Website Use Terms
to, and your use of, the aak.qa website in general.
By using our website, you are deemed to accept these terms and conditions. If you cannot accept any of these terms and conditions, you are not entitled to use our
website.”
- Available Access to Our Website
A website must not necessarily be available at all times, even though users can be frustrated if the website is down for a particular reason.
Proposed Clause:
“Access to and the use of our website is allowed on a temporary basis. We reserve the right to withdraw or amend our service on our website without notice. We will not be liable if our website is not available at any time, for any reason.
Some parts of our website are only available to registered users.
From time to time, our website will not be available due to planned updates, maintenance operations or the introduction of new services. We will try to limit such operations to (the hours between 10 PM and 5AM) and we will issue a warning for any planned maintenance (…) days upfront.
In case of urgent maintenance, we will have the right to restrict the availability of our
website without warning.”
Certain websites, however, should be continuously available for long periods of time, and possibly at night. Warranties and/or exceptions can be included in the terms in that case. This is e.g. the case for websites providing information services, streaming services that provide music or movies or sports, services that provide continuous services, e.g. for online gaming, financial transactions,
bookings etc.
- Intellectual Property
Suggested Clause:
“The content of the aak.qa website is protected by copyright, trademarks and service marks, database rights and other intellectual property rights. We are the owner or licensee of such rights.
You may print or reproduce reasonable parts of the content for the purpose of your own personal, non-commercial use, provided that you keep and display all copyright
notices and proprietary notices.
You may not otherwise reproduce, copy, modify or distribute nor use for any commercial
purposes, any of the materials, information or other content displayed on the AAK.qa website without our explicit prior written permission.
You may not reproduce an unreasonably large volume of the content of our website without our explicit prior written permission, nor manually, nor using automatic means. Framing and embedding such content will be regarded as reproduction.”
A website is largely accessible to the public and thus the displayed content can be copied (directly
or indirectly, by framing or embedding). For certain types of websites this risk is more important
than for other. The automatic “scraping” of large blocks of information, e.g. with robots, can be
forbidden in the terms.
4 Reliance on Information
Some information on the website should necessarily be correct, such as information directly related to the products or services manufactured or sold by the merchant. This is important precontractual information that may influence the decision of the consumer to buy a product or
service. However, websites may contain other kinds of information, even written by third parties.
The merchant cannot always assume liability for such kind of information.
Suggested Clause:
“Except insofar we are required by Law to provide correct information, or except insofar you, as a consumer, may reasonably expect to receive correct information about our goods and services, any information, commentary and other materials posted on our website are not intended as accurate, complete and up-to-date advice on which you should rely as a sole source of information, and we disclaim all liability in that respect to the extent permitted by law.”
- Acceptable Use
Visitors of the website must abstain from harmful actions that may damage the website or the reputation of the merchant, or even of third parties. In order to have a claim against a visitor who does not act in an acceptable manner, it is preferable to emphasize these requirements in the
Website Use Terms.
Suggested Clause:
“You may visit and use the aak.qa website only in accordance with the principles of acceptable and lawful use and for acceptable and lawful purposes.
This means that it is not allowed to use the aak.qa website:
– in any way that infringes any applicable local, national or international law or
regulation;
– in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or for any unlawful or fraudulent purpose,
or creating an unlawful or fraudulent effect;
– for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way;
– for gaining unauthorized access to computer systems;
– in order to interfere with any other person’s use or enjoyment of the aak.qa website;
– in order to interfere, or gain unauthorized access to, networks or websites or equipment linked to the aak.qa website, or owned by any third party;
– to transmit, or to procure the sending or uploading of any unlawful, unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material, or any other form of such solicitation or marketing (e.g. spam, junk mail, chain letters, pyramid systems);
– to deliberately transmit, upload or otherwise diffuse information that is discriminating, false, libelous, obscene or insulting;
– to try to re-transmit, send or upload or otherwise diffuse any information that is not allowed according to these terms, after it has been refused or removed by us;
– to transmit any data or material containing viruses, Trojan horses, worms, timebombs, spyware, adware, malware or any other harmful code designed to adversely affect computer software or hardware;
– to impersonate another person than yourself Some of the above mentioned actions can be regarded as criminal offences.”
- Forums – Community – Comments
This type of clause is especially provided for websites that contain communities of users on their web pages, such as forums where users can start discussions or give their opinion on certain matters. It can also be useful for websites that provide a possibility for users to give comments on articles, or reviews of certain shops, services, restaurants etc.
“The aak.qa website includes a number of community pages and user forums, and other space allowing the users to interact via message boards, forums or comment boxes.
The opinions and views expressed by persons posting on our community pages do not represent the views of Name Ltd. You will ensure that your comments on any person, group of persons, organizations
goods, or services, will not violate any right of any third party, including any right of personal integrity and any right of intellectual property, and that your comments will not contain unlawful, libelous, abusive or obscene material, or any material that is otherwise offending against the generally accepted legal, ethical and moral principles applicable in Qatar.
We do not control or moderate the content that is placed on such pages. However we reserve the right to monitor and review and/or edit posted content, and we reserve the right to refuse to post certain materials, or to remove or edit such materials, without
warning or notification, based upon a complaint of third persons or authorities, or based upon our concerns following our own reviews. We may especially refuse, edit or remove content that we determine in our sole discretion as illegal, offensive, libelous, defamatory, obscene or otherwise unacceptable taking into consideration our legal, ethical and moral standards, as well as the accepted commercial practices.”
