Terms and Conditions
Date last updated: 7 April 2021
Preamble
Thank you for visiting swen-lorenz.com.
Please note that by using this website you accept the following terms and conditions of use (the “Terms”) and agree to abide by them, whether as website user without registration, registered user, or paying customer.
When I use the term “the Site”, this refers to:
- Any products, services and materials of any kind available on this website or through this website, whether they be digital or physical and whether they be used online or offline.
- E-letters sent out to registered readers.
- Documents made available for download.
- E-books and books published by me.
- Conferences, seminars, webinars and other events, both online and offline, hosted by the proprietor of this website.
- Any videos and audio-recordings, in any format and made available on any platform other than this website (including, for example, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter).
Where I use expressions such as “on the Site”, it is a term of convenience and refers to any of the products and services listed above, whether they are used on the Site itself, or in any other format or location. Where I speak of “services”, it is a term of convenience and refers to any of the products and services listed above, e.g. it includes books.
If you do not accept these Terms, you must refrain from using this Site and leave the Site immediately.
By downloading, retrieving, receiving or purchasing any services of the Site, whether free or paid-for, you are accepting that you are entering into a contract with me under these Terms.
I may change these Terms from time to time, so you should review them each time you visit the Site. For ease of reference, the date that I last updated the Terms will be set out at the top of these Terms in bold letters.
These Terms also refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of the Site and form part of these Terms:
- The Privacy Policy, which sets out the terms on which I process any personal data I collect from you, or that you provide to me. By using my Site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
- The Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the use of cookies on my Site.
Please make a durable copy of these Terms by printing and/or saving a downloaded copy on your own computer. The Terms are offered in English only.
If you have any other questions regarding the Terms or any other policy of this website, please consult with me on contact@swen-lorenz.com. If you are not clear about any aspect of these Terms, do not use the website until you have managed to clarify these points, ideally by consulting a regulated legal advisor of your confidence in your jurisdiction of residence.
Please keep in mind what this Site is (and isn’t)
The following are a number of key points you need to study carefully before using the Site.
- This Site is a personal blog. You may use this Site to access my opinion and other information I provide, but none of it constitutes financial, legal or tax advice. Where I make paid-for products available, these are solely offered to contribute to the operating costs of my research. This Site is not a regulated financial, tax or legal advisory service aimed at giving you specific advice with regards to buying, selling or holding financial instruments of any kind.
- All material published on this Site is solely for information and entertainment purposes. It is not a replacement for you receiving financial, tax or legal advice from your personal, regulated financial or legal advisor.
- The Site is only provided for your general information and use and it is not intended to cater for your particular requirements for financial, tax or legal advice. Its author does not accept any liability for any loss suffered by any reader or user of the Site as a result of any decision. It is a condition of me allowing you access to the Site that you assume full responsibility for using the Site, and that you accept that I will not be liable for any action you take in reliance on information on the Site or procured through the Site.
Please also carefully study all of the following Terms.
Information about me
The Site is operated by Swen Lorenz, Isle of Sark, Channel Islands (via UK). Postal address: Swen Lorenz, Private Box 2012, Sark, GY10 1PB.
My preferred means of communications is by email. Should you wish to email me, you can do so on contact@swen-lorenz.com or by using the contact form on this Site. For all postal communications with me kindly address any correspondence to my postal forwarding address as stated above. All post is only read by myself, which may lead to delays in me replying.
General terms and conditions of Site use
This Site’s information is provided without any guarantee of accuracy or reliability. While I make every effort to ensure that information I make accessible through the Site is accurate, I do not give any warranty or representations, express or implied, about its accuracy, completeness, or appropriateness for a particular purpose.
This Site is supplied to you on an “as is” and an “if available” basis and I expressly disclaim and exclude all warranties, conditions, representations and terms, whether express or implied by statute, common law or otherwise with respect to the Site including, without limitation, as to the accuracy or completeness of the Site, as to whether the Site is up to date.
I make no warranty that the Site is free from infection by viruses or anything else that has contaminating or destructive properties.
