Terms and Conditions
These terms and conditions are the contract between you and GoFreelance (“us”, “we”, etc). By visiting or using Our Website, or signing up for our Services, you agree to be bound by them.
We are GoFreelance, a company registered in South Africa, company number 2022 / 752424 / 07.
Please read these terms carefully before registering to Our Website or using our Services. If you do not agree with any part, you should leave Our Website immediately.
These are the agreed terms:
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“Content” |
means the textual, visual or aural content that is encountered as part of your experience on Our Website. It may include, among other things: text, images, sounds, videos and animations. It includes content Posted by you. It does not include content that is solicited by us either for maintenance of customer records or with a view to submission to third parties in the course of our business. |
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"Intellectual Property" |
means intellectual property owned by us, of every sort, whether or not registered or registrable in any country, including property of kinds coming into existence after today; and including, among others, patents, trade marks, unregistered marks, designs, copyrights, software, domain names, discoveries, compilations, creations and inventions, together with all rights which are derived from those rights. |
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“Freelancer” |
means a person registered to use Our Website and/or our Services to find work. |
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“Our Website” |
means any website or service designed for electronic access by mobile or fixed devices which is owned or operated by us or any member of the GoFreelance group of companies. It includes all of the web pages controlled by us. |
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"Post" |
means place on or into Our Website any Content or material of any sort by any means and the term “Posting” and “Posted” shall be interpreted accordingly. |
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"Client" |
means a person who posts a job on Our Website. |
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“Services” |
means all of the services available from Our Website, whether free or charged. |
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In this agreement unless the context otherwise requires:
2.1. a reference to a person includes a human individual, a corporate entity and any organisation which is managed or controlled as a unit.
2.2. in the context of permission, “may not” in connection with an action of yours, means “must not”.
2.3. the headings to the paragraphs in this agreement are inserted for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation.
2.4. any agreement by any party not to do or omit to do something includes an obligation not to allow some other person to do or omit to do that same thing.
2.5. this agreement is made only in the English language. If there is any conflict in meaning between the English language version of this agreement and any version or translation of this agreement in any other language, the English language version shall prevail.
3.1. Our Website is a market place for Freelancers to meet prospective Clients.
3.2. We do not offer the Services in all countries. We may refuse your profile posting if you live in a country we do not serve.
3.3. Use of Our Website may be unlawful in some countries by some people. You are responsible for your compliance with the laws of your country.
3.4. In entering into this contract you have not relied on any representation or information from any source except the definition and explanation of the Services given on Our Website.
3.5. Subject to these terms and conditions, we agree to provide to you some or all of the Services described on Our Website at the prices we charge.
3.6. Some of our Services are now or may in future, be available to you only subject to additional terms. Those terms will be set out on Our Website. You now agree that if you choose to use any such service, the relevant terms will become part of this agreement.
3.7. GoFreelance will facilitate the payment between the Client and the Freelancer. GoFreelance charges a transaction fee for this service as specified on the website.
3.8. You acknowledge that you understand exactly what is included in the Services and you are satisfied that the Services are suitable and satisfactory for your requirements;
3.9. So far as we allow use of our Intellectual Property, we grant a licence to you, limited to the terms set out in this agreement.
3.10.
The contract between us comes into existence
only when GoFreelance receives payment for the
accepted project
3.11. We may change this agreement and / or the way we provide the Services, at any time. If we do:
3.11.1 the change will take effect when we Post it on Our Website.
3.11.2
you agree to be bound by any changes.
4.1. When you visit Our Website, you accept responsibility for any action done by any person using your name, account or password. You should take all necessary steps to ensure that the password is kept confidential and secure and should inform us immediately if you have any reason to believe that your password has become known to anyone else, or if the password is being, or is likely to be, used in an unauthorised manner.
4.2. You agree that you have provided accurate, up to date, and complete information about yourself. We are not responsible for any error made as a result of such information being inaccurate.
4.3. You agree to notify us of any changes in your information immediately it occurs. If you do not do so, we may terminate your account.
5.1. Details of the procedure to register an account are as set out on Our Website and accordingly updated from time to time.
5.2. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2002 give you 7 days within which you may cancel your GoFreelance registration and ask for a full refund of your money. However, our members want to use our Services immediately. For that reason our Service is designed so that you can start immediately - or as soon as we are reasonably able to deliver it.
5.3. By subscribing to use our Service immediately, you will lose your right to the 7 days “cooling off” period.
5.4. You do not have to take any action for this to apply. By accepting these terms and conditions, you do instruct us to provide you access to the GoFreelance service. You know that by doing so, you may not be entitled to a refund.
5.5. Apart from your cancellation right, termination of your account will be regulated by this contract set out in paragraph 15 below.
5.6. We reserve the right to modify the registration terms and to change the terms and conditions of this agreement at any time, without notice. Your continued use of Our Website after such modifications shall be deemed an acceptance by you to be bound by the terms of the modified agreement. The terms that apply to you are those Posted here on Our Website on the day you register your account.
6.1. The fees payable for Services are clearly set out on Our Website.
6.2. The price charged for any Services may differ from one country to another. You may not be entitled to the lowest price unless you reside in the qualifying country.
6.3.
Prices are inclusive of any applicable value
added tax or other sales tax
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If you buy as consumer as defined in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 2002, then the following terms apply.
7.1. The contract between us is not made until you have agreed these terms, whether via Our Website or in hard copy, and we have agreed in writing to provide the Services you want.
7.2. Whether or not you have paid any money to us at that time is neither relevant to the start of the contract or your right to cancel.
7.3. The contract is not made automatically at the point when you have agreed to these contract terms. That is merely your offer. The contract is made later, when we accept and agree to provide the services you want.
7.4. So far as our Service is continuing, you may cancel it at any time before we have completely provided it. If you do, we will return to you any money paid after deduction of an appropriate amount to cover any part of the Service we have supplied, including work we may not by then have told you about.
We take care to make Our Website safe for you to use.
8.1. Card payments are not processed on a page controlled by us. We use one or more online payment service providers who will encrypt your card or bank account details in a secure environment.
8.2. If you have asked us to remember your credit card details in readiness for your next purchase or subscription, we will securely store your payment details on our systems. These details will be fully encrypted and only used to process your automatic monthly payments or other transactions which you have initiated.
9.1. Our privacy policy is strong and precise. It complies fully with current privacy law which is at www.gofreelance.co.za/privacy
9.2. If you Post Content to any public area of Our Website it becomes available in the public domain. We have no control who sees it nor what anyone does with it.
9.3. Even if access to your data is behind a user registration it remains effectively in the public domain because someone has only to register and log in, to access it. You should therefore avoid Posting unnecessary confidential information.
9.4. We have no specific plan to use your Content but we need the freedom to be able to publicise our Services. You therefore now irrevocably grant to us the right and licence to edit, copy, publish, distribute, translate and otherwise use any Content that you place on Our Website, in the public domain and in any medium. You represent and warrant that you are authorised to grant all such rights.
9.5. We will use that licence only for commercial purposes of the business of Our Website and will stop using it after a commercially reasonable period of time.
9.6. You agree to waive your right to claim authorship and your right to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of your work as provided in the Copyright Act 1978.
9.7.
You now irrevocably
authorise us to publish feedback, comments and ratings about your activity
through Our Website, even though it may be defamatory or critical.
9.8. Posting Content of any sort does not change your ownership of the copyright in it. We have no claim over it and we will not protect your rights for you.
9.9. You understand that you are personally responsible for your breach of someone else’s intellectual property rights, defamation, or any law, which may occur as a result of any Content having been Posted by you;
9.10. You accept all risk and responsibility for determining whether any Content is in the public domain and not confidential.
9.11. Please notify us of any security breach or unauthorised use of your account.
9.12.
If you do send to us
material of any sort, you are deemed to have granted to us a licence to use it
in the terms set out at sub paragraph four above.
We invite you to Post Content to Our Website in several ways and for different purposes. We have to regulate your use of Our Website to protect our business and our staff, to protect other users of Our Website and to comply with the law. These provisions apply to all users of Our Website.
We do not undertake to moderate or check every item Posted, but we do protect our business vigorously. If we believe Content Posted breaches the law, we shall co-operate fully with the law enforcement authorities in whatever ways we can.
You agree that you will not use or allow anyone else to use Our Website to Post Content or undertake any activity which is or may:
10.1. be unlawful, or tend to incite another person to commit a crime;
10.2. consist in commercial audio, video or music files;
10.3. be obscene, offensive, threatening, violent, malicious or defamatory;
10.4. be sexually explicit or pornographic;
10.5. use a Posting to solicit responses unconnected with the purpose of Our Website or the terms proposed by this agreement.
