Terms and conditions

• Website user terms & conditions
• Schools' terms & conditions

 

 WEBSITE USER TERMS & CONDITIONS – www.education.co.uk

www.education.co.uk (the Website) is a website platform bringing together Schools and Suppliers. These Terms and Conditions incorporate all the terms and conditions and policies on the Website and you agree to them when you register to use the Website, and each and every time you view and use the Website or our services. Should you need any help please email us at [email protected].

1          DEFINITIONS

(1) “Consumer” shall have the meaning ascribed in regulation 4 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

(2) “Procurement Project” or “Project” means when a School invites Suppliers to submit a Proposal to meet their requirements for the supply of products and/or services, using the Website.

(3) “Intellectual Property Rights” means any patent, trademark, service mark, registered design, copyright, design right, any contact or database rights, know-how, confidential information or process, any application for any of the above, and any other intellectual property rights recognised in any part of the world, whether or not presently existing or applied for, which are held by the owning party.

(4) “Proposal” means when a Supplier submits a proposal for the supply of any products and/or services to a School.

(5) “Relevant Transaction” means any payment of money or money’s worth (benefit) which is made by or on behalf of a School to a Supplier or on their behalf as a result of any sales, transactions, agreements or understandings between Schools and Suppliers resulting from any use of the Website by any party involved.

(6) “School” means any school or education establishment, including any person or organisation who uses the Website on their behalf.

(7)  “Supplier” means any person and/or organisation who uses the Website and who offers and/or agrees to provide their products and/or services to a School or any other User. 

(8) “Terms and Conditions“ means these Terms and Conditions which also incorporate all policies and other terms and conditions displayed on our Website and will also include any special terms and conditions agreed in writing by us.

(9) “Upload onto the Website” means any submission or post, including any Project, information about products or services for sale or request for such in any format, messages between Users, content or anything whatsoever which subsequently appears and can be viewed on or by using the Website. This includes, where applicable, taking part in any available feedback, review, discussion, forum etc.

(10) “User” or “you” means anyone using and/or visiting the Website for any purpose including, but not limited to, Schools and Suppliers.

(11) “We”, “Us”, means the organisation who owns this Website and supplies membership services, The Education Company Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, company registration number 02651241 whose registered office is at Riverside House, Sir Thomas Longley Road, Rochester, Kent, ME2 4FN. E-mail address [email protected]. VAT registration number 573 7684 93.

(12) “Website” means the website and all contents at www.education.co.uk

(13) “Working days” means any day from Monday to Friday inclusive, from 9am to 5pm, but excludes all public holidays in England and Wales.

 (14) “Additional Services” are services which we supply to Users and are subject to a separate fee to be paid by that User.

2          ACCEPTANCE  

(1) Your access to and use of the Website is subject to these Terms and Conditions.  By using the Website you will be deemed to have accepted these Terms and Conditions and everything they contain in addition to any applicable terms and conditions of business and policies on the Website. If you do not accept these Terms and Conditions you must immediately stop using the Website.

(2) Where you are using the Website in any way on behalf of another person or on behalf of an organisation you confirm:

(a)  that you have the legal right to do so and

(b) that the other person or organisation specifically confirms that they will take full responsibility for that use.

(3) We reserve the right to update or amend these Terms and Conditions at any time and your continued use of the Website following any changes shall be deemed to be your acceptance of such change.  It is therefore your responsibility to check the Terms and Conditions regularly for any changes.

 

3          ACCOUNT, PASSWORD AND SECURITY

(1) Full use of the Website will require you to open an account and complete the registration process by providing certain information and registering a username and password. Each person may only register once and have one account. Your full use of the Website may only become valid once your registration has been approved by us and we reserve the right to lawfully refuse registration which is exercised using our sole discretion. You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the username and password and for all use and activities under your account. 

(2) You may not in any way transfer your registration/account or your obligations and we advise you not to allow anyone else to use your account.

