Terms and conditions

Last updated: 29 October 2024

Introduction

1. Betweenity (Pty) Ltd (Betweenity, us, our or we) is a South African company providing products and services in the area of competition law, economics and policy.

2. Betweenity is incorporated in South Africa. Our details are:

• Registered company number: 2020/110724/07
• Website addresses: betweenity.online and www.betweenity.site (Betweenity Website)
• Online tool address: betweenity.online/access (Betweenity Tool)

3. The terms and conditions below apply to the use of the Betweenity Website, Betweenity Tool and the Betweenity Application (collectively referred to as the Platform). The Platform Terms refer to the terms and conditions that apply to the use of the Betweenity Website, Platform and include Betweenity’s Privacy Notice.

4. You agree that you will only use the Platform in accordance with these Platform Terms, including any terms and conditions incorporated in these Platform Terms by reference and applicable laws, rules and regulations.

5. By using the Platform, you agree to the Platform Terms.

6. The most recent version of the Platform Terms applies. The Platform Terms may be amended from time to time and you will be subject to the version of the Platform Terms in force at the time of an enquiry.

7. The term “Subscriber” refers to the entity that has subscribed to the Platform and includes by extension all employees of such firm to whom login details have been or will be provided by Betweenity in the execution of the main agreement from time to time. 

Purpose of Betweenity

8. The purpose of Betweenity is to create awareness of relevant issues concerning competition law, economics and policy on the African continent. We do not provide legal advice.

9. Subscribers must familiarise themselves with the competition law regimes that are applicable to the relevant African countries. Subscribers must be aware that more than one set of competition laws may apply to an enterprise at any given moment, e.g. national, regional and continental competition laws, policies or frameworks.

10. Subscribers must note that numerous memoranda of understanding and other information channels exist between African competition agencies. Agencies share information on a continuous basis. For maximum benefit and readiness, Subscribers are encouraged to consider competition law and policy developments across jurisdictions and sectors to appreciate the competition law risks that may emanate from neighbouring or collaborating jurisdictions.

11. While efforts are made to have factual positions confirmed prior to publication, it remains the Subscriber’s responsibility to have such positions confirmed prior to acting on them. We will not be liable for any loss a Subscriber suffers for relying on any content posted on the Platform.

12. While every effort is made to ensure the comprehensive tracking of competition law, economics and policy developments in the various African jurisdictions, Betweenity will not be liable for any loss a Subscriber suffers for content not posted on the Platform.

Proprietary rights

13. We own the Intellectual Property (all intellectual property subsisting in, pertaining to or used on the Platform including, without limitation, patents, designs, inventions, Trade Marks (all registered and unregistered trade marks, trade names, symbols, signs, insignia, emblems, logos and slogans utilised on the Platform including but not limited to Betweenity and the Betweenity logo), service marks, domain names and URL’s, sales and user data, databases, trade secrets, methods and know-how,  as well as copyright, including, without limitation, all copyright in any logos, devices, designs, multimedia works, articles and other literary works, databases, software, information listed on the Platform (including both source and object code and any programmers’ or developers’ notes, flow charts, memoranda and design documents), as well as any goodwill and rights of reputation attaching to any of the above, whether registered or unregistered.

14. The Platform and all Intellectual Property in and to the Platform are owned by Betweenity and you acknowledge that Betweenity or its licensors are the proprietors of the Platform and all related Intellectual Property.

15. No part of the Platform may be used, reproduced, adapted, distributed, published or in any other way dealt or interfered without Betweenity’s prior written consent and subject to the Platform Terms.

16. The content of the Platform is protected by copyright under South African and international law. The owners of such content reserve all such rights in and to such copyright unless provided otherwise in these Platform Terms.

