Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the MyOliveTree website and your adoption of an olive tree with us. Please read them carefully. By adopting a tree, creating an account, or otherwise using our services, you agree to these Terms. We have tried to keep them plain and honest, because we would rather you understand them than be impressed by them.

1. Acceptance of these Terms

By accessing the MyOliveTree website, adopting a tree, making a purchase, or creating an account, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated here by reference. If you do not agree, please do not use our services. If you are adopting on behalf of a company or another person, you confirm that you are authorized to accept these Terms on their behalf.

2. What your adoption includes

MyOliveTree is an olive-tree adoption experience. When you adopt a tree, you receive three things:

• A personalized tree inside our map, which you can personalize and follow through the harvest season.
• Real, single-estate extra-virgin olive oil. Genuine extra-virgin olive oil, shipped to you across the season in bottles carrying your custom label. The number of bottles and shipments depends on the tier you choose.
• An adoption certificate and season updates. A keepsake certificate for your adoption, plus letters and updates from the grove as the season unfolds.

We may improve, change, suspend, or discontinue parts of the service over time as the seasons and the groves require. If a change materially affects what you have paid for, we will act reasonably and in good faith and, where appropriate, offer a fair remedy.

3. A symbolic adoption, not legal ownership

Adopting a tree is a symbolic gesture, not a legal adoption and not ownership. It is a warm, wholesome way to connect with a real tree and a real harvest, and to receive its oil. By adopting, you are supporting and helping to preserve traditional, family olive-oil production and the growers who keep it alive: the kind of small-scale work that a single good harvest keeps going for another year.

Your adoption does not transfer ownership of, title to, or any legal or possessory interest in any physical olive tree, plot of land, or grove, and it does not create any tenancy, lease, or similar right. The physical trees and the land they grow on remain the property of our partner growers at all times. What you adopt is the experience: the virtual tree, the personalized label, the season updates, and the oil described in these Terms.

4. Eligibility and your account

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to adopt a tree or create an account. To manage your adoption, follow your tree, and access the member area, you create an account with an email and password. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to keep it up to date.

• You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential.
• You are responsible for activity that happens under your account.
• Tell us promptly at info@myolivetree.it if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account.

Closing your account. You may close your account at any time by writing to us; note that closing an account does not, by itself, cancel an active subscription or refund a current term (see sections 5 and 12). We may suspend or terminate an account that materially breaches these Terms, is used fraudulently, or is used in a way that harms other adopters, the growers, or us. Where we can, and where the law requires it, we will tell you why and give you a fair chance to put things right.

5. Adoptions, subscriptions, and renewals

An adoption is a yearly, automatically renewing subscription tied to the olive season. Your subscription begins when your payment is confirmed and runs for the season term described at checkout. We offer more than one tier, each with its own bottle and shipment allowance, shown at checkout before you buy.

• Automatic renewal. So you keep your tree and your place in the grove season to season, your subscription renews automatically at the end of each yearly term, and your payment method is charged the then-current price, unless you cancel before the renewal date.
• Renewal reminder. We email you before your subscription renews, so a renewal is never a silent surprise. You stay in control.
• Cancellation. You can cancel renewal at any time from your account (through the customer portal) or by writing to info@myolivetree.it. Cancellation stops the next renewal; on its own it does not shorten, and does not automatically refund, the term you have already paid for.
• If a renewal lapses. If you do not renew, your subscription ends at the end of the paid term and your virtual tree may be released back into the grove for another adopter.

6. Gifts

An adoption can be purchased as a gift, and a gifted adoption is the same yearly, automatically renewing subscription as any other adoption. It is not a one-time purchase. Here is how the two roles work, so it is clear who pays and who receives:

• The buyer keeps the billing. If you buy a gift, you are the account holder and the billing party. Your payment method stays on the subscription, you control renewals, and you can cancel renewal at any time (see section 5). Billing does not move to the recipient.
• The recipient receives the experience. We will send the recipient a secure link to set up their access to the adoption and to provide their own shipping details, so the adoption experience and the oil go to them.
• Getting the oil there. Until the recipient provides a valid, complete shipping address, we cannot ship the gift. The claim duty in section 7 applies to the recipient for each season.

If a gift is never claimed, write to info@myolivetree.it and we will help you sort it out.

7. Claiming your harvest and confirming your address

Because the oil ships after the harvest is in, we need to know where to send it close to the time it is ready, not months earlier. So each season there is one thing we genuinely need from you.

