Terms and Conditions

This page sets forth the full terms and conditions of use of the CHOICE main site, Online site, mobile “m” site, any downloadable applications (apps) and any other CHOICE platform and/or technology whether known now or created in the future (‘the Sites’). Your use of the Sites constitutes your agreement to these terms and conditions (“the Agreement”).

This Agreement is between you and the Australian Consumers’ Association Ltd, a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee with its offices at 57 Carrington Rd Marrickville NSW 2204 Australia (“CHOICE”).

Subscribing to one or more of the Sites, or making any other user registration indicates your agreement to the terms and conditions set forth here.

There are three parts to these terms and conditions.

1. Terms of use of the Sites
2. Terms of use relating to user comments
3. Terms and conditions relating to sales made through the Sites

1. Terms of use of the Sites

Your rights

CHOICE grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right to access, use and display one or more of the Sites and the materials provided thereon, if you comply fully with this Agreement. The contents of the Sites are only for your personal, non-commercial use. You agree not to interrupt, or attempt to interrupt, the operation of the Sites in any way. You must not share this service with any other person or organisation. Institutional subscriptions for schools, libraries businesses and other multiple-user access to the premium or member part of the Sites are available on request. Call our Customer Service staff on (1800 069 552 or +61 2 9577 3399) Mon-Fri 9am-5pm AEST for more information.

Your password

As part of the registration process, you will select a password. If CHOICE’s Customer Service department sets up your access, you must immediately change the generic password used for that purpose. You must take care to keep your password confidential. You must not disclose it to anyone and you must take care where you write it down on paper or where you store it electronically. PLEASE NOTE: You could be liable to pay compensation if an unauthorised person gains access to any of the Sites, because of your failure to keep your password and/or user name confidential.

Termination

In addition to any other rights of the parties set forth herein, either you or CHOICE may cancel or terminate this Agreement at any time. Subscriptions for the Sites are billed quarterly. Five (5) working days notice is required to cancel your subscription prior to the expiry date of your current quarterly subscription. See Section 3 below for a full list of our terms and conditions regarding refunds. CHOICE also reserves the right to restrict, suspend or terminate your access to the subscription section of the Sites in whole or in part, without notice, with respect to any breach or threatened breach by you of any portion of this Agreement. If CHOICE terminates this Agreement based on a breach of any portion of this Agreement, CHOICE reserves the right to refuse to provide a subscription or any fee-based services to you in the future. If we find that you are not using the service properly, we reserve the right to terminate your use of any service immediately and, if necessary, take legal action against you.

Privacy

We are committed to the protection of your privacy and we abide by Australia’s National Privacy Principles (as amended and revised). See www.privacy.gov.au for details of the principles. We never sell, publish or disseminate mailing lists to third parties. See our Privacy Policy or contact us at the address below and we will send you a copy.

Use of CHOICE materials policy

IF YOU WISH TO USE ANY CHOICE RATINGS, REPORTS, ARTICLES, MATERIALS, PHOTOS, GRAPHICS, PUBLICATIONS, BOOKS, PRODUCTS OR EQUIVALENT MATERIALS INCLUDING TRADE MARKS AND OTHER CHOICE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (“THE MATERIALS”), IN WHOLE OR PART, YOU MUST OBTAIN OUR WRITTEN PERMISSION BEFORE DOING SO. Use without written permission is forbidden conduct. Failure to seek permission will be dealt with severely. Scraping any of the Sites is forbidden conduct.

Requests for permission may be made to CHOICE Consumer Services, 57 Carrington Road, Marrickville 2204, phone 1800 069 552, fax (02) 9577 3355, email ausconsumer@choice.com.au

Our materials are protected in Australia and internationally by the law of copyright, moral rights, trade mark, equity, trade practices, fair trading and other laws and principles such as the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. We reserve the right to take legal action to prevent any unauthorised use or reproduction of our materials, in whole or part, for any purpose including but not limited to advertising, copyright works, trade marks, logos and any commercial purpose use. Please report any breach of this Agreement to CHOICE™ at the above address.

