Terms and Conditions
These Terms and Conditions apply to your use of the website www.pearlsofportugal.com and any associated mobile applications (together, the “Website”), and to the platform available at clientarea.pearlsofportugal.com (the “Platform”), operated by Pearls of Portugal Lda.
1. Who We Are
Pearls of Portugal Lda is the owner and operator of the Website and the Platform.
Company name: Pearls of Portugal Lda
Single registration and taxpayer number (NIPC): 514819960
Rua de Camões 218, 1.º Andar, Sala 2
4000-138 Porto, Portugal
Phone: +351 220 106 777
Email: info@pearlsofportugal.com
You may contact us at any time by post to the address above, by email, or through the Website. The goals of the Website include giving consumers access to information about real estate listings, third-party services, and general information we believe may interest you. By accessing any part of the Website, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to all of these Terms and Conditions, please do not use the Website.
2. Definitions
- “Website” means www.pearlsofportugal.com and any associated mobile applications.
- “Platform” means the Client Area available at clientarea.pearlsofportugal.com.
- “User” means any natural or legal person who accesses or uses the Website and/or the Platform.
- “Partner” means a User who has registered a professional account on the Platform — for example a real estate agency, developer, lawyer, or other service provider.
- “Advertiser” means a third party that publishes property listings or service offers on the Website.
- “Content” means any information, text, images, listings or other material made available on the Website or the Platform.
3. Property Listings and Contracts with Advertisers
Any contractual or non-contractual relationship that a User enters into with an Advertiser or other third party contacted through the Website is between the User and that Advertiser or third party alone. Pearls of Portugal has no liability for any damage or loss arising from a User’s negotiations, conversations, or contractual or extra-contractual relations with an Advertiser or other third party, whether an individual or a legal entity.
Pearls of Portugal aims to keep the information on the Website current. This information may change frequently, so we recommend checking it again before any purchase or sale transaction. We make a diligent effort to verify the accuracy of the data provided by property owners and agencies, and by the promoters of advertised properties, but we do not guarantee that this data is completely accurate, as it may contain errors or omissions.
Prices and other information on the Website do not constitute a contractual offer and are published for informational purposes only.
Pearls of Portugal gives Advertisers/Partners the means to fulfil their legal obligation to disclose the energy performance of an advertised property and to attach the relevant energy certificate to the listing. The Advertiser/Partner is solely responsible for complying with this obligation, and Pearls of Portugal is not responsible for their failure to do so. Pearls of Portugal is not responsible for mortgages, liens, charges or other encumbrances affecting an advertised property, and is not responsible for the accuracy of the real estate offer itself. In accordance with applicable consumer protection rules, full details of a purchase, sale or rental will be made available to buyers by the relevant real estate agency or directly by the property owner.
4. Buyer Agent Services
Investment consulting, buyer-agent and purchase-support services are provided by Pérolas de Portugal Lda (NIPC 516530038), Rua de Camões 218, Sala 2, 1.º Andar, 4000-138 Porto, Portugal, and are invoiced directly by that company. Before engaging these services, the User will be asked to separately confirm that they understand these services are provided by Pérolas de Portugal Lda and not by Pearls of Portugal Lda. Pearls of Portugal Lda is not liable for services provided by Pérolas de Portugal Lda.
5. Referral Marketing and Partner Recommendations
Pearls of Portugal writes its own content on factual topics about Portugal and makes it available free of charge on the Website. We also research the Portuguese market for qualified service providers, and in some cases negotiate offers or prices on behalf of potential clients. Service providers referred to on the Website are selected by our team using our own criteria; we refer interested Users to them on request.
Pearls of Portugal receives a commission for purchases or orders made through these referrals. This income helps us provide high-quality content free of charge. Pearls of Portugal is not liable for the services provided by any partner we refer you to.
Where a specific article, guide, listing or page includes a paid recommendation, a sponsored placement, or an affiliate link, we will indicate this in or near that content, in addition to this general disclosure.
6. Copyright
The materials on the Website, and its organisation and layout, are protected by Portuguese and international copyright law and treaty provisions. You may access, download and print materials from the Website solely for your personal, non-commercial use. No right, title or interest in any material on the Website is transferred to you by accessing, downloading or printing it. Unless otherwise stated, you may not copy, modify, distribute, transmit, display, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, link to, or frame in another website, use on another website, transfer, or sell any information obtained from the Website, without Pearls of Portugal’s written permission. This prohibition expressly includes, but is not limited to, “screen scraping” or “database scraping” to obtain lists of Users or other information.
7. Links to Other Websites
For your convenience, the Website may link to other websites that may interest you. Pearls of Portugal does not control these websites and is not responsible for their content, or for the accuracy or reliability of any information, data, opinions, advice or statements they contain. Our privacy policy applies only while you are on our Website; once you follow a link to another website, you should read that site’s own privacy policy before disclosing any personal information. If you access a linked third-party site, you do so at your own risk. Pearls of Portugal reserves the right to terminate any link or linking arrangement at any time.
