AeroCertLink — Terms of Service

The Platform is operated by AeroCertLink, a société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle with share capital of 1,000 euros, registered with the Lyon Trade and Companies Register under number 130 794 274, with its registered office at 33 Chemin du Clos Burtin, 69230 Saint-Genis-Laval, France (“AeroCertLink”, “we”, “us”).

Platform: the AeroCertLink website, application and related services.

User: any Organisation or Expert holding an account.

Organisation: a company or entity that uses the Platