Data Protection Notice

It applies to personal data that you provide to GEA or which is derived from such data or collected from third parties. Please note that this notice does not apply if your personal data is processed under the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Where the processing of your personal data is subject to this regulation, different rules will apply which are explained in our Data Protection Notice available at GEA.com.

Who is responsible for your personal data?

The affiliate of GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft which is identified in the communication you receive from us (herein referred to as "us" or "GEA") is responsible to ensure the security and integrity of your personal data. Please click here for a list of the GEA Group affiliates with contact details.

For which purposes will we use your personal data?

Depending on the type of business relationship with you, and where permitted by applicable law, we will process your personal data for a variety of reasonable and legitimate business purposes, including, but not limited to the following ("Permitted Purposes"):

• Planning, entering into, performing, managing and administering of your (or your company's or organization's) business relationship with us, e.g. by performing transactions and orders of products or services, processing payments, performing accounting, auditing, billing and collection activities, arranging shipments and deliveries, facilitating repairs and providing support services or providing you with other services or things you may have requested;
• Maintaining and protecting the security of our products, services and websites or other systems, preventing and detecting security threats, fraud or other criminal or malicious activities;
• Complying with legal obligations (such as business record keeping obligations), compliance screening or recording obligations (e.g. under antitrust laws, export laws, trade sanction and embargo laws or to prevent white-collar or money laundering crimes), which may include automated checks of your contact data or other information you provide about your identity against applicable sanctioned-party lists and contacting you to confirm your identity in case of a potential match or recording interaction with you which may be relevant for antitrust purposes;
• Providing our distributors with business-relevant information, e.g. new products, price changes, discount campaigns, supplier changes, dealer information, technical problems and sales stops;
• Communicating with you to keep you up to date on the latest announcements, special offers and other information about GEA’s products, technologies and services (including marketing-related newsletters) as well as events and projects of GEA;
• Performing customer surveys on customer preferences, customer satisfaction and other matters related to GEA, marketing campaigns, market analysis, sweepstakes, contests or other promotional activities or events
• Collecting information about your preferences on the basis of your activities when you use our websites and any products, downloadable content (e.g. registration for a software download, ebooks, whitepapers) or other services we offer to you online.
• Investigating and resolving disputes, enforcing our contractual agreements and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or

We apply modern technology to monitor and analyse data in relation to our products (also known as Internet of Things). Such information is used to support our customers, e.g. by improving our product design and enhancing product service. Typically, no personal data is processed in connection with any such technologies. Where that is the case, personal data will be processed strictly in line with this Data Privacy Notice and in accordance with applicable law.

Scope of personal data

We may collect and process in particular the following categories of personal data:

• Business or private contact information, such as full name, address, telephone number, mobile phone number, fax number and email address, the identification number of your mobile phone and the IP address of your computer when using our website;
• Payment and financial data, such as data necessary for processing payments and fraud prevention, including bank account details, credit/debit card numbers, security code numbers, payments, debts and expenses and other billing or payment processing information;
• Further business information necessarily processed in a project or contractual relationship with GEA or voluntarily provided by you, such as orders placed, payments made, requests and projects;
• Information about your interests and preferences and other information obtained by the analytics described above, in particular your activities when you use our websites and any products, downloadable content (e.g. registration for a software download, ebooks, whitepapers) or other services we offer to you online.  This includes which content you download, click or view for how often and how long.
• Information collected from publicly available resources, integrity data bases and credit agencies; and
• If legally required for compliance purposes: information about relevant and significant litigation or other legal proceedings against you or a third party related to you and interaction with you which may be relevant for antitrust purposes.
• Special categories of Personal Data. In certain situations, where required by law or where you have given us your consent, we may also collect special categories of your personal data that are subject to special data protection laws. For example in connection with the registration for and participation in an event or seminar, we may ask for information about your health for the purpose of identifying and being considerate of any disabilities or special dietary requirements you may have. Any use of such information is based on your consent. If you do not provide any such information about disabilities or special dietary requirements, we will not be able to take any respective precautions.

How do we collect your personal data?

We may collect this personal data in various ways, including:

• Directly from you (e.g., when you voluntarily submit information to our website, or send us an email or other written correspondence or otherwise provide us with information in the course of our business relationship).
• Indirectly from other sources (e.g. information from publicly available resources, integrity data bases and credit agencies or from a counterparty, typically acting with your consent, who is in possession of the data).
• Through automatic collection tools (e.g., cookies and other analytics or tracking technology as set out above when you visit our website, view our newsletters or other electronic information or use our online products and services).

How do we protect your personal data?

We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in accordance with the technical state of the art and legal data protection requirements to protect your personal data from unauthorized access or intrusion. These safeguards include implementing specific technologies and procedures designed to protect your privacy, such as secure servers, firewalls and SSL encryption. We will at all times strictly comply with applicable laws and regulations regarding the confidentiality and security of personal data.

With whom will we share your personal data?

We may share your personal data as follows:

• Within GEA Group: With our affiliates within GEA Group worldwide if and to the extent required for the Permitted Purposes and legally permitted. In such cases, these entities will use the personal data for the same purposes and under the same conditions as outlined in this Data Privacy Notice.
• With third parties: We may also instruct service providers within or outside of GEA Group, domestically or abroad, e.g. shared service centers, to process personal data for the Permitted Purposes on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions only. GEA will retain control over and will remain fully responsible for your personal data and will use appropriate safeguards as required by applicable law to ensure the integrity and security of your personal data when engaging such service providers. Further, with other third parties where permitted or required by law for the Permitted Purposes, including for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
• As required by law: With courts, law enforcement authorities, regulators or other governmental bodies, or attorneys or other private parties if legally permitted and necessary to comply with a legal obligation or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
• With prospective sellers or buyers. With prospective sellers or buyers and their professional advisers in connection with the sale or acquisition of businesses or assets.

Otherwise, we will only disclose your personal data when you direct or give us permission, when we are required by applicable law or regulations or judicial or official request to do so, or when we suspect fraudulent or criminal activities.

Where will your personal data be processed?

GEA is a globally active enterprise. In the course of our business activities, we may transfer your personal data also to recipients in countries, in which applicable laws do not offer the same level of data protection as the laws of your home country. When doing so we will comply with applicable data protection requirements and take appropriate safeguards to ensure the security and integrity of your personal data.

Retention of your personal data

Your personal data will be deleted when it is no longer reasonably required for the Permitted Purposes or you withdraw your consent (where applicable) and we are not legally required or permitted to continue storing such data. We will in particular retain your personal data where required for GEA to assert or defend against legal claims until the end of the relevant retention period or until the claims in question have been settled. If you have asked us not to communicate with you, we will hold this information as long as required by applicable law and as necessary to comply with your request.

Social bookmarks in our online offers

Our website contains so-called “social bookmarks” (from YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, and/or Twitter, for example). Social bookmarks are Internet bookmarks that allow users of such a service to collect links and news items. These bookmarks are integrated into our website merely as a link to the relevant services. Upon clicking on the integrated graphic, you will be redirected to the relevant provider’s page, meaning that user information will not be transferred to the relevant provider until then. For information on the handling of your personal data when using these websites, please refer to the respective data protection policy of the providers.

Updates to this data protection notice

This Data Privacy Notice was last updated in June 2019. We reserve the right to update and change this Data Protection Notice from time to time in order to reflect and changes to the way in which we use your personal data or changing legal requirements. In case of any such changes, we will publish the changed Data Protection Notice on our website. Any amended information will apply from the date it is posted on our website.

How to get in touch with us?

For any questions and comments or in case you want to assert your rights, please click here.