Advertising terms & conditions ('Conditions')

Please read these Conditions carefully as they govern the provision of a digital advertising package by us to you. We may modify these Conditions from time to time and you should therefore ensure that you review these Conditions regularly.

In these Conditions, "we", "us" or "our" means Auto Trader Limited. When we refer to Auto Traderthis includes the website located at www.autotrader.co.uk ("Auto Trader Website"), and all other Auto Trader platforms including mobile and tablet and the Auto Trader Apps owned and operated by us.

These Conditions apply to any adverts that are placed, renewed and/or amended until that advert expires or is amended or renewed.

1. OUR CONTRACT WITH YOU

   1. These Conditions apply to any advert for the sale of a vehicle that is placed on Auto Trader by a private advertiser and together with all other policies and terms posted on the Auto Trader Website, set out the terms on which we enter into a contract with you to provide you with access to our platforms and services.
   2. By placing an advert with us, you are deemed to have accepted these Conditions.
   3. Each time we accept a request from you to place an advert on Auto Trader, a separate severable contract is formed between you and us which is subject to these Conditions.

2. PLACING AN ADVERT

   1. When you place an advert on Auto Trader, you will be given a username and password which you are responsible for keeping secure. Auto Trader will not be liable to you if you fail to keep your username and password safe. Unless caused by our negligence, we will not be liable for any loss you might suffer if a third party gains unauthorised access to your account. You agree that the information supplied with your registration will be truthful, accurate and complete. You also agree that you will not attempt to register in the name of any other individual nor will you adopt any username which is offensive. All personal information supplied by you as part of the registration process will be protected and used in accordance with the terms of our Privacy Policy.
   2. Before you confirm that you would like to submit your advert, we will use details sourced from the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register (MIAFTR), operated by Insurance Database Services Limited, to carry out a check to see whether the vehicle you wish to advertise has ever been written off ("Write-off Check"). We do not permit the advertising of CAT A or CAT B vehicles on Auto Trader and will not accept advertisements for vehicles that are determined by the Write-off Check to be in these categories. If the results of a Write-off Check determine that the vehicle is in CAT C or CAT D, the advert may be accepted but will include a statement advising of its write-off status. Links to information about what CAT C and CAT D means will be provided within the advert. You will be informed of the vehicle's write-off status before placing the advert. If you no longer wish to proceed with the advert, you should not submit it. You can find more information about CATs A, B, C and D at: Insurance Categories.
   3. Auto Trader which allows a potential buyer to purchase a vehicle history check on the vehicle you are advertising. If a potential buyer purchases a vehicle history check having clicked on the link in your advert in accordance with the above, the vehicle registration mark will be made available to such potential buyer as part of the vehicle history check report. Please do not submit your advert if you do not wish the vehicle registration mark to be used in this way.
   4. If we accept your advert, whilst we cannot give any guarantees regarding timescales, we aim to process and publish adverts supplied online within 24 hours of receipt.
   5. Adverts placed may appear on all Auto Trader platforms, including desktop, mobile and tablet, and all third party social media platforms on which Auto Trader are active, and may also feature on the trade-to-trade Smart Buying platform (operated by Auto Trader Autostock Limited) and other third party partner sites. To find out more about our partner sites, visit Sell My Car.
   6. As soon as your advert has been accepted for publication, a confirmation email will be sent to you explaining that the advert has gone live on Auto Trader and you will be given a unique identification number in respect of your advert. In the event that an advert has been rejected for publication, we will attempt to contact you to explain why your advert has been rejected. In the event that we reject the advert prior to publishing, no charge will be incurred by you. Please note that no contract will be deemed to exist between you and us until we have sent you a confirmation email.
   7. This clause will apply if you purchase an 'Advertised until sold' package, in which case your advert will be published for a ten-week period.
      1. At the end of each ten-week period, you will be entitled to continuously re-book your advert for further ten-week periods for free, and you can do this as many times as you like, until your vehicle is sold (provided that there is no break in advertising as described in clause 2.7.4 or clause 2.7.5 below).
      2. During each ten-week period, we will contact you by email after eight weeks to check whether your vehicle has been sold.
      3. If you reply before the end of the current ten-week period to notify us that your vehicle has not been sold, we will re-book your advert for free for a further ten-week period (commencing immediately after the current ten-week period).
      4. If you reply before the end of the current ten-week period to notify us that your vehicle has been sold, we will delete your advert and there will be a break in advertising.
      5. If we do not hear back from you before the end of the current ten-week period, we will attempt to contact you again by email. If we do not hear back from you, within six weeks of us sending our second email, we will assume that you do not wish to re-book and delete your advert. If we delete your advert as set out in this clause there will be a break in advertising.
      6. If there is a break in advertising, as described in clause 2.7.4 or clause 2.7.5, you will lose the ability to rebook the advert for free under the 'Advertised until sold' package. If you wish to rebook the advert, after it has been deleted, you will be charged to do so.

3. ADVERT CONTENT GUIDELINES

   1. Each advert may only feature one vehicle. If you have more than one vehicle to sell, you will need to place a separate advert for each vehicle.
   2. We are only able to display one advert for each vehicle at any one time.
   3. We may accept photographs and videos (in a format to be determined by Auto Trader) of vehicles for use in adverts. However, we reserve the right in our sole discretion not to include a photograph and/or video in an advert.
   4. You are solely responsible for uploading any photographs and videos which form part of your advert unless agreed otherwise by us. We shall have no responsibility for the quality of any photographs and/or videos you upload or provide to us.
   5. All advert content (including but not limited to any text, photographs and/or videos) must:-
      1. show only one vehicle;
      2. be accurate in their description of the vehicle being displayed;
      3. comply with all applicable legislation and regulation;
      4. not contain any material that is subject to third party intellectual property rights or other third party proprietary rights (including rights of privacy or rights of publicity);
      5. not be defamatory or derogatory of any person or organisation;
      6. not contain any strong profanity or inappropriate content or be obscene, offensive, threatening, inflammatory, abusive, hateful, racist, anti-religious or sexually graphic;
      7. not be in any way discriminatory or promote discrimination of any kind;
      8. not be pornographic or violent;
      9. not disclose any personal information in respect of any individual (and personal information for the purpose of these Conditions is any information that can be used to identify a person or contact a person by any means);
      10. not impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or company;
      11. not be unlawful or advocate, promote, incite any third party to commit or assist any unlawful or criminal act or contain any description or mention of illegal activity;
      12. not contain a statement which is direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism;
      13. not, other than solely in relation to the sale of the vehicle which is the subject of your advert, contain any advertising, promote any goods or services, drive traffic to another website or notify users of a promotion not approved by Auto Trader or otherwise attempt to make a commercial gain;
      14. not contain any spam;
      15. not contain text or audio not relevant to the vehicle being described;
      16. not be in any language other than English;
      17. not be irrelevant or off-topic; and

      18. not contain a url or link to any other site except the Advertiser’s own website.

          Auto Trader may check any such content which forms part of the adverts to ensure that it meets the above requirements.

   6. If a photograph and/or video in your advert does not meet the requirements set out in Condition 3.5, we reserve the right not to publish the photograph and/or video (as applicable), to remove the relevant photograph and/or video (as applicable) from the advert or to remove the advert in its entirety from Auto Trader.
   7. If you need to amend your advert, you can use the online edit functionality featured on Auto Trader.
   8. You warrant that:
      1. you are a resident in the UK;
      2. you are not acting in the course of trade or business;
      3. you have the right to sell the vehicle in the advert;
      4. the advert you are placing does not relate to a vehicle that is a non-declared write-off;
      5. the information contained within the advert is a true and accurate representation of the vehicle to which it relates and any statement made in relation to the mileage of the vehicle being advertised is correct;
      6. the advert has consistent and accurate pricing throughout (in both the asking price section and the description) and the correct mileage has been provided;
      7. you will not act fraudulently and will deliver any vehicle advertised that is lawfully bought from you;
      8. all copy, information and materials that you provide to us is complete, accurate, legal, non-defamatory, decent, honest and truthful and complies with the British Code of Advertising Practice, all other relevant codes under the general supervision of the Advertising Standards Authority and all current relevant legislation;
      9. the publication of the advert by us will not breach any contract, infringe any third party intellectual property rights or other rights; render us or any other company in our group liable to any proceedings; and/or cause a detriment to our reputation and/or the reputation of any company within our group;
      10. you will not upload any files to Auto Trader that contain a virus and/ or corrupted data; and
      11. the advert complies with these Conditions including without limitation Conditions 3.1 to 3.5.
   9. If you refer to a vehicle as being ‘Sold’ in any part of an advert, we shall automatically remove such advert from Auto Trader.

