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General Terms and Conditions

Art.1 – Platform

  • 1.1: The site PRpro.be and its sub-domains (hereinafter the “Site”) are operated and managed under the responsibility of Agence télégraphique belge de presse (BELGA) or Belga News Agency, limited liability company, whose registered office is established at 1000 Brussels, Arduinkaai 29 and entered in the Central Companies Register under number 0403.481.693 (hereinafter “Belga”).
  • 1.2: Access to and use of the Site shall be subject to these general terms and conditions of use (hereinafter referred to as “Conditions”), as well as the applicable laws and regulations. Consequently, access to the Site shall imply full acceptance and without reserve by the User of the Conditions.
  • 1.3: The Conditions shall govern in a non-exclusive manner the relationship between the person who accesses the Site (hereinafter the “User”) or the person who registers on the Site in the manner described in article 1 (hereinafter the “Registered User”) and Belga concerning the use of the Site and all of its services, whether for a fee or free of charge or whether subject to a subscription or not.
  • 1.4: Any question or claim regarding the use of the Site or the services offered may be sent to Belga to the address mentioned above or to the email: [email protected] or to the following telephone number: +32 2 743 34 03.
  • 1.5: Belga reserves the right to amend and update at any time, without prior notice, the Conditions, access to the Site, as well as its content. All of these changes shall be imposed on Users whenever they visit the site. Belga therefore recommends that they be regularly consulted.

Art. 2 – Services provided

  • 2.1: Registration

Simple consultation of the Site is open to the public and free of charge. Nevertheless, access to certain features described below will require prior free registration as a “Registered User” of the Site by submitting the form provided for said purpose on the Site. Some of these features constitute free services, others are offered against payment. Belga reserves the right to no longer offer a service for free and to charge for it. Registration as Registered User shall be strictly reserved for professionals using it for professional purposes and having full legal capacity. Belga reserves the right to require at any time proof of identity and legal capacity of the Registered User or User wishing to register as a Registered User.

  • 2.2: Capturing of personal data

When a User registers as a Registered User his data is captured in Belga’s Registered User database.

Personal data collected on this occasion is handled according to the Belgian Privacy Act of 8 December 1992 on the processing of personal data, as described in Art. 3 below.

  • 2.3: Paid services

Belga offers Registered Users a certain amount of paid services: one shots (single release distribution, copywriting, check-up press release, international distribution, photo/video offer, training) and subscription services (distribution of 4 or more releases). The contractual conditions pertaining specifically to the distribution services (purpose, price, duration etc.) are sent to the Registered User at the despatch of his service order.

  • 2.4: Contract term

The contract shall come into effect on the date of the online subscription of the service by the “sender” and be valid for one month for a Single Release or for 12 months for 4 or more Releases. The latter (subscription) formulas will be extented tacitly for a period of one year every year. The paid distribution services are covered by an annual contract with a period of notice 3 months before the end of the current contract. The notice must be addressed by registered mail to Belga News Agency – PRpro , Arduinkaai 29, 1000 Brussels.

When the number of press releases, of the chosen formula, is not entirely sent within the year after the start of the contract, Belga NV will not partly repay the ‘sender’ at the end of that year.

The contract cannot be passed on to a third party, without a written agreement between both parties.

Art.3 – Personal data

  • 3.1: Simple consultation of the Site without registration shall operate in principle without having to provide personal data, such as name, postal address, email address, etc.
  • 3.2: Nevertheless, in order to have access to services reserved for Registered Users, it is necessary to provide certain personal data. In this instance Belga is the person responsible for processing the data. Any question regarding the processing of this data may be sent to the following address: [email protected].
  • 3.3: The Registered User expresses his free, specific and informed consent for Belga or a sub-contractor (such as an information service provider) to process this information, for the purpose of the performance of the services offered via the Site.
  • 3.4: The Registered User also agrees that Belga may process this data for statistic purposes intended for the analysis of his activities, as well as for direct marketing actions.
  • 3.5: Belga will normally keep the personal data entries of its Users throughout the duration of the registration. Belga may also continue to keep personal data concerning the de-Registered User, including all correspondence or request for assistance sent to Belga, in order to be in a position to reply to all questions or complaints that may be sent to it after deregistering, and in order to comply with all applicable laws, namely with regard to taxes, keeping of invoicing information.
  • 3.6: The Registered User may oppose the processing of his personal data by writing to Belga’s address (Arduinkaai 29, 1000 Brussels), but in this case he shall also renounce the services that the Site makes available to Registered Users. Furthermore, the Registered User shall be free to oppose on request and free of charge the processing of his data for direct marketing purposes by writing to Belga’s address.
  • 3.7: The Registered User may access his data free of charge on-line, amend them, delete them or de-register from the Site. He may exercise an additional right of access by sending a written application, accompanied by a copy of his identity card to the Belga address, while confirming his exact contact details, including his email address.
  • 3.8: The Registered User undertakes to keep his personal data accurate and up-to date.
  • 3.9: This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.  You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.  By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