I hereby exclude all liability for any claim, loss, demands or damages of any kind whatsoever (whether such claims, losses, demands or damages were foreseeable, known or otherwise) arising out of or in connection with the use or inability to use the Site, including, without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage; loss of actual or anticipated profits (including loss of profits on contracts); loss of revenue; loss of business; loss of opportunity; loss of anticipated savings; loss of goodwill; loss of reputation; loss of damage to or corruption of data; loss of use of money or otherwise, and whether or not advised of the possibility of such claims, losses, demands or damages and whether arising in tort (including negligence), contract or otherwise to the fullest extent to which such liability may be excluded or avoided by law.
This does not affect my liability for death or personal injury arising from my negligence, nor my liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
You warrant and undertake not to use the Site in connection with any unlawful or illegal purpose, or so as to bring the Site, its proprietor, products or services into disrepute, or to cause distress or offence to any person. You also warrant not to use the site with any automated page retrieval tool.
You agree to indemnify me against any and all claims, losses, liabilities, damages and expenses (including legal fees) arising out of your misuse of the Site.
These Terms, together with further policies mentioned therein, tell you the terms and conditions on which you may make use of the Site. If you do not agree to these Terms then you must not – under any circumstances – use the Site. The provisions of this Agreement do not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.
You must be 18 years old or older to use the Site.
Registration and access to the Site
I permit you to access the Site on a temporary basis but I reserve the right to withdraw or amend the Site and/or cancel any registration or purchase without notice. The final decision rests with me. I reserve the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by me, at any time, if in my opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms.
You are responsible for keeping your registration information up to date.
You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access my Site through your internet connection are aware of these Terms, and that they comply with them.
You must not:
(i) impersonate or try to impersonate another person;
(ii) disclose your user data to anyone else;
(iii) allow anyone else to use your account;
(iv) use anyone else’s account.
If you think that someone else may have access to, or be using, your account, you must tell me as soon as possible by emailing contact@swen-lorenz.com.
Access to certain parts of the Site is free, other parts of the Site may require a payment. I will notify you if you attempt to access parts of the Site that are not free and offer, at my discretion, the opportunity to subscribe or pay for such parts of the Site.
For services that require a payment, a separate contract will be issued which will count in addition to these Terms.
I will always try to ensure that the Site is available 24 hours a day. However, I do not guarantee that the Site will always be available or be uninterrupted, and I will not be liable if for any reason the Site is unavailable at any time or for any period.
From time to time I may restrict access to some parts of my Site, or my entire Site, even to users who have registered with me or paid for certain services and products.
I may suspend, terminate or prevent your registration of the Site at my sole discretion. Where I suspend, terminate or prevent your registration, you must not attempt to re-register without my permission. The period of any suspension depends on all the circumstances and shall be at my discretion.
Information about you and your visits to the Site
I process information about you in accordance with my Privacy Policy. You consent to such processing and you confirm that all data provided by you is accurate.
Investment warning
The Site is not intended to be relied upon by you in making or not making any investment decisions. The Site is not personal to you and does not take account of your personal circumstances. I do not assess the suitability or appropriateness of any investment in light of your personal circumstances, including your knowledge and understanding, financial strength, tax liability or appetite for risk. If in doubt please seek independent financial, tax or legal advice from a qualified, regulated individual in the jurisdiction where you reside.
The price of shares and investments and the income derived from them can go down as well as up, and investors may not get back the amount they invested. Past performance cannot be relied upon as a guide to future performance.
If there are any financial instruments or similar covered on this website, I may be invested in some or all of them and I may have any form or number of conflict(s) of interest. I am under no obligation to disclose any such conflict of interest. Where I make the choice to voluntarily disclose a conflict of interest, I am under no obligation to update the information when this conflict of interest changes.
You acknowledge that your use and interpretation of the Site requires skill and judgment for which you shall be solely responsible.
You further acknowledge that you shall be solely responsible for all opinions, forecasts, recommendations and other comments made or action taken by you based wholly or partly on the Site.
I reserve the right to suspend your access to any part of the Site should I become aware of any regulation, claim, condition or restriction in any part of the world which requires me to do so or which exposes me to any claim of liability or claim if I do not do so.
When it comes to the use of this Site or investing funds, remember the old adage: Caveat Emptor.
