Updated as of: Feb 2019
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY.
The Costco Auto Program is operated in the United States by Affinity Auto
Programs, Inc., doing business as “Costco Auto Program” (“CAP”, “we”, “us”
or “our”), which is an independent company, not an affiliate of Costco
Wholesale Corporation (“Costco”).
This document sets out those terms and conditions (the "Agreement") under
which we allow you ("you", "your") to use our website ("Website"), whether
you do so just to find out about us and our services or to provide us with
information in order to participate in the Costco Auto Program or in any
other activities through the Website.
If you are visiting our Website as a Visitor (see below for definitions),
your use of the Website confirms that you agree to this Agreement. To
access other services or parts of the Website, you may have to confirm that
you have read, accepted and agreed to this Agreement by clicking on
"Accept" or you will not be able to view or use those portions of the
Website.
THIS AGREEMENT LIMITS THE LIABILITY OF COSTCO AUTO PROGRAM, DISCLAIMS
CERTAIN WARRANTIES, GRANTS YOU A LIMITED LICENSE AND GIVES THE COSTCO
AUTO PROGRAM CONTROL OVER THE INFORMATION YOU ELECT TO PROVIDE TO US.
ALL PERSONAL INFORMATION PROVIDED BY INDIVIDUALS ALSO BECOMES SUBJECT
TO THE COSTCO AUTO PROGRAM'S PRIVACY POLICY
https://www.costcoauto.com/privacy.aspx
DO NOT USE THE WEBSITE OR PROVIDE US WITH ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION IF
YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS,
1.
Help and feedback
If you require assistance using the Website or wish to provide us with
feedback, please call us at 1-877-500-1470
2.
Agreement May Change
We may change any of the terms or conditions of this Agreement from time to
time without notice. You should revisit the Website periodically to review
the terms and conditions of the then-current Agreement. Any revisions to
this Agreement are effective once posted on or accessible from or through
the Website.
3.
Definitions
Many of the words and phrases in this Agreement have specific meanings so
we have provided those for you to read:
“Agent”
means any person who provides Personal Information to the Costco Auto
Program in any manner on behalf of another individual.
“CAP Service(s)”
means any one or more of the services or benefits offered by the Costco
Auto Program from time to time; which may include a referral to a
participating CAP dealer, issuance of a dealer parts and service coupon, or
issuance of an authorization number to register to participate in an OEM
promotion or any other service or benefit offered by the Costco Auto
Program.
"Data" means any and all records, documents, data and
information collected by CAP related to any Guest’s use of any CAP Service
from a Guest, an Agent, a Participating Dealer or an OEM; including,
without limitation, certain non-Personal Information about vehicle
purchases (such as a vehicle make, the vehicle model and model year,
purchase date and price paid or capital cost of lease), Personal
Information related to Guests, and related matters.
“Guest”
means an individual who submits information to the Costco Auto Program to
participate in one of more of the CAP Services. A Guest may access the
Website as a Visitor on a different occasion without disclosing information
or requesting a CAP Service. A Guest may provide certain Personal
Information personally and/or directly, or they may use instruct an Agent
or representative to do so.
"OEM" an original equipment manufacturer.
"Personal Information" means all information about an
identifiable individual; including, without limitation, name, email
address, telephone number, home address, geolocation, demographic
information (such as postal code, gender and age), contact information,
Costco membership number, and certain information about vehicle purchases
whether provided by a Guest, Agent, Visitor Participating Dealer or OEM
(such as the vehicle purchase agreement or a vehicle sales file which may
include the vehicle identification number, model and model year, purchase
date, price paid or capital cost of lease, MSRP and invoice price).
“Visitor”
means anyone who visits the publicly available parts of our Website, but
who is not asked to provide information related to a request to use one or
more of the CAP Services. Visitors can access information from the
Website's publicly available areas without creating an account or otherwise
submitting information about themselves. However, by using the Website,
Visitors agree to accept all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.
A Visitor may not utilize a CAP Service and cannot request to access the
Data.
Please note that CAP collects and archives your IP address as provided in
our Privacy Policy.
4.
Purpose for access
You agree that the purpose for our providing you with access to the Website
is to (i) allow you to obtain information and (where applicable) upload,
download, create, and add to the Data for purposes reasonably connected to
a request to participate in one or more of the CAP Services on behalf of
yourself or on behalf of another person for whom you have the authority to
do so, and (ii) to allow CAP to generate and review reports on your
activities, or those of Guests you act on behalf of as may be permitted by
CAP from time to time. Once received by CAP, the Data becomes part of a
database, which CAP owns. Any Personal Information in the Data will be
collected, used and disclosed by CAP pursuant to the CAP Privacy Policy.
