Privacy policy

We will collect your personal information if you complete an application form or registration form to participate in one of the exhibitions or fairs (“exhibition(s)”). The completion of the application or registration form and provision of such information is necessary in order to participate in an exhibition. The information you provide to us may include your name, gender, ID card number, home address, office address, e-mail address, mobile phone number, telephone number, job, marketing preferences, etc. If you apply to participate in an exhibition on behalf of a company/organisation, the information you provide to us may also include the name of the company/organisation, business license, contact address, type of products to be exhibited, etc. If you contact us with a complaint or query, we may keep a record of your contact details, the correspondence between us and your level of satisfaction. When we collect personal information from you, we will indicate whether any personal information we have requested from you is mandatory or optional and explain the consequences if you decide not to provide that information. If all of the information is not provided by yourself then it will be difficult to contact you to confirm the arrangements in relation to an exhibition. For exhibitors, it may also mean that your booth is not situated in the correct display area at the exhibition or fair if you do not provide us with sufficient information relating to your products and/or services. The information provided may be used for the purpose of allocating a booth location based upon the categorisation of your goods or services. We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you are not obligated to complete the survey.

We (and our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries) will use your information in the following ways:

• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information and services that you request from us;
• to provide you with the latest information on industry trends and exhibitions, as well as to send you advertisements that you may be interested in. We will use a variety of different channels to send advertisements to you, including but not limited to: telephone call, email, SMS, direct mail, fax, social media, etc. You can unsubscribe as per the instructions detailed in the advertisements;
• to handle any service requests or other queries you communicate to us;
• to notify you about changes to our information or services;
• to administer our website or applications and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• as part of our efforts to keep our website and applications safe and secure.

Your personal information may be collected or used without your authorisation and consent under the following circumstances:

• relating to the performance of Messe Frankfurt's duties or obligations pursuant to the laws and regulations;
• relating to national safety and national defence security;
• relating to public security, public health, or major public interests;
• relating to criminal investigation, prosecution, judgment and enforcement;
• necessary to respond to a public health emergency or to protect your life, health and property or that of others in an emergency;
• the personal information is disclosed voluntarily by you to the public; 
• when it is necessary for signing or fulfilling the contract according to your requirements;
• the personal information is collected from other lawful and public sources, including but not limited to lawful news reports or information disclosed by government agencies and so forth; and
• when it is necessary for maintaining the safe and stable provision of products or services , such as identifying and rectifying faults in products or services.

We will not share, transfer or disclose your personal information to companies, organisations or individuals other than Messe Frankfurt, except for the following exceptions:

• other parties with your explicit consent;
• personnel, agents, advisers, auditors, contractors, financial institutions, and service providers in connection with our operations or services;
• any member of Messe Frankfurt Group and its associated business partners, including but not limited to our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, our overseas offices, and branches;
• persons enquiring about exhibitors or visitors of our exhibitions;
• other parties to whom we are required to make disclosures to when handling complaints of infringement of intellectual property rights or other legitimate rights;
• other parties under a duty of confidentiality to us;
• other parties to whom we are required to make disclosures to by applicable laws and regulations in or outside of Hong Kong, litigation, dispute resolution, or by administrative or judicial authority in accordance with laws; 
• relevant third parties involved in the protection of an individual’s vital interests (eg the individual’s personal or property safety); and
• other parties purchase, or potentially purchase, sell or participate in activities related to our services.

Your personal information may be shared, transferred or disclosed to the public without your authorisation and consent under the following circumstances:

• relating to the fulfilment of Messe Frankfurt's duties or obligations pursuant to the laws and regulations;
• relating to national security and national defence security;
• relating to public security, public health or major public interests;
• relating to criminal investigation, prosecution, judgment and enforcement;
• necessary to respond to a public health emergency or to protect your life, health and property or that of others in an emergency;
• the personal information is disclosed voluntarily by you to the public; and
• the personal information is collected from other lawful and public sources, including but not limited lawful news reports or information disclosed by government agencies and so forth.

Please note that pursuant to laws, sharing and transfer of anonymised information which cannot be recovered by the recipient to re-identify the subjects of such personal information does not constitute sharing, transfer and disclosure of personal information to the public, and therefore it may be processed without notice to you and without your consent.

You have the right to query, correct or supplement your personal information, and request us to delete your personal information in the following circumstances:

• if we process personal information in violation of laws and administrative regulations;
• if you withdraw your consent on our processing of your personal information;
• if our processing of personal information seriously violates our agreement with you;
• if you no longer use our products or services; or
• if we permanently no longer provide you with products or services.

We may not be able to delete or temporarily not be able to delete  your information from our backup system due to the applicable laws and security technologies. We will store your personal information securely and isolate it from any further information processing steps until the backup can be cleared or anonymised.

If you have any questions in relation to your personal information or if you would like to query, access, change or delete any of your personal information, please contact us via the contact information in Section 9 hereof. We will provide you with information on how you can access your personal information, review it and change it. Relevant fees for processing your information access request may apply.

For security purposes, you may need to provide a written request or other proof of identity. We may ask you to verify your identity before processing your request. We may reject requests for information that is not directly related to your identity, for repeated unreasonably requests for information, or that require too many technical measures (eg, the need to develop new systems or fundamentally change existing practices), bring risks to the legitimate rights and interests of others, or are impractical.

We will not be able to respond to your request in the following circumstances:

• relating to the fulfilment of Messe Frankfurt's duties or obligations pursuant to the laws and regulations;
• relating to national security and national defence security;
• relating to public safety, public health and major public interests;
• relating to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial and enforcement of judgment;
• having sufficient evidence to prove that the subject of personal information holds malicious intent or the intent to abuse rights; 
• necessary to respond to a public health emergency or to protect your life, health and property or that of others in an emergency;
• responding to your request will cause serious damage to the legitimate rights and interests of you or other individuals or organisations; and
• relating to trade secrets of Messe Frankfurt. 

Messe Frankfurt attaches great importance to the protection of minors' personal information and will not actively collect personal information from minors. If you are under the age of 18, you should obtain the consent of your guardian before using our products and/or services. Messe Frankfurt protects the personal information of minors in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

With respect to personal information which may involve individuals under the age of 14, we will not only abide by the provisions of this Privacy Policy, but also process it in accordance with the principles of properness and necessity, informed consent, explicit purpose, security assurance and lawful use, as well as the laws and regulations on the protection of children's personal information. We will not exceed the period necessary for the purpose of collection and use, after which we will delete or anonymise the children's personal information. We will designate a special person to be responsible for the protection of children's personal information and develop special rules for the protection of children's personal information. We will adopt the principle of minimum and sufficient authorisation for the employees who may have access to children's personal information, strictly set the access rights of information, and take technical measures to record and control the employees’ processing of children's personal information, so as to avoid illegal copying and downloading of children's personal information.

We will store your personal information within Mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (hereinafter collectively referred to as the “storage area”), and you hereby expressly agree that the information that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the storage area as permitted by applicable law. It may also be processed by employees operating outside the storage area who work for Messe Frankfurt and its affiliates. By providing your personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take reasonable and necessary measures to ensure that your information is processed securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You have the right to contact us at any time to refuse the transfer and storage of your personal information outside of the storage area. If you do not exercise the above refusal right, it will be deemed that you have permitted us to transfer and store your personal information outside of the storage area according to this provision.

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time and any changes to this Privacy Policy may be announced on our website. Without your explicit consent, we will not reduce or restrict the rights you are entitled to hereunder.

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy and/or data processing, you may contact us via the following methods:

Address: 35/F, China Resources Building, 26 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Email Address: privacy@hongkong.messefrankfurt.com