Terms of Membership

These Terms of Membership and Privacy Notice (https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/help/privacy-policy/) shall govern your membership with UK Business Forums Ltd and use of our Materials, where we provide such Materials to you through our Website at ukbusinessforums.co.uk ("Website").We ask that you read these Terms and the Privacy Notice before you apply to become a member with us and provide your express agreement to these Terms by clicking I Accept where indicated or submitting the membership form available on the Website. These Terms will govern your access to and use of our Services (as defined below).

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1.
Welcome to the website of UK Business Forums (“UKBF”, “we”, “us”, “our”). We provide services through the Website that allows members (“you, “your”) to have access to certain benefits (“Member Benefits”) such as templates and other documentation, information and content (“Materials”), certain events (“Events”), participate in our member community and benefit from member-only offers (“Offers”) that we may make available from time to time. We are a company registered in England and Wales, UK Business Forums Ltd, with company number 15756915 and registered office at Stonebank, Back Lane, Northampton, Northants NN6 8AJ.

1.2.
The following terms and conditions (“Terms”) govern your membership, access to and use of the Website, and access to and use of the Member Benefits and services offered on the Website (“Services”), as a registered member. Some of the provisions in these Terms (listed in section 1.5) also apply to guest users of the Website. PLEASE READ THESE TERMS CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU START TO USE THE WEBSITE OR SIGN UP AS A MEMBER. BY REGISTERING AS A MEMBER OR USING THE WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS.

1.3.
Please read our Privacy Notice which also governs your use of the Website and Services. We will not use Personal Information (as defined in the Privacy Notice) or cookies in a way that is inconsistent with the purposes and limitations provided in the Privacy Notice.

1.4.
The Website and membership benefits are offered to business users only.

1.5.
The provisions of these Terms which are applicable to guest users (as well as registered members) are as follows: sections 1.1-1.5 (inclusive), 2, 3.1, 6 and 9-15 (inclusive).

1.6.
There may be supplementary terms which apply to specific Member Benefits, such as cancellation policies regarding Events or put in place by the third-party service provider introduced via UKBF on you electing to receive services provided by those third parties.

2. CHANGES TO THE TERMS

2.1.
We may, from time to time, update or modify these Terms or the Privacy Notice without prior notice to you (unless required to do so by applicable law). All changes are effective immediately when we post them. For this reason, we recommend that you review the Terms and Privacy Notice whenever you use or access the Website and/or Services.

2.2.
If at any time you do not agree to the Terms or Privacy Notice, please do not use or access the Website or Services. Your continued use of the Website and Services after any changes to the Terms or Privacy Notice will constitute your acceptance of the changes.

3. YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICES

3.1.
The Services and any content viewed through the Website is provided to you by UKBF solely for your personal and non-commercial use within your business. This means that you may not permit, assist or enable another person to access, copy, reproduce, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, display, post, modify, create derivative works from, sell, license, allow others to copy, or otherwise exploit the Website or Services or any of the Materials or content, including but not limited to access or use of the Website, Services, Materials or any of the content for any commercial purpose or for any purpose which competes with our business.

3.2.
To be become a member and make the most of the Website and Member Benefits, you must register and create a login account. You must also keep your password safe and secure as you are responsible for all activity that occurs through your account. You agree that you will not share, sell, transfer, license or assign your account, login credentials, or any account rights. When setting up and maintaining your account, you must provide and continue to provide accurate and complete information, including a valid email address.

3.3.
We offer two types of membership: (i) Standard Membership and (ii) Premium Membership, details of which are set out in the member benefits section of the Website. Please ensure your registration details are kept up to date. You can do this on your profile page.

3.4.
If you register for Standard Membership, we may contact you using any of the contact details provided by you to provide information relating to your membership, the benefits of upgrading to Premium Membership, and otherwise relating to the community or your account.

3.5.
If we discover that you have created an account that violates these rules, or that the account was created by a bot or known spammer, we will terminate your account without warning. You must notify us immediately upon learning that someone else may be using your account without your permission (or if you suspect any other breach of security) by contacting us at [email protected].

