TMS International – Privacy Policy

These Terms and Conditions were last modified and effective as of May 14, 2009.

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY AS THEY DESCRIBE YOUR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES AND, TOGETHER WITH ALL THE OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS REFERRED TO BELOW, FORM A LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND US REGARDING YOUR USE OF OUR SITES.

IF, FOR ANY REASON, YOU ARE UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO AGREE TO ALL OF OUR TERMS, PLEASE IMMEDIATELY DISCONTINUE USING OR ATTEMPTING TO USE OF OUR SITES, BECAUSE IF YOU CONTINUE, YOU WILL BE AGREEING TO ALL THE TERMS DESCRIBED OR REFERRED TO BELOW.

Introduction. Thank you for using www.tmsinternational.com (the „Site“). These Terms and Conditions of Use („Terms and Conditions“) represent a legally binding agreement between you and TMS International („TMS“, „we“, „us“ and „our“) and apply to your use of our Site. By using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to comply with these Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Policy as set forth below. If you do not accept any of these terms, please do not use our Site.

General. Your use of our Site indicates acceptance of these Terms and Conditions, which include our Privacy Policy. We may from time to time change the terms that govern your use of our Site and we will post a notice of the effective date of any material revisions to these Terms and Conditions and/or Privacy Policy on this page. You should therefore check this page regularly. Your use of our Site following any such change constitutes your agreement to follow and be bound by the Terms and Conditions as changed.

Privacy. Your privacy is important to us. Our use of your information is governed by our Privacy Policy. Read it carefully since it is describes how we collect and use information we obtain from you.

Trademarks, Copyright & Database Rights. Copyright in the content of our Site (including without limitation all images, illustrations, designs, icons, photographs, video clips, trademarks, service marks, the „look“ and „feel“, color combinations, button shapes, layout, design, graphical elements, arrangement of items, written and other materials that appear on this Site, HTML and other code and all copyrightable or otherwise legally protectable elements on our Site) and all database rights in our Site (collectively, the „Content“) are owned by TMS or its licensors and are legally protected under intellectual property laws. The modification, copying, distribution or incorporation into any other work of part or all of our Site or its Content in any form is prohibited except that you may print or download extracts for your non-commercial, informational and personal use only. All rights are reserved.

All product names, names of services, trademarks and service marks („Marks“) are the property of TMS, or the property of their respective owners, as indicated. You may not use the Marks for any purpose whatsoever other than as permitted by these Terms and Conditions.

Links. There may be links that make it easier for you to connect to third party websites or that will let you access our Site from third party websites. Linked third party websites are not under the control of TMS and TMS is not responsible for the contents of any linked third party website or any link contained in such a linked website. Existence of links to other third party websites is not an endorsement by TMS in favor of such website or the products or services contained in any third party website. If you choose to access a third party website linked on our Site you do so entirely at your own risk. Concerns regarding services or resources or links to third party websites should be directed to the provider of the outside service or resource. You are permitted to link to our homepage www.tmsinternational.com without prior consent. TMS at all times reserves the irrevocable right to rescind consent for any link to our Site and to take any legal action it deems appropriate.

Acceptable use. We grant you a limited license and right to use the Content of our Site solely in connection with your direct personal, non-commercial use. Unauthorized or prohibited use of Content may subject you to civil or criminal liability. In addition, you represent, warrant and agree that you will not use (or plan, encourage or help others to use) our Site for any purpose or in any manner that is prohibited by these Terms and Conditions or by applicable law. You may not do the following in connection with use of our Site:

  • Alter, delete or conceal copyright or other notices, even if we let you download, display print or share the Content with others;
  • Send unsolicited commercial email to the email addresses provided on the Site. The posting of email addresses is not to be construed as, and does not constitute consent to use of them by any seller of services, any compiler of mailing lists, or any other non-authorized use without prior permission from TMS. In addition, spam, chain emails, advertising solicitations and similar email solicitations are expressly prohibited;
  • Post or transmit to or from the Site any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, inflammatory, indecent or pornographic material or other material of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to any civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable law;
  • Post or transmit and from the Site any material of any kind which violates or infringes upon the rights of any other person, including material which is an invasion of any privacy or publicity rights or which is protected by copyright, trademark or any other proprietary right, or derivative works with respect thereto, without first obtaining permission from the owner or relevant right holder;
  • Download any file posted by any other user if you know, or reasonably ought to know, that the file cannot legally be distributed in such manner;
  • Attempt to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Site, system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization;
  • Interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of the Site or TMS, including, without limitation, via means of submitting a virus to the Site or TMS, overloading, „flooding“, „mailbombing“ or „crashing“;
  • Send unsolicited e-mail of promotions and/or advertising of products or services;
  • Forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail;
  • Frame the contents of any part of the Site within any materials not originated by TMS.
  • Use robots or other data mining technologies to extract data from this Site.

Accounts. Each authorized and registered user oour Site will be granted one username and password („Account“), upon the sole discretion of TMS. The Account is non-transferrable and must remain confidential to the user to which it was assigned by TMS. TMS reserves the right to terminate access of any Account upon the sole discretion of TMS. We recommend that you protect yourself from security threats by changing your password frequently, using complicated passwords (combination of upper- lower-case letters, number and special characters) and increasing the security level of your own web browser.

Indemnification. You agree to defend TMS against all claims, demands, or actions arising from or incurred as a result of your breach of these Terms and Conditions („Claim“) and you shall indemnify and hold us harmless from and against any expenses, losses, damages and costs (including but not limited to reasonable legal costs and disbursements) resulting from any such Claim. We have the right, at our expense, to assume exclusive defense against any Claim and all negotiations for settlement and you agree to cooperate with us, at our request, in the defense of any such Claim.

Termination. Our Terms and Conditions are effective unless and until terminated by either you or TMS. You may terminate your acceptance of your agreement with us by discontinuing any further use of our Site. TMS may also terminate, discontinue or suspend our Terms and Conditions and our Site at any time and may do so immediately without notice, and accordingly we may deny you access to our Site for any reason or no reason. Upon any termination of these Terms and Conditions by either you or us, you must promptly destroy all materials downloaded from our Site, as well as copies of such materials, whether made under the terms of this agreement or otherwise.

Severance & Waiver. If any provision of our Terms and Conditions is found to be invalid by any court having jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of our Terms and Conditions, which shall remain in full force and effect. No waiver of any term of our Terms and Conditions shall be deemed a continuing waiver of such term or any other term.

Entire Agreement. Except as provided herein, these Terms and Conditions, together with our Privacy Policy contained herein, constitute the entire agreement between you and TMS and your use of our Site and supersede any prior understanding or agreements (written or oral).

Third Party Rights. Nothing in our Terms and Conditions is intended to confer on any third party (whether referred to in our Terms and Conditions by name, class, description or otherwise) any benefit or any right (under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 UK or otherwise) to enforce any provision of our Terms and Conditions or any agreement entered into in connection with it.

Governing Law.

  • If you use the Site in the United Kingdom, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by English law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
  • If you use the Site in France, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by French law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the French Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Belgium, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Belgium law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Belgium Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Brazil, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Brazilian law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Brazilian Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Canada, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Canadian law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Canadian Courts.
  • If you use the Site in the People’s Republic of China, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by PRC law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the PRC Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Indonesia, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Indonesian law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Indonesian Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Mexico, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Mexican law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Mexican Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Serbia, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Serbian law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Serbian Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Singapore, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Singapore law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Singapore Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Slovakia, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Slovakian law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Slovakian Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Trinidad and Tobago, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Trinidad and Tobago law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Trinidad and Tobago Courts.
  • If you use the Site in Vietnam, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by Vietnamese law. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Vietnamese Courts.
  • If you use the Site in the United States, any claim relating to, and the use of, such Site and the materials contained herein is governed by >the laws of the State of Delaware without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You and TMS agree that exclusive jurisdiction and venue for all disputes arising out of or relating hereto shall be proper in the state and federal courts situated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and hereby submit to jurisdiction and venue in such courts.

