Acknowledgement

Each participant acknowledges the conditions of participation listed on this website as binding conditions of membership.

Operation of the consumer-opinion.com consumer panel

The consumer panel is a community for the purpose of participation in market research surveys and is operated by the market research field institute:

Consumerfieldwork GmbH
Panel Sampling & Internet Surveys
Auedeich 61b
21129 Hamburg
Germany
+49 (0)40 / 740 41 98 - 2
service AT consumer-opinion.com
www.consumerfieldwork.com

(hereafter referred to as the "operator")

Surveys

The operator offers members the opportunity to participate in surveys (in particular online surveys). These surveys are commissioned by market research institutes (hereafter referred to as “clients”).

Participation

Eligibility to participate in the consumer panel is limited to persons aged 14 or over who are not employed in market research, marketing or advertising. Each person may register only once. Due to quality considerations, the operator is only able to accept one registration per postal address – additional family members living in the same household are therefore not permitted. Registration is deemed as consent to receive invitations without commitment to take part in surveys, and to receive any other notifications affecting panel members generally.

The operator has no rights with regard to member’s participation in surveys. Likewise, members have no rights with regard to receipt of surveys from the operator. Members will be invited to participate in surveys on the basis of the client’s requirements and/or arbitrary selection from those members who meet the participation criteria for that survey.

Membership commences after the details entered on the registration form have been verified and approved and not immediately on completion of registration. The operator reserves the right to reject applications which do not meet the stated membership criteria.

Participants are obliged to keep contact details (name, address, email address) up to date and to update other registration information on request (see “Updating registration information”), to provide information which is to the best of their knowledge truthful and to offer their honest opinion.

Terminating participation

Participants are free to terminate their participation at any time without being required to give reasons for doing so. Notification of termination should be made by completing the "Terminate membership" form in the personal account pages of consumer-opinion.com, but can also made by email, post, telephone or through the participant failing to update their registration information after being requested to do so (see "Updating registration information"). For technical reasons, members must allow a reasonable period of time for the termination to take effect.

The operator may terminate the participant’s participation in the panel (e.g. after a given period or a given number of declined invitations) in the best interests of consumer-opinion.com and delete his contact and address details from the database. In such cases, the decision of the operator is final, and there is no requirement to provide reasons for termination. See also: “Exclusion of participants” below.

Payment of any remaining credit on termination of participation is treated separately (see below).

Exclusion of participants

Where any participantsis found to have provided incorrect registration information, registered more than once using different email addresses, revealed his or her password to a third party or breached any other condition of participation, attempted to undertake hacking, spamming or any other form of computer criminality, harassed other participants or behaved in a hostile or threatening manner, or performed actions in a manner contrary to public morals, membership will be terminated. Furthermore, where any of the aforementioned actions result in any loss, the operator reserves the right to charge such losses to the excluded participant and/or commence legal action for recovery in damages.

Remuneration

Remuneration, e.g. in the form of Euro credits, may be offered for participation in surveys and preservation of confidentiality. The level of remuneration will be determined by the operator and stated in the invitation to participate. Credits are accumulated and will be paid on request after reaching the minimum credit transfer level (for further information see "Payments").

The amount of remuneration to be paid is related primarily to the length of the survey, which will be estimated or determined by test runs before the survey takes place. The amount is fixed and nonnegotiable, and acceptance of the invitation to participate in the survey is deemed as acceptance of the offer of remuneration, whether or not the estimated duration of the survey is exceeded by individual participants.

The amount of remuneration will be stated in the invitation email. Where a series of remuneration levels is indicated (e.g. where the length of the survey is variable according to the responses given) then the total remuneration for a particular participant will be indicated at the end of the survey. The participant’s consumer‐opinion.com account will normally be credited four weeks after participation in a survey. This period is required because entitlement will initially be checked manually before the account is credited. Credits will only be paid to the member who has participated in the survey and are not transferrable.

For some surveys, participants will be entered into a prize draw. Notification of the monetary prize available will be given in the invitation email. When the study is complete, the winner(s) will be drawn at random and notified by consumer-opinion.com. The promoter’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The promoter reserves the right to publish the name(s) (title, first initial and surname) and location(s) (town/city and country of residence) of all prize draw winners on this website. Participation in a prize draw survey is deemed as acceptance of these terms. In the event that a winner subsequently determines they do not wish to have their details published, he or she may give up their prize to the benefit of another participant, to be determined by the operator.

Participants may occasionally be contacted by the operator, who may ask them a number of short questions in order to determine whether they belong to a particular category. No payment will be made for answering these questions. Members can decide whether or not to take part in these grouping exercises.

