The Backscratchers

First, some general information about who we are and what these terms are.

These Terms apply to visitors to the Site and to Workers and Clients who enroll as Members to receive the Services. If you do not agree to these Terms or the Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site or sign up for the Services.

By using or visiting the Site, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. Please read these Terms carefully as they set out your rights and obligations and the agreement under which The Backscratchers Ltd makes the Site available to you.

The Site is owned and operated by The Backscratchers Limited whose trading address and registered office is 4 Elder Street, London, E1 6BT. VAT number is 132 7998 81. Registered in England and Wales, Company Number 7991630.

You can contact us at [email protected].

Please also read our Privacy Policy.

Certain words in the terms and conditions have specific meanings, defined here.

Definitions

Client: means a company or other entity who has registered for the Services to seek a Worker.
Client Terms: means the terms and conditions that a Client must sign up to in order to become a Member.
Content: means the information and other material or applications made available by us within the Site(s), including Member Material.
Member: means a Client or Worker as appropriate who has registered to receive the Services.
Member Material: means any information and other material that is uploaded, transmitted, posted or distributed by Members through the Site.
Services: means the marketplace matching and introduction services, and fee handling service, provided to Workers and Clients.
Site: means the site located at www.thebackscratchers.com.
Terms: means these Site terms and conditions, and any Client Terms or Worker Terms as appropriate.
User: or “you” means the user of the Site(s) and/or Services, whether as a visitor or as a Worker or Client.
we/us: means The Backscratchers.
Worker: means an individual or other entity who has registered for the Services to advertise its availability to Clients.
Worker Terms: means the terms and conditions that a Worker must sign up to in order to become a Member.

These terms will be updated in future, so check back.

You will need to agree to additional terms if you become our client or do work through the site.

Everyone retains ownership of content they upload, and other users mustn’t duplicate or share it.

Rights granted / rights reserved

If you wish to become a Member and receive the marketplace matching and introduction Services, you will have to register and sign up to further Client Terms or Worker Terms as appropriate.

The Backscratchers reserves the right to alter the Terms at any point, posting any amendments online. It is the responsibility of the User to refer to and comply with the up-to-date Terms. Your continued use of the Site after any posted changes is regarded as your acceptance of these modified Terms.

The Site, Content (and associated ideas and information) and Services, and associated rights and permissions, are provided strictly in accordance with these Terms only.

The Content and/or information made available via the Services or otherwise on the Site is the confidential information and copyright of the relevant sender or provider (or of his/her employer). In using the Site and Services you agree not to forward or copy any part of this information and that you will only use the information for the purposes of finding a Worker or Client via the Service and only within the Service.

Members may only use the information accessed via the Services, and introductions made, for the purposes of concluding contracts between Worker and Client via The Backscratchers. It is strictly prohibited to engage with a Worker or Client outside of The Backscratcher Service.

You have to be 18 to use the site, and able to work in the UK if you’re doing work through the site.

If you represent a company, you have to be senior enough to agree to these terms on behalf of the company.

User and Member criteria

You must be aged 18 or over to use the Site and/or become a Member. We reserve the right to ask for proof of age from you at any time and subsequently, the right to suspend or terminate your membership if it is discovered you do not meet the age requirements.

The Backscratchers membership is free and open to individuals and companies.

Client criteria: Any company, entity or person can become a Client Member. Employees or other individuals acting on behalf of a company should register in the company name and warrant that they have the authority to bind the company.

Worker criteria: If you wish to become a Worker Member, you must have the right to work in the UK. The Backscratchers are not your employer, but we reserve the right to ask for proof of your right to work in the UK at any time and subsequently, and the right to suspend or terminate your membership if it is discovered you do not have the right to work.

Joining is simple!

Membership

When you register to become a Member you will be asked to supply an email address and a chosen password to create your account. Membership confirmation will occur through a link sent to the supplied email address. You can then log into the Site and access the Services.

We will be respectful of our users’ privacy.

Privacy Policy

Any personal information collected or used about you is subject to our Privacy Policy. For more information, please see our full Privacy Policy.

We have to share some of your info in order to do our job.

Personal Information

In addition anything you make available via your public profile may be visible to other Members of the Site. It is Your responsibility to ensure that you are comfortable with personal information to be displayed as such. Please note that it is your decision how much information to disclose (provided any information is accurate and up to date) and there are several ways to limit how much information is publicly viewable.

You are responsible for any content you upload, and other users are responsible for what they upload.

We don’t have control over what people post, although we will listen to any complaints.

Member Material

You are solely responsible for any Member Material that is uploaded, transmitted, posted or distributed by you through the Site or Services. This includes but is not limited to any content or other information on your profile pages and all other pages on the Site, including externally hosted pages such as the blog, jobs board etc.