Pearls of Portugal (a) makes no warranty, express or implied, about the use of links provided on or to another service, and (b) does not warrant the accuracy, completeness, usefulness or appropriateness of any other website, service, goods or advertisement that may be linked to or advertised on the Website.
8. Disclaimer
The materials on the Website are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, without representations or warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent permitted by law. Pearls of Portugal disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of title, non-infringement, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, and does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links or other material on the Website. Pearls of Portugal may change the Website at any time without notice, and while we strive to keep it accurate and current, we cannot guarantee its accuracy, completeness or timeliness; it may contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors.
You use the Website at your own risk. Pearls of Portugal does not warrant that the Website is compatible with your hardware or software, or that it is free of errors, viruses, worms or other harmful components, and is not responsible for damage caused by these.
9. Limitation of Liability
Nothing in these Terms and Conditions excludes or limits Pearls of Portugal’s liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable Portuguese or EU law.
Subject to the paragraph above, Pearls of Portugal is liable without limitation for damage it causes intentionally or through gross negligence, whether caused by Pearls of Portugal itself, its legal representatives, or persons it uses to perform its obligations.
For damage caused by ordinary (slight) negligence, Pearls of Portugal is liable only for breach of essential contractual obligations — that is, obligations whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place, and on whose fulfilment a User may reasonably rely — and in that case liability is limited to damage that is typical and foreseeable for a contract of this kind. Pearls of Portugal is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as loss of profit, except where the paragraphs above provide otherwise. Because some jurisdictions do not permit the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages, some of the above limitations may not apply to you.
Pearls of Portugal, and its suppliers and agents, are not liable for failures, discrepancies, omissions or delays caused by your own computer or your use of the Website on it. The content of other websites, goods or advertisements that may be linked to or from the Website is not administered or controlled by Pearls of Portugal, and Pearls of Portugal is not responsible for the availability, content or accuracy of such other websites, services or goods, or for the accuracy or continued availability of the telephone lines or equipment you use to access the Website. Pearls of Portugal and its service providers may discontinue access to third-party content (from other sites, services, goods or advertisements) at any time.
10. Updates to These Terms
Pearls of Portugal may update the Website and these Terms and Conditions at any time by posting a revised version. Please check this page periodically, as the current version is binding on you. Continuing to use the Website after a change takes effect means you agree to the revised Terms and Conditions. If a change is unacceptable to you, your only recourse is to stop using the Website. Changes affecting Partner accounts on the Platform follow the additional notice procedure in Section 11.10.
11. Client Area — Additional Terms for Partners and Users
This Section 11 applies in addition to the rest of these Terms and Conditions wherever someone registers an account on the Platform (clientarea.pearlsofportugal.com). Most Client Area accounts belong to private individuals using the Platform for their own personal purposes — for example, to search for a property, arrange viewings, or manage a personal investment — and those accounts are treated as consumers throughout this Section 11. Where an account is instead registered by a business, such as a real estate agency, law firm or property developer (a “Partner”), the same provisions apply, except where a provision is expressly limited to consumers or to Partners. In this Section 11, “User” means anyone with an account on the Platform, whether a private individual or a Partner.
11.1 What the Platform Offers
The Platform lets a User create a profile, view market offers, organise property visits, process investments, or manage other services, and receive automated suggestions of relevant market offers.
11.2 Changes and Availability
Pearls of Portugal may further develop the Platform at any time, including by adding or removing features or changing it in whole or in part, or by discontinuing it temporarily or permanently, provided this does not impair Pearls of Portugal’s essential contractual obligations and is reasonable for the User. Pearls of Portugal reserves the right to charge for certain features or services now or in future; any such charge will be disclosed separately before it applies.
Pearls of Portugal aims to keep the Platform available as continuously as possible, but temporary restrictions or interruptions may occur due to technical faults (e.g. power outages, hardware or software errors, or data-line problems). We target overall availability of 98.5% on an annual average, calculated excluding time attributable to scheduled maintenance, during which the Platform is unavailable. Beyond this, use of the Platform’s content is available only within our technical and operational capacity.
11.3 Changes to These Additional Terms
Pearls of Portugal may change this Section 11. A change takes effect if the User does not object in text form within one month of receiving notice of the change, provided the notice states this right of objection and the deadline. If the User objects in text form, the previous terms continue to apply, and Pearls of Portugal may then terminate the contractual relationship within two weeks of receiving the objection. This procedure does not apply to a change relating to an obligation that is essential to using the Platform at all, or that Pearls of Portugal regularly relies, or may rely, on the User to fulfil. This procedure is without prejudice to any right the User has as a consumer under applicable law.
