Terms of use

Please read these Terms of Use ("Terms") carefully – by accessing or making any use of Photobox, you are agreeing to them. You also agree to our Privacy Policy, which sets out how we deal with Photobox users' personal information and privacy.

1. Introduction

These Terms set out your rights and obligations, and those of Photobox Limited ("we" or "us"), in relation to www.photobox.co.uk (the "Site"), any Photobox application that you access (the "App") and any goods or services available through, and material of any kind accessible or relating to, the Site, the App or us (the “Services”). When we refer to "Photobox" in these Terms, we mean us, the Site, the App and/or the Services, according to the context.

You must take the time to read and understand these Terms before using Photobox services. By registering with Photobox, you accept that you are entering into a contract with us under these Terms. People who register for Photobox establish an "Account", and become "Users". Visitors to Photobox who do not become Users, but who nevertheless use the Site and/or download the App, affirm that they are bound by these Terms each time they access Photobox. You should be aware that these Terms may change from time to time in accordance with Clause 20 below.

2. Obtaining an Account and providing a Payment Method

If we ask you to provide some information about yourself when you register for Photobox, you must ensure that this information is accurate and current. You may keep this information updated through your Account.

Note that we are entitled to treat anything done through a User's Account, or by means of an email address, phone number or other communications method associated with that Account, as having been done by the User; it is up to the User to maintain the security of his/her Account.

When you place an order for a Product, you will need to supply us with details of a payment method, such as a credit or debit card, (your “Payment Method”) and other personal details so that we may process the order for you. If you elect to store a Payment Method with Photobox, that Payment Method – with some of its details masked, for security reasons – will automatically be used; you may, however, be required to provide certain information (such as, but not limited to, a CV2 card security number) in order to proceed with using that stored Payment Method. In the event that you supply or attempt to use an invalid Payment Method, or a Payment Method which has lapsed, an order made using that Payment Method will fail. If we suspect that your Payment Method belongs to someone else or is one which you are not entitled to use, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Account at any time.

The same person may not register more than one Account. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate any Account which we reasonably suspect of infringing this requirement.

Important: you must ensure that the email address we hold for you is kept up-to-date and that you have full access to it – we will be sending you important messages there. So if you change email address, then you must change it on your Account. Should you provide an invalid email address or an email address that belongs to someone else, Photobox may terminate your Account at any time without notice.

You must also ensure that the postal address to which we send you Products and communications is kept up-to-date in your Account.

You should not register as a User if you are under 13 years of age.

3. The Essentials of Photobox

Photobox allows Users to upload and store digital photographic images (each an “Image”), and to access those Images through the User’s Account – this is your “Image Storage”. All Images must meet our Image specifications, which may be changed by us from time to time.

For further guidance and information on uploading Images please visit our FAQs.

Photobox offers Users the ability to order:

prints of their Images;
personalised products and services which bear Users’ Images on or within them;
other, non-personalised, products and services,
and we refer to those prints, products and services as our “Products”.

As Photobox evolves and changes over time, we may add Products or remove Products from our Services. Clause 6 contains the terms of purchase for Products. It is the responsibility of Users to have sufficient web, app and device usage skills to make use of our Services.

Important: your Image Storage with Photobox must not be used as your main or back-up storage facility for your Images. It is up to Users to make sure that their Images are securely stored elsewhere, as we do not guarantee that we will continue to make Image Storage available to you.

Although we incur a cost in providing you with Image Storage, we don’t charge for providing. However, we only provide Image Storage for Users whose Accounts show a basic – and very minimal – level of activity.

Therefore, each User must log in to his/her Account at least once in any period of 24 months for the Image Storage associated with that Account to be maintained. So if you do not log into your Account for 24 months, Photobox will permanently remove your Image Storage – including your Images, all Product creations using your Images and related User Content (see Clause 5 below) – from your Account, and they will not be accessible to you any more. To reiterate: you must ensure that your Images and related content are stored elsewhere, and that you do not rely on Photobox to store and access them, because they will be removed if your Account is inactive for 24 months. We will notify Users by email before we remove their Image Storage.