Site Content; Disclaimer And Limitation Of Liability.

OUR SITE AND ALL CONTENT ARE MADE AVAILABLE „AS IS“ AND „AS AVAILABLE“ WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTY RELATING TO TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR PURPOSE. THERE IS NO GUARANTY OR ASSURANCE OUR SITES OR CONTENT WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR USE OR THAT ALL CONTENT WILL BE AVAILABLE OR PERFORM AS DESCRIBED OR THAT ANY SITE OR CONTENT IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, ERROR FREE. ALTHOUGH TMS ENDEAVORS TO ENSURE THAT THE CONTENT OF OUR SITE IS ACCURATE AND UP TO DATE (EVEN THOUGH IT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO DO SO), USERS SHOULD PERFORM INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS OR SEEK APPROPRIATE BUSINESS, LEGAL AND/OR OTHER ADVICE BEFORE TAKING OR REFRAINING FROM TAKING ANY ACTION BASED ON INFORMATION PROVIDED VIA OUR SITE. WE ARE NEITHER RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY MALICIOUS OR UNAUTHORIZED CODE AND YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING YOU HAVE APPROPRIATE SCANNING AND PROTECTIVE MECHANISMS FOR THE SECURITY OF YOUR EQUIPMENT, PROGRAMS AND INFORMATION AND BY USING OUR SITE YOU ARE ASSUMING ALL RISK OF LOSS THAT MAY ARISE OR BE ASSOCIATED WITH USE OF OUR SITE.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY FOR ANY LOSS, DAMAGE, COST AND EXPENSE OF ANY KIND, DIRECT AND INDIRECT, IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING FORM OUR SITE, CONTENT, ANY ACTION TAKEN (OR NOT TAKEN) AS A RESULT OF OUR SITE OR CONTENT OR OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO COMPENSATORY, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY AND PUNITIVE DAMAGES, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION OR BASIS OF CLAIM AND WHETHER OR NOT ANY PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES.

THE FOREGOING PARAGRAPHS DO NOT ATTEMPT TO AFFECT ANY OF YOUR STATUTORY RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER OR OTHERWISE UNDER THE APPLICABLE LAW OF THE RELEVANT JURISDICTION. TO THE EXTENT THAT THESE EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY ARE EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED BY LAW THOSE PARTS OF THE CLAUSES THAT ARE PROHIBITED WILL NOT APPLY. THE REMAINING TERMS AND CLAUSES WILL CONTINUE TO APPLY. IF ANY LIMITATION OF DAMAGES OR LIABILITY IS PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW, WE SHALL BE ENTITLED TO THE MAXIMUM EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS PERMITTED; HOWEVER, IN NO EVENT SHALL OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU EXCEED ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

Miscellaneous. Our Terms and Conditions can not be modified except as described herein or in a written amendment signed by an authorized representative of ours. No electronic or digital communication of any kind is to be construed as a „writing“ for purposes of amending or modifying our Terms and Conditions or the rights or obligations of the parties hereunder. Any provision which must survive any termination of your agreement with us in order to allow us to enforce its meaning shall survive. You may not make or initiate any claim, demand or action against us, regardless of form or the basis of the claim, more than one (1) year after the cause of action has arisen (or if multiple causes, from the date the first such cause arose).

If we believe or have reason to believe or are notified of anything which could compromise or endanger the health or safety of any person, could damage persons or property (tangible or intangible), could adversely affect, infringe upon or misappropriate the rights of others, harasses or interferes with any other user, person, firm or enterprise, interferes with or bypasses our security or other protective measures, violates any law or regulation or these Terms and Conditions, including our Privacy Policy, we have the right, reserving cumulatively all other rights and remedies available to us at law, in equity and under our agreement with you, to report and provide information to any and all regulatory and law enforcement authorities and agencies and take any action permitted by law.

