Nanterre Trade and Companies Register no. B 433 677 721
Registered office: 110 Avenue Victor Hugo, 92100 Boulogne Billancourt
Publication manager: Alain Cuq
Host provider
Easynet (SAS)
Share capital: EUR 3,900,000
Nanterre Trade and Companies Register no. B 402 335 137
Registered office: 55 Avenue des Champs Pierreux, 92000 Nanterre
General terms and conditions of use
1. Purpose
These general terms and conditions of use define the rules governing access to the www.viamichelin.com website (the “Website”) and the terms and conditions of use of the services provided by ViaMichelin (“ViaMichelin Services”) and its partners (“Third Party Services”) on or via the Website.
They also stipulate the rules governing use of the services (“Interactive Services”) provided to users on the Website for user communication and/or user-provided content (adverts, notices, travel journals, ViaMichelin directory, etc.).
2. Acceptance of terms and conditions of use
The user acknowledges that he unconditionally accepts these general terms and conditions of use simply by logging on to the Website.
In addition, the use of certain Services may entail acceptance by the user of special terms and conditions or compliance and a charter governing the use thereof is available on the pages dedicated to said Services. Unless stated otherwise, these special rules will apply in conjunction with these general terms and conditions of use.
3. Authorised use
3.1 Personal and non-commercial use
The Services provided on the Website and the content published therein may only be used for private and non-commercial purposes by users. Collective and/or commercial use is not permitted.
3.2 Hypertext links
The user is authorised to create:
- one or more simple link(s) to the Website’s homepage;
- one or more simple link(s) to the homepage of the Website’s different sections;
- one or more link(s) to a map, route, list of points of interest and/or a page containing a description, following the instructions of the Website Services offering this option.
However, ViaMichelin reserves the right to cancel such authorisation at any time if it considers that the link with the Website may harm its interests.
Under no circumstances does the existence of a hypertext link from a third party website to the Website imply any cooperation between ViaMichelin and said third party website. ViaMichelin has no control over third party websites and therefore accepts no liability for the content, products, services, information, materials or software of third party websites containing a hypertext link to the Website.
3.3 Use provided for by law
The user is legally authorised to make brief quotes, analyses and reproductions for press reviews as well as for other purposes expressly authorised by law, within the limits and under the conditions stipulated by law and subject inter alia to stating the name of the authors and the source of publication.
3.4 Interactive Services
Prior registration is necessary in order to use the Interactive Services. The user is required to complete a form giving his e-mail address and password, and providing the details needed for identification purposes.
The password enables each user to identify himself and to log on to the Interactive Services. It is personal and confidential and can only be changed at the holder’s request. Each user is fully responsible for use of his password, which he undertakes to keep secret and not to disclose in any form whatsoever to third parties. If his password is lost or stolen, the user must choose a new password and notify Michelin accordingly without delay.
4. Prohibited use
4.1 General
Unless expressly authorised in advance by ViaMichelin, all reproduction, representation and use other than those stated above are prohibited, in particular:
- any adaptation, provision to the public (solicited or otherwise), distribution, retransmission in any form whatsoever, networking, public communication of all or part of the Services, and of all works, services, trademarks and elements that are protected or that may be protected by intellectual property law reproduced on the Website;
- any extraction or reuse, including for private purposes, of a substantial part of the content of the databases created by the Website;
- any repeated and systematic extraction or reuse, including for private purposes, of even a small part of the content of the databases created by the Website;
- any link, access, modification, addition, deletion which relates to the automatic processing system for online publication and alters publication conditions or editorial policy.
Any user acting in breach of these general terms and conditions of use renders himself liable to civil or criminal prosecution to combat infringement of copyright, the breach of connected rights and the breach of the rights of producers of databases and automatic data processing systems.
The user is reminded that, under the French Criminal Code (article 323-1 et seq.), the following offences are subject to penalties of imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of EUR 75,000:
- accessing and fraudulently remaining in an automatic data processing system,
- deleting, modifying or fraudulently adding data to said system,
- blocking said system.
Criminal proceedings may be brought by ViaMichelin against any user who fails to comply with these provisions.
