Our website terms of use

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE OF OUR SITE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE

What's in these terms?

These are the terms and conditions on which we supply our Services, including Services for which we currently make no charge. They apply even if someone else bought your DNA testing kit, or arranged for us to provide our Services to you. Most of the terms apply even if you acquire your testing kit or order your Service through a third party, and not directly through us.

These terms do not apply to the sale of physical products Our Services are described on our website, www.livingdna.com, which we refer to as ‘our Site’ in these terms.

Refunds of Physical Kit Purchases

(if placed directly with us, or on our Site. This section does not apply if you placed your order with one of our partners)

Your order becomes binding when we provide your confirmation email. Customers who are consumers resident in the United Kingdom or the European Union have the right to change their mind and cancel their purchase up to 14 days after the Kit has been delivered. We are unable to provide a refund after the 14 day period has expired. Providing they have not opened and/or activated their kit. You must notify us of your decision by a clear statement to us, preferably by email with details of your order before the expiry of the 14 day period.

Business customers or consumers resident outside of the United Kingdom or the European Union have no right to change their mind and cancel their purchase after the Kit has been shipped and no refund will be provided in such circumstances.

Customers will have no right to cancel an order and receive a refund if we have made available the Report via their Account dashboard within 14 days of the day after we have accepted their order or, in the case of subscription customers, the date of their recurring order.

We consider that we have completed our obligations to you upon shipment of the sample collection kit. After this point, it is your choice if you return the kit before it expires or not. Should you return your kit before the expiration date, you are assured we will test the sample and provide a report if the sample is viable for testing.

We will not issue refunds for testing kits that are already being processed in our lab or for which processing has already been completed. Once a sample has been sent to our lab and checked in, the full cost of the testing kit is non-refundable. We will confirm this to you when you request your refund.

Our accounts department will be notified to process your refund once you have given us notice of cancellation. Refunds will only be made to the card originally used for payment. Please note that refunds may take up to fourteen (14) banking days to appear on a card statement.

This will not include the additional cost of any premium delivery service charged to you at your request. We reserve the right to deduct reasonable amounts which we consider to be in proportion to the services which have been performed up until the point your communicate cancellation.

We will process the refund due to you as soon as possible and, in any case, within 28 working days of the day on which you gave us notice of cancellation.

Delays in testing do not entitle customers to a refund since scientific procedures may be delayed for a variety of reasons. Testing times vary between products and may vary depending on lab volume and biological sample quality. Expected result dates are predictions and not a guarantee of delivery. We will make every effort to ensure that results are delivered for every order, but we do not offer any assurances that we will be able to provide specific results as these are an estimation.

Service upgrades are non-refundable.

Please note that you must have internet access to view the results on our interactive website. Some items have downloadable components, but many are designed solely for online interaction. Results will not be mailed; they are intended to be viewed via your portal and we will not issue refunds for tests bought under the assumption that the results will be mailed.

We are unable to provide a refund once testing has started.

Refunds on sample failures

Any retests required must be completed within one year of the lab receiving your first sample. We offer up to 2 rounds of testing in the event of failure.

Failure 1

If your first kit fails you will have 2 choices. You can either

• Give the test another go. We will send you a new kit free of charge

• If you decide you do not wish to try again we can provide you with a refund less handling and shipping costs (50%)

Failure 2

If your second test fails, you will have 2 choices. You can either

• Pay a reduced fee for a test plus shipping.

• Do nothing and do not receive results

Further failures

After 3 rounds of testing, any further tests ordered will not be refunded should they fail.

Refunds on digital products - This applies to all digital upgrades of results.

We are unable to provide a refund for any digital products purchased as we automatically and instantly start to run your data through our pipelines once the order has been placed.

How to end the contract with us (including if you are a consumer who has changed their mind) (this only applies if you placed your order directly with us/on our Site)

a) Tell us you want to end the contract. To end the contract with us, please let us know by doing one of the following:

• i) Phone or email. Call customer services on +44 (0) 203 823 6002 or email us at help@livingdna.com.

• ii) Online. Complete the form on our Site. Follow the link: https://support.livingdna.com/...

• iii) By post. You can also write to us and provide details of what you ordered, when you ordered it and your name and address.

b) How we will refund you. If you are entitled to a refund under these terms we will refund you the price you paid for the Services including delivery costs, by the method you used for payment. If you are a consumer exercising your right to change your mind, the maximum refund for delivery costs will be the cost of delivery using our standard, not express/enhanced delivery service.

c) When your refund will be made. We will make any refunds due to you as soon as possible. If you are a consumer exercising your right to change your mind then your refund will be made within 14 days of your telling us you have changed your mind.

