Data Privacy Statement

As at: 2nd July 2024

In the following Data Privacy Statement, CLAAS KGaA mbH ("CLAAS") provides information about how your personal data is processed on this website.
 

A. General Data Privacy Statement

I. Name and contact details of the controller  
 

The controller is: 

CLAAS KGaA mbH
Mühlenwinkel 1
33428 Harsewinkel 
Germany
infoclaas@claas.com
 

Name and contact details of the controller's UK representative  
 

The controller's UK representative is:

Trevor Tyrrell
c/o CLAAS UK Ltd.
Saxham, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 6QZ, 
United Kingdom

II. Contact details of the Data Protection Officer 
 

The Group Data Protection Officer can be contacted as follows:

CLAAS KGaA mbH
Data Protection Officer
Mühlenwinkel 1 
33428 Harsewinkel
Germany
group.dpo@claas.com
 

III. Storage period

CLAAS stores your personal data only for as long as necessary in order to fulfil the purpose for which it is collected and processed. Where necessary, CLAAS shall store your data for the duration of the business relationship. This includes, but is not limited to, the initiation and execution of the contract.

Furthermore, CLAAS stores your personal data if and as long as this is required to fulfil contractual or legal obligations. We thus process your data to fulfil commercial or fiscal verification and retention obligations. The stipulated retention and documentation periods are six years in accordance with the commercial requirements under Section 257 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) and up to ten years under the fiscal requirements pursuant to Section 147 of the Fiscal Code of Germany (AO), provided the data is no longer required for tax purposes (e.g. because a company audit is ongoing). The periods start at the end of the calendar year in which the record was created.

If the data is no longer required to fulfil contractual or legal obligations, it will be regularly erased, unless you have given CLAAS consent to process your data and/or further processing is required based on CLAAS' legitimate interests, for example to win back customers and defend against legal claims in legal disputes. In the case of data processed to defend against legal claims in legal disputes, the storage period shall also be based on the legal limitation periods. In accordance with Sections 195 et seq. of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB), these are up to 30 years, with the regular limitation period lasting three years, starting at the end of the calendar year in which the claim arises. In this case, processing shall be limited, i.e. limited to the minimum scope required for the claim and blocked for other purposes.

The provision above does not apply insofar as the Separate Data Privacy Statement specifies otherwise.

IV. Categories of recipients

• Carefully selected service providers. Service providers we engage, who support us in the performance of the business relationship, are granted access to the data. These companies operate in the following categories: Hosting providers, data management, software as a service, e-mail services, IT services (e.g. maintenance and support, data migration), consulting, service providers in the first, second and third level support, call centre services, customer administration, lettershops, marketing, media technology, telecommunications, customer relations management and lead management, tracking service providers, web agencies, compliance, disposal services (e.g. document shredders), companies who perform analyses for us, financial service providers, shipping and logistics services, printing services, technology service providers (e.g. for hardware and accessory parts). If any additional categories of service providers are employed, please refer to the relevant Separate Data Privacy Statement.

• Transfer to third parties. We shall also transfer your data to third parties if this is permitted by legal or contractual provisions and/or you have given your consent. On this condition, the Data can be transferred to the following categories of recipients: Public bodies and institutions (such as the public prosecutor's office, police, tax authority, data protection supervisory authority) to process official requests, provided that this is in your interest or we are legally obligated to do so. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1f) or 6(1c) GDPR.

• Data transfer within the CLAAS Group. We shall transfer your data to other companies within the CLAAS Group or grant them access to your data. Insofar as this is required for administrative purposes, this shall be based on our legitimate interest in internal administrative purposes and group reporting. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1f) GDPR. If this is required to prepare for an agreement initiated by you or to fulfil contract-related obligations, or if you have given your consent, the legal basis is Article 6(1b) or 6(1a) GDPR. If we are legally entitled to do this, the legal basis arises from Article 6(1c) GDPR. We refer to the Separate Data Privacy Statement for any data transfer to third parties beyond the scope described here.

• Third parties with whom we have an ongoing business relationship. If this is required to prepare for a contract or to fulfil contract-related obligations, or if you have given your consent, the legal basis is Article 6(1b) or 6(1a) GDPR. If we are legally required to do this, the legal basis arises from Article 6(1c) GDPR.

