Privacy Statement

We take steps to protect your privacy and comply with all applicable UK data protection legislation in place at the time of your use of 'The Site' in respect of any personal information relating to you gathered by us.

DEFINITIONS

All references to 'you &/or your' means you and 'we, us, our or company' within this policy means Whisky Auction Ltd (registered in England and Wales No. 9365276) trading as Whisky.Auction, of Elixir House, Whitby Avenue, NW10 7SF.

PRIVACY

The data we collect from you is used solely for the purpose of fulfilling your order or sending you the newsletter. You may be asked to input information about yourself on different pages of 'The Site'. We will never disclose your personal information to any other parties without your consent except as set out in our Privacy Policy or to verify your identification as above. Your credit card information is not retained and is completely removed from our system after your order is processed or cancelled. You have every right to know what information has been held in our system.

Our aim is to protect you and your personal privacy and provide this Privacy Statement in order to help you understand what we may do with any personal information you provide. Provision of personal information will be acknowledged as your acceptance of this Privacy Statement and agreement to our collecting and use / disclose of your personal information only as described in this Privacy Statement.

If you do not agree to this statement, please do not provide your personal details to us. This Privacy Statement forms part of the Terms and Conditions which govern your use of the site.

We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Statement from time to time without notice and at our sole discretion. As such, it is your responsibility to review the Privacy Statement at regular intervals.

WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, as defined by applicable law.

COLLECTING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We only collect and hold personal information provided by you. However, there are instances where we may require that you opt to select whether or not you would like to receive information from us or from trusted third parties e.g. to opt-in or opt-out of receiving special promotional offers.

There are some instances where you will not have the option to opt-out, for example when we are satisfying obligations within a contract, administering a transaction requested by you, or as required by law.

You may also elect to provide us with personal information if, for example, you:

contact us with an enquiry;
register on the site (where applicable);
fill out a survey or other form with your personal information included;
request us to provide you with information;
enter a competition;
take advantage of a promotion.

In providing personal information you consent to the transfer of such personal information to, and the collection and processing of such information in, other countries or territories. Any such transfer and processing by us will be in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

USE OF COOKIES ON OUR WEBSITE

Like most website, 'the site' uses 'cookies' (small data files that our server sends to your browser when you visit the site) to gather and store information about your visit to our website. Primarily we use cookies for the sole purpose of monitoring traffic e.g. the IP address from which you access the site; the location (country) from which you access the site; the type of browser and operating system used to access the site; the date and time of your access to the site; the pages you visit; the Internet address of the website from which you accessed the site; to log repeat visitors for statistical and analytical purposes; to track interaction with online advertising (e.g. to monitor the number of times that a banner ad is displayed and the number of times it is clicked) and to compile and report to third parties aggregate statistics about our users in terms of numbers, traffic patterns and related site information.

In addition, when placing an order the cookies will capture your first and last names, your email address and your customer ID. This information is needed in order to make your visit simple and more efficient. Whisky.auction will never pass any personal information on to any third party apart from aforementioned 'service providers'. Unless you check the box instructing your browser to remember your username and password these cookies will be deleted when you close your browser.

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may use personal information you provide in a number of different ways to provide specific services requested by you as well as to provide additional services that may be considered of interest to you.

Marketing Communications help us communicate with you about our products and services (and those of our subsidiaries, affiliates, and parent companies and any of their related businesses).

Marketing analysis helps us assess trends or to measure traffic to our websites.

Transactional communications aid us to improve the quality of service in dealing with your queries and requests, updating your account(s) information and to manage transaction specific tasks such as credit card payments for goods or services that you order from us (or our associated companies) or fulfilment of such transactions (e.g. delivery).

Account holders have the right to see all data Whisky Auction Ltd has collected about them. Please write to us at:

Whisky Auction Ltd,
Elixir House,
Whitby Avenue,
NW10 7SF

DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We value your privacy and hereby assure you that we will only share your personal information with 'service providers' that provide adequate protection for such information. From time to time we may disclose personal information to:

third parties to whom you have provided your consent or who, in our reasonable judgment, are providing or seeking the information as authorised or appointed legal agent acting on your behalf;
carefully selected and vetted third parties (including our affiliates) to send you marketing and promotional information that may be of interest to you.
a person or entity (including our affiliates) in the event of a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, financing, reorganisation or liquidation, whereby we transfer, sell, or assign to such third party information concerning your relationship with us.
law enforcement, governmental or regulatory agencies, or other third party in order to comply with law or where we believe such action is necessary in order to comply with law or detect, protect or defend us and/or other third parties against error, negligence, breach of contract, theft, fraud and other illegal or harmful activity, to comply with our corporate policies, procedures, legal and contractual obligations.

In such circumstances such 'service providers' and third parties have agreed not to collect, use or disclose personal information for any purpose other than to perform such functions on our behalf or to provide services to us or as otherwise required by law and will be bound by confidentiality obligations and restrictions on use of personal information.

