Terms of Use
Last Modified: 15 August 2024
Summary
Our Rules
We want you to enjoy using the site, but we do have a few rules that are designed to ensure it is a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone. This summary tells you the important bits and together with the more detailed section below, forms the contract between you and the company. Please note, you may only use the site if you agree to be bound by these Terms of use (see section below this summary) and our Privacy Policy.
Who are we?
The site is operated by Dating Lab Limited ("DL"), in association with MySingleFriend (a trading name of My Single Friend Limited). Dating Lab Limited is registered in Jersey, company registration number 89122, UK VAT number 385 3608 71. Our address is 13 Castle Street, St. Helier, Jersey JE2 3BT, Channel Islands. Tel 0330 123 9050. We provide the service on an "as is" basis and cannot guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free, or will achieve particular results.
Who can use the site?
You must be over 18 and you must not have been convicted of or currently be charged with any offence (or are subject to any court order, police investigation, formal caution or similar) specifically relating to fraud, assault, violence, sexual misconduct or harassment.
Types of membership
You may use the site for free as a guest or as a member, however some features are only available to members who have purchased a valid subscription package (Subscribers). The most important feature that is only available to Subscribers is the ability to contact other members using the site's built in email and messaging systems. Purchasing a subscription entitles you to send one or more personal messages (using the site's internal messaging system) to other members at any point within the subscription period you have purchased. The supply of the service will be deemed to have been fully completed upon delivery of your first, personal message. You may then continue to message other members as many times as you wish during the remainder of your subscription period.
Cancellation and refunds
Refunds will only be made against your first payment to us. Please see our Refund Policy below for details on eligibility.
Auto renewal
When you take out a subscription, it will normally be set up by default to automatically renew on a regular basis. You can cancel this whenever you wish (provided you do so no later than 24 hours before a payment is due) by following the instructions on the Subscription Status page. Please note, your automatic renewal agreement will be cancelled by us without notice if you have not logged in to the service for 12 months or longer. Any applicable discount will then be lost.
Safety
Online dating should be a fun and safe experience. We do our best to ensure users are genuine, but you must always take responsibility for your own safety. In particular, we would draw your attention to the following advice:-
Never give out your own email address, mobile phone number or other contact details unless you have satisfied yourself that the person you are giving that information to is who they say they are and is to be trusted with such information.
Never give any money or any item of value to anyone who contacts you through the site.
Please read our Safe Dating Guide for more information on the do's and don'ts of online dating.
You may:
Cancel your membership whenever you wish.
You must:
Abide by our rules at all times.
Notify us if you become aware of any other user of the site who is acting inappropriately or not in accordance with these rules.
You must not:
Use the site in any way that might breach any applicable law, regulation or code of conduct.
Include any false, misleading, offensive or sexually explicit content in your profile or personal details.
Include or attempt to include any contact details (including your surname) in your username, profile headline, profile or in any introductory messages.
Include or attempt to indicate your subscription status or log in details in your profile.
Use, or attempt to use the site for any commercial purposes.
Use any payment method that you are not legally entitled to use.
Use any material that is subject to copyright restrictions.
Include or attempt to include any links to other websites.
User Content and information
DL is not the publisher of user content, therefore it is your sole responsibility to decide what information you include in your profile or any communication you may have with other users. Please remember that publicly visible information is just that!
We will never divulge any of your personal details to another user.
We may amend or remove all or part of your profile at our sole discretion.
Subject to any consents you may have given, we reserve the right to use all or any part of your profile to help promote the service as we see fit.
As well as seeing profiles from the site you join, you will also be able to see profiles from some of our other sites and vice versa. For a complete list of the sites that we allow you to see other profiles from, please see our Network Sites list in the definitions section below.
We do not verify the accuracy of any information included in a user's profile, therefore you should always exercise caution and carry out your own validation before meeting someone in person, or passing on your contact details to them.
We always try to delete any offensive or inappropriate material as soon as we are aware of it. If you spot anything we have missed, please tell us.
DL Content
All logos, graphics, images etc on the site are our or our partners intellectual property, and as such you may not use them for any purpose outside the intended scope of the site.
You may not include our site in whole or in part within any other site without our written consent.
Full Terms of use of MySingleFriend https://www.mysinglefriend.com
Please read these Terms carefully. By registering as a Member or Subscriber and ticking the box confirming "I confirm that I am over 18 years of age and grant consent to the use of cookies and the processing of my personal data in connection with the service, as defined in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, which I have read and agree to" and each time you use the Services (whether or not you register as a Member or Subscriber), you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not accept them in full, you must not register as a Member or Subscriber or use the Services.
