Terms and Conditions

These Terms and Conditions apply to the following: 

  1. The use of the world wide web pages of Criterion Tec Limited (co. reg. no. SC568537) ("Criterion" or "we") at https://www.criterion.org.uk  ("this website and its subdomains"); 
  2. The use of the following online services of Criterion available from this website and its subdomains: Criterion Standards, Criterion Common Declarations (as defined below), and all news, press releases and Meeting Groups (such services each being "Online Services"); and 
  3. The use by Criterion and other third parties of the data collected via this website and its subdomains. 

In these Terms and Conditions: 

“Associated Companies” means any subsidiary within your group of companies, the parent undertaking of which is your company (or any parent undertaking of your company from time to time), where "subsidiary" and “parent undertaking” shall have the same meaning as in section 1159 and section 1162 of the Companies Act 2006; 

"Criterion Common Declarations" means the common declaration wording and defined data items all of which are licensed to and maintained by Criterion and which are accessible from time to time from Criterion, including this website and its subdomains (as such documentation may be varied, modified or otherwise replaced from time to time by Criterion); 

“Utilise” means access, download, copy, display, distribute, assess, analyse, implement in software and / or business processes, and / or use; ‘Utilisation’ being interpreted accordingly; 

"Permitted Purpose" means the Utilisation of the Criterion Common Declarations by you and your Associated Companies only as part of your respective normal business for inclusion in your pension transfer or open market option annuity application process in order to gain client consent and discharge for any such transaction, recognising the discretion of the ceding pension scheme involved in such a transaction to seek any further evidence of consent and/or discharge that it may deem necessary. 

Any use of any part of this website and its subdomains shall constitute your agreement to abide by these Terms and Conditions. You should carefully read these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to all or any of these Terms and Conditions, please leave this website or its subdomains immediately and refrain from using any of the online services available from this website and its subdomains. 

Any reference in these Terms and Conditions to "Paragraph" shall refer to a paragraph of these Terms and Conditions. 

  1. Intellectual Property Rights

    1. The copyright, database rights and all other intellectual property rights in information and material (including, without limitation, the Criterion Standards and the Criterion Common Declarations) on this website and its subdomains are the property of Criterion and protected by the copyright laws of the United Kingdom, international copyright treaties and all other applicable copyright and intellectual property laws. You may not copy or republish any such material or information in any manner without the prior written consent of Criterion or its licensor. You may not remove any product identification, copyright notices or legends or other notices or proprietary restrictions from any of the information or material contained on this website and its subdomains. Any unauthorised downloading, re-transmission or other copying or modification of any of the contents of this website and its subdomains may be in breach of statutory or common law rights which could be the subject of legal action. All rights not expressly granted herein are expressly reserved by Criterion. 

  2. Trade Marks

    1. ‘CRITERION’, the Arrowhead device, ‘CRITERION COMMON DECLARATIONS’, ‘CRITERION WAY’, ‘CRITERION STANDARDS’ and certain other names, words, titles, phrases, logos, icons, graphics or designs used on the pages of this website and its subdomains constitute trade names or unregistered trade marks of Criterion. The display of any of the above trade names or trade marks on pages at this website and its subdomains does not imply that any licence has been granted to any third party in respect of the same. All other product or company names, devices, logos, icons, graphics or designs referred to on the pages of this website and its subdomains are the trade marks of the respective owners and are exhibited only in such a manner as intended to be for the benefit of such trade mark owners, and Criterion intends no infringement of such trade marks. The appearance or absence of products, services, companies, organisations, home pages or other websites on this website and its subdomains does not imply any endorsement or non-endorsement thereof by Criterion. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved by Criterion. 

  3. Unauthorised Access

    1. Certain web pages on this website and its subdomains may require a valid and appropriate digital certificate, password and/or further payment. Any use or attempted use of such web pages without obtaining the required digital certificate, password and/or making the required payment without the prior written permission of Criterion is unlawful and could result in civil and/or criminal penalties. 

