General Event Terms | Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge

Introduction

These terms and conditions (“General Terms”) are the overarching general terms and conditions that apply to all The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge events controlled by Tank Town Promotions (Pty) Ltd (“the Promoter”), (the “Event”, “Event” or collectively, “Events” or “Events”, as applicable) and accessed using the relevant Promoter website per event (“Website”), where these should be read with, and to include, all of the other Promoter Rules or policies applicable from time to time, per event or generally.
The terms “user“, “you” and “your” are used interchangeably and refer to all persons who enter an event (“Entrant”). Accordingly, the terms “us”, “our” or “we” used refers to the Promoter or its possession.
In addition to these General Terms, each Event will have its own rules which the Entrant needs to understand and agree to before and during their participation in any Promoter Event (“Rules”).
We may change these General Terms, or our other applicable Rules, at any time. You should check our Website regularly for any changes which will apply from the date that they are uploaded. For further information in relation to any applicable Rules for any particular Event, please contact us at hello@themeritchallenge.com or https://www.themeritchallenge.com and the relevant subpage that deals with the particulars of the product category in question. It is solely your responsibility to ensure that you are aware of, have read and understood any changes as and when they become applicable; where we are under no obligation to ensure that you have done so.
By entering any Promoter’s event you agree that you have read, understood and agree to be legally bound by these General Terms and any other applicable Promoter policy or Rules related to the Events, where any infringement thereof by a participant or Entrant constitutes a material breach entitling the Promoter to terminate a party’s participation in an event or events.
Please pay specific attention to the BOLD paragraphs of these General Terms. These paragraphs or statements limit the risk or liability of the Promoter or a related third-party, constitutes an assumption of risk or liability by you, impose an obligation by you to indemnify the Promoter or is an acknowledgement of any fact by you.

Eligibility and Who may enter an event?

Entrants must be distributors, importers, brokers, manufacturers, producers, or wholesalers of a consumer-ready food product. The Entrant or the product manufacturer must adhere to all legislation demanded by the country of origin where the product was produced.
Entrants, natural or juristic, can be of any nationality and warrant that they have the full legal capacity to understand and be bound to these General Terms and all other Event Rules which may be applicable, either in their own personal capacity or with the authority of their instructing juristic entity.
Any person acting or declaring to act as an agent of an Entrant is considered to have given The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge a guarantee of his or her authority to enter, and The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge is not obliged to make any inquiry as to that authority.
Employees of Tank Town Promotions (Pty) Ltd. (with registration number 2017/107849/07) and/or the Promoter or their immediate family are not allowed to enter the event.
It will be the sole decision of the Promoter as to whether any eligibility requirement has or has not been met and may require evidence or confirmation of certain information from Entrants before awarding prizes (“Awards”).
Where an Entrant or prizewinner has been found to be in breach of any of the General Terms and/or Rules of an event and, in particular, where a person is in breach of the entry restrictions, we may enforce our right to disqualify that person and require the return or reimbursement to us of any prize and/or cancellation of a right to use a prize, even where a prize has already been awarded and/or actually provided to the Entrant or prizewinner in question.

Samples entered

Entrants are allowed to enter as many different products as they want.
Any product may only be entered once.
The Promoter is not responsible if any product is damaged or lost at any time.
No products left over will be returned and will become the property of the Promoter.
The Promoter reserves the right to disqualify and discard entries that are not properly sealed or damaged, according to food and health safety procedures. All entries must be carefully packaged.
Entries must be completed in full, and entries that were not completed in full can be declared void.
By entering any Event, the Entrant warrants that the information provided is factually and legally correct.
Products will be judged as it has been received without any preparation or mixing unless it is in a category that specially caters for such needs.
Samples must be sealed according to food safety standards. All allergens must be declared on the packaging.
If multipacks with different flavours are entered, indicate the flavour that needs to be judged, as every flavour will be a different entry.
In all Events, we reserve the right to reject any entries that are incomplete, incomprehensible, damaged or otherwise deficient.
We accept no responsibility for any late, lost or misdirected entries, including but not limited to, texts, calls, online submissions or emails not received due to technical disruptions, network congestion or any other reason.

