Terms & Conditions

For the purpose of these Terms and Conditions, specific terms and abbreviations are used which shall have the meaning as defined below:

1. ‘Agreement’ stands for all of the following Terms and Conditions including all appendixes. All such documents form an integral part of this Agreement in relation to the use of the FSC Certification Portal.
2. ´User´ means an individual or legal entity that has the right to use and successfully signed up to the FSC Certification Portal and holds a valid and not suspended account therein.
3. ´Material´ means the data of the User, including the name(s), address, contact information, website, license code, certificate code, certificate type, types of FSC-Certified Products, species, system of control, primary activity, secondary activity, output category, standard, first issue and last issue date, expiry date, name of the responsible Certification Body, boundary and polygons of certified management units, public summary audit reports, company risk assessment, the FSC Certification status, the license status and any other information required in the Certification Requirements or according to License Agreement for the FSC Certification Scheme (hereinafter: License Agreement).
4. ‘Certification Requirements’ mean all requirements that must be met by FSC certified holder in order to qualify for, obtain and maintain FSC Certification. The Certification Requirements are revised according to FSC-PRO-01-001 and include all documents (e.g., Policies, Standards, Directives, Advice Notes, Guidance Documents, Interpretations and any other documentation developed by the FSC Group) that are necessary for operating the FSC Certification Scheme.
5. ‘FSC AC’ is the Forest Stewardship Council A.C. with its registered office in Calle Margarita Maza de Juárez # 422, Col. Centro, 68000 Oaxaca, Mexico. FSC AC is an international not-for-profit membership organization established to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, economically viable and overall sustainable management of the world’s forests.
6. ‘FSC GD’ is a company with limited liability wholly owned by FSC AC and constituted according to German Law: Bonn HRB 15990. FSC GD is operating the FSC Certification Portal.
7. ‘FSC Group’ stands for FSC AC and all of its subsidiaries.
8. ‘Third Party’ or ‘Third Parties’ refer to a party or to parties which is or are not explicitly named in this Agreement and are no Party thereof.
9. ‘Login Data’ is defined in Section 3.2 of these Terms and Conditions.

1. FSC Certification Portal is a computer-based interface which primarily functions are enabling the electronic signature and administration of the License Agreement and the communication to licensee about the Certification Requirements. FSC Certification Portal also includes a search function which is publicly accessible at https://info.fsc.org and which enables producers and consumers to verify the status and scope of an FSC Certification Portal.
2. Users are enabled to upload or modify Material related to their FSC certification in the FSC Certification Portal. Users shall inter alia indicate the main contact for FSC within its organization, who can indicate other staff member to register on this platform. Users can provide organization's registry number, legal form, preferences for communications, choose preferred language for the License Agreement, and indicate the legal representative.
3. By accepting these Terms and Conditions, the User confirms to be further bound by these Terms and Conditions and warrants that the Material is not subject to the rights of Third Parties and/or that the User possesses the necessary rights to use the uploaded Material, and in particular that it does not unlawfully use Material belonging to others, infringe any copyright or any other intellectual property rights of Third Parties.

1. Access to the FSC Certification Portal is only possible with a valid User login.
2. For purposes of authorization, the Users shall be responsible for providing accurate, complete and up to date login information. Upon completing the registration form, Users will be provided with Login Data, comprising a username and a password ("Login Data"). In order to verify that a registration is actually made by the owner of an e-mail address, prior to registration the Certification Portal will send a verification code to that e-mail address. At any time, registered User has the option of changing or deleting the data which was specified during registration or the password.
3. When using the FSC Certification Portal FSC GD grants to User a single-user license, i.e. the access credentials can be only used by one person, royalty-free, non-transferable and non-exclusive license, subject to limitations set forth herein.
4. User must immediately report to FSC GD any incidences of loss of control of its account on the FSC Certification Portal.
5. FSC GD reserves the right to deny registration and/or access requests to User and is entitled, at any time and without obligation to give reasons, to deny the right to access the password-protected area by blocking its Login Data.
6. These Terms and Conditions are agreed between the User with FSC GD when registering to the FSC Certification Portal for the first time or once Terms and Conditions have been modified.

