Terms of Service

PALMA, The Creator Honours is operated by Palma Awards Ltd, a company incorporated in England and Wales. In these Terms, “PALMA”, “we” and “us” mean that company, and “you” means anyone using palmaawards.com or taking part in a PALMA season.

PALMA is an independent recognition, awards and archival platform operated for the purpose of recognising achievement within creator culture.

PALMA does not provide, sell, facilitate, arrange, broker or advertise sexual services, escort services, sexual transactions or access to explicit adult content.

PALMA profiles, nominations, judging materials, award records and editorial content must remain within the content standards published by PALMA.

PALMA is not responsible for content, services or conduct occurring on third-party websites or platforms linked from a PALMA profile.

By nominating a creator, claiming a creator record, sitting on a panel, or otherwise using the site, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the site. Nothing here removes rights you have as a consumer under the laws of England and Wales.

Participation in PALMA may be subject to eligibility requirements published for the relevant award year, category or programme.

Unless PALMA expressly states otherwise, creators participating in PALMA must be at least 18 years old.

PALMA may require age, identity, eligibility or other verification where reasonably necessary to protect the integrity of the awards.

PALMA may refuse, suspend, restrict or remove participation where eligibility cannot reasonably be established or where information supplied is materially false, misleading, incomplete or fraudulent.

A nomination is a submission for consideration and is not a vote for a winner. Submitting a nomination does not guarantee that a creator will be shortlisted, selected as a finalist or receive an award.

PALMA may establish nomination limits, category-specific eligibility requirements, validation requirements, closing dates and other procedural rules.

PALMA may reject, remove, consolidate or disregard nominations where they are duplicate, fraudulent, abusive, automated, manipulated, materially misleading, submitted in breach of the rules, or otherwise incapable of contributing fairly to the nomination process.

PALMA may use reasonable technical and administrative measures to detect attempted manipulation, including rate limiting, duplicate detection, anti-bot measures, email verification and anomaly detection. PALMA may investigate suspicious activity and may withhold or disregard affected nominations where PALMA reasonably considers that doing so is necessary to preserve award integrity.

No nomination volume, referral activity, audience size, follower count, popularity metric or promotional activity creates an entitlement to become a finalist or winner. PALMA does not publish nomination counts, and a large audience nominating sincerely is not manipulation, but neither is it a claim on an outcome.

Unless a category-specific rule provides otherwise, a person may submit no more than one valid nomination for the same creator in the same category during the applicable nomination period.

The same person may nominate different creators and may nominate the same creator in different eligible categories, subject to the applicable rules.

PALMA’s technical records and validation systems may be used to determine whether a nomination has already been submitted or whether an attempt constitutes duplication or abuse.

Where PALMA requires email verification, a nomination is not validly submitted until the required verification process has been successfully completed.

PALMA may require a one-time verification code or equivalent verification mechanism.

PALMA is entitled to reject submissions that cannot be successfully verified.

PALMA judges awards according to the criteria, methodology and category rules published or made available for the relevant award year. Those criteria are published at /about/judging before a season opens.

PALMA may appoint judges, panels or other authorised decision-makers and may replace or reassign them where necessary.

Judges must disclose material conflicts of interest and must not participate in matters where PALMA determines that their independence may reasonably be compromised.

Judging information may be confidential. Nominees, creators, nominators, sponsors and the public are not entitled to access confidential judging materials, individual judge deliberations, internal scores, conflict records or internal fraud-detection information except where PALMA expressly decides otherwise or disclosure is required by law.

PALMA may use a panel, weighted scoring methodology, moderation process, tie-breaking procedure or other judging mechanism appropriate to the relevant award.

PALMA may correct an administrative or procedural error where reasonably necessary. Any such correction is recorded in PALMA’s audit records, including who made it and what it changed.

Finalist and winner status is awarded at PALMA’s discretion in accordance with the applicable rules and judging methodology.

A finalist or winner is not entitled to receive an award merely because they have received nominations, publicity, audience support or previous recognition.

PALMA may withhold an award where it reasonably determines that eligibility, integrity or procedural requirements have not been satisfied.

