Terms of use

1. Purpose and scope

ConfCert is an online service (SaaS) that helps organisers of scientific and academic events manage their events: participants, badges with QR codes, attendance tracking, participation certificates and public verification of those certificates.

The service is published by the person identified in the Legal notice (“the publisher”, “ConfCert”, “we”). The Legal notice also names the hosting provider, how to contact us and the consumer mediator.

These terms apply to anyone who creates an account or uses the service, whether acting in a professional, academic, non-profit or personal capacity. Specific rules for consumers and non-professionals are set out in a dedicated section.

Special conditions agreed in writing with the publisher, such as a custom quote, may supplement these terms. They prevail in the event of conflict.

2. Definitions

• Publisher: the person who operates ConfCert, identified in the Legal notice.
• Organiser: the individual or legal entity holding an organisation in ConfCert (Owner role), responsible for the events it creates there.
• Team: the people the organiser invites to work on an event (Staff role), with limited rights.
• Participant: a person registered for an event by the organiser (file import or manual entry), for example an author, speaker, reviewer or attendee.
• Participant data: the personal data about participants, co-authors and signatories that the organiser imports or enters in the service.
• Certificate: the PDF participation document issued by the organiser, publicly verifiable through a link or QR code.
• Tier: a per-event pricing plan, defined by a maximum number of participants and published on the Pricing page.
• Consumer: any individual acting for purposes outside their trade, business, craft or profession. Non-professional: any legal entity not acting for professional purposes, for example an association with no professional activity.
• Professional: anyone acting in the course of their professional activity, including a university, a laboratory or a learned society.
• Data processing agreement: the document “Data processing agreement”, which forms part of these terms.

3. Acceptance of the terms

You accept these terms and the data processing agreement by ticking the box provided when you create your account. We record the version accepted and the date and time of acceptance.

The version in force is dated at the top of this page. It can be viewed and printed at any time.

4. Free beta period

The service is currently offered as a beta. During the beta it is free: no payment is requested, including for features that will later be charged for.

Payment will only be enabled once the publisher's business is registered. The pricing conditions of these terms apply from that point onwards, and only for the future.

We will announce the end of the beta at least 30 days in advance, by email and in the service. No payment will be requested retroactively for use during the beta. If you do not accept the new conditions, you may stop using the service and export your data.

During the beta, features may change more often. We fix reported defects as quickly as possible.

5. Account and access

Creating an account requires a valid email address, verified through a link we send, and a password. You warrant that the information you provide is accurate and you keep it up to date.

You are responsible for keeping your credentials confidential and for the actions taken from your account. Tell us without delay through the contact form if they are lost or used without authorisation. You can sign out your other sessions from the “My account” page.

An account is personal and may not be shared. Each team member uses their own account.

6. Roles and data protection

For its participants' data, the organiser is the controller within the meaning of the GDPR: it determines the purposes and means of the processing. ConfCert acts on its behalf as a processor, only on its documented instructions.

The obligations of each party are set out in the data processing agreement. That agreement forms part of these terms and is accepted together with them. If they conflict on the protection of participant data, the agreement prevails.

ConfCert is the controller for account data (organisers and team members), for the security of the service and for its own management (billing, support). The privacy policy describes this processing.

The organiser appoints its team members, chooses their rights and remains responsible for their actions. It removes access for people who no longer need it.

7. Participant data: the organiser's obligations

Before importing or entering data, the organiser makes sure it is entitled to do so. In particular, it:

• chooses a legal basis for each processing operation;
• informs participants, co-authors and signatories as required by Articles 13 and 14 GDPR, including of ConfCert acting as processor and of the public verification of certificates;
• records this processing in its record of processing activities;
• carries out a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) where required;
• imports only the data needed for the event, with no special categories of data (health, opinions, origin, etc.);
• holds the right to use the signatures and logos it uploads, and has the consent of the signatories.

The organiser handles requests from its participants. ConfCert provides tools for this: individual export of a participant's data, irreversible erasure of a participant's identity data (anonymisation), a retention period per event and automatic anonymisation when it ends.

The retention period is 24 months after the end of the event by default, adjustable from 1 to 120 months. Automatic anonymisation at the end of that period is on by default for new events, and the organiser can turn it off. If it does, it is responsible for erasing its participants' data itself when the period ends. Whether automatic anonymisation is on or off, the owners of the organisation receive an email reminder 30 days, then 7 days, before the period ends, except for a draft event or a suspended organisation.

Anonymisation keeps a cryptographic fingerprint (HMAC) of the printed name, the certificate number, and the title and type of the deactivated papers, so that certificates remain verifiable. The abstract of those papers is erased. Anonymisation cannot be undone.

8. Description of the service

The service includes in particular:

• creating organisations and events, and inviting team members;
• importing and managing participants and their papers;
• generating badges with QR codes and sending personal access codes by email;
• attendance tracking (badge scan, daily attendance, manual entry);
• configuring, issuing, sending and revoking certificates, with public verification;
• data exports, an email history and an audit log.

We keep improving the service. We may add, change or remove a feature. If we remove a significant feature, we give organisers reasonable notice.

9. Certificates and public verification

Each certificate carries a verification link and QR code. Anyone who has them can check the certificate without an account. The page shows whether the certificate is valid or revoked, together with the event, the dates and the certificate type.

As long as the participant has not been anonymised and the certificate has not been revoked, the page shows the holder's name in full and lets visitors download the certificate PDF.

Visitors can also check a name by typing it in. The number of attempts is limited and the name never appears in the page address. After anonymisation, the name is no longer shown: only the name's fingerprint can still confirm a name typed in.

This verification relies on the legitimate interest of the organiser and of the holder in proving that the certificate is genuine. Anyone who objects should contact the organiser, who can revoke the certificate. A revocation is publicly visible.

The organiser is solely responsible for the content of the certificates it issues (identity, wording, signatories, logos). ConfCert does not check whether the participation actually took place.

10. Pricing, payment and invoicing

Current prices are published on the Pricing page. Organisers can prepare their events as drafts free of charge. A limited free offer may be available, on the conditions stated on that page.

Prices on the Pricing page are stated in euros, excluding taxes. Any tax is, where applicable, calculated according to your situation at the time of payment, and the total price, including all taxes, is shown on the payment page before you confirm the order. For consumers, the price displayed at payment is the price including all taxes. If the publisher is under the VAT franchise scheme, the statement “VAT not applicable, Article 293 B of the French General Tax Code” appears in the Legal notice; it concerns the publisher in its dealings with Stripe, and invoices issued in the publisher's name when the publisher itself is the seller.

Payment is a one-off payment per event. It covers the whole life of the event, with no subscription or renewal. To move up to a higher tier, only the difference between the two tiers is payable.

Beyond the tiers, the publisher may offer a custom quote. Only the difference from the amount already paid for the event is payable. The quote is valid until the date it states.

Depending on the payment mode in force, shown on the payment page, your purchase is either sold and invoiced by Link, a Stripe brand, as reseller and under its own terms, or processed by Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe Ltd) on behalf of the publisher. In the first case, Link issues the invoice and calculates and collects VAT, and ConfCert provides the service. In the second, Stripe issues the invoice on behalf of the publisher. In both cases, ConfCert never receives or stores card numbers, and an invoice is issued for each payment.

11. Refunds

Refunds are made to the payment method used for the order, in the following cases:

• withdrawal by a consumer, under the conditions of the section on consumers;
• billing error or duplicate payment;
• goodwill gesture, at the publisher's discretion;
• payment settled after the organisation concerned was closed: it is refunded automatically, with no action needed on your part.

Outside these cases and those provided for by law, amounts paid are not refunded.

Refunds are made through Stripe. When Link, a Stripe brand, is the seller, it may also decide on a refund of its own accord, under its own terms. Payment disputes with your bank are handled through Stripe.

