Terms of Service

About the service

PlugCompass ("we", "us") is a free informational tool operated by Lissjos Engineering LLC, Encinitas, California, USA. It helps electric-vehicle drivers find charging stations and compare their prices. By using PlugCompass you agree to these terms. How we handle personal data is explained in our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

Where our information comes from

PlugCompass combines information from several sources:

• Station data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center, provided through the NREL developer API.
• Station details, status and driver comments from Open Charge Map, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
• Nearby places and map data from OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the Open Database License (ODbL). Map images come from OpenFreeMap and OpenMapTiles.
• Check-ins, price reports and feedback from PlugCompass users.

Accuracy: please check before you charge

• Prices are often missing, incomplete or out of date. Charging networks change prices often, and many stations do not publish prices at all. Always confirm the price at the charger or in the network's app before you start a session.
• Station details such as location, opening hours, access, connector types, power and whether a charger works may be wrong or outdated.
• Community submissions are not verified by us.
• We are not responsible for charging costs, fees, idle charges or other losses that result from relying on information shown on PlugCompass.

The PlugCompass Score

The PlugCompass Score is an informational rating that we calculate from the data available to us (for example price, charging speed, and reliability reports). It is our opinion, not a guarantee of price, availability, speed, quality or safety. A missing or low score does not mean a station is bad, and a high score does not mean it will work for you.

AI-generated content

Some content is generated by artificial intelligence, for example normalized prices, the filters chosen for a plain-English search, the "best nearby option" tip, and summaries of driver comments. AI can make mistakes and can misread or misrepresent the sources. Treat AI content as a helpful hint, not a fact.

Safety

Do not use PlugCompass while driving. Set your destination before you start, or let a passenger do it. Follow traffic laws and the instructions posted at each charger.

Accounts

Signing in is optional and uses your Google account. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account; in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland you must be at least 16 (or the lower age set in your country), or have a parent's permission. You are responsible for activity on your account. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms.

Your contributions

You can contribute "Did it work?" check-ins, price reports and station feedback. When you do:

• Be honest. Only report your own real experience at that station.
• Do not post personal information (yours or anyone else's), links, ads or spam.
• Do not post anything abusive, hateful, threatening, sexual, illegal or misleading, or anything that infringes someone else's rights.
• Do not try to manipulate scores, for example with fake or repeated votes, automated submissions, or reviews of your own or a competitor's business.
• Do not try to give instructions to our AI systems.

We may screen contributions (partly with automated and AI tools) and refuse, hide or remove any contribution, at our discretion and without notice. Contributions are shown publicly without your name.

You keep ownership of what you contribute. You give Lissjos Engineering LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual and irrevocable license to use, store, display, reproduce, modify (for example shorten, translate or summarize), and distribute your contributions as part of operating and improving PlugCompass. You confirm that you have the right to give us this license. You can delete your own station feedback at any time. Anonymous check-ins and price reports cannot be linked back to you, so we cannot remove them on request.

Advertising and sponsored placements

PlugCompass shows paid ads. They are always labelled "Sponsored" and name the advertiser. There are three kinds: a featured business in a station's "While you charge" box, a sponsored station in a separate box above the station list, and a sponsor card beside the map. Advertisers pay only for these labelled spots. They cannot pay to change the PlugCompass Score, the order of the station list itself, prices, check-ins or community feedback, and a sponsored station always shows its real score. We are not responsible for advertisers' products or services. Joining our advertising waitlist does not create any obligation for you or for us.

Advertising terms (for advertisers)

Booking and billing. Ads are booked online and paid monthly by card through Stripe. Your subscription renews each month until you cancel. You can cancel anytime with the link in your confirmation email; your ad then runs until the end of the month you paid for. Prices are shown before you pay and exclude VAT or other taxes, which you are responsible for where applicable. Invoices and receipts come from Stripe.

Founding offer. The first 10 advertisers pay the founding price for their first 6 months, then the regular price shown when they booked.

Review. We review every ad before it goes live, normally within one business day. We may decline an ad for any reason; if we do, we cancel your subscription and refund your payment in full. We may also remove a live ad that breaks these rules; in that case we refund the unused part of the current month, unless the ad was illegal or misleading.

Your ad must be accurate and lawful, promote your own business or a business you are authorised to represent, and not mention other companies, charging networks or their prices. No links in the ad text (use the Website field), no adult, political, gambling, tobacco or weapons ads, and nothing offensive. You confirm you have the right to use the names, logos and claims in your ad.

Placement. Ads appear only where the option says (for example within 15 km of a sponsored station, and only when it fits the driver's plug and speed filters). We don't guarantee a number of views or clicks. If several advertisers book the same area, their ads take turns. We send a monthly report of views and clicks by real visitors; bots and our own visits are not counted.

Our independence. Paying for an ad never changes a PlugCompass Score, the order of the station list, reliability reports or comparison pages.

Liability, governing law and the other sections of these terms also apply to advertisers.

No affiliation with charging networks

PlugCompass is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any charging network, including ChargePoint, Electrify America, EVgo, Tesla, Blink, Shell Recharge, FLO or any other operator. All trademarks belong to their owners and are used only to identify their stations.

Acceptable use

Do not misuse the service. For example: do not interfere with or overload it, get around its security or rate limits, scrape it in bulk, or use it for anything illegal.

Third-party services and links

PlugCompass links to and relies on other services (for example Google Maps for directions, and charging networks' websites). They have their own terms and privacy policies, and we are not responsible for them.

Our content

The PlugCompass software, design, text and the PlugCompass Score belong to Lissjos Engineering LLC, except data owned by our sources and licensed under their own terms (see above).

Service provided "as is"

PlugCompass is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not promise that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure. We may change, suspend or discontinue all or part of the service at any time.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Lissjos Engineering LLC will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, or charging and travel costs, arising from your use of, or inability to use, PlugCompass or any information on it. Our total liability for any claim relating to the service is limited to US$100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these may not apply to you.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be handled in the state or federal courts located in San Diego County, California. If you are a consumer in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you may bring claims in its courts.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date. If you keep using PlugCompass after a change, you accept the updated terms.

Contact

Lissjos Engineering LLC, 1106 2nd St, Ste 103 #726, Encinitas, CA 92024, USA. Contact: plugcompass.com/contact