TERMS OF USE

The following user agreement ("Agreement") sets forth the terms upon which General Cigar Company Inc. (“GCC”, “Us”, “Our” or “We”) offers you ("You" or "Your") access to Our CAO Cigars website ("Site").  

Your use of this Site constitutes Your acceptance and agreement of the following terms:

1. Your Usage of Site

You may use this Site for lawful purposes only, and You are responsible for Your use of, communications with, and postings on this Site. You may not post on, provide access to, make available, or transmit through this Site any unlawful, infringing, threatening, harassing, abusive, libelous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, indecent, offensive, hateful, pornographic or otherwise objectionable material of any kind. 

Similarly, posting any of the following is prohibited:  material that (a) encourages or solicits criminal conduct or conduct that would give rise to civil liability; (b) infringes others' intellectual property or other rights; (c) discloses private or personal matters concerning any person; (d) concerns products or items outside the scope of the Site;  (e) violates laws relating to export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising; or (f)  violates any other applicable local, state, national, foreign or international law.

You may not use or allow others to use this Site in any manner that interferes with Site operation or with another user's use or enjoyment of this Site. You may not post or transmit on this Site any file or code that contains viruses, worms, "Trojan horses," malware, spyware, or any other contaminating, destructive or invasive features.

You may not post or transmit on this Site any charity requests, petitions for signatures, chain letters, letters relating to pyramid schemes or similar documents. You may not post, provide access to, make available or transmit on this Site any advertising, promotional materials or any other solicitation of other users of this Site for goods or services except as expressly authorized by Us.  

You may not access this Site from any territory where its use or contents is illegal.  You may not access this Site by any means except through the interface and Personal ID provided by Us. You may not link from a page on another site to any page on this Site except the home page. Any robots, spiders, crawlers or other automated software that You use to access this Site must comply with the Standard for Robot Exclusion and must use and comply with this Site's robots.txt files.

You may not reproduce, distribute or transmit any copyrighted materials (whether registered or not) on this Site.  All rights not expressly granted in this Agreement are reserved.

2. Adult Audience

This Site is intended only for use by adults. Access to this Site is limited to persons of legal age. Access is not authorized for users under 21 years of age.

We believe that youth should not smoke.  We take no actions to encourage youth smoking, and supports programs designed to discourage and reduce youth smoking.  We do not engage in any advertising, promotion, or marketing intended to be aimed at minors. In addition, Our policies are designed to limit Our business communications to adults only. We take these issues and responsibilities very seriously.

3. User Submissions

We are not responsible for monitoring, screening, policing or editing the information or materials posted on, submitted to, accessed or transmitted through this Site.  We do not and cannot monitor all information or materials posted on, submitted to or transmitted through this Site.  We do, however, reserve the right to delete, block or remove any information or materials that We, in Our sole discretion, deem unlawful, infringing, defamatory, libelous, abusive, threatening, obscene, offensive, fraudulent, deceptive, inappropriate or otherwise unacceptable to Us. If We are notified of any such information or materials on this Site, We will determine, in Our sole discretion, whether to remove such content from the Site or re-post such content to this Site, and to restrict Your access to the Site.

Although We appreciate people's interest in its business, it is Our policy to decline consideration of unsolicited ideas and suggestions offered or submitted by the general public. We rely on Our research and marketing staffs to generate and implement new concepts. This is necessary to avoid misunderstandings over the origin of particular ideas. We are constantly generating new ideas, many of which We may not use until years after they are first conceived. Accordingly, We do not accept unsolicited ideas for consideration, and We ask that You not submit ideas for products, advertising, etc.

You may not upload, post or otherwise make available on this Site any material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary right without the express permission of the owner of such copyright, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary right, and the burden of determining that you have such permission rests with You.

You will have no recourse against Us for any alleged or actual infringement or misappropriation of any proprietary or other right in Your submissions, postings or communications to Us.

It is Our policy to respond promptly to claims of intellectual property infringement and other violations of law.  We will investigate claims of alleged infringement and take appropriate actions under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). Upon receiving notification that complies or substantially complies with the DMCA (as described below), We will delete or disable user access to the allegedly infringing material.  

If You believe this Site contains any material that infringes Your or another party's rights under intellectual property laws, You must provide notification to the following designated agent: webmaster@web1.cigarworld.com.  As required by the DMCA, Your notification must: (a) include an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the material alleged to have been infringed; (b) contain a description of the alleged infringing material, including the URL where the material exists, or a copy of the alleged infringed material; (c) provide the address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the notifying party; (d) include a statement by You that You have a good faith belief that the use of the material is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law; and (e) include a statement by You, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that You are the owner or owner’s authorized agent.

