Terms of use MyFost
The Services of the MyFost platform (as defined below) are provided by Fost Plus VZW, VAT number BE 0447.550.872 and with registered office at Olympiadenlaan 2, 1140 Evere (tel.: 02 775 03 50, email: fostplus@fostplus.be). Fost Plus is certified by the Interregional Packaging Commission – for further information, visit www.ivcie.be.
These Terms of Use apply to every instance of access and use of the MyFost platform and the associated functionalities as periodically available and also described in more detail below.
By ticking the box during registration and/or by using the MyFost platform you indicate that you have read, understood and accepted these Terms of Use.
Please read our privacy statement before registering for or using the MyFost platform.
- Definitions
In these Terms of Use, the terms and phrases with a capital letter shall have the following meaning, unless from the context of a specific definition it is indisputable that said meaning as given in the definition does not apply:
By "Service" is meant every service provided online by Fost Plus via the MyFost platform, including (i) the provision of an online declaration application for household packaging and industrial packaging to Members, (ii) the provision of an online registration application for the collection, sorting and acquiring of household packaging waste (including equivalent or comparable packaging waste) and industrial packaging from Partners, (iii) the provision of an online application for the exchange of rates and business rules between Members and the management bodies appointed by them for packaging via the platform, and/or (iv) other online services for which a Customer is able to acquire access via a login received by Fost Plus or via a login carried out in a Fost Plus system;
A “Guest” is a natural or legal person who is invited by a Customer by email using a personalised hyperlink to provide, complete and/or edit certain Customer data for the Customer;
The "User" designates any Main User, Subuser or Guest;
By "Main User" is meant the natural person who has been validly appointed by a Customer to use the Service on the Customer’s behalf and to assume responsibility for the management of the Customer’s Subusers and Guests;
By "Intellectual Property" is meant (a) all intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyright, other related rights, rights in software, patents, brands, drawings and models, databases, plant varieties, geographic indications and designations of origin, software rights, topographies of semiconductors, irrespective of whether or not these are registered; (b) all applications for, rights to apply for and all assignments of protection for these rights and/or allocation of their renewal; and (c) all similar rights or types of protection or interests including but not limited to trade and industrial secrets and other know-how that exists now or will exist in future, in any country in the world;
The "Customer" is a Member or a Partner who has registered for and/or uses one or more Fost Plus Services with a company number for which no other Customer exists;
"Customer Data" means all data, information and documents that the Customer and/or the Users upload and/or manage within the framework of the Service;
A "Member" is the Co-Contractor, a legal entity or natural person who has already concluded membership contract with Fost Plus regarding fulfilment of the legal take-back and information obligation for packaging waste of household origin;
A "Partner" is a legal entity who fulfils for Fost Plus the role of an operator, intercommunal, collector, sorting centre or waste acquirer;
By "Subuser" is meant the natural person appointed by a Main User to register for the Service and use the Service within the scope of the access and editing rights provided by the Main User for use of the Service and Customer’s Customer data.
- Registration on the platform
Access to and use of the Services is dependent on the Customer observing the registration process provided for this purpose and on the entering of all data requested in this context. This registration can be carried out via the website or via a process of direct contact with a Fost Plus employee.
The Customer declares and guarantees that all data communicated to Fost Plus are up to date, full and accurate, and that he is also authorised to communicate these data to Fost Plus. Unless specific terms have been agreed in this regard, the Customer shall immediately notify Fost Plus if any of the communicated data subsequently need to be changed. Fost Plus shall at all times have the right to check the accuracy of the communicated data.
In the light of all relevant facts and factors, Fost Plus reserves the right to refuse the Customer’s registration or to make it dependent on meeting certain conditions (such as the correction of inaccurate information, giving of securities, etc.).
- Access to and use of the platform
Every instance of access to and use of the Services on the Customer’s behalf must take place via individualised accounts assigned to Users in accordance with these Terms of Use. These accounts are strictly personal and must be adequately protected against incompetent use with appropriate security safeguards (such as regular changes of password).
The Customer acknowledges and accepts that he is fully responsible for (i) any decisions taken by the Customer and/or Users regarding or resulting from the Services; (ii) any use of the Services by the Users; and (iii) any consequences for the Customer or third parties as a result of said use.
The Customer must immediately notify Fost Plus in writing in all cases where there is any loss, theft or misuse of his access data (including those of his Users) and of any suspicious activity in this regard.
