Privacy Policy
Fairline Distribution Limited
Last updated: 21 October 2026
This policy explains how Fairline Distribution Limited (“Fairline”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects and uses personal information when you visit fairline.co.uk, register an account, buy from us, apply for a trade account, contact us or otherwise deal with our business. It covers online, telephone, email and trade-counter dealings with customers, prospective customers, delivery recipients, suppliers and business contacts.
Personal information is information relating to an identifiable individual. This includes the details of people acting for companies, as well as individuals buying in their own name. Separate information is provided for employment and recruitment where applicable.
1. Who is responsible for your information?
Fairline Distribution Limited is the controller responsible for the personal information described in this policy. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 02136247. Our registered office is 3 Manor Road, Chatham, ME4 6AE.
For privacy questions, requests or complaints, please contact us:
- Email: [email protected] — please mark your message “Privacy”.
- Post: Privacy enquiries, Fairline Distribution Ltd, Unit 10, 2M Trade Park, Beddow Way, Aylesford, Kent, ME20 7BT.
- Telephone: 01622 716688. Please note that all telephone calls are recorded for training and quality purposes only.
We handle personal information under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), as amended, including by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Other applicable data protection laws may also apply to particular dealings.
2. Information we collect
- Identity and contact information: names, business names, roles, email addresses, telephone numbers, and billing and delivery addresses.
- Account information: username, password authentication information, customer type, account status, membership or pricing tier, preferences and account activity.
- Order and financial information: quotations, products purchased, purchase orders, transaction references, payment status, invoices, credit balances, refunds, delivery details, returns and warranty records. Bank details may be needed for supplier payments or refunds.
- Enquiries and project information: messages, correspondence, product requirements, Price Beat Promise submissions, technical-support information, and details supplied for manufacturer deal registration, including relevant customer or end-user contacts.
- Telephone information: call audio and associated details such as telephone number, date, time and duration.
- Marketing and feedback information: subscription choices, consent records, objections, feedback, reviews and relevant campaign interactions where tracking is enabled lawfully.
- Technical information: IP address, browser and device information, security and access logs, cookie identifiers, referral or campaign information, pages visited and shopping activity, subject to the choices described below.
Online payment providers process payment credentials under their own arrangements. Fairline receives the information needed to administer the payment, such as its status and transaction reference, and may receive limited card information or a payment token. Please do not send full card numbers, card security codes or account passwords by email or through enquiry forms.
We do not ask for health information or other special-category information in ordinary sales enquiries. Please avoid including sensitive personal information or confidential end-user information unless it is necessary and we have agreed an appropriate way to handle it.
3. Where your information comes from
Most information comes directly from you through our website, forms, purchases, telephone calls, email or in-person conversations. We also receive information from your employer or colleagues, a customer arranging delivery to you, manufacturers and suppliers supporting your project, payment providers and delivery companies. Public reviews and business contact details may come from the platforms or business sources on which you publish them.
Our website and service providers collect technical information when you use our services. If someone gives us your details, we use them only for the relevant business purpose and provide privacy information as required. If you provide another person’s details, please ensure you are authorised to do so and make this policy available to them.
4. Why we use information and our lawful bases
Our lawful basis depends on the particular purpose. “Contract” means processing necessary to perform a contract with you, or take steps you request before entering one. When you act for a company, our basis is normally our legitimate interests in dealing with that company, rather than a contract with you personally.
| Purpose | Lawful basis and relevant interest |
|---|---|
| Set up and administer customer accounts, membership and pricing arrangements; answer enquiries and prepare quotations. | Contract for dealings with you personally. Legitimate interests in managing business relationships and providing relevant assistance where you represent an organisation or make a general enquiry. |
| Process orders, payments, deliveries, returns, refunds, warranties and necessary service communications. | Contract with individual customers; legitimate interests in fulfilling business orders and managing delivery contacts. Legal obligation where consumer, tax or product-safety duties require processing. |
| Handle Price Beat Promise requests and manufacturer project or deal registrations. | Contract where you request steps towards your own purchase; otherwise legitimate interests in evaluating requests, arranging suitable products and securing project support or pricing. |
| Administer trade credit, suppliers, invoices and outstanding payments. | Contract for individual contracting parties; legitimate interests in managing commercial relationships and credit risk; legal obligation for accounting and tax records. Any additional credit-reference processing is explained at application. |
| Record and review telephone calls for training staff and assessing service quality only. | Legitimate interests in maintaining service standards and training staff, subject to necessity, proportionality and your rights. |
| Protect accounts and systems, prevent misuse, investigate technical problems, maintain backups and check email delivery. | Legitimate interests in providing reliable and secure services; legal obligation where processing is necessary to meet a specific security or other statutory duty. |
| Send marketing messages and manage marketing preferences. | Consent where required; otherwise legitimate interests in promoting relevant products where PECR permits this. See section 6. |
| Measure website use, campaign results and advertising effectiveness; personalise advertising. | Consent for the optional analytics and advertising described in section 7. Aggregate reporting that no longer identifies anyone is not personal information. |
| Handle feedback, display public reviews and improve our service. | Legitimate interests in understanding customer experience and presenting relevant public feedback. Promotional review requests are subject to the marketing rules. |
| Respond to privacy requests and complaints, fulfil legal duties and establish or defend legal claims. | Legal obligation for applicable statutory duties; legitimate interests in resolving disputes and protecting legal rights. This does not extend our stated purposes for routine call recording. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we assess the purpose, whether the processing is necessary, and its impact on you. We do not rely on that basis where your interests or rights override ours. Required form fields identify information needed to deal with your request. Without necessary contact, delivery or payment information, we may be unable to open an account, supply goods or provide the requested service. Optional marketing consent is not a condition of buying from us.
5. Telephone call recording
All telephone calls with Fairline are recorded for training and quality purposes only. This means reviewing service quality and helping staff improve the assistance they provide. We do not use call recordings for advertising, marketing profiling or unrelated routine purposes.
We use the 3CX telephone system to record calls. Within Fairline, only the Managing Director has access to the recordings. Any technical access by a hosting or support provider must be limited to what is necessary to provide the service under appropriate restrictions.
Routine recordings are held in the secure temporary recordings folder used by our 3CX system and are deleted after 60 days. Where a recording is downloaded or archived for a specific training or quality action, that copy is kept only while necessary to complete that action and is deleted afterwards. Such a copy may therefore be kept beyond the routine 60-day period, but is not retained indefinitely. Any specific legal requirement to preserve or disclose a recording is handled separately and only to the extent required.
6. Marketing and your choices
Creating an online account, accepting our terms or placing an order does not by itself constitute consent to marketing.
For individual subscribers, including sole traders and certain partnerships, we send marketing emails only with valid consent or where all requirements of the existing-customer “soft opt-in” are met. That exception applies to our own similar products or services where we obtained the details during a sale or negotiations for a sale and offered a simple opt-out both when collecting them and in every message.
Where permitted, we may send relevant business marketing to corporate subscribers, such as limited companies, relying on legitimate interests. We still respect objections and identify Fairline in our messages.
You have an absolute right to object to direct marketing, including related profiling, at any time. Use the unsubscribe link in a marketing email or contact [email protected]. Where marketing relies on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting earlier lawful processing. We retain a minimal suppression record where needed to respect your choice.
Unsubscribing does not prevent necessary messages about an order, payment, delivery, account security or a legal obligation. We do not treat promotional content as a necessary service message.
We use our email-marketing service, Cube Marketing, to send campaigns and measure their performance. Tracking can record whether an email is opened and which links are clicked, associated with the recipient and campaign, and technical information such as the time of an interaction, IP address and device or browser details where collected by the service. We use this information to understand engagement and improve the relevance of our communications. Where consent is required for tracking, we obtain it before using the relevant technology. You can withdraw tracking consent or object to related marketing profiling by contacting [email protected], and you can stop marketing emails using the unsubscribe link. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out lawfully beforehand.
