Terms of use - Online Dating

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UK Match.com Terms of Use Agreement ("Agreement")
Last amended on September 20th 2005

Welcome to match.com, the service for adults to meet each other online operated by match.com International Limited ("match.com" or "we" or "us"), a company registered in England and Wales with company number 04791534 (VAT number 815337437) whose registered office is The Communications Building, 48 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7LT United Kingdom.

This legal notice applies to the entire contents of this website under the domain www.match.com ("Website") and to any correspondence by e-mail between us and you. Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using this Website. Using this Website indicates that you accept these terms without modification regardless of whether or not you choose to register with us as a member and constitutes you being a party to this Agreement. If you do not accept these terms, do not use this Website.

Once you have completed your online registration procedure, your membership has been activated and you have entered into a legally binding contract for the provision of the Match.com service (the "Service").

1. Eligibility. You must be eighteen or over to register as a member of Match.com or use the Website. Membership of the Service is invalid where it has been prohibited. By using the Website, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority, and capacity to enter into this Agreement and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

2. Registration and Subscription / Scope of Service. You may become a member of the Service at no cost. As a member you will have the ability to participate in some, but not all, of the features and services available within the Service. In order to access additional features and services, including the ability to communicate with other members, you must become a paying subscriber to the Service. Please see our billing details for a description of the current continuous service rates. This rate list is part of this Agreement. We can change the subscription fees for the Service at any time but we will give you reasonable notice of this before we do so. If you are unhappy with any subscription fee changes you may terminate your membership by writing to our address listed below or by going here.

Scope of Service. The Service enables you to contact other members. Match.com is not a marriage brokering service and is not obligated to successfully broker any other members for you.

Recurring Billing. Most subscription plans to the Service consist of an initial period, for which there is a one time charge, followed by recurring period charges as agreed to by you. By entering into this Agreement, you acknowledge that your subscription has an initial and recurring payment feature and you accept responsibility for all recurring charges prior to cancellation and authorise Match.com to levy such charges. MATCH.COM MAY SUBMIT PERIODIC CHARGES (E.G., MONTHLY) WITHOUT FURTHER AUTHORISATION FROM YOU, UNTIL YOU PROVIDE PRIOR NOTICE (CONFIRMED IN WRITING UPON REQUEST BY MATCH.COM) THAT YOU HAVE TERMINATED THIS AUTHORIZATION OR WISH TO CHANGE YOUR PAYMENT METHOD. SUCH NOTICE WILL NOT AFFECT CHARGES SUBMITTED BEFORE MATCH.COM REASONABLY COULD ACT. TO TERMINATE YOUR AUTHORISATION OR CHANGE YOUR PAYMENT METHOD, GO TO HTTP://WWW.MATCH.COM.

Current Information Required. YOU MUST PROVIDE CURRENT, COMPLETE AND ACCURATE INFORMATION FOR YOUR BILLING ACCOUNT. YOU MUST PROMPTLY UPDATE ALL INFORMATION TO KEEP YOUR BILLING ACCOUNT CURRENT, COMPLETE AND ACCURATE (SUCH AS A CHANGE IN BILLING ADDRESS, CREDIT CARD NUMBER, OR CREDIT CARD EXPIRATION DATE), AND YOU MUST PROMPTLY NOTIFY MATCH.COM IF YOUR PAYMENT METHOD IS CANCELLED (E.G., FOR LOSS OR THEFT) OR IF YOU BECOME AWARE OF A POTENTIAL BREACH OF SECURITY, SUCH AS THE UNAUTHORISED DISCLOSURE OR USE OF YOUR USER NAME OR PASSWORD. CHANGES TO SUCH INFORMATION CAN BE MADE ON THE WEBSITE. IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE MATCH.COM ANY OF THE FOREGOING INFORMATION, YOU AGREE THAT MATCH.COM MAY CONTINUE CHARGING YOU FOR ANY USE OF THE SERVICE UNDER YOUR BILLING ACCOUNT UNLESS YOU HAVE TERMINATED YOUR SUBSCRIPTION FOR THE SERVICE (CONFIRMED IN WRITING UPON REQUEST BY MATCH.COM).

