Terms & Conditions for the use of the NEEDL website

The “needl” website, accessible at the address needl.co (hereinafter the “needl Website”), is published by the company WABEL NETWORK, a société par actions simplifiée [simplified corporation] registered with the Paris Registry of Commerce and Companies under number 883 197 055, having its principal office at 10 rue du Colisée, 75008 Paris, and a share capital of 25.000€, represented by its President Mr. Melih Tekin (hereinafter “WABEL” or “WABEL NETWORK”).

Use of the needl Website shall be conditional upon full and unqualified acceptance of these terms and conditions of use (hereinafter the “T&C”) defining the relation between the Web users (hereinafter “you”) and WABEL NETWORK.
WABEL NETWORK reserves the right to amend these T&C at any time without notice or indemnification of any kind whatsoever.

Preambule

WABEL NETWORK, created in 2010, is an independent company, the purpose of which is to bring together professionals of large-scale retailing (suppliers, importers, distributors and service providers) from all geographical areas, in order to create among them opportunities for collaboration both domestic and international, with a view to developing retailer own-brand products (OBP), and to provide them with value-added information (market surveys, store checks, best practices, industry news, etc.).
The needl Website is a global professional social network, available in several languages and dedicated to own-brand products. The needl Website enables producers and importers to present and put forward their products and to identify new customers, retailers to issue tenders and identify new suppliers, and service providers to offer their ranges, and all subscribers to meet during private sourcing days organized for distributors (hereinafter the “needl Meetings”) and at trade conventions (hereinafter the “Wabel Summits”).
These T&C set out the various functionalities of the needl Website and shall govern the relations between its users and the Wabel company.

1. Subscriptions

The various services offered by needl are usually accessible only to subscribers. You may access the subscription which is best suited to your needs and operations by clicking here.

The price for the subscription is the price in force on the date of subscription.t the various functionalities of the needl Website and shall govern the relations between its users and the Wabel company.

2. Needl account

Creating a needl Account is recommended in order to reap the full benefit of the service provided by needl, i.e., to present products if you are a producer or importer, to select products or issue requests if you are a distributor, and to present your offers if you are a service provider, and to have access to the value-added information.
Any user of the needl Website, whether or not a subscriber, may create a needl Account, subject to validation by needl. In order to create that account, you will be required to identify yourself as a producer, importer, distributor or service provider. You will also be required to disclose certain data of a personal nature which are essential in order to identify you, i.e., mainly, your name and forename, your professional contact information (postal address, telephone numbers, e-mail), and the corporate name of your company.
Wabel will not disclose your personal data to third parties, unless you expressly so agree, in accordance with the terms of the section “Computers and Civil Liberties” below.
Wabel reserves the right to suspend and/or close your needl Account at its discretion if your electronic address ceases to be valid, if you fail to provide all the information required, or if you provide information that is inaccurate or obsolete, or inconsistent with the rules of ethics defined under the section “User content” below.
You may terminate your needl Account at any time by using the appropriate function available on the Website. If you are a subscriber, the needl Account must be maintained throughout the duration of the subscription in order to obtain the related full benefit.

3. Creation of your personal space

Regardless of the category in which you register on the needl Website (producer, importer, distributor or service provider), you may, whether or not you are a subscriber, create a personal space (hereinafter the “Profile”) enabling you to enter the products you market, to add products to your catalog or your search criteria, or to find professionals, events or surveys of interest to you.
Producers and importers may accordingly present their areas of operation, their flagship products, and their key figures (geographical source, revenues, number of employees, etc.), their teams and the addresses of their websites. Service providers may present their offers and price lists.
You have the option of determining the visibility of the information you enter (for instance, so that it can be consulted by a certain class of professionals and not by another).
The other users of the needl Website may contact you simply by clicking on a button accessible from your Profile sheet, and if applicable, request a meeting at the trade fairs organized by Wabel in accordance with the section “Wabel Meetings and Wabel Summits”.

4. Product & Service sheets

Your presence on the needl Website enables you to be visible to professionals who could become your leading commercial partners. If you are a manufacturer or importer, it is particularly useful to present your products by means of sheets containing one or more photographs of the product, information relating to the manufacturer, a description of the product, its contents, its packaging, etc. If you are a service provider, you can also present your offers.
The needl Website enables other users to ask you questions directly through the product-sheet interface.
The products or services you enter on the needl Website will be included in a database belonging to Wabel, which can be queried through a search engine using an optimized filtering system (category, geography, type, novelty, etc.).