17. By using the Platform you undertake:

1. not to use or register any trade marks, trade names or other devices which are or incorporate marks which are identical or confusingly or deceptively similar to the Trade Marks or which marks are likely to be associated with the Trade Marks or where such use would take unfair advantage of or be detrimental to the distinctive character or the repute of the Trade Marks;
2. not at any time do or cause to be done any act or thing in any way impairing or tending to impair, weaken, damage or be detrimental to or take unfair advantage of any part of Betweenity’s rights, title and interest in and to the Intellectual Property, or the reputation and goodwill associated with Betweenity’s Intellectual Property;
3. not to challenge Betweenity’s rights to its current or future Intellectual Property;
4. not in any way, directly or indirectly, to make unauthorised use of the Intellectual Property or to represent that you have any rights of any nature in and to the Intellectual Property; and
5. not to, without prior authorisation, copy, republish, distribute, adapt, modify, alter, decompile, reverse engineer, or attempt to derive the source code of or create a derivative works or otherwise attempt to reproduce the Platform or its content, including any and all content belonging to third parties that are found on the Platform or to which the Platform provides a link.

18. Without limiting the generality of the provisions of clause ‎17, you undertake not to make any unauthorised use, reproductions or copies of any work or material displayed or made available on the Platform and to adhere to and comply with all policies, conditions of use and rules that may apply to the use of such work or material.

19. For the avoidance of doubt, Subscribers are prohibited from copying or scraping information off the Betweenity database, for re-publication or not, or from dumping any amount of content sourced from the Platform in the public domain.

Governing law

20. The Platform and the entire provisions of these Platform Terms shall be governed by and is subject to South African law.

Limitation on sharing of content 

21. Betweenity is a boutique intelligence service that seeks out hard-to-find competition law and policy news across Africa in a variety of languages on a daily basis. The information that we provide is generally publicly available, but often difficult to locate, and therefore out of reach of the casual Internet user or Professional Support Lawyer. Subject to clause 22, it is prohibited for Subscribers to share Platform content in the public domain irrespective of format. Betweenity content is for internal purposes only and, in instances where a Subscriber is an adviser, for direct sharing with a client on a need-to-know basis.

22. Where content that appears on the Platform is clearly available in the public domain in English at the time of the breaking of the news, the public sharing of such information is allowed.

23. The commercial justification for the restriction of the sharing on information is that it is expensive for Betweenity to systematically collate, translate and publish competition law and policy developments across Africa. Betweenity’s business case will be compromised if information that has been sourced at great cost over prolonged periods of time is freely shared with the public, even on a significantly delayed basis.

24. The Platform provides a combination of original and aggregated content. Regarding the latter, the Platform provides a link to original news articles as required by law. Articles drafted by Betweenity contain a citation at the bottom of the article and, in instances where an article is shared, Subscribers must share the citation together with the article.

25. Subscribers are strictly prohibited from posting Betweenity content on Artificial Intelligence platforms that has the capability to recall information, including, but not limited to, Chat GPT and Grammarly.

26. The unique combination of content that appears on the Platform is owned by Betweenity. The publication in the public domain of any amount of intelligence sourced from the Platform, directly or indirectly, in whichever format, e.g. in aggregated or summarised format, in part or in full, including but not limited to books, presentations, reports, training programs, guidelines, images, graphs, videos, recordings, by a Subscriber or former Subscriber of the Platform, is strictly prohibited unless prior written consent has been obtained from Betweenity. For academic articles, refer to clauses 32 to 34.

27. It is strictly prohibited for a Subscriber to share any information on the Platform with Betweenity’s competitors, which include, but are not limited to Afriwise, PaRR, Global Competition Review, Lexology, Concurrences, Africa Legal, Lexis Nexis and Mondaq, irrespective of the format of the information.