4. Your Images

Photobox allows you to access your Images through your Account. However, please note that:

we provide Image Storage at no cost principally in order to facilitate Users’ creation and purchase of personalised Products bearing their Images
accordingly, we do not intend or invite Users to store their Images other than for those purposes
your Image Storage may be removed if your Account is inactive – see Clause 3 for details;
your Image Storage must comply with our reasonable fair use requirements;
those fair use requirements would be breached by, for example:
- the automated or scripted uploading of Images or other User Content;
- the uploading of Images or other User Content on a high-frequency basis; or
- the inclusion of very large volumes of Images or other User Content in an individual album
should you breach our fair use requirements, we may suspend your Account, cease to provide you with Image Storage and/or delete your Images and other User Content from our systems
in the course of storing your Images, we reserve the right to apply various techniques to make generally accepted improvements to the quality of the Image, such as by:
- removal of “red-eye”;
- brightness enhancement; and
- detail enhancement
we also reserve the right to make changes to Images which are intended to improve their storability, including:
- Compression;
- Size reduction and downscaling; and
- Format conversion.
We strive to retain Images that are of sufficient quality for inclusion in personalised Products, but some loss and modification of detail may be apparent under close examination;
we use reasonable commercial endeavours in our provision of Image Storage, but do not provide any guarantees as to the availability, speed of access to or reliability of the storage we provide;
when you upload an Image to your Account, then – unless you create a new album or add the Image to an existing album in your Account – it will be placed in a temporary album for 30 days. At the end of that period, the Image will be automatically deleted – unless you transfer the Image to a “permanent” album, or you convert your temporary album into a “permanent” album (you can find out how here)
images and other User Content may be deleted from your Account in various circumstances, as stated elsewhere in these Terms (including Clauses 3, 5 and 8);
our policies concerning the storage of Images and User Content may change from time to time;
if an Image does not meet our specifications you may not be able to upload it and/or you may find that it is not possible to use that Image in conjunction with some or all of our Products;
we have rules about User Content, and these apply to the content of Images (see Clause 5 below) (“Content Rules”); if you breach our Content Rules, we may – among other things – terminate your Account. If your Account is terminated, we may delete all Images associated with that Account, so that they will no longer be accessible; and
if we are notified of a claim or allegation that an Image breaches our Content Rules, we may prevent that Image being accessible through Photobox or being used in connection with Products.

Note that we may send you postal mail or emails which include one or more of your Images, such as by showing examples of personalised Products which may be of interest to you: by uploading Images, you consent to us doing these things with your Images.

Photobox allows you to share your Images with others (your "Guests") by allowing them to have access to your Images. This sharing can be effected by means we make available from time to time, such as by email to Guests, by sharing on the web or through social media. By sharing Images with Guests:

you undertake that you have those Guests’ consent to the sharing of your Images with them;
you agree that doing so will not result in an infringement or perceived infringement of our Content Rules; and
you acknowledge and agree that Guests – and others with whom they may share the Images – may:
- purchase Products which include those Images;
- submit comments about the Images; and
- notify us if Images infringe our Content Rules.

We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of Guests.

You must not share or allow access to any of your Images in return for payment or for any other commercial purpose.

If you delete Images from your Account, we will promptly remove the Images from the “album” view in your Account, but the Images will not be completely erased from our systems; “deep” links which lead directly to the relevant Images may continue to provide access to those Images. Initially we will apply a grace period of at least one month before completely erasing deleted Images from our systems: this grace period is applied in case we are requested by you to recover the Images or if we are asked by a relevant third party to recover them. Once the grace period is ended, we will check if the Images are in use on our systems, as part of a personalised Product or in some other way. If the Images are in use, we will send you an email explaining that the Images are in use and how you can release them to allow them to be erased from our systems. For more information on our Image deletion policies and practices, please contact our customer services team.

As indicated in Clause 3, you should make sure that your Images are securely stored elsewhere, as we do not undertake or guarantee to keep your Images and other User Content indefinitely, and we will not be responsible for the loss of, deletion or corruption of Images or any User Content. We do not keep back-up copies of Images and other User Content; we have no liability to you or any User if Images or other User Content become lost or corrupted as a result of any cause (including human error, software or hardware failure, failures of telecommunications or internet services, or events beyond our control).
If we actively decide that we are to cease hosting Images or other User Content, we will give you reasonable advance notice (of at least three months’ duration) to permit you to make alternative arrangements.

