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Terms and Conditions

TERMS AND CONDITIONS for the use of Smart Money People websites (Last updated May 2018)

These User Guidelines (“UG”) and Terms and Conditions (hereinafter referred to as the "User Terms" or “UT”) apply to any use of Smart Money People's websites (hereinafter referred to as the "Website"), including - but not limited to – smartmoneypeople.com, smartmoneypeople.co.uk

The Website is supplied by Smart Money People Limited, Office 107, 154-160 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2DQ. In these User Terms, the words "we", "us" and "ours" refer to Smart Money People.

These User Terms are deemed to include all other operating rules, policies and guidelines that are referred to herein or that we may otherwise publish on our Website (as such, rules, policies and guidelines may be amended from time to time), including without limitation:

By using the Website, you accept to be subject to the User Terms, including the User Guidelines. If you do not accept these User Terms, you are kindly requested not to use the Website any further. The registration as a user requires your express acceptance of these User Terms.

User Guidelines (“UG”)

UG_1 When can you write a review?

Smart Money People is reserved for real user interactions with Financial Services companies. You can write a review when you:

  • Have purchased a product or service from a company, an organisation, a web service, etc. ("Company"), and are, or have been, a customer
  • Can otherwise document your use of the Company's service

In the following, we will use the term "Customer Experience" as a collective term for the two situations.

The review must relate to a Customer Experience you have had within the last 18 months.

You may only write about your own Customer Experience, i.e. you are not allowed to write a review about your family members' or your friends' Customer Experiences.

UG_2 What should you write about?

When you write a review, it must reflect your own first-hand Customer Experience. What works well and what doesn’t? How can a Financial Services company do better?

UG_3 When do we ask you to modify your review and when do we alter your review?

It is important to note that we do not monitor all reviews on our Website, neither before nor after reviews are published. We ask that you use the ‘Contact Us’ functionality to alert us to a review that does not fall within the guidelines herein outlined.

If your review is reported for one of the following reasons - and provided that we agree or cannot immediately reject the reporting as unfounded - we may ask you to modify your review:

  • The content of your review is based solely on ethical, political and/or value-oriented positions as opposed to a Customer Experience.
  • Your review contains defamatory statements or is in violation of applicable law or our Guidelines.
  • Your review contains violent or coarse language or has a sexist or racial character.

If your review reveals any personal information about another individual, including another person's name, address, phone number, electronic mail address, credit card information or any other information that could be used to track, identify, contact or impersonate that person, you accept and agree that we may remove this from the review. You also accept and agree that we may remove references to other companies and websites (including links) from the review. Removed information is replaced with blank spaces or similar, and we will not otherwise make alterations to your review.

UG_4 When do we remove your review?

As a main rule, we do not remove reviews from our website. However, some reviews are in violation of our Guidelines and/or applicable law and in these cases, we retain the right to remove your review. Below are some examples of when we may remove your review:

  • Your review violates our User Guidelines or Terms & Conditions.
  • Your review is not based on a real Customer Experience
  • Your review violates other people's or companies' rights, including any intellectual property rights, rights of privacy/confidentiality and/or rights of publicity.
  • Your review is of a marketing nature or has marketing purposes.
  • You have created multiple profiles to review the same Company multiple times.
  • Your review does not comply with applicable laws and regulations.
  • Your review has been identified and assessed by our automated internal
  • We have asked you to forward proof of your Customer Experience with the reviewed Company and no or insufficient documentation has been provided within the deadline.

UG_5 For the avoidance of doubt, we do not remove a review if:

  • Your review and the number of awarded stars are seemingly conflicting, e.g. if you awarded a Company only one star, but wrote a very positive review of the Company.

UG_6 When do we ask you to provide proof of your Customer Experience, and what should you send us?

We may ask you to provide proof of your Customer Experience with the Company that you have reviewed if we receive notice from the Company that they do not know you.

We will then send you an email and ask you to provide proof of your Customer Experience within a certain deadline.

You must be able to send proof of your Customer Experience up to 18 months from the date that you wrote your review.

We do not share the proof you send to us with any third parties, including the reviewed Company.

UG_7 False reviews

The purpose of Smart Money People is to create a platform where you can freely share your Customer Experiences or similar user experience with the Company and thereby provide an informative and fair view of the Company's services.

