The Pending — operated by The Pending GmbH
Document version: 4 November 2026
1. Our service and your contract
The Pending GmbH, Nestroystraße 13, 81373 Munich, Germany, registered with Amtsgericht München under HRB 315656, VAT ID DE360039760, operates The Pending. Managing directors: Tim Kriegler and Niklas Kornel. Contact: service@thepending.app.
These Terms cover our Agency software, community, portfolios and native apps. Features include professional profiles, talent and opportunity discovery, applications, projects, CRM, AI assistance, publishing, messaging, Pages and Circles. Availability and limits depend on the offer you select. We are not a party to employment, booking or other engagement contracts between users and do not guarantee work, clients or hiring results.
Features may launch at different times on the website and in the apps. These Terms describe the services to which they apply, not a promise that every described feature is already available or included in your plan. For an existing contract, a published revision takes effect only through the applicable notice and agreement process; publication alone does not replace previously agreed terms.
Your account contract begins when we accept your registration. A paid order creates the additional contract described in its checkout and confirmation. Review the offer, price, taxes, duration and renewal conditions before ordering. Individual agreements take precedence where applicable. The Refund Policy and Community Guidelines form part of the applicable service rules. The Privacy Policy provides information; accepting these Terms is not consent to optional data processing.
Separate Partnership Terms govern business advertising bookings and advertising credits. These Terms do not create an entitlement to creator revenue sharing or other rewards that have not been separately offered.
2. Eligibility, accounts and security
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter the contract. Provide accurate information and be authorised to act for any organisation you represent. Registration may use email or supported Google, Apple or Microsoft sign-in.
Keep credentials secure and notify us promptly of suspected misuse. Account linking requires proof of control. Do not use additional accounts to evade restrictions, limits or reward rules. A person whose access was terminated for abuse must obtain our permission before re-registering.
Features and purchases may be restricted by country, applicable law or the availability shown in the product. Do not evade lawful restrictions. A configured country restriction does not imply that every restricted country is subject to comprehensive sanctions.
3. Responsible use
Use the service lawfully and respect other people's rights. Do not commit fraud, impersonate others, harass or threaten people, publish private information without authority, distribute malicious code, interfere with security, systematically scrape the service, send unsolicited bulk messages or manipulate credits and rewards.
The Community Guidelines govern content, including artistic nudity and generated media. AI-generated images, audio and video are permitted in portfolios, subject to rights, safety and the other content rules. The human-made-media restriction continues to apply when media is published to community surfaces, including Pages and Circles. They permit political creative work and discussion of the creative industries; they do not permit unrelated general political campaigning. Lawful criticism is not prohibited merely because it is negative.
You must have the necessary rights to upload, submit or share material. When submitting a person for an opportunity or administering their portfolio, have authority or another valid legal basis and inform them appropriately. Studio Access ends when revoked.
Customers control the content and audiences of their Listings, applications, talent records and share/review links. Only disclose information to authorised recipients, use appropriate access restrictions and revoke unnecessary links. Do not knowingly reintroduce a person into discovery or contact workflows contrary to a valid objection.
Listings must describe genuine opportunities and material conditions accurately. Do not impose unlawful discriminatory criteria. Companies publish commercial jobs through Listings; genuine creative collaborations and opportunities shared by individual creatives follow the Community Guidelines. Identify advertising where the law requires it. Merely showing your work or mentioning a brand does not automatically make a post an advertisement.
3a. Content moderation and complaints
Our contact for users and authorities under Articles 11 and 12 of the Digital Services Act is service@thepending.app. We accept German and English communication.
Report suspected illegal content through the available reporting tools or report@thepending.app. Include its exact location, why you consider it illegal, your name and email, and a statement that the notice is accurate and submitted in good faith. Identifying details are not required where the applicable exception for reports concerning child sexual abuse offences applies. Email reporting does not require an account.
We assess notices diligently and objectively, acknowledge receipt and communicate the outcome to the reporter through the account notification or, for email notices, where contact information is available. Moderation may use technical tools and human review. On community surfaces subject to generated-media checks, a flag or an incomplete required check can prevent publication of the affected media. Portfolio uploads are exempt from those generated-media checks. A technical failure is not proof of misconduct. You can retry or request human review; the affected media remains unpublished until cleared.
Depending on severity, context and repetition, we may request corrections, warn, label, restrict or remove content, restrict features, suspend an account or terminate access. There is no mandatory three-strike sequence. Urgent safety issues or serious violations can require immediate action. Where required, we explain the facts, legal or contractual basis, use of automation and available remedies.