5. User Content and Content Rules

Images and other material (including textual annotations to and comments on Images) uploaded, posted, contributed, distributed, communicated, transmitted or linked-to by a User on, through or in connection with Photobox are treated as "User Content" for the purposes of these Terms. Users must have the right to deal, and the right to authorise us to deal, with their User Content in the ways that they and we use it in connection with the Services or for other purposes referred to in these Terms. You must not upload User Content, or otherwise deal with User Content through Photobox, if you do not have the right to do so. Each User shall ensure that his/her User Content, and his/her and our use of it, does not:

infringe anyone’s copyright; in particular, you must ensure that you either own the copyright in an Image that you upload to Photobox or that you are fully licensed by the copyright owner to upload the Image and to make any subsequent use of it (such as by including the Image in a Product) or in email and postal communications we send to you);
infringe anyone’s privacy or data protection rights; in particular, you must ensure you have the right to depict any person who appears in an Image that you upload to Photobox and to authorise the subsequent use of it (such as by including a depiction of that person in a Product or in email and postal communications we send to you);
infringe any other rights, such as a trade mark, of any person or entity or a duty owed to any person or entity, such as a duty of confidentiality;
contravene any applicable law (including, without limitation, any criminal law) or regulation;
include anything that is false, inaccurate, misleading, offensive, abusive, threatening or defamatory, or that might cause needless annoyance, inconvenience or distress to any person;
contain any computer virus, macro virus, Trojan horse, worm, or anything else designed to interfere with, interrupt, or disrupt the normal operating procedures of a computer or to surreptitiously intercept, access without authority, or expropriate any system, data or personal information;
misrepresent the User's identity in any way or impersonate any person;
include any material containing personally identifying information about another person, such as their real name, address, phone number, or email address, except with the written approval of that person;
contain material which is pornographic, obscene, indecent or offensive, which promotes discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age, or that may incite hatred or violence against any person or group;
harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any person;
give the impression that it emanates from us, if this is not the case;
advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse; or
infringe our fair use requirements (see Clause 4 above) or otherwise interfere with the proper working of Photobox.

The above are our Content Rules.

Although we prohibit the uploading of Images and other User Content which infringes our Content Rules, we cannot control and do not monitor or pre-screen the use of our Site and App. It is possible that Images or other User Content may be accessible through our Site and App which contravenes our Content Rules. We are not responsible for such Images or User Content, but if you become aware of any such Images or User Content on our Site or App please contact us here.

We may without notice delete any Image or other User Content which appears to breach our Content Rules, or prevent any use of Services (including purchase of Products) which includes any such Image or User Content.

6. Terms of purchase for Products

These terms of purchase apply to:

Products which include an Image or other User Content uploaded or stored by you or another User – this is a “Personalised Product”; and
Products which do not include such an Image or User Content - but may include an image of a painting, photograph or other artwork that we source and offer to Users for inclusion in our Products – these are “Non-personalised Products”. For completeness, an artwork that we source and offer to all Users for inclusion on Products does not count as an “Image” for the purposes of these Terms.

We have different rules for the cancellation of your purchase, and return of, Personalised Products and Non-personalised Products – see below.

A contract between a User and Photobox for the purchase of a Product is created as follows:

The User places the order for a Product on the Site or App by pressing an order confirmation button at the end of the checkout process.
By confirming your order, you are agreeing to purchase the Product you have selected
At this point, we take payment for your order by means of your nominated Payment Method.
We will send to you a “Thanks for your order” email detailing your order for the Product, and other information we must provide to you.
When the Product you have ordered is shipped to you, we will send you a “dispatch” email

Note that Photobox may reject an order in certain circumstances, namely:

Your order breaching the requirements of these Terms;
The use of Images which infringe the Content Rules;
The use of Images which are corrupted, unsupported technically or inadequately pixelated;
The Product you order being unavailable;
Our inability to obtain authorisation for your payment; or
A relevant pricing or Product description error being identified.

If we reject your order, we will contact you to confirm this and reverse the payment you have made for that order.

For orders that are accepted, unless we inform you otherwise in the order process, we will deliver the Product you have ordered within 30 days of the order.

Your cancellation right for Non-personalised Products: You have the right to cancel your contract for the purchase of a Non-personalised Product, provided you notify us of the cancellation no longer than 14 days after the day following the day on which the Product is delivered.

You must return the unused Non-personalised Product to us within 14 days of notifying us of the cancellation, and must pay the cost of returning the Product to our nominated address using the form supplied with the product.

We will refund the purchase price you have paid for the Product and its standard delivery charges (but not any expedited, tracked or other special delivery charges you may have chosen to pay) within 14 days of its return. However, if the value of the Product has been reduced by any handling of or dealing with it, beyond what is necessary to check whether the Product is as expected, we may deduct an amount to reflect that reduction in value from the sum we refund to you.