Who we are and how to contact us

livingdna.com is a site operated by Living DNA Limited ("We"). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 10221519 and have our registered office and principal place of business is at Unit G1, Frome Business Park, Manor Road, Frome, Somerset, BA11 4FN

You are either consumer or a business customer who has accessed our Living DNA (Website), called our telephone number or have been referred to us by one or our partners and intends to place or has placed an order for our services either (i) as a consumer on your own behalf or on behalf of another consumer or (ii) as a business on behalf of your employees.. You can find everything you need to know about us and our services on our Website before you order.

To contact us, please email help@livingdna.com or call 0203 823 6002. If you contact us by email please do so using the email address associated with your account, and include your order confirmation number to help us identify you

If we have to contact you, we will do so by telephone, email or mail at the phone number, email address or postal address you provided to us when placing your order.

Using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our site. We recommend that you print a copy of these terms for future reference.

There are other terms that may apply to you. These terms of use refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site.

Our Privacy statement.

Our Acceptable Use Policy, which sets out the permitted uses and prohibited uses of our site. When using our site, you must comply with this Acceptable use policy.

Our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site.

If you open an account with us, or order services from our site, our Terms of Service will apply.

We may make changes to these terms

We amend these terms of website use from time to time. Every time you wish to use our site, please check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.

We may make changes to our site

We may update and change our site from time to time including to reflect changes to our products, our users' needs, our business priorities or for regulatory reasons.

We may suspend or withdraw our site

Our site is made available free of charge, although we may charge for access to specific parts of the site, and parts of our site are accessible only to customers who maintain an account with us. This is generally people who have subscribed for one or more or of our services.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our site for business and operational reasons. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

You must keep your account details safe

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential. You must not disclose it to any third party including anyone to whom you have granted management or collaboration rights to your Living DNA account.

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at help@livingdna.com

How you may use material on our site

• We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
• You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site. You may print more than one copy of your DNA test results or reports for your personal use.
• 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.
• Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.
• You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
• If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

Do not rely on information on this site

The content on our site is provided for general information only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.

Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date, particularly given the speed of scientific development.

We are not responsible for websites we link to

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. Such links should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information you may obtain from them.

We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources.

User-generated content is not approved by us

This website may include information and materials uploaded by others users, or communicated by other users using our site. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent our views or values.

If you wish to complain about information and materials uploaded by other users please contact us on help@livingdna.com.

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

Whether you are a consumer or a business user:

We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

Different limitations and exclusions of liability will apply to liability arising as a result of the supply of any products or services to you.

Terms of Service.

If you are a business user:

We exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our site or any content on it.

We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with:

use of, or inability to use, our site; or use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.

In particular, we will not be liable for:

• loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue;
• business interruption;
• loss of anticipated savings;
• loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or
• any indirect or consequential loss or damage.
  
  

If you are a consumer user:

Please note that we only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

If defective digital content that we have supplied, damages a device or digital content belonging to you and this is caused by our failure to use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation. However, we will not be liable for damage that you could have avoided by following advice to apply an update offered to you free of charge or for damage that was caused by you failing to correctly follow instructions.

Uploading content to our site

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you must comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you will be liable to us and indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

Any content other than genetic data that you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, but you are required to grant us and other users of our site a limited licence to use, store and copy that content and to distribute and make it available to third parties.

If you upload genetic data to our site you retain all of your ownership rights in your genetic data, and grant us a limited license to use, store and copy that data only to the extent required to deliver the services which you ask us to provide, in accordance with our Terms and to comply with law.

We also have the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

We have the right to remove any posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, your post does not comply with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.

You are solely responsible for securing and backing up your content.

We are not responsible for viruses and you must not introduce them

We take care to protect our site, but cannot guarantee that it will be secure or free from bugs or viruses. Our Privacy Policy explains for the steps that we take to protect the security of personal information, including that which is uploaded to our site.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will cooperate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Rules about linking to our site

• You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.
• 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.
• You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you.
• Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page save where we provide specific functionality to enable you to do this. .
• We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.
• The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our Acceptable Use Policy.
• If you wish to link to or make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact help@livingdna.com.

Which country's laws apply to any disputes?

• If you are a consumer, please note that these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction except that: if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland; and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland; and
• If you are resident in the European Union, you may also bring proceedings in your home State.
• If you are a business, these terms of use, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.