Challenge a decision through the offered review function or service@thepending.app, identifying the decision and your reasons. We correct errors established on review. Applicable rights to out-of-court dispute settlement and judicial remedies remain available. Repeated manifestly unlawful content or manifestly unfounded notices can lead to proportionate restrictions, with prior warning where required.
4. Content, audiences and intellectual property
You retain rights in your content. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence limited to hosting, processing, reproducing and displaying it as needed to provide the requested service and sharing functions. This includes technical copies, previews and permitted reshares to your selected audiences. It does not authorise unrelated marketing use of private material or foundation-model training.
After removal, the licence continues only as necessary for permitted surviving shared content, recovery, backups or legal preservation. Deletion stages are described in the Privacy Policy. Public recipients may have made independent copies. Scene expiry removes active display; it does not promise immediate erasure of every copy. Page content can remain with another authorised administrator after personal account closure.
Our software, branding and other platform intellectual property remain ours or our licensors'. You receive the right to use the service within your contract, subject to these Terms and mandatory law.
5. Plans, subscriptions and Pens
The offer before payment states included features, usage limits, total payable price, billing interval and renewal conditions. Consumer prices include applicable taxes. Store and web prices may differ. You receive an order confirmation. Payment and entitlement processing can involve Stripe, Apple, Google and RevenueCat as explained in the Privacy Policy.
For orders that can be matched to the offer recorded through our current purchase flow, we send a confirmation to your account email with the product or plan, the amounts reported by the payment provider, the recorded AI usage rates and a downloadable copy of the Terms of Use and Refund and Withdrawal Policy agreed for the order. Retries use the same stored wording. This confirmation is separate from the payment provider’s receipt or tax invoice. If an order cannot yet be matched or a confirmation is missing, contact service@thepending.app with the purchase reference; this does not cancel your paid entitlement or remove any right to receive the required contract information.
The Pending provides the AI services described in your offer on an ongoing, usage-metered basis. Pens are service units used to measure that usage. Your offer identifies the included or purchased quantity and the applicable AI usage rates. Requests to run a covered tool instruct us to perform that service under the agreed rates; they do not automatically purchase another Pen pack or subscription or charge your payment method.
Pens are service credits, not money or a transferable investment. Pen usage information and optional cost reminders are provided as described below. Plan-included Pens reset according to the plan's billing cycle and do not roll over. Purchased pack Pens do not expire while the account remains available under the applicable contract. The current ledger consumes purchased pack Pens before included Pens. Goodwill and feedback Pens, and referral Pens already credited under an earlier programme, have no cash value. Membership-time invitations follow Section 5a.
Before paid use, we show the applicable Pen amount and what it covers. Where a separate cost reminder offers “Understood”, you may collapse that reminder for the displayed amount. It appears again before use if that amount changes. “Understood” records a display preference, not agreement to different contractual rates or a waiver of rights. When your account is created, the AI usage rate schedule that your sign-up page or app made available to you is recorded with it — the version you were shown, not necessarily the schedule in force at the moment the account is created; a purchase records the rates shown with its offer. Where a confirmed sign-up record, a concluded purchase agreement or an earlier acceptance already establishes the current rate for a service, you do not need to accept that same rate again. Recurring and batch processing retain their cost and budget information when you authorise them. “AI costs” in your profile or account settings remains available with current rates, your available balance and recent usage. Purchased pack Pens are consumed before included Pens, and one operation may use both balances. Purchased Pens keep the rate, and for application analyses the pack size, in force when you bought them; included Pens follow the rate you have agreed. An operation requiring more Pens than are available will not start through the prepaid debit process.
Where a proposed increase to your agreed Pen usage rates requires your agreement, we identify the affected service, the old and new amounts and charging unit, the reason, when the change would apply, and which balances or service periods it covers. We ask you to “Accept new rate” separately from requesting an operation. Until you accept, that service cannot be used at the proposed new rate; other services remain available. This does not remove access to service already owed under your existing agreement or at a protected purchased-Pen rate, or remove cancellation, withdrawal, refund or other statutory rights. If an operation would partly require an unaccepted new rate, it does not start and no part of its Pen charge is deducted. Accepting a rate does not itself run a tool, buy Pens or authorise additional automatic spending. Your existing budget limits remain in place. If we withdraw a proposed increase before you accept it, nothing further is asked of you and your agreed rate continues to apply. If we instead lower the proposed amount but it still exceeds your agreed rate, the lower amount is a new proposal that again needs your acceptance; until then your agreed rate continues to apply and nothing above it is charged to included Pens. A proposal you have not accepted never replaces the rate you agreed. We retain the exact change you accepted — including which earlier recorded rate it modified and the balances you held — and provide a copy you can keep. Any separately required advance notice or other contractual protection still applies.
