I. Legal Information:

Ponet & LVP Advocaten is a group of lawyers located in 2018 Antwerp, Desguinlei 214 and under this name operate:

1) Ponet-law BV (BE 0632.542.344) regarding the lawyers:
· Frans Ponet – in the form of a private company
· Raf Van Gysel – in the form of a private company – Partner
· Philip Vanlommel – in the form of a private company – Partner
· Wendy Verhees
· Erik Nauwelaerts
· Dorien Verplancke – in the form of a private company
· Emilie Anckaert
· Laurence Debière

2) LVP advocaten BV (BE 0480.099.619) regarding the lawyers:
· Ann Ghijsebrechts – in the form of a private company – Partner
· Jan Swinnen – in the form of a private company – Partner
· Bieke Noels – in the form of a private company – Partner
· Dries Briké

3) Advocatenkantoor Peter Verstraeten PC (0740.491.664.) regarding lawyer Peter Verstraeten.
The professional liability of all Ponet & LVP Advocaten’s lawyers is underwritten in the first instance through a collective policy by the Orde van Vlaamse Balies (Order of Flemish Bars) which provides basic cover of € 2,500,000 per claim. A current insurance certificate from the insurance company in the first instance is always available upon first request.

In addition to this professional liability insurance in the first instance, a number of Ponet & LVP Advocaten’s lawyers have taken out insurance in the second instance through the Orde van Vlaamse Balies for an additional guarantee. An insurance certificate for this additional insurance is also available upon first request.

II. Deontology

All our lawyers are registered at the bar of Antwerp and are subject to the regulations of the Orde van Vlaamse Balies (OVB). These can be consulted at www.balieantwerpen.be.

III. Calculation of fees and costs.

1) Fees:

The method of fee calculation is explained at the start of the client relationship or file.

Unless otherwise agreed, fees are calculated on the basis of an hourly rate. This hourly rate depends in particular on the following factors: experience, importance of the case, urgency and nature of the case, specialisation of the lawyer.

In exceptional circumstances and with prior agreement a success fee can be used.

2) Costs:

Unless otherwise agreed, variable office costs are charged at a flat rate of 12% on top of the fee.

External costs, such as costs for third-party intervention (bailiffs, foreign colleagues, external consultants, translation agencies) or travel expenses are charged separately at cost price. Travel by car is charged at 0,60 €/km.

3) VAT:

Indicated fees and costs are subject to a VAT rate of 21%. Unless otherwise agreed, the indicated rates are exclusive of VAT.

IV. Terms & Conditions regarding service Ponet & LVP Advocaten.
Belgian law applies exclusively to the establishment of client relationships, the performance of services by Ponet & LVP Advocaten and any disputes arising therefrom. For all disputes arising therefrom, the courts of Antwerp shall have exclusive jurisdiction.

Our invoices are payable within 15 days of invoice date. If payment is not made on time, we shall be entitled to charge late payment interest equal to the legal interest rate from the due date and to claim a reasonable recovery cost estimated at 10% of the outstanding invoice amount.

The civil professional liability of Ponet &LVP Advocaten and that of all the individual lawyers who are part of it is limited to the insured amounts effectively paid by the professional liability insurance in the event of a claim.

V. Privacy Statement:

1) Processing Personal Data:

As part of our services, we obtain and process personal data.

Naturally, we will process this personal data in accordance with the applicable privacy legislation (GDPR) guarding against its loss, leakage, unauthorised access or unlawful processing. We take the necessary organisational and technical measures for this purpose.

We only process personal data necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we process them.

It concerns the following categories of personal data:

Personal identification data (name, first name, title etc.);
Contact details (phone number, mail address, file number etc.);
Financial details (bank account number etc.);
Electronic details (IP address, cookies etc.).

The nature of the personal data that we collect from you and that we process depends on your relationship with us. Please note that you bear sole responsibility for any personal data you provide to us. We assume that they are correct. If your personal data are not correct, we ask you to indicate this immediately.

2) Purposes for processing personal data.

