Terms of use and sale

Article 1. Purpose

leading.cv (‘Leading’, ‘we’, ‘us’) is an online service that changes the layout of a CV you have already written, without changing its substance, while keeping it readable by applicant tracking systems (ATS). The service offers layouts (CV templates), free or premium, and a subscription that gives access to all layouts and to a choice of accent colour and heading font. Leading is not a service for writing a CV from scratch, and it does not provide careers advice, coaching, tailoring of CVs to job ads or tracking of applications.

Article 2. Access to the service

The service is open to any individual aged 18 or over who has the legal capacity to enter into a contract. It is for personal use only: neither the subscription nor layouts bought individually may be used to produce CVs on behalf of other people. Professional use of the service (supporting other people, or high volumes) is not covered by any of the plans in Article 3 and requires our prior agreement, which you can request at hello@leading.cv.

Article 3. Plans and prices

Prices are shown and charged in euros. No VAT is charged: VAT is not applicable under article 293 B of the French General Tax Code (VAT franchise for small businesses).

The subscription has no minimum term. It renews automatically every month until you cancel it. You can cancel it online at any time from My subscription, in your account; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period, which has already been paid for. When your subscription ends, the PDFs already generated remain available to download as they are; new PDFs are generated in each layout’s default colour and font, and premium layouts that you have not bought individually can no longer be exported.

You can preview all layouts, colours and fonts on screen free of charge. Only exporting a PDF depends on your plan.

Article 4. Payment

Payments are processed by Stripe. Leading does not store any card details: they are processed directly by Stripe, which is certified to the PCI DSS standard.

Article 5. Right of withdrawal (right to cancel)

If you live in the European Union, you have 14 days to withdraw from a contract made online, without giving a reason (Article 9 of Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights, as implemented in your country; in France, Article L. 221-18 of the Consumer Code). If you live in the United Kingdom, this right is called the right to cancel, and the period is also 14 days (regulations 29 and 30 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013).

Buying a layout and taking out the subscription both give you immediate access to digital content that is not supplied on a tangible medium (the layouts and the export of your CVs). The law removes the right of withdrawal for such content when all three of the following conditions are met:

1. you have given your express consent for supply to begin before the end of the withdrawal period;
2. you have acknowledged that you will therefore lose your right of withdrawal;
3. we have sent you confirmation of this agreement on a durable medium.

These conditions are set by Article 16(m) of Directive 2011/83/EU (in France, Article L. 221-28, 13°, and Article L. 221-13 of the Consumer Code) and, in the United Kingdom, by regulation 37 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, read with regulation 16, which requires the confirmation to record your consent and acknowledgement.

This is not a matter of choice for either of us: these rules are mandatory (in France, Article L. 221-29 of the Consumer Code), and it is the law that removes the right when the three conditions are met. If they are not met, the 14-day period applies, even if you have already downloaded a PDF.

In practice, the tick box shown before every payment, which is never ticked in advance and without which payment is not possible, covers the first two conditions. The confirmation email sent after payment covers the third, and repeats the other two. The date and time at which you ticked the box are kept (see the privacy policy, section 4).

For the subscription, this exclusion covers the access already supplied. As the subscription has no minimum term and can be cancelled at any time (Article 3), cancelling it stops all further payments from the end of the current period.

Where the right of withdrawal does apply, you can exercise it by sending us a clear statement of your decision to withdraw, by email to hello@leading.cv, before the 14-day period ends. We will then refund any payment received for the contract within 14 days, using the same means of payment you used.

Article 6. Your account

You can preview and edit CVs without an account. Generating a PDF, including with a free layout, requires an account, so that you can find your generated CVs again and manage your purchases and subscription. Sign-in is passwordless, with a Google account or a link sent by email; you are responsible for keeping access to your email and your Google account secure.

A CV that you are editing before you create an account is kept temporarily, so that it is not lost when you sign up (see the privacy policy, section 4).

You can delete your account at any time from My account. Deletion is permanent: your CVs, your generated PDFs and your access to layouts you have bought are lost, without refund, and any current subscription is cancelled immediately, with no further payment and no refund for the period already started. Billing data and the record of the agreement given under Article 5 are kept for the period required by law (see the privacy policy, section 4). This does not affect any refund to which you are entitled by law.

Article 7. Content you upload

You confirm that you hold the rights to the content of your CV and to any photo you choose to upload. You agree not to upload any content that is unlawful or defamatory, or that infringes the rights of others.

Article 8. Availability and changes to the service

The service is available 24 hours a day, except during maintenance or in the event of force majeure (events beyond our reasonable control). Leading may change the layouts available, the colours and fonts offered and the ATS compatibility indicator shown, without affecting CVs already generated or access to layouts already bought.

If we make a change that has more than a minor negative effect on your access to the service during your subscription, we will tell you clearly in advance, and you may end your subscription free of charge.

If the service closes permanently, users will be told at least 30 days in advance and can download all their generated PDFs during that period. Current subscriptions end with no further payment.

Your statutory rights. The digital content and services we supply must match this contract. If you live in the United Kingdom, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives you rights where digital content is not of satisfactory quality, not fit for purpose or not as described, and where a service is not performed with reasonable care and skill. If you live in the European Union, you benefit from the legal guarantee of conformity for digital content and digital services (Directive (EU) 2019/770, as implemented in your country; in France, Articles L. 224-25-12 and following of the Consumer Code). Nothing in these terms limits these rights.

Article 9. Complaints

If you have a dispute with us, you can send a complaint to hello@leading.cv. Leading undertakes to reply within a reasonable time.

If your complaint is not resolved, and in accordance with the provisions of the French Consumer Code on consumer mediation, you can use a consumer mediation procedure, free of charge, with the mediation scheme Leading is registered with:

• Centre de la Médiation de la Consommation de Conciliateurs de justice (CM2C)
• 49 rue de Ponthieu, 75008 Paris, France
• Telephone: +33 1 89 47 00 14
• Submit a dispute: https://www.cm2c.net/declarer-un-litige.php
• Email: litiges@cm2c.net

Mediation is free of charge for you. It can only be used after you have sent us a written complaint that has not received a satisfactory reply.

If you live in another country of the European Union, the European Consumer Centre in your country can also help you with a cross-border dispute (European Consumer Centres Network, ECC-Net).

If you live in the United Kingdom, you can also bring a claim in the courts of the part of the United Kingdom where you live (see Article 10).

Article 10. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by French law. If you are a consumer, however, this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection given to you by the mandatory provisions of the law of the country where you habitually live (Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 (Rome I) and, in the United Kingdom, the same rule as retained in UK law, together with section 74 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015).

If a dispute cannot be settled amicably:

• if you live in France, it will be brought before the competent French courts under the ordinary rules;
• if you live in another country of the European Union, you can bring proceedings in the courts of the country where you live or in the French courts; we can only bring proceedings against you in the courts of the country where you live (Article 18 of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012);
• if you live in the United Kingdom, you can bring proceedings in the courts of the part of the United Kingdom where you live (England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland); we can only bring proceedings against you in those courts (section 15B of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982).

These terms are available in French and in English. If you use the English version of the site, the English version applies to your contract.