General Terms and Conditions of use
1. General Information
In compliance with the Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce Services Act, we hereby inform you that the owner of the website www.canaldedenuncias.com (hereinafter, “the Website”) is Forvis Mazars Auditores, S.L.P. (hereinafter, “Forvis Mazars”), holder of Spanish Tax Identification Number B-61622262, and registered address at Calle Diputación, 260, 08007 Barcelona (Spain), registered in the Companies Registry of Barcelona, Volume 30734, Folio 212, Sheet B-180111, inscription 1, and the Official Registry of Accounting Auditors (ROAC) under number S1189.
For more information about Forvis Mazars, please visit www.forvismazars.com.
2. Access to and use of the Website and of means provided by Forvis Mazars
The present General Terms and Conditions of Use (hereinafter, the “General Terms and Conditions”) regulate the access and use of the Website and of means made available by Forvis Mazars for submitting reports, including, but not limited to, spaces aimed to face-to-face meetings (hereinafter, “Reporting Channels”) by the user.
This Website and Information Channels may only be used to send information about companies that have contracted the service with Forvis Mazars, guaranteeing the confidentiality of the whistleblower’s identity. In this case, you shall have received training or communication from your company informing you on how to proceed in order to report fraudulent conduct or conduct that may violate the company’s Internal Regulations.
Simple access, browsing and/or use of the Website, as well as access to or use of Communication Channels, confers on the user the status of channel user (hereinafter, the “User”) and implies full acceptance of the General Terms and Conditions.
The information available through this Website is not subject to contract and may be changed without notice. Services mentioned on the Website may not be available outside Spain. Forvis Mazars shall not be held liable for any problems arising from the consultation or use of this Website.
The General Terms and Conditions shall be periodically updated, so that those in force and published at the time of use of the Website shall be applicable. The User must carefully read these General Terms and Conditions each time Reporting Channels are accessed or used, in order to be aware of their updated content. If the User does not agree with these Terms and Conditions, the User must cease any use of the Reporting Channels.
These General Terms and Conditions shall apply without prejudice to the codes of ethics and conduct, policies and other Internal Regulations established by the organisation (hereinafter, the “Organisation’s Internal Regulations”) that has contracted the internal reporting channel management service with Forvis Mazars, of which the User shall have been informed by the Organisation.
For the purposes of these General Terms and Conditions, “Organisation” shall mean the organisation, company, association or other entity that has contracted with Forvis Mazars for the outsourcing of the internal reporting channel management service.
Likewise, “Internal reporting channel management service” shall mean the service provided by Forvis Mazars for the reception of irregularity reports through the Website and Reporting Channels made available by Forvis Mazars, which guarantees the confidentiality and security of the transmitted information, as well as the confidentiality of the whistleblower’s identity.
3. Conditions for the provision of Reporting Channels
3.1. Purpose
Forvis Mazars makes available to the User the Reporting Channels detailed in these General Terms and Conditions, so that the User can report infractions or irregularities of which he/she may become aware in the context of an employment, statutory or professional relationship with the corresponding Organisation, provided that said Organisation has contracted the internal reporting channel management Service with Forvis Mazars.
As a whistleblower, you are hereby granted access to and the right to use the Reporting Channels free of charge.
3.2. Persons who can submit reports
Users who may report such irregularities are those whistleblowers working in the private or public sector who have obtained information about breaches in a work or professional context, including those persons defined in article 3 of Law 2/2023 of 20 February, regulating the protection of persons who report regulatory and anti-corruption violations (hereinafter, “the Law”) and, following the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law. Likewise, those persons defined in the Internal Regulations of the corresponding Organisation may also submit a report.
3.3. Behaviour or practices that may be the subject of a report
A communication may be sent to warn of actions or omissions provided for in Article 2 of the Law, such as, for example, serious or very serious administrative or criminal offences or breaches of European Union Law in certain matters provided for in the Law, as well as in the event of non-compliance with the Organisation’s Internal Regulations in accordance with its policies.
