Legal information BERNEXPO AG.

The responsible provider of this website within the meaning of data protection law is:

BERNEXPO AG

Mingerstrasse 6

Postfach

CH-3000 Bern 22

Switzerland

Tel. +41 31 340 11 11

Fax +41 31 340 11 10

Email: info@bernexpo.ch

Web: www.bernexpo.ch

You can reach our data protection officer at:

+41 31 340 11 48 or by email at legal@bernexpo.ch

You can reach our data protection officer at:

+41 31 340 11 48 or send an e-mail to legal@bernexpo.ch

1.    Duration for which your data are retained

We retain your data only for as long as is legally required or necessary in accordance with the purpose of processing. In the case of analyses, we store your data until such time as the analysis is completed. If we store data based on a contractual relationship with you, these data remain stored, at a minimum, for as long as the contractual relationship is in effect and, at a maximum, for as long as the prescription period for possible claims by us are running or statutory or contractual retention obligations exist.

2.    Legal bases

We process your personal data only within the scope of data processing principles and if a legal basis exists. This legal basis applies in the case of entering into and performing a contract with us. Apart from that, we have an interest in continuously improving our websites and adapting them to meet your needs. This constitutes a necessity in order to enhance our websites, to be able to finance them and to ensure the security of our websites. We assume that our interests predominate.

If you have consented to data processing, this applies. We assume that you consent to data processing when you visit our websites.

3.    Your rights

a) In general

As a rule, you have the rights of information access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, withdrawal, and objection, as well as, where applicable, to lodge complaints.

b) Data of young persons under the age of 16

In accordance with the general requirements of data protection law, young persons under the age of 16 are not able to grant consent to the processing of their personal data. However, consent is necessary in order to use certain services on our websites and platforms.

As a general rule, our services and platforms are not addressed to young persons under the age of 16. To the extent that individual websites of BERNEXPO AG are directed at a young audience, we are aware that this places heightened requirements on our services in terms of data protection law. Given that we are able to manage a relevant portion of the content available on the platform, it is possible for us to largely rule out that young persons will be confronted with inappropriate content.

Where this Data Protection Policy refers to consent, this always also includes the consent of the parents or the legal guardian, insofar as this is necessary. As a general rule, we assume in this regard that where a young person uses our services, the legal guardian has consented to it. This principle applies until such time as we are notified otherwise by the legal guardian or, due to other circumstances, we have to assume that a young person is using our services without the consent of the legal guardian. In such case, we reserve the ability to promptly block access to our services. With respect to the exercise of elective rights under data protection law, we treat legal guardians of young persons as if the young persons themselves had exercised their rights. This applies until the young person reaches the age of 16, at which point, in the event of a conflict (and as long as the matter does not involve the purchase of a service for a fee), we exclusively heed the elective rights of the young person.

c) Information access, rectification

You at all times have the right to access information about your stored data at no charge, as well as the right to rectification. Please contact us for this purpose. Our contact information can be found in Section I of this Data Protection Policy.dl

d) Portability

You furthermore have the right to demand that your personal data be transmitted to you or another controller at no charge. However, please be aware that we will not be able to adapt your data protection to conform to any special format requirements that another controller may have, and under no circumstances will we transmit your business history or passwords.

e) Withdrawal and erasure

You can withdraw your consent to this Data Protection Policy at any time and demand the erasure of your personal data. Please contact us for this purpose. Our contact information can be found in Section I of this Data Protection Policy.

In the case of an erasure request, we will block your profile. However, please be aware that for reasons of commercial and tax law, we are obligated to retain booking records for at least 10 financial years. Therefore, we cannot erase or process the personal data contained in these records. Your erasure request therefore applies to this extent only to future processing.

If a contractual relationship is still pending at the time when your withdrawal and your erasure request are received, your personal data will continue to be processed until the contract is performed in full. Your withdrawal in terms of data protection law expressly has no influence on the performance of existing contractual relationships and is not considered a ground for termination without notice.

f) Complaints to the supervisory authority

Im Falle von Verstössen gegen das Bundesgesetz über den Datenschutz steht den Betroffenen ab Inkrafttreten des revidierten Gesetzes (voraussichtlich ab 2023) ein Beschwerderecht beim Eidgenössischen Datenschutz- und Öffentlichkeitsbeauftragten (kurz "EDÖB") zu. Das Beschwerderecht besteht unbeschadet anderweitiger verwaltungsrechtlicher oder gerichtlicher Rechtsbehelfe.

1.    Websites

We offer the majority of our services through our websites. Data processing through our websites takes place in accordance with the provisions of this Data Protection Policy. An overview of the websites that are covered by this Data Protection Policy is provided above at the outset.

2.    Applications, particularly the BERNEXPO WEB APP

In addition to our websites, we offer additional services through applications, particularly the BERNEXPO WEB APP. This is an all-in-one application that is designed to enable our visitors to have the best possible experience at our trade fairs, congresses and events – from the initial contact to the duration of the event to useful, interactive services following an event. The collection and processing of personal data in our applications also takes place in accordance with the provisions of this Data Protection Policy.

1.    Principle of central, holistic profile administration

Because of our broad range of services, your personal data may be collected by BERNEXPO AG through various analogue and digital channels. In order to keep the volume of personal data you provide to us through use of our services as small, uniform and up to date as possible, we pursue the approach of bundling all of your personal data in a central personal profile. In this regard, our individual services access those personal data from your profile and process them in the way they are needed for providing a very specific service.

This makes it possible for us to provide our services to you with high efficiency, precision and transparency and at the same time has the purpose of collecting as little data from you as possible multiple times. With this central, integrated data management, we also pursue the objective of making it as easy and convenient as possible for you to use all of our services.

a)    Exhibitor profile

BERNEXPO AG operates a central service centre on its own infrastructure in which exhibitor data are managed. If you use the service centre as an exhibitor, the provisions of this Data Protection Policy apply.

Individual shops set up in the service centre for processing orders, etc. are not hosted by BERNEXPO AG but rather by third parties engaged by contract. The collected personal data are limited to those that are technically necessary for the proper operation of the respective platform. BERNEXPO AG has ensured through corresponding contractual agreements with the engaged third parties that the data on the respective platform are not processed by the engaged third parties to any further extent. Data are hosted on servers within the European Economic Area (in the scope of application of the European General Data Protection Regulation).

b)    Visitor profile

BERNEXPO AG operates a central data base in which visitor data are managed. The central data base is hosted on servers within the European Economic Area.

The central data base as well as individual features utilised for data coordination, interface management and linking, etc. are not hosted by BERNEXPO AG but instead by BSI Business Systems Integration AG, Baden, Switzerland (BSI) as well as by contractual partners of BSI that host the data, particularly in Germany, using the following applications:

• bsi.crm: This customer relationship management tool is used for coordinating data between the individual system services in a centralised manner for the purpose of providing our services to you.
• bsi.cx: This customer experience tool is used for analysing campaigns and newsletters to you in conformity with this Data Protection Policy and your personal preferences.
• bsi.cdp: This customer data platform tool is used for compiling your data uniformly and correctly in a central profile.

The personal data collected by BSI itself are limited to those that are technically necessary for the proper operation of the respective application. BERNEXPO AG has ensured through corresponding contractual agreements with BSI that the data on the respective platforms are not processed by BSI to any further extent. Data are hosted on servers within Switzerland or the European Economic Area (in the scope of application of the European General Data Protection Regulation).

2.    Transmission of personal data

Data that are entered in forms on our website are transmitted from your computer to the server in encrypted form. Data that are entered in the contact form are not stored on your computer (no cookies or similar). Despite encryption, absolute security is not possible. The server forwards the data you entered in the contact form by email for processing. These emails are not encrypted. The use of email is not technically secure. In some cases, emails are not delivered. Emails can cross country borders when being transmitted, even where sender and recipient are located domestically. If encryption is lacking or insufficient, the confidentiality of emails cannot be assured. Accordingly, we make an effort to minimise the amount of personal data in email correspondence.

By using the forms or transmitting an email, you consent to communication by email in awareness of the described risks.

3.    Retention of our personal data

Your personal data collected directly by BERNEXPO AG in connection with activities on the websites are hosted on the servers of netrics AG in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. The servers are shielded as far as possible against unauthorised access by outsiders. Backups are made at regular intervals in order to prevent data losses as far as possible. Any other server locations of third-party providers we use are listed in the information about the respective provider or tool.

To the extent we collect your personal data independently of a website visit (emails, information from postal correspondence, etc.), the data are stored on servers in the European Economic Area. The servers are shielded as far as possible against unauthorised access by outsiders. Backups are made at regular intervals in order to prevent data losses as far as possible.

4.    Server log files

The provider of the services automatically collects and stores information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. This includes:

• IP address
• Date and time of browser request
• Any transferred information about the operating system or browser

The collected data are used solely for statistical analyses and for the purpose of improving the services. However, we reserve the ability to examine the server log files at a later date if there are specific indications of unlawful use.