The Customer shall undertake to provide a copy of these Terms of Use to every User, and shall vouch for strict compliance with said Terms by all Users.
- Designation of a Main User
The Customer shall designate one (1) Main User who shall be responsible for management of the Users within their own company on the Customer's behalf and s/he shall be granted all necessary powers of representation.
If Fost Plus validates the Main User’s registration and from that time on, s/he shall have the following responsibilities on the Customer’s behalf:
− the Main User can create Subusers, determine to which contracts (= member numbers etc.) they must have access and with what rights (consultation only, editing, sending of declarations, etc.).
− the Main User may create Subusers with two types of profile:
o "Administrator": in addition to the accesses and rights assigned in the applications, this Subuser may also create other Subusers; and
o "User": this Subuser only has the accesses and rights assigned in the applications and cannot create other Subusers.
− the Main User is responsible for further management of Subusers and edits the Subuser data and their accesses and rights if the company situation so requires.
− the Main User is responsible for blocking a Subuser if they are no longer permitted to have access to certain data due to changes within the company (e.g. change in role, departure of a colleague, etc.).
− The Main User may invite Guests (see Art. 4 "Inviting a Guest").
If an employee is no longer able or permitted to carry out the role of Main User due to a change in the situation (e.g. dismissal, departure, change in role, etc.), the Customer is responsible for rapid reporting of this change in situation to Fost Plus via email. After receiving this notification, Fost Plus will make the necessary changes (blocking of Main User, validation of new Main User, etc.).
Fost Plus may use the contact details of the User(s) to send targeted emails that are of interest in view of their registration, account, membership and/or contract with Fost Plus. The User(s) must take the necessary steps to continue to receive these emails and to assign the necessary User(s) the correct roles and rights so that these emails reach the correct departments, including but not limited to the whitelisting of @fostplus.be with your email provider.
- Inviting a Guest
The Main User may invite a Guest to provide, complete or edit certain Customer data. The Guest will then have access to the Customer data in the Service as selected by the Main User via a personalised hyperlink sent by email. The Guest does not need to register for the Service.
- The platform as a Member or Partner portal
If you wish to use the MyFost platform as a Member for, among others, the fulfilling of the legal take-back and information obligation regarding packaging waste of household origin and associated operations, you must first conclude a membership contract with Fost Plus and continuously comply with it for the duration of your use. These Terms of Use shall in that case apply as specific terms of use for the online declaration with respect to the general conditions associated with the membership contract.
If you wish to use the MyFost platform as a Partner for, among others, the performance of activities as an operator, intercommunal, collector, sorting centre or waste acquirer on behalf of Fost Plus and associated operations, you must first conclude a specific framework agreement with Fost Plus and continuously comply with it for the duration of your use. These Terms of Use shall in that case apply as specific conditions of use governing the performance and management of the Services provided via the MyFost platform.
- Sharing of Customer Data within MyFost by Members
The Service is to be conceived as a platform onto which data may be uploaded by Members. This platform has been made as secure as possible, but still operates in a shared environment, in other words it is possible to export data.
Subject to the Member’s express consent, the Member expressly agrees that Valipac and/or other indicated bodies may have access to the packaging data that is managed and declared via MyFost. In this way, the Customer could, for example, communicate to Valipac the quantity of industrial packaging via the platform with a view to making its industrial packaging declaration within the framework of its own contractual agreements and under its own responsibility. Any further communication, reporting, invoicing and all other stipulations relating to the specified industrial packaging shall take place exclusively and directly via Valipac under the Customer’s applicable contract. The calculated contributions for industrial packaging and applicable business rules for industrial packaging (including material categories and description) are shown as an indication only. In certain cases, Fost Plus may offer a number of standard connectors from such third parties. These connectors will be disconnected by default and may only be activated by the Customer subject to acceptance of the associated conditions for said connector and/or the third party’s conditions.
Subject to obtaining the prior consent of the Member, the Service also offers the Member the possibility to partly or fully share his Customer data with one or several other Members (e.g. suppliers) under his own responsibility. The Customer declares that he agrees with the above and grants consent for other Members to have access in such cases to the shared packaging data managed via MyFost. The Member declares that he expressly grants his consent for the shared Customer data to be used for the declarations of such Members.
- Authorised use of the Service
The Customer declares and guarantees that the Services will always be used in accordance with the provisions of these Terms of Use, the applicable legislation and the reasonable instructions of Fost Plus and with the principle of good faith.
