Terms of Service

What you get when you enroll, what we promise, what we ask of you, and what happens when something changes or goes wrong. Written to be read, with every number taken from the same rules our system enforces.

Effective 2026-11-20Posted 2026-10-19Version 2.1See also the Refund Policy

Quick links

The pages these Terms point to most often.

Questions about these Terms: legal@tieroneenglish.com

  • 14+

    Minimum age to sign up

    Under 19: a parent or guardian must agree to paid purchases

  • 7

    Days to cancel for a full refund

    Counted from payment, as long as the course has not started

  • 14

    Days after a program ends until everything closes

    Submitting, assignments, study material, vocabulary and recordings close together

  • 30

    Days of notice before a change that reduces your rights

    Other changes are posted 7 days ahead

01

Who we are and what these Terms cover

These Terms are the contract between you and LORA English Remote Academy (business registration 650-94-02234), which runs Tier One English (the Company, or we). They cover the website, the dashboard, the practice and exam tools, the study assistant, live classes, recorded lessons, paid programs, Mock Pass and related services (the Service).

If you browse the public pages without an account, only the parts of these Terms about public pages and your responsibilities apply to you. Teachers and advisors work with us under separate agreements.

Where a program page, the Refund Policy or the Privacy Policy says something more specific, that document governs its subject. Nothing in these Terms limits the rights you have under Korean consumer law, the Academy Act or the Personal Information Protection Act. If a clause is unclear, it is read in your favor.

02

Words we use

Plain meanings for the terms that come up below.

Member
Anyone who has created an account and accepted these Terms.
Program
A paid course sold as a cohort: a start date, a number of covered weeks, weekly live classes, recorded lessons, assignments and, in live programs, an advisor.
Cohort
The group of members who start a program together on the same date.
Coverage period
The weeks your plan pays for, counted from the cohort start date. Post-program access is measured from the end of this period.
Mock Pass
A monthly subscription, when on sale, under which we mark a set number of full writing and speaking mocks each week on the free practice tests.
Mock Pass 7-day trial
A one-time product, sold only while Mock Pass is on sale. One payment of ₩9,900 gives 7 days of Mock Pass with up to 3 marked mocks on any exam. It never renews or turns into a subscription.
Live class
A scheduled video class with a teacher, held in our classroom or, where noted, on Zoom.
Recording
The video of a live class, or a recorded lesson we publish, made available to a cohort for review.
Automated marking
Scores and feedback produced by software, including language models, on your writing and speaking.
Study assistant
The chat helper in the dashboard that answers study questions and looks up your progress.
Your content
Essays, recordings, answers, chat messages and anything else you submit.
Our content
Curriculum, questions, audio and video, recorded lessons, marking criteria and the software itself.
Free services
The diagnostic test, the practice bank and any other feature you can use without paying.
03

Accepting these Terms and how they change

These Terms take effect for you when you accept them on the sign-up screen. The refund rules are shown again at checkout, where you confirm them separately, and we keep a record of each acceptance with its version and time.

We notify you by email to your registered address or in the dashboard. A notice to all members may instead be posted in the Service for at least 7 days.

Version 2.1 was posted on 2026-10-19 and takes effect on 2026-11-20. Programs and Mock Pass periods you paid for before that date stay under the Terms in force when you paid. Earlier versions are available on request at legal@tieroneenglish.com.

When we change these Terms

  • Any change is posted in the Service at least 7 days before it takes effect, with the effective date and the reason.
  • A change that is unfavorable to you is posted at least 30 days ahead, sent to you individually by email, and shown side by side with the current text.
  • If you do not object before the effective date you are treated as having accepted the change, and the notice says so clearly.
  • If you do not agree, you may end your contract before the effective date and any unused portion is refunded under the Refund Policy.
04

Your account

You can create an account from age 14. We may decline or close a sign-up that uses false information, that belongs to someone under 14, or that comes from a person whose account we terminated for a breach.

