Please read this document carefully before using this website, or any of its mirror websites.
By accessing or using the CargoBid® website, the CargoBid® service, or any applications (including mobile applications) made available by CargoBid® (together, the "Service"), however accessed, you agree to be bound by these terms of use ("Terms of Use"). Any new features or tools which are added to the Service shall also be subject to these Terms.
Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. These Terms apply to all visitors, users and others (“User”, “user”) who access or use the Service. If you disagree with any part of the terms then you may not access the Service.
Scope of the Service
CargoBid® is an online platform that offers trusted freight auctions to help selling and procuring freight rates in the spot market. It is a registered trademark owned and operated by Baumgartner & Moreira Lda ("us", "we", or "our"), a privately owned and independent software company registered in Portugal under VAT number PT 513 357 246. Our sole business line is providing IT services for the shipping and logistics industries.
We are not a transportation provider, freight forwarder, freight broker, NVOCC, shipowner, haulier, or airline carrier, and do not pretend to be such. We do not compete with any of the aforesaid companies, and we do not mediate between users of the Service.
The Service is primarily dedicated to helping private individuals, small and midsize enterprises, that operate in the spot market.
The content of the Service is not marketed for, and should not be used by, children and teenagers under the age of 18 years old.
Intellectual Property
The Service and its original content (excluding Content provided by users), features and functionality (including without limitation the website design, logo, text, graphics and all software and source codes connected with the website) are and will remain the exclusive property of Baumgartner & Moreira Lda and its licensors. The Service is protected by copyright, trademarks, and various laws of the European Union and Portugal. CargoBid® is a registered trademark in the European Union (EUIPO 017607987). Our trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product or service without the prior written consent of Baumgartner & Moreira Lda.
None of the content in the Service, including software and any applications, may be downloaded, copied, reproduced, transmitted, reverse-engineered, stored, sold or distributed without the prior written consent of the copyright holder. This excludes the downloading, copying and/or printing of pages of the website for personal, non-commercial private use only.
Accounts
When you create an account with us, you must provide us with information that is accurate, complete, and current at all times. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of the Terms, which may result in immediate termination of your account on our Service.
An account entitles the user to create and complete a profile. The user agrees to provide accurate, valid and honest information on its profile. Any company information submitted to the user profile should have a valid VAT number registered at the relevant commercial register. The user declares to be an authorized representative of that company while using the Service. The user agrees to maintain its profile permanently updated, including its contact details, email address, and VAT number, so that we may contact the user as needed and complete any transaction. In the event of any change, the user should immediately update its profile, or notify CargoBid® of such change.
Despite its best efforts, CargoBid® cannot guarantee the veracity or identity of registered users and their profiles, or their associated companies. However, we run regular checks to verify the authenticity of users. You authorize us, directly or through third parties, to make any inquiries we consider necessary to validate your identity. We reserve the right to refuse the Service to anyone for any reason at any time.
You are responsible for safeguarding the password that you use to access the Service and for any activities or actions under your password, whether your password is with our Service or a third-party service.
You agree not to disclose your password to any third party. You must notify us immediately upon becoming aware of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your account.
You may not use as a username the name of another person or entity or that is not lawfully available for use, a name or trademark that is subject to any rights of another person or entity other than you without appropriate authorization, or a name that is otherwise offensive, vulgar or obscene.
You may cancel your account and delete your profile at any moment.
The user agrees to use the Service ethically and honestly, and with the utmost integrity that is expected in a negotiation environment. We encourage everyone to read and follow our Code of Conduct.
Copyright Policy
We respect the intellectual property rights of others. It is our policy to respond to any claim that Content posted on the Service infringes the copyright or other intellectual property infringement ("Infringement") of any person.
We display free icons designed by Madebyoliver, Freepik, noomtah, Smashicons, all authors @ Flaticon.
If you are a copyright owner, or authorized on behalf of one, and you believe that the copyrighted work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement that is taking place through the Service, you must submit your notice in writing to the attention of "Copyright Infringement" by email to us and include in your notice a detailed description of the alleged Infringement.
You may be held accountable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) for misrepresenting that any Content is infringing your copyright.