4. OUR RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS

   1. We shall provide the advertising service with reasonable care and skill in a professional and timely manner. However, you acknowledge and accept that it is technically impossible to guarantee that Auto Trader will be continuously available online or to guarantee the corruption free or error free transfer of an advert to Auto Trader.
   2. From time to time, we will need to carry out maintenance on our equipment and systems, and we shall use our reasonable endeavours to ensure that, in so doing, minimum disruption to any adverts is caused.
   3. We will use reasonable endeavours to remedy faults or errors on Auto Trader as soon as possible. [You acknowledge and accept that once a fault or error has been reported to us, it may take up to 48 hours for us to investigate and rectify the problem].
   4. We do not monitor or control and shall not be responsible for the content of your advert which you agree is your sole responsibility. Accordingly, you shall be responsible for any losses, expenses or other costs incurred by us caused by an untrue statement or inaccurate or unlawful content.
   5. We reserve the right to refuse to publish any advert without reason and to classify, edit and delete an advert at our sole discretion so as to: comply with legal or moral obligations placed on you or us; avoid infringing third party rights, the British Code of Advertising Practice and all other codes under the general supervision of the Advertising Standards Authority and/ or any relevant legislation; respond to any complaints; correct typographical errors or technical inaccuracies that may appear from time to time; and for any other technical and/ or quality reasons. Where possible, we will attempt to contact you to inform you of these changes prior to publication and/or edit.
   6. We may at any time remove any or all of the materials from the advert which in our opinion are unlawful or are in breach of these Conditions.
   7. We may at any time vary the technical specifications of Auto Trader (or any parts of them) for operational reasons.
   8. If you use Auto Trader’s messaging service to send vehicle images to potential buyers, please be aware that the inclusion of such images with any message may prevent the delivery of such message to the potential buyer (depending on your device and the size and number of images). Auto Trader is not liable for any loss or damage incurred by you in connection with any such message not being delivered. You are instead advised to publish the images in your advert and direct potential buyers to the advert.

5. CHARGES AND PAYMENT

   1. The cost of placing an advert on Auto Trader depends on the advertising package you select and all prices are quoted on Auto Trader. All prices are inclusive of VAT.
   2. We have the right to change our advertising rates at any time and for any reason but any revised rates shall not apply to any adverts placed with us before publication of the revised rates.
   3. All adverts must be pre-paid prior to publication.
   4. Payment for adverts is made online through Auto Trader. We do not accept payment over the phone.
   5. Where payment is taken through Auto Trader, we will refer you to a dedicated commerce provider who will take payment via a secure sever (SSL) connection to ensure the safety of your payment online. Payment can be made using Visa, MasterCard or Maestro. Any cards used for payment must be registered in the UK to be accepted. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the safety of your credit card transaction, we cannot and do not accept liability for any loss or damage incurred as a result of using the secure payment mechanism.

6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

   1. In respect of any materials which you supply to us ("Materials"), you grant us a non-exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual and royalty free licence to use such Materials for any purpose. You confirm that neither you nor any other person will assert any moral rights in or relating to the Materials referred to above against us or any third party.
   2. You agree that all intellectual property rights (including, without limitation, copyright, trademarks, database rights and design rights (whether registered or not)) in any copy, text, artwork, photographs, videos or other materials which we have created and/or in any way altered for you in connection with the advert shall belong to us absolutely.

7. OUR RIGHT TO TERMINATE THE CONTRACT

   1. We shall be entitled to terminate the contract with you and remove an advert at any time. We will provide you with notice of the removal of your advert. In such circumstances we shall provide a refund to you for the unexpired part of the advertising term unless we have terminated the contract pursuant to Condition 7.2 below.
   2. We may immediately suspend or terminate the contract and remove an advert where:
      1. you breach a term of these Conditions;
      2. you breach any of the provisions of Condition 3.8;
      3. we reasonably suspect that you are not complying with the provisions of Condition 3.8;
      4. you place an advert at our bargain rate but then price your vehicle above the vehicle price limit to which the bargain rate applies;
      5. You place an advert for one vehicle and then modify adverts details to sell multiple vehicles;
      6. You are a trade seller masquerading as a private seller;
      7. if in our reasonable opinion, we have reason to believe that you have been abusive to our staff or we receive a complaint from a third party regarding your conduct in the sale of an advertised vehicle; and/ or
      8. any competent law enforcement or compliance authority instructs, advises or makes a recommendation to us to take down any of your adverts and/or suspend the delivery of services to you.
   3. If we remove an advert in accordance with Condition 7.2 above, you will not be entitled to any refund for the advert in question.

