Participant terms & conditions

These Participant Terms & Conditions (the “Terms”) govern your registration with and use of the ComVerus participant platform, website and related research services (together, the “Services”).

1. About ComVerus

The Services are operated by ComVerus Ltd (“ComVerus”, “we”, “us” or “our”), a company registered in England and Wales.

Company number: 17372364

Registered office: Business Central 2 Union Square, Central Park, Darlington, Co. Durham, United Kingdom, DL1 1GL

Contact email: ops@comverus.com

Website: www.comverus.com

By creating an account or using the Services, you agree to these Terms. Our Privacy Policy explains how we use personal data. Individual research projects may also have study-specific information, consent terms or confidentiality requirements. If a study-specific notice conflicts with these Terms on a matter specific to that study, the study-specific notice will apply to that matter.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create a standard ComVerus participant account. You must also be legally capable of agreeing to these Terms and ordinarily resident in a territory in which ComVerus is recruiting participants.

ComVerus may run research involving children or young people only through a separately designed recruitment and consent process with appropriate parent/guardian involvement and safeguards. A child must not create a standard participant account.

You may hold only one participant account unless ComVerus expressly agrees otherwise.

3. Registration, profile and verification

When you register, you must provide information that is accurate, current and genuinely relates to you. You are responsible for keeping your profile reasonably up to date.

We may ask for information that helps us understand whether you fit a research project's eligibility criteria. Depending on the project, this can include demographic, household, lifestyle, employment, consumer or other profile information.

To protect research quality and prevent duplicate or fraudulent participation, we may verify identity, eligibility, contact details or other information. Verification does not guarantee that you will be invited to or accepted into a study.

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for telling us promptly if you believe your account has been compromised.

4. Research invitations and screening

Joining ComVerus does not guarantee any minimum number, frequency or value of research opportunities.

Research opportunities may be targeted using profile information and study eligibility criteria. You may be asked screening questions before being accepted into a project. A participant may be screened out because they do not match the research criteria, a quota has already been filled, or the project has changed or closed.

Unless a study-specific notice says otherwise, you are free to decline an invitation. Declining an invitation will not, by itself, disadvantage your general ComVerus membership.

ComVerus and/or the relevant research client may cancel, postpone or change a research project where reasonably necessary. Where this affects a reward already earned, we will deal with it in accordance with the study terms and applicable law.

5. Your responsibilities as a participant

Research depends on genuine human participation. You agree to:

• answer screening and research questions honestly and to the best of your knowledge;
• participate personally and not allow another person, bot, AI system or automated tool to impersonate you or complete research on your behalf;
• not create duplicate or false accounts, manipulate eligibility criteria or deliberately provide contradictory information to obtain research opportunities;
• follow reasonable study instructions, safety information and deadlines;
• treat ComVerus staff, community partners, researchers, clients and other participants respectfully;
• not interfere with, scrape, reverse engineer, overload or attempt unauthorised access to the Services; and
• not use the Services for unlawful, fraudulent, abusive, defamatory, harassing or malicious purposes.

6. Confidential research and unreleased materials

Some projects may expose you to confidential information such as unreleased products, concepts, advertising, packaging, pricing, software, business plans or other materials.

Where a project is identified as confidential, you must not photograph, record, copy, download, disclose, publish, post on social media or otherwise share the confidential material except as expressly permitted by the study instructions.

A study may require a separate confidentiality agreement. Any additional confidentiality obligations will be made clear before you participate.

7. Study recordings, content and intellectual property

Some research may involve interviews, photographs, audio, video, screen recordings, diary entries, written submissions, eye-tracking or other research materials. The relevant study notice will explain what is being collected, why, how it will be used and whether it may be shared with the research client.

You retain ownership of intellectual property that you already owned before submitting it. To the extent necessary to conduct, analyse and report the research, you grant ComVerus a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use research submissions in accordance with the study information and Privacy Policy.

ComVerus will not use an identifiable image, voice, quotation or other identifiable research contribution for advertising, public promotion or a materially different purpose unless there is an appropriate legal basis and you have been clearly informed. Where consent is required, it will be obtained separately.

8. Rewards and incentives

Some research opportunities include a reward or incentive. The invitation or study information will state the reward, the eligibility conditions and, where relevant, the expected time commitment.

ComVerus's operating principle is to reward participant time fairly, with research rewards designed by reference to at least the applicable UK Living Wage benchmark where appropriate. This is a reward/incentive principle and does not create an employment relationship or guarantee an hourly wage for every activity.