5.    Cookies

Subject to your consent (to the extent that applicable law requires it), we use cookies and similar technologies for our services. You can find further information about this in Section V “Information concerning the use of cookies”.

6.    Admission tickets, coupons and promotional code

If you would like to purchase an admission ticket in advance (PDF ticket/mobile ticket), we require, at a minimum, your contact and payment information in order to complete the purchase. Additional questions may be asked for certain trade fairs in order to be able to verify your entitlement to enter the trade fair. We use your responses for market research or to improve our own products. The prices for admission tickets can be found on the websites. Controlling are the prices listed on the website at the time of ordering; they are immediately due for payment. The customer pays the amount indicated in their order by online payment.

The customer may receive a promotional code/coupon from a trade fair exhibitor/event organiser for a discounted or free admission ticket. If the customer redeems the promotional code/coupon, the exhibitor/event organiser will receive data about the purchased admission ticket. In this regard, the customer’s salutation, first and last name or company name, email address, phone number and mailing address will be transferred, insofar as these were provided.

In the area of promotional codes/coupons, we act as the processor for the respective exhibitor/event organiser – knowledge of who redeemed a promotional code/coupon is in the legitimate interest of the exhibitor/event organiser. If you are not in agreement with this data processing, we ask that you contact the exhibitor/event organiser directly. If you send us a data protection enquiry in connection with a promotional code/coupon, we will forward this enquiry to the respective exhibitor/event organiser.

7.    Admission tickets, coupons and promotional code

a)    In general

In connection with its own trade fairs, BERNEXPO AG can carry out a complete visitor registration.

By participating in visitor registration and by sending the declaration at the end of the registration process, you consent that BERNEXPO AG may use select data (company, first and last name, address, payment information and email) for billing and for sending the admission tickets. Similarly, the details (company, first and last name, address, email address and other information you provide) can be used for marketing and optimisation purposes, which enables us to perform market research in order to be able to offer you better services and better customer service and to further optimise our websites.

b)    Use of your data for marketing purpose/visitor mailing

Where there is a corresponding basis in terms of data protection law (use of a free service or corresponding consent), we use your contact information following completion of visitor registration in order to inform you about similar events by email, as well as for marketing and optimisation purposes, which enable us to offer you better services and better customer service, statistical purposes and to further optimise our websites (visitor mailing).

You can object to the receipt of visitor mailings at any time. You can do so by sending an email to legal@bernexpo.ch or using the link at the end of the visitor mailing.

c) Use of Google Customer Match with e-mail addresses

We use Google Customer Match to import lists of customer e-mail addresses into our Google Ads account, which are encrypted using an algorithm. Customer Match matches the anonymised e-mail lists in Google Ads with its own database of registered users and can thus create targeted ads within Google Search, YouTube and Gmail and optimise campaigns independently. In addition, Google can also track similar customers with similar interests based on the uploaded user lists.

Google does not have access to actual e-mail addresses, as these are encrypted before being stored on Google’s servers, and they are not decrypted by Google. Google provides Customer Match services based on hash codes. Google has further agreed to use the data from the list we provide only to create the target group for customer matching and to check compliance with Google policies. The data will not be used for any other purpose or passed on to any other third parties (not even within Google). Google will only store the data for as long as is necessary to create target groups for customer matching or to check compliance with Google policies.

Google Customer Match is operated by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, with the parent company Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. You can find more information on customer matching at https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6334160

8.    Lead tracking in connection with an event

a)    Physical trade fairs

Exhibitors at select specialist trade fairs can also use the “retracking” procedure in order to scan your visitor badge or business card using scanners provided by BERNEXPO AG. This exhibitor obtains direct access to your registration data only during the process of scanning your visitor badge. In this regard, it is important that none of your banking or credit card data be transferred. After the scanning process, the exhibitor obtains access to your company name, salutation, first and last name, title, function, address, email address, and phone and mobile numbers, if these were provided during registration, and the other information you provided. The data submitted to the exhibitor in this way are then subject to the control and data protection provisions of the exhibitor. Participation in this service is voluntary for you as visitor. You can withdraw your consent at any time directly vis-a-vis the exhibitor. BERNEXPO AG assumes no liability for its processing and retention of the data. Other data of the customer that are collected by the exhibitor are also transmitted to BERNEXPO AG.

