BitCask Terms and Conditions

1. Information about us and how to contact us

   1. We are BC House Limited a company registered in England and Wales. Our company registration number is 13402474 and our registered office is at 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, England, W1W 5PF.

   2. You can contact us by writing to us at admin@bit-cask.com 

   3. If we have to contact you we will do so by writing to you at the email address or postal address you provided to us in your order.

   4. "Writing" includes emails. When we use the words "writing" or "written" in these terms, this includes emails.

2. These terms

   1. These terms and conditions will apply to a purchase of a share in a cask of whisky, whiskey or rum owned by us (“Share”). Please read these terms carefully before you submit your order via our website www.bit-cask.com (“Site”).

   2. In order to purchase a Share from our Site you will need to register for an account. These terms and conditions are in addition to the terms which govern your use of our Site and the registration of your account. Our Website Terms can be found here [www.bit-cask.com/website-terms].

   3. Before we can approve your account registration we will be required to conduct a comprehensive due diligence protocol, including Know Your Customer (“KYC”) and Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) checks. Further details of these requirements can be found here [www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-your-responsibilities].

   4. If you think that there is a mistake in these terms, please contact us to discuss.

3. Our contract with you

   1. Each order you place via our Site for the Share will be an offer by you to purchase the Share in accordance with these terms and conditions and the applicable details on the Site relevant to the specific Share.

   2. Acceptance of your order for the Share will take place when we email you to accept it, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us. The contract will relate only to the Share identified in the email acknowledgement.

   3. If we are unable to accept your order, we will inform you of this and will not charge you for the Share. This might be because the Share is not available, because of unexpected limits on our resources which we could not reasonably plan for, because we have identified an error in the price or description of the Share, or because you have failed to provide us with the necessary information to activate your account for the purchase of the Share.

   4. We will only supply the Share to persons over the age of 18. By placing an order for the Share on our Site, you confirm that you are over the age of 18. We reserve the right to carry out checks to determine your age. We may ask you prove that you are over the age of 18 at the time of delivery. Acceptable forms of identification include a valid passport, photographic driving licence and cards bearing the PASS hologram.

   5. We will assign a Cask Share Number to your order and tell you what it is when we accept your order. This Cask Share Number will be saved in your account and you will need this number whenever you contact us about your Share.

   6. The images and description of the applicable cask on our Site are for illustrative purposes only. Although we have made every effort to display the details accurately, we cannot guarantee that a device's display of the colours accurately reflects the colour of the cask. The packaging of the Share may vary from that shown in images on our Site.

   7. You own the Share once we have received payment in full.

   8. Unless otherwise stated your Share will be Bottled. Bottled means that the applicable cask will be emptied, diluted to the applicable bottling strength, place in a bottle, labelled and sent to you. In the event that your Share is to be Sold we will confirm this to you. Sold means that you will receive a payment related to the sale value of the Share when it is sold.

   9. During the order process we will let you know when we will provide the Bottled Share to you.

   10. As we need to verify your identity if no one is available at your address to take delivery we will leave you a note informing you of how to rearrange delivery or collect the Bottled Share.

   11. If you do not collect the Bottled Share from us  as arranged or if, after a failed delivery to you, you do not re-arrange delivery or collect them from a delivery depot we will contact you for further instructions and may charge you for storage costs and any further delivery costs. If, despite our reasonable efforts, we are unable to contact you or re-arrange delivery or collection we may end the contract and 5.2 will apply.

   12. The Bottled Share will be your responsibility from the time we deliver the Bottled Share to the address you gave us or you collect it from us. Up until that point we will be responsible for the Share. The cask will be stored in a Bonded Warehouse and will be insured by us.

   13. If we confirm that the Share you have purchased is to be Sold we will let you know when your Share has been Sold and the value of your Share. We will pay you the sums due to you on the sale of your Share within 15 Business Days of the Share being Sold.  We will provide you with evidence of the sale value of the cask. Please note that we are unable to guarantee any return and in some circumstances the value of your Share when Sold may be less that the price paid.

4. Gifting

   1. We allow for Shares purchased by you to be gifted to another registered user (a “Connected User”) via our Site.

   2. If you gift a Share, ownership of that Share will transfer to the Connected User and the Cask Share Number will be allocated to the Connected User.

   3. The individual who you wish to gift your Share too will need to be registered on our Site.

   4. Unless otherwise agreed the Connected User will be responsible for the costs associated with delivery and bottling of the cask.

5. Our Rights to end the Contract

   1. We will need certain information from you, for example, photographic proof of identification (in the form of either a passport or driving licence) and proof of address (in the form of a recent bank statement or utility bill) to enable us to process your order. If you do not give us this information within a reasonable time of us asking for it, or if you give us incomplete or incorrect information, we may either end the contract (and 5.2 will apply). 

   2. If we end the contract in the situations set out in 5.1 we will refund any money you have paid in advance but we may deduct or charge you reasonable compensation for the net costs we will incur as a result of your breaking the contract.

6. Your rights to end the contract

   1. You may terminate the contract for the purchase of the Share in the following circumstances:

      1. where you have a legal right to end the contract because of something that we done wrong, for example, where we have supplied products which are faulty or are misdescribed or where products have been delivered late;

      2. where you wants to terminate because of something that we have done or is going to do (see clause 6.2);

      3. where you have a right to cancel or change your mind and this is within the cooling off period (see clause 6.3); and

      4. where you want to terminate but we are not at fault and you do not have a right to change your mind and cancel (see clause 6.4);

   2. If you are terminating for a reason set out at 6.2.1 to 6.2.3 below, the contract will end immediately and we will refund you for any products which have not been provided:

      1. where there is a risk that delivery of the Bottled Share or the availability of the Share may be significantly delayed because of events outside of the Company’s control (please see clause  8.1);

      2. where we change the terms of the contract and you wish to terminate as a result (please see clause 10.3); or

      3. where we are assigning our rights and responsibilities under the contract to another organisation (please see condition 10.1).