A reward is normally earned only where the participant completes the qualifying activity in accordance with the study requirements. We may withhold or reverse a reward where there is reasonable evidence of fraud, duplicate participation, deliberate misrepresentation, material non-compliance with the study instructions or an obvious payment error. We will not withhold a legitimately earned reward merely because a participant gave views that ComVerus or a client dislikes.

Rewards may be delivered through a third-party reward or payment provider. You may need to comply with that provider's terms to redeem them.

You are responsible for any personal tax consequences arising from rewards where applicable.

9. Account closure and outstanding rewards

You may ask us to close your account at any time by contacting hello@comverus.com or using any account-closure function made available through the platform.

If in your time with ComVerus you have already collected 25,000 points (equivalent to £25) or more, you will be able to cashout before closing your account. It is your responsibility to ensure you cashout and have received your reward before closing your account, as this will not be possible once the account is closed.

Your points and personal data will be held for 30 days from the closure of your account. After this, your data will be permanently removed, except in instances where retention of information is necessary for legal obligations, fraud prevention, financial reconciliation, dispute handling, research integrity or the establishment, exercise or the defence of legal claims. Any points left in your account will be donated to your referring community.

10. Suspension or termination by ComVerus

We may restrict, suspend or close an account where reasonably necessary, including where we reasonably believe there has been fraud, duplicate registration, material misrepresentation, abusive behaviour, a serious confidentiality breach, security misuse or repeated conduct that undermines research quality.

Where appropriate, we will consider the circumstances and give you an opportunity to raise a query or complaint. We may act immediately where needed to protect participants, clients, data, research integrity or the security of the Services.

Account closure does not automatically cancel a legitimately earned reward, subject to investigation of suspected fraud or material breach.

11. Community and recruitment partners

ComVerus may recruit participants through trusted communities, membership organisations or other partners. Unless you are clearly told otherwise, joining ComVerus creates a relationship with ComVerus for the operation of your participant account. A community partner does not automatically receive your research responses or ComVerus profile information.

Where information is obtained from or shared with a recruitment/community partner, the relevant privacy policy will explain the parties' roles and the information involved.

12. Research clients

ComVerus conducts research for organisations that commission research (“clients”). We normally provide clients with anonymised or aggregated research findings. A client may receive participant-level pseudonymised data where appropriate for the study. Identifiable information will only be shared where there is an appropriate lawful basis and the participant has been clearly informed: where explicit consent is required, it will be obtained.

The client may be an independent controller for particular processing. Where that applies, the study information should identify the client or explain the relevant category of client and provide the necessary privacy information.

13. Website and ComVerus intellectual property

The ComVerus name, branding, website design, platform content, research materials and other materials supplied by or on behalf of ComVerus are protected by intellectual property rights belonging to ComVerus or its licensors.

You may use the Services and materials only for your personal participation in ComVerus research. You must not commercially exploit, reproduce or redistribute protected material except where the law permits or we give written permission.

14. Third-party services and links

The Services may use or link to third-party platforms such as survey, video, identity-verification, reward or scheduling services. Those services may have their own terms and privacy information. ComVerus is not responsible for the content of a third-party website merely because we provide a link to it.

15. Availability of the Services

We aim to keep the Services available and accurate but do not promise uninterrupted or error-free access. We may maintain, change, suspend or discontinue features where reasonably necessary.

Nothing on the general ComVerus website constitutes professional, medical, financial or legal advice.

16. Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

Subject to the paragraph above, ComVerus is not responsible for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable when you agreed to these Terms, or for business losses arising from a consumer's use of the Services. Nothing in these Terms affects statutory rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

17. Complaints

If you have a complaint about the Services, a study, a reward decision or the way we have handled your account, contact hello@comverus.com with enough information for us to investigate.

Data protection complaints are dealt with under the Privacy Policy. You also have the right to complain to the UK data-protection regulator where applicable.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms to reflect changes in law, regulation, technology or our Services. The current version will be published on our website with its effective date. Where a change materially affects an existing participant's rights or obligations, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to their attention before or when it takes effect, as appropriate.

19. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere in the UK, you retain any mandatory protections and rights to bring proceedings available to you under applicable law. Nothing in these Terms is intended to deprive a consumer of mandatory legal protections.

20. General

If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply. A delay in enforcing a right does not waive that right. We may transfer our rights and obligations as part of a genuine business reorganisation, merger, acquisition or transfer, subject to applicable law and data protection requirements.

No person other than you and ComVerus has a right under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce these Terms, unless a study-specific agreement expressly says otherwise.