Thank you for your interest in The Alliance Prize in Circular Solutions for Flexibles (the “Competition”). The Competition is sponsored by Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Inc. (AEPW) with platform support provided by Carrot. Please know that by participating in this Competition and in accordance with these Rules you are eligible to receive various forms of recognition and a possible award from AEPW of $3,000,000 as a Winner. The Rules governing this Competition ("RULES") are stated here as an extension of the Terms & Conditions ("TERMS") for use of this website. The full TERMS are available for your review by accessing them on this website. The RULES constitute "Competition Terms and Conditions" under Clause 2.3 of the Terms. Capitalised words used but not defined in the RULES have meanings given to them in the TERMS.
Please read these RULES and the TERMS carefully, as they describe the conditions under which you are allowed to participate. As you participate, you may periodically be asked to recognize your acceptance of these RULES and the Terms by clicking "accept" at various pages on this website, but by continuing any use of this website you expressly consent to all of these RULES and the TERMS.
SUBMISSION OF AN ENTRY INTO THIS COMPETITION CONSTITUTES FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL AGREEMENT TO AND ACCEPTANCE OF THESE RULES.
NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR TO WIN.
1. Eligibility
AEPW welcomes applications from organisations or entities that have a recognized legal existence and structure under applicable law (State, Federal or Country) and that are in good standing in the jurisdiction under which they are organised. They must be one of the following:
- An entity that is recognized under the law of the applicable jurisdiction as a non-governmental organisation, a charitable organisation, a social welfare organisation, a not-for-profit organisation, or similar-type entity that is not a for-profit organisation or government agency.
- An entity organised under the laws of the applicable jurisdiction which has received a tax determination letter from the IRS or has been determined to be the equivalent of a section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) organisation by NGO Source for which an equivalency determination has not expired and would be in effect or could extended through the date of the project to be supported.
- A nonprofit organisation under section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) of the Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") that has received a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS").
- A private foundation under section 501(c)(3) of the IRC that has received a tax determination letter from the IRS.
- Any company or business, either privately held or publicly traded, for which the entity can provide evidence of good standing in all relevant and governing jurisdictions.
- Any state-owned enterprise or state enterprise (a) which is an independent legal person and not a government unit or entity, (b) that has obtained all requisite regulatory, administrative or other governmental approvals to participate in this Competition, and (c) whose activities are not inconsistent with Competition Sponsor’s charitable purposes.
Registered competitors shall be responsible for the actions of and compliance with the rules by their employees, subcontractors, officers, owners, and other affiliated persons.
Applicants may be required to certify that the laws of their governing jurisdiction do not prohibit or restrict the receipt of an Award under this Competition. The Competition Sponsor reserves the right to reject an Entry if, in the Competition Sponsor's sole discretion, the laws of the governing jurisdiction applicable to the organisation would prohibit or limit the Competition Sponsor from proceeding with the Challenge as intended or the consideration or making of any Award would impose additional administrative, tax, operational, or legal burdens on the Competition Sponsor.
2. Ineligible persons or entities
Individuals, government agencies, and AEPW member companies are not eligible to directly and/or monetarily benefit from The Alliance Prize nor be the primary applicant.
Organizations already receiving funding from the Alliance may apply with projects that represent significantly different concepts – The Alliance Prize Award funding may not be used for operations and/or activities currently funded by the Alliance.
Teams that include employees of AEPW, Carrot, and any of their subsidiaries and affiliates, and immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) or persons living in the same households of such employees, are not eligible.
3. Guidance Related to Non-Charitable Applicants
Awards must be used consistent with the Competition Sponsor’s charitable purposes. and may not result in impermissible private benefit to other people, organisations, or entities, other than incidental benefit that is a necessary byproduct of the accomplishment of the charitable purpose. Applicants are encouraged to consult with qualified legal counsel.
Applicants that are not recognized as charitable organisations or their equivalent under the laws of their jurisdiction must ensure that any Award will be used for the Competition Sponsor’s charitable purposes and will not result in more than incidental private benefit to shareholders or other people, organisations, or entities and that the incidental benefit is a by-product of the accomplishment of the charitable purpose. The Competition Sponsor will evaluate this on a case-by-case basis.
4. Financial and Organisational Capacity
All Applicants must demonstrate their financial and organisational capacity to carry out the Project and to appropriately manage any Award. Public charity Applicants should consult their attorney or accountant to determine whether accepting an Award would jeopardize the Applicants' public charity status.
5. Prohibited Use of Award Funds
Award funds must be used for the Project for which they are intended, and may not be used:
- To directly benefit AEPW member companies
- To carry on propaganda or otherwise to attempt to influence legislation within the meaning of United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) Section 4945(d)(1) ("lobbying")
- To influence the outcome of any specific public election or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive (within the meaning of section 4945(d)(2) of the Code)
- To make grants to individuals or to other organisations that do not comply with the requirements of section 4945(d)(3) or (4) of the Code
- To undertake any activity that is inconsistent with Competition Sponsor’s charitable purposes or other exempt purpose specified in section 170(c)(2)(B) of the Code
6. Treatment and Use of Intellectual Property
Each application should reflect the anticipated ownership, use, and licensing of any intellectual property; the use and licensing of intellectual property of the winning entry will be subject to the terms of a grant agreement with the Competition Sponsor. You represent and warrant that your Entry is an original work created solely by You, that You own all Intellectual Property in and to the Entry, and that no other party has any right, title, claim or interest in the Entry, except as expressly identified by You to us in writing in Your application. You retain all right, title and interest in any inventions, software or work of authorship You invent or create and the ownership and use of intellectual property arising from this competition remains with You, subject as may be set forth in the grant agreement with the Competition Sponsor.
