Our terms & conditions

These general terms and conditions are the terms of use for the internet car auction website(s) and general domain(s): CarsOnTheWeb, a service of European Car Auction and Distribution Solutions nv, Ambachtenlaan 44, B-3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium, CarsOnTheWeb.France, 124, rue de Verdun, 92800 PUTEAUX, France, CarsOnTheWeb.Deutschland GmbH , Sulzbacher Straße 105, 92224 Amberg, Deutschland, CarsOnTheWeb España, S.L., Avenida Doctor Severo Ochoa, 29, 1º, 28100 Alcobendas, MADRID, España and CarsOnTheWeb.Italia S.r.l., Via Idiomi 1/7, 20090 ASSAGO (MI), Italia.

The following describes the conditions which apply to all registered users of the online auction services of all the CarsOnTheWeb domains and websites. In order to use our services all subscribed and/or registered users must agree to the terms and conditions of this agreement. Any interested user must read and agree with all of the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policy, before you may become a registered user of CarsOnTheWeb.

Changes and corrections to this agreement can and will be posted at any time on the websites. All amended terms shall automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted. In addition, subscribed and/or registered users will be notified in accordance with their notification preferences. This agreement is effective upon acceptance during registration for new users, and is otherwise effective from the 1st of October 2004 for all users.

Membership Eligibility

Our auction services are available only to, and may only be used by professional car-traders (cardealers), represented by individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. The registered CarsOnTheWeb account (including feedback) and user id may not be transferred or sold to another party, except for persons representing the registered company. CarsOnTheWeb reserves the right to suspend access to the website and its auction services to users who have not complied with this policy.

Fees and Services

Registering and bidding on items at CarsOnTheWeb is not free, except during the trial period, which is granted to all new registered users for a period of three months. A registration fee will be charged for participating in the auctions. An administrative cost of 75 Euro (€) will be charged for international invoices to customers of a country in which there is a local CarsOnTheWeb office, in case the customer prefers an international invoice for his international purchases.

At the end of the trial period, if the subscriber chooses to continue using the site to buy cars, he/she will be have to option to choose for a paid subscription at a cost of 450,00 € to access and use the site during the next 12 months, with this subscription type the car auction fee per purchased car remains at 50,00 €. The user can however also choose to continue using the site without any charges, however he/she will then pay an car auction fee of 95,00 € per car purchased through our car auctions. Our fee and credit policy is available and is incorporated into this agreement by reference. The fee and credit policy, and the fees for the services can be changed when necessary. The changes to the policy and fee structure are effective after thirty days (30) days' notice of the changes by posting the changes on the site. However, a temporarily change can be organized for promotional events, and such changes are effective when the event is posted on the site. CarsOnTheWeb may in its sole discretion change some or all of the services at any time. In the event of an introduction of a new service, the fees for that service are effective at the launch of the service. Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in Euros (). All users are responsible for paying all fees associated with using our service and the site and all applicable taxes. If you bought a vehicle from CarsOnTheWeb and you want to export it directly to a non EU country, you are obliged to send us back the stamped export documents such as EX1/EURO1. We will charge the VAT amount as warranty until we receive these documents.

Cars need to be picked up within 1 month after assignment. CarsOnTheWeb obtains the right to charge a fee of €1 per day when this period has been exceeded.

Transport

For each sales agreement CarsOnTheWeb will arrange for delivery of the vehicle to the buyer. If the buyer chooses to organise the transport himself then he is assumed to do it in the name of CarsOnTheWeb. In this case, CarsOnTheWeb will then include the transport costs in the invoice to the buyer, and subsequently credit the same.

CarsOnTheWeb is an Online Car Auction

Although CarsOnTheWeb is referred to as an online car auction, it is important to realize that it is not a traditional "auctioneer." The site acts as an internet based venue to allow professional car-traders to bid and buy vehicles - used cars, secondhand cars-, at anytime, from anywhere in an auction-style format through the website(s) of CarsOnTheWeb. CarsOnTheWeb acts as a true auction house, which involves the actual physical transaction between buyers and sellers. As a result, all registered users should be aware that participating in an auction -by placing a bid- constitutes a legally binding transaction offer. Consequently, when placing a bid the registered user acknowledges that when, at the end of the auction, he/she has won the auction by placing the highest bid(s), this implies a legally binding obligation to purchase the vehicle by the buyer. By bidding on any vehicle - used cars, secondhand cars- a user agrees to be bound by these conditions. Bids are not retractable except in exceptional circumstances, such as: when the seller materially changes the item's description after the bid has placed or when a clear typographical error is made.