Trust is vital to us and we can therefore not under any circumstances accept false reviews, i.e. reviews that are not an expression of a genuine Customer Experience.

User Terms (“UT”)

UT_1 Registered User

UT_1.1M In order to gain full access to use the Website, you must create a profile and register as a user (hereinafter referred to as "Registered User").

UT_1.2M You are only permitted to register one profile per person on the Website. The profile is personal and you must not transfer it to others.

UT_1.3M In order to become a Registered User, you need a password. You choose your own password, which must be used with your email address when logging onto the Website. The password is personal and you must not transfer it or in other ways make it available to others. It is your responsibility to ensure that the password does not fall into the hands of a third party. If you become aware that the password is or may have been compromised, you are obligated to inform us hereof. We can and will change the password if there is a risk that the password has been compromised or is used in violation of the User Terms. It is also possible to access the full site using your Facebook account.

UT_1.4M During the registration process, you must choose a username. The username will be shown on the Website whenever you write or comment on reviews or produce user-generated content (see 2.1 below) on the Website. Therefore, you must consider whether you wish to use a username from which you can be identified by others. The username must not (i) be offensive or in other ways insulting, (ii) contain the terms "Guest", "Admin", "*.com", etc. or (iii) contain characteristics which belong to a third party, including names of high profile persons, or personal names to which you do not own the rights. You warrant that your username does not infringe on any rights (including any intellectual property rights) belonging to any third party and/or pertaining to the User Terms.

UT_1.5M We are entitled at any time, without notice and without prejudice, to delete, suspend or change your profile in the event of your violation or suspected violation of these User Terms or applicable law. When deleting your profile, you will no longer have access to services on the Website which require your registration and/or login as a Registered User. When deleting your profile, we reserve the right to delete the user-generated content (see 2.1) you have made on the Website.

UT_1.6M Furthermore, we reserve the right, at any time and without notice or explanation, to delete your profile and user-generated content (see 2.1). In this case, our disclaimer applies without limitations.

UT_1.7M You are not permitted to gain access or attempt to gain access to the parts of the Website requiring user registration if you are not a Registered User.

UT_2 User-Generated Content from Registered Users

UT_2.1 To the fullest extent permitted by law, the rights (including all intellectual property rights) in any material, information, notifications, reviews, articles or other types of communication (hereinafter referred to as the "User-Generated Content" or "UGC") created on the Website by Registered Users are licensed to Smart Money People for its non-exclusive use. The Registered User is not entitled to royalty payments or any other compensation or fee related to such UGC. We may freely use and transfer the UGC. Our non-exclusive access to freely use the UGC applies irrevocably without any time limitation and without territorial limitations.

UT_2.2 Registered Users are liable for the UGC they publish on the Website.

UT_2.3 Registered Users warrant that all UGC posted on the Website is correct and true (where they state facts) or genuinely held (where they state opinions).

UT_2.4 UGC must relate to a company or an organisation from which the Registered User has purchased or can otherwise document using the company's or organisation's products or services.

UT_2.5 Registered Users must not publish UGC on the website which

  • is of a marketing nature or marketing purposes,
  • is unlawful, deceptive, misleading, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, harassing, libelous, defamatory, tortious, obscene, pornographic or profane,
  • has sexist, political or racial character,
  • violates other people's rights, including any intellectual property rights,
  • is offensive or in any way breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation,
  • violates these User Terms, including the User Guidelines,
  • has an unlawful purpose and/or content (or promotes unlawful purposes),
  • is technically harmful (including without limitation computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software, harmful data or conduct).

UT_2.6 Contributors of UGC warrant in every context that the UGC is lawful and in compliance with the User Terms. If we receive notice or otherwise become aware that UGC violates current legislation and/or the User Terms, we may delete the UGC without any notice, and we - dependent on the character of the violation - may inform the violated party and/or the authorities of the violation. Our right to delete will not be conditioned on an explanation, although we will strive to inform the Registered User about the deletion and the reason hereof.

UT_2.7 The Registered User hereby grants us the right to initiate and take any legal actions which we deem necessary in case of infringement of the Registered User's UGC.

UT_2.8 The Registered User must guarantee to indemnify us for any claims which may be made against us as a consequence of the Registered User's violation of the User Terms or current legislation. The Registered User must indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any claim or loss due to third party claims against us resulting from the UGC of the Registered User.