4.2 Hypertext links
Unless expressly authorised in advance by ViaMichelin, the following are not permitted:
- any inline linking enabling an internet user to automatically display content from the Website in a specific location;
- any framing link enabling a Website page to appear in a frame inside the Website page visited by an internet user;
- any link from sites that offend against public decency or are violent, pornographic or paedophiliac, which may infringe human dignity or are intended to display or sell prohibited or illegal items, substance and/or works, etc.
4.3 Use of Interactive Services
The user undertakes not to publish content that is in breach of current laws and regulations on the Interactive Services.
In particular, the user agrees not to:
- distribute information that offends against public order or public decency, - use the service for propaganda or proselytising, canvassing or recruitment purposes,
- publish commercial or advertising information or information that constituted propaganda for tobacco, alcohol or any other regulated substance, product or service,
- distribute content that contravenes third party personality rights or is defamatory, abusive, obscene, pornographic, offensive, violent or that incites political, racist, xenophobic, sexist or homophobic discrimination or violence,
- publish information that contravenes legislation on the protection of personal data making it possible to identify individuals without their consent, in particular their surname, postal and/or e-mail address, telephone number, photo, audio or audiovisual recording,
- fraudulently access the Website and in particular the Interactive Services.
The user also agrees not to contravene third party intellectual property rights.
The user undertakes to comply with current laws and regulations and only to use content (text, photos, etc.) over which he has rights, to whose distribution the rights holder has given his express consent, or which is free of any rights.
As a reminder, the French Intellectual Property Code prohibits any full or partial representation or reproduction made without the consent of the author or his assigns. Only “analyses and brief quotes justified by their critical, polemic, educational, scientific or informative nature” are authorised, subject to inclusion of the author’s name and the source.
The user warrants to ViaMichelin that he has the necessary rights to publication of the content published on an Interactive Service. The term “rights” is construed in particular to mean personality rights, copyrights, trademark rights, etc.
5. Methods used to combat illegal activities
Each user acknowledges that he has been informed that a moderation system is used in order to control, delete or modify content published by users of the Interactive Services which appears to contravene current laws and regulations or which has been reported to do so by a judicial authority.
Each user acknowledges that he has been informed that a reporting system is available at all times to anyone wishing to report the publication of any litigious message which has come to his attention on the Interactive Services, in particular those covered by the list of offences defined in articles 24 paragraphs 5 and 8 of the French law on the press and article 227-23 of the French Criminal Code such as justifying crimes against humanity, incitement to racial hatred, child pornography, in accordance with the provisions of article 6 - I - 7, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the French law on Confidence in the Digital Economy of 21 June 2004.
To exercise this option, the user has to click on the “report illegal content” link provided for this purpose.
It is understood that abusing this right is likely to incur the liability of the person exercising it. The following in particular may give rise to legal proceedings:
- reporting a message or activity as illegal with the sole objective of having it withdrawn or having its distribution terminated, knowing that such information is incorrect,
- accusing a specific individual by any communication method, including e-mail, of an action likely to give rise to legal penalties, knowing that this is totally or partially incorrect.
6. Intellectual property rights and trademark protection
The Services and the content thereof (in particular data, databases, software, API, photos, videos, audio tapes, information, illustrations, logos, trademarks, etc.) which appear or are available on the Website are protected under copyright, trademark rights, patent rights, database producer rights or any other rights recognised by current legislation. All copying, reproduction, representation, adaptation, adulteration, modification, distribution of the Website Services and/or content, in whole or in part, whether the content belongs to ViaMichelin, a third party or a user, is illegal except for a single copy, on a single computer and restricted to the exclusively private use of the copier.
7. Liability
7.1. ViaMichelin Services
ViaMichelin cannot be held liable for indirect, incidental or accessory damage, whether foreseeable or otherwise, caused to the user, including (for information purposes only, the list is not exhaustive) loss of gain or profit, data loss, hardware loss, including the costs of retrieval, reproduction or remedy of such loss, resulting from the use of and/or inability to use ViaMichelin Services. ViaMichelin may also not be held liable for investment orders or decisions based on information contained in the Website or accessible through the Website.
Moreover, the user’s attention is drawn to the internet’s inherent risks, particularly:
- lack of security in data transmission;
- lack of guaranteed continuity of access to the Website or the various services offered by the Website.
