For information on how to use the service or for a simple cancellation of your membership, please see our help section. If you have any questions, please contact our customer care team.
Terms & Conditions for ELITESINGLES – updated: 23.02.2016
The following information, together with the Privacy Policy defines the conditions under which the use of ELITESINGLES is operated by Spark Networks Services GmbH, Kohlfurter Straße 41/43, 10999 Berlin (hereinafter “ELITESINGLES”).
Only these Terms and Conditions apply to any contract made between us in relation to services provided by ELITESINGLES. These conditions are accepted by the entirety of our community during the registration stage by checking the option entitled “I accept the Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy.” Any deviations from these specified conditions are not accepted.
The ELITESINGLES New Zealand website: www.elitesingles.co.nz (the website) is operated by Spark Networks Services GmbH, Kohlfurter Straße 41/43, 10999 Berlin, Germany (ELITESINGLES).
By accessing and using the website you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions and the ELITESINGLES privacy policy (the privacy policy).
You acknowledge that:
(a) These terms and conditions and the privacy policy form an agreement between you and ELITESINGLES;
(b) ELITESINGLES reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions and the privacy policy from time to time and the version applicable at any one time is the version published on the website; and
(c) If you object to any provision of these terms and conditions and/or the privacy (as applicable from time to time) you must immediately cease accessing and using the website.
For information on how to use the service or for a simple cancellation of your membership, please see our help section. If you have any questions, please contact our customer care team.
1. Membership and registration
1.1 You may not be a member of ELITESINGLES or use the website if:
(a) You are under 18 years of age;
(b) You are married or in a de facto relationship;
(c) You have ever been convicted of a violent or sexually related criminal offence; or
(d) You have previously been banned from using the website or similar services.
1.2 You must have a permanent address in New Zealand in order to register as a member of the website, whether as a free or a paid member.
1.3 When registering as a member of ELITESINGLES, you must ensure that all information you provide is accurate and up-to-date. You acknowledge that it is your responsibility to notify ELITESINGLES of any changes to your information by accessing the “My Account” tab on the website.
1.4 You may only have one profile on the website.
1.5 If requested, you must provide us with a form of identification to verify your identity.
1.6 All personal information provided by you to ELITESINGLES at the time of your registration will be treated in accordance with the privacy policy.
1.7 You must maintain the confidentiality of your logon and password.
1.8 Following your registration, ELITESINGLES will send you an email confirming the terms of your contract with ELITESINGLES as applicable at the date of your registration.
2. Services
2.1 General
ELITESINGLES operates an Internet online dating and matchmaking platform, and provides customers with both free and paid services. You will receive access to the ELITESINGLES database, which contains profiles and information about other members.
2.2 Free membership
You may register, take the personality test, create a profile and receive individual partner suggestions without charge.
2.3 Paid membership
(a) You also have the option to subscribe for “paid membership”.
(b) The website will inform you of various services available to you at a cost. You will be deemed to have subscribed to “paid membership” upon your subscribing to any of these services, providing your payment details and clicking “ACCEPT”.
(c) ELITESINGLES reserves the right to change the cost of any service offered on the website from time to time. If you are not happy with the cost of any services offered on the website, you may cease using the website or terminate your membership.
(d) You will not be entitled to any refund of any payments made by you in respect of a paid membership. Any request for a refund will be considered at the sole discretion of ELITESINGLES. This clause does not limit the rights of consumers to recover a refund provided under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.
(e) You are not permitted to transfer any service or feature of the website to any other person.
2.4 Contact Guarantee
(a) For the purposes of this clause 2.4, “Contact” means:
(i) a self-written message from another member that you receive in response to sending a ‘smile’, questions or a message,
(ii) any message you write yourself in response to a ‘smile’ or questions or a message from another user.
(b) ELITESINGLES cannot guarantee successful communication with other members. ELITESINGLES is not responsible if, during the contract period, no contact is made. However, this does not apply if, as part of a paid membership, you elect to take out a Contact Guarantee (“Contact Guarantee”). If you take out a Contact Guarantee, the following special conditions apply depending on the length of your contract. For:
(i) A 6 month contract, a minimum of 10 Contacts is guaranteed; and
(ii) A 12 month contract a minimum of 20 Contacts are guaranteed.
(c) In order to make a claim for compensation under a Contact Guarantee you must first have complied with the following obligations for the duration of the Contact Guarantee:
(i) For a:
(A) Six (6) month membership, you must have sent at least 4 self-formulated messages to other ELITESINGLES members;
(B) Twelve (12) month membership, you must have sent at least 8 self-formulated messages to other ELITESINGLES members;
(ii) Completed in full the “My Profile” and “My Search” sections of your account;
(iii) Uploaded at least one profile picture to your account;
(iv) Maintained an active paid account;
(v) Regularly logged on to your account;
(vi) Provided written notice to ELITESINGLES at [email protected] of its failure to meet the conditions of the Contact Guarantee prior to the expiry of your account.
(d) If, following your giving notice pursuant to clause 2.4(c)(vi)above, ELITESINGLES accepts that it has failed to comply with the Contact Guarantee, you will be entitled to a new subscription for the same term as your subscription at the time you took out the Contact Guarantee at no additional cost.
2.5 Availability
(a) Whilst ELITESINGLES will use its best endeavours to ensure that the website will be available 24 hours a day, it cannot guarantee that your access to the website will be error free or uninterrupted. In addition, your access may be temporarily suspended in order that maintenance be undertaken or due to internet or system failure.
(b) ELITESINGLES reserves the right to block or remove from its site any offensive or incorrect communication or information, and/or any communication or information brought to its attention which it reasonably suspects infringes any applicable laws, regulations or third party rights (such as material that is obscene, indecent, pornographic, seditious, offensive, defamatory, threatening, liable to incite racial hatred, menacing, blasphemous or in breach of any third party intellectual property rights) but ELITESINGLES has no obligation to review any communication or information provided by members for inclusion on the website.
(c) To be able to use the ELITESINGLES service in full, you should use the latest search engine technology and ensure that the necessary settings and installations for use are in place (e.g. activation of JavaScript, cookies). If you are using older or not commonly used technologies, you may only have limited use of the website.
2.6 Changes to the website
ELITESINGLES reserves the right to change or discontinue on reasonable grounds at any time any service or feature of the website. In that event the consumer will be entitled to terminate the agreement. He or she will be entitled to a partial refund in relation to the length of the service provided by EliteSingles.
3. Terms of Payment
3.1 ELITESINGLES will accept payment by credit card, PayPal or any other method accepted on the website.
3.2 All prices stated on the website are GST inclusive.
4. Privacy
ELITESINGLES collects personal information about you through your use of its services and the website. This information will be handled in accordance with our privacy policy, which maybe be viewed at https://www.elitesingles.co.nz/privacy.
5. Termination, Automatic Renewal and Suspension
5.1 Termination without cause
(a) A customer may cancel his or her free membership at any time.
(b) A paid membership must be terminated in writing at the latest 24 hours before the date of your subscription renewal.
(c) A notice of termination must clearly identify the customer and include the customer’s name, email address and security code (which can be found under the “Member Account ” tab of your “My Account” page) and be sent to:
Post:
Spark Networks Services GmbH
– Customer Care –
Kohlfurter Straße 41/43
10999 Berlin, Germany
Fax: +49 (30) 868 000 311
Email: [email protected]
(d) Following termination of a paid membership, the customer retains their free membership and the resulting limited scope of use.
5.2 Automatic renewal
ELITESINGLES renews all paid memberships 24 hours before the expiration of the term of the paid membership. You acknowledge that you have been made aware of the terms upon which your paid membership will be renewed at the time of subscribing to your paid membership. If you wish to terminate your paid membership, you must do so by giving written notice to ELITESINGLES prior to the expiration of the paid membership, if you do not wish your contract to be renewed automatically, please send a written request to our Customer Care Team at latest 24 hours before the end of the membership term.
5.3 Termination with cause
Either party may terminate this contract during the term with immediate effect upon written notice to the other party if the other party commits a material breach of this contract and the defaulting party fails to remedy such breach within 14 days of being given written notice to do so.
5.4 Suspension
If you do not pay any amount due pursuant to these terms and conditions, ELITESINGLES reserves the right to suspend your access until such time as the outstanding payment is received or to terminate the contract. In the event of a suspension under this clause, the contract period will not be extended for the period of the suspension.
5.5 Consequences of termination
If you terminate a paid membership after the expiry of the Cooling-Off Period:
(a) Your membership will be automatically converted to a free membership;
(b) You will not be entitled to any refund for any amounts paid for the remaining term of the paid membership;
(c) You will still be liable to pay ELITESINGLES any amount outstanding in respect of the remaining term of the paid membership within 30 days of your giving written notice of termination.
6. Limitation of Liability
6.1 For the purposes of this clause 6, “ELITESINGLES” includes ELITESINGLES, its officers, employees, contractors and agents, whether individually or collectively.