The Customer and his users may not do the following (nor may they offer a third party the possibility of doing so or authorise them to do so - the following is not an exhaustive list):
− gain and/or use unauthorised access to any Services, customer data or related systems or networks of Fost Plus;
− subject to any strict forbidding under applicable law of the imposing of contractual bans on the performance of such activities, reverse engineering, decompilation, decomposition or attempts in any other form to attempt to reveal the source code or underlying concepts or algorithms of the Services, or acquiring access thereto for the following purposes: (i) the building of a competing product or service; (ii) the building of a product that has ideas, characteristics, functions or images that are similar to the Services; or (iii) the copying of any ideas, properties, functions or images of the Services;
− use the Services to send spam or unsolicited communications and/or to insert harmful code into the systems of Fost Plus, such as but not limited to viruses, malware and other harmful code, files, scripts, agents or programs, and/or the performance of any operations that would place an unreasonable load on the infrastructure and/or operation of the Fost Plus systems or disrupt the smooth operation of the Service;
− collecting, sending, saving, using or in any other way appropriating Customer data or other material if said data or material violates the rights of third parties or is obscene, threatening, defamatory or otherwise unlawful; and/or
− performance of any other operations that are unlawful and/or that do not constitute use of the Services in good faith.
- Technical conditions for use of the Service
The Customer is responsible for providing the bare minimum ICT infrastructure for use of the Services as communicated periodically on the platform (including but not limited to a network connection via landline or mobile (WiFi or 4/5G) media and for the necessary hardware, i.e. computer, printers, eID readers, etc.).
In this context, the Customer shall take all necessary measures to ensure that all the following conditions are met:
− Use of the Services through an operating system and browser supported and/or patched by a supplier. This can be found on the suppliers’ websites.
− Browser plugins such as Java must be automatically updated.
− An anti-malware (antivirus) software program must be installed on the device used and said software must be automatically updated.
− Use of the Fost Plus Services on a public PC is strongly discouraged due to the increased security risk.
− In the event of any misuse, suspected misuse, errors or security risks, the situation must be reported to Fost Plus immediately and this information may not be shared with third parties.
- Maintenance, changes to and suspension of the Service
The Customer acknowledges and accepts that Fost Plus may reasonably fully or partially suspend the Services and/or User access: (i) if Fost Plus observes or has grounds to believe that the Customer and/or his Users have violated these Terms of Use; (ii) in the event of an attack on the IT systems of Fost Plus or of third parties that supply certain parts of the Service to Fost Plus; (iii) if required by law; (iv) to prevent and keep to a minimum any adverse consequences for Fost Plus, the Customer, a User and/or other third parties; and/or (v) in case of emergency unplanned maintenance to protect the Services.
Fost Plus shall strive to ensure that (i) the length of any such suspension is reasonably limited; (ii) the suspension takes place outside office hours (in Belgium) as much as possible; and (iii) the Customer and/or Users are notified of this where reasonably possible.
Fost Plus reserves the right to change the login procedure and/or login data of Users if it deems this necessary in the interests of the functionality and/or maintaining of the Service. Fost Plus shall attempt to notify the User in advance of any such changes concerning the login procedure and/or login data, provided this is reasonably possible.
Fost Plus reserves the right to make changes to the Services from time to time without the User’s consent, for example to continue to be able to guarantee the smooth and secure operation of his software and to comply with the legislation and expectations of the supervisory authority (Interregional Packaging Commission). Within this framework, Fost Plus may decide as follows, among other options: (i) to modify the Services, bring out new versions of the Services and/or add further functionalities to the Services; (ii) grant authorisations or take other methods so as to be able to control access to the Service; (iii) to change or suspend the Services or parts thereof, such as but not limited to modifying or discontinuing the functionality and features, to limit the accessibility of a Service to a certain region or language; and (iv) to move his servers and/or networks to other locations.
Fost Plus is not obliged to maintain, modify or add certain characteristics or functionalities of the Services specifically for the User. Fost Plus shall endeavour to notify the User regarding any essential changes to the Services.
- Guarantees and securities
Fost Plus shall do everything in its power to keep the Service up and running.
Unless specifically agreed otherwise, all obligations held by Fost Plus vis-à-vis the Services shall however be fulfilled without being associated with the achieving of any given result, KPIs or SLA conditions.
