Terms of Service

Group Squirrel is an online platform that helps people create, manage and take part in groups and communities.

The platform allows people to:

• discover and join groups;
• create and manage groups;
• organise events;
• communicate with other members;
• manage group memberships;
• sell group memberships and event tickets; and
• make and receive payments through the platform.

In these Terms, "Group Squirrel", "we", "us" and "our" mean the person or organisation operating the Group Squirrel service.

• Operator: Group Squirrel Ltd
• Address: 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
• Contact: privacy@groupsquirrel.com, or through our contact page
• Website: https://groupsquirrel.com

You may need an account to use some parts of Group Squirrel.

You are responsible for:

• providing accurate information;
• keeping your password and account secure;
• keeping your contact details up to date; and
• everything that happens through your account, unless it happened because of a failure on our part.

You must not create an account for someone else without their permission or deliberately provide misleading information about yourself.

If you believe someone has accessed your account without permission, please contact us as soon as possible.

We may require you to verify your email address before you can use certain features.

You may use Group Squirrel for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms.

You must not use Group Squirrel to:

• break the law;
• threaten, harass, abuse or intimidate other people;
• impersonate another person or organisation;
• send spam or unsolicited commercial communications;
• upload malware or other harmful code;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to accounts, systems or data;
• interfere with the operation or security of the platform;
• scrape or systematically copy information from Group Squirrel except where we expressly allow it;
• use the platform to facilitate fraud or other dishonest activity; or
• do anything that could reasonably be expected to damage Group Squirrel or its users.

You are responsible for making sure that anything you do through Group Squirrel complies with the law.

Group Squirrel allows users to create and manage their own groups.

A group may have an owner, administrators and organisers. These people may have different permissions within the group.

Group organisers are responsible for managing their own groups and the activities they organise.

This includes, where applicable:

• deciding who can join a group;
• managing group rules;
• creating and managing events;
• managing group memberships;
• communicating with members;
• deciding whether to charge for memberships or events; and
• dealing with cancellations or changes to their activities.

Group organisers are not employees, representatives or agents of Group Squirrel merely because they use the platform to run a group.

We do not control every group or every activity organised through Group Squirrel.

Events on Group Squirrel are organised by group organisers or other users, not by Group Squirrel unless we expressly say otherwise.

An organiser is responsible for the accuracy of information about their event, including its:

• date and time;
• location;
• description;
• price;
• availability;
• cancellation arrangements; and
• any other conditions that apply.

If an organiser changes or cancels an event, the organiser is responsible for communicating this to attendees and dealing with any refunds that are due.

Group Squirrel may provide tools to help organisers communicate with attendees and manage bookings, but using those tools does not make Group Squirrel the organiser of the event.

You should use your own judgement about whether an event is suitable for you and follow any reasonable safety instructions given by the organiser or venue.

Some groups are free to join and others may charge a membership fee.

Where a group charges for membership, the organiser is responsible for the membership they provide and for explaining the terms that apply to it.

Group membership fees are separate from any subscription you may pay to Group Squirrel for using the platform.

If you cancel or lose a group membership, your rights to access that group's content or events may also end.

Group Squirrel supports payments for different things, including:

• Group Squirrel subscriptions;
• group memberships;
• event tickets; and
• event deposits.

The checkout process will tell you what you are paying for, who you are paying and, where relevant, whether the payment is recurring.

Group Squirrel subscriptions

If you subscribe to a paid Group Squirrel plan, you agree to pay the price shown when you subscribe.

Your subscription may renew automatically where the checkout makes this clear.

You can cancel a recurring Group Squirrel subscription through your account. Cancellation normally prevents the next renewal and does not necessarily provide an immediate refund for the current subscription period, subject always to your statutory rights.

If we increase the price of a recurring subscription, we will give you appropriate notice and you will have an opportunity to cancel before the new price applies.

Payments to groups and organisers

When you pay for a group membership, event ticket or other item offered by a group organiser, the payment is for that organiser's offering.

Group Squirrel provides payment and platform services to help facilitate these transactions.

The organiser is responsible for the membership, event or other service you purchased, including providing it as described and dealing with cancellations and refunds where appropriate.

Payments may be processed by a third-party payment provider. We do not store your full payment card details.

Your legal rights to cancel a contract or obtain a refund are not affected by these Terms.

For Group Squirrel subscriptions, the cancellation and refund arrangements shown when you subscribe will apply, subject to your statutory rights.

For a group membership or event booking, the organiser's stated cancellation and refund terms will normally apply.

If an event or membership is cancelled by an organiser, the organiser is responsible for any refund that is due.

Where Group Squirrel processes a refund on an organiser's behalf, we will use reasonable efforts to process it correctly, but this does not change the organiser's responsibility for the underlying transaction.

Nothing in these Terms removes or limits any consumer rights that cannot legally be excluded.

You may be able to upload or submit content to Group Squirrel, including:

• photographs and other images;
• group descriptions;
• event descriptions;
• comments;
• conversations;
• profile information;
• links; and
• other text or material.

You keep ownership of content that you own.

You give Group Squirrel permission to store, reproduce, display and otherwise use your content as reasonably necessary to provide and operate the Group Squirrel service.

For example, this allows us to display your group image on your group's page, send your event description to people attending the event, or store a conversation so that its participants can access it.

This permission continues for as long as necessary to provide the service and to deal with legitimate records and legal obligations after content is removed.

You must have the right to provide anything you upload or submit.

You must not upload content that:

• infringes someone else's copyright, trade mark or other rights;
• is unlawful;
• is deliberately misleading;
• contains malicious software;
• contains another person's personal information without an appropriate reason or permission; or
• breaches these Terms.

Group Squirrel contains content provided by users and organisers.

We do not guarantee that user-created content is accurate, complete or suitable for you.

Opinions expressed by users or organisers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Group Squirrel.

You should use appropriate judgement when relying on information provided by other users.

We want Group Squirrel to be a useful and safe platform.

We may remove content or restrict access to content if we reasonably believe that it:

• breaks these Terms;
• is unlawful;
• creates a security or safety risk;
• infringes another person's rights; or
• is otherwise harmful to the operation of Group Squirrel.

Where appropriate, we may also suspend or terminate an account or group.

We will try to act fairly and proportionately when making these decisions.

We may take immediate action where we reasonably believe that this is necessary to protect users, the platform or other people.

You can stop using Group Squirrel at any time and can delete your account using the facilities provided on the platform.

We may suspend or close an account if we reasonably believe that:

• you have seriously or repeatedly broken these Terms;
• your account is being used fraudulently;
• your activity presents a security or safety risk;
• we are required to do so by law; or
• continuing to provide the account would create a significant risk to Group Squirrel or other users.

Where practical, we will tell you why we have suspended or closed your account and what, if anything, you can do about it.

Closing your account does not automatically cancel obligations that arose before closure, including payment obligations or obligations relating to transactions already made.

If you own a group, you may be able to transfer ownership or close the group using the facilities provided by Group Squirrel.

Closing a group may remove or restrict access to its content, members and events.

If a group has paid memberships, paid events or other financial commitments, the group owner remains responsible for dealing appropriately with those commitments.

We may retain information relating to a closed group where this is reasonably necessary for legal, security, accounting or other legitimate purposes.

The Group Squirrel website, software, branding and other material that we provide are owned by us or licensed to us.

You may use Group Squirrel for its intended purpose, but you do not acquire ownership of our software, branding or other intellectual property by using the service.

You must not copy, modify, reverse engineer, distribute or commercially exploit our software or other protected material except where the law expressly permits you to do so or we give you permission.

We will make reasonable efforts to keep Group Squirrel available and working, but we cannot promise that it will always be available or error-free.

The service may occasionally be unavailable because of:

• maintenance;
• updates;
• technical problems;
• failures of third-party services;
• internet or hosting problems; or
• circumstances outside our reasonable control.

We may change, improve or remove features from Group Squirrel as the service develops.

If we make a significant change to a paid service that materially reduces what you receive, we will provide reasonable notice where appropriate.

Nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights relating to digital services.

Group Squirrel relies on third-party services for some functions, including payment processing, email delivery, mapping, authentication and other infrastructure.

Those services may have their own terms and privacy policies.

We are not responsible for a third-party service simply because Group Squirrel integrates with it.

However, this does not limit any rights you may have against Group Squirrel under applicable law.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and protect personal information.

