Group Text Terms & Conditions

The Group Text Service is only available for messages sent to standard domestic numbers. If you require the Group Text service for the purposes of sending messages to international numbers or non-standard numbers talk to your 2degrees account manager.

Your contract with us

1. These specific terms and conditions apply to the Group Text Service (or Service) provided by us to you and apply in addition to our Business Account Terms and Conditions, Business Terms and Conditions (to the extent that they are applicable) and will prevail in the event of any inconsistency between these terms and conditions and the Business Account Terms and Conditions, Business Terms and Conditions and any other specific terms and conditions that relate to your Business Account.
2. Terms that are not defined in these terms and conditions are defined in the applicable terms and conditions referred to in clause 1.
3. Charges for the Service are set out in pricing tiers in the Price List on our website. We reserve the right to vary the Charges from time to time.
4. The term of your contract
   1. The Service will continue to be provided to you on a month-to-month basis until it is terminated by either party giving 30 days’ notice to the other party at any time.
   2. Your contract for the Service will commence upon our acceptance of your request for the Service.

Provision of the Group Text Service

you acknowledge that any breach of these obligations will entitle us to immediately terminate the Service to you without notice.

5. The Group Text Service
   1. We will provide to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, licence to use the Group Text Service on these terms and conditions.
   2. The Group Text Service can only be used for standard text messages.
   3. You must not use the Service for:
      1. premium texts where the recipient of your text is charged an amount in addition to the standard text rate charged by their mobile provider if they respond to your message;
      2. the distribution of messages to third parties where such distribution can be considered as an information service or where the customer could be considered a content provider as that term is understood in relation to websites on the internet;
      3. the distribution or re-selling of any third party content or information;
      4. SMS bundles;
      5. any marketing or promotional activities; or
      6.  any purpose other than a valid business purpose as contemplated by these terms and conditions.
   4. The Service may only be used by 2degrees customers based in New Zealand.
   5. From time to time the Group Text platform, certain servers or the whole or part of the Network may be closed down for routine repair or maintenance work. We will endeavour to carry out such works during the planned maintenance periods.
   6. You acknowledge that this service is for Messages sent to standard domestic numbers only.
      If you send any Message to a Recipient using an international mobile phone (International Recipient), there is no guarantee as to delivery of the Message and you may incur additional international surcharges (whether or not the Message is delivered to the International Recipient).
6. Compliance with Policies
   You must comply at all times with:
   1. any applicable Acceptable Use Policy or any Anti-Spam Policy we publish on our website or make available to you; and
   2. any policy we publish on our website or make available to you directed to ensuring that the use of the Group Text Service complies with all Laws; and
   3. Your use of the Services must not be excessive, as reasonably determined by us by reference to average and/or estimated typical customer usage of the Services. We will consider your usage to be excessive and unreasonable where it materially exceeds the average and/or estimated use patterns over any day, week or month (or other period of time as determined by us) (Excessive Usage). If in our reasonable opinion we consider your usage to be unreasonable and/or Excessive Usage we may notify you and suspend, modify or restrict your use of the Services or withdraw in full or in part your access to the Services to you.
7. Operational directions
   1. Acting reasonably, we may give operational directions about the Group Text Service. Operational directions will be directed to the safety, security or compliance with laws or dealing with an emergency. We will only give an operational direction as and when reasonably necessary. You shall comply with any applicable operational direction.
8. Carrier or Telecommunications Service provider
   1. You represent and warrant that at all times you are not a Carrier or a provider of Telecommunications Services. If we reasonably suspect that you are operating in a Carrier we may immediately terminate the Service.
9. Use of Service by others
   1. You must not share, resell or resupply the Group Text Service for remuneration or reward.
   2. The acts and omissions of your staff and Recipients with respect to the Group Text Service are deemed to be your acts and omissions. You must ensure that your staff and Recipients do not do (or omit to do) anything that would breach these terms and conditions if done (or not done) by you.
10. Payment for third party services
    1. Using the Group Text Service may depend on you having goods or services supplied by third parties. For instance, in order to use an email-to-SMS Service, you must have an internet connection. You are solely responsible for the costs of all third party goods and services you acquire.
11. Using the Service
    1. When using the Service, you must comply with these terms and conditions any applicable laws.
    2. You must not use the Service, and you must ensure that your authorised users and Recipients do not use the Service (as applicable):
       1. to create, transit, communicate or send content that is, indecent, threatening, menacing, offensive, discriminatory, defamatory, in breach of confidence, in breach of any intellectual property right (including copyright), is a nuisance or otherwise unlawful;
       2. to host or transmit content which contains viruses or other harmful code or data designed to interrupt, damage, destroy or limit the functionality of any software, hardware or computer or communications equipment;
       3. to send, allow to be sent, or assist in the sending of Spam, to use or distribute email harvesting software, or otherwise breach the Spam Laws;
       4. to simultaneously access your Account using the same log-in;
       5. in a way that is misleading or deceptive, where that is contrary to law, including misleading or deceptive conduct in relation to fees incurred by Recipients responding to your Group Text messages;
       6. to include our Trade Marks without our express written consent;
       7. in a way that results, or is likely to result, in damage to property or injury to any person;
       8. in any way that damages or interferes with our Service, our Network, our providers or any facilities or exposes us to liability; or
       9. to allow any user other than the authorised user to use or access the Service; and
    3. The Customer is solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under its Account or where the password provided to it by us is used, including the content of any messages transmitted through the Service. You acknowledge and agree that any messages sent using your Account are deemed to have been sent and/or authorised by you and that you are responsible for ensuring that no unauthorised access to the Service is obtained through your account and that it is liable for all such activities conducted through such account whether authorised or not.
12. Privacy
    1. If a party is provided with, or has access to personal information in connection with the Group Text Service, it must comply with the Privacy Act 2020 and any other applicable law in respect of that personal information. Details of our Privacy Policy can be found on our website.
    2. You acknowledge and agree that where you authorise or require us to collect or otherwise deal with personal information in your name, or on your behalf, in connection with providing the Service, that we do so as your agent and you have obtained all applicable consents. Further, you fully indemnify us for any claim by a third party that it has suffered loss as a result of your breach of the Privacy Act 2020.
