CompositeBid Terms of Use v1.2

1. About these terms

These terms apply when you use compositebid.com, submit an enquiry or application, or use a CompositeBid account. CompositeBid is operated by George Hailey, a sole trader trading as CompositeBid (“CompositeBid”, “we”, “us”). CompositeBid is not currently an incorporated limited company. Address for service: 5 Woodcote House, Lavant Road, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 5RQ, United Kingdom. Email: hello@compositebid.com.

The Acceptable Use Rules (version 2.1) form part of these terms. Our Privacy Notice explains how we handle personal information. By using the service you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

2. The service

CompositeBid is an early-stage introduction and sourcing service for composite manufacturing. A buyer has work that needs quoting or subcontract manufacturing. A supplier has the capability to quote for and carry out that work under its own management and supervision. CompositeBid does not supply individual workers, temporary labour or personnel to work under a buyer’s direction, and capacity information describes a supplier’s ability to deliver a defined manufacturing package using its own organisation and resources.

CompositeBid also accepts business and personal-purpose Small Project enquiries and provides opportunity-specific private messaging and supported attachments after a supplier’s interest is accepted. CompositeBid is not a party to any contract between users, is not the manufacturer, does not provide payment processing or escrow and does not receive project payments. Buyers and suppliers remain responsible for their own contracts, purchase orders, invoicing, payment and the commercial, technical, quality, regulatory, insurance and financial checks they need before proceeding.

3. Who can use CompositeBid

You must be at least 18 to create an account. When you act for an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to do so and to bind it to these terms, and that the information you provide is accurate and lawful to share. You must identify truthfully whether a Small Project is mainly for business or personal purposes; a consumer must not select the business route to avoid consumer protections.

Supplier applications and profiles are reviewed before portal access is issued. Approval of an account means access to the supplier area only. “Business identity checked” refers only to the specific identity evidence CompositeBid recorded; it is not capability certification, quality approval, financial due diligence, a guarantee or a recommendation.

You must keep your sign-in details secure, keep any MFA authenticator under your control, keep your profile information reasonably current and tell us promptly if you think your account has been misused. You are responsible for activity under your account unless it results from our failure to take reasonable care.

4. Keeping users safe

CompositeBid is a specialist business platform, but children may be able to access it. We do not use highly effective age assurance, and business-account checks do not establish age. We do not use automated scanning or AI to classify private messages for child-harm moderation. We assess reported or otherwise identified concerns in context, including freedom of expression and privacy. Our safeguards are not proof that all harmful content will be detected.

Everyone must follow the Acceptable Use Rules. Identified breaches can be hidden from other users while evidence is preserved, and serious or repeated concerns can result in account restriction or suspension; this is not a finding that a crime occurred. You can report content using Report beside a message or through the Complaints page, and you can challenge a moderation decision through the same route. CompositeBid is not an emergency service.

5. RFQs, matching and introductions

Buyers may submit non-confidential RFQ or Small Project information without creating an account. A submission stays private while CompositeBid reviews it. Suppliers see only a separately prepared and approved non-confidential summary after an administrator publishes it. Matching uses recorded industries, capabilities and processes to identify potentially relevant suppliers; it is an eligibility aid, not a technical assessment, recommendation, award decision or guarantee of suitability. Buyer and end-customer identity may remain confidential.

A supplier may express interest in a matched opportunity. Accepting an interest opens an access-controlled, opportunity-specific conversation (a Direct Connection). It does not by itself disclose private contact details or technical files. Submitting an RFQ, application, capacity registration, support request or material listing does not guarantee an introduction, quotation, award, supplier approval or material suitability.

6. Personal-purpose Small Projects

For a personal-purpose Small Project, CompositeBid provides an introduction service, which is currently free to the consumer. Any manufacturing contract is made directly between the consumer and the identified supplying trader unless we clearly state otherwise, and CompositeBid does not receive the manufacturing payment. Before a consumer commits, the supplying trader, total price or how it is calculated, scope, timing, cancellation information and complaints route must be made clear. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

7. Messaging and attachments

Private messaging is available only to authorised participants in an accepted opportunity. You must not post illegal, threatening, abusive, exploitative or fraudulent material, personal contact details, controlled technical data or content you are not authorised to disclose. Administrators do not routinely inspect ordinary private messages; reported content and limited nearby context may be reviewed, restricted or removed where necessary, and the decision recorded.

Authorised Direct Connection participants may share supported attachments. By uploading a file you confirm that it is lawful, relevant to the opportunity and authorised for disclosure, and that its filename and contents do not reveal an identity or information the confidentiality gate does not permit. New uploads stay in private quarantine and are not attached to a message until extension, size, detected type, signature, integrity and malware checks succeed. We may reject, quarantine, archive or revoke future access to a file for security, legal or operational reasons. Screening is a risk-control measure, not a promise that a file is safe, accurate or fit for purpose, and recipients should use appropriate endpoint protection and check files before use. Revocation stops future access through CompositeBid but cannot recall a file already downloaded by an authorised recipient. You must not derive or share private storage paths, reuse expired upload sessions, disguise file types, upload executable content or bypass access controls.

8. Confidential and controlled information

Public website forms accept non-confidential summaries only. Submitting information does not create a non-disclosure agreement, confidentiality agreement or secure data-room relationship with CompositeBid or anyone else. Do not submit CAD files, drawings or specifications through public forms, or upload trade secrets, classified information, UK export-controlled technical data, US ITAR or EAR-controlled data, NDA-restricted information, personal information you are not authorised to share, or anything whose disclosure would breach the law or another person’s rights.