3. Term and Termination. This Agreement will remain in full force and effect while you are a member of the Service. Under the United Kingdom Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (as amended), you can postpone commencement of the Service until the seven working day cooling-off period has expired. However, if you choose to become a member and enter the Website, you are electing to commence the Service immediately and you thereby waive any right to cancel the Service under the above Regulations.

You may terminate your membership at any time, for any reason, effective upon receipt by us of your written or email notice of termination. You may contact us at our address listed below or you may email us here.

We may immediately terminate your membership and your access to the Service at any time because you have breached this Agreement and will send you notice of termination at the email address you provide in your application for membership or such other email address as you may later provide to us. If we terminate your membership of the Service because you have breached the Agreement, we will refund any pre-payments made by you less reasonable costs and losses we have incurred. We can terminate this Agreement at any time by giving you reasonable advance written notice.

If you terminate your subscription, your subscription will remain active until the end of the period through which you had paid prior to your termination. In the case of violation of one or more of the terms of this Agreement by you (in particular Clauses 6 and 7), we may block your account(s), delete prohibited content, prevent publication of all or part of your profile. We may also block your access to all or part of the Service, either permanently or temporarily.

Match.com may deactivate the accounts of members who have not used the Service for a period of six months or more (as calculated by the date of last connection to the Service) unless you are a paying subscriber.

4. Non Commercial Use by Members. The Website is for the personal use of individual members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavours. Organizations, companies, and/or businesses may not become members and should not use the Service or the Website for any purpose. Illegal and/or unauthorised uses of the Website, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email and unauthorised framing of or linking to the Website will be investigated, and appropriate legal action will be taken, including without limitation, civil, criminal, and injunctive redress.

5. Proprietary Rights in Content on Match.com. Match.com owns and retains all proprietary rights in the Website and the Service. The Website contains the copyrighted material, trademarks, and other intellectual property and proprietary information of Match.com, and its licensors. Except for that information which is in the public domain or for which you have been given written permission, you may not copy, modify, publish, transmit, distribute, perform, reproduce, license, create derivative works from, transfer display, or sell or re-sell any such intellectual property or proprietary information.

6. Content Posted on the Site and Prohibited Content.

The information that you supply to Match.com and post on the Website must be accurate and conform to reality.

Other than personally identifiable information which relates to a living individual who can be identified from that information, which will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy, any material that you transmit or post to this Website will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. We will have no obligations with respect to such material. We and our designees will be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such material and all data, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Match.com may review and delete any content, messages, Match.com Messenger messages, photos or profiles (collectively, "Content") that in the reasonable judgment of Match.com violate this Agreement or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of members.

You are solely responsible for the Content that you publish, submit, post or display (hereinafter, "post") on the Service, or transmit to other members via the Service. You represent and warrant that at any time of posting the Content is (a) accurate, (b) not in breach of this Agreement, and (c) not harmful to any person in any way.

By posting Content to any public area of Match.com, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to Match.com an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid, worldwide licence to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorise sub-licences of the foregoing.

The following is a partial list of the kind of Content that is illegal or prohibited on the Website. Match.com reserves the right to amend this list at any times and to investigate and take appropriate legal action in its sole discretion against anyone who violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending communication from the Service and terminating the membership of such violators. It includes Content that:

	is patently offensive to the online community, such as Content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
	constitutes a profile or photographs of any third person used without their permission.
	harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
	involves the transmission of "junk mail", "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing or "spamming";
	promotes information that you know is false, misleading or promotes illegal activities or promotes conduct, or that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;
	promotes an illegal or unauthorised copy of another person's copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, or providing pirated music or links to pirated music files;
	contains restricted or password only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);
	provides material that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under 18;
	provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;
	solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users; and
	engages in commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, and pyramid schemes.

You must use the Service in a manner consistent with any and all applicable laws, regulations and codes of conduct.

You shall not include in your member profile any telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, URLs or email addresses.

You shall not engage in advertising to, or solicitation of, other members to buy or sell any products or services through the Service or to attend parties or other social functions or networking for commercial purposes. You may not transmit any chain letters or junk email to other members.

Although Match.com cannot monitor the conduct of its members off the Website, it is also a violation of these rules to use any information obtained from the Service in order to harass, abuse, or harm another person, or in order to contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any member without their prior explicit consent. In order to protect our members from such advertising or solicitation, Match.com reserves the right to restrict the number of emails which a member may send to other members in any 24-hour period to a number which Match.com deems appropriate in its reasonable discretion.

7. Prohibited Activities. Match.com reserves the right to investigate and terminate your membership if you have misused the Service, or behaved in a way which could be regarded as inappropriate or whose conduct is unlawful or illegal. The following is a partial list of the type of actions that you may not engage in with respect to the Service:

	You will not impersonate any person or entity.
	You will not "stalk" or otherwise harass any person.
	You will not express or imply that any statements you make are endorsed by Match.com without our specific prior written consent.
	You will not use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application, or other manual or automatic device or process to retrieve, index, "data mine", or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Service or its contents.
	You will not post, distribute or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other intellectual property or proprietary information without obtaining the prior consent of the owner of such proprietary rights.
	You will not remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in the Service.
	You will not interfere with or disrupt the Services or the site or the servers or networks connected to the Services or the site.
	You will not post, email or otherwise transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.
	You will not forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any information transmitted through the Service.
	You will not "frame" or "mirror" any part of the Service or the Website, without Match.com's prior written authorisation. You also shall not use meta tags or code or other devices containing any reference to Match.com or the Service or the site in order to direct any person to any other web site for any purpose.
	You will not transmit or post any material which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise be contrary to the law of or infringe the rights of any third party in the UK or any other country in the world.
	Except and only to the extent permitted under applicable law, you will not modify, adapt, sublicense, translate, sell, reverse engineer, decipher, decompile or otherwise disassemble any portion of the Service or the Website or any software used on or for the Service or cause others to do so.

8. Account Security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the username and password that you designate during the registration process with the Service, and you are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your username and password. You agree to (a) immediately notify Match.com of any unauthorised use of your username or password or any other breach of security, and (b) ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session. Match.com will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this provision. You should use particular caution when accessing your account from a public or shared computer so that others are not able to view or record your password or other personal information. If you share your computer with others, you may wish to consider disabling your auto-sign in feature if you have linked your Window's Live ID to your Match.com account.

9. Customer Service. Match.com provides assistance and guidance through its customer care representatives. When communicating with our customer care representatives, you may not to be abusive, obscene, profane, offensive, sexist, threatening, harassing or racially offensive. If we feel that your behaviour towards any of our customer care representatives or other employees is at any time threatening or offensive, we reserve the right to immediately terminate your membership and you will not be entitled to any refund of unused subscription fees. For g6eneral customer services enquiries, please contact Customer Care.

10. Copyright Policy. You may not post, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other intellectual property or proprietary information without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. Without limiting the foregoing, if you believe that your work has been copied and posted on the Service in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information: an electronic or physical signature of the person authorised to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Website; your address, telephone number, and email address; a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a signed statement by you, , that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorised to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Match.com's Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement can be reached as follows: iMatchlegal@match.com or the address listed below.

11. Member Disputes. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Match.com Members. Match.com reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other members.

12. Privacy. Use of the Website and/or the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy. The personal information (including sensitive personal information) you provide to us will be stored on our computers. You consent to us using this information to build up a profile of interests, preferences and browsing patterns and to allow you to participate in the Services. If you are located outside the United States, please note that the information you provide is being sent to the United States. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE LAWS OF UNITED STATES ARE GENERALLY NOT REGARDED AS PROVIDING 'ADEQUATE' DATA PROTECTION AS CONTEMPLATED UNDER ARTICLE 25 OF THE EUROPEAN UNION'S DATA PROTECTION DIRECTIVE (95/46/EC). BY BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE SERVICE, YOU ARE CONSENTING TO (i) THE TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THE UNITED STATES; (ii) USE IN THAT COUNTRY; AND (iii) TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES AS MAY BE INVOLVED IN THE PROVISION AND OPERATION OF THE SERVICES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR PRIVACY POLICY.

13. Service Access. While Match.com endeavours to ensure that this Website is normally available 24 hours a day, we do not guarantee that it will be uninterrupted or error free.

Access to this Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond our control.

