Law Enforcement Policy

These guidelines are intended for use by law enforcement when seeking information from Boats Group, its affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively “Boats Group”) for a list of entities (See Terms of USE).

Boats Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use prohibits the release of customer or account information without the express permission from the customer, except when required by law, to conform to the edicts of the law, or to comply with legal process properly served on Boats Group or one of its affiliates.

US Legal Process Requirements [FOR EU/UK REQUESTS]

We disclose account records solely in accordance with our terms of service and applicable law, including the federal Stored Communications Act (“SCA”), 18 U.S.C. Sections 2701-2712. Under U.S. law:

  • A valid subpoena issued in connection with an official criminal investigation is required to compel the disclosure of basic subscriber records (defined in 18 U.S.C. Section 2703(c)(2)), which may include: name, length of service, credit card information, email address(es), and a recent login/logout IP address(es), if available.
  • A court order issued under 18 U.S.C. Section 2703(d) is required to compel the disclosure of certain records or other information pertaining to the account, not including contents of communications, which may include message headers and IP addresses, in addition to the basic subscriber records identified above.
  • A search warrant issued under the procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure or equivalent state warrant procedures upon a showing of probable cause is required to compel the disclosure of the stored contents of any account, which may include messages, photos, videos, timeline posts, and location information.

Form of Requests

We will be unable to process overly broad or vague requests. All requests must identify requested records with particularity, including the specific data categories requested and date limitations for the request, as well as include:

  • The name of the issuing authority and agent, email address from a law-enforcement domain, and direct contact phone number.
  • The email address, phone number (+XXXXXXXXXX), customer ID or username
  • Other information such boat sales/purchase and specific period of time

Notification

Unless prohibited from doing so or has clear indication of illegal conduct in connection with the use of Boats Group’s products or services, Boats Group notifies before disclosing content information.

Preservation

We will take steps to preserve account records in connection with official criminal investigations for 90 days pending our receipt of formal legal process. You may expeditiously submit formal preservation requests to legal@boats.com or mail as indicated below.

Data Retention and Availability

We will search for and disclose data that is specified with particularity in an appropriate form of legal process and which we are reasonably able to locate and retrieve. We do not retain data for law enforcement purposes unless we receive a valid preservation request before a user has deleted that content from our service.

Details about data and account deletion can be found in our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Policies Regarding E-mail

Boats Group will not produce the content of email, as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. §2701 et seq., prohibits an electronic communications service provider from producing the contents of electronic communications, even pursuant to subpoena or court order, except in limited circumstances. Boats Group email servers do not retain deleted or sent email.

Boats Group reserves the right to request a copy of the complaint and any supporting documentation that demonstrates how the Boats Group email address is related to the pending litigation and the underlying subpoena.

Child Safety Matters

We report all apparent instances of child exploitation appearing on our site from anywhere in the world to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), including content drawn to our attention by government requests. NCMEC coordinates with law enforcement authorities from around the world. If a request relates to a child exploitation or safety matter, please specify those circumstances (and include relevant NCMEC report identifiers) in the request to ensure that we are able to address these matters expeditiously and effectively.

Testimony

Boats Group does not provide expert testimony support. In addition, Boats Group records are self-authenticating pursuant to law and should not require the testimony of a records custodian. If a special form of certification is required, please attach it to your records request.

For Non-U.S. law enforcement requests of US resident Data.

Boats Group will respond to properly served requests that are issued by a U.S. court, either by way of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty for the country of origin or a letter rogatory. For more information about this process, please click here:

Non-US based court documents.

If the documents are not in English, we require the following:

  • Original court-stamped copy, and
  • A certified translation of the court-stamped copy into English.

Submission of Subpoenas

US Submissions- all subpoenas should be served at that location or mailed to:

Attn: Legal Department
Boats Group LLC
1221 Brickell Ave, Suite 2300
Miami, Fl 33131
Or Email legal@boats.com

For Law Enforcement Agencies within EU or UK, requests related to EU or UK residents, must be addressed to the Boats Group entity which information is being requested from, (for a list of entities see Terms of Use) and disclosure is governed by the applicable laws of the UK or EU as well as the Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR) and the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). Boats Group is permitted to share Personal Data with law enforcement agencies such as but not limited to: the Police, the National Crime Agency, the Serious Fraud Office, the Courts and other law enforcement agencies, provided that the following is established:

The information requested from Boats Group is necessary, proportionate, and justified for the purposes of the prevention or detection of unlawful acts.

Any personal data relating to a third party is not included in the information provided to the law enforcement agency. Boats Group’s lawful basis for sharing personal data for law enforcement purposes is limited to the person who has potentially committed the criminal act and will not cover personal data relating to others.

A warrant or court order has been provided by the law enforcement agency.

Requests Related to Fraudulent Purchases

If the requesting party is based outside of North America and the request relates solely to the fraudulent purchase of goods or services on Boats Group, Boats Group may voluntarily and at its sole discretion, disclose basic purchase and delivery data where we have been provided with (a) legal process that is valid in the jurisdiction where the purchase was made, (b) facts indicating that someone has paid Boats Group with a stolen credit card, and (c) we can verify there has been a chargeback or other indication of fraudulent activity on our end. All such requests must be made to Boats Group using the contact information below and accompanied by an English language translation.

Submission of Subpoenas

UK & EU Submissions- all subpoenas should be served at that location or mailed to:

[Entity Name] ℅
Yachtworld International Limited
Office 31, Pure Offices, Port View
One Port Way, Port Solent P064TY
England, UK

Fees for Subpoena Compliance

Boats Group may seek reimbursement for costs associated with responding to law enforcement requests for information, particularly if the costs incurred are the result of responding to burdensome or unique requests.

Treatment of Confidential Information

Documents and information produced by Boats Group in response to a subpoena may contain confidential, proprietary, trade secret, and/or private information that warrants special protection from public disclosure. Any such documents will be designated “CONFIDENTIAL” by a stamp affixed to the documents at issue, and must be given confidential treatment by all persons and entities that access them.

Response Time

All Boats Group entities exercise reasonable efforts to respond in a timely manner to subpoenas that are validly issued and served in full compliance with applicable law but such response can take 20-30 days from receipt to complete depending on the complexity of your requests. For quicker response please limit the scope of your subpoena to only those records necessary for your legal matter and ensure your subpoena clearly lists uniquely identifiable information such as an account number or security number.

Emergency Requests

If there is an exigent emergency that involves the danger of death or serious physical injury to a person that Boats Group may have information necessary to prevent, law enforcement officers can submit an emergency disclosure request by mail or by email to Legal@boatsgroup.com with subject “Emergency Disclosure Request” from a valid official email address. We may notify the user of such request after the fact in accordance with our policy as described above.

Please include all of the following information in an emergency disclosure request:

  • Clear indication on your cover sheet, which must be on law enforcement letterhead, that you are submitting an Emergency Disclosure Request;
  • Identity of the person who is in danger of death or serious physical injury;
  • The nature of the emergency (e.g., report of suicide, bomb threat);
  • If available/known, the full name of the account holder, the account holder’s username and the email and/or mailing address associated with the the account(s) whose information is necessary to prevent the emergency;
  • The specific information requested and why that information is necessary to prevent the emergency;
  • All other available details or context regarding the particular circumstances;
  • The signature of the submitting law enforcement officer; and
  • A valid official email address (e.g., name@agency.gov) and phone number so we may get back in touch with you.

Notes

*Acceptance of legal process by any of these means is for convenience and does not waive any objections, including lack of jurisdiction or proper service.
*We will not respond to correspondence sent by non-law enforcement officials to the addresses above.