One person, one account. Your account is yours alone: do not share your password, hand your account to someone else, or let another person study through it. Keep your email address and profile accurate so that notices and receipts reach you.

  • You are responsible for what happens under your account until you tell us it has been compromised. Write to support@tieroneenglish.com as soon as you suspect it.
  • You can see every signed-in device in Settings and sign out of any of them. Sessions expire after 7 days of inactivity.
  • To detect account sharing we may check signed-in devices, sign-in locations and concurrent sessions. How that data is handled is described in the Privacy Policy.
  • If we suspect sharing we tell you first and give you a chance to explain. Only when the abuse is obvious, for example several unpaid users on one account at once, do we restrict access first and notify you right away.
05

If you are under 19

If you are 14 or older but under 19, you need the consent of a parent or legal guardian to buy a paid program, Mock Pass or the Mock Pass 7-day trial. We may ask for proof of that consent before or after the purchase and we keep the record with the payment.

A paid contract made without that consent can be cancelled by you or your guardian under Article 5 of the Civil Act, and we then return the payment as the law requires. This does not apply if you falsely claimed to be an adult or to have consent (Civil Act Article 17).

Creating a free account is something you can do yourself from age 14. We do not accept sign-ups under 14.

06

What we provide

Three kinds of service, each with its own rules on payment and access.

Programs

  • A fixed-length course with a cohort, weekly live classes and recorded lessons.
  • Daily assignments with automated marking, reviewed by a teacher in live programs.
  • An advisor who follows your progress and keeps in touch, in live programs.
  • A KakaoTalk group chat for your cohort, where one has been set up.

Mock Pass

  • A monthly subscription, when it is on sale.
  • 5 full speaking mocks and 3 full writing mocks marked each week.
  • Cancel any time from the billing page, effective at the end of the paid month.
  • While on sale, the Mock Pass 7-day trial can be bought once per account: up to 3 marked mocks within 7 days for ₩9,900. It does not renew.

Free services

  • A diagnostic test with a band estimate and a recommended program.
  • A practice bank of listening and reading papers.
  • For members, one marked piece of writing or speaking per week.

We may add or change features to improve the Service. If we reduce or remove a core part of a program or Mock Pass you are paying for (the number of live classes, recorded lessons or the weekly number of marked mocks), we notify you individually by email and in the dashboard at least 30 days before the change. You may then end the contract and receive a refund for the unused portion, and if the change caused you loss through our fault we compensate you under applicable law.

Free services may be changed or ended after prior notice. Scores, feedback and predictions are study aids: we do not guarantee any exam result, band score or admission.

07

Enrolling in a program

Your enrollment is complete when we confirm your payment. We then email you a confirmation with your cohort, its start date and the amount paid. The refund rules you confirmed at checkout, your receipts and the cohort dates stay on your billing page.

If a cohort does not reach its minimum size or cannot start on the announced date, we tell you at once and you choose between the next cohort and a full refund. A teacher may be replaced by another qualified teacher. If a live class is moved we tell you as early as we can, normally at least 24 hours ahead, and the recording is available for any class you cannot attend.

Each week's assignments stay open for 1 more week after that week ends, so a late first submission is accepted until the week after next begins. Revisions of work you have already submitted are not subject to this cut-off. You can re-enroll in a later cohort at any time, and your history stays on your account. We do not issue a certificate of completion for an enrollment you withdrew from. The enrollment certificate and payment confirmation show the weeks you actually attended and the amount paid net of any refund.

After your program ends

  • When the coverage period ends, no new curriculum is released, but everything you have stays available.
  • 14 days after the coverage period ends, everything on the program side closes together: submitting, assignments, study material, vocabulary and recordings.
  • Work you hand in during those 14 days gets the automatic AI mark only. It does not go to a teacher, even in a live program.
  • Billing, profile, settings and re-enrollment stay available after the close.
  • We may offer a paid 30-day extension after the close. It has automatic AI marking only and no live classes. Certificates always show the paid period only.
08

Prices and payment

The price shown at checkout is the total you pay. Academy tuition is exempt from VAT; where a product is taxable, the price shown includes the tax. Prices for each program are shown on the enrollment page before you pay.

