Terms of Use

Terms of Use for all users of the DEAL website and The DEAL Community Platform

First Published: September 15th, 2020
Last Updated: June 18, 2024
(New sections: 'Complying with local law and regulation' and 'Political non-partisanship')


Welcome to the DEAL website and The DEAL Community Platform. By continuing to browse and use this website, you agree to comply with, and be bound by, the following Terms of Use. These Terms of Use constitute one of the four core instruments that govern our relationship with you as a user of this website (together with our Privacy Policy, content Licensing Rules, and community Code of Conduct).


The terms "DEAL", "us" and "we" refer to the owners of this website whose registered office is Doughnut Economics Action Lab C.I.C., Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA, United Kingdom. The term "you" refers to the user, member or viewer of our website.


These terms may change from time to time, so you should check back regularly, but if we make any significant changes we will email members to let them know.


Terms for everyone


We respect your data and your right to privacy. Please familiarise yourself with our Privacy policy, which describes the data we collect, why we collect it, how we process it, and how long we keep it.

The ‘Tools’, ‘Stories’, and other content on the platform are provided “as is” with no explicit or implied warranty.

If a dispute arises, these Terms of Use will be governed under the laws of the United Kingdom.

Terms for members


You must be at least 13 years of age to create an account.

You must only create an account for yourself as an individual, not an organisation.

If you choose to create an account, you agree to be bound by the DEAL Community Code of Conduct.

We reserve the right to terminate your account at any time, for any reason.

User generated content


The types of user generated content available on The DEAL Community Platform include: Tools, Stories, Events, Comments, and File Uploads.

Please be aware that you are legally responsible for all of your contributions and re-use of user generated content on The DEAL Community Platform . This means it is important that you use caution when posting content. In light of this responsibility, we have some rules about what you cannot post laid out in these Terms of Use, our Code of Conduct, and Licensing Rules, most of which is either for your own protection or for the protection of other users like yourself.

All user generated content must be lawful and suitable for ages 13 and up.

All user generated content must comply with the DEAL Licensing Rules, especially with respect to restrictions surrounding copyrighted materials.

We reserve the right to modify or remove any user generated content for any reason.

You should exercise caution and avoid contributing any content that may result in criminal or civil liability under any applicable laws. For clarity, applicable law includes at least the laws of the United Kingdom. DEAL cannot offer any protection, guarantee, immunity or indemnification.

Licensing and Trademarks


Please familiarise yourself with our Licensing Rules so that you are aware of, and agree to, our licensing requirements.

In particular, all users contributing to The DEAL Community Platform are required to grant broad permissions to the general public to re-distribute and re-use their contributions freely, so long as that use is properly attributed, and the same freedom to re-use and re-distribute is granted to any derivative works. 

It is important that we protect our trademark rights so that we can protect our users from fraudulent impersonators. Because of this, we ask that you please respect our trademarks. All DEAL trademarks belong to Doughnut Economics Action Lab, and any use of our trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, or domain names must be in compliance with these Terms of Use and our Licensing Rules.

Refraining from Certain Activities


The Tools and Stories hosted by DEAL only exist because of the vibrant community of users like you who collaborate together to generate, share, adapt, and curate the content. We warmly welcome your participation in this community. We encourage you to be civil and polite in your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and to make comments and contributions aimed at furthering the mission of DEAL.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, for your own protection and for that of other users, you may not engage in such activities on our site. These activities include:

Harassing and Abusing Others

  • Engaging in harassment, threats, stalking, spamming, or vandalism; and
  • Transmitting chain mail, junk mail, or spam to other users.


Violating the Privacy of Others

  • Infringing the privacy rights of others under the laws of the United Kingdom or other applicable laws (which may include the laws where you live or where you view or edit content);
  • Soliciting personally identifiable information for purposes of harassment, exploitation, violation of privacy, or any promotional or commercial purpose not explicitly approved by DEAL; and
  • Soliciting personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18 for an illegal purpose or violating any applicable law regarding the health or well-being of minors.


Engaging in False Statements, Impersonation, or Fraud

  • Intentionally or knowingly posting content that constitutes libel or defamation;
  • With the intent to deceive, posting content that is false or inaccurate;
  • Attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, or using the username of another user with the intent to deceive; and
  • Engaging in fraud.


Committing Infringement

  • Infringing copyrights, trademarks, patents, or other proprietary rights under applicable law.


