9 October 2017

 

I. GENERAL INFORMATION

 

Welcome to VANDENBULKE website (the “Website”). VANDENBULKE is a Société coopérative organised as a Société Anonyme incorporated under the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg having its registered office at 35 Avenue Monterey L-2163 Luxembourg registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Registry under number B 183487, V.A.T. registration number: LU26613929., admitted on the List V of the “Ordre des Avocats du Barreau de Luxembourg” (Luxembourg Bar).

VANDENBULKE comprises lawyers who are regulated by the Luxembourg Bar, and foreign lawyers who are admitted in their home jurisdiction. The rules and principles applicable to the professional conduct of lawyers can be found through the Website of the Luxembourg Bar Council.

The Website is accessible through the following web addresses: www.vdblaw.com, www.vdblaw.lu, www.vdblaw.eu, www.vdblaw.be, www.vandenbulke.com, www.vandenbulke.lu, www.vandenbulke.eu, www.vandenbulke.be.

By accessing or using the Website, you indicate that you have read and understand the following terms and conditions, and agree to be bound by it. The terms and conditions set out the basis on which you may use the Website and all the materials published on it (the “Content”) and the basis on which we allow access to it. You must accept these terms and conditions in order to use the Website. These terms and conditions may periodically change without notice, so you should check the terms and conditions before every attempt to use the Website. When the terms and conditions are changed, the date of the latest revision will appear at the top of this page.

 

II. LEGAL NOTICES

 

1. No legal advice or attorney-client relationship

The Content of the Website is provided for general information purposes only and is not intended to constitute or substitute legal or other professional advice. All articles, briefings, updates or other information available on this Website are prepared so that they are current as at the date of writing. It should be noted that such information can rapidly become out of date. You should not take any actions based on information found on this Website without seeking legal advice. It is not an offer to represent you, nor is it intended to create an attorney-client relationship. The content of any Internet e-mail sent to VANDENBULKE or any of its lawyers at the e-mail address set forth in the Website will not create an attorney-client relationship and will not be treated as confidential.

Please do not send us information regarding any legal matters unless you have first communicated with a partner at VANDENBULKE, the partner has checked relevant information for conflicts of interest, the partner has specifically indicated that an attorney-client relationship has been formed, and the partner has requested that you forward the information.

2. No warranties and limitation of liability

VANDENBULKE makes no representations about the suitability, reliability, timeliness, comprehensiveness and accuracy of the information, services and other content contained on this Website.

VANDENBULKE cannot guarantee that the content and the provision of this Website will always be correct or fault-, error- or virus- free. VANDENBULKE does not accept liability for incorrect content or errors or omissions on this Website or its content (whether of legal, typographical, technical or other nature) but endeavors to correct them as quickly as practicable. VANDENBULKE shall not be liable for any data lost or any equipment or software replaced by you as a result of you using this Website.

Save in respect of liability for death or personal injury arising out of negligence or for fraudulent misrepresentation, VANDENBULKE shall not be liable directly or indirectly in contract, tort, equity or otherwise for any damage whatsoever in connection with this Website or any use of content provided on this Website, including any direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damage (including but not limited to loss of profits, interest, data, business revenue, anticipated savings, business or goodwill).

3. User conduct

You agree that you will not use the Website or its Content for any illegal purpose. In addition, you agree that:

• You will not copy, amend, reproduce or distribute the Content, or disclose the content to third parties, other than in compliance with our Copyright Notice.
• You are responsible for any material you send to or upload to the Website and that such material is legal, is not offensive and it does not infringe our rights, those of third parties or the provisions of the Legal Notices.
• You will not harvest, collect or otherwise use contact information made available on the Website for the purpose of sending unsolicited improper communications, including without limitation, unsolicited bulk email and that you will not use any VANDENBULKE communications facility to deliver or attempt to deliver spam.
• You will not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Website or the servers and network associated with the Website.
• You will not circumvent or attempt to circumvent any security or access control technology implemented on the Website, or the servers and network associated with the Website.
• You will not use the Website in any manner designed to degrade the performance or functioning of the Website, including, without limitation, launching Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks against the Website.

4. Intellectual property rights

All rights in the Website and the Content including copyright, design rights, patents, inventions, knowhow, database rights, trade marks, source codes and any other intellectual property rights in any of the foregoing are reserved to VANDENBULKE and/or their content and technology providers.

You are allowed to view, download and print out content from this Website for information purposes only within your business, employment and/or study. You may not incorporate any content in derivative works, copy, transmit, disclose or otherwise provide content to any third parties outside your business.

You may not remove, change or obscure the VANDENBULKE logo or any notices of proprietary rights on any content of the Website.

