Ginger98739Q: US Governing Law, invalid VAT Number
Letterly, Terms of Service, Point 16. Governing Law:
"These Legal Terms and your use of the Services are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California applicable to agreements made and to be entirely performed within the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law principles." – Point 17, Dispute Resolution: "Except where otherwise required by the applicable AAA rules or applicable law, the arbitration will take place in United States, California."
Please clarify: why does Letterly as a Spanish Company stand under US Governing Law?
Another question: Why does the inquiry of your VAT Number result the remark: "The prefix ES stands for Spain, but the combination Z is invalid for Spanish VAT ID numbers."?
elenafromletterly
Jun 14, 2026A: Thanks for the close reading! You've spotted something we appreciate!
Letterly is operated from Spain, so the reference to California law doesn't reflect our actual place of establishment. It's a leftover from a template, and we're updating the Terms to correctly reflect Spanish law. Thank you for flagging it!
On the VAT number: it's a valid Spanish tax ID. It begins with a "Z" because it's an NIE (the tax identification format for a resident operating in Spain), not a company-format VAT. Some online validators only recognize the company format and flag the individual one as invalid, but the number itself is correct :)
Thanks again for helping us tighten this up!
Thank you for the clarifications for both of my questions! And it's certainly a good idea to review your Terms of Service with your legal counsel. Since the Terms of Service are an integral part of the software, they are very important, especially if the software processes sensitive data.