Card payments are processed by Toss Payments, and card numbers never reach us. Where card checkout is not available we accept a bank transfer, and your enrollment is activated when we confirm it. Receipts are on your billing page and in your confirmation email; a cash receipt for a bank transfer is issued on request to support@tieroneenglish.com.

If you are charged twice or charged the wrong amount, tell us and we refund the excess without delay to the payment method you used.

Mock Pass billing

  • Mock Pass, when it is on sale, is charged automatically to your registered card on the same day each month.
  • We email you the charge date and amount 7 days before each charge.
  • If we raise the price we notify you individually at least 30 days in advance and ask for your explicit consent. Until you consent, you keep paying the price you agreed to; we never charge more without it.
  • You can cancel at any time from the billing page. You keep access until the end of the period you already paid for, and no further charge is made.
  • If a charge fails we retry after 1, 3 and 7 days, and your access continues while we retry. If the last retry fails, Mock Pass ends.
  • Each week runs for 7 days from the day your pass started. Mocks you do not use in a week do not carry over to the next week.
  • A mock counts once, however many of its tasks or parts you send for marking. It is used when its first part is sent for marking or when the live speaking examiner connects. If marking fails on our side, the mock is given back.

Mock Pass 7-day trial payment

  • The trial can be bought once per account, and a refunded trial still counts as bought. An account with a live program, or one that holds or has held Mock Pass, cannot buy it.
  • You pay ₩9,900 once, at purchase. We keep no card details, and the trial never renews or turns into Mock Pass. To continue after it, you buy Mock Pass separately.
  • The trial ends at midnight Korean time at the end of the 7th day after the payment day (the payment day is day 0), and mocks not marked by then lapse. A mock whose marking began before the end can have its remaining tasks or parts marked within 60 minutes after it.
  • Mocks count as on Mock Pass: on any exam, one writing test or one speaking test is one, however many of its tasks or parts are marked, and so is a practice set or a part sat alone; a mock with both writing and speaking is two. A mock is used when its first part is sent for marking or the live speaking examiner connects; if marking fails on our side, it is given back.
  • Before the trial ends, we tell you by email and on the billing page when it ends and how many mocks are left.
  • While Mock Pass is on sale, if you review the Mock Pass payment terms on its checkout before the trial ends and that payment completes within 24 hours after the trial ends, the ₩9,900 you paid for the trial comes off the first Mock Pass payment, and the trial ends then. The trial payment counts toward that first payment and is not refunded separately; the recurring Mock Pass price is unchanged. This does not apply to a trial already refunded.
09

Cancellation and refunds

Before a program starts you can cancel for any reason within 7 days of payment and receive everything back (Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, Article 17). Even after that window, cancelling before the start date returns everything you paid.

Once the course has started, the tuition-return schedule in Schedule 4 of the Academy Act Enforcement Decree applies, based on how much of the instruction period has passed. Programs longer than a month are calculated month by month.

When you cancelRefundDetails
Before the course starts100%Everything you paid, whether inside or outside the cooling-off window.
Less than one third of the period has passed2/3Two thirds of the tuition for the month concerned, plus all of any months not yet started.
Less than half of the period has passed1/2Half of the tuition for the month concerned, plus all of any months not yet started.
Half or more of the period has passed0No refund for the month concerned. Months not yet started are refunded in full.

Mock Pass: you can cancel for a full refund of a charge until the end of the 7th day after it (Korean time), as long as no mock has been marked since that charge. Once a mock is marked, or after that day, the charge is not refunded; you can still cancel at any time, keep the pass until the end of the paid month, and no further charge is made. This does not limit any refund the law requires.

