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This Privacy Policy describes how Roots Art Ltd ("Roots Art", "Roots", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, and shares personal data. Roots Art Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under ZC196595.

The personal data we collect

If you visit rootsart.co.uk: IP address, browser, device, and pages viewed, collected by cookies (see Cookies and advertising below). Searches you make, including postcodes, place names, and your location if you use the "Use my Location" feature.

If you buy from us: name, email, and phone number; delivery and billing addresses; order history and customer service messages; account login details and preferences, if you create one. Payment details go directly to our payment providers — we never see or store your full card details.

If you are an artist: your public profile (display name, portrait, bio, displayed location, and outward postcode), legal name and contact details. Your Artist Agreement acceptance record (the version you accepted, the date and time, and the details you submitted). Your artwork (files, titles, descriptions, and preferences). Your bank details — account holder name, sort code, and account number.

How we collect it

Most comes from you: placing an order, creating an account, contacting us, joining the mailing list, or onboarding as an artist. The rest arrives automatically from your device via cookies; from the providers who run parts of our business (Shopify, payment processors); from Meta and Google, who report on how our advertising performs; and from Shopify's fraud analysis, which gives us risk signals about transactions.

How we use it

• To fulfil your orders including payment, printing, delivery, returns, confirmations, and dispatch updates.
• To run your account and answer your questions.
• To onboard artists, display their profiles, and pay their commission.
• To send marketing emails if you've opted in.
• To spot potentially fraudulent orders.
• To measure and improve rootsart.co.uk and our advertising.
• To keep the records the law says we must.

Our lawful basis

UK data protection law requires a lawful basis for each use:

• Contract — fulfilling your orders, and onboarding, displaying, and paying artists under the Artist Agreement.
• Consent — marketing emails and non-essential cookies. Withdraw it whenever you like.
• Legitimate interests — running, securing, and improving the business, and preventing fraud. You can object at any time (see Your rights).
• Legal obligation — tax, accounting, and consumer law records.

Cookies and advertising

Essential cookies (basket, security) are always on. Everything else runs only with your consent, given or withdrawn through the cookie banner.

With your consent we use: Meta Pixel and Conversions API — the pixel collects data in your browser, and the Conversions API sends events (e.g. purchases) and hashed identifiers to Meta from our systems, so we can measure and target our advertising. Google Analytics 4, to understand how rootsart.co.uk is used, and Google Ads, to measure our advertising. Shopify, which sets cookies to run the store.

You can change your mind any time via the cookie settings link, opt out of personalised ads in your Meta and Google account settings, and opt out of Google Analytics at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. We do not currently respond to "Do Not Track" browser signals, which are not standardised.

Who we share it with

We never sell your personal information. We share it only with those who help run Roots, and only what they need:

• Shopify hosts rootsart.co.uk and processes orders and accounts.
• Payment providers take your payment directly at checkout.
• Prodigi prints and delivers your order, so receives your name, delivery address, and the artwork file.
• Google hosts emails and we use Google Workspace and Drive.
• Meta receives hashed email, IP address, and event data for advertising, with your consent, as above.
• An email marketing provider where we use one, to send messages on our behalf.
• Professional advisers — our bank, accountants, lawyers, insurers.
• Authorities where the law requires.
• A buyer or investor if we ever sell, merge, or finance all or part of the business.

International transfers

We are UK-based, but some providers process data outside the UK, including in the US. Those transfers are protected by UK adequacy decisions (including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.

How long we keep personal data

• Order and payment records: 6 years from the end of the financial year (tax law).
• Artist Agreements and acceptance records: 6 years after the agreement ends.
• Artist bank details: until your final payment is made and reconciled.
• Artist public profiles: while your work is listed; removed promptly after your agreement ends.
• Marketing lists: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
• Analytics and advertising data: per each tool's settings, set to the shortest available.

After that, we delete or anonymise it.

Your rights

You can ask us to show you the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it (unless the law requires us to keep it), give it to you in a portable format, or restrict or stop processing it — including any processing based on legitimate interests, and direct marketing. You can withdraw consent at any time.

Email privacy@rootsart.co.uk with "Privacy request" in the subject line. We will verify your identity and reply within one month. Someone can make a request on your behalf if you authorise them.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113, or to your local data protection authority in the EEA.

Security

Encryption in transit, restricted access, and the security programmes of our providers. Shopify handles all card processing and is PCI-DSS compliant. Artist bank details are stored separately, with restricted access. No system is perfectly secure, though, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of information sent to or from the site.

Automated decision making

We make no automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Where a system flags something — such as a potentially fraudulent order — a person reviews it before any action is taken.

Changes

We may update this policy. The current version is always on this page, with the date above, and we will flag significant changes.

