PwC Code of Duty

Overview

PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd (hereafter referred to as “PwC Mauritius”) is hosting the PwC Mauritius Hackathon Challenge (hereafter referred to as “Event” or “Challenge”) on 26 October 2023 to 27 October 2023.  This competition is open to eligible candidates hereafter referred to as the “Participants.”

The aim of the Hackathon is to attract and encourage university students (including HSC leavers) to participate and find solutions for existing problems based on case studies that will be provided to them.  

The theme of the hackathon is AI. Winners will get cash prizes, could potentially be paid to have the solution developed and PwC to offer new recruit/ internship opportunities and build an image of tech within Mauritius.

The Event is a free, collaborative brainstorming, designing and coding session. Neither PwC Mauritius, nor the Event Partner has any obligation to use the applications or ideas created at the Event or to buy or otherwise contract with the Participants.

The present Terms and Conditions shall govern the Event and are applicable to all its Participants.

1. Objectives and Guidelines of Hackathon
   1. The objective of this Event is to develop innovative products or solutions using any open source around the theme “AI”. For more information regarding the objectives, the Participants are hereby required to consult the PwC Mauritius Website.
   2. The product and/or solution proposed by the teams shall meet the following guidelines:
      1. The Product/Solution must not contain any content/material that violates or infringes any applicable law or any third party's rights (including privacy, publicity, personality and Intellectual Property Rights).
      2. The Product/Solution must not in any way whatsoever have been submitted to any other prior event, program or promotion where the Participant(s) was required to transfer any Intellectual Property Rights with respect to the Product/Solution to the operator or promoter of such events, promotion or program, or any third parties
      3. The Product/Solution shall have been created by the Participants during the Event.
      4. The Event shall allow Participants to creatively develop software prototypes in line with a specific topic as part of an overall Team working together. When creating or collaborating on the content/work results of the Event, the Participants shall refrain from using any relevant confidential content provided to them by PwC Mauritius and earmarked by us as confidential for the purpose of the Event for disclosure to third parties.
      5. The Solution/Product must not contain any form of malicious code or be coded or designed in such a way that it creates any information or security threat or otherwise compromises the integrity and validity of the Product/Solution (or other solutions), whether on stand-alone basis or otherwise.
2. Venue and Dates
   1. The Event will take place within PwC Mauritius premises on the 26 October 2023 and will end on the 27 October 2023. The duration of the Event shall be of approximately 24 hours within which, a working prototype of the Product/Solution shall have been designed and developed.
   2. The deadline for the registration of the Participants shall be 10 October 2023.
   3. Seats, being limited, shall be allocated on a first come, first served basis. However, PwC Mauritius reserves the right to amend its selection criteria as it deemed appropriate.
   4. PwC Mauritius may cancel or postpone the Event as it shall deem fit, in which case participants shall be advised.
   5. Each Participant shall provide a proof of identity on the day of the Event.
3. Registration and Eligibility
   1. The Participants shall register on the link
   2. Each Team shall designate a Team Leader (the “Team Leader”), whose name and contact details shall be provided upon registration. In the event the Team Leader is unable to participate in the Event, another Team Leader shall be designated by the Team and his/her details provided to PwC Mauritius prior to the start of the Event.
   3. Each Participant agrees and undertakes that the Team Leader shall make all final decisions with respect to the Team and such final decision shall be binding on each Participant of the Team.
   4. All instructions that may emanate from either PwC Mauritius shall be communicated exclusively to the Team Leader who shall be responsible for informing the rest of his Team.
   5. Participation is open to university students (including HSC leavers)  and this can include non Mauritian students who study in a Mauritian university and each Team shall be made up of three (3) to five (5) participants, all of whom should be aged at least eighteen (18) on the date of registration.
   6. Each Participant shall have read and accepted the present Terms and Conditions and confirms through his participation to the Event, having read, accepted and approved these Terms and Conditions.
   7. This Event shall not be open to employees of PwC Mauritius or any of its affiliates.
   8. PwC Mauritius shall have the right to disqualify any Participant or Team which does not comply with the present Terms and Conditions as PwC Mauritius may determine in its sole and absolute discretion, without notice, for reasons including (but not limited to) any Participant which tampers with or in any way corrupts the Solution, submission or voting process, or who attempts to undermine the legitimate operation of the Challenge by cheating, hacking, deception, or other unfair practices including but not limited to the unauthorized use of any Intellectual Property, or by attempting to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other Participants, Teams or representatives of PwC Mauritius or does anything which PwC Mauritius shall consider as being detrimental for the Event.
   9. Each Participant represents and warrants that he has the right and where applicable, that he has obtained all relevant authorisations, to participate in the Event.
   10. PwC Mauritius shall not in any way whatsoever be held liable for any issues encountered by the Participants during the registration process.
   11. The Participant acknowledges and agrees that it has read and understood and then adhered to the terms and conditions of the Event. As a consequence thereof, the Participant unconditionally agrees that PwC Mauritius shall not be held liable and shall be held harmless against any claim arising from the hosting of the Participant’s personal information on the website, including but not limited to, any loss or misuse of personal information or any whatsoever breach of confidentiality, its agents and employees either voluntarily or not or by their negligence or otherwise.
4. Intellectual Property Rights
   1. Each Participant individually and collectively (the Team) represents and warrants, that the Product/Solution to be developed in the context of the Challenge shall not infringe and shall not constitute any infringement of any intellectual property rights (“Intellectual Property Rights”) and shall not violate any third party rights including Intellectual Property Rights and shall be free from all claims.
