Hello Folks,

I am a bit puzzled and I need your advice.
I read the other night Bull Dog's (UK Broad-Band ISP bought last year by "Cable & Wireless" Telephone Network) Terms & Conditions for 2 hours and the next day for about another 1.5 hour (32 pages in total !) and there is a clause/section 12 which is worrying me.
Usually, all ISPs T & C mention that we cannot mis-behave such as harras others, send abusive messages, spam, mis-behave, etc. but it seemed to me Bull Dog is saying I will have to pay fines £2,000/£5,000 pounds (British Sterlings) if I or anyone using my broad-band connection engage in any of these.

Clause 7 states what we are prohibited to do and clause 10 states our liability to bull dog and bull dog's liability to us.

I emailed the customer service about this issue and he says he thinks (which means he is not sure) the clause mentions that bull dog's liability to me is
£2,000/£5,000 pounds and not my liability to them but if that is the case then I don't understand why it states "your liability to Bulldog" .

Anyway, my English isn't too good (as English is my 2nd language and I am not a caucasian) and was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to read the clauses/sections (they are short) and tell me what you think.

On their T & C link :

http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/general/terms_v2.asp

please read the section (it is short) :


12. SPECIAL CONSUMER TERMS


You will notice that the consumer section/clause (12 ) states :

" • subject to clauses 7, 10 and the obligation to pay Charges due under these Terms, Bulldog's liability to you, and your liability to Bulldog, in respect of all causes of action arising in each calendar year in contract, tort or otherwise (including liability for negligence or breach of statutory duty) under, in connection with or arising out of the supply or non-supply of Services and/or Equipment:

• in respect of each and every line shall be limited to damages equal to £2,000 in such calendar year; and;

• in aggregate shall be limited to damages equal to £5,000 in such calendar year. "

Actually, please read these 3 small sections/clauses :

7. YOUR OBLIGATIONS
10. LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY

before reading section/clause 12 because section/clause 12 mention about section 7 and 10 when it says "subject to clauses 7, 10 and the obligation to pay Charges due under these Terms,"

So, kindly read those 3 sections/clauses before posting what you have understood from the 3 sections/clauses.
You can finish them all in 5 minutes.

I asked customer service what they mean by "line" when the T & C states :

" • in respect of each and every line shall be limited to damages equal to £2,000 in such calendar year; and;

• in aggregate shall be limited to damages equal to £5,000 in such calendar year. "

and he said it means "phone lines".
I thought that maybe it meant that for every "line" of prohibited act (mentioned in section/clause 7) we may have to pay fine of £2000 (max £5000 per year) but I guess line means "phone line" after-all.
Nevertheless please keep both interpretation of "line" in mind when reading the sections/clauses and see which interpretation makes sense. I think their interpretation does now, but you never know mine could be right because as far as I am concerned the customer service maybe lying through their teeth just to sign us up as some of them do that here in the UK.

Ok, you might have a question : Why am I so worried that Bull Dog might suddenly start fining me ?
Well, as you can imagine, every house-hold has teenagers and experience tells me that they are most of the time "chatting" in chat-rooms and making "new mates" whenever they are on the internet.
And ofcourse, they chat with strangers and all sorts of people and sooner or later some guy wishing to be funny and wishing to start a chat-flame before ending his chat for that night starts abusing other chatters. My worry is, when teenagers from my house-hold get offended by other chatters (who start chat-flames) they are most likely to retaliate by sending similar abuse.
And that, might land me in trouble with my ISP (Bull Dog) as they have made it very clear on their T & C that they will monitor and record every internet activity.
Yeah, I can tell my house-hold not to swear at others on the internet and they would promise me they would behave but when the time comes when you lose your head because others are just being plain stupid and swearing at you for the sake of starting a chat-flame then you just forget all your promises and only remember it when your ISP drops you a big fine on your lap.
Frankly, I haven't found any better ISP than Bull Dog because with Bull Dog our minimum contract is only 1 month unlike most others whose minimum contract is 12 months.

Plus, Bull Dog offers 4mbs download band-width unlike all the others whose max download speed is 2mbs.
And, Bull Dog does not put uploading or downloading restrictions unlike most others.
That's why I prefer Bull Dog but that clause 12 is holding me back from signing-up.
To this day, I still use dial-up.

Cheers Folks !

I barely no anything about US law and nothing at all about UK law, and reading legalese documents makes my head hurt.

However, the way I read it is that each phone line or connection is limited to a max fine of 2000 pounds or 5000 pounds total per year. The "aggregate" total sounds like it means the max fine if you have more than one connection.

I don't know what they mean by "Bulldog's liability to you"; normally these contract agreements are all about how you're liable to the company and they get your body and soul if you screw up. The only thing I can guess about it is that Bulldog can't charge you more than the 2k or 5k as stated, so they can't find "hidden" charges, taxes, or fines to get more money out of you.

Actually, having reread #10, it sounds like their "liability to you" means you can sue them in case of lost connections or similar circumstance that results in you losing money, but they only have to pay a max of 2k per line or 5k total. I guess an example might be if you have a home-based business requiring Internet access; if the service goes down and your business loses money because of it, you can't sue them for millions of pounds.

It does state that you still have all your legal rights to recourse if you disagree to a judgement by them, so if the contract violates a local law or regulation they can't hide behind the contract.

That's my interpretation at least.

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