6.2 You acknowledge that:
(a) Your use of the website is at your own risk;
(b) ELITESINGLES is not responsible for your use of or conduct on the website or that of any other members of the website;
(c) ELITESINGLES does not accept liability in any circumstances for the use or conduct of any person on the website;
(d) ELITESINGLES does not make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy, reliability or completeness of any content contained on the website or transmitted by other members of the website.
6.3 You agree to indemnify ELITESINGLES for any loss, damage, cost or expense it may incur as a result of your use of or conduct on the website, including but not limited to any breach by you of these terms and conditions.
6.4 The maximum aggregate liability of ELITESINGLES for any claim made by you under or in connection with these terms and conditions or otherwise as a result of your access or use of the website will not in any circumstances exceed the lower of:
(a) The amount paid to ELITESINGLES by you in the 3 months prior to the event to which the claim relates; or
(b) $500.00,
whether such liability arises in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory or fiduciary duty or otherwise.
6.5 To the maximum extent permitted by law, ELITESINGLES excludes any representations and warranties which may apply to your use of the website except for these terms and conditions.
6.6 To the maximum extent permitted by law, ELITESINGLES will not be liable to you for:
(a) Any loss of income, profit, savings or any other form of economic loss; or
(b) Any indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage suffered by you or for any punitive damages.
6.7 This clause will survive termination.
7. Intellectual Property Rights
7.1 All intellectual property rights (including the various rights conferred by statute, common law and equity in and in relation to copyright, patents, trade marks, service marks, trade names and/or designs (including the “look and feel” and other visual or non-literal elements)) (whether registered or unregistered) in:
(a) The website;
(b) Subject to clause 7.4, information content on the website; and
(c) All the website design, text and graphics, software, photos, videos, music, sounds, and their selection and arrangement, and all software compilations, underlying source code and software (including applets and scripts),
are owned by or licenced to ELITESINGLES. You shall not, and shall not attempt to, obtain any title to any such intellectual property rights. All rights are reserved.
7.2 None of the material listed in clause 7.1may be reproduced or redistributed or copied, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, sold, rented or sub-licensed, used to create derivative works, or in any way exploited without the prior express written permission of ELITESINGLES. You may, however, retrieve and display the content of the Website on a computer screen (including any tablet or smartphone device), store such content in electronic form on disk (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) or print one copy of such content for your own personal, non-commercial use, provided you keep intact all and any copyright and proprietary notices. You may not otherwise reproduce, modify, copy or distribute or use for commercial purposes any of the materials or content on the website without the express prior written permission of ELITESINGLES.
7.3 All rights (including goodwill and, where relevant, trade marks) in the name ELITESINGLES are owned by or licensed to ELITESINGLES. Other product and company names mentioned on the Website are the trade marks or registered trade marks of third parties.
7.4 Title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to content accessed using the Website is the property of the applicable content owner or supplier and may be protected by applicable copyright or other law. Subject to the limited rights described in clause 7.2, this Agreement gives you no rights to such content.
7.5 The authors of the literary and artistic works in the pages in the website have asserted their moral rights to be identified as the author of those works.
7.6 For the purpose of market analyses and advertisement of its services only, any material you transmit, post or submit to ELITESINGLES either through the website or otherwise (Material) shall be considered (and ELITESINGLES may treat it as) non-confidential (subject to ELITESINGLES’ obligations under privacy legislation). You grant ELITESINGLES a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive licence to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publish and distribute world-wide any Material (other than Ideas). If you do not wish your information to be used for the purpose of this clause, please let us know by contacting our customer care team.
7.7 All comments, suggestions, ideas, notes, drawings or concepts in which intellectual property rights subsist which are disclosed or offered to ELITESINGLES by you or offered in response to solicitations by ELITESINGLES regarding the website (Ideas) shall be deemed to be and shall remain the property ELITESINGLES and you hereby assign all existing present and future intellectual property rights in Ideas, to ELITESINGLES. You must do all things reasonably requested by ELITESINGLES to assure further the assignment of such rights. You understand and acknowledge that ELITESINGLES have both internal resources and other external resources which may have developed or may in the future develop ideas identical to or similar to Ideas and that ELITESINGLES is only willing to consider Ideas on these terms. In any event, Ideas are not submitted in confidence and ELITESINGLES assumes no obligation, express or implied by considering it. Without limitation, ELITESINGLES will exclusively own all now known or hereafter existing rights to the Ideas of every kind and nature throughout the world and shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Ideas for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise without compensation to the provider of the Ideas.