Awards and the Use of the Award earned

Please see the Rules particular to each Event, to see the exact Awards available to be won for each Event.
The various Award winners will be contacted within 30 days of the closing date of the Event, whereafter the Promoter will provide the relevant winner with any further information and/or agreements to adhere to in order to receive their Award/right to use their Award.
Sticker/decal artwork or artwork owned by the Promoter shall only be featured in association with a product and brand that has been entered into the relevant Event and was awarded. The sticker/decal/artwork must show the year of the Award.
The Entrant acknowledges that all logos and artwork associated with this event are owned by The Promoter and that the Entrant may not promote the winning of any Award, or any association with an Award or The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge, other than in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Event and have agreed to the non-exclusive licence agreement signed by both parties.
The Promoter may take any action considered necessary in respect of any advertising that is in conflict with the rules of the Event, including cancelling the Award and/or any right to use marks or artwork associated with an event.
Award stickers/decals, if applicable, can only be acquired through The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge.
The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge logo and artwork are trademarked and incorrect use or misrepresentation of an Award can lead to disqualification.
Partial or entire imitation or depiction of the sticker/artwork/decal, logo, name, or part of the event is prohibited without prior written agreement. Reproduction of stickers/decals cannot be made.
The Promoter makes no representation nor warranty in relation to Awards provided and to the fullest extent permitted by law, the Promoter shall have no liability to any Entrant/winner in relation to any Award, its fitness for purposes, merchantability or otherwise.

The judging of products

The event reserves the right to change the class an entry was entered into if it is considered to be in the wrong class.
Products are judged by the particular professionals identified in each Event’s particular Rules, consisting of industry experts, tasting professionals and other specialists in the Event’s field.
The decision of the judges is final and no changes will be made to Awards after the judging process is complete. In the event of a dispute, this Event’s decision will be final.
The decisions of The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge are final, and in no way mirrors the view of the sponsors or individual judges. Results may not be challenged.
The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge can refuse any entry deemed a health hazard.
The event reserves the right to refuse entries for any reason it sees fit.
No product may be entered that is not meant for consumption by the public. The judges may refuse to judge a product that does not appear appetising.
In case there are more than the manageable amount of products submitted, products may be pre-screened to bring the final down to a manageable quantity.
Tiebreakers, disputes, conflicts, questions or concerns will be managed by the Promoter and if required by law, by an independent adjudicator.
Judging is verified by an independent and objective verification provider (“Verifier”), who performs this function in strict accordance with applicable laws and regulations. The Promoter has absolutely no influence on the verification of the judging of Award winners, or the actions association therewith, performed by the Verifier. As such, the Promoter will not engage with you on any dispute on the verification of the judging, Award-winning or awarding process, as the Promoter is not the party conducting the verification and has no control over it.

General

Entries will only be accepted in English.
By entering an event, the participant agrees to the Rules of the Event, in addition to these General Terms.
The exact entry fee per Event will be stated in that particular Event’s Rules. The entry fee is only refundable if the entry is withdrawn before the closing of entries, and for no other reason.
If a participant does not follow all the rules of the Event or legal requirements as required, the Promoter has the right to disqualify the particular entry concerned or the entire year’s entries or ban the participant from the Event.
The Promoter can change the Rules of the Event without notice, and publish them on the Website without giving notice to participants. If the Entrant does not want to comply with the new Rules of the Event, they can cancel their entries, up to the date entries close. After this time, participants have to comply with the Rules of the Event.
The Promoter will not enter into correspondence regarding these Rules, or other Rules pertaining to particular Event classes.
The Promoter collects personal information (“PI”) in order to conduct the Events and may, for this purpose, disclose such PI to third parties, including but not limited to its agents, employees, contractors, service providers and judges. Entry is conditional on Entrants providing this PI and you specifically consent to this and understand that our use of your PI is for our legitimate Event and business purposes. The Promoter will also use and process PI as outlined in its Privacy Policy.
If for any reason any Event is not capable of running as planned as a result of any (including but not limited to) technical failures, unauthorised intervention, irregular or unfair entry schemes, computer viruses, mobile network failure, tampering, fraud or any other causes beyond our control which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of an event, we reserve the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Event and/or judging related to the Event and/or to disqualify and/or take further legal actions against any individual who (whether directly or indirectly) causes (or has caused) the problem.
No indulgence, leniency or extension of time granted by the Promoter shall constitute a waiver of any of the Promoter’s rights under these General Terms and, accordingly, the Promoter shall not be precluded, as a consequence of having granted such indulgence, from exercising any rights against an Entrant which may have arisen in the past or which might arise in the future.