Intellectual Property

CHOICE™ is a trade mark of the Australian Consumers Association Ltd and all information, artworks, photographs, compilations or equivalent works appearing in our magazine, at the Sites, in electronic media and/or on-line including apps is the subject of copyright or trade mark or otherwise protected under Australian & international law for our exclusive use. © Australian Consumers Association Ltd 1960-2011 inclusive. All rights reserved. Only CHOICE™ Award winners and CHOICE recommended licensees are permitted to use the CHOICE™ trade mark and all advertising by those parties which uses the CHOICE™ trade mark is vetted by CHOICE™ before publication.

Council Members

The Australian Consumers Association is governed by an honorary and independent council elected by financial and voting members. See details about voting membership. Members of the council give their time without remuneration. Elected members must be free from conflicts of interest and have clear lines of responsibility. Council (2011): Chair: Jennifer Mack. Members: Rachel Dixon (Deputy Chair), Sandra Milligan, Ian Spight, David Marcus, Nicole Rich, Frank Muller, Charles Berger and William Davidson. Company Secretary Natalie O’Toole.

Copyright and permissions

CHOICE owns the copyright for all material presented on the Sites. Except to the extent necessary for you to download any material on the Sites for your own personal use, reproduction (including by electronic means) of the Sites, CHOICE, CHOICE Books, Computer CHOICE and other CHOICE publications, in whole or in part, is forbidden without prior written permission (and is never permitted for commercial purposes). Address requests should be directed to CHOICE Consumer Services.

All literary and artistic works and compilations of information are the subject of Australian and International copyright © Australian Consumers’ Association 1998-2004. The trade marks CHOICE™, CHOICE Online™, Computer CHOICE™ and one or more artistic works are trade marks of the Australian Consumers’ Association. All rights reserved.

Links to other sites

Links within the Sites are provided for your information. CHOICE does not endorse and has not necessarily verified any of the information available with any link found within the Sites.

Special note for Webmasters

We welcome links from other sites to the Sites but not if you also use our intellectual property at the same time with or without permission. However, as noted elsewhere, the name CHOICE is a registered trademark and the copyright for the Sites is owned by CHOICE.

PLEASE NOTE:

• You may not copy or use any of the graphics (or other elements) from the Sites within another site — any link to us should be provided as a text link only.
• You may not link to the Sites within a frame in your site.

CHOICE will take all steps open to it to prevent links to the Sites, which fall outside these requirements.

Corrections to the Sites

CHOICE has the right to correct any errors or omissions, and change any portion of the Sites without notice. If you find an error, please report it to the Online Manager.

2. Terms of use relating to user comments

The following terms relate to any and all communications including material, contributions, transactions, content and/or public communications and comments (“Communications”) by You which are submitted to one or more of the Sites.

CHOICE recommends that parents and teachers always supervise children's access to Communications on the World Wide Web.
Please consider others when contributing to the Sites.

You are solely responsible for the content of any and all Communications You publish to the Sites. All such Communications are public, unless otherwise indicated. You must not include Communications, which may:

• Be for commercial purposes
• Be indecent or abusive
• Be false or misleading, including the impersonation of other people
• Slander, libel or defame any person or entity
• Cause injury of any kind
• Infringe or breach the intellectual property rights, contract rights, or any other rights of CHOICE and/or any third party
• Violate and/or breach any applicable laws, rules, or regulations
• Contain software viruses or any other malicious code
• Cause harm, loss or damage to CHOICE and/or any third parties

You acknowledge and agree that, unless otherwise indicated, any and all Communications, published to or by means of any portion of the Sites on which and all Communications are conducted are public communications. You acknowledge that you have no expectation of privacy in any public Communications you make to the Sites.

You acknowledge and agree not to scrape information from the Sites on which and all Communications are conducted.

You grant to CHOICE a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, unrestricted, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, copy, license, distribute, display, reproduce, transmit, modify, edit and otherwise exploit any public Communications you publish at the Sites on which any and all Communications are conducted in all media whether now known or later developed.

