Terms and conditions (Terms)
for www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk (the site)

1. Eligibility

The following eligibility criteria apply for all Site activities. You must be aged 18 or over and a UK, Isle of Man or Channel Islands resident to participate in any activities concerning the Site. The following are not eligible to participate: (i) Employees and immediate family members of employees of any of McDonald’s Restaurants Limited (McDonald’s), (ii) other persons assisting with this Site and the Site activities, (iii) any person not being an individual person, (iv) any syndicate or collection of persons acting in concert, (v) any person entering via an agent or on behalf of a business.

2. Duration

Activities on this Site are not scheduled for any specific period or duration but McDonald's reserves the right in relation to any activity at any time to withdraw, extend, modify or substitute it with another activity; please check for details of this on the Site.

3. Site activities

The site activities are as follows:

a. Ask Your Questions

This facility provides a means for Site visitors to submit a question. McDonald’s will endeavour to review and respond within a reasonable time to every question received which, in McDonald’s opinion, (i) is from an eligible person, (ii) is submitted in good faith and with all fields marked mandatory properly completed, (iii) is a genuine question relating to McDonald’s, (iv) does not already duplicate in full or in part one or more other questions to which an answer or answers have already been (or are in the course of being) posted on the Site, and (v) is not inappropriate; by way of illustration (and the list is not final), this would exclude the following:

  • Racist, sexist, or homophobic terms or ideas,
  • Potentially libellous comments or insinuations,
  • Personal references to any individual, either named or implied,
  • Personal information including, but not limited to, telephone numbers, postal addresses, email addresses, etc,
  • Apparent breaches of or apparent incitements to any unlawful action or infringement of any right of any person, including breach of copyright or confidentiality,
  • Profanities, swear words, or material of a sexual nature, or
  • Languages other than English.

Before posting a question, McDonald’s may edit submissions for sense, syntax, grammar, punctuation and/or spelling. The posting or editing of a question shall not imply any endorsement by McDonald’s of any view or opinion expressed or implied by the question or of the contributor. Contributors will not receive any response in person.

b. Keep In Touch

Site visitors properly completing the fields marked mandatory will be included on the mailing list to be sent to the email address submitted (if valid) a periodic email report relating to the Site activities; the frequency of this report may vary but shall be no more frequent than once a month.

c. Quality Scout Programme (Programme)

Initial applications can be made by completing all mandatory fields in the Site form and submitting this to McDonald’s. Applicants who are considered by McDonald’s potentially to have complied with these Terms and the requirements of the Programme, may then be contacted by McDonald’s or its agents to require further information and assessment. Once a final selection is made, written notification will be sent by post to the address submitted in the Site form offering the position of Quality Scout, which must be responded to by the applicant in the manner and by the time stated in the notification letter, failing which the offer will lapse and become void.

The appointment as a Quality Scout will be for such duration as agreed, but will be for at least six months and during that time McDonald’s will expect each Quality Scout to do all of the following: (i) review materials supplied by McDonald’s and its suppliers in relation to the Programme, (ii) undertake at least one visit lasting up to two days to a venue or venues selected by McDonald’s such as restaurants, food preparation premises and farms, during which the Quality Scout should ask questions, make notes and (with prior permission from the venue staff) take photos (use of a camera will be made available) of the visit, (iii) write a report incorporating the notes and photos for that visit, (iv) spend up to two days at the offices of a McDonald’s agency completing and editing the report in conjunction with McDonald’s which McDonald’s may then (in its discretion) use on the Site and/or in advertising for the Site and the Site activities and (iv) attend a meeting at McDonald’s offices for one further day. The expenditure by a Quality Scout of out-of-pocket expenses to the extent previously and specifically approved by McDonald’s, shall be reimbursed or pre-paid (as McDonald’s determines) and McDonald’s shall supply such equipment as it determines shall be necessary and appropriate to supply for the visit.

The decision to offer an appointment shall be in the sole discretion of McDonald’s and shall be made after McDonald’s has assessed a person’s appropriateness (in McDonald’s opinion) for the Programme in terms of that person’s interest, availability, ability and enthusiasm for the role of Quality Scout. Both McDonald’s and each Quality Scout can end an appointment at any time, but those of the Programme conditions and these Terms which are capable of applying afterwards, shall still continue afterwards to apply to each Quality Scout.

