General Terms and Conditions on Provision of Interactive Services and Content

1. Definitions

"General Terms and Conditions" - this document.

“Operator” or “VivaCell-MTS” - “MTS Armenia” Closed Joint Stock Company, a company duly established and licensed to provide pubic electronic communication services in the Republic of Armenia.

“Value-Added Services Provider” or “VASP” - the person or entity contracted by the Operator for provision of interactive service or electronic content to the Subscriber. The list of interactive services and electronic content available to the Subscribers, the VASP's contact details, the VASP's Websites and the Service Fees are posted on the Operator’s Website. In case no other person or entity is specified on the Operator's Website as the VASP for a particular interactive services or electronic content, such service or content shall be deemed provided by the Operator, and the Operator shall be deemed referred to herein as the VASP for such service or content.

“Subscriber” - any prepaid or postpaid subscriber to the Operator's pubic electronic communication services.

“Service” – provision of interactive service or electronic content to the Subscriber based on the Subscriber's Request.

“Service Fee” - the fee to be charged to the Subscriber for the Service requested by the Subscriber. The Service Fee is the final amount payable by the Subscriber for the requested Service.

“Request” - any request, including any message, code, command, call or signal, received by the Operator from Subscriber’s number via SMS, IVR, USSD, or other means generally used for making requests for Services, as described on the Operator’s Website.

“IVR” - Interactive Voice Response system.

“SMS” - Short Messaging System, or, depending on the context, message sent via the Short Messaging System.

“USSD” - Unstructured Supplementary Service Data.

“Operator’s Website” - the Operator's official website posted at the www.mts.am web-address.

“VASP’s Website” - the website of the VASP specified on the Operator’s Website.

“Party” - the Operator, the VASP or the Subscriber.

2. General Terms and Conditions

2.1. This document defines the general terms and conditions of providing the Services by the Operator to the Subscribers.

2.2. The Operator assures that each VASP listed on the Operator’s Website has been familiarized with and has undertaken to abide by the requirements of the General Terms and Conditions.

2.3. The terms and conditions generally applicable to the electronic communication services provided by the Operator according to the respective subscription agreement, which do not contradict to the General Terms and Conditions, shall be deemed included herein by reference and shall apply to the Services.

3. Special Terms and Conditions

3.1. Provision of each Service may be subject to special terms and conditions published on the Operator's Website and/or the VASP's Website.

3.2. The numbers or codes used for accessing the Services, the Services assigned to any numbers or codes, as well as the Special Terms and Conditions and the Service Fees applicable to each Service may be changed from time to time without prior notice. Such changes are only required to be posted on the Operator’s Website and, if applicable, on the VASP’s Website. Further, it is understood that the Special Terms and Conditions may not be reflected in full detail in the Operator's or VASP's advertising and promotional materials. Therefore, the Subscribers shall undertake to familiarize themselves with the Special Terms and Conditions and the Service Fees before using any Service.

3.3. These General Terms and Conditions together with the Special Terms and Conditions applicable to a particular Service shall be considered as a public offer made by the Operator to the Subscribers for provision of such Service. The Operator's public offer shall be deemed understood and accepted by the Subscriber and shall constitute a binding agreement regulating the relations between the Subscriber, the Operator, the VASP, and, if applicable, third parties, upon receipt of Subscriber's Request by the Operator.

4. Services

4.1. The Services shall be provided based on the Subscriber's Requests. The Subscribers' Requests are relayed by the Operator to the VASPs and are processed by the latter, and any traffic between the Subscribers and the VASPs are relayed by the Operator without any modification of content.

4.2. The Operator does not guarantee suitability of any Service for any specific purpose. The Subscribers shall use the Services at their own risk and responsibility. Unless specified otherwise, the Services shall not be used by the Subscribers for commercial purposes.

4.3. The Services are accessible within the Operator’s network coverage. Accessibility of the Services greatly depends on the technical capacity of the Operator and the VASP, as well as other factors out of their control.

