These are the general terms and conditions of localfuneral.co.uk (“the website”), a trading name of Golden Charter Limited, One Fleet Place, London, EC4M 7WS, company number 02511598 (“we” or “us” or “GC”).

By accessing the website and/or choosing to have your details on the website and/or communicating with us, you consent to the following Terms of Use. If you do not agree with these Terms of Use or localfuneral.co.uk’s Privacy Policy you cannot use the website and we will remove your details from it.

Purpose of the website

The content of the website is provided for general information purposes and to provide visitors with information on local independent funeral directors located near them and the funeral services which are available in specific locations.

The Funeral Notices section of the website provides a way for bereaved families and friends to share tributes to deceased persons and provide details of the arrangements of their funeral and associated events.

The pricing section allows funeral directors to display representative prices for funerals in line with The Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021 (“the Order”), which visitors to the website may view.

Use of the website

We cannot accept liability for any loss of any kind as a result of reliance on the information provided on the website or any other website which can be accessed by a link from the website or the functioning of the website (see below for links to the website policy). The content of the website is subject to change without notice.

Views and opinions expressed in user generated content (“content”) (such as a memory on a Funeral Notice) submitted by members of the public are those of the individual submitting the content, not those of GC or any funeral director associated with the website, therefore we accept no responsibility for such content.

We exclude to the fullest extent permitted by law, all liability for any claims, penalties, losses, damages, costs or expenses arising from the use of, or inability to use, the website or from any unauthorised access to or alteration of the website.

The website is established in the United Kingdom and is directed to residents of the United Kingdom only.

If you have a password to the website you must treat such information as confidential and must not disclose it to any third party. Should you deem it necessary to share this password with a third party (e.g. an office manager to allow them to update your business contact details), they will be deemed as acting on your behalf and therefore you will be held responsible for any actions taken by the third party in relation to the website.

Links to the website

You are permitted to create a link from your website to the homepage of the website providing you do not link to the website from any site containing obscene, defamatory, threatening, inflammatory or degrading material or material which infringes the intellectual property or other rights of any third party or which is otherwise unlawful. By linking to the website, you agree that you have read and agree to be bound by this Linking and Framing Policy ("this policy").

Links are permitted to individual pages on the website, however if you do create a link to the website, you do so at your own risk and these Terms of Use apply to all use of the website via the link. Any framing of the website may only be made by seeking our written consent. Applications should be made in the first instance by telephoning 0808 164 4214.

You must not misrepresent your relationship with us or present false or misleading impressions about us. Links may not be used in a manner that implies or suggests that we approve or endorse you, your website or your goods and/or services (except what we may have agreed separately with you in writing). We shall have no responsibility or liability for any content appearing on your website, nor are we responsible or liable for any content contained within funeral director company listings. You agree to indemnify and defend us against all claims arising out of or based on your website. We reserve the right at any time and at its sole discretion to request that you remove all links or any particular links to the website from your website.

You agree not to use any trademark belonging to us, or any related graphic, as a link without our prior written authorisation.

License

Subject to your compliance with the above terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use our name solely for the purpose of establishing any permitted link under this policy. Except for the limited license to use our name as set out and otherwise as may be permitted by applicable law, you may not use any of our trademarks without express written permission.

We may at any time, at our sole discretion, without cause terminate the license to use our name and your right to link to any pages on the website. In such event, upon request, you agree to immediately remove all links to the website and to cease using our name for linking purposes. Thereafter, any future links to the website by you will require our express written permission. We reserve the right to amend the terms of such license at any time. By continuing to link to the website, you agree to be bound to and abide by these terms, as well as the general Terms of Use, as amended from time to time.

We reserve the right to employ all necessary measures at any time to remove any linking to or framing of the website.

Links from the website

We do not monitor or review the content of websites which can be accessed by a link from the website. Opinions expressed or information provided on any linked sites are not necessarily shared or endorsed by us. We are not the publisher of material appearing on or available via any linked website and will not be held liable for any information, advertising, products or services on or offered from such sites, nor can we guarantee your privacy where you access other websites via the website.

Any dealings between you and any third-party advertisers or suppliers found on or via the website, including payment for and delivery of products, services and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are made between you and the relevant supplier. We are not responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as the result of any such dealings.

Supplier uploaded information / content

We enable funeral directors to create, upload and store content such as text, imagery, video or other materials and information through the members’ area. By creating, uploading and storing information within the funeral director portal, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable and perpetual license to your member content to use, store, copy, modify, distribute, publish, broadcast or exploit in any other way to promote the website. Unless you provide written consent, we do not claim ownership of any uploaded member content.

All funeral directors are solely responsible for all content uploaded to the members’ area. As such, by uploading company information, all members confirm they are the exclusive owner of all content added and any content added will not infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s trademark, patent, copyright or other intellectual property rights or result in the violation of any applicable laws. We are not responsible or liable for any content uploaded to the members’ area.

