The Star Website Terms & Conditions

Definitions
1. “Publisher” means Star Media Group Berhad (Company No.: 197101000523 (10894-D).
2. “Client” refers to a direct advertiser or direct Advertising Agency (as hereinafter defined) who has purchased advertising services from the Publisher.
3. "Advertising Agency" means a person, firm or company carrying on the business involving the selection or purchase of advertising properties for persons wishing to advertise.
4. "Booking Form" means the agreement entered into between the Publisher and the Client for the purchase of advertising properties.
5. "Advertisement Material" means any digital material intended for online publication by the Publisher.
6. "Date of Publication" means the date of the intended publication of the Advertisement Material and where there are more than one (1) date of publication, the Date of Publication means the date of first publication of the Advertisement Material.
7. "Working Day" means a day other than Saturday, Sunday or public holiday in the state of Selangor.
8. "Confirmed Booking" means a Booking Form accepted and confirmed by the Publisher for publication.
9. "Technical Requirements" mean the advertising specifications as set out in https://advertising.thestar.com.my.
Advertisement Materials

The Advertisement Materials submitted by the Client must:
1. satisfy the Technical Requirements of the Publisher;
2. comply with the Content Code issued by the Communications And Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia and any amendments/revisions made thereto;
3. comply with the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and any amendments/revisions made thereto;/li>
4. comply with the Malaysian Code of Advertising Practice issued by the Advertising Standards Malaysia (ASA) and any amendments/revisions made thereto; and
5. comply with any other laws, by-laws, rules and regulations from time to time in force in Malaysia.
Acceptance of Booking
1. Booking will only be processed upon the Publisher’s receipt of the signed Booking Form on or before the submission date stated in the Booking Form together with full payment (save as otherwise provided in the Booking Form). The Publisher cannot guarantee the validity of the proposal including its price, value propositions and availability prior to the acceptance of the signed Booking Form.
2. These terms and conditions together with the Booking Form shall embody the entire agreement of the parties in relation to the booking and supersedes all prior understandings, communications and representations between the parties, whether oral or written.
3. All advertising creatives (including: logo, brand corporate identity, banner ads) must be provided by the Client unless otherwise stated in the Booking Form.
4. If the Client chooses to have creative production undertaken by the Publisher, the following materials must be provided by the Client at least five (5) Working Days prior to the Date of Publication:
  1. Client's logo (in .ai format only)
  2. Images of products (in .ai format preferably), product info (in .doc) OR press ad (in .ai format only)
  3. Official website URL / promotion site of the Client
  4. Confirmed tagline / change of mechanics / title
  5. Brand guidelines
  6. Design preference and font requirements
  7. Where needed, videos, graphics, text, translations
5. The Publisher will advise the Client on development duration of all content production (including microsites) which may vary on a case to case basis.
6. All submitted creatives must adhere to the Publisher's advertising specification document under the Technical Requirements.
7. All creatives are to be handed over to the Publisher via electronic means (i.e. no tapes). Upon verification of the creatives, the Publisher will send an email to the Client as a form of acceptance.
8. In cases where translation services are required by the Client, an additional translation fee of Ringgit Malaysia Two Hundred Fifty (RM 250.00) only (exclusive of service tax under the Service Tax Act 2018) per A4 sheet will apply.
9. Finalised creatives and content (e.g. write-ups, ads or microsites) will be allowed amendments up to a maximum number of two (2) times, after which the Publisher may impose an additional fee of Ringgit Malaysia Five Hundred (RM500.00) only (exclusive of service tax under the Service Tax Act 2018) for each amendment.
10. The first draft of creatives must be submitted two (2) weeks prior to the Date of Publication for verification purposes.
11. Strictly no changes are allowed to booking criteria and creatives four (4) days before the launch of a Campaign (as hereinafter defined).
12. In the event the Client submits creatives which do not comply with any of the Technical Requirements and/or the terms and conditions contained herein, the Publisher may dub and/or reformat these creatives into a format that the Publisher requires and the Client agrees to bear all costs, charges and expenses for such dubbing and/or reformatting work.
13. Notwithstanding anything contained herein, the Publisher reserves its absolute discretion to reject any of the creatives that is deemed not suitable by the Publisher and the Client shall submit alternative creatives to the Publisher for approval.
