Acceptable Use Policy
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Acceptable Use Policy
Popeye Cloud — a business unit of Popeye BV
Effective date: 14 April 2025 · Last updated: 14 April 2025
1. Scope of Services and Users
This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) applies to all hosting, cloud infrastructure, domain, email, and related managed services (collectively, the “Services”) offered by Popeye Cloud, operated by Popeye BV, a company incorporated under Belgian law.
This policy binds:
- Direct customers who have entered into a service agreement with Popeye Cloud;
- Any end user, employee, contractor, or agent who accesses the Services on behalf of a customer;
- Third-party beneficiaries who interact with websites, applications, or systems hosted on our infrastructure.
By activating or using the Services, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to comply with this AUP. This policy forms part of, and is incorporated into, Popeye Cloud’s Terms and Conditions.
2. Permitted Use
The Services may be used for lawful purposes that are consistent with this AUP and all applicable laws. Permitted uses include, but are not limited to:
- Hosting business websites, web applications, and e-commerce platforms;
- Running content management systems (CMS), databases, and related middleware;
- Sending transactional or marketing email communications via authorised platforms;
- Operating internal tools, staging environments, and development workloads;
- Storing and serving non-infringing digital content to authorised users.
Customers are responsible for ensuring that all workloads deployed on our infrastructure are compatible with this policy and with applicable Belgian and European Union law.
3. Prohibited Use
The following activities are strictly prohibited on Popeye Cloud infrastructure. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive.
Illegal content & activities
- Hosting, transmitting, or distributing content that is illegal under Belgian law, EU law, or the law of the recipient’s jurisdiction;
- Storage or distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any content that exploits minors;
- Facilitating gambling, weapons trading, or controlled substance distribution where not legally licensed;
- Any activity that violates EU sanctions regulations or those of other applicable jurisdictions.
Security & network abuse
- Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks;
- Port scanning or network probing without authorisation;
- Deployment of malware, ransomware, or other malicious software;
- Phishing, spoofing, or credential theft;
- Unauthorised access to third-party systems;
- Cryptocurrency mining without the explicit consent of the resource owner;
- Exploiting server or application vulnerabilities;
- Operating open mail relays or conducting spam campaigns.
Content violations
- Publishing content that constitutes hate speech, incitement to violence, or harassment;
- Infringing third-party intellectual property rights (copyright, trademarks, patents);
- Distributing unsolicited bulk email (spam) or conducting phishing operations;
- Hosting content that impersonates Popeye BV or any other legal entity.
High-risk & restricted activities
- High-risk financial services (unlicensed payment processing, unregulated crypto exchanges) without prior written approval from Popeye Cloud;
- Mass automated scraping of third-party services in violation of their terms;
- Running anonymisation or proxy services intended to circumvent legal obligations.
Popeye Cloud reserves the right to determine, at its sole discretion, whether any activity not listed above violates the spirit of this AUP and to act accordingly.
4. Compliance with Applicable Laws & Regulations
Customers must comply with all laws and regulations applicable to their use of the Services, including but not limited to:
- GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) — all personal data processed via our infrastructure must be handled lawfully, fairly, and transparently;
- Belgian Privacy Law (Wet van 30 juli 2018) and applicable sector-specific regulations;
- EU Sanctions & Export Controls — customers may not use our Services to deal with individuals, entities, or countries subject to EU, UN, or Belgian sanctions regimes;
- NIS2 Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2555) — operators of essential or important services must comply with applicable cybersecurity obligations;
- ePrivacy Directive — tracking technologies (cookies, pixels) must be deployed in compliance with applicable consent requirements;
- Consumer protection law — any e-commerce or consumer-facing service must comply with the Belgian Code of Economic Law (CEL) and applicable EU Directives on consumer rights.
Popeye BV operates exclusively within the European Economic Area (EEA) and applies EU data protection standards by default. We do not knowingly provide services to sanctioned persons or entities.
5. Platform Rules & Misuse Prevention
To maintain the integrity, security, and availability of the Services for all customers, the following platform rules apply.
Resource usage
- Customers may not consume resources (CPU, bandwidth, storage, connections) in a manner that degrades the experience of other users on shared infrastructure;
- Automated processes must respect rate limits and may not be used to artificially inflate resource consumption;
- Dedicated and VPS customers are responsible for securing and patching their own operating systems and applications.
Security obligations
- Customers must maintain secure credentials and may not share access with unauthorised individuals;
- Any discovered vulnerability in Popeye Cloud systems must be reported promptly to security@popeye.cloud and not exploited;
- Customers are responsible for implementing appropriate security measures (firewalls, access controls, backups) within their hosted environments.
Content integrity
- Customers may not host content that is deceptive, fraudulent, or designed to mislead end users;
- Counterfeit goods, fake review services, and artificial engagement platforms are prohibited;
- Automated systems (bots, scrapers, crawlers) must identify themselves truthfully via appropriate headers or user-agent strings.
6. Third Parties & Sub-Users
Customers who resell or provide access to the Services to third parties (end clients, sub-users, or sub-tenants) remain fully responsible for ensuring those parties comply with this AUP.
- Resellers and agencies must incorporate the substance of this AUP into their own agreements with end users;
- Popeye Cloud accepts no direct contractual relationship with sub-users unless explicitly agreed in writing;
- Customers are liable for any violation of this AUP committed by their sub-users or any third party to whom they grant access to the Services;
- Customers must respond promptly to requests from Popeye Cloud to investigate or remediate AUP violations attributed to their account or sub-users;
- Where sub-users process personal data, customers must ensure appropriate data processing agreements are in place as required by GDPR.
7. Monitoring & Enforcement
Popeye Cloud reserves the right to monitor usage of its infrastructure to the extent necessary to ensure compliance with this AUP, applicable law, and the security of our network. Monitoring may include automated detection of abuse patterns, network traffic analysis, and review of abuse reports submitted by third parties.
Enforcement actions
In the event of a suspected or confirmed violation of this AUP, Popeye Cloud may, at its discretion and without prior notice where urgency requires:
- Issue a warning and require the customer to remedy the violation within a specified period;
- Temporarily suspend access to all or part of the Services pending investigation or remediation;
- Remove or disable specific content, applications, or configurations causing the violation;
- Terminate the service agreement with immediate effect in cases of serious or repeated violations;
- Report illegal activity to competent Belgian or EU authorities, including law enforcement agencies, as required by law.
Where circumstances permit, Popeye Cloud will notify the customer of the violation and provide a reasonable opportunity to respond before taking enforcement action. No refund is due for any period of suspension or termination resulting from an AUP violation.
Emergency suspension may occur without prior notice if Popeye Cloud determines that continued operation poses an immediate risk to network integrity, third parties, or legal compliance.
8. Contact & Abuse Reporting
To report an AUP violation, suspected abuse, or to request clarification of this policy, please contact us:
| Purpose | Contact |
|---|---|
| Abuse reports | abuse@popeye.cloud |
| Security issues | security@popeye.cloud |
| General enquiries | legal@popeye.cloud |
We aim to acknowledge all reports within one (1) business day and to resolve confirmed violations promptly.
Popeye Cloud reserves the right to amend this AUP at any time. Customers will be notified of material changes with a minimum of 30 days’ notice. Continued use of the Services following such notice constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.
Popeye BV · Registered in Belgium · This document is subject to Belgian law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Antwerp.