Terms of use

1. Who we are

Matched by Barry is a service of Neutral BV. In this text "we" means Neutral BV, and "you" means the person using the service. Barry is the AI matchmaker of the service. Barry is not a person and does not speak in this text.

These are our details.

Neutral BV, Haringrodestraat 54, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium.
Company number and VAT number: BE 0833.158.140.
RPR Antwerp, Antwerp division.
Email: support@matchedbybarry.com.
Website: matchedbybarry.com.

2. What these terms cover

These Terms of use are the agreement between you and Neutral BV. They apply from the moment you create an account and for as long as you keep that account.

Alongside this text we publish the Privacy statement. You will find it, together with our other legal pages, at matchedbybarry.com/legal. If these Terms of use and the Privacy statement contradict each other about the processing of data, the Privacy statement prevails.

3. What the service is

Matched by Barry is a matchmaking service for adults who are looking for someone to date or to build a relationship with. Barry talks with you, suggests people to you, and opens your match when you both say yes. After that the two of you talk directly with each other in that match. That is what we take on, and nothing more.

Barry is an AI. He can be wrong and say things that are not true, including about you.

The portrait the other person gets to see of you is made by AI and is labelled as AI‑generated.

The service runs in your browser and you can install it on your phone as a web app. There is no app in the App Store or the Play Store. You need a recent browser and a working internet connection; the service does not work offline.

4. What the service is not

This is what the service is not, and so this is what we do not take on.

Matched by Barry is not a medical service, not a psychological or therapeutic service, not a care or assistance service and not a crisis service. Barry gives no medical, psychological, legal or financial advice.
We do not follow your conversation live, we alert no one for you and we cannot call for help on your behalf. What you write does go through an automatic check. That check looks for signs involving minors. It does not read how you are doing and it makes no diagnosis.
We do not check anyone's identity and we run no background checks. The people Barry suggests to you are strangers. We do not vouch for who anyone is. What happens between the two of you after that happens between you, and we are not a party to it.
We promise no match within any particular period, and no relationship. You buy the possibility of getting one, not the certainty that one will come.

5. Who can take part

You are at least 18 years old. You make one account, for yourself and not on behalf of anyone else. You live in an EU country where we offer the service.

Your age is your own declaration. If it turns out not to be correct, we can close the account. What then happens to your plan and your balance is in article 12.

6. How you use the service

You use Matched by Barry to get to know someone yourself. The following is not allowed.

Passing yourself off as someone else, or using photos of someone else.
Posting illegal content, sexual content involving minors, nude or sexual images, images of violence or hate speech.
Threatening, intimidating or stalking anyone.
Selling something, recruiting, or offering sexual services.
Asking other members for money, for an investment or for cryptocurrency.
Collecting the data of other members, publishing it or sharing it elsewhere.
Using scripts, bots or automated access, or pulling in our content in bulk.
Getting around the security, the safety check or a ban, or making a second account after we have closed your account.

7. Your texts and photos

What you write and upload stays yours. To be able to deliver the service, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive and royalty-free right of use that runs for as long as your account exists. Under it we may store your texts and your photos, make an AI portrait from them together with the text that someone gets to read about you, show those to the person Barry introduces you to, check your texts and photos for safety, and keep backups of them. We engage suppliers for that, and only for those tasks.

We claim nothing further. The right of use applies only to running and securing the service.

If you upload a photo, you warrant that you hold the rights to that photo and that everyone recognisable in it agrees to it.

The name Matched by Barry, the figure Barry, the design, the software and the texts of the service are ours. You do not copy or reuse them outside normal use of the service. The instructions Barry works with are a trade secret.

8. Price, payment and duration

There is no free version. Chatting with Barry and being put forward starts with a plan. The chat on our website and beside the order screen is the one exception: there you can ask Barry questions about the service without a plan and at no cost. That conversation is not about you and who you are looking for, the number of questions per day is limited, and it is not part of what you buy with a plan. You buy a plan for a fixed period, you pay for it in one go, up front, and it does not renew by itself. Which lengths a plan comes in, what a plan contains and what it costs, is in the app on the order screen. All prices include VAT.

8.1. What you get and what you buy on top

Your plan is divided into plan months, counted from the moment it starts. At the start of each plan month you get the chat credits and the confirmed matches that come with your plan. A suggestion becomes a confirmed match once you both say yes. One message to Barry costs one chat credit. Any credits and confirmed matches you do not use in a plan month expire at the end of that plan month. A match you already have stays open. If you have no confirmed match left, you get no new suggestion until your next plan month begins or until you buy an extra suggestion.

Extra chat balance and extra suggestions are optional: you buy them separately, at the price on the order screen. What you buy on top does not expire, but you can only use it while your plan runs. Once your plan has ended, it is kept for your next plan. If you delete your account, it lapses, without a refund (article 12).

If we discontinue the service, if we end the agreement for a reason that is not attributable to you, or if you end the agreement under article 10 or 13, we pay you back what you bought separately and have not yet used, without you having to ask. What you get back for your plan is in articles 10, 12.1 and 13.