8. YOUR RIGHT TO CANCEL

   1. Please note that the digital advertising package provided by Auto Trader is a bespoke package, tailored to your requirements and is created instantaneously. By submitting your advert to us for publication, you are requesting Auto Trader to create and publish your advert within the statutory 14-day cancellation period afforded to consumers, and Auto Trader will have fully performed our advertising service once your advert goes live on Auto Trader. This means that you will lose the right to cancel your advertising package once the advert is live, and you will not be entitled to a refund if you wish to remove your advert.
   2. By submitting your advert for publication, you acknowledge that your right to cancel your advertising package contract at no cost to you will be lost and you will not be entitled to a refund.
   3. An advert can be removed at any time by you, for example to avoid unwanted responses but no refunds will be given unless you cancel your advertising package due to our breach of the contract.

9. LIABILITY

   1. Nothing in these Conditions shall exclude or restrict our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraudulent misrepresentation and/or for any other liability which we are not permitted to exclude or limit by law.
   2. If we fail to comply with these Conditions, we are responsible for loss or damage that you suffer as a foreseeable result of our breach of the Conditions or our negligence but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable or for any loss or damage not caused by any breach on our part. Loss or damage would be foreseeable if it were an obvious consequence of our breach or if it were contemplated by you and us at the time the advert was published and the contract was formed.
   3. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial of service attack, viruses, malicious or impairing computer programs or other technologically harmful material that may affect Auto Trader, your advert and/ or may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of Auto Trader or your downloading of any material posted on it or on any website linked to it.
   4. We cannot guarantee that by placing an advert on Auto Trader, you will sell the vehicle in question and we do not commit to finding a buyer for you. Our role is solely to provide a platform on which you can advertise your vehicle for sale.
   5. The Write-off Checks (referred to in Condition 2.2) that are carried out when you place your advert are based on data supplied by an independent third party. The results provided are valid as at the time the advert is placed. We will not be liable for the accuracy of the results of any Write-off Checks that are displayed in an advert. It is your responsibility to check the results of the Write-off Checks before you place your advert and determine whether or not you still want to proceed. We will not be liable for any loss you might suffer arising out of the results of any Write-off Checks.
   6. In order to create your advert, we may use certain third party data, including but not limited to data supplied by Glass's Information Services Ltd ("Glass's Data"). We will not be liable for the accuracy of any Glass's Data that is included in or used to create your advert or for any loss or damage you might suffer as a result of the inclusion or use of Glass's Data in your advert.
   7. If, as a result of placing an advert, you are successful in selling your vehicle, Auto Trader will not be connected in any way to that sale and will not be liable or responsible under any contract for the sale of your vehicle which you might enter into with a third party.
   8. You agree that any questions and complaints regarding a vehicle advertised in your advert will be your responsibility only and that we do not have any liability in this regard.
   9. In the event of any error or omission in an advert, we may at our sole discretion either amend the relevant part of the advert or refund or adjust the charges. No refund, amendment or adjustment to the charges will be made where in our sole opinion, the error or omission does not materially detract from the advert or where it arises as a result of incorrect or inadequate information provided by you.
   10. We shall not be liable to you for any delay in performing and/or any failure to perform our obligations to you if the delay or failure is due to any event outside of our reasonable control (including without limitation, any act of God, fire, flood, explosion, storm, epidemic or natural disaster, strike, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, infrastructure failure or power failure, denial of service attack, failure of public or private telecommunications networks).
   11. Nothing in these Conditions affects your legal rights. Advice about your legal rights is available from your local Citizens Advice Bureau or Trading Standards.