8. Links to other websites
8.1 The website may contain links to other websites and to resources provided by third parties (Other Sites). The Other Sites are linked to provide information only and are solely for your convenience.
8.2 ELITESINGLES has no control over, does not accept and assumes no responsibility for the content or products or services of Other Sites and does not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.
8.3 If you choose to access Other Websites, you do so at your own risk and on the terms and conditions and in accordance with the privacy policy (if applicable) of the Other Websites.
8.4 The website may also feature advertising by third parties. By allowing third parties to advertise on the website, ELITESINGLES does not make any representations or warranties in respect of or endorse the products or services advertised.
9. Your obligations
9.1 You acknowledge that you use and access the website at your own risk.
9.2 You alone are responsible for the content you submit to the website or to any other member of the website;
9.3 You warrant to ELITESINGLES that all content you submit to the website is true and correct and relates to you personally. You acknowledge that ELITESINGLES has the right, but not the obligation, to verify the accuracy of your content if necessary.
9.4 Your membership is for personal use only and not for business or commercial purposes.
9.5 You warrant to ELITESINGLES that any content you submit to the website, including but not limited to photographs, text and software does not breach the intellectual property rights of any third party and you indemnify ELITESINGLES for any loss or damage it suffers as a result of such warranty.
9.6 You must comply with all applicable laws for registration and use of the contact portal.
9.7 You may under no circumstances:
(a) Intentionally declare the data of third parties (including email address) as your own. In particular, you must not provide the bank account or credit card information of third parties;
(b) Make personal information, such as names, telephone and fax numbers, residential and e-mail addresses, photo-/video data and / or URLs known to third parties without the consent of its respective owner;
(c) Upload content displaying nudity, images of animals or any cartoon or illustration;
(d) Distribute defamatory, offensive, or otherwise unlawful material or such information;
(e) Threaten or harass other people, or harm the rights (including personality rights) of any third party;
(f) Upload content containing a virus;
(g) Use the website in a way which affects the availability of offers for other customers adversely, especially to write proprietary profile information in a language other than English;
(h) Intercept e-mails or try to intercept them;
(i) Carry out advertising for other websites or services;
(j) Send chain letters;
(k) Use in your profile names, addresses, telephone or fax numbers, e-mail addresses, user names, or other contact data from messenger services or other Internet services;
(l) Provide or share your login or password with third parties;
9.8 An inadmissible commercial or business use in the sense of this provision is in particular:
(a) The provision of goods or services in return for payment of any kind, the solicitation of making an offer, or a reference to an attainable offer elsewhere;
(b) The usage of commercial internet sites for advertising, particularly those sites that offer chargeable goods or services that are used for displaying or advertising companies or for advertising other commercial web sites. This is especially true for advertising in the form of pop-ups, banner ads or flashy or particularly highlighted links;
(c) Linking (directly or indirectly) to the contact portal of another operator;
(d) The naming of value-added service numbers (in particular 0900 numbers in New Zealand) or value-added SMS numbers (premium SMS) under this contact portal;
(e) The contact for the purpose of subsequent profit, especially by subsequent reference to value-added SMS or 0900 or 19XX numbers;
(f) The search for employees, models, etc. for agencies or for chargeable service providers;
(g) The business of collecting profile data that is accessible within the contact portal or asking about data (e.g. telephone-/mobile number) of other customers, e.g. for the purpose of commercial exploitation, or promotion or resale;
(h) To make advertising to other clients of the service or to other customers in any form for business offers and the sending of messages that serve a business purpose. This relates in particular to the setting of relevant links in the data profiles or sending messages with the internal communication systems.
9.9 If the customer breaches any of the obligations listed in this clause 9, ELITESINGLES can be entitled to require compensation for any resulting damage or expenses. This does not apply if the user did not know he or she was committing a breach of clause 9 and was not reckless in the sense of not caring whether or not he or she was committing a breach of clause 9.
10. Complaints
You may report abuse or inappropriate behaviour by another member or offensive content by sending a detailed email to ELITESINGLES at [email protected].
11. Disputes with other members of the Website
11.1 ELITESINGLES has the right but has no obligation to monitor disputes between you and other users of the website.
11.2 In the event that you have a claim or action against another user arising from that user’s use of the website, you agree to pursue such claim or action independently of and without any demands to ELITESINGLES and you release ELITESINGLES from all claims, liability and damages arising from or in any way connected to the claim or action.