8.2. Ordering and paying

You choose a length in the app and confirm your order. Your purchase comes into being at the moment your payment is confirmed. You pay the full amount in one go, through our payment service, with a payment method that confirms your payment straight away. No standing payment order is set up: after that payment you pay nothing more, unless you buy something again yourself.

If no plan is running when you order, your plan starts as soon as your payment is confirmed, and you get access straight away. If a plan is still running, your order is an extension. It starts the moment your current plan ends (article 8.3).

We confirm your order on a durable medium, with these terms and with the information about your right of withdrawal, including the model form in article 9.

8.3. Duration, extending and the end

Your plan runs from the moment it starts, for as many months as you bought, up to and including the end date you see in the app. That last day counts in full, until midnight Belgian time. After that your plan stops by itself. If you pause the search, or if it is stopped by a measure under article 11, your plan simply runs on: a pause does not move the end date.

You can extend at any time, including while your plan is still running: you then buy a new plan. You can have at most one next plan lined up. It starts the moment your current plan ends, so you do not lose a day.

A suggestion gives the two of you three days to answer. As long as your plan runs and you have a confirmed match left, you can get a new suggestion up to and including its last day.

If no next plan is lined up, we send you an email about a week before the end, saying that your plan is about to end. If you have asked us to delete your account, we do not send that email. Once your plan has ended, we let you know once more, by email.

If you want to stop before the end date yourself, you do not have to do anything: your plan simply runs out. You then get nothing back for the rest of it, except in the cases in articles 9, 10, 12.1 and 13. This also applies if you delete your account (article 12).

8.4. After your plan ends

Once your plan has ended, the chat with Barry and his search for you stop. The following does keep working.

Answering a suggestion you got while your plan ran, for as long as the three days to answer last. If you both say yes, it becomes a match.
Reading and writing in a match.
Looking at the AI portrait of the person you met in a match.
Ending a match, and reporting someone.
Removing a finished suggestion from your list, and seeing that you both said yes to a suggestion you got while your plan ran.
Using My file: your settings, your privacy and deleting your account.

9. Your right of withdrawal

Every purchase is a separate agreement: a plan, each extension of your plan, and everything you buy separately on top. For each purchase you have fourteen days to change your mind: the period expires fourteen days after the day on which the purchase comes into being, so an extension has its own fourteen days too. You do not have to give a reason. Send an unambiguous statement by email to support@matchedbybarry.com, or by letter to Neutral BV, Haringrodestraat 54, 2018 Antwerp. You are in time if you send your statement before that period has expired.

You may use this model form for it: "To Neutral BV, Haringrodestraat 54, 2018 Antwerp, support@matchedbybarry.com. I hereby give notice that I withdraw from our agreement for the following service: (description). Ordered on: (date). Name of the consumer: (name). Address of the consumer: (address). Date: (date)."

If you expressly ask us to begin the service within those fourteen days and you then withdraw, you pay an amount in proportion to what has been delivered up to then, calculated on the total price. For a plan, that is the days that have passed until you tell us you are withdrawing: you get back the days that have not passed yet, rounded in your favour. For extra chat balance or an extra suggestion, that is the messages and suggestions you had used of it by the time you tell us you are withdrawing: you get back what you have not used, in proportion to the price of that purchase. You always use what comes with your plan, or what we gave you, first, and only then what you bought. An extra suggestion counts as used once it has become a confirmed match. If you withdraw from a plan that has not started yet, such as an extension that only begins later, you get everything back. If the service has been fully performed at your express request and you have acknowledged that you thereby lose your right of withdrawal, that right has lapsed.

If you withdraw validly, we pay you back within fourteen days of the day we receive your withdrawal. We use the same means of payment you paid with, unless you expressly agree to another. The refund never costs you anything. A plan you withdraw from then ends. Whatever came with the purchase you withdraw from and you have not used yet, we take off your balance.

10. Refunds and the statutory guarantee

You have the statutory guarantee that the service is what was agreed. It is in articles 1701/1 to 1701/19 of the old Civil Code, and we do not limit it in any way. It runs for as long as your plan runs.

For the search, we promise our effort, not a result (in legal terms, an obligation of means). While your plan runs, Barry searches for you under the rules in article 8. How many suggestions and matches that brings depends on who fits you at that moment, and that is something we do not promise (article 4).

If something does not work, report it to us at support@matchedbybarry.com. We bring the service into conformity free of charge, unless that is impossible or brings disproportionate costs. If that does not work, you get a price reduction in proportion to the period in which the service did not work. You can also terminate the agreement for your plan, unless the defect is minor; we then pay you back within fourteen days for the days of your plan that have not passed yet, for the period in which the service did not work, and for what you bought separately and have not yet used, with the same means of payment and at no cost to you.

11. Reporting and measures

You can report a member or content in the app. If you have no account, mail support@matchedbybarry.com. You report illegal content at that same address.

In your report, say why you think the content is unlawful and where exactly it is, and give your name and your email address. Confirm that you are reporting in good faith. If your report is about the sexual abuse of minors, you do not have to give your contact details.