V. Transfer to third countries

If we transfer your personal data ourselves or via service providers to countries based outside the European Union, we shall comply with the relevant particular requirements of Article 44 et seq. GDPR and our service providers shall also undertake to comply with these regulations. We shall therefore only transfer your data to countries based outside the European Union subject to the level of security guaranteed by the GDPR. This level of security is guaranteed in particular on the basis of an adequacy decision by the European Commission or with suitable guarantees in accordance with Article 46 GDPR.

Data will be transferred to third countries (countries outside the EU or the European Economic Area – EEA) if, for example, this is

• necessary to fulfil a contract to which you are a party or in response to your enquiries.
• necessary to safeguard our legitimate interests,
• prescribed by law, or if you have given us your consent.
• carried out during processing where service providers are involved.

If there is no European Commission decision for the country in question as to a level of data protection that is appropriate for European data protection requirements, we shall enter into corresponding contracts to ensure that your rights and freedoms are suitably protected. A contract of this kind ensures that a suitable level of data protection exists at the data recipient, especially through the agreement of the European Union's standard contractual clauses with the recipient. Otherwise, we can also perform a data transfer based on your express consent. You can withdraw your consent with future effect at any time, see Section A.VI. We will be happy to provide you with more detailed information free of charge on request. Please use the aforementioned contact details for this purpose.

Where we permit the recipient to process data without a suitable level of data protection based on your consent alone, please note the following risks: There may not be sufficient measures in place to protect your personal data appropriately; there is no data protection supervisory authority; the implementation of your data protection rights of the data subject is impeded or has been disregarded; there is no control over the further processing of data by and transmission of data to third parties.

Any further information required can be found in our Separate Data Privacy Statement. 

VI. Obligation to provide personal data 

Unless specified otherwise in the Separate Data Privacy Statement, you are not legally or contractually required to provide your data.

VII. Rights of the data subject

In accordance with Article 15 GDPR, you have the right to obtain information about the data that we hold that relates to you. If incorrect personal data has been processed, you have the right to rectification of your data in accordance with Article 16 GDPR. If the legal requirements apply, you can request erasure or restriction of processing and submit an objection to data processing (Articles 17, 18 and 21 GDPR). In accordance with Article 20 GDPR, you can exercise the right for data portability for data that is automatically processed on the basis of your consent or under a contract.

Your objection can be submitted in any form and should be addressed to the following where possible: 

privacy@claas.com

You can exercise your rights vis-à-vis CLAAS using the contact details provided under Section A.II.

If you believe that data is being processed in violation of data protection regulations, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority of your choice. (Article 77 GDPR). 

You can of course also submit a complaint to the CLAAS data protection officer at any time (privacy@claas.com). 

If you wish to exercise your data protection rights of the data subject, we will process your data in order to fulfil our legal obligations in accordance with Article 6(1c) GDPR in conjunction with Articles 15–22, 12(3–6) GDPR and Article 7(3) GDPR. This includes the processing of your data for the purpose of unequivocal identification of the data subject of a data processing activity, and the request for additional information to confirm identity. We do this on the basis of our legal obligation laid out in Article 12(6) GDPR. This includes the transfer of data to the data recipients within the meaning of Article 19 GDPR, as far as requests for the rectification of data, erasure or restriction of processing (Articles 16, 17(1), 18 GDPR) are concerned, and any related communications to these recipients (Article 19 GDPR) or to you as the data subject (Article 12 GDPR).

B. Separate Data Privacy Statement: Provision of our website for the general public

I. Provision of our website for the general public

If you only use the website for information purposes, i.e. if you do not register or communicate information to CLAAS in any other way (e.g. using our contact form), CLAAS shall only collect the personal data transmitted by your browser to our server. Data collection is a technical requirement in order for us to show you our website. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1b) GDPR. Your visit to the website is recorded in the log files; this is necessary to guarantee the functionality of the website and the security of the IT systems. The legal basis for this data processing is Article 6(1f) GDPR. You are able to object to the processing of data on the basis of a legitimate interest at any time with future effect, see Section A.VII. For the aforementioned purposes, we also have a legitimate interest in data processing.