  4. Disclaimer

    1. The information, materials, functions and Online Services contained in this website and its subdomains, including text, graphics, links or other items, are provided on an "as is" basis without any warranty or representation (express or implied). To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Criterion disclaims all warranties, representations, understandings whatsoever, express or implied, specifically including but not limited to warranties of accuracy, completeness, satisfactory quality, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, freedom from computer viruses and non-infringement of third parties' rights. Furthermore, Criterion does not warrant or represent that the Criterion Standards, the Criterion Common Declarations or other Online Services will be error free nor that any such errors will be corrected. You are solely responsible for all costs and expenses associated with the rectification, repair, loss or damage caused by such errors. Access to this website and its subdomains is permitted on a temporary basis, and Criterion reserves the right to withdraw or amend the services we provide on this website and its subdomains without notice. Criterion will not be liable if for any reason this website and its subdomainsis unavailable at any time or for any period. 

  5. Criterion Standards Licence

    1. In consideration of, and subject to, the prompt payment to Criterion by you of the applicable annual subscription fee, you shall have the right to Utilise the Criterion Standards subject to the following terms and conditions in this Paragraph 5 and any other applicable Terms and Conditions (including without limitation Paragraphs 8 and 11). 
    2. You may only download the Criterion Standards (or any part of them) within the United Kingdom if you and/or your sub-licensee:- 
      1. are a Financial Services Product Provider, a Platform Services Provider, a Financial Adviser or other intermediary distributor of financial products, a Services Provider/Portal and/or software developer and you (and/or you sub licensee) intend to Utilise the Criterion Standards (or any part of them) for the purposes of providing (or enabling others to provide) financial services and products to institutions and / or consumers in the United Kingdom; or 
      2. obtain the prior written consent of Criterion (subject to such further provisions as Criterion may deem appropriate). 
    3. You shall not have the right to grant any sub-licence to Utilise the Criterion Standards or any part of them, other than to your Associated Companies (but without the right to sub-licence further) except with the prior written consent of Criterion.  
    4. You shall not have the right to amend, modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or create derivative or competing works based on the Criterion Standards, save:  
      1. as may be expressly permitted by applicable statute; or  
      2. with the prior written consent of Criterion (subject to such further provisions as Criterion may deem appropriate). 
    5. Criterion may from time to time modify, upgrade, or create new versions of, the Criterion Standards, and make those available at this website and its subdomains. Criterion has no obligation to notify you of such upgrades or new versions Unless otherwise specified or agreed, these Terms and Conditions shall apply mutatis mutandis to such upgrades or new versions of this website and its subdomains.  
    6. The licence granted pursuant to Paragraph 5 is effective until terminated. The licence will terminate automatically without notice if you fail to comply with any of its provisions or if you fail to pay the applicable annual subscription fee in full when requested to do. You and Criterion shall also each be entitled to terminate this licence on the anniversary of it first being granted by giving at least six month’s written notice to the other. Upon termination for any reason, you shall immediately cease Utilisation of the Criterion Standards and destroy any accompanying documentation and all copies, including software and / or business processes that implement the Criterion Standards.
    7. Termination of the licence for whatever reason shall not affect the accrued rights and obligations of the parties arising out of these Terms and Conditions as at the date of termination and, in particular but without limitation, the right of Criterion to recover damages from you.  
    8. You acknowledge and agree that the Criterion Standards (including, without limitation in each case, the intellectual property rights comprised therein) shall at all times remain the property of Criterion and that Criterion shall be entitled to use such intellectual property rights as it sees fit.

