Data protection regulations of Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG apply.
Information regarding the collection of personal data
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG is aware of its responsibility for protecting the information/data you have entrusted to us. Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG uses a variety of security techniques for protecting your data, including secure servers, firewalls and encryption of financial data.
We have compiled information below on the personal data we collect when our website is used. Personal data are all data that can be related to you personally, e.g. name, address, email addresses, user behaviour.
The controller pursuant to Art. 4(7) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG
Managing Director: Florian Hess, Carol Rapp
Data Protection Officer: Carol Rapp
Bismarckallee 8
53173 Bonn
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at
dataprotection(at)merz-verlag.com
Phone: +49 228 342273
or via our postal address above, adding "Data Protection Officer".
If you contact us via email or contact form, we store the data you provide so that we can respond. We delete such data once they no longer need to be stored or restrict the processing if there are statutory retention obligations.
If we commission service providers for certain functions on our website or wish to use your data for advertising purposes, we inform you below in detail of the respective processes. We also tell you the criteria defined for the duration of storage.
You have the following rights vis-à-vis us with regard to personal data concerning you:
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority regarding the processing of your personal data.
Personal data are collected, processed and used by Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, our representatives and our exhibition service partners in compliance with the regulations of the GDPR (legal basis is Article 6, Paragraph 1, Sub-paragraph 1, Letter f of the GDPR) and other relevant data protection regulations for the purpose of providing support and information for our customers and potential customers and for handling the services offered.
Such use also includes your registration, the technical administration of our websites and a check to determine whether you can access any protected pages.
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG employees are obliged to maintain data secrecy and receive regular data protection training.
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG has taken all necessary technical and organisational measures to protect the data that we collect, process and use against loss, destruction, corruption, manipulation, unauthorised access and unauthorised disclosure.
These technical and organisational measures are reviewed on an ongoing basis and strengthened where necessary.
When you visit our websites, Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG obtains usage data that are stored on its servers and may permit identification. These include:
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG analyses these data to learn about user patterns and compile statistics. All such measures are subject to high security standards. The data are not used in any personal context. We reserve the right to use anonymised data sets for the purpose of statistical analysis.
Other data are only stored if you provide these to us voluntarily, such as in the context of registrations, competitions, surveys, etc.
If you send us e-mails, we collect, process and use your personal data to manage our service offering, including the relevant correspondence. The same applies if you send us contact forms, letters or faxes. Of course, you can object to the use of your data for advertising purposes at any time. You are regularly made aware of this right to object in all of our information and advertising correspondence.
Objection to or withdrawal of consent for the processing of your data
If you have consented to your data being processed, you may withdraw this consent at any time. Such a withdrawal affects the legitimacy of the processing of your personal data once you have notified us of the withdrawal.
If the processing of your personal data is based on a consideration of interests, you may object to the processing. In particular, this is the case if the processing is not required for the performance of a contract with you, indicated by us in each case in the following description of functions. When you exercise your right to object, we ask that you specify the reasons why we should not process your personal data in this way. If your objection is justified, we will examine the situation and either cease or adjust the data processing or explain to you the compelling legitimate grounds on which we will continue to process the data. Of course, you may object to the processing of your personal data for the purposes of advertising and data analysis at any time. You can use the following contact details to inform us of your objection to advertising:
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG
Bismarckallee 8
53173 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 342273
Email: dataprotection(at)merz-verlag.com
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG passes your personal data to third parties if this is required in order to process your orders, arrange your trade fair visit or participation, and/or bill services. If data are passed to service providers within the context of commissioned processing, these service providers are also bound to the GDPR, other legal regulations and by contract to the Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG policies. You voluntarily decide which, if any, other services you wish to use and which data you provide to us for transfer. Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG does not disclose other information – such as voluntary statements about your primary areas of interest – to third parties. The following applies to visitors of Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG events, including online events and events held as combined in-person and online events: Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG only passes trade visitor data to exhibitors, associations or third parties if the following conditions are met:
Insofar as Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG is obliged to do so by law or court order, it will transfer your data to bodies authorised to receive these to the required extent. Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG does not pass your data to third parties for other purposes without your express consent.
Our representatives and service partners in Germany and abroad are contractually obliged to fully comply with the relevant provisions and regulations in respect of data protection and security. Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG regularly monitors compliance with this obligation.
Why should you transfer your personal data to Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG?