The appointment of a Quality Scout may only proceed once the applicant has signed a letter committing him or her to the Programme conditions in force from time to time and shall remain conditional upon compliance with such conditions. The Programme conditions shall include (i) providing referees and information to enable McDonald’s to carry out background and security checks should McDonald’s deem this necessary or desirable, (ii) observing and performing the instructions of any McDonald’s restaurant or supplier whose premises, land or facilities are to be visited by the Quality Scout as part of the Programme and whether such instructions relate to health and safety, hygiene, security, insurance, protection of business interests or otherwise, and (iii) undertaking not to publish or permit anyone else to publish, whether or not for profit, any report or photo produced about or taken during a visit or other activity carried out in connection with the Programme, unless with the prior, written and specific consent of McDonald’s.

d. Web Chat Forum

McDonald’s intends to provide in the coming months a forum in which contributors can transmit questions for prompt posting on the Site and prompt response in the style of a running debate. The same considerations for reviewing and responding to submissions under the Ask Your Questions section will apply to submissions under this section. The precise format, content timing, duration and mechanic for the forum are to be determined and notified here and in advertising relating to the Site, in due course.

Any contribution made in connection with a Site activity including in particular (but not limited to this) the appointment as a Quality Scout and any work or activities carried out in that capacity, shall not make that person (or entitle him or her to claim to be) an employee, partner, agent or joint venturer. Furthermore, no such contribution shall entitle any person to any compensation whatsoever, whether for any submission made to the Site or for any appointment, participation or termination of engagement as a Quality Scout or for any visit, work or activities carried out by a Quality Scout or use made of that person’s reports or other activity, save as expressly stated in these Terms. All descriptions of Site activities are intended to be illustrative and are not a definitive description; McDonald’s may supply further detail in connection with these activities as it considers necessary or desirable.

4. Responsibility

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law (but not otherwise) McDonald’s and its agents assume no responsibility and are not liable for any of the following:- (i) any claim or loss that results from the publication of any submission on the Site where such publication has infringed any person’s intellectual property, civil or proprietary rights or has libelled or defamed any person, (ii) any technical, editorial, typographical or other errors or omissions within the information provided on or omitted from the Site, (iii) omitting to respond to or answer any submission or question or omitting to send to any person any update or information in response to that person’s request or submission, (iv) the non-availability of any Site activity for any reason, whether by reason of network-operator error, failed or corrupted transmission, unavailability of the system or otherwise, and (v) any loss or damage to any application, software or data on or in a person’s equipment arising (or perceived by any person to have arisen) in connection with browsing or otherwise interacting with the Site or any of the Site activities.

5. Privacy policy

The privacy policy for www.mcdonalds.co.uk forms part of these Terms. In addition, McDonald’s suppliers and agencies may require you to provide personal data in connection with the Programme and you will need to satisfy yourself with any separate privacy policy of that supplier or agency, as McDonald’s can not accept any responsibility for this. Please note that you can unsubscribe from all of the Site activities at any time by clicking on the link at the foot of each page of this Site.

6. General

All instructions, rules and conditions on any advertising or promotional materials relating to this Site or any Site activity, together with the terms and conditions of www.mcdonalds.co.uk form part of the Terms although, in the event of any conflict of interpretation between the same, these provisions shall prevail. Expressions which have been defined above shall have the same meanings when used in such other instructions, rules and conditions wherever the context admits.

The questions featured in the artwork on the Site either with or without photos of people are genuine questions but the images of people depicted next to the questions are included for the purposes of illustration only and are not the authors of those questions.

The submission of any transmission or posting to this Site or McDonald’s amounts to acceptance of the Terms as updated from time to time and to their interpretation under English law and by the English courts. All age limits shall be deemed to be actual age as at the time of acceptance of the Terms.

McDonald’s may waive any of these Terms in favour of a person without implying any such waiver in favour of any other person.

McDonald’s decision in the exercise or interpretation of any of its rights or discretions in connection with these Terms shall be final and binding.

McDonald’s may (in its sole discretion) decline to enter into any correspondence or give any explanation as to its decisions where it considers that it would be inappropriate or harmful of any person’s interests or rights to do otherwise.

Information supplied on this site is based on typical or average data for the UK, unless expressly stated.

© McDonald’s Corporation 2006.