Terms and conditions

This document is the contract between HOSTON SRL, registered office at Str. I.L. Caragiale nr. 47, Mărășești, jud. Vrancea, 625200, România, Tax ID (CUI) RO38066444, Trade Register No. J2017000806390, share capital 500 lei (hereinafter “HostON” or “the Provider”) and the Customer, i.e. the natural or legal person who orders or uses the services offered on hoston.ro and my.hoston.ro.

“Consumer” means a Customer who is a natural person acting outside their trade, business, craft or profession. Some provisions apply only to consumers or only to professionals (companies, sole traders (PFA), NGOs); where this is the case, we say so explicitly.

Communication with HostON and the contract are conducted in Romanian. For any question you can reach us at info@hoston.ro or by phone at +40 733 371 801 (Monday–Friday, 09:00–18:00).

HostON offers:

• web hosting (web hosting, WordPress, eCommerce and Web Performance plans), with a cPanel control panel;
• reseller hosting;
• VPS servers (KVM virtualisation, root access);
• professional email hosting;
• domain registration, transfer and renewal, through partner registrars (for .ro, TES Euro Media SRL);
• SSL certificates issued by partner certificate authorities.

The features of each plan (storage, resources, included accounts, options) are those shown on the product page and in the order cart at the time of ordering. We may improve them at any time; a change that would disadvantage you is communicated to you at least 30 days in advance and gives you the right to terminate the contract without penalties.

1. 1Choose the serviceOn hoston.ro you choose the plan and the billing cycle; the order button takes you to the cart in my.hoston.ro.
2. 2Check and correct your detailsIn the cart you see the total price including taxes, the billing cycle and the renewal price. Until you place the order, you can change or remove any product and correct the details entered.
3. 3Tick the consentsYou accept these terms and the Returns policy. Separately, if you are a consumer, you can expressly request that the service start before the withdrawal period expires; if you have a domain in your cart, you can request its immediate registration. These checkboxes are optional.
4. 4Place the orderThe order is sent using the “Order with obligation to pay” button.
5. 5Order confirmationThe contract is concluded when we send you the order confirmation by email. The confirmation contains the order details, the link to these terms, the information about the right of withdrawal and the consents you ticked.

Orders, invoices and correspondence remain available in your account in my.hoston.ro. The version of these terms in force on the order date can be printed or saved as a PDF from this page; we will send you a previous version on request.

Services are activated after payment is confirmed, usually automatically within a few minutes and within 24 hours at the latest. Domains are registered after payment, according to the rules of the extension’s registry.

The contract is concluded for the duration of the chosen billing cycle (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually; for web hosting, reseller hosting and VPS the maximum billing period is one year, while domains can be registered for several years) and is extended by another cycle when the renewal invoice is paid. We send you the renewal invoice and at least one reminder by email before the due date; keep the email address in your account up to date.

You can terminate the contract at any time, without penalties and without a minimum term, by sending a cancellation request from the client account (on the service page) or to info@hoston.ro. You can choose immediate cancellation or cancellation at the end of the paid period.

After expiry or termination, the hosted data is kept for 14 calendar days and then permanently deleted. We recommend that you download your data before expiry.

Prices are shown excluding VAT by default (NET); the BRUT (gross) switch on the website shows them including VAT (the rate in force, currently 21%). VAT is added on the invoice in accordance with the Romanian Fiscal Code. The total price including all taxes appears in the cart before you place the order.

Prices can be displayed in euros or in lei (RON). Invoicing and payment are in lei; prices in euros are converted at the BNR (National Bank of Romania) exchange rate, updated daily.

Invoices are issued electronically, are available in the client account and are sent to you by email. Payment is made online through the Netopia Payments processor (bank card) or by the other methods shown in the cart. We do not charge additional fees depending on the payment method.

The price of each billing cycle, including the discount for annual payment, is shown next to the plan and in the cart. On renewal, the standard price of the plan for the chosen cycle, shown on the website and in the cart, applies.

