Terms and Conditions of Membership and Service Usage

1. Introduction.

This Agreement is a legal document which sets out your rights and obligations, and those of Companions 2 Travel Limited, 150, Thundersley Park Road, Benfleet, Essex, SS7 1EN, United Kingdom, a company registered in England under registration no. 7850512 ("Companions 2 Travel", "we" or "us"), in relation to this site and the services offered by Companions 2 Travel through it (the Companions 2 Travel Service"). You must take the time to read and understand it, before registering for the Companions 2 Travel Service. By registering, you accept that you are entering into a contract with us under the terms and conditions of this Agreement. You should be aware that this Agreement may change from time to time in accordance with Clause 23 below. Companions2travel Ltd may be contacted by phone at 0843 523 5463.

2. Types of membership.

People who register for the Companions 2 Travel Service become "Members". They must be at least 18 years of age. The Membership divides between those who decide to pay the fee we charge to become what we call an "Active Member", and those who do not and become what we call a "Passive Member".

The Members who decide to pay the fee we charge once a year, become what we call an "Annual Member", and those who pay monthly become what we call a "Monthly Member" both are regarded as Active Members.

Monthly Members have the exact same access to the Companions 2 Travel service that Annual members enjoy coupled with the flexibility of monthly payments:

access to the following aspects of the Companions 2 Travel service:

• Access to List of Useful Links to other web sites
• Access to Travel Hints and Tips
• Access to Event Calendar
• Automatic E-Mail Notification when new members are added
• Companion Search - Manual search for travel companions based on supplied personal criteria.
• Travel Search - Manual search for companions traveling to your preferred travel destinations.
• Receive emailed notification of interested potential traveling companions who are also trial members.
• Send member-to-member notification to potential traveling companions who they are interested in.
• Receive emailed notifications of interest from Active Members.

Active Members receive all the benefits of Trial Membership but in addition to the facilities available to Trial Members, may:

• Companion Match - The system will automatically match you with suitable travel companions based on your interests and personal information.
• Travel Match - The system will automatically match you with traveling companions based on your list of preferred destinations
• Send and receive email messages from active members.
• Send Pre-Populated notifications of interest email messages to trial members.
• Receive emailed notification of interested potential travelling companions who are passive members.
• Maintain a Personal Address Book of other site members
• Use and Submit to a Secure Message Board - for discussions travel related topics.
• Access On-Line Photo Albums - Upload your photos from anywhere and email them to your friends.
• Access Competitions with Prizes.

We are not an internet service provider, however. In order to avail of the Companions 2 Travel Service, you must have internet access and all the software (and skills) required for email and web usage.

3. Important Note

Active Membership. If you decide to become an Active Member, and therefore pay our Membership fee, you are agreeing to take the Membership we make available to you promptly after that fee is paid. This means that you do not have the right to cancel your Membership during the cooling-off period which is provided for certain purchases under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. The Full Membership fee has two components:

1. a "contact fee", which comprises all of the Full Membership fee except the subscription fee. The contact fee relates to your use of the Companions 2 Travel Service to receive messages from and send email to other Members;
2. a "subscription fee" of £1. The subscription fee relates to the Full Member's use of the other benefits of Full Membership during the twelve month subscription period.

Thus, for example, if you pay an Annual Membership fee of £20-00, your contact fee is £19-00 and your subscription fee is £1-00; likewise if you pay a Monthly Membership fee of £2.50 your contact fee is £2-37 and your subscription fee is 0-13pence.

Where specified on the payment page of our Site when you applied for a Subscription, the Subscription will be auto-renewed for the periods stated. Should you wish to avoid having your Subscription auto-renewed you should contact us at least 48 hours before your Subscription is due to expire in order to terminate your Subscription.

Termination

4. Registration.

You undertake to register for the Companions 2 Travel Service using accurate and current information about yourself - including your correct name, address and any other requested details. If you are asked for, and provide, details of a credit, debit or charge card, in that event, you must ensure that (a) you are fully entitled to use that card, and (b) it has available funds sufficient to cover the charges which are deducted from it. As part of the registration process for the Companions 2 Travel Service, you will receive a verification email, the purpose of which is to take reasonable steps to ensure that the email address you have nominated during registration is controlled by you. That email contains simple instructions which you must follow.

