Community platform terms and conditions

The Online Community Platform (“the community”) is an interactive discussion based community platform provided on a third-party platform accessed via ICAEW’s single sign on protocols.

Your use of or participation in the community is governed by these terms and conditions, together with ICAEW’s website Conditions of Use and the forum’s Community Platform T&C’s (together, the “Agreement”). In the event of a conflict between any terms of the Agreement, the terms in these terms and conditions shall prevail. By accessing or using the community you agree to comply with the terms of the Agreement.

The personal details you provide on registration will be used to facilitate your participation in the community. The registration process will also create an account on the discourse platform so you can access and use the platform. If necessary, we may use them to contact you.

Please note that when you make comments, your name will be visible to other participants. By uploading any information to this platform, you are providing your consent for this information to be processed by ICAEW for the purposes of administering the ICAEW Mobile App Platform which may include the sharing of the data with our third-party Platform Management Company. This includes any special category data that may be contained within the information uploaded. 

Please see our Privacy Policy for more details.

You must keep any password and login details confidential and must not disclose them or share them with anyone. If you know or suspect that someone else knows your password, you should reset it immediately.

If you have any concerns, contact us.

The purpose of the community is to provide a platform to allow member to member engagement, to allow members to discuss common issues and topics based on the category name and topic title.

You agree to at all times:

1. comply with the ICAEW’s End User Licence Agreement specifying the conditions of use
2. comply with the forum’s Community Guidelines
3. be respectful of others who use the site
4. comply with all applicable laws
5. not engage in any anti-competitive conduct or behaviour
6. keep comments relevant to the discussion topic
7. not knowingly post any misleading or inaccurate content
8. not post any offensive or explicit comments or content
9. not advertise, promote or offer for sale any products or services
10. not seek or offer any work or employment
11. not submit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam)
12. not resubmit the same, or similar, comments
13. not submit any personal information about you or any third party, for example home addresses or phone numbers
14. only post comments in English
15. not submit comments or content infringing any third-party intellectual property rights
16. not submit any content or engage in any behaviour that is harassing, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually orientated or offensive to others with regards to religion or belief, sex, race or other personal characteristic
17. not submit any unlawful comments or content
18. not impersonate any person or entity
19. d o not spam or flood the forum. Keep the number of comments you submit on a topic at a reasonable level. Multiple comments from the same individual, or a small number of individuals, may discourage others from contributing. We encourage open and lively discussions and member to member engagement but comment comments that violate any of the above rules will be in breach of the terms of this agreement.

The community has been set up by ICAEW to provide a platform to allow members to discuss common issues and topics.

You are prohibited from using the community, directly or indirectly, as a forum for the exchange of competitively sensitive information relating to any participant’s business or firm, including:

• current or future strategy marketing activities
• prices, costs or revenue
• any other information that might reduce uncertainty between competitors or potential competitor

If you become aware of a prohibited discussion you should cease engaging in that discussion and report it to ICAEW.

Community discussions and threads will not usually be moderated by ICAEW. However, from time to time certain topics and discussions may be moderated by the ICAEW, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.

ICAEW reserves the right at its sole discretion to:

• delete or close a community topic or discussion
• remove or amend any content that it deems to be inappropriate
• suspend temporarily, or permanently delete, a members account or access
• report any unlawful content or behaviour to the relevant competent authority, without any prior notice

You may report any suspected breach of the Agreement by notifying us from within the Online Community Platform by using the ‘Flag’ feature that can be found on any of the posts on the platform. Alternatively, you can directly contact us. When you report anything, you should include:

• details of the community and the topic
• details of the concerning behaviour
• dates and times

ICAEW does not accept any liability or responsibility for any third-party websites that can be accessed through the community, links or content posted by participants or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them. ICAEW does not endorse or approve the contents of any such site, link or content.

Any third-party websites or materials posted by you on the community must comply with the content standards set out ICAEW’s website Conditions of Use. You warrant that any such material does comply with those standards, and you will indemnify on demand ICAEW for all and any loss or damage suffered as a result of a breach of that warranty.

All content posted on a community topic or discussion is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice on which reliance should be placed. Participants are hereby placed under notice that they should take appropriate steps to verify such information.

You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in a community topic or discussion without first verifying the information and obtaining your own legal and/or professional advice.

Except where expressly stated to the contrary, copyright and all other intellectual property rights in the text, graphics and information set out in the community by ICAEW is owned by ICAEW.

ICAEW makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy of the information contained on the community. To the extent permitted by law, ICAEW expressly excludes all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity.

ICAEW expressly disclaims all liability and responsibility for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user arising from any reliance placed on materials posted on the community, including materials posted by any visitor to the community, and by anyone who may be informed of any of their contents, or from the use or inability to use the community, whether directly or indirectly, resulting from inaccuracies, defects, errors, whether typographical or otherwise, omissions, out of date information or otherwise, even if such loss was reasonably foreseeable and ICAEW had been advised of the possibility of the same. Direct, indirect or consequential loss and damage shall include but not be limited to loss of profits or contracts, loss of income or revenue, loss of business, loss of goodwill, damage to reputation and wasted expenditure or management time.

Nothing in these Conditions shall exclude ICAEW’s liability for death or personal injury resulting from its negligence, nor its liability for fraudulent misrepresentation, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable.

ICAEW reserves the right to at its sole discretion update these terms and conditions from time to time.