4. OUR COMMUNITY AND COMMUNITY BENEFITS

4.1 Community.
By becoming a member, you can become part of our members community and interact with other members through the forums, participating in events, registering for webinars and enjoying offers exclusive for members, as applicable to your membership type and as detailed in the member benefits section of the Website.

4.2 Communications.
By signing up to membership of the community you agree that we may send you information by email to the contact details provided as part of our legitimate interests in running the community and membership programme and in accordance with our Privacy Policy (https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/help/privacy-policy/). We will use your contact details, in accordance with our Privacy Policy (https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/help/privacy-policy/) to send you updates, information and offers, etc. If you no longer wish to receive these, you can cancel your membership at any stage.

4.3 Benefits.
The Member Benefits will be regularly updated, so please make sure you check the member benefits section of our Website to receive the latest information and offers. All information and Member Benefits provided are intended for general information purposes only and is not intended as any advice or recommendations. The Materials or Events may be co-sponsored by one of our partners, but again this is general information and is not to be interpreted as an endorsement of any kind. Certain benefits will be available to our Premium Members only, but you can upgrade to Premium Membership at any time.

4.4 Offers.
Our offers are for Premium Members only and will generally be for services offered by our third-party partners. Premium Members agree to having their details passed on to the third-party partners for the purposes of receiving their offers. The third-party partners will process Premium Members’ contact details for the purpose of sending out their proposals and responding to queries but have agreed with us that they will not sell or transfer the contact details to any other third party or otherwise use the details for any other reason. If you accept their offers, these third parties are responsible for delivery of the services or products and UKBF accepts no responsibility or liability for this. Please check their terms of services for information of their obligations and service commitments.

4.5 Services.

a) Private messaging. Our Website may enable you to send private messages to other members. If it does do so, you agree that our acceptable use and content standards at section 6 apply to any such private messages. For the avoidance of doubt, we have the power and right to access and review all private messages transmitted via our Website and may do so in our sole discretion if we think it is necessary or if we receive a report of abuse from another member.

b) Interactive services and bulletin board. We will do our best to assess any possible risks for members from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on our Website, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on our Website, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a member in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not. Where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise. All interactive services are subject to fair usage and we reserve the right to suspend or delete any user account which is using any of the interactive services excessively or otherwise in breach of these Terms.

c) Sharing Content. As a member you are able to share your own content. Please refer to section 5 for more information regarding this service.

d) Networking and introductions. As a member you will meet and be introduced to other members. This is something we actively encourage. However, this is not an endorsement of other members. Please make sure you do your own checks on other members and the services/products that they offer to make sure they are suitable for your organization. UKBF cannot and does not accept responsibility or liability for any loss that may be suffered by one member doing business with another member.

5. USER CONTENT

5.1.
As a member you are able to upload and share text, images, photographs, logos, data, information, views, graphs and/or other materials with the community through the Website (“Member Content”). The ways in which you might publish and share Member Content on the Website include (but are not necessarily limited to):

a) articles;

b) blog posts; and

c) community content (including forum posts and user comments).

5.2.
When posting Member Content as an article or blog post, you undertake, warrant and agree that:

a) the Member Content is your own original work and is not copied or adapted from any third-party work without their consent;

b) you have not recently published identical or substantially similar Member Content elsewhere on the internet;

c) you will not publish such Member Content on other third-party sites without including a hyperlink source reference to the Website;

d) the Member Content shall be accurate in all material respects;

e) we may review the Member Content prior to publication on the Website and may make reasonable changes to the Member Content and/or reject publication of the Member Content in part or in whole.

5.3.
Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload Member Content to the Website, or to make contact with other members of the community, you must comply with our acceptable use & content standards (see section 6 below). You warrant that any such Member Content contribution does comply with those standards, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

5.4.
Any Member Content you upload to the Website will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your Member Content, but you are required to (and by uploading the Member Content you do so) grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide licence (including the right to sub-licence to other members) to use, store, copy, modify and adapt that Member Content and to distribute and make it available to members and third parties.

