MTN Membership Terms and Conditions
Last updated: [14th Aug] 2023
- These Terms
1.1 Together with your application or request to become a member of Musical Theatre Network (“Member”) submitted through our website here or any other paper application form that we have provided to you to enable you to become a Member (“Sign up Form”), these terms and conditions (“Terms”) will form the basis of our contract with you (“Contract”) through which we, Musical Theatre Network (“MTN”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) offer to you membership of MTN (“Membership”).1.2 Please read these Terms carefully before submitting your Application Form for Membership. These Terms tell you who we are, how you and we may change or end our Contract with you, what to do if there is a problem and other important information.
- About us and how to contact us
2.1 We are Musical Theatre Network Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 06855097 and whose registered office is at c/o Dixon Wilson Accountants, 22 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LS.2.2 You can contact us by:
(a) telephoning us on 020 3951 7962;
(b) emailing us at info@musicaltheatrenetwork.com; or
(c) writing to us at Musical Theatre Network Limited, 34 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0DH.2.3 If we have to contact you we will do so by telephone or by writing to you at the email address or postal address you provided to us in your Application Form (or such other number or addresses as you may notify to us in writing).
2.4 When we use the words “writing” or “written” in these Terms, this includes by way of email.
- Your rights under these Terms
3.1 Your rights under these Terms differ depending on whether you become a Member in your capacity as a consumer or in your capacity as a business customer. You will be a business customer if your purchase of Membership of MTN is wholly or mainly in connection with your business, profession, craft, or trade (even if you are an individual and not an organisation).
3.2 For clarity (and without affecting clause 3.1 above), if you purchase a subscription for Venue/Organisation Membership or Higher Education Membership, you will be deemed to a business customer. If you are a student and do not work professionally in the musical theatre industry, you will be deemed a consumer.
3.3 We do not give business customers the same rights as consumers. For example, business customers cannot cancel Membership subscriptions for the current Membership Period (as defined in clause 4.2 below) simply if they change their mind, and we do not compensate business customers in the same way for losses caused by us, our website, or our services. Where certain Terms are only applicable to consumers or to business customers, this is stated explicitly.
- Our Contract with you
4.1 Your Membership will take effect on the date you receive your welcome email from us after you have submitted your Application Form and your payment has been processed (the “Membership Start Date”), at which point the Contract will come into existence between you and us. Accepting these Terms via a condition of your Membership.
4.2 Membership of MTN runs on an annual basis. Each successive period of 12 consecutive months starting on the Membership Start Date (or an anniversary of the Membership Start Date, as applicable) is referred to in these Terms as a “Membership Period”.
4.3 If you have become a Member, but it subsequently transpires that any or all of the information provided by you to us was intentionally misleading or false, we reserve the right to terminate your Membership with immediate effect.
- Membership Fee
5.1 For each Membership Period, you must pay to us an annual membership fee (the “Membership Fee”) in advance. The price of the Membership Fee at the time you become a Member is set out in the Application Form.
5.2 If, on your Application Form or via your online subscription/account settings, you selected the option for auto-renewal of your Membership, then your Membership will renew automatically when the current Membership Period comes to an end (and your payment method will be charged accordingly) unless you cancel your Membership before the end of the current Membership Period (in which case, your Membership will end when the current Membership Period comes to an end).
5.3 At least [21 days] before the end of your current Membership Period, we will send you an email reminder that your Membership is either soon to: (i) renew automatically pursuant to clause 5.2 above; or (ii) come to an end (in which case, you may choose to renew your Membership manually by following the instructions we email to you, but if you do not do this, your Membership will terminate at the end of the current Membership Period). We will inform you of any change to the Membership Fee for the next Membership Period at the time of sending you that email. If you do not agree with any such change to the Membership Fee, then you can cancel your Membership before the end of your current Membership Period by following the instructions that we email to you.
5.4 Except as stated in the below clauses 6.4, 8.1, 11.2(e), and 12.2, you will not be provided with any pro-rated refund of the relevant Membership Fee in respect of your current Membership Period simply as a result of any decision by you to cancel your Membership in this way before the end of your current Membership Period.
5.5 You may choose to pay the Membership Fee via direct debit or by credit or debit card. This payment method may be saved to your account and, if your Membership auto-renews pursuant to clause 5.2 above, this same method will be charged, unless you change your payment information. If paying by direct debit, please notify us at least one calendar month prior to the date on which you are due to be renewed if you intend to cancel your Membership, as otherwise it may be too late to prevent the relevant payment from being made to us from your account in respect of the next Membership Period.
5.6 If there is any difficulty with processing payment, we will be in touch to re-attempt payment collection. If the relevant card issuer or your bank or building society refuses to authorise payment, we will not be responsible for any delay in or non-delivery of our services under these Terms, and we are not obliged to inform you of the reason for the refusal. We are not responsible for any card issuer or bank or building society charging you as a result of the processing your payment to us. If any payment is not successful settled due to the expiry of your payment card, insufficient funds, or otherwise, then we may suspend your Membership until we have successfully charged a valid payment method.
5.7 We will do all that we reasonably can to ensure that all of the information you give to us when paying for your Membership is secure by using an encrypted secure payment mechanism. However, in the absence of: (a) negligence on our part; (b) any failure by us to comply with these Terms; or (c) breach by us of our duties under applicable laws, we will not (except as stated in clause 9.5 below) be legally responsible to you for any loss that you may suffer if someone other than we or you gains unauthorised access to any information that you provide to us.
- Membership services and Code of Conduct
6.1 By becoming a Member, you will be part of a community of professionals working within the musical theatre industry and who together can help to shape the future of new musical theatre in the UK. Click here for more information on the benefits of Membership.
6.2 You are a required as a Member to adhere to the following rules (“Code of Conduct”) at all times:
(a) you will act with integrity, honesty, diligence, professionalism, and appropriate behaviour;
(b) you will conduct yourself in a manner which positively reflects the image and reputation of MTN;
(c) you will be respectful and courteous towards other Members;
(d) you will not unreasonably refuse a reasonable request from another Member for information or guidance;
(e) you will not make direct or indirect attacks or engage in any abuse, name-calling, or insults towards any other Members or to MTN staff or directors; or
(f) in any online spaces managed, operated, or administered by MTN (including social media networks and our website), you will not: (i) be defamatory of any person, or post or submit anything obscene, offensive, hateful, or inflammatory; (ii) bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person; (iii) promote or post sexually explicit material or violence, or post, submit, or disseminate child sexual abuse material; (iv) promote discrimination based on race, ethnic origin, political beliefs, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity, marital status, or age; (v) infringe anyone else’s intellectual property rights; (vi) be likely to deceive any person or give the impression that it emanates from MTN if this is not the case; (vii) be threatening, abuse or invade someone else’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety, or do anything that is likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm, or annoy any other person; or (viii) promote or encourage any illegal or unlawful content or activity.6.3 We may maintain, cancel, or introduce different categories of Membership from time to time. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the most appropriate category of Membership to suit your personal circumstances at any time. We are not responsible in the event that a more appropriate category of Membership may have been available at any time.
6.4 We may at any time change and/or withdraw any benefits of Membership, but if any such change will materially disadvantage you or materially change the nature of your Membership in an adverse way, we will give you the opportunity to cancel, before any such change takes effect, the remainder of your current Membership Period and refund to you a pro-rated portion of your Membership Fee that relates to that remainder.
6.5 Specific terms and conditions may apply to individual Membership benefits. Where that is the case, you will be asked to accept those terms and conditions prior to taking advantage of that particular Membership benefit.
