Subscriptions Terms & Conditions

Last updated: October 2026

About us and our products

This website is operated by Playbook Media Trading Company Limited, trading as The Bookseller. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 02316307. Our registered office is at Stage House, 47 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XT. Our VAT number is GB547887578. When we refer to "The Bookseller", "Playbook Media", "us", "our" or "we" in these terms, we mean Playbook Media Trading Company Limited.

You can find everything you need to know about us and our products on our website before you order. We also confirm the key information to you by email after you order.

You must be 16 or over to buy a subscription.

These terms and conditions apply to:

• purchases of our printed magazines, which we call "print products" in these terms;
• our digital magazines and paywalled websites, which we call "digital products" in these terms. You may need third-party software to access our digital products. We are not responsible for the functionality, reliability or security of any third-party software or service through which you access our digital products;
• subscriptions to our print products and digital products. Subscriptions are automatically recurring, or continuing, supplies of our print products and digital products, either for an indefinite period or for a fixed period, as specified when you subscribe.

Where these terms refer simply to a "product", that means any print product, digital product, single issue or subscription.

Customer service contact details

Email: subscriptions@thebookseller.com

Phone: 020 7939 8479

Order details and prices

The prices of the products you order are clearly shown on our website when you order.

We normally charge you when you order. For subscriptions, we take payment at regular intervals, as explained to you when you order.

You will own any printed goods we supply to you once we have received payment for them in full. If any goods we supply to you are part of a free trial, you will own them when they are delivered to you.

We pass on increases in VAT or other sales taxes, where applicable. For subscriptions, if the rate of VAT or other sales tax changes during your subscription, we will adjust the rate of tax that you pay, unless you have already paid in full before the change takes effect.

If we have priced a product incorrectly, we may contact you to ask whether you wish to continue at the correct price. If you do not wish to continue, you may cancel the order and we will refund any amount you have already paid for that product.

Delivery and access

We aim to deliver products and process your subscription promptly, but we do not promise that delivery or access will happen immediately, and we are not liable for any problems, delays or losses in delivery or access arising from any cause beyond our control.

If our supply of your product is delayed by an event outside our control that affects a significant number of customers for an extended period, we will try to contact you as soon as possible, provided we have up-to-date contact details for you, to let you know and to do what we can to reduce the delay. We will supply up to six replacement issues. To arrange a replacement copy, please email our Customer Service Team at subscriptions@thebookseller.com.

You do not own digital products; we license them to you. If your order includes access to a digital product, you will have access to it only for as long as you subscribe. When your subscription ends, you will lose access and you will not have any ownership rights in those digital products.

If you buy a single digital product (for example, one digital issue), we will make it available to you immediately. If you tell us within 14 days of your purchase that you have changed your mind, you will lose access to it and we will refund you, unless you have already downloaded or accessed it.

Where a subscription is bought for personal use, we may cancel it if it is shared beyond the named individual. We monitor the number of logins in use at the same time on each subscription and may cancel a subscription where this is being abused.

Your internet service provider or telephone service provider may charge you for time spent accessing our website at their standard rates.

We are not responsible for any problem you may have with our products caused by: the act or fault of any telecoms provider, internet service provider or technology supplier; systems maintenance (we will try to keep this to a minimum and outside peak hours wherever reasonably possible); any incompatibility or technical fault in your computer hardware, software or systems; your registration details being inaccurate or out of date; your email inbox being full; your not following our instructions for using our website or accessing our products; or any other circumstance in which we send you or give you access to a product but you are unable to receive it through no fault of ours.

If for any reason we are unable to supply a particular product, we will try to tell you as soon as possible. We may permanently withdraw any product, in which case you will be entitled to a refund of any fees you have already paid that relate to the period after the withdrawal date.

Changing your mind, cancellation and refunds

For our products, you have 14 days to change your mind about your purchase and receive a full refund.

If you ask us to provide digital content during the 14-day cooling-off period, we will ask you to confirm that you want immediate access and that you understand you may lose your right to cancel once the digital content has been accessed or downloaded.

If you change your mind about a product, you must tell us no later than 14 days after:

• the day we deliver your print product. If the print product is part of a subscription, you can change your mind within 14 days after the first delivery;
• the day we confirm that we have accepted your order for a digital product. If the digital product is part of a subscription, you can change your mind only within 14 days after we have accepted your order.

If you buy a print product or merchandise item, we may ask you to return it (and any free gifts provided with it) to us within 14 days of telling us you have changed your mind. Returns are at your own cost. If you send an item back to us, please keep a receipt or other evidence from the delivery service that shows you sent it and when. If you do not, and we do not receive the item at all or within a reasonable time, we will not refund you. For help with returns, please email our Customer Service Team at subscriptions@thebookseller.com.

If your product is a digital product that we have not started providing, or a print product or merchandise item that has not been delivered, we will refund you as soon as possible and within 14 days of your telling us you have changed your mind. If we ask you to send a print product or merchandise item back to us, we will refund you within 14 days of receiving it back from you (or of receiving evidence that you have sent it). We refund you by the method you used to pay. We do not charge a fee for the refund.