14. Advertisement Material and creatives of the Client shall be labelled and marked clearly with the name of the Client. Advertisement Material and creatives submitted to the Publisher herein will not be returned to the Client.
Publication of Advertising Campaign for Client (“Campaign”)
1. The launch of a Campaign is strictly dependent on the timely submission of Advertisement Materials and the relevant creatives as outlined in Clause 3 above. Any delays in submission of the Advertisement Materials and creatives by the Client will result in delays or failure to launch the Campaign at the cost of the Client.
2. The Publisher will endeavour to serve the agreed number of impressions within the duration of the Campaign but due to variability in impressions and page views, the Campaign may take slightly longer than planned for completion. Upon occurrence of delay in completing a Campaign, the Publisher will notify the Client on the extension of the Campaign duration.
3. The Client shall notify the Publisher of any technical errors or incorrect Advertisement Material used in the Campaign within forty eight (48) hours after the Date of Publication, failing which, the Campaign shall be deemed to have been correctly launched/published and shall be invoiced accordingly.
4. Post Campaign reports will be produced upon completion of a Campaign.
5. All post Campaign reports, otherwise stated, will be submitted to the Client in PDF formats.
6. In the event where an audit of a historical Campaign is required, the Client shall submit the audit request to the Publisher within twelve (12) months from the completion of the Campaign and additional costs for the audit shall be borne by the Client.
Payment
1. Unless otherwise agreed by the Publisher in the Booking Form, full payment is required.
2. Advertisement/Campaign will only be published/launched upon receipt of full payment.
3. Payment can be made by cash (walk-in counter), credit card, online transfer or cheque (* minimum four (4) Working Days required for cheque clearance).
4. The Publisher shall not be held liable for any additional interest and/or fee charged by any bank/financial institution/payment gateway service provider for any transaction/administrative fee.
5. A certificate signed by an officer of the Publisher shall be conclusive evidence as to any amounts owing under or in respect of this booking (save for demonstrable error).
Cancellations & Rejection of Booking
1. Without prejudice to any antecedent rights of the Publisher, the Client may cancel confirmed bookings upon giving notice to the Publisher and subject to the payment of the following surcharges:
  1. Fourteen (14) days before the Date of Publication / Campaign launch date (100% surcharge)
  2. Between fifteen (15) to thirty (30) days before the Date of Publication / Campaign launch date (50% surcharge)
  3. More than thirty (30) days before the Date of Publication / Campaign launch date (25% surcharge)
2. Any written notice of cancellation shall take effect only upon the same having been received by the Publisher.
3. The Publisher shall have the sole and absolute discretion, suspend, pre-empt, interrupt or otherwise terminate the booking, without liability, if any one of the following events occur:
  1. the Client breaches any of these terms and conditions;
  2. the Advertisement Material and/or creative fail to comply with any terms provided herein or any other instructions given by the Publisher;
  3. it is in the Publisher's sole opinion that the publication or Campaign is or may be in violation of any acts, statutes or laws, public or social policies, rules and/or regulations, and/or order instructions, notices, and/or directives imposed/issued by the appropriate authority;
  4. it is in the Publisher's sole opinion that the publication or Campaign is or may breach the intellectual property rights or alleged rights of a third party;
  5. the publication or Campaign may result in or potentially result in any claim, charge, investigation, action, suit or proceeding (whether civil or criminal) asserted or instituted by a third party or governmental authority against the Publisher;
  6. technical failure;
  7. testing, repair, adjustment, maintenance, reconfiguration of any component or equipment of the Publisher’s websites/mobile applications;
  8. the Advertisement Material or creative contains abusive, defamatory or discriminatory material or the content thereof incites unrest/hatred;
  9. Internet failure which disrupts the Publisher’s websites/mobile applications;
  10. suspension from the governing authority on the use/operation of the Publisher’s websites/mobile applications; and/or
  11. any other reason as the Publisher deems fit.
4. The Publisher shall use reasonable commercial effort to replace the affected publication or Campaign as soon as practicable once the above events have been rectified and/or resolved to the satisfaction of the Publisher.
Direct Client
1. Where the Client deals directly with the Publisher without using the services of any Advertising Agency, the Publisher shall issue billings directly to the Client in accordance with the payment details provided in the Booking Form.