Severable Provisions

The legal force of other provisions in this agreement shall in no way be affected by the inability of one such provision to be unenforceable. However, in such case, the parties involved are obligated to reach a new arrangement to overcome this. The original purpose of the provision shall be maintained as far as is possible until an agreeable way forward is reached by both parties.

Confidentiality

The Promoter will not publish nor reveal the names of products that are not awarded.
Tank Town Promotions (Pty) Ltd will not make available a list of all the producers that took part in the event or reveal the scores assigned to any product, or make available the details of products that were not awarded. It remains the prerogative of Tank Town Promotions (Pty) Ltd to publish results of awarded products as they see fit.

Limits of Liability

The Promoter will not be held liable for any damage incurred to stickers/decals once the stickers/decals have been accepted by the Award winner or by a third party, such as a transportation company.
The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge shall neither by agreement, legislation nor tort suffer liability for losses, circuitous, unusual or resulting injury, damages or loss of any sort, with respect to Awards awarded, or any Entrant’s participation in any Event.
The Promoter will not be liable for defective stickers/decals, or stickers/decals that are not to the preference of winning Entrants. The Promoter can, within its discretion, either replace or pass credit for defective stickers/decals so proven, but shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, or any other loss, including a loss to third parties and legal expenses, arising out of errors in providing the material.
On no account shall The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge or Promoter be responsible for financial or other demands for compensation or damages related to products entered, a product liability claim or a similar event caused by unsuitability of the product for any reason. The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge and/or the Promoter shall remain exempted from such demands made by any third party. However, participants shall be fully responsible for damages inflicted on The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge or the Promoter on account of such demands. Damages may include those inflicted in terms of financial costs incurred by The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge or the Promoter due to this event, as well as damage to its credibility. The costs include but are not restricted to those connected to offensive, and falsified utilisation of the Awards by the participant involved.
In the event of a communicable disease including a viral infection or pandemic and/or any resultant official warning or instructions to prevent the assembly of people at a given place or at a given time, or any restrictions following any recommendation or legislation by the World Health Organisation or government that public events may not be staged or can proceed, the promotors are not responsible for any consequential loss should its own event or events or exhibitions be affected, postponed or cancelled, and the promotor will not refund deposits and/or any other payments or deposits either paid, accrued, pending or which are due for payment, or contracted to be paid at a future date. Customers of the promotor who are partners, sponsors, advertisers and/or entrants, should ensure that their own insurance adequately covers them for such eventualities or circumstances, as the promotor will not be found liable for repayments or damages or any consequential loss in such prevailing circumstances.
In the event that requisite Event judging cannot take place for any reason, or participants cannot be given results, no refunds will be made.
In the event of an unavoidable catastrophe such as fire outbreaks, war, an act of God, epidemic outbreak, civil unrest, obligations and bans by the government, or any other event beyond The Merit Wine and Spirit Challenge’s control (collectively referred to as ‘Force Majeure Event), no party shall be held accountable if there is a failure to keep to the Rules and regulations of an event. In the event of such an occurrence, prompt notice of incapacity must be provided by the affected party. The other party reserves the right to annul the contract without having to pay ensuing damages.
In the event of any Entrant breaching these General Terms or any other of the Promoter’s applicable Rules or policies, the Entrant shall be liable for all legal costs (on the scale as between attorney and client) (including collection commission) which may be incurred by the Promoter in relation to, and as a consequence of, the breach.

Governing Law and Disputes

The legislature governing the South African Law shall enact and enforce the Rules and regulations of any Event as well as the Awards awarded.
Should any dispute, disagreement or claim arise between a user and the Promoter concerning any matter relating to an event, the parties shall endeavour to resolve the dispute amicably, by negotiation, and with the best interests of both parties in mind. Should the parties fail to resolve such dispute in an aforesaid manner or within such further period as the parties may agree to in their negotiation, it shall be resolved with the assistance of any applicable regulator, or finally, in accordance with the Rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa by an arbitrator appointed by the Foundation.
The parties both agree that in no circumstance will either party publicize the dispute on any social media or another public platform. The parties understand that any publicity of this nature can cause serious damage to the other party, which damage may result in a financial claim against the infringing party.