Terms and conditions for RNLI websites

Thank you for visiting this RNLI website. Please make sure you have read and understand these terms and conditions (“Terms”) carefully before using our websites, making a donation to us or placing an order with the RNLI shop.

If you are under 18 please get a parent or guardian to read through these Terms and to discuss them with you.

These Terms also incorporate the following additional terms and policies which apply to your use of our websites:

i. Our Privacy and Security Policy which sets out how we use the information you share with us, and what measures we take to protect it

ii. Our Cookies Policy which sets out what cookies are, why the RNLI uses Cookies on its websites and your options relating to their use

iii. Our Contribution Rules

iv. If you visit the RNLI Shop website, our Terms and Conditions will apply 

1. Who we are

This is a website of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a charity registered in England and Wales (209603) and Scotland (SC037736). Registered charity number 20003326 in the Republic of Ireland, whose registered office is at West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1HZ. References in these Terms to 'we' or 'us' are to the RNLI. For more information see About us.

2. Changes

2.1. We may change these Terms at any time, in which case the amended Terms will be posted on our websites and will apply from the date we post them, with the exception that any orders that we have already accepted from you before the new Terms are posted will continue to be subject to the Terms in force when your order was accepted. Please check these Terms on each occasion you use our websites. If you continue to use our websites you will be bound by the latest Terms.

2.2. The format and content of our websites change constantly. You should refresh your browser each time you visit our sites to ensure that you access the most up to date version.

3. Using our websites

Our websites are made available free of charge. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our websites without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason any of our websites, or part of them, are unavailable at any time or for any period.

You agree to only use our websites in a manner that complies with all applicable laws and regulations and is consistent with these Terms and does not infringe the rights of anyone else, nor restrict or inhibit their use and enjoyment of our sites (including, amongst other things, by hacking). We reserve the right in our sole discretion to deny any user access to our websites or any part of them without prior notice.

4. Registration

You may access and use most parts of our websites without registering your details with us. In cases where registration is required each registration must be for a single user only.

Please ensure that the details you provide us with are correct and complete and inform us immediately of any changes to the information that you provided when registering.

You must make sure that you keep your password confidential. This means that you must not share your password or let anyone else access your account. Always ensure you log out of your account at the end of your session to avoid anyone else using it. You should inform us immediately if you have any reason to believe that your password has become known to anyone else, or if your password is being, or is likely to be, used in an unauthorised manner. We may disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms.

5. Privacy

We use, store and process information about you in accordance with our Privacy and Security Policy. By using our websites, you consent to our use, storage and processing of your information in accordance with that policy.

6. Website content including user-generated content

6.1. If you have a complaint about any content on (or sent via) our websites, see our Give us your feedback page. This page details our Supporter Service Charter and the different ways you can contact us.

Please provide:

6.1.1. Your name, company or organisation name if relevant, and contact details;

6.1.2. Details of the exact content complained of and details of why you are complaining about that content; and

6.1.3. Confirmation from you that that the information that you have provided is accurate, complete and not misleading.

Please note that no action can be taken without this information.

6.2. You must not post or transmit to our websites any material:-

6.2.1. That is knowingly false or misleading, defamatory, illegal, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, liable to incite racial hatred, blasphemous, discriminatory, pornographic, sexually oriented, threatening or invasive of a person's privacy;

6.2.2. Which you do not own or for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals;

6.2.3. Which is technically harmful (including, amongst other things, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data);

6.2.4. Impersonating any person or entity, or falsely stating or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with anyone or entity;

6.2.5. That is otherwise in breach of our Contribution Rules.

6.3. If you post or transmit to any of our websites any material of the type prohibited under Term 6.2 above (or which otherwise results in a claim or action against us) and we incur any costs, expenses, liability or losses as a result then you agree to indemnify us for all such costs, expenses, liability and losses.

6.4. If you post or transmit any material to any of our websites:-

6.4.1. You grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty free, worldwide licence to use, highlight, comment, modify or reproduce your contributions in whole or part, in whatever form, on our websites, social media pages and other communications and publications;

6.4.2. By submitting a contribution, you waive your moral rights including the right to be identified as the author of the content;

6.4.3. You grant us the right to use the name and content that you submit in connection with that material; and

6.4.4. We shall be entitled to reveal your identity (or any information which we have about you) to any third party who claims that any of that material violates any of their rights or to any government or regulatory authority that is entitled or requires us to do so.

6.5. We may remove or edit any material or posting you make on any of our websites at any time.

7. Intellectual property rights (IPRs)

7.1. You acknowledge that all copyright, trade marks (whether registered or not) and other intellectual property rights on our websites and all photographs, footage, designs, images, text, software, data and other material on our websites or generated by our websites are owned by us or our licensors. You are permitted to use our websites and this material only as expressly authorised by us.

7.2. You are permitted to print and download extracts from our websites for your personal non-commercial use and for private study or teaching purposes, provided in each case that:-

7.2.1. Copyright and source indications are also printed and copied;

7.2.2. No modifications are made to the materials and they are not used as part of any other publication;

7.2.3. Any document is printed and copied entirely and is not used in a derogatory or misleading context;

7.2.4. The material is not used in a manner which may damage our reputation or otherwise be harmful to us or impair our ability to achieve our charitable objects; and

7.2.5. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content must always be acknowledged.