We confirm your report without undue delay. We handle it carefully, objectively and in a non-arbitrary way, and we let you know our decision, together with where you can turn afterwards and whether an automated system was involved in the handling. If you deliberately report something that is not true, we can take a measure against you as well.

We assess content with automated means and on the basis of reports from members. In handling a report and in taking a measure against an account, we can use automated means as well as a human assessment.

We can refuse a photo, not let a message through, stop searching for you, or close your account.

If we take such a measure, we let you know which measure it is and how long it lasts. We also tell you which facts we base ourselves on, which rule from these terms or which law you are breaking in our view, whether an automated system was involved, and where you can turn. You get that message at the latest at the moment the measure takes effect. You can go to the courts, or lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in article 16.

12. End of the agreement

The agreement runs for as long as your account exists. You end it by deleting your account under My file. You do not have to stop your plan: it stops by itself on its end date (article 8.3). If you delete your account, your plan ends at the moment we erase your account. If a next plan is lined up, it ends at the same moment. Anything you bought separately lapses too. You get nothing back for any of it, except in the cases in articles 9, 10, 12.1 and 13.

We can end the agreement and close your account when you breach these terms, when payment is not made, or when it turns out that you are younger than 18. If we close your account, your plan ends as well.

If the payment for a plan is refunded in full, or if you have it reversed through your bank or your card issuer, that plan ends straight away.

Once your account is closed or deleted, we erase your data. Anything we must or may keep, we keep. What that is and for how long is in the Privacy statement.

12.1. Money back when your plan ends early

If your plan ends before its end date for one of the reasons below, we pay you back for the days that have not passed yet, in proportion to the total price of that plan and rounded in your favour. A plan that had not started yet is paid back in full. What happens to credit you bought on top is in article 8.1.

We close your account, except when we do so because of fraud or because of chargeback abuse.
You die. We then pay the refund to your heirs, at their request.
We discontinue the service.

If we discontinue the service, or close your account for a reason that is not attributable to you, we also pay you compensation of the same amount as what you get back for your plan and for what you bought separately. This does not apply if we stop because of force majeure.

13. Changes

We can adjust the service when safety, the law, a supervisory authority, a demonstrable technical necessity or a demonstrable change in our costs calls for it. For the adjustment itself we charge you nothing. If it has a disadvantageous effect on what you can do with the service, and that effect is more than minor, we notify you in advance on a durable medium. You can then end the agreement for your plan free of charge within thirty days of receiving that message, or of the adjustment taking effect if that is later. Tell us at support@matchedbybarry.com; you do not have to delete your account for it. We then pay you back within fourteen days, with the same means of payment and at no cost to you: the days of your plan that have not passed yet, all of a plan that had not started yet, and what you bought separately and have not yet used, in proportion to the price of that purchase.

We can adjust our prices. A new price applies only to what you buy after it takes effect. The price of a plan you have already paid for never changes, not even if that plan has not started yet.

If we adjust these terms, the new version applies only for the future. If the change is disadvantageous to you, we notify you in advance and you can end the agreement free of charge before it takes effect, with money back as in the first paragraph of this article.

14. Liability

These terms never limit our liability in these cases.

Death or personal injury through an act or omission of ours.
Our intent or our gross negligence, or that of the people and companies we engage.
The failure to perform one of the principal obligations of this agreement.
Our liability under product liability legislation.
The compensation you are entitled to on the basis of article 82 of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Your statutory rights as a consumer, including the guarantee in article 10.
Everything the law does not allow us to limit.

14.1. What we do limit

Subject to that, and whatever basis you invoke, contractual or extra-contractual, our liability for all other damage is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the damaging event.

We are not liable for indirect damage or consequential damage, such as lost profit or missed savings, in so far as the law allows us to exclude that. These limitations also apply for the benefit of our staff, directors, subcontractors and processors.

We are not liable for force majeure: an event outside our will that we could not avoid.

15. Applicable law and competent court

Belgian law applies to this agreement. If you live in another country of the European Union, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer rules of the country where you live. Those rules take precedence where they are more favourable to you.

If we do not work it out together, the courts that the law designates have jurisdiction, in particular under article 624 of the Judicial Code, without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012. As a consumer you can always bring proceedings before the court of your own place of residence, and we can sue you only there.

16. Complaints

If you have a complaint, mail support@matchedbybarry.com. That is our only address, including for authorities and supervisory bodies. We work in Dutch and in English.

How you make a request about your data, and within what period we answer, is in the Privacy statement.

If we do not work it out together, you can turn to the following.

BIPT, Koning Albert II-laan 32 box 10, 1000 Brussels, dsa@bipt.be, is the Belgian coordinator for digital services.
The Consumentenombudsdienst, Koning Albert II-laan 8 box 1, 1000 Brussels, consumentenombudsdienst.be. We are not affiliated with it and not obliged to follow that procedure.

17. If a provision falls away

If a provision of these terms turns out to be void, it falls away and the rest continues to apply.

18. Language versions

These terms exist in Dutch and in English, and the agreement can be concluded in either of those two languages. If something differs, the Dutch text applies.

The version and the date of this text are at the top of this page.