Terms &
Conditions.

1.1 As a member of Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce (“the Chambers”), you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. Please read these terms carefully before using any of our products, services and website. Using our products, services and/or website, whether as visitor or member, indicates that you accept these terms and the terms of the documents referred to in these terms.

2.1 These terms and conditions form the basis of the legal relationship between a Member and the Chambers. Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and Industry Ltd (SCC) operates its website and controls its products and services. SCC is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales with company number 465975 whose registered office is at Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 5BE which is also our main trading address. Our VAT number is 278 3336 33

3.1 Membership of the Chambers is open to any business either public or private, or individuals in a business environment.

4.1 You agree to pay an annual fee (Annual Subscription) to the Chambers, the sum of which is set by the Chambers from time to time.

4.2 You agree to make a payment which is equal to the Annual Subscription on the date that you make an application to become a member of the Chambers and annually thereafter.

4.3 Membership fees are set to reflect the number of employees. The Chambers reserve the right to amend its membership package and pricing structure.

5.1 Should you wish to cancel your membership, you may do so at the anniversary of your joining date (or agreed expiry date) by providing notice in writing no less than 7 days before the membership expiry date. Unless such notice of intention is given, any subscription for the subsequent year of membership is payable in full. You will not be entitled to any refund, either in full or part, of any annual subscription that you have paid.

5.2 The Chambers will be entitled to cancel your membership if:

5.2.1 any fee including but not limited to the annual subscription fees remain unpaid for a period of 1 month from the payment due date;

5.2.2 the renewal of the membership is refused by the Chambers

5.2.3 you (in the opinion of the Chambers) behave inappropriately towards other members or towards the Chambers

5.2.4 you (in the opinion of the Chambers) bring the Chambers into disrepute;

5.2.5 you breached these terms and conditions.

6.1 Where a company that forms part of a group of companies successfully applies for Membership, this does not entitle any parent or subsidiary of the company, or other subsidiary of any such parent to become a Member. Each company within such a group shall be required to apply separately for Membership or pay an appropriate fee as agreed by the Chambers.

7.1 Member details are stored electronically in the chamber’s client management system. You consent to the chambers publishing the generic member details within its publications, both electronic and printed. You also consent to this data (not including e-mail addresses or any other personal data e.g. contact names) being shared with other members by electronic means.

7.2 Our Chambers feeds into the policy making process of the British Chambers of Commerce who gather evidence from businesses to lobby on your behalf at the very highest levels of UK Government. This enables our business community’s voice to be heard. As a member you agree to accept survey requests from the Chambers and from the British Chambers of Commerce in conducting this work. NB: Should you leave membership of the Chambers you may continue to receive survey requests for a period of no more than 3 months from the date you resign your membership.

7.3 Opt-Out - The Chambers is a membership organisation and for its legitimate business interests, must maintain contact information on its members to communicate information on membership, the AGM, events, training courses, policy and research, international trade and any other Chambers products or services. The Chamber also sends promotional material promoting its events, training courses, membership services, business support services, policy and research work and other relevant offerings. From time to time, the Chambers collaborate with other relevant organisations and companies to promote other programs that may be of interest to members and the wider business community. In such cases, the Chambers does not provide these organisations with any personally identifiable information but may distribute the organisation's information on their behalf to those who may legitimately benefit from receiving such information or have elected to receive such information. If you do not wish to receive marketing material, you may opt out. Every marketing e-mail will include an 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom. You may also notify the Chambers in writing. If your parent company has nominated you as a relevant contact required to receive information on its behalf, you cannot opt out of important information the Chambers is required to provide you as per the Chamber's contractual obligations to its members.

7.4 As a member of the Chambers you are entitled to a number of benefits including free access to HR and legal advice. Your personal data will be shared with our 3rd party providers for this purpose. Any subsequent agreements reached is between you (the member) and the 3rd party provider.

8.1 SCC may, but is not obliged to, monitor or review any areas on the website where users transmit or post communications or communicate solely with each other, including but not limited to the Members' forums, and the content of any such communications. SCC, however, will have no liability relating to the content or accuracy of any such communications, whether or not arising under the laws of copyright, libel, privacy, obscenity, or otherwise. SCC retains the right to remove communication and/or information that include any material deemed abusive, defamatory, obscene or otherwise unacceptable.

8.2 Any member found to have acted contrary to these terms and conditions and who has had communications or information placed by it on our website removed may also have its membership revoked at SCC's sole discretion and in the event, SCC exercises its rights under this provision to terminate a member's membership on this basis, then it shall immediately notify the member concerned in writing.