Misusing Our Services for Other Illegal Purposes

  • Posting or trafficking in obscene material that is unlawful under applicable law; and
  • Using the services in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable law.


Engaging in Disruptive and Illegal Misuse of Facilities

  • Posting or distributing content that contains any viruses, malware, worms, Trojan horses, malicious code, or other device that could harm our technical infrastructure or system or that of our users;
  • Engaging in automated uses of the site that are abusive or disruptive of the services and have not been approved by the DEAL community;


We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to the above activities. 


Management of user generated content


In an unusual case, the need may arise, or the community may ask us, to address an especially problematic user because of significant disturbance or dangerous behaviour. In such cases, we reserve the right, but do not have the obligation to:

  • Investigate your use of the website (a) to determine whether a violation of these Terms of Use, Code of Conduct, Licensing Rules, or other applicable law or policy has occurred, or (b) to comply with any applicable law, legal process, or appropriate governmental request;
  • Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues or respond to user support requests;
  • Refuse, disable, or restrict access to the contribution of any user who violates these Terms of Use;
  • Ban a user from contributing or block a user's account or access for actions violating these Terms of Use, including repeat copyright infringement;
  • Take legal action against users who violate these Terms of Use (including reports to law enforcement authorities); and
  • Manage otherwise the DEAL website and The DEAL Community Platform in a manner designed to facilitate their proper functioning and protect the rights, property, and safety of ourselves and our users, licensors, partners, and the public.


In the interests of our users and The DEAL Community, in the extreme circumstance that any individual has had his or her account or access blocked under this provision, he or she is prohibited from creating or using another account on or seeking access to The DEAL Community Platform, unless we provide explicit permission. 


DEAL will not ban a user from contributing or block a user's account or access solely because of good faith criticism that does not result in actions otherwise violating these Terms of Use or community policies.


Disclaimer


The information on the DEAL website and The DEAL Community Platform is for general purposes. Neither DEAL, nor any person acting on behalf of DEAL, is responsible for the use that may be made of this information.

The user generated content on the community platform does not necessarily reflect the opinion of DEAL, and may be inaccurate or misleading.

We are not liable for any losses or damages incurred in the course of using this website, and users are expected to take reasonable browsing precautions (e.g. anti-virus software).

Links to third party websites are not under our control, and are not endorsed by us unless otherwise specified.

We take no responsibility for technical issues beyond our control.

Complying with local law and regulation

Please ensure that you comply with applicable law and regulation when participating in the DEAL community or using DEAL resources – DEAL is not responsible for the use of DEAL’s resources but we need everyone in the community to help protect the integrity and principles of the Doughnut by not using DEAL’s resources non-compliantly with local law and regulation – whilst DEAL is governed by UK law, you may need to think about the laws in your own jurisdiction or where you are going to make use of the resources.

Political non-partisanship

It is core to the effectiveness of our approach that DEAL is politically non-partisan. As such, DEAL C.I.C complies with the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and Representation of the People Act 1983.

Any organisation engaging with Doughnut Economics in the UK, is responsible for complying with this legislation too. In the UK, election law (as well as other legal areas) can apply to broadly public-facing activities which are either intended to or could be seen as intended to promote or oppose a candidate or political parties at a UK election – this can include being seen to influence people to vote for parties or candidates which promote certain policies or hold certain opinions (‘regulated activity’). DEAL does not engage in regulated activity, and it is important that the concepts and tools of Doughnut Economics (including the DEAL’s logo) are not used for this type of activity either by those in our community or the public.

As such, DEAL is not making its resources available or engaging with its community in order to facilitate any party-political goal or for activities that could be seen to be intended to influence elections. Please respect this and ensure that you do not use our resources or participate in our community in a way that could be reasonably viewed as intended to influence the UK election results or electoral success of:

  • one or more particular political parties;
  • one or more political parties which advocate (or do not advocate) particular policies, or which otherwise fall within a particular category of parties; or
  • candidates who hold (or do not hold) particular opinions or who advocate (or do not advocate) particular policies, or who otherwise fall within a particular category of candidates.


To find out more about UK election law ruled ahead of the upcoming UK general election, please visit the Electoral Commission’s website.

By participating in the DEAL community and using DEAL’s tools and concepts and in using, you agree to comply with all applicable local laws and not to use our resources for regulated electoral activity.


Contact us


You can find more information in our FAQ and for any other questions or concerns not listed there, please contact us via the DEAL Contact Form.

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