The purpose of this document is to define the personal data protection policy implemented by Vorwerk BENELUX BV, a company incorporated under Belgian law with its registered office at 1800 Vilvoorde, Mechelsesteenweg 586 C and with company number 1005.465.871 (hereinafter “Vorwerk”), in compliance with the regulations on Personal Data.
Vorwerk is the publisher of the contents of the Vorwerk Sites as defined below, and markets products and services available on various physical and digital media.
Vorwerk will process Your Personal Data in accordance with applicable data protection regulations, in particular Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the Processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (hereinafter: “GDPR”), other relevant applicable legal regulations and this Privacy Policy.
Unless otherwise indicated, Vorwerk collects Personal Data on its own behalf, as part of its activity and is, as such, Data Controller within the meaning of the GDPR.
We may modify this policy in order to incorporate regulatory, jurisprudential, editorial or technical developments relating to the protection of Your Personal Data. In the event of minor modifications, we will change the “last update” date by indicating the date on which the modifications were made. However, in the event of a substantial modification to this policy, we will inform You directly, by e-mail, of the changes made.
We also advise You to regularly consult this page in order to be aware of any modifications or updates made to our Policy.
1. DEFINITIONS
For the purposes of this privacy policy, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
“Advisor” means any sales representative with the status of Independent Home Seller (VDI) or employee who organize demonstrations and other events during which professional presentations are given as well as concrete demonstrations of Vorwerk household appliances (use, functionalities, handling, maintenance, etc.);
“Customer” means any person placing an order with Vorwerk regardless of the medium used;
“Cookie” means tracers that allow access to information stored in the terminal equipment of a Visitor to the Vorwerk Sites;
“Recipient” means any natural or legal person who receives the communication of Personal Data, whether or not a Third Party;
“Personal Data” means any information relating to a natural person identified or identifiable directly (by their first or last name, for example) or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier, location data or one or more specific elements specific to their identity;
“Data Subject” / “You” means any identified or identifiable natural person whose Personal Data is processed by Vorwerk in accordance with this policy;
“Data Controller” means any natural or legal person who, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the Processing of Personal Data, in this case and unless otherwise indicated Vorwerk;
“GDPR” means the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April of the European Parliament on the protection of natural persons with regard to the Processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC;
“Vorwerk Sites” means any online public communication service published by Vorwerk, on the date of the last update of this policy. This also includes their mobile versions, the various digital tools of Vorwerk, official social networks and any other media;
“Subcontractor” means any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body who processes Personal Data on behalf of the Data Controller;
“Processing” means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction;
“Third Party” means any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the Data Subject, the Controller, the Subcontractor and persons who, under the direct authority of the Controller or the Subcontractor, are authorised to process Personal Data;
“Visitor” means any person who browses the Vorwerk Sites, whether or not they are a Customer of Vorwerk.
2. WHEN IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?
The collection of Personal Data concerning You is carried out exclusively from You. Personal Data may be collected in particular in the following situations:
- When You browse and use the features of the Vorwerk Sites, certain Personal Data concerning You may be collected as a Visitor to the Vorwerk Sites to maintain and improve the Vorwerk Sites;
- As part of the management of our commercial relationship and in particular when placing an order, certain Personal Data concerning You may be collected as a Customer of Vorwerk;
- As part of the management of our relationship with prospects (contact, online forms or via Advisors, monitoring of commercial prospecting, etc.) certain Personal Data concerning You may be collected;
- During visits to Vorwerk premises (head office, agencies, stores, etc.), certain Personal Data concerning You may also be collected;
- When You wish to join Vorwerk and apply to become a Vorwerk employee, as an employee or Advisor, certain Personal Data may be collected.
In any event, Vorwerk only collects Personal Data strictly necessary for the purposes of its activities.
Consequently, only relevant, adequate information is collected, limited to what is necessary with regard to the purposes for which it is processed.
3. FOR WHAT PURPOSES AND ON WHAT LEGAL BASES ARE YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?
The Personal Data collected from You and processed by Vorwerk or its Subcontractors are for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes and are likely to vary depending on the context of the collection.
3.1. Vorwerk Website Administration
Purpose: Securing and improving navigation on Vorwerk Sites
Data collected: Connection information, device used, preference and security settings, browser, plug-ins used or even the operating system
Legal basis: Legitimate interest
Recipients or category of Recipients: Web service provider, host
Purpose: Analysis of interactions and development of statistics on Vorwerk Sites
Data collected: Contents, establishments, pages consulted.