5.
Your warranty and representations to CAP
You warrant and represent to CAP as follows:
- If you act on behalf of an organization, whether a motor vehicle
dealership (on behalf of a Guest) or otherwise, that organization has
implemented a legally compliant privacy policy and appointed responsible
individuals with respect to the collection, use and disclosure of personal
information, including by you;
- By accessing the Website and/or adding to, deleting or modifying Data
with respect to any Guest, you are not breaching any contract, duty or law
or infringing anyone's intellectual property, privacy or other legal
rights;
- If you are a bona fide Agent, as defined in this Agreement, your access
to this Website is permitted solely for the limited purpose of carrying out
your role as an Agent, and any access or use other than as permitted to an
Agent is hereby prohibited. As an Agent, you are permitted to access this
Website only to the extent reasonably required to fulfill your obligations
to the other individual or individuals you are assisting regarding their
use of one or more of the CAP Services; and,
- You are aware of the content of this Agreement and agree to follow its
terms and conditions.
6.
Compliance with rules and regulations
You agree that you will follow all of the rules, requirements and
regulations set forth by CAP from time to time. Those rules, requirements
and regulations are currently as set out in this Agreement. These rules,
requirements and regulations will apply to any use of the Website and
access to the Data and will apply to you whether you are a Guest, Visitor
or Agent.
You agree and confirm that:
- you are at least 18 years old; and
- you possess the legal authority to enter into this agreement and to use
the Website in accordance with all of the terms and conditions contained in
this Agreement.
7.
Privacy
We respect your personal privacy. We will collect, use and disclose
personal information as described in our Privacy Policy, which is available
at www.costcoauto.com/privacy. By using or accessing the Website, you
consent to the collections, uses and disclosures of your personal
information for the purposes described in our Privacy Policy.
8.
Your agreement
You agree that at all times:
- Your access to this Website is for your use for the stated purposes in
this Agreement only. You will not allow or provide access to this Website
to any unauthorized person or any person under the age of 18, unless such
access is continuously supervised by you;
- You are using this Website solely to determine whether you wish to use
one or more of the CAP Services;
- If you are a bona fide Agent, as defined in this Agreement, your access
to this Website is permitted solely for the limited purpose of carrying out
your role as an Agent, and any access or use other than as permitted to an
Agent is hereby prohibited. As an Agent, you are permitted to access this
Website only to the extent reasonably required to fulfill your obligations
to the other individual or individuals you are assisting regarding their
use of one or more of the CAP Services;
- If you are a bona fide Visitor or a Guest, you are permitted to access
this Website and download copies of content from this Website for
non-commercial and personal use only; and
- Whenever you access, use or otherwise interact with the Website, you
will comply with all:
- applicable laws, including, but not limited to, privacy laws;
- acceptable-use policies and other policies that we implement with
respect to the Website from time to time, as posted on or made available
through the Website; and
- Other rules, policies and procedures we communicate to you from time to
time.
9.
Prohibited Activities
You will not use the Website for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited
by this Agreement.
In addition to, and without limiting, any other prohibitions set out in
this Agreement, you may not do any of the following when accessing, using
or interacting with the Website:
- use the Website in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or
impair the Website or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of
the Website;
- engage in harassment in any manner, including via e-mail, chat, or by
use of obscene, offensive or abusive language (as determined by us in our
sole discretion);
- impersonate others, including a CAP employee or representative, or other
members or visitors to the Website;
- upload to, distribute or otherwise publish any content that is
defamatory, obscene, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights,
abusive, illegal, or otherwise objectionable, or which may constitute or
encourage a criminal offence, violate the rights of any party or which may
otherwise give rise to liability or violate any law;
- upload any commercial content or solicit others to join or become
members of any other online service or other organization;
- circumvent or disable any access control technology, security device,
procedure, protocol, or technological protection mechanism that may be
included or established in or as part of the Site or any hardware or
software used to provide the Site, or third party hardware, software or
services;
- use the Website or any hardware or software used to provide the Website
to perform cyber currency or crypto currency mining; and
- collect any content or information from CAP, our licensee’s or any user
or otherwise access the Website personally or through any automated means
(such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers) without our
permission.
10.
Relationship
You agree that by using the Website or by submitting personal information
on your own or a Visitor or Guest's behalf, you and CAP are not entering
into:
- An employment relationship
- A business partnership or joint business venture;
- A consulting relationship; or
- A relationship where CAP or you act as each other's legal agent.
11.
Withdrawal of access for cause
This Agreement grants no rights, only privileges and permission. You agree
that CAP, in its absolute discretion, will be the sole judge of whether you
have breached any provision of this Agreement and that any privileges or
permission granted to you under this Agreement may be revoked, suspended or
terminated by CAP at any time without notice.