Purchases
If you wish to purchase any product or service made available through the Service ("Purchase"), you may be asked to supply certain information relevant to your Purchase including, without limitation, your credit card number, the expiration date of your credit card, your billing address, and your shipping information.
You represent and warrant that: (1) you have the legal right to use any credit card(s) or other payment method(s) in connection with any purchase; and that (2) the information you supply to us is true, correct and complete.
By submitting such information, you grant us the right to provide the information to third parties for purposes of facilitating the completion of Purchases.
We reserve the right to refuse or cancel your order at any time for certain reasons including but not limited to: product or service availability, errors in the description or price of the product or service, error in your order or other reasons.
We reserve the right to refuse or cancel your order if fraud or an unauthorized or illegal transaction is suspected.
Contests, Sweepstakes and Promotions
Any contests, sweepstakes or other promotions (collectively, "Promotions") made available through the Service may be governed by rules that are separate from these Terms. If you participate in any Promotions, please review the applicable rules as well as our Privacy Policy. If the rules for a Promotion conflict with these Terms, the Promotion rules will apply.
Subscriptions
Some parts of the Service may be billed on a subscription basis ("Subscription(s)"). You may be billed in advance on a recurring and periodic basis ("Billing Cycle"). Billing cycles are set either on a monthly or annual basis, depending on the type of subscription plan you select when purchasing a Subscription.
At the end of each Billing Cycle, your Subscription may automatically renew under the exact same conditions unless you change your plan (upgrade/downgrade), cancel your Subscription, or CargoBid® cancels it. You may cancel your Subscription renewal either through your online account management page or by contacting CargoBid® customer support team.
A valid payment method, including credit card, Stripe or PayPal, is required to process the payment for your Subscription. You shall provide CargoBid® with accurate and complete billing information including full name, address, state, postal code, telephone number, and a valid payment method information. By submitting such payment information, you automatically authorize CargoBid® to charge all Subscription fees incurred through your account to any such payment instruments.
Should automatic billing fail to occur for any reason, CargoBid® will issue an electronic invoice indicating that you must proceed manually, within a certain deadline date, with the full payment corresponding to the billing period as indicated on the invoice.
Free Trial
We may, at our sole discretion, offer a Subscription with a free trial for a limited period of time ("Free Trial").
You may be required to enter your billing information in order to sign up for the Free Trial.
If you do enter your billing information when signing up for the Free Trial, you will not be charged by CargoBid® until the Free Trial has expired. On the last day of the Free Trial period, unless you canceled your Subscription, you may be automatically charged the applicable Subscription fees for the type of Subscription you have selected.
At any time and without notice, we reserve the right to (1) modify the terms and conditions of the Free Trial offer, or (2) cancel such Free Trial offer.
Fee Changes
CargoBid®, in its sole discretion and at any time, may modify the Subscription fees for the Subscriptions. Any Subscription fee change will become effective at the end of the then-current Billing Cycle.
We will provide you with a reasonable prior notice of any change in Subscription fees to give you an opportunity to terminate your Subscription before such change becomes effective.
Your continued use of the Service after the Subscription fee change comes into effect constitutes your agreement to pay the modified Subscription fee amount.
Refund Policy
Except when required by law, paid Subscription fees are non-refundable.
In case the user decides to cancel its account, the user is not eligible for a refund of any paid fees. All paid fees cannot be reimbursed. The same principle applies if CargoBid® decides to terminate the license to use the Service and cancels an account due to a violation of these Terms.
If the user or any third party reverses an automatic payment by the user without notifying CargoBid®, we are entitled to temporarily or completely remove the user account from the Service.
Content
Our Service allows you to post, link, store, share and otherwise make available certain information, text, graphics, videos, or other material ("Content"). You are responsible for the Content that you post to the Service, including its legality, reliability, and appropriateness.
By posting Content to the Service, you grant us the right and license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content on and through the Service. You retain any and all of your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Service and you are responsible for protecting those rights. You agree that this license includes the right for us to make your Content available to other users of the Service, who may also use your Content subject to these Terms.
You represent and warrant that: (1) the Content is yours (you own it) or you have the right to use it and grant us the rights and license as provided in these Terms, and (2) the posting of your Content on or through the Service does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person.