Incorrect deductions are corrected. Any credit redenomination must preserve purchased usable value and be announced at least 14 days in advance. A newly displayed price does not by itself change existing contractual rights. Plan changes take effect under the charge, credit and timing shown when you confirm them.
We apply the rates agreed for your service. Updating the displayed rate table does not by itself amend your existing agreement or reduce rights attached to previously purchased Pens. Any change must follow the applicable contractual and legal requirements. Existing cancellation, withdrawal, correction and refund rights remain unaffected.
The charge shown for a request takes account of any protected usage rates attached to your purchased Pens. Where a request uses balances with different applicable rates, its charge is apportioned between those balances and fractions of a Pen are rounded in your favour. This calculation does not itself authorise a change to the rates or other rights agreed for an existing plan.
Subscriptions renew only under the agreed terms and applicable law. For German consumer contracts continuing after an initial term, mandatory limits on extensions and cancellation periods apply. A failed payment may lead to a proportionate restriction after appropriate notice, without eliminating statutory rights.
Our Refund and Withdrawal Policy explains statutory withdrawal, defects and the additional 14-day guarantee for completely unused direct web purchases. Using part of a Pen pack does not automatically remove statutory rights. The additional guarantee does not cover B2B advertising purchases under the separate Partnership Terms, including directly booked campaigns and earlier Advertising Credits.
Apple/Google purchases follow the seller, billing and cancellation arrangements shown by the store. Relevant store licence terms, including Apple's standard EULA where applicable, apply to app distribution. These Terms govern our platform service and do not exclude mandatory store-related rights.
5a. Invitation programme
When we offer the membership-time invitation programme, the offer and these rules apply to new invitations made under that programme. Participation is optional. Share your invitation link or code with people you know, without spam or misleading claims. Tell them that you may receive a reward if their invitation qualifies. Registering through an invitation does not give the invited person a reward or require them to buy a plan.
An invitation counts once the new account has been linked to you at signup, is active and at least 14 days old, has a verified email, has completed community onboarding, has at least one live post, and has a login, post, comment or applause event on or after day 14. We check pending invitations from day 14 through day 60, using account state and event existence or time, not content. Qualification may happen later than day 14; a still-pending invitation expires after day 60. An account can count for only one inviter. Self-referrals and fake or duplicate accounts used to manufacture rewards do not qualify.
The initial reward ladder is:
- 3 counted invitations: 30 days of Club.
- 6 counted invitations: an additional 30 days of Pro.
- 12 counted invitations: an additional 60 days of Pro, subject to review.
- 25 counted invitations: an additional 90 days of Pro, subject to review.
Each rung is earned once per inviter. The ladder ends at 25 counted invitations; further invitations do not create additional rungs. The invitation screen shows progress and the offer applicable to your programme. Referrals already rewarded with Pens count towards this ladder, and Pens already credited remain yours. Rights under earlier invitations are not retrospectively removed by these rules.
Retention housekeeping does not cancel membership time already granted or banked. Counted invitations remain available for further rewards while an undecided milestone or review still depends on them. Once all milestones have a final decision and none is under review, the personal links are scheduled for erasure after 90 days; the retained total then shows past progress only and does not count towards new rewards. If an invited account is deleted after its invitation counted and without a prior objection, one count is preserved towards future rewards without a reference to that account. An invitation the invited member has stopped from counting is not used for new rewards. The Privacy Policy explains the retention rules.
Invitation time provides the features of the awarded tier without that plan's monthly Pens. It cannot be transferred or exchanged for money. If you already have a paid plan at the same or a higher tier when a reward is granted, the time is banked until that paid cover ends. A reward does not downgrade your paid plan, cancel it or change its renewal. Invitation time itself does not renew into a paid subscription. Rewards awaiting review are not yet granted. We notify you about reward progress and normally send a reminder around three days before active invitation time ends.