We may change these Terms or the Privacy Policy at any time by posting a revised version on the Site, however we will notify you when you next log in if any material changes have been made to either. You will be bound by the revised Terms and Privacy Policy if you continue to use our Services following the date on which the revised Terms or Privacy Policy are published on the Site.
1. Information about us
The Site is operated by Dating Lab Limited ("Dating Lab", "DL" also referred to as "we", "us", "our" and similar expressions) in association with MySingleFriend (a trading name of My Single Friend Limited). Other definitions used in these Terms are set out at the end of the Terms in section 17.
DL is a Channel Islands company, our postal address is: Dating Lab Limited, 13 Castle Street, St. Helier, Jersey JE2 3BT, Channel Islands. Telephone: 0330 123 9050. The company's registered number is 89122, UK VAT Number 385 3608 71.
2. Eligibility to use the Site and the Services
The Service is intended for single adults who are looking to meet like-minded people for serious, long-term relationships. You must be over 18 years of age to become a Member, Subscriber or User.
You may also join the Site if you are currently married/partnered but are only looking for genuine friendships and/or activity partners. This Service is not intended to be used for hook-ups, affairs or "discreet meets.
You must not use or attempt to use the Service if you have been charged with or convicted of any offence (or are subject to any court order, police investigation, formal caution or similar) specifically relating to fraud, assault, violence, sexual misconduct or harassment.
You may not seek to use the Site or the Service for any commercial purposes.
We reserve the right to refuse any application to become a Member or Subscriber. You will not become a Member or Subscriber until you receive email confirmation from us, and we may retract any such membership or subscription at any stage at our sole discretion.
Back to top of page
3. Membership and Subscriptions
You may remove your profile or cancel your subscription at any time (see section 10 Termination below for further detail).
If you do not cancel your subscription and have an automatic renewal agreement in place, we will automatically renew it when it is about to expire. Automatic renewal transactions may be processed up to 24 hours before your existing subscription expires, so if you do want to cancel your automatic renewal we recommend that you do so at least 48 hours prior to the expiry date. You can read more about the advantages of automatic renewal here. Please note, your automatic renewal agreement will be cancelled by us without notice if you have not logged in to the service for 12 months or longer. Any applicable discount will then be lost.
If you cancel your initial subscription and have not used the service, then you may be eligible for a full or partial refund. Please see our Refund Policy below for details on eligibility.
4. Safety and Security
Our experienced vetting team checks all new User profiles (and updates to them) for inappropriate content and tries to identify and remove possible scammers from the Site. However, we are not in a position to verify the identity of Users or the accuracy of User Content, nor can we guarantee that our vetting processes will spot all inappropriate User Content. You should therefore not assume that any User Content is accurate or that another User is who he or she claims to be. It is up to you to take appropriate steps to investigate User Content before you take any action based on it. We will not be liable for false or misleading statements by other Users.
When arranging to meet another person through use of the Services, you must take appropriate precautions and follow the safety guidelines in our Safe Dating Guide. Any such meetings are at your own risk.
You alone are responsible for ensuring that your interaction with other Users is lawful.
You are responsible for the acts or omissions of any third parties who use your identification information or account, whether fraudulent or not. You agree to indemnify us against any claims of this kind.
We will not be liable if your identity is used by someone else.
You must notify us immediately of any apparent breach of security such as loss, theft, misuse or unauthorised disclosure or use of a username or password. In such case you should immediately amend your password.
Although we cannot control what may happen between Users if they decide to meet in person, you should notify us via our report abuse page if you encounter any behaviour that might reasonably be expected to represent a threat to other Users. Any such reports will be treated in confidence and investigated by a senior member of our customer support team. If it is deemed necessary we may (at our sole discretion) elect to warn the other User or to suspend or delete his or her profile.
If you experience a serious incident when meeting another User (such as a physical attack or assault) or suspect that another User is missing after meeting someone through the Services (or otherwise) you are advised to contact the police immediately and let our customer support team know via our report abuse page.
Except as described in paragraph 4.7 above, we will not become involved in any disputes between Users, nor do we provide any arbitration or settlement services should a dispute arise.