You indemnify CHOICE for all loss it suffers because of any and all Communications you publish to the Sites on which Communications are conducted including any loss CHOICE suffers because of making the content of your Communications available to third parties.

CHOICE may at any time, in its absolute discretion and without notification, edit or remove any one or more of the Communications from the Sites on which communications are conducted including material and/or public Communications you have transmitted to the Sites on which Communications are conducted. CHOICE is under no obligation to make any Communications transmitted to the Sites on which Communications are conducted available to any person. CHOICE has no liability for any consequences of its reliance on its rights under this paragraph.

To the extent permissible by the laws of Australia, CHOICE disclaims all liability in relation to Your use of the Sites on which any and all Communications are conducted.

Disclosure of vested interest

If You have an association with, or a vested interest in, a brand, product and/or company then You must advise CHOICE and other users of any said association and/or interest at the time of any Communications and be completely transparent about the association and/or interest.

If You use official brand and/or company accounts you must include any such information in Your Display Name which shows on Your comments e.g. David, XYZ Company. (You can change Your Display name by editing Your Profile.)

Users using private accounts should include this information in their Profile. If the User’s comment is related to the brand or company which they have an association with or vested interest in, or to a direct competitor, they should state this in the body of their comment. E.g. I am an employee of XYZ Company but these views are my own.

Complaints about user comments

CHOICE does not have the resources to control, review or vet Your or other contributor’s Communications and, accordingly, it does not control, review or vet any of the content of any Communications. CHOICE takes no responsibility for, nor endorses or necessarily agrees with Your Communications and/or the Communications of any third party including members of the public. If you consider that any comment is inappropriate, unsuitable or breaches these terms and conditions please click on the REPORT button and provide the following details:

1. Why you consider the material to be inappropriate, unsuitable or in breach of these terms and conditions; and
2. Your name and contact details.

CHOICE receives any and complaints seriously. On receipt of any such complaint, we will in CHOICE’s absolute discretion temporarily remove any and all relevant Communications while it/they is/are reviewed by CHOICE.

CHOICE will, in its absolute discretion, permanently remove any and all relevant Communications if CHOICE considers it appropriate to do so. While CHOICE aims to diligently act on any complaint, CHOICE cannot guarantee that that any complaint will be acted on within any specific time period. CHOICE will not act on any complaint which CHOICE deems, in its discretion, to be vexatious, or which appears to be vexatious. If You do not include your name and contact details in the complaint, we reserve the right to conclude and may treat the complaint as vexatious.

CHOICE contribution

From time to time, CHOICE staff may respond to queries or comments. Such participation is not an approval, agreement or endorsement of Your or another parties Communications, nor is it indicative of a systematic review of that or any other forum facilitated by CHOICE.

Removal of material

CHOICE may, in its absolute discretion at any time, without cause and without notice to You or any third party, remove any Communications from the Sites. . The removal of said Communications is not an admission that any one or more of the Communications are inappropriate nor is it an admission of any liability by CHOICE.

As a guide, CHOICE will, in its absolute discretion, remove Communications if any one or more:

1. Is for a commercial purpose.
2. Is indecent or abusive.
3. Is false or misleading.
4. Is slanderous, libellous or defamatory.
5. Is likely to cause injury of any kind.
6. Violates or breaches any rights of any person and/or party.
7. Violates or breaches any applicable laws, rules, or regulations.
8. Contains software viruses or any other malicious code.
9. Is, in its opinion, of a vexatious nature.
10. Relates to a membership or access issue and the customer has been contacted and/or the issue has been resolved.
11. Is off-topic.
12. Does not adequately and/or properly declare an association and/or vested interest in any brand, product and/or company.

3. Terms and conditions of sale

Seller

For the purposes of all sales transacted on the Sites on which transactions are conducted, the seller is:

CHOICE

Registered business address: 57 Carrington Rd, Marrickville 2204, AUSTRALIA

Phone: + 61 2 9577 3399

Fax: + 61 2 9577 3377

ACN: 000 281 925

ABN: 72 000 281 925

Pricing

All prices are in Australian dollars. If you require a currency converter, click here.

