Responsibility for Your Data. You are solely responsible for all data, information, and other content, that you upload, post, or otherwise provide or store (hereafter “post(ing)”) in connection with or relating to the Site.

   Reservation of Rights. Shipinspectors.com and its licensors each own and retain their respective rights in and to all logos, company names, marks, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, know-how, patents and patent applications that are used or embodied in or otherwise related to the Site and Content. Shipinspectors.com grants no rights or licenses (implied, by estoppel, or otherwise) whatsoever to you under these T&Cs

8. Shipinspectors.com Compliance with GDPR Regulation

   The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a comprehensive European data protection law that provides greater data rights for individuals and increases compliance responsibilities for organizations. At its core, the GDPR grants EU residents’ greater control over their personal data and gives national regulators new powers to impose significant fines on organizations that breach this law.

   As shipinspectors.com is a global firm, we are following the GDPR rules internationally and we are committed to maintaining the trust individual inspectors put in us.

   You have the following rights under the GDPR: Access your personal data Correct errors in your personal data Erase your personal data Object to the processing of your personal data Export your personal data For more information on how to exercise these rights contact us at info@shipinspectors.com.

   Shipinspectors.com has a GDPR-compliant process for transferring data from Europe. Shipinspectors.com uses Standard Contractual Clauses (also known as EU Model Clauses) for the transfer of personal data out of the EU.

9. Use of Intellectual Property.

   Rights in User Content. By posting your information and other content (“User Content”) on or through the Site and Content, you grant Shipinspectors.com a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicensable and transferable license to use, modify, reproduce, distribute, display, publish and perform User Content in connection with the Site and Content. Shipinspectors.com has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor the Site and Content and User Content. Shipinspectors.com may remove or disable any User Content at any time for any reason, or for no reason at all. Unsecured Transmission of User Content. You understand that the operation of the Site and Platform, including User Content, may be unencrypted and involve transmission to shipinspectors.com’s third party vendors and hosting partners to operate and maintain the Site and Content. Accordingly, you acknowledge that you bear sole responsibility for adequate security, protection, and backup of User Content. Shipinspectors.com will have no liability to you for any unauthorized access or use of any of User Content, or any corruption, deletion, destruction, or loss of any of User Content.

   Feedback. You may submit ideas, suggestions, or comments (“Feedback”) regarding the Site and Content or Shipinspectors.com’s business, products or services. By submitting any Feedback, you acknowledge and agree that (a) your Feedback is provided by you voluntarily and Shipinspectors.com may, without any obligations or limitation, use and exploit such Feedback in any manner and for any purpose, (b) you will not seek and are not entitled to any money or other form of compensation, consideration, or attribution with respect to your Feedback regardless of whether Shipinspectors.com considered or used your Feedback in any manner, and (c) your Feedback is no the confidential or proprietary information of you or any third party.

10. Your Representations and Warranties. You represent and warrant to Shipinspectors.com that your activity on the portal and Shipinspectors.com’s possession and use of User Content as contemplated in these T&Cs do not and will not violate, infringe, or misappropriate any third party’s copyright, trademark, right of privacy or publicity, or other personal or proprietary right, nor does User Content contain any matter that is defamatory, obscene, unlawful, threatening, abusive, tortious, offensive or harassing.



11. NO WARRANTIES AND DISCLAIMER BY SINOTECH OR ITS PORTA Portal and content, and all server and network components, are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis with all errors and defects and without any warranties of any kind, and Sinotech expressly disclaims all representations and warranties, including any implied warranties of accuracy, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement, and any representations or warranties arising from course of dealing, course of performance or usage of trade. You acknowledge that shipinspectors.com does not warrant that your access or use or both website and content will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, error-free, or virus-free, and shipinspectors.com does not make any warranty as to the results that may be obtained from use of the site and content. no information, advice or services obtained by you from shipinspectors.com or through the site will create any warranty not expressly stated in these terms and condition and you should not rely on the site and the general content alone as the basis for your business decisions. Shipinspectors.com reserves the right to do any of the following, at any time, without notice: (1) to modify, suspend or terminate operation of or access to the Site, or any portion of the Site, for any reason; (2) to modify or change the Site, or any portion of the Site, for any reason; and (3) to interrupt the operation of the Site, or any portion of the Site, as necessary to perform routine or non-routine maintenance, error correction, or other changes.