No right of cancellation for Personalised Products: Note that the right to cancel a contract and return a Product, does not apply to Personalised Products, because they have been made to your specific requirements. However, for orders of Personalised Products ordered from the Site (but not through the App) we allow a 30 minute period during which you can amend your order.

That 30 minutes runs from the appearance of the “Thank you for your order” screen on the Site at the end of the order process; if you wish to avail of this, you must click on the “Amend my order” button on that screen and complete the amendment process within the 30 minute period. After this time, the order enters our production workflow and cannot be changed.

Your statutory rights (Personalised and Non-Personalised Products): In addition to the cancellation rights for Non-Personalised Products (see above), you also have certain statutory rights in respect of both Personalised and Non-Personalised Products.

These include that if the Product you have purchased is faulty, in that it is not as we describe it, of satisfactory quality or reasonably fit for purpose, then within 31 days of the day of its delivery you may exercise the right to a refund. And within six months of the date of delivery, and again only where the Product is faulty, you are entitled to a replacement, or a refund.

Products should be returned in (or with) their original packaging by arrangement with our customer support team (see Clause 7)

Delivery: We cannot guarantee that a specific carrier will be used when processing your order. In some cases we may use carriers that offer a comparable delivery service to that which you select. Your order despatch email will state the carrier used.

Please be aware that:

If Standard delivery is selected, the order will be estimated to be delivered in 2-3 working days after date of despatch, but this is not guaranteed (untracked)
If First Class delivery is selected, the order will be estimated to be delivered in 1-2 working days after date of despatch, but this is not guaranteed (untracked)

In the event you have not received your order by our Estimated Delivery Date, note that – without limiting your contractual and statutory rights (as referred to above) - we may need to allow the following time periods before checking on the whereabouts of your Product with the relevant carriers.

Standard delivery: 14 working days after date of dispatch.
First Class delivery: 10 working days after date of dispatch.
Royal Mail Special Delivery 1pm (tracked service) : 2 working days after date of dispatch
Tracked delivery: 3 working days after date of dispatch

7. Customer Support

You can contact us by phone or online chat (during opening hours), by email, and consult our FAQs (any time).

Calls to our Customer Support phone number are charged at the basic rate.

8. International use of Photobox

You must ensure that you comply with the laws that apply to you and your use of Photobox, including as to User Content, the Images that may be viewed and the Products that may be bought through Photobox. That use may be prohibited or restricted in various jurisdictions.

9. Closure of Accounts

You may choose to cancel your Account at any time here. You may be asked to provide further proof that you are the holder of the Account. Further, we are entitled to lapse an Account if its User has not logged in to the Account for two years or more. If your Account is terminated because you have breached this Agreement (including a breach of our Content Rules), we may prohibit you from establishing another Account. Where an Account is cancelled, lapses or is terminated, we are entitled to close the Account and entitled (but not obliged) to delete all Images and other User Content associated with that Account. You will nevertheless remain responsible for performing your obligations under these Terms, and the rights granted to us under these Terms (including in Clause 10) shall not be terminated as a result.

10. Intellectual Property

By uploading, posting, contributing, distributing, communicating or transmitting User Content (including Images), a User expressly grants to us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable licence (including the right to grant sub-licences through multiple tiers) to use, reproduce, adapt, distribute and communicate to the public that User Content worldwide through Photobox and any other interactive services through which Photobox (or a service based on Photobox) is accessible for the purpose of, performing obligations we owe to Users and exercising rights Users grant to us, subject to and in accordance with under these Terms. The licence under this Clause 10 will survive any termination of these Terms or any cancellation, suspension or lapse of the relevant Account. For the avoidance of doubt, the licence under this Clause 10 does not permit us commercially to exploit a User’s Images (or other User Content) by creating and selling our own products bearing the User’s Images (or other User Content) without the User’s consent. Note that we may modify User Content in order to conform it to Photobox or the requirements of a Product (such as by cropping Images). You acknowledge that all copyright, trade marks, and other intellectual property rights in and relating to Photobox (including, without limitation, User Content associated Users other than you) are owned by, or licensed to, us. You may use and access Photobox and that User Content only to the extent required for the use of the Services in accordance with these Terms, and for the purpose that we make them available. No-one may copy, distribute, show in public or create any derivative work from Photobox, or any of the material which is found on Photobox unless properly licensed to do so by us. You are not allowed to use Photobox (or to copy or use any material found on Photobox) for any commercial purpose other than to conduct the purchase of a Product from PhotoBox. You are not all