1. Parties

Roots Art Ltd, company number 17326941, of 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA ("Roots", "Roots Art", "Company", "we", "us"); and the Artist, the person identified by the legal name and email address presented on the Acceptance Form ("you").

2. Definitions

• Artwork — each original work you submit to us for sale on the Platform.
• Product — the physical reproduction of the Artwork including framed, unframed, and mounted paper prints, and canvas prints, with or without a frame.
• Base Format — for paper print Products, the unframed paper print; for canvas Products, the unframed stretched canvas.
• Base Print Revenue — the then-current retail price of the Base Format of the same Artwork and size, less VAT and other sales taxes (or 30% of the Product's retail price, less tax, if the Base Format isn't separately offered or is priced below 30% of the Product).
• Commission Rate — the percentage stated in the Acceptance Form.
• Commission — Base Print Revenue × Commission Rate, payable per Product sold.
• Effective Date — the date and time you accept this agreement via the Acceptance Form.
• Platform — rootsart.co.uk and its subordinate domains.
• Term — the period from the Effective Date until termination.

3. Grant of licence

You grant Roots Art Ltd a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing licence for the Term to reproduce the Artwork as Products and sell them; display the Artwork and Products on the Platform; use the Artwork, your name, and your likeness in marketing across the Platform, social media, paid advertising, and email; and crop, resize, add edge treatments, and make reasonable colour adjustments necessary for reproduction, display, and marketing.

You retain full copyright and all intellectual property rights over the Artwork — nothing in this agreement transfers ownership. We will credit you as the artist wherever the Artwork is displayed, so far as reasonably practicable. You agree that permitted treatment under this clause does not constitute derogatory treatment under section 80 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

4. Artist warranties

You warrant that you are the sole creator and owner of each Artwork (or hold all rights necessary); no Artwork infringes any third party's rights, is unlawful, defamatory, or obscene, or was created with or contains elements created with generative AI; and you are over 18 and legally able to enter this agreement. You indemnify us against losses, claims, and costs arising from any breach of this clause.

5. Exclusivity

You remain free to sell, license, and display each Artwork anywhere, including your own website and other marketplaces.

6. Commission & payment

• We pay Commission on each Product sold, monthly in arrears, by the 15th of the following month, by bank transfer.
• A sales statement accompanies each payment, showing units sold, Base Print Revenue, and Commission per Artwork.
• You are not an employee, agent, or partner of Roots Art Ltd, and remain solely responsible for your own tax, National Insurance, and HMRC obligations.
• No Commission is payable on refunded or charged-back sales; amounts already paid may be deducted from future payments.
• Commission is inclusive of any applicable VAT — VAT-registered artists must provide a valid invoice before payment.
• Amounts under £20 in a given month may be carried forward until the accumulated total reaches £20, or paid on termination if earlier.
• We may withhold Commission pending investigation of a reasonably suspected fraudulent sale, and pay promptly if the sale proves genuine.

7. Pricing & product decisions

We set retail prices, sizes, stocks, and framing options, and may vary these at our discretion. Promotions do not alter your Commission per Product. We are not obliged to offer any submitted Artwork for sale, and may decline or remove a Product at our discretion.

8. Takedown & removal

You may withdraw any Artwork on 14 days' written notice; we'll remove associated Products as soon as reasonably practicable, and no later than the end of the notice period. We may remove a Product immediately, without notice, if we receive an IP complaint, legal demand, or reasonably believe a breach of clause 4. Orders placed before removal are fulfilled and commissioned as normal.

9. Term & termination

This agreement runs from the Effective Date until terminated. Either party may terminate for convenience on 14 days' written notice; we may terminate immediately for material or unremedied breach. On termination, we may fulfil existing orders, must remove all Products within 14 days, and must pay outstanding Commission within 30 days. Clauses 4.2, 10, 11, 12, and 13 survive termination.

10. Liability & indemnity

Nothing in this agreement excludes liability for death, personal injury caused by negligence, or fraud. Subject to that, each party's total liability is capped at the greater of £500 and the total Commission paid or payable to you in the preceding 12 months (this cap does not apply to your indemnity under clause 4.2). Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or loss of profits, revenue, or goodwill.

11. Data protection

We process your personal data (including name, contact details, bank details, and location data) in accordance with UK GDPR and our Privacy Policy, published above.

12. General

This is the entire agreement between the parties. Neither party may assign it without the other's written consent. No partnership or employment is created. Notices are by email — to your address in our Acceptance Records, and to artists@rootsart.co.uk for us — deemed received the next business day. No variation is effective unless recorded via a new Acceptance Form for the revised agreement. No third party has rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. If any provision is found invalid, the remainder continues in force. This agreement becomes binding on both parties at the Effective Date; acceptance via the Acceptance Form has the same effect as a signature.

13. Governing law

This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales, whose courts have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from it.