2. For the avoidance of doubt, no commission shall be payable to any direct Client of the Publisher.
Advertising Agency & Service Tax
1. Where the Client is an Advertising Agency, the Advertising Agency shall be deemed to contract as a principal in all respects and as such shall be personally liable, inter alia, for the payments of all accounts.
2. In the event the Advertising Agency is replaced by another advertising agency upon the advertiser’s authorization, the Advertising Agency shall notify the Publisher in writing forthwith prior to such replacement.
3. Notwithstanding anything stated to the contrary herein, the existing Advertising Agency shall not be discharged from any liability incurred prior to the replacement of the new agency.
4. Pursuant to the Service Tax Act 2018 ("Act"), service tax will be imposed on the agency for the provision of advertising services under the Act effective 1st September 2018. Such service tax shall be calculated on the amount charged (net of trade discount, if any). Agency who provides advertising services under Item (8) of Group I of the Service Tax Regulations 2018 which is duly registered as a service tax person pursuant to Section 13 of the Act shall be exempted from the payment of service tax under the Service Tax (Persons Exempted from Payment of Tax) Order 2018 if the Agency acquired advertising services from Publisher in the course of business-to-business transactions with effect from 1st January 2019. Notwithstanding anything stated to the contrary herein, the aforementioned exemption shall not be applicable to advertising services acquired by agency for its own usage.
Publicity and Information Concerning Advertisements

The Client shall not without the prior written consent of the Publisher publish any information in connection with any advertisement which has been or is to be transmitted by the Publisher.
Anti Corruption

As far as the Client is aware, none of the Client or any of their member of the Client's group, or the Client’s knowledge, any of its directors, officers, employees, other representatives, or any persons or entities acting on any of their behalf including but not limited to any contractors, sub-contractors ("Representatives") has violated any applicable Anti-Corruption Laws; and none of the Client's group, or the Client’s knowledge, any or any of its Representatives has, prior to entering into the Booking Form and in carrying out its responsibilities under the Booking Form or any agreement entered into in connection with the transaction contemplated herein in violation of the Anti-Corruption Laws, offered, paid, given, promised to give, or authorised the giving of anything of value, to any Government Official or to any person under circumstances where the Client or the Client's group or any of its Representatives knew or ought reasonably to have known (after due and proper enquiry) that all or a portion of such money or thing of value would be offered, given or promised, directly or indirectly, to a person:
1. for the purpose of (i) influencing any act or decision of a Government Official in their official capacity; (ii) inducing a Government Official or any person to do or omit to do any act in violation of their lawful duties; (iii) securing any improper advantage; (iv) inducing a Government Official to influence or affect any act or decision of any governmental authority; or (v) assisting the Client's and/or Client’s group or any of its Representatives in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to the Client or the Client's group or any of its Representatives; or
2. in a manner which would constitute or have the purpose or effect of public or commercial bribery, acceptance or acquiescence in extortion, kickbacks or other unlawful or improper means of obtaining business or any improper advantage.
  "Anti Corruption Law" means laws, regulations or orders relating to anti-bribery or anti-corruption (governmental or commercial), which apply to this Sales Contract, the Client and/or Agency or the Client' and/or Agency's group; which may include, without limitation, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 as amended (Laws of United States), the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009, the Malaysian Penal Code, where applicable, and all national and international laws enacted to implement the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions.
  "Government Official" means (a) any official, officer, employee or representative of, or any person acting in an official capacity for or on behalf of, any government authority, (b) any political party or party official or candidate for political office, or (c) any company, business, enterprise or other entity owned, in whole or in part, or controlled by any person or entity described in the foregoing (a) or (b) of this definition.
Indemnification

The Client shall indemnify and hold the Publisher and its officers, directors, employees, contractors agents and/or assignees (collectively “Indemnified Parties”) harmless from and against any and all claims, including and without limitation to:
1. any and all claims, demands, costs, expenses, losses, liabilities or damages (including legal fees on a solicitor and client basis) arising from or in connection with the publication and/or Campaign;
2. any claim brought by a third party against the Indemnified Parties for libel, slander, plagiarism, invasion of privacy or infringement of intellectual property, copyright, trademark, patent or other contractual or proprietary right arising from the Advertisement Material and creatives provided by the Client;
3. any claim arising from a breach by the Client of any obligations under these terms and conditions; and
4. any fine, penalty or consequences arising from the breach of any laws or regulations, including but not limited to Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 of Malaysia, Malaysian Code of Advertising Practices, Content Code and PDPA.