11.4 Registration
Data provided in the registration form must be accurate, complete, truthful and kept up to date. Before submitting the form, the User confirms they have read, understood and agreed to these Terms and Conditions.
Pearls of Portugal verifies registration data using a double opt-in confirmation email, and checks the data submitted for completeness and plausibility. If Pearls of Portugal reasonably suspects misuse — for example that the data is incorrect or untrue — it will decline to activate the account. Otherwise, Pearls of Portugal activates the profile and sends a confirmation email with an activation link. Clicking the activation link constitutes acceptance of the offer to enter into a contract of use; after activation the profile can be individualised. This does not create any entitlement to the conclusion of a contract of use or to activation of a profile.
If further user accounts, such as for construction companies or lawyers, are added to a profile at a Partner’s request, the Partner is responsible for ensuring the applicable data protection requirements are met, in particular that the processing is lawful and that the individuals concerned have consented to it.
11.5 Right of Withdrawal (Consumers)
Where a User registers as a private individual for personal, non-business purposes, they are a consumer and, as such, have a statutory right to withdraw from the contract of use, and from any paid subscription described in Section 11.9, within 14 days of the day the contract is concluded, without giving any reason.
To exercise this right, the User must inform Pearls of Portugal of their decision to withdraw by a clear statement sent by email to info@pearlsofportugal.com or by post to the address in Section 1, before the 14-day period expires. Where the User withdraws from a paid subscription, Pearls of Portugal will refund any payment received, including standard delivery costs where applicable, without undue delay and within 14 days of being informed of the withdrawal, using the same payment method the User used, unless otherwise agreed.
Registering a free profile and using free features of the Platform does not, by itself, cause the User to lose this right. However, where the User expressly requests that a paid service begin before the 14-day period ends, and acknowledges that they will thereby lose their right of withdrawal once the service has been fully performed, the User loses the right of withdrawal in relation to that service once it has been fully performed, in accordance with Article 16(m) of Directive 2011/83/EU. Where a paid service has been partly performed at the time of withdrawal, the User must pay an amount proportionate to what was provided before withdrawal, compared with the full scope of the service.
This Section 11.5 does not apply to a User who registers on behalf of a business, trade, craft or profession (a Partner), who does not have a statutory right of withdrawal.
11.6 Account Security
The User is responsible for keeping their login credentials confidential, so that unauthorised persons cannot access them. If a User becomes aware of misuse of their login data, or of a risk of misuse, they must inform Pearls of Portugal immediately. The User is liable for misuse of their login credentials unless they are not responsible for it. A User may not share their account with third parties, such as real estate agents or lawyers, or otherwise give third parties access via their own credentials; if this occurs, Pearls of Portugal may block or delete the account.
11.7 Content and User Responsibility
The User is responsible for keeping the information and details created via the Platform up to date. Content published via the Platform, in particular property listings and service advertisements, is third-party content as far as Pearls of Portugal is concerned, unless clearly marked otherwise by Pearls of Portugal. Pearls of Portugal does not check the completeness, accuracy or legality of this third-party content and gives no warranty in relation to it. Users may not disclose property proposals obtained through the Platform to third parties or use them for commercial marketing.
The User is responsible for the content it posts and must ensure it complies with applicable law when creating and operating its profile and uploading content. In particular, the User may not post content — such as text, images or logos — that violates applicable law or infringes a third party’s intellectual property, copyright or other rights. Content depicting violence, or that is pornographic, discriminatory, insulting, racist, defamatory or otherwise unlawful, may not be uploaded, made publicly accessible, or shared via the Platform. It is also prohibited to upload content displaying third-party company logos, trademarks or other protected signs without the corresponding rights of use.
Pearls of Portugal is not obliged to proactively monitor information published via the Platform, or to check its accuracy, completeness, timeliness or legality, but reserves the right to carry out random compliance checks and to act where it reasonably suspects a violation.
11.8 Sanctions for Breach
Where a User culpably breaches these Terms and Conditions or applicable law, Pearls of Portugal may impose sanctions proportionate to the seriousness of the breach, which remain in force until the breach has stopped and any risk of repetition has been removed. Sanctions may include deactivating or blocking specific content or additional services, deleting content posted by the User, blocking access to the Platform (including the profile), or deleting the account or terminating the contract. This is without prejudice to Pearls of Portugal’s right of extraordinary termination for cause, or to any further claims.
11.9 Fees and Subscriptions
In addition to free features, Pearls of Portugal offers paid additional services, activated after booking and payment. Pricing, content, scope, term, and payment and cancellation terms for subscription models are set out in the current service descriptions on the Platform. Prices are shown inclusive of any applicable VAT for a User purchasing as a private individual, and exclusive of VAT for a Partner purchasing in a business capacity.