We may change prices for future periods with an email notice sent at least 30 days in advance. The price does not change during the period already paid. If you do not agree with the new price, you can terminate the contract without penalties before it applies; the absence of a reply within 15 days of the notice counts as acceptance of the new price for the following periods.

If an invoice is not paid within 7 calendar days of the due date, the service may be suspended (the website and email become inaccessible) until payment. We notify you by email before suspension.

For customers that are legal entities, late payment incurs penalties of 0.1% of the unpaid amount for each day of delay, without the total penalties exceeding the amount owed.

If non-payment continues for more than 30 days after suspension, we may terminate the contract, delete the data and recover the debt through legal means.

For web hosting and VPS we commit to an availability of at least 99% calculated annually (at most approximately 87 hours of unavailability per year), under the conditions and with the compensation described on the Uptime and SLA page.

Interruptions caused by the following are not taken into account:

• planned maintenance, announced at least 24 hours in advance;
• cyber attacks (for example DDoS) directed against the infrastructure or the Customer’s website;
• failures of external providers (connectivity, power) that cannot reasonably be avoided;
• the Customer’s actions or configurations (faulty scripts, incorrect settings, abusive resource usage);
• force majeure and unforeseeable events;
• domain or DNS issues outside HostON’s control.

• to provide correct and complete details and update them in the client account when they change;
• to use the services in accordance with the Resource Usage Policy and the law;
• to pay invoices on time;
• to keep access credentials (passwords, SSH keys, API tokens) safe and not to give access to third parties without our consent;
• to make their own backups of important data; HostON backups are used for recovery after server incidents and do not replace your own copies.

The Customer is responsible for the content they publish or store on HostON servers, including compliance with copyright and data protection legislation.

• to provide the services with the features ordered and at the availability level above;
• to announce planned maintenance at least 24 hours in advance;
• to provide technical support through tickets, email and phone (Monday–Friday, 09:00–18:00);
• to make daily backups on the web hosting plans that include them;
• to keep data confidential, in accordance with the Privacy policy and the Data Processing Agreement;
• to handle notices of illegal content received through the reporting page without undue delay.

The Customer is responsible for actions carried out from their account, including by the people they have given access to.

If you no longer have access to your account (forgotten password, inaccessible email), we verify the identity of the requester by proportionate means, for example the account details and the details of paid invoices. Only if these are not sufficient may we ask you for a supporting document: for private individuals an identity document, on which you may cover the data that is not needed (CNP – personal numeric code, serial number, photo), and for companies the certificate of registration and proof of the capacity of representative. The document is used only for verification and is deleted once the request has been resolved.

If the Customer becomes insolvent, access is transferred only to the appointed insolvency administrator, on the basis of official documents. Access is not transferred to third parties (including heirs or employees) without appropriate legal documents.

For domains, the Domain terms and the rules of each extension’s registry also apply. Premium domains have prices set by the registry; before payment we tell you the actual price and process the payment only after your confirmation.

If you concluded the contract as a private individual, outside your professional activity, you have the right to withdraw from the contract within 14 days of its conclusion (the date of the order confirmation email), without giving any reason, in accordance with OUG nr. 34/2014 (Romanian Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34/2014 on consumer rights).

You can also exercise your right of withdrawal online at my.hoston.ro/index.php?m=retragere (“Withdraw from contract here”). If you use this online function, we will send you, without undue delay, an acknowledgement of receipt of the withdrawal on a durable medium (for example, by email), including its content and the date and time of its submission.

You can also withdraw by any unequivocal statement sent to info@hoston.ro or by post, including by using the model form in the Returns policy, where you will also find the full conditions: refund within 14 days at most, the proportionate amount owed only if you expressly requested that the service start, and the situations in which the right of withdrawal is lost.

Companies and sole traders (PFA) do not have a statutory right of withdrawal, but they can cancel their services from the account at any time, as described in the section “Activation, duration and termination”.

Legal guarantee of conformity. For the digital services provided by HostON (web hosting, VPS, email, SSL), you benefit from the legal guarantee of conformity for digital content and digital services, in accordance with OUG nr. 141/2021 (Romanian Government Emergency Ordinance no. 141/2021 on contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services). For any lack of conformity you can contact us at info@hoston.ro.