12. LIMITED LIABILITY.

    Exclusion of Damages and Limitation of Liability. Shipinspectors.com does not charge fees for you to access and use the Site and Content pursuant to these T&Cs. The portal does not conduct commercial transactions; the Content is comprised of general information and describes some of the basic elements of the Shipinspectors.com service. As consideration for your free access and use of the Site and Content pursuant to these T&Cs, you further agree that shipinspectors.com will not be liable to you for any incidental, consequential, indirect, special, punitive or exemplary damages (including damages for loss of business, loss of profits or the like) arising out of or relating to this Terms and Condition, including without limitation, your use or inability to use the site, platform, matching services, content, proprietary information, or any interruption or disruption of such use, even if shipinsectors.com has been advised of the possibility of such damages and regardless of the cause of action (whether in contract, tort, breach of warranty or otherwise). the aggregate liability of Shipinspectors.com or Sinotech about this Terms and Conditions will in no event exceed USD $1.00.

13. Using Shipinspectors.com

    While using the Portal, you will not attempt to or otherwise do any of the following:

    1. post content or items in inappropriate categories or areas on our Websites and services.

    2. infringe any laws, third party rights or our policies, such as the Code of Conduct;

    3. fail to deliver payment for services delivered to you.

    4. fail to deliver Ship Inspector Services purchased from you.

    5. circumvent or manipulate our fee structure, the billing process, or fees owed to Shipinspectors.com

    6. post false, inaccurate, misleading, deceptive, defamatory, or offensive content (including personal information).

    7. take any action that may undermine the feedback or reputation systems (such as displaying, importing, or exporting feedback information or using it for purposes unrelated to the Portal).

    8. transfer your Shipinspectors.com account (including feedback) and Username to another party without our consent.

    9. distribute or post spam, unsolicited, or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes

    10. distribute viruses or any other technologies that may harm Shipinspectors.com, the Portal, or the interests or property of Shipinspectors.com users (including their Intellectual Property Rights, privacy, and publicity rights) or is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy, vulgar, obscene, profane or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to, or incite hatred of, any person.

    11. download and aggregate listings from our website for display with listings from other websites without our express written permission, "frame", "mirror" or otherwise incorporate any part of the Website into any other website without our prior written authorization.

    12. attempt to modify, translate, adapt, edit, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any software programs used by us in connection with the portal.

    13. copy, modify or distribute rights or content from the portal or Shipinspectors.com's copyrights and trademarks;

    14. harvest or otherwise collect information about Users, including email addresses, without their consent. Use Shipinspectors.com to facilitate money exchange

    15. including, but not limited to, cryptocurrency (e.g., bitcoin, Ethereum, etc).

14. Taxes

    You are responsible for paying any taxes, including any goods and services or value added taxes, which may be applicable depending on the jurisdiction of the services provided. Depending on your residency or location, you may be subject to certain ad valorem or other taxes (for example, GST in Australia), on certain fees that we charge. These taxes will be added to fees billed to you, if applicable.

    1. You acknowledge that you must comply with your obligations under income tax provisions in your jurisdiction.

15. Content

    We do not claim ownership to your User Content; however, you grant us a non-exclusive, sublicensable, irrevocable and royalty-free worldwide license under all copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, privacy and publicity rights and other intellectual property rights to use, reproduce, transmit, print, publish, publicly display, exhibit, distribute, redistribute, copy, comment on, modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works based upon, publicly perform, make available and otherwise exploit such User Content, in whole or in part, in all media formats now known or hereafter devised and on third-party sites and platforms in any number of copies and without limit as to time, manner of frequency of use, without further notice to you, and without the requirement of permission from or payment to you or any other person or entity.

