Terms and conditions

Terms and conditions

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE

What's in these terms?

These terms tell you the rules for using our website espo.org (our site).

Who we are and how to contact us

espo.org is a site operated by Leicestershire County Council, trading as ESPO, of Barnsdale Way, Grove Park, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 1ES.  Leicestershire County Council operates the site in its capacity as servicing authority to a joint committee that acts as a central purchasing body known as ESPO.

In this context, ESPO is the trading name of the joint committee comprising of member authorities.  It was established pursuant to section 101(5) and section 102 of the Local Government Act 1972, section 9EB of the Local Government Act 2000 and section 1 of the Local Authorities (Goods and Services) Act 1970 to act as a central purchasing body for the purposes of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Through its servicing authority (Leicestershire County Council), ESPO procures services and goods which it supplies to public bodies, as defined in and using powers under the Local Authorities (Goods and Services) Act 1970 (“LAGSA”). 

Through its servicing authority, ESPO may in addition supply services and goods to bodies other than those identified in LAGSA.  ESPO Trading Limited, trading as ESPO, is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 11227986 and registered address is Barnsdale Way, Grove Park, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 1ES.

ESPO Trading Limited was established and is supported by Leicestershire County Council as servicing authority and uses the powers under section 4 of the Localism Act 2011 and section 95 of the Local Government Act 2003.

These terms also apply to visitors to the site for ESPO Trading Limited. 

To contact us, please refer to the contact information available at espo.org/contact-us

By using our site you accept these terms

By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our site.

We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference.

There are other terms that may apply to you

These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:

  • Our Privacy Policy espo.org/privacy-policy. See further under How we may use your personal information.
  • Our Acceptable Use Policy espo.org/acceptable-use-policy which sets out the permitted uses and prohibited uses of our site. When using our site, you must comply with this Acceptable Use Policy.
  • Our Cookie Policy espo.org/cookies, which sets out information about the cookies on our site.

If you purchase goods, services or digital content from our site, our Terms and conditions of supply espo.org/terms-and-conditions-of-supply will apply to the sales.

We may make changes to these terms

We amend these terms from time to time. Every time you wish to use our site, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time. These terms were most recently updated on 23 March 2021.

We may make changes to our site

We may update and change our site from time to time to reflect changes to our products, our users' needs and our business priorities.

We may suspend or withdraw our site

Our site is made available free of charge.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our site for business or operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

We may transfer this agreement to someone else

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.

Our site is only for users in the United Kingdom

Our site is directed to people residing in the United Kingdom. We do not represent that content available on or through our site is appropriate for use or available in other locations. If you are based outside the United Kingdom or require delivery to an address outside the United Kingdom, please contact us directly through espo.org/contact-us to discuss your requirements.

You must keep your account details safe

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party.

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at registration@espo.org.

How you may use material on our site

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it.  Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

Do not rely on information on this site

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date.

We are not responsible for websites we link to

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.

We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.

User-generated content is not approved by us

This website may include information and materials uploaded by other users of the site. In the event this information is made available it should be noted that these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent our views or values.

How to complain about content uploaded by other users

If you wish to complain about content uploaded by other users, please refer to the contact information available at espo.org/contact-us.

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

Whether you are a consumer or a business user:

  • We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
  • Different limitations and exclusions of liability will apply to liability arising as a result of the supply of any products to you, which will be set out in our Terms and conditions of supply espo.org/terms-and-conditions-of-supply.

If you are a business user:

  • We exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our site or any content on it.
  • We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:
  • use of, or inability to use, our site; or
  • use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.
  • In particular, we will not be liable for:
  • loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
  • business interruption;
  • loss of anticipated savings;
  • loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
  • any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

If you are a consumer user:

  • Please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.
  • If defective digital content that we have supplied (except where sold to you under our espo.org/terms-and-conditions-of-supply), damages a device or digital content belonging to you and this is caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation. However, we will not be liable for damage that you could have avoided by following our advice to apply an update offered to you free of charge or for damage that was caused by you failing to correctly follow installation instructions or to have in place the minimum system requirements advised by us.

How we may use your personal information

We will only use your personal information as set out in our Privacy Policy espo.org/privacy-policy.

Uploading content to our site

If we make available a feature that allows you to upload content to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you must comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy espo.org/acceptable-use-policy and we would require you to warrant compliance with the standards and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty.  Any such content would not be considered confidential and we would be permitted to use any such content and distribute and make it available to third parties.

Be aware that if you upload any content, we also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

We have the right to remove any posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy espo.org/acceptable-use-policy.

We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them

We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Rules about linking to our site

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.

You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you.

Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page.

We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy espo.org/acceptable-use-policy.

If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact us through the contact information available at espo.org/contact-us.

Which country's laws apply to any disputes?

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

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

Our trade marks are registered

The trading name “ESPO” is registered as a UK trade mark.

You are not permitted to use any of our registered or unregistered trade marks without our approval, unless they are part of material you are using as permitted under How you may use material on our site.