Contact Information

Funeral director responsibilities relating to contact information on the website are:

  • You must take reasonable care to ensure that contact information given by you is up-to-date and accurate (whether by act or omission). These contact details are inclusive of but are not limited to business name, telephone number, business email address, username and/or user email address;
  • Should your contact information change, you must update your contact information on the website immediately and without delay;
  • Where a funeral director business has multiple branches, you will be required to update the contact information for each branch; and
  • Where an existing user no longer requires access to the website, notification must be sent in writing to support@localfuneral.co.uk without delay so that the user account may be suspended.

You undertake to indemnify us from and against all costs, losses, expenses and liabilities arising to us as a result of erroneous, inaccurate or misleading contact information uploaded and/or not amended or corrected by you.

Funeral Director Pricing

Funeral directors have the option to add pricing for services outlined in and in accordance with the Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021 (“the Order”).

This allows visitors to view representative costs of funeral services from individual funeral director businesses. Funeral directors who choose not to add prices will have pricing shown as ‘POA’ – price on application. Should the visitor choose to sort funeral director results by price, funeral directors with pricing noted as “POA” will be placed at the bottom of the search results.

Funeral director responsibilities relating to pricing are:

  • You must ensure that the pricing details you display are at all times consistent and compliant with the details you must display on your website(s) and at your branches in accordance with the Order;
  • Where a funeral director business has multiple branches, they will be required to update the pricing for each branch;
  • Prices detailed on the website must accurately reflect current pricing within the funeral director’s business;
  • Should pricing change, the price details you display on the website must be updated by you to reflect the new pricing immediately and without delay;
  • You must take reasonable care to ensure that pricing details given by you are consistent with the Order and reflective of your current pricing and are not in any way misleading (whether by act or omission); and
  • Crematorium price information provided by funeral directors must also accurately reflect local crematorium pricing as provided to you or otherwise required in accordance with the Order. Should crematorium price information change, the website must be updated by the funeral director to reflect the new pricing immediately and without delay, and prior to any price change taking effect.

You undertake to indemnify us from and against all costs, losses, expenses and liabilities arising to us as a result of erroneous, inaccurate or misleading prices uploaded and/or not amended or corrected by you.

Terms of Business and Disclosure of Interests

Funeral directors have the option to upload information relating to their Terms of Business and Disclosure of Interests, as outlined in the Funerals Market Investigation Order 2021 (“the Order”).

Where a funeral director has multiple branches, they will be required to update the Terms of Business and Disclosure of Interests for each branch.

You must take reasonable care to ensure that information provided by you is in accordance with the Order and, without prejudice to that generality, reflects your current Terms of Business and Disclosure of Interests, and is not in any way misleading (whether by act or omission). Should this information change, the website must be updated by you immediately and without delay.

You undertake to indemnify us from and against all costs, losses, expenses and liabilities arising to us as a result of erroneous, inaccurate or misleading information uploaded and/or not amended or corrected by you.

Funeral Director Reviews

The website use ratings from the following sites and displays the aggregated score to potential customers for individual branches of your business:

  • Facebook; and
  • Google

Whilst we endeavour to keep this information up to date, and correct, this cannot be guaranteed.

If you do not agree with ratings against your business, please contact the source of the review directly to update appropriately.

Security Policy

We make every effort to maintain customer confidentiality and security when making any transactions. This includes taking steps to ensure the security of your personal information. Our practice reflects current security standards. As no purchases may be made online from the website, no bank and/or credit card details will be taken.

Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy and are firmly committed to protecting your information. The law places certain obligations on us and we have put further procedures in place so that the data you provide will only be used in a lawful and fair way and that we will never mislead you about the use of your data. You can be sure that we will never pass on your information to third parties except where this is necessary for service fulfilment purposes or unless required to do so by law. We will not send you marketing material without your express consent.

For further information on how we deal with your personal information please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Acceptable Use Policy

This acceptable use policy sets out the terms between you and us under which you may access the website.

This acceptable use policy applies to all users of, and visitors to, the website.

Prohibited Use

You may use the website only for lawful purposes. You may not use the website:

  • in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
  • in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
  • for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way;
  • to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards;
  • to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam); and/or
  • to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

You also agree:

  • not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of the website in contravention of the provisions of our website terms of use;
  • not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
    • any part of the website;
    • any equipment or network on which the website is stored;
    • any software used in the provision of the website; or
    • any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

Content Standards

These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to the website “Your Content”.

You must comply with the spirit and the letter of the following standards. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.

Your content:

  • must be accurate (where facts are stated);
  • any opinions (where stated) must be genuinely held; and
  • must comply with applicable laws of England and in any country from which they are posted.

Your content must not:

  • include personal information of a third party;
  • contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
  • contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
  • promote sexually explicit material;
  • promote violence;
  • promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
  • infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
  • be likely to deceive any person;
  • be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
  • promote any illegal activity;
  • be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
  • be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
  • be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent Your identity or affiliation with any third party;
  • give the impression that they represent us, if this is not the case; and/or
  • advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

Suspension and Termination

We will determine, at our discretion, whether there has been a breach of these Terms of Use. When a breach has occurred, we will take action that we deem appropriate.