Legal basis: Consent
Recipients or category of Recipients: Web service provider
Purpose: Creation of a user account on the Vorwerk Sites
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name, date of birth) and contact details (email address, telephone number)
Legal basis: Consent
Recipients or category of Recipients: Your Advisor
3.2. Marketing, prospecting and demonstration
Purpose: Management of communication and prospecting operations, regardless of the means used (emails, letters, newsletters, telephone, text messages, etc.)
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name) and contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number)
Legal basis: Consent
Recipients or category of Recipients: Your Advisor
Purpose: Contact and information requests
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name) and contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number)
Legal basis: Legitimate interest
Recipients or category of Recipients: Your Advisor
Purpose: Vorwerk Product Demonstration
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number) and data relating to food intolerances and allergies
Legal basis: Consent
Recipients or category of Recipients: Your Advisor
Important: During demonstrations of Vorwerk products, certain data relating to Your health may be collected.
If You request a demonstration of a food preparation appliance, You can provide the Vorwerk Advisorresponsible for the demonstration with information about Your food allergies or intolerances. This information is passed on in order to prevent dishes that You cannot eat from being prepared during the product demonstration.
If You provide this information to the Vorwerk Advisorresponsible for the demonstration, it will be stored by the Vorwerk Advisorin the section reserved for them on the platform we use for managing product demonstrations and sales. Only those who have a strict need to know, including Your Advisorand their branch manager, will be able to view it.
Your consent constitutes the legal basis on which we rely to collect and process this type of Personal Data.
In any case, information on food allergies and intolerances will be deleted shortly after the product is demonstrated.
3.3. Application Management
Purpose: Management of application requests
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name, date of birth), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number), curriculum vitae
Legal basis: Consent
Recipients or category of Recipients: Vorwerk
Purpose: Building a CV Library
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name, date of birth), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number), curriculum vitae
Legal basis: Legitimate interest
Recipients or category of Recipients: Vorwerk
3.4. Placing and managing an order
Purpose: Placing and managing an order and delivery
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number)
Legal basis: Contractual execution
Recipients or category of Recipients: Your Advisor, our external logistics service provider
Purpose: Request for financing
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number) and financial data
Legal basis: Consent
Recipients or category of Recipients: Funding partner
Purpose: Remote payment by bank card
Data collected: Card number, expiration date, visual cryptogram
Legal basis: Contractual execution
Recipients or category of Recipients: Remote payment provider
Purpose: Follow-up of invoice payment via internal customer information sheet
Data collected: Personal identification data (name, address, phone number, etc.), profile information data (data of birth, financial identification data)
Legal basis: Legitimate interest
Recipients or category of Recipients: Vorwerk
Purpose: Banking complaints management
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number), card number
Legal basis: Legal obligation
Recipients or category of Recipients: Remote payment provider
3.5. Post-contractual or pre-contractual relationship
Purpose: Collection of Customer reviews
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name), contact details (email address, telephone number)
Legal basis: Legitimate interest
Recipients or category of Recipients: Vorwerk, external repair service providers
Purpose: After sales service
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number) and billing data
Legal basis: Contractual performance and legal obligation
Recipients or category of Recipients: Vorwerk
Purpose: Quality improvement and training of customer service employees
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name), contact details (email address, postal address, telephone number) and billing data
Legal basis: Legitimate interest
Recipients or category of Recipients: Vorwerk, external software service providers, external call center service provider
For the purpose of quality improvement and training of our customer service, Vorwerk Benelux may record certain telephone conversations with its customer service department. If this is the case, you will always be notified by phone in advance during the call. The recordings are retained for no longer than thirty (30) days for this purpose and are accessible only to specific authorized employees.
3.6. Fight against fraud and non-payment
Purpose: Creation of a database of Customers in default of payment
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name); contact details (postal address, email address, telephone number) payment methods
Legal basis: Legitimate interest
Recipients or category of Recipients: Vorwerk
Purpose: Fight against fraud and insolvency
Data collected: Identification data (name, first name); contact details (postal address, email address, telephone number) payment methods
Legal basis: Consent
Recipients or category of Recipients: Funding partner
4. HOW LONG IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA KEPT?
In accordance with the regulations on Personal Data, Vorwerk retains Your Personal Data for the period strictly necessary to achieve the purposes of the Processing it implements, unless You have authorized Vorwerk to retain Your Personal Data for later use.