28. Subscribers are prohibited from rendering any form of Africa competition law knowledge services to any competitor or potential competitor of Betweenity in the widest sense, which include, but are not limited to, Afriwise, PaRR, Global Competition Review, Lexology, Concurrences, Africa Legal, Lexis Nexis, Mondaq or any other firm that distribute competition law and policy news, regardless of whether such firm focuses on Africa as a niche market, unless the terms that apply to the rendering of such knowledge services had been agreed with Betweenity upfront. The commercial justification for the restriction is that Betweenity has the right to prevent at all times the sharing of information, which had been sourced at great cost, with a competitor of Betweenity.

29. It is strictly prohibited for a Subscriber to share any information that is contained on the Platform, in whichever format (including but not limited to information summarised in Subscribers’ internal documents or knowledge assets) with the Subscriber’s own competitors in the widest sense, its advisors or consultants on a project. 

30. The events that are posted on the Platform do not create a presumption of Betweenity’s involvement in such events, unless it is clearly stated. Betweenity makes a special effort to recognise the organisers of, and presenters at, such events.

31. Whether events are recorded is the prerogative of the organiser. Betweenity will not post recordings of events unless they are publicly available.

Use of Betweenity for academic purposes 

32. Authors of academic articles who had used the Platform in the preparation of such articles must acknowledge Betweenity in one of the first two footnotes of the academic article, even if no original article compiled by Betweenity had been used for purposes of the writing of the article, on the basis that the Platform, in and of itself, significantly simplifies complicated research on Africa.

33. Authors of academic articles who had used content on the Betweenity database to write such articles, and intend to publish such articles in the public domain (e.g. as open source) must obtain consent from Betweenity before such work is published.

34. Database users, or authors of academic articles, are specifically prohibited from publishing, in any format, the status of the competition law regimes that are not yet fully operational (refer, among others, to the Legislation pages of the database). The rationale for the restriction is that it is expensive for Betweenity to keep abreast of such developments. Regarding other content, authors of academic articles who are using the Platform in the preparation of articles shall use small amounts of information for purposes of such articles in order to protect the investment for Betweenity and its subscribers. Should we suspect that significant parts of the Platform had been published, or is in the process of being published, Betweenity reserves the right to impose any measure to limit exposure, and/or to claim damages, including but not limited to the removal of the offending Subscriber from the Platform’s subscriber base.

Regulators’ use of content

35. Regulatory agencies that use the Platform in the preparation of decisions, reports, policies or other outputs must acknowledge Betweenity in such deliverables.

Betweenity’s rights to amend Platform

36. Betweenity reserves the right to make any changes to the Platform, its content and/or products or services offered through the Platform at any time and with reasonable notice to the Subscribers.

37. Subject to clause 38, Betweenity shall have the exclusive right to terminate the Platform, or a subscription to, access or use of the Platform, at any time without notice and in doing so all rights granted to a Subscriber in terms of these Platform Terms shall cease and be terminated with immediate effect.

38. In the ordinary course, Betweenity is committed to engage with you upfront on any significant change that may affect the Platform or your use of the Platform.

39. The display of content on the Platform may differ depending on your device that is used to access the Platform. 

40. Content published on the Platform reflects the views of the author and does not necessarily constitute the official opinion of Betweenity or its writers, unless stated otherwise.

41. The Platform may contain links to third party websites. You acknowledge and agree that Betweenity does not have any control over such websites or the maintenance of links to such websites, does not review their content and will not be held liable for their content or accuracy in any manner whatsoever. You access such websites at your own risk and discretion.

42. The Platform is provided “as is” with no representation, guarantee or warranty of any kind as to its functionality or the services and content made available by it. Although all efforts will be made to have the Platform available at all times, it may become unavailable due to maintenance or repairs, loss of connectivity or some other form of interruption. Betweenity does not warrant against nor will it be held liable for such downtime and is hereby indemnified from any loss, damage, claims, costs or penalties incurred as a result of such unavailability. You run the risk that if you suffer any losses of any nature or kind in relation to the functionality of the content and services or the availability of the Platform, you cannot hold Betweenity liable for such losses. 