Under no circumstances can ViaMichelin be held liable for such risks and their harmful consequences for the user, regardless of the extent thereof.
It is up to each user to take all appropriate measures to protect his own data, software and hardware from contamination by viruses or other forms of attack which may be circulating through the Website or the information published.
The user may not take advantage of any problem in accessing the Website in order to access information in a way that breaches these general terms and conditions of use.
7.2. Third party services and links to third party sites
ViaMichelin cannot be held liable for the actions of third parties, in particular for content or Third Party Services provided by third party service providers such as hoteliers, rental firms, hotel reservation platforms. ViaMichelin shall not be liable in any way for direct or indirect damage resulting from use of the content and third party Services provided on or from the Website.
Furthermore, the Website may contain links to websites of ViaMichelin partners or to third party websites. ViaMichelin has no control whatsoever over such websites and therefore accepts no liability for the availability of such websites, their content, advertising or the products and/or services available on or from such websites. ViaMichelin will not be liable in any way for direct or indirect damage resulting from access by the user to the partner’s and/or third party’s website or from use of the content and services of said website by the user.
7.3. Interactive Services
Interactive Services are outside the scope of the editorial activity of ViaMichelin, which only makes the
Interactive Services available to users and stores their content on its own Website. Consequently, the published content cannot be considered to reflect the opinions of the Website’s editorial team but is binding on its author alone. At any time during business hours, a user may ask ViaMichelin to delete its contributions to an Interactive Service.
ViaMichelin’s liability in respect of Interactive Services is that of a technical service provider as defined in articles 6.I-1 of the French law on Confidence in the Digital Economy of 21 June 2004.
In particular ViaMichelin cannot be held liable for any contact in any form between users or between a user and any third party whatsoever.
Interactive Services may not however be used by a user in any way likely to disrupt the unrestricted communication of other users or to transmit content that constitutes or incites the commission of actions punishable by law.
The user acknowledges, that ViaMichelin, as host, may check the content of the Interactive Services after it has gone line by any method it deems necessary and in all circumstances, either directly or by using the services of a moderator. Users therefore acknowledge ViaMichelin’s right to modify or delete all content that it considers to be in breach of current laws and regulations at its sole discretion, and in particular content that breaches the prohibitions defined in article 4 above, or which has been reported to it as such by a judicial authority.
Similarly, ViaMichelin shall be entitled to exclude, temporarily or permanently, any user who contravenes these general terms and conditions of use and/or the specific conditions of use of an Interactive Service. However, and regardless of the control methods it has used, it is understood that owing to the volume of information published, ViaMichelin is not subject to a general obligation to monitor the information it stores, or a general obligation to seek out facts or circumstances that reveal illegal activities, or a guarantee obligation concerning the accuracy, integrity or honesty of the information published by users.
The user has full responsibility for the content he publishes on an Interactive Service.
Under no circumstances can ViaMichelin be held liable for the activities or information stored at the request of a user if ViaMichelin had no actual knowledge of its illegal nature or of facts and circumstances revealing such a nature or if, as soon as it obtained such knowledge, it acted promptly to withdraw said data or to block access to it.
8. Personal data
Personal data gathered when Services are used is processed in compliance with the principles of personal data protection. These principles are defined in the ViaMichelin personal data protection charter. This charter explains the procedures used by ViaMichelin to process and protect the personal information of users of the Services.
9. Customer service
For all information or questions concerning use of the Website, the ViaMichelin customer service is available to users by clicking on the “Contact us” heading or by calling 0870 735 03 60.
10. Amendment of the general terms and conditions of use and the special terms and conditions of use
ViaMichelin may amend the terms of these general terms and conditions of use and the special terms and conditions at any time. Such amendments are binding on the user as soon as they go online. Accordingly, the user is advised to regularly consult the general terms and conditions of use and the special terms and conditions of use so as to be aware of any such new terms and conditions.
11. Governing law and jurisdiction
Failure by the user, regardless of his location, to comply with any of the provisions of these general terms and conditions of use, and in general any problem concerning their execution, interpretation or validity shall be subject to French law and the courts in Nanterre, France.