10. DATA PROTECTION AND SECURITY

    1. We take security very seriously and provide advice on the Auto Trader Website on steps you can take to ensure your safety and security when selling your vehicle. This information can be found under Safety & Security Centre.
    2. By submitting an advert to us, you are requesting that your advert appears on Auto Trader. This means that the advert and all information contained within it can potentially be viewed by all persons with internet access throughout the world. You consent to the publication of your data in this way.
    3. We use Protect My Number and a Customer to Customer messaging service to protect the privacy of our customers.
    4. Protect My Number disguises your telephone number from persons viewing your advert by allowing them to call you without seeing your true number. Protect My Number is automatically applied at the time you place your advert. Removal of this feature is only available by contacting our Customer Service team. Please note that if you opt out of Protect My Number, your telephone number will be visible to everybody viewing your advert. To find out more about Protect My Number, please visit What is Protect My Number?
    5. Customer to Customer messaging disguises your email address from persons viewing your advert by enabling them to contact you through a link on your advert without seeing your true email address. This is not optional. By placing an advert with us, you acknowledge and agree that your communication with persons viewing your advert will be via consent to the use of our Customer to Customer messaging service.
    6. You acknowledge and agree that by placing an advert with us, you will provide us with and we will collect from you certain personal data relating to you (e.g. name, address and contact details). This personal data will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy and may be used for a number of purposes (as further detailed in our Privacy Policy) and which may include the prevention and detection of fraud, assisting with police investigations and/or enquiries and/or complying with statutory and regulatory obligations. Our Privacy Policy can be found on our website and we advise you to read it. For the privacy policy, visit Privacy Policy.

11. INFORMATION ABOUT US AND HOW TO CONTACT US

    1. Auto Trader is the trading name of Auto Trader Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with registered company number 03909628, VAT number GB 614891820 and whose registered office address is Auto Trader Limited, 4th Floor, 1 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN.
    2. If you wish to contact us in writing, you can do so by:
       1. e-mailing enquiries@autotrader.co.uk; or
       2. Pre-paid Post or hand delivery to Customer Services Auto Trader, 4th Floor, 1 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN.
    3. If you would like to speak to us on the telephone to discuss an advert that you have placed, to make a complaint about your advert or for general enquiries, please call 0345 111 0003. Please check the Auto Trader Website to find our current opening hours.
    4. Please note that if we have to contact you or give you notice in writing, we may do so by e-mail, or by pre-paid post to the address you provide to us at the time you placed the advert.

12. GENERAL

    1. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Conditions to a third party and we will always notify you in writing if this happens. This will not affect your rights or our obligations under these Conditions.
    2. Each of the paragraphs of these Conditions operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them or any part of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs or parts will remain in full force and effect.
    3. If we fail to insist that you perform any of your obligations under these Conditions, or if we delay in doing so, that will not mean that we have waived our rights against you and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive an obligation by you, we will only do so in writing and that will not mean that we will automatically waive any later default by you.
    4. These Conditions form a contract between you and us. No other person shall have any rights to enforce them.
    5. These Conditions are governed and construed by English law. This means that the contract formed between you and us and any dispute or claim arising out of it will be governed by English law. You and we both agree that the Courts of England and Wales will have non-exclusive jurisdiction. This means that a claim could be brought in England or if you are a resident of Northern Ireland, you may bring a claim in Northern Ireland and if you are a resident of Scotland, you may bring a claim in Scotland. English law will however, apply in all cases.

13. TRADE ADVERTISING

    1. These Conditions relate to the advertising of vehicles by PRIVATE SELLERS ONLY. If you are a trader and you would like to advertise vehicles for sale on the Auto Trader Website, please visit the Autotrader Portal section of www.autotrader.co.uk.

    2. If you are a trader acting in the course of your business, you are not permitted to place any advert as a private advert and/or otherwise pass yourself off as a private seller. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Practices Regulations 2008 requires all adverts placed by people who seek to sell goods in the course of business to make the fact clear. This requirement applies whether the advertiser is acting on his own behalf, or for some other person. Customers should be able to tell whether an advert relates to a sale by a trade or private seller. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to comply with the Regulations.

       If you are a trader acting in the course of your business, it is an offence, for which you may be prosecuted, not to advertise the fact that you are a trader.

    3. We may, in our sole discretion, remove any advert that has been placed as private which we reasonably believe has been placed by a trader acting in the course of a business. In such circumstances, you will not be entitled to any refund for the advert in question and you may be charged an administration fee by us.