Customer-specific supplement | Legal

Effective: 1st October 2021

The terms of the Customer-specific supplement (‘Customer-Specific Supplement’) below supplement and amend the Customer’s contract (as defined in our customer terms of service) if the Customer falls into the corresponding category of Customer. If there is any conflict between the Customer-Specific Supplement and the Contract, the applicable terms in the Customer-Specific Supplement will prevail. Nothing in this Customer-Specific Supplement makes us a government contractor for any federal, state, local or foreign government. The Customer-Specific Supplement only applies to customers with subscriptions under the legacy Slack customer terms of service and does not apply to Services provided under the Salesforce Main Services Agreement.

US government customers
State or local government customers
Healthcare customers
Education professional customers
Patent assertion entities

I. US government customers

If the Customer is a US government or US public entity (or use of the Services is for the US government), the terms of the Customer-Specific Supplement in this Section I apply.

A. Use by or for the US government. The Services are a ‘commercial item’ as defined at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, and constitute ‘commercial computer software’ and ‘commercial computer software documentation’ as used in 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §227.7202 to §227.7204. This commercial computer software and related documentation is provided to end users for use, by and on behalf of the US government, with only those rights as are granted to all other end users pursuant to the terms and conditions herein.
B. Indemnification, auto-renewal, venue, legal fees: The sections in the Contract titled ‘Governing law’, ‘Auto-renewal’, ‘Venue; waiver of jury trial; fees’ and ‘Customer’s indemnification of us’ are hereby waived to the extent that they are inconsistent with federal law.
C. No endorsement: We agree that the Customer’s seals, trademarks, logos, service marks, trade names and the fact that the Customer has a presence on one of our Sites and uses our Services, will not be used by us in such a manner as to state or imply that our products or services are endorsed, sponsored or recommended by the Customer or by any other element of the US government, or are considered by the Customer or the US government to be superior to any other products or services. Except for pages whose design and content is under the control of the Customer, or for links to or promotion of such pages, we agree not to display any Customer or government seals, trademarks, logos, service marks and trade names on our home page or elsewhere on one of our hosted sites unless permission to do so has been granted by the Customer or by other relevant federal government authority. We may list the Customer’s name in a publicly available customer list on a Site or elsewhere so long as the name is not displayed in a more prominent fashion than that of any other third-party name.

II. State or local government customers

This Section II applies to the Customer if the Customer is a state or local government, but only to the extent that the Services are being used in an Authorised User’s official capacity as a state or local government official. The sections in the Contract titled ‘Governing law’, ‘Venue; waiver of jury trial; fees’ and ‘Customer’s indemnification of us’ will not apply to the Customer only to the extent that the Customer’s jurisdiction’s laws prohibit the Customer from accepting the requirements in those sections.

III. Healthcare customers

Unless as otherwise set forth in the Customer’s Contract, the Customer acknowledges that Slack is not a ‘Business Associate’ as defined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and related amendments and regulations as updated or replaced (‘HIPAA’), and that the Services are not HIPAA compliant. The Customer must not use, disclose, transmit or otherwise process any ‘Protected Health Information’ as defined in HIPAA (‘PHI’) through the Services. The Customer agrees that we cannot support and have no liability for PHI received from the Customer, notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein.

IV. Education professional customers

If the Customer is a school or educator in the United States and wants its students, who are over the age of 13, to use the Services, the Customer is responsible for complying with the US Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (‘FERPA’). This means that the Customer must notify those students’ parents/guardians of the personally identifiable information that it will collect and share with us and obtain parental/guardian consent before its students sign up for or use the Services. When obtaining such consent, Customer should provide parents/guardians with a copy of our Privacy policy. Customer must keep all consents on file and provide them to us if we request them. If the Customer is located outside of the United States, we will rely upon the Customer to obtain any required consents or approvals from the parent or guardian of any student covered by similar laws and, as a condition to the Customer’s and its students’ use of the Services, the Customer will comply with such laws.

V. Patent assertion entities

You agree that if the Customer is a Patent Assertion Entity or is acting on behalf of, or for the benefit of a Patent Assertion Entity, the Customer will not assert, or authorise, assist, encourage or enable any third party to assert any claim or pursue any actions, suits, proceedings or demands against Slack or its affiliates that allege that the Services infringe, misappropriate or otherwise violate any intellectual property rights (including patents). A ‘Patent Assertion Entity’, sometimes referred to as a ‘non-practicing entity’ or a ‘patent troll’, is (a) any entity that derives or seeks to derive most of its revenue from the offensive assertion of patent rights, or (b) directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by or is under common control with an entity described in (a). This section will survive any termination or expiration of the Contract.

Contacting Slack

Please also feel free to contact us if you have any questions about Slack’s Customer-Specific Supplement. You may contact us at feedback@slack.com or at our postal address below: