Terms & Conditions

These terms and conditions (the “Terms and Conditions”) set forth the legally binding terms for accessing, using and visiting any and all web pages and related services and materials of this website (the “Website”), which is operated by Europe Unlimited, S.A., also representing the affiliated companies Tech Tour Global EOOD (Bulgaria), and Tech Tour International, S.A.R.L. (Switzerland); (altogether “The Operator”).

Europe Unlimited S.A.

Address: Avenue Louise 222, 1050 – Ixelles – Belgium

Phone: +32 (0)2 644 65 80

E-mail address: legal@techtour.com

Enterprise no: BE 0462.923.491

In order to access the Website, you (the “User”) must unconditionally accept the present Terms and Conditions in their entirety.

1. Definitions
2. Code of conduct and terms of use
3. Liability
4. Privacy Policy
5. Cookies
6. Security and Confidentiality
7. Intellectual property rights
8. Term and Termination
9. Cancellations and no shows
10. General

1. Definitions

2.  Code of Conduct and Terms of Use

The website is a platform designed to facilitate the connection between entrepreneurs, investors, corporations and researchers of innovative technology. This in line with our mission to provide for a vibrant membership community. Through the website, it is possible to provide The Members with the necessary business information to successfully build and maintain strategic relationships and eventually to support the development of a healthy economy. This is the goal the website serves, and this is why The Operator needs to collect information.

2.1  Basic rules

The Website consists of two parts: (i) A public part and (ii) a password protected Community member part. You agree to use the Website exclusively for purposes that are specific or related to the nature of the Website.

Public Web

Contains content such as product and corporate descriptions, press releases, news articles, event information including information on participants, event pictures and testimonials.

Community Web for registered members

Contains content such as profiles filled in by members or collected by the Operator, communities and/or other messaging or communication systems.

In addition to the below basic rules of the Website, Tech Tour complies with the European General Data protection regulation (GDRP). The requirements in the Regulation promotes the safety of data and personal information of EU residents.

Article 5 (1) outlines your fundamental data protection rights. Tech Tour’s obligations and the users’ privacy rights are covered in our Privacy Policy.

By using the Website, you, as a User, agree at least to respect the following non-exhaustive list of rules:

1.  not to insult, mistreat, stalk, aggravate or threaten anyone, nor to violate the rights of others (especially the rights of the individual, including the right to a private life) in any way;

2.  not to publish, submit, upload to a server, distribute or circulate any topic or element, name or information that is inappropriate, offensive to religious or ethical convictions, racial, libelous, obscene, immoral, unauthorized or that violates any right whatsoever, especially intellectual property rights;

3.  not to upload files to a server that contain software or other elements that are protected by intellectual property rights (or by the rights of the individual, including the right to a private life), unless you are a holder of the aforementioned rights, exercise legal control over these rights, or have obtained all the required authorizations;

4.  not to upload files to a server that contain viruses, corrupt files or any other comparable software or programs that can impair the operation of another computer;

5.  not to participate in or send studies, contests, pyramid systems or chain letters;

6.  not to send or post unsolicited messages (“spam”) to other Members;

7.  not to download files that were sent by a User when you know (or should know) that this distribution is illegal or violates its confidential nature;

8.  not to make public confidential information or business secrets;

9.  not to remove or falsify any statement contained in a file that is uploaded to a server that concerns the author, a legal statement, or any other indication of rights of ownership or that concerns the origin of the source of the software or any other element;

10.  not to limit or hinder the normal use of the Website by any other User;

11.  not to disclose sensitive information, such as information of racial nature, origin, political or religious beliefs and/or medical data;

12.  to acknowledge and guarantee that you use the Website exclusively within the framework of your commercial and professional activity;

13.  to acknowledge that The Operator, its related partners or corporations, managing directors, principals, agents or employees are under no circumstances acting as financial intermediaries, offering public or private securities, providing investment services or intermediating investment services or to enable the intermediation of investment services by others, neither have any intention to do so. The Operator does not engage in regulated activities between investors and regulated firms; the Operator does not intervene toward investors in relation with a public offering, in any capacity on behalf of the bidder, not even temporarily or against compensation of any sort.

