Terms of Service
Last updated 13 August 2026
These terms govern your use of CHB Mate (the “Service”), operated from chbmate.com. By signing in or using the Service you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
1. What the Service is
The Service is a research tool. It maps Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers to the Chapter 99 headings, exemptions, forced-labour provisions, additional-duty rates and participating-government-agency requirements that may apply to them, based on publicly available United States government sources.
The Service is intended for use by customs brokers, importers and trade professionals in the course of business. You must be at least 18 years old and authorised to accept these terms on behalf of yourself or the organisation you represent.
2. Accounts
Access requires signing in with a Google account. We do not store a password for you and cannot recover access to your Google account — keeping that account secure, including its recovery options, is your responsibility. Anything done through your account is treated as done by you.
One subscription is one seat. An account is for a single named person. You may not share your account, sign in on behalf of others, or use one subscription to serve several people. The Service enforces a single active session per account: signing in somewhere new ends the previous session.
3. Subscription, billing and cancellation
The subscription costs $59.00 per month and is billed through PayPal. It renews automatically at the end of each period until you cancel. We never see or store your payment card details; PayPal handles all payment data.
You may cancel at any time from your subscription page. Cancelling stops the next charge immediately and you keep access until the end of the period you have already paid for. Access then ends, subject only to a short technical grace period we apply while a renewal payment settles.
Payments are not refundable and we do not pro-rate part-used periods. If a renewal payment fails, access may be suspended until payment succeeds. We may change prices on notice to the email address associated with your account; a price change takes effect at your next renewal, and cancelling before then avoids it.
4. Acceptable use and usage limits
The Service is licensed for interactive use in the ordinary course of your work. It is not a data feed, and you may not:
- scrape, crawl, bulk-extract, harvest or systematically download the data;
- access the Service by automated means, including scripts, bots and headless browsers;
- resell, redistribute, sublicense or republish results, or use them to build or train a competing product or dataset;
- share, resell or rotate account credentials between people;
- attempt to circumvent rate limits, usage limits or access controls;
- probe, scan, reverse engineer or interfere with the Service or its infrastructure.
Usage limits. Rate limits and usage limits are part of the Service, not a malfunction of it. Each account is limited to 500 code lookups in any rolling 24-hour period, and to a short-term rate limit on how quickly codes may be submitted. Reaching the 24-hour limit may result in your account being suspended pending review.
Suspension for suspected abuse. We monitor usage. If we suspect scraping, bulk extraction, automated access, credential sharing or any other unfair use, we may suspend or terminate your account immediately, with or without notice and without a refund. We do not have to prove misuse before acting, and our judgement about what constitutes unfair use is final.
5. Accuracy of the data — no warranty
Tariff data is compiled from public sources including CBP CSMS bulletins, the Federal Register and the HTSUS. Those sources change frequently, are sometimes ambiguous, and are sometimes wrong or later corrected.
The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, currency, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the data is correct or up to date, that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that it covers every provision that applies to your goods.
You must independently verify every classification against the official HTSUS and current CBP guidance before you file. The Service supports your professional judgement; it does not replace it.
6. Not legal or customs advice
Nothing in the Service is legal advice, customs advice, or a customs ruling. Using the Service does not create an attorney–client relationship, a broker–client relationship, or any professional or fiduciary duty between us. We are not acting as your customs broker and do not take responsibility for any entry, declaration or filing you make.
7. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these terms, if we suspect abuse as described in section 4, if you initiate a chargeback or payment dispute, or if required by law. Terminating for any of these reasons does not entitle you to a refund.
You may stop using the Service at any time by cancelling your subscription. Sections 5, 6, 8, 9 and 12 survive termination.
8. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to the Service is limited to the amount you actually paid us in the 30 days before the event giving rise to the claim.
We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any duties, tariffs, penalties, interest, fines, seizures, delays, storage or demurrage charges, liquidated-damages claims, lost profits, lost revenue, lost business or loss of data, however caused and on any theory of liability, even if we have been advised of the possibility.
Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, in which case those limitations apply to the maximum extent permitted and the rest of this section remains in force.
9. Indemnity
You will indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim, loss, liability, penalty or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your use of the Service, your reliance on its output, any filing or declaration you make, or your breach of these terms.
10. Availability and changes
We do not guarantee any level of uptime. We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of the Service, and may perform maintenance without notice. We may add, remove or alter data, features and limits at any time.
11. Privacy
We keep only what the Service needs to work:
- your Google account identifier and email address, provided by Google when you sign in;
- a record that you accepted these terms, with the date, time and IP address;
- your subscription status and payment history, and the PayPal identifiers that link to it;
- an activity log of actions taken in your account — sign-ins, subscription changes and lookups — including the HTS codes you look up, together with the date, time and IP address;
- a complete record of every billing notification PayPal sends us about your subscription — payments, refunds, cancellations and failures — stored exactly as PayPal sends it, with the time it happened and the time we received it.
The activity log exists to operate the Service, enforce these terms and investigate abuse, and is visible to the operator. Detailed lookup records are reduced to summary counts after 90 days and the log is deleted after 12 months.
Billing records are kept indefinitely. They are the evidence of what was charged, when, and why, and payment disputes and chargebacks can be raised long after the payment itself — a record that had been deleted or edited would be no use to either of us at that point. These records may contain the name and contact details PayPal associates with your payment account.
Payment processing is handled by PayPal and authentication by Google, each under its own terms and privacy policy; we never receive your payment card details or your Google password. We do not sell your data.
If your lookups involve information your own clients treat as confidential, be aware that it is recorded as described above, and satisfy yourself that this is compatible with your obligations to them.
12. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. You and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in New York County, New York, and each waive any objection to that venue.
Operator note: replace the state and county above with your actual place of business before going live, and have these terms reviewed locally.
13. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. The “last updated” date above will change, and for material changes we will notify you by email or in the Service. Continuing to use the Service after a change means you accept the revised terms; if you do not accept them, cancel your subscription.
14. Contact
Questions about these terms: [email protected].
15. Entire agreement
These terms are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service and replace any earlier understanding. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets.