This Dedicated SMTP Service Level Agreement ("SLA") forms part of the Layer 9 Solutions SMTP Service Terms of Use and applies to Dedicated SMTP Services provided by Layer 9 Solutions Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under Company No. 14857666.
This SLA applies only where the Customer's Order identifies the Service as a Dedicated SMTP Service.
It does not apply to Shared SMTP Services, White-Label Services, or any other Layer 9 Solutions service unless expressly stated otherwise.
1. Service Commitment
Layer 9 Solutions commits to a Monthly Uptime Percentage of at least 99.5% for the covered Dedicated SMTP Service.
This commitment relates to the availability of the Layer 9 Solutions-managed email submission and delivery infrastructure allocated to the Customer.
The SLA is an availability commitment only.
It does not guarantee:
- delivery to every recipient;
- acceptance by a particular receiving mail server;
- inbox placement;
- avoidance of spam or junk folders;
- a particular sender reputation;
- a particular IP reputation;
- absence from third-party blocklists; or
- delivery within a particular period after a message has left Layer 9 Solutions-controlled infrastructure.
2. Definitions
2.1 Availability
"Availability" means the Dedicated SMTP Service is operational and capable of accepting properly authenticated and technically valid email submissions through the supported service interfaces.
2.2 Downtime
"Downtime" means a period during which the covered Dedicated SMTP Service is materially unavailable because of a failure affecting infrastructure or systems for which Layer 9 Solutions is responsible.
2.3 Monthly Uptime Percentage
"Monthly Uptime Percentage" means the percentage of eligible service time during a calendar month in which the Dedicated SMTP Service was Available.
It is calculated as:
(Eligible Service Minutes − Downtime Minutes) ÷ Eligible Service Minutes × 100
2.4 Scheduled Maintenance
"Scheduled Maintenance" means planned maintenance where Layer 9 Solutions provides reasonable advance notice.
2.5 Emergency Maintenance
"Emergency Maintenance" means urgent maintenance required to address a security, infrastructure, network, data-integrity, or service-stability issue.
2.6 Service Credit
"Service Credit" means a credit applied to a future invoice in accordance with this SLA.
3. Availability Measurement
Layer 9 Solutions will primarily determine availability using its own:
- infrastructure monitoring;
- service monitoring;
- application logs;
- network monitoring;
- system records; and
- other relevant technical information.
Monitoring may include automated service checks performed at approximately five-minute intervals.
Where a Customer provides credible evidence of an outage that is not reflected in Layer 9 Solutions monitoring, Layer 9 Solutions will reasonably review that evidence.
4. Service Credits
Where the Monthly Uptime Percentage falls below 99.5%, the Customer may be eligible for the following Service Credit:
| Monthly Uptime Percentage | Service Credit |
|---|---|
| 99.0% to less than 99.5% | 10% |
| 95.0% to less than 99.0% | 25% |
| Less than 95.0% | 50% |
The Service Credit is calculated against the recurring charge attributable to the affected Dedicated SMTP Service for the affected month.
The maximum Service Credit available for any calendar month is 50% of the recurring charge for the affected Dedicated SMTP Service.
5. Charges Excluded From Service Credits
Service Credits do not apply to:
- taxes;
- additional usage or overage charges;
- optional add-ons not directly affected by the outage;
- one-time setup charges;
- professional services;
- migration work;
- custom engineering work; or
- unrelated Layer 9 Solutions services.
6. Requesting a Service Credit
A Customer must request a Service Credit within 30 days after the end of the calendar month in which the outage occurred.
The claim should include, where reasonably available:
- the affected Service;
- Customer or Service identifier;
- approximate date and time of the outage;
- approximate duration;
- symptoms experienced;
- relevant error messages;
- relevant logs; and
- the impact of the outage.
Layer 9 Solutions may request additional information reasonably necessary to investigate the claim.
Failure to submit a claim within the required period may result in the claim being rejected.
7. Application of Service Credits
Approved Service Credits:
- are applied to a future invoice;
- have no cash value;
- are not transferable;
- cannot be exchanged for cash;
- cannot create a cash balance payable to the Customer; and
- apply only to the affected Customer and Service.
Service Credits are the Customer's contractual remedy for failure to meet the uptime commitment itself.
Nothing in this SLA limits any liability or right that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
8. Scheduled Maintenance
Scheduled Maintenance is excluded from Downtime where reasonable advance notice has been provided.
Where planned maintenance is expected to cause material service interruption, Layer 9 Solutions will normally aim to provide at least 24 hours' advance notice.
Layer 9 Solutions will use reasonable efforts to:
- minimise the duration of maintenance;
- perform disruptive work during lower-impact periods where practical; and
- restore normal service promptly after maintenance.
Not all maintenance will require an interruption.
9. Emergency Maintenance
Emergency Maintenance may be performed without advance notice where reasonably necessary to:
- resolve a critical security vulnerability;
- contain an active attack;
- prevent data loss or corruption;
- repair failing infrastructure;
- resolve material service instability;
- protect network integrity;
- protect customers; or
- comply with urgent infrastructure-provider requirements.
