Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Lanai Group LLC dba Hot Sauce Headquarters, a Nevada limited liability company ("Hot Sauce HQ," "HQ," "we," "us"). They cover HotSauceHeadquarters.com, the Hot Sauce HQ apps for iPhone and Android, and every related feature, email and service (together, the "Service").

PLEASE READ SECTION 19. IT REQUIRES MOST DISPUTES TO BE RESOLVED BY BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION, WAIVES CLASS ACTIONS AND JURY TRIALS, AND EXPLAINS HOW TO OPT OUT.

By creating an account, checking the box at sign-up, buying a subscription, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Subscription & Payment Policy, Community Guidelines and Copyright & DMCA Policy. Brand accounts also agree to the Brand Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Who can use Hot Sauce HQ

• Anyone may browse public pages.
• You must be 18 or older to create an account. By checking "I'm 18 or older and agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy," you confirm you are.
• You may not use the Service if you are barred from doing so under applicable law, or if we previously closed your account for breaking these Terms.
• If you use the Service for a business, you confirm you are authorized to bind that business to these Terms.

2. Your account

• You must give accurate information, including your country and postal code, and keep it current.
• You may sign in with Google, Apple, Facebook or an email and password. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account and for keeping your sign-in methods secure.
• One person per consumer account. Do not share, sell or transfer your account.
• Tell us right away at stayspicy@hotsauceheadquarters.com if you think your account was accessed without permission.

3. Account types

• Member (consumer) accounts are Free or Premium. Premium features and limits are described in the app and in the Subscription & Payment Policy.
• Brand accounts let verified representatives manage a brand's listing under the Brand Terms. One login can hold a member profile, one or more company/brand roles, or both.
• HQ staff accounts are for Hot Sauce HQ employees and are subject to internal policies.

4. Using the Service

You may use the Service for personal, non-commercial purposes (and, for brand accounts, to manage your brand's presence). You agree not to:

1. Break any law or anyone's rights, including intellectual property and privacy rights.
2. Post false, misleading or fake reviews, ratings or tasting scores, or pay, reward or pressure anyone to do so.
3. Scrape, crawl, copy or harvest data from the Service by automated means, or build a competing database from it, without our written permission.
4. Interfere with the Service, probe or bypass security, or overload our systems.
5. Create accounts by automated means, use multiple accounts to manipulate ratings, votes, points or awards, or evade a suspension.
6. Harass, threaten, impersonate or collect personal information about other users.
7. Upload malware or anything harmful.
8. Use the Service to advertise or sell without our permission, except as allowed for brand accounts.

The Community Guidelines, which are part of these Terms, explain the content rules in more detail.

5. Content you submit

"Member Content" means anything you submit through a member account, including ratings, reviews, comments, replies, Community posts, tasting-party scores and notes, shelf and purchase entries, sauce submissions, barcodes, photos, lists and homemade recipes.

5.1 Rights you give us. When you submit Member Content, you grant Hot Sauce HQ a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid, transferable and sublicensable right and license to use, copy, store, display, publish, perform, reproduce, adapt, edit, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, sell, license and otherwise exploit that Member Content, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed, for any purpose, including commercial purposes, without notice, credit or payment to you. This includes, for example, quoting your review on our website, in advertising, in reports sold to brands, or in materials licensed to others.

5.2 It stays after you leave. This license survives the deletion of your account and the end of these Terms. Submitted Member Content is not returned or removed when you delete your account; see Section 11.

5.3 Moral rights. To the extent the law allows, you waive, and agree not to assert, any moral rights or rights of attribution or integrity in your Member Content.

5.4 Your promises. You promise that you own or have permission to post your Member Content, that it is truthful and reflects your honest experience, and that our use of it as allowed by these Terms will not violate anyone's rights.

5.5 Private items. Items you mark Private or share only with selected people are shown only as you choose. Private ratings are not shown with your name but are included in average scores and in aggregated statistics.

5.6 Brand content is different. Logos, product photos and other material uploaded by a brand account are covered by the Brand Terms, not this Section 5.