7.3. No other use of material on our websites may be made without first obtaining our written permission. In particular, you must not do the following unless you have first obtained our written permission:-

7.3.1. Incorporate any material from our websites in any other work or publication, whether in hard copy or electronic form; or

7.3.2. Make any commercial use or publication of any material on our websites (other than as necessary for the purpose of viewing our sites in the course of business).

7.4. If you wish to use any material on our websites other than in accordance with Term 7.2 above, please email your request to [email protected] with the subject line Permissions Request.

7.5. The photographic, text and other graphic images within any products or publications supplied to you are copyright works and none of them may be copied, reproduced, licensed or otherwise exploited.

7.6. The RNLI name and logo are trade marks of the RNLI. Other logos and names used on our websites may also be the trade marks of the RNLI or their respective owners. No permission is given by us in respect of the use of any such trade marks, names or logos and such use may constitute an infringement of the holder's rights.

7.7. Any rights not expressly granted in these Terms are reserved.

8. Advertisers and sponsors

We may from time to time allow companies to advertise goods and services on our websites. While we will not knowingly run an advert that is untrue, or which relates to goods or services contrary to our objects, the appearance of an advert does not mean that we endorse the advertiser's goods or services. With the exception of products sold on our websites, we are not responsible for the accuracy of any advertising material or for any advertised product or service.

9. Disclaimers

9.1. The information provided on our websites is intended to provide general information only and, as such, should not be considered as a substitute for advice covering any specific situation. While we endeavour to ensure that the information on our websites is correct, we do not warrant the accuracy and completeness of that information. The material on our websites may be out of date, and we make no commitment to update such material.

9.2. We take every reasonable care to ensure that any payment made by you in connection with our websites is conducted via a secure link. However, the security of information and payments transmitted via the internet cannot be guaranteed and as we are not responsible for the operation of the secure link we will not, unless we are negligent, be liable for any loss you may suffer if a third party obtains unauthorised access to any information you provide.

9.3. We do not warrant that the functions contained on our websites will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that our sites or the server that makes them available are free of viruses or bugs or represent full functionality, accuracy or reliability of the materials. We will not be liable for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system or any other damages (including amongst other losses, loss of profit or loss of use) arising out of your use or delay or inability to use our websites, their content or any link to another website arising in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise except in the case of death or personal injury caused by our negligence. Nothing in this disclaimer applies to any products which you purchase from our sites.

10. Liability

10.1. We do not limit in any way our liability by law for fraud or death or personal injury caused by our negligence or breach of statutory duty or any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

10.2. To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our websites or any content on them, whether express or implied.

10.3 We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

10.3.1 use of, or inability to use, our websites

10.3.2 use of or reliance on any content displayed on our websites.

10.4 If you are a business user, please note that in particular, we will not be liable for loss of profits, sales, business or revenue, business interruption, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation or any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

10.5 We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial-of-service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our websites or to your downloading of any content on them, or on any website linked to them.

11. Links

11.1. Our websites may contain links to third party websites. Such links are provided for your convenience only. We do not necessarily control such websites and are not responsible for their content. The mere inclusion of such links does not imply any endorsement of the material on those websites or any association with their operators. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to from our websites, you do so entirely at your own risk. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

11.2. If you wish to link from your website to our websites you may do so only on the basis that you link to, but do not replicate, the homepage or other web pages, and subject to the following conditions:-

11.2.1. The link must simply consist of either the website address or any linking logo which we have given you permission to use – see Term 11.2.5;

11.2.2. You do not remove, distort or otherwise alter the size or appearance of any logos on the site;

11.2.3. You do not in any way imply that we are endorsing any products or services;

11.2.4. You do not misrepresent your relationship with us nor present any other false information about us;

11.2.5. You do not otherwise use any RNLI trade marks displayed on our sites without our express written permission;

11.2.6. You do not link from a website that is not owned by you; and

11.2.7. Your website does not contain content that is distasteful, pornographic, infringes any intellectual property rights or other rights of any other person or otherwise does not comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

11.3. At any time and at our complete discretion we reserve the right to withdraw the permission to make website links to our sites.

12. International laws

If any provisions of these Terms are determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any country which apply to these Terms, then so far as these Terms apply within that country in which those provisions are illegal, invalid or unenforceable, those provisions shall be severed and deleted from these Terms and the remaining provisions of these Terms shall survive, remain in full force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.

13. Breaching of these Terms

If you breach these Terms and we take no action, we will still be entitled to use our rights and remedies at a later date or in any other situation where you breach these Terms.

14. Events beyond our control

We will not be liable to you for any delay in delivering any services or order or breach of our obligations, if the delay or breach is due to acts of God, civil commotion, riots, malicious damage, floods, drought, fire, epidemic, legislation, failure of internet service provider (ISP) or telecommunications provider or other cause beyond our reasonable control. This does not affect your statutory rights.

15. Law, courts and language

These Terms, use of our sites and the supply of products and services by us are governed by and to be interpreted in accordance with English law. In the event of any dispute arising in relation to these Terms, use of our sites or in relation to the supply of any products or services by us the English courts will have jurisdiction over the dispute. These Terms and our websites are provided in the English language only.

These Terms were last updated: 15 November 2019