The Mock Pass 7-day trial can be refunded in full (₩9,900) from the billing page at once until it ends, as long as no mock has been marked; the trial ends when it is refunded. Once a mock is marked, or after the trial ends, it is not refunded. This does not limit any refund the law requires.

Approved refunds go back to the payment method you used. We instruct Toss Payments within 3 business days of approval; your card issuer or bank may take a few more days to show it.

If we cancel a program, cannot deliver it, or end your contract through our own fault, you receive a full refund of the undelivered portion and any compensation the law provides. If we end your contract for a breach, your refund is still calculated under the schedule above as of the termination date. We never keep tuition as a penalty.

The Refund Policy has worked examples, the request steps and the dispute route.

See also the Refund Policy
10

What we promise

Our side of the contract, beyond delivering the program you bought.

  • We keep the Service running reliably and protect your personal information as the Privacy Policy describes.
  • We answer complaints sent to support@tieroneenglish.com within 10 days.
  • Planned maintenance is announced at least 24 hours ahead when possible, with the time and reason. Unplanned outages are explained as soon as we can.
  • If a paid service is unavailable through our fault for a significant time, we extend your access or refund the affected period, following the Consumer Dispute Resolution Standards.
  • If we reduce or stop a paid service, we tell you individually at least 30 days ahead and refund the unused portion. If the academy closes, we follow the Office of Education procedure and refund every enrollment in progress.
11

Your responsibilities

The Service works because everyone follows the same rules. The following are not allowed.

  • Breaking the law, or using the Service for anything other than your own study.
  • Sharing, lending, selling or transferring your account, or studying through someone else's.
  • Copying, downloading, screenshotting or recording our content for anyone else, or posting it anywhere outside the Service, including group chats, blogs, video sites and file-sharing services.
  • Recording a live class, or sharing a class recording, without our written permission.
  • Scraping, crawling, automating or reverse-engineering any part of the Service, or trying to extract our question banks, audio, prompts or marking criteria.
  • Probing or attacking our systems, bypassing rate limits, paywalls or access controls, or using credentials that are not yours.
  • Misusing the automated tools: prompt injection, trying to pull out system prompts, generating content unrelated to English study, or flooding the tools with automated or excessive requests.
  • Impersonating anyone, or harassing, threatening or demeaning other members, teachers or staff in classes, chats or submissions.
  • Submitting work that is not your own, or helping someone else do so.

If you find a security weakness, please do not exploit it. Report it to security@tieroneenglish.com and give us reasonable time to fix it before telling anyone else.

12

Automated marking and the study assistant

Your writing and speaking are scored and commented on by software, including third-party language models, and the study assistant is a language model too. The Privacy Policy names each provider and what it receives.

Automated results are study feedback, not a final judgment, and they can be wrong. In live programs, writing and speaking feedback is checked by a teacher before it counts; in self-paced programs the score stands unless you ask for a review. In every program you can ask for a human review of any automated result from your teacher or at support@tieroneenglish.com. No decision with legal effect about you is made by software alone.

Automated tools have daily limits and rate limits so that they stay available to everyone. The dashboard tells you when you reach a limit and when it resets. We keep a record of each request (model, tokens, cost) and the responses you receive, for billing, abuse prevention and quality.

Study assistant messages are screened by the assistant itself and may be set aside for a person to review. We do not read your conversations otherwise. Seriously harmful content is handled as described under Restrictions, termination and leaving.

13

Live classes and recordings

Join on time, keep your microphone muted when you are not speaking, and treat everyone with respect. A teacher may mute or remove a participant who disrupts a class. Guests invited to a session by a teacher enter with a display name only and are admitted by the teacher.

Live classes are normally recorded so that students who miss a class can catch up and so we can maintain teaching quality; the room shows a recording indicator while it runs. Recordings are available to students of the same cohort during the program and the post-program viewing period. A recording may include the shared screen, the teacher's video and audio, and the video and audio of any camera or microphone you turn on. You may keep your camera and microphone off and take part through chat; then only your display name and chat messages appear.

