Website legal text LCE

Privacy policy

Lotus Cars Europe B.V. is a "controller". This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

Lotus Cars Europe B.V.

Johan Huizingalaan 400a, Amsterdam

E-mail: lce.legal@eu.lotuscars.com

Phone number:

1. Introduction

Lotus Cars Europe respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit Lotuscars.com (referred to as “our website” or “the website” in this privacy policy) (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Our privacy policy for the use of our websites and the data protection guidelines of Lotus Cars Europe do not apply to your activities on the websites of social networks or other providers that you can access via the links on our websites. Please inform yourself on the websites of these providers about their data protection and or privacy policy.

2. Collecting and processing your personal data

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data for the purposes described in this privacy policy. The type of information we collect will depend on the circumstances and the service you are using. We may collect the following categories of personal data:

·       Identity data such as first name, middle name, last name, username or similar identifier, title.

·              Contact data such as billing address, delivery address, postal/ zip code, email address and telephone numbers.

·              Financial data such as payment method, bank account information, payment card details and/or other payment information to process payments in connection with your orders.

·              Transaction data such as purchases or orders made by you and details about payments to and from you and other details of products you have purchased from us.

·              Location data such as your real time location information we may establish through GPS signals.

·              Technical data such as internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.

·              Communication or interaction data such as your requests for information, calls, emails, in-person communications, feedbacks, survey responses, appointments, and test drives.

·              Profile data such as your username and password, third-party platform accounts and your preferences.

·              Usage data such as information about how you use our website, products and services.

·              Marketing data including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences, your current vehicle information and preferred vehicle information.

We may also put your personal data into aggregated and anonymised form. Once anonymised, that data is no longer your personal data. However, if we combine or connect that anonymised, aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

Special categories of personal data is data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data. We do not, via the website, collect any special categories of personal data about you. Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

 3. How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

·              Direct interactions. You may give us your data by filling in forms on our website or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

·              apply for our products/events/job opportunities;

·              create an account on our website;

·              subscribe to our publications;

·              request marketing to be sent to you;

·              enter a competition, promotion or survey; or

·              give us feedback or contact us (and we may record all calls made to or from our customer service telephone number).

·              Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we will automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy [LINK] for further details.

4. How we use your personal data

In the list below we set out further information about the purposes for which we use your personal data and the legal basis we rely on for its use. Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data:

• Register you as a new customer;
• Communicate with you, including:
• To respond to your inquires and fulfil your requests;
• To process your job application;
• To manage our relationship with you which will include notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy and asking you to leave a review or take a survey;
• To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey
• To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you.
• Fulfil our products and services, including:
• To complete your purchase, request for services and/or product leasing or financing;
• To process and deliver your order including managing payments, fees and charges, and collecting and recovering money owed to us;
• To process, assist and provide related customer support.
• Administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data).
• Deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you.
• Improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences.
• Comply with legal obligations, law enforcement, and other government requests permitted under applicable laws.

5. Legal basis for the use of personal data

a.     Consent: If you have given your consent to process your personal data, this is the legal basis for processing (Art. 6 (1a) GDPR).

b.     Contract: For processing personal data for the purpose of establishing or fulfilling a contract with you, art. 6 (1b) GDPR is the legal basis.

c.     Legal requirement: If we are required to process your personal data in order to comply with our legal obligations (e.g. for the storage of data), we are authorized to do so in accordance with Art. 6 (1c) GDPR.

d.     Legitimate interest: In addition, we process personal data to fulfil our legitimate interests and the legitimate interests of third parties according to art. 6 paragraph (1f) GDPR. Maintaining the functionality of our IT systems, the (direct) marketing for our own products and services (as far as this is not done with your consent) and those of third parties and the legally required documentation of business contacts are examples of such legitimate interests. In considering these interests, we shall in particular take into account the type of personal data, the purpose of the processing, the circumstances of the processing and your concern for the preservation of the confidentiality of your personal data.

6. Marketing

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods from us and you have opted in to receiving that marketing.

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes.

5. Cookies

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

Our Website uses cookies and other similar technologies (together referred to as “cookies” in this policy) to distinguish you from other users of our Website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Website and also allows us to improve our site. For more information about the cookies we use and how we use them, please see our cookie policy [LINK TO COOKIE POLICY].

6. Disclosures of your personal data

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in section 4 above.

·              IT service providers, providing system administration, hosting and support services;

·              Third party analytics companies;

·              Payment service providers, such as [STRIPE];

·              Third party customer support services;

·              Third party product and service suppliers;

·              Our delivery partners;

·              LOTUS group companies;

·              Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services;

·              Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets, in which case your personal data held by us will be one of the transferred or merged assets. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy;

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. We have contracts in place with the third parties and require them to treat your personal data lawfully and permit them to only process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

7. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures such as encryption technologies and authentication systems in line with the current state of the art to protection and maintain the security of your personal data.

We will make our best efforts to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. Overseas transfers

We may transfer your personal data to the parties set out in section 6 above, based in countries/regions outside of the UK and the European Economic Area or your country/region of residence, for the purposes described above, where permitted by applicable laws or if we have your consent (if so required by applicable laws), and this personal data may be stored and processed in such countries/regions. Where the overseas transfer of personal data takes place, we take steps to ensure that your personal data will be afforded the level of protection required of us under this privacy policy and applicable data protection laws and in accordance with current legally recognised data transfer mechanisms, for example:

·              We will transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data;

·              We may use specific contracts or agreements approved for use which contain appropriate safeguards for such data transfers.

 9. Your legal rights

a.     As a person involved in data processing, you have the right to be informed (art. 15 GDPR), rectified (art. 16 GDPR), forgotten (art. 17 GDPR), restricted processing (art. 18 GDPR) and data portability (art. 20 GDPR).

b.     If you have given us permission to process your personal data, you have the right to revoke your permission at any time. The lawfulness of the processing of your personal data up to the point of revocation shall not be affected by the revocation. The further processing of this data on another legal basis, e.g. for the fulfilment of legal obligations, also remains unaffected.

c.     You have the right, for reasons arising from your particular situation, to object at any time to the processing of your personal data pursuant to Art. 6 (1e) GDPR (data processing in the public interest) or Art. 6 (1f) GDPR (data processing based on the evaluation of interests). If you object, we will only continue to process your personal data if we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or if the processing serves to assert, exercise or defend legal rights. If we process your personal data to carry out direct marketing activities for the protection of legitimate interests based on a balancing of interests, you also have the right to object at any time without giving any reasons.

d.     We request that you make your objections or declarations, if possible, known via the contact address lce.legal@eu.lotuscars.com.

e.     If you think that the processing of your personal data violates legal provisions, you have the right to object to a competent data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR).

10. Newsletter

If you subscribe to a newsletter offered on our website, the data provided at the time of registration will only be used for sending the newsletter, unless you have agreed to any further use. You may cancel your subscription at any time by using the unsubscribe option in the newsletter.

11. Contact us

Our legal team is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact our legal team via e-mail. E-mail is our preferred method of communication as it allows us to respond to queries faster.

Changes to the privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and place any updates on our website.

Version: April 2022