1. Acceptance of Terms
By accessing or using BEL Directory (“BEL”, “the platform”, “we”, “us”), you confirm that you are at least 16 years of age and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”) and our Privacy Policy.
If you are using BEL on behalf of a business, you represent that you have authority to bind that business to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use BEL.
2. Description of Service
BEL is a free-to-browse online directory of hair, beauty, and grooming businesses serving the Newham, East London community. The platform enables:
- Consumers to discover, search, and review local beauty and hair professionals.
- Business owners to create and manage free or paid listing profiles.
- Community members to share genuine reviews and ratings.
BEL is a directory and discovery platform only. We do not facilitate bookings, process appointments, or act as an agent for any listed business unless explicitly stated.
3. User Accounts
To access certain features you must register for an account. By doing so, you agree to:
- Provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration.
- Maintain the security of your password and accept responsibility for all activity under your account.
- Notify us immediately at contact@beldirectory.com if you suspect unauthorised access.
- Create and use only one account per person. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent bans or limits is prohibited.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that provide false information or violate these Terms.
4. Business Listings
Business owners who submit listings to BEL agree that:
- All information submitted is accurate, lawful, and up to date. Misleading or false business information is prohibited.
- BEL retains the right to review, approve, edit, suspend, or remove any listing at our sole discretion, including for violations of these Terms or community standards.
- Listing on BEL does not constitute an endorsement by BEL of any business, its services, or quality.
- BEL makes no guarantee that a listing will generate bookings, leads, or revenue.
- You grant BEL a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display your listing information and images on the platform and in related marketing materials.
5. Reviews & User Content
When you submit a review or any other content to BEL, you agree that:
- Reviews must be genuine and based on first-hand experience. Fake, incentivised, or malicious reviews are prohibited.
- Content must not be defamatory, harassing, discriminatory, obscene, or otherwise unlawful.
- You own the content you submit but grant BEL a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable licence to use, reproduce, display, and distribute that content on the platform and in promotional materials.
- BEL may remove any content at any time without notice if it violates these Terms or our community standards.
- BEL is not responsible for the accuracy or legality of user-submitted content.
6. Prohibited Conduct
You must not use BEL to:
- Submit spam, unsolicited messages, or commercial content not related to a legitimate listing.
- Post fake, duplicate, or incentivised reviews, or reviews written by someone without genuine experience of the business.
- Impersonate any person, business, or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any organisation.
- Scrape, crawl, or extract data from BEL using automated tools without prior written consent.
- Engage in any illegal activity or violate any applicable laws or regulations.
- Attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the platform, other user accounts, or BEL's infrastructure.
- Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the platform.
7. Intellectual Property
BEL ownsall intellectual property rights in the platform, including the BEL name, logo, design, code, and original content. You may not reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from BEL's IP without prior written consent.
You own the content you submit (reviews, images, descriptions). By submitting content, you grant BEL the licence described in Section 5. You confirm you have the right to grant this licence and that your content does not infringe any third-party rights.
8. Payments & Stripe
BEL is currently free to browse. We may in the future introduce paid listing tiers or features. When paid features are available, the following applies:
- All payments are processed securely through Stripe. BEL does not store your payment card details.
- Listing fees are generally non-refundable once a listing has been published, unless the removal was caused by a BEL error.
- Refund requests due to BEL error should be submitted to contact@beldirectory.com within 14 days of the charge.
- Prices are stated in GBP and include VAT where applicable.
9. Disclaimers
BEL is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties including fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, and non-infringement.
BEL is a directory only. We do not endorse, guarantee, or take responsibility for the quality, safety, legality, or reliability of any listed business or the services they provide. Any engagement with a listed business is entirely at your own risk.
User-generated content (including reviews) reflects the views of individual contributors and does not represent the views of BEL.
10. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by English law, BEL shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising out of or in connection with your use of the platform.
Our total aggregate liability to you for any claims arising under or in connection with these Terms shall not exceed the greater of £50 or the total fees you have paid to BEL in the 12 months preceding the claim.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any other liability that cannot be excluded by law.
11. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless BEL and its officers, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:
- Your use of the platform in violation of these Terms.
- Content you submit to BEL that infringes a third party's intellectual property or other rights.
- Any misrepresentation you make in connection with your account or listing.
12. Termination
BEL may suspend or permanently terminate your account and access to the platform at our sole discretion, with or without notice, for conduct that we reasonably believe violates these Terms, harms other users, or is otherwise harmful to BEL or the community.
You may delete your account at any time via your account settings. Upon termination, your right to use the platform ceases immediately. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including IP, indemnification, limitation of liability, and governing law) will continue to apply.
13. Governing Law
These Terms and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.
14. Dispute Resolution
Before initiating any formal legal proceedings, we ask that you contact us first at legal@beldirectory.com to attempt to resolve the matter informally. We will endeavour to respond within 14 days.
If informal resolution is unsuccessful, both parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
15. Changes to Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and notify registered users by email where appropriate. Continued use of BEL after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.
16. Contact
For legal enquiries or questions about these Terms, please contact us:
Email: legal@beldirectory.com
Platform: BEL Directory, Newham, East London