When you voluntarily provide additional data to us, such as your special interests, we are able to offer you a range of benefits. When entering data, you decide for yourself which data we receive from you about your company and/or yourself.
Providing additional data makes it easier and more convenient for you to
Providing your data also enables us to conduct market research so that we can offer you a good quality of service and better services. You can provide us with your information in a variety of ways:
Encryption methods are used for secure transmission of the data that you provide. This means that the communication between your browser and our online and order systems cannot be read by other Internet users. Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG may occasionally receive your personal data from third parties. This includes, for instance, the transfer of your data by associations, exhibitors, international representatives or chambers of industry and handicrafts, and the sharing of personal data by commercial address brokers. We only use such data if you have given your consent to these third parties for their further use for the purpose of contacting you via electronic means or telephone. If you do not wish us to use your personal data that you have not shared directly with us, please inform us of this using the postal or e-mail address provided in the Objection section.
As a visitor, exhibitor or journalist, you can securely register for the registration services provided by Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG via a double opt-in process.
Shortly after successful registration/accreditation, you will receive login details for the respective online function on the Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG website. If there is the option on the website for the user to enter personal or business data (e-mail addresses, names, postal addresses), then such disclosure is on an expressly voluntary basis. The use of services requiring registration is also governed by special conditions, which are explained to you in detail below.
Special information on using the Online Service Center
If you use our online registration and order system, you agree to the storage and use of your information by Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG and its service partners for the following purposes:sending service offers, order management, personalisation of admission tickets, provision of information from Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG.
If you order personalised admission tickets for yourself or third parties, we assume that you are authorised to disclose the information needed to check the eligibility of trade visitors and for the aforementioned purposes. If you use our online registration and order system, we receive from you the data needed to manage the order and provide the services booked. The required fields by means of which the necessary data are collected are always indicated with an asterisk. All of the cookies set in the Online Service Center area are for the use of the Online Service Center and are therefore absolutely necessary for proper use of the OSC.
The legal bases for processing are:
The data that you save in the Organizer are held there for you until we publish the data sets for the next event online (usually three months before the next event). This also applies to the dates, event participations and notes entered by you for the individual data sets.
All data sets generated from searching our databases and saved in your personal Organizer are automatically updated from our database, e.g. in the event of changes to the dates of events noted or exhibitor locations.
Although we carefully create, manage and update all of the content in our databases, we accept no responsibility for the correctness, completeness or topicality of the content offered or for the retention of data sets saved in the Organizer, and exclude any and all liability in this respect.
Despite using the latest technology and extremely careful programming, we do not guarantee that it will be possible to retrieve all of the content from searches of our databases or stored by you in the Organizer online without errors at all times.
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG uses Microsoft Teams to hold internal and external video conferences and workshops. Participants in these conferences are Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG employees, business partners, exhibitors and service providers. In Microsoft Teams, Microsoft processes personal data to provide the agreed services as defined in the Microsoft Online Services Terms of Use. Microsoft Teams is cloud-based and processes different types of personal data, the use of which depends, among other things, on Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG acting as data protection controller: Please see the Microsoft Teams data protection statement for further details: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-privacy
We use the newsletter(s) to keep you informed about us and our trade fairs (SPIEL Essen).
If you wish to receive one of the newsletters offered on our websites, we require from you an e-mail address and information that allows us to identify you as the owner of the e-mail address given and verify that you agree to receive the newsletter. By providing further data during the rest of the newsletter subscription process – such as company name, address, date of birth, industry and sales channel – you thereby consent to Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG sending you regular updates on these data via e-mail.
We only use these data to send the requested information and do not share them with third parties.
You may withdraw your consent to the storage of the data, the e-mail address and their use to dispatch the newsletter at any time. You may unsubscribe using a link in the newsletter itself, in your profile area or by emailing dataprotection(at)merz-verlag.com.
Cookies are used to collect text information during an online session and store it in ASCII format in a special file (cookie.txt) on the user’s hard drive.
The user’s browser determines where the cookie is stored on the user’s hard drive. Cookies provide information that is sent back to a server during the next online visit. They can only be read by the server that previously saved them.
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG and its appointed service providers only set cookies for absolutely necessary user functions, to make it easier to navigate the websites and to gather marketing statistics.
You can choose at any time which cookies you want to store on your system via the cookie consent banner. Once you have made your choice there, you can then restrict or extend your consent again at any time. Please use the information on the website for this.