By posting Member Material, you warrant that you own all rights, titles and interest in that Member Material and any likenesses contained within it.

The Backscratchers does not own or govern the Member Material provided through the Site and therefore cannot guarantee the accuracy, honesty or quality of said Member Material.

The Backscratchers will not be liable for any Member Material posted or distributed though the Site. This includes, but is not limited to, errors or omissions in the represented Member Material and any losses or damages incurred as direct result.

You may encounter Member Material that you deem to be offensive, malicious or distasteful. In the event of this please contact us immediately by emailing [email protected]. See our complaints procedure below for more information.

We don’t take any ownership of your content, but we do need permission to use the material on the site and in a few other places.

Grant of Limited License

The Backscratchers does not claim and will never assume any ownership of Member Material you make available on the Site. We do, however, require a limited license to operate the Site and provide the Services, and this license will last only as long as you choose to host your material on the service.

By providing content of any description you agree that The Backscratchers is permitted (unless otherwise notified in writing of any restrictions) to use the content as appropriate to operate the Site and provide the Services, including but not limited to: display the content unrestricted and royalty-free across our Site, integrated/powered platforms and search results; amend and re-format the content for optimum display; modify, publish, reproduce, distribute and display your content (both in whole or in part); to feature it (correctly attributed to the user) in any marketing and promotional materials; and to integrate it with other content in any media or form.

You agree to be good.

Your Promises

When visiting and using the Site and using the Services you commit to the following:

All Member Material provided by you to The Backscratchers is original to you and /or you have all necessary clearances and consents for this content to be provided to, hosted and used by The Backscratchers as set out in the Terms;
Nothing in the provided Member Material in any way violates the copyright or other rights of any other person on or off the site or breaches any signed and/or agreed contract;
You have permissions and clearance to list details of work/projects you have been involved in or are promoting without disclosing confidential information;
Any Member Material provided by you to The Backscratchers is honest and accurate and kept up to date and any facts expressed by are, to the best of your knowledge, true;
No Member Material will be defamatory, deceiving, invidious, prejudiced, malicious, threatening, abusive, obscene, discriminatory, pornographic, gratuitous (graphic violence), intimidating, harassing or otherwise unlawful or inappropriate;
You have the necessary rights, permissions and authority to represent or otherwise act on behalf of your company.

You agree not to be bad.

You Promise Not To

In addition to and not withstanding any restrictions noted above, You agree:

You will not take-part in unlawful activity on any level when using the Site or Services;
You will not access the Site or collect user information using automated means (harvesting bots, programs, spiders) without our permission;
You will not upload any malware or malicious code (virus);
You will not seek to obtain another user’s login information nor will you access any account that does not belong to you;
You will not use Site to carry out any activity that is deceiving, invidious, prejudiced, malicious, threatening, abusive, obscene, discriminatory, intimidating, harassing or outside of the law;
You will not carry out any activities that may adversely affect functioning of Site (disable, overburden or attack) nor to make any use of or interfere with the Site or Services such that the whole or part of the Site is interrupted, damaged, rendered less efficient, or the effectiveness or functionality of the Site is in any way impaired;
You will not use a link to or content from the Site on any publicly accessible website or otherwise without our express permission;
You will not use The Backscratchers’ logo, name, brand or materials to imply or attempt to imply any endorsement or other association of any product or company for any purpose without our express permission;
You will not seek to circumvent The Backscratchers and engage with Workers or Clients as appropriate outside of the Service.

You won’t take our content without getting permission first.

Scraping or Extraction – Prohibition

In addition to and not withstanding any restrictions noted above, the extraction, copying or reuse of any content, information or data from the Site by any automated system, software, manual process or otherwise, for use in other sites, applications or systems is strictly prohibited. You shall not engage in such acts or activity, nor authorise or facilitate others in relation to the same without our express written permission which will be subject to further written terms.

If you see anything inappropriate on the site, please let us know.

You’ll need to provide some details if you’re asking us to take something down.

Other Users and Complaints Procedure

We try our hardest to ensure that the Site is safe to use and welcoming to all. However, given that much of the content on the Site is user generated, you acknowledge that some of these materials may be considered distasteful or offensive. User uploaded content does not represent the views or opinions of The Backscratchers and as such we assume no responsibility or liability for such materials. The Backscratchers is not obliged to moderate content nor monitor any disputes between Site users.

If you notice any inappropriate content or behavior on the Site or become aware of any misuse we ask that you contact The Backscratchers immediately. This extends to any complaints that you may have – whether it is copyright infringement, a violation of rights or personal defamation.

The best and most effective method of contacting us is by email to [email protected] or at our registered address: The Backscratchers Limited, 4 Elder Street, London, E1 6BT.

When writing to us please note that we will need to know the following details:

Your name, address, telephone number and email address and any other information The Backscratchers may reasonably request;
The nature of your complaint or concern;
The location on the Site of the content and/or user;
If it is a copyright issue you need to identify the work you are claiming has been infringed and any legally binding or ‘good faith’ documentation demonstrating that the other user(s) is/are not the owners. Similarly, should you have any, you will need to supply any documentation proving your ownership of the work in question.

We reserve the right to cancel your membership (although in most cases we’ll talk to you about this).

You can cancel your membership too – just let us know.

Termination/Suspension of Membership or Site

The Backscratchers reserves the right to change, suspend or terminate, temporarily or permanently, the Site and any aspect of it at any time without warning or responsibility to you.

The Backscratchers reserves the right to terminate or suspend your access to and/or membership of the Site at any time.

You, the user, may terminate your membership at any time and without need for explanation by writing to us at [email protected].

The Backscratchers will retain user data for as long as is necessary (in accordance with Data Protection Act 1998) unless otherwise requested by the user in question.

You won’t copy or use our content, name or design without obtaining permission first.

Intellectual property

You acknowledge that all copyright, trademarks and all other intellectual property rights in the Site and Content belongs to and shall remain vested in us, our licensors or contributors. You may not use any part of the Site or Content other than as permitted herein without obtaining our written consent.

We can’t offer any guarantees about the site and the content.

No Warranty

The Site and the Content (which includes Content that is supplied to us by third parties either directly or indirectly) is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis and we make no warranties or representations, whether express or implied, in relation to the Site or the Content, including but not limited to, implied warranties or conditions or completeness, accuracy, satisfactory quality and fitness for a particular purpose.

We will not be liable for any loss you make while using the site.

This includes losses from other people you become connected to through the site.

You must evaluate any thrid party services yourself to make sure they’re okay.

In particular, you acknowledge that you are engaging to work with third parties, and we are not an employer or a provider of services beyond the matching process.

Liability / Disclaimer

You agree that we shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising from or in any way connected with the Site or the Services or your use of or reliance upon any information you obtain by means of the Site, or any engagements you make with third parties through your use of the Site.

In any event we shall not be liable for any indirect or consequential loss including, without limitation, damage for loss of revenue, profits, loss of business, contracts, earnings, reputation, data including any other consequential or pecuniary loss (even where we have been advised of the possibility of such loss or damage).

You agree and acknowledge that you are solely responsible for evaluating any goods or services offered by third parties including Members via the Site.

You acknowledge any engagements or services made with or provided to or by a third party including Members via the Site shall be subject to the terms and conditions that you further enter into, and that we will not be a party to or in any way responsible for or liable to you in respect of any transactions between you and third parties.

For the avoidance of doubt:

The Backscratchers does not (notwithstanding the matching and introduction process) recommend or endorse any Clients or Workers;
The Backscratchers is not the supplier of the Worker or the service provided by the Worker to the Client; and
The Backscratchers is not the employer of the Worker nor does it otherwise engage the Worker to provide services for the Client.

These limitations and exclusions do not extend to death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation and only apply to the extent permitted by law.

The Internet isn’t perfect, and neither is our webmaster. The site might go down and we can’t be held responsible.

Availability of the Site

You acknowledge that faults may lead to temporary unavailability of the Site and related Services; and that the operation of the Site and related Services may be adversely affected by conditions and performances outside our control, including, without limitation, transmission and telecommunications links between us and you and between us and other systems and networks. Accordingly, the Site and Services are provided “as is” and we do not accept any liability arising from any non-availability or interruption in availability.

We aren’t responsible for content on linked sites.

Links to other sites

We may provide links to other websites. You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the availability of such external sites, and do not endorse and are not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, services or other materials on or available from such sites.

Continued use of the site means you agree to any changes to these terms.

Changes to these terms and conditions

We reserve the right to change these terms and conditions from time to time. By continuing to use the Site following such change you will be deemed to have accepted such change. It is your responsibility to regularly check these terms and conditions. If you do not agree to any changes made to them you must immediately stop using the Site.

These are some general legal points, about how the other terms should be interpreted.

GENERAL TERMS

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify us against any and all claims, actions, suits or proceedings, as well as any and all losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your use of the Site and any non-compliance by you with these Terms.

Entire agreement

These terms and conditions (as amended from time to time) together with any document expressly referred to in them comprise the entire agreement between you and us.

Severability

Each provision of these terms and conditions shall be construed separately, applying and surviving even if for any reason one or other provisions is held to be inapplicable or unenforceable in any circumstances.

No waiver

No waiver by us shall be construed as a waiver of any proceeding or succeeding breach of any provision.

English Law

These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

Backscratchers terms and conditions