In addition to the “retracking” procedure of BERNEXPO AG, online applications (apps) may also be made available for select specialist trade fairs, such as the BERNEXPO WEB APP or Scan2Lead of adventics GmbH, Johann-Hackl-Ring 80, 85630 Munich, Germany. The lead-tracking service Scan2Lead enables exhibitors at trade fairs and congresses to collect the registration data of their trade visitors for themselves by scanning the barcode on the respective trade visitor badge. This service is provided for the event organiser of the respective trade fair as commissioned data processing by adventics GmbH. In terms of data protection law, the data protection policy of the respective event organisers is controlling in this connection, as well as European and German data protection laws. Consents to the transfer of trade visitor data and any withdrawals are declared at the time of registration for the respective trade fair.

b)    Digital trade fairs

BERNEXPO AG also uses a retracking procedure for digital trade fairs in order to enable exhibitors to measure their digital appearance at the trade fair and generate leads. For this purpose, visits by visitors are registered on an exhibitor profile in the case of a webinar or presentation, and the exhibitor provides information about the visit through transmission of the visitor’s profile data. The exhibitor has sole discretion and responsibility as to how and whether it uses this dataset for contacting the digital visitor.

c)    Hybrid trade fairs

The aforementioned retracking systems are also used at hybrid trade fairs, i.e. trade fairs that are held both physically as well as in part digitally.

9.    Survalyzer online survey system

Survalyzer is used to survey the satisfaction of exhibitors. It is an online service of Survalyzer AG, Technoparkstrasse 1, 8005 Zurich. The data from the survey are available only to us and, along with storage, are not processed further by Survalyzer. The service stores only user data that are necessary for operation of the service, as well as information that the exhibitor provides. The data are stored and processed in conformity with this Data Protection Policy. The server is located in Switzerland. Further information is available at education.survalyzer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EN_Survalyzer-Privacy-Policy.pdf.

10.    Online exhibitor directory

When you register as exhibitor, we will publish the content of your company profile already known to us (e.g. company name, address, contact information, contact person), as well as other company details (e.g. product category). All content/data that are changed or supplemented by the exhibitor through the booking portal will also be made publicly visible to everyone.

11.    Online exhibitor directory

As part of our activity as a trade fair organiser, we have also been offering digital trade fairs to an increasing extent. These may be purely virtual trade fairs or also hybrid models, where a physically held trade fair is augmented with components of a virtual trade fair. At a virtual trade fair, we offer various virtual trade fair booths through which participants can get in touch with the owners of the virtual booths, download informational materials and take part in a series of webcasts.

When participating in a virtual event, the time, duration and circumstances of your participation in the relevant event will be recorded, depending on the settings made by the respective event organiser (e.g. downloads or visited trade fair booths/webinars/presentations). These data are used to create billing statements for the event organiser, enable it to control and manage the event and, where applicable, permit an analysis of the event (statistically anonymised or person-specific). In addition, you may have the ability to ask questions of the presenter, event organiser or other participants and to make your own contributions by chat or audio broadcast. In connection with the provision of these features, we process the content of your questions and contributions, as well as date and time of day.

Depending on the setting, the event organiser makes it possible for the participant’s profile data to be made accessible to other visitors, provided the participant entered the data and released them. This includes, in particular, the ability to perform searches by these data.

At a virtual trade fair, we can process your data just as we do at a physical trade fair. Thus, the information in this Data Protection Policy concerning the nature and scope of the collection and processing of data as well as the respective processing bases apply to trade fairs generally. The processing of your data in connection with a digital trade fair takes place either because of technical necessity, so that we can allow you to participate at all in the digital trade fair, or based on your consent, which you granted us not later than when entering the digital trade fair. You can find information about your rights pursuant to the applicable data protection laws in Section II:3 “Your rights”, above.

12.    Subscribing/unsubscribing to the newsletter

a)    Subscription through consent

If you subscribe to our free newsletter, the data requested of you for this purpose, i.e. your email address as well as your name and postal address and the other information you provide, will be transmitted to us. At the same time, we will store the IP address of the internet connection from which you access our website, as well as date and time of day of your subscription. As part of the further subscription process, your consent to the sending of the newsletter will be obtained, the content will be specifically described, and this Data Protection Policy will be referred to. We use the data collected in the process solely for promoting BERNEXPO AG websites for the purposes of newsletter sending and the other purposes pursuant to this Data Protection Policy.