Your rights

Under Australia’s Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and related state and territory laws, you have remedies available to you.  If you consider something you purchase from the Sites on which transactions are conducted (single-use access, subscription access or a product from our shop) is not of the standard you expected given its price and the way it was described. The remedies are in addition to and not limited by the information below about our cancellation, refunds & returns policy. For more information about your remedies, read our article on your shopping rights.

Complaints

Please direct any complaints in the first instance to:

CHOICE Consumer Services

Email: ausconsumer@choice.com.au

Phone: 1800 069 552 or +61 2 9577 3399

Fax: +61 2 9577 3377

CHOICE does not belong to any independent dispute resolution programs. If you feel your complaint has not been handled adequately by us you should refer to your home state or territory Department of Consumer Affairs or Fair Trading.

The Sites are intended primarily for Australian consumers and it is assumed most customers will be resident of Australia. The applicable law for matters concerning CHOICE Online, CHOICE Mobile, CHOICE Apps and other CHOICE platforms and initiatives is that of the state of New South Wales.

Subscriptions and renewals

Subscriptions to the Sites operate on a quarterly basis.

Credit Card and Direct Debit Processing

To ensure seamless access to CHOICE products when you renew your membership, credit cards and direct debits will be processed 24 hours prior to the expiry of your quarterly and/or annual membership, until you tell us to stop.  

Credit Card Security

When renewal notices are sent out (if applicable) most, but not all, of the numbers on your credit card will be masked.  The credit card details are not held by CHOICE but are stored securely by our bank.  This is to ensure your details are secure and the masking of the details is consistent with the worldwide Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Processing payments on expired Credit Cards

While CHOICE continues to make efforts to ensure credit card details for our members are up to date through regular emails and on-screen notifications, under the Payment Card Industry (PCI), recurring payments, such a membership renewals, can still be processed on supplied credit cards beyond the expiry date, so long as the credit card number remains valid. The only way a recurring payment can be stopped is by cancelling the membership or by cancelling the credit card.

In some cases the issuing bank (ie. the bank attached to your credit card) itself may prevent or reject the payment from being processed, but this would be based on the bank's own individual Terms and Conditions.

Cancellations, refunds & returns

The Sites subscriptions are billed quarterly. You must let us know at least five (5) working days before the end of your current quarter subscription period that you no longer wish to subscribe. We will subsequently cancel your subscription to take effect at the end of that quarter. To cancel, please contact Customer Service on 1800 069 552 or by email at ausconsumer@choice.com.au.

If you wish to cancel an annual magazine subscription, we will refund the unused portion of your subscription at the end of the current subscription cycle. In the case of a quarterly automatic magazine subscription, we will terminate your subscription at the expiration of the current quarter. All refunds are by cheque. Telephone Customer Service on 1800 069 552 or +61 2 9577 3399 or email ausconsumer@choice.com.au or write to us at 57 Carrington Road Marrickville NSW 2204.

For other products sold through a shop on one or more of the Sites, you may return any damaged or unwanted product within thirty (30) days for a prompt refund of its purchase price. Shipping costs refunds occur when the problem is a result of our error. Please make sure that you include the original packing slip with the product and that it is securely wrapped when sought to be returned. Send the package to:

CHOICE

57 Carrington Rd

Marrickville NSW 2204 AUSTRALIA

Delivery

Books and other products ordered from one or more of the Sites will be dispatched via Australia Post within two (2) working days if in stock. If the product you want is not in stock, you'll be notified by email, text, or other private manner of making contact giving you an expected shipping date. Subscriptions to magazines commence with the first issue after an order is received, and are delivered around the first week of each month in which the magazine is published. Postage charges are additional for books.

Security

All details, including credit card information, submitted through the Sites pass through our secure server, which offers 128-bit encryption.

Changes to these terms and conditions

CHOICE may modify these terms and conditions at any time without providing notice to you. Your continued use of the Sites after such a modification constitutes your acceptance of that modification. For this reason we provide a link to the terms and conditions at the bottom of every page — you should check them each time you visit, because you are bound if you use the Sites.