Commercial “money-back” guarantee. In addition to your statutory rights, we offer a 30-day guarantee for web hosting, WordPress, eCommerce, Web Performance and reseller plans (not for VPS servers), on the first order of a new customer. The conditions are described in the Returns policy and on the Money-back guarantee page. This guarantee is in addition to your statutory rights and does not replace them.

As a hosting service provider within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on digital services (DSA), we inform you how we handle the content customers store with us:

• What is prohibited: illegal content and the activities listed in the Resource Usage Policy.
• We do not generally monitor customer content. We act when we receive a notice or when the servers’ security tools (for example malware scanning and anti-spam filters) flag a problem.
• Notices of illegal content are sent through the reporting form or to abuse@hoston.ro. We confirm receipt and communicate our decision to the notifier.
• Decisions to remove content, disable access or suspend are taken by a person on the HostON team, not automatically, and are proportionate to the seriousness of the situation. Automated tools may only temporarily quarantine an infected file or stop spam from being sent pending review.
• The affected Customer receives a statement of reasons: what was restricted, why, on what grounds and how they can appeal. Appeals are sent to abuse@hoston.ro and are reviewed by a person who did not take the initial decision, where possible.
• If we become aware of a criminal offence that threatens the life or safety of persons, we inform the competent authorities.

We may suspend or terminate a service in the following situations:

• non-payment of the invoice more than 7 days after the due date;
• use of the service for illegal activities, spam, phishing or malware;
• cyber attacks launched from or through the Customer’s account;
• intentional overloading of the servers;
• false identification details provided at registration;
• critical security vulnerabilities (publicly exposed files, accessible source code) not resolved within 48 hours of notification;
• configurations or applications that endanger the security or stability of the shared server and of other customers.

As a rule, we notify you in advance and give you a reasonable period to remedy the issue. We suspend without prior notice only in urgent situations (obvious illegal activity, an attack in progress, a risk to other customers or to the infrastructure); in these cases we inform you immediately afterwards, with the reasons for the decision.

In the event of termination due to the Customer’s fault, HostON may retain the amounts corresponding to the period of service provided and proven damages. The statutory rights of consumers (including the right of withdrawal) are not affected.

HostON’s total liability to the Customer, on whatever grounds, is limited to 50% of the value of the services paid for the contractual period in which the incident occurred. HostON is not liable for:

• loss of profit or indirect losses;
• external cyber attacks on the Customer’s website, if HostON applied the usual security measures;
• problems caused by the Customer’s code, configuration or actions;
• force majeure and unforeseeable events;
• errors or unavailability of third-party services that are not under HostON’s control (domain registries, payment processors).

The limitations of liability do not apply in cases of wilful misconduct, gross negligence or injury to life and health, and do not limit the statutory rights of consumers.

The content published by the Customer remains the property of the Customer; HostON claims no rights over it. The Customer guarantees that they hold the rights necessary for the published content and bears the consequences of third-party claims regarding this content.

We may use subcontractors for parts of the service (for example domain registration, website delivery and protection, sending notification emails). HostON remains liable to the Customer for the subcontracted services. Subcontractors that process personal data are listed in the Data Processing Agreement and in the Privacy policy.

We process your data in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), as explained in the Privacy policy. For third-party data that you store on our servers (for example the customers of your shop), the Data Processing Agreement applies, in accordance with art. 28 GDPR.

We may change these terms with an email notice sent at least 30 days before they take effect. If you do not agree, you can terminate the contract without penalties during this period. Changes do not apply retroactively to periods already paid.

The contract is governed by Romanian law. We try to resolve any complaint amicably: write to us at info@hoston.ro and we will reply within 5 working days at most.

Consumers can turn to the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) and the alternative dispute resolution (ADR, in Romanian SAL) procedure, at reclamatiisal.anpc.ro. Details on the ANPC page.

For professionals, the competent court is the one at the Provider’s registered office. For consumers, jurisdiction is determined by law, including the court of the consumer’s place of residence.