You will not:
11.1. link to Our Website in any way that would cause the appearance or presentation of Our Website to be different from what would be seen by a user who accessed Our Website by typing the URL into a standard browser;
11.2. download any part of Our Website, without our express written consent;
11.3. collect or use any fsreelancer or client listings, service descriptions, or prices;
11.4. for any purpose use our name, any proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of ours or of our affiliates in any way and in particular to entice search robots to some other website
11.5. hide or remove the banner advertisements on any page of Our Website;
11.6. use on Our Website software which assists in performing any automated operation.
12.1. We may, from time to time, set a limit on the number of messages you may send, store, or receive through the Service. We may delete messages in excess of that limit. We shall give you notice of any change to your limit, except in an emergency.
12.2. We assume no responsibility for the deletion or failure to store or deliver email or other messages.
12.3. You accept that we cannot be liable to you for any such deletion or failure to deliver to you.
12.4. We maintain reasonable procedures for general backup of data for our own purposes but we give no warranty that your data will be saved or backed up in any particular circumstances unless we have made specific contractual arrangements with you in writing.
13.1. You understand and agree that you alone are responsible for all of the information you submit to us and for maintaining it up to date.
13.2. The information you submit for a profile must be accurate and complete. It must not include information which might enable a user to contact you directly, such as a telephone number, email address or street address.
13.3. If you deal with a Client in a way which assists the Client to avoid liability for payment to us, you agree to be responsible for making that payment to us.
13.4. Attempting to use the website to find freelancers or clients and making direct contact to avoid paying the service fee will result in your account being terminated immediately.
13.5. By registering with us, you accept that we may send to you from time to time offers by third parties to supply goods or services to you.
13.6. If or when you cancel your account, we may delete all your personal information and documents relating to you.
13.7. We may also delete your information if you have not taken any active step for a period of at least 12 months.
13.8. We are not obliged to delete your personal information immediately. We are not liable for any action of a third party in their use of your information.
14.1. If you or we terminate your account, all your account information may be deleted from our servers.
14.2. You may terminate this agreement at any time, for any reason, with immediate effect. You may terminate the agreement either by sending notice to us by email, or by completing the form on the Web Site and submitting it. We reserve the right to check the validity of any request to terminate your account.
14.3.
We retain the right, at our sole discretion,
to terminate any and all parts of the Services provided to you, without
refunding to you any fees paid if we decide in our absolute discretion that you
have failed to comply with any of the terms of this agreement
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Termination by either party shall have the following effects:
14.3.1 your right to use the Services immediately ceases;
14.3.2 we are under no obligation to forward any unread or unsent messages to you or any third party;
14.4. In the event of such termination by us, there shall be no re-imbursement or credit if the Service is terminated due to your violation of the terms of this agreement.
15.1. If it is necessary for us to interrupt the Services, we will give you reasonable notice where this is possible and when we judge the down time is such as to justify telling you.
15.2. You acknowledge that the Services may also be interrupted for many reasons beyond our control.
15.3. You agree that we are not liable to you for any loss, foreseeable or not, arising from any interruption to the Services.
You agree that at all times you will:
16.1. not do anything which does or might reduce the value of our Intellectual Property or challenge our ownership of it.
16.2. notify us of any suspected infringement of the Intellectual Property;
16.3. so far as concerns software provided or made accessible by us to you, you will not:
16.3.1 copy, or make any change to any part of its code;
16.3.2 use it in any way not anticipated by this agreement;
16.3.3 give access to it to any other person than you, the licensee in this agreement;
16.4. not use the Intellectual Property except directly in our interest.
17.1. For the avoidance of doubt, this paragraph is addressed to any person who comes on Our Website for any purpose.
17.2. We are under no obligation to monitor or record the activity of any user of Our Website for any purpose, nor do we assume any responsibility to monitor or police Internet-related activities. However, we may do so without notice to you and without giving you a reason.
17.3. If you are offended by any Content, the following procedure applies:
17.3.1 your claim or complaint must be submitted to us in the form available on Our Website, or contain the same information as that requested in our form. It must be sent to us by email.