Cancelling your subscription

You can cancel your subscription at any time online. Sign in, go to My Account (www.thebookseller.com/my-account) and select Cancel. You can also cancel by emailing our Customer Service Team at subscriptions@thebookseller.com or by calling 020 7939 8479.

Unless you cancel within a cooling-off period described above, your subscription will continue until the end of the period you have already paid for, and you will not be charged again.

Notifications

We will send you notifications to keep you informed about your subscription:

• When you buy an automatically renewing or recurring subscription, we will tell you that the contract (and your obligation to pay) will continue, indefinitely or for a fixed period, until you take steps to end it.
• We will tell you if there is a minimum period before you can end the contract.
• We will always tell you whether future payments may be at a higher rate than the original price, and when they will be payable, for example when you take out a discounted trial.
• We will always tell you the steps you must take to end the contract.
• From January 2027, in line with the law, we will send you reminders before your subscription renews, including the renewal date, the renewal price and how to cancel. Where it applies, the reminder will also tell you about your 14-day cooling-off period.
• From January 2027, we will send you an end-of-contract notice confirming that your subscription has ended or been cancelled, and the date it ended or will end.

Your consumer rights

If you think there is something wrong with your order, please contact our Customer Service Team by email at subscriptions@thebookseller.com or by phone on 020 7939 8479. We are under a legal duty to supply products that are as described on our website and that meet all the requirements of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Changes to products and these terms

We can always change a product:

• to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements;
• to make minor technical adjustments and improvements that do not affect your use of the product;
• to change the layout of, the features included in, or the contributors to a print product or digital product; or
• to update a digital product, provided that it always matches the description we gave you before you bought it.

We may change the prices of our products from time to time. If we do, we will always tell you before your subscription renews.

We may change the content of our products. If we do, we will tell you, and you can contact our Customer Service Team to end the contract before the change takes effect and receive a refund for any products you have paid for in advance but not received.

We can suspend the supply of a print product or digital product

We may do this to:

• deal with technical problems or make minor technical changes;
• update the print product or digital product to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements; or
• make changes to the print product or digital product.

We will try to contact you in advance to tell you we are suspending supply, unless the problem is urgent or an emergency. If we suspend supply, or tell you we are going to, you can contact our Customer Service Team to end the contract, and we will refund any sums you have paid in advance for products you will not receive.

We can withdraw products

We can stop providing a product, including a subscription to any print product or digital product. We will tell you as far in advance as we can. If you subscribe to a product that we withdraw, you can choose either to receive another print product or digital product (as applicable) for the rest of your subscription, or to end your subscription and receive a refund of any sums you have paid in advance for issues that will not be provided. We will not refund you for any print product or digital product you have already received.

Ending the contract

If, in our reasonable opinion, you have broken any of these terms, we may end our contract with you.

We can end our contract with you for a print product or digital product subscription if:

• you do not make a payment to us when it is due;
• we reasonably suspect that you are using the print product or digital product for an unlawful purpose, or in any way that we reasonably consider may harm our reputation;
• you are sharing your subscription with others in breach of these terms. We monitor the number of logins in use at the same time on each subscription;
• you have a student subscription and cannot provide satisfactory evidence of your student status when we ask for it;
• we reasonably consider that you are taking unfair advantage of trial or promotional offers, for example by repeatedly buying and cancelling products that are subject to a discount or trial offer before the promotional period ends; or
• you use threatening or abusive language when communicating with our Customer Service Team or other staff.

These provisions do not affect your other statutory rights.

Our responsibility for loss or damage

We are responsible for losses you suffer that are caused by our breaking this contract, unless the loss is:

• unexpected: it was not obvious that it would happen, and nothing you said to us before we accepted your order meant we should have expected it (in law, the loss was unforeseeable);
• caused by a delaying event outside our control;
• avoidable: something you could have avoided by taking reasonable action. For example, damage to your own digital content or device caused by a digital product we supplied, which you could have avoided by following our advice to apply a free update, by following the installation instructions correctly, or by having the minimum system requirements we advised; or
• a business loss: it relates to your use of a product for the purposes of your trade, business, craft or profession.

We do not exclude or limit our liability where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, and for breach of your legal rights in relation to the products.

Data privacy

We use your personal data as set out in our Privacy Notice.

Other important terms

We can transfer our contract with you, so that a different organisation is responsible for supplying your product. We will tell you if we plan to do this. If you are unhappy with the transfer, you can contact our Customer Service Team to end the contract within 14 days of our telling you about it, and we will refund any payments you have made in advance for products not provided.

You can transfer your contract with us to someone else only if we agree. If we agree to your request, we can require the new owner to prove that you transferred the product to them.

Nobody else has any rights under this contract. Unless you have bought a subscription as a gift, this contract is between you and us. Nobody else can enforce it, and neither of us will need anybody else’s agreement to end or change it.

If a court or other authority decides that any of these terms are unlawful, the rest will continue to apply.

Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. If we do not immediately chase you for not doing something (such as paying) or for doing something you are not allowed to do, that does not mean we cannot do so later.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you can bring legal proceedings about our products in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland, you can bring proceedings in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland, you can bring proceedings in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.