Contact BLOS
Find a lingual orthodontist

Membership terms and conditions

This page sets out the Terms and Conditions of Membership (“Terms”) of the British Lingual Orthodontic Society (“BLOS/us/our”) and applies to the provision by us of any of our Membership Services (“Services”) to our Members (“Members/you/your”) or visitors to our Website and sets out our commercial relationship with you.

The Terms are an agreement between BLOS and any members and constitute a legal agreement. Please read them in conjunction with our Website Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy, all of which can be found at www.blos.co.uk (“Website”). If you do not agree with these Terms or wish to be bound by these, please stop using the Website immediately.

Please note that our Website does not provide any dental advice and is purely a directory and membership organisation for lingual orthodontics.

These Terms are subject to change from time to time to comply with changes to the law, regulatory requirements, or for business purposes. The latest version of these terms and conditions will be available here and we may also email these to you.

Who are we?

We are the British Lingual Orthodontic Society (BLOS) and our trading office is c/o The British Orthodontic Society, 12 Bridewell Place, London EC4V 6AP.

Access to and use of our website

Access to our Website is free of charge and it is your responsibility to make any and all arrangements to access our Website. Access to our Website is provided “as is” and on an “as available” basis. We may alter, suspend or discontinue our Website (or any part of it) at any time and without notice. We will not be liable to you in any way if our Website (or any part of it) is unavailable at any time and for any period.

Registration, application for membership, and membership

You may apply to become a member of BLOS by completing the forms on the Website (“Registration Form”) and agreeing in that Registration Form to these Terms.

No part of our Website constitutes a contractual offer capable of acceptance. Your application to us constitutes a contractual offer that we may, at our sole discretion, accept. Our acknowledgement of receipt of your application does not mean that we have accepted it. Our acceptance is indicated by us sending you a confirmation by email that your application has been accepted.

You agree to provide us with accurate information in the Registration Form and to accept these Terms on submission of the Registration Form with us.

Upon our confirmation of your membership, your payment of the Membership Fee and the instruction of your Direct Debit, there will be a contract between you and us on these Terms and your Membership will be formed (“Membership”). Our acceptance of these Terms is conditional upon your agreement to these Terms in full which you will formally accept upon completion of your Membership application.

BLOS’s Membership packages and Membership benefits are listed on the Website.

In addition to the Membership Fees that are applicable, you will be required to pay an initial joining fee of £75 if you subscribe to a full Membership. This fee also applies to Members who leave and rejoin BLOS and these fees are renewable every March.

The Membership year runs from March to February and depending on when you join BLOS, the Membership will only run to February in the membership year that you join.

General membership

You may not transfer any rights associated with your Membership or the rights and obligations under these Terms to anyone else, or any other organisation.

We reserve the right to change any benefits that go with your Membership at any time, and without prior notice.

We reserve the right to expel you from BLOS and/or to withdraw or refuse to renew your Membership, or suspend it for a specific period, if your conduct is in our reasonable opinion unacceptable, or is or may be in our reasonable opinion, harmful to the reputation of BLOS, or if it amounts to your breach of these Terms, or where in our reasonable opinion such expulsion, withdrawal or refusal to renew your Membership, is otherwise in the interests of the other Members. If we expel you, you will then cease to be a Member of BLOS. You will not be entitled to any refund of any part of your Membership Fee for any withdrawn or suspended period of Membership due to expulsion or to suspension of your Membership.

Membership fees

By agreeing to these Terms, you agree that you will pay to us the applicable Membership Fee for all Services that we provide to you and you may pay by the following methods:

  • Bank transfer (new Members)
  • Direct Debit

Details of our Memberships Fees can be found on our Website, or you may contact us directly.

Your first payment will be payable according to our Membership fees including the joining fee if appropriate, and any subsequent future renewal payments will be due the following February at the applicable Membership Fee.

Your first payment should be made via bank transfer. All renewal payments should be made via Direct Debit.

Your membership will commence only once we have received your completed Direct Debit mandate by post.

Any overpayments will be refunded but subject to a small administrative fee of £50 which will be deducted in advance.

Shortly before your Membership renews, we will email you to notify you that your renewal payment is due.

Please note that any Direct Debit payments to us will be processed via the British Orthodontic Society on our behalf.