In this regard, Users of this internal reporting channel, in the event that their Organisation has outsourced this service, shall have received training or communication informing them on how to proceed to report fraudulent conduct or conduct that may contravene the Organisation’s Internal Regulations. Conduct that does not contravene the above should not be processed through this channel, but through the internal channels established in the Organisation.
Likewise, the report form shall display matters on which the User may report, by way of guidance and on a non-exhaustive basis. These drop-downs shall be understood as open clauses, so that there shall always be a free text for the User to submit his/her report in the event that he/she considers that the subject matter of the information is not previously enabled in the drop-down of the tool.
3.4. Reporting Channels
The User can decide whether to make the report anonymously or by name. In the case of a nominative report, the whistleblower’s confidentiality is guaranteed.
In addition, the whistleblower can choose the way in which he/she shall make the report, which can be done in the following ways:
Through Forvis Mazars platform, by filling in the report form available on the Organisation’s dedicated Website. The Organisation shall have previously publicised the existence of the dedicated Website and how to access it. The system shall assign a unique code, allowing you to follow the progress of your submission and to communicate with Forvis Mazars through the platform if you wish to do so.
At the whistleblower’s request, the communication may also be submitted by means of a face-to-face meeting with Forvis Mazars, within a maximum of 7 days of the report.
The existence of an external reporting channel of the “Autoridad Independiente de Protección del Informante, A.A.I.” (the Spanish Independent Whistleblower Protection Authority) is highlighted. Any person may report to the Independent Whistleblower Protection Authority (A.A.I.) or to the corresponding regional authorities or bodies the commission of any actions or omissions included in the scope of application of the Law, either directly or after reporting through the corresponding internal channel.
3.5. Instructions for submitting a report
Please do not use the Reporting Channels to report events that represent an immediate threat to life or property.
It will not be possible to file information through the present channel that could be considered as strictly secret and confidential, or which should be safeguarded in interest of national security.
Take your time and provide as much detail as possible. Be careful not to provide details, beyond your name, that could reveal your identity (e.g. relationship, job title, location, etc.). Forvis Mazars guarantees the anonymity of the whistleblower’s name, and not of information that could allow the Organisation to know the whistleblower’s identity through the analysis of the transmitted information.
Once the communication is sent, a password shall be received in your email account, allowing you to track your information and view messages sent by the internal reporting channel until you are contacted by phone. We would be grateful if you could keep this password in a safe place.
In the event that the Organisation establishes that there has been bad faith on the part of the whistleblower in making the information (e.g. using data that the whistleblower knows to be false or falsifying it), and this is formally communicated to Forvis Mazars, Forvis Mazars shall be obliged to communicate the whistleblower’s identity to the Organisation.
The whistleblower is responsible for the truthfulness of all the transmitted information, assuming the consequences in case of having acted in bad faith or having provided false documentation.
3.6. Process for receiving information
The management service of the internal reporting channel managed by Forvis Mazars implies the reception of the communication through Reporting Channels detailed in these General Terms and Conditions.
Once the information is registered, Forvis Mazars shall carry out a first verification to determine whether it exposes facts or conducts that are within the material scope of application of the Law or of the Organisation’s Internal Regulations. During these verifications, Forvis Mazars shall be able to contact the User if it is considered necessary to clarify or complete the information provided in the Report.
Once this preliminary analysis has been carried out, Forvis Mazars shall compile the information and documentation received in a Report that shall be communicated to the Head of the Organisation’s Internal Reporting System (or to the body designated by the Organisation to carry out such functions), so that the Organisation can continue with the processing, implement measures to guarantee the security and validity of the evidence and, if necessary, initiate the relevant internal investigations. Forvis Mazars guarantees the confidentiality of the whistleblower’s identity, which shall not be disclosed to the Organisation.
The Organisation may have its own Whistleblowing Policy. Where such a Policy has been communicated to you by the Organisation, it is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with its contents and to comply with it prior to making a report and throughout the investigation process following such a report.
