Terms of Service

Last updated: 12 May 2026

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") govern your access to and use of Cicadas (the "Service"), operated by TJM TECH, a French Société par Actions Simplifiée Unipersonnelle (SASU) registered with the Toulon Trade and Companies Register under number 952 741 700, whose registered office is at 369 avenue Marcel Castié, 83000 Toulon, France ("Cicadas", "we", "us", "our").

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. The Service

Cicadas is an AI-powered platform that processes audio, video, and other media content (primarily podcast episodes) to generate derivative outputs, including transcriptions, episode summaries, show notes, quote extractions, social media posts, audio enhancements, and video clips where available.

The Service is provided through our website and is delivered as Software-as-a-Service. We may add, modify, or remove features over time. Material changes to your subscribed plan's features will be communicated with reasonable notice.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into binding contracts to use the Service. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us promptly at security@cicadas.fm if you suspect unauthorized access.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, including repeated abuse of the free tier (see Section 5).

3. Subscriptions, billing, and renewal

3.1 Plans and pricing

The Service is offered in three tiers: a free tier and two paid tiers ("Solo Pro" and "Agency"). Current pricing, features, and usage limits are published on our pricing page. Paid plans are billed in advance, monthly or annually, in the currency displayed at checkout.

3.2 Pre-contractual information

Before you subscribe to a paid plan, we provide you in a clear and comprehensible manner with the essential characteristics of the Service, the total price (including taxes), the duration of the subscription, the conditions of automatic renewal, the conditions and consequences of cancellation, your right of withdrawal and its exceptions, and our identity and contact details, in accordance with Articles L.221-5 and L.221-11 of the French Consumer Code.

A recap is displayed before final validation of your subscription and confirmed by email immediately after subscription on a durable medium.

3.3 Automatic renewal

Paid subscriptions renew automatically for successive periods of the same duration as the initial subscription, at the then-current price for your plan, unless cancelled before the renewal date.

For consumers and non-professional users residing in France — Annual plans: in accordance with Article L.215-1 of the French Consumer Code (loi Chatel), we will notify you between three (3) months and one (1) month before each annual renewal date of your option not to renew. If we fail to provide this notice, you may terminate the renewed subscription free of charge at any time after the renewal date, and any amounts paid in advance from the date of termination will be refunded within thirty (30) days.

Monthly subscriptions are not subject to the loi Chatel notice obligation because each monthly term renews independently. You retain the right to cancel monthly subscriptions at any time as described in Section 3.4.

3.4 Cancellation — 3-click cancellation function

In accordance with Article L.215-1-1 of the French Consumer Code, we provide a free, permanent, direct, and easily accessible online cancellation function ("Résilier mon abonnement") for all subscriptions, accessible:

• From the footer of every page of cicadas.fm when you are logged into your account;
• From your account settings under "Subscription".

The cancellation flow includes:

1. Step 1 — Notify: click "Résilier mon abonnement" and confirm the contract you wish to cancel;
2. Step 2 — Recap: review the consequences of cancellation, including the date on which access ends, any notice period, and any sums that remain due;
3. Step 3 — Validate: confirm the cancellation request.

We confirm receipt of your cancellation by email on a durable medium and provide a date of receipt.

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period (monthly or annual, depending on your plan). You retain access to the Service and to your data until that date. No partial refund is due for the remainder of the period, except where mandatory law provides otherwise (see Section 3.6).

3.5 Right of withdrawal (French and EU consumers, and certain small businesses)

3.5.1 Who is concerned

Under Article L.221-18 of the French Consumer Code, the following persons benefit from a fourteen (14) day right of withdrawal, without giving any reason and without penalty:

• Consumers (natural persons acting outside the scope of their professional activity);
• Non-professional users — namely legal persons who conclude a contract with no direct connection to their professional activity;
• Professionals whose main activity is unrelated to the contract and who employ five (5) or fewer employees, in accordance with Article L.221-3 of the French Consumer Code.

The withdrawal period runs from the day the contract is concluded.

3.5.2 Express request to start the Service immediately — waiver of withdrawal right

Because the Service is a digital service ("contenu numérique sans support matériel") whose execution begins immediately upon subscription, subscription to any paid plan is subject to your express request to begin performance immediately and your express acknowledgment of the consequences thereof.

At the moment of subscription, before payment is processed, you are asked to confirm the following two statements through separate consent actions:

☐ "I expressly request that performance of the Service begin immediately, before the end of the fourteen-day withdrawal period."

☐ "I expressly acknowledge that I will lose my right of withdrawal once the Service has been fully performed by Cicadas, in accordance with Article L.221-28 13° of the French Consumer Code."