5. Links to third-party resources

The Website contains links to external resources and Websites that are not operated by or for VANDENBULKE solely for your convenience. VANDENBULKE does not endorse any such linked sites and assumes no responsibility for the contents of any other Website to which this Website offers links.

6. Link to the Website

You may not create a link to any part of the Website, without prior written consent from VANDENBULKE, which can be requested by contacting com@vdblaw.com.

7. Alterations

VANDENBULKE reserves the right to terminate, suspend or alter the content of the Website and to amend these terms and conditions at any time. Continued use of this Website after alteration of these terms and conditions shall be deemed to constitute acceptance of such alterations.

 

III. PRIVACY POLICY

 

VANDENBULKE is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) explains how we use the information we collect about you through the Website, how you can instruct us if you prefer to limit the use of that information and procedures that we have in place to safeguard your privacy.

This Policy does not apply to information provided to us in the course of our attorney-client relationships or which is protected by confidentiality, the attorney-client privilege, the attorney work product doctrine or any other applicable protection. Nothing in this Policy should be construed to create an attorney-client relationship with visitors to our Website or, conversely, to detract from any of the protections resulting from such relationships.

1. The information we collect and how we use it

In some areas of our Website you may choose to provide us with personal data about yourself, for example your name, postal address, email address, telephone number and/or other information typically found in a CV. We gather this information to allow us, our employees, agents, consultants and sub-contractors to process your request or application. We will not transfer your personal data to any third parties other than to our agents, consultants and sub-contractors who assist us in running the Website and related services.

We may also capture information regarding your operating system, browser software, IP (Internet Protocol) address, and the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) clickstream to, through and from the Website, including date and time. We may also use aggregate information and statistics to improve the services we provide through the Website, to monitor and improve the performance of our servers, to administer the Website, and to protect and defend our rights, property or safety or that of our clients and other users of the Website. These statistics will not include information that can be used to identify any individual.

We will keep your information confidential and use it in accordance with our internal procedures covering the storage, access and disclosure of information.

2. Transfer of information

VANDENBULKE is an international law firm and, as such, in order to process your request or application we may have to transfer data outside the European Economic Area.

3. Sharing of information

VANDENBULKE may disclose and/or transfer your personal information (i) to its trusted third party service providers (for example, companies that provide systems, web hosting including microsites of the Website and other IT services; internal and external advisors and auditors); (ii) if required by applicable law; (iii) in connection with a reorganization or combination of our firm with another firm, (iv) if it believes that such disclosure is necessary to enforce or apply its terms of use and other agreements or otherwise protect and defend VANDENBULKE’s rights, property or safety or that of our clients and other users of the Website; (v) in order to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or other legal obligation, or a regulatory or government inquiry; or (vi) with your consent.

VANDENBULKE will not sell or release your personal data to third parties or allow them to direct market their products and services to you, except with your agreement.

4. Our use of cookies and other information-gathering technologies

A “Cookie” is a small text file which is either stored on the user/client hard drive, or in memory until the browser is closed. Cookies help tracing users from page to page on a website. They are generated by web servers when the user enters a website, and are passed to the user’s computer and stored for subsequent future access.

We only use cookies in certain areas of our Website where we need to remember login details and passwords so that users do not need to log on every time they access those areas of the Website.

5. Sale of Business

In the event that VANDENBULKE is sold or integrated with another firm or it is proposed to do so, your details may be disclosed to our advisers and the other party’s advisers, and will be passed on to the new business.

6. Updating your details

If any of the information that you have provided to us changes, for example if you change your email address or if you wish to cancel your request, please let us know the correct details by sending an email to com@vdblaw.com. You may also opt out of receiving marketing and market research communications at any time by using the unsubscribe links provided or by contacting us at com@vdblaw.com.

7. Your consent

By submitting your information you consent to the use of that information as set out in this Policy. If we change our privacy policy we will post the changes on this page, and may place notices on other pages of the Website, so that you may be aware of the information we collect and how we use it at all times.

 

IV. HOW TO CONTACT VANDENBULKE

 

We welcome your views about our Website and our privacy policy. If you would like to contact us with any queries or comments, please send an email to com@vdblaw.com.

 

V. SEVERABILITY

 

If any provision of these terms and conditions is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable in any respect under the law of any jurisdiction:

• the validity, legality and enforceability under the law of that jurisdiction of any other provision, and
• the validity, legality and enforceability under the law of any other jurisdiction of that or any other provision,

shall not be affected or impaired in any way thereby.

 

VI. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

 

These terms and conditions and any dispute, controversy, proceedings or claim of whatever nature arising out of or in any way relating to these terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Luxembourg, and the courts of Luxembourg shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any disputes between us relating to these terms and conditions.