The retention period may be based on circumstances specific to the Processing, regulations requiring information to be retained for a specific period or statutory limitation periods relating to litigation. When a limitation period is provided for by law, the retention period may not be less than this.
Acting as Data Controller, Vorwerk undertakes to comply with the retention periods imposed by the regulations in force.
Regarding orders for Vorwerk products: Your Personal Data may not be kept beyond the period strictly necessary for the management of the commercial relationship. They may be kept for commercial prospecting purposes, for similar or non-similar products if You have consented, for a period of three (3) years from the end of the commercial relationship (i.e. the expiry of the contractual warranty on our products) or from the last contact at Your initiative with Vorwerk. At the end of this period, Vorwerk may contact You again to find out whether You wish to continue receiving commercial solicitations.
Regarding requests for contact and information, demonstrations and discovery workshops, and the sending of the newsletter and commercial offers: Vorwerk retains Your Personal Data for up to three (3) years after the last contact with Vorwerk at Your initiative.
All information of an accounting and tax nature, including in particular purchase orders and invoices, may be kept for ten (10) years from the end of the financial year in which the sales contract was concluded, by virtue of legal obligations incumbent on Vorwerk.
Recordings of Vorwerk Benelux's telephone customer service are retained for a period of thirty (30) days from the date of the telephone contact with the customer service.
All data collected as part of recruitment is kept for a period of two (2) years from the date it is sent or from the last contact with You.
At the end of the corresponding limitation period, the Personal Data will be destroyed or will be subject to irreversible anonymization so that You, as Data Subjects, are no longer identifiable, by any means whatsoever.
For any questions about the retention period of certain types of Personal Data that we process, please contact the Data Protection Officer at the following address dpo_be@vorwerk.com.
5. WHO ARE THE RECIPIENTS OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
Since Your Personal Data is confidential, only persons and entities of the Vorwerk group duly authorized by Vorwerk may access it, when this is necessary within the framework of our activities and in particular the management of Your orders.
As part of the provision of our services, we may transfer Personal Data to entities other than Vorwerk or service providers who will act as Subcontractors. In any event, the sharing of Your Personal Data is carried out in accordance with the legislation in force and will be limited to what is strictly necessary to achieve the stated purposes in this Privacy Policy.
5.1. Relevant categories of persons and/or entities
Your Personal Data collected by Vorwerk may be intended for the following categories of persons and/or entities:
- To Vorwerk personnel authorized to process Personal Data;
- To other entities of the Vorwerk Group (in particular the company Vorwerk International Strecker & Co, Verenastrasse 39, 8832 Wollerau, Switzerland) and its authorized personnel. During the sales processes of Vorwerk products, You have the opportunity to subscribe to other services provided by Vorwerk entities, such as the Thermomix recipe platform (Cookidoo®) and the Thermomix® app, both of which are provided by Vorwerk International Strecker & Co.
Please note that in this case, specific data protection notices may be communicated to You.
You can consult the privacy policy of the Thermomix® recipe platform (Cookidoo®) and the Thermomix® application on the Vorwerk Sites. - To Vorwerk Subcontractors, such as:
- Website hosting providers;
- Communication service provider;
- Marketing service providers for the organization of competitions, satisfaction surveys, commercial operations and loyalty programs or the sending of messages and newsletters;
- Service providers setting up affiliate links to a form to be contacted by an Advisor or a page of the Vorwerk Sites;
- Targeted advertising and paid referencing service providers;
- Service providers retained by Vorwerk as part of the execution of sales contracts with You, involved in the provision of services ancillary to the execution of these contracts, such as delivery service providers, remote payment on the Vorwerk Sites;
- Financial institutions for the management of consumer credits for the purchase of Vorwerk products and payment institutions;
- Service providers responsible for assessing information relating to payment incidents, credits or the opening of legal proceedings with a view to combating fraud and non-payment;
- Service providers responsible for collecting our Customers’ opinions following a purchase;
- Software service providers, repair services providers, logistics service providers;
- Debt collection, fraud prevention, etc. organizations.
- To Advisors affiliated with Vorwerk.
All persons or entities having access to Your Personal Data are bound by an obligation of confidentiality and security. Vorwerk has carefully selected these Subcontractors and continually ensures that they comply with its instructions. These companies are not contractually authorized to use Your Personal Data for purposes other than those set out in this privacy policy.
5.2. Processing of Your Personal Data by Vorwerk Advisers
In certain situations, a Vorwerk Advisor may act as a Subcontractor on our behalf and collect and process Your Personal Data.
