TERMS OF USE

Effective Date: 01 July, 2020

DEFINITIONS

These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) constitute a binding agreement between you (the User, the Client: You, as the user of the Website, will be referred to throughout this Agreement with second-person pronouns such as You, Your, Yours, or as User or Client), Association of Chartered Certified System Accountants (“ACCSA”), and ACCSA’s agents (Us, We, Our, Ours and other first-person pronouns will collectively refer to the Association, as well as all employees and affiliates of the Association). This Agreement shall govern the use of all pages on this website and any services provided by or on this Website in accordance with and subject to applicable US laws.

ASSENT & ACCEPTANCE

BY ENTERING AND USING THIS SITE YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ AND REVIEWED THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, PLEASE LEAVE THE SITE IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT USE THE SITE. THE ASSOCIATION ONLY AGREES TO PROVIDE USE OF THIS SITE AND SERVICES TO YOU IF YOU ASSENT TO THIS AGREEMENT.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (Content Ownership)

ACCSA is the copyright owner of this website, and no portion or part of this site, including but not limited to the text, images, audio or video, may be used in any manner, or for any purpose, without ACCSA’s express written permission, except as provided for herein. Without in any way waiving any of the aforementioned rights, you may download one copy of the material on this site for your personal, non-commercial home use only, provided you do not delete or change any trademark, copyright or other proprietary notices. By entering this site you acknowledge and agree that any name, logo, trademark, or service mark contained on this site is owned or licensed by ACCSA and may not be used by you without prior written approval. Modification or use of the material on this site for any other purposes violates ACCSA’s legal rights, and it may subject you to penalties or damages, including but not limited to those related to violation of trademarks, copyrights, privacy, and publicity rights.

1. In order to make the Website and Services available to You, and by displaying, publishing, or otherwise posting any User Content on or through the site, You hereby grant the Association a royalty-free, limited, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, worldwide, fully-paid, license to copy, display, use, modify, reproduce, publicly perform, broadcast, transmit and make derivative works of any content You publish, upload, or otherwise make available to the Website (“User Content”) without the requirement to make payment to you or to any third party or the need to seek any third party permission. The Association claims no further proprietary rights in Your Content.
2. If You feel that any of Your intellectual property rights have been infringed or otherwise violated by the posting of information or media by another of Our users, please Contact Us and let Us know.

NO WARRANTIES

By entering this site you acknowledge and agree that your use is at your own risk and that none of the parties involved in creating, producing, or delivering this site, including ACCSA, is liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect, or punitive damages, or any other losses, costs, or expenses of any kind (including legal fees, expert fees, or other disbursements) which may arise, directly or indirectly, through the access to, use of, or browsing of this site or through your downloading of any materials, data, text, images, video or audio from this site, including but not limited to anything caused by any viruses, bugs, human action or inaction or any computer system, phone line, hardware, software or program malfunctions, or any other errors, failures or delays in computer transmissions or network connections.

While ACCSA makes all reasonable efforts to ensure that all material on this site is correct, we make no warranties as to the reliability or accuracy of any information on the Website or obtained through the Services. You agree that Your use of the Website and Services is at Your sole and exclusive risk and that all content information and materials contained in this site are provided to you on an “AS IS AND AS AVAILABLE” basis.

LIMITATION ON LIABILITY

Be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages that result from the use of or inability to use this site, nor shall ACCSA be responsible for any damages whatsoever that result from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files, errors, defects, delays in operation or transmission, or any failure of performance whether or not caused by events beyond ACCSA’s reasonable control, including but not limited to acts of god, communications line failure, theft, destruction, or unauthorized access to this site’s records, programs, or services. the Association is not liable for any damages that may occur to you as a result of Your use of the Website or Services, to the fullest extent permitted by law. The maximum liability of the Association arising from or relating to this Agreement is limited to the greater of ten ($10) US Dollars. This section applies to any and all claims by You, including, but not limited to, lost profits or revenues, consequential or punitive damages, negligence, strict liability, fraud, or torts of any kind.

ACCEPTABLE USE OF THE SITE

You may be able to view, submit or post texts, files, images, photos, videos, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, text postings, and other materials and content (“User Content”). Your posting of User Content is subject to these Terms, any additional terms posted for a specific feature. ACCSA may delete any User Content that in the sole judgment of ACCSA violates these Terms or the Posting Policy. You agree not to use the Site or Services in any way that could damage the Site, Services, or general business of the Association. You further agree you will adhere to the following:

• You agree not to post any content that is unlawful, harmful, tortious, defamatory, libelous, obscene, invasive of the privacy of another person, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, racist, infringing on the intellectual property rights of others, pornographic, violent or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate as determined by ACCSA, or other material which could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, or otherwise violate any law or regulation.
• You agree not to post any content that contains personal information about any individual, violates the privacy/publicity of any other individual or entity, or anything that you are under a contractual obligation to keep private or confidential.
• You agree that you will not impersonate any person or organization, including without limitation, the personnel of ACCSA.
• You agree not to misrepresent an affiliation with another person or organization, nor will you post any content that contains slanderous or libelous comments about others, or violate any intellectual property rights of the Association or any third party;
• You agree not to post any content that contains business solicitation of any type, including advertising a product or service, offering a product or service for sale, or directing readers to a location for more information about a product or service.
• You agree not to upload or otherwise disseminate any computer viruses or other software that may damage the property of another or programs that may adversely affect the operation of the site, or feature of the site.
• You agree not to modify in any way any specifications, technology or application codes provided to you by ACCSA or as embedded in the User Content unless expressly authorized in writing by ACCSA.
• You agree not to share or transfer password or other access information with any other party, temporarily or permanently. You shall bear sole responsibility for all use of your account and for the confidentiality of your password.

TERM, TERMINATION & SUSPENSION

You understand and agree that you have no ownership rights in your account or other access to the site or features therein. The Association may terminate this Agreement with You at any time for any reason, with or without cause. ACCSA specifically reserves the right to terminate this Agreement if the Association determines in its sole discretion that you have violated these Terms outlined herein, including, but not limited to, violating the intellectual property rights of the Association or a third party, failing to comply with applicable laws or other legal obligations, and/or publishing or distributing illegal material. If You have registered for an account with Us, You may also terminate this Agreement at any time by contacting Us and requesting termination. At the termination of this Agreement, any provisions that would be expected to survive termination by their nature shall remain in full force and effect. ACCSA assumes no liability for any information removed from our site, and reserves the right to permanently restrict access to the site or a user account.

NO CONFIDENTIALITY / PRIVACY INFORMATION

Through Your Use of the Website and Services, You may provide Us with certain information. By using the Website or the Services, you acknowledge and agree that You authorize the Association to use Your information – any ideas, concepts, techniques, procedures, methods, systems, designs, plans, charts, or other materials you transmit to ACCSA – in the United States and any other country where We may operate.

1. Information We May Collect or Receive: Depending on how You use Our Website or Services, We may receive information from external applications You use to access Our Website, or We may receive information through various web technologies, such as cookies, log files, clear gifs, web beacons or others.
2. How We Use Information: We use the information gathered from You to ensure Your continued good experience on Our website. We may also track certain of the passive information received to improve Our marketing and analytics, and for this, We may work with third-party providers, including other marketers.
3. How You Can Protect Your Information: If You would like to disable Our access to any passive information We receive from the use of various technologies, You may choose to disable cookies in Your web browser.

Please read our Privacy Policy for more information about our information collection and use practices.

REVERSE ENGINEERING & SECURITY

You agree not to undertake any of the following actions:

1. Reverse engineer, or attempt to reverse engineer or disassemble any code or software from or on the Website or Services;
2. Violate the security of the Website or Services through any unauthorized access, circumvention of encryption or other security tools, data mining or interference to any host, user or network.

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless ACCSA and any of its affiliates (if applicable) and their respective officers, employees, agents and the assigns of same, from and against any and all legal claims and demands, including reasonable attorney’s fees, which may arise from or relate to Your use or misuse of the Website or Services, Your breach of this Agreement, or Your conduct or actions. You agree that the Association shall be able to select its own legal counsel and may participate in its own defense, if the Association wishes.

SPAM POLICY

You are strictly prohibited from using the Website or any of the Association’s Services for illegal spam activities, including gathering email addresses and personal information from others or sending any mass commercial emails.

THIRD PARTY LINKS & CONTENT

The Association may occasionally post links to third party websites or other services. You agree that the ACCSA is not directly or indirectly, implying any approval, Association, sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation with the linked site, unless specifically stated therein. You agree that ACCSA is not responsible or liable for any loss or damage caused as a result of Your use of any third party services linked to from Our Website. Your linking to any other off-site pages or other sites is at your own risk.