4.4. Shall the Subscriber experience any problem with using the Services, such problems shall be reported to the Operator or the VASP within 24 hours. No claims shall be accepted thereafter.

5. Rights and Obligations of the Parties

5.1. The Operator shall have the right to modify, suspend or cancel any Service at any time without prior notice.

5.2. The Operator shall be obliged to:

    5.2.1.    provide the Services upon receiving the Subscribers' Requests;

    5.2.2.    keep records about the Requests received from the Subscribers for a period of 2 (two) months and charge the Subscribers in accordance with such records;

    5.2.3.    provide customer support services to the Subscriber.

5.3. The Subscriber shall:

    5.3.1.    familiarize oneself with and abide by the General Terms and Conditions and the applicable Special Terms and Conditions in effect at the time of submitting a Request;

    5.3.2.    use a suitable mobile device for submitting Requests and receiving  the Services;

    5.3.3.    pay for its Requests;

    5.3.4.    refrain from using the Services for any illegal purpose or in a manner that may cause disturbance to or infringement of rights of any person;

    5.3.5.    refrain from reselling the Service or disseminating any content received hereunder without prior written consent of the Operator.

6. Payment for Services

6.1. For each Request submitted to the Operator, the Subscriber shall be charged the relevant Service Fee.

6.2. In case of a prepaid subscription, the Service Fee will be deducted from Subscriber’s account balance. In case of a postpaid subscription, the Service Fee will be reflected in the Subscriber’s monthly invoice.

6.3. The Operator shall not check the validity of the Subscriber Requests and shall relay them to the VASP. Unless specified otherwise, in case the Subscriber Request does not comply with the Operator's or VASP’s requirements or the Subscriber’s mobile handset is not suitable for using the requested Service, the Service Fee shall, nevertheless, be charged to the Subscriber’s account as if the Services were duly requested and provided. To the extent technically possible, the Subscriber will be notified that his Request was invalid.

6.5. The Subscriber may be entitled to a refund only in case the requested Service was inaccessible or unavailable due to a fault on the side of the Operator and/or the VASP.

6.6. Notwithstanding other terms of the “General Terms and Conditions”, the Operator may charge amounts from the VASP for the provision of telecommunication services to the Subscribers requested by the VASP.

7. Support

7.1. The Operator may be unable to address all of the Subscriber’s questions related to the Services and may forward those to the VASPs.

8. Limitation of Liability

8.1. It is the responsibility of the VASP to make sure that the Services are not prohibited by the law or infringing upon public values, common ethical norms, intellectual property rights or any other right of any person or entity. No provision of the General Terms and Conditions or Special Terms and Conditions or action (or lack of action) of the Operator shall be considered as the Operator’s express or implied approval, endorsement or assurance of any content.

8.2. The submitting Requests, the Subscribers agree to indemnify and hold the Operator harmless from any claims related to the content or suitability of the Services.

8.3. Under no circumstances shall the Operator and the VASP bear liability for any direct, indirect incidental or consequential damage or loss (including loss of business, loss of opportunity or alike) resulting from unsuitability, inaccessibility, unavailability or termination of any Service, other than to refund to the Subscriber the amount charged for Services that were unavailable or unusable due to the Operator’s or the VASP’s fault.

8.4. The liability of the Operator and/or the VASP to the Subscriber in any case may not exceed the amount of the particular Service Fee charged from the Subscriber’s account.

9. Intellectual Property Rights

9.1. The right to use any copyrightable content comprising part of the Service shall be deemed granted to the Subscriber by the VASP and shall be limited to the Subscriber's personal use without the right of using it for commercial purposes or disseminating.

10. Applicable Law and Dispute Resolution

10.1. The relations between the Parties in connection with the Services shall be regulated by the law of the Republic of Armenia.

10.2. The Parties shall endeavor to resolve any dispute through negotiations and consultations, and if not amicably resolved, such disputes shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the competent courts of the Republic of Armenia.