Protected technical-file release to suppliers is disabled and the draft technical non-disclosure agreement is not active. The existence of technical-file features does not create an NDA, approve a disclosure or authorise a supplier download. Protected technical information should be exchanged only after CompositeBid expressly enables an approved release process and the parties have the necessary authority and a suitable agreement.

9. Onward subcontracting and disclosure

CompositeBid enables controlled sourcing and subcontracting. Permission to propose sub-tier suppliers is not approval to use them. CompositeBid does not provide legal or regulatory approval and does not grant permission to pass work or technical information to another company. Suppliers must follow the buyer’s stated onward-subcontracting preference and, if none is recorded, obtain the buyer’s instructions before involving a sub-tier supplier. Buyer permission recorded through CompositeBid does not override NDAs, purchase orders, quality agreements, approved supplier requirements, regulatory obligations, export-control requirements or other contractual restrictions. Protected know-how, drawings and specifications must not be disclosed onward without the required authority and secure process.

You are responsible for complying with sanctions, export controls, procurement rules, product requirements and sector-specific duties that apply to you. CompositeBid does not certify suppliers or materials. Buyers must verify capability, certification, traceability, storage history, shelf life, conformity and suitability before purchase or use.

10. Your content and our licence to use it

You keep ownership of the information, text and files you submit (“your content”). You grant CompositeBid a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, process, scan, display and transmit your content, to prepare approved non-confidential summaries of RFQs and Small Projects, and to show your content to the users you share it with or that the service is designed to show it to. We use this licence only to operate, secure, support and improve CompositeBid, to meet legal obligations and to keep records as described in our Privacy Notice. The licence lasts for as long as we hold your content under that notice.

You confirm that you have the rights needed to submit your content and grant this licence, and that your content complies with these terms. We may remove, restrict or refuse content that we reasonably believe breaches these terms, the law or another person’s rights.

11. Fees

CompositeBid does not currently charge any fee, commission or success fee and does not collect project payments. The planned supplier success-fee model is not active. It will not apply retrospectively and will require separate commercial terms, and your acceptance of them, before any fee applies to you.

12. Suspension and ending your use

You can stop using CompositeBid at any time and can delete your account using the account controls or by contacting us.

We may suspend, restrict or close an account, or remove access to part of the service, if we reasonably believe that you have seriously or repeatedly breached these terms or the Acceptable Use Rules, that this is needed to protect users, the service or third parties, to prevent fraud or misuse, or to comply with the law, or if an account has provided false information. Where it is reasonable and lawful to do so, we will tell you why and give you an opportunity to respond, and you can challenge a decision through the Complaints page. We may also close the service or an inactive account on at least 30 days’ notice where reasonably possible.

When your access ends, your right to use the service stops. Sections 8 to 10 and 13 to 16 continue to apply, and we keep information as described in the Privacy Notice.

13. Our responsibility to you

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

If you use CompositeBid as a consumer, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that is not foreseeable. The consumer introduction service is provided for domestic and private use, and we are not responsible for business losses such as lost profit or business interruption.

If you use CompositeBid for business purposes: the service is provided free of charge and on an “as available” basis; we exclude all implied terms to the extent the law allows; we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, goodwill or anticipated savings, or for any indirect or consequential loss; and our total liability to you arising from or in connection with the service, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited in any 12-month period to the greater of £100 and the total fees you have paid to CompositeBid in that period.

For all users, CompositeBid is not responsible for the acts, omissions, statements, content, files, quotations, products or services of other users, for contracts made between users, or for a user’s failure to perform. Each user remains responsible for their own checks before relying on another user or their content.

14. Availability and changes to the service

We aim to keep CompositeBid available and secure, but we do not guarantee that it will always be available or error-free. We may suspend the service for maintenance, security or migration work, during which you may be able to browse but not make changes. We may change or withdraw features, and will give reasonable notice of changes that significantly affect you where we can.

15. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example to reflect changes to the service, the law or our business. We will show the new version and its effective date on this page and, for changes that materially affect account holders, we will give at least 30 days’ notice by email or in the service, unless a change is needed sooner for legal or security reasons. If you continue to use the service after the effective date, the updated terms apply. If you do not agree, you can stop using the service and delete your account before the change takes effect. Earlier accepted or published versions are preserved and not silently rewritten.

16. Law and disputes

These terms and any dispute or claim, including non-contractual disputes, connected with them or the service are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you use CompositeBid for business purposes, the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. If you are a consumer, you can bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales or, if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, in the courts of the place where you live, and you keep the protection of any mandatory rules of the law of that place. Please contact us first so that we can try to resolve any problem.

17. General

These terms, the Acceptable Use Rules and any separate terms we both agree in writing are the whole agreement between you and CompositeBid about the service. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. If we delay enforcing these terms, we can still enforce them later. You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our written consent. We may transfer our rights and obligations to a business that takes over CompositeBid, and we will tell you if this happens; if you are a consumer and unhappy with the transfer, you can end your use of the service. No one other than you and CompositeBid has any right to enforce these terms.

18. Contact

For questions about CompositeBid or these terms, email hello@compositebid.com or write to the address for service in section 1.