The following categories of data shall be collected when you visit the website: Usage and traffic data, technical documentation and logged data, e.g.

• date and time of access
• time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
• IP address
• host name of the accessing computer
• website used to call up website
• websites called up via the website (content of the request)
• pages visited on the website
• report on whether access was successful
• volume of data transferred 
• information about the browser type, language and version used
• operating system

This data shall be erased as soon as it is no longer required to achieve the purpose of its collection. As regards provision of the website, this is the case once the respective session has ended. If the data is stored in log files, this is the case after a maximum of 30 days. The data is not stored together with any of your other personal data.

In order to display external contents on our website (e.g. integrating an IFRAME to display the CLAAS Collection catalogue), we shall transfer your personal data specified above to third parties (e.g. companies within the CLAAS Group). The legal basis for this is Article 6(1f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in making our website more interesting and user-friendly for you. You are able to object to the processing of data on the basis of a legitimate interest at any time with future effect, see Section A.VII.

II. Use of services (e.g. cookies, analytical and remarketing tools)

CLAAS uses services (e.g. cookies, analysis tools and remarketing tools) on this website. CLAAS uses these services to store information on your device (e.g. in your browser) and/or access information that is already stored on your device. This information may include personal data as well as data that is not related to a specific person. Where applicable, after the information has been stored or accessed, personal data may be processed further in accordance with your category selection. 

CLAAS uses the following services in the following categories: 

If the use of the service (i.e. storing information on your device and/or accessing information stored on your device) is required for a technical reason, the legal basis for this is Section 25(2) of the TTDSG in conjunction with Article 6(1b,c,f) GDPR. This information may include personal data as well as data that is not related to a specific person. If, after storing or accessing the information, personal data relating to you is processed, this processing is performed only if required

• is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party (Art. 6(1) 1 b GDPR) or
• is prescribed by law (Article 6(1c) GDPR) or 
• is necessary to safeguard our legitimate interests (Article 6(1f) GDPR). 

You can object to data processing based on legitimate interests at any time with effect for the future, cf. Part A. VII. You can delete cookies by means of your browser settings.

The legal basis for the use of the services (i.e. storing information on your device and/or accessing information stored on your device) in the Statistical Analysis, Marketing, and Additional Functions categories is Section 25(1) sentence 1 of the German Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDSG) in conjunction with Article 6(1a) GDPR, subject to your consent. This information may include personal data as well as data that is not related to a specific person. If, after storing or accessing the information, personal data relating to you is processed in accordance with your category selection, we process this on the basis of Article 6(1a) GDPR, subject to your consent. You have the right to withdraw your consent, see Section A.VII. Withdrawing your consent does not affect the legality of storing information on your device and/or accessing information on your end device or the further processing of personal data in accordance with your choice of category that has been performed with your consent. Your consent is voluntary.

Using the "Change data protection settings" option, you can revoke your consent or make changes to your data protection settings:

Your consent is valid for six months. After this time, we shall ask you to reconfirm your consent. We shall also ask you to reconfirm your consent by displaying the cookie banner if new services are added to this website or if services change such that renewed consent is required in order to be able to continue to implement the services (e.g. changes of purpose).

Please note that your individual browser settings can potentially prevent your settings (e.g. your consent) from being saved long-term and we shall ask you to reconfirm your consent each time you visit our website.

C. Separate Data Privacy Statement: Handling (general) enquiries and complaints and relevant communication (e.g. request for information, ordering or support, callback requests)

This is based on our legitimate interest, in accordance with Article 6(1f) GDPR, in the handling of the concerns you have raised with us and for the processing and pursuing of complaints as well as for communicating with customers and interested parties. You have the right to object to the data processing at any time, see Section A.VII. If the data processing serves to initiate a contractual relationship, this processing is based on Article 6(1b) GDPR.

The data needed in order to respond to your message is marked as mandatory with an asterisk (*). You can also provide us with additional data voluntarily. Mandatory data covers personal identification data (e.g. title, first name, last name), contact details (e.g. telephone number, e-mail address), company data (e.g. company name, address) and message contents (if you provide us with additional information about your concern).