Members will be entitled to BLOS Membership services on either a full basis or student rate. For more information as to what is and what is not included at each level, please see the Website. Please note that you will only be entitled to the benefits of the membership subscription you have chosen.

If you wish to upgrade your Membership at any time, you may do so by notifying us in writing and you will be required to pay the remaining balance calculated as the difference between revised and previously charged Membership Fee and will be required to commit to the end of the existing Membership year from the date of the upgrade.

All sums not paid by you will be subject to interest at 8% per annum above the Bank of England base rate until such a time as payment is made.
We reserve the right to increase our Membership Fees as appropriate but certainly on an annual basis.

Term and renewal

The Membership year runs from March to February. Your Membership will be valid for the remainder of the Membership year i.e. until the following February and will continue to renew automatically for the next term of 12 months and you will be responsible for the new Membership Fees, unless you provide us with notification in writing (by email) that you wish to cancel your Membership.

Cancelling your membership

Your Membership will continue until we receive written notification from you in writing (by email) giving us notice to terminate, or if a renewal payment or any other payments due under these Terms are not received.

Once payment for Membership has been taken, we cannot issue any refunds to you. However, on notice to terminate, any future payments will be cancelled, and your Membership benefits will remain in place for the remainder of the Membership year.

Use of the BLOS logo is a Membership benefit and it is your responsibility to remove the logo from your website(s), emails and printed materials by the end of the Membership year.

BLOS shall be entitled to terminate your Membership with immediate effect at any time, in the event that you fail to make a payment due or do anything that would result in a material breach of these Terms.

Acceptable use policy

You may only use our Website in a manner that is lawful and that complies with the provisions of this clause. Specifically:

  • You must ensure that you comply fully with any and all applicable local, national, and international laws and/or regulations;
  • You must not use our Website in any way, or for any purpose, that is unlawful or fraudulent;
  • You must not use our Website to knowingly send, upload, or in any other way transmit data that contains any form of virus or other malware, or any other code designed to adversely affect computer hardware, software, or data of any kind; and
  • You must not use our Website in any way, or for any purpose, that is intended to harm any person or persons in any way.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Membership and/or your access to our Website if you materially breach the provisions of this Clause or any of the other provisions of these Terms. Specifically, we may take one or more of the following actions:

  • Suspend, whether temporarily or permanently, your Membership and/or your right to access our Website;
  • Remove any advertisement or content posted by you which violates this Acceptable Usage Policy;
  • Issue you with a written warning;
  • Take legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of any and all relevant costs on an indemnity basis resulting from your breach;
  • Take further legal action against you as appropriate;
  • Disclose such information to law enforcement authorities as required or as we deem reasonably necessary; and/or
  • Any other actions which we deem reasonably appropriate (and lawful).

We hereby exclude any and all liability arising out of any actions (including, but not limited to those set out above) that we may take in response to breaches of these Terms.

Intellectual property rights

All intellectual property rights of any nature (including copyright) created or provided by BLOS shall be and remain the property of us and any such materials shall be licensed to you for your internal use only.

You undertake to keep all information provided by us to you confidential at all times, and not to copy, publish or distribute any such information to any third party without our consent.

Links to other sites

Links to other sites may be included on our Website. Unless expressly stated, these sites are not under our control. We neither assume nor accept responsibility or liability for the content of third-party sites. The inclusion of a link to another site on our Website is for information only and does not imply any endorsement of the sites themselves or of those in control of them.

Events beyond our control

We will not be liable for any failure or delay in performing our obligations under these Terms that result from any cause beyond our reasonable control. Such causes include, but are not limited to: power failure, internet service provider failure, strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action by third parties, riots and other civil unrest, fire, explosion, flood, storms, earthquakes, subsidence, acts of terrorism (threatened or actual), acts of war (declared, undeclared, threatened, actual or preparations for war), epidemic or other natural disaster, or any other event that is beyond our reasonable control.

If any such event occurs that is likely to adversely affect our performance of any obligations under these Terms, we will try to inform you as soon as is reasonably possible, our obligations will be suspended and any time limits that we are bound by will be extended accordingly.

Limitation of liability

The Membership benefits and Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

To the fullest extent permissible by law, we accept no liability to any user for any loss or damage, whether foreseeable or otherwise, in contract, tort (including negligence), for breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, arising out of or in connection with the use of (or inability to use) our Website or the use of or reliance upon any content (whether it is provided by us or whether it is a Membership Listing) included on our Website.