If content is published on third-party platforms through a subscription model — for example, multi-posting — the User must ensure it complies with that third-party provider’s own terms of use; content published this way may be blocked or deleted by the third-party provider for non-compliance.
To book a subscription, the User selects it in profile administration and adds it to the cart. Selecting “Proceed to checkout” displays the products in the cart, their cost, and a form for billing and contact details. Before completing the order, a User purchasing as a private individual will be asked to confirm, by a separate checkbox, whether they want the paid service to begin immediately; ticking this box is treated as their express request for early performance and their acknowledgment that they will lose their right of withdrawal once the service is fully performed, as described in Section 11.5. Clicking a button clearly labelled to indicate a payment obligation — for example “Order with obligation to pay” — makes a binding offer to purchase the products in the cart; Pearls of Portugal accepts this offer by confirming the booking, at which point a contract for the selected subscription is formed.
Invoices for subscriptions are issued digitally; paper invoices are not issued. Invoices are sent to the User by email or made available in the profile on the Platform.
Pearls of Portugal may introduce charges for individual Platform services in future. The User will be informed before first using any such service, and must confirm, before first use, that they have been informed of and agree to the cost.
Subscription fees are payable in advance for the selected billing period; payment is accepted by credit card. Pearls of Portugal provides paid additional services only once the applicable fee has been paid in full. Payment is deemed made once Pearls of Portugal can actually access the invoiced amount.
11.10 License to User Content
The User grants Pearls of Portugal a non-exclusive licence, without geographic or time limitation, to use the content the User provides in its profile and on the Platform — including images, logos and text — as well as data generated through application management on the Platform, for the purpose of performing the contract. This includes the right to adapt such content, for example resizing images or converting them between colour and black-and-white, so they display correctly in the profile. This licence does not grant the User any rights to Pearls of Portugal’s own intellectual property.
11.11 Term and Termination
The contract of use begins on conclusion and runs for an indefinite period, without prejudice to the right of withdrawal in Section 11.5.
A User may terminate the contract of use at any time, without notice, by sending an email clearly titled “Termination” to info@pearlsofportugal.com. A subscription may be terminated with notice effective at the end of its then-current term, by sending an email clearly titled to that effect to info@pearlsofportugal.com; terminating a subscription does not automatically terminate the underlying contract of use. A profile can be deleted at any time by sending an email clearly titled “Deletion” to info@pearlsofportugal.com; deleting a profile does not affect an existing subscription.
On deletion of a profile, all data created and published on the Platform is deactivated, and documents received are irrevocably deleted, except data that Pearls of Portugal must retain under a statutory retention obligation or to fulfil a contractual obligation. Pearls of Portugal may terminate the contract of use at any time with one (1) month’s notice in text form (email), without prejudice to its right to terminate for good cause — which exists, in particular, where a User culpably breaches an essential provision of these Terms and Conditions. Further details of our data protection practices are set out in our data protection declaration, in its currently valid version.
11.12 Liability for Free Platform Features
Where a User incurs damage through the use of free features on the Platform, Pearls of Portugal is liable only where the damage arose from the intended use of those free features, the User was not itself at fault, and Pearls of Portugal (or its legal representatives, executives, or persons it uses to perform its obligations) acted with intent (including fraudulent intent) or gross negligence. This is subject to Section 9 above, which also applies to the Platform, including its carve-out for liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
11.13 Indemnity
Where a User uploads or posts content that infringes a third party’s trademark, copyright, right to a name, or other right, the User is liable for that infringement and shall indemnify Pearls of Portugal, on first request, against any resulting claim made against Pearls of Portugal by that third party, and shall bear Pearls of Portugal’s reasonable resulting costs, including the necessary costs of legal defence — except where the User is not responsible for the infringement. For a User acting as a Partner, this indemnity also extends to any breach of law or contract by the Partner in its use of the Platform. This Section 11.13 does not affect any right a User has as a consumer under applicable law, and does not require a User acting as a private individual to indemnify Pearls of Portugal beyond the consequences of content that User itself unlawfully uploaded or posted. Pearls of Portugal’s other claims against the User remain unaffected.
12. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms and Conditions, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter, are governed by the laws of Portugal. Any dispute shall be submitted to the courts of the district of Porto, Portugal, without prejudice to any mandatory right a User acting as a consumer may have to bring proceedings in the courts of their own place of residence, or to rely on the consumer-protection provisions of the law of their country of residence.
13. Severability
If a provision of these Terms and Conditions, or of any further agreement referring to them, is or becomes invalid, for whatever reason, or if these Terms and Conditions contain a gap the parties agree should be filled, the validity of the remaining provisions is unaffected. In that case, the parties will replace the invalid or missing provision with one that comes as close as possible, in economic terms, to what was intended; until then, the applicable statutory provisions apply in its place.