UT_2.9 We may at any time request information about the UGC from the Registered User, including documentation supporting the information included in the UGC. The Registered User must e.g. document that the UGC is based on an actual customer experience in an actual customer experience to the company to which the UGC relates.

GENERAL TERMS

UT_3 Rights

UT_3.1 The content on the Website, including but not limited to the intellectual property rights, text, characteristics, graphics, icons, photos, calculations, references and software, is the property of Smart Money People or a third party owner (other than the Registered User) and is protected by English or international legislation. If you provide feedback, ideas or suggestions regarding the Website or the services offered on the Website, Smart Money People retains the right to fully use such Feedback.

UT_3.2 Unauthorised copying, distribution, presentation or other use of the Website or part hereof is a violation of the English and/or other legislations and may thus result in civil and criminal penalties.

UT_3.3 To the fullest extent permitted by law, the rights to free use of the UGC are transferred to us irrevocably, without any time limitation and without territorial limitations, by submitting the UGC to us.

UT_3.4 Downloading and other digital copying of the content on the Website or parts hereof are only permitted for personal non-commercial use unless otherwise agreed with Smart Money People in writing

UT_3.5 All company names, trademarks and other business characteristics on the Website are or will be be the property of Smart Money People or a third party (other than the Registered User) and can only be used for business purposes upon prior approval from us or the third party owner, respectively.

UT_4 Personal data

UT_4.1 We perform different types of processing of personal data in connection with the use of the Website. Our processing of personal data takes place under observance of our Privacy Policy.

By accepting these User Terms, you confirm to have read and accepted our Privacy Policy.

UT_5 Disclaimer and indemnification

UT_5.1 The Website, content and services offered on the Website are provided 'as is', and we make no warranties with respect to the content or accuracy of the UGC or the Website and shall not be held liable for our own or others' deletion or blockage of the UGC. We may, at any time at our own discretion and without any liability, delete any content on the Website. We expressly exclude all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.

UT_5.2 We shall not examine or monitor UGC which is published on the Website. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we may at all times investigate and edit (including anonymising) UGC, e.g. if such actions are (i) prompted by third party requests, (ii) required under applicable law or (iii) necessary for the UGC's compliance with our User Guidelines.

UT_5.3 We are not liable for the content of UGC. Our non-liability applies to any UGC, including UGC which has been edited by us (see 5.2). We are not liable for any links to third party websites in the UGC, including the content of the page to which the UGC links.

UT_5.4 Recommendations, reviews, comments, etc. of specific companies on the Website are only guidelines. We are in no case liable for the content of the Website. The use of Smart Money People is in any respect the sole responsibility of the Registered Users. We are not liable for the availability of the Website.

UT_5.5 We are in no case liable for damages for the use of the Website, including (i) loss of profits, contracts, turnover, business, business opportunity, loss or corruption of data or recovery of data, goodwill, security breach resulting from a failure of third party telecommunications and/or the internet, anticipated savings or revenue (regardless of whether any of these are direct, indirect or consequential) (ii) any loss or damage arising in connection with liabilities to third parties (whether direct, indirect or consequential) or (iii) any indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever.

UT_5.6 Nothing in the User Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from negligence, nor liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

UT_6 Other User Terms

UT_6.1 We may at any time and without notice revise or change these User Terms or, in our own discretion and without notice, close, change or reorganise the Website. As a Registered User you accept to be covered by the current User Terms. Any revision or change of the User Terms will be stated on the Website. We will furthermore strive to inform the Registered Users about the change of the User Terms. The Registered Users agree that the continued use of the Website after any posted modified version of the User Terms is an acceptance of the modified User Terms.

UT_6.2 Should any of these User Terms be regarded as unlawful or without effect and therefore not to be enforced, this will not have any effect on the applicability and enforcement of the remaining part of the User Terms.

UT_7 Term and termination

UT_7.1 We may terminate your right to access and use the services offered on the Website at any time for any reason without liability. If we do so, or if you elect to delete your profile, any rights granted to you herein will immediately cease. Section 2-8 will survive any termination of the User Terms.

UT_8 Applicable law and venue

UT_8.1 The User Terms are subject to English law, and, unless otherwise stated, the general rules of English law apply in all relations between us and the Registered Users and the users of the Website. Any disputes must be brought before the court of Smart Money People's English jurisdiction unless this violates the mandatory jurisdiction rules.