Back to top of page
5. Your obligations in agreeing to use the Site and the Services
You agree that you will not:
- in connection with the Services breach any applicable law, regulation or code of conduct;
- publish or send any User Content (including photos you make visible only to your favourites) or communications to us which are false or misleading (and you agree to update User Content to ensure that it does not become false or misleading), sexually explicit, sexually suggestive, vulgar, indecent, obscene, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, abusive, unlawful, deceitful, invasive of another's privacy, offensive, harmful, violent, threatening, harassing, defamatory, an infringement of third-party intellectual property or other rights or which encourage or assist any of the foregoing. Photographic content that will be publicly viewable is further subject to the terms and conditions noted on the photo upload page;
- publish content (including photos) that directly or indirectly alludes to child pornography or attempts to solicit communication with or on behalf of any person under the age of 18;
- include in your profile or any other information you post on the Site or in any communications you make through the Site to another User who has not previously contacted you, any information that enables you to be personally identified or contacted (other than through the Services), including (but not limited to) your last name, postal or email address or telephone number or another website address where such information about you can be found. For the purposes of this restriction contact with another User through the "One liner" service does not qualify as prior contact;
- solicit other Users' contact details or disclose your subscription or Member status in your profile;
- disclose or make accessible to any third-party any username(s), password(s), activation code(s) or similar information allocated to Users or use them for any purpose other than authentication for the Services;
- provide email addresses to us of other persons or publish or send any User Content referring to other persons without having obtained their prior consent;
- publish or send any User Content which links to any third-party websites which are illegal or contain inappropriate content;
- use the Services for any commercial, professional or non-private purposes (including advertising, canvassing, soliciting, trading, prostitution);
- use the Services for junk mail, spam and pyramid or similar or fraudulent schemes;
- do anything which may have the effect of disrupting the Services including the use of worms, viruses, software bombs or mass mailings;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Services or to the equipment used to provide the Services;
- use the Services to harass any other Member or seek to contact any Member who requests that you cease contact (you will have the option to block contact from other Members by selecting the appropriate option in their profiles);
- impersonate any other person or entity; or
- use the Services other than for the purposes set out in these Terms.
You agree to comply with any guidelines or requirements on our Site as well as any reasonable request or instructions by us in connection with the Services.
You must ensure that all contact and payment information (e.g. postal and email addresses, credit card numbers) that you provide are accurate and kept up to date.
You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any inappropriate behaviour in connection with the Services (including if you believe that material belonging to a third-party has been posted on the Site by another User in breach of copyright). Click here to report inappropriate behaviour or suspicious profiles to the customer support team.
Back to top of page
6. User Content
DL only provides the channel for Members to publish and/or distribute their personal information and is not the publisher of User Content.
It is your responsibility to decide which information to publish or send as User Content (which will be visible to other Users or Internet users). DL will not be responsible for any misuse of such User Content by any other User or third party.
Save as set out in the Privacy Policy, we will not disclose any personal details supplied by you that are not publicly displayed in your profile without your prior consent.
DL reserves the right to exercise editorial control over profile and picture content, but accepts no liability for User Content (including pictures) or other activities of Users which may breach the rights of other Users or third parties.
DL does not verify the accuracy or truth of any information published by Users. You should therefore conduct your own independent investigations to verify the accuracy of User Content published or sent by other Users and be careful when dealing with other Users (see also section 4 (Safety and Security) above).
We do ask Users to notify us of inappropriate User Content. You acknowledge that such notification may take place and that we may take steps outlined in these Terms in respect of such information which comes to our attention if it relates to User Content published or sent by you.
We reserve the right not to accept or to suspend, redact or remove from the Site and the Services all or part of any profile or any other User Content for any reason and, if we do so, we will not enter into correspondence with you regarding the suitability of such User Content.
We assume no responsibility for the deletion of or failure to store your User Content, including profile details and photographs. Further, you must ensure that you save any messages you wish to keep.
We reserve the right to permanently delete messages and other User Content after any period stated under the heading "How do I delete my profile?" in the Profile Help section of the FAQs or if we exercise any right of termination under this Agreement.
DL cannot guarantee that offensive or inappropriate material will be removed or deleted from the Site in every case, but any failure to do so in a particular case will not affect our right to remove or delete similar material in subsequent cases.
Back to top of page
7. Proprietary Information and Content
The Site and the Services contain or use information and content (including marks, logos, graphics, images, photographs, animation, videos, text and software) that are the intellectual property of our partners, other Users and us. Your right of use is strictly limited to accessing, downloading, printing and reproducing such information or content for your own personal, private and non-commercial use of the Services within the scope of these Terms. You may not otherwise retrieve, display, modify, copy, print, sell, download, hire or reverse engineer (except insofar as permitted by applicable law) such content without our prior written consent.
You may not link to our Site or include it in part or in whole within another external website without our prior written consent.