PALMA may declare a category void, defer an award, decline to select a winner or modify the presentation of an award where circumstances reasonably require it.

PALMA may revoke or suspend a nomination, finalist status, award or related public recognition where PALMA reasonably determines that:

1. (a)eligibility requirements were not satisfied;
2. (b)materially false or misleading information was supplied;
3. (c)fraud, manipulation or material procedural abuse occurred;
4. (d)an identity or creator claim was improperly established;
5. (e)the award was obtained through conduct materially inconsistent with PALMA’s rules;
6. (f)a serious conflict or undisclosed circumstance materially affected the award process; or
7. (g)continued recognition would materially undermine the integrity of PALMA.

Before revocation, PALMA may provide the affected person with an opportunity to respond where reasonably practicable.

A revocation decision and its reason are recorded internally and, where appropriate, reflected in the public PALMA record. Revocation does not automatically require PALMA to delete historical records necessary to preserve an accurate institutional history: the honour, its achievement and its verification page remain, and read revoked.

PALMA’s historical records, including finalist and winner records, form part of the PALMA Roll of Honour (“PaROH”).

Historical achievement records may be retained after an account is closed or a creator ceases participating. An award that could be erased by the person who received it would not be worth receiving.

Where a historical record is corrected, amended or revoked, PALMA may retain the original record, correction history and relevant audit information where reasonably necessary to preserve an accurate historical record, comply with law, prevent fraud or document institutional decisions.

A creator record may be created by PALMA before it is claimed by a creator or authorised representative. Where PALMA holds a record about a creator who has not claimed it, that record is kept to the minimum described in the privacy notice, and the creator may ask for it to be removed.

Submitting a claim does not automatically establish control over a creator record. PALMA may require information reasonably necessary to establish that a claimant is the relevant creator or an authorised representative, and may consider competing or conflicting claims relating to the same record.

Only an approved claim creates authorised account control over the relevant record.

PALMA may reject a claim, request additional information, place a claim under review, restrict a record, suspend access or investigate a dispute where reasonably necessary.

PALMA may correct, revoke or transfer control where a previous claim was approved in error or where a later claim establishes that the existing controller was not properly authorised.

A claimed record lets the creator decide how they are described. It does not let anyone alter what PALMA says happened.

You must not:

1. (a)impersonate another person;
2. (b)submit false or misleading information;
3. (c)manipulate nominations, awards or verification systems;
4. (d)submit malicious, defamatory, threatening, harassing or abusive material;
5. (e)publish or submit another person’s private information without lawful authority;
6. (f)submit intimate images, non-consensual intimate imagery or sexually explicit media to PALMA;
7. (g)upload malware, malicious code or material intended to compromise the service;
8. (h)interfere with PALMA’s security, authentication, verification or judging systems;
9. (i)attempt to obtain confidential information to which you are not authorised; or
10. (j)use PALMA to facilitate unlawful activity.

PALMA may restrict or terminate access where these rules are breached.

PALMA and its licensors retain all intellectual property rights in the PALMA name, branding, logos, award marks, website, software, editorial material, visual identity, databases, archival presentation and other PALMA materials except where expressly stated otherwise.

You must not reproduce, modify, commercially exploit, scrape, reverse engineer, frame, mirror or distribute PALMA materials except as permitted by law or with PALMA’s written permission. Use of the PALMA mark by a holder of an honour is governed by use of the mark.

Where you submit text, photographs, biographical information, logos or other material to PALMA, you confirm that you have the right to provide that material and that its use by PALMA as contemplated by these Terms will not knowingly infringe another person’s rights.

You grant PALMA a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, display, adapt for formatting, publish and distribute submitted material solely to operate, administer, promote and document PALMA and its awards, subject to the applicable privacy notice and any agreed restrictions.

This licence does not transfer ownership of your underlying intellectual property to PALMA.

PALMA may remove or decline to publish submitted material at its discretion where reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect individuals, maintain editorial standards or protect PALMA.

