Terms and Conditions for Groups and Communities

The European Broadcasting Union, an association duly established under Swiss law, located at L'Ancienne-Route 17A, 1218 Grand-Saconnex (Geneva), Switzerland (hereafter, "us", “EBU”, "we" or "our") is the managing organisation of Expert Groups and Communities.

1. OBJECT

The following pages contain our Terms and Conditions ("Terms") applicable to EBU Expert Groups and Communities, in relation to joining, participating, online voting (if any), and leaving a Group or a Community whether physical or virtual with the use of video or web conferencing or social media tools/platforms.

BINDING EFFECT

Upon submission of your request for joining a Group or Community or by joining a Group through social media platforms, you agree to these Terms without modification, and you enter into a binding contract with us, or where appropriate follow the subscription process applicable for a specific Group or Community.

If you join a Group or Community on behalf of an entity, you agree to these Terms on behalf of that entity and its affiliates and you represent that you have the authority to do so. In such case, “you” and “your” will also refer to that entity. If you do not have such authority, or if you do not agree to any portion of these Terms, please do not send a request to join.

You agree and understand that (i) your request to join a Group or Community implies the acceptance of these Terms and is subject to our confirmation or (ii) by joining a Group through social media platforms, you agree to these Terms. Please note that each Group or Community may have specific conditions or procedures which apply in addition to these Terms.

LANGUAGE

We may translate these Terms into other languages for your convenience. The English language version is the version that governs these Terms. In case of any conflict between the English language version and a translated version, the English language version will prevail.

PAYMENT OF FEES (WHERE APPLICABLE)

If some activities of a Group or Community you are joining are not free of charge, you undertake to pay the relevant fees (all taxes included) as specified on the registration form if you wish to attend the meeting or event managed by your Group or Community. The fees shall be paid in accordance with the conditions set out on the registration form. In the absence of specific conditions on the registration form, the fees shall be paid in accordance with the payment terms as set out on the invoice, but in any case, before the beginning of the event.

2. CANCELLATION/WITHDRAWAL

We may at any time, with or without giving notice, in its absolute discretion and without giving any reason, discontinue participation in a Group or cancel your registration and/or cancel or postpone a Group or Community meeting or event, whether physical or virtual, change its venue or any of the other published particulars, or withdraw any invitation to attend or make any changes to the Group. Should the meeting or event be postponed or cancelled, we are not responsible nor liable for any costs and/or expenses you may incur due to the postponement and/or cancellation of the Group or Community meeting or event. You are entitled to withdraw from any social media platform Group at any time.

3. DELEGATE PACK

In most circumstances, papers, working documents will be issued and shared in the Group or Community you are joining. This documentation is made available only to those participating in the Group or Community. This documentation is provided for your personal use and may not be reproduced, shared or distributed (whether in whole or part) by any method whatsoever without prior written permission given to you by the copyright owner.

4. TRAVEL AND HOTEL ACCOMMODATION (WHERE APPLICABLE)

You are fully responsible for making your own travel and accommodations arrangements. It is recommended that you check your visa requirements with your local embassy or consulate.

We will not be liable for any travel or accommodation formalities and/or expenses or if you are unable to attend a physical meeting of the Group or Community due to a Force Majeure event or any event out of our control.

We recommend you to subscribe appropriate insurance against cancellation as well as to have adequate health and accident insurance

5. ASSISTANCE – DIETARY REQUIREMENTS (WHERE APPLICABLE)

If you need any special assistance (e.g. in relation to a person who is blind/visually impaired or a person with a physical disability), please contact the EBU staff member responsible for your Group or Community by email to arrange assistance.

Where applicable, you will be given the opportunity to mention any dietary requirement in the registration form and/or through the subscription process of a meeting or event.

6. DATA PROTECTION

By joining and participating to an EBU Group or Community wherever physically or virtually via video conferencing or web conferencing or social media platforms/tools, you acknowledge that your personal data may be collected and processed by us, as further detailed in EBU Privacy Notice for Groups and Communities, which you acknowledge having read. Please note that your data may be shared with the Organization for which you work for, for staff management purposes to allow the EBU to ensure adequate follow-up and best services to its Members. By accessing, joining and/or participating in a Group, you understand and agree to the EBU and other participants receiving/having access to your mobile phone number/ personal contact number, profile picture and any other information accessible through social media platforms (including but not limited to WhatsApp) or the Group. If you do not wish for the EBU and/or other participants to receive/ have access to such information, please do not join, access and/or participate in a Group. You shall be responsible for all access to and participation in a Group using your social media platform account and/or associated mobile phone number, whether or not the account or associated mobile number was actually operated by you.  You shall immediately notify the EBU of any unauthorised use of your social media platform account and/or associated mobile phone number.

7. PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILMING

By registering and/or by participating to a Group or Community meeting, wherever physically or virtually via video conferencing or web conferencing or social media platforms/tools, you acknowledge that certain sessions and/or social functions may be, photographed and/or filmed and/or web streamed and that some of these photos and video recordings can be used for the minutes of the meeting or event, news, promotional purposes, future marketing materials, illustration, information and dissemination activities via EBU’s own websites or inclusion on EBU’s social media pages which may process personal data according to their own policies. In some cases, online audio and/or video recordings are accessible only to EBU Members via log-in. Participation in a Group or Community meeting or event (whether online or not), indicates your consent to being included in the meeting’s recording. Should you have any concerns about this, or do not wish to be featured in any of these materials, please approach the EBU staff Member responsible and managing the Group or Community meeting and inform her/him. However, you are advised that incidental inclusion of some images of yourself within any recording or photos may take place. Photos and recordings will be publicly available.

8. ONLINE VOTING

By joining a Group or Community you may participate in meetings which may include where applicable an online vote, you acknowledge that your personal data such as your name, email address, phone number, country and organization will be processed by the EBU in accordance with its Privacy Notice for Groups and Communities to set-up the voting process. This may imply the transfer of such data to our contracted online voting platform ElectionBuddy in order to allow you to receive a voting invitation, to register for the vote and to cast your vote. As a candidate, you also accept that any additional information you choose to provide to the EBU for the purpose of presenting your nomination (including but not limited to your photo, motivation statement and bio) may also be transferred to ElectionBuddy for such purpose.

By casting your vote via the ElectionBuddy online voting platform, you consent that ElectionBuddy may process your data for the purposes of voter identification, voter authentication, ballot completion, ballot verification and the establishment and presentation of the voting results in accordance with its own Terms of Use as per https://electionbuddy.com/tos and own Privacy Policy as per https://electionbuddy.com/privacy-policy. Pursuant to ElectionBuddy Terms of Use, ballots are kept anonymous. Each ballot is tied to a unique access key, rather than a voter's name or ID. This means no information about the voter is stored with the ballot and there is no way to determine which voter cast which ballot. Administrators, including the EBU, can see WHO voted, but not individual voting choices.

Votes may be summarized to show the results and how many votes were received for each choice on each position or question. However, please note that the results of the votes may be tallied in accordance with each Group or Community specific rules, should you wish more details you are invited to contact the Group or Community responsible.

9. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

For the purposes of these Terms, “Intellectual Property Rights” are any and all rights (including without limitation copyright, trademarks, trade names, know-how, design software applications, websites, rights in databases, compilations and designs, moral rights) and prerogatives, registered or not, arising from the Swiss and international legislation on the protection of notably patents, design, trademark, as well as know-how and trade secrets.

You agree that all elements made available by the EBU via a Group or Community in connection with an event or meeting, including, without limitation, notes, records, studies, reports, brochures, drawings or other documents and tangible items including images, texts, comments, graphics, illustrations, logos, icons, brand and products names, are (i) the exclusive property of the EBU, and/or of its licensors and (ii) could be protected by Intellectual Property Rights. The EBU reserves all rights not expressly granted under these Terms. Except as explicitly authorized by the EBU in writing, they may not be sold, licensed, rented, modified, used, distributed, copied, reproduced, transmitted, publicly displayed, publicly performed, published, adapted, edited or translated, in whole or in part by you to any third party outside of the other members of the Group or Community. These Terms do not grant to you any license nor any right to use these elements made available to you except where such use is limited to the purposes of your attendance to the Group, meeting or event.

Subject to the provisions of Section 10 should you decide to share in the Group or Community, notes, records, studies, reports, brochures, drawings or other documents and tangible items including (or not) Intellectual Property Rights, you are responsible to secure that you have all necessary authorizations to share such material, content and/or information. You understand and agree that the EBU is not responsible for any further use and/or disclosure of such material, content and/or information by any other participant to the meeting or event and/or third-party outside of the Group or Community. You also understand and agree that (i) the EBU does not claim ownership of the content you transmit, post or otherwise make available in or through the Group or Community (ii) the EBU may use such material, content and/or information without restriction or limitation (iii) you grant the EBU a world-wide, royalty free, non-revocable and non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display the same (or any part thereof). This would include using such material, content and/or information (or any part thereof) in any publicity materials, in any medium (including the mass media, internet posts, e-mail communications and so on). The EBU disclaims all liability for the capture of your image or of your content in any multimedia format by other participants. Your views and opinions are entirely your own views and opinions and in no event reflect the views and opinions of the EBU.

10. MARKETING

Please note that you cannot exhibit or hand out marketing material or other printed matter during meetings of the Group or Community, unless by seeking prior consent of the EBU. In this respect you are invited to contact the Group or Community responsible.

11. CONDUCT IN AN EBU GROUP OR COMMUNITY

We are dedicated to making our Groups and Communities meetings a safe place for all.

You shall not display any content, adopt a conduct, or incite any person to commit an act, which:

• is threatening, libellous, defamatory, or obscene;
• would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate law in any manner;
• infringes the intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of any third parties; or
• constitutes or contains false or misleading statements.

