Legal Stuff

The following Terms and Conditions are effective from August 1st, 2016 onwards, and were last revised May 18th, 2018.

Hier sind unser Haftungsausschluss und unsere Datenschutzerklärung.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to FOOD EXPLORERS and its website www.foodexplorers.net (“SITE”).

This agreement constitutes a license that covers your use of this SITE, any transactions that you engage in through this SITE (“AGREEMENT”), and your attendance of any events organized by FOOD EXPLORERS (“EVENTS”). Please read them carefully.

The Terms and Conditions (“TERMS”) that follow are similar in content to most you will see for any website. The basics are: we have responsibilities; you have responsibilities; we own the website and all related content; we will do our best to protect your privacy; you promise you are giving us accurate and reliable information and that you won’t try to negatively influence the functioning of our website; and we will do our best to provide accurate information in a timely manner.

By accessing, viewing or using this SITE, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree with these TERMS. FOOD EXPLORERS may update the TERMS at any time, and any changes will be effective upon posting. In the event that there are material changes to the way we treat your personal information, we will display a notice through the SITE prior to the change becoming effective. We may also notify you by email, at our discretion. If you do not wish to be bound by these TERMS, please do not use this SITE.

There are three parts to the TERMS outlined below. We have conditions of using the SITE and its contents, conditions of your membership, and the privacy policy about how we use your data.

Here’s what we are trying to say behind all of that legal mumbo-jumbo.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE AND CONTENT

The following TERMS apply to all visitors, members and others who access or use the SITE. By accessing or using our SITE, you agree to be bound by these TERMS. If you disagree with any part of these TERMS then you may not access the SITE.

The FOOD EXPLORERS name and logo are ours. We have spent time and money in creating them, so please help us keep them in good standing. If you have questions about whether and how you can use our logo or brand name, please ask us.

Everything on here is our material, except where otherwise acknowledged. 

Anything you contribute to this SITE, such as comments, photos, forum contributions et cetera, you do so of your own free will, and you agree that you have the right to do so.  When you do, it becomes ours.  We can use it and share it at will, although we will usually attribute it to you.  We won’t pay you for any contributions to our SITE unless specifically and separately agreed to.

The content of this SITE is for your own use only. Please don’t copy anything in it for someone else. It is one subscription per member, thank you!

We reserve the right to correct any errors or omission in any portion of the SITE. All content on this SITE is provided on an “as is”, “where is” and “where available” basis.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

As a convenience to you, FOOD EXPLORERS may provide on this SITE links to websites operated by other entities (collectively “LINKED SITES”). If you use any LINKED SITES, you will leave this SITE. If you decide to visit any LINKED SITES, you do so at your own risk and it is your responsibility to take all protective measures to guard against viruses or other destructive elements.

We are not responsible for any of the contents of LINKED SITES, or the reliability of any information provided within them, and we accept no liability whatsoever (whether legal or otherwise) for any losses or damages including, without limitation, indirect or consequential losses or damages, arising out of or in connection with the use of any of these linked websites.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

FOOD EXPLORERS is not liable, and you agree not to hold us responsible, for any damages or losses arising out of or in connection with the Terms of Use, including, but not limited to:

  • your use of or your inability to use our SITE;
  • delays or disruptions in our SITE;
  • viruses or other malicious software obtained by accessing, or linking to our SITE;
  • glitches, bugs, errors, or inaccuracies of any kind in our SITE;
  • damage to your hardware device from the use of the SITE;
  • the content, actions, or inactions of third parties’ use of the SITE;
  • a suspension or other action taken with respect to your account;
  • damages of any nature sustained by you or accompanying persons, or loss of, or damage to your personal property as a result of attending any EVENTS

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless FOOD EXPLORERS from and against any and all claims and expenses, including reasonable attorney fees, arising out of or related in any way to your use of the SITE, attendance of any EVENTS, violation of these TERMS, violation of any law or regulation, or violation of any proprietary or privacy right.

MEMBERSHIP

Application for Membership

Subscription Period: 1 year
Renewal type: Manual

All applications for membership are subject to the approval of FOOD EXPLORERS. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to deny membership to anyone, for any reason, in accordance with applicable laws. Membership is non-transferable.

Payment of Membership Fee and Events

Once your application is reviewed and approved, you will receive an email with bank transfer (Überweisung) details to pay your membership fee. Once we have received your fee, your membership will be complete. Membership will remain pending until payment is received.

FOOD EXPLORERS will send renewal notices approximately 30 days before your membership expires. You may renew your membership manually, and failure to do so by expiry date results in automatic suspension of membership (including SITE access rights).

REGISTRATION AND ACCOUNT SECURITY

FOOD EXPLORERS members provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account.

  • You will not provide any false personal information on FOOD EXPLORERS, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
  • You will not create more than one personal account.
  • If we disable your account, you will not create another one without our permission.
  • You will keep your contact information accurate and up-to-date.
  • You will not share your password, let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.
  • Membership is non-transferable, therefore your account is non-transferable either.

TERMS OF TERMINATION

We understand, that one day you might need to leave us and if that happens, just email us at queenbee@foodexplorers.net. Do allow thirty (30) days notice for all cancellations. We will issue you a pro-rated refund based on a monthly rate, minus a 5-Euro processing fee. No refund will be given for the month in which your membership terminates.

Example:  A member signed up on August 1st, but decided to cancel his membership on January 15th.  With 30 days notice, his membership would terminate on February 15th.  Excluding February, there are 5 months remaining in his subscription (March-July), which works out to ~12 Euro pro-rated, minus 5 Euro processing fee = 7 Euro refund.

