I’m an indie developer in the EEA using Claude Code with a paid Max subscription for a personal hobby project. To be clear, this is genuinely a hobby project. I’m building an app in my spare time, entirely for personal enjoyment, with no company or business involved. I might eventually release it publicly, either for free or for a small fee. While reading Anthropic’s terms, I noticed something puzzling. The EEA Consumer Terms (October 8, 2025) explicitly state: “Non-commercial use only. You agree that you will not use our Services for any commercial or business purposes” However, the US Consumer Terms don’t appear to contain this restriction . Interestingly, the clause appears under Disclaimer of warranties, limitations of liability, and indemnity , rather than the general usage restrictions. The official Claude Code documentation also confirms that Pro/Max users are governed by Consumer Terms. I’m simply using Claude Code as a development tool. I’m not reselling Claude access, using it as an API backend, or providing AI services to anyone. My questions: Does Anthropic really intend to prevent EEA hobby developers from eventually selling apps built with Claude Code, while US developers face no equivalent restriction? Could this wording primarily be about limiting liability for business losses under European consumer law? Has anyone received an actual clarification from Anthropic regarding this? If a hobby project eventually becomes commercial, what happens to code already generated under the subscription? Could there be any retroactive financial liability? What makes this even more puzzling is that OpenAI’s Codex subscriptions don’t appear to have the same restriction for EEA users . If interpreted literally, wouldn’t this effectively encourage European indie developers to choose Codex over Claude Code for any project with even a possibility of future commercial use? That seems like an odd competitive position for Anthropic to intentionally take. I’d really appreciate official clarification or firsthand experiences rather than speculation. It seems like an important question for independent developers. Thanks! submitted by /u/Name_not_taken_123
Originally posted by u/Name_not_taken_123 on r/ClaudeCode