(3) You also specifically confirm that you will:

(a) notify us immediately via [email protected] of any unauthorised use, including any unauthorised use of your registration/account with the Website or any other known or suspected breach of security.

(b) immediately report to us (see 3(3)(a) above) but also use your own reasonable efforts to immediately stop any misuse that is known or suspected by you.

(4) We will not be liable for any indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever resulting from the disclosure of your username and/or password. 

 

4          USING THE WEBSITE

(1)(a) Our Website and role is a platform bringing together Schools and Suppliers who wish to purchase/supply services and/or products. You must read the applicable separate terms and conditions available on this Website.

(b) Schools submit a Procurement Project using the Website. It is the responsibility of the School to ensure that all of their requirements and relevant information detailing what they wish to purchase is contained within a Project since Suppliers are suggested based on those requirements.

(c) Suppliers should only respond to Projects and submit Proposals when they are able to meet the requirements of that Project. Suppliers can decide not to supply any information which a School requires but this will inevitably affect the success of the Supplier’s Proposal.

(d) Schools may then choose a Proposal and purchase directly from that Supplier.

(e) We will use our best endeavours to ensure that the identity of any:

(i) Supplier is revealed to a School at the time a Proposal is submitted to a Project.

(ii) School is only revealed to a Supplier by us, education.co.uk when a School chooses to enter into any sale, transaction, agreement or understanding between Schools and Suppliers. Schools are strongly advised not to supply their name and contact details to the supplier prior to selecting them via the Website process as the successful winner of the Project.

iii) School is only revealed to another School by education.co.uk when one User has directly invited another to join education.co.uk activities, including (but not limited to) signing up for an account, joining a group or participating in a Procurement Project.

(f) Schools do not buy from us – we are not involved in any sale or transaction between any Users and therefore have no control over any products or services offered for sale or any monetary transaction, nor do we provide any recommendations or warranties regarding any Supplier.

(g) Schools and Suppliers are aware that when you agree to buy from or sell to other Users that you are entering into a separate agreement with that person or organisation which has nothing to do with us, and you must make yourself aware of the terms of any such agreement. 

(h) By using the Website you acknowledge this and agree that you use the Website entirely at your own risk.

(2) Full use of this Website and contents of the Website will only be for Users who are signed in and do not disable cookies. If you are not registered or disable cookies you may be able to view some of the Website, but may not be able to fully participate.

(3) Use of the Website is by licence only and you acknowledge and agree that all copyright, trademarks and all other Intellectual Property Rights in all materials and/or content made available as part of your use of this Website shall remain at all times vested in us or our licensors.

(4) In addition to all the other clauses, as a User you agree that you will solely be responsible for your use of the Website and that you will use the Website and services legally and only for the purposes for which they are intended to be used and will not misuse it in any way, and specifically, although not exclusively, you:

(a) will not reproduce the Website nor any content or part thereof, unless you have our explicit written permission.

(b) will not use any harmful component, including but not limited to, virus, worm, Trojan horse, time bomb or any such code that could destroy and/or contaminate.

(c) will abide by any laws applicable to this Agreement or the operation of it, and for the laws applicable to any agreement you enter into with another User.

(d) will not use in particular any material or content we deem to be harmful, illegal or offensive; cause any infringement of intellectual rights and copyright; or use the services for illegal purposes such as fraud or in any other crime. However, all and any misuse is included.

(e) will not interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website nor any activities conducted on it, nor any part of the content.

(5) You acknowledge that all uploads, whether posted publicly or transmitted privately, are the sole responsibility of the person or organisation from whom such upload content originated. 

(6)(a)(i)  It is always each User’s sole responsibility to check any Upload, irrespective of whether the User Uploaded content or it was uploaded on the User’s behalf. 

(ii) We are not responsible for verifying any uploaded content or posted information, and consequently are not responsible for any of the products or services for sale nor details of Projects or Proposals.