5. Consultations & Tenders (“Sourcing Requests”)

If you are a distributor, you can issue Sourcing Requests that manufacturers and importers can answer. In order to do so, you have only to enter the kind of product you are seeking, specifying the features required.
You are then provided with a comprehensive view of the manufacturers and importers deciding to answer your request. You can also correspond with them directly, through the interface of the needl Website.
You have the option of conducting those consultations in public mode, i.e., they will be visible to all manufacturers or importers, or in private mode, i.e., visible only to the users you have decided to invite to take part.

6. Business deals

If you find a new partner through the needl Website, you are naturally at liberty to enter into a business deal with the latter, by any means whatsoever.
The needl Website provides you with an opportunity to find new outlets for your products if you are an importer or distributor, or to enter into new business relationships if you are a distributor or service provider.
Wabel’s job is to facilitate contact, but it remains outside those relations in all cases and is never committed on any basis whatsoever.

7. Disclaimer

needl’s role is solely to set up a professional social-networking website intended to provide any player in large-scale retailing so desiring with an opportunity to offer its products or services, to issue consultations (or “Sourcing Requests”) and generally, to enter into business relationships.
Wabel naturally does not warrant the outcome of connections made through the needl Website, nor the successful completion of business negotiations, nor the outcome of your Sourcing Requests or any other contact it is intended to assist.
You are in sole control of the successful completion of your projects.
Wabel is a technical service provider offering tools to allow the creation of product sheets and identification notices for professionals, and putting in touch users of the needl Website. needl is a hosting provider (prestataire d’hébergement) as defined by Article 6.1.2 of the French Act on Trust in the Digital Economy dated June 21, 2004.
Accordingly, needl shall bear no obligation to review or supervise the product sheets or Profile sheets of the professionals using the needl Website, or more generally, any user content. needl shall bear no liability for the content posted on the needl Website by the users of that Website. needl is unable to warrant, in particular, the accuracy of the information entered by the professionals in connection with the products and services they offer, or the accuracy of the business information, which they are solely responsible for posting.
The users of the needl Website are accordingly solely accountable for the information they elect to enter and put on line.
Wabel shall bear no liability in any event to make reparation for any direct or indirect damage suffered in connection with use of the needl Website, the dissemination of information relating to products, services or companies on the needl Website, the creation of a sourcing request or any other user content, including operating losses and business losses, and more generally, any damage that is not due solely and directly to needl’s default.

Payment. Customers will pay the fees for the Services in accordance with the payment terms stated in the Needl “Subscription Form”. Customer’s purchases are non-cancelable and payment for Services is non-refundable, except as otherwise stated.

8. Membership Agreement

Term. The Needl membership agreement (for Essential and Premium members) is effective on the date the “Subscription Form” is signed by the customer (“Signature Date”) and remains in effect until terminated.

Termination and Suspension. Either party may terminate this membership agreement or its “subscription Form” if the other party materially breaches the agreement and fails to cure the breach within 30 days after receiving notice of the breach. Upon providing advance written notice to the customer, WABEL may suspend the customer’s access to the services if the customer is in breach of the Agreement and the suspension will continue for as long as reasonably necessary for the customer to remedy the breach. Any such suspension will not relieve customers from its obligation to pay WABEL in respect of the Services. If the “Subscription Form” under the agreement has expired or been terminated, then either party may terminate the “membership agreement” for convenience by providing written notice to the other party.

Effect of Termination. Termination of the “membership agreement” or its “Subscription Form” will not relieve customers from its obligation to pay WABEL any fees stated in an “Subscription Form”, excluding termination by customer for WABEL’ uncured material breach of this subscription agreement. If a customer terminates this membership agreement or its “subscription form” because of WABEL’ uncured material breach, WABEL will refund a pro-rata share of any pre-paid fees under the applicable “Subscription Form”. Wabel will notify customers that their access to the applicable services has terminated and WABEL may remove or discard all content that customer uploaded or otherwise made available to WABEL in accordance with Needl Terms and conditions.

9. Limited warranty

You expressly acknowledge and agree that the needl Website is offered to you “as-is”.
Accordingly, without limitation, Wabel does not warrant that the identities and contact information of the users of the needl Website are correct: they are those that are entered by those users when creating their needl Accounts, and it is up to them to update that information whenever necessary.
Wabel does not warrant either that the presentation of products or services or the issuance of a sourcing request will allow the generation of any business opportunity whatsoever. The issuance of a sourcing request shall be carried out under the sole responsibility of its organizer.
Wabel does not warrant that operation of the needl Website will be uninterrupted and makes no commitment in that respect, except as provided for under the section “Suspension of the Website”.