   2. The Participants/ Team shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless PwC Mauritius against any action brought against PwC Mauritius on the grounds that any Product/Solutions or the use thereof, infringes the Intellectual Property rights of a third party. The Participants/ Teams shall defend PwC Mauritius against such action or settle with the third party having brought the action for infringement. Teams acknowledge that PwC Mauritius has access to ideas, concepts, and technologies which may share/have similarities to the Product/Solution proposed by the Teams. Participants and Teams shall thus waive any claim, right or compensation they may have against PwC Mauritius as a result of PwC Mauritius use of similar material. Participant/Teams agree that PwC Mauritius shall not be held liable for any unauthorized use of the Product/Solution (in whole or in part) by third parties.
   3. Participant agrees that PwC Mauritius owns and shall retain Intellectual Property Rights in their respective materials. No Interest or proprietary rights in any Intellectual Property of PwC Mauritius shall be acquired by the Participant under the Terms. Furthermore all concepts, ideas, information, materials, tools, processes and strategies shared by PwC Mauritius throughout the course of the Event or prior, in the form of, including but not limited to user interface, text, page header, illustration, graphic, image, music, video, audio clip, hand out, workbook, template file etc. (collectively, “Intellectual Property”) shall remain at all times the exclusive properties of PwC Mauritius. Except as authorized in writing by PwC Mauritius with regards to each party’s respective proprietary rights, no Participant or Team may copy, download, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, transmit, transfer or create derivative works for any purpose. PwC Mauritius reserves the right to initiate legal action against any Participant or Team in the event they use any such materials provided by PwC Mauritius in such a way which infringes with any right PwC Mauritius may have.
   4. Participants and Teams hereby grant to PwC Mauritius, priority to acquire any or all rights, including Intellectual Property Rights, in respect of the Product/Solution. Notwithstanding the foregoing, PwC Mauritius shall not have any obligation whatsoever to enter into any agreement with the Participant or Team in relation to the Product/Solution. The Participant and Team represents and warrants that there is no obligation, restriction or encumbrance existing in relation to the Product/Solution which may restrict the Participant and/or Team to transfer or license the Product/Solution to PwC Mauritius if so required and agreed between the parties.
   5. Without prejudice to section 5.4, each Participant shall grant PwC Mauritius the non-exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual right to use the Product/Solution proposed for the purpose of running, advertising, promoting, and reporting on the Event at any time in the future, including for the purpose of promoting future events.
5. Confidentiality
   1. If and to the extent that a Participant gains knowledge of or receives confidential information as part of the Event, the Participant shall treat such information with strict confidentiality and may not disclose the same to third parties. “Confidential information” here refers to all PwC Mauritius information labelled confidential or would be treated as confidential by any reasonable third party. This includes but is not limited to, the different information accessible through the provision of the different APIs during the Event. The Participant agrees to protect such information from unauthorised access and to treat it with the same care with which it would treat its own confidential commercial information. This duty of confidentiality shall survive indefinitely.
   2. All Participants and all Participating Teams hereby agree to hold in strict confidence any information that they may have gathered during the Event from the other Participants and/or Teams. In addition, all participants agree not to use such gathered information without the express and written authorization of the other Participants and/or Teams from which such information has been gathered.
6. Indemnity
   1. The Participant shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless PwC Mauritius, its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, experts, invitees, speakers, suppliers, consultants, affiliates, Event partners and/or any third party information providers from any and all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including attorney’s fees, resulting from any violation of these Terms and Conditions (including but not limited to wrongful conduct) throughout the Event. PwC Mauritius, its directors, employees, agents, advisors and/or affiliates shall not in any way whatsoever be liable to any person or party for any health problem, loss, damage, injury, liability, action, cost or expense incurred, suffered or borne arising from or relating to the Event.
7. Code of Conduct
   1. Participants are expected to conduct themselves professionally and ethically throughout the Hackathon. Any form of harassment, discrimination, or disruptive behavior will not be tolerated and may result in immediate disqualification.
8. General Clauses
   1. PwC Mauritius shall have the right to modify or vary the present terms and conditions at any point of time, in which case Participants will be duly informed.
   2. All decisions taken by PwC Mauritius in respect to the Challenge shall be final and binding. All Participants hereby agree and undertake not to contest or enquire about any such decision of PwC Mauritius. This includes the selection of the different winners of the Challenge and of the different winners of the different prizes.
   3. Each Participant warrants and represents that all information provided to PwC Mauritius in relation to the Event are true, accurate and correct to all intents and purposes.
   4. Each Participant and Team Leader warrants and represents that he has the authority to bind the  individual the Participant and the team is representing, to these Terms.
   5. Each Participant shall bring to the Event any equipment or tool such as, but not limited to, laptop, charger and software he deems necessary for his participation to the Event. PwC Mauritius shall not be held responsible for the lack of, or malfunction of any such tool.
   6. Participants shall not have recourse to PwC Mauritius for the refund of any costs associated with their participation to the event, such as, but not limited to transport, training or accommodation costs.
   7. All participants hereby acknowledge that they may be photographed, written about or filmed by PwC Mauritius or members of the media throughout the course of the Event and thereafter for advertising purposes. Participants further agree and consent that any and all such photograph, motion picture, recording, testimonial and/or any other likenesses captured or taken may be used by PwC Mauritius for the purposes of promoting, advertising and marketing on any channel, including but not limited to PwC Mauritius website, social media, press releases and press articles.
   8. PwC Mauritius is committed to using social media platforms responsibly and being courteous and respectful in its online public communications.  PwC Mauritius expects all Participants to refrain from disrespectful, unprofessional, harassing, defamatory, discriminatory and prohibited activity on social media platforms with respect to the Event. The Participants shall not act or speak on behalf of PwC Mauritius, represent themselves as PwC Mauritius, or express any views attributable to PwC Mauritius unless expressly authorised to do so by PwC Mauritius.
      