Rights in this Site
I own the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Site, i.e. the material published here (including, without limitation, the content, rights in computer software including source and object code, trade marks, logos, trade names, domain names, copyright and related rights (including, without limitation, in the text, photographs and layout), moral rights, look and feel, database rights, rights in designs, patents, rights to inventions, rights in get-up, goodwill and the right to sue for passing off, rights to use, and protect the confidentiality of, confidential information (including know-how) and all other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications and rights to apply for and be granted, renewals or extensions of, and rights to claim priority from, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world). Those works are protected by copyright laws as well as other laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
You may download extracts of any page(s) from the Site for your personal reference, provided that such materials are attributed to “Swen Lorenz” and “swen-lorenz.com” and any copyright or other proprietary notices and disclaimers applied by me are retained.
You may print off one copy of the Site for your personal reference, provided that such materials are attributed to “Swen Lorenz” and “swen-lorenz.com” and any copyright or other proprietary notices and disclaimers applied by me are retained.
You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text, without my express authorisation. My status as the author of materials offered through the Site must always be acknowledged.
You must not use any part of the materials offered through the Site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from me.
You may not otherwise copy the Site to any third party.
If you print off, copy or download any part of the Site in breach of these Terms, your right to use the Site will cease immediately (and you must, at my option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made).
The Site may not be reproduced, copied, downloaded, used, linked to, or exploited in any way except as specifically provided and permitted by these Terms or as expressly agreed in writing by me.
You shall promptly notify me of any unauthorised use of the Site or any actual or suspected infringement of any of the intellectual rights in the Site of which you become aware.
Linking to my Site
You may link to pages of the Site, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and which does not damage my reputation or take advantage of it. In particular, you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists. The Site must not be framed on any other website. I reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in my Terms.
If you wish to make any use of material on the Site other than that set out above, please address your request to contact@swen-lorenz.com.
Linking from my Site
The Site contains links to various websites and other resources provided by third parties. These links are provided for your information only. I have no control over the contents of those websites or resources and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that you may suffer in connection with your use of them. Such links should not be interpreted as endorsement by me of those linked websites.
Changes to the Site
This Site changes regularly.
I aim to update the Site regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, I may suspend your access to the Site, or close it indefinitely. If I close the Site permanently, I will reimburse any user for services that were already paid for but which have not yet been delivered.
Any of the material on the Site may be out of date at any given time, and I am under no obligation to update such material.
Variations
I may revise these Terms at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes I made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these Terms may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on my Site.
These Terms supersede and replace all prior terms and conditions relating to the Site.
Orders for paid-for services of the Site
I use my reasonable endeavours to make sure that every service offered for purchase on the Site is shown accurately and clearly, and that prices are correct. All prices quoted are inclusive of applicable taxes payable in the jurisdiction of the Site’s proprietor, however, you may be liable for taxes or import duties in your jurisdiction which you are obliged to check yourself and for which you and only you are financially and legally liable.
A contract for the purchase of a service is created as follows:
- You place an order on the Site by pressing an order confirmation button at the end of the check-out process.
- By confirming your order, you are agreeing to purchase the service you have selected. At this point, I take payment for your order by means of your nominated payment method. You can pay for the service using PayPal, cryptocurrencies or bank transfer. You will be informed at the time of your check-out what specific options are available to you for your order.
- I will send to you an order confirmation email detailing your order, and any other information I must provide to you.
My right to reject orders
From time to time, I may reject an order for any of the following reasons:
- If, unfortunately, I do not have your chosen service in stock.
- Where I cannot obtain authorisation for your payment.
- If there has been a relevant pricing or service description error.
- If your order otherwise breaches any of the requirements of these Terms.
- If I suspect that the order has been placed fraudulently.
- If it appears that the order mistakenly duplicates another order.
- If I have any other concerns that accepting your order would be to the detriment of this Site or myself.
If your order is rejected, I will contact you to confirm this and reverse the payment you have made for that order.
Note that I may bar or prevent an individual account, user, email address or other identifier from making purchases or otherwise interacting with me where I reasonably suspect an association with fraud or other infringements of the law or breach of these Terms or because of any other aspect that I deem to be to the disadvantage of this Site or myself.
Delivery of physical products
In the case of physical products being purchased (e.g., books), these are dispatched either from the Isle of Sark, or, in the case of products such as print-on-demand books or branded merchandise, from their site of third-party production. By placing your order with me for a physical product which is dispatched by any form of post or courier, you are agreeing to take title to your services at the point of dispatch.
All prices shown on the Site for physical products include the equivalent of first-class, signed-for delivery to anywhere in the world. The choice of specific delivery service is entirely at my discretion but it will in any case require you to make a signature upon delivery, unless you specifically ask me to send it without such proof of delivery being collected, in which case you are solely responsible for any consequences arising thereof.