13. Charges
    1. Charges are set out in the Price List. If the price for a service is not listed in the Price List we may charge you a fee equal to the cost to us of providing that service plus a reasonable margin.
14. Calculation of number of SMS
    Charges for an SMS Service will be based on the number of SMS you send, calculated in accordance with the following rules:
    1. Content that contains no more than 160 standard characters for 7 bit languages (or 70 characters for 16 bit languages) counts as one SMS.
    2. Content that contains more than 160 standard characters for 7 bit languages (or 70 characters for 16 bit languages) counts as one SMS for each block of 153 characters or part thereof.
    3. A ‘character’ includes each individual letter, digit, punctuation, space and any other symbol in the content but excludes non-standard characters/uincodes. Each Unicode counts for at least 2 standard characters. Emojis are counted as 2 unicode characters so standard 4 characters.
    4. Each press of a ‘spacebar’ generates a separate character.
    5. Some special symbols and non-English letters may comprise more than one standard character and you will be charged accordingly.
    6. Where an SMS is sent to multiple recipients, each one is counted separately.
15. Security
    You acknowledge that:
    1. We make no representations or warranties concerning, the security or content of data or information transmitted through our Network, other operators’ networks, the internet or via the Service.
    2. The Service is available via the internet and while we will endeavour to maintain the security of information we cannot guarantee that information you receive or supply when using the Service will be secure at all times.
    3. The Service may be used by you to link into other websites or networks worldwide, and you agree to comply with any acceptable use policies of such networks. You accept that we do not control such sites and are not responsible for, and make no representations concerning any linked site, any link contained in a linked site or their contents.
    4. Any inclusion of links into other websites or networks is for your convenience and does not imply our endorsement of the material available on or via those websites or networks or any association with their operators.
    5. We do not represent that the content or services available from third party sites are appropriate or available for use in all parts of NZ. If you access other content or other services from third party sites, we are not responsible for your compliance with local laws or other applicable laws.
    6. The security of your Data may be maintained through the use of data encryption, date security protocols, passwords and other methods which we may use, or which we may require or suggest that you should use. You agree that we have no responsibility of liability for the deletion or failure to store any data transmitted by you or anyone else to the Service.
16. Billing disputes
    1. Our records of what you owe us are deemed to be right unless you show them to be wrong.
    2. If you dispute a bill, you must pay it on time and without set off. We shall credit you if it is later determined that you are entitled to a credit.
    3. You may not raise a billing dispute more than 12 months after a bill is issued, and we will not pay a refund or give a credit in respect of a period prior to that.
17. Exclusion of implied terms and warranties
    You agree and acknowledge that:
    1. any representation, warranty, condition or undertaking that would be implied in the provision if the Service by legislation, common law, equity, trade, custom or usage or otherwise is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law;
    2. we do not warrant or represent the performance, accuracy, reliability or continued availability of the Service or that the Service will operate free from faults, defects, errors, interruptions, viruses or other harmful components;
    3. we do not warrant or represent that the information, advice, opinions, representations or material received through the Service will be correct, accurate, timely or otherwise reliable; and
    4. we and our suppliers will not be liable for any loss of data or information resulting from delays, non-deliveries, missed deliveries or service interruptions caused by events beyond our control, our suppliers or by your acts or omissions.
18. Your liability to us
    Subject to clause 19, you must indemnify us for any loss or damage we suffer arising from or in connection with:
    1. your breach of these terms and conditions;
    2. all content sent or received on your Account;
    3. any wilful or negligent act or omission by you, your employees, agents or contractors;
    4. a claim against us by your staff, any recipient of a message or any third party arising out of or in relation to your use of the Group Text Service;
    5. your use of the Service in a way that breaches any law or infringes the rights of any third party; and
    6. acts or omissions of recipients.
    Your obligations under this clause 18 survive termination of your Contract.
19. Limitation on Liability
    To the maximum extent permitted by law, the parties agree:
    1. that the maximum cumulative liability of a party under or in connection with the provision of the Service (excluding pursuant to an indemnity eg clause 18) will be the total amount payable to us by you for the Service in the 12 months immediately preceding the incident or event giving rise to the liability; and
    2. that neither party will be liable to the other party for any for any loss of profit or indirect loss or consequential loss suffered by the other party arising out of the provision of the Service, whether arising as a result of any act, omission or negligence of a party or otherwise.
    Nothing in this document limits or excludes the liability of a party for claims relating to fees and Charges payable.
20. Termination by us
    We may, by written notice to you, immediately terminate your Service if:
    1. at any time on 30 days’ written notice to you;
    2. you are in material breach of these terms and conditions (including but not limited to a failure to pay us on time, a breach of the Acceptable Use Policy or a breach of the Anti-Spam Policy) and you fail to remedy such breach within 14 days of being served notice to do so;
    3. you suffer an insolvency event;
    4. we become entitled to suspend the Service, and the suspension continues for more than a month;
    5. we reasonably suspect that you, your staff or your recipients has infringed or attempted to infringe our intellectual property rights;
    6. it is required or authorised by law;
    7. if we reasonably suspect fraud or attempted fraud involving the Service;
    8. you are, or become, a carrier or a provider of Telecommunications Service under the Telecommunications Act; or
    9. in any other circumstances stated elsewhere in these terms and conditions.
21. Termination by you
    1. You may terminate your Service at any time on 30 days’ written notice to us.
22. Suspension of Service
    We may suspend Service at any time, without liability and immediately by reasonable notice to you (except in the case of an emergency), if:
    1. there are problems with the Network, or we or our providers need to suspend the Group Text Service to conduct operational and maintenance work on the Network, there is a security risk or there is there is an emergency;
    2. you fail to pay any amount owing to us in respect of the Service by the due date, and you fail to pay that amount within the period specified in any subsequent notice we send you;
    3. you breach these terms and conditions, including terms relating to your use of the Service or any Acceptable Use Policy including but not limited to a breach of the Spam Laws;
    4. we are required to do so to by law; or
    5. we are otherwise entitled to do so under these terms and conditions
23. Charges during a period of suspension
    1. If we suspend the Service because of your fault or breach of these terms and conditions you remain liable for all Charges payable during the period of suspension.