Why do we process your personal data? We do this for the following purposes and based on the legal grounds stated below:

Client data and supplier data:
For our services as lawyers, we collect and process personal identification, contact, financial and electronic data of our clients, opdg, suppliers, their staff and associates and other useful contacts. The purposes for this include performance of the agreement with our clients, suppliers, customers, client management and accounting. We do this on the legal basis of executing the agreement, fulfilling legal and regulatory obligations and/or our legitimate interest.

File details:
As part of the handling of files and our services, we collect and process the personal identification data of counterparties and their counselors, trade associations and their representatives, as well as any other possible persons involved such as bailiffs, notaries, experts, civil parties, bankruptcy receivers, etc. The legal grounds for this are the fulfilment of legal and regulatory obligations and/or our legitimate interest.

Other data:
We also collect and process personal data of others (prospects, colleagues, useful contacts / network contacts, lawyers-employees, -trainees or employees, applicants etc.). The purposes of these processing operations are in the interest of our activities. The legal basis is our legitimate interest.

3) How long will personal data be stored?

Personal data will be stored and processed for a period necessary according to the purposes of the processing. Personal data will be deleted as soon as we no longer need it or when you have validly exercised the right to delete your personal data.

4) Transfer or access by third parties.

In exceptional cases, we may have to disclose personal data pursuant to a court order or to comply with a legal or deontological obligation. We try to inform you of this, unless a legal restriction comes into play.

Certain personal data will be transferred to and possibly processed by the courts, government departments or third-party service providers (IT supplier, accountant, social secretariat, insurance companies, etc.).

In order to process your personal data, we grant access to your personal data to our employees, associates and the lawyers associated with Ponet & LVP Advocaten. We guarantee a similar level of protection by making contractual obligations opposable to our employees, associates and lawyers connected to Ponet & LVP Advocaten, which are similar to this privacy statement.

Finally, as lawyers, we are bound by strict compliance with anti-money laundering laws. In certain circumstances, the communication of personal data in that context may impose itself on the staff member of the competent bar.

5) Your rights

Under the terms of current privacy legislation, you have a number of rights regarding the processing of your personal data.

Right to inspect: You have the right to know what personal data we hold on you and what we use it for.

Right to correct (rectification): You have the right to correct and/or complete the personal data we hold about you.

Right to delete data: You have the right to obtain the deletion of your personal data, in certain cases:

When we no longer need your personal data for the purposes set out; When you withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data and there is no legal basis allowing the further processing of your personal data; When you have legitimately lodged an objection to the processing of your personal data; When your personal data are processed unlawfully; When we have to delete your personal data based on a legal obligation.

Right to restriction of the processing: In some cases, you have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data (e.g. in case of discussion about the accuracy of your personal data).

Right to object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, profiling purposes or purposes arising from our legitimate interests.

In that case, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate that there are compelling legal reasons that override your right to object.

Right to data portability: You have the right to obtain your personal data that you share with us in a structured, common and machine-readable form. In addition, you may transfer that personal data yourself or have us transfer it to another processing controller, unless this is technically impossible.

Right to withdraw consent: You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, for example if you have given it for direct marketing purposes. Your personal data will then only be processed if we have another legal basis for doing so.

Automatic decisions and profiling:
We confirm that the processing of your personal data does not involve profiling and that you will not be subject to fully automated decisions.

6) Exercising your rights

If you wish to obtain further information or have a complaint, you can reach us:

by post at the following address: Desguinlei 214, 2018 Antwerpen

by email at the following address: info@ponet-law.be

or by phone: +32 (0)2 274 48 40

If you wish to exercise any of the rights listed above under 5), you should send us a written request with proof of identity to the address listed above:

If you would not agree with the way we process your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Belgian supervisory authority, i.e. the Data Protection Authority.

Data Protection Authority:
Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussel
+32 (0)2 274 48 00
+32 (0)2 274 48 35
contact@apd-gba.be

You can also turn to the courts at any time. If you were to suffer damages as a result of the processing of your personal data, you can file a claim for compensation.

Under no circumstances can we be held liable for any direct or indirect damage resulting from an erroneous or unlawful use by a third party of the personal data.

VI.  Cookie statement

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