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Privacy Policy

PRIVACY NOTICE

Your personal data is very important to Gerald Charles (“we” or “our”). This notice (the “Privacy

Notice”) is to inform you about the processing of personal data that we may collect when you access our online and offline services, including the personal data we collect through our various channels, such as our website, applications, social networks, our customer relations centres, points of sale and the events we organize.

The Gerald Charles Cookie Policy is a supplement to this Privacy Notice and describes what cookies are, what Gerald Charles can do with them and the way in which any person can accept

or refuse to receive a cookie operated by Gerald Charles on his/her terminal. You can access our Cookie Policy here. This Privacy Notice applies to all entities of Gerald Charles SA.

 

Whenever you provide your personal data to a Gerald Charles entity, such entity is responsible for the collection and processing of your personal data, at the local level, for the purposes of managing the commercial or contractual relationship relating to Gerald Charles products and services, in accordance with the applicable local laws. At the group level, the Swiss company Gerald Charles SA is responsible for defining the overall policy for the processing and management of your personal data for commercial and marketing purposes (such as management of the central group CRM system and promotional campaigns at the group level as opposed to local campaigns), as well as the management of the Gerald Charles website.

 

In accordance with EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) and the

Federal Act on Data Protection of 19 June 1992 (the “FADP”), this Privacy Notice is governed

and interpreted by the GDPR and the FADP, under the control of the Federal Data Protection

and Transparency Officer, in so far as the Swiss company Gerald Charles SA is responsible, at

the Gerald Charles group level, for the definition of the global policy on the processing and

management of your personal data for commercial and marketing purposes, as well as the

management of the Gerald Charles website.

However, Gerald Charles may take into account provisions that are stricter than those of the

GDPR or the FADP, when required by law. We invite you to take the time to read this Privacy

Notice in its entirety. We are available at the e-mail address info@geraldcharles.com to answer any questions you may have, particularly in the exercise of your rights to your personal data described in Section VI.

 

I. PERSONAL DATA WE COLLECT

This Privacy Notice applies to any personal data we may collect from you or about you (see

below), from the following sources:

• Visiting our websites and using Gerald Charles mobile applications (including the mini-sites

we have on social networks such as WeChat) (the “Site”): in particular when creating and using an account on our Sites, responding to a form or using a service (subscription to our newsletter, request for contact, information or services, making appointments, list of favourites, submission of job applications), or of a feature or resources published on our Sites. You will be asked to identify yourself but you may also visit our Sites without registering;

• Electronic and telephone communications between Gerald Charles and yourself;

• Visits to Gerald Charles points of sale managed by Gerald Charles, as well as the MAAP and participation in events organised or sponsored by Gerald Charles;

 

• Purchase of an Gerald Charles product (including the purchase of a ticket for the MAAP) or request for an after-sales service;

 

• Electronic and telephone communications with Gerald Charles customer relations centres;

 

• Printed or electronic registration forms that we collect in our points of sale, at events or during a visit to the MAAP;

 

• Online submission of job applications;

 

• Data that you share publicly in the course of your interaction with Gerald Charles on social networks (for example, when you “like” an Gerald Charles page on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest, Wechat, Weibo, Line, Youtube and Yuku).

 

We may collect different types of information from you depending on the purpose and the manner in which you interact with Gerald Charles (face-to-face, online, by telephone, etc.), as indicated below:

 

• Identity and contact information: any information you provide us that would enable us to contact you, such as your name, e-mail address, postal address or telephone number, as well as your image, such as you may have uploaded it to your personal account. We may also process the images taken as part of the surveillance systems in place in points of sales managed by Gerald Charles, as well as in the MAAP.

 

• Personal status, preferences and purchase history: any information describing your demographic and behavioural characteristics. These include, for example, your date of birth, gender, nationality, language preference, employment status (job title, company/employer, professional contact details), marital status, interests (sports, leisure, art) or lifestyle, as well as other preferences, such as your favourite products, list of favourites, watches registered in your account and history of purchases and services you have requested.

