NZ
NZ Desi Hub
New Zealand Indian Business Network

NZ Desi HubTerms and Conditions

Version 2.0 · Effective 7 October 2026 · Operator: Happy Penguin Limited (a New Zealand company)

1. About NZ Desi Hub and these Terms

  1. These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern access to and use of the NZ Desi Hub website, applications, member directories, business listings, messaging systems, opportunities boards and related services (the “Platform”).
  2. The Platform is owned and operated by Happy Penguin Limited, a New Zealand company trading as NZ Desi Hub (“NZ Desi Hub”, “we”, “us” or “our”). “Member”, “user” or “you” means any person who accesses the Platform, registers an account, purchases a membership or uses any Platform feature.
  3. By registering an account, purchasing a membership or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, you must not register or use the Platform.

2. Community purpose and nature of the Platform

NZ Desi Hub is an online business and professional networking platform designed to connect Indian business owners, professionals, tradespeople, entrepreneurs and service providers across Aotearoa New Zealand. It provides tools for members to showcase their businesses, discover fellow professionals, exchange referrals, publish articles and share community and business opportunities.

3. Platform disclaimers and independent dealings

NZ Desi Hub is an introductory networking venue only.

  1. NZ Desi Hub is not an employer, employment agency, broker, professional adviser, contractor, joint venturer, partner or commercial guarantor of any member, business, advertiser or listing on the Platform.
  2. The display of any profile, listing, advertisement, opportunity or article is not an endorsement, accreditation or warranty by NZ Desi Hub. We do not conduct criminal history checks, credit checks, qualification checks or background investigations on members.
  3. You are solely responsible for your own due diligence, reference checks and verification before engaging, hiring, contracting with, investing in or buying from another member or business.
  4. NZ Desi Hub does not guarantee that membership or participation will result in leads, referrals, work, employment, sales, contracts, investments, profits or any other commercial outcome.
  5. To the maximum extent permitted by New Zealand law, NZ Desi Hub and Happy Penguin Limited are not parties to, and are not responsible for, contracts, dealings, advice, services, representations, disputes or claims between members, or between members and third parties.

4. Eligibility, real legal name and genuine information

  1. Every member must register using their full real legal name. Aliases, pseudonyms, fictitious identities, misleading personal names, or company or business names used in place of the individual member’s name are not permitted.
  2. You warrant that all information you provide in your account, profile or listings is true, accurate, current and genuine, and you must complete the genuine information acknowledgement when registering.
  3. NZ Desi Hub does not routinely require identity documents merely to register. However, NZ Desi Hub may, at its discretion, request reasonable evidence verifying a member’s identity, legal name or other information where it considers verification appropriate, including where information appears inaccurate, misleading, inconsistent or suspicious.
  4. Failure or refusal to provide reasonably requested verification may result in restriction, suspension or removal of the account. Any verification information obtained will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the Privacy Act 2020.
  5. You must be at least 18 years of age and legally able to enter into binding contracts in New Zealand.

5. Account security and credentials

  1. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential and for activity that occurs under your account.
  2. You must not share your credentials, transfer your account or allow another person to use the Platform through your account.
  3. You must promptly tell NZ Desi Hub through the Contact Us form if you suspect unauthorised access to your account.

6. Membership plans and entitlements

  1. NZ Desi Hub offers Basic (free), Bronze, Silver and Gold memberships, each with different features, connection allowances and privileges.
  2. Current fees, billing options, connection allowances and benefits are those published on the Membership page, which is the authoritative source of current pricing. Prices are not fixed by these Terms.
  3. NZ Desi Hub may introduce, adjust or discontinue plan benefits from time to time, subject to reasonable notice and to entitlements already paid for.

7. Basic (free) membership

  1. Basic membership is free.
  2. Basic members may use the features the current Basic plan permits, as shown on the Membership page.
  3. Basic membership does not include an allowance to send new connection requests.
  4. Basic membership has no expiry date and continues unless the account is closed, suspended or removed in accordance with these Terms.

8. Paid memberships and payment processing

  1. Paid memberships (Bronze, Silver and Gold) are processed by our independent payment provider, Stripe. NZ Desi Hub does not receive or store full card numbers.
  2. Prices are stated and charged in New Zealand dollars (NZD). Any applicable taxes will be identified where required. NZ Desi Hub may amend its tax treatment if required by law.
  3. Paid memberships are offered on a recurring monthly or recurring annual billing cycle, selected at purchase.
  4. Members manage their membership, payment details, renewals, invoices and receipts on the My Membership & Billing page.

9. Activation of paid memberships

  1. Selecting a paid plan or opening checkout does not by itself activate paid access. Until payment is confirmed the account keeps its Basic access and may show as awaiting payment.
  2. A paid membership activates only after Stripe confirms successful payment through our verified server-side process.
  3. An abandoned, failed or cancelled checkout does not create any paid entitlement.