We also process usage and traffic data (e.g. IP address, date and time of your enquiry). The legal basis for this data processing is Article 6(1f) GDPR, based on our legitimate interest in ensuring the functionality of this website and the security of the IT systems.

In addition to processing enquiries and complaints, we shall also use the data for the purposes of advertising and marketing measures. See Section D of this Data Privacy Statement.

If necessary, we shall also share your data with third parties, e.g. a CLAAS partner (e.g. who is responsible for your region or your chosen importer) or CLAAS Group companies, as required to pursue and act on your concern.

CLAAS saves your data in order to best advise you. Your personal data shall be saved for the purposes of responding to your enquiry, and then erased, unless we are legally or contractually obliged to save the data for longer or we are permitted to do so on the basis of your consent. For more detailed information, see Section A.III. of this Data Privacy Statement. On the basis of your consent and/or another legally recognised form of permission, including but not limited to our legitimate interest in accordance with Article 6(1f) GDPR, your data can continue to be stored, e.g. for the purpose of customer loyalty or retention and in relation to the defence of legal claims. In the case of your data being processed to defend against legal claims in legal disputes, the storage period shall also be based on the legal limitation periods (e.g. in accordance with civil law and the German Product Liability Act). As regards storage of your data, our technical infrastructure is designed along the basic principles of necessity and purpose limitation. As such, the affiliates and trading partners are granted access to such data as is required for the performance of their tasks. For more detailed information, see Section A.IV.

D. Marketing communication (including customer satisfaction surveys, market research, opinion research)

I. Marketing communication

CLAAS Vertriebsgesellschaft[1], CLAAS KGaA mbH, CLAAS Global Sales GmbH, CLAAS Service and Parts GmbH, CLAAS E-Systems GmbH, CLAAS Financial Services S.A.S, 365FarmNet GmbH, and CLAAS Partner[2] (hereinafter jointly referred to in this section as "the Parties", cf. also item II. of this section) shall use your Data for the purposes of marketing communication.

Marketing communication incorporates the CLAAS brands as well as products from third-party providers, which are marketed by companies in the CLAAS Group or by the CLAAS Partner, if it concerns products that complement CLAAS branded products or support them in their function (e.g. soil cultivation machines, fertilisation, fertilisation technology, seeding technology, crop spraying, farm management software). Contact is made via the channels stated in the declaration of consent (e.g. mail, e-mail including newsletter, telephone/messenger services, push notifications, e.g. on websites, apps).

The legal basis for this data processing is your consent, Article 6(1a) GDPR. You can withdraw your consent with future effect at any time, see Section A.VII. For marketing communication by post, the legal basis is Article 6(1f) GDPR.

For this purpose, the Parties jointly process the following data:

• Personal identification data (e.g. surname, first name, address, CLAAS ID, job title and role, date of birth)
• Contact details (e.g. telephone number, e-mail address)
• Farm data (farm name, address, farm specialism, farm size, fleet information, customer number, operating history (such as date of purchase/first operation of your machine), turnover data, information on activities undertaken (e.g. customer visits, product demonstrations) 
• Information and analyses regarding interest and user behaviour (e.g. product interest, customer interest, preferred or chosen channels of communication, investment/purchase interest, information about purchased/rented products and services utilised (e.g. test drives, machine demonstrations, events, platforms such as CLAAS connect, applications, financing), customer history, turnover data, information on opens, clicks and bounces for newsletters, apps, websites and social media channels, information that can regularly be collected from people by means of customer demand/potential analyses, for instance, including when you might potentially need a new machine, spare part or service, campaign history and impact on direct marketing measures, feedback from customer satisfaction surveys)

• Machine data (machine master data, machine performance data and machine operating data, such as machine number and associated attributes including manufacturer, product category, product group, product classification, model, machine type, version, configuration, hectares covered, number of bales produced, number of loads achieved, operating hours)

   

This is Data which the Parties collect in conjunction with your marketing consent or for the purpose of direct marketing or Data that you provide to one of the Parties within your business relationship or which arises from the use of the aforementioned Parties' products or services. The Parties collate this Data to create a user profile for you and assign your profile to you in our database (CRM). The Parties use the Data that is collected and the information that is obtained this way to determine which information and offers are most likely to be of interest for you, in order to send you advertising material. The objective is to tailor our advertising to your interests and to optimise our offers for you. 