Failure to comply with these Terms of Use constitutes a material breach of the Terms of Use upon which you are permitted to use the website, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

  • immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your access to or use of the website;
  • immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to the website;
  • issue of a warning to you;
  • legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach;
  • further legal action against you; and/or
  • disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.

We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of this acceptable use policy. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

You may at any time remove your listing from public view via your profile.

Your access to and/or use of the website is given or facilitated at our discretion and subject to such criteria and standards as we may from time to time specify. We may take all or any of the action referred to above against you in circumstances where we have reasonable cause to believe that you are in breach of any legislation, regulations and codes of practice as current from time to time relating to the carrying out of and/or making arrangements for funerals and/or the quality and other standards set by the trade body of which you are a member and/or your cessation of membership of such trade body.

Data Protection

In this section “Data Protection Legislation” means the Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) and any legislation implemented in connection with the General Data Protection Regulation, any Data Protection Legislation coming in to force as a result of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union and any replacement legislation in respect of the same coming in to effect from time to time and in each case as amended, extended or superseded from time to time. Words and expressions defined in the Data Protection Legislation shall have the same meaning in these Terms of Use.

We will be the data controller in relation to personal and other data (“personal data”) collected by us via the website in respect of visitors to the website. You will be a data processor in relation to such personal data and may only process it on our behalf and in accordance with these Terms of Use. You will not make copies of personal data or extract or use it save to the extent required for the purposes of this website.

We acknowledge that if and to the extent you enter in to contractual arrangements with visitors to the website for any funeral arrangements you may, at that point, become a data controller in respect of their personal data.

You agree to:

  • solely process personal data for the purposes of fulfilling your obligations under these Terms of Use, including by make contact where necessary or appropriate with visitors to the website with whom we put you in touch and in compliance with our written instructions as may be specified from time to time;
  • not use personal data for any marketing purposes;
  • not transfer to or access any personal data from a country outside the United Kingdom;
  • ensure that persons used by you to process personal data subject to legally binding obligations of confidentiality in relation to the personal data;
  • not engage any sub-contractor to carry out any processing of personal data;
  • take appropriate technical and organisational measures against an authorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of or damage to personal data taking in to account the harm that might result from such unauthorised or unlawful processing, loss, destruction or damage and the nature of the personal data to be protected, including without limitation, all such measures that may be required to ensure compliance with Data Protection Legislation;
  • taking in to account the nature of the data processing activities undertaken by you, put in place appropriate technical or organisational measures to ensure that any processing carried out by you meets all requirements of the Data Protection Legislation and provide reasonable assistance and co-operation to us to enable us to fulfil our obligations to respond to requests from individuals exercising their rights under Data Protection Legislation, including by making necessary changes and removing personal data from your records and confirming that these actions have been taken.
  • maintain a record of your processing activities carried out and ensure that such records are in accordance with Data Protection Legislation;
  • notify us immediately in writing if you suffer a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data or if you receive any data security breach notification, complaint notice or communication which relates directly or indirectly to the processing of the personal data or to compliance with Data Protection Legislation and in each case provide full co-operation and assistance to us in relation to any such data security breach complaint notice or communication;
  • make available to us all information necessary to demonstrate compliance with the data protection obligations set out in this section and allow for and contribute to audits, including inspections conducted by us or on our behalf, including by allowing us or our representatives access to your premises on reasonable prior notice;
  • indemnify us from and against all cost, expenses, losses, damages and other liabilities of any nature suffered or incurred by us and arising out of or in connection with any breach by you of this section;
  • assist us in ensuring compliance with our obligations set out in the Data Protection Legislation taking in to account the nature of the data processing undertaken by you and the information available to you;
  • upon termination of any arrangements between us in respect of your use of and/or access to the website, at our choice, delete securely or return all personal data to us and delete existing copies of the personal data unless and to the extent that you are required to retain copies of the personal data in accordance with applicable laws and provide us with a certificate of destruction evidencing that personal data has been destroyed or deleted or notification of the applicable laws which require the personal data to be retained.
  • You undertake that you shall clearly record against all personal data relating to visitors to the website which we provide to you that fact that it is not to be used by you for any purpose other than is strictly necessary in relation to the provision of funeral arrangements.

You warrant, represent and undertake to us that you shall take all necessary steps to ensure that any system that processes, stores or transmits personal data has the appropriate level of security controls in place, including without limitation, up to date information security and user awareness programmes, vulnerability identification and mitigation programme, and operating system and application/management process, a network/firewall segregation between internal and public systems, penetration testing of computer networks on systems to be conducted at least annually. You shall permit us, on reasonable prior notice, to inspect such controls or request information evidencing such controls.