  6. Criterion Common Declarations Licence. 

    1. In consideration of, and subject to, you agreeing to be bound by all of these Terms and Conditions, you shall have the right to Utilise the Criterion Common Declaration subject to the following terms and conditions in this Paragraph 6 and any other applicable Terms and Conditions (including without limitation Paragraphs 8 and 11). 
    2. You and your Associated Companies shall have the limited non-transferrable right, without the right to grant sub-licences, to Utilise the Criterion Common Declarations (i) only on a verbatim basis with no changes being made to the wording of these Criterion Common Declarations, other than where the Criterion Common Declarations provide explicit support for scheme-specific variation, and (ii) only for the Permitted Purpose. 
    3. The right to Utilise the Criterion Common Declarations contained in Paragraph 6.1 and 6.2 (hereinafter the "CCD Licence") shall continue in force until terminated by either Criterion or you in accordance with these Terms and Conditions or otherwise in accordance with law. 
    4. You agree to abide by the CCD Licence and the other obligations set out in Paragraph 6 and shall procure that your Associated Companies do the same (where you shall be responsible to Criterion on an indemnity basis for such compliance by your Associated Companies as well as by you and also for all losses suffered by Criterion as a result of such failure to comply). 
    5. You and Criterion shall also each be entitled to terminate the CCD Licence at any time by giving written or email notice to the other. If Criterion terminates the CCD Licence then no compensation shall be payable by Criterion to you or any of your Associated Companies. Criterion shall give at least 3 months’ notice of its termination of the CCD Licence, except that immediate notice of termination may be given by Criterion where a breach of the CCD Licence by you or any of your Associated Companies has occurred. In the event of termination of the CCD Licence for any reason, then you and your Associated Companies must immediately stop all Utilisation of the Criterion Common Declarations. 
    6. Criterion shall be entitled to make changes to the Criterion Common Declarations, where Criterion shall normally give at least 28 days’ notice to you of any such changes. Where such changes have been made by Criterion and notified to you, then you must ensure that forthwith following such notification of change that you and your Associated Companies only Utilise the most recently published version of the Criterion Common Declarations. 
    7. Criterion offers no warranty (express or implied) or otherwise of the legal effectiveness of the Criterion Common Declarations, declaring that it is the sole responsibility of the (a) relevant receiving scheme to determine whether the inclusion of the Criterion Common Declarations (or any of them) in their pension transfer or open market option annuity application process is appropriate, and (b) relevant ceding scheme to determine whether the Utilisation of the Criterion Common Declarations (or any of them) in such a process is appropriate and effectively accomplishes a discharge for any such transaction. Furthermore all warranties and conditions, whether express or implied by statute, common law or otherwise (including, but not limited to, as to fitness for purpose or satisfactory quality) are hereby excluded to the extent permitted by law.  

  7. Limitation and exclusion of Liability

    1. Subject to Paragraph 6.4, Criterion shall not be liable to you or any other party for any liability, loss or damage whatsoever (including any costs and expenses), howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising pursuant to or resulting from the use of or inability to use, interruption or availability of all or any part of (i) this website and its subdomains, its operation or transmission or otherwise in respect of the use of all or any part of this website and its subdomains, (ii) the Online Services, (iii) the Criterion Standards and the Criterion Common Declarations or their downloading and/or Utilisation or otherwise, howsoever (whether or not caused by the negligence of Criterion, its employees, agents, subcontractors or representatives), except to the extent that such liability may not be lawfully excluded under the applicable law. 
    2. Without prejudice to Paragraph 7.1, Criterion hereby expressly excludes all liability whatsoever for any: 
      1. indirect, special, incidental or consequential loss or damage; 
      2. direct or indirect loss of profit, turnover, business revenue, contracts, goodwill, reputation, anticipated savings; or 
      3. loss of management time or data, work stoppage, increased costs of working, computer failure or malfunction including, without prejudice to the foregoing, any loss or damage arising from or pursuant to any transmission of any computer virus, worm, Trojan Horse or other contaminant which may arise out of, or in connection with, the use of all or any part of this website and its subdomains, the Online Services, or the Criterion Standards and Criterion Common Declarations or their Utilisation, howsoever caused, even if such loss was reasonably foreseeable and/or Criterion shall have been advised of the possibility of such liability, loss or damage. 
    3. Without prejudice to Paragraphs 6.1 and 6.2, and subject to Paragraph 6.4, the total liability of Criterion arising out of or in connection with this website and its subdomains, the Online Services or otherwise howsoever for any incident or series of incidents (whether or not connected) shall not exceed the sum of £1. 
    4. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall limit either party's liability to the other for death or personal injury resulting from its own negligence or that of its employees, agents, sub-contractors or representatives or for breach of any obligations implied by Section 12 of the Sale of Goods Act 1979, Section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 or under Part 1 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 which liability shall not be limited. 
    5. Each limitation provided in this Paragraph 7 is to be construed as a separate exclusion or limitation applying and surviving even if, for any reason, one or other of the said provisions is held inapplicable or unreasonable in any circumstance. 
    6. You acknowledge that you have considered this Paragraph 7 and agree that the limitations and exclusions herein are reasonable in all the circumstances. 