    You acknowledge and agree that: (1) we act only as a forum for the online distribution and publication of User content. We make no warranty that User content is made available on the Portal. We have the right (but not the obligation) to take any action deemed appropriate by us with respect to your User content; (2) we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion or failure to store any content, whether or not the content was actually made available on the Website; and (3) any and all content submitted to the Portal is subject to our approval. We may reject, approve or modify your User content at our sole discretion.

    You represent and warrant that your content:

    1. will not infringe upon or misappropriate any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, or other intellectual property right or proprietary right or right of publicity or privacy of any person.

    2. will not violate any law or regulation.

    3. will not be defamatory or trade libelous;

    4. will not be obscene or contain child pornography.

    5. will not contain the development, design, manufacture, or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons

    6. will not contain material linked to terrorist activities

    7. will not include incomplete, false, or inaccurate information about User or any other individual; and

    8. will not contain any viruses or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information.

    You acknowledge and agree that we may transfer your personal information to a related body corporate and your information may be transferred outside of your region. If you wish to withdraw your consent, you acknowledge and agree that we may be unable to provide you with access to the portal and may close your Account.

    Information on the Website may contain general information about legal, financial, health and other matters. The information is not advice, and should not be treated as such. You must not rely on the information on the Portal as an alternative to professional advice. If you have specific questions about any matter you should consult your professional adviser.

    We provide unmonitored access to third party content, including User feedback and articles with original content and opinions (or links to such third party content). We only act as a portal and have no liability based on, or related to, third party content on the Website, whether arising under the laws of copyright or other intellectual property, defamation, libel, privacy, obscenity, or any other legal discipline.

    The Portal may contain links to other third party websites. We do not control the websites to which we link from the Website. We do not endorse the content, products, services, practices, policies or performance of the websites we link to from the Website. Use of third-party content, links to third party content and/or websites is at your risk.

    In relation to deletion or hiding of any information or content, using the Website to delete, hide or otherwise dispose of information does not imply permanent deletion of content or information. Information may be retained for a period of time to fulfil record keeping, regulatory, compliance, statistical, law enforcement and other obligations

16. Feedback, Reputation and Reviews

    You acknowledge that you transfer copyright of any feedback, reputation or reviews you leave consisting of comments and any rating(s) (e.g., quality, communication etc.) together with any composite rating by us. You acknowledge that such feedback, reputation, and reviews belong solely to us, notwithstanding that we permit you to use it on our Portal while you remain a User. You must not use, or deal with, such feedback, reputation, and reviews in any way inconsistent with our policies as posted on the Portal from time to time without our prior written permission.

    You may not do (or omit to do) anything that may undermine the integrity of the Shipinspectors.com feedback system. We are entitled to suspend or terminate your Account at any time if we, in our sole and absolute discretion, are concerned by any feedback about you, or your feedback rating, where we believe our feedback system may be subverted. Our feedback ratings belong to us and may not be used for any purpose other than facilitating the provision of Services via the Portal. You may not use your Inspector or Client feedback (including, but not limited to, marketing or exporting your any or all of your composite rating(s) or feedback comments) in any real or virtual venue other than a website operated by Shipinspectors.com or its related entities, without our written permission.

17. Advertising

    Unless otherwise agreed with us, you must not advertise an external website, product, or service on the Portal. Any website address posted on the Portal, including in a listing, bid, listing description, clarification board or the message board, must relate to a Project, Contest, item listed, user or service being performed on the portal. We may display advertisements or promotions on the Website. You acknowledge and agree that we shall not be responsible for any loss or damage of any kind incurred by you because of the presence of such advertisements or promotions or any subsequent dealings with third parties. Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that content of any advertisements or promotions may be protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other intellectual property or proprietary rights and laws. Unless expressly authorized by Shipinspectors.com or third-party right holders, you agree not to modify, sell, distribute, appropriate or create derivative works based on such advertisement/promotions.

