Terms of Use of bnipolska.pl

1. The website at bnipolska.pl is operated by BNI Poland Sp. z o.o. with its registered office in Warsaw, ul. Chłodna 51, 00-867 Warszawa, entered in the register of entrepreneurs of the National Court Register under number KRS 0000475787, NIP 1132868575, REGON 146851390 — hereinafter the “Service Provider”.
2. Registry court: District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw in Warsaw, 13th Commercial Division of the National Court Register. Share capital: PLN 5,000,000.00.
3. Contact: biuro@bnipolska.pl, tel. 792 092 002, registered office address as above.
4. Matters concerning personal data: rodo@bnipolska.pl.

1. These Terms set out the types and scope of services provided by electronic means on the website, the conditions of their provision, the rules for concluding and terminating agreements and the complaints procedure.
2. A User is anyone who uses the website.
3. A Consumer is a natural person using the website for a purpose not directly related to their business or professional activity.
4. An entrepreneur with consumer rights is a natural person running a business where it follows from the content of the agreement being concluded that it is not of a professional nature for them (Article 7aa of the Consumer Rights Act, Article 385⁵ of the Civil Code). The provisions concerning the Consumer apply to such a person accordingly.
5. The National Office is the Service Provider’s office at its registered office at ul. Chłodna 51 in Warsaw. It receives enquiries from the forms and issues access codes to Members. Wherever these Terms refer to the National Office, they mean the Service Provider — not a separate entity.

On the website we provide two free-of-charge services — and no others:

1. Browsing content. Access to information about BNI, Chapters, meetings, events, training and news. It requires neither registration nor providing any data.
2. Sending a form. Passing an enquiry to the National Office.

As part of browsing content we additionally make four tools available:

• The Chapter search tool on the Find a Chapter page. It filters the list of Chapters published on the website by name, region, city and meeting day. Filtering takes place in your browser, on data already displayed on the page — we store neither the criteria entered nor the results.
• The worldwide Chapter search tool on the BNI Worldwide page. Our server passes the place you enter (city, postcode or address) to the OpenStreetMap geocoding service (Nominatim, run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation), and the coordinates of the recognised place — to the Chapter directory at bni.com. The server keeps the geocoder’s response in memory for up to a day under a key made of the entered phrase; the Chapters around the place — for up to an hour under a key made of the coordinates. Your browser does not connect to these services directly; details in the Privacy Policy.
• The Member search tool on the Find a Member page — available after logging in with a Members’ access code. We describe it separately, just below the table of forms.
• Videos and social media posts — recordings embedded from YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode (the youtube-nocookie.com domain) and Instagram posts on the Events page. Nothing starts on its own — until you click, you see a still frame or a button. Clicking connects your browser to a YouTube or Instagram server; the details are described in the Cookie Policy.

Forms. Nine operate on the website:

1. Sending a form requires completing the fields marked as mandatory and ticking the consents indicated next to the form. Until then the enquiry cannot be sent.
2. In the forms with a NIP field — the membership application, the enquiry to a Chapter, the “Become a Director” form and the materials order — we check the correctness of the number provided. After you click the “Fetch company details” button (or press Enter in that field), we retrieve the company name and its registered office address from the REGON register kept by Statistics Poland (GUS) (until the National Office obtains a key to the GUS service — from the Ministry of Finance’s Register of VAT Taxpayers, also a public register). You trigger the query to the register yourself; without the click the number is not sent anywhere. Both values go to the Office together with the enquiry. We use only public data that is generally available in that register. This shortens the form and is not a separate service. If you do not use this option, or if the register does not respond or does not find an active company under that number, the enquiry goes through with the number alone.
3. The content of a sent form goes exclusively to the National Office’s e-mail inbox. We do not keep a database of enquiries — apart from the e-mail message we store them nowhere.
4. Next to the contact form you may additionally tick a voluntary checkbox consenting to information about events and training. This is not a newsletter subscription: the website does not maintain a mailing list, and messages are sent manually by the National Office. You may withdraw the consent at any time by writing to rodo@bnipolska.pl.
5. Sending a form does not oblige either party to conclude a membership agreement, a franchise agreement or an employment contract, nor to issue an invitation to a Chapter Meeting.

The Member search tool (“Find a Member”) is available after logging in with an access code issued to Members by the National Office — the code does not create an account, and the session is kept by a technical cookie valid for one day. The search tool shows data from the public BNI Connect directory — full name, company, industry category, Chapter, city and a link to the profile. We send the phrase you enter to that directory, and the response goes straight to your screen. The website does not maintain its own database of Members and does not copy the directory. The server keeps the response in a buffer — under a key that is the entered phrase itself — so as not to ask the same thing over and over: a search result is refreshed after ten minutes, the list of Chapters after an hour, and when BNI Connect does not respond for a longer time, the last valid response stays in the buffer and we show it with the date it was retrieved. Beyond that buffer we store neither queries nor results. Who is responsible for that data and on what basis is described in the Privacy Policy.