43. Betweenity reserves the right to change, modify, add to or remove from portions or the whole of these Platform Terms from time to time. Changes to these Platform Terms will become effective upon such changes being posted to this the Platform. It is the Subscriber’s obligation to periodically check these Platform Terms on the Platform for changes or updates. The Subscriber’s continued use of the Platform following the posting of changes or updates will be considered notice of the Subscriber’s acceptance to abide by and be bound by these Platform Terms including such changes or updates. 

44. Data charges will be levied by your relevant data service provider when you access the Platform.

Subscribers’ use of the Platform 

45. A subscription is required to access the Platform. It is prohibited for a person to access the Platform unless login details have been provided by Betweenity to a person in his/her capacity as a Subscriber.

46. A Subscriber may access the Platform via a maximum of two devices.

47. A Subscriber shall be responsible to access the Platform with the Subscriber’s identification information. When the Subscriber’s identification information has been used in order to gain access to the Platform, Betweenity shall be entitled to assume that such use and all related communications emanate from the Subscriber. Betweenity shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorised use of the Subscriber’s identification information.

48. A Subscriber is prohibited from sharing his/her login details with any other person, including colleagues of the same firm. A Subscriber shall contact Betweenity if their username, password or identification information has been compromised, or if more Subscribers must be added to a package.

49. Betweenity will be alerted if login details is being used on an unauthorised device. Should it be established that login information had been shared by a Subscriber, Betweenity reserves the right to impose any measure to limit further exposure, and/or to claim damages, including but not limited to the removal of the offending Subscriber from the Platform’s subscriber base.

50. In the event that a Subscriber becomes aware of a breach of the confidentiality of the Subscriber’s username, password or identification information, the Subscriber must immediately inform Betweenity in writing. The compromised username, password or identification information will be deactivated as soon as reasonably possible and new username, password or identification information will be issued to the Subscriber. Betweenity may, at its sole and absolute discretion and for any reason, require a Subscriber to change its user identity and password at any time.

51. A Subscriber, who is asked by an unauthorised third party for his/her login details or any information contained on the Platform, must report such a request, and the name of the requestor, to Betweenity as soon as possible.

52. Each Subscriber warrants that all information provided to Betweenity is true, accurate and complete. You undertake to notify us promptly of any changes to such information. You agree not to impersonate any other person or any other entity, or to use a false name or a name that you are not authorised to use. We reserve the right to decline any application from you to register as a Subscriber on the Platform in our sole discretion and/or to suspend the use of the Platform where we believe in our sole discretion that you are in breach of this clause.

Warranties 

53. You hereby represent and warrant that:
    1. you have full contractual capacity and are over 18 years old;
    2. you have read and understand the Platform Terms before accessing and using the Platform; and
    3. any information submitted to Betweenity is true and accurate.

54. You warrant that:
    1. you will not use the Platform in any way that causes or is likely to cause the Platform and access to the Platform to be interrupted, damaged or impaired in any manner;
    2. no form of virus, Trojans, worms, time-locks or other malicious coding, virus or software will be introduced into the Platform or Betweenity’s system which may cause any form of technological harm or any other form of harm in any manner or respect;
    3. you will not attempt to gain unauthorised access into the Platform, including through theft of another’s username and password; and
    4. you will not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Platform’s server, databases, computers, or any other device associated with the Platform and will not attack the Platform through a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

55. Any breach of these Platform Terms regarding malicious software, misuse of the Platform and offenses will be reported to the relevant law enforcement agencies and Betweenity will co-operate in all respects with those law enforcement agencies, including by way of disclosure of the identity and identification information of the offender or relevant Subscriber or user.

56. Although best efforts will be put into ensuring that no malicious content can be received from the Platform, Betweenity does not warrant that the Platform is free of malicious content or viruses and will not be held liable for any loss resulting from a distributed denial-of-service attack, or any malicious content that may infect any Subscriber’s device, equipment, data or any other material caused by the use of the Platform or downloads received from the Platform.

