Terms of Service

These terms govern this platform — an awards program run by the organizer of the awards program you are using (the "Organizer") using the ECHO Awards white-label awards platform (the "Platform", operated by ECHO Awards). "We" and "us" means the Organizer for everything about the awards program, and ECHO Awards for the software that runs it. By creating an account, entering, judging or launching a platform, you agree to these terms.

You need an account to enter, judge or organize. Give accurate details, keep your password to yourself, and tell us at once if you think someone else has used your account — you are responsible for everything done under it. You must be at least 18, or have your organization's authority to act on its behalf.

You keep ownership of everything you submit. So that the awards can run, you grant the Organizer and ECHO Awards a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to store, copy, translate, display and share your entry with judges and staff — and, if your entry is shortlisted or wins, to publish its title, brand, credits, publicity image and a summary in connection with the awards.

You confirm that:

• you own or have permission to use everything in the entry, including client work, music, footage, photography and results data;
• the client or brand named in the entry has approved its submission;
• the entry contains nothing unlawful, defamatory or misleading.

The Organizer may decline, move or disqualify an entry that breaks these rules or the program's own eligibility rules, and may correct category placements.

Entries often contain unpublished work, results, budgets and other commercially sensitive material. Judges and staff must keep that material confidential and use it only for judging. The Organizer will not publish the confidential parts of an entry — results, budgets, unreleased work — without the entrant's consent, beyond the summary used in shortlists, citations and award announcements.

Entry fees are set by the Organizer, shown per category before you pay, and charged in the currency shown at checkout. Prices may exclude taxes the Organizer must add; any tax is shown before you pay. Payments are processed by Stripe — your card details never touch the Platform. A late fee may apply to entries paid after the standard deadline.

Once an entry is submitted, fees are non-refundable unless the Organizer's own rules say otherwise or the law requires a refund. If the Organizer cancels a category or the program before judging, fees for the affected entries are refunded. If you think you were charged in error, contact support first: genuine mistakes are fixed quickly.

The Organizer sets the dates for opening, closing, late entry and judging. The Platform locks entries at the deadline; entries that are unpaid or unsubmitted at the close are not judged. Extensions are at the Organizer's discretion.

The Organizer appoints judges, sets the scoring rubric and may re-assign entries between judges and panels. Judges must declare conflicts of interest and step aside from entries they are connected to. Judging decisions are final; the Organizer does not enter into correspondence about individual scores.

Judging is a position of trust. As a judge you agree to:

• keep entries, scores and deliberations confidential — no sharing, screenshots or downloads outside your judging;
• declare a conflict on any entry from your company, your clients or close colleagues;
• score honestly against the rubric;
• accept that the Organizer may remove you from the panel at any time.

Judges have no claim over the entries they see, and the Platform does not pay judges.

If you launch or run an awards program here, you are responsible for your program's rules, categories, pricing, refunds, judging and results, and for the lawful handling of your entrants' and judges' data — you are the data controller, and ECHO Awards processes that data on your instructions. You will keep your account credentials and connected payment account secure, and you will not use the Platform for an unlawful program. Platform fees are as agreed in your order or, for connected payment accounts, the application fee shown when you connect.

Whoever you are, you agree not to:

• try to access other people's accounts or entries, or another organizer's platform;
• scrape, overload or interfere with the Platform;
• upload malware, or content you have no right to use;
• impersonate anyone.

We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms, and the Organizer may remove entries that do. You can close your account by contacting support: your personal details are removed or anonymized, while entries, payments and scores stay as the Organizer's records of the program (see the Privacy Policy).

We work to keep the Platform available and your data safe, but it is provided as-is: we do not promise it will be free of interruptions or errors. To the fullest extent the law allows, neither the Organizer nor ECHO Awards is liable for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you is limited to the fees you paid in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

We may update these terms. If a change is material we will tell you on the site or by email before it takes effect; using the Platform after that means you accept the change. The date at the top of this page says when this version took effect.

These terms are governed by the laws of the place where the Organizer is established (or, for the Platform itself, where ECHO Awards is established), and disputes go to the courts there — without affecting any protection you have as a consumer under the law of your own country.

Questions about the awards program: support@echo-awards.org.