10. Wabel Meetings, Wabel Summits, Online Discovery sessions

Wabel organizes on a regular basis private meetings in person, enabling users of the needl Website to meet and present their products and services in concrete fashion to other users of the Website (“Wabel Meetings”). needl also organizes trade conventions on a regular basis (“Wabel Summits”) and video presentations to a panel of buyers on a regular basis (“Online Discovery Sessions”) Such Wabel Meetings and Wabel Summits shall be governed by specific terms and conditions, for which users of the needl Website will be required to grant prior acceptance in order to take part. Such Online Discovery Sessions shall be governed by specific terms and conditions, for which users of the needl Website will be required to grant prior acceptance in order to take part. Wabel reserves the right to accept or refuse at its discretion any attendance at Wabel Meetings and/or Wabel Summits, and shall not be required to provide justification.

11. Intellectual property

Use of the needl Website shall not confer on you any intellectual-property right relating to any element of the Website whatsoever, whether the content and tools created and/or made available to you by needl and which shall remain its property, or the proprietary materials of third parties (text, images, videos, trademarks, patents and designs, databases, etc.) which shall remain the property of their respective owners.
Use of the needl Website is reserved for your business operation, but no provision of these T&C shall permit you to use that Website for purposes other than as provided for hereunder.
The needl Website is protected by copyright and furthermore, is a database of which Wabel is the producer, within the meaning of Article L. 341-1 of the French Code of Intellectual Property.
As such, Wabel has all the proprietary rights of a producer over all the contents of such base.
Accordingly, the users may not:
* extract, by means of a permanent or temporary transfer, all or any part, substantial in terms of quality or quantity, of the contents of the needl Website, on any medium, by any means and in any form whatsoever;
* reuse, by making it available to the public, all or any part, substantial in terms of quality or quantity, of the contents of the needl Website, in any form whatsoever;
* reuse or extract, repeatedly and systematically, any parts, not substantial in terms of quality or quantity, of the needl Website, if such operations manifestly exceed the conditions of reasonable use of the Website.
Accordingly, any use of the needl Website other than as permitted under these T&C and the French Code of Intellectual Property shall require express prior consent in writing from Wabel.

12. Data processing & Civil liberties

The information of a personal nature collected through the needl Website is subject to computerized processing, under the responsibility of the Wabel company.
Such processing is implemented in order to provide you with the services accessible through the needl Website.
The data of a personal nature that you enter are forwarded to other users of the needl Website through your Profile, in order to enable them, if applicable, to discover your products or services and to approach you. Only the data you have agreed to enter in your needl Account will be disclosed to the other users of the needl Website.
You have the option of restricting the access to the data of a personal nature that you provide, by means of the confidentiality tools made available to you on the needl Website. It is accordingly up to you alone to select the information you choose to disclose to third parties.
In accordance with the French “Computers and Civil Liberties” Act of January 6, 1978, & the regulation on data protection in the EU, ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ of May 25, 2018, you have a right to access, correct, amend and remove at any time data of a personal nature relating to you and which are incorrect, incomplete, ambiguous or obsolete following our Privacy Policy. Simply do the above by addressing us an e-mail at privacy(at)wabel.com
You also have a right to object, with due cause, to the processing of data of a personal nature relating to you. Such objection, however, will make use of the needl Website impossible, and in particular the presentation of your products and services or the issuance of sourcing requests.
You may exercise these rights by postal mail accompanied by proof of identity, at the following address: WABEL NETWORK, Informatique et Libertés, 10 rue du Colisée, 75008 Paris.
Wabel shall not sell your personal data to business partners without your prior and express consent, which you may grant us at the time of creation of your needl Account.

13. Suspension of the website

Wabel shall use its best efforts to maintain the quality of its services and for that purpose, shall perform on a regular basis remedial-maintenance or enhancement operations on the needl Website.
During such operations, access to the needl Website may be more difficult or impossible.
Wabel shall bear no liability for any damage whatsoever that may be caused by such suspensions.
Wabel shall not be bound in any event to allow access to the needl Website in case of force majeure, which shall mean, in accordance with the French case-law, any unforeseeable and irresistible event outside its control, such as strike, adverse weather, embargo, failure of power supply or internet network, malfunction of satellites, or breach of their obligations by internet service providers.

14. Acceptance of the Terms and Conditions 

Navigation of the needl Website shall imply your acceptance of these T&C in full. If you do not accept them, do not navigate the needl Website.

15. Statutory mentions

The Website is published by the company WABEL NETWORK, a société par actions simplifiée registered with the Paris Registry of Commerce and Companies under number 883 197 055, having its principal office at 10 rue du Colisée, 75008 Paris. The Website is hosted by the company OVH.
The chief editor of the Website is Mr. Pierre Asseo.

16. Governing law & Jurisdiction

The Parties expressly agree that any dispute arising out of the interpretation, making or performance of this Agreement shall be referred to the Paris Commercial Court, including summary or unilateral proceedings.