Terms of Use

1. General provisions

The Thames Compass portal (“the Portal”) is operated by [OPERATOR — FULL NAME OR COMPANY NAME], an individual trading as a sole trader in the United Kingdom under the name Thames Compass, address for service (virtual office): [UK VIRTUAL OFFICE ADDRESS] (“the Operator”, “we”). The Portal provides news and guides, job, housing and marketplace ads, a business directory and an events calendar.

You do not need an account to browse the Portal. You need to register to post ads, business profiles and events and to use favourites. As at the date this version was published, using the Portal is free of charge.

By using the Portal, you accept these Terms and our Privacy Policy. Accounts may only be created by people aged 18 or over.

2. User account

• To register you need a genuine email address, a display name and a password. You must confirm your email address.
• You need a confirmed email address to publish ads.
• Each person should have only one account. Do not share your password with anyone and keep it secure.
• Creating a business profile gives your account the “Business” role. The editor, moderator and administrator roles are granted only by the Operator.
• You can delete your account at any time in your privacy settings. Deletion cannot be undone.

3. Rules for publishing content

• Ads are published as soon as they are posted. Moderation takes place after publication, mainly in response to reports.
• Events and business profiles first go to the moderation queue and appear publicly once approved.
• Content must be true, up to date and posted in the right section and category. Ads that are no longer current should be closed.
• Job ads must give accurate information about the pay and its period (per hour, month or year) and about the requirements. Housing ads must give the price with its period (per week or month); the deposit and bills are shown separately.
• Ads expire after a set time. The advertiser can renew or close them. The Portal may limit the number of ads posted within a short time.
• The exact address of a property can only be shown if the relevant option is deliberately ticked. By default, we show an approximate location.

4. Prohibited content

You must not publish content that:

• is unlawful in the United Kingdom or is used to commit a crime, including fraud,
• discriminates on the basis of protected characteristics, especially in job and housing ads (for example race, nationality where this is not permitted, sex, age, disability or religion),
• requires a candidate to pay a fee just for finding them work, or promises unrealistic earnings,
• impersonates another person, business or institution, including government bodies and employers,
• contains other people’s personal data without their consent, or an exact address without the consent of the person concerned,
• is offensive or hateful, promotes violence or contains sexual content,
• is spam: repeated ads, hidden links, or advertising unrelated to the section,
• infringes copyright or other third-party rights, including photos you do not hold the rights to,
• concerns goods or services whose sale is prohibited or restricted in the UK.

We take a particularly strict approach to content that:

• shows or promotes the sexual abuse or exploitation of children,
• promotes terrorism or violent extremism, or supports terrorist organisations,
• concerns human trafficking or labour exploitation, including forced labour,
• offers weapons, ammunition or explosives, or illegal drugs and intoxicating substances,
• is used for fraud or extortion, for example fake job and housing offers.

The rules in this section also apply to reviews of businesses and to businesses’ replies to reviews. Publishing such content may lead to it being hidden or removed, to the account being suspended and, where necessary, to the matter being passed to the relevant authorities.

Uploaded photos must be in JPEG, PNG or WebP format and must not exceed the size limit shown in the form. Photos are processed automatically and location data (EXIF) is removed.

5. Moderation and reports

• Any content (including a review of a business and a business’s reply to a review) can be reported using the “Report” button or the Report a problem form.
• Moderators may hide, edit or remove content that breaches these Terms and may suspend accounts. After several reports about the same content, the system may hide it automatically until a person has checked it. A report about child sexual abuse made from a trusted account (with a confirmed email address, created at least three days earlier) may hide the content straight away, until a moderator has checked it.
• When we hide, remove or reject content, we email the author the reason. You can appeal against such a decision through the Contact form by choosing the topic about appealing against a moderator’s decision; every such email contains a link to that form.
• Moderators’ actions are recorded in an internal log.

Reports about illegal content are dealt with first. They can be made via the “Report a problem” form or the “Report” button next to content; for specific content, the quickest way is the “Report” button next to it. A report from the “Report a problem” form with the topic of content that is against the law is treated as urgent. The Operator ([OPERATOR — FULL NAME OR COMPANY NAME]) is responsible for handling such reports and, when the Operator is unavailable, so is their deputy: the site’s editor-in-chief, who has a moderator account. We deal with reports about the most urgent content (child sexual abuse and exploitation; terrorism and extremism; human trafficking and labour exploitation; weapons and illegal drugs) within 24 hours of the first such report. All other reports, including those about fraud, illegal goods and copyright infringement, are dealt with within 3 working days. If the content is illegal or breaches these Terms, we hide or remove it.

If you have an account or give an email address in the report, we will send you a short message about the outcome once it has been dealt with (that we hid or removed the content, or that we found no breach), without details of the decision. Where the reports about the same content include one about child sexual abuse or terrorism, every person who reported it is told only that we have dealt with the report. The author of the content does not receive a message about the outcome of reports. The status of a report is not public.

An exception to telling the author: where a report concerns child sexual abuse or terrorism, we may hide the content without notifying the author if notifying them could hinder an investigation by law enforcement. For a report about child sexual abuse from a trusted account, the system hides content this way automatically after the first such report, and the photos of the hidden content stop being publicly available. The author then sees a message that the content is being reviewed by the moderation team, and we may tell them about the decision and their right to appeal later. If the report turns out to be unfounded, we restore the content. The procedure described here is a draft that is subject to legal review, including against the Online Safety Act 2023.

6. Contact between users

• The advertiser’s email address is not published. A message sent through the contact form is forwarded to the advertiser by email. The advertiser receives your name, your email address and the message, and can reply to you directly.
• A phone number is shown only if the advertiser has chosen to display it.
• The Portal is not a party to agreements made between users and does not handle payments between them. Be careful: do not send money or documents to people you do not know, and do not pay a deposit for a property you have not seen.
• Messages must not be used for spam, harassment or sending advertising unrelated to the ad.

7. Businesses and events

• A business profile must relate to a trading business, and its contact details must be genuine.
• The directory has no “Verified” label. Being listed in the directory does not mean that the Portal recommends the business or has checked the quality of its services.
• Some business profiles are added by our editorial team based on information the business itself makes public. Such profiles are marked. The business can claim, correct or ask us to remove them free of charge; we act on removal requests promptly. We only hand a profile over to a Portal account with a confirmed email address, named by the business in its claim request.
• Event times are given in UK time (Europe/London).

8. Promoted and sponsored content

Paid content or content featured on commercial terms is labelled “Promoted”, and sponsored articles are labelled “Sponsored”. Partner (affiliate) links, for which we may earn a commission, are labelled “Affiliate link”. Details are on the Advertising page.

8a. Paid promotion

• Account holders can buy promotion for their own published content: an active ad, an approved business profile or an approved event that has not yet ended.
• Prices: ad £4.99 for 7 days or £7.99 for 14 days; business profile £19.99 for 30 days; event £9.99 until the end of the day of the event, for up to 30 days. Prices are in pounds sterling (GBP) and do not include VAT, because the Operator is not registered for VAT.
• Payments are handled by Stripe (card, Apple Pay, Google Pay). The contract is formed when the payment is received, and Stripe sends a confirmation by email. We do not receive your card details.
• Promotion starts immediately after payment. If the content is already being promoted, the new period starts when the current one ends. If an ad would expire during the promotion, we extend it until the promotion ends.
• Promotion means a “Promoted” label and a higher position in lists and on the home page. We do not guarantee any particular number of views, replies or customers.
• As a consumer, you have 14 days to cancel the contract (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013). Before paying, you ask for the promotion to start immediately; once the promotion has ended, the right to cancel no longer applies, and if you cancel earlier, we refund an amount proportionate to the unused period.
• We refund the fee if the promotion did not start or if we removed the content through no fault of yours. We do not refund the fee if the content was hidden or removed for breaching these Terms. Refunds are made to the payment method used with Stripe; the promotion ends once a refund is made.
• Send questions and complaints about payments via the contact form or to kontakt@thamescompass.com. You can find your payment history in your account, under the “Payments” tab.

9. Liability

• The authors of ads, business profiles and events are responsible for their content. The Portal does not check offers or advertisers before ads are published.
• Articles and guides are for information only and are not legal, tax, medical or immigration advice. Rules change, so before making a decision, check the information at the source (for example gov.uk or nhs.uk) or get advice from a professional.
• We do our best to keep the Portal running without interruption, but we do not guarantee that it will always be available.
• Content labelled “Sample” is for demonstration only and is not a genuine offer.
• Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law (including for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence), or your rights as a consumer. Otherwise, the Operator’s liability for loss or damage connected with using the Portal is limited to the extent permitted by law (this clause requires legal review).

10. Rights to content

You keep the rights to the content you publish. You grant the Operator a free, non-exclusive licence to display it on the Portal, including in search results and in material promoting the Portal, for as long as it is published. The Portal’s editorial content, graphics and branding are protected by copyright. They must not be copied for commercial purposes without permission.

11. Account suspension and deletion

The Operator may suspend or delete an account if the user seriously or repeatedly breaches these Terms, in particular by publishing fraudulent or illegal content.

• A suspension ends all sessions, prevents logging in and hides all of the user’s public content: ads, business profiles, events, reviews and business replies to reviews.
• When the account is reinstated, we automatically restore only the content that the suspension itself hid. Content that a moderator had hidden earlier in a separate decision stays hidden. Until the account is reinstated, we do not publish or restore content of a suspended user.
• We tell you about a suspension by email, giving the reason and a link to appeal (the contact form with the topic about appealing against a moderator’s decision). We review your appeal and reply to the address you give. We also email you when an account is reinstated.
• Exception: if a suspension is connected with a report about child sexual abuse or terrorism and notifying you could hinder an investigation by law enforcement, we may not send the email. When you try to log in you then see a general message that the account is being reviewed by the moderation team, and we may tell you about the decision and your right to appeal later. The procedure described here is a draft that is subject to legal review.

When an account is deleted, we delete the ads and data linked to it in line with our Privacy Policy.

12. Complaints

Send complaints about how the Portal works, about moderation decisions or about content via the contact form or to kontakt@thamescompass.com. We reply within a reasonable time, usually within 3 working days.

13. Changes to these Terms and governing law

We announce significant changes to these Terms on the site and, where possible, by email to registered users with reasonable notice. If you continue to use the Portal after the changes take effect, you accept them. These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes are decided by the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring a claim in the courts where you live, and the consumer protection laws that apply there are not affected. Your statutory rights as a consumer are not affected.