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Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Last updated: October 2026

This version is a translation of the German original. The German version is authoritative.

This Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”) sets out how the services provided by 24fire GmbH (hereinafter “provider”) may be used. It specifies and supplements the provider's General Terms and Conditions (GTC), in particular the provisions there on the customer's obligations and on security requirements. In the event of conflicts between this Acceptable Use Policy and the GTC, the GTC prevail; otherwise these provisions apply in addition to one another.

1. Scope and covered users

This Acceptable Use Policy applies to all services offered and provided by the provider — including free test servers and the donation pages — as well as to the use of its infrastructure, its network, its Control Panel (cp.24fire.de), its programming interface and its website.

This policy applies to all users of the services, in particular to:

  • Customers – natural or legal persons who have concluded a contract with the provider or registered a customer account;
  • Account holders and authorised persons who access the services on behalf of a customer;
  • End users and sub-users – all third parties to whom a customer enables access to the services or the use of the content and applications provided via the services (e.g. visitors to a website hosted by the customer, users of an application operated by the customer, or customers of a reseller).

The customer is responsible for ensuring that all persons to whom they grant access to the services comply with this Acceptable Use Policy (see section 7).

2. Scope of services

The provider is a prepaid-based hosting provider established in Germany. Its services include in particular:

  • virtual servers (KVM servers) based on current AMD and Intel hardware;
  • storage servers and dedicated servers;
  • webspace (Plesk);
  • registration and administration of domains;
  • donation pages through which customers can receive contributions from third parties;
  • reseller services;
  • associated administration, support and network services.

The services are provided in data centres within the European Union (including NTT in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and Skylink in Eygelshoven, the Netherlands).

A substantial part of the services (in particular KVM and dedicated servers) is provided with far-reaching administrative rights (“root access”). The customer administers the operating systems, applications and content operated thereon on their own responsibility. As a rule, the provider has no influence over and no knowledge of the content stored, processed or transmitted by the customer. The customer alone is responsible for the lawful, secure and proper use of the resources made available to them.

3. Permitted use

The services may be used exclusively for lawful purposes and within the scope of the contractually agreed services. Permitted use includes in particular:

  • operating your own websites, applications, services and databases, or ones you are duly authorised to administer;
  • storing and processing data in accordance with applicable statutory provisions and the rights of third parties;
  • using the booked resources (computing power, memory, storage, data volume) within the scope of the respective service description and in a fair manner that does not impair the regular operation of other customers (“fair use”);
  • the automated management of your own services via the programming interface provided by the provider, within the scope of its documentation and limits.

4. Prohibited use and impermissible content

The following uses and content are expressly prohibited. The list is illustrative and not exhaustive.

4.1 Unlawful and harmful content

  • content that violates applicable law or infringes the rights of third parties (e.g. copyright, trademark, personality or data protection rights);
  • depictions of the sexual abuse of children or young persons as well as any form of child and youth pornography (CSAM). Such content is removed immediately and reported to the competent law enforcement authorities;
  • terrorist, extremist or violence-glorifying content as well as content that incites hatred, is racist or incites hatred and violence (see also the reporting channel for terrorist content);
  • copyright infringements, the unlawful distribution of protected works, illegal streaming or file-sharing offerings as well as the distribution of counterfeit goods;
  • the sale or promotion of illegal goods or services (e.g. drugs, weapons, forged documents);
  • defamatory, insulting, harassing or privacy-infringing content as well as stalking or bullying;
  • pornographic or sexually offensive content of any kind — including content that would be lawful for adults under applicable law.

This also applies to the content a customer publishes on their donation page (such as title, description and packages).

4.2 Network and system abuse

  • the distribution of malware of any kind (e.g. viruses, trojans, worms, ransomware, spyware) as well as the operation of command-and-control servers for botnets (“C2”) or of exploit kits;
  • unauthorised intrusion into third-party systems or networks, unauthorised vulnerability scanning, brute-force attacks, circumventing security or authentication measures as well as unauthorised access to data;
  • penetration tests, vulnerability and port scans and comparable security testing from the provider's servers — including against your own systems and including with the consent of the owner of the system tested;
  • denial-of-service or distributed-denial-of-service attacks (DoS/DDoS), forging IP addresses or e-mail header information (spoofing) as well as interfering with the integrity or availability of networks and systems;
  • the operation of open mail relays, open DNS resolvers or open proxies that can be used for abuse;
  • the operation of Tor nodes of any kind (exit, relay and bridge nodes);
  • automated or script-controlled access to the Control Panel or the website outside the programming interface, as well as circumventing its limits;
  • mining cryptocurrencies and comparable processes that use computing power, memory, storage or network to generate or prove digital assets (such as proof-of-work or proof-of-space/-storage), including operating mining pools and creating plots;
  • any measure that endangers or impairs the proper operation of the provider's servers, network or shared infrastructure, or that of other customers.

4.3 Abuse, fraud and unsolicited messages

  • sending unsolicited bulk or commercial e-mail (spam, UCE/UBE), mail bombing as well as any violation of applicable anti-spam provisions;
  • phishing, pharming, identity theft, impersonation as well as any form of fraud;
  • using the services for money laundering, terrorist financing or other financial crime purposes — in particular also collecting donations under false pretences or for unlawful purposes;
  • providing false master or payment data, misuse of means of payment as well as the abusive use of promotions, trial or free offers — such as creating several customer accounts or using third-party phone numbers in order to obtain a free test server more than once.