   9. PwC Mauritius is committed to using social media platforms responsibly and being courteous and respectful in its online public communications.  PwC Mauritius expects all Participants to refrain from disrespectful, unprofessional, harassing, defamatory, discriminatory and prohibited activity on social media platforms with respect to the Event. The Participants shall not act or speak on behalf of PwC Mauritius, represent themselves as PwC Mauritius, or express any views attributable to PwC Mauritius unless expressly authorised to do so by PwC Mauritius.
   10. If any provision of the present Terms and Conditions is held to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, the legality, validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions of the present Terms and Conditions shall not be affected or impaired thereby.
9. Winners, Prizes and Judging Criteria
   1. The respective winners shall be designated on the 27 October 2023.
   2. Details of the prizes may be consulted on the website dedicated to the Event.
   3. The Participants will be judged based on the following criteria:
      1. Creativity
      2. Technical Complexity
      3. Feasibility
      4. Business Value
10. Non Liability Clause
    1. PwC Mauritius shall not be liable for any loss or damage of or to any Product/Solution/submission or for any other loss or damage to Participant, Participant Entity, their assets or third party resulting directly or indirectly from Participant's participation in the Event using any material provided by PwC Mauritius or the Event Partner
    2. PwC Mauritius shall not be responsible for:
       1. technical failures of any kind, including malfunctioning of any telephone, computer, network, hardware or software;
       2. ii. the unavailability or inaccessibility of any service;
       3. iii. electronic or human intervention/ error which may occur in the administration of the Event or the processing of Products/Solutions.
    3. PwC Mauritius shall not be liable for failure to perform any obligation where such failure to perform occurs by reason of any act of God, or any other cause beyond the reasonable control of PwC Mauritius.
11. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
    1. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Mauritius. Any disputes arising from this Agreement shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Mauritius.