Data Protection Regulation for Customers

Customer information in conjunction with Article 13 GDPR

1. Name and contact details of the responsible body

Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
D-10785 Berlin / Germany

Tel: +49 30 260 05-0
Fax: +49 30 260 05-251
e-mail: [email protected]

Data Protection Officer:

Thorsten Feldmann
JBB Rechtsanwälte
Christinenstraße 18/19
10119 Berlin
e-mail: [email protected]

2. Purpose and Legal Grounds for Processing

Essentially, we only gather such information from you, as you have expressly given us. This may be especially, but not exclusively:

• Name
• postal address
• telephone number
• fax
• email address
• advertising block
• job title
• bank account details
• any other addresses than the billing address
• delivery address
• accounting information
• dunning levels
• delivery blocks
• customer blocks
• debit-side customer details
• company
• affiliation
• department
• language
• salutation
• use history (clicked email, opened or not)
• IP addresses

If necessary, additional information may arise during the course of the contractual relationship, such as, for example, incoming payments or similar, which we also store in connection with your details.

Details are processed by us for the following purposes:

• initiation and termination of contracts
• fulfilment of the contractual relationship
• invoicing
• accountancy and tax purposes
• customer support after expiry of warranty
• sending of advertising by email
• sending of catalogues

This processing has its legal basis in Article 6 paragraph 1 lit. b) GDPR and Article 6 paragraph 1 lit. c) GDPR in connection with § 147 AO, 257 HGB. The subsequent storage for customer support is justified by Article 6 paragraph 1 lit. f) of the GDPR. It is our legitimate interest in this case to be able to offer you services after the end of our contractual relationship. The sending of email advertising and catalogues is based on Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a) of the GDPR, if you have given us your express approval, or on 6 Paragraph 1 lit. f) of the GDPR, if we communicate advertising to you in the context of or subsequent to your orders. It is in our legitimate interest to send you direct advertising.

3. Recipients or Categories of Recipients of Personal Data, as well as Transmission to Third-party Countries

For the above-named purposes, we use external IT service providers, service providers for dispatch of newsletters, as well as delivery service providers. In addition, the DeGruyter sister companies have access to your details. One of these sister companies is registered in a third country, namely the United States of America. Finally, personal data is also transmitted under certain circumstances to our tax advisers and financial & tax authorities.

4. Duration of Saving

• We store personal data under a continuing obligation for the duration of the contractual relationship and furthermore, four years and 6 months from the ending of the contractual relationship. In the case of a one-off exchange relationship, the data is stored for 4 years and 6 months from the establishment of the contractual relationship.
• To the extent that personal data arises in contracts and/or invoices, these are retained for 11 years and 6 months.
• Personal data necessary for direct advertising is saved by us, until you object or retract and is deleted subsequently after 6 months.

5. Rights of affected parties

The GDPR guarantees you certain rights that you can exercise against us if the statutory conditions apply.

• Article 15 of the GDPR - Affected Parties’ Right to Information: you have the right to request a confirmation from us as to whether personal data affecting you is processed and, if so, what information this is and how this data is processed
• Article 16 of the GDPR - Right to Correction: you have to right to request the immediate correction of incorrect personal data affecting you. Considering the purpose of processing, you also have the right to request that incomplete personal data be completed - also by way of submitting an explanation.
• Article 17 of the GDPR - Right to Deletion: you have the right to request that we immediately delete personal data affecting you.
• Article 18 of the GDPR - Right to limits of processing: you have the right to demand that we limit the processing of data.
• Article 20 of the GDPR - Right to Data Transferability: you have the right to receive personal data affecting you and provided by you in a structured, standard and machine-readable format and to transfer this data to another responsible authority without hindrance from us or to have this data transferred directly insofar as technically possible if data is processed based on consent or the fulfilment of a contract.
• Article 21 of the GDPR - Right to Object: for reasons resulting from your particular situation, you have the right to object to the processing of personal data affecting you required due to our legitimate interest or necessary to uphold a task of public interest or to exercise official authority. Please direct your objections to one of the addresses provided in this statement.
  If you exercise your right to object, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can prove compelling grounds worthy of protection that outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms or if processing is required for the exercising or defending of legal claims.
  If we process your personal data to operate direct advertising, you have the right to object to such processing at any time. If you object to data processing for the purposes of direct advertising, your personal data will no longer be processed for these purposes.
• Article 77 of the GDPR in Combination with §19 of the BDSG - Right to Complain to a Supervisory Body: You have the right to complain to a supervisory body, especially in the member state of your residence, your workplace or the location of the alleged violation, if you believe that the processing of personal data affecting you violates applicable law.

If you have granted us consent, you have the right to revoke your consent at any time. Any prior processing remains lawful. Please direct your revocation to one of the addresses provided in this statement.

6. Obligation to provide personal data

You have no legal or contractual obligation to provide us with personal data. Therefore, under certain circumstances, we are not in the position to enter into a contractual relationship with you.

7. Automated Decisions including Profiling

We do not use any automated decisions including profiling.