During the order process, I will generally notify you of the expected timeframe for receiving your order; however, I do not guarantee delivery dates or times.
Neither I, nor any delivery service that I use, shall be liable for any failure to perform services where such failure or delay results from any circumstances outside our reasonable control; these circumstances include but are not limited to adverse weather conditions (such as snow, floods and extreme winds), fire, explosion, accident, traffic congestion, obstruction of any private or public highway, riot, terrorism, act of God, or industrial dispute or strike.
Shipping and import charges
All product prices on the Site are shown without VAT applied.
- International postage is a flat fee as shown at checkout for your order.
- Your items will be processed by the customs of the delivery country where they will charge the VAT rate of that particular country and most likely also an import fee.
- The customer is fully responsible for any and all customs fees and VAT charges and will need to pay the customs department before they release your order for delivery.
How much are the fees on my order going to be?
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you exactly since this varies from country to country, but as a general guide, I recommend allowing anywhere up to an additional 40% on the value of your purchase (typically it’s around 20-30% additional cost).
You can use this Import Duty Calculator to try and get an idea of the fees but please note this is simply an estimate and final costs may vary. Please use “HS Code” 4901.
Valuation and documentation
All shipments will be clearly labelled as items sold for retail and the value on the relevant customs documentation will be accurately declared. I will not label an item as a gift or underdeclare the retail value on any shipment.
Rejected orders returned to me
When you place your order you are accepting the above terms for shipping outside the Channel Islands. If you decide to reject an order that has been shipped under the terms above because the import fees are not acceptable, I will refund your order when the items are returned minus any shipping or return fee as I do not get this back.
Faulty goods
I always try to send my physical products in perfect condition. However, occasionally, a problem can arise. In the unlikely event that a product is faulty, or it is damaged in delivery or is the wrong item, I ask you to contact me to specify the problem as soon as possible. I will then advise you on whether you are eligible for a refund or replacement.
If for any reason you are not happy with your order, please email me on contact@swen-lorenz.com, or use the contact form on this Site. You will need to quote your order number, the email address you have registered, and details of the problem with the order.
I aim to acknowledge any complaint within 2 working days, and I will do my best to resolve it within 28 days (usually it is a lot faster). I may ask you to take a photograph of the product to help me communicate with my suppliers and correct any future problems. Should it be necessary, I will then advise you how to return your product. Where an item is faulty, I will ask you to return it to me within 14 days of receipt. Your right to return items to me in accordance with these Terms is in addition to any other statutory rights you may have. I will reimburse you for the postage or courier charges you incurred for returning the product, limited to you using the form of post or courier that you should reasonably use for the return of a damaged item.
If you are eligible for a refund, I will reimburse the price you have paid for the product using the same payment form you have used with me.
Refunds
The Site offers refunds under the following conditions:
- The product vastly differs from the product description.
- The product was delivered to you in faulty conditions (see separate section Faulty goods).
- I may agree to a refund at my discretion, based on your emailing me the reason for asking for a refund: contact@swen-lorenz.com.
Outside of these cases, no refunds are possible.
Viruses, hacking and other offences
I do not guarantee that my Site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses. You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform in order to access the Site. You should use your own virus protection software.
You must not misuse the Site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.
You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Site, the server on which the Site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to the Site.
You must not attack my Site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.
No one may use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Site for any purpose without my prior express written permission.
By breaching this section, you would commit a criminal offence. I will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities, including in your jurisdiction of residence, and I will co-operate with the authorities by disclosing your identity to them.
In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Site will cease immediately.
I will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programmes, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.
General
If any of these Terms is found to be invalid this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions which shall remain fully enforceable. My failure to act with respect to a breach of these Terms by you or others does not waive my right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.
Only you and me shall be entitled to enforce these Terms. No third party shall be entitled to enforce any of these Terms.
The decision by either party to terminate any agreements between us shall not limit any other rights or remedies it may have, or shall not affect any accrued rights or obligations arising before the date of such termination.
Governing law
This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with and governed by the law of Sark, Channel Islands, and the parties shall submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the court of Sark, Channel Islands.
Credit checks
The Site and its proprietor may use UK, European, American or other credit reference agency records about you to prevent crime, fraud and money laundering.