18. Identity / Know Your

    You authorise us, directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider necessary to validate your identity. You must, at our request: (1) provide further information to us, which may include your date of birth and or other information that will allow us to reasonably identify you; (2) take steps to confirm ownership of your email address or financial instruments; or (3) verify your information against third party databases or through other sources.

    You must also, at our request, provide copies of identification documents (such as your passport or driver's licence). We may also ask you to provide photographic identification holding your identification together with a sign with a code that we provide as an additional identity verification step. We also reserve the right to request a video interview with you to validate this information, your identity, your background and your skills. We reserve the right to close, suspend, or limit access to your Account, the Portal and/or Shipinspectors.com Services in the event we are unable to obtain or verify to our satisfaction the information which we request under this section.

    We reserve the right to update your particulars on the website in order to match any identity documentation that has been provided. Disbursements such as wire transfers from the website may only be made to the beneficiary matching your provided identity documents and account information. If you are not Shipinspectors.com Verified you may not be able to withdraw funds from your Shipinspectors.com Account, and other restrictions may apply. See the Know Your Customer and Identity Verification Policy for more details.

19. User Services

    Upon the Client awarding a Project to the Inspector, and the Inspectors acceptance on the Website, the Client and Inspector will be deemed to have entered into a User Contract under which the Client agrees to purchase, and the Inspector agrees to deliver the Services. You agree not to enter into any contractual provisions in conflict with the User Agreement.

    You are solely responsible for ensuring that you comply with your obligations to other Users. If you do not, you may become liable to that User. You must ensure that you are aware of any domestic laws (including common law), international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations relevant to you as a Client or Inspector, or in any other uses you make of the Portal.

    If another User breaches any obligation to you, you are solely responsible for enforcing any rights that you may have. For the avoidance of doubt, we have no responsibility for enforcing any rights under a User Contract. Depending on their jurisdiction, Clients & Inspectors may have rights under statutory warranties that cannot lawfully be excluded. Nothing in this User Agreement is intended to override a right that by applicable law may not be excluded. Nothing in this User Agreement is intended to violate any laws relating to unfair contracts, and this agreement has been specifically redrafted to ensure compliance with unfair contracts legislation. To the extent that any component of this User Agreement is in conflict with inalienable rights under local laws, all parties intend for this agreement to be read down only insofar as to be in compliance with such local laws and no further.

    Each User acknowledges and agrees that the relationship between Clients and the Inspectors is that of an independent contractor. Nothing in this User Agreement creates a partnership, joint venture, agency or employment relationship between Users. Nothing in this User Agreement shall in any way be construed as forming a joint venture, partnership or an employer-employee relationship between Shipinspectors.com and any User.

20. Right to Refuse Service

    We may close, suspend, or limit your access to your Account without reason. Without limiting the foregoing, we may close, suspend, or limit your access to your Account:

    1. if we determine that you have breached or are acting in breach of this User Agreement.

    2. if you under-bid on any Project in an attempt to renegotiate the actual price privately, to attempt to avoid fees.

    3. if we determine that you have infringed legal rights (resulting in actual or potential claims), including infringing Intellectual Property Rights.

    4. if we determine that you have engaged, or are engaging, in fraudulent, or illegal activities.

    5. you do not respond to account verification requests.

    6. you do not complete account verification when requested within 3 months of the date of request.

    7. you are the subject of a United Nations, Australian, EU, USA or other applicable sanctions regime, or our banking and payment relationships otherwise preclude us from conducting business with you.

    8. to manage any risk of loss to us, a User, or any other person; or

    9. for other reasons.

    If we close your Account due to your breach of this User Agreement, you may also become liable for certain fees as described in this User Agreement. Without limiting our other remedies, to the extent you have breached this User Agreement, you must pay us all fees owed to us and reimburse us for all losses and costs (including any and all of our employee time) and reasonable expenses (including legal fees) related to investigating such breach and collecting such fees.