Subject to the terms of the Privacy Policy and any particular permissions you give, you grant us a licence to use (and to sub-licence or assign) your User Content (being material you publish on the site or send to other Members), as necessary in connection with the provision of the Services including:
- making your profile visible to other Users of MySingleFriend;
- making your profile visible to Users on other Network Sites operated by us (which will substantially increase the reach of your profile and the chances of finding a successful match);
- publishing your profile on sites operated by our Network Site media partners as part of their promotion of the dating site;
- making your profile visible to other Users within dating service specific emails (e.g. new fan notification, etc);
- using such Content in connection with our business to business marketing activities.
You may not publish or post any material on the Site or send via the Services any material that belongs to a third party unless you have permission to do so. You are also requested to notify us if you believe that material belonging to a third party has been posted or sent by another User. This includes (but is not limited to) photographs, images and text.
Back to top of page
8. Performance of and changes to the Site and the Services
The Services are provided to you on an "as is" basis by DL. We do not guarantee that our Services will be uninterrupted or error-free or will achieve particular results. We will use our reasonable endeavours to rectify faults if they do occur.
We reserve the right to suspend the Services at any time without notice for repair, maintenance, improvement or other technical reason, but to minimise disruption we will normally try to do so only between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
We reserve the right to change the Services provided such changes do not have a material adverse effect on the quality of the Services.
Back to top of page
9. Right to cancel
You may cancel your order for the Services by giving us written notice within 14 days of placing your order. You can do this by either a) using the "cancellation request" option in the Contact Us form, or b) by emailing us at support@mysinglefriend.com or c) by writing to us at the address given above. Remember to include details of your username and the email address you gave when you joined the site to help us authenticate your request.
If any refund is due under this Right to cancel, it will be governed by the rules of our Refund Policy detailed below.
Back to top of page
10. Termination
You may at any time terminate your registration with us by deleting your profile yourself or by requesting the removal of your profile from the Site by either emailing us or by writing to us at the address given above. We will implement such a request as soon as reasonably practicable.
You may also cancel the automatic renewal of your subscription (no later than 24 hours before the renewal date) by clicking the link on the Subscription Status page. This will not affect your Subscriber benefits, which will continue until your subscription expires.
We may suspend or terminate your registration at any time:
- Immediately without notice or refund if in our reasonable opinion you have committed a serious breach of this Agreement or any User Content published or sent by you or your continued membership is or might be damaging to our business or to other Users; or
- otherwise on seven days' notice to you by email in which case we will provide a full refund of the proportion of your subscription payment that relates to the period after termination.
Termination will not affect the accrued rights of either party under this Agreement.
Back to top of page
11. Refund Policy
We try our best to treat all of our members fairly, just as we ourselves would like to be treated.
Sometimes it's fair to ask us for a refund, but if you've used the service, we feel that it is equally fair to expect you to pay for it.
Most people by now know that UK and European distance selling regulations state that all consumers must have a 14 day cooling off period whenever they buy a service like ours, however the service or benefit need not be provided until the 14 day period is over.
Because our members usually want to start messaging as soon as they pay us, this delay would not be very popular. That's why we ask everyone who purchases a subscription to indicate their instruction to us as follows: "By ticking this box, I am expressly instructing MySingleFriend to start my subscription immediately and I acknowledge that once I use the service**, I will lose my right to cancel this payment in accordance with distance selling regulations. I understand that I can cancel any related auto-renewal agreements whenever I wish (provided you do so no later than 24 hours before any scheduled payment)." By instructing us in this way, if you use the service, we are legally entitled to charge you for the service. Please note, nothing in this agreement affects or removes your statutory rights.
Refunds will therefore only be made if the following conditions are met:
- you have not used the service*
- you cancel your subscription within 14 days of your initial payment to us
PLEASE NOTE:
It is your responsibility to cancel any auto-renewal agreement at least 48 hours before the next payment date - we do not offer refunds for renewal payments.
We are unable to agree to, or issue any refunds where payment has been made via the iOS or Android mobile Apps. Please contact the relevant payment provider for any such refund requests.
* The definition of service use is where either you or the recipient of a gift subscription or premium message, have sent one or more personal messages. This does not apply to generic one-liner messages, which are free.
Back to top of page
12. Third party websites
We or third parties may provide links on our Site to third party websites. You use them at your own risk. We do not review such sites. We do not recommend or recommend such sites nor are we responsible for the content of those sites or any goods or services offered thereon. If in the course of performing a search on our site you encounter any third party website the use of which would violate any applicable law, you must immediately cease use of such website.
Back to top of page
13. Limitation of liability
This section 12 (and any other clause excluding or restricting our liability) applies to our directors, officers, employees, subcontractors and agents (who may enforce this clause under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999) as well as to us. Nothing in this Agreement in any way limits or excludes our liability for negligence causing death or personal injury or for fraudulent misrepresentation or for anything which may not legally be excluded or limited.