10. Automatic renewal, invoices and receipts

  1. Monthly and annual paid memberships renew automatically at the end of each billing period, and the applicable fee is charged to your authorised payment method, unless renewal has been cancelled beforehand.
  2. Invoices and receipts, including Stripe-hosted invoices and receipts where applicable, are available on the My Membership & Billing page.

11. Renewal reminders

  1. NZ Desi Hub normally sends automated renewal reminder emails approximately 5 days before a monthly renewal, and approximately 1 month and 7 days before an annual renewal.
  2. Members remain responsible for monitoring their membership and renewal date through the My Membership & Billing page.
  3. Failure to receive a reminder email does not, by itself, cancel an otherwise valid automatic renewal.

12. Member-requested plan and billing changes

  1. A requested change of tier or billing cycle takes effect at your next renewal date.
  2. Because current benefits continue for the period already paid, ordinary plan changes involve no mid-period proration and no automatic partial charge or refund.
  3. You may cancel a scheduled change before it takes effect on the My Membership & Billing page.

13. Monthly membership cancellation

  1. You may cancel the future renewal of a monthly membership at any time before the next renewal date on the My Membership & Billing page.
  2. Future renewal then stops, and paid benefits continue until the end of the current paid-through period.
  3. There is no ordinary change-of-mind refund for a monthly period that has already commenced, subject always to your non-excludable statutory rights.
  4. When the paid period ends, the account returns to Basic unless another valid entitlement exists.

14. Annual membership cancellation and refund

  1. Any contractual refund on cancelling an annual membership is calculated from the discounted annual membership fee actually paid.
  2. The monthly equivalent is the discounted annual fee actually paid divided by 12. The refund is the monthly equivalent multiplied by the number of complete unused subscription months remaining.
  3. A subscription month that has already commenced counts as fully used and is not included in the refund.
  4. The exact refund amount is shown on the My Membership & Billing page before you confirm cancellation.
  5. Nothing in this section limits any non-excludable statutory right or remedy.

15. Failed payments and grace period

  1. If a renewal payment fails, you have 5 weekdays (Monday to Friday) to update your payment details and settle the amount owing.
  2. The day of the payment failure is not counted. Counting starts on the next weekday. Saturdays and Sundays do not count. New Zealand public holidays are not excluded from this calculation.
  3. Paid benefits remain available during the grace period.
  4. If payment succeeds within the grace period, normal active billing resumes. If the failure remains unresolved when the grace period ends, the paid membership ends and access returns to Basic unless another valid entitlement exists.

16. Promotions and complimentary memberships

  1. NZ Desi Hub may offer promotional rates, trials or complimentary memberships, each subject to its published terms and eligibility.
  2. Complimentary or promotional access never silently converts to a paid subscription, and no card is charged merely because complimentary or promotional access expires.
  3. When promotional access ends, the member returns to their underlying valid membership, or to Basic if there is none.

17. Membership price changes

  1. NZ Desi Hub may change membership prices from time to time.
  2. Existing paid subscribers will receive at least 30 days’ advance notice of a price increase before it first applies to them.
  3. If an upcoming renewal falls too soon to satisfy that notice period, that renewal stays at the existing price and the increase applies only from a later eligible renewal.
  4. Price increases are never applied retrospectively or part-way through a paid period. You may cancel future renewal before a notified increase takes effect.
  5. Price reductions may be implemented without the same notice period.

18. Member directory and profile privacy

  1. Directory cards and member profiles show professional summary information such as name, occupation, business, industry and general location.
  2. Private registration email addresses, private phone numbers and billing information are not displayed in the general member directory.

19. Connections and messaging

  1. Each paid plan includes the monthly allowance of new connection requests shown on the Membership page. Basic membership does not include an outgoing connection-request allowance. Unused allowances do not carry over.
  2. Messaging must be used for genuine professional networking. You must not use it for spam or bulk promotion, harassment or intimidation, fraudulent or deceptive solicitations, or to collect contact details for external marketing lists.
  3. NZ Desi Hub staff may contact members about support, security, billing or moderation.

20. Business listings

  1. Members who publish a business listing warrant that they own or are authorised to represent the business and that its details are accurate, lawful and current.
  2. Listings must comply with New Zealand law, including the Fair Trading Act 1986.
  3. NZ Desi Hub may decline, unpublish, edit or remove a listing that breaches these Terms or brings the community into disrepute.

21. Opportunities and referrals

  1. The opportunities and referrals board is an information exchange. NZ Desi Hub does not verify the authenticity, viability, legality or creditworthiness of any opportunity or referral.
  2. Any arrangement made following a referral is solely between the members involved, at their own risk.

22. Member content and articles

  1. You retain ownership of the original content you submit.
  2. You grant Happy Penguin Limited a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence, only to the extent reasonably necessary, to host, reproduce, format, display, distribute and promote that content in connection with operating and promoting NZ Desi Hub.
  3. The licence continues while the content is available through the Platform and for a reasonable period afterwards as needed for backups, archived material, historical records, audit, dispute resolution or legal compliance. It does not give NZ Desi Hub any right to exploit your content commercially in ways unrelated to NZ Desi Hub.
  4. You warrant that your content does not infringe anyone’s rights and is not defamatory, misleading, obscene or unlawful.