6. Our content and the database

The Service, including its design, software, logos, text, the Hot Sauce HQ sauce database, scores, rankings, badges, the HQ Tasting Panel scores and the Golden Pepper Awards, is owned by Hot Sauce HQ or its licensors and protected by law. We give you a limited, revocable, non-transferable license to use the Service as these Terms allow. Brand names and trademarks shown on the Service belong to their owners and are used to identify their products.

7. Ratings, scores and opinions

7.1 Member content is the member's opinion. Ratings, reviews, comments and other Member Content reflect the views of the member who posted them, not Hot Sauce HQ, including when the member is an HQ employee posting from a member account. We do not verify Member Content.

7.2 HQ opinions. Expert reviews, HQ Tasting Panel scores and HQ award picks are the honest, subjective opinions of the named Expert or the HQ tasters, based on the sample tasted on the date shown (for HQ Panel scores, identified by Tasting ID). Recipes and batches vary, and another bottle may taste different. These opinions are not statements of fact, certifications, endorsements or guarantees.

7.3 Averages, rankings and display. Averages, rankings, badges, trending lists and search order are calculated and arranged by Hot Sauce HQ and are part of our database under Section 6. We decide how ratings and reviews are calculated, ordered, filtered, collapsed or displayed. Our systems may sometimes hide legitimate content or fail to catch content that breaks our rules.

7.4 Money doesn't buy scores. No brand plan, sponsorship, advertising or other payment changes any rating, review, average, HQ Tasting Panel score, Expert review or award result. A paid brand plan affects only the features described in the Brand Terms and the Tasting Panel waitlist position described in the HQ Tasting Panel Terms.

7.5 Product information. Scoville figures are either tested values supplied by brands or estimates, and are labeled as such. We do not guarantee the accuracy of any rating, ingredient list, allergen information, heat level or product detail. Always read the product label and use your own judgment about spicy food, allergies and health conditions.

8. Hot sauce safety

Very hot sauces and peppers can cause pain, burns, stomach upset and other reactions. Tasting parties and heat challenges are voluntary. You participate at your own risk and are responsible for your own safety and for any guests you invite. Homemade recipes are shared by members; follow safe food-handling, fermentation and canning practices. We are not responsible for foods you make, buy or eat.

9. Subscriptions, purchases and ads

Paid plans are covered by the Subscription & Payment Policy, which is part of these Terms. In short: plans renew automatically until you turn off auto-renew, and payments are non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. Free members may see ads from Google and from HQ sponsors; Premium members do not see Google ads but may see HQ sponsor placements. Some links are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission when you buy through them.

10. Points, levels, badges and awards

Hall of Flame points, levels and badges have no cash value, cannot be sold or transferred and may be adjusted, reset or removed at our discretion, including to correct errors or abuse. Golden Pepper Awards voting is governed by the Awards Official Rules.

11. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in Settings. When you do, we remove the information that identifies you, including your name, photo, bio, email address, birthday, sign-in methods, messages, friends, lists, tags, homemade recipes and Hall of Flame progress. Member Content you submitted in open text fields or as ratings, including reviews, ratings, comments, replies, Community posts, tasting scores and notes, and shelf entries, stays on the Service with your name replaced by "Deleted account." We keep your postal code only in a form that is not linked to you, for area statistics. Deleting your account ends any paid plan immediately with no refund, and cannot be undone. See the Privacy Policy for details, including records we must keep by law.

12. Moderation and our rights

We may, but are not required to, review, edit, hide, collapse, remove or refuse any content, and may limit, suspend or close any account, at any time and for any reason, including a suspected breach of these Terms, fraud, legal risk or protection of other users. Comments and replies may be automatically collapsed after reports from multiple members until reviewed. We may report suspected illegal activity to law enforcement and share relevant information with authorities.

13. Closing accounts for misconduct

If we close or suspend an account because of a breach of these Terms, fraud or repeat copyright infringement, no refund will be given for any paid service. Fraud or other illegal activity may lead to criminal reports to police and other authorities, disclosure of all relevant information to them, and civil action to recover our losses.