(iii) We do not endorse nor take responsibility in any way for any uploaded information or content and cannot guarantee the acceptability, safety, legality, accuracy, integrity or quality of any products or services for sale or the validity of information regarding any Supplier or User and we have no liability for any part of this, and by using the Website you specifically acknowledge this. You understand that you cannot assume that the offer, sale or purchase of any products or services on the Website is legal and valid.

(ivi) Where we provide Additional Services and/or assistance to Users for upload of content we are also specifically not responsible or liable for the validity or accuracy of any such content.

(b) Any reviews/feedback which may be available are merely another person’s or organisation’s opinion or point of view. Whilst you may wish to consider any feedback please bear in mind that it:

(i) will not form part of any agreement which you may make with another User, unless you explicitly agree to make the recommendations part of your agreement and

(ii) it does not form an endorsement, guarantee or warranty from us, particularly regarding, but not limited to, the acceptability, safety, legality, accuracy, integrity or quality of any User or User’s products or services, and you specifically agree we have no liability in this regard.

(7) It is always your sole responsibility to meet all of your obligations to others when using the Website and to comply with any obligations when you buy and sell and enter into an agreement with another Website User.

(8) If you find other Users’ information to be inaccurate, deceptive, or in any way a cause of concern then we encourage you to take this up with the User or advertiser involved.

(9) (a) Except as set out in these Terms and Conditions, all warranties, conditions, terms and undertakings, express or implied, whether by statute, common law, custom, trade usage, course of dealings or otherwise (including without limitation as to quality, performance or fitness or suitability for purpose) in respect of any products, services or information provided by any Users are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

(b) Furthermore, you hold us absolutely free of all liability and responsibility for any actions, losses, results or adverse situations created as a direct or indirect result of any specific uploaded data or information shown on the Website.

5          SUPPLY OF WEBSITE

(1) Whilst we will use our reasonable endeavours to supply the Website by ensuring it is available on the internet, we shall not be responsible for any failure to provide the Website or any services, or for any unavailability. The Website is available on an “as is” and “when available” basis. We reserve the right, without any liability, to terminate the Website or alter the Website and its contents without prior notice.

(2) We cannot guarantee that the services will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free. Particularly, there are inherent problems in the use of the internet and we will not be responsible for any interruption, losses or consequences whatsoever, including any tampering or hacking, nor for any browser crashes which may result in data loss whilst using our services.

(3) In addition we make no warranty against electronic virus, worms or any other defect or problems which may occur in respect of any viewing or use of the Website. We will not be responsible for any loss or damage whatsoever caused resulting from a failure to provide or where a virus or defect occurs as a result of any email attachment or document we send to you. 

(4) We make every effort to ensure that anything displayed on our Website, including any content, is displayed as accurately as possible but cannot be responsible for variations. What you see (particularly in so far as colours and shapes are concerned) depends on your monitor and settings and we cannot guarantee that this will be accurate.

(5) We reserve the right to suspend the services where necessary and particularly, but not exclusively, for repair, maintenance or improvement.

(6) (a) You may terminate use of the Website by notifying us by email to [email protected] and without giving us prior notice.

(b) However, you will still be responsible for fulfilling any obligations incurred whilst you were a registered user. This means that you must complete any purchase or fulfil any sale, as applicable, and Suppliers must pay any fees due to be paid to us.  

 

6          UPLOADING ONTO THE WEBSITE, FEEDBACK AND ACCEPTABLE USE

(1) All Users specifically agree and confirm that:

(a) you are expressly and solely liable for anything which you provide to us or upload onto the Website, provide to other Users, or which you allow anyone to provide or upload on your behalf and will not abuse any such facility, and will never use the Website in any way that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the Website or interfere with any other User’s use or enjoyment of the Website.

(b) any upload or any data, information or documents which you upload or pass to us have been checked by you as being accurate in fact and content and that anything uploaded and/or provided to us does not breach any copyright, intellectual property or any rights of any third party, whatsoever in nature, and is not contrary to any law. This is also applicable to any Additional Services and/or assistance to Users  and content we have created with your permission and on your behalf. It is always your responsibility to check the accuracy and legitimacy of any such content before you confirm that we should upload it for you, and to continue checking its ongoing accuracy once such content is uploaded, and you thus take responsibility for all such content and specifically agree that we have no liability whatsoever in regard to it.