The Privacy Policy forms part of the information governing your use of Group Squirrel, but it does not replace these Terms.

If you believe that a user, group, event or piece of content breaches these Terms, is unlawful or creates a safety concern, please contact us through our contact page or at privacy@groupsquirrel.com.

Please provide enough information for us to understand the problem and investigate it.

We may ask for additional information where necessary.

We will provide Group Squirrel with reasonable care and skill.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful.

In particular, nothing in these Terms excludes or limits:

• liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence;
• liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;
• your statutory rights as a consumer; or
• any other liability that cannot legally be excluded or limited.

We are not responsible for losses that result from things outside our reasonable control.

We are also not responsible for the acts or omissions of independent group organisers, event organisers, venues or other users, except where the law makes us responsible.

Where you are using Group Squirrel as a consumer, we will only exclude or limit our responsibility to the extent that the law allows us to.

If you use Group Squirrel in a way that breaks these Terms or the law and this causes us loss or damage, you may be responsible for that loss where the law allows.

We will not use this provision to make you responsible for losses that you could not reasonably have expected to result from your actions.

We may update these Terms from time to time.

If we make a significant change, we will take reasonable steps to let you know, particularly where the change affects a paid service.

The updated Terms will apply from the date stated at the top of the updated version.

If you do not agree to a significant change, you can stop using Group Squirrel and, where applicable, cancel your paid subscription.

If you live in a country of the European Union and use Group Squirrel as a consumer, you may have rights under applicable EU and national consumer protection laws in addition to the rights described elsewhere in these Terms.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any consumer right, remedy or protection that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. This includes applicable rights relating to digital services, unfair contract terms, cancellations, refunds and remedies where a service does not meet the requirements of applicable law.

Cancellation and withdrawal rights

Depending on the type of contract and the circumstances, you may have a legal right to withdraw from a contract made online within a specified period. Exceptions may apply, including for certain leisure services supplied on a specific date or during a specific period, and for certain digital services or digital content where the legal conditions for an exception have been met.

Any applicable withdrawal rights, exceptions and requirements concerning your express consent or acknowledgement will be determined by the relevant law and the circumstances of your purchase. Nothing in these Terms is intended to remove a right that you have under applicable law.

Online platform rules

Where applicable, we will comply with the legal requirements governing online intermediary services and platforms, including applicable requirements concerning the reporting of illegal content, explanations for certain content moderation decisions and available complaint procedures.

If we restrict or remove your content, or suspend or restrict your access to the service, you may be entitled to an explanation or other remedies under applicable law. Where a legal complaint or review procedure applies, we will make the relevant procedure available to you.

Mandatory local protections

The governing law and jurisdiction provisions below do not prevent you from relying on mandatory consumer protections or bringing proceedings in a court where applicable law gives you that right.

If you live in the United States, these Terms apply subject to any mandatory rights and protections available to you under applicable federal, state and local law.

Nothing in these Terms is intended to waive, exclude or limit a right or remedy that cannot lawfully be waived, excluded or limited under the law that applies to you.

Consumer protection

If you use Group Squirrel as a consumer, any provisions concerning payments, subscriptions, cancellations, refunds, warranties or liability will be interpreted subject to applicable consumer protection laws.

In particular, nothing in these Terms removes any non-waivable rights you may have under applicable law in relation to a paid service, an unfair or deceptive practice, or a failure to provide a service as legally required.

Liability and remedies

Any exclusion or limitation of liability in these Terms applies only to the extent permitted by the law that applies to the relevant claim. No provision is intended to exclude liability where that exclusion is prohibited by applicable law.

State-specific rights

Some states provide additional rights concerning subscriptions, automatic renewals, privacy, dispute resolution or other aspects of online services. Where such rights apply to your use of Group Squirrel, these Terms do not take them away.

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

If you are a consumer, this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection afforded by provisions of the law of your country of residence that cannot legally be excluded by agreement.

Where permitted by applicable law, the courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction over disputes relating to these Terms. This does not prevent a consumer from bringing proceedings in another court where applicable law gives them that right.

If you have a question, complaint or other issue relating to Group Squirrel, please contact us through our contact page or at privacy@groupsquirrel.com.

We will try to deal with complaints fairly and promptly.