6.6 You will be required to set up an account via our website in order to use access our Members Area. You must not use any false, inaccurate, or misleading information when registering your account and you must keep all information concerning your account up to date at all times. You may not transfer your account credentials to any other person or entity or set up more than one account on our website without our prior written consent. To protect your account, you must keep your account details and password strictly confidential. You must immediately notify us in writing using the contact details provided in clause 2.2 above as soon as you suspect that any of your account credentials have been lost or stolen or that your account has otherwise been compromised in any way (and if this happens, insofar as you are able to, you must change the relevant account password immediately). You alone are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.
6.7 We do not guarantee that our website, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our website (including the Members Area) for business or operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.
6.8 The content on our website is not intended to amount to advice you should rely on. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our website. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our website, we (as far as allowed under applicable laws) make no assurances or guarantees that the content on our website is accurate, complete, or up to date.
6.9 We are not responsible for third-party websites that we link to. Where our website contains links to other websites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked third-party websites or information you may obtain from them. We have no control over the contents of those third-party websites or resources.
- Publications and other materials
7.1 Unless stated otherwise, copyright and all other rights in all publications and materials supplied to you by MTN is owned by MTN or its licensors. You may not reproduce, transmit, distribute, sell or commercially exploit these materials without the prior consent of MTN or to the extent expressly permitted by applicable laws.
7.2 If we make a mistake or leave anything out in any materials documents that we provide to you, this will be subject to correction by us, provided this does not materially affect our Contract with you.
- Your right to change your mind if you are a consumer
8.1 If you are a consumer (but not if you are a business customer), you have a legal right to change your mind (without giving any reason to us for doing so) within 14 calendar days of the day on which your Membership takes effect (as set out in clause 4.1 above). If you exercise this cancellation right (see clause 8.2 below on how to do this), then you will receive a full refund of any sums you have paid to us, unless, during that 14-day period, you started using particular MTN services reserved for Members (in which case your refund will be subject to our deduction of pro-rated charges in respect of those services that have been provided to you up to and including the date on which you exercised your cancellation right under clause 8.2 below). We will make the reimbursement to you under this clause 8.1 using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise. In any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of the reimbursement under this clause 8.1. For clarity, the right to cancel contained in this clause 8.1 does not apply to you if you are a business customer. Please refer to clause 3 above if you are unsure as to whether you are a consumer or a business customer.
8.2 To exercise your right to cancel as described in clause 8.1 above, you must inform us, using the contact details provided in clause 2.2 above, of your decision to cancel the Contract by writing to us before the 14-day period stipulated in clause 8.1 has expired. Please provide us when do you do this with your name, email address associated with your Membership, and postal address. If you exercise your right to cancel as set out this clause 8, we will email you to confirm cancellation of your Membership.
8.3 Upon cancellation or termination of your Membership (on whatever grounds and whether by us or by you), you will no longer be entitled to receive any Membership benefits. Unused benefits cannot be transferred to any new Membership that you may subsequently purchase.
- Our responsibility to you
9.1 Our liability to you under and in connection with these Terms depends on whether you are a consumer or a business customer, as set out in this clause 9. Please refer to clause 3 above if you are not sure as to whether you are a consumer or a business customer.