14.  to acknowledge that at no time the Operator neither asks you to provide financial data related to a public or private offer, nor to review such an offer or to provide recommendations on such an offer;

15.  to acknowledge the relevant regulation issued by the Belgian financial supervisory authority or any other relevant authority regarding public or private offerings of securities and expressively guarantee not to use the Website for activities relating to public or private offerings of securities;

16.  not to collect, use, copy, or transfer any information obtained from Tech Tour without the consent of Tech Tour, with or without the help of a derivate technology;

17.  not to share or disclose information of others without their express consent;

18.  not to use manual or automated software, devices, scripts robots, other means or processes to access, “scrape,” “crawl” or “spider” the services or any related data or information;

19.  not to use bots or other automated methods to access the services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages;

20.  not to monitor the services’ availability, performance or functionality for any competitive purpose;

21.  not to engage in “framing,” “mirroring,” or otherwise simulating the appearance or function of the Services;

22.  not to override any security feature of the Services;

23.  to provide correct information (name, email, etc.) and to notify quickly the Operator when this information changes;

24.  not to breach the law by providing protected information;

25.  to acknowledge that part of the Content is provided by the Users themselves. Therefore, the User, before making use of the information found on the Website, should verify the correctness of the information by her or his own means. The operator cannot be held liable for the use of non-accurate or non-up to date data found on the Website.

26.  to understand that you should not provide information on the Website that could be considered as sensitive or confidential, as it could be viewed and used by other Users or used by the Operator following the present Terms & Conditions.

2.2  Content on the Community Web Page

The Operator exercises no control nor in any way approves the User-provided Content including the messages or the information that is posted on and/or used in the Website, and consequently any User explicitly accepts that The Operator cannot be held liable concerning any User-generated Content or any legal claim that results from your use of any of the services on the Website or any of its Content. The Operator is not responsible for services or any Content provided through the website by third parties.

You acknowledge that the password protected Community part of the Website is open to all Community Members. Messages between its Users and any communication on the Website is not of a private nature. Therefore, you understand and agree that other Members may be able to read your communication or messages on the Website.

The Member is required to regularly update the Content related to its undertaking. The Operator reserves the right to erase, without any prior notice, any and all data uploaded by a User on the Website (i) if no update of the data provided by the User has been made for a period of more than 36 months and/or (ii) if the Operator has been informed by or upon the request of one or more Users, acting in good faith, of the data entered by the User do not constitute the true reflection of the User’s undertaking.

2.3  Use of Publicity

Subject to the following conditions, professionals are entitled to advertise on the Website. The conditions for publishing banners, buttons, skyscrapers or pop-ups on the Website can be obtained by sending a request to the following e-mail address: sponsorship@techtour.com.

Publicity sent to other Members should not only comply with the basic rules relating to the use of the Website, but also the rules established under Belgian and European law, and in particular the following rules:

1.  Publicity and/or direct marketing should be solicited (opt-in) by Users and may not fall under “spam” messages;

2.  The right to oppose to future publicity should be mentioned, and the means to use this right should be accessible, unambiguous and clear;

3.  It is prohibited to provide the e-mail address or identity of third parties for direct marketing purposes;

4.  It is prohibited to delete the origin or the (initial) author of the e-mail in order to use the right to block future publicity;

5.  Communications of a commercial nature should be clearly identifiable as such and should always clearly indicate the name of the natural or legal person on whose behalf the communication was sent;

6.  Any promotional offer should be clearly identifiable as such and the conditions thereof should be presented unambiguously.

2.4  Restriction of Access, Reporting of Irregular Use and Notice and Takedown Procedure

If a User fails to comply with these Terms and Conditions, the Operator will, if possible, provide a notification thereof to the User concerned. If the User fails to remedy such breach within five (5) days after the notification was sent, the Operator is entitled to, without prejudice to The Operator’s right to claim an indemnity from that User, temporarily (i) suspend any of its services provided to the User and/or (ii) deny or restrict, permanently or temporarily, the User’s access to the Website.

In addition, the Operator explicitly retains all rights to report Users to the competent authorities and to distribute any information in order to comply with all applicable laws or regulations, or to comply with a judicial or administrative order.

In order to enable the Operator to take the required and appropriate measures to restrict access to or to delete any unauthorized or libelous Content, the Operator asks its Users to report any libelous or unauthorized Content that might be accessible on the Website. The Users are requested to use the following e-mail address for this purpose: legal@techtour.com.

2.5  Unauthorized Use

You may use the Website only on the condition that you guarantee the Operator that you will not use this Website for unauthorized purposes or goals, nor for violating the Terms and Conditions, applicable laws and/or any contractual provision of the Website.

In case of use of this Website for unauthorized purposes or goals, and/or that violates the Terms and Conditions and/or applicable laws, the Operator is entitled to, without prejudice to The Operator’s right to claim an indemnity from that User, temporarily (i) suspend any of its services provided to the User and/or (ii) deny or restrict, permanently or temporarily, the User’s access to the Website.

