Terms of Use 

"FLEXOFFER Community” is the name of the knowledge sharing web platform of the FLEXOFFER project. which receives funding from the European Union's research and innovation programme H2020 under agreement No 731232.

FLEXOFFER Platform is the virtual platform of the FLEXOFFER Community, which is coordinated B.A.U.M. Consult GmbH, bringing together experts in the area of Smart Grids and Smart Energy. GOFLEX Platform is therefore an open web platform, which interested persons can use after registration royalty-free for gathering information about the Initiative and its topics, for sharing and exchanging their knowledge and contributing to the discussion. FLEXOFFER Platform has been initiated, developed and is organized by B.A.U.M. Consult GmbH in the course of the Initiative on behalf of the FLEXOFFER Consortium. B.A.U.M. Consult GmbH is competent for the operation, hosting and maintenance as well as support of the FLEXOFFER Platform (hereinafter referred to as the "FLEXOFFER Operators”)

B.A.U.M. Consult respects the privacy of persons and all intellectual property rights of all partners. It commits itself to handle critical data related to all involved partners with utmost secrecy. B.A.U.M. Consult respects, as far as applicable, inter alia

Directive 2002/58/EC (Electronic Data) (Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications)): http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32002L0058:en:HTML 

 

Directive 95/46/EC (Privacy) (DIRECTIVE 95/46/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data): http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31995L0046:en:HTML 

DIRECTIVE 2006/24/ (Retention of Data) (DIRECTIVE 2006/24/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC): http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:105:0054:0063:EN:PDF 

1.1. The purpose of FLEXOFFER Platform is the collection of information and the gathering of knowledge for relevant topics under the Initiative, the mutual sharing of information and the offering of a possibility to stakeholders for taking part in the discussion and updating of the knowledge of the FLEXOFFER Community on a non-commercial basis. Subject and purpose of FLEXOFFER Platform is, therefore,

1. the provision of a networking area to experts in the field of Smart grids and Smart Energy and therefore, the exchange of contact details between experts and provision of information about projects, which is available in the so-called Project Repository, to enable the exchange of knowledge and support discussion related to the scope of the Initiative,
2. the uploading and attaching of content and documents of whatever nature to a certain trial description or a message or any other interactive feature of the FLEXOFFER platform and making it available to all other or certain Users of FLEXOFFER Platform.

1.2. The communication and participation functions explained under Section 1.1 are only admissible to registered visitors of FLEXOFFER (hereinafter the "User” or "FLEXOFFER User”). The rights and obligations of Users are provided for in these Terms of Use. Decisive is the valid version of the Terms of Use at the time of sending a request to participate in FLEXOFFER Platform and any amended version according to Section 12. The use is possible only after consent of the User to these terms and conditions of the Terms of Use (hereinafter referred to as the "TOU”).

1.3. Any content made available by a User on FLEXOFFER Platform, not depending in which form and on which material it is provided (e.g. document, article, comment, text, graphics, patterns, multimedia elements, tables, corrections), is hereinafter referred to as "Contribution”.  

2.1. A FLEXOFFER Users actively takes part on FLEXOFFER Platform, shares Contributions and has access rights to all Contributions for all permitted types of use.

2.2. User registration 

2.2.1. In order to be able to use FLEXOFFER Platform as FLEXOFFER User, the User first has to create a personal account on FLEXOFFER Platform. On FLEXOFFER Platform only natural persons may register as Users, legal entities like organisations and enterprises may not register as such and open an account.

2.2.2. During the registration process Users are required to provide their first name and last name, country and company name and a valid email address. Such personal and professional information comprises the e-mail address, the portrait picture of the Community member and professional experience. The registration information must be accurate and updated. Users can therefore always change and delete their personal and professional data in their personal profile (except the account as such, see below under Section 2.3.).

2.2.3. After the User has confirmed the filled-out data form by pressing the button for application and has been accepted by the FLEXOFFER Operators, he will receive an automated e-mail with temporary password to access FLEXOFFER Platform. 