 

• Data relating to the traffic and use of our Sites: when you interact with our Sites, we may collect traffic data using automated data collection technologies, including a dialogue between the website server and your browser. Traffic data may include the browser name and the type of device you are using, as well as technical data about how you connect to our Sites, including your operating system, the IP address of your device connected to the Internet, the identifier of your Internet access point, the date and time of your last visit and the Internet service providers you use. Such data is used for statistical purposes and the analysis of such data is used to improve our Sites, so as to provide you with a personalized browsing experience tailored to your preferences and interests, for example, by directly displaying the pages in your preferred language on your next visit. Such information is captured using automated technologies such as cookies (browser cookies) and web beacons (such as Java Script); they are also collected through external tracking services (Google Analytics). Please consult our Cookie Policy to find out how you can adjust your cookie settings and obtain detailed information about cookies we use and how we use them.

 

• Customer feedback: This is information that you voluntarily share with us about your experience using our products and services (i.e. in the event of a complaint or in the context of discussions, even informal ones, with our employees).

 

• Information from social networks: we may have access to information that you share publicly on third party social networks, such as the social networks listed above. If you wish to stop sharing this information, we recommend that you read the terms of use of the social network concerned.

 

• Payment information: any of the information that we need to fulfil an order or that you use to make a purchase, and, if you so request, the data necessary to refund the VAT (the name of the cardholder, credit card number, expiry date, a copy of your identity card, etc.) and information or documents required by anti-money laundering laws and by embargo legislation, as part of “know your client” type verifications.

 

Links to other websites. Our Sites may contain or use links to third-party websites (such as advertising, our partners, or social networks). Such third-party websites have their own privacy policy (including on the use of cookies), which we invite you to review. We do not accept any responsibility for the privacy policies of any such third-party websites that you access at your own risk.

 

Privacy and protection of minors. Our Sites are not intended for users under 16 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16 years of age. If you are a parent or guardian and you know that your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us. If we realise or are aware that we collected personal data from a child under the age of 16 without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove such information from our servers, unless we are required to retain it by law (accounting or purchase data, data necessary for applicable guarantees or the management of complaints, etc.). In any event, users under 16 who provide us with personal data have a discretionary right to the erasure of their data which they can exercise, at any time and without cause, alone or through their usual guardian, by contacting us at the address mentioned in Section VIII “Contact Us”. Requests for erasure will be processed under the conditions and subject to the reservations described above.

 

II. USE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

• We collect and use your personal data on one or more of the following legal bases:

 

• We have obtained your prior consent (e.g. when you subscribe to our newsletter). Please note that with this particular legal basis, you have the right to revoke your consent at any time (see Chapter VI);

 

• This data processing is necessary in the context of a contract between Gerald Charles and you (for example when you make a purchase);

 

• We have a legitimate interest in carrying out the data processing and this legitimate interest is not overshadowed by your interests, fundamental rights or freedoms (for example the prevention of fraudulent or illegal activity);

 

• We must process your personal data in order to comply with the laws and regulations in force. Depending on the context, we may use your personal data for the purposes described below. Please note that the types of use listed below depend on your use of our services and do not systematically affect each user:

 

• Processing of your orders, purchases (including any VAT refund requests) and deliveries;

 

• Answering your queries, questions and/or requests of any kind, including your requests for the exercise of rights;

 

• Improving customer service and managing our relationship with you, including managing VIP programmes, loyalty programmes and events. The data collected, which can be cross-checked from the various sources cited in Chapter I., helps us respond to your requests, meet your needs more effectively and improve our products and services according to your preferences and the history of your relationship with Gerald Charles;

 

• Sending you regular information, in particular about Gerald Charles, news on our products and after-sales services, our events, the activities of the MAAP, the opening of new points of sale or satisfaction surveys concerning our products and services, with your consent when required;

 

• Addressing you advertising offers and chatting with you on social networks when you interact with third-party social networking features such as “like” features. We recommend that you consult the terms of use of the third party networks concerned to inform you about these functionalities and, if necessary, cancel your registration;

 

• Provide after-sales services, including in the context of the activation of guarantees;

 