  8. Linking

    1. By virtue of hypertext or other computer links you may be able to access other website pages or other resources on the internet which are not part of this website and its subdomains. Criterion is not responsible for nor assumes any liability for the contents of other websites or internet resources which are linked to any part of this website and its subdomains. Criterion shall have no liability in respect of material hyperlinked to Criterion web pages which may be misleading, inaccurate, defamatory, threatening or obscene or otherwise not in accordance with applicable laws and regulations as may be from time to time in force. The provision by Criterion of a link to another website does not constitute any authorisation by Criterion to you to access materials held at that location, nor is it evidence of any endorsement by Criterion of the material held there. You are not permitted to frame, page-jack or link to any other page of this website and its subdomains. You are not permitted to use any robot, spider, other automatic device or manual process to monitor or copy this website and its subdomains or the content expressed herein. 

  9. Website Operation

    1. Criterion operates this website and its subdomains from the United Kingdom and makes no representation that the information contained herein is appropriate or available for use in other locations outside the United Kingdom. 

  10. Use of Data and Data Protection

    1. You hereby consent to the following uses of data: All data collected from this website and its subdomains (from any login process or otherwise) may be used by Criterion and may be passed on to third party organisations (including without limitation Criterion’s service providers): (i) in order to properly process your login application or application to use any Online Services (including but not limited to the authentication of your application); (ii) to administer your ongoing Criterion needs (which may include without limitation processing for the management, administration or promotion of Online Services or any new online services of Criterion from time to time, authenticating, maintaining and revoking passwords, and processing any change of details or other information which you provide to Criterion, its subsidiaries or its service providers); or (iii) for marketing purposes, Please note that we use a number of service providers in relation to the provision of this website and its subdomains and the Online Services and such service providers may collect and process certain information on behalf of Criterion. The information provided by you may also be passed to any organisation participating in the Online Services. Given the nature of the services of Criterion (including those listed above) and the use of the Internet (including but not limited to email and use of this website and its subdomains) in delivering the services of Criterion, data will inevitably be transmitted on a global basis (including the transfer of that data to countries outside of the European Economic Area). Furthermore many organisations, including certain members of the Criterion community, are now outsourcing the provision of goods and/or services to organisations based outside of the European Economic Area, resulting in global data transfers being commonplace and you hereby consent to your data being transferred outside of the European Economic Area.  
       
      The information provided by you will be retained only for as long as necessary for all of these purposes.  
       
      Under the Data Protection laws in the United Kingdom, you are entitled to receive a copy of information about you which is held by or on behalf of Criterion free of charge, unless your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. You are also entitled to require the correction of any such information that is inaccurate or not up-to-date. If you wish to exercise any of these statutory rights, please write to Criterion, at the address below, stating your name and address and providing any relevant information. 

  11. Login Details & Passwords etc

    1. If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password, digital certificate or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. Criterion has the right to disable or restrict access to any user identification code, password or digital certificate, whether chosen by you or allocated by or on behalf of Criterion, at any time, if in Criterion’s opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms and Conditions or if the user identification code, password or digital certificate in question has not been used to access this website and its sub-domains for a period of 12 months. 

  12. Cookies

    1. Like many websites, this website and its subdomains use "cookies" which are text-only strings of information that are transferred to the cookie file of the browser on your computer. Their purpose is to identify users and to enhance the user's experience by customising web pages. For more information about how this website and its subdomains use cookies, please refer to our cookie policy at www.criterion.org.uk/cookies. 

  13. Amendments

    1. Criterion reserves the right at any time and without notice to change, amend or otherwise vary these Terms and Conditions and the web pages of this website and its subdomains. It is your responsibility to check these Terms and Conditions each time you visit this website and its subdomains. 

  14. Contacting Us

    1. Our contact details are: Criterion Tec Limited, 9-10 St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh EH2 2AF SCOTLAND. 
       
      Phone:- +44 (0) 131 357 0100
      Email: [email protected] 

  15. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

    1. These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Scotland. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish courts. You are responsible for compliance with any applicable laws of the country from which you are accessing this website and its subdomains.  
       
      If you have any questions concerning these Terms and Conditions please write to Criterion at the address set out above.  
       
      All rights not expressly granted in these Terms and Conditions are expressly reserved by Criterion.