2.2.4. The User is not allowed to share the registration credentials or give them to anyone else. The User is responsible for maintaining the registration credentials confidential and obliged to notify B.A.U.M. Consult of any known or suspected breach of security, including loss, theft, or unauthorized disclosure. Passwords are encrypted, they are neither known to administrators nor to the B.A.U.M. Consult operational entities.

2.2.5. The email address of a User may be used by the Operational Entities of B.A.U.M. Consult for communication with the User for the purpose of FLEXOFFER Platform as outlined in Section 1.1. If a User does not longer dispose over a valid email address, he will not be able to reset the password if it is lost. In such a situation, however, Users may be able to contact the FLEXOFFER Operators to enter a new email address.

2.3. User accounts may be fully removed only upon request (de-registration). For further information please info@goflex-community.eu. In general, no personal data will be stored after an account has been deleted; for further details see Section 9. of the TOU.

2.4. User shall be responsible for all usage and activity on the account, including use of the account by any third party, not depending whether authorized to use by the User or in abuse. Any fraudulent, abusive or otherwise illegal activity may be grounds for termination of the account at the sole discretion of FLEXOFFER Operators.

3.1. The User accepts that he uses GOFLEX Platform only for the purposes as described in Section 1.1 of the TOU. The use for any other purposes, particularly, but without limitation, for marketing and advertising purposes or purposes that are conflicting with the topics of GOFLEX Platform or the Initiative by whatever means, is prohibited. 

3.2. Without limiting the generality of any restriction in the TOU, the User agrees that he will not in connection with FLEXOFFER Platform, directly or indirectly do or permit the following:

• Post, upload, reproduce, distribute, or otherwise transmit any Contribution that (i) does not relate to the topics of FLEXOFFER Platform and is qualified either as marketing or advertising, or as unauthorized or unsolicited commercial communication, or spam, (ii) contains a virus, worm other harmful or disruptive component; (iii) is defamatory, infringing rights of third parties or unlawful in any other way, (iv) constitutes a criminal offence or otherwise engages in or assists others to engage in any criminal offence, particularly, but without limitation if the content is pornographic, paedophiliac, racist, national socialistic, violent or morally condemnable in a similar way (v) gives rise to civil liability or otherwise violates the rights or assists others to violate the rights, such violations include engaging in copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, trademark infringement or unfair competition practices.
• Disrupt or threaten the integrity, the operation or security of FLEXOFFER Platform, and any other computer or internet system. 
• Disable or circumvent any access control or related process or procedure established with respect to the website of FLEXOFFER Platform.
• Extract, gather, collect or store personal information about any other Users or any other person in connection with FLEXOFFER Platform and documents made available through GOFLEX Platform without their consent and in conflict with the purposes of FLEXOFFER Platform as outlined under Section 1.1.

3.3. Without limiting any of its rights, the FLEXOFFER Operators may suspend, restrict or terminate the use of the FLEXOFFER Platform by a certain User without notice if, in the sole and absolute discretion of FLEXOFFER Operators, FLEXOFFER Operators determine or believe that a certain User has violated any of the rules as set out above.

4.1. The User is solely responsible for the content of his Contributions to the FLEXOFFER Platform. Therefore, the User is liable for the legality, correctness, completeness and accuracy of the Contributions. The User shall have as content provider the sole legal responsibility with regard to Copyright Law, Media Law, Unfair Competition Law, Data Protection Law and any other applicable law aspects depending on the jurisdiction that applies to the relevant facts.  Particularly, the User guarantees that the Contributions do not violate any third-party rights, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and privacy right, right to secrecy or any other intellectual property or proprietary right.

4.2. FLEXOFFER Operators only provide the infrastructure for the functions as described under Section 1.1 of these TOU. However, FLEXOFFER Operators do not have any association with or connection to the Users and their content neither under economical, legal or material aspects, and can further not influence the content of a Contribution in whatever manner.