12. Consumers and non-professionals

This section applies if you are a consumer. Non-professionals benefit from the protection against unfair terms, the legal guarantee of conformity and mediation, but not from the right of withdrawal. This section prevails over the others in the event of conflict.

Right of withdrawal. You have 14 days from payment to withdraw, without giving any reason and without penalty (Article L221-18 of the French Consumer Code). The right of withdrawal is exercised with the seller named on the payment page and on your receipt: Link, a Stripe brand, when it sells as reseller, under its own terms and the applicable law; otherwise, the publisher of ConfCert. You may also contact ConfCert through the contact form: we forward your request to the seller or help you exercise it.

Immediate performance. If you want to use the paid service before that period ends, you must expressly request it when you pay. At the time of payment, ConfCert records your express request for immediate performance and your acknowledgement that you lose the right of withdrawal once the service has been fully provided, through a mandatory checkbox: “I request immediate performance of the service and acknowledge that I lose my right of withdrawal once the service has been fully provided.” If you withdraw before the service has been fully provided, you pay for the share of the service provided up to your withdrawal, pro rata (Article L221-25). You lose the right of withdrawal once the service has been fully performed (Article L221-28). When Link is the seller, its terms apply where they are more favourable.

To withdraw, send an unequivocal statement to the seller named on the payment page and on your receipt, as described there, or to ConfCert, through the contact form or to the address given in the Legal notice. You may use the following model:

• To the seller named on the payment receipt, or to the publisher of ConfCert, whose contact details are given in the Legal notice.
• I hereby give notice that I withdraw from my contract for the provision of the following service, provided by ConfCert: name of the event, tier and payment reference shown on the receipt.
• Ordered on: date of payment.
• Name and address of the consumer.
• Signature of the consumer, only if this notice is sent on paper, and date.

The refund is owed by the seller, no later than 14 days after your withdrawal is received, to the payment method used for the order. When the publisher is the seller, it commits to this; when Link is the seller, the refund follows its terms and the applicable law. If you requested immediate performance, the share of the service already provided remains payable.

Legal guarantee of conformity. The service is covered by the legal guarantee of conformity for digital content and services (Articles L224-25-1 et seq. of the French Consumer Code). If the service does not conform, you can have it brought into conformity or, failing that, obtain a price reduction or terminate the contract.

Mediation. In the event of a dispute, first send a written complaint to the publisher. If no solution is found, you may refer the matter free of charge to the consumer mediator named in the Legal notice, within one year of your complaint (Articles L612-1 et seq.).

13. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use the service for unlawful, fraudulent or misleading activities, in particular issuing false certificates;
• import data you are not entitled to use, or special categories of data;
• undermine the security or proper operation of the service (intrusion, overloading, circumventing limits, unauthorised automated extraction);
• upload content that infringes the rights of others or breaks the law;
• resell the service or make it available to third parties outside an organiser's normal use.

14. Reporting illegal content

ConfCert's single point of contact, for users and authorities alike, is the contact form on the site (EU Digital Services Act, Articles 11 and 12). Communication may take place in French or English.

Anyone can use it to report content they consider illegal, for example a false certificate or a logo used without permission. The report states the content concerned (link or description), why it is considered illegal, and the name and email address of the person reporting, unless the law provides otherwise.

We handle each report diligently and tell the person reporting what action we took. If we remove content, restrict access or suspend an account, we give the person concerned the reasons for the decision and explain how to challenge it.

15. Availability and support

We use reasonable efforts to keep the service available at all times, without any quantified availability commitment. Maintenance may interrupt it; we announce it when it can be foreseen.

Support is provided through the contact form, in French or English.

For technical reasons, badge and export files can only be downloaded for one hour. Organisers download and keep them on their side.

16. Intellectual property

The publisher retains all rights in the service, its code, its brand and its content, including the badge and certificate templates it provides. You receive a personal, non-exclusive and non-transferable right to use the service for the life of your account, which includes using those templates for the documents issued.

The organiser retains all rights in the content it uploads (logos, signatures, text, data). It grants the publisher a free, non-exclusive, worldwide licence to host, reproduce, adapt to technical formats and display that content, solely to provide the service, for the term of the contract and the retention period that follows.