17.3.2 we shall remove the offending Content as soon as we are reasonably able;
17.3.3 after we receive notice of a claim or complaint, we shall investigate so far as we alone decide;
17.3.4 we may re-instate the Content about which you have complained or we may not.
17.4. In respect of any complaint made by you or any person on your behalf, whether using our form of complaint or not, you now irrevocably grant to us a licence to publish the complaint and all ensuing correspondence and communication, without limit.
17.5. You now agree that if any complaint is made by you frivolously or vexatiously you will repay us the cost of our investigation including legal fees, if any.
18.1. The law differs from one country to another. This paragraph applies so far as the applicable law allows.
18.2. All implied conditions, warranties and terms are excluded from this agreement. If in any jurisdiction an implied condition, warrant or term cannot be excluded, then this sub paragraph shall be deemed to be reduced in effect, only to the extent necessary to release that specific condition, warranty or term.
18.3. We make no representation or warranty that the Service will be:
18.3.1 useful to you;
18.3.2 of satisfactory quality;
18.3.3 fit for a particular purpose;
18.3.4 available or accessible, without interruption, or without error.
18.4. We claim no expert knowledge in any subject. We disclaim any obligation or liability to you arising directly or indirectly from information you take from Our Website.
18.5. You agree that in any circumstances we are not liable for any penalties or refunds for services offered by freelancers.
18.6. We shall not be liable to you for any loss or expense which is:
18.6.1 indirect or consequential loss; or
18.6.2 economic loss or other loss of turnover, profits, business or goodwill even if such loss was reasonably foreseeable or we knew you might incur it.
18.7. This paragraph (and any other paragraph which excludes or restricts our liability) applies to our directors, officers, employees, subcontractors, agents and affiliated companies as well as to us.
18.8. If you become aware of any breach of any term of this agreement by any person, please tell us by email. We welcome your input but do not guarantee to agree with your judgement.
18.9. Nothing in this agreement shall be construed as limiting or excluding our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.
You agree to indemnify us against all costs, claims and expense arising directly or indirectly from:
19.1. your failure to comply with the law of any country;
19.2. your breach of this agreement;
19.3. a claim in contract or tort, arising from your use of the Services
19.4. any content you place on your own website which causes loss to us;
19.5. a breach of the intellectual property rights of any person;
19.6. and for the purpose of this paragraph you agree that the cost of our management and technical time is properly recoverable and can reasonably be valued at R 1500 per hour without further proof.
19.7. Although this agreement shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws of South Africa, software downloaded from or via Our Website may also be subject to export control law of the United States of America or other jurisdictions. If you breach those laws you will have committed an offence in that or those countries. By downloading or using such software, you now represent and warrant that you are not located in, under the control of, or a national or resident of any such country.
20.1. You undertake to provide to us your current land address, e-mail address and telephone numbers as often as they are changed together with all information that we may require to enable us to fulfil our obligations under this contract.
20.2. If any term or provision of this agreement is at any time held by any jurisdiction to be void, invalid or unenforceable, then it shall be treated as changed or reduced, only to the extent minimally necessary to bring it within the laws of that jurisdiction and to prevent it from being void and it shall be binding in that changed or reduced form. Subject to that, each provision shall be interpreted as severable and shall not in any way affect any other of these terms.
20.3. If you are in breach of any term of this agreement, we may:
20.3.1 terminate your account and refuse access to Our Website;
20.3.2 remove or edit Content, or cancel any order at our discretion;
20.3.3 issue a claim in any court.
20.4. Any obligation in this agreement intended to continue to have effect after termination or completion shall so continue.
20.5. No failure or delay by any party to exercise any right, power or remedy will operate as a waiver of it nor indicate any intention to reduce that or any other right in the future.
20.6. Any communication to be served on either of the parties by the other shall be delivered by messenger or e-mail.
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It shall be deemed to have been delivered: |
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If sent by e-mail to the address from which the receiving party has last sent e-mail: within 24 hours if no notice of non-receipt has been received by the sender. |
20.7. In the event of a dispute between us, we undertake to attempt to settle the dispute by engaging in good faith with the other in a process of mediation before commencing arbitration or litigation.
20.8. So far as the law permits, and unless otherwise stated, this agreement does not give any right to any third party.
20.9. The validity, construction and performance of this agreement shall be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa and you agree that any dispute arising from it shall be litigated only in that country.