14. Disclaimers. The material at this Website is provided as is' without any conditions, warranties or other terms of any kind. Accordingly, to the maximum extent permitted by law, Match.com provides you with this Website on the basis that Match.com excludes all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms (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 this Website.

We do not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information displayed, uploaded or distributed through the Service by us, our partners or any member or any other person or entity. You acknowledge that any reliance upon such opinion, member profile, advice, statement or information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline of our members. Please use caution and common sense when using the Website and the Service. THIS LEGAL NOTICE AND THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMERS ARE WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO ANY MANDATORY LEGAL RIGHTS THAT CANNOT BE EXCLUDED UNDER APLICABLE LAW INCLUDING YOUR STATUTORY RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER.

15. Limitation on Liability. Nothing in this legal notice shall exclude or limit Match.com's liability for (i) death or personal injury caused by negligence [(as such term is defined by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977)]; (ii) fraud; (iii) misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter; or (iv) any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

Subject to the foregoing, Match.com, and any of Match.com's group companies, will not be liable or responsible to you or any third person for any amount or kind of loss or damage that may result (including without limitation, any direct, indirect, punitive or consequential loss or damages, or any loss of income, profits, goodwill, data, contracts, use of money, or loss or damages arising from or connected in any way to business interruption of any type, and whether in tort (including without limitation negligence), contract or otherwise) in connection with the Service or this Website in any way or in connection with the use, inability to use or the results of use of this Website.

Subject to the foregoing, Match.com's liability to you for any cause whatsoever, and regardless of the form of the action, will at all times be limited to the amount paid, if any, by you to Match.com for the Service during the term of membership.

16. Modifications to this Agreement. We may alter or amend our terms and conditions upon giving reasonable notice in advance of such amendment taking effect. If upon receiving any notice, if you do not wish to continue with the Service, you may terminate the contract upon giving us notice, such notice to take effect upon the earlier of our receipt of your notice or the date upon which the amended terms and conditions would otherwise have taken effect. You will be deemed to have accepted any alteration and/or amendment if you continue to use the Service after the relevant period of notice has expired.

17. Ownership of rights. All materials on the Website are copyrighted and are protected under treaty provisions and world-wide copyright laws. All rights reserved. Match.com materials may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without Match.com's written permission. Except as expressly stated in the limited licence provisions in this Agreement, Match.com does not grant any express or implied right to you under any of its trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property or proprietary information.

18. Release. In the event that you have any claim or action against any other member arising from that member's use of our Website or the Service, you agree to pursue such claim or action independently of and without any demands from us, and you release us from all claims, liability and damages, arising from or in any way connected to the claim or action.

In the event that a claim or action is brought against us from your activities or use of the Website or the Service, including any breach by you of this Agreement or any charges or complaints made by other parties against you, you agree to pay, hold harmless and defend us in the claim or action. You also agree to cooperate as fully as reasonably required in the defence of any claim and allow us to assume the exclusive defence and control of the matter.

19. U.S. Export Controls. Software from this Website (the Software") is further subject to United States export controls. No Software may be downloaded from the Website or otherwise exported or re-exported (i) into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Syria, or any other Country to which the U.S. has embargoed goods; or (ii) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Deny Orders. You represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country or on any such list.

20. Severance. If any part of this Agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the Agreement shall continue in effect.

21. Assignment. Match.com. may, and you may not, assign, convey, subcontract or delegate rights, duties or obligations hereunder.

22. Relationship. You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Match.com. as a result of this agreement or use of this Website.

23. Disputes. If there is any dispute about or involving the Website and/or the Service, by using the Website, you agree that the dispute will be governed by the laws of England and Wales without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You agree to personal jurisdiction by and venue in the courts of London, United Kingdom.

24. Other. This Agreement, accepted upon use of the Website and further affirmed by becoming a member of the Service, contains the entire agreement between you and Match.com regarding the use of the Website and/or the Service. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid, the remainder of this Agreement shall continue in full force and effect.

25. Contact Information. If you have any questions about the rights and restrictions above, please contact us at imatchlegal@match.com or here.

Please contact us with any questions regarding this agreement. Match.com is a trademark of Match.com, L.L.C.

I HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL OF THE PROVISIONS CONTAINED ABOVE.

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