You cannot deselect absolutely necessary user functions controlled by cookies, as this would significantly restrict the usability of the website. This would mean that you would not be able to use the website concerned at all or only to a very restricted degree.
You will find an overview of all of the cookies used here.
The information is not shared with any other third parties, as cookies are only used for the aforementioned purposes.
Most browsers are set to accept cookies by default. However, this function can be disabled at any time in your browser. You can configure your browser to notify you as soon as cookies are sent.
If you visit our websites in order to browse, read or download information, we collect and store some "user information" about you, such as a unique ID, the name of the domain and host from which you are accessing the Internet, your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, the date and time you accessed the website and the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our website. We use this information to log visits to our websites and recognise visitors again. This helps us to make our websites even more useful. We delete this information again after the duration specified in the cookie overview
You can disable JavaScript, ActiveX and other control elements and script languages containing executables at any time via your browser for security reasons. Our websites can still be navigated without JavaScript.
Under certain circumstances, our websites use social plugins (plugins) of the facebook.com social network, which is operated by Facebook Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland (Facebook). The plugins are marked with a Facebook logo or the words "Facebook Social Plugin".
If you access a website in our web presence containing such a plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection to Facebook’s servers. The plugin content is sent by Facebook directly to your browser, which integrates it into the website.
The integration of the plugins tells Facebook that you have accessed the relevant page of our web presence. If you are logged into Facebook, Facebook can assign the visit to your Facebook account. If you interact with the plugins, such as by pressing the Like button or leaving a comment, your browser sends the corresponding information directly to Facebook, where it is stored.
Please refer to the Facebook Data Policy for information about the purpose and scope of the data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as your related rights and settings that may be used to protect your privacy. If you do not want Facebook to gather data about you via our web presence, you will need to log out of Facebook before visiting our web presence
Use of Facebook Remarketing and Custom Audiences
Our websites contain remarketing tags for the social network of Facebook Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland. When you visit our websites, a direct connection is established between your browser and the Facebook server by means of the remarketing tags. This tells Facebook that you have visited our site using your IP address. This enables Facebook to associate the visit to our site with your user account. We can use the information obtained in this way to display Facebook ads. Please note that as the provider of the sites we are not made aware of the content of the data transferred or its use by Facebook. For further information, please refer to Facebook’s Data Policy.
With your consent, we use the "Facebook Pixel" of Facebook Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland ("Facebook") within our web presence. This helps us to track the actions that users take after they have seen or clicked on a Facebook ad. This enables us to record the effectiveness of Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes. The data recorded in this way are anonymous to us. In other words, we cannot see the personal data of individual users. However, these data are stored and processed by Facebook. We inform you of this to the best of our knowledge. Facebook may combine these data with your Facebook account and also use them for its own advertising purposes in accordance with Facebook’s Data Policy. These data can enable Facebook and its partners to place advertising on and outside of Facebook. Furthermore, a cookie may be saved on your computer for these purposes. If you do not want cookies to be saved on your computer, you can disable cookies in your browser settings.
Our websites use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google").
For users with their habitual residence in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, Google Ireland Limited is the controller with responsibility for their data, unless otherwise specified in the privacy policy of a particular service. Accordingly, Google Ireland Limited is the company affiliated with Google that is the controller responsible for processing your data and ensuring compliance with the applicable data protection laws.
Google Ireland, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Google Analytics uses cookies, which are text files that are stored on your computer and used to analyse your use of the websites. The information generated by the cookie about your use of these websites is usually transmitted to and stored on a Google server. However, if IP anonymisation is activated on our websites, Google truncates your IP address within European Union member states and other countries which are contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area prior to this. On behalf of the operator of these websites, Google uses this information to analyse how you use these websites, to compile reports on the website activity and to provide other services relating to the use of the websites and Internet usage for the website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser within the scope of the Google Analytics service is not associated with other Google data. You may prevent cookies being stored by adjusting your browser software appropriately; however, please note that you may not then have full use of all of the features of these websites. You may also prevent the data generated by a cookie based on your usage of the websites (including your IP address) being collected and processed by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available here.
Please note that these websites use Google Analytics with the code extension "anonymizeIp" in order to ensure the anonymised collection of IP addresses ("IP masking").