7. Other Rules
7.1 Your application must be in English.
7.2 You must complete registration to participate in the Competition. Individuals must be 18 years of age or older at the time of entry to participate by representing an applicant organisation. You cannot reside in nor be governed by countries that are prohibited by law, regulation (including United States or other applicable export laws and regulations), treaty or administrative act from entering into trade relations (including export of technology) with the United States of America or its citizens.
7.3 Your Entry should meet the application requirements stipulated on this website. You are required to register in advance of any deadlines for the submission of an Entry, and You must comply with all other deadlines posted on this website. Your Entry may not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of AEPW and/or Carrot, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content. AEPW reserves the right to cancel, modify or suspend Competition in whole or in part without liability to You. AEPW and/or Carrot also reserves the right to disqualify You from participating.
7.4 By participating in The Alliance Prize in Circular Solutions for Flexibles, You represent, warrant, and agree that:
- You are the sole author, creator, and owner of the Entry;
- the Entry is not the subject of any actual or threatened litigation or claim;
- the Entry does not and will not violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or other legal rights of any third party;
- the Entry does not and will not contain any harmful computer code (sometimes referred to as "malware," "viruses" or "worms"); and
- the Entry, and Your use of the Entry, does not and will not violate any applicable laws or regulations, including, without limitation, applicable export control laws and regulations of the United States and other jurisdictions. If the Entry includes any third party works (such as third-party content or open-source code), You must provide the Competition Sponsor with all appropriate licenses and releases for such third party works. In the event You cannot provide all such required licenses and releases, the Competition Sponsor reserves the right, in the Competition Sponsor's sole discretion, to disqualify the applicable Entry.
7.5 You may participate by registering, but You may not register more than one true and uniform identity; multiple registrations for a participant using multiple identities are not allowed. AEPW and/or Carrot reserve the right to disqualify any Entry made by a participant violating this limitation, regardless of whether all of the respective parties had knowledge of such violation. You may only submit one Entry.
7.6 The application requirements for your Entry are clearly described on this website. Your Entry will be assessed initially by five Judges, who will be assigned to score your Entry either randomly or after considering any potential conflicts of interest, using the scoring rubric and any other judging criteria that are also described on this website. In cases where a Judge indicates any potential conflict of interest, the Entry will be assigned to another Judge. Those Judges, each of whom is named on this website, will be responsible for scoring your Entry.
7.7 Once a rank order of Entries has been calculated, the top-scoring Entries will be reviewed by the Selection Committee with consideration given to diversity of solutions. The Selection Committee Judges are permitted to communicate with Competitors solely for the purposes of carrying out due diligence for evaluating your Entry and assigning a score during the review process, but those Judges are not required to contact any individual. Up to one Competitor will be named as Winner. By participating in The Alliance Prize in Circular Solutions for Flexibles, You acknowledge and agree to be bound by the final decision of the Competition Sponsor.
7.8 While Carrot, LLC (“Carrot”) is providing an online platform for your participation, Carrot is not responsible for the payment of any Award(s). Payment of any Award(s) is the sole responsibility of AEPW and its designees, and under the Terms each participant has agreed to look solely to AEPW, as the Competition Sponsor, for the payment of any Award.
7.9 By submitting your Entry, you agree to release, discharge and hold harmless AEPW and Carrot and their partners, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, agents and their employees, officers, directors and representatives from any Loss arising out of your participation in Competition and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any Award(s). Neither AEPW nor Carrot assume responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, or delay in operation or transmission; communications line failure; theft or destruction of or unauthorized access to Competition entries or entry forms; or alteration of entries or entry forms. Neither AEPW nor Carrot are responsible for any problems with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or any website, human errors of any kind, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to competitors’ or any other persons’ computers related to or resulting from participation, uploading or downloading of any materials related to this Competition. In the event of a dispute about the identity of any Competitor, an online registration will be declared as if made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at time of entry.
7.10 THIS COMPETITION IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Competitors agree that this Competition shall be subject to and governed by the laws of the United States of America and the forum of any dispute shall be in the courts of the United States of America.
7.11 If for any reason Competition is not capable of running as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, Trojan horses, denial of service, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of Carrot that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Competition, Carrot reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) who tamper with the process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Competition. If AEPW and/or Carrot terminates the Competition, it will not retain any rights in the submitted Entries.
7.12 The Competition Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any Competitor who is found to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of The Alliance Prize in Circular Solutions for Flexibles, to be acting in violation of these Rules, or to be acting in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with the intent to disrupt or undermine the legitimate operation of The Alliance Prize, or to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any other person.
7.13 Entry into The Alliance Prize in Circular Solutions for Flexibles does not constitute entry into any other AEPW competition, Carrot competition, or promotion that may be offered by the Competition Sponsor and/or its affiliates.
7.14 AEPW and/or Carrot reserves the right to disqualify any participant who violates these RULES, the Terms and any standards of behavior expressed or implied in them.
7.15 The names of the Winners will be posted on this website for such period of time as the Competition Sponsor deems reasonable.
Contact Information
You may contact us with any questions or comments about these RULES.