• Your duty to claim and confirm an address. During each claim window, you (or, for a gift, the recipient) must claim that season's shipment and provide or confirm a current, complete shipping address, so we know where to send your oil.
• How the seasons work. There are typically two seasonal deliveries a year: a fresh autumn pressing (which ships in mid to late November) and a spring reserve (which ships in March). Each has its own claim window, which opens around the harvest and later closes.
• We will remind you. When a claim window opens, we make a reasonable effort to reach you, including a "claim window open" email, so a shipment does not slip past you unnoticed.
• If you do not claim in time. If you do not claim a shipment, or do not provide or confirm a valid shipping address within the window, we cannot ship that shipment. We are not responsible for shipments that are missed, delayed, or forfeited because an adoption was left unclaimed or because the address was missing, incomplete, or out of date.

8. Your tree, the harvest, and yields

We assign your named virtual tree from an available partner grove. We make every effort to give you accurate information about your tree and the grove, but living trees and working farms change with the seasons, so we cannot guarantee that any specific tree characteristic will stay the same.

Olive oil is a product of nature. Yields, timing, and character depend on weather, the harvest, milling, and the health of the trees, and we cannot guarantee a specific yield or a fixed harvest date. A single olive tree yields only a few bottles in a good year and can yield nothing after a frost, a drought, or in its natural off-year. For that reason, your adoption does not entitle you to the harvest of one specific tree, nor to the oil pressed from any single named tree, and every shipment is single-estate: the oil is milled together from one grove's trees in a single pressing, never blended across countries or cut with other oils. If a grove has a poor season, we may source your oil from another family-owned grove in our network, and we will tell you so.

9. Pricing, payment, and taxes

• Currency. All prices are shown and charged in US dollars (USD).
• Who we sell to. We sell to and ship to delivery addresses in the United States (see section 10). The consumer-protection points in these Terms about withdrawal rights, dispute resolution, and mandatory guarantees apply only to the extent a consumer's local mandatory law actually reaches the sale.
• Prices at checkout. The price of your tier, and any shipping or other fees, are shown to you at checkout before you pay. US sales tax, where it applies, is shown at checkout before you pay. Where the law of a consumer's country of residence reaches a sale and requires it, any price shown to that consumer is inclusive of the applicable value-added tax and mandatory charges. Prices may change; the price shown when you adopt or renew governs that term.
• Payment processor. Payments are handled by Stripe through Stripe-hosted checkout. We never see or store your full card number. Your use of Stripe is subject to Stripe's own terms.
• Authorization. By providing payment information you confirm you are authorized to use the payment method and that your details are accurate. You authorize us (through Stripe) to charge that method for your adoption and, for subscriptions, for each renewal at the then-current price until you cancel.
• Pricing changes. Any price change applies from your next renewal, never retroactively to a term you have already paid for.

10. Shipping and delivery

Olive oil is a seasonal, harvest-dependent product, so shipments follow the harvest rather than a fixed calendar day, and arrive across the season rather than all at once.

• Where we ship. We currently ship only to addresses in the United States. Our serving area may change over time; the options available to you are shown at checkout.
• How many shipments. Depending on your tier, your oil arrives across one or more shipments through the season, in bottles carrying your custom label.
• Packaging. We use protective, light-shielding packaging designed to help your oil arrive in good condition.
• Accurate address. We ship to the address you provide. Please make sure it is complete and correct; we are not responsible for delays or losses caused by an incorrect or incomplete address, or by an unclaimed shipment (see section 7).
• Timelines. Delivery timelines are estimates and can be affected by the harvest, milling, bottling, carriers, and customs. We will keep you posted when your oil is on its way.
• Damaged or lost shipments. If your oil arrives damaged or broken, or does not arrive, write to info@myolivetree.it and we will make it right, normally by sending a replacement. We do not shift the risk of a damaged or lost parcel onto you: as your seller, we stand behind the shipment until it reaches you, and nothing here reduces your mandatory consumer rights.

11. Customs and import fees

For any shipment that crosses a border, any customs duties, taxes, or import fees are the responsibility of the person receiving the shipment (which, for a gift, is the recipient), and we are not responsible for delays caused by customs or other regulatory processes. Where such fees apply, we will try to be clear about it before you buy.

12. Refunds, cancellation, and your right to withdraw

Refunds. Every adoption is personalized and prepared specially for you: your custom label, your named tree, and a fresh, single-estate food product milled for the season. For that reason we do not offer refunds once an adoption has been purchased.

If something arrives wrong, we make it right. If your oil arrives damaged, broken, leaking, or otherwise defective, write to info@myolivetree.it as soon as you can, with a photo if you have one, and we will put it right, normally by sending a replacement. Real people read every email.

Cancelling renewal stops your next charge and ends future terms; you can cancel at any time from your account or by writing to us. Cancellation does not shorten or refund the term you are already in.