4.3. FLEXOFFER Operators are not obliged to analyse the content of the Contributions, whether it complies with applicable law prior to uploading and making available through FLEXOFFER Platform by a User. However, as soon as FLEXOFFER Operators become aware of an illegal content, FLEXOFFER Operators shall have the right, but not the obligation to delete the content forthwith. Therefore, albeit the User is solely responsible for the content of the Contributions, FLEXOFFER Operators reserve the right to delete, move, or edit Contributions that, in its sole discretion, deem abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright or trademark laws, or otherwise unacceptable. Further, FLEXOFFER Operators shall be free to reject the publication of Contributions if the suspect arises that the content is illegal or otherwise inadmissible.

4.4. FLEXOFFER Operators are only the host provider and hence not responsible for the content of the Contributions as such (see Section 4.1.). FLEXOFFER Operators, therefore, assume no legal liabilities for any losses or damages, caused by the use or non-use of provided information on FLEXOFFER Platform or the use of erroneous or incomplete information on FLEXOFFER Platform, or the reliance upon such information. It is the responsibility of the User to evaluate the legality, accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any Contributions.

4.5. The services of the FLEXOFFER Platform are provided on an "as is” basis without warranties of any kind, including without limitation warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

4.6. The Consortium and FLEXOFFER Operators on its behalf make the services of the FLEXOFFER Platform available through the internet, but is under no obligation to make any particular scope of access or possibility to use or content available. Access to GOFLEX Platform and availability of any information is not guaranteed, nor does FLEXOFFER Operators ensure that it will be uninterrupted or error free. The FLEXOFFER Platform is subject to outages, communication and data flow failures, interruptions and delays inherent in Internet communications. The User recognizes that problems with the Internet, including equipment, software and network failures, impairments or congestion, or the configuration of the computer system of the User, may prevent, interrupt or delay access to the FLEXOFFER Platform. The Consortium and/or FLEXOFFER Operators are not liable for any delays, interruptions, suspensions or unavailability of the platform. Further, FLEXOFFER Operators make no representation that the Contributions or any other content in FLEXOFFER Platform will be available, complete, uninterrupted, error free or free from viruses or anything else of similar destructive qualities. The User acknowledges by accepting the TOU that use of FLEXOFFER Platform and its services hereunder are at its own sole risk.

 

The FLEXOFFER Platform contains links to third-party websites. Such links are provided solely as convenience to the User and not as an endorsement by the Consortium or the FLEXOFFER Operators of the content on such linked websites. Links from this site to other sites do therefore not imply that the Consortium or the FLEXOFFER Operators approve these sites, endorse or recommend them. Neither Consortium nor FLEXOFFER Operators are responsible for the content of such linked websites and do not make the content of these sites as their own. FLEXOFFER Operators make therefore no representations and warranties regarding the correctness, accuracy, performance or quality of any content at such linked websites. FLEXOFFER Operators are not responsible for the availability of the linked sites or the content or activities of such sites. If the User decides to access linked websites this occurs at User´s own risk.

6.1. The User grants the Consortium and the FLEXOFFER Operators or any party designated by the Consortium or FLEXOFFER Operators a perpetual, nonexclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, assignable, sub-licensable license to use, modify and translate, copy, transmit, excerpt, publish, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, create derivative works of, host, index, modify, and adapt (including without limitation the right to adapt to streaming, downloading, broadcast, mobile, digital, thumbnail, scanning or other technology) in any form or media now known or hereinafter developed, any Contributions provided by the User on FLEXOFFER Platform.

6.2. The User that provides a Contribution acknowledges that any Contribution may be edited, removed, modified, published, copied, made available to the public, transmitted and displayed, in any - this day or in the future known or unknown - type of use, by FLEXOFFER Operators, any FLEXOFFER Expert or any designated third party. Contributions may also be included in RSS feeds and made available for republishing through other formats. Further, the User acknowledges that neither the Consortium nor the FLEXOFFER Operators are obliged to use the Contributions in whole or in parts or as derivative work. However, if the contributions are not use within one year after uploading, the User then has the right to request the removal of the Contributions from the FLEXOFFER Platform.