The cumulative list value of the ladder is limited to €3 per counted invitation at each rung, including rewards requiring admin approval. Each rung's list value is fixed when the ladder is saved. We may refuse a reward where the stated conditions are not met or there is substantiated abuse, including fake, duplicate or self-created accounts. A review cannot override the ceiling or remove an otherwise valid reward claim. A refusal is not automatically notified; your reward status is available in the invitation view. Contact service@thepending.app to request a human review if you believe a decision or qualification result is wrong. Mandatory consumer rights remain unaffected.
Outstanding invitations keep their applicable programme offer. Changes to the saved ladder may improve an existing rung but may not remove it, reduce its days or lower its tier. We may offer a separate programme or stop accepting future invitations, explaining the scope and effective date before the change applies. This does not retrospectively reduce earned rewards or rights arising from invitations already made. Publication of revised Terms alone does not amend an existing agreement.
Rewards may be taxable for you. In Germany, occasional referral income may fall under § 22 no. 3 EStG if it is not assigned to another income category. Its exemption applies only when your total relevant income for the calendar year is less than €256; this is a threshold, not a €256 deduction. You are responsible for your applicable tax obligations. The Pending remains responsible for its own obligations. Different rules may apply elsewhere or to business activity.
Invited members can remove an invitation before signup or object later in Settings → Privacy → “Stop counting me”. A pending objection prevents qualification. After a counted invitation is objected to, it is not used for new reward calculations; membership time already granted or banked is preserved. Participation in the programme is separate from optional advertising and analytics choices. The Privacy Policy explains the legitimate-interest basis, checks, retention and objection. The Refund and Withdrawal Policy governs purchase-related remedies; an invitation reward does not remove statutory rights.
6. Cancellation, suspension and service changes
Cancel a direct web subscription through billing, the online cancellation function or service@thepending.app. Cancellation normally takes effect at the end of the paid period unless an earlier right applies. Statutory withdrawal is separate and can be exercised through our withdrawal function, email or another clear statement.
Cancel store subscriptions in Apple or Google subscription settings. Uninstalling the app or deleting your Pending account does not itself cancel store billing. An accepted self-service account-deletion request from Agency Settings, the community or the app deactivates access immediately and schedules account purge after a 14-day recovery period. Contact support during that period to request recovery. If your account owns a project with another active co-administrator or an open co-administrator invitation, self-service deletion can be blocked before deactivation. The screen identifies the projects and the support route. A previously accepted purge that is blocked or fails stays open for resolution. Contact us to resolve the shared records and your erasure request; a technical block does not remove your rights. Retained customer records, shared content and backup copies follow the separate rules described in the Privacy Policy. Export needed information beforehand.
We may suspend or terminate access for a material breach, unlawful use or non-payment, subject to proportionality, required notice and the right to remedy a breach where applicable. Content-related measures follow Section 3a. Both parties retain mandatory termination rights.
Maintenance and faults can affect availability. We may make necessary legal, security and technical changes. Other changes to paid digital services require a valid contractual/legal basis and the applicable notice, access and termination protections. We will not use a general change clause to remove mandatory rights or retrospectively reduce a purchase.
7. Liability and service quality
We are liable without limitation for intent, gross negligence, injury to life, body or health, express guarantees and liability that cannot lawfully be limited. For slight negligence affecting an essential contractual obligation, liability is limited to reasonably foreseeable loss typical of the contract to the extent permitted by law. Mandatory rights concerning defective digital products and services remain unaffected.
External opportunities and AI outputs can be inaccurate or incomplete. This does not exclude our responsibility for our own contractual duties. No blanket no-fault indemnity is imposed on consumers.
8. AI features and recommendations
AI supports search, matching, application analysis, document extraction, drafting, email classification and Spotty assistance. Review outputs before relying on them or sending them to others. We do not guarantee a hiring outcome or the correctness of every generated statement.
Operating the community includes analysis of eligible content for organisation, search and recommendations, and required publication checks for prohibited media. You cannot bypass a required publication check while publishing the affected media. Generated-media checks and semantic matching serve different purposes; failure to obtain a matching vector does not itself mean that content breaks our rules. Processing providers, data uses and choices are described in the Privacy Policy and relevant feature explanations. These Terms are not a blanket permission for optional analytics, personalised advertising, private-content search or Spotty memory.
Professional matching considers skills, experience, location, availability and stated requirements. The Job Finder gender filter uses only an express Search Profile preference. Application analysis produces advisory scores and recommendations; optional score sorting does not itself decide an application. Managers can change statuses individually or in batches and approve Spotty proposals.
