Laboratory Policies.

1. General Terms of Service

Submission of any gemstone or jewelry article to the Diamond Institute Foundry (DIF) constitutes unconditional acceptance of these terms. Our reports represent the expert, independent opinion of our master gemologists based upon the strict scientific standards and proprietary equipment applied at the time of examination.

Gemology is an evolving scientific discipline. Therefore, DIF assumes no liability for discrepancies that may arise from subsequent examinations by third parties, or from future technological advancements in synthetic detection and grading methodologies.

2. Limitation of Liability

DIF, its directors, and its employees shall not be held liable for any loss, damage, or expense resulting from any error in, or omission from, our reports or from the issuance or use of the reports. In all events, the laboratory's liability for any claim whatsoever is strictly limited to the amount of the fee paid by the client for the specific analytical report in question.

3. Privacy & Data Protection (GDPR Compliance)

Operating under the strict jurisdiction of the European Union, DIF complies fully with all General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandates. We are committed to preserving the absolute confidentiality of our B2B clients, retail partners, and private submitters. Client data, financial records, and submission histories are shielded by military-grade encryption and are never distributed, sold, or shared with unauthorized third-party entities.

4. Financial & Refund Policy

All analytical and laboratory fees are definitively incurred the moment a gemstone enters our proprietary testing queue. Because grading requires the immediate deployment of our highly specialized scientific apparatus and expert labor, no refunds, cancellations, or chargebacks will be permitted once examination has commenced, regardless of the final grading outcome or origin determination.

5. Intellectual Property & Digital Rights

All analytical data generated during the grading process—including but not limited to microscopic imagery, spectral graphs, lattice maps, and the final grading report itself—remain the exclusive intellectual property of DIF. This data is immutably inscribed onto our decentralized global ledger strictly for the purpose of powering our QR verification network and protecting the industry against secondary market fraud.

6. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These policies, and any disputes arising from the submission of items to the laboratory, shall be governed by and construed strictly in accordance with the laws of Belgium. Any legal proceedings shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Antwerp.