6.3. Contributions provided as documents attached remain in property of the respective rights holders, authors or disseminators and do not pertain to FLEXOFFER Platform. The content of the Contributions accessible through FLEXOFFER Platform can be freely used by FLEXOFFER Experts for personal and non-commercial purposes. If any other use is intended, the User requires the prior consent of FLEXOFFER Operators and the respective User, who has uploaded the Contribution. Without limiting the foregoing, the available information, data and Contributions whether in whole or in parts may not be collected, copied, made available to the public or otherwise used repeatedly and systematically. The use of FLEXOFFER Platform by means of programs and electronic applications such as "robots.txt”, crawlers or any similar software is prohibited.

6.4. It is emphasized, that this license under Article 6.1. also includes the right of Consortium and FLEXOFFER Operators to modify the Contributions (derivative works), to create an independent work on the basis of the Contributions and the right to provide, to distribute and to sublicense the Contributions and therefrom derivative or independent works to any third party as well as to make available the Contributions in any other way to any person. Further, during the use of an account under these TOU and for an indefinite term after termination of the account, the User waives its right to be denominated as author of the Contributions and explicitly declares its approval with the publication or any other use of the Contributions in whole or in parts under the name of the Chief Editor of a Living Document (see Section 7.) or in the name of the Consortium or the FLEXOFFER Operators or any other third party designated by the Consortium or FLEXOFFER Operators. For the avoidance of doubt, it is stated, that it shall be in the own discretion of the Consortium and FLEXOFFER Operators to decide whether the Contribution is published as own work of FLEXOFFER Operators or whether the User is cited as author, notwithstanding, that the User has validly waived its right to be denominated as author hereunder.

6.5. Regarding Contributions in the form of comments and texts as far as these Contributions are qualified as copyrightable works, the User also grants a perpetual, nonexclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, assignable, sub-licensable license with the scope as described under Section 6.2. and 6.3.

7.1. FLEXOFFER Operators may in their sole discretion suspend, restrict, or terminate an account and the use of FLEXOFFER Platform by a User, effective at any time, without prior notice to the User, for any good cause, including because the operation of efficiency of FLEXOFFER Platform or FLEXOFFER Operator´s or any third party´s equipment or network is impaired by the use of FLEXOFFER Platform by this User, because FLEXOFFER Operators have received a third party complaint which relates to the use or the misuse of FLEXOFFER Platform, or the User has been or is in breach of any term or condition of these TOU.

7.2. It is planned that FLEXOFFER Platform will be operated for the entire lifetime of the FLEXOFFER project. At the latest at the end of FLEXOFFER all registered users of FLEXOFFER Platform will be informed about the handling of data stored on the FLEXOFFER Platform (see Section 9.3.).

7.3. The User may terminate his account at any time by writing an email to the FLEXOFFER Operators. Upon termination, the User shall receive an automated confirmation via e-mail that the cancellation was processed. For further information on de-registration, please contact knowledge-community[at]eranet-smartgridsplus.eu.

 

8.1. FLEXOFFER Operators shall act as data processor on behalf of the Consortium, represented by B.A.U.M. Consult, with regard to processing of any personal related data of Users through GOFLEX Platform. Due to this engagement, FLEXOFFER Operators shall not use the data for its own purposes or the purposes of any third parties, but only for the fulfilment of any tasks under this engagement. The data that are processed through FLEXOFFER Platform are therefore only used either for the management of the account of the FLEXOFFER User or for the performance of the Initiative and particularly, the purposes as described under Section 1.1. The controller of the data application remains the Consortium, represented by B.A.U.M. Consult, which is therefore responsible for the adherence to the applicable data protection laws.

8.2 The User acknowledges that FLEXOFFER Operators on behalf of B.A.U.M. Consult do not use the data and particularly not transmit these to third parties for any other purposes than defined under this Section and Section 1.1, except for the User has declared his explicit consent or based on a Union or Member State law or if the processing for another purpose is compatible with the purpose for which the personal data are initially collected and the processing itself is lawful.