12.
Waiver
You acknowledge that the Internet and websites accessed by you are
inherently dangerous and subject to computer, system and network failure as
well as malicious human activity. While CAP will take such steps as are
reasonable in the circumstances to maintain the security of this Website
and the Data and your privacy and confidentiality with respect to
information you provide, you agree that you use this Website completely at
your own risk and that in no event shall CAP be held liable for any loss or
damages, however caused, except as expressly provided in this Agreement,
even if caused by the negligence or reckless behavior of CAP.
13.
Disclaimer
THE COSTCO AUTO PROGRAM DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THIS WEBSITE WILL OPERATE
ERROR-FREE OR THAT IT AND ITS SERVER OR SERVERS ARE OR WILL BE FREE OF
COMPUTER VIRUSES, TROJAN HORSES, OR OTHER HARMFUL CONTENT, DEVICES OR
PROGRAMS. THIS WEBSITE AND ITS CONTENT AND MATERIAL, AND ACCESS TO THE
DATA, ARE ALL PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS, WHERE IS", AND "AS AND WHEN AVAILABLE"
BASIS WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATIONS, GUARANTEES, CONDITIONS OR WARRANTIES OF
ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY THE LAW, THE COSTCO AUTO
PROGRAM DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL CONDITIONS AND WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE CONDITION OR WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY AND THE
CONDITION OR WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE COSTCO
AUTO PROGRAM MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. THE
COSTCO AUTO PROGRAM FURTHER MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS
CONCERNING THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE
DATA ACCESSED BY USE OF THE WEBSITE.
CAP strives to ensure information is accurate and current. However, we make
no representations to you about the accuracy of the information contained
on the CAP Website. This includes, without limitation, the availability of
any CAP Service to you on a local or national basis.
14.
Limitation of damages
You further agree THAT THE COSTCO AUTO PROGRAM will not be liable to you
for any damages you may suffer and that IN NO EVENT WILL COSTCO AUTO
PROGRAM BE LIABLE FOR indirect, general, special, economic, consequential,
EXEMPLARY or punitive damages resulting from the use of (or inability to
use) this Website or any cap service, whether in tort (including
negligence), contract or any other cause of action, including without
limitation, for availability of any cap service, loss of data, information
or programs, or damage to computers or networks, or from breach of privacy
and similar personal rights, or from infringement of intellectual property
rights, OR FROM DEFAMATION, LIBEL OR SLANDER, or any other damages
whatsoever, whether or not CAP shall have been advised of the possibility
of such damages.
15.
Exceptions to disclaimers and limitations of damages
THIS AGREEMENT DOES NOT EXCLUDE OR LIMIT CAP’S LIABILITY (IF ANY) FOR DEATH
OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY CAP’S NEGLIGENCE, FRAUD, FRAUDULENT
MISREPRESENTATION OR ANY MATTER WHICH IT WOULD BE ILLEGAL FOR CAP TO
EXCLUDE OR ATTEMPT TO EXCLUDE CAP’S LIABILITY.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR
EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DAMAGES; AS A RESULT, ONE OR
MORE OF THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
16.
Further disclaimer of CAP
Except as provided in the Privacy Policy, while
CAP will make reasonable commercial efforts to make access to review the
Data available on a reasonable basis, CAP accepts no obligation to do so on
any pre-agreed basis or at all. CAP may interrupt access to the Data, or
terminate access to the Data at any time, without notice or liability.
Access to the Data shall in all cases be a privilege and not a right or
proprietary interest of any kind. Subject to its privacy policies and
applicable law, CAP shall be free to modify, change, delete, share the Data
with Costco Wholesale, Participating Dealers and OEM’s and generally deal
with the Data as it sees fit. Other parties may have access to the Data and
can change, modify, amend or delete the Data. CAP has no control over such
third parties and no event will CAP be liable for any reliance by you on
the Data.
17.
Events Outside our Control
CAP will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay
in performance of, any of our obligations under this Agreement that is
caused by events outside our reasonable control. CAP’s performance will be
deemed to be suspended for the period that any such event continues, and we
will have an extension of time for performance for the duration of that
period or such longer period as we may reasonable require. We will use our
reasonable efforts to end the event or to find a solution by which our
obligations may be performed despite the event.
18.
Enforcement
CAP's performance of its obligations under this Agreement is subject to all
applicable laws and regulatory requirements. Nothing contained in this
agreement is in derogation of CAP’s rights and obligations to comply with
law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the
Website or information provided to, or gathered by CAP with respect to such
use.
19.