By confirming both statements and completing your subscription, you:

• request that Cicadas begin providing the Service immediately;
• acknowledge that your right of withdrawal will be lost once the Service has been fully performed;
• accept that, should you wish to exercise your right of withdrawal before the Service has been fully performed, you will owe Cicadas an amount proportional to the portion of the Service already provided, in accordance with Article L.221-25 of the French Consumer Code.

A confirmation containing these statements and the date and time you confirmed them is sent to your email on a durable medium immediately after subscription.

If you do not wish to make this express request, you should not subscribe to a paid plan. The free tier remains available without any waiver of rights.

3.5.3 How to exercise the right of withdrawal

To exercise your right of withdrawal within fourteen (14) days, send any unambiguous statement of your decision to withdraw to billing@cicadas.fm.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication before the fourteen-day period has expired.

3.5.4 Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw, we will refund all amounts received from you, using the same means of payment used for the initial transaction unless you expressly agree otherwise, no later than fourteen (14) days from the day on which we are informed of your decision to withdraw. The refund will incur no additional cost for you.

In accordance with Article L.242-4 of the Consumer Code, if we fail to reimburse you within the fourteen-day period, the sum owed will be increased: by the legal interest rate if up to ten days late; by 5% if eleven to twenty days late; by 10% if twenty-one to thirty days late; by 20% if thirty-one to sixty days late; by 50% if sixty-one to ninety days late; and by five percentage points per additional month, up to the price of the Service, beyond ninety days.

3.5.5 Extension of the withdrawal period

If we fail to provide you with the pre-contractual information regarding your right of withdrawal as required by Article L.221-5 of the Consumer Code, the withdrawal period is extended by twelve (12) months. If we provide that information during this extension, the withdrawal period expires fourteen (14) days after the information is received.

3.6 No refunds outside the legal withdrawal right

All sales are final. Subscription fees, including any annual prepayment, are non-refundable.

The only exceptions to this rule are those required by mandatory law, namely:

• the right of withdrawal described in Section 3.5, where it has not been waived and is exercised within the fourteen-day window;
• any refund obligation arising from our failure to perform the Service in accordance with these Terms or with statutory guarantees, including the legal guarantee of conformity for digital services under Articles L.224-25-12 et seq. of the French Consumer Code.

Outside these legal exceptions, we do not refund or credit:

• partial months following a mid-cycle cancellation;
• unused minutes, unused features, or unused capacity at the end of any billing period;
• annual subscriptions cancelled after the first fourteen days;
• subscriptions where the user forgot to cancel before automatic renewal;
• subscriptions used during a period when the user did not log in or process content;
• changes in your podcast strategy, business needs, or content plans.

Cancellation prevents future charges, as described in Section 3.4, but does not trigger a refund of amounts already paid.

3.7 Price changes

We may change pricing for paid plans. Existing subscribers will be notified at least thirty (30) days before any price increase applies to their subscription. Continued use after the new price takes effect constitutes acceptance. You may cancel before the new price applies, in accordance with Section 3.4, without penalty.

3.8 Taxes

Prices are exclusive of applicable taxes (including VAT) unless stated otherwise. Taxes are added at checkout where applicable.

3.9 Failed payments

If a renewal payment fails, we will retry the charge over several days and notify you by email. If payment cannot be collected, we may suspend access to the paid features and revert your account to the free tier. We will not delete Your Content for non-payment alone; deletion follows the timeline in Section 13.

4. Your content and your responsibilities

4.1 Content you provide

"Your Content" means any audio file, video file, text, RSS feed, image, metadata, or other material you upload to or generate through the Service, including outputs produced by the Service from your inputs.

You retain all rights to Your Content. We do not claim ownership of it.

4.2 License to operate the Service

You grant us a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, transmit, and create derivative works from Your Content solely to provide the Service to you. This license terminates when you delete Your Content or close your account, except where we are legally required to retain copies (e.g., for tax or audit purposes).

4.3 You are responsible for what you upload

You represent and warrant that:

• You own Your Content or have all necessary rights, licenses, and consents to upload and process it through the Service.
• Your Content does not infringe any third party's intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights.
• You have obtained any consents required from people whose voices, names, likenesses, images, faces, or personal data appear in Your Content (notably podcast guests, callers, or people appearing in uploaded media).
• You have all necessary rights, licenses, and consents for any third-party footage, music, images, or other protected material included in Your Content.
• Your Content complies with applicable law.

You — not Cicadas — are responsible for the lawful basis for processing personal data contained in Your Content. We act as a data processor on your behalf for that data.

