Terms and conditions

MerchKern is provided by Max Bauer, trading as Lazy Ass Tools. These terms govern the website, studio, free credits, subscriptions, credit packs and generated files.

The service is available to consumers and businesses. If you purchase mainly for a trade, business or independent professional activity, you act as a business customer.

MerchKern is generally offered internationally, with an initial focus on Germany and the United States. Actual availability depends on the country supported in Checkout, applicable law and the payment and production services used. There is no entitlement to availability in every country.

The studio requires a personal account with accurate information. Login credentials must not be shared. A free account is formed after successful registration; a paid contract is formed only when Checkout confirms the purchase.

You may register for and use MerchKern only if you are at least 18 years old. By registering, you confirm that you are 18 or older.

The information shown on MerchKern before purchase and in Stripe Checkout about the selected product, price, billing interval and applicable taxes forms the combined order summary. Additional terms for credits, duration, renewal and cancellation are set out in these Terms and the relevant plan description.

MerchKern creates AI-assisted merchandise files from your instructions and optional reference images. From Starter, paid outputs are provided as transparent PNG files at 4500 × 5400 pixels, 300 DPI and without a watermark. Free outputs are labelled test files at 1500 × 1800 pixels, 72 DPI and with a watermark.

AI output is probabilistic. Wording, style or details may differ from an instruction. You must review every result before publication, printing or sale. Specific advertised and agreed file characteristics and mandatory statutory remedies remain unaffected.

One credit represents one generated output for one garment tone. Dark and light are two outputs and require two credits. Downloads and repeat downloads within the available window use no additional credit.

Plan credits are allocated monthly, apply only to that allocation window and do not roll over. Each pack purchase creates a separate credit lot. Credits in that lot expire twelve months after the relevant payment confirmation. A later pack purchase does not extend an earlier lot; credits with the earliest expiry date are used first. Credit packs can be used only while a paid plan is active. After a plan change or cancellation they remain available until the relevant lot expires, but are paused until a paid plan is activated again. The shortened validity of purchased consumer credits remains a B2C launch gate until professional approval.

If a reserved output is not technically delivered during the initial generation run or separately confirmed rework, its reserved credits are restored. Successfully delivered rework consumes the credits shown before it starts.

USD amounts shown on the website are global base prices excluding applicable taxes. The final total depends on billing country and customer status and is shown in Checkout before the binding purchase.

Stripe processes payment and may request billing address, customer status and VAT ID. Businesses are responsible for accurate tax information. Reverse charge or other tax treatment applies only where its statutory requirements are met.

Monthly and annual plans are billed in advance and renew automatically until cancelled. Ordinary cancellation ends the subscription at the end of the applicable current billing period; paid access remains available until then.

Mandatory limits on duration and automatic renewal apply to consumer contracts. After the first annual term, an annual subscription continues for an indefinite period and may be cancelled on no more than one month's notice at the next permitted service date. The electronic cancellation function schedules that date without another Checkout step. Where a monetary adjustment is owed for prepaid continuation time, the case remains visibly under review until provider-side processing is evidenced; we do not claim an earlier reimbursement. For business customers, the renewal shown in Checkout applies. The commercial licence for duly paid, non-reversed outputs survives ordinary cancellation.

Free-plan outputs are provided solely for non-commercial evaluation of MerchKern. They may not be used commercially or sold, and the watermark may not be removed.

For results created while a Starter, Plus or Premium plan is active, and to the extent that copyright or other transferable rights exist and are held by us, we grant you a non-exclusive, worldwide and perpetual right to use, reproduce, modify, distribute and make the result available for private and commercial purposes, apply it to products, and advertise and sell those products. This includes plan, pack and reward credits used during the active paid plan, provided the underlying purchase has not been validly reversed.

The commercial licence expressly includes selling the unchanged or modified PNG file as a digital download and using it on physical products. You may sublicense the granted rights to customers, production, fulfilment, distribution and marketplace partners, and other third parties. The licence is non-exclusive and similar outputs may be created for other users. This clause does not transfer copyright or create an intellectual-property right where none exists under applicable law.

You may use only content, reference images, names, marks, likenesses and other instructions you are entitled to use. Before publication or commercial use, you are responsible for reviewing your inputs, the specific output and the intended use.

For the duration and purpose of performing the contract, you grant us the non-exclusive right to store and technically process your inputs, transmit them to the service providers used for that purpose and use them to create your results.

MerchKern does not perform complete trademark, design, copyright, unfair-competition or personality-right clearance and does not guarantee registrability, exclusivity or marketplace acceptance. Mandatory remedies for legal defects remain unaffected.

To the extent permitted by law, business customers indemnify us against third-party claims resulting from their culpably unlawful inputs or use. No blanket indemnity applies to consumers.

• No illegal, deceptive, abusive or harmful content
• No circumvention of security, credit, rate-limit or access controls
• No use of another person's account or automated account creation
• No inputs whose processing breaches legal or contractual secrecy

Where there is a reasonable basis, we may block content, stop processing or restrict accounts after an appropriate assessment. Mandatory consumer rights and accrued claims remain unaffected.

Statutory remedies for digital products that are not supplied or are defective remain available. If a technical failure occurs, we first attempt to restore conformity through resupply, reprocessing or restoration of the affected credit.

A purely subjective difference from personal taste does not create an additional voluntary refund right where the agreed characteristics are met. Consumers may also have a statutory right of withdrawal.

• Refund policy
• Withdrawal information

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, injury to life, body or health, product liability, and other cases where liability is mandatory by law.

For a slightly negligent breach of an essential contractual duty, liability is limited to the foreseeable loss typical of the contract at formation. Liability for other slight negligence is excluded where legally permitted. Mandatory consumer rights remain unaffected.

When library entitlement is lost, for example through cancellation or downgrade, a 30-day download window generally begins. The library files are deleted afterwards. Other run files are subject to the periods described in the product and privacy notice.

Free, bonus and goodwill credits expire on account deletion and have no cash value. Remaining purchased credits are governed by the contract and mandatory statutory reimbursement rights; account deletion alone does not create an additional voluntary refund right. Save any files you need before deletion.

German law applies. If you are a consumer, this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection afforded by mandatory provisions of the law of your habitual residence. Mandatory statutory rules on jurisdiction remain unaffected. For merchants, the provider's registered place of business is the place of jurisdiction where legally permitted.