Terms of service

These terms apply when you buy the Audit or sign a retainer with Authority AS ("Authority," "we," "us"). They're short on purpose. By completing checkout you agree to them.

1. Services

Audit: we deliver the Shortlist Method audit as described on /audit. Notion document, Loom walkthrough, spreadsheet, top-20 fixes, and a 90-day roadmap, by end of business on Day 5.

Retainer: we deliver the work specified in your tier as described on /retainer: prompt tracking, optimized content production, schema implementation, earned mention outreach, and reporting.

2. Fees and payment

All prices in USD. Stripe processes payments. Audit is paid in full at checkout. Retainers bill monthly on the day of first payment, net-0. Retainer minimum term is 3 months for Launch and Growth, 6 months for Authority. After the minimum, retainers are month-to-month with 30 days' written notice to cancel.

3. Refunds

Audit: full refund (less Stripe fees) within 14 days of delivery if fewer than 5 actionable issues are documented in the deliverable, or if delivery is more than one business day late. No refund after Day 19.

Retainer: no refund on paid months. If we fail to deliver the agreed monthly work for two consecutive months (documented in the retainer SOP), you may cancel immediately with pro-rata credit. If by end of month 3 your citation rate has not moved on priority prompts, you receive month 4 free or may exit, no questions.

4. Confidentiality

We keep confidential anything you mark confidential, and anything a reasonable observer would treat as confidential — pricing, customer lists, internal strategy, source code. We may reference the engagement publicly (e.g. "Authority works with B2B SaaS companies in [category]") without naming you, unless you agree otherwise. Public case studies require explicit written consent.

5. Ownership

All work product (audit deliverable, content, schema, dashboards) is yours after delivery and payment. We retain the right to use anonymized aggregate data and methodology learnings — never your specific results — to improve the service.

Authority retains ownership of the Audit Engine, prompt library, scoring methodology, and any tooling built to deliver the service. You receive the outputs, not the engine.

6. The Shortlist Index

The Shortlist Index is a separate, public benchmark. If your company is included in the Index, your score reflects what AI engines say about you — we do not adjust scores in exchange for becoming a customer or for any reason. Being a retainer client does not influence your Index score. See the Index methodology for details.

7. Liability cap

Authority's total liability for any claim under these terms is capped at the amount you've paid us in the 12 months before the claim. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, lost revenue, or lost data — including AI search ranking changes outside our control.

8. Compliance and data

Both parties comply with applicable law including GDPR. See our privacy policy for data handling. You represent that you have the authority to grant us access to your domain, content, and any third-party tools you connect.

9. Termination

Either party can terminate for material breach with 30 days' written notice and an opportunity to cure. Either party can terminate for convenience under the rules in §2 (audit: paid in full; retainer: 30-day notice after minimum term). On termination, you keep all delivered work product; we keep our methodology.

10. Governing law

These terms are governed by Norwegian law. Disputes are resolved in the courts of Arendal, Norway. If you're a US company, we'll meet you halfway and accept arbitration in a neutral venue if a dispute escalates beyond email.

11. Modifications

We may update these terms with 30 days' notice. Existing engagements remain on the terms in effect when they began.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms? ivar@authority.as.

Authority AS · Org. nr.: [TBD on registration] · Arendal, Norway