User Comments, Feedback, and Submissions
If the user sends us any comments, ideas, suggestions, proposals, plans, or other materials, whether online, by email, by postal mail, or otherwise (collectively, 'comments'), you agree that we may, at any time, without restriction, edit, copy, publish, distribute, translate and otherwise use in any medium any comments that you forward to us. We are and shall be under no obligation (1) to maintain any comments in confidence; (2) to pay compensation for any comments; (3) to respond to any comments.
We may, but have no obligation to, monitor, review, edit or remove content that we determine in our sole discretion are unlawful, offensive, threatening, libelous, defamatory, pornographic, obscene or otherwise objectionable or violates any party’s intellectual property or these. You authorize us, but have no obligation to, read all correspondence posted to the website for the purpose of investigating fraud.
You agree that your comments will not violate any right of any third-party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, personality or other personal or proprietary right. You further agree that your comments will not contain libelous or otherwise unlawful, abusive or obscene material, or contain any computer virus or other malware that could in any way affect the operation of the Service or any related website. You may not use a false email address, pretend to be someone other than yourself, or otherwise mislead us or third-parties as to the origin of any comments. You are solely responsible for any comments you make and their accuracy. We take no responsibility and assume no liability for any comments posted by you or any third-party.
Personal Information
Your submission of personal information through the Service is governed by our Privacy Policy and the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
You understand that your content (not including credit card information), may be transferred unencrypted and involve (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to conform and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices. Credit card information is always encrypted during transfer over networks.
Roles
Users with the role of Shipper should submit auctions in a responsible manner. They must intend to award business; wish to seriously consider awarding business to a non-incumbent carrier; award business to at least one of the carriers participating in the freight auction; respect non-disclosure agreements. All cargo listed by shippers should not be imaginary, false, misleading or otherwise contain wrong information. At the conclusion of an auction, the shipper should declare the auction winner whoever carrier has been chosen. The shipper agrees to have the contact details disclosed to the winning carrier.
Users with the role of Carrier must accurately represent themselves and their capabilities; submit valid bids; stand by their submitted bids; respect non-disclosure agreements. The carriers agree to place their most competitive bids in order to win a freight auction and obtain transportation orders from shippers. By submitting a bid, a carrier agrees to have the full capacity to perform the transportation order required by the shipper at the offered freight rate. The carriers agree that providing the lowest bid does not imply necessarily the disclosure of the contact details of the shipper. It depends entirely on the shipper the decision to allow having any contact details disclosed to the carrier. As with any other negotiation process, the bids are legally binding. The carriers who do not honor their online bid may be excluded from future events.
Restrictions
Our platform is primarily designed to promote non-asset-based carriers’ full capacity as organizers of transport and intermediaries between the freight buyers (shippers) on one hand, and the freight sellers (shipowners, shipping lines, and cargo airlines) on the other.
Users belonging to asset-based carriers (shipowners, shipping lines, cargo airlines, or any other legal entity whose sole purpose of activity is acting as their agents) can create carrier accounts and participate in auctions, provided they do not engage in unfair competition with other non-asset-based carriers. They are strongly encouraged to follow the principle of fair competition. They should not abuse their dominant position in such a way as to justify concerns from other carriers participating in an auction. Any abuse of the principle of fair competition by carriers in a dominant position may lead to their exclusion from CargoBid.
Users are only allowed to exchange or provide their contact details inside CargoBid® by using the inbox private messaging or chat window features. Users should not contact each other outside of CargoBid® platform unless they have had prior knowledge of the contact details of each other. Users agree to follow the auction progress solely on the platform, and through its email service.
This license to use the Service shall automatically terminate if you violate any of these restrictions and may be terminated by CargoBid® at any time. This implies the immediate cancellation of the user account.
Indemnification
In case you breach these Terms, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold us, our officers, our shareholders, our partners, attorneys and employees harmless from any and all liability, loss, damages, claim and expense, related to such violation.
Unauthorized use of the Service may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offense.
Disclaimer and Limitations
The materials on the CargoBid® website are provided "as is". CargoBid® makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties, including without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property or other violation of rights. Further, CargoBid® does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on its Internet web site or otherwise relating to such materials or on any sites linked to this site.
The above material covers articles submitted by our blog authors, who do not necessarily share the same views or opinions of our company.