    You acknowledge and agree that: (1) the damages that we will sustain as a result of your breach of this User Agreement will be substantial and will potentially include (without limitation) fines and other related expenses imposed on us by our payment processors and Users and that those damages may be extremely difficult and impracticable to ascertain; (2) if you breach this User Agreement, we may fine you up to US$3,000 for each breach and/or we may take legal action against you to recover losses that are in excess of the fine amount; (3) a fine of up to US$3,000 is a presently reasonable pre-estimate or minimum estimate of our damages, considering all currently existing circumstances, including (without limitation) the relationship of the sum to the range of harm to us that reasonably could be anticipated and the anticipation that proof of actual damages may be impractical or extremely difficult; and (4) we may release the entire (or part of the) amount of the fine from your Account to us.

    If we close your Account for a reason other than as a result of your breach of this User Agreement, unless as otherwise specified in this User Agreement, you will be entitled to receive any payment due from us to you. In the event that we close your Account, you will have no claim whatsoever against us in respect of any such suspension or termination of your Account.

21. Disputes With Us

    If a dispute arises between you and Shipinspectors.com, our goal is to address your concerns immediately and, if we are unable to do so to your satisfaction, to provide you with a means of resolving the dispute quickly. We strongly encourage you to first contact us directly to seek a resolution by emailing us at support@shipinspectors.com

    For any claim, Shipinspectors.com may elect to resolve the dispute in a cost-effective manner through binding non-appearance-based arbitration. If Shipinspectors.com elects arbitration, such arbitration will be initiated through an established alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provider, which is to be selected by you from a panel of ADR providers that Freelancer will provide to you. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: a) the arbitration shall be conducted by telephone, online and/or be solely based on written submissions, the specific manner shall be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration; b) the arbitration shall not involve any personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and c) any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. All claims you bring against Shipinspectors.com must be resolved in accordance with the terms of this Agreement. All claims filed or brought contrary to this Agreement shall be considered improperly filed and a breach of this Agreement. Should you file a claim contrary to the terms of this Agreement, Shipinspectors.com may recover its legal fees and costs (including in-house lawyers and paralegals), provided that Shipinspectors.com has notified you in writing of the improperly filed claim, and you have failed to promptly withdraw the claim.

    You agree that you will not pursue any claims arising under this User Agreement on a class or other representative basis and will not seek to coordinate or consolidate any arbitration or action hereunder with any other proceeding.

    If any proceeding by or against you is commenced under any provision of any bankruptcy or insolvency law, Shipinspectors.com will be entitled to recover all reasonable costs or expenses (including reasonable legal fees and expenses) incurred in connection with the enforcement of this Agreement. Shipinspectors.com’s failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

22. Closing Your Account

    You may close your Account at any time. By sending written request to support@shipinspectors.com or info@shipinspectors.com . Account closure is subject to:

    1. not having any outstanding listings on the Portal;

    2. resolving any outstanding matters (such as a suspension or restriction on your Account); and

    3. paying any outstanding fees or amounts owing on the Account. We may retain some of your personal information to satisfy regulatory requirements and our own external obligations. Closing your account does not necessarily delete or remove all of the information we hold.

23. Indemnity

    You will indemnify us (and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint venturers and employees) against any claim or demand, including legal fees and costs, made against us by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement, or your infringement of any law or the rights of a third party in the course of using the Website and Shipinspectors.com services.

    In addition, we can apply any funds in your Account against any liabilities you owe to us or loss suffered by us as a result of your non-performance or breach of this User Agreement.

24. Feedback

    If you have any questions about these Terms & Conditions or if you wish to report breaches of these Terms & Conditions, please contact us by emailing us at support@shipinspectors.com or info@sinotechmarine.com.

25. Client User Service

    1. SINOTECH acts on behalf of bodies or company or person from whom the instructions to act have originated (hereinafter called “Customer”). No other party is entitled to give instructions, unless so authorized by the Customer and agreed by SINOTECH.

    2. Confidentiality: Both parties undertake not to disclose any information (including but not limited to Reports, advices, recommendations and any contract) provided in confidence by the other party to any third party (including but not limited to any of their subsidiaries or affiliates) and the receiving party shall not permit access to such information by any third party unless the disclosing party expressly grants permission in writing save where required to do so by an order of a competent court of law.