5. Restricted and high-risk activities

Certain uses carry an increased risk of abuse or impairment. They are permitted only under the following conditions and only insofar as they are not already prohibited under section 4:

  • Sending e-mail: On new servers, sending and retrieving e-mails is blocked by default. The customer can apply for approval in the Control Panel; the provider may withdraw it at any time in the event of violations (GTC section 7.5). Approval is excluded for free test servers;
  • Bulk e-mail / newsletters: only with demonstrable recipient consent (opt-in), correct technical configuration and in compliance with anti-spam provisions;
  • Anonymisation and forwarding services (e.g. public VPN or proxy services): only with the provider's prior consent, as these carry an increased abuse risk. Operating Tor nodes is prohibited (section 4.2).

The provider reserves the right to make individual high-risk uses subject to prior approval, to restrict them or to prohibit them.

6. Compliance with laws, sanctions and export control

The customer undertakes to use the services exclusively in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. This includes in particular the applicable law of the Federal Republic of Germany and of the European Union as well as all legal provisions relevant to the customer's specific use.

The services must not be used in breach of applicable sanctions, embargo or export control provisions. In particular, the services must not be used by or for the benefit of persons or organisations, or in countries or territories, that are subject to relevant sanctions or embargoes of the European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany or the United Nations. The customer warrants that neither they nor any end users authorised by them appear on a relevant sanctions list.

The provider provides its services in accordance with applicable German and European law and cooperates with the competent authorities within the framework provided for by law.

7. Responsibility for third parties, end users and resellers

The customer is responsible for all activities carried out via their customer account, their servers, their services or their means of access — including API keys, authorisations for applications and services (such as the provider's Discord bot) and share links for individual servers — irrespective of whether these are initiated by the customer themselves or by third parties authorised by them (end users, sub-users, employees, customers of a reseller).

  • The customer must ensure that all persons to whom they grant access to the services or the use of the content provided comply with this Acceptable Use Policy. A violation by an end user is deemed a violation by the customer.
  • If the customer makes the services available to third parties in whole or in part (in particular as a reseller), they must impose at least equivalent terms of use on them and enforce compliance.
  • The customer indemnifies the provider against all third-party claims asserted on the basis of a violation of this Acceptable Use Policy for which the customer or their end users are responsible, insofar as the customer is responsible for the violation. The supplementary provisions of the GTC remain unaffected.

8. Monitoring and control

The provider does not actively monitor customer content and is not obliged to do so. There is no general obligation to monitor. However, the provider is entitled — without being obliged to do so — to collect and evaluate technical operating and traffic data in order to ensure the security, stability and availability of the services, and to review content and usage processes where:

  • there are concrete indications of a violation of this Acceptable Use Policy, the GTC or applicable law;
  • an abuse report, complaint or notice from a third party is received;
  • this is necessary to avert dangers to the infrastructure, the network or other customers; or
  • a legal obligation or an official or judicial order requires it.

Personal data is processed exclusively within the framework of applicable data protection provisions; details are set out in the provider's privacy policy.

9. Enforcement, measures, suspension and termination

In the event of a violation, or a concrete suspicion of a violation, of this Acceptable Use Policy, the provider is entitled to take appropriate measures. The nature and extent of the measure depend on the severity of the violation, with the customer's legitimate interests being appropriately taken into account. In particular, the following may be considered:

  • a request to remedy the violation without undue delay;
  • deactivating, blocking or removing individual content, programs or scripts;
  • interrupting the internet connection in whole or in part, temporarily;
  • withdrawing the approval for sending e-mail;
  • blocking a donation page;
  • blocking the affected server, an IP address or the customer account — in the event of an abuse report concerning a server or an IP address, the provider is entitled to block it; section 10 of the GTC applies to the consequences of blocking the customer account;
  • extraordinary termination of the contractual relationship without notice in the event of serious or repeated violations.

In urgent cases — for example in the event of an acute danger to the infrastructure, the network or third parties, or in the case of manifestly unlawful content — the provider may take measures with immediate effect and without prior notice. The provider will inform the customer of the measures taken without undue delay, as a rule by e-mail, unless legal or official reasons preclude this.

Violations of this Acceptable Use Policy may have consequences under civil and/or criminal law. The provider will investigate security and legal violations and, where necessary, cooperate with law enforcement authorities and enforce civil claims. The assertion of claims for damages is reserved.

10. Reporting violations (abuse)

Violations of this Acceptable Use Policy as well as abusive or unlawful content — including on a donation page — can be reported to the provider at any time:

  • Abuse reports (such as spam, attacks, malware or unlawful content on a server) exclusively by e-mail to abuse@24fire.de. The provider does not accept abuse reports via the ticket system in the Control Panel;
  • reports of illegal content under Art. 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (DSA) via the form at 24fire.de/legal/dsa; the point of contact for authorities under the DSA is also listed there (dsa@24fire-gmbh.de);
  • for reports of terrorist content: 24fire.de/legal/tco (tco@24fire-gmbh.de).

Please describe the matter as precisely as possible (affected content, domain, IP address, time). The provider follows up on incoming reports and, where necessary, takes the measures described in section 9.

11. Changes to this Acceptable Use Policy

The provider may adapt this Acceptable Use Policy, in particular in order to align it with changed legal or technical conditions, new services or new forms of abuse. The version currently in force is available on this page. Material changes will be communicated within an appropriate framework. The supplementary provisions of the GTC on changes to contractual terms remain unaffected.

12. Responsible provider

24fire GmbH
Kronenstraße 4
68723 Schwetzingen
Germany
E-mail: kontakt@24fire-gmbh.de

Further details can be found in the legal notice.