In addition to the basic rules set forth in Article 2.1, and without limitation thereof, it is prohibited to use the services of the Website for any transaction that results in:

1.  illegal access to the data of connected networks, and/or (un)secured communities;

2.  damage to the proper operation of the Website or placing at risk the use or the capacity of the transactions of other Users, especially by causing a large amount of unjustified traffic;

3.  damage to or destruction of the integrity of the computer data;

4.  a violation of any intellectual property right.

In addition to the foregoing, and subject to general and particular criminal rules in any other applicable jurisdiction due to the place where a User is located, you are hereby informed of the following criminal offences for IT abuse under Belgian law:

1.  Each person who submits (saved, processed and/or transmitted) data from an IT system to another database or IT system in order to modify, erase or change the data using technological means, and each person who uses such data knowing its origin or the illegal submission and/or fraudulently acquires a benefit or asset using these data, commits an act of fraud and may be held liable for this criminal offence.

2.  A person can also be held criminally liable for cracking or hacking, i.e. obtaining illegally access and/or intentionally bypassing the regular access entry to a protected website or a part thereof, and data manipulation, i.e. directly or indirectly inserting, modifying, deleting or changing data by using technological means.

3.  Attempting these criminal offences is also criminally sanctioned.

3.  Liability and Compensation

While The Operator attempts to ensure that the Content of the Website, other than the User-provided Content, has been obtained from reasonably reliable sources, The Operator is neither responsible nor liable for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this Content. The information, products and services included in this Website can contain technical and content-related inaccuracies or typing errors. This Content is subject to periodic change. The Operator and/or its affiliates, employees and suppliers can make improvements and/or changes to this Website at any time.

The Operator attempts to keep the website and the services permanently accessible, but maintenance and technical issues may cause it to be inaccessible. The Operator cannot in any case be held liable for potential interruptions.

The Operator and/or its affiliates, employees and suppliers make no statement concerning the appropriateness, reliability, suitability, usefulness and/or exactness of the Content, software, products, services and associated graphics and elements that this Website contains, regardless of its use. All the Content, software, products, services and associated graphics elements are provided ‘as is’, without any type of guarantee and without any warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of performance, commodification and fitness for particular purpose, non-infringement or otherwise, including time of performance.

The User understands that the information she or he provides on the Website, may be accessed, viewed or used to deliver the Website intended services to other Users, special events matchmaking, online matchmaking, and to certain communities within the Website. Hence the User should carefully review the information and not publish sensitive or confidential data on the Website.

Under no circumstances shall the Operator, its related partners or corporations, managing directors, principals, agents or employees be held responsible or liable to the User or anyone else for any decision made or action taken in reliance upon the Content of the Website or for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or general, consequential or other damages whatsoever, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. With the exception of direct damages resulting from gross negligence or willful misconduct, The Operator and/or its suppliers will not be held liable for direct damages, incidents, sanctions in the form of damages awarded, collateral damage, extraordinary damage, indirect damage or any other type of damage, whether material or immaterial, especially for damages resulting from a loss of use, of data or a loss of profits resulting from or related to the use or the operation of this Website, the delay related to the use of this website or the impossibility to use it, the delivery or the lack of delivery of services, or for damages related to any form of information, software, products, services and associated graphics elements that were obtained via this Website or that are the result of the use of this Website, regardless of whether it concerns contractual liability, liability due to an unlawful act or quasi-unlawful act, or whether this liability is based on a liability without fault or other, even if the Website or one of its suppliers would have been informed of the possibility of such damages.

The User will indemnify and save The Operator harmless from and against any liabilities, actions, proceedings, claims, causes of action, demands, debts, losses, damages, charges and costs, including reasonable legal costs, any amount paid to settle any action or to satisfy a judgment and expenses of any kind and character whatsoever incurred by The Operator relating to or arising from the User’s Content, including instances where the User’s Content infringes any third party content or other third-party intellectual property rights, or violates in these Terms and Conditions and or any applicable law.

Certain hypertext links in this Website will lead you to external websites that are not under the control of The Operator. The Operator accepts no responsibility or liability for the content of any third-party site linked to by a hypertext or any other type of link, and gives no representation or warranty (express or implied) as to the information contained on any such site. The Operator has no control over the nature and contents of such sites and is not recommending the information they contain nor any third party’s products or services.

Finally, you are hereby informed that by downloading computer programs from certain sites, you risk infringing intellectual property rights and may introduce computer viruses into your own system. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to check the legal and privacy policy sections of any other third-party site you link to.