This means that Fost Plus does not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure and free of errors, in view of the fact among others that this is dependent on a range of factors beyond the reasonable control of Fost Plus, such as but not limited to the availability of services from other service providers, the interaction between software produced by different parties and/or data congestion. Back-ups are only made at set points in time, meaning that (i) Fost Plus is not able to guarantee that it has a recent back-up of Customer data at all times, and (ii) in the event of a technical interruption to the Service after a back-up has been made, the Customer data may be lost. Fost Plus also does not guarantee that it will maintain, modify or add relevant characteristics or functionalities of the Service specifically for the Customer, in view of the fact that the Services are provided as a standard solution in an SaaS environment. In this respect, we advise you to read the Disclaimer for registered users before using the Service.
If the Customer and/or User uses standard documents and tools provided by Fost Plus within the framework of the Service (including but not limited to standard declarations in MyFost), the Customer acknowledges and accepts that (i) use of such standard documents takes place entirely at his own risk, (ii) Fost Plus does not provide any guarantee concerning these documents and (iii) the User must fully and thoroughly inspect these documents before using them and is responsible for the content thereof if they are used.
If the Customer and/or User uses information provided and indicated by Fost Plus within the framework of the Service in connection with industrial packaging (including but not limited to the calculated contributions for industrial packaging and Valipac's business rules, such as material categories and description, in MyFost) the User acknowledges and accepts that (i) the use of such information takes place entirely at his own risk, (ii) that Fost Plus does not provide any guarantee regarding this information and (iii) that the User should fully and thoroughly check this information with Valipac before using it and is responsible for the content contained therein if it is used.
The Customer shall fully and thoroughly inspect and validate all Customer data provided, adapted, completed and/or edited by a User before using it and hereby expressly acknowledges that he is responsible for the content thereof if the Customer and/or User uses it.
- Intellectual property
Fost Plus and its licence issuers and service providers hold all property and other rights relating to the hardware, software, Intellectual Property and other materials used by Fost Plus within the framework of the Service.
Subject to the Customer's fulfilment of his obligations under these Terms of Use, Fost Plus grants a limited, non-transferable and non-exclusive user right - which does not apply for sublicences - to allow certain Users to access the Services on the Customer’s behalf.
Nothing in these Terms of Use shall be interpreted as any transfer of the property of Fost Plus (or of its licence issuers or service providers) to the Customer and/or as any licence for the Customer, unless specifically stated otherwise.
The Customer is and remains the owner and/or rightholder for his Customer data. The Customer grants Fost Plus a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, sublicenceable, irrevocable licence to use, adapt and reproduce the Customer data as and when necessary during the provision, maintenance, securing or adapting of the Services.
- Protection of Personal Data
Fost Plus processes personal data within the framework of the Service, as described in the Privacy statement.
The Customer shall undertake to notify the natural persons whose personal data are entered on the MyFost platform of the existence of this Privacy Statement.
- Notifications
Notifications of all kinds concerning the Services may - as Fost Plus chooses - be validly sent to the Customer or to his Main User via (registered) letter, the MyFost platform or email.
Any changes to the data as referred to above must be communicated to Fost Plus immediately. For any notifications sent by the Customer, the Customer is responsible for ensuring that such notifications are sent by persons authorised to represent the Customer.
- Miscellaneous provisions
These Terms of Use concern relationships between companies (B2B).
In the performance of the Services, Fost Plus reserves the right to call on subcontractors for the fulfilment of its obligations under these Terms of Use.
The Customer agrees to always accept the Service server log files as legal proof of all transactions and other operations regarding the performance of the Services.
If one or more clauses of these Terms of Use is declared null and void by virtue of a law or definitive ruling by a competent court, the other clauses shall retain their full validity and scope. The Parties shall replace any such invalidated clause with a new clause that meets the original objectives of the invalidated clause as closely as possible.
The fact that any one right is not claimed or used, or the fact that a penalty or procedure is not applied, together with any failure to make a claim, shall in no way imply a waiver of rights.
Any clauses of these Terms of Use that are explicitly or tacitly intended to be or remain in force after the termination or other end of the Services shall remain fully applicable.
- Applicable law and dispute resolution
All Fost Plus Services are exclusively governed by Belgian law.
Any disputes between the Parties regarding the conclusion, validity, interpretation, proof or performance of these Terms of Use – with no exceptions – shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts with competence for the place where the registered office of Fost Plus is established.
- Changes to the Terms of Use
Fost Plus may make changes to these Terms of Use at any time. We will announce any changes on the website. We advise you to read these Terms of Use regularly.
Version: 2.0
Last updated: 30.06.2021