Limitation of Liability
- 12.1 Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Neither the booking form nor any documentation furnished hereunder is intended to express or imply any warranty that the advertising services will be uninterrupted, in a timely manner or error-free.
- 12.2 In the event that the Publisher fails to perform the advertising services in accordance with the details set out in the booking form, the sole liability of the Publisher to the Client shall be limited to, at the Publisher’s sole discretion:
  1. a refund of the payment in respect of the affected booking;
  2. replacement of advertising services offered by the Publisher of equivalent value.
  Notwithstanding anything stated to the contrary herein, the Publisher’s maximum liability to the Client shall not, for any reason, exceed the aggregate payments actually made by the Client to the Publisher in respect of the booking in question.
- 12.3 In the event that the Publisher fails to deliver the advertising services in accordance with the booking form owing to a fault or delay caused by the Client, the Publisher shall not be held responsible or liable for such failure to deliver the advertising services and any damages caused as a result.
- 12.4 In no event shall the Publisher be responsible for any consequential damages, loss of profits or any other form of damages arising from any failure to deliver the advertising services.
- 12.5 The Publisher shall have no liability for any failure or delay resulting from any governmental action, fire, flood, insurrection, earthquake, Internet and/or electrical outages, computer viruses, acts of God, riot, explosion, strikes whether legal or illegal, shortages, war, acts of terrorism or any other condition beyond the reasonable control of the Publisher affecting the performance of the advertising services.
Personal Data Processing Statement (“Notice”)
- 13.1 The Personal Data Protection Act 2010 governs the processing of personal data (“Personal Data”) collected by the Publisher. This Notice is issued to inform the Client the basis upon which the processing of the Personal Data is done by the Publisher.
- 13.2 Purpose: All information (including Personal Data) submitted herein shall belong to the Publisher and the Client irrevocably and unconditionally consents to the processing of the Personal Data of the individual Client and/or its directors, officers, servants and/or representatives (for corporate Client) by the Publisher.
- 13.3 Transfer: Personal Data will be kept confidential by the Publisher but the Client agrees that for the purposes set out in Clause 12.2 above, the Publisher may transfer or disclose such Personal Data to the following parties within or outside of Malaysia:
  1. Other partners or any participating partners which owe a duty of confidentiality to the Publisher;
  2. The Publisher’s agents or contractors under a duty of confidentiality to the Publisher providing administrative, telecommunications, data processing or other services to the Publisher (such as but not limited to professional advisers, customer call centre providers or data entry companies);
  3. Any affiliates and group of companies that owe a duty of care to the Publisher;
  4. Any law enforcement agency and/or regulatory body for compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, codes and/or guidelines and/or any person or entity to whom the Publisher is under a binding obligation to make disclosure under the requirements of any law, rule, regulations, code and/or guideline and/or order of any competent court of law, law enforcement agencies and/or regulatory bodies.
- 13.4 Access: Client has the right to request access to and to request correction of its Personal Data. Nothing herein contained shall limit the rights of any data subjects under the PDPA.
- 13.5 Click here to view the full Privacy Policy of the Publisher.
Miscellaneous
- 14.1 The Terms and Conditions herein shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Malaysia and the parties irrevocably agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Malaysia.
- 14.2 Nothing herein contained shall be construed as establishing or creating a partnership or a relationship of master and servant between the parties hereto and none of them shall have any authority to bind the other in any way nor shall it be construed to constitute one party the agent of the other party hereto.
- 14.3 If any provision herein is, or may become, under any written law, or is found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be illegal, void or invalid, then, such provision shall be fully severable and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effective and shall not be affected by the illegal, void or invalid provision or by its severance.
- 14.4 The Client shall not assign, transfer or novate the booking form to any third party without the prior written consent of the Publisher.
- 14.5 The Client acknowledges that it has been given and has had the opportunity to seek advice from independent legal counsel in relation to all matters set out herein and confirms that any failure on the part of the Client to appoint, or election not to appoint legal counsel shall not be raised as a defence in any dispute.
- 14.6 The Publisher reserves the right to amend any of the Terms and Conditions at any time without prior notice and the amended terms will be uploaded onto https://advertising.thestar.com.my. Clients are encouraged to visit https://advertising.thestar.com.my from time to time to view any amendments and/or changes to the Terms and Conditions.