7. Cookies, analytics and advertising
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies for shopping-basket and account functions, security and remembering privacy choices. These essential functions are distinguished from optional analytics and advertising.
With your consent, we use Google Analytics to understand visits and shopping activity and Google advertising tools to measure advertising results and support relevant advertising. This can involve device or browser identifiers, pages viewed, purchase events and campaign information. Google Tag Manager manages website tags; the purposes and permissions of each tag still apply separately.
We use Complianz to present cookie choices. You can accept or reject optional categories and revisit your choices through the website’s “Manage Consent” control. Rejecting optional analytics or advertising does not prevent you from making a purchase. Your browser also provides cookie controls, although blocking essential cookies can affect basket and login functions.
Google reCAPTCHA helps protect relevant forms and account functions against automated abuse. It can process technical and interaction information, including IP address and browser information. Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms explain its processing. Third-party review widgets or embedded content can also connect your browser to their providers. Consent is obtained where their storage or access technologies require it.
Our Cookie Policy explains the cookies and similar technologies actually used, their providers, purposes and durations. Optional analytics and advertising are operated on a consent basis under this policy; we do not assume that an analytics exemption covers advertising-related tracking.
8. Who receives information?
We share relevant information where needed for the purposes above, including with:
- Website hosting, content delivery, security, IT support, backup and communications providers.
- Online payment providers, including WooPayments and PayPal, banks and payment-service partners.
- Carriers, fulfilment partners, suppliers and manufacturers arranging delivery, technical assistance, repairs or warranties.
- Manufacturers such as ATEN and Adder Technology where we submit a requested project or deal registration. We share relevant project and contact details for that request, rather than automatically sharing every customer account.
- Business systems supporting order management, accounting, customer relationships and email campaigns.
- Our telephone and call-recording provider, for operation and support of the recording service.
- Google and other relevant providers for consented analytics, advertising, anti-abuse services or public review displays.
- Professional advisers, insurers, auditors, regulators and public authorities where needed for their relevant functions or where disclosure is legally required.
Providers acting on our instructions are required to protect information and use it only for the agreed services. Other organisations, such as some payment providers and manufacturers, may act as separate controllers for their own processing; their privacy notices explain those activities. We limit the information disclosed to what is relevant.
If a business sale or restructuring involves personal information, we will assess the lawful basis, limit disclosure and provide information about any change of controller as required.
9. International processing
Our use of international service providers can involve personal information being stored or accessed outside the United Kingdom. Before arranging a restricted international transfer, we require an applicable UK adequacy arrangement or appropriate safeguards, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses, together with any required data protection assessment and additional measures. The appropriate arrangement depends on the recipient, location and service. These protections also apply to relevant overseas support access.
You can contact us for further information about relevant transfers and a copy of the applicable safeguards, with confidential information redacted where appropriate.
10. How long we keep information
We keep information only for as long as needed for its purpose, taking account of legal duties, ongoing relationships, warranties and relevant claims. Different records have different retention periods.
| Record | Retention period or review criteria |
|---|---|
| Accounting and supporting transaction records | Normally six years from the end of the company financial year to which they relate, or longer where a specific legal requirement applies. |
| Online and trade-account details | Kept during an active relationship. Accounts are reviewed after 24 months without login, orders or other meaningful activity. Unnecessary account details are removed after checking outstanding orders, credit, warranties and support needs. Required transaction records are kept separately. |
| Unsuccessful enquiries and quotations | Normally 12 months after closure or the last meaningful contact. Information required for a continuing project, order, support obligation or relevant claim is retained for that purpose. |
| Manufacturer project registrations | For the active project and necessary follow-up. Unsuccessful or inactive enquiries follow the 12-month enquiry period unless there is a continuing justified need. |
| Failed or abandoned unpaid orders | Normally 90 days after failure or abandonment, after checking for payments, genuine pending transfers, unresolved support or disputes. |
| Cancelled orders without payment | Up to 12 months after closure where needed for customer-service evidence. Paid or refunded orders follow the applicable transaction-record period. |
| Telephone recordings | Routine 3CX recordings: 60 days. Downloaded or archived copies: until the specific training or quality action is completed and the copy is no longer needed, as explained in section 5. |
| Website email-delivery logs | Normally 30 days. Specific evidence of a continuing incident may be retained separately where necessary. |
| Routine security and access logs | Normally up to 90 days. Relevant extracts may be retained for a specific security investigation or legal requirement. |
| Operational website backups | Normally a 30-day rolling period. Any necessary longer recovery copy is restricted to recovery purposes and retained only for the justified recovery period. Required accounting records follow their separate retention period. |
| Marketing audience and preferences | Reviewed annually, including a review of continued use after 24 months without meaningful engagement or an ongoing relationship. Minimal opt-out records are kept for as long as necessary to prevent unwanted marketing. Relevant consent evidence is retained while relied on and as necessary to demonstrate compliance or address a specific complaint. |
| Cookies and analytics data | Cookie durations are given in our Cookie Policy. Detailed analytics information is retained only for the period needed for the reporting purpose; information that has been irreversibly aggregated so that it no longer identifies anyone may be retained for longer-term business reporting. |
Where a record must be retained for a particular legal reason, its use is restricted to that reason. We securely delete or anonymise personal information when it is no longer required. Backup copies expire through the applicable rotation; if a backup is restored, relevant deletion and suppression instructions are reapplied. Retention of a record for accounting, recovery or legal purposes does not authorise its continued use for marketing.
11. Security
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to reduce the risk of unauthorised access, loss or misuse. These include access controls, secure connections, authentication controls and backup arrangements appropriate to the systems involved. Access is limited according to business need. No system can be guaranteed completely secure; please keep your login details confidential and tell us promptly about suspected misuse.
12. Your rights
Depending on the circumstances, you may request access to your information, correction of inaccurate information, deletion, restriction of processing, or a portable copy of information processed automatically on the basis of consent or a contract with you.
You may object to processing based on legitimate interests because of your particular circumstances. We will consider your objection and stop unless there are overriding grounds permitted by law. Your right to object to direct marketing is unconditional, as explained in section 6.
You may withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal. Some rights have exceptions; for example, closing an account does not require us to erase invoices we must retain by law.
Contact us using the details in section 1. We normally respond to rights requests within one month. If a permitted extension or pause is necessary, we will explain it. We may ask for proportionate information to confirm your identity. Requests are normally free of charge.
13. Automated decisions and profiling
Website product recommendations, account-pricing rules and consented advertising may use information about products or activity to present relevant content. Where an independent payment provider carries out its own fraud or credit checks, its privacy notice explains that processing. Contact us if an automated system appears to have prevented a legitimate transaction or access to your account. Where applicable law provides safeguards for a significant decision based solely on automated processing, you may request human intervention, express your view and contest the decision.
14. Privacy complaints
If you are unhappy with how we use your information, please email [email protected], telephone us or write to the address in section 1. Please explain your concern and the outcome you are seeking. You do not need to use a particular form.
We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, investigate it appropriately, keep you informed and communicate the outcome without undue delay.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, through ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. We would welcome the opportunity to resolve your concern first, but this does not remove your right to contact the regulator. Where EU data protection law applies, you may also complain to the relevant supervisory authority in the EEA.
15. Other websites, children and changes
Links to manufacturers, social media, review platforms or other websites take you to services with their own privacy arrangements. This policy describes Fairline’s processing and does not replace their notices.
Our services are aimed at business buyers and adult consumers, rather than children. Please contact us if you believe a child has provided personal information that we should review.
We review this policy when our services, processing or legal requirements change. We show the current version date above and provide further notice of material changes where appropriate. Publishing an update does not itself give us consent to a new use of your information.