(c) you are the sole owner and holder of all rights in anything you provide to us or upload to the Website, or that you have the express permission of any other person or organisation who holds any rights whatsoever, to upload and use it in this way.

(d) You therefore specifically agree that we have no liability and furthermore you will indemnify us for any loss relating to any actual or alleged breach of this clause.

(2) Users should only upload (or provide pass to us to be uploaded) information, and this includes all feedback, which we deem acceptable onto the Website. Acceptable includes, but is not limited to, uploads which are fair, true and accurate and comply with all our policies. Uploads which are misleading, discriminatory or breach any law or other person’s or organisation’s rights are unacceptable. All Users specifically agree that anything they upload onto the Website (or allow to be uploaded using their account/details), including any feedback, in any form:

(a) will be honest, accurate, not misleading or false and will not amount to any fraud or misrepresentation and will not impersonate any person or entity for the purpose of misleading others.

(b) will not breach any copyright, intellectual property or the rights of any third party (including disclosing personal and/or confidential information) whatsoever in nature.

(c) will not be, nor possibly be perceived to be, threatening, defamatory, libellous, discriminatory (in any form), malicious, offensive, against public decency, nor abusive, offensive or obscene in either language or content nor incite such behaviour in others.

(d) will not otherwise harass or invade the privacy of any individual or organisation.

(e) will not contain any restricted or ‘password-only access’ page, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page).

(f) will not be, nor be perceived to be, pornographic.

(g) will not do anything which reflects unfavourably on the goodwill and reputation of any of our Schools, Suppliers or other Users.

(h) will not distribute or disseminate products, material or information that you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information or confidential information disclosed in the course of employment or under a confidentiality agreement).

(i) will not incite, promote or instruct as to any conduct as described above or which promotes any breach of these User Terms and Conditions or any law and which will not in any way be illegal or contrary to any law.

(3) All users agree that they will not take any action nor fail to take action, as appropriate, that will in any way undermine any feedback system or sharing of reviews, experiences, opinions, statements, recommendations, and any information.

(4) We do not tolerate unsolicited commercial communications, any junk mail, chain letters, unsolicited mail such as spam or other such similar conduct, commercial or otherwise, and you confirm that you will not engage in any such activity. URLs are allowed providing the link is relevant, useful and necessary.

(5) All Users agree that any upload onto the Website that they make can be freely used, copied, published, translated and distributed in any medium and in any form including for advertising and promotional purposes, by us and any other person or organisation, without the user’s express permission and that it will not be subject to any copyright unless specifically marked as such by the symbol '©'. Please also refer to clause 8 following.

(6) All Users understand that we reserve the right, where necessary, to inform the appropriate authorities (such as the police) if we deem any upload to breach any law or, as appropriate, our Terms and Conditions. 

(7) We always advise you to retain up to date copy/back-ups of any upload. It is not our responsibility to retain any back-up or copies and we cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever and will not be liable for any losses, claims or damages which may arise.

(8) All Users specifically agree that we have no liability with respect to this and furthermore you will indemnify us for any loss.

 

7          UPLOADING ONTO THE WEBSITE - LICENCE TO USE

When you upload anything onto the Website (or provide content to us to be Uploaded or included in any Upload or as part of any Additional Services) , the original ownership rights remain the same but you do specifically agree that we have a non-exclusive, worldwide, and payment and royalty-free sub-licensable licence for the whole of any period to display the upload and to edit, modify, adapt, translate, exhibit, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, and otherwise use your upload or any part thereof as necessary solely for the purposes of displaying your upload and operating the Website.  This licence will be terminated when such content is entirely deleted from the Website. You also waive all moral rights you have in the content to the fullest extent permitted by law.