5.5.
You warrant and represent that we also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any Member Content posted or uploaded by you to the Website constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy. A copy of our complaints procedure is available on request.

5.6.
We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the Member Content or accuracy of any Member Content posted by you or any other member.

5.7.
We have the right to remove any post you make on the Website for any reason whatsoever including if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the acceptable use and content standards set out below at section 6.

5.8.
The views expressed by members and other users on the Website do not represent our views or values.

6. ACCEPTABLE USE AND CONTENT STANDARDS

6.1.
You may access or use the Services, Website or Member Benefits only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to use the Website:

a) In any way that violates any applicable local, federal, state, or international law or regulation (including, without limitation, any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the UK or other countries);

b) To impersonate or attempt to impersonate another user or any other person or entity (including, without limitation, by using email addresses or screen names associated with any of the foregoing);

c) For the purpose of exploiting, harming or attempting to exploit or harm minors in any way by asking for personally identifiable information or otherwise; and

d) To transmit, or procure the sending of, any advertising or promotional material without our prior written consent, including any “junk mail”, “chain letter” or “spam” or any other similar solicitation.

6.2.
Additionally, you agree not to:

a) Use the Website in any manner that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair the Website or interfere with any other party’s use of the Website, including their ability to engage in real time activities through the Website;

b) Use any robot, spider or other automatic device, manual process or means to access the Website for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Website;

c) Use any device, software or routine that interferes with the proper working of the Website;

d) Introduce any viruses, trojan horses, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful;

e) Attempt to gain unauthorised access to, interfere with, damage or disrupt any parts of the Website, the server on which the Website is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the Website; and

f) Attack the Website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

6.3
You must comply with the spirit and the letter of the following standards.

a) Member Content contributions must:

• be accurate (where they state facts);
• be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and
• comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted.

b) Member Content contributions must not:

• Contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
• Contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
• Promote sexually explicit material;
• Promote violence;
• Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
• Infringe any copyright, database right or trademark of any other person.
• Be likely to deceive any person;
• Be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
• Promote any illegal activity;
• Be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
• Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
• Be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;
• Give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; and
• Advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

7. PAYMENTS, BILLING, CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS

Payments and Payment Methods

7.1.
The price of membership plans and Member Benefits shall be the price quoted on the Website on the date of acceptance of the order by us and we reserve the right to amend our prices at any time at our sole discretion.

7.2.
Payments for any of our Services can be made monthly or annually via credit or debit card, as may be updated from time to time.

7.3.
We may use a third-party service provider to process the payments, such as Stripe or PayPal, or other providers from time to time.  You agree to the terms and conditions for use of those providers and understand that they would be solely responsible for the security, privacy, and processing of those transactions.  You expressly authorise us to charge the credit/debit card or other payment form provided each recurring billing period (where you purchase a subscription plan). If you provide a payment method that results in overdraft, chargeback, or other fee from your bank, you alone are responsible for that fee.

7.4.
Purchases made outside of the United Kingdom will be billed to your card provider in Great British Pounds (GBP) but will appear on your credit/debit card statement in your local currency. The final amount billed may vary from that shown on the ‘currency converter’ as a result of the currency exchange rate applied by your credit/debit card provider.

7.5.
Any sales or other taxes that are chargeable will be charged at the rates from time to time in force.

Automatic Billing

7.6.
If you are a Premium Member: by signing up to a subscription plan, you agree to automatic billing to be deducted from the payment form you provided to us and agree to pay the charges made to your account in connection therewith at the frequency agreed. Except in the case of one-off purchases, your subscription and regular billing of your account will continue indefinitely unless cancelled by you by following the steps described in section 7.7.  To ensure uninterrupted access to your Member Benefits, we will provide you with sufficient notice prior to the renewal of your subscription plan. Payment will be collected from the same card previously used or any other card subsequently notified.

Cancellations and Refunds

7.7.
All payments are non-refundable and we do not offer refunds for partially used periods for your membership. You may cancel your account or a recurring subscription plan at any time for any reason.