   3. You have a legal right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 to change your mind within 14 days and receive a refund. You have 14 days after the day we email you to confirm we accept your order to notify us of your intention to cancel the contract.

   4. Even if we are not at fault and you do not have a right to change your mind (see clause 6.3), you can still end the contract before it is completed, but you may have to pay us compensation. A contract for the Share is completed when the Share has been paid for. If you want to end a contract before it is completed where we are not at fault and you have not changed your mind, just contact us to let us know. The contract will end immediately and we will refund any sums paid by you but we may deduct from that refund (or, if you have not made an advance payment, charge you) reasonable compensation for the net costs we will incur as a result of your ending the contract.

   5. To end the contract with us, please let us know by doing one of the following:

      1. Email. Email us at admin@bit-cask.com. Please provide your name, home address, details of the order and, where available, your phone number and email address.

      2. By post. Write to us at 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, England, W1W 5PF, including details of your order, when you ordered it and your name and address.

   6. We will refund you the price you paid by the method you used for payment. However, we may make deductions from the price, as described below.

   7. We will make any refunds due to you as soon as possible.  Your refund will be made within 14 days of your telling us you have changed your mind or the contract has been cancelled.

7. Price and payment

   1. The price of the Share will be the price indicated on the order pages when you placed your order. We take all reasonable care to ensure that the price advised to you is correct. However please see 7.2 for what happens if we discover an error in the price.

   2. The price of the Share does not include the cost of delivery or the costs associated with the bottling of the Share. Details of these costs can be found on our Site for the applicable cask.  We will invoice you for such sums prior to the delivery or sale of your Share.

   3. All prices displayed on the Site are exclusive of VAT and duty applied at bottling and shown in GBP. Payments are processed in the same currency. Where VAT and duty are applicable, these will be paid at the prevailing rate at the time of your purchase of the Share. If, at the time of bottling of the Share, the VAT and/or duty has changed since the time you purchased the Share, any additional costs to be paid by you or refunds owed to you (as applicable) will be dealt with prior to delivery. We will invoice you for such sums prior to the delivery or sale of your Share.

   4. You will be solely responsible for an tax which arises as a result of any profit made from the Share or your forward sale of the Share to a third party.

   5. It is always possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the casks and shares we sell may be incorrectly priced. If the correct price at your order date is higher than the price stated to you, we will contact you for your instructions before we accept your order. If we accept and process your order where a pricing error is obvious and unmistakeable and could reasonably have been recognised by you as a mispricing, we may end the contract, refund you any sums you have paid and require the return of any Share provided to you.

   6. The payments via our site are administered by Stripe, our payment processing provider.

   7. You must make payment to us on submission of your order to us for the Share of the relevant cask.

8. Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

   1. We are not responsible for any matter outside our control. If our supply of the Bottled Share is delayed by an event outside our control then we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay. Provided we do this we will not be liable for delays caused by the event, but if there is a risk of substantial delay you may contact us to end the contract and receive a refund for any sums paid where the Share or Bottled Share has not been provided in accordance with the contract.

   2. If we fail to comply with these terms, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this contract or our failing to use reasonable care and skill, but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time the contract was made, both we and you knew it might happen, for example, if you discussed it with us during the sales process.

   3. 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; for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; for breach of your legal rights in relation to the Share.

   4. We will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

9. How we may use your personal information

We will only use your personal information as set out in our [www.bit-cask.com/privacypolicy].

1. Other important terms

   1. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will contact you to let you know if we plan to do this. If you are unhappy with the transfer you may contact us to end the contract within 30 (thirty) days of us telling you about it and we will refund you any payments you have made to us.

   2. You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these terms to another person if we agree to this in writing.

   3. We reserve the right to revise the terms of these terms and conditions from time to time and we will notify you of any such changes 30 days before the changes are due to take effect. If you are unhappy with a change to these terms and conditions, you may contact us to end the contract before the changes take effect and receive a refund for any sums paid.

   4. The information contained in our marketing materials or our website is not intended to be an offer to buy or sell securities, and our Site should not be regarded as an offer of solicitation to conduct investment business of any investment or activity regulated by the FCA. This legal notice forms part of the terms and conditions. We are not required to be authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). Whisky, Whiskey and Rum are not an investment of a specified kind within the scope of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 nor is it a controlled investment subject to Section 21 of the Financial Services and Market Act 2000 and the Financial Promotion Order. Any and all information provided by us relates to whisky, whiskey or other spirits. We do not deal with “options”, futures or any regulated investments of a specified kind under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. No information provided should be deemed to constitute the provision of financial investment or other professional advice subject to regulation under the Financial Services and Market 2000.

   5. This contract is between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce any of its terms. Neither of us will need to get the agreement of any other person in order to end the contract or make any changes to these terms.

   6. Each of the paragraphs of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.

   7. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date. For example, if you miss a payment and we do not chase you but we continue to provide the products, we can still require you to make the payment at a later date.

   8. These terms are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in the English courts. If you live in Scotland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.