TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Membership procedures

Membership application
Any regular membership requests that meet the guidelines can be approved by the Membership Manager. The guidelines are:

 

Business Advance and Business applications
- The company is a local branch of a British company or registered in the UK;
or
- the company is British-owned and the nominee is a British passport holder.

Essential applications
- The individual holds a British passport.

Applications which do not meet criteria
Any requests for Business or Business Advance membership, which do not meet the membership guidelines, will be sent to the Administrative Board signatories and are subject to their majority approval.
An applicant whose application for membership is refused shall be given brief reason for the refusal by the Administrative Board signatories.

'Tell us about yourself' information
By submitting your responses, you are granting BBG Dubai & Northern Emirates your consent to present you and your company to the BBG email database and social media followers, including using the profile photo shared which will also be your member profile in the BBG member directory. You may, at any time, request that we delete this information from our database.

Membership renewal and expiry
1. The system will generate four auto emails, a month apart, from two months before renewal and ending when the two month grace period after membership expiry has ended. For your convenience, all emails will include invoices.
2. The BBG Office will follow up with a personal call, where possible, or email one month after the renewal date (to all paying members under company membership).
3. A list of members whose membership is due for renewal will be circulated to the Administrative Board as part of the monthly report, in the event that they know any members personally and can reach out to them.
4. Lapsed memberships may be reactivated at any point. However, should the request for reactivation be received after the end of the two month grace period, the joining fee will apply.
5. Membership commences on the date when payment is received unless that date is within the grace period, in which case it will be back-dated to the original joining date.

When a membership expires the following process will apply:
1. During the two month grace period the member will be contacted at the end of the first month, when website log-in details will become inactive, member benefits will become inactive and any events will be charged at non-member rates.
2. If no response has been received by the end of the second overdue month, the member will be deemed inactive and will be removed from the system.
3. When a member communicates in writing that they no longer wish to be a member, their membership will be de-activated and their information will be removed from the system when their membership expires.

Code of Conduct
1. Members must act honestly and fairly at all times when dealing with other members, potential clients, customers and counterparties and to be a good steward of their interests, taking into account the nature of the business relationship with each of them, the nature of the services to be provided to them and the individual mandates given by them.
2. Members must act with integrity in fulfilling the responsibilities of your membership and to seek to avoid any acts, omissions or business practices which damage the reputation of their organisation or the BBG.
3. Members must observe applicable law, regulations and professional conduct standards when carrying out business and to interpret and apply them to the best of their ability according to principles rooted in trust, honesty and integrity.
4. Members must be alert to, and manage fairly and effectively and to the best of their ability, any relevant conflict of interest.
5. Members must strive to uphold the highest personal and professional standards.

Unsolicited Marketing and Misuse of the BBG Brand
1. Members shall not misuse the BBG name or logo
No member of any category (or employee thereof (as such term is used in the Constitution)) shall have any rights in respect of any trade names or trademarks used by the Group or of the goodwill associated therewith and each member acknowledges (as an ongoing condition of membership) that it shall not acquire any rights in respect thereof and that all such rights and goodwill are and shall remain vested in the Group. No member shall, without the prior written approval of the Administrative Board, use the Group’s trademarks or trade names, nor any trademarks or trade names so resembling the Group's trademarks or trade names, as to be likely (in the opinion of the Administrative Board, acting reasonably) to cause confusion or perceived endorsement from the Group. It is hereby confirmed that the BBG holds all intellectual property rights (including copyright and trademark rights) in its name, logos, acronyms and related goodwill. The trade names British Business Group and BBG are intellectual property rights of the Group. All intellectual property rights of the Group are protected from copying and simulation under local and international laws and may not be reproduced, copied or otherwise used without the express prior written permission of the Group.
2. Members shall not use BBG data for unsolicited bulk marketing
It is an ongoing condition of membership of the Group, and in accordance with GDPR regulation, that no member shall use data relating to other members of the Group which is contained in, or available through, any database, website, publication or directory issued or operated in respect of the Group, for the purposes of unsolicited bulk marketing. For these purposes, unsolicited bulk marketing shall mean the sending of a message if: (1) the recipient's personal identity and address details are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other addressees; and (2) the recipient has not verifiably granted explicit permission for it to be sent. For the avoidance of doubt, membership of the Group does not constitute permission from or by any member to be sent messages from any other member. The purpose of this rule is not to prevent the use of the membership data for networking and direct contact purposes in the furtherance of business, but to prevent mass-mailings and other unsolicited marketing tactics which target all or a section of the membership with information and/or offers and promotions for which the recipient has expressed no interest directly and which have not been endorsed by the Group. Should you be in any doubt regarding whether a proposed use of the membership data is in breach of this rule please seek clarification from the Group.

Breach of either or both of the above rules shall entitle the Administrative Board to expel the relevant member and/or its representatives in accordance with section 3.6(d) of the Constitution."

When the BBG circulates any offer or other material at the request of a member or associate or other advertiser or promoter it does so without liability or responsibility on its part. Circulation does not imply that the offer or other material or the advertiser or promoter is in any way endorsed by the BBG.