Emergency Maintenance is excluded from Downtime where the action taken is reasonably necessary and proportionate to the risk being addressed.
10. Infrastructure Failures
A failure involving infrastructure supplied to Layer 9 Solutions by a third party is not automatically excluded from this SLA solely because a third party supplied the infrastructure.
Where such a failure causes the covered Dedicated SMTP Service itself to become unavailable, the affected period may count as Downtime unless another specific exclusion in this SLA applies.
11. Customer-Side Issues
The following do not count as Downtime where the Layer 9 Solutions Service itself remains operational:
- Customer internet failure;
- Customer network failure;
- Customer firewall configuration;
- Customer application failure;
- Customer device failure;
- Customer DNS errors;
- incorrect credentials;
- unsupported connection settings;
- incorrect authentication settings;
- Customer-controlled software problems; or
- other systems outside Layer 9 Solutions' control.
12. Recipient Mail Systems and Deliverability
Downtime does not include circumstances where Layer 9 Solutions successfully accepts or processes a message but a third-party receiving system:
- rejects it;
- defers it;
- throttles it;
- blocks it;
- filters it;
- places it into spam or junk;
- refuses the sending IP or domain; or
- otherwise prevents successful final delivery.
Receiving mail systems are outside Layer 9 Solutions' direct control.
Email deliverability is therefore distinct from Service Availability.
13. IP Reputation and Blocklists
An IP address or sending domain experiencing reduced reputation, filtering, or blocklisting does not by itself constitute Downtime.
This includes blocklisting or reputation damage caused wholly or partly by:
- Customer sending practices;
- excessive complaints;
- excessive invalid recipients;
- spam activity;
- compromised credentials;
- poor mailing-list hygiene; or
- failure to follow reasonable reputation or warm-up requirements.
Where the underlying Dedicated SMTP Service remains operational, such events do not count as SLA Downtime.
14. Abuse, Security and Policy Restrictions
The SLA does not apply to periods where the Service is deliberately restricted, throttled, or suspended because of:
- suspected spam;
- spam;
- phishing;
- fraud;
- compromised credentials;
- malware;
- unlawful activity;
- excessive complaints;
- serious reputation risk;
- breach of the Anti-Spam Policy;
- breach of the Terms of Use; or
- another material abuse or security concern.
15. Sending Allowances and Service Limits
The SLA does not apply where sending is restricted because the Customer has reached:
- its monthly sending allowance;
- an authorised usage limit;
- an authorised connection limit;
- an authorised throughput limit; or
- another contractual Service limit.
Performance that falls within the applicable Service limits does not constitute Downtime.
16. Warm-Up and Temporary Sending Controls
Where a dedicated IP address requires gradual warm-up or reputation protection, Layer 9 Solutions may apply temporary:
- sending limits;
- throughput limits;
- recipient limits;
- connection limits; or
- other reasonable controls.
Such controls do not constitute Downtime provided the Service remains operational within the imposed limits.
17. Force Majeure
Downtime directly caused by an event beyond Layer 9 Solutions' reasonable control may be excluded where the event constitutes Force Majeure under the SMTP Service Terms of Use.
This may include:
- natural disasters;
- war;
- terrorism;
- civil disorder;
- widespread telecommunications disruption;
- widespread power failure;
- government action;
- sanctions;
- industrial action; or
- comparable events outside reasonable control.
18. Malicious Attacks
Service interruption caused by a malicious attack may be excluded where:
- the attack is outside Layer 9 Solutions' reasonable control;
- reasonable security measures appropriate to the Service were in place; and
- the interruption was not primarily caused by Layer 9 Solutions failing to maintain reasonable security controls.
19. Customer Responsibilities
To benefit from this SLA, the Customer must:
- maintain an active and paid Service;
- use supported configurations;
- maintain secure credentials;
- comply with the Terms of Use;
- comply with the Anti-Spam Policy;
- maintain required domain and authentication configuration; and
- reasonably cooperate with incident investigation.
Layer 9 Solutions is not responsible under this SLA for an issue that cannot reasonably be diagnosed because necessary Customer information or cooperation is withheld.
20. Service Restoration
Where an SLA-covered incident occurs, Layer 9 Solutions will use reasonable efforts to:
- identify the cause;
- contain the incident;
- restore Service;
- reduce the likelihood of recurrence where reasonably practicable; and
- communicate material updates where appropriate.
This SLA does not guarantee a specific repair or resolution time.
21. Shared and White-Label Services
This SLA applies only to the Dedicated SMTP Service identified in the relevant Order.
The Shared SMTP Service and White-Label SMTP Service are governed by their respective SLA terms.
22. Changes to this SLA
Layer 9 Solutions may update this SLA from time to time.
Material adverse changes affecting an existing Customer will normally be communicated at least 30 days before taking effect.
Changes will not retrospectively reduce a valid Service Credit relating to an outage that occurred before the change became effective.
23. Contact
SLA claims and availability enquiries should be submitted to:
Layer 9 Solutions Ltd
Company No. 14857666
124 City Road
London
England
EC1V 2NX
Support: [email protected]
Legal: [email protected]