5. Privacy policy.

Companions 2 Travel's Privacy Policy forms part of this Agreement, and by agreeing to this Agreement, you also give your consent to the way we may handle your personal data in that policy. Given the global nature of the World Wide Web, any posting on the Companions 2 Travel Service (including any which contain personal information) is, of course, accessible to internet users around the world. Personal data and information may be provided to third parties as part of a sale or transfer of the shares and/or assets of Companions 2 Travel.

6. Companions 2 Travel's Role.

You, whether you are a Member or just a non-Member who visits the Companions 2 Travel Service, acknowledge that we are not and cannot be responsible for the behaviour of Members - whether on the Companions 2 Travel Service or outside of it. We only provide a venue where the Companions 2 Travel Service may be accessed. In particular, you should be aware that Companions 2 Travel does not pre-screen or monitor the material contributed by Members.

7. Additional services.

Companions 2 Travel or its affiliates may offer new or additional services through the Companions 2 Travel Service from time to time. Your use of those services may be subject to additional terms and conditions, or rules of use, which you must comply with. Provided that those terms or rules are notified to you on the Companions 2 Travel Service in an appropriate manner (as determined by Companions 2 Travel in its reasonable discretion), any failure by you to comply with a material provision of the terms or rules governing those services will amount to a breach of this Agreement.

8. Operation of Companions 2 Travel Services.

Companions 2 Travel reserves the right to withdraw or modify one or more aspects of the Companions 2 Travel Service, or the entirety of it, where we have legal or commercial reasons to do so. There may also be times when the Companions 2 Travel Service becomes inaccessible as a result of technical difficulties experienced by Companions 2 Travel or on the Internet; we will, however, use reasonable skill and care to overcome these difficulties where they are within our control. Please note that there will be no refund of Full Membership fees for withdrawal, modification or unavailability of the Companions 2 Travel Service, except as provided in Clause 11(ii) below. For security or other reasons, we may require you to change password or other information which facilitates access to the Companions 2 Travel Service.

9. Misuse of Companions 2 Travel Service.

We reserve the right (a) to suspend or terminate any Member's access to the Companions 2 Travel Service, or parts of it, and/or (b) to edit, or require the Member to edit, material posted on the Companions 2 Travel Service, if the relevant Member or material appears to us to be in breach of any provision of this Agreement. Any person whose access has been suspended or terminated must not re-register for, or re-access, the Companions 2 Travel Service without our prior consent. You are responsible for everything which is done on or through the Companions 2 Travel Service while your Membership account is logged on to the Companions 2 Travel Service, or through your email address(es).

10. Relevance.

The Companions 2 Travel Service is intended to be used by its Members for the purposes referred to in Clause 2 above. Accordingly, Members must not:

• include an email address, postal address, phone number, the address of any website, or any other information which is intended to facilitate direct communication, in material which is posted on the Companions 2 Travel Service - Full Members, and the recipients of their emails, can share this information, should they wish, once direct contact has been made;
• place material on, or otherwise use, the Companions 2 Travel Service for any business or commercial purpose without the consent of Companions 2 Travel Limited;
• use your access to the Companions 2 Travel Service, or information gathered from it, for the sending of unsolicited bulk email (sometimes known as spam).

11. Fees

The membership fee is to be paid to Companions 2 Travel Ltd using the secure online payment gateway Paypal, without set off or counter claim. Provision of services is dependant upon receiving payment of the fee in full. Payment can also be made by Cheque without set off or counter claim. Provision of services is dependant upon receiving payment of the fee in full.

(i) You acknowledge that we are entitled to alter the amount or the basis of the calculation of our fees from time to time, provided that such amount or basis is clearly stated at the time when you agree to take the relevant Companions 2 Travel Service.

(ii) Fees paid by a Full Member will not be rebated or refunded by Companions 2 Travel, except as follows although refunds may occasionally be offered at the discretion of the management'.

If, under Clause 8 above, we entirely withdraw an aspect of the Companions 2 Travel Service for which you have subscribed, or the entirety of the Companions 2 Travel Service itself, then you may be entitled to a rebate of your Annual Membership fee for the remainder the twelve month period to which that fee relates; but no part of the contact fee (as described in Clause 3(1) above) will be rebated to a Full Member under any circumstances if the Full Member has sent one (or more) emails through the Companions 2 Travel Service during the period to which the Full Membership fee relates, irrespective of whether the recipient email address is a legitimate address or the recipient sends any reply. No rebate of any part of the Full Membership fee will be payable under any circumstances, other than as provided in this Clause 11(ii).

We may add new or ancillary services from time to time which require the payment of fees - either to us or a nominated third party - on terms which will be provided to you at the time.

12. Prohibitions.

You are responsible for ensuring that no material you post, or which is posted through a machine on which you access the Companions 2 Travel Service, nor any activity or communication you make in connection with any Companions 2 Travel Service, will be capable of (a) infringing the intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity, (b) breaching any applicable law, whether criminal, tortious or otherwise, or (c) appearing to be offensive, threatening, obscene, pornographic, false, unreliable or misleading.

13. Alerting Companions 2 Travel.

If you see anything on the Companions 2 Travel Service which appears to infringe this Agreement, then please contact us to inform us of it by using the "Report Abuse" function, or by emailing us at abuse@companions2travel.co.uk. We do not generally monitor material contributed by Members before it is placed on the Companions 2 Travel Service, and so we are reliant upon users to point out any which infringes this Agreement.

14. Withdrawal of material and Termination of Membership.

Each Member acknowledges that we are entitled to withdraw any material on the Companions 2 Travel Service which appears whether based on information received from Members or others, or our own determination to be capable of breaching any part of this Agreement, or to bring the Companions 2 Travel Service into disrepute. However, each user acknowledges that we do not monitor material which appears on the Companions 2 Travel Service, and that we are reliant upon you and all users to notify us of anything you see here which appears likely to breach this Agreement, using the notification techniques which are made available on the Companions 2 Travel Service.

15. Disclaimer and Release.

Companions 2 Travel has no control over or responsibility for the truth or accuracy of any material available on the Companions 2 Travel Service, whether provided by Members or others.

• This site contains certain links which will take you outside this site. These links are provided for your convenience and inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement or approval of the linked site, its operator or its content.
• You should exercise no lesser degree of caution in appraising what you see on the Companions 2 Travel Service than you do offline.
• Even though Members are prohibited from doing so, people may provide information, or otherwise behave, in a way that is unreliable, misleading or even illegal. Further, you should note that people may not necessarily be who they say they are.
• Your use of the Companions 2 Travel Service is entirely at your own risk.

All trademarks, brand names, product names, titles and copywrite used in this site are trademarks, brand names, product names or copywrites of their respective holders and no provision is given in respect of the use of any of them and such use may constitute an infringement of the holder's rights."

Accordingly, to the extent that the law permits, you release Companions 2 Travel its directors, contractors and employees from all liability arising out of or in connection with the Companions 2 Travel Service and the material included here by Members and other third parties.

16. Intellectual Property.

You acknowledge that all copyright, trade marks, and other intellectual property rights in and relating to the Companions 2 Travel Service (including the material which is contributed by Members) are owned by Companions 2 Travel. It is easy to copy material which appears on web-sites, but this does not mean it is legal. Therefore, no-one may copy, distribute, show in public or create any derivative work from the Companions 2 Travel Service, or any of the material which is found on the Companions 2 Travel Service unless properly licensed to do so by us.

By submitting any material to the content to the Companions 2 Travel Service, you:

• are representing that you are fully entitled to do so;
• grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-terminable licence right to copy, modify, distribute, show in public and create derivative works from that material in any form, anywhere; and
• authorise us to adapt the relevant material in the course of doing so, and so waive your moral rights to object to any derogatory treatment, or to be identified as the author, of the material in question.

17. Excluded loss.

We will not be liable to you or any third party for any indirect or consequential loss or damage, or for any loss of data, profit, revenue or business, howsoever caused (whether arising out of any negligence or breach of this Agreement or otherwise). Companions 2 Travel will also not be liable for any failure to perform of its obligations under this Agreement caused by matters beyond its reasonable control.