57. You hereby warrant that you will not use the Platform in any manner that will break any law or cause any annoyance, unnecessary anxiety or inconvenience to any person. 

No liabilities and indemnity 

58. When you access and use the Platform you do so at your own risk.

59. Betweenity does not warrant that the Platform will be error-free or will meet any particular criteria of accuracy, completeness, timeliness, suitability or reliability of information, performance or quality. Betweenity expressly disclaims, to the extent permitted by applicable law, all warranties whether express, statutory or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, title, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy.

60. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in these Platform Terms, Betweenity shall have no liability for any loss, damage, cost, claim or penalty of whatsoever nature, including but not limited to any direct, indirect and consequential damages and loss of profits and injury, however arising out of or in connection with these Platform Terms, or the use of the Platform, whether same is caused by latent or patent defects in the Platform, the use of the Platform and information contained on the Platform.

61. You hereby indemnify Betweenity and hold Betweenity harmless against any and all liability, loss, damage, penalty, cost or claim of whatsoever nature suffered by you and/or any third party in relation to any act or omission by you or your members, employees, contractor, representatives, agents or assigns or any third party in relation to the Platform and the use thereof, and/or arising from the provisions of these Platform Terms.

62. Except where required by applicable laws, you assume all responsibility and risk for the use of the Platform and Betweenity disclaims all liability for any loss, injury, damage, cost, penalty or claim resulting from the use of the Platform, whether direct or indirect, and whether or not Betweenity has been advised of or have knowledge of the possibility of such loss, injury, damage, cost, penalty or claim resulting from the use of the Platform, whether directly or indirectly.

63. Except where required by applicable laws, Betweenity shall not incur any liability to a Subscriber of the Platform or any other person or entity associated with such Subscriber for any compensatory, indirect, incidental, special, consequential damages whatsoever, including but not limited to, loss of revenue or profit, commercial or economic loss.

64. You run the risk by virtue of this indemnity clause that if you suffer any losses of any nature or kind in relation to the use of the Platform in general, you will not be able to hold Betweenity liable for any such losses.

Compliance with the Platform terms

65. The Subscriber shall ensure and procure that all employees and contractors of the Subscriber that use the Platform agree to and comply with the Platform Terms, and the Subscriber shall be responsible for the acts or omissions of such employees and contractors with respect to their use of the Platform.

66. If a Subscriber commits any breach of these Platform Terms or in any other way interact with or use the Platform in an unlawful or unauthorised manner, Betweenity shall be entitled, at its sole and absolute discretion, to terminate its access to the Platform immediately, without prior notice, without any liability on Betweenity’s part and without prejudice to Betweenity’s rights in terms of these Platform Terms or at law, in doing so all rights granted to you in terms of these Platform Terms shall cease immediately.

Ceasing of services

67. Betweenity reserves the right to stop the subscription services at any time subject to a reasonable notice period, which will not be shorter than 30 calendar days. All subscription fees paid in advance will be refunded on a pro-rata basis.

Office hours

68. Betweenity's office hours are Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 GMT+2, excluding South African public holidays. News identified on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays will be published on the business days following the Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays.

68. Betweenity is closed for 3 weeks between 16 December and 7 January each year, and reopens on the weekday following 7 January.

Notices 

69. Betweenity chooses the address [email protected] as the address where any legal document or notice must be served or delivered. 

70. Betweenity shall send any legal documents or notices to a Subscriber at the e-mail address provided by the Subscriber upon registration.

71. Betweenity may send any other written communication to a Subscriber’s e-mail address, cell phone number by SMS or through the aforesaid messaging system or similar functionality. Betweenity will regard a communication sent by e-mail as having been received by the Subscriber one day after it was sent.

 Get in touch

For additional information and any queries regarding these Platform Terms, please contact us at [email protected].