General

24. Changes
    1. We reserve the right to vary these terms and conditions from time to time. Such changes will be notified to you by posting the new terms and conditions on our website. Changes in this manner will be deemed to have been accepted if you continue to use the Service after a period of 30 days from the date of posting on the website.
25. Acknowledgments
    You acknowledge that:
    1. there has been no reliance by you on our skill or judgement or written or oral representations in deciding whether our Service is fit for a particular purpose or meets particular criteria;
    2. the internet is not an inherently secure system and you undertake responsibility for the protection of your information and data;
    3. internet may contain viruses (including other destructive programs), which may, if not eliminated, destroy parts or all of the data contained within your system, and that we have no control over these viruses; and
    4. we do not provide any filtering or checking of data to eliminate these viruses, and you agree to provide you own mechanism for checking its system for viruses, and to indemnify us against any damage caused by viruses obtained through the Service.
26. Assignment
    1. We may assign or novate all or part of our rights and obligations under your contract without your consent.
    2. You cannot assign or novate all or part of your rights and obligations under your contract unless we agree in writing.
27. Governing law
    Your Contract is governed by and must be construed in accordance with the laws of New Zealand. You and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand.
28. Contracting out
    Where you are in trade and to the extent that it is fair and reasonable for us to do so, you agree that:
    1. we are contracting out of sections 9, 12A, 13 and 14(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1986; and
    2. the goods and services supplied by us to you under the Contract are supplied and acquired in trade and we are contracting out of the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.
29. Definitions