As a Google Ads customer, we use Google Conversion Tracking, an analytics service provided by Google Ireland, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland ("Google"). Google Ads sets a conversion cookie on your computer if you click on a Google ad and are taken to one of our websites. This cookie expires after 30 days and does not serve to identify individuals. If you visit certain pages of our web presence and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google can recognise that the ad has been clicked and the user was redirected to our site. Each Google Ads customer is given a different cookie. Therefore, cookies cannot be tracked via the websites of Google Ads customers. The information obtained using the conversion cookie is used to create conversion statistics for Google Ads customers who have opted for conversion tracking. Google Ads customers learn the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were redirected to a page with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information that can be used to personally identify users. If you wish to opt-out of this tracking, you can also reject the cookie that has to be set for this – for instance, by generally disabling the automatic setting of cookies in your browser settings. You can also disable conversion tracking cookies by adjusting your browser settings so that cookies from the "googleadservices.com" domain are blocked. Or you can choose the appropriate settings in the cookie consent banner.
We also use Google AdSense, a web advertisement service provided by Google Ireland, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland ("Google") to place advertisements (text ads, banners, etc.). Your browser may save a cookie sent by Google or third parties for this. The information stored in the cookie may be recorded, collected and analysed by Google or a third party. Furthermore, Google AdSense also uses small invisible graphics to collect information which allow for simple actions such as visitor traffic to the website to be recorded, collected and analysed. The information generated by the cookie and/or graphics about your use of these websites is transferred to and stored on a Google server in the US. Google uses the information thus obtained to analyse your usage patterns with regard to Google AdSense ads. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on behalf of Google. Google does not associate your IP address with other data stored by Google. You may prevent cookies from being stored on your hard drive and the aforementioned graphics from being displayed. As for the other cookies described, the same applies here: you will need to disable cookies in your browser settings for this.
We use remarketing technology provided by Google Ireland, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland ("Google"). This technology is used to retarget users that have previously visited our websites and online services and showed interest in our offering by means of targeted advertising on sites within the Google Partner network. The advertising is shown by using cookies, which are small text files stored on the user’s computer. The text files help analyse user behaviour when the websites are visited for the purposes of targeted product recommendations and interest-based advertising.
If you do not wish to receive interest-based advertising, you may disable Google’s use of cookies for these purposes by visiting this page. Alternatively, users can opt out of third-party cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
By using our websites, you consent to Google processing the data collected about you in the manner described here and for the aforementioned purpose. Please note that Google has its own privacy policy that is independent of ours. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for its policies and procedures. Before using our website, please check the Google Privacy Policy.
We also use Google Maps for displaying geographical maps, searching for and displaying addresses, and navigating (route planning) from your location to specific locations, such as a trade fair or conference centre. Google Maps sets what is known as an NID cookie and saves an individual user ID there. You can prevent the use of Google Maps by disabling the service in User Centrics.
Google Maps is a service provided by Google Ireland, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland ("Google").
Bing, Seznam, Yandex
As an advertising client,
If you wish to opt-out of this tracking by these search engines, you can also reject the cookie that has to be set for this – for instance, by generally disabling the automatic setting of cookies in your browser settings.
By using our websites, you consent to these search engines processing the data collected about you in the manner described here and for the aforementioned purpose. Please note that these search engines have their own privacy policies that are independent of ours. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies and procedures. Please refer to the privacy policies of the search engines before using our website: Bing Privacy Statement The Bing/Microsoft Privacy Statement is available here: privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/privacystatement
Various pages on Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG contain embedded YouTube videos. The site only enables a connection to YouTube. YouTube is a service provided by Google Inc. (our contractual partner is: Google Ireland, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). For information about the purpose and scope of the data collection and use by Google and your rights and settings that may be used for your protection as a YouTube customer, please refer to the YouTube Privacy Policy.
Our web presence may use social plugins ("plugins") of the social network twitter.com, which is provided by Twitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland ("Twitter"). The plugins are marked with a Twitter logo.
If you access a Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG website containing such a plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection to Twitter’s servers. The plugin content is sent by Twitter directly to your browser, which integrates it into the website.
The integration of the plugins tells Twitter that you have accessed the relevant page of our web presence. If you are logged into Twitter, Twitter can assign the visit to your Twitter account. If you interact with the plugins, such as by sharing a tweet, your browser sends the corresponding information directly to Twitter, where it is stored.