 

8          OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

(1) The Website and all the basic content (including text, images, marks or trademarks and logos) with the exception of any feedback experiences, opinions, statements, recommendations, data and information uploaded on the Website by individual Users and advertisers, is subject to copyright which belongs to us. This means that Users can simply use the Website, but this does not convey to you any rights of ownership, nor any rights to use or display the copyrighted information in any way. Likewise, there is no partnership, joint venture, agency, employment or any other form of relationship between any Website User and us.

(2) Specifically, all Users agree that you will solely be responsible for your use of the Website and without our express agreement in writing specifically for that User, they will not breach any copyright in so far as information, text, images, content, materials, and anything whatsoever supplied to you or available from us. This specifically means you will not, nor will you assist any other person or organisation to, regarding either all or any part of material, content or otherwise: download, copy, assign, transmit, publish, display (including in any way publicly display), use, reproduce, distribute, modify, make derivative works of or create Internet "links", frame, or reverse engineer – the Website or any part of it, without our express permission in writing, including use of our name and any copyrighted or trademarked content.

(3) We do not claim ownership of anything you upload onto the Website. However, by doing so you are granting us a licence and please refer to Clause 7.

 

9          LIABILITY DISCLAIMER

(1) To the extent that the law allows, we will not be held responsible for any direct or indirect loss, incidental or consequential damage, or loss (economic or otherwise), any punitive or exemplary damages, any loss of reputation or goodwill or business opportunities or contact, or business interruption, however it arises, including out of negligence relating to or in any way connected to any use (unauthorised or otherwise) of the Website, any sales, transactions, agreements or understandings  between Schools and Suppliers, purchase or sale of products and/or services,  errors, mistakes, accident, theft or fraud, destruction, or any part of the provision of the Website or these Terms and Conditions.

(2) In the unlikely event that you have any right, claim or action against:

(a) us, then your claim will be limited to the sum of £50

(b) any other User, specifically including but not limited to any Supplier, arising from that User’s use of the Website, then you agree to pursue that right, claim or action independently of and without recourse to us. You specifically release us from all claims, liability, damages, losses, costs and expenses, including any legal fees, known and unknown, arising from or in any way connected with such right, claim or action and agree to completely indemnify us in respect of any such involvement.

 

10        PRIVACY & DATA PROTECTION

(1) Any data that we collect will be used and stored in accordance with GDPR and current Data Protection legislation in England.  

(2) Please specifically refer to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy which will explain our use of information including our use of cookies.

 

11        INDEMNITY

You specifically agree to completely indemnify us against all claims, liability, damages, losses, costs and expenses, including any legal fees, known and unknown, arising from or in any way connected with your breach of these Terms and Conditions or your use of the Website, including any upload submitted, posted or transmitted through the Website.

 

12        QUERIES, COMPLAINTS, NOTICES 

(1) Complaints about other Users, including Supplier services and products should be addressed directly to the Supplier involved.  

(2) If you have a complaint which relates to the Website please email us at [email protected]. We aim to respond to any complaints or queries within 7 working days.

(3) We operate on a “notice and takedown” basis. If you have any complaints or objections to any Website upload, including any feedback, and/or content whatsoever, or if you believe that anything infringes any right you hold, please contact us immediately by email at [email protected]. Once this procedure has been followed, we will use our reasonable endeavours to remove illegal or otherwise improper content within what we deem to be a reasonable time period.

(4) If any complaint may amount to a breach by us, then you must allow us 30 days to remedy that breach after we have received notice of it.

(5) Any notices must be sent by email or to the address which appears in clause 1(11) above. We will use the last email or address which you provided to us. Unless the contrary is proved, notices sent by e-mail will be deemed to be received on the day they were sent. Notices sent by post must be served using Royal Mail Special Delivery or other guarantee services and will be deemed to have been received on the date that Royal Mail obtains a record of receipt from or on behalf of the addressee.