18. Maximum liability.

Without limiting the preceding Clause, during any period of twelve months, the aggregate liability of Companions 2 Travel under this Agreement (whether arising in negligence or otherwise) will not under any circumstances exceed the greater of (a) £1, or (b) an amount equal to the sums paid by you to us by way of Full Membership fees during the relevant period of twelve months, regardless of the cause or form of action.

19. Non-excluded Liabilities.

Nothing in this Agreement limits Companions 2 Travel's liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence, or any other liability which may not by law be excluded. Any statutory rights you may have as a consumer remain unaffected.

20. Indemnity.

You agree to indemnify us against all liabilities, claims and expenses that may arise from any breach of this Agreement by you or through a machine on which you access the Companions 2 Travel Service.

21. Assignment.

We reserve the right to assign this Agreement, and to assign or subcontract any or all of our rights and obligations under this Agreement. You may not without the written consent of Companions 2 Travel assign or dispose of this Agreement.

22. Entire Agreement.

This Agreement includes our Privacy Policy. Together they contain the whole of the agreement between us and you concerning the Companions 2 Travel Service and they replace all earlier agreements and understandings with you, except for any fraud or fraudulent representation by either of us. A person who is not a party to this Agreement has no right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to rely upon or enforce any term of this Agreement.

23. Changes to this Agreement.

Companions 2 Travel reserves the right to change this Agreement from time to time, and post the new version on the Companions 2 Travel Service. When we do so, we will notify you of the fact that there are changed terms on the ‘My C2T’ area of the site, and the new version of these terms and conditions will take effect, and will govern all Companions 2 Travel Services and your relationship with Companions 2 Travel:

• commencing four weeks after the date of posting (or such later date as Companions 2 Travel indicates in the relevant posting), if any of the changes is to an operative provision of this Agreement which is capable of adversely affecting you; if you do not wish to be governed by the new version of the Agreement, you may notify us on or before the date when the new version of the Agreement is to take effect, and from that date you must cease to use the Companions 2 Travel Service; or
• immediately upon the date of posting (or such later date as Companions 2 Travel indicates in the relevant posting), if the changes are not to operative provisions, or not capable of adversely affecting you - examples of which would include, without limitation, changes to one or more of Companions 2 Travel's addresses or email addresses referred to in this Agreement.

24. Severability.

In the event that any term of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable by judicial decree or decision, the remainder of this Agreement shall remain valid and enforceable.

25. Force Majeure.

• Neither party shall be liable for any breach of its obligations resulting from causes beyond its reasonable control including strikes of its own employees.
• Each of the parties agrees to give notice immediately to the other upon becoming aware of an event of force majeure with such notice to contain details of the circumstances giving rise to it.
• If a default due to force majeure shall continue for more than 6 weeks then the party not in default shall be entitled to terminate this agreement. Neither party shall have any liability to the other in respect of the termination of this agreement as a result of force majeure.

26. Law.

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

27. Keeping this Agreement.

We don't separately file the individual Agreements entered into by members when they register for the Companions 2 Travel Service. You can access it at www.companions2travel.co.uk. Please make a durable copy of this Agreement by printing and/or saving a downloaded copy on your own computer.

Companions 2 Travel Privacy Policy

This is a legal document which sets out how Companions 2 Travel handles data which identifies you. You should read it in conjunction with the Companions 2 Travel Terms and Conditions, of which this Privacy Policy forms part.

At Companions 2 Travel we believe strongly in protecting the privacy of our users' personal information. This statement describes the privacy practices we apply for the Companions 2 Travel Service. As part of that, it also expresses our approach to complying with the data protection laws which apply in the United Kingdom. If we change this Privacy Policy, we will notify you of the changed document in the same way as we notify changes to the Companions 2 Travel Terms and Conditions.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should contact Companions 2 Travel's customer service department at customerservices@companions2travel.co.uk.