You may at any time withdraw the consent to the sending of the newsletter with prospective effect. You can do so by sending an email to legal@bernexpo.ch or using the link at the end of the newsletter.

b)    Ticket purchase or visit to an event

If you visit an event and purchase a ticket through our websites, we provide you with further information about this or similar events through our newsletter. Visitors to an event for which payment is generally charged who visit at a discounted price or free of charge as a result of a promotional code/coupon are also considered beneficiaries of a charged service. For the purposes of this Section, an event means:

• trade fairs and events organised by BERNEXPO AG or its group companies;
• guest exhibitions and other guest events (i.e. trade fairs and events that are not organised by BERNEXPO AG or any of its group companies), for which we arrange the advance sale of tickets. This shall not include guest exhibitions and other guest events for which our involvement for the guest organiser is limited to work as a contracted data processor, e.g. by providing our physical and digital infrastructure (such as our ticket shop) to the guest organiser although not ourselves distributing any tickets for the guest event.

You may at any time withdraw the consent to the sending of the newsletter with prospective effect. You can do so by sending an email to legal@bernexpo.ch or using the link at the end of the newsletter.

13.    Third parties

a)     External links

Our website contains links to third-party websites over whose content we have no influence. We assume no responsibility for the content of other websites that you can reach through our links.

b)     Group companies

We, BERNEXPO AG, are under uniform management with other companies (Group companies, affiliated companies). Each Group company can offer and provide certain services that may require the processing of your personal data that were collected by a different Group company. Since all Group companies possess the same bases in terms of data protection law, we can guarantee compliance with the provisions of this Data Protection Policy also at all other Group companies.

The following Group companies can access personal data that were collected by a different Group company and process them as part of service provision. The following companies are considered Group companies:

• BERNEXPO AG, Bern
• Together AG, St. Gallen

c)     Guest organisers

As a general rule, for guest events held on our site our role is that of lessor and logistical partner of the guest organiser, and responsibility for the event itself lies with the guest organiser. However, in relation to guest events it is possible that we may allow guest organisers to use parts of our digital infrastructure for the purpose of organising or implementing the event. In such cases, our role is that of a contracted data processor for the guest organiser. Any of your data that we collect via our infrastructure in such cases (e.g. through the ticket shop if you purchase a ticket for the guest event) are processed by us in our systems solely on behalf of the guest organiser, which has access to the data as the primary controller and may process them independently (including by sharing certain information with appointees and third party providers of the guest organiser in a manner analogous to letter d) below). If you do not consent to any particular usage of data by the guest organiser, please contact the guest organiser directly. If we receive any request concerning this matter directly from you, we shall pass it on to the guest organiser for further consideration.

c)     Agents/third-party providers

Your data will not be transferred through the website to third parties without a statutory obligation or your express consent. This does not apply to our service partners that we require in order to perform under the contract. These include for instance the following service partners:

• Swiss Post, private couriers and freight forwarders;
• Our partners and their tools (including in particular software) for the performance of internal and administrative tasks (accounting, general contract management, website and database maintenance, electronic dispatch management, etc.);
• Our partners and their tools in the field of marketing in order to inform you as precisely as possible about those of our offers that are most likely of interest to you;
• Partners that offer supplementary services in relation to events, to which you can sign up (e.g. presentations or speeches during an event).

When passing on your data, we strictly observe the requirements of the applicable data protection laws. The scope of data transmission is kept to a minimum. In addition, we ensure through appropriate agreements that our service partners comply with the principles of data protection law and observe confidentiality.

We use service partners in other countries only if the relevant country either has an equivalent level of data protection pursuant to the countries list maintained by the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner or we are able to ensure the equivalence of the level of protection through technical and/or contractual means. Data are not transferred to an “unsecure third country” without your prior express consent.

14.    Contact enquiries/contact options

If you contact us via the contact form or by email, the data that you provide to us will be used to process your enquiry. It is necessary to provide the data in order to process your enquiry and respond to it. Otherwise, we will be unable to respond to your enquiry or can at most provide a limited response.

When processing your enquiry, we create a profile for you in our system. We do this in order to assign correspondence with you accurately and completely so that we can at all times refer to previous correspondence and documentation relating to you and in that way provide service to you as efficiently and competently as possible.

Your profile and the associated data remain stored in our systems unless you request erasure. In the event of an erasure request, we will remove your dataset from our systems, other than where erasure is prevented by statutory retention obligations (tax law, employment law, etc.) or overriding interests (e.g. for evidentiary purposes during the prescription period).

Changes to this Data Protection Policy are valid from the date of their publication on our website or our service. Personal data that were collected under an older data protection policy are processed in accordance with this Data Protection Policy.

We reserve the ability to modify this Data Protection Policy at any time. Controlling is the most recent version of this Data Protection Policy as published on our websites.

Version: February 2023