You consent also not to hack or use our infrastructure for unethical, illegal or malicious activities. We may at any time, with or without giving notice, in our absolute discretion, remove any contents or rescind your attendance to any activities of a Group or Community or participation in a Group in case of violation of these Terms or applicable laws without incurring any liabilities to you and/or any third party. In such event, all paid fees if applicable will not be reimbursed, and any meeting or event fees shall remain due. Should you receive any such request for removal of content, you must proceed to remove the content in question within 15 minutes from the time of such request or while the Content is still removable within the social media platform timeframe, whichever is shorter. The EBU is under no obligation to disclose the reason/s and the circumstances leading to the request for removal. 

12. LIABILITY

You are required to keep your personal belongings (including your computer and/or other devices) with you at all times and we accept no liability for damage to, or loss of, personal belongings. We do not accept any liability for any loss (including, without limitation, theft) occasioned on our premises and/or on any premises of any meeting or event being staged at external venues save for any damages caused directly by our negligence in which circumstances and, to the extent permitted by law, our liability shall be limited to your paid meeting or event fees if applicable.

To the extent permitted by law, we, and our affiliated companies as well as any video conferencing or web conferencing platforms’ system provider for the meeting or event and each of its and their respective officers, directors, and other partners and employees, shall not be liable under any circumstances, whether in contract, or otherwise, with respect to the damages suffered in relation with the organisation and/or your registration for and/or participation to the meeting or event for: (a) any indirect, consequential, punitive or exemplary damages, including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, loss of data, additional personnel costs or other intangible losses (even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages), and/or (b) the cost of procurement of substitute services, and/or (c) any matters beyond our reasonable control, including Force Majeure event. You hereby expressly waive all claims against any of the aforementioned organisation and/or physical person for any of the aforementioned damages.

You understand and agree that we expressly disclaim all warranties of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, title, non-infringement and fitness for a particular purpose. By way of example, you hereby expressly waive all claims against us, against any and all of our affiliated companies as well as against any video conferencing or web conferencing platforms’ system provider for the meeting or event for any of the following, understanding and agreeing that no warranty is made herein that (a) the meeting or event will meet your requirements or expectations; (b) the meeting or event will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, and/or error-free; and/or (c) the results that may be obtained from attending the meeting or event will be accurate or reliable. Any social media platform Group is provided as is with no warranties whatsoever.

In case of your registration for and/or participation to a Group, meeting or event:

• via video conferencing or web conferencing or social media platforms/tools, you are responsible for providing accurate information and securing that you have all authorizations to register to the meeting or event, attend the meeting and to that effect to also have an appropriate Internet connection, equipment and compatible browser software in order to utilize the video or web conferencing or social media platform/tool and participate to the Group, meeting or event.
• and if you have decided to upload and/or share material, content, data and/or any information, you are responsible for securing that you have all authorizations to upload and/or share such material, content, data and/or information in the frame of the Group, meeting or event ; you agree to indemnify us in case of any third party intellectual property rights claim infringement. You acknowledge that we are not responsible nor liable for (i) any further use of such material, content, data and/or information by any participant and/or by any third party during and/or after the meeting or event and/or (ii) any loss, interception, storage and/or use of such material, content, data and/or information across systems that are not controlled by us where for example the meeting or event is attended via video conference or web conferencing or social media platforms/tools.

13. ENTIRE AGREEMENT – CONTRACT WITH THIRD-PARTY WEBSITE AND/OR PLATFORMS/TOOLS

These Terms constitute the entire agreement and understanding between you and the EBU and they supersede all previous agreements, arrangements and understandings between you and the EBU relating to the same subject matter. You confirm that you have not relied upon any statement, representation or understanding that is not expressly set out in these Terms and that you shall have no remedy in respect of any statement, representation or understanding which is not expressly set out in these Terms.

You may be required to register for and/or participate to a social media group, meeting or event organised by the Group or Community via third-party registration website or applications and/or social media video conferencing or web conferencing platforms/tools. We make no representation or warranties and shall have no liability or obligation whatsoever in relation to the content and/or your use of any such third-party website and/or platforms/tools, and any contract and/or terms of use you may have entered into and/or accepted with any such third party is strictly between you and the relevant third party. If third party social media platforms cause any problems or harm, you should seek redress directly from the third party provider of those services. The EBU has no responsibility in such matters and cannot assist you regarding the same. Third party providers of social media platforms (including but not limited to WhatsApp) that you access through any device and mobile phone number are subject to and governed by their own terms and conditions that will bind you. It is your responsibility to read and adhere to such terms and conditions.

14. UPDATE OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS, GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION

These Terms are effective from 17 August 2022 and shall apply to your participation to any Group or Community meeting or event. We may update these Terms at any time. Consequently, you are invited to regularly refer to the latest Terms in effect when you proceed to a registration and/or subscription. You agree that these Terms will be exclusively governed by the laws of Switzerland, without giving effect to any conflicts of law principles. Any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of, connected with or relating to the conclusion, validity, interpretation or performance of these Terms and/or ulterior agreements that could arise therefrom, will be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland with an appeal to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court remaining reserved for the constellations as provided by law.