Terms & Conditions

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

1.1   ‘Terms and Conditions’ 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 Certified Products Portal.

1.2   ´User´ means an individual that successfully signed up to the Certified Products Portal and holds a valid account therein.

1.3   ´Material´ means the data of the User, including the name(s), global system ID, email addresses, organization`s name, contact information, certification code, license code, username, encrypted password, language, state of activities, log in times to the platform, IP address, all FSC-certified product data, system logs of Declaration of Consent for the product data, or any other personal notes if provided by User.​

1.4    ‘FSC AC’ is a company 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.

1.5   ‘FSC GD’ is the Forest Stewardship Global Development GmbH with limited liability wholly owned by FSC AC and constituted according to German Law: Bonn HRB 15990. FSC GD is operating the Certified Products Portal.

1.6   ‘FSC Group’ stands for FSC AC and all of its subsidiaries.

1.7   ‘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.

1.8   ‘Login Data’ is defined in Section 3.2 of these Terms and Conditions.

1.9   ‘Blocklist’ is a list of organizations whose User accounts are excluded from the posibility to uploading any data to the FSC Certified Products Portal.

2.1.   Certified Products Portal is a computer-based interface accessible at certified-products.fsc.org, whose primary functions are to enable registering in sustainability programs FSC has launched with marketplaces or/and platforms and to upload FSC-certified product data for the purpose of displaying it on marketplaces or/and platforms (e.g. Amazon EU Société à responsabilité limitée, 38 avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, online search engines, etc.) and which is also available as a service under mobile application called “FSC Connect Portal Mobile App”. Furthermore, the registration allows the User to access content and services that are offered only to registered Users.

2.2.   Users are enabled to register for different sustainability programs in which FSC is partnering with marketplaces/platforms, and to provide information about themselves and their organizations.

2.3.   Users are enabled to upload or modify Material required or related to their participation on different sustainability programs.

2.4.   Users are enabled to view or download already uploaded Material.

2.5.   Users are enabled to receive notifications about important updates and reminders, and to access statistic dashboards about the Material.

2.6.   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.

3.1.   Access to the Certified Products Portal is only possible with a valid User login via www.certified-products.fsc.org

3.2.    For purposes of authorization, the Users shall be responsible for providing accurate, complete and up to date login information. Upon completing the registration process (including authentication and identification), Users will be granted a username and an initial password ("Login Data"). Only the users who are successfully authenticated and identified as eligible users can have access to the Certified Products Portal. At any time, registered User has the option of changing or deleting the data which was specified during registration or the password.

3.3.   The organization shall be responsible to inform FSC to deactivate any User account if a registered user is no longer engaged by its organization.

3.4.   When using the Certified Products Portal, FSC grants to User a single-user license, i.e. the access credentials can be only used by one person, non-transferable and non-exclusive license, subject to limitations set forth herein.

3.5.   User must immediately report to FSC any incidences of loss of control of its account or Login Data on the Certified Products Portal.

3.6.   FSC 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. When FSC identifies one or more of the following usage behaviors from User: (i) repeatedly upload incorrect data (e.g., products that are uncertified; products with wrong certification information; incorrect FSC label information; or incorrect usage of FSC Trademark assets, etc.); (ii) suspicious usage behavior (e.g., upload product data too frequent within certain short period; share login credentials with others within the same organization or from different organization; etc.); (iii) other usage behaviors (too frequent changes to the data). In any such cases or similar FSC decides whether User’s account will be deactivated and/or its organization is entered into the Blocklist based on analysis of the usage data and behavior records. After the decision, FSC will inform the organization/User about the decision: either User’s account will be deactivated and could be activated once recommended actions are implemented; or User’s account will be added to the Blocklist and/or deactivated for unlimited time.

3.7.   These Terms and Conditions are agreed between the User with FSC when registering to the Certified Products Portal for the first time or once Terms and Conditions have been modified.

4.1.   FSC is according to § 7 (1) of the German Telemedia Act (“Telemediengesetz”, hereinafter ‘TMG’) only liable for any Material in the Certified Products Portal which FSC has created itself. According to §§ 7 (2), 8 to 10 TMG, FSC is not obligated to monitor Third Party information that is transmitted or stored in Certified Products Portal, or to investigate circumstances that indicate illegal activity by Third Party users of Certified Products Portal, while FSC’s legal obligations to remove or block the use of infringing information remain unaffected. FSC shall only be liable from the date it receives knowledge of a specific infringement. Therefore, upon notification of relevant violations, FSC may remove such content immediately.

4.2.   Subject to the limitation in Section 4.1, the Certified Products Portal and any Material published on the website, is provided “as-is” and FSC shall not be liable for defects in quality, including but not limited to fitness for a specific purpose and usability.

4.3.   FSC’s liability for damages caused by simple negligence is limited to damages arising from the breach of material contractual obligations, the fulfilment of which is prerequisite to the proper execution of the Agreement and in the observance of which the User regularly trusts and is entitled to trust; in this case, however, FSC’s liability shall be limited to the typically foreseeable damage. This limitation of liability shall equally apply to any damage caused by gross negligence on the part of employees or agents of FSC who are not governing bodies or executives of FSC.

4.4.   The limitations of liability set out above shall not apply to all claims for damages irrespective of their legal basis, with the exception of damage claims filed by User (i) for intent, (ii) pursuant to the German Product Liability Act, (iii) for defects fraudulently concealed, (iv) for defects which are covered by a guarantee that was given regarding the quality of a product (in this context, where applicable, the guarantee and/or limitation period laid down in the guarantee shall apply), (v) for death, damage to body or health, or (vi) for gross negligence on the part of corporate bodies or executives of FSC.

4.5.   FSC may stop the operation of the Certified Products Portal in full or in part at any time. Due to the nature of the internet and computer systems, FSC is under no obligation to ensure the continuous availability of Certified Products Portal for Users.

4.6.   In all cases, FSC reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to remove or edit any Material uploaded by Users for any or no reason. FSC may take these actions without prior notification to Users or any Third Party.

4.7.   Although FSC takes reasonable endeavors to keep the Certified Products Portal free from viruses, spammers, DoS or phishing attacks, FSC 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 Certified Products Portal.

4.8.   The User shall indemnify and hold FSC 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 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.

5.1.   Upon acceptance of these Terms and Conditions by logging on the Certified Products Portal, FSC allows the User to upload Material to the Certified Products Portal and use it to have access to this Material.

5.2.   The User warrants, with respect to any Materials it has uploaded to the Certified Products Portal, that: (i) it has all necessary rights to submit these materials to the Certified Products Portal and grant the licenses set forth herein; (ii) FSC 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.

5.3.   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.

5.4.   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 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 any moral rights that User may have in the Material.

6.1.   Either Party can send a written notice of termination within two (2) weeks to terminate the account on the Certified Products Portal. The FSC e-mail address for providing the notice is connect@fsc.org.

6.2.   The license granted to FSC under Section 5.4 remains perpetual; exemptions required by law remain unaffected.

7.1.   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.

7.2.   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.

7.3.   The application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG) of 11 April 1980 is excluded.

1.4.   Where the User is a merchant within the meaning of the German Commercial Code (“Handelsgesetzbuch”), the exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be Bonn, Germany.

7.5.   Considering the international nature of the FSC Group and the purpose and scope of this Certified Products 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.

7.6.   FSC 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 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.

7.7.   FSC has the right to unilaterally change the content of these Terms and Conditions as in indicated in section 7.6 also for the reason to maintain the purpose and level of integrity of the FSC Certification Scheme or in furtherance of the FSC Certification Scheme.