4. User Obligations
As a User, you agree to comply with all the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions, and you must act in accordance with current legislation, good faith and public order, refraining from using the Reporting Channels in any way that could prevent or damage their proper functioning.
It is the User’s responsibility to comply with the Organisation’s Internal Regulations established by the Organisation and communicated to the User in relation to the management of information communications.
The User undertakes to formulate the report following the instructions set out in section 3.5 of these General Terms and Conditions and any others that may be established on the Website.
The User undertakes to use the Reporting Channels in an appropriate manner, for the sole purpose of reporting irregularities about the corresponding Organisation, and must refrain from using them for other purposes. In particular, the User is responsible for the truthfulness of his/her identity and all transmitted information, and to act in good faith.
The User undertakes to protect and keep confidential the keys or passwords he/she receives from the system to monitor his/her communication through the system, which are considered personal and non-transferable.
The whistleblower is responsible for the truthfulness of all the transmitted information, assuming the consequences in case of having acted in bad faith or having provided false information or documentation.
In the event that the Organisation establishes that there has been bad faith on the part of the whistleblower in making the information (e.g. using information that the whistleblower knows to be false or falsifying it), and this is formally communicated to Forvis Mazars, Forvis Mazars reserves the right to disclose the identity of the whistleblower, as well as in the event of a court order.
Forvis Mazars is not responsible for verifying the truthfulness of the transmitted information or documentation for the use that may be made of the Reporting Channels, for purposes other than those for which they are intended or for information that is addressed to organisations that have not contracted the services.
Forvis Mazars shall only collect documentation from the whistleblower and document the information provided by the whistleblower, so that measures to ensure the security and validity of the evidence are put in place as soon as possible, and appropriate internal investigations are initiated by the Head of the Organisation’s Internal Reporting System (or the body designated by the Organisation to perform such functions).
Furthermore, Forvis Mazars is not responsible for the course of internal investigations carried out by the Organisation.
Organisations that have contracted the Internal Reporting Channel Management Service with Forvis Mazars shall be free to determine how to act or not to act, based on the information transmitted by the whistleblower through the Forvis Mazars Channel. Forvis Mazars shall not be liable for the actions taken by the contracting Organisation on the basis of the Report communicated by Forvis Mazars to the Head of the Organisation’s Internal Reporting System (or the body designated by the Organisation to exercise such functions).
In the event that Forvis Mazars receives information concerning a possible money laundering offence, it reserves the right to transfer the information to the Money Laundering Prevention Commission, even without prior communication to the contracting company or to the User.
In the event that Forvis Mazars is obliged by law to cooperate with the authorities, it reserves the right to act on the basis of its obligations, even without prior notification to the contracting company or the User.
5. Modification, suspension or cancellation of Reporting Channels
As a Website User, you agree that Forvis Mazars may restrict access to, suspend and/or terminate your use of the Website and any related services or Reporting Channels for maintenance purposes or for any reason beyond our control, including but not limited to force majeure or acts of God, or as a result of the suspension or termination of the internal reporting channel service by the Organisation.
Forvis Mazars also reserves the right to improve, modify, add or remove functionalities and features of the Website or the Reporting Channels.
6. Industrial and intellectual property
Forvis Mazars is the owner of all the intellectual and industrial property rights of the Website, including all exploitation rights, as well as all the information contained in the Website (including, but not limited to, its information, texts, data, images, graphics, designs, source code, software, brands, navigation structures, databases, etc.).
The availability to Users of databases, images, photographs, patents, utility and industrial models, drawings, graphics, text files, audio, video and software property of Forvis Mazars through the Website or that appear on it does not imply, in any case, the transfer of its ownership or the concession of intellectual property rights or exploitation rights in favour of the User, other than the use that involves a licit use and in accordance with the Website’s nature. In this sense, the User is only authorised to view and obtain a temporary private copy of the content that he/she may need for his/her exclusive personal use for the purposes described in these General Terms and Conditions.
