Partner for commerce and trade

Countries outside the European Union (and the EEA European Economic Area) manage the protection of personal data on the basis of different procedures to those adopted in countries within the European Union. In order to process your data, we also deploy service providers located in third countries outside the European Union. No decision has yet been taken by the EU Commission requiring that an appropriate level of overall protection be provided by these third countries.

We have therefore adopted special measures for the purpose of ensuring that your data will be processed just as securely in such third countries as is the case within the European Union. In these third countries we conclude agreements with service providers which are in full compliance with the standard data privacy clauses drawn up by the EU Commission. These clauses include appropriate guarantees ensuring that secure protection is upheld by the third-country service provider.

Furthermore, our service providers in the USA are certified in accordance with the EU-US Privacy Shield Agreement.

We store your personal data for as long as is necessary to comply with our statutory and contractual obligations.

Should storage of your data no longer be required for the fulfilment of contractual or legal obligations, such data will be deleted unless subsequent processing thereof is essential for the following purposes:

compliance with statutory retention periods under commercial and tax law. This particularly applies in the case of retention periods pursuant to the German Commercial Code (HGB) or German Fiscal Code (AO). Retention periods apply for up to ten years.
preservation of evidence in compliance with statutory limitation periods. Pursuant to limitation rules set out in in the German Civil Code (BGB), these limitation periods can, in certain cases, apply for up to 30 years; the regular limitation period applies for three years.

Any affected data subject has the right to obtain information pursuant to Article 15 GDPR, the right to rectification of data pursuant to Article 16 GDPR, the right to erasure of data pursuant to Article 17 GDPR, the right to restriction of processing pursuant to Article 18 GDPR, the right of objection pursuant to Article 21 GDPR and the right to data portability pursuant to Article 20 GDPR. As regards the right to obtain information and the right to erasure of data, the restrictions set forth in §§ 34 und 35 of the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) shall apply.

1. Right of objection

You may object at any time to your data being used via electronic media for advertising purposes without incurring any other costs than those for transmission at the usual basic rates.

What is your right if data concerning you is processed on the basis of a legitimate or public interest?

Pursuant to Article 21(1) GDPR, you have the right, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you which occurs pursuant to Article 6(1) (e) GDPR (data processing in the public interest) or Article 6(1) (f) GDPR (data processing for the protection of a legitimate interest); this also applies to any profiling conducted on the basis of this provision. Should you lodge an objection, we will discontinue the processing of your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for such processing which override your rights, interests and freedoms, or such processing is conducted for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

What is your right if data processing is conducted for the purpose of direct marketing?

Insofar as we process your personal data for the purpose of direct marketing, you have the right, pursuant to Article 21(2) GDPR, to object at any time to personal data concerning you being processed for this purpose; this also applies to any profiling performed in connection with such direct marketing. Should you object to the processing of your personal data for the purpose of direct marketing, we will discontinue processing for this purpose.

2. Revocation of consent

You may at any time revoke your consent to the processing of personal data concerning you. Please note that your revocation will only apply for the future.

3. Right to obtain information

You may request information on whether we have stored any personal information concerning you. If desired, we will provide you with details on the data involved, the purposes for which these data are being processed, the parties to whom we disclose these data, how long these data will be stored, and on any additional rights relating to these data to which you are entitled.

4. Further rights

In addition, you have the right to rectification of incorrect data or erasure of your data. If no reason exists for continued storage, we will either erase your data or restrict processing thereof. You may also request that all personal data which you have entrusted to us be made available by us, either to you or to a person or company of your choice, in a structured, common and machine-readable format.

Furthermore, you may exercise the right of appealing to the competent data protection authority (Article 77 GDPR in connection with § 19 BDSG, the Federal Data Protection Act).

In order to enter into a business relationship with us, you must provide such personal data as will be required for us to fulfil the contractual relationship, or those which we are obliged to collect in compliance with statutory requirements. Should you fail to provide these data, we will be unable to conduct and implement the contractual relationship.

Should any significant changes arise in the purpose of processing your personal data or the methods adopted in doing so, we will update this information in a timely manner and inform you promptly about these changes.