We accept no liability for loss of profits, sales, business or revenue; loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; loss of anticipated savings; business interruption; or for any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

We shall not be responsible for any loss or damage to you under these Terms but in the event that we shall have a liability to you, our total liability for any loss or damage caused as a result of our negligence or breach of these Terms shall be limited to the total sum paid by over 12 months.

Nothing in these Terms shall limit or exclude any liability by us for death or personal injury.

Nothing on our Website constitutes advice on which you should rely. It is provided for general information purposes only. In particular, we make no representation or warranty that any part of our Website (including Membership Listings) is suitable for use in business or that any part of it constitutes accurate data and/or advice on which business decisions can be based.

Insofar as is permitted by law, we make no representation, warranty, or guarantee that our Website will meet your requirements, that it will not infringe the rights of third parties, that it will be compatible with all software and hardware, or that it will be secure.

We make reasonable efforts to ensure that our content on our Website is complete, accurate, and up-to-date. We do not, however, make any representations, warranties or guarantees (whether express or implied) that such content is complete, accurate, or up-to-date.

Data protection

All personal information that we may use will be collected, processed, and held in accordance with the provisions of EU Regulation 2016/679 General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively the “Data Protection Legislation”) and your rights under the Data Protection Legislation.

For complete details of our collection, processing, storage, and retention of personal data including, but not limited to, the purpose(s) for which personal data is used, the legal basis or bases for using it, details of your rights and how to exercise them, and personal data sharing (where applicable), please refer to our Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy.

Data processing

You agree and we agree to comply with all the applicable requirements set out in the Data Protection Legislation when processing any personal data. Neither this Clause nor these Terms shall relieve either party of any obligations set out in the Data Protection Legislation and shall not remove or replace any of those obligations.

The parties acknowledge and agree that in relation to any of the Services, we will be the Data Controller and, in some cases, the Data Processor of any personal data.

We confirm that:

  • When given access to any of your personal data, we will only process such data in accordance with Data Protection Legislation, to the extent necessary for us to perform the services from our Website, to comply with the laws, and in accordance with any instructions given directly or indirectly by you;
  • We shall take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the adequate protection of any Personal Data we may process whilst use our Website;
  • We will enter into any additional undertakings in respect of the protection of any personal data as you may require;
  • We will immediately notify you of any personal data breach which we discover or become aware of during your access to the Website and will provide such assistance, support and co-operation as may be required by you;
  • We will give such reasonable assistance as is required by you in respect of any data request relating to personal data; and
  • We will maintain accurate records required under Data Protection Legislation, maintain records to demonstrate our compliance.

In your acceptance of these Terms, you confirm that you have been provided with and or given access to a copy of our Privacy Policy and you confirm the basis upon which we may process any of your personal data.

You agree that we may process your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) or within a country which does not have an adequacy decision from the European Commission (Safe Countries) so long as we comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Legislation.

Communications

We will only collect and use data in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Where we are permitted to do so, we may contact you from time to time by email and post with information on our events and services.
If you would like to change your contact details or preferences, please contact us.

Contact BLOS

If you wish to contact us with general questions or complaints, you may contact us by email at contact@blos.co.uk.

Other important terms

We may transfer (assign) our obligations and rights under these Terms (and under this agreement, as applicable) to a third party (this may happen, for example, if we sell our business). If this occurs, you will be informed by us in writing. Your rights under these Terms will not be affected and our obligations under these Terms will be transferred to the third party who will remain bound by the Terms.

You may not assign your rights and obligations under this Agreement without our consent.

The Contract is between you and us. It is not intended to benefit any other person or third party in any way and no such person or party will be entitled to enforce any provision of these Terms.

If any of the provisions of these Terms are found to be unlawful, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by any court or other authority, that / those provision(s) shall be deemed severed from the remainder of these Terms. The remainder of these Terms shall be valid and enforceable.

No failure or delay by us in exercising any of our rights under these Terms means that we have waived that right, and no waiver by us of a breach of any provision of these Terms means that we will waive any subsequent breach of the same or any other provision.

These Terms, and the relationship between you and us (whether contractual or otherwise) shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the law of England & Wales.