Personal related data (for FLEXOFFER Platform these are first name, last name, e-mail-address, login-name, weblogs and IP-address), which makes a User directly or indirectly identifiable, are used by the FLEXOFFER Operators for the purpose of managing the account of the user and communicate with him. The storage of any other data that are made available by means of the profile settings and/or the account is a relevant feature of the FLEXOFFER Platform, depending on the status of the User as FLEXOFFER Follower or FLEXOFFER Expert, and therefore are not deleted prior to the termination of the account of the User, except for it is requested by stringent law.

8.3. Once the User has terminated the account or the account has been closed by FLEXOFFER Operators, or the operation of the FLEXOFFER Platform is ceased, generally, the personal data will be deleted and/or will be anonymized, so that a connection between the User and the data cannot be made any longer. Only data subject to the lawful safekeeping duties will be exempt from deletion. Such data will be deleted only after the lawfully mandated safekeeping periods expire; however, the data will be blocked, i.e., it can no longer be used for purposes of the FLEXOFFER Platform. Further, in specific cases, which require the use of the data for the FLEXOFFER Platform and the purposes under Section 1.1., even after the termination of the account, the User shall give its consent for such a processing of the data as long as it is necessary for the completing and finishing of the Initiative.

8.4. FLEXOFFER Operators and Users recognize that any system that is open enough to allow the greatest possible participation of the general public will also be vulnerable to certain kinds of abuse and counterproductive behaviour. FLEXOFFER Operators have established a number of mechanisms to prevent or remedy abusive activities, and to protect personal related data against unauthorized sharing or unauthorized access, accidental or unlawful destruction, loss or alteration.

8.5. To provide site statistics, FLEXOFFER Operators statistically sample raw log data from users' visits. These logs are used to produce the site statistics pages and to solve technical problems by the FLEXOFFER Operators.

9.1. Operators and Users of FLEXOFFER Platform can store relevant data about past and ongoing projects in the Trial atlas. 

9.2. In addition to the Project data, the personal related data of a contact person can be stored and processed by FLEXOFFER Operators. Only the first and last name, position in the company and contact data of a project responsible person will be stored. In case contact data are available and valid, such project responsible person will be informed about the stored project and personal data and any updates. Such project responsible person has the right to request the update and removal of his/her personal data at any time without any reason with declaration to the FLEXOFFER Operators.

9.3. Upon notification and not requesting deletion or change in due time, a project responsible person acknowledges that the Consortium itself or the FLEXOFFER Operators on its behalf will transmit the Project data as far as permitted by law to other funded projects (e. g. EC funded Grid+Storage project and its potential follow-up project) or organisations managing or monitoring funding activities related to topics of the Initiative (e. g. Joint Research Center - the European Commission's in-house science service) upon explicit request, in which the necessity for the data transfer is argued.

10.1. FLEXOFFER Operators use cookies to ease the use of the services and improve the performance of the User. These cookies are essential in order for the FLEXOFFER Platform to function as intended. 

10.2. Further, FLEXOFFER Operators use the information they receive from cookies and other locally stored data to provide the User with certain functionality, particularly to remember and record the User's previous activity. These cookies are not used to track the browsing of the User on other sites.

10.3. If the User does not consent to the use of cookies, he can disable them by following the instructions of the browser and particularly by the following technical measures:

However, some services of FLEXOFFER platform may lose functionality if the cookies are disabled.

10.4 Without the User´s separate consent, FLEXOFFER Operators will not use the cookies to identify the User personally and to generate any personal related user profiles, and hence, will abstain from merging any personal related data with pseudonyms.

FLEXOFFER Operators reserve the right to amend and modify the TOU at any time. The User will be provided notice of any such amendment or modification by electronic mail or by publishing the changes on the login page of FLEXOFFER Platform. The User accepts the changes with his next login.

The Terms of Use were last updated on November 21, 2019. 

Please contact info@goflex-community.eu for further information.