You must not use an AI score as the sole basis for rejecting a candidate or another decision significantly affecting them. Review relevant original information and apply an independent assessment. Do not use health/disability, racial or ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation as inputs to automated suitability scoring or job filtering. A lawful basis for holding a document does not automatically permit every use of its contents.
Customers remain responsible for their applicable recruitment, transparency, anti-discrimination and automated-decision duties. Our own provider obligations remain ours. Contact us for an explanation or to request review of a disputed result.
Community recommendations are separate from applicant scoring. Their main inputs are expressed and inferred interests, semantic and media similarity, follows and connections, reactions, comments, saves and other eligible interactions, location, recency and previous exposure. Interest relevance and network activity weigh more than global popularity. Inferred interests weigh less than chosen interests. Diversity rules limit repetition, and eligible paid plans can add a limited feed boost. Audience restrictions still apply. Choose “Latest” in the main feed for newest-first ordering without personalised ranking there; other recommendation surfaces keep their own ordering. Optional advertising uses separate consent. These Terms do not provide that consent.
9. Customer-controlled personal data
When you decide why and how applicant, talent or CRM data is used, you are responsible as controller for lawful collection, appropriate information, accuracy, necessary access, retention and rights requests. This includes imported records and information obtained from public sources. Special-category data requires an applicable Article 9 condition in addition to an Article 6 basis; a person's participation is not blanket consent.
The following processing terms apply where we act as your processor. They must be read with the processing description, security measures and the customer-specific sub-processor schedule supplied for the service. That schedule must identify the actual recipients and transfer arrangements before they process your customer data; a general list of brands in a privacy notice is not a substitute.
- Scope and instructions. We process applicant, talent, CRM and associated correspondence data to host, organise, retrieve, analyse as instructed, share with authorised recipients, export and delete it for the duration of your use and agreed return/deletion period. Subjects include applicants, creatives, professional contacts and correspondents. Data can include identity/contact details, professional information, applications, attachments, notes, evaluations and customer-configured fields. Processing, including transfers, follows your documented instructions. We inform you of a legally required departure unless prohibited, and notify you if an instruction appears unlawful.
- Confidentiality and safeguards. Authorised personnel are bound to confidentiality. Measures include role- and account-based access restrictions, authentication, protected private-file access, encrypted transport, credential protection, request validation, rate limits and verification of relevant payment webhooks. We maintain risk-appropriate security, recovery, deletion and review arrangements and provide their applicable details to you. These Terms do not represent that every administrative account has mandatory MFA or that all backup copies expire within 30 days.
- Sub-processors. You give general written authorisation for the sub-processors identified in your agreed schedule. Before an addition or replacement processes your affected data, we give at least 360 calendar days' advance email notice identifying the provider, task, locations and objection route. We address reasonable data-protection objections before use, agree an alternative or allow termination of the affected service with a refund of unused prepaid service. Equivalent processing obligations apply downstream; we remain responsible for our sub-processor obligations.
- Assistance and incidents. Taking account of the processing and available information, we assist with rights requests, security duties, breach notifications, impact assessments and prior consultation. We notify you without undue delay on becoming aware of a personal-data breach affecting your data and provide available details and updates.
- Return and deletion. At the end of the processing service, we return or delete customer data at your choice, including copies, unless law requires retention. Recovery copies must be protected against ordinary use and erased under the agreed schedule. A retention exception does not permit unrelated reuse.
- Evidence and audit. We provide necessary compliance information and allow and contribute to audits, including inspections, by you or your mandated auditor. Practical arrangements protect other customers, confidentiality and security without removing necessary audit rights.
These processing terms prevail for their subject matter. They do not turn our independently controlled community, account, billing, advertising or security activities into processing on your instructions.
10. Law, disputes and changes
German law applies, excluding the CISG, without depriving consumers of mandatory protections in their habitual country of residence. Munich is the agreed court location only for merchants, public-law entities and public-law special funds where legally permitted; statutory consumer jurisdiction remains unchanged.
We are neither obligated nor willing to participate in proceedings before a consumer arbitration board under § 36 VSBG. Applicable content-moderation remedies remain unaffected.
Material proposed changes are communicated in advance and take effect through a legally valid process. Continued use alone is not general acceptance. Earlier purchase promises and accrued rights are preserved. If a clause is invalid, applicable law governs the resulting gap. English is the source text; offered translations and mandatory local-language protections remain applicable. Nothing here overrides a right to receive or agree contractual information in a language required by law.