MODIFICATION & VARIATION/ ENTIRE AGREEMENT

The Association may, from time to time and at any time without notice to You, modify this Agreement. You agree that the Association has the right to modify this Agreement or revise anything contained herein. You further agree that all modifications to this Agreement are in full force and effect immediately upon posting on the Website and that modifications or variations will replace any prior version of this Agreement, unless prior versions are specifically referred to or incorporated into the latest modification or variation of this Agreement.

1. To the extent any part or sub-part of this Agreement is held ineffective or invalid by any court of law, You agree that the prior, effective version of this Agreement shall be considered enforceable and valid to the fullest extent.
2. You agree to routinely monitor this Agreement and refer to the Effective Date posted at the top of this Agreement to note modifications or variations. You further agree to clear Your cache when doing so to avoid accessing a prior version of this Agreement. You agree that Your continued use of the Website after any modifications to this Agreement is a manifestation of Your continued assent to this Agreement.
3. In the event that You fail to monitor any modifications to or variations of this Agreement, You agree that such failure shall be considered an affirmative waiver of Your right to review the modified Agreement.

This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding between the Parties with respect to any and all use of this Website. This Agreement supersedes and replaces all prior or contemporaneous agreements or understandings, written or oral, regarding the use of this Website.

SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS

The Association may need to interrupt Your access to the Website to perform maintenance or emergency services on a scheduled or unscheduled basis. You agree that Your access to the Website may be affected by unanticipated or unscheduled downtime, for any reason, but that the Association shall have no liability for any damage or loss caused as a result of such downtime.

NO PARTNERSHIP, AGENCY OR JOINT VENTURE

Both you and ACCSA acknowledge and agree that no partnership, Agency or Joint Venture has been formed as a result of this Agreement, and no Party has any authority to bind the other to third parties.

NO WAIVER & FORCE MAJEURE

These Terms operate to the fullest extent permissible by law. If any provision of these Terms is unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is deemed severable from these Terms and does not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. In the event that ACCSA fail to enforce any provision of this Agreement, because of war, fire, riots, embargoes, terrorism, earthquake, acts of civil (federal, state or local government) authorities or for any other reason beyond the reasonable control of ACCSA, this shall not be deemed a breach of these Terms and shall not constitute a waiver of any future enforcement of that provision or of any other provision. Waiver of any part or sub-part of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of any other part or sub-part.

HEADINGS & SEVERABILITY

The headings of parts and sub-parts under this Agreement are for convenience, reference and organization, only. Headings shall not affect the meaning of any provisions of this Agreement. If a court of law or competent arbitrator finds any of these terms to be unenforceable or invalid, that term will be enforced to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law and the other terms will remain valid and continue in full force.

JURISDICTION, VENUE & APPLICABLE LAW

Through Your use of the Website or Services, You agree that the laws of the State of Illinois shall govern any matter or dispute relating to or arising out of this Agreement, as well as any dispute of any kind that may arise between You and the Association, with the exception of its conflict of law provisions. In case any litigation specifically permitted under this Agreement is initiated, the Parties agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts of the city of Schaumburg, Illinois. The Parties agree that this choice of law, venue, and jurisdiction provision is not permissive, but rather mandatory in nature. You hereby waive the right to any objection of venue, including assertion of the doctrine of forum non conveniens or similar doctrine.

ARBITRATION

In case of a dispute between the Parties relating to or arising out of this Agreement, the Parties shall first attempt to resolve the dispute personally and in good faith. If these personal resolution attempts fail, the Parties shall then submit the dispute to binding arbitration. The arbitration shall be conducted in the city of Schaumburg. The arbitration shall be conducted by a single arbitrator, and such arbitrator shall have no authority to add Parties, vary the provisions of this Agreement, award punitive damages, or certify a class. The arbitrator shall be bound by applicable and governing Federal law as well as the law of the state of Illinois. Each Party shall pay their own costs and fees. Claims necessitating arbitration under this section include, but are not limited to: contract claims, tort claims, claims based on Federal and state law, and claims based on local laws, ordinances, statutes or regulations. Intellectual property claims by the Association will not be subject to arbitration and may, as an exception to this sub-part, be litigated. The Parties, in agreement with this sub-part of this Agreement, waive any rights they may have to a jury trial in regard to arbitral claims.

For any questions or concerns, please email Us at the following address: administration@accsaglobal.org