Evidence
Computer records stored in reasonably secure conditions by CAP with respect
to the Data, the Website and your access to them will be accepted as
conclusive evidence of your conduct, communications and dealings with the
Data and the Website. Computer records will be deemed to be stored in
reasonably secure conditions if systematically recorded on a durable and
inalterable medium, including a write-protected disk, tape, CD or DVD or
similar medium, or, if upon an alterable medium, upon reasonable proof that
such record has not been altered.
20.
Injunctive and similar relief
You agree that any breach by you of this Agreement will not be fully
compensable in damages and you therefore agree that CAP shall be entitled
to immediate equitable, injunctive and other similar relief against you
without notice and without the necessity of proving damages or the
likelihood of damages.
21.
Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and save harmless CAP for any damages sustained
should you breach your warranties and representations or any term or
condition of this Agreement.
22.
Ownership and Grant of limited license
The Website, its organization and design (including all software code and
architecture and the look and feel of the Website and its user interfaces),
and all information, images, artwork, text, video, audio, pictures and
other material and content on the Site, all of which CAP owns or has the
right to use, are protected by copyright and other proprietary rights.
CAP grants to you a non-exclusive, limited and revocable license to
download and view the content available on this Website on your computer
for the purposes stated in this Agreement and no other purposes.
23.
Feedback
If you send any communications, comments, questions, suggestions, or
related materials to us by any method of communication suggesting or
recommending changes to the Website, any CAP Service or any product,
services or materials offered through the Website or that you would like to
see offered through the Website (“Feedback”) then:
- all Feedback is not, and will not be treated as, your confidential or
proprietary information or property;
- CAP is free to use, without any attribution or compensation to you, any
ideas, know-how, concepts, techniques, or other intellectual property and
proprietary rights contained in the Feedback for any purpose whatsoever,
and you acknowledge that CAP may independently develop its own updates or
improvements to the Website or any CAP Service that may be similar or
identical to the Feedback; and
- you understand and agree that CAP is not obligated to use, display,
reproduce, or distribute any such ideas, know-how, concepts, or techniques
contained in the Feedback, and you have no right to compel us to do so.
24.
Assignment
CAP may assign this Agreement to any affiliate or any third party at any
time. You may not assign this Agreement or any rights or benefits offered
to you by CAP. This Agreement shall remain personal between you and CAP.
25.
Termination
In its absolute discretion, CAP may terminate this Agreement at any time
with or without notice to you. You may not terminate this Agreement or any
provision. This Agreement will remain in force between you and CAP unless
and until terminated by CAP and CAP may enforce any and all provisions of
this Agreement against you, and, if you are an Agent, against any
organization you are employed with or on whose behalf you access the
Website or the Data.
26.
Entire agreement
This is the entire agreement, contract and understanding between you and
CAP and supersedes any prior terms and conditions, agreement or
understanding between you and CAP.
27.
Other sites and Linking
You agree that (i) CAP has no control over the content or performance of
any website linked to or from this Website, (ii) CAP expresses no opinion
concerning the content or performance of any such linked website, and,
(iii) CAP shall not be held liable or responsible for the content or
services of any such linked website. CAP provides all such links for your
convenience only; they are not an endorsement or referral by CAP. You
access and use those linked sites at your own risk. Those linked sites may
have terms of use and privacy policies different from ours, and those terms
and policies will apply to your activities on those sites.
If you wish to provide a link to our Website from your own web site, you
may only link to our home page at www.costcoauto.com. You may not
use any of our icons or logos on your web site without our prior written
approval, and you may not use the link to suggest that we sponsor, endorse,
approve of or are affiliated with you or your web site.
28.
Modifications and Updates
We may from time to time add new features to the Website, remove existing
features from the Website, or otherwise modify the Website, the CAP
Services and any of the products, services and content made available
through the Website (including their functionality, “look-and-feel”,
universal resource locators and software components), all without notice to
you or any liability to you.
29.
Governing law
This Agreement shall in all respects be governed by the laws of State of
Delaware. You agree that any and all disputes will be adjudicated by the
Delaware courts. You expressly submit to the jurisdiction of such Delaware
courts. The use of the Website in any jurisdiction not giving effect to all
provisions of these terms and conditions is unauthorized.
30. Severance
Should any term or provision of this Agreement be held by a court of
competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable, then such term or provision
shall be severed from this Agreement; provided, however, that the remaining
provisions terms and provisions of the Agreement shall continue to be valid
and enforced.
31.
Copyright and trademark notices
All contents of the Website are: Copyright © Affinity Auto Programs, Inc.
Other trade-marks of third parties displayed on the Website are the
property of such parties, used with permission. All rights are expressly
reserved.