The organiser warrants that it holds the necessary rights in that content and indemnifies the publisher against any third-party claim in this respect.

17. Liability

Each party is liable for damage caused by its breaches, under general law and subject to the provisions below.

Towards professionals only, the publisher's liability is limited to direct and foreseeable damage. It is capped at the amount paid for the event concerned, with a minimum of 100 euros. Indirect damage, such as loss of business or reputation, is excluded.

This cap and these exclusions do not apply in the event of gross negligence or wilful misconduct, nor to personal injury.

Towards consumers and non-professionals, no limitation of liability contrary to the law applies.

The publisher is not liable for the content and data entered by the organiser, nor for the use it makes of certificates.

18. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for a failure caused by force majeure within the meaning of Article 1218 of the French Civil Code. The affected party informs the other as soon as possible. The obligations concerned are suspended for as long as the impediment lasts.

If the impediment lasts more than 30 days, either party may terminate the contract in writing, without compensation.

19. Suspension, closure and reversibility

You may stop using the service at any time and close your account yourself, from your account, by confirming with your password. Closure is immediate and irreversible: your account data is erased and access to the service ends at once. Organisations of which you are the sole owner are closed together with the account; closure is refused while one of their events is active, a payment is in progress or one of them is suspended; in that last case, contact us. If an organisation has another active owner, only your membership of that organisation is removed. The Staff members of a closed organisation are informed by email.

We may suspend or close an organisation in the event of a serious or repeated breach of these terms, fraud, non-payment, illegal content or a legal obligation. We inform you of the decision and its reasons before it takes effect, unless there is an emergency or the law prohibits it. During a suspension, members no longer have access to the organisation.

Reversibility. Export your data before closing your account: access ends as soon as it is closed. Participants of the events of a closed organisation are anonymised 30 days after closure. Only what keeps the certificates already issued publicly verifiable remains: the cryptographic fingerprint of the printed name, the certificate number and the certificate details. If we terminate the contract, access to the service is blocked, but for 30 days you may ask us, through the contact form, for an export of your data, which we provide. After that period, the data is deleted or anonymised as for a closed organisation. Kept beyond that, as the law allows or requires, are the proof of acceptance of the terms for 5 years, and payments and invoices for 10 years (see the privacy policy).

Amounts already paid are refunded only in the cases provided for by these terms or by law. A payment settled after an organisation was closed is refunded automatically.

20. Minors

Accounts are reserved for adults. If the organiser registers minors as participants in an event, it makes sure it has an appropriate legal basis and, where required, the consent of their legal guardians.

21. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms, for example to reflect changes in the service or the law. Each version is dated at the top of this page.

We notify you of any change by email at least 30 days before it takes effect. When you first sign in after that date, we ask you to accept the new version.

If you do not accept the new version, you may terminate without charge and export your data, as set out in the section on closure.

22. General provisions

• Evidence: the electronic records of the service (acceptance of the terms, logs, payment history) are admissible as evidence between the parties, unless proven otherwise (Article 1366 of the French Civil Code).
• Language: these terms are written in French and translated into English. In the event of any discrepancy, the French version prevails.
• Severability: if a clause is held void or unenforceable, the other clauses remain in force.
• No waiver: failing to enforce a clause does not waive the right to enforce it later.
• Assignment: the publisher may assign the contract to the business it will register to operate the service. Users will be informed by email before the assignment, which will not reduce their rights.

23. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by French law. In the event of a dispute, the parties first seek an amicable solution.

Between professionals, and to the extent permitted by law, the courts with jurisdiction over the publisher's domicile have exclusive jurisdiction.

Consumers, including those residing outside the European Union, keep the protection of the mandatory rules of their country of residence. They may bring proceedings, at their choice, before the courts of their place of residence or any other court with jurisdiction under the law, and may use the mediation described in the section on consumers.

24. Contact

For any question about these terms, use the contact form or the contact details given in the Legal notice.