The website does not conduct sales. It has no basket, payments or user accounts; the only login is the Members’ access code described above. The Shop page shows what can be ordered and — after logging in with that code — accepts an order form; the request goes by e-mail to the National Office and is neither the conclusion of an agreement nor a payment. The sale itself, payment, shipping and invoices are handled by the BNI Polska shop at biznesprzezrekomendacje.pl, under separate terms. BNI membership and training registrations are likewise handled outside the website — by the National Office, regional Directors and external systems (Members’ training registrations are handled by BNI Connect), under separate agreements and terms. Applications from candidates for Franchisees are accepted by the franczyzabni.pl website under separate rules.

The content on the website is for information purposes and does not constitute an offer within the meaning of Article 66 § 1 of the Civil Code — in particular, it is not an offer to conclude a membership agreement or a franchise agreement.

1. To browse the website you need a device with internet access and an up-to-date browser with JavaScript enabled.
2. To use the forms you additionally need an active e-mail account — we send our reply to the address provided. For the Member search tool and the materials order you need an access code issued by the National Office and a browser that accepts cookies from this site — after logging in, the session is kept solely by one technical cookie valid for one day, described in the Cookie Policy. If your browser blocks it, the login will not persist between pages.
3. Using the internet involves typical threats: malware, phishing attempts and interception of transmissions. We recommend up-to-date software and caution towards messages impersonating us.

1. Use of the website is free of charge.
2. It is prohibited to supply content of an unlawful nature, in particular content that is offensive, infringes the rights of others, misleads as to the identity of the sender or contains malware.
3. It is prohibited to interfere with the operation of the website, including automated mass sending of forms and attempts to gain unauthorised access.
4. You are responsible for the truthfulness and accuracy of the data you yourself provide in a form. This does not exclude our responsibility for the proper operation of the website and the forms.
5. We may block access to the website for a user who breaches paragraph 2 or 3, and also where the security of the website or a request from a competent authority so requires. We notify you of the block, indicate the reason, and you may object at biuro@bnipolska.pl — we consider objections within 14 days.

1. The agreement for the provision of the content-browsing service is concluded when you enter the website and terminates when you leave it. It requires no declarations.
2. The agreement for the provision of the form service is concluded when the form is sent and ends when a reply is given or the matter the enquiry concerns is closed.
3. The services are one-off and free of charge — you may stop using them at any time by closing the page. You do not conclude a continuing or paid agreement with us, so no obligation arises from which you would need to withdraw.
4. You may withdraw the consent to contact given next to a form at any time by writing to rodo@bnipolska.pl.

1. The website’s content — texts, photographs, recordings, layout and graphics — is protected by copyright and belongs to the Service Provider or is used under separate rights.
2. BNI trademarks belong to the entitled entities of the BNI group and may not be used without their consent.
3. You may use the website’s content within the scope of permitted personal use. Reproducing, distributing and publishing the content on other websites requires our written consent.
4. Quoting with attribution of the source and a link to the website is permitted under the rules of the right of quotation.

1. Submit a complaint concerning the operation of the website or the forms to biuro@bnipolska.pl or in writing to the registered office address.
2. In the complaint, provide your contact details, a description of the problem and — where possible — the date and time it occurred and the address of the sub-page.
3. We reply within 14 days of receiving the complaint, on paper or another durable medium. If the complaint was submitted by a Consumer, failure to reply within this period means the complaint has been accepted.
4. Submitting a complaint does not limit the rights arising from provisions of law.

A Consumer may use out-of-court methods of handling complaints and pursuing claims, in particular:

• apply to the district or municipal consumer ombudsman;
• apply to the voivodeship inspector of the Trade Inspection for mediation or for the dispute to be resolved by a permanent consumer arbitration court;
• seek the assistance of a non-governmental organisation whose statutory tasks include consumer protection;
• in cross-border disputes — apply to the European Consumer Centre.

The list of entities authorised to conduct out-of-court proceedings is kept by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The rules for processing personal data — including the purposes, legal bases, retention periods and your rights — are described in the Privacy Policy. Cookies are described in the Cookie Policy.

Two things are worth knowing before you send a form. First: we send information about events and training exclusively on the basis of a separate, voluntary consent and exclusively by e-mail — scope and how to withdraw. Second: when handling enquiries and correspondence we use office tools with artificial intelligence features, but every decision is made by a human — what this involves.

1. We may change the Terms only for important reasons, which are: a change in the law, a change in the scope or manner of operation of the website, a change in the Service Provider’s details, a decision of a competent authority and the need to ensure the security of the website.
2. We give notice of a change by publishing the new version on the website, together with the date of entry into force — no earlier than 14 days from publication.
3. Services commenced before a change enters into force are governed by the Terms in their previous wording.
4. You do not have to accept the changes — you may simply stop using the website.

1. In matters not regulated by these Terms, the provisions of Polish law apply, in particular the Civil Code, the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means and — with respect to Consumers — the Consumer Rights Act.
2. The choice of Polish law does not deprive a Consumer of the protection afforded by the mandatory provisions of the law of the country of their habitual residence.
3. Disputes are resolved by the court having jurisdiction under the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure.
4. The Terms are made available on the website free of charge in a manner that allows them to be obtained, reproduced and recorded.
5. The Terms apply from the date of publication.