12. Blocking on Suspicion
12.1 ELITESINGLES reserves the right to block or delete any content uploaded by you to the website:
(a) Which is the subject of a complaint by any third party;
(b) If requested to do so by a court or any other relevant authority;
(c) Following termination of these terms and conditions.
12.2 Upon ELITESINGLES receiving a complaint, ELITESINGLES will:
(a) If ELITESINGLES suspects that the content may be in breach of these terms and conditions, give you notice of the complaint and allow you a reasonable period to rectify your content before deleting the content; or
(b) If the content is such that it may cause damage to ELITESINGLES or another member, delete the content and give you notice of the deletion.
12.3 If your content is blocked or deleted in accordance with this clause 10, your obligations to make any payments to ELITESINGLES pursuant to these terms and conditions will not be affected and you will not be entitled to any refund. If it is later agreed that your content should not have been blocked or deleted, your paid membership period will be extended for the period of the blocking or deletion. If an extension is not possible or is objectively unreasonable, ELITESINGLES will reimburse you for any payments made by you in respect of the blocking period.
13. General
13.1 Force Majeure
(a) For the purposes of this clause 13.1, “Force Majeure Event” means any act or event beyond the reasonable control of ELITESINGLES, including without limitation strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action by third parties, civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war, fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or other natural disaster, or failure of public or private telecommunications networks.
(b) ELITESINGLES will not be liable for any failure to perform or any delay in performance of, any of its obligations under these Terms and Conditions caused by a Force Majeure Event.
(c) In the event of a Force Majeure Event that results in Services being unable to be provided for 14 days or more, either party may terminate this agreement with immediate effect upon written notice to the other and neither party will have the right to claim compensation from the other.
13.2 Notices
(a) Notices to ELITESINGLES
(i) Any notice to be served on ELITESINGLES under these terms and conditions must be in writing and may be served:
(A) by hand delivery to:
Spark Networks Services GmbH
– Customer Care –
Kohlfurter Straße 41/43
10999 Berlin, Germany
(B) By prepaid mail to:
Spark Networks Services GmbH
– Customer Care –
Kohlfurter Straße 41/43
10999 Berlin, Germany
(C) By facsimile to: +49 30 991 949 5 32
(D) By email to: s[email protected]
(ii) A notice will be considered received by ELITESINGLES:
(A) If hand delivered before 5.00 pm on a Business Day, otherwise on the next Business Day;
(B) If sent by pre-paid mail, on the tenth Business Day after posting; or
(C) If transmitted by facsimile before 5.00 pm on a Business Day and a complete transmission report is received on the day of transmission, provided that if the recipient receives by facsimile transmission a notice that is illegible, the recipient must notify the sender immediately and the sender must continue to retransmit the notice until the recipient confirms that it has received a legible notice; and
(D) If emailed, on the date recorded on the device from which you sent the email, unless you receive an automated message that the email has not been delivered,
except that a delivery by hand, fax or email received after 5:00pm or on a day that is not a Business Day will be deemed to be given on the next Business Day.
(b) Notices to you
(i) Any notice to be served on you under these terms and conditions must be in writing and served on you at the email address you use as your login to the website.
(ii) A notice will be considered received by you on the date recorded on the device from which ELITESINGLES sends the email, unless ELITESINGLES receives an automated message that the email has not been delivered and except that an email received by you after 5:00pm or on a day that is not a Business Day will be deemed to be given on the next Business Day.
(c) Definitions
For the purposes of this clause, “Business Day” means any day which is not a weekend or a public holiday in the place where a notice is to be received.
13.3 Governing Law
(a) These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of New Zealand.
(b) The parties irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand.
13.4 Relationship of the parties
The agreement is not intended to create a partnership, joint venture or relationship of principal and agent between the parties.
13.5 Severance
If a clause is void, illegal or unenforceable, it may be severed without affecting the enforceability of the other provisions in this agreement.
13.6 Entire agreement
This agreement supersedes all previous agreements in respect of its subject matter and embodies the entire agreement between the parties.
14. Cooling-Off Period
14.1 You may cancel the contract at any time within 3 days of registration (“Cooling-Off Period”), provided that you have not started using the Services by, for example, sending messages to possible partners.
14.2 You agree that the Services may start before the end of the Cooling-Off Period.
14.3 If you cancel the contract under the above paragraph and you have made any payment in advance for the services, ELITESINGLES will refund these amounts to you.
14.4 You can exercise the right to withdrawal by notifying us in writing to: [email protected].