• Manage and register lost, stolen or counterfeit products;

 

• Detect, prevent and fight against any fraudulent or illegal activity, including to act against counterfeiting and resale of our products in violation of the rules applicable to our distribution network;

 

• Manage our Sites and the services offered therein, as well as your accounts, including personalising and facilitating your user experience on our Sites by presenting you, whether when you visit our Sites or in the personal space of your account, with Gerald Charles-specific content that corresponds to your interests. We are also likely to cross-reference this data to better understand how users, as a group, use the services and/or resources available on our Sites;

 

• Complying with our billing and accounting obligations, as well as our legal and regulatory obligations (such as those arising from anti-money laundering laws and embargo legislation);

 

• Dealing with any claims or litigation (particularly in the context of the exercise of legal claims and defences in the event of litigation);

 

• Producing reports and statistics, particularly for the purpose of measuring traffic on the Sites;

 

• Managing the process of recruiting applications submitted on the Sites;

 

• Guaranteeing the safety of points of sale managed by Gerald Charles, and that of the MAAP;

 

• Guaranteeing IT security and IT operations.

 

III. HOW WE PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We have put in place organisational, human and technical measures to adequately protect your personal data, as well as our processing of it. The measures applied, in order to prevent any unauthorised access to your personal data and thus prevent them from being altered, disclosed or destroyed, follow recognised information security standards. These security measures consist mainly of strict control of access, encryption of personal data in our customer and potential customer databases, regular review of access, maintenance of the infrastructure at an adequate level of protection as well as constant supervision of the infrastructure, and a strategy for analysing and remedying potential security incidents.

 

Nevertheless, even if we strive to protect your personal data in our possession, we cannot guarantee the security of the information transmitted on our Sites during its transit through the Internet by means of any unsecured protocol.

 

IV. SHARING OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We undertake not to sell, exchange, rent or transfer in any way your personal data without your consent (which will have been given after receipt of prior information) and subject to the cases listed below:

 

Transfers within Gerald Charles: the various Gerald Charles entities may share your personal data with one another in order to ensure the continuity of our services, our relationship with our customers, our potential customers and the users of our Sites, as well as to ensure the continuity of our offers and information intended for you. Your personal data may thus be collected, stored and processed by an Gerald Charles entity located in the following countries/regions: Switzerland, the United States, the European Economic Area, China, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Lebanon, Israel, Dubai and Russia. When we transfer personal data to a country that is not designated by the Federal Data Protection and Transparency Commissioner or by the European Commission as providing a sufficient level of protection for personal data, the transfers are governed by the contractual clauses in force adopted by the European Commission and adopted by the Commissioner or through mechanisms validated by the latter or by the competent authorities in charge of personal data protection within the European Economic Area and, where appropriate, supplemented by measures that may be required in other jurisdictions.

 

Transfers to third-party service providers: In addition, we may share your personal data with third parties located abroad, for the following purposes:

 

• We may use third-party service providers to help us operate our business (for example, in carrying out orders, payment processing, frauds detection, identity verification, management of our customer relations centres, the sending of newsletters, the organisation of events, the management of our information systems, etc.), and administer the Sites and the services offered therein, in particular by the use of Google Analytics, as described in the Cookie Policy. You can access our Cookie Policy here.

 

• We may share your contact or appointment requests with the retailers or repair centres concerned;

 

• For the purposes described in Section II hereinabove, we may share with our commercial and advertising partners cross-references of demographic information by user groups (thus containing no direct identification of our visitors), for statistical purposes and for advertising Gerald Charles's products and services.

 

• We may disclose such information to a third party in connection with any merger or acquisition, or to any organisation involved in any transfer or sale of our business or our capital.

 

We always require these third parties to provide sufficient guarantees of confidentiality and security and to take the necessary organisational and technical measures to protect your personal data in accordance with the applicable legislation. When we transfer personal data to a country that is not designated by the Federal Data Protection and Transparency Commissioner or by the European Commission as providing a sufficient level of protection for personal data, the transfers are governed by the contractual clauses in force adopted by the European Commission and adopted by the Commissioner or through mechanisms validated by the latter or by the competent authorities in charge of personal data protection within the European Economic Area and, where appropriate, supplemented by measures that may be required in other jurisdictions. In addition, service providers are only allowed access to your personal data and use it on our behalf in relation to the specific tasks assigned to them, based on our instructions.