9.1 SCC reserves the right to alter the membership package and SCC services at any time without notice.

9.2 SCC reserves the right to suspend or revoke membership without notice. In this instance, details of the reason for suspending or revoking the membership will be provided in writing. In cases where the membership is revoked or is due to be suspended for a period of over one calendar month, the member would have the option to receive a credit for the period they are unable to use their membership

10.1 The Chambers authorise you to view and download the materials on our website for your personal and/or commercial use, provided that you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the original materials on any copies of such materials. You may not modify the materials on our website in any way or reproduce or publicly display, any of these materials without express permission from us.

10.2 Access to our website is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our website without notice (see below). We will not be liable if for any reason our website is unavailable at any time or for any period.

10.3 From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our website, or our entire website, to our members who have registered with us.

10.4 If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms and conditions.

10.5 You must not misuse our website by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our website, the server on which website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our website. You must not attack our website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

10.6 By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our website will cease immediately.

10.7 We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technology harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our website or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

11.1 The materials on our website are copyright protected and any unauthorised use of any materials on our website may violate copyright, and other intellectual property rights of SCC and/or its licensors. If you breach any of these terms, your authorisation to use our website automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed materials. The SCC logo is a UK registered trademarks of SCC. Any unauthorised use of these trademarks will constitute a breach of our rights.

12.1 Other than personal data, any material, information or other communication you transmit or post to our website will be considered non-confidential. SCC will have no obligations with respect to such communications. SCC will be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use the communications and all data and text embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes.

12.2 We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any material posted or uploaded by you to our website constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy. We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any materials posted by you or any other user or any third party whether or not on your behalf on our website.

12.3 We have the right to remove any material or posting you make on our website if, in our opinion, such material does not comply with these terms and conditions. You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from our website any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, or other harassing, distressing, offensive or illegal material that would violate the laws of England and Wales or any other relevant law or regulation.

12.4 You further warrant that any material or information posted on our website is your own work and you have the right to post it on our website, that the same is not defamatory and does not infringe any law and shall indemnify and keep indemnified SCC against all costs, damages and expenses incurred by us as a result of your breach of this warranty.

13.1 Links to third party websites and micro sites operated by SCC members on our website are provided solely as a convenience to you. If you use these links, you will leave our website. SCC has not reviewed all of these third party and micro sites and does not control and is not responsible for any of those third party and micro sites or their content. Thus, SCC does not endorse or make any representations about them, or any information, software or other products or materials found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party or micro sites linked to our website, you do this entirely at your own risk.

14.1 You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

14.2 You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.

14.3 Our website must not be framed on any other website, nor may you create a link to any part of our website other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in these terms and conditions.

14.4 If you wish to make any use of material on our website other than that set out above, please address your request to membership@staffordshirechambers.co.uk

15.1 Any personal data collected as part of the payment process will not be stored or sold to a third party.

15.2 New Members Credit card/Debit Card (except American Express and Diners Card), BACS, Cheque

15.3 Membership Renewal can be paid by Direct Debit (up to quarterly payments available, subject to level of membership) Credit Card/Debit Card (except American Express and Diners Card), BACS, Cheque (Make cheques payable to: Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce

15.4 For continuous membership and services payment is required prior to renewal date

15.5 Cheque Payments – Make cheques payable to: Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce

15.6 Credit Card Payments – We do not currently charge for this method of payment

15.7 Other Products & Services Payment within 30 days on invoice unless otherwise stated

16.1 Where a Chamber Deposit Account is not in operation Export Documentation Payment to be made at the time of issue or on collection of documents.

16.2 eCert Documentation Payment to be paid the same day as processing via a Chamber Deposit Account or Credit/Debit Card.

16.3 Services Payment within 30 days of invoice date.

17.1 Member and Non-Member bookings – All events must be booked and – where there is a charge incurred – paid for in advance

17.2 Event booking cancellations must be given in writing. Cancellations giving less than 2working days’ notice – 100% of fee will be retained, and no refunds will be given

17.3 Failing to attend an event does not entitle the member/individual to a refund.

17.4 Event Sponsorship – Payment due 60 days before event. No refund will be made on cancellation by sponsor.

17.5 SCC reserves the right to alter published dates without liability

18.1 Member and Non-Member bookings – Payment on booking

18.2 Training cancellations must be given in writing. Cancellations giving less than:

18.2.1 14 working days’ notice – 20% of fee will be retained

18.2.2 7 working days’ notice – 100% of fee will be retained

18.3 SCC reserves the right to alter published dates without liability

19.1 Each provision contained in these terms and conditions shall be severable from any other provisions, and if any part of any provision shall be found to be invalid, illegal or void for any reason, such invalidity, illegality or void shall not affect any other part of such provision or any other provision contained in these terms and conditions which shall continue to have full force and effect.