9.2 Except as stated in clause 9.5 below, if you are a consumer:
(a) we are only responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these Terms or our negligence (that means that the loss or damage in question is an obvious consequence of our breach, or that it was contemplated by you and us at the time you became a Member); and
(b) we are not responsible to you for any loss or damage that: (i) is not foreseeable; (ii) arises from your use, receipt, access, downloading, or streaming of any service, content, or benefit provided to you as part of your Membership from a person or organisation other than us (provided this is not caused by our breaking these Terms); (ii) arises from your misuse of our website, the Members Area, your Membership, or any other part of any services we provide to you in any way (such as, but not limited to, your undertaking of any inappropriate, unlawful, or immoral activity or any activity that could harm MTN or the reputation of MTN or its staff or directors); (iii) is caused by your breaking these Terms or by any event or series of events outside our reasonable control or which is the result of something you could have avoided by taking reasonable action, including following our reasonable instructions; (iv) is a business or commercial loss (including but not limited to any direct or indirect loss of profit, loss of business or business opportunity, business interruption, or loss of sales or revenue); or (v) is a consequence of any delays, interruptions, errors, or other problems resulting from your use of the Internet or other electronic communications networks in order to access our website (including the Members Area).9.3 Except as stated in clause 9.5 below, if you are a business customer (but not if you are a consumer):
(a) we will not be liable to you (whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise) for any of the following arising under or in connection with our Contract with you: (i) direct or indirect loss of profit, sales, revenue, business opportunity, or anticipated saving; (ii) loss or corruption of or damage to software, information, or data; (iii) loss resulting directly or indirectly from any event or series of events beyond our reasonable control or your failure to act in accordance with our reasonable instructions; (iv) wasted expenditure or charges; (v) loss or damage to goodwill or reputation; (vi) loss arising from the lawful termination of our Contract with you; or (vii) special, consequential, or indirect loss;(b) our total liability arising directly or indirectly out of, under, due to, or in connection with our Contract with you (whether arising in contract, tort (including negligence), or restitution, or for breach of statutory duty or misrepresentation, or otherwise) shall in all circumstances be limited in the aggregate to the total value of all sums already paid by you to us under the Contract within the period of twelve consecutive months immediately preceding the date on which the first event giving rise to our liability occurred; and
(c) any and all warranties, conditions, terms, and representations not set out in these Terms (whether implied by statute or otherwise) are, as far as applicable laws allow, excluded. Without affecting the preceding sentence), we give no warranty or representation that your Membership will result in the attainment or achievement of any particular result or objective by any particular date, whether stated in these Terms or elsewhere.
9.4 Whether you are a consumer or a business customer, you acknowledge that we are a distinct and separate organisation from Mercury Musical Developments Limited (“MMD”) and are not responsible to you for anything that MMD does or fails to do. If you are a member of MMD and have any issue with any services provided to you by MMD or anything else that MMD has done or failed to do, please contact MMD in the first instance by emailing info@mercurymusicals.com or by telephoning 020 3951 7961.
9.5 Nothing in these Terms will in any way exclude or limit our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our staff or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. If you are a consumer, nothing in these Terms will affect your statutory rights.
- Your privacy and personal information
10.1 Your privacy and personal information are important to us. We will only use your personal information as set out in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. These explain what personal information we collect from you, how and why we collect, store, use, and share such information, your rights in relation to your personal information, and how to contact us and the relevant supervisory authority if you have a query or complaint about the use of your personal information.
- How we may end your Membership
11.1 We may (without affecting any other rights or remedies available to us) end our Contract with you that is governed by these Terms at any time if you do not comply with any part of it, or if we reasonably believe that you are acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of these Terms. Unless we are prohibited from doing so under applicable laws, we will give you a reasonable amount of notice if we end our contract with you under this clause 11.1, but if what you have done is serious, then we may end our Contract with you immediately and without advanced notice to you. For the purposes of this clause 11.1, ‘serious’ means that:
(a) you have repeatedly broken these Terms in such a way as reasonably to justify our opinion that your conduct is inconsistent with you intending or being able to give effect to these Terms;
(b) you have broken these Terms in such a way that it is impossible for you to put things right or, where it is possible, you have not done so within 7 calendar days (or such longer period as we may specify) of us asking you to do so;
(c) you have broken the Code of Conduct; or
(d) you are causing harm to other Members or users of our services, interfering with the operation of our website or services, attempting to do any of these things, or doing anything else that we reasonably consider presents a big enough risk as reasonably to justify us ending our contract with you under these Terms quickly.11.2 We may (without affecting any other rights or remedies available to us) additionally end our Contract with you under these Terms by notifying you in writing (and this notification, which we will not give if we are prohibited from doing so under applicable laws, may take immediate effect) and/or limit, suspend, or restrict your access to and/or use of our services if:
(a) you become insolvent or bankrupt;
(b) we reasonably consider that we need to do so to protect the health or safety or property of our company or other users or anyone else;
(c) we reasonably consider that we need to do so to prevent, remediate, or mitigate any cybersecurity threat or attack or any breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personally identifiable information;
(d) we are required under applicable laws or regulations to do so; or
(e) we take the decision to end our provision of services to Members (in which case, notify you of this in writing and refund to you a pro-rated portion of any advanced Membership Fee that you have paid to us that reflects any remaining period of your current Membership Period that follows the end of our provision of our services to Members).11.3 We may additionally end our Contract with you under these Terms if you fail to make any payment to us on the date on which it falls due and payable in accordance with these Terms and/or the Sign-Up Form and/or within [7 calendar days] of us reminding you that payment is due.