1. The information we gather and track.

• Information gathered on registration. When you register for the Companions 2 Travel Service, you provide your name, your address, your email address, your telephone number and some optional notes about yourself ("Registration Information"). They are available to you, and capable of being changed, through the My Profile page.
• Cookies. We use small files known as "cookies" to enhance users' experience of the Companions 2 Travel Service as follows:
  • To hold Members' login information, so that your username and password is displayed when you visit the Companions 2 Travel Service Member Area. This option can be turned off by un-ticking the "Remember Me" option in the sign-in page.
  • To facilitate optimal use of the Companions 2 Travel Service by Members, by means of temporary "session" cookies. These cookies disappear when the Member's browser session ends, or if the Member clicks the "sign off" button which appears on the Companions 2 Travel Service.
  • Third party cookies may be used on some parts of the site. They are used for tracking the success of advertising campaigns. These cookies are normally permanent. Blocking of third party cookies by users will not affect the functionality of the website.

2. Sharing and use of information

• The over-riding principles we apply are these:
  • We, and (where relevant) our credit card processing agents, will not supply your personal data to a third party for commercial exploitation - thus, you can rest assured that we will not sell the lists of our Members' email addresses to a third party; and
  • the only circumstances in which we will provide any of your personal data to a third party for non-commercial purposes are those contained in this Privacy Policy.
• Registration Information. Once a Member subscribes, some of the Registration Information held for that Member, except for the username, password, postal address, email address and telephone numbers will be available for other site users to see.
• Postal & Email addresses. We do not directly make your postal or email address available to anyone on any screen of the Companions 2 Travel Service. The only legitimate way of making contact with a friend found on the Companions 2 Travel Service is for a Member to enter a message which we will send on the Member's behalf. The email sent will NOT include the sending Member's email address. The email will contain a link to that Members ‘Member Detail’ page. The ‘Member Detail’ page contains a link to email the sending Member. This means by sending a contact message, the sending Member is NOT disclosing his/her email address. Members may change their email address at any time through Your Details. Members' personal notes must not include their email address. If your email system automatically responds to a contact email, your email address will be revealed. It is entirely at the discretion of the Member sending the email if they choose to disclose their postal address, email address and telephone numbers in the message. Companions 2 Travel Limited are not responsible for the publication of such information by a Member.
• Advertising. The Companions 2 Travel Service may include interactive advertising for other businesses. We may use, and provide to third parties, anonymised demographic data provided by Members to target this advertising more appropriately.
• Newsletters. We may have regular and occasional emails, which Members can decide to take or not, according to their preferences. This option is selected through My Profile.
• Credit Card information. There has been a lot of publicity about Credit Card security on the Internet so we decided to use PayPal, who operate a secure server, to process our credit card payments. They encrypt Members' credit or debit card information and authorise payment directly. This means that Members' credit card details are never revealed to us. PayPal may transfer to, process and hold your credit card information in countries either within or outside the European Economic Area in connection with performing their duties.
• Changes in Companions 2 Travel's business. If all of the assets which Companions 2 Travel uses to operate its business (or substantially all of them) are acquired by a third party, we may transfer personal data we then hold to that party.
• Place of processing. The personal information held by us is held on and processed by computers situated in the United Kingdom.

3. Security

We have security measures in place to protect our customer database and access to this database is restricted internally. However, it remains each Member's responsibility:

• to protect against unauthorised access to your My Profile, Companion Match Criteria and Travel Match Criteria;
• to ensure against use by anyone else of the Companions 2 Travel Service through the machine that Member uses while they are "logged on" to the Companions 2 Travel Service;
• to log off or exit from the Companions 2 Travel Service when not using it; and
• to keep his/her username and password secret.

4. Disclosure for legal reasons

We reserve the right to communicate such of a Member's personal information as we hold to third parties which seek the disclosure of it, and which make a legally-compliant request for its disclosure.

5. Contacting Companions 2 Travel

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with Companions 2 Travel, you can contact us by emailing contact@companions2travel.co.uk. You can also use this address if you wish to request from Companions 2 Travel a copy of the personal data we hold about you or a description of that data. Please note that by English law we are entitled to charge you a small sum for providing this information.

6. Links to third party sites

Our site contains links to other sites. Companions 2 Travel is not responsible for the privacy practices, or the content, of those web sites.

7. Data Protection Information

You can obtain further information about data protection laws by visiting the Information Commissioner's website at www.dataprotection.gov.uk. You can search for our Data Protection Notification there, should you so wish.