 

The list of countries to which we transfer personal data may change. You may request an up-to-date list of countries to which we may transfer your personal data for specified purposes from the address given in Chapter VIII “Contact Us”.

 

Transfers to third parties for legal reasons: we may disclose personal data to meet legal requirements, respond to a request from a competent law enforcement agency, exercise our rights or defend ourselves in the context of a claim or legal proceeding or to provide evidence to protect the interests of an Gerald Charles entity and to combat fraud.

V. STORAGE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We keep your personal data for the time necessary to satisfy the different purposes set out in Section II hereinabove, except in cases in which the law allows us or requires us to keep such data longer.

 

In particular:

 

• The personal data used to manage our relationship with you or to send you information, especially about Gerald Charles, news on our products or after-sales services, events or satisfaction surveys will be kept for the duration necessary for the management of our relationship with you, and no longer than a three-year period from the end of your business relationship with Gerald Charles or from your last use of the services available on our Sites or your last contact with Gerald Charles if you are from a European Economic Area country or Switzerland. This period is extended to ten years if you are from the United States and five years if you are from any other country.

 

• Data related to the management and history of your purchases and the services provided to you, as well as the management of complaints and calls upon guarantees will be retained for a maximum period of ten years from the last event. Gerald Charles will keep the data you provided as part of any VAT refund application for a maximum period of one month.

 

• The personal data processed for the management of requests for access to or rectification of personal data will be kept for a maximum period of three years.

 

These maximum periods apply unless you request the deletion or termination of the use of your data before the expiry of these periods for any ground compatible with a legal obligation of conservation that may be imposed on Gerald Charles. 

 

VI. YOUR RIGHTS TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Access to personal data, modification, updates and deletion: if applicable law provides, you may (i) request access to your personal data held by an Gerald Charles entity, consult such data and obtain a paper or electronic copy thereof, and (ii) request the correction, limitation, updating or deletion of your personal data or oppose the processing of such data. You may exercise such rights by sending a written request, along with a copy of an identity document, to the Gerald Charles entity with which you interact or to the postal or electronic address indicated in Section VIII “Contact Us”, below. We will endeavour to present you with the personal data concerned, to correct or delete it, according to your request and under the conditions provided for by applicable law.

 

Please note that in some cases, we may not be able to delete your personal data without also deleting your user account. We may also have to keep some of your personal data after a removal request, in order to meet our legal or contractual obligations. We may also be permitted by applicable law to retain some of your personal data to comply with our legal obligations.

 

Opt-out: you may also ask to no longer receive information or offers from us at any time, either by following the unsubscribe process described in the messages you may receive from us, or by writing to us at the address indicated in Section VIII “Contact Us”, below. If you do so, we will promptly update our database and take all reasonable steps to respond to your request as quickly as possible, but we may continue to contact you to the extent necessary in connection with any product or service you have requested.

 

Data portability: given the extreme specificity of the fine watchmaking products designed and marketed by Gerald Charles, as well as the services associated therewith, Gerald Charles cannot, unless a written and specific individual request is addressed to us and justified by a legitimate reason, be subject to portability as defined by the GDPR.

 

Complaint to a supervisory authority: without prejudice to any other legal remedy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the European Union supervisory authority for the application of the rules of the GDPR or with the competent authority under the conditions provided for in the FAPD. 

VII. AMENDMENTS TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Notice at any time. We encourage you to check this page periodically for updates and to stay informed about the steps we take to protect the personal data we collect. You agree and acknowledge that it is your responsibility to regularly review our Sites to be aware of any changes made thereto.

 

VIII. CONTACT US

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact us at info@geraldcharles.com or at the following address: Gerald Charles SA, Attn: Data Protection Officer, via Nassa 62, Lugano, 6901, Switzerland.

This document was last updated on 24 February 2023