Vorwerk Advisors may collect Your identification data (first name and surname) and Your contact data (email address, postal address, telephone number) as well as Your product interests so that we can process Your contact or purchase requests.
Your data is collected by Your Advisor as part of sales made at home, and is transmitted to Your Advisor during sales made on the e-shop. Each Advisor only has access to the data of Customers and prospects directly attached to them, each agency only has access to the data of Customers and Prospects located in their sector.
Our business model is based on the commissioning of our Advisors for each sale made by the Customers in their portfolio. Each sale must therefore be linked to an Advisor. If You do not wish to be contacted by Your Advisor, or if You wish to change Advisor, You can contact Vorwerk Customer service at the following address: benelux@customercare.vorwerk.com.
The Personal Data collected and processed by the Advisor remains the property of Vorwerk.
5.3. Transmission of Personal Data to the authorities
Certain Personal Data may also be communicated to the legally authorized authorities to meet the legal, regulatory or conventional obligations to which Vorwerk would be bound.
6. IS YOUR DATA TRANSFERRED OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN UNION?
The Recipients of Personal Data referred to above may be located outside the European Economic Area.
Information thus transferred to third countries may be subject to legitimate requests for access made by local authorities and based on the laws applicable in these countries.
Concerned about protecting privacy and Your Personal Data, Vorwerk makes its best efforts to select partners offering guarantees of security and confidentiality and to establish contractual relationships corresponding to regulatory standards, particularly at European level.
Unless the country to which the Personal Data is transferred has been qualified by the European Commission as a country with an adequate level of protection of Personal Data, Vorwerk requires these Recipients to comply with the data protection measures contained in the applicable regulations. This can be achieved, for example, by concluding a cross-border flow agreement established in accordance with the standard contractual clauses from controller to processor issued by the European Commission and currently in force and by implementing additional technical and organizational measures to ensure the protection of this data.
Vorwerk remains vigilant to the activity of the European Commission and will apply any new measure made necessary by a future decision concerning the level of adequacy of the protection of personal data. You can request a copy of these clauses from the Data Protection Officer at the following address: dpo_be@vorwerk.be.
7. WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?
As a Data Subject of the Processing of Personal Data, You have various rights. These are nevertheless not absolute and are subject to certain conditions, in accordance with the Personal Data Regulations.
7.1. Right to information
Vorwerk undertakes to inform You of the collection and use of Your Personal Data and thus undertakes to produce concise, transparent and accessible information on the conditions and methods of the collection and Processing of Personal Data.
7.2. Right of Access
You have a right to access Personal Data concerning You, at any time, free of charge, allowing You to obtain information on the existence of Processing and its methods, the categories of Personal Data that are being processed, the Recipients of the Personal Data, the period during which Your Personal Data will be stored and the rights You can exercise in accordance with the GDPR.
You also have the right to obtain a copy of Your Personal Data as held by Vorwerk.
7.3. Right of rectification
You can request Vorwerk to rectify Your Data, particularly when it is no longer up to date or incomplete.
7.4. Right to object
You have the right to object at any time, for reasons relating to Your particular situation, to the Processing of Personal Data concerning You.
The right to object is limited in particular by the legitimate interest of Vorwerk in Processing Personal Data and other legal requirements.
You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated Processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning You or similarly significantly affects You.
In addition, You always have the right to object to the use of Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, in which case You do not need to give any reasons.
7.5. Right to erasure of Personal Data (or ‘right to be forgotten’)
You can request the erasure of Personal Data concerning You if one of the following elements is applicable:
- When the data are not or are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed;
- When You withdraw the consent on which the Processing is based and no other legal basis for the Processing exists;
- When You consider that the Processing of Your data constitutes unlawful Processing;
- When the data must be erased under a legal obligation provided for by Union law or the law of the Member State to which Vorwerk is subject
- When You have objected to the Processing of data and Vorwerk has no legitimate or compelling reason to refuse the request.
7.6. Right to limit the Processing of Personal Data concerning You
You may obtain from Vorwerk the restriction of Processing where one of the following applies:
- When the accuracy of the data is contested, and for a period allowing Vorwerk to verify the accuracy of the data;
- When the Processing is unlawful and You oppose the erasure of Your data and request, instead, the restriction of the Processing;
- When the data is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected but You need it for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal rights;
- When You object to Processing which would be based on the legitimate interest of Vorwerk, during the verification as to whether the legitimate grounds pursued by Vorwerk prevail over those of You.
7.7. Right to data portability
You can obtain from Vorwerk the Personal Data previously provided to the latter in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
You may also transmit this data to another Data Controller or request that the Personal Data concerning You be transmitted directly by Vorwerk to another if this is technically possible.
7.8. Right to withdraw consent
You may, using the means implemented by Vorwerk for this purpose, withdraw Your consent at any time when Your Personal Data is processed on the basis of it.
The withdrawal of Your consent is only valid for the future, and therefore cannot call into question the lawfulness of the Processing carried out before this withdrawal.
7.9. Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority
If You believe that Your rights have not been respected, You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, namely the Data Protection Authority (GBA):
Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels Telephone: +32 (0)2 274 48 00 Fax number: +32 (0)2 274 48 35 E-mail: contact@apd-gba.be.
This does not affect Your right to bring a claim before a civil court. If You have suffered damage as a result of the Processing of Your Personal Data, You may file a claim for compensation.
7.10. Right to decide on the fate of data after death
You have the right to organize the fate of Your data post-mortem by adopting general or specific directives by sending Your written instructions to the DPO address: dpo_be@vorwerk.com.
7.11. Right not to be subject to an automated decision
In accordance with the Personal Data Regulations, You have several rights relating to automated decision-making:
- The right to obtain human intervention from the Data Controller: this means that You can request the review of an automated decision by one of our authorized employees;
- The right to express Your point of view on the automated decision;
- The right to contest this automated decision.
Please note that exercising these rights will not necessarily result in the reversal of the decision taken via the automated process.
Please also note that we have no influence over the processes used by credit rating agencies to issue the credit score that will be communicated to us.
8. HOW TO EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS?
You can exercise Your rights or address any complaint regarding the Processing of Your Personal Data by contacting us at the following address: dpo_be@vorwerk.be or benelux@customercare.vorwerk.com; or: Vorwerk –1800 Vilvoorde, Mechelsesteenweg 586 C.
Vorwerk may request the communication of a copy of a proof of identity document if necessary. The level of checks carried out by Vorwerk when Processing requests to exercise rights will vary depending on the nature of the requests, the sensitivity of the information communicated and the context in which the request is made.
Vorwerk undertakes to respond to any request as soon as possible, and in any event within one (1) month of receipt of the complete request. This period may nevertheless be extended by two (2) months taking into account the complexity and/or the number of requests received.
9. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA PROTECTED?
Vorwerk makes its best efforts to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures adapted to the degree of sensitivity of the data collected to ensure confidentiality and to prevent the destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized access or disclosure to Third Parties as well as any other unauthorized or illegal Processing of the Personal Data collected.
When the disclosure of Personal Data to Third Parties is necessary and authorized, Vorwerk ensures that these Third Parties guarantee the Data concerned the same level of protection as that offered to them by Vorwerk and requires contractual guarantees so that, in particular, the Personal Data is processed exclusively for the purposes that You have previously accepted, with the required level of confidentiality and security.
Under no circumstances shall We be held liable for any direct or indirect damage resulting from the incorrect or unlawful use of the personal data by Third Parties.
Since all Personal Data is confidential, access to it is limited to authorized persons or service providers acting on behalf of Vorwerk, who need it in the context of carrying out their missions. All persons having access to Your Personal Data are bound by a contractual confidentiality clause and are exposed to disciplinary measures and/or other sanctions if they do not respect these obligations.
In the event of a proven breach of Personal Data likely to generate a high risk for the rights and freedoms of the Data Subjects, Vorwerk undertakes to communicate this breach to the competent supervisory authority and, when required by the Personal Data Regulations, to the Data Subjects (individually or generally depending on the case).
10. BROWSING THIRD PARTY WEBSITES
The Vorwerk Sites may contain links, in particular hypertext links, and/or offers from partners referring to a Third Party website.
Vorwerk has no control over the content of Third Party websites or the practices of these Third Parties regarding the protection of Personal Data that they may collect and declines all responsibility relating to this content and practices. It is Your responsibility to inform Yourself about the Personal Data protection policies of these Third Parties.
11. CONTACT
You can always contact us on the following details:
Vorwerk Benelux BV
Mechelsesteenweg 586 bus C
1800 Vilvoorde
Company number 1005.465.871.
E-mail : benelux@customercare.vorwerk.com
Vorwerk has appointed a Data Protection Officer. For any questions relating to Vorwerk’s commitments regarding the protection of Your Personal Data, or for any complaints, You can contact the Vorwerk Data Protection Officer: dpo_be@vorwerk.com.