By participating in PALMA, you acknowledge that PALMA may publicly identify finalists and winners and may display relevant award information, including creator name or professional name, category, award year, finalist or winner status and other information legitimately published as part of the PALMA record.

Where a creator has uploaded a profile image, PALMA may use that image in connection with the creator’s PALMA record, awards, editorial coverage, announcements and archival presentation subject to the applicable permissions.

No provision of these Terms requires you to grant PALMA ownership of your name, stage name, likeness or intellectual property.

Sponsors and commercial partners may receive the benefits expressly agreed in their sponsorship or partnership arrangements. Sponsorship does not give a sponsor the right to:

1. (a)determine a finalist or winner;
2. (b)access confidential judging scores or deliberations;
3. (c)direct judges;
4. (d)alter judging criteria after the relevant process has commenced;
5. (e)require favourable recognition; or
6. (f)obtain confidential creator, claimant or nomination information except as separately authorised and lawful.

PALMA identifies sponsored categories, presentations or editorial placements where required for transparency. Sponsor relationships are separate from judging decisions, and that separation is enforced in PALMA’s systems as well as in this document.

PALMA may link to third-party websites, platforms, verification providers, social networks, ticketing providers, payment providers, analytics providers or other services.

PALMA does not control third-party services and is not responsible for their availability, content, privacy practices, terms, security or conduct.

Your use of a third-party service is subject to that provider’s own terms and privacy information.

PALMA does not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation of the website.

PALMA may modify, suspend or discontinue any feature, category, award process, page, service or event where reasonably necessary for operational, legal, security, commercial or institutional reasons.

PALMA may update award dates, category structures, judging arrangements or procedural requirements subject to applicable published rules and the need to preserve fairness. The rules that decide a season are fixed when that season opens.

PALMA provides the service on an “as available” basis except where applicable law provides otherwise.

PALMA does not guarantee that participation will result in publicity, employment, commercial opportunities, increased followers, income, sponsorship or other personal or professional benefit.

PALMA does not guarantee that information submitted by third parties is accurate.

A PALMA recognition is an award of recognition and does not constitute a factual certification of every statement made about a creator or their work.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability to the extent that such liability cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.

Subject to the preceding paragraph and applicable law, PALMA shall not be liable for indirect, consequential or purely economic losses except where such exclusion is prohibited by law.

Nothing in these Terms removes or restricts statutory rights that apply to consumers.

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to reimburse PALMA for reasonable losses, liabilities, costs and expenses arising directly from your material breach of these Terms, unlawful conduct, fraudulent activity or infringement of third-party rights, except to the extent caused by PALMA’s own breach, negligence or unlawful conduct.

PALMA may preserve records, restrict access and disclose information where PALMA reasonably believes this is necessary to comply with law, respond to a lawful request, investigate suspected fraud or abuse, protect an individual, protect the integrity of PALMA, or establish or defend legal rights.

PALMA operates internal procedures for appeals, complaints, eligibility disputes, claim disputes, moderation decisions and award-process concerns. They are set out in complaints and appeals.

Unless PALMA expressly provides an appeal right for a particular matter, PALMA’s procedural decision shall be treated as final subject to applicable law.

Where an appeal process is available, the applicable procedure and deadline will be published or communicated to the affected person.

These Terms and any non-contractual obligations arising from them are governed by the laws of England and Wales, unless applicable mandatory law requires otherwise.

The courts of England and Wales shall have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory rights or jurisdiction available to consumers under applicable law.

PALMA may update these Terms from time to time.

Material changes may be notified through the website, account notifications or other reasonable means where appropriate.

The version applicable to a particular award process is recorded by PALMA so that the applicable rules can be established retrospectively. This document is version 1.0.

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unlawful, invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be interpreted or amended to the minimum extent necessary to make it lawful where possible, and the remaining provisions shall continue in effect.

A failure by PALMA to enforce any provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of PALMA’s right to enforce that provision later.

These Terms, together with the applicable award rules, privacy notice and any expressly incorporated policies or agreements, constitute the applicable agreement governing use of the PALMA service, subject to mandatory legal rights.

Questions about this document: concierge@palmaawards.com.