Please refer to the Twitter Data Policy for information about the purpose and scope of the data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Twitter as well as your related rights and settings that may be used to protect your privacy. If you do not want Twitter to gather data about you via our web presence, you will need to log out of Twitter before visiting our web presence.
Plugins of the LinkedIn social network provided by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland (hereinafter referred to as "LinkedIn"), are integrated into our websites. The LinkedIn plugins are identifiable by the LinkedIn logo or Recommend button on our websites.
When you visit our websites, a direct connection is established between your browser and the LinkedIn server by means of the plugin. This tells LinkedIn that you have visited one of our sites using your IP address.
If you click the LinkedIn Recommend button while logged into your LinkedIn account, you can link the content on our sites directly to your LinkedIn profile. This enables LinkedIn to associate the visit to our site with your user account. Please note that as the provider of the sites we are not made aware of the content of the data transferred or its use by LinkedIn. For details on data collection (purpose, scope, further processing, use) and your rights and setting options, please refer to the LinkedIn Privacy Policy.
We use the analysis and conversion tracking technology of the LinkedIn platform provided by LinkedIn Ireland, Wilton Plaza, Wilton Place, Dublin 2 (Ireland) on our website. This LinkedIn technology allows more relevant ads to be shown based on your interests. LinkedIn also provides us with aggregated and anonymous reports on advertising activities and information on how you interact with our website.
For this, LinkedIn uses cookies that serve to uniquely identify a browser on a particular computer, last for 30 days and do not contain any personal data. Therefore, they cannot be used to personally identify our website users. The cookie is used to analyse how you interact with our website (e.g. the website from which you came to us, how much time you spend on our website, which offerings are of interest to you) and whether or not you are a member of the LinkedIn platform. The information gathered with the help of the cookie is used to create the anonymous statistics and reports referred to above and to display ads based on your interests.
For more information on data protection at LinkedIn, please see here. Irrespective of whether or not you are a registered member of the LinkedIn platform, you can opt out from analysis of your user behaviour by LinkedIn and the display of interest-based recommendations by clicking on "Opt Out on LinkedIn" (for LinkedIn members) or "Opt Out" (for other users) at the following link: www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out.
Please note that rejecting such advertising will not remove ads from the pages you visit. It simply means that the ads shown will not necessarily be tailored to your personal interests.
We use the Smart Ad Server service to provide advertising banners for our customers. Smart Ad Server uses cookies and/or web beacons, also known as tracking pixels, to optimally deliver banner advertising to you.
For more information on Smart Ad data protection, please refer to smartadserver.de/unternehmen/unsere-datenschutzerklaerung/.
We occasionally use the Yumpu tool provided by i-Magazine AG, Gewerbestrasse 3, 9444 Diepoldsau, Switzerland, on our websites to offer you scrollable catalogues, brochures and similar formats.
We use a consent management platform from the company User Centrics GmbH based in Munich for our web presence that allows you to control which cookies may be stored on your system.
We differentiate between the following categories in this:
Essential These cookies are absolutely necessary to operate the website. This also includes User Centrics. You cannot use the website if you do not agree to these cookies being stored.
Functional These cookies are used to make website features more convenient or to be able to provide certain services, such as to make it possible for YouTube videos to be viewed.
Marketing These cookies are used for marketing purposes to investigate user patterns and, for example, improve the information offered on the website.
If you accept the cookies that fall under the Functional and Marketing categories, they are then stored on your system. However, you can opt out from their use at any time by preventing them from being stored. For this, please click on the pen icon on the website.
In order to optimize our services, we invite you to participate in target group-specific surveys at irregular intervals. We use the survey tool from easyfeedback GmbH to implement the surveys. Participation in the surveys is voluntary and generally anonymous. For special questions, we give you the opportunity to provide your contact details. It is your decision to provide this information and to make it available to us with your answers.
A technical cookie is set for each survey. This is necessary in order to exclude multiple participation by means of a cookie block. The session ID and member ID are stored in your local storage. These are pseudonymized and cannot be assigned to a person if no personal data was requested or the survey link was personalized.
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time while taking into consideration provisions under data protection law.
If you have any questions or suggestions concerning data protection at Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, please contact our Data Protection Officer by e-mail at
Friedhelm Merz Verlag GmbH & Co. KG
Data Protection Officer,
Carol Rapp
Bismarckallee 8
53173 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 342273
Email: info(at)merz-verlag.com / dataprotection(at)merz-verlag.com
Version: 02/05/2023