If you breach the TERMS, we may be placed in a position where we have to cancel your membership and access to our SITE immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation. In this case, we will not be refunding your membership fee.

EVENT REGISTRATIONS, CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS

Online registration is available for all EVENTS. Availability is based on first-come-first-served basis. Full payment (where applicable) is required to secure your seat(s).

In case you need to cancel your event bookings, email us at queenbee@foodexplorers.net with your request, and we will process your refund according to the following guidelines:

Date of cancellation                                      Refund (before processing fee is applied)

More than 2 weeks                                         Full
Between 2 weeks and 7 days                    50%
Less than 7 days                                                None

A processing fee of 5 Euro per person will apply to all cancellation and refund requests made at least 7 days before an EVENT takes place.

Event tickets are transferrable, so in case you are unable to attend, you may consider selling your tickets to someone else.

If FOOD EXPLORERS cancels an EVENT for any reason, we will refund your payments in full. However, if the EVENT is cancelled, postponed, relocated or adversely affected by any cause out of our control, including but not limited to war, fire, national emergency, labour dispute, strike, lockout, civil disturbance, FOOD EXPLORERS shall be under no obligation to refund all or part of the sums you have paid. In cases beyond our control, FOOD EXPLORERS shall not be liable to you or any other person in respect of any actions, proceedings, claims, demands, losses (including consequential losses), costs or expenses whatsoever which may be brought against or suffered or incurred by yourself as the result thereof.

GOVERNING LAW

FOOD EXPLORERS is based in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Any questions or issues related to this AGREEMENT will be interpreted according to the laws of this state.

PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy policy has been compiled to better serve those who are concerned with how their ‘Personally Identifiable Information’ (PII) is being used online. PII, as described in EU privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. Please read our privacy policy carefully to get a clear understanding of how we collect, use, protect or otherwise handle your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our website.By using this SITE, you consent to the TERMS of this Privacy Policy.

We collect information from you when you register on our site, fill out a form or enter information on our site.  When making a booking, contacting or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, country of origin, events of interest, or other details to help you with your experience.

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, make a booking, sign up for our newsletter, respond to a survey or marketing communication, surf the SITE, or use certain other site features in the following ways:  to improve our SITE in order to better serve you; to allow us to better service you in responding to your customer service requests; to quickly process your transactions; to follow up after correspondence (email or phone enquiries); data storage on our SITE for future reference.

Your privacy is very important to us. We will keep your information safe, never give or sell it to third parties, and we will never spam you. Our SITE is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to our SITE as safe as possible.

We use other providers to help us bring you this service. We use professional companies that, to the best of our knowledge, use safe practices around data. Most of the time we do not need to share your data with anyone else, but we use other companies to host this SITE, to send you emails that you ask for, and so on, so we have to give them the data they need to do that.  They won’t knowingly do anything bad with it.  If you think they are, please tell us.

Neither we, nor our partners will ask you for a credit card number or personal information via email.  Use best practices with emails – do not open unexpected attachments, even if they look like they are from us.  If you need to do anything secure, please do so by logging into our SITE.

We don’t, but we may at some point, put advertising on our SITE for relevant products and services.  It may help us cover the cost of continuing to make this SITE better.  If we do so, it will be obvious.  If you click on an advertisement, it will likely take you out of our SITE and then you’re on your own.

Information collected automatically

We and our third party service providers such as Google, including analytics and third party content providers, may automatically collect certain information from you whenever you access or interact with the SITE. This allows us to bring you the best possible service by improving content and performance.

Here is what the SITE records:

  • Environmental variables: browser type, operating system and CPU speed, and the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your originating Internet Service Provider
  • Search requests and results are recorded to try to ensure the accuracy and efficiency of our search engine
  • Your IP (internet protocol) address tracks your use of the SITE, including pages visited and time spent on each page

All of the information that is automatically submitted to us by your browser is considered anonymous information. To a certain extent we share such information with third parties, but it is not traceable to any particular user and will not be used to contact you.

Cookies

Like many websites, we and our third party service providers use “cookies” to collect information. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We use both persistent cookies that remain on your computer or similar device (such as to save your registration ID and login password for future logins to the SITE) and session ID cookies, which expire at the end of your browser. You may be able to instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies, or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all functionality of the SITE.

Third parties that link on this SITE may use cookies or collect other information when you go to their sites. We do not control the collection or use of your information by these companies. You should contact these companies directly if you have any questions about their collection or use of your information.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The European Union’s GDPR is a law that sets the rules for data collection and storage, establishes requirements for this, gives EU residents the right to have data removed and spells out tough penalties for violations.

We collect your data in order to:

  • Send information, respond to enquiries, and/or other requests or questions
  • Process bookings, applications and to send information and updates pertaining to bookings
  • Market to our mailing list or continue to send emails to our members and subscribers to inform of upcoming events

To be in accordance with GDPR, we agree to the following:

  • Not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses
  • Identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way
  • Include the physical address of our business
  • Monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used
  • Honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly
  • Allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email

Opt-Out Policy

If at any time you do not wish to receive monthly updates and emails from us, you must tell us. There are two ways you may do this:

  1. You may remove your name from our mailing list by sending an email addressed to info@foodexplorers.net and indicating in the subject line “No monthly updates or emails”
  2. You may click the unsubscribe link located at the bottom of all of our monthly updates and event invitations

CONTACTING US

If you have any questions regarding these TERMS, you may contact FOOD EXPLORERS using the information below:

Faeimm Tang
Food Explorers
Im Lehen 4
69226 Nußloch
Germany

+49 172 975 8981
info@foodexplorers.net