On a case-by-case basis and only after careful consideration, the Parties shall contact you for marketing purposes for both the CLAAS brand (e.g. to offer additional services, advertisements for products and services, invitations to events such as product launches, market research, opinion research, customer satisfaction surveys) and for products from third-party providers marketed by CLAAS Group companies or by the CLAAS Partner, if these are products that complement CLAAS branded products or support them in their function (e.g. soil cultivation machines, fertilisation, fertilisation technology, seeding technology, crop spraying, farm management software), even in the absence of a declaration of consent to marketing. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1f) GDPR. A prerequisite for direct marketing based on the legitimate interests is that the applicable legal requirements for this are met, you have not objected to your Data being processed for advertising purposes and you are aware of your right to object in accordance with Article 21 GDPR (see also Section A.VII. of this Data Privacy Statement)

The legal basis for saving technical and specialist documentation and log data for the purpose of documenting your consent is Articles 6(1c) and 6(1f) GDPR. Marketing is generally communicated by service providers who act as data processors (e.g. marketing agencies, lettershops, IT companies, CRM, messenger service providers). This includes service providers based in a third country, such as the USA or the UK, see Section A.V. (transfer to third countries).

II. Joint controllers

CLAAS Vertriebsgesellschaft, CLAAS KGaA mbH, CLAAS Global Sales GmbH, CLAAS Service and Parts GmbH and the CLAAS Partner process the data of customers, interested parties and potential customers upon receipt of marketing consent and upon collection and use of data for the purpose of direct marketing.

1. Name and contact details of the joint controllers

The joint controllers are:

2. Which process steps have joint controllers?

The companies of the CLAAS Group and the CLAAS Authorised Dealers as named in Item 1 (jointly referred to in this section as "the Parties") collaborate closely in the sale and marketing of products and services from the CLAAS Group. Consequently, they are jointly responsible for protecting your personal data (Article 26 GDPR) in the following processes:

The following process steps have joint controllers (in relation to the CRM database):

1. Collecting and using the data for the purpose of direct marketing (if two or more companies are named as the sender of the marketing communication)
2. Collection of marketing consent
3. Documentation of the declaration of consent

3. What have the Parties agreed?

Within the framework of their responsibility as joint controllers under data protection law, the Parties have agreed their respective responsibilities for compliance with the obligations under the GDPR. This applies, in particular, to the protection of your rights and compliance with the information obligations according to Articles 13, 14 and 26 of the GDPR.

E. Links to websites of third parties

This website contains links to websites of third parties (e.g. companies belonging to the CLAAS Group). If you access the relevant link, the website of the third party will open in a new window. This Data Privacy Statement does not extend to data processing on the website of the third party.

^[1] Responsible CLAAS sales partner (e.g. according to country domain: claas.com/de-de: CLAAS Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH, Benzstraße 5, 33442 Herzebrock-Clarholz, Germany; claas.com/de-at: CLAAS Regional Center, Central Europe GmbH, Industriestraße 18, 2104 Spillern, Austria; claas.com/es-es: CLAAS Ibérica S.A.U. C/ Zeus 5 28880 Meco (Madrid), Spain; claas.com/fr-fr: CLAAS France S.A.S.Chemin des Grands Prés du Gué 28320 Ymeray, France; claas.com/it-it: CLAAS Italia S.p.a. Via Torino, 9/11 – 13100 Vercelli – Italy; claas.com/pl-pl: CLAAS Polska Sp. Z o.o. ul. Świerkowa 7 Niepruszewo 64-320 Buk, Poland; claas.com/ro-ro: CLAAS Regional Center South East Europe S.R.L. Șos. București-Urziceni, nr. 68 C 077010 Afumați, România)

^[2] For country domains claas.com/de-de, claas.com/de-at; claas.com/es-es, claas.com/fr-fr, claas.com/it-it, claas.com/pl-pl; claas.com/ro-ro: the dealer selected by you under Sales Partner Search | CLAAS; for all other country domains, your responsible CLAAS Partner