Last updated: 24/04/2024

PRIVACY NOTICE:  AIM WEBSITE

AIM – European Brands Association (“AIM”, “we” or “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data or personal information (herein, “Personal Data”). This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your Personal Data when you visit the AIM website (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

Purpose of this Privacy Notice

This website is operated by European Brands Association, as the Data Controller, with its head office located at Avenue des Gaulois 9, B-1040 Brussels.

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how we Process your Personal Data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you sign up to our website.

This website is not intended for visitors who are at least 18 years of age and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children. If you do not meet the age requirements set out above, please do not enter your Personal Data on this website.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide to you on specific occasions when we are Processing Personal Data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Contact Details

Our full details are:

AIM – European Brands Association

Avenue des Gaulois 9

B-1040 Brussels

Belgium

brandaim@aim.be

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Commission de la protection de la vie privée (“CPVP”), the Belgian supervisory authority for data protection issues.

The CPVP contact details are:

Belgian Data Protection Authority

Rue de la Presse 35 / Drukpersstraat 35

1000 Bruxelles / 1000 Brussel

Tel. +32 2 274 48 00

Fax +32 2 274 48 35

contact@apd-gba.be

www.dataprotectionauthority.be

We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the CPVP, so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the Privacy Notice and your duty to inform us of changes

This version was last updated on 24 April 2024 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

It is important that the Personal Data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your Personal Data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-Party Links

This website includes links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

We also display social media buttons on our Website.  When you click on any of those buttons, your personal data may be transferred to these companies and they may also set cookies or other tracking technologies on your browser.  The privacy policies and terms of use of each of those companies govern the collection and use of your personal data when you click on their buttons on our Website.

Prior to installing third party cookies or enabling you to click through to a third party website, we will have requested your consent to do so. Where consent was not given, the cookies will not be installed and the click through to third party websites will only occur after a pop-up notifying you that you are leaving the AIM space and requesting whether you wish to continue.

2. THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

The member zone of the AIM website is a private zone and is accessible to AIM members only. In order to give members access to the member zone we may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of Personal Data about you which we have grouped together follows:

• Identity Dataincludes first name, last name, username or similar identifier, gender.
• Business Contact Dataincludes job title, email address, company name, company address and telephone numbers.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your Personal Data but is not considered Personal Data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your Personal Data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as Personal Data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity or Business Contact Data by filling in online forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes Personal Data you provide when you join AIM as a member by creating an account to access the member zone of this website.

Automated technologies or interactions. In addition, AIM uses Google Analytics which collects the information generated about website usage (including your shortened IP address) and this is transmitted to Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses Cookies and similar technologies to analyse how you use the website, and provides other services related to the site and internet use. Google may also collect information about domain visitors’ use of other websites. For more information about Google Analytics, or to opt out of Google Analytics, please click . See also the section on Cookies below.

4. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your Personal Data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your Personal Data in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your Personal Data.

Purposes for which we will use your Personal Data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your Personal Data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your Personal Data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your Personal Data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookies policy here: www.aim.be/cookies-policy.

Change of purpose

We will only use your Personal Data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. In such case, we will inform you.

 If we need to use your Personal Data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your Personal Data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required by law.

5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your Personal Data on an as-needed basis with External Third Parties for the purposes set out in the table in Section 4 (How we use your Personal Data) above.

These External Third Parties are:

• trusted service providers,
• consultants and
• contractors

who are granted access to AIM’s facilities and systems or which provide services to AIM.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your Personal Data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your Personal Data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your Personal Data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We also share your Personal Data with government agencies or authorities, competent courts and others as required by law or if it is necessary to fulfill your request.

6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We do not transfer your Personal Data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

7. DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your Personal Data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your Personal Data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third business parties who need to know. They will only process your Personal Data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected Personal Data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

However, due to the nature of internet communications, we cannot guarantee or warrant that the transmission of your Personal Data to us is secure.

8. DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. After this period, your Personal Data will be deleted from all systems of AIM without notice.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Section 8 (Request erasure) for further information.

In some circumstances we will anonymise your Personal Data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to object to us processing your Personal Data if we are not entitled to use it anymore, to have your information deleted if we are keeping it too long or have its processing restricted in certain circumstances.

If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us – see Section 1 (Contact Details).

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your Personal Data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request under these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your Personal Data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that Personal Data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Your legal rights

You have the right to:

Request access to your Personal Data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the Personal Data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the Personal Data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove Personal Data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your Personal Data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your Personal Data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your Personal Data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your Personal Data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your Personal Data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your Personal Data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your Personal Data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.