11.4 If we terminate your Membership for any of the reasons set out above in this clause 11, then:
(a) your entitlement to any and all benefits of your Membership and your right to use and access our services for Members will immediately stop, and we may take all steps as we consider necessary to implement this (including, but not limited to, terminating your access to and use of the Members Area and invalidating any relevant access details);
(b) with immediate effect, you must not hold yourself out as being an MTN Member; and
(c) this will not affect our right to receive any money that you owe to us under or in connection with our Contract with you.
- Changes to these Terms
12.1 We may update these Terms at any time in order to:
(a) reflect changes in relevant laws or regulatory requirements; or
(b) make minor technical adjustments and improvements, including to our website (provided this does not materially change or adversely impact your Membership benefits).12.2 If we make a change to these Terms other than as set out in clause 12.1 above, we will notify you by email of that change at least one month in advance. If you do not agree to that change, you may cancel your Membership during the one-month period before the change is made, in which case (if you have already paid to us a Membership Fee that covers any period beyond the date on which the change will take effect), we will refund to you a pro-rated portion of the Membership Fee in respect of the unused period of your Membership.
12.3 If we update these Terms for any reason, we will post a revised version of the Terms on our Website. Without affect clause 12.2 above, we may also email you with information on those changes.
12.4 If you are a business customer (but not if you are a consumer), then:
(a) these Terms constitute (to the exclusion of all other terms and conditions, including any that you may purport to apply, impose, or incorporate) the entire agreement in respect of the subject matter of our Contract with you and supersede and extinguish any and all previous agreements, understandings, and arrangements between you and us (whether in writing or oral) in respect of its subject matter; and
(b) you may not make any changes to these Terms unless this has been agreed by us beforehand in writing.
- Queries and complaints
13.1 If you have any questions or complaints about your Membership, please contact us using the details provided in clause 2.2 above.
- General
14.1 If you provide us with any idea, proposal, suggestion, or feedback, including (but not limited to) ideas for new services and improvements to our existing services (“Feedback”), then you also give to us (without charge, royalties, or other obligations to you) the right to make, have made, create derivative works, use, share and commercialise your Feedback in any way and for any purpose. As far as applicable laws allow, you also waive your moral rights in any Feedback. This means that you will not assert your right to be identified as the creator of any Feedback and that you will not object to how we use it.
14.2 We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under these Terms.
14.3 You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these Terms to another person if we have agreed to this beforehand in writing.
14.4 No person other than you or us has any rights under these Terms or may enforce any of these Terms.
14.5 If a court finds part of this contract illegal, the rest will continue in force. Each of the provisions of these Terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
14.6 Even if we delay in enforcing any of these Terms, we can still do so later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these Terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking any of these Terms, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date. For example, if you miss a payment and we do not chase you but we continue to honour your Membership, we can still require you to make the payment at a later date.
14.7 These Terms are governed by English law. If you are a consumer (but not if you are a business customer), you may bring legal proceedings in the courts of England or any other country of the United Kingdom in which you reside. If you are a business customer (but not if you are a consumer), you and we both irrevocably submit to the jurisdiction of the English courts.