4.  Privacy Policy

Tech Tour has implemented actions in order to be compliant with the European Commission’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), applicable from 26/5/18. Further information on Tech Tour’s obligations and the Users’ right to data protection can be found in our Privacy Policy.

5.  Cookies

The web page uses two different main types of cookies. Functional cookies that are inserted to make sure that the website functions properly (e.g. for login, payment or registration purposes). These cookies are not used to identify users of the website. Non-functional cookies (tracking cookies) that have been inserted for statistical and targeting purposes. These cookies can be used to identify the users. Therefore, the data they collect are regulated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

You can at any time accept or refuse Tech Tour’s use of cookies. Either by the accept/refuse options made available when entering the web page or by installing your web browser in such a way that the browser provides information about the reception of a cookie or makes it possible to refuse the placing of a cookie. However, the User should be aware that in case of refusal of the placing of cookies, some parts of the Website may not function properly, or may be inaccessible, or the requested information, service or activity may not be supplied. You can find more information about our cookie policy and the GDPR regulation on this page: Cookie Policy.

6.  Security and Confidentiality

6.1  Password and access code

Any Member agrees to respect the secret and confidential character of her or his password and access code. The Member is fully and solely responsible for each use of these identification elements. In the event of loss, theft or fraudulent use of one of these elements, the Member is obliged to inform the Website in writing as soon as possible.

6.2  On-line communication

Messages that you send to or through the Website by e-mail may not be secure. The Operator recommends that you do not send any confidential information by e-mail. If you choose to send any messages via e-mail, you accept the risk that they may be intercepted, misused or modified by a third party, and that The Operator is neither responsible nor liable for any damage or loss in this respect.

6.3  Security of the Website

The Operator uses best efforts to secure the Website. To that end, The Operator operates a secure data network that is protected by industry standard firewalls and password protection. The Operator’s Website has also implemented security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your User data under our control.

We impose strict rules on The Operator’s employees who have access either to the databases that store User information or to the servers that host our services. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration to data will not occur, we make every effort to prevent such unfortunate occurrences.

7.  Intellectual Property Rights

7.1  Legal protection of the Website

All the elements of the Content (such as but not limited to texts, layouts, illustrations, pictures, functionalities) and the Website itself are, to the fullest extent possible, the exclusive property of The Operator, and are, among others, protected by national, European and international rules governing author’s rights, including Book XI of the Belgian Code of Economic Law. Any reproduction, copy, adaptation, translation, modification, alteration, edition and/or diffusion of all, or a part, of the Website, whatever the form and whatever the means, electronic and/or mechanic, is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of the copyright owner(s). Any violation of author’s rights may lead to civil and/or criminal proceedings.

7.2  Legal protection of The Operator’s database

The Operator has taken the initiative and the risks to create the Operator’s database. The Operator’s database is an original database integrating independent data in a systematic and original way, the creation of which has entailed a substantial investment. The Operator’s database is, to the fullest extent possible, the exclusive property of The Operator and is, among others, protected by national, European and international rules governing author’s rights, including Book XI of the Belgian Code of Economic Law. Any reproduction, copy, adaptation, translation, modification, alteration, edition and/or diffusion of all, or a part, of The Operator’s database, whatever the form and whatever the means, electronic and/or mechanic, is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Operator. Each Member’s rights to their own private data is regulated by the GDPR and described in the Privacy Policy.

Furthermore, the content of the Operator’s database is protected by the Belgian, European and international legislation on the legal protection of the databases, including Book XI of the Belgian Code of Economic Law. According to these legal provisions, The Operator may prevent extraction and/or reutilization of the whole or of a substantial part of the contents of The Operator’s database and may specify to lawful users which parts of The Operator database such lawful users are authorized to extract and/or re-utilize. Lawful users of the Operator’s database may not undertake any action which conflicts with the normal use of the database or which would cause unreasonable prejudice to the legitimate interests of The Operator.

Violation of the Operator’s database rights may lead to civil and/or criminal proceedings.