Liability

The objects placed in auction by CarsOnTheWeb, are presented and described based on the information obtained from the seller. Therefore CarsOnTheWeb is only responsible for the correct representation of the obtained information, including any visual damages as described in the individual damage report. The seller consequently assumes the responsibility for any hidden technical defects, which are not the result of normal "wear and tear". As such CarsOnTheWeb has no control over the quality, safety or legality of the vehicles placed in auction by the selling party.

Identity Verification

CarsOnTheWeb reserves the right to verify the accuracy of the information any user has provided during the registration process on the site. If this verification would reveal that a registered user is not a true and documented car-trader, CarsOnTheWeb can and will deny such a registered user access to its services. CarsOnTheWeb will duly inform the user of this decision, giving him/her the opportunity to prove himself/herself otherwise.

Disputes

In the event a dispute arises between a user and CarsOnTheWeb, the goal is to provide the user with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Accordingly, the user and CarsOnTheWeb agree that any claim or controversy at law or equity that arises out of this agreement or the services of CarsOnTheWeb, shall be resolved in accordance with one of the subsections below or as otherwise mutually agreed upon in writing by the parties. Before resorting to these alternatives, we strongly encourage a user to first contact CarsOnTheWeb directly to seek a resolution and reasonable requests will be considered to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation, as an alternative to litigation. In the event of any dispute, originating from and based on the use of CarsOnTheWeb services, Leuven (Belgium) is agreed to be the place of jurisdiction, even if the user moves abroad after conclusion of the contract, or has no general place of jurisdiction in Belgium.

Legal Compliance

Any user shall comply with all applicable domestic and international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding his/her use of the services and his/her bidding and purchases on the website.

No Agency

All users and CarsOnTheWeb are independent contractors, and no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this agreement.

Fraud

Without limiting any other remedies, CarsOnTheWeb may suspend or terminate any user's account if evidence or justifiable suspicion exists that such a user (by conviction, settlement, insurance or escrow investigation, or otherwise) has engaged in fraudulent activity in connection with the site.

Manipulation

Neither bidders nor sellers may manipulate the price of any vehicle in auction, nor may any user interfere with other user's bids or transactions.

Access and Interference

Much of the information on the CarsOnTheWeb site is updated on a real time basis and is proprietary. Any user agrees that he/she will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the website for any purpose without the express written permission of CarsOnTheWeb. Additionally, all users agree that they will not:

  • take any action that imposes, or may impose in our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure
  • copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute or publicly display any content (except for the user's own information) from the website without the prior expressed written permission of CarsOnTheWeb and the appropriate third party, as applicable
  • interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the website or any activities conducted on the website
  • bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the website.

Notices

Except as explicitly stated otherwise, any notices shall be given by postal mail to ECADIS nv, Ambachtenlaan 44 - 3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium (in the case of CarsOnTheWeb) or to the email address provide during the registration process (in the user's case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after such email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid.

General

CarsOnTheWeb does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to its services, and the operation of the website may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of its control. If any provision of this agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced.

All users agree that this agreement and all incorporated agreements may be automatically assigned by CarsOnTheWeb in accordance with the section "Notices", in our sole discretion. Any failure of CarsOnTheWeb to act with respect to a breach by a user does not waive its right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

Privacy Policy

CarsOnTheWeb does not sell or rent any user's personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes, CarsOnTheWeb only uses this information as described in this privacy policy. The privacy practices of this statement apply to the services available under the domain and sub-domains of CarsOnTheWeb (the "website") and apply generally to all the sites of CarsOnTheWeb under a Top Level Domain (TLD). By registering and/or subscribing any user agrees to be bound by the terms and conditions of this privacy policy. The Belgian law of 8 December 1992, about the protection of private information gives all users the right to consult and correct their private information. On specific demand from a user, all his/her information will be removed from the CarsOnTheWeb databases.

Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide users with a safe, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. This allows us to provide services and features that most likely meet your needs, and to customize our service to make your experience safer and easier. We only collect personal information about our users that we consider necessary for achieving this purpose.

Once a user registers and supplies us his/hers personal information, he/she is no longer anonymous to us. If he/she chooses to use our services, we may require him/her to provide contact and identity information, billing information, and other personal information as indicated on the forms throughout the website. Where possible, we indicate which fields are required and which fields are optional. You always have the option to not provide information by choosing not to use a particular service or feature.

All registered users of our services implicitly agree to receive information and updates from CarsOnTheWeb.com, any user can at all times decide to opt-out of our distributionlists by sending a message to info@CarsOnTheWeb.com.

Under some circumstances we may require some additional financial information, such as, but not limited to: financial information, credit card information, and other information to bill you for your use of our services.

We automatically track certain information based upon your behavior on the website(s). We use this information to do internal research on our users' demographics, interests, and behavior to better understand, protect and serve our users. If a user chooses to bid and buy on the website, we collect information about his/her bidding, and buying behavior.

How does it work?

Who are we?

