Terms of Service

These Terms govern your use of Authentic Career Network (ACN), a trade name of Bjorn Prins 3D Art, registered in the Netherlands under KVK number 99754258. Full operator and contact details are available on the Contact page. By creating an account or using ACN, you agree to these Terms. Mandatory consumer rights are not limited by them.

1. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old. You must provide accurate information, keep your account secure, and not share or misuse it. ACN is intended for individuals; mentors participate in their individual capacity, not as ACN employees, licensed career advisers, regulated professionals or coaching companies.

2. What ACN does

ACN provides a platform for students and early-career professionals to discover mentors, request sessions, communicate at the appropriate stage, arrange mentoring interactions, process paid sessions, and support completion, disputes and reviews. A mentor is an independent individual who offers guidance based on personal experience. ACN facilitates the workflow but does not guarantee a mentor, availability, quality, or any employment, interview, admission, promotion, immigration, salary or other career outcome.

You remain responsible for your career decisions and should assess whether information from a mentor is suitable for you.

3. Student responsibilities

Students must provide accurate profile and request information, communicate respectfully, attend agreed sessions, pay for paid sessions, confirm completion honestly, and use reporting and dispute mechanisms genuinely and in good faith.

4. Mentor responsibilities

Mentors must describe their experience truthfully, accept only requests they can appropriately handle, attend agreed sessions, act professionally and respectfully, mark a session complete only when it occurred, and not misrepresent qualifications or promise outcomes. Mentor earnings are gross amounts, inclusive of any applicable VAT, before the mentor's own income tax, VAT and other reporting obligations. Stripe and ACN do not determine or settle those obligations for the mentor.

5. Paid sessions

The agreed price shown to the student is the student's final price, including any applicable VAT, unless clearly stated otherwise before purchase. No additional taxes are added at checkout. ACN retains a 20% platform commission from that gross price; it is not added on top. The remaining gross amount may be available for mentor payout through the platform workflow. Stripe processes payment and payout operations, but does not determine the mentor's tax treatment. Payment does not guarantee a career outcome.

6. Volunteer sessions

Volunteer sessions require no payment, generate no Stripe transfer or mentor payout, and do not involve payment disputes or refunds. They still follow the normal request, conduct, completion and review rules and may receive a verified review after completion.

7. Cancellation, refunds and consumer rights

Paid sessions cancelled before they take place are eligible for a refund, subject to applicable statutory rights and the session's completion status. Before payout release, eligible refunds can be processed by ACN. After payout release, ACN's application does not ordinarily support a refund through the normal workflow; this does not limit a mandatory statutory right or a right to contact us about a payment problem. To exercise a consumer right or ask about cancellation, contact support@authenticcareernetwork.com.

8. Consumer withdrawal rights

If you are a consumer in the European Economic Area, you may generally have a 14-day right to withdraw from a distance contract, unless a lawful exception applies. If you ask ACN or a mentor to start a paid service during that period, you should expressly request that early performance begins and acknowledge that the withdrawal right may end once the service has been fully performed. Attending a session does not by itself remove the right: the legal conditions and any required consent or acknowledgement must be satisfied.

To withdraw, send a clear statement to support@authenticcareernetwork.com before the applicable period ends. ACN currently handles withdrawal requests by email and does not provide a dedicated online withdrawal button or pre-filled withdrawal workflow. The following model wording may be used:

To: Bjorn Prins 3D Art, operating as Authentic Career Network, Binnendelta 11 m, 1261 WZ Blaricum, support@authenticcareernetwork.com

I hereby notify you that I withdraw from my contract for the following service: [describe the mentoring session]. Ordered on: [date]. Consumer name: [name]. Consumer address: [address]. Date: [date]. Signature, if sent on paper: [signature].

9. Completion, problems and payouts

A mentor marks a session complete and the student can confirm completion. For paid sessions, a student may report a problem through the applicable flow; payout may be paused while ACN reviews it. Confirmation or the applicable release process can make a paid session eligible for payout. Volunteer sessions use completion and confirmation but have no financial payout process.

10. Reviews and content

Reviews are tied to completed mentoring sessions, limited to one per eligible session, and should reflect genuine experience. Public reviews may show the student's first name and review month and year, but not the student's email address or full name. You can report a review or content concern to support@authenticcareernetwork.com. ACN may moderate fraudulent, abusive, illegal or inappropriate content and may restrict accounts for misuse, but should not remove a legitimate negative review merely because it is negative.

11. Prohibited conduct

You must not harass, discriminate against, abuse, defraud, impersonate, mislead, spam, break the law, compromise the service, or abuse payment, review or dispute systems.

12. Intellectual property

ACN's software, branding and site content belong to ACN or its licensors. You keep rights in content you submit. You give ACN only the limited, non-exclusive licence needed to host, display and operate that content through the service, including displaying profiles and verified reviews.

13. Suspension and liability

ACN may suspend or end access where reasonably necessary for serious violations, security, fraud prevention or legal compliance, while respecting applicable law. To the extent permitted by law, ACN is not responsible for a mentor's independent statements, conduct or promised outcomes, or for decisions you make based on mentoring. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where doing so is prohibited by law, including applicable consumer protections.

14. Account closure, governing law and contact

You may close your account through the available account-closure process when there are no unsettled requests, payments, payouts, refunds or disputes. Closing an account disables access and removes or scrubs profile information where the current process supports it. ACN may retain reviews, transaction records, payment and dispute evidence, and other information needed for legal, accounting, security or claims purposes.

These Terms are governed by the law of the Netherlands, while preserving mandatory consumer protections that may apply based on your place of residence. Questions and notices can be sent to support@authenticcareernetwork.com.