SECURITY

To keep your personal information secure we have in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard the information you provide. However, we do not have control over the privacy of any communications while in transit to us. As such we ask that you do not include confidential, proprietary or sensitive information in such communications.

Where we believe that the security of your personal information in our possession or under our control may have been compromised, we will endeavour to notify you of such as promptly as possible and, to the extent we have your e-mail address, we will notify you by e-mail.

PERMISSIONS

If you have given permission to receive communications about Whisky.Auction generally through opting to receive news by email you may from time to time receive communications about brands to which you have not opted-in specifically. We will only communicate with you about those brands that we think may be of particular interest to you and all such communications will provide you with the opportunity to opt-out from receiving such communications. If you have any privacy-related questions, concerns or complaints, please contact: Whisky Auction Ltd, Elixir House, Whitby Avenue, NW10 7SF or Contact Us.

LINKS

The site may contain links or references to other websites outside of our control. Please be aware that we have no control over these websites and our Privacy Statement does not apply to these sites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements and terms and conditions of linked or referenced websites you enter.

CORKED BOTTLES OR OTHER LIQUID FAULTS

Lots are sold to the buyer on an 'as is' basis, with all faults and imperfections. Photographs contained on 'The Site' of any lots are for identification purposes only. They may not reveal the true condition of the lot, or reflect an accurate reproduction of the colours. Lots are available for inspection prior to the sale and it is for you to satisfy yourself as to each and every aspect of a lot. It should be remembered that the actual condition of a lot may not be as good as that indicated by its outward appearance. In particular, the contents of a bottle or decanter may not be visible and may be damaged. Given the age of many lots you should not assume that a lot is in good condition. While we take every care to pack bottles securely we cannot guarantee that old corks and closures will not leak in transit. You should not assume that items produced for consumption will be suitable for consumption and you should obtain advice on their status before doing so. Such items which are unsuitable for consumption are sold as items of historical interest for display purposes only. If you yourself do not have expertise regarding a lot, you should consult someone who does to advise you.

FORGERY POLICY FOR BUYERS

We take responsibility for any forgeries sold through Whisky.Auction and agree to refund the Buyer in full within the following conditions:

You are the named buyer on the original invoice
You notify us in writing as soon as you become aware the lot may be a forgery, and within one year after the sale, and within one month of this notification you return the lot to us in the same condition as it was at the time of the sale, accompanied by sale and lot number details and written evidence that the lot is a forgery
You authorise us to carry out processes and tests on the lot as we in our absolute discretion consider necessary to satisfy ourselves that the lot is or is not a forgery.

If we are satisfied the lot is a forgery we will:

Purchase the lot from you and you will transfer the title of the lot to us
Pay to you an amount equal to the sum of the Purchase Price, Buyer's Premium, VAT and delivery expenses in respect of the lot.

If you sell or otherwise dispose of your interest in the lot, all rights and benefits under our forgeries policy for buyers will cease.

FORGERY POLICY FOR SELLERS

If, having been reasonably satisfied that a lot is a forgery, we have purchased the lot from the buyer (within two years after the lot was sold to the buyer):

You undertake to repurchase the lot from us on demand for an amount equal to the sum of the Purchase Price, Buyer's Premium, VAT and delivery expenses in respect of the lot, together with interest (at an annual rate equal to 5% above National Westminster Bank Plc's base lending rate) from time to time to be calculated on a daily basis from the date upon which we demanded payment from you until the date of actual payment.
On completion of payment to us you will be entitled to collect the lot and we will transfer to you the full sum and rights and interest in the lot which we have obtained from the buyer. The transfer will count as a sale of the lot.
You authorise us to carry out processes and tests on the lot as we in our absolute discretion consider necessary to satisfy ourselves that the lot is or is not a forgery.

FRAUD

In the event of any fraud by you or on your behalf which has induced the buyer to purchase the lot, we will be entitled at our discretion and irrespective of whether we are personally liable to the buyer to act in any reasonable manner which appears to us to be best calculated to compensate the buyer (which may include but is not limited to buying the lot back from the buyer). You authorise us to carry out processes and tests on the lot as we consider necessary to establish whether this is necessary.

Depending on the extent and severity of the fraud, and the awareness of this fraud by the seller, this fraud may be reported to the police authorities for further investigation and possible prosecution.

ZERO TOLERANCE OF ABUSIVE OR AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR

Whisky.Auction has a responsibility to protect its staff from incidents of verbal abuse and aggressive or threatening behaviour whether it be in person, over the telephone, or in writing. It is important that our staff be treated with courtesy and respect. Aggressive or threatening behaviour towards our staff will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Anyone giving verbal abuse to members of staff will be banned from Whisky.Auction immediately with no redress.