Competition Rules

General

1. The following general rules (“General Rules”) are applicable to all prize promotions, free draws, instant win offers or similar offer by competition conducted by or on behalf of The Reading Agency on the groupthing.org website (“we” or “us”) until further notice or until amended.

2. These General Rules will be deemed incorporated into a contract made between us in relation to each competition except to the extent that any specific rule or instruction in a particular competition (“Specific Competition Rule”) provides otherwise, in which case that Specific Competition Rule shall take precedence.

Entrants

3. The competitions are open to any entrant, voter or other member of the public only if and for as long as they meet the eligibility criteria in Clause 4 below. For the avoidance of doubt no entry shall be valid unless you are an entrant who is eligible by virtue of Clause 4 below.

4. The eligibility criteria provide that:

1. you must:
1. be a UK resident;
2. be aged 13 years or over;
3. not be an employee or agent of, or an immediate family member of an employee or agent of:
1. us;
2. any promoter of the competition;
3. any advertising agency or sales promotion agency engaged by the promoter for the purposes of the competition; or
4. anyone else otherwise connected with the creation, promotion or administration of the competition; and
4. not have been disqualified by the judges under Clause 6 below; and
1. you must, if under 18 years, obtain permission in advance from one of your parents or guardians and must be able to demonstrate that permission to the judges’ satisfaction if requested.

5. By entering any competition, you agree to be bound by these General Rules (as amended from time to time) and any Specific Competition Rule. No entry will be accepted unless it complies with the General Rules and the Specific Competition Rules.

6. You acknowledge that any failure to comply with these General Rules or the Specific Competition Rules could lead to your disqualification without reasons being given or any opportunity for challenge.

Entries

7. No purchase is necessary for entry unless it is stated otherwise in a Specific Competition Rule.

8. We accept no liability whatsoever for:

1. lost, corrupted, delayed or mislaid entries and proof of submission or of posting of a form will not constitute proof of delivery;

2. technical, hardware or software failures of any kind or lost or unavailable network connections which may limit or prohibit your ability to enter, win or otherwise participation in any competition; or

3. any circumstances beyond our reasonable control that prevent the competition being fulfilled, a winner or winners being chosen, or any prize being taken up or fully enjoyed by a winner.

9. We exclude liability for any damage, loss, injury, claim, liability or disappointment suffered by you:

1. which is caused otherwise than by our negligence or by our breach of a General Rule or a Specific Competition Rule; or

2. which at the time you enter the competition is not a reasonably foreseeable result of our negligence or of our breach of a General Rule or a Specific Competition Rule. This means things that are a ‘side effect’ of the main breach.

10. In the event of any error, whether printing, technological or otherwise, which affects the competition in any way, the judges reserve the right to administer the competition as though the error had not occurred.

Determining the winner(s)

11. Where the winner(s) is selected by a draw, this shall be done by us and any relevant promoter.

12. The general and overriding principle is fairness. Entries or votes should be made or cast fairly. If, in the opinion of the judges this principle has been flouted, they can:

1. declare any entry or votes invalid;
2. change a Specific Competition Rule;
3. adjust the entry to achieve fairness, as they think fit; or
4. void the competition.

13. The decision of the judges over every instance shall be final and unchallengeable and in their absolute discretion they may declare any entry invalid or the competition void if they consider that there are no entries reaching a required standard. If so, the judges can award prizes or not as they think fit. The judges shall have the right, at their discretion, to change the rules of a competition while it is running if it appears to them that it would be equitable or appropriate to do so, including the extension of the closing date whereupon there will be an announcement of any such extension at the first reasonable opportunity. No correspondence will be entered into or comment issued on any matters concerning any competition, and no reasons given for any decision made by the judges.

14. The judges will chose the winner in accordance with the General Rules and/or any Specific Competition Rule in their discretion, and either will be the first correct entry drawn from the total valid entries or all valid entries will be examined and the prize awarded to the entry that the judges consider to be the best (depending on the nature of the competition).

Use of entries

15. We may pass your personal information to the promoters and their data processors. However, we shall use our reasonable endeavours to ensure that they adhere to the same data security measures that we follow. (See our Privacy Policy).

16. We reserve the right to publish the names of the winners and runners-up, and the winning entry itself, and all winners may be required to give their co-operation to all requests by us or a promoter in connection with publicity for the competition, their entry, the prize or otherwise.

17. We shall have the following rights over all winning entries:

1. the exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide licence to first publication; and
2. a non-exclusive licence to publish, syndicate, distribute, reproduce and exploit the material in all present and future media and formats and to sub-license these rights to others.

18. You may be asked to indicate your wish, by ticking or checking a box provided in the Specific Competition Rule or otherwise, to receive or decline to receive communications with information or carefully selected commercial opportunities from us or agents on our behalf. We will hold any personal details we are entitled to hold on its own or a duly authorised agent’s registered database for the purposes of optimising our services to website users, actual or potential. You will also be asked to indicate your consent to have that data used from time to time by other carefully selected organisations who may be licensed by us to use it.

19. We will not return entries, however submitted.

Prizes

20. For the avoidance of doubt we reserve the right to withhold any prize from any entrant who has breached any General Rule or any Specific Competition Rule.

21. There will be no cash or other alternative to the prize offered and prizes are non- transferable and non-negotiable. No tokens or vouchers are redeemable for cash.

22. We reserve the right to substitute the prize with another prize of similar value.

23. It is assumed that, by entering any competition which, if won, would result in your taking time off from work or education, your employer or education provider is in agreement or else the relevant time(s) and/or date(s) will not coincide with your work or education commitments. Where time(s) and/or date(s) are specified, they cannot be altered and, by entering any competition, you confirm that they do not coincide with your work or education commitments. An alternative winner will be chosen if we discover that you are taking time off from work or education without the agreement of your employer or education provider in order to claim a prize.

24. If any winner of a competition is unable to take up a prize for any reason, or if we have not been able, after making reasonable efforts, to make contact with the winner, we reserve the right to award that prize (without notice to the first winner chosen) to an alternative winner, in which case the first winner chosen shall not be eligible for any share of the prize whatsoever. We shall not have any liability in such eventuality.

25. Names of major prize winners will be available on receipt of a request enclosing a stamped addressed envelope to: The Reading Agency, PO Box 96, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 3WP. This information may be published on the website at the judges’ discretion.

26. Arrangement for the delivery or fulfillment of a prize will be made by us. We accept no liability for late delivery, loss or damage to any prize dispatched by a third party.

27. Where the prize entails attendance at a particular place, venue or event, the winning Entrant will be responsible for his/her own travel arrangements and expenses unless stated otherwise. If travel costs are included in the prize, all booking formalities must be completed directly with the travel sponsor and we accept no liability for any damage, loss, liabilities, injury or disappointment incurred or suffered by you through the acts or omissions of the travel sponsor.

Supplementary

28. It is not intended that any third parties shall benefit from any express or implied rights under these General Rules.

29. You accept the terms of our Privacy Policy which you confirm you have read and understood.

30. The Terms and Conditions of using this website also form a part of these General Rules.

31. All competitions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales under the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.