1. Time of Contract
Your order is an offer by you to enter into a binding contract which we are free to accept or decline at our absolute discretion. A contract for sale incorporating these terms comes into existence when we expressly accept your order. The contract is conditional upon wines not having been previously sold by us and we undertake to notify you without delay should this occur.
These terms and conditions apply to the contract to the exclusion of any other terms that you seek to impose or incorporate, or which are implied by trade, custom, practice or course of dealing.
2. Prices
Prices communicated to you whether orally by our representatives, on our website or via our sales literature are:
Per case or per bottle as indicated.
Exclusive of Duty and VAT (unless otherwise stated).
Provisional and subject to our written confirmation upon acceptance of order.(In the unusual event that the correct price is higher than the price initially quoted, we will normally, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions or reject the order and advise you accordingly.)
3. Time for Payment
Payment is due upon the raising of the invoice.
Credit terms of 14 days may be advanced to customers with a proven history of trading with Atlas Fine Wines Ltd.
Export orders must be paid in full prior to collection.
Late payments attract interest at 3% above the base rate of HSBC Bank PLC, effective from the due date until payment is received.
It is your responsibility to ensure that payment is received by us on time.
All monies paid by you ahead of delivery will be held by us on your behalf until delivery has taken place in accordance with these terms and conditions.
4. Title and Risk
We will retain title in all goods sold by us until all sums due or to become due to us from you in respect of any order have been paid.
This will include goods held to your account in bond but will not include goods for which we have been paid in full and which are in your own physical possession.
The risk in goods shall pass upon delivery as defined in point 5 below. Until such time as title to the goods passes to you, we reserve the right to inspect goods not in our physical possession in the bonded warehouse and to require you to deliver those wines to us immediately.
Deliveries and/or collections may be suspended by us if any sum is outstanding.
5. Delivery
Delivery shall take place as defined below:
For wines purchased En Primeur direct from the producer or producer’s agent, delivery takes place when the wines are allocated to you by us.
For wines purchased En Primeur in any way other than the above, delivery takes place when the authenticity of the title has been confirmed by us and the wines allocated to you.
For wines purchased direct from the producer or producer’s agent (other than En Primeur), delivery takes place when the wines are allocated to you.
For wine sold under bond, and to be stored in our customer reserves, delivery takes place when the wine is transferred to your storage account as managed by our storage provider from time to time.
For wines for collection, delivery takes place when the wines leave our warehouse.
We will let you know shortly in advance of the expected time of availability and you must give at least 48 hours prior notice of collection. Indications of delivery dates prior to your notice of collection are estimates and not intended to be contractually binding. We may at your request and as your representative arrange transport but we accept no liability for any failure on the part of carriers. If goods are not collected or delivered within one month of them becoming available we will be entitled to make a reasonable, pro-rata storage and administration charge (currently £7.00 excl. VAT per case per annum for storage).
6. Storage
You authorise us to act as your stock manager and to accept any terms and conditions relating to the storage of your wine with LCB Vinothèque and Vine International.
Our storage provider has acknowledged that we deal with them on behalf of our customers.
It has been confirmed on behalf of our storage provider that in the unlikely event that we default in any of our obligations to them, they will respect our customer's ownership rights and will transfer your wines directly to you.
We undertake to carry out an audit of all our storage facilities and processes on an annual basis. Such audit will be performed by a suitably qualified third party to ensure quality of storage and accuracy of records.
7. Records
Your online account records all wine purchased, sold and stored through us. This is updated in real time. All physical cases are marked with Unique Identifying Code (UID) linked to your account in respect to all wine paid for and owned by you.
8. Case Size Changes
On occasion, when we have sold a case of wine (e.g. a twelve bottle case) to a client and our supplier delivers to us the equivalent volume and quality in a different case size (e.g. two, six-bottle cases), we retain the right to credit and re-invoice the client to reflect the change in case size.
9. Acceptance of Goods
It is your obligation to inspect goods immediately upon receipt and notify ourselves and/or the carrier immediately of any shortage, damage or any other deficiency. In the absence of any notification within five days after delivery the shortage, damage or any other deficiency will be deemed to have occurred after delivery to you.
10. Cancellation Policy
An order may be cancelled up until seven days after delivery. In the event of a cancellation, the goods must be returned in merchantable condition at your cost. You will be refunded as soon as possible and within 30 days at the latest.
11. Failure to Pay or Take Delivery
If payment is not made within two weeks of the due date or if goods have not been collected within one month of notification of their availability or if there is an earlier indication that payment will not be made or goods will not be collected, we will send you written notice to the invoice address of our intention to dispose of the goods. If you do not object in writing within 10 days of the dispatch of such notice accompanying such objection with payment in full or where appropriate confirmed arrangements for collection, we will be entitled to resell the goods by a method entirely in our discretion.
With regard to wines where part payment has been made, upon resale you will receive a credit of the net proceeds less our costs of disposal. Any balance due after the credit shall remain payable and shall continue to carry interest. The exercise of this right of resale does not affect any other right we may have.
We shall be entitled to sell any wines which we are holding or storing on your behalf in order to discharge outstanding amounts owed to us.
12. Events Outside our Control
We shall not be liable for any failure to meet our obligations or delay in performance of our obligations occasioned by circumstances outside our reasonable control. We will take reasonable steps to bring the circumstances to a close or to find a solution by which our obligations can be performed despite the circumstances.
13. Quality
In our absolute discretion we will consider requests for replacing the unopened balance of an order which is undrinkable as well as any other specific requests for credit.
14. Personal Information
You agree that the personal information you provide may be shared with our service providers including but not limited to: storage and delivery providers and IT and web contractors. Our privacy policy (https://www.atlasfinewines.com/privacy-policy) details how we use and store your information and your agreement to the Terms & Conditions encompasses an agreement to our Privacy Policy.
You agree that we may use the personal information provided by you in order to conduct appropriate anti-fraud checks. Personal information that you provide may be disclosed to a credit reference or fraud prevention agency, which may keep a record of that information. You have a right of access to all information we hold about you which may be accessed by writing to Simon Larkin MW, Managing Director, 4-5 Castle Court London EC3V 9DL
15. General
If any court or competent authority decides that any of the provisions of these terms are invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, the term will, to that extent only, be severed from the remaining terms, which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.
If we fail, at any time while these terms are in force, to insist that you perform any of your obligations under these terms, or if we do not exercise any of our rights or remedies under these terms, that will not mean that we have waived such rights or remedies and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive a default by you, it will not mean that we will automatically waive any subsequent default by you. No waiver by us of any of these terms will be effective unless we expressly say that it is a waiver and we tell you so in writing.
A person who is not party to these terms and conditions shall not have any rights under or in connection with them under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
This contract is made under English law and is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.