If We delete or disable user access to material alleged to be infringing, We will attempt to contact the user who posted the material and give that user 10 days to respond.  Any counter notifications submitted by such user will be furnished to the original notifying party, who will be given 10 days to seek judicial relief in accordance with the DMCA before We replace or restore user access to the material.

4. Termination of usage; Notification and Procedure Regarding Infringements

We may block Your access to all or part of this Site, at any time and without notice, for any conduct that We believe, on Our sole discretion, violates this Agreement or applicable law or is harmful to the interests of another user, Us or Our affiliates.

5. No Warranty

WE AND OUR SUPPLIERS PROVIDE THIS SITE AND ANY RELATED SERVICES "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. Use of this Site is at Your sole risk.  We do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted, error-free or secure access to this Site or its products or services, and operation of this Site may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of Our control. WE AND OUR SUPPLIERS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

6. Disclaimer

This disclaimer of liability applies to any damages or injury caused by any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communication line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, alteration of, or use of digital records, whether for breach of contract, tortious behavior, negligence, or under any other cause of action.  We are not liable for the defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties. The risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with You.

7. Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT WILL WE OR OUR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, ECONOMIC OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THIS SITE, THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES AVAILABLE ON THIS SITE OR THIS AGREEMENT, HOWEVER ARISING, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NEGLIGENCE. FURTHERMORE, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR LIABILITY TO You FOR LOSSES, DAMAGES, INJURIES, AND CLAIMS OF EVERY KIND (WHETHER CLAIMED UNDER CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY) WILL UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EXCEED THE AMOUNT You PAID TO ACCESS THIS SITE.

8. Indemnity

You must indemnify and hold Us and Our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents, and employees, harmless from all claims and demands, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Your use of the Site, breach of this Agreement or violation of any applicable law or the rights of a third party.

9. Legal Compliance

You must comply with all applicable laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding Your use of this Site and Your purchase of products from this Site (when applicable).

10. Third Party Sites/Hyperlinks

Hyperlinking to this Site from any other site is expressly prohibited without Our written permission.  This Site may, however produce automated search results or otherwise link You to other sites on the Internet.  The inclusion of such a link does not imply Our endorsement of the site or any association with the site’s operators.  Hyperlinked sites may contain information or material that some people find inappropriate, offensive or otherwise objectionable. These other sites are not under Our control, and We are not responsible for the accuracy, intellectual property compliance, legality, decency or any other aspect of the content of such sites. Furthermore, any opinions, advice, statements, products, services, offers, or other information or content expressed at such sites are those of the respective owner(s), author(s) or distributor(s) and not Ours.  It is Your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through third party sites. You should seek the advice of legal or other professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice or other content.

11. Trademarks

CAO Cigars and other GCC marks appearing on this Site are the trademarks of GCC or Our affiliates and all rights are reserved. All other trademarks appearing on this Site or accessed via this Site are the property of their respective owners, who are neither sponsors of nor affiliated with Us, CAO Cigars, or this Site.

12.  DTSA Notice

Pursuant to 18 USC § 1833(b), an individual may not be held criminally or civilly liable under any federal or state trade secret law for disclosure of a trade secret: (i) made in confidence to a government official, either directly or indirectly, or to an attorney, solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law; and/or (ii) in a complaint or other document filed in a lawsuit or other proceeding, if such filing is made under seal. Additionally, an individual suing an employer for retaliation based on the reporting of a suspected violation of law may disclose a trade secret to his or her attorney and use the trade secret information in the court proceeding, so long as any document containing the trade secret is filed under seal and the individual does not disclose the trade secret except pursuant to court order.

13. Miscellaneous

No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchise-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement or Your use of the Site. The information, software, products, offers, data and services published on this Site may contain inaccuracies or typographical errors, which We may correct without notice. Furthermore, We have the right to change or modify this Agreement at any time. Such changes, modifications, additions or deletions will be effective immediately when We issue the notice, which We may give by posting on this Site, electronic or regular mail or by any other means.  Any use by You after such notice will constitute Your acceptance or the changes, modifications, or additions.

This Agreement will be governed in all respects by the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia . All disputes concerning this Site and this Agreement must be brought either in the state courts of Henrico County, Virginia or in the federal court of the Eastern District of Virginia.  You voluntarily submit to and consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of such courts. Furthermore, use of this Site is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of this Agreement.  If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision will be deleted and the remaining provisions will be enforced. Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section.  Our failure to act with respect to a breach by You or others does not waive Our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between You and Us with respect to Your use of the Site.

A printed version of this Agreement, and any notice given in electronic form will be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this Agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records generated and maintained in printed form.

DRAG