14. Third-party services and links

The Service uses and links to third parties, including Apple, Google, Meta (Facebook), Stripe and retailers. Their terms and privacy policies apply to your use of them, and we are not responsible for their products, services or content.

15. Changes to the Service and these Terms

We may change, add or remove features at any time. We may update these Terms; if a change is material, we will give notice by email or in the app before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the updated Terms. The version and effective date are shown at the top.

16. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OR SECURE, OR THAT ANY CONTENT IS ACCURATE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN DISCLAIMERS, SO SOME OF THIS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

17. Limitation of liability

17.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, HOT SAUCE HQ AND ITS OWNERS, MEMBERS, EMPLOYEES AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA, GOODWILL OR REPUTATION (INCLUDING REPUTATIONAL HARM), OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD SUCH DAMAGES WERE POSSIBLE.

17.2 This includes damages arising from: content posted by members, brands or other users; reliance on any rating, review, score, ranking, award, ingredient, allergen, Scoville or other product information, including its content, omissions, order or display; anyone's use of information you made public; outages, errors, bugs, or lost or deleted data or content; and events outside our reasonable control.

17.3 OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATED TO THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE OR (B) US $50.

17.4 These limits apply under every legal theory (contract, warranty, negligence or other tort, strict liability or otherwise), even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose.

17.5 Some places do not allow certain damages or liability for personal injury to be excluded or limited. Where that is the case, these limits apply only as far as the law allows.

18. Indemnity

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Hot Sauce HQ and its owners, members, employees and agents from any claims, losses and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your content, your use of the Service, or your breach of these Terms or of anyone's rights.

19. Dispute resolution, arbitration and class-action waiver

19.1 Try to resolve it first. Before filing any claim, you and we agree to send a written notice describing the dispute and the relief sought, and to try in good faith to resolve it for 30 days. Send notices to stayspicy@hotsauceheadquarters.com and to our mailing address.

19.2 Binding arbitration. Except as stated below, any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (or its Commercial Arbitration Rules for disputes with brand or business accounts). The Federal Arbitration Act governs this Section. The arbitrator, not a court, decides questions of scope and enforceability, except as stated in 19.5. Hearings will take place in Clark County, Nevada, by video, or by written submissions, as the arbitrator allows. Fees are paid as the AAA rules provide.

19.3 Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, and either party may seek an injunction in court for misuse of intellectual property or unauthorized access to the Service.

19.4 Class-action and jury waiver. YOU AND HOT SAUCE HQ AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. YOU AND WE WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL.

19.5 If the class waiver fails. If the class-action waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim must be severed and heard in court, and the rest of this Section still applies.

19.6 30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing stayspicy@hotsauceheadquarters.com within 30 days after you first accept these Terms, with the subject "Arbitration Opt-Out" and your name and account email. Opting out does not affect the rest of these Terms.

19.7 Time limit. To the extent the law allows, any claim must be brought within one year after it arises.

20. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Nevada and applicable U.S. federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. For any matter not subject to arbitration, you and we consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Clark County, Nevada.

21. Apple and Google app terms

If you downloaded our app from the Apple App Store: these Terms are between you and Hot Sauce HQ, not Apple; Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support; Apple is not responsible for any product warranty, product liability, consumer protection, regulatory or intellectual-property claims about the app; if the app fails any applicable warranty you may notify Apple, which may refund the app's purchase price (if any), and Apple has no other warranty obligation; you confirm you are not in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo or on a U.S. prohibited-party list; and Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them. Your use of the app must also follow the App Store and Google Play terms of service.

22. General

These Terms and the policies they reference are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service. If any part is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them, including in a merger, sale or reorganization. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including 5, 6, 11, 13, 16 to 20 and 22) survive.

23. Contact

Lanai Group LLC dba Hot Sauce Headquarters, Attn: Mike Smith, 732 S 6th St, Ste R, Las Vegas, NV 89101 · stayspicy@hotsauceheadquarters.com