    3. Payment Terms: The customer shall pay punctually within 7 days after the completion of service or from the date of invoice or within any such other period as mutually agreed in writing by the SINOTECH. If any part of an invoice is genuinely in dispute, the Customer shall notify the Company immediately upon receipt of invoice as to any part of the invoice which is in dispute giving full reasons as to why a portion of the invoice is disputed and nevertheless pay the undisputed part within 30 days of the invoice date. There will 2% of invoice amount penalty for each 7 days of delayed period after invoice due date.

    4. Liability, Limitation, and Indemnification

    1. SINOTECH undertakes to exercise due care and skill in the performance of its services and accepts no responsibility and liability other than delivering the professional deliveries as agreed in the scope.

    2. SINOTECH is neither an insurer nor a guarantor and disclaims all liability in such capacity. Customers seeking a guarantee against loss and/or damage should obtain proper insurance.

    3. The liability of the SINOTECH in respect of any claims for loss, damage or expense of whatsoever nature and howsoever arising shall in no circumstances exceed a total aggregate sum equal to 1 time of the amount of the fee excluding expenses. The SINOTECH shall have no liability for any indirect or consequential loss (including loss of profits).

    4. The SINOTECH shall not be liable for any delayed, partial or total non-performance of the services arising directly or indirectly from any event outside the control of SINOTECH including failure by Principal to comply with any of its obligations.

    5. The customer shall guarantee and indemnify the SINOTECH or subcontractors against all claims by any third party for loss, damages, or expenses of whatsoever nature including all legal expenses and related costs and however arising relating to the performance, purported performance, or non-performance, of any services.

    SINOTECH’s Rights and Obligations

    1. Customer to ensure sufficient information documents and instructions are to be provided in due time as sufficient, to enable the desired services to be executed. Customer to ensure all necessary access authorization for the SINOTECH representatives/Sub-contractors to enable the required services to be performed effectively and efficiently.

    2. Customer to ensure that all necessary measures are taken for the safety and security of the working conditions, sites, installations, vessels and premises during the performance of services and will not rely, in this respect, on the enterprise advice whether requested or not. Customer will take all necessary steps to eliminate or remedy any obstructions to or interruptions in the performance of the required services.

    3. Customer to inform SINOTECH in advance of any known hazards or dangers, actual or potential, associated with any order or samples or testing including, for example, presence or risk of radiation, toxic or noxious or explosive elements or materials, environmental pollution, or positions.

    4. Service to be performed by the SINOTECH for the benefits of the Customer only. The SINOTECH does not accept any responsibility or the liability to any third party for the services performed and/or support performed and/or non-performed for the benefit of the Customer only unless the SINOTECH has expressly agreed in writing.

    5. Force Majeure Without prejudice to the provisions of these Terms and Conditions limiting or disclaiming liability, SINOTECH is not liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from causes beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, failure of the internet, power failure, failure of computer, telecommunication or other.

    6. Customer cannot contact or solicit business directly or indirectly with the inspectors registered on the portal www.shipinspectors.com. Inspectors can be contacted with sinotech portal administration permission only. For any inquiry related to contacting ship inspectors on the portal please contact us on enquiries@sinotechmarine.com.

    Applicable Laws

    1. The Terms and Conditions and any dispute or matter arising from delivery of this service contract shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (“Hong Kong”).

    2. Any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or relating to the Terms and Conditions including the validity, invalidity, breach or termination thereof, shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules as at present in force and as may be amended by the rest of this Clause:

    1. The appointing authority shall be Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (“HKIAC”).

    2. The place of arbitration shall be in Hong Kong at HKIAC.

    3. There shall be only one arbitrator.

    4. The language to be used in the arbitral proceedings shall be English.

    In the event of any breach of the Terms and Conditions by a party, the other party shall be entitled to remedies in law and equity as determined by arbitration.