(6) Without limiting any other remedies, we may terminate, suspend or limit your use/registration/account at our absolute discretion, either with or without warning. This would occur particularly where we suspect that you have engaged or are about to engage in, or have been in any way involved in or linked to breaches of any of the Terms and Conditions.

(7) We also reserve the right to cancel, take down, delete or otherwise remove any advertisement or any upload, feedback, experiences, opinions, statements, recommendations, ratings, and information provided by other Users or advertisers or any links to other websites or other information which is made available through the Website, without giving reason and in our absolute discretion.

(8) If we do not act upon any breach immediately, you should not assume that we have waived any rights as to enforceability or to seek redress, unless we have expressly stated that in writing.

 

13     GENERAL TERMS

(1)(a) The rights given or obligations and duties imposed on a User or advertiser cannot be transferred, sold, assigned, delegated, conveyed rented, subcontracted or shared in any way by you and nobody else can benefit but you.

(b) We reserve the right to transfer, sell, assign, delegate, convey, rent, subcontract or share all or any part of the rights, duties or obligations and provision of the Website.

(2) Waiver – Nothing in these Terms and Conditions and no express or implied waiver by us in enforcing any of our rights under any agreement shall prejudice our rights to do so in the future.

(3) Force Majeure – We will not be liable for any delay or failure to perform any obligations if the delay or failure results from events or circumstances outside our reasonable control, including but not limited to, acts of God, accidents, war, fire, strikes, lock-outs, failure of any communications including telecommunications or computer systems, breakdown of plant or machinery or shortage or unavailability of raw materials from a natural source of supply, and we will be entitled to a reasonable extension of our obligations.

(4) Invalidity and severance – Each clause or any part at all of these Terms and Conditions and Agreement is to be regarded as independent of the others.  This means that should any clause or any part at all of these Terms and Conditions be found to be unenforceable or invalid, it will be severed and will not affect the enforceability or validity of the rest of these Terms and Conditions and Agreement.

(5) These Terms and Conditions and Agreement shall be interpreted, construed and enforced in accordance with English law and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

 

SCHOOLS’ TERMS & CONDITIONS – www.education.co.uk

These Terms and Conditions incorporate, and are in addition to, all the terms and conditions and policies on the website www.education.co.uk and always apply to Schools. You agree to these terms when you register as a School, utilise the platform, and every time you use the Website. Should you need any help please email us at [email protected].

 

(1) Use of the Website is free of charge and on the basis that you comply with our policies and terms.

 

(2) Responsibilities

(a) Our Website and role is a platform bringing together Schools and Suppliers who wish to purchase/supply services and/or products, so you are not purchasing from us but from individual Suppliers, as introduced to you when using the Website. We are not party to any sales, transactions, agreements or understandings which are between you and the Supplier you agree to work with.

(b) Please refer to the Website User Terms and Conditions, specifically to clause 4.

(c) It is the responsibility of the User to make sure their use of the Website adequately complies with any and all legal and regulatory requirements for their School and Local Authority’s proper procurement practice. By using the Website you specifically agree that we have no responsibility or liability in this regard.

(d) We advise you to ensure that you raise any queries directly with a Supplier and ensure that they can comply with your requirements before placing an order or finalising a contract with them.

(e) Since any agreement which you may reach with any Supplier as a result of your use of the Website is directly between you and that Supplier, you are responsible for making any payment to them and for adhering to any other terms you have agreed with them. 

(f) The Supplier is responsible for delivering products and/or services to you and you must address all and any queries and complaints directly to them.

 

(3) Your responsibility

As a School you confirm that:

(a) you have read and understood the Proposal and any additional information uploaded or provided by the Supplier.

(b) you have read and agree to comply with our terms and conditions and policies.

 

(4) You specifically agree that we are a platform Website and any sales, transactions, agreements or understandings relating to or as a result of your use of the Website is between a School and Supplier directly. Therefore, we have no liability in respect of this or any sale, and furthermore you agree that you will indemnify us for any losses or expenses incurred whatsoever.