Consequently, the reproduction, diffusion, transmission, transformation, distribution, public communication, making available, extraction, reuse, exploitation or use of any nature, by any means or procedure, of any of them, is strictly forbidden without Forvis Mazars’ previous written authorisation. In case of contravention of the above, the sanctioning and civil responsibility regime foreseen for the infringement of Forvis Mazars’ intellectual property rights, protected by the current legislation, shall be applied.
Forvis Mazars and its logo are registered trademarks, as well as its signs, distinctive signs or logos. The use of these trademarks requires Forvis Mazars’ express authorisation, as well as the subscription of the corresponding contract agreed between the parties. By virtue thereof, unauthorised use of any of these trademarks may be subject to penalty or liability.
7. Links to third party websites and services
Hyperlinks or links contained in this Website may lead the User to other websites and web pages managed by third parties, over which Forvis Mazars has no control. Forvis Mazars is not responsible for the contents or the state of these websites and web pages, and access to them through this Website does not imply that Forvis Mazars recommends or approves their contents.
Likewise, the collection of personal data by these websites and web pages managed by third parties shall be governed by their respective policies of use and privacy, and we therefore recommend that you review them if you access their networks or computer resources.
8. Liability
In addition to the liability exemptions foreseen in section 4 of these General Terms and Conditions, Forvis Mazars is not responsible for the truthfulness, accuracy, precision or completeness of the information provided by the User to Forvis Mazars, for the use that may be made of the Reporting Channels for purposes other than those for which they are intended, for the information that is addressed to organisations that have not contracted the services, nor for the actions taken by the contracting Organisation on the basis of the Report communicated by Forvis Mazars to the person in charge of the Organisation’s Internal Reporting System (or the body designated by the Organisation for the exercise of such functions).
Furthermore, Forvis Mazars is not responsible for the Organisation’s treatment of the Report provided by Forvis Mazars after its delivery, including but not limited to the content of other reports, the follow-up interactions that may take place between the Organisation and the User, the course of internal investigations carried out by the Organisation or actions taken by the Organisation in response to the Report.
Forvis Mazars does not guarantee the full availability, reliability, accuracy or completeness of any part of the Website or related services provided to the User.
Forvis Mazars is not responsible for damages that could derive from interferences, omissions, interruptions, computer viruses, breakdowns and/or disconnections derived from the system’s functioning that could prevent or delay the navigation through the Website or the use of Reporting Channels due to causes not attributable to Forvis Mazars, and it is equally not able to guarantee the absence of harmful elements that could cause damages or alterations therein.
Notwithstanding the above, Forvis Mazars has adopted and shall adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the correct functioning and security of the Website and to avoid the existence and transmission of components that could be harmful for the Users.
Forvis Mazars reserves the right to interrupt access to the Website at any time and without prior notice for technical, security, control, maintenance, or power failure reasons, among others.
Forvis Mazars is not responsible for the use that the User makes of the content of the Website and that could entail a violation of any regulations, national or international, of the rights of intellectual or industrial property or of any other rights of third parties, as well as of the basis of the information, the errors or omissions of which the content of the same or others that could be accessed through them could suffer.
9. Processing of your personal data by Forvis Mazars
In compliance with the instructions given by the Organisation, Forvis Mazars shall process the User’s personal data to which it has access in order to be able to provide the Organisation with the internal reporting channel management service.
These processing activities are carried out by Forvis Mazars in its capacity as Processor, in accordance with Article 28 of the European Parliament and of the Council Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of 27 April on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (“GDPR”).
Consequently, the processing of your personal data by the Organisation, as Data Controller, shall be as set out in the Organisation’s Privacy Policy, which shall be made available to the User before he/she submits his/her report through the Reporting Channels.
10. Use of cookies
The use of data storage and retrieval devices, such as cookies and other similar technologies, is governed by Our Cookie Policy.
11. Legislation
Access, use and activities carried out on the Website, as well as access to and use of the Reporting Channels and any aspect contained in or related to these Terms and Conditions shall be governed by Spanish law.
Last updated: 5 June 2023
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