7.3  Legal Protection of the Content

When the User provides or uploads Content (such as texts, logos, drawings, pictures, images, sounds, audio, video and audio-visual files (such as on or in which the User herself or himself or any other individuals appear)) to the Website or data (such as names and e-mail addresses of herself or himself or other individuals), then she or he:

1.  grants to The Operator, without any charge and for the duration of copyright under Belgian law, a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable and sub-licensable right to, wholly or partially, in any form, in any way and on any medium (including the Website), separately or in combination with any other works, use, reproduce, communicate to the public, arrange, adapt, modify, film, make images, photographs or drawings of, translate, make available, exploit, distribute, commercialize, possess or offer for commercial purposes, put into commerce, sell, disseminate, rent, lend and/or integrate in the Website or another website or medium, the Content. To the extent permitted by law, the User refrains from exercising her or his moral rights against The Operator for the Content she or he has uploaded to the Website;

2.  warrants that she or he is entitled to do so and grants the abovementioned rights and that the Content, the provision and uploading thereof and the granting of said rights do not violate any intellectual or industrial property rights, privacy rights, rights of image or any other rights of any third party. If any third party makes a claim or initiates any legal proceedings against The Operator in connection herewith because of an alleged violation of any right of that third party, then the User will, at her or his own costs and at The Operator’s first request, provide The Operator with all possible information, help and assistance (i.e. voluntarily intervening in a negotiation, mediation or proceedings) which enables The Operator to optimally defend itself, and the User will integrally compensate and indemnify The Operator for any compensations, fines, costs and other damage (including attorneys and experts fees and costs) in connection with or arising out of such claim or proceedings.

The users personal data is protected by the General Data Protection Regulation. For more information please refer directly to the page Privacy Policy.

8.  Termination of Use of the Website and Membership

Notwithstanding any provision under these Terms and Conditions, The Operator may, in her or his sole discretion, suspend, restrict or terminate the account of any Member and the use of  any User of the Website, effective at any time, without notice to the Member or the User, for any reason, including because the operation or efficiency of the Website or her or his or any third party’s equipment or network is impaired by her or his use of the Website, any amount is past due from her or him to The Operator, The Operator has received a third party complaint which relates to the use or misuse of the Website, or the User has been or is in breach of any term or condition of these Terms and Conditions. The Operator will have no responsibility to notify any third party, including any third party providers of services, merchandise or information, of any suspension, restriction or termination of the access to the Website.

Every subscribed member has the right to put an end to this membership. The member will address The Operator by e-mail notification, at this address: support@techtour.com. The termination of by the member cannot in any way lead to a reimbursement or a compensation. For more information on our data protection procedures, see our Privacy Policy.

9.  Cancellations and No Shows

9.1  Up to 10 days before the event

Cancellation from paid participants up to 10 days before the event, will not be charged and a refund will be ordered. If the payment is via PayPal, taxes and charges from PayPal will be deducted from the refunded amount.

9.2  Less than 10 days but more than 24 hours

Cancellation from paid participants less than 10 days but more than 24 hours notified before the event will be charged 50% of the amount paid to cover basic catering as well as management costs. If the payment is via PayPal, taxes and charges from PayPal will be deducted from the refunded amount.

9.3  Less than 24 hours

No show of paid participants less than 24 hours:

• with notification will be charged 75% of the full amount;
• without notification (except cancelled flights) will be charged with the full amount to cover catering, handling (badges, printouts, …), non-participation and management costs;
• (with notification or without notification) because of cancelled flights will be charged 25% of the fee;
• If the payment is via PayPal, taxes and charges from PayPal will be deducted from the refunded amount.

10.  General

10.1  Changes to the Terms and Conditions

The Operator preserves the right to adapt and amend all Terms and Conditions of access and/or use of its website. The Operator will notify the User by e-mail if any major changes occur. The User is obliged to consult all Terms and Conditions mentioned above, and are encouraged to do so before each use of the website. Any access and/or use of the Website implies the agreement of the User on the content of all Terms and Conditions in force at the time of access and/or use.

10.2  No waiver

The failure of the Website to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms and Conditions shall not operate as a waiver of such right or provision.

10.3  Suspension and/or removal of content

With a view to improving or maintaining quality of the Website, The Operator may, without notice, suspend access to this Website in whole or in part, or temporarily or permanently suspend or remove some Content. Under no circumstances will such suspension or removal result in any compensation.

10.4  Severability

In case a provision or a condition provided in these Terms and Conditions becomes, for whatever reason, invalid or unenforceable, this will not affect the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of the Terms and Conditions. The User accepts that a similar condition will apply, that is as close as possible with the purpose and consequences of the invalid or unenforceable provision.

10.5  Governing law and jurisdiction

Any dispute relating to or resulting from, directly and/or indirectly, the use of, the (lack of) access to, the visit of and the (illegal or prohibited) use of the Website are governed solely by Belgian law. The Courts of Brussels shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute relating thereto, without prejudice to The Operator’s right of making choice of any other court having jurisdiction on such a dispute under any applicable law.

The use of the Website is not allowed in countries where the totality or a substantial part of the Terms and Conditions, including this paragraph, is not applicable