CarsOnTheWeb.com is an online marketplace for remarketed vehicles, created to offer leasing companies and car manufacturers the opportunity to trade directly with the professional car-trader.These car auctions offer used cars, nearly new cars, secondhand cars,...

How does it work:

CarsOnTheWeb.com organizes online car auctions during weekdays of vehicles - used cars, nearly new cars, secondhand cars- placed onto its car auction platform by the selling parties. Typically these car auctions will remain open for two days from 12 am on day-1 until 12 am on day-3. Each vehicle receives a starting price, but bids can be placed below this target price. If at the end of the car auction the highest bid for a vehicle is higher than the target price, then the vehicle is almost automatically sold at this price to the buyer who has placed this highest bid. If however the highest bid is below the target price, then the seller has the right to refuse this bid.

To get started, here are some further explanations about trading on CarsOnTheWeb.com:

How to view the details of a vehicle and place a bid for it

How to view the details

When accessing the website of CarsOnTheWeb.com, a non registered visitor can only browse through the selection of cars - used cars, nearly new cars, secondhand cars- on car auction, without viewing any details of a car or place a bid for it. In order to view the details of any car, a visitor must be registered as a user through the registration page. Once registered, the user has access to the detailed information of all the cars on car auction, but he/she cannot bid for any of them until he/she subcribed to the services of CarsOnTheWeb.com. Every registered user can subscribe for a trial period of three months free of charge through the subscription page. During this trial period the subscriber has complete access to all the functionalities of the site, including placing bids and ultimately buying cars. At the end of the trial period, if the subscriber chooses to continue using the site to buy cars, he/she will be have to option to choose for a paid subscription at a cost of 450,00 € to access and use the site during the next 12 months, with this subscription type the car auction fee per purchased car remains at 50,00 €. The user can however also choose to continue using the site without any charges, however he/she will then pay an car auction fee of 95,00 € per car purchased through our car auctions.

How to bid for a car:

Once subscribed, all users can place bids for the cars on car auction at the website. When preparing to place a bid, a subscriber should carefully examine the details of the car he/she is interested to place a bid for.

CarsOnTheWeb.com uses an automatic bidding system to make bidding on its car auctions more convenient and less time-consuming for the buyers. When you bid on a car in car auction, you will be placing bids using this method:

  1. When you place a bid, you enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the vehicle. Your maximum amount is kept confidential from other bidders and the seller.
  2. The system compares your bid to those of the other bidders and places bids on your behalf, using only as much of your bid as is necessary to maintain or obtain the highest bid position. The system will continue to do so up to your maximum amount.
  3. If another bidder has a higher maximum, you will be outbid. But, if no other bidder has a higher maximum at the end of the car auction, you have won the car auction. The interesting part is that you could pay significantly less than your maximum price in this way.
  4. This also means that you do not have to keep coming back to re-bid every time another bid is placed.

Bid Increments:

The bid increment is the amount by which a bid will be minimally raised each time the current bid is outdone. It is predetermined and can be found on the car detail page or the bid page for that car.

Notifications:

Our system will automatically send out notifications to the registered e-mail address of a user on the following occasions:

  • When you have placed a highest bid, a confirmation will be sent by email
  • When your maximum bid has been surpassed by another bidder, you will be notified immediately
  • At the end of an car auction you will be notified of:
    • The car auctions you have won
    • The car auctions you have lost

At the end of an auction:

All participants of an car auction will be notified of the end result of the auction. The bidder with the highest bid will be notified and invited to visit the specific pages on the website, explaining the procedure and conditions of the physical delivery and transfer of the legal ownership of the vehicle. (In case the highest bid was lower than the target price, the seller must first agree with this bid). All buyers will also receive a detailed explanation by email of the specifics of the procedure at the conclusion of an car auction.

Logistics & Payment:

The vehicles purchased through our car auctions, need to be paid for by the buyer before the physical delivery will be organized. Only bank transfers to our account number in Belgium, France, Italy, Spain or Germany can be accepted as a form of payment. Once the full payment has been recorded, we will send out a notification indicating the earliest time and location where the vehicle will be available for delivery to the buyer. CarsOnTheWeb organizes transportation for all purchased vehicles from Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Germany. (The physical location of each vehicle is indicated in the auction) The costs of transportation are always for the account of the buyer. If the buyer chooses to organize the transport himself then he is assumed to do it in the name of CarsOnTheWeb. In this case, CarsOnTheWeb will then include the transport costs in the invoice to the buyer, and subsequently credit the same.

Cars need to be picked up within 1 month after assignment. CarsOnTheWeb obtains the right to charge a fee of €1 per day when this period has been exceeded.

Documents:

All necessary documents for the legal transfer of ownership will be supplied by CarsOnTheWeb.com, including all specific forms in case the vehicle is exported to countries in the EC of outside the EC.