1. FSC GD is only liable under the German Telemedia Act § 7 Abs.1 TMG (“Telemediengesetz”) for any Material in the FSC Certification Portal which FSC GD has created itself. According to §§ 8 to 10 TMG, FSC GD is not obligated to monitor Third Party information that is transmitted or stored in the FSC Certification Portal, or to investigate circumstances that indicate illegal activity by Third Party users of the FSC Certification Portal. While FSC GD’s legal obligations to remove or block the use of infringing information remain unaffected. FSC GD shall only be liable from the date it receives knowledge of a specific infringement. Therefore, upon notification of relevant violations, FSC GD may remove such content immediately.
2. Subject to the limitation in Section 4.1, the FSC Certification Portal and any Material published on the website, is provided “as-is” and FSC GD shall not be liable for defects in quality, including but not limited to fitness for a specific purpose and usability. FSC GD shall only be liable in cases of personal injury, health damage or death, and under the German Act on Product Liability (“Produkthaftungsgesetz”).
3. FSC GD provides the FSC Certification Portal to the Users free of charge.
4. FSC GD may stop the operation of the FSC Certification Portal in full or in part at any time. Due to the nature of the internet and computer systems, FSC GD is under no obligation to ensure the continuous availability of the FSC Certification Portal for Users.
5. In all cases, FSC GD reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to remove or edit any Material uploaded by Users for any or no reason. FSC GD may take these actions without prior notification to Users or any Third Party.
6. Although FSC GD takes reasonable endeavors to keep the FSC Certification Portal free from viruses, spammers, DoS or phishing attacks, FSC GD does not warrant that it is free of such threats. The User acknowledges that, for its own protection, it should take all appropriate security measures and utilize effective security measures before using the FSC Certification Portal.
7. The User shall indemnify and hold FSC GD harmless from and against any Third Party claims alleging that use of the Material in line with these Terms and Conditions infringes any right of any Third Party and shall compensate FSC GD and its directors, officers, employees or subcontracting parties for any financial losses, claims, property damage, personal injuries and expenses, including attorney fees, incurred by or in connection with any such Third Party claims.

1. Upon acceptance of these Terms and Conditions by completing registration for using the FSC Certification Portal, FSC GD allows the User to upload Material to the FSC Certification Portal and use it to have access to this Material.
2. The User warrants, with respect to any Materials it has uploaded to the FSC Certification Portal, that: (i) it has all necessary rights to submit these materials to the FSC Certification Portal and grant the licenses set forth herein; (ii) FSC GD and User will not need to obtain licenses from any Third Party or pay royalties to any Third Party with respect to use of the Material; (iii) these Materials do not infringe any Third Party's rights, including intellectual property rights, data protection, and privacy rights; (iv) these Materials comply with these Terms and Conditions and all applicable laws.
3. The User agrees that it will not upload any Material comprising, featuring or otherwise including any infringing, illegal, or inappropriate Material, including but not limited to materials which: (i) contain any pornographic, obscene, offensive, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful or immoral content; (ii) exploit minors; (iii) depict unlawful or violent acts;(iv) depict animal cruelty or violence towards animals; (v) promote fraudulent schemes or gives rise to a claim of deceptive advertising or unfair competition; or (vi) violates any law, statute, or regulation.
4. With the limitations set in the Privacy statement or otherwise explicitly mentioned in these Terms and Conditions and accepted by the User, generally by uploading the Material the User grants to FSC GD an unlimited, worldwide, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty-free, perpetual, transferrable and irrevocable license to any uploaded Material in any manner now or in the future known; exemptions required by law remain unaffected. These rights in particular explicitly include commercial use, the right to make the uploaded Material publicly available, to copy, to distribute, to modify, translate or otherwise amend the Material and to transfer or sublicense the rights to Third Parties, including any user downloading the Material. To the extent allowable under applicable local laws and copyright conventions, User also waive and/or agree not to assert against FSC GD any moral rights that User may have in the Material.

1. Either Party can send a written notice of termination within two (2) weeks to terminate the account on the FSC Certification Portal. The FSC GD e-mail address for providing the notice is accounts@connect.fsc.org.
2. The license granted to FSC GD under Section 5.4 remains perpetual; exemptions required by law remain unaffected.

1. If any provision of these Terms of Conditions is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be deemed superseded by a valid enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remaining provisions shall remain enforceable.
2. These Terms and Conditions - and all disputes relating to or in connection with these Terms and Conditions or their subject matter - shall be enforced under, subject to and governed by the laws of Germany.
3. The application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG) of 11 April 1980 is excluded.
4. Where the User is a merchant within the meaning of the German Commercial Code (“Handelsgesetzbuch”), the exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be Bonn, Germany.
5. Considering the international nature of the FSC Group and the purpose and scope of this FSC Certification Portal, both Parties have chosen the English language for these Terms and Conditions. Notwithstanding the foresaid, in case of usage of technical or legal terms in German language the Parties agree that these shall have the meaning under and shall be interpreted exclusively in accordance with German law and language; the English translation of terms shall be for ease of reference only.
6. FSC GD has the right to unilaterally change the content of these Terms and Conditions, insofar as these changes are only made for compelling reasons, including new technical developments, new case law or legislation, or other relevant events, provided such changes are reasonable. FSC GD will send an e-mail notification to the User regarding any changes to the Terms and Conditions. The change becomes an integral part of these Terms and Conditions unless the User terminates this Agreement with FSC GD in writing within six (6) weeks after receiving notice.