Further Information. Questions regarding these Terms and Conditions or notifications of any errors should be directed to TMS, email at useandprivacy@tmsinternational.com, or by mail in the United States to P.O. Box 2000, Glassport, PA 15045.

This Privacy Policy was last modified and is effective as of May 14, 2009.

THIS IS OUR OFFICIAL PRIVACY POLICY WHICH FORMS PART OF YOUR LEGAL AGREEMENT WITH US UNDER OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE. PLEASE READ OUR PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE COLLECT, USE AND SHARE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.

Any terms not defined in this Privacy Policy are defined in our Terms and Conditions of Use.

Introduction. We are committed to safeguarding your privacy. We believe that the best way to protect the privacy of users of our Sites is to tell you what information we gather and ensure that you understand and consent to TMS‘ uses of information you provide.

Changes to Privacy Policy. We may occasionally modify this Privacy Policy and will post a notice of the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we use or disclose it. Your use of our Site after the effective date of any modification, means you accept and agree to be bound by the Privacy Policy as modified. You should check the policy frequently to read the latest Privacy Policy. Please note that our Site may contain links to and from third party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of third party websites. The information practices of third party websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy.

Information we collect and how we collect it. We use the term „Personal Information“ to refer to any information you provide in connection with your use of any of our Site by which you can be personally identified. Personal Information may include such things as your name, telephone numbers, email address(es), location (e.g. U.S.) and the name of your organization. We only obtain Personal Information about you when you submit it to us, such as when subscribing to our Site, creating an Account or requesting information. By using our Site and submitting Personal Information, you consent to the collection and use of your Personal Information by us as described in this Privacy Policy and the transfer of your Personal Information to countries outside of the European Economic Area („EEA“). When we collect Personal Information we make an effort to include a link to this Privacy Policy on that page.

Besides Personal Information, when you access or visit our Site, we and our operational service providers and others who host our Site may use technology that can recognize, collect, and transmit information that is associated with you, but which does not personally identify you. Although the term „cookies“ specifically refers to small pieces of information that is stored by your browser on your computer’s hard-drive for record keeping purposes, we will use the term „cookie“ to refer generically to any technology that can recognize, collect or transmit information about your visits to our Site. „Cookie“ information typically includes such data as your referring domain, type of internet browser, operating system software, screen resolution, date and time of visit and other technical data related to your visit. No personally identifiable information is collected by this process.

Cookies allow our Site to recognize a user“s computer or access device each time it is used to visit our Site and cookies can keep count of how often you return to our Site. Cookies can also track how you use our Site, the pages you visit and your preferences for features and functions. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser settings to prevent it from accepting cookies. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. We have sought to set up our Site so as to notify you before a cookie is used. However, if you choose to reject all cookies, you may be unable to use parts or certain functions of our Site.

How we use information collected. We use information collected or obtained when you use our Site, including Personal Information, to ensure compliance with our Terms and Conditions and for our internal research purposes, such as to analyze trends, administer our Site, track user movements on our Site, gather aggregate demographic data about visitors so we can continually improve our Site. In addition, we may also use your Personal Information for account registration, collaboration, use of certain features of our service, and any future tools TMS may offer via the website, as well as for the purposes set out below:

  • Order processing and delivery;
  • Keep you up to date on new services, announcements, website feature changes and other information;
  • Provide support and assistance;
  • To contact you with shipping and billing information;
  • To conduct questionnaires and surveys in order to provide you with better services;
  • To learn more about your needs so we can personalize our portal offerings;
  • To meet contractual obligations;
  • Market research;
  • Responding to feedback;
  • Informing you about our services which may include contacting you by telephone;
  • Giving your information to affiliate offices which may be located outside the EEA to enable them to send you information which may be of interest to you or to contact you regarding your query;
  • Sending you client bulletins or information that may be of interest to you.

