This document is pending formal legal review and may be updated before general launch.
These terms and conditions (the Terms) govern access to and use of the TenderLock website and platform (the Service), provided by COGNIVO FZ-LLC, IDS Building, Office 02, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Street, Opposite Burjuman Center, Al Karama, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (TenderLock, we, us). By creating an account or using the Service you agree to these Terms. If you accept on behalf of an organisation, you confirm you have authority to bind it.
Where your organisation holds a paid plan, the Subscription agreement also applies and takes precedence on fees, term, service levels and liability. Fees and credit costs are set out in the Pricing and credits schedule.
1. The Service
TenderLock lets a buyer organisation (a Buyer) prepare tenders with AI assistance, invite supplier organisations (Suppliers), manage clarifications, receive sealed submissions that cannot be opened until the deadline, evaluate submissions and record the outcome.
2. Accounts
- Eligibility: you must be at least 18 and using the Service for business purposes.
- Accuracy: registration details must be accurate and kept up to date.
- Security: you are responsible for your credentials and should enable two-factor authentication. Tell us promptly of any unauthorised use.
- Organisations: account owners control their organisation's users, roles and billing.
3. Plans, credits and payment
- Free plan: one live tender with the limits shown in the Pricing and credits schedule. No card is required.
- Paid plans: billed monthly or annually in advance. We charge the card saved on your account and issue invoices through our payment provider, Stripe. Plans renew automatically until cancelled.
- Credits: one credit balance per organisation is used for launching tenders and AI features at the rates in the schedule. Included credits renew each billing period. Purchased top-up credits are valid for the period stated in the schedule.
- Taxes: we are not currently registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our prices. If that changes, VAT will be added at the applicable rate and shown on your invoice, and business customers may need to account for it under the reverse charge.
- Failed payments: if a payment fails we will email the account owner and retry, as set out in the Subscription agreement. If payment is still outstanding after the final retry, the organisation moves to the Free plan. Your records are preserved.
4. Sealed bidding and fairness
Submissions are held sealed and cannot be opened by the Buyer before the deadline. Deadlines are enforced on our servers using server time. Suppliers cannot see other Suppliers' submissions or clarification questions.
5. AI features
AI features prepare drafts, findings and suggestions. They do not make procurement decisions. The Buyer remains solely responsible for the content it publishes, the scores it records and the award it makes. See our AI use policy.
5A. Connected services
You may choose to sign in with Microsoft, Google or your organisation's single sign-on, and to connect your own Microsoft 365 or Google mailbox so that emails you send from TenderLock go from your own address. You can disconnect at any time. Those services are provided by third parties under their own terms, and our use of the data is described in our Privacy policy. Company information and credit checks come from third-party sources and are provided for guidance only. You should not rely on them as the sole basis for a decision.
6. Your content
- Ownership: you retain all rights in content you upload (Customer Content).
- Licence to us: you grant us a licence to host, process and display Customer Content only as needed to provide, secure and support the Service.
- Responsibility: you confirm you have the right to upload the content and that it complies with the Acceptable use policy.
- Audit records: the tender ledger is append-only. Some records cannot be deleted while they are needed to evidence a procurement decision.
7. Acceptable use
You must use the Service lawfully and in line with the Acceptable use policy. We may suspend access that puts the Service, other users or data at risk.
8. Availability and support
We aim to keep the Service available at all times but do not guarantee uninterrupted access, except where service levels are agreed in writing for Enterprise customers.
9. Liability
Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law. Otherwise, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit or loss arising from procurement decisions made by users. Our total liability in any 12-month period is limited to the fees paid by your organisation in that period, or £100 for organisations on the Free plan.
10. Suspension and termination
You may stop using the Service at any time and cancel a paid plan from the Billing page. We may suspend or end access for material breach. On closure you may export your records for 30 days, after which they are handled under our retention rules.
11. Changes
We may update these Terms. We will give at least 30 days' notice of material changes to paid customers by email or in the Service.
12. General
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, unless otherwise agreed in an Enterprise order. You may not assign these Terms without our consent. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in force. Contact us at hello@tenderlock.co.