You must give us a reasonable opportunity to remedy any matter for which we are liable before you incur any costs remedying the matter yourself. If you do not, we shall have no liability to you for that matter.
We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage you suffer to the extent you cause or contribute to such loss or damage by your own acts or omissions, for example by not complying with these Terms.
Our liability of any kind (including our own negligence) with respect to the Services for any one event or series of related events is limited to double the total fees paid by you in the 12 months before the event(s) complained of.
In no event (including our own negligence) will we be liable for any indirect losses (such as loss of profits, contracts or business) even if we have been advised of or ought to be aware of the possibility of such losses.
We are not liable for failure to perform or delay in performing any obligation under this Agreement if the failure or delay is caused by any circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including acts or omissions of providers of telecommunications services or faults in or failures of their networks and equipment.
Back to top of page
14. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify us (including our directors, officers, employees, subcontractors, agents and affiliated companies) against all third party claims and liabilities (including reasonable legal fees incurred by us) related to your breach of this Agreement and/or to your use of the Site and Services, including any claim or liability arising from the publication or other communication by you of any content or information that infringes the intellectual property rights of, or denigrates, libels or invades the privacy of, any third party.
Back to top of page
15. General
Headings in this Agreement are for information only and do not affect the meaning of the Terms or the Agreement.
This Agreement (which includes the Privacy Policy) constitutes the entire Agreement between you and us in connection with the Services.
These Terms are personal to you and you may not transfer or assign your rights or duties under this Agreement to anyone else without our prior written consent. We may assign all or part of our rights or duties under this Agreement at any time.
Any failure by us to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement does not constitute a waiver of it.
If any part of this Agreement is deemed void or ineffective for any reason, the remainder shall continue in full force.
A person who is not a party to this Agreement shall have no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 unless expressly stated otherwise in this Agreement.
Back to top of page
16. Dispute Resolution
We will try to resolve any disagreements with you quickly and efficiently, but if you (or we) feel it is necessary to take court proceedings, this Agreement is governed by English law and any disputes must be decided only by the English courts.
Back to top of page
17. Definitions Used in the Terms and the Privacy Policy
"Agreement" means the agreement for the provision of the Services between you and Dating Lab Limited that will be formed when you accept these Terms, and which will include these Terms, the Privacy Policy and any other agreed terms and conditions;
"FAQs" means the frequently asked questions section on the Site;
"Member" means a registered user of the Services with access only to the free elements of the Site;
"Network Site(s)" means one of the following dating Sites provided by DL: www.thelovelab.co.uk, dating.telegraph.co.uk, www.encountersdating.co.uk, dating.classicfm.co.uk, www.sagaconnections.co.uk, www.sciencelovers.co.uk, www.soultosoul.co.uk, www.lovearts.com, www.silversurfersdating.com, www.country-loving.co.uk, www.farmerwantsawife.co.uk, www.ivorytowers.net, www.smoothsingles.co.uk, www.closeconnections.co.uk, www.soulmatches.co.uk, dating.restless.co.uk, www.jazzfmdating.com, www.localloves.co.uk, www.realcountrydating.co.uk, www.realpeopledating.com, www.greatesthitsradiodating.co.uk, www.talkingpicturestvtogether.co.uk, www.rddating.co.uk, dating.datesyourage.com, app.older-dating.com, www.nationsingles.co.uk, dating.over40datingsite.co.uk, www.fortyplus.uk, www.boomsingles.com, dating.maturitydating.co.uk, www.onlyoldersingles.com, www.justover50s.com, www.magicdating.co.uk, www.planetrockdating.com, www.sayditto.com, dating.urbansocial.com, www.yoursdating.co.uk, www.hitsradiodating.co.uk and www.couplingup.co.uk;
"Privacy Policy" means the privacy policy governing the use of any personal information you disclose to us when you register as a Member and use the Services;
"Safe Dating Guide" means the safe dating guide on the Site;
"Site" means the website at www.mysinglefriend.com or such other website as we may use to provide the Services from time to time;
"Services" means the services made available by Dating Lab Limited to users of the Site (primarily being an online mechanism for Users to find and communicate with other Users);
"Subscriber" means a registered user of the Services who has paid for full access to the free and paid for elements of the Site and the Services;
"Terms" means these terms and conditions of use;
"User" means any person who uses the Services, whether such Services are paid for or not;
"User Content" means any and all information published by Users on the Site, or sent by Users to other Users using the channels provided by Dating Lab Limited as part of the Services (including profiles, messages and photographs).
Back to top of page