The Service is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. The end User should be responsible for evaluating the accuracy and completeness of the information obtained through the Service. Use of the Service is done entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable.
The Service does not confer any expectation or right to receive business proposals, negotiations or contract awards. The participation in any freight auction run by CargoBid® does not imply any contractual obligation between users and CargoBid®. CargoBid® does not guarantee the orderly performance of any awarded transport order. Therefore, we cannot be liable for any damages or losses arising from any commercial relationship between users. CargoBid® never mediates between users, including between shippers and carriers.
In no event shall CargoBid® or its suppliers be liable for any damages, whether immaterial or not (including, without limitation, damages for loss of data or profit, loss of business, loss of money, loss of savings, company stagnation or due to business interruption,) arising out of the use or inability to use the Service, even if CargoBid® or a CargoBid® authorized representative has been notified orally or in writing of the possibility of such damage. Because some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or limitations of liability for consequential or incidental damages, these limitations may not apply to you.
Additional Disclaimer on the Escrow Payments Service
If shippers and carriers prefer to do so, CargoBid® may operate as an escrow payments agent in the freight marketplace, facilitating transactions between shippers and carriers. While we strive to ensure a secure and transparent payment process, users are advised to exercise due diligence and caution when engaging in transactions on the platform.
Please be aware that CargoBid® assumes no responsibility for the quality, safety, or timeliness of the services provided by shippers or carriers. Users are encouraged to thoroughly vet potential business partners, verify credentials, and adhere to best practices in the freight industry.
We do not endorse, guarantee, or assume liability for any disputes, damages, or losses arising from transactions conducted through the CargoBid marketplace and its escrow service. Users are responsible for independently assessing the suitability of each transaction and should seek legal advice if necessary.
By using our services, users acknowledge and accept that CargoBid® acts solely as an intermediary for payment processing, and any issues related to the actual transportation or any freight-related services must be addressed directly between the parties involved.
The parties in an escrow transaction agree that CargoBid® does not assume any responsibility for the failure of any of the parties to make payments or perform the conditions/derived from an auction or marketplace-related negotiation, nor shall CargoBid® be responsible for the collection of any monies provided to be paid to it.
Availability, Errors and Inaccuracies
The materials appearing on CargoBid® website could include technical, typographical, or photographic errors. CargoBid® does not warrant that any of the materials on its website are accurate, complete, or current. We reserve the right to change or update information and to correct errors, inaccuracies, or omissions at any time without prior notice. CargoBid® does not, however, make any commitment to update the materials. We cannot be held responsible for any information that may be displayed incorrectly on the website. We cannot be held liable for any information that the user may have depended upon while using or accessing the Service.
We are constantly updating our offerings of products and services on the Service. The products or services available on our Service may be mispriced, described inaccurately, or unavailable, and we may experience delays in updating information on the Service and in our advertising on other websites.
Links To and From Other Websites
Our Service may contain links to third party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by CargoBid®.
CargoBid® has no control over and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party websites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that CargoBid® shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such websites or services.
We strongly advise you to read the terms and conditions and privacy policies of any third party websites or services that you visit.
Any party wishing to link to the CargoBid® website is entitled to do so provided that the conditions below are met:
- you do not seek to imply that we are endorsing the services or products of another party unless this has been agreed with us in writing;
- you do not misrepresent your relationship with CargoBid; and
- the website from which you link to CargoBid® website does not contain offensive or otherwise controversial content or, content that infringes any intellectual property rights or other rights of a third party.
By linking to the CargoBid® website in breach of our Terms, you shall indemnify us for any loss or damage suffered to CargoBid® as a result of such linking.
Governing Law
These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of Portugal and the European Union, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Our activity is not covered by Portuguese Decree-law no. 155/2015 of 10 August.
Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of those rights. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in effect. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between us regarding our Service, and supersede and replace any prior agreements we might have between us regarding the Service.
The user agrees that any dispute arising from using or accessing this website, which is not resolved by agreement between the parties, should be dealt with exclusively in the District Judicial Court of Gondomar, Portugal.
Changes
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material we will try to provide at least 30 days notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at our sole discretion.
By continuing to access or use our Service after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised terms. If you do not agree to the new terms, please stop using the Service.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us. Our email address is info@cargobid.org.
Updated Sep 2023