Disclosure of Information to Third Parties. We always have the right to disclose your Personal Information to our operational service providers that we engage to assist us with our Sites such as hosting, storage fulfillment and disaster recovery. We always request that our operational service providers protect your privacy and not disclose your Personal Information to third party marketers that are not associated with our Sites, nor are our operational service providers allowed to use your Personal Information for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

We also reserve the right to make your Personal Information available:

  • To other TMS offices;
  • When compelled by a governmental agency, law, regulation, a court or other legal process;
  • If we believe your use of our Site has or may violate any law, regulation or our Terms and Conditions;
  • If we believe you are or may be a threat to safety, security, property, interests or rights of us or others;
  • In order to investigate or respond to or resolve problems or inquiries or defend our interests;
  • In a merger, acquisition, change of control, joint venture or other business combination.

Save as described above, we do not otherwise disclose information about your individual visits to any Site or information which identifies you to any third parties unless we have your prior consent.

Security. We take the security of your data seriously. Therefore, once we receive your transmission, we make our best efforts to ensure its security on our systems. The servers we store Personal Information in are kept in a secure physical environment. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.

It is our policy to virus check documents and files before they are posted on our Site. However, we cannot guarantee that documents or files downloaded from our Site will be free from viruses and we do not accept any responsibility for any damage or loss caused by any virus. Accordingly, for your own protection, you must use virus-checking software when using our Site. You must not post or provide to us via our Site, any document or file which you believe may contain a virus. You must virus check any document or file which you intend to post or provide to us via our Site.

Unfortunately no data transmission or security program can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. You remain responsible for the security of your computer at all times.

Worldwide transfer of data. The dynamics of the Internet may mean that information is sent electronically outside of the country where you originally entered the information. In addition, that information may be used, stored and processed outside the country where you entered that information. While there is a risk that countries to which information is transferred will not be subject to an information protection regime as rigorous as that of the EEA, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and adequately protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy. However, if you are resident in the EEA and you do not want your information to be transferred outside of the EEA please do not send us any Personal Information.

Your right regarding Personal Information. We aim to keep our information about you as accurate as possible and to use your Personal Information only as directed. If you would like to (i) review or change the information you have supplied us with or (ii) would like to be removed from our active marketing databases or (iii) would like us to stop using your Personal Information in the manner in which you approved, please contact us as set out below. If you ask us to remove your Personal Information, we reserve the right to retain as much of your Personal Information as is necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, internal audit and record-keeping requirements.To ensure a positive experience while using our Site, we encourage you to update your Personal Information via the links provided and to unsubscribe from our services as appropriate. To ensure that Personal Information is not kept longer than needed to perform legitimate business functions, please ensure that your Personal Information is kept up to date or removed when it is no longer required.

California privacy rights. If you are a resident of the State of California, under the California Civil Code, you have the right to request information on how to exercise your disclosure choice options from companies conducting business in California. To do so, send a request for information indicating your preference as to how you would like us to respond to your request (i.e., email or postal mail). To request such information, either send an email to us at: useandprivacy@tmsinternational.com, or contact us via postal mail, proper postage pre-paid, at:

P.O. Box 2000, Glassport, PA 15045.
Attn: Your California Privacy Rights

All requests sent via postal mail must be labeled „Your California Privacy Rights“ on the envelope or post card and clearly stated on the actual request. For all requests, please include your name, street address (if you would like a response via postal mail), city, state, and zip code. We will not accept requests via telephone or fax. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.

Merger or other change. If TMS merges with, acquires or is sold to another company or goes into bankruptcy or engages in other such business transactions, we may share files and email records, including your Personal Information, with our business and merger partners.

Online data versus offline data. This general Privacy Policy only applies to the collection of data online and not to offline information which are governed by the relevant local data protection laws. This Privacy Policy may be amended or superseded by a specific privacy policy for the collection and use of other data. Where this Privacy Policy is amended or superseded for the collection and use of other data, we will draw that amended privacy policy to your attention.

Contact us. Questions regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to us at useandprivacy@tmsinternational.com, or via postal mail, proper postage pre-paid, at: P.O. Box 2000, Glassport, PA 15045.