20.1 These terms and conditions constitute the entire agreement between the parties and supersede all prior agreements, negotiations, representations and proposals, whether written or oral, concerning the subject matter of the Terms.

21.1 The Terms shall be construed in accordance with the laws of England and the parties hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

21.2 SCC makes no representation that materials or services on our website are appropriate or available for use outside the United Kingdom, and access to them from territories where their content is illegal is prohibited. You may not use or export or re-export the materials or services on our website or copy or adapt in violation of any applicable laws or regulations including without limitation laws and regulations applicable in England and Wales. If you choose to access our website from outside the United Kingdom, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws.

21.3 If you are a consumer, please note that these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree to that the courts of England and Wales will have non-exclusive jurisdiction. However, if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are a resident in Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.

21.4 If you are a business, these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

22.1 You shall not assign any of your rights or obligations under these terms and conditions without our prior written consent. We shall have the right to assign or otherwise delegate all or any of our rights or obligations under these terms and conditions upon notification to you.

23.1 The Chambers give you no warranty or assurance about any recommendations or referrals we make in respect of third parties and the services they supply. The materials, information and services provided on our website are provided “as is” without any warranties of any kind including warranties of, satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement of intellectual property, compatibility, security or accuracy.

23.2 You should satisfy yourself as to the suitability of any such third parties and the services they supply for your purposes. All implied warranties and conditions are excluded, to the maximum extent permitted by law. The Chambers only provides you with such recommendations and referrals on the basis that all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms are excluded to the maximum extent permitted by law (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill which, but for this legal notice, might have effect in relation to any referral or recommendation).

23.3 SCC further does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the materials, information or services on our website, other than those specifically purchased from SCC as noted above and does not intend that any reliance be placed on them. All liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the materials, information and/or services provided by SCC on our website, whether by a visitor, member or third party is disclaimed.

23.4 SCC may make changes to the materials, information and services detailed on our website, or to the products and prices described in them, at any time without notice. The materials, information and services on our website may be out of date, and SCC makes no commitment to update the materials, information and services on our website. Information published on our website may refer to products, programs or services that are no longer available.

23.5 Consult your SCC Membership Services Contact for information regarding the products and services that may be available to you. We aim to update our website regularly and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our website or close it indefinitely.

24.1 In no event will SCC, its suppliers, or other third parties mentioned on our website be liable for any damages whatsoever whether foreseen, foreseeable or not, (including, without limitation, those resulting from direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage, lost profits, loss of business, loss of income, loss of anticipated savings, loss of goodwill, loss of reputation, lost data or business interruption) arising out of the use, inability to use, or the results of use of our website.

24.2 Any websites linked to our website, or the materials or information or services contained at any or all such websites, whether based on warranty, contract, tort or otherwise and whether advised of the possibility of such damages.

24.3 If your use of the materials, information or services from our website results in the need for servicing, repair or correction of equipment or data, you assume all costs thereof. This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

24.4 If you are a consumer visiting our website, please note that your use is for private purposes only. You agree not to use it for any business or commercial use and we will have no liability to you as described above.

25.1 Completion and signature of the Chamber Membership Application form signifies acceptance that Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and Industry can contact you (the member) using the telephone, fax or email details supplied. The application also signifies that the member agrees to contact Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and Industry if they register with the telephone, email or fax preference service (or its successors). Further information on this can be found here. 25.2 SCC may revise these terms at any time by updating them. You should visit our website regularly to review the then-current terms because they are binding on you. Certain provisions of these terms may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms located on particular pages on our website.

26.1 Every care is taken to ensure that all information within the Chambers publications including the website, electronic communications, and social networks, is correct. However, there may still be errors and we apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause. If you find an error or omission, please let us know, and we will correct it as soon as possible after verification.

27.1 If you are unhappy with any element of the Chambers Terms and Conditions, please let us know by contacting the chamber by emailing info@staffordshirechambers.co.uk or in writing to Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, Commerce House, Festival Park, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 5BE