We do not use recordings for advertising or public release without your separate consent. How long recordings are kept is stated in the Privacy Policy. You may not record classes or share recordings outside the Service without our written permission.

14

Our content and your content

The curriculum, questions, audio and video, recorded lessons, marking criteria and software are works owned by us or our providers and protected by the Copyright Act. You may use them for your own study during your enrollment and the post-program viewing period. This right ends when your contract ends or is terminated under these Terms.

You own the copyright in the writing, recordings and conversations you submit. We use your content only as needed to provide the Service: storing it, marking it, having a teacher review it, showing it back to you, and keeping the Service secure and free of abuse. We do not use your content to train language models, ours or anyone else's. Statistics that cannot identify you may be used to improve the curriculum and the marking criteria.

We ask for your separate consent before using a testimonial, a score or an excerpt in marketing. Our right to use your content ends when you delete it or close your account, except for records the law requires us to keep.

15

Restrictions, termination and leaving

Depending on the seriousness of a breach we act in steps: a warning, a temporary suspension of your account, and finally termination. Before acting we email you the reason and the duration and give you at least 7 days to respond. Where other members are being harmed, the violation is clear, or payment fraud is confirmed, we act first and notify you right away.

Your options after a sanction

  • Object within 14 days of the notice at support@tieroneenglish.com. We reply within 10 days.
  • A refund on termination follows the schedule under Cancellation and refunds, as of the termination date.
  • A terminated member may be barred from re-registering for 1 year from the termination date.
  • Content that suggests a risk to someone's life or safety, or that is clearly illegal, may be removed and, where the law requires it, reported through the procedures the law sets out. We disclose your identity to authorities only under a lawful request or warrant, or where Article 18(2)(3) of the Personal Information Protection Act applies.

You can leave at any time from Settings, confirmed with a one-time code sent to your email. If you have ever paid for a program, deletion is scheduled 7 days out so that you can change your mind; otherwise it happens at once. Request any refund you are owed before you delete, because a deleted account cannot request one afterwards. Records we must keep by law are described in the Privacy Policy.

16

Liability

We work to keep the Service reliable. If our intent or negligence causes you loss, we compensate you under the Civil Act and other applicable law. For free services we are liable only for loss caused by our intent or gross negligence.

Where we cannot provide the Service for reasons beyond our control, such as a natural disaster or a network outage, our liability may be limited, but paying members are still compensated for the unavailable period as described under What we promise.

We use outside providers for payments, video classes, automated marking, messaging and file storage. We are responsible to you for the work they do on our behalf. Services you contract for directly with a third party, such as your card issuer or a social sign-in provider, are governed by that party's terms.

If you break these Terms or the law and cause us loss, you must compensate us for that loss. If a third party makes a claim against us because of something you were at fault for, you bear the loss we suffer and our reasonable defense costs.

17

Disputes and governing law

If you have a complaint, contact us first at support@tieroneenglish.com or 070-8018-6673 and we reply within 10 days. Separately, you may seek redress or mediation from the bodies below, and complaints about academy operations may be filed with the Seoul Gangnam Seocho Office of Education.

Lawsuits are filed with the district court for your address at the time of filing. If you have no address or it is unclear, the Civil Procedure Act decides. These Terms are governed by the law of the Republic of Korea. The Korean text of these Terms is the binding version; this English text is a translation for convenience.

18

Company details and final provisions

If any part of these Terms is found invalid, the rest stays in force. If we do not enforce a clause once, we can still enforce it later. Notices to us go to the addresses below; notices to you go to the contact details on your account.

LORA English Remote Academy (Tier One English)

Representative
Chanhee So
Business registration
650-94-02234
Mail-order business registration
제 2026-서울강남-04218 호
Address
19, Hakdong-ro 2-gil, 2F Unit 2525, Gangnam-gu, Seoul (Nonhyeon-dong, Sail Building), Republic of Korea
Hosting provider
Vercel Inc.