7.8.
If you cancel your subscription plan before the end of the current subscription plan period, we will not refund you any fees already paid to us. We will deactivate your account on the date specified by you, after which you will no longer be able to access the Member Benefits.

7.9.
If you wish to cancel a specific Member Benefit that you have signed up to, additional terms may apply, as notified to you at the time of sign-up or otherwise available from the applicable third-party service provider.

Suspension and termination for non-payment

7.10.
When you make a purchase, you agree not to use an invalid or unauthorised payment method. If we are unable to process payment through the payment method we have on file for you, or if you file a chargeback disputing charges made to your payment method and the chargeback is granted, we may suspend or terminate your subscription plan or the applicable Member Benefit. If your payment method fails and you still get access to Member Benefits, you agree to pay us the corresponding fees within ten (10) days of notification from us. We reserve the right to disable access to your account pending payment.

Price Increases

7.11.
We reserve the right to change our subscription plans or adjust pricing for any Member Benefits at our sole discretion. Any price changes will take effect following notice to you, except as otherwise required by applicable law. Your continued use of the Service after the price change becomes effective constitutes your agreement to pay the new amount.

8. TERMINATION

8.1.
You agree that UKBF, in its sole discretion, may suspend or terminate your account (or any part thereof) or use of any Member Benefits, for any reason, including, without limitation if UKBF believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of these Terms or, where there has been a twenty-four (24) months’ period of account inactivity. Any suspected fraudulent, abusive or illegal activity that may be grounds for termination of your use of our Services, may be referred to appropriate law enforcement authorities. UKBF may also in its sole discretion and at any time discontinue providing the Service, or any part thereof, with or without notice.

8.2.
You agree that any termination of your access to the Services under any provision of these Terms may be effected without prior notice, and you acknowledge and agree that UKBF may immediately deactivate or delete your account and all related information and/or bar any further access to the Services. Further, you agree that UKBF will not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your access to the Services. Refunds are not available for accounts which have violated these Terms; violations are determined at UKBF’s sole discretion.

8.3.
You may terminate your membership at any time by contacting our support teams.

8.4.
On termination for any reason, your access to the Website and Member Benefits will automatically cease and you will be unable to download any Member Content you uploaded into the Services or otherwise wish to retain.

9. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

9.1.
We own the intellectual property in all content and Materials, including but not limited to templates, information and fact sheets and related metadata, provided to or accessed by you through the Services and/or through the Website (except for Member Content) and, except as permitted pursuant to clause 3.1, you are not permitted to use, copy, reproduce, disclose, edit, modify, publish or otherwise use the content and Materials. You may not remove any watermarks or copyright notices contained in the Materials.

9.2.
All other trademarks, product names, and company names or logos used or appearing on the Website are the property of their respective owners. Reference to any products, services, processes, or other information, by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, supplier or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by UKBF, unless expressly so stated.

9.3.
You may print or download material from the Website only if:

a) it is for non-commercial or personal use in accordance with section 3.1;

b) it is not stored on any medium other than for subsequent viewing or for personal use; and

c) it is not reproduced, modified, adapted or processed.

9.4.
For the purposes of these Terms, the term, “Trademark(s)” means all common law or registered trademarks, logos, service marks, trade names, internet domain names, or other indications of origin now or in the future used or owned by UKBF.

9.5.
Nothing contained herein grants or shall be construed to grant you any rights to use any UKBF Trademark, unless expressly conferred by these Terms.

9.6.
You agree that you will not use UKBF’s Trademarks in any manner that might tarnish, disparage, or reflect adversely on such Trademarks or UKBF.

9.7.
You agree that you will not contest or otherwise challenge (e.g., in any legal action or otherwise), or assist or encourage any other person or entity to contest or challenge, the validity of any of UKBF Trademarks or the Trademark rights claimed by UKBF.

9.8.
You agree that you will not use any UKBF Trademark or any variant thereof (including misspellings) as a domain name or as part of a domain name regardless of the top-level domain, or as a metatag, keyword, or any other type of programming code or data.

9.9.
You may not at any time, adopt or use, without UKBF’s prior written consent any word or mark which is similar to or likely to be confused with UKBF’s Trademarks.