Depending on where you live, you may have a statutory cooling-off or withdrawal right for distance purchases. Please note that this right may not apply to goods that are made to your specifications or clearly personalized, for example bottles printed with your custom label, once production has begun. Nothing in these Terms limits or removes any mandatory consumer-protection rights you have under the law of your country of residence, including your rights if a product is faulty or not as described.

13. Your custom label and virtual tree

You may add a name, a message, and an optional uploaded image to your bottle label and your virtual tree. You are responsible for what you submit, and you confirm that you have the right to use it. You must not submit content that:

• infringes anyone's intellectual property, privacy, or other rights;
• is unlawful, defamatory, hateful, obscene, misleading, or deceptive; or
• impersonates another person or brand without authorization, or uses trademarks, logos, or copyrighted material you are not permitted to use.

You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use the content you submit solely to produce your label, render your virtual tree, and provide the service to you. We may decline to print or display content that breaches these Terms, and we will contact you if we do. The content you submit remains yours.

14. Visiting the groves

Our partner groves are working farms and, in some cases, private homes. Adopters are welcome to visit by prior arrangement, typically around the autumn harvest. A visit is by invitation and arrangement only; adopting a tree does not grant any right of access to any property. When you visit, you follow the grower's safety instructions and you visit at your own risk.

15. Acceptable use

You agree not to use our services:

• for any unlawful or fraudulent purpose, or in violation of any law;
• to transmit harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content;
• to interfere with or disrupt the website, its security, its servers, or its infrastructure;
• to attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems, or to accounts or data that are not yours;
• to impersonate any person or entity;
• to collect or store personal information about other users;
• to scrape, harvest, or systematically extract data from the service; or
• to resell, reproduce, or commercially exploit the service, the grove map, or our content without our express written permission.

16. Intellectual property

The MyOliveTree name, logo, website, grove map, artwork, text, photography, and software are owned by us or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the website for your own non-commercial use as an adopter. You may not reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from our content without our express written permission. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. Content you submit remains yours, subject to the license in section 13.

17. Disclaimers

We put real care into the oil and the experience, but, except for the warranties that cannot be excluded by law, the website and the digital experience are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. In particular, we do not warrant that:

• the website or digital experience will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free;
• the results obtained from using them will be accurate or reliable;
• any defects or errors will be corrected; or
• the website or its servers are free of viruses or other harmful components.

This does not affect the statutory quality and conformity guarantees that apply to the olive oil we sell you, which remain fully in force. Olive harvests are subject to nature: yields, timing, and characteristics vary from season to season, and our descriptions of the groves, the harvest, and season updates are given in good faith and may change. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain implied warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you.

Food and allergens. Our product is extra-virgin olive oil. If you have a food allergy or a specific dietary concern, please check the product information or ask us before consuming.

18. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, MyOliveTree, and its partner growers, staff, and suppliers acting on our behalf, will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, arising out of or relating to your use of the service. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service or an adoption is limited to the amount you paid to us for that adoption in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim. The protections in this section are intended to benefit our partner growers, staff, and suppliers as well as MyOliveTree, and they may rely on this section as if they were a party to these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or under any mandatory consumer-protection law. Some of the limitations above may not apply to you to the extent your local law does not allow them.

19. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless MyOliveTree and the growers in its network from any claims, damages, losses, and reasonable costs (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the service, your infringement of another party's rights, or the content you submit (including your label and virtual-tree content). This does not apply to the extent a claim results from our own negligence or wrongdoing.

20. Governing law and disputes

These Terms, and any dispute arising out of or relating to them or to our services, are governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which MyOliveTree operates, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. If you are a consumer, you also keep the benefit of any mandatory consumer-protection rights of the law of your country of residence, and nothing here overrides them.

We would always rather resolve a problem directly, so please write to info@myolivetree.it first and give us a fair chance to make it right; most things are sorted out with a single, human reply. If we cannot resolve a complaint directly, you may be entitled to use an alternative dispute resolution body available in your country of residence, and nothing here removes your right to bring a claim before the courts. Any dispute that is not resolved informally will be subject to the competent courts, subject to any mandatory consumer forum rules that apply to you.

21. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, give reasonable notice (for example, by email or a notice on the site). Changes apply going forward; the version in force when you adopt or renew governs that term.

22. Miscellaneous

• Severability. If any provision is found invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, it will be adjusted only to the minimum extent needed to make it valid, and the rest of the Terms stay in full force and effect.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce a right, that is not a waiver of it.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them as part of a merger, acquisition, or reorganization, without reducing your rights.
• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the service, and supersede all prior agreements and understandings on the subject.

23. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Write to info@myolivetree.it. Real people read every email.