Payments will only be made for surveys which have been completed honestly and in full, and which are capable of evaluation. Where a survey is not completed (for whatever reason), or if a participant obviously fails to answer a survey truthfully, or answers illogically, or randomly, then no remuneration is payable. Where a member attempts to participate in a single survey more than once, by using more than one name or email address, no remuneration is payable, and membership may be terminated by the operator.

The operator is under no obligation with regard to taxation of remunerations received by the member. Members are responsible for giving details of all income received from the operator under the terms of this agreement.

Payments

By taking part in studies and receiving remuneration for doing so, participants accumulate credit. When the credit balance reaches 10 Euros, accumulated credits will be transferred on request to a participants’s nominated bank account. Payment is by bank transfer only, and the member must be the account holder. No other form of payment is permitted.

Payments will initially be made at the participant’s request. The operator reserves the right to change the payment procedure at a future date, so that any credit balance in excess of 10 euros will be automatically transferred to the participant’s nominated bank account at the end of the month, where account information has been provided.

For all payments, participants are responsible for providing full and accurate bank details. Payments which are lost as a result of incorrectly entered account details will not be reimbursed.

Credits and payments on termination of participation

Where participation is terminated by the participant, or through the participant failing to update their registration information after being requested to do so, any credit will be forfeit.

Where a participant is excluded (e.g. for infringing the conditions of participation) the operator reserves the right to retain any remaining credit.

In the event that the consumer panel service ceases to operate completely, any credit balances of less than 10 euros at the time at which the operator ceases to operate the service will be forfeit. Payments will be made by the operator for credits greater than 10 Euros, subject to receipt of valid bank details from affected participants within 60 days of notification.

The participant is responsible for submitting valid bank account details within this period.

The operator is not obliged to make payments for credits to participants whose membership has been terminated for more than one year.

Updating registration information

From time to time, not more than once a year however, member’s registration information will need to be updated to ensure that only relevant survey invitations are sent out, as invitations are depending on the current situation of the participant.

Participants with out of date registration details will be notified by email when their registration details need to be updated, and if necessary, a reminder may also be sent. It will be assumed that participants who fail to update their registration information within two months of the first request, no longer wish to participate in our surveys, and membership will be terminated. Personal contact details will be deleted from our records, and any outstanding credit balances will be dealt with in accordance with the rules for termination of participation by the participant.

Use of email addresses

Participants are required to provide a valid email address. The email address is used to send invitations to participate in surveys, and other notifications generally affecting the panel. The operator undertakes not to pass email addresses to third parties, for marketing or any other purpose.

Data protection

Our data protection declaration can be found here:

Data Protection Declaration

Confidentiality

Participants take note that market research projects are confidential and may relate to and describe protected product concepts. You may not store or pass on (especially not to the researching organisation’s competitors) information received (especially diagrams, templates and question forms) or publish such information on the internet or elsewhere (including after completion of the project). The declaration of confidentiality encompasses only such information as is not yet publicly published. A part of the remuneration for participation is a consideration for preserving the confidentiality of information received in the course of a project.

Change of operator

The operator reserves the right to transfer membership and participation in the panel to another operator and to use all data and details from the registration and surveys. The panel membership may, however, in the event of a change of operator, be used exclusively for purposes of market and opinion research. Participants give their consent that their rights and obligations as participants can be transferred to another operator without requiring renewed agreement from the participants. The new operator is not a “third party” within the meaning of the conditions of participation. In the event of a change of operator, changes to the conditions of participation likewise do not require renewed agreement from the participant, where changes do not cause the participant’s position to become less favourable.

Changes to conditions of participation

The operator reserves the right to make changes to the conditions of participation. Reasonable notice of such changes must be given. If a participant does not object to such changes or terminate his or her participation, he or she is considered to have given their consent to the new conditions of participation.

Participants will be informed of changes to the conditions of participation, in particular through the placing of information on the website or e-mail notification. Where participants have received no e-mails (invitations or other notifications) from the operator for a period of six months, they are obliged to familiarise themselves with any changes to the conditions of participation. Participants give their express consent to this on registration.

Cessation of the service

Should the operator intend to cease to offer the service, he will inform participants of this by e-mail and on the website.

Liability

The operator’s liability is, with the exception of breaches of material contractual obligations, limited to cases of intent or gross negligence and to a maximum amount of 500 euros. Liability for losses is excluded, where these are untypical consequences of the specific failure to meet an obligation or were not foreseeable on the part of the operator.

Severability clause

Should one or more provisions of these conditions be partly or fully legally invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions is not affected. The invalid provision will be retrospectively replaced with a ruling approximating as closely as possible the content and purpose of the intended ruling.

Concluding provisions

Subsidiary agreements, changes and additions to these provisions or the exclusion of this clause require the written form. In addition, the provisions of the German Civil Code apply. The place of jurisdiction is Hamburg.