23. Advertising

  1. Advertisers warrant that their advertisements comply with New Zealand law, including the Fair Trading Act 1986, and applicable Advertising Standards Authority codes.
  2. NZ Desi Hub may reject, suspend or remove any advertisement that is misleading, offensive, defamatory or inconsistent with community standards.

24. Events

  1. Unless expressly identified as an official NZ Desi Hub event, events shown on the Platform are run by independent organisers.
  2. Organisers are responsible for their events, including ticketing, venue safety, cancellations and refunds.

25. Scraping, data harvesting and misuse

You must not, and must not help anyone else to:

  1. use bots, crawlers, spiders, scrapers or any other automated means to access, monitor or extract any part of the Platform;
  2. harvest member, business or contact information in bulk, whether by automated or manual means;
  3. copy member, business or contact information into external databases;
  4. create lead-generation lists, CRMs or commercial directories from NZ Desi Hub data;
  5. resell or republish Platform or member data;
  6. reverse engineer the Platform or attempt to discover its software or database structures;
  7. circumvent authentication, rate limits, connection allowances or any other access control;
  8. use contact details obtained through the Platform to send unsolicited commercial electronic messages, including in breach of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007.

A breach of this section may constitute a material breach of these Terms and may result in restriction, suspension or termination of the account and, where appropriate, legal action. NZ Desi Hub may investigate the circumstances and decide the appropriate response. Ordinary browsing of the Platform is permitted.

26. Acceptable use

You must not:

  1. defame, abuse, harass, threaten or unlawfully discriminate against any person;
  2. impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or organisation;
  3. upload malicious code or harmful software;
  4. interfere with the security, integrity or performance of the Platform;
  5. use the Platform for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose.

27. Intellectual property

  1. The Platform’s design, branding, logos, software, database design, graphics and documentation belong to Happy Penguin Limited or its licensors.
  2. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Platform in accordance with these Terms for networking purposes.

28. Moderation, suspension and account closure

  1. NZ Desi Hub may investigate any reported or suspected breach of these Terms.
  2. Where a breach occurs or is reasonably suspected, NZ Desi Hub may, at its discretion, warn the member, remove content, restrict features, or suspend or terminate the account.
  3. NZ Desi Hub does not provide a self-service account deletion or closure facility.
  4. A member who wishes to close their account may request closure or removal through the Contact Us form, and NZ Desi Hub may then process the request administratively.
  5. Cancelling a paid subscription is separate from account closure. It stops future renewal in accordance with these Terms but does not itself close or delete the account.
  6. Where an account is closed or removed, NZ Desi Hub may retain information it is required or reasonably entitled to retain for legal, regulatory, fraud prevention, payment, security, dispute, audit or record-keeping purposes, subject to the Privacy Policy and applicable law.
  7. Reinstatement of a suspended or removed account is at NZ Desi Hub’s discretion.

29. Platform availability

  1. NZ Desi Hub aims to keep the Platform reliably available but does not warrant that it will be uninterrupted or error-free.
  2. Access may be temporarily suspended for maintenance, security work, upgrades or circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

30. Liability and statutory rights

  1. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right, guarantee, obligation or remedy where New Zealand law does not permit that result, including under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986.
  2. Where a member acquires NZ Desi Hub services in trade and for the purposes of a business, and all statutory requirements are satisfied (including that the relevant supply and acquisition are in trade, all parties are in trade, this agreement is in writing, the parties agree to contract out, and it is fair and reasonable that the parties be bound), the parties agree that: (a) the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 does not apply, as permitted by section 43(2) of that Act; and (b) sections 9, 12A, 13 and 14(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1986 do not apply, as permitted by section 5D of that Act. This clause applies only to the extent permitted by law.
  3. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total liability of Happy Penguin Limited and NZ Desi Hub for all claims connected with these Terms or the Platform is limited to the membership fees you paid in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim.
  4. To the maximum extent permitted by law, NZ Desi Hub is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, revenue, business opportunity, data or anticipated savings, or reputational damage.

31. Changes to these Terms

  1. NZ Desi Hub may update these Terms from time to time to reflect operational, commercial or legal requirements.
  2. Where a change materially and adversely affects paid membership entitlements or pricing, NZ Desi Hub will give at least 30 days’ advance notice by email or Platform announcement, except where a change is required sooner for legal compliance, security or fraud prevention.
  3. Changes do not apply retrospectively. Continued use of the Platform after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

32. Governing law and contact

  1. These Terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the New Zealand courts.
  2. If any provision is found invalid or unenforceable, it will be severed and the rest of these Terms will continue in effect.
  3. General membership, account, billing and Terms enquiries, and requests for administrative account closure, may be submitted through the Contact Us form on the website.