4.4 We do not pre-screen content

We do not actively review uploaded content, but we may remove or refuse to process content that we reasonably believe violates these Terms or applicable law.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• Upload or generate content that is illegal, defamatory, harassing, hateful, or that depicts or facilitates child sexual exploitation;
• Infringe intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of third parties;
• Distribute malware or attempt to compromise the integrity or security of the Service;
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or scrape the Service except as expressly permitted by mandatory law;
• Resell, sublicense, or white-label the Service without our written agreement (this does not prevent agencies on the Agency plan from using outputs for client work);
• Circumvent usage limits, including by creating multiple free accounts to extend free-tier usage; or
• Use automated means to overload, disrupt, or impair the Service.

Violation of this section may result in immediate suspension or termination without refund.

6. AI-generated outputs

The Service uses third-party large language models and AI processing systems to generate text, audio, visual, and video-derived outputs from your inputs, including clips where available. You acknowledge and agree that:

• AI outputs may contain errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or fabricated information ("hallucinations"). We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of AI-generated content.
• You are solely responsible for reviewing AI outputs before publishing, distributing, or relying on them.
• You should not use AI outputs in contexts where errors could cause material harm (e.g., medical, legal, or financial advice) without independent verification.
• To the extent any rights subsist in AI outputs under applicable law, ownership of those outputs as between you and Cicadas is assigned to you, subject to your compliance with these Terms.
• We make no representation that AI outputs are protected by copyright or any other intellectual property right. Under French and EU law, AI-generated content without sufficient human authorship may not qualify for copyright protection.

7. Our intellectual property

The Service, including its software, user interface, brand, name, logo, design system, and documentation, is owned by Cicadas or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right to use our trademarks, logos, or trade dress without our prior written consent.

8. Privacy and data protection

Our processing of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms.

For business customers processing personal data of third parties (e.g., podcast guests) through the Service, we act as a data processor in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR. A standalone Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available on request at privacy@cicadas.fm.

9. Third-party services

The Service relies on third-party providers (for cloud infrastructure, payment processing, AI processing, email and communications, and analytics and monitoring). The use of those providers is subject to our Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of third-party services we link to from the Service.

10. Warranty disclaimer

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

This disclaimer does not affect mandatory statutory guarantees applicable to consumers under French and EU law, including the legal guarantee of conformity (Articles L.217-3 et seq. of the French Consumer Code) and the warranty against hidden defects (Articles 1641 et seq. of the French Civil Code).

11. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the amounts you paid to us in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or one hundred euros (€100), whichever is greater.

We shall not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, revenue, data, or business opportunities, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Nothing in this Section limits or excludes liability for: (i) death or personal injury caused by our negligence; (ii) fraud or willful misconduct; or (iii) any other liability that cannot be excluded under applicable mandatory law.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Cicadas harmless from any third-party claims, damages, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (i) Your Content, (ii) your breach of these Terms, or (iii) your violation of applicable law or third-party rights. This provision does not apply to consumers to the extent prohibited by applicable consumer protection law.

13. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or terminate your account at any time for material breach of these Terms, abusive behavior, non-payment, suspected fraud, or where required by law. Where reasonably possible, we will provide notice and an opportunity to cure.

You may close your account at any time from your account settings.

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases. We will retain Your Content for thirty (30) days after termination to allow recovery, after which it will be deleted, except where we are required to retain it by law. Where termination is for material breach, fraud, or violation of acceptable use, we may delete Your Content immediately and without the thirty-day recovery period.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified by email and/or in-product at least thirty (30) days before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after the changes take effect constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, you may cancel your subscription before the changes take effect.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by French law, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

For consumers: nothing in these Terms deprives you of mandatory consumer protections available under the law of the country where you reside, and disputes may be brought before the courts of that country.

For business users: any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be brought exclusively before the competent courts of Toulon.

15.1 Consumer mediation

In accordance with Article L.612-1 of the French Consumer Code, in case of a dispute that could not be resolved amicably, consumers residing in France may refer the matter free of charge to the following consumer mediator:

Centre de Médiation et d'Arbitrage de Paris (CMAP)

• Address: 39 avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 75008 Paris
• Website: https://www.cmap.fr

15.2 ODR platform (EU consumers)

EU consumers may also access the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

16. Miscellaneous

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any subscription order, constitute the entire agreement between you and Cicadas regarding the Service.
• Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect.
• No waiver. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to applicable law.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond reasonable control.
• Language. These Terms are drafted in English. A French translation may be made available; in case of inconsistency, the English version prevails, except where mandatory law provides otherwise for consumers.

17. Contact

For any question regarding these Terms please contact us hello@cicadas.fm