Please note that some forms of false news and some infringements against the social values of the State of Qatar, including the publishing of news or pictures or video recordings related to the sanctity of the private life and family life of individuals (even if they are correct) can be sanctioned on the basis of the Cybercrime prevention Law no 14 of 2014 and the Personal Data Protection
Law No 13 of 2013.
- Suspension or Termination of Use
A warned person should not be frustrated if his use of the Website would be suspended or terminated when he infringes the rules…
“We have the right to determine in our discretion whether there has been a breach of our terms and conditions through your use of our website. When we believe that such breach has occurred, we may take any action that we believe is appropriate, including an immediate temporary suspension of the use of our website or a permanent termination of such use, through disabling your password or otherwise.
Furthermore, in such case we have the right to remove or refuse any posting or material uploaded by you on our website, and in case of criminal offences or other unlawful actions we will have the right to inform the law enforcement authorities if we feel that such is necessary, and we may co-operate with such authorities by disclosing your identity to them.
Upon a legitimate request of the competent public authorities, or a complaint of third parties that seems legitimate at first sight, we will have the right, and possibly even an obligation, to undertake any of the above-indicated actions.
The actions mentioned herein will not limit any other possible actions under Qatar Law, including legal proceedings and/or claims for damage compensation or indemnification.”
- Advertising and Sponsorship
Suggested Clause: “Our website may contain advertising or sponsorship through links or banners. The
content of advertisements is not submitted to us prior to the publication. Only the advertisers must ensure that any advertising complies with the legal, ethical or sectoral requirements. We are not responsible for any content of such advertisements.”
- Links with Other Websites
Suggested Clause: “Our website may include links to other websites or material. We do not warrant that such links are continuously operational. We are not responsible for any linked websites
or linked material, which is beyond our control.
Other websites are permitted to link to our homepage, provided that this is done in a manner that is fair and legal, in accordance with the principles set out in our acceptable use policy (see above) and without damaging our reputation, and without implying or suggesting any association, approval or endorsement from us.
The framing of a part of our website, or a deep link into our website, is only permitted after our prior written agreement.”
- Your Liability
Because liability is a serious matter, it is appropriate to stipulate a clear warning. “You will be held responsible for all losses, costs and expenses incurred by us, including attorney’s expenses, all damages, indemnities or fines awarded against us by any court or other competent authority, and all sums paid by us as a result of any settlement agreed by us, arising out or in connection with:
– Any claim by any third party or authority that the use of the aak.qa website by you is defamatory, offensive or abusive, or of an obscene nature, or is illegal, or in breach of an applicable code of practice;
– Any claim by any third party that the use of the aak.qa website by you infringes that third party’s copyright or other intellectual property rights of whatever nature.”
- Our Lliability It is important to frame and, where possible, to limit the liability of the trader.
“As stated above in these Website Use Terms, we do not accept liability for the unavailability of the website, nor for actions or statements of third parties on our website.
The information displayed on our website is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy, except for information about our own goods or services, insofar you, as a consumer, may reasonably assume that such information is correct.
Except as otherwise provided, we hereby expressly exclude any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by you in connection with the use, the inability to use, or the results of the use of our website, any information or materials displayed or incorporated in it, and any websites linked to it. Thus, we exclude, amongst other, the liability for loss of data, loss of business, loss of opportunities as well as moral damage.
However, we do not exclude any liability that would arise from fraudulent representation by us or an employee of our company, if that would occur. We try insofar this is reasonably possible, to avoid the occurrence of malware on our website or that is transferred making misuse of our website; however, we are only able to apply the normal precautions against such malware and we cannot guarantee the absence of such malware.”
- Information About You
In this clause, referral is made to the Privacy Policy which is thus indirectly included in these Terms.
“We process information about you, including information about your visits to our website, in accordance with our Privacy Policy, found here.
Using our website, you consent to such processing of data and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.”
- Contractual Transactions
In this clause, referral is made to the Terms and Conditions of commercial nature (for sales and/or services). Thus, these terms are indirectly included in these Website Use Terms. “Any contracts for the supply of goods or services that are formed through our website,
are governed by our Terms and Conditions, found here.”
- Changes to These Terms
Changes to the Terms must be automatically applicable to the users. That is why this clause will
inform them about the possible occurrence of such changes. “We are entitled to revise these Website Use Terms at any time.
We ask you to check these pages from time to time to take notice of any changes. You are deemed to have read and accepted the modified Website Use Terms.”
- Applicable Law and Jurisdiction
It is important to centralize all claims and disputes regarding the use of the website in one court, and to apply a legal system that is known by the local merchant and his legal counsel. This will avoid fragmented decisions about the application of the clauses and will also avoid fragmented costs for proceedings in different jurisdictions. “[The Court of Qatar] will have [exclusive] jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or
related to, the use of our website, although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country that provides a legal ground for jurisdiction.
These Terms of Use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the Laws of the State of Qatar.”
The indicated jurisdiction can be defined as exclusive or not. If it is exclusive, and if the clause is considered valid vis a vis consumers in other countries, no other court will have jurisdiction (except if other possibilities are mentioned as in the example above). If it is not defined as exclusive, other courts may also have jurisdiction based on the Law or treaties with other countries. The validity of such clause vis a vis consumers can be subject to treaties with other countries or organisations such as the GCC or bilateral treaties with certain countries. Regarding the local consumers, a clause that would impose a strict and exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Qatar will protect the local consumers because one entralized court would at a high level warrant the application of the different laws protecting the consumers, and the precedents of this Court would form a constant case law. The risk of fragmented and/or diverse case law throughout smaller courts or even foreign courts would thus be eliminated.