9.10.
You may not use a UKBF Trademark or other proprietary graphic of UKBF to link to the Website without the prior written consent of UKBF.

9.11.
You may not frame or link to the Website or any image without the prior written consent of UKBF.

10. INDEMNITY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

10.1.
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold UKBF, its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your use of the Website, our Services, Materials, Offers, Events your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

10.2.
In no event shall UKBF, and (as applicable) UKBF’s subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees or our suppliers be liable for lost profits or any special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with our Website, Materials, Offers, Events, our Services or these Terms (however arising, including negligence). Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.

10.3.
UKBF’s liability, and (as applicable) the liability of UKBF’s subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees, and suppliers, to you or any third parties in any circumstance is limited to the greater of (a) the amount paid by you during the twelve (12) month period preceding the date a claim for liability arises under these Terms; or (b) five hundred pounds sterling (£500).

10.4.
All warranties, whether express or implied and whether statutory or otherwise are hereby excluded to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.

11. WARRANTIES AND DISCLAIMER

11.1.
Your use of the Website, Materials, Offers and Services and attendance at Events is at your own risk. The Website and Member Benefits are provided by UKBF under these Terms “as is” without warranty of any kind, either express, implied, statutory or otherwise. UKBF expressly disclaims any and all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, to any of the Services or Member Benefits available from the Website, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any other warranty that might arise under any law.

11.2.
Without limiting the foregoing, UKBF makes no warranty that: (i) the Website will meet your requirements; (ii) access to the Website will be uninterrupted; (iii) the quality of the Website will meet your expectations; (iv) any errors or defects in the Website, Services or Materials will be corrected; or (v) that membership of the UKBF community will be beneficial for your business. UKBF makes no representations or warranties that the Website will be permitted in your jurisdiction, that the Website will meet your needs, or that UKBF will continue to support any particular feature of the Website. To the extent any disclaimer or limitation of liability does not apply, all applicable express, implied, and statutory warranties will be limited in duration to a period of thirty (30) days after the date on which you first used the Website, and no warranties shall apply after such period.

12. LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES AND SERVICES

12.1.
In the event that the Website or Services are available through any third-party platform, or if UKBF provides links from the Website to any third-party platform or permits any third party to link from its platform to the Website, you understand and agree that UKBF makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, and accepts no responsibility for any content or practices of such third parties or their platforms. Such platforms are not under the control of UKBF, and UKBF provides and/or permits these links only as a convenience to you. The inclusion of any link does not imply affiliation, endorsement, or adoption by UKBF.

13. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

13.1.
All matters relating to the Website, Services and these Terms and any dispute or claim arising therefrom or related thereto (in each case, including non-contractual disputes or claims), shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales without giving effect to any choice or conflict of law provision or rule.

13.2.
Any legal suit, action or proceeding arising out of, or related to, these Terms or the Website shall be instituted by us exclusively in the courts of the United Kingdom.

14. GENERAL

14.1.
No waiver by UKBF of any term or condition set forth in these Terms shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or a waiver of any other term or condition, and any failure of UKBF to assert a right or provision under these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

14.2.
If any provision of these Terms is held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be eliminated or limited to the minimum extent such that the remaining provisions of the Terms will continue in full force and effect.

14.3.
You and we agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, contractor, or agency relationship exists between us.

14.4.
You may not assign or transfer these Terms (or the rights and licenses granted under them). For example, if you registered an account as an employee of a company, your account cannot be transferred to another employee. We may assign these Terms (or the rights and licenses granted under them) to another company or person without restriction. Nothing in these Terms confers any right, benefit, or remedy on any third-party person or entity.

14.5.
These Terms and Privacy Notice constitute the sole and entire agreement between you and UKBF with respect to the Website and Services and supersedes all prior and contemporaneous understandings, agreements, representations and warranties, both written and oral, with respect to the Website.

15. HOW TO CONTACT US

15.1.
If You have any questions regarding the Website, these Terms, our Privacy Notice, or the Member Benefits, You may contact us at: [email protected].