Art. 4 – Data security

  • 4.1: With regard to payment security, Belga makes use of recognised on-line payment service providers. These services comply with very high security standards by using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) protocols.
  • 4.2: Personal data other than payment information shall not be transmitted in encrypted form.
  • 4.3: Belga employees, who have access to this data, shall be obliged to maintain strict confidentiality in their regard.
  • 4.4: Nevertheless Belga may in no way be held liable in the event that this data is stolen or hijacked by a third party in spite of the security measures adopted.
  • 4.5: Violations of confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems and data which are stored, processed or transmitted by these systems, or the attempt to commit one of these violations, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between three months and five years and a fine of between twenty-six Euros and two hundred thousand Euros or one of these penalties only.

Art. 5 – User’s obligations

  • 5.1: The User undertakes to respect the applicable laws, rules and codes of conduct. He shall in particular renounce any action which may harm the Site, including but not exclusively limited to:

– disclosing or making accessible to a third party the user name, password, secret code or similar, or use these for any purpose other than for identification on the Site;

– any action which may have the effect of disrupting the smooth operation of the site or Service, including the use of worms, viruses, time bombs or bulk emailing;

– attempting to violate unauthorised access to any part of the Site or equipment used for operating the Site;

– use of the Site for any purpose other than those specified by the Conditions.

  • 5.2: Belga may in no way be held liable for non-adherence by the User to the Conditions or applicable regulations. The User shall guarantee Belga against any action or complaint lodged by a third party (including public authorities) regarding his use of the Site.
  • 5.3: In his relationship with the Site, the User undertakes not to place programmes or links on the Site, giving rise to trigger or propagation mechanisms unless this has been agreed with Belga in the context of a business and/or promotional relationship.
  • 5.4: At the time of any contract or use of the Site, or by any indirect means via the Site, the User undertakes not to make use of any malicious form of software (hereinafter referred to as “malware”) or email (hereinafter referred to as “email”) or of data or links intended to invade and/or deceive and/or harm the Site or its Users, or third parties who are directly or indirectly in contact with the Site.
  • 5.5: The User hereby acknowledges that he shall be fully and solely liable in the event of the use of any form of malicious software, email, data or link in any contact with the Site, for any reason and in any circumstances whatsoever.
  • 5.6: There are many types of malicious software and email. They develop constantly and new categories appear continually and as a consequence it is impossible to name them all in an exhaustive and definitive manner, or to classify them all. Belga confirms its intention to include in the acceptance of the term “malicious” all generally accepted definitions of the IT and telecommunications sector.

Art. 6 – Limitation of liability

  • 6.1: Belga shall not be held liable for the direct or indirect consequences of any malicious act committed by a third party against the Site, including password abuse or hacking, as well as malicious software, email or data inoculation.
  • 6.2: In the context of constantly developing technology, Belga shall not accept any responsibility for technical changes which affect its market. It shall not guarantee the constant upgrading of its applications and may not be held liable for the deterioration of its services (such as fault-free access to and operating of its applications, etc.) caused by technical progress in general, or even a passing User with a more advanced technology, which is not compatible with the technology used by Belga.
  • 6.3: Belga shall not guarantee that its applications are operating or will operate fully or partially on the Users’ installations, whether they are paying or not. Belga shall in no way be held liable if the User has to invest in hardware or software in order to be able to use the Site and its services.
  • 6.4: Belga shall not be held liable for or guarantee any material or immaterial damages, economic loss or loss of earnings, whether direct or indirect, foreseeable or unforeseeable, linked to the use of the Site, other than in the event of fraud or gross negligence. In all events, and within the limits of that which is authorised by Belgian law, Belga’s liability in respect of Users and the services that it is offering, shall be limited to the amount of sums invoiced and collected by Belga for the service (and its reference period), which gave rise to the claim (excluding VAT).

Art. 7 – Intellectual property rights

  • 7.1: The Site and all its components (trademarks, logos, graphics, photographs, animations, music, texts, etc.) shall be the property of Belga or its partners. They shall be protected by intellectual property rights (namely copyright and related rights, trademarks, etc.) and may therefore not be copied, used or distributed without the prior written authorisation of Belga or, if applicable, the bearer of the rights concerned, subject to constituting an infringement of copyright and/or rights to designs and models and/or trademarks, punishable by up to three years and a fine of 100 to 100,000 Euros or only one of these penalties.
  • 7.2: Belga hereby grants the User a non exclusive and non transferable licence for an indefinite term, which may be revoked at any time without indicating the grounds, in order to access the Site contents, display them and download them solely for display purposes. The User may also print a copy of the content displayed on the Site, on condition that he in no way changes the Site’s content and that he keeps all the Site’s references of authorship and origin. The User also undertakes not to circumvent technical systems to protect documents and multimedia elements. Copying is therefore only authorised for strictly private purposes in the meaning of article 22, §1, 4° of the law of 30 June 1994 pertaining to copyright and related rights.
  • 7.3: The creation of a hyperlink to the Site’s home page shall be authorised, to the exclusion of any other address, and this being from appropriate sites only. Any hyperlink to a page inside the Site shall therefore be forbidden, subject to Belga’s express and prior authorisation.
  • 7.4: Any use of the Site and its components not mentioned in this article shall be strictly forbidden.

Art. 8 – Site accessibility and operation

  • 8.1: Accessibility

Belga shall ensure, in so far as possible, that the Site will remain accessible to a regular number of Users. Nevertheless, Belga shall not guarantee that the Site features will be available without interruption or error, that the faults will be corrected or that the Site and server which make it available are exempt of viruses or other harmful components. Furthermore, Belga reserves the right to suspend or stop all or part of the Site, at any time, without prior notice.

Belga shall not be held responsible for any loss and/or damage of any kind whatsoever, which may arise from the suspension, interruption, disturbance (technical), slowing down, difficulties of accessibility to all or part of the Site or even viruses or other harmful elements on the Site.

If the User detects the presence of a virus or other harmful elements on the Site, he is kindly asked to report them to Belga’s address: [email protected] so that the necessary measures may be taken. Belga in any event recommends that the User install on his computer firewalls, antivirus programmes and other protection software in order to prevent any damage to it.

  • 8.2: Use of the Site

The Users shall use the Site at their own risk and peril. The Site, its components and all information, software, installations, services and related items shall be supplied without any warranty of any kind, either express or implied and within the limits of the applicable law.

Belga shall not accept any liability in the event of any loss or damage (direct, indirect, material or immaterial) resulting from the use of the Site and its components, or the incapacity to use the Site.

  • 8.3: Interruption and discontinuance of the Site’s activities

 Belga may, at its sole discretion and without financial compensation, amend or temporarily interrupt its services, in particular in the context of a technical intervention or change to the Site’s features. It may also progressively or immediately cease its activities.

In the latter case, Belga reserves the right amongst several possibilities, including namely: a) the right to not accept new registrations, new paying subscriptions, or other paying services whilst attempting to keep, without guaranteeing results, the features inherent to the services acquired by the Users prior to the date on which it was decided to cease the activity, up until the maturity of the periods for which these services shall have been acquired; b) the right to immediately terminate the Site’s activities, namely in the event of force majeure, such as a major operational accident (destruction of the database, unavailability of the information system, war, uprising, floods, fire, etc.).

Art. 9 – Validity of the contractual clauses

  • 9.1: Failure by Belga to avail itself, at any given time, of a provision of the Conditions, may not be interpreted as a renunciation to subsequently avail itself of its rights in terms of the said provision.
  • 9.2: The invalidity, lapse or the unenforceable nature of all or part of one of the above or below mentioned provisions shall not give rise to the invalidity of all the Conditions. Any fully or partially invalid, lapsed or unenforceable provision shall be deemed not to have been written. Belga undertakes to substitute this provision with another which fulfils as far as possible, the same function.

Art. 10 – Applicable law and competent court

The Conditions shall be governed, interpreted and applied pursuant to Belgian law. Any User accessing the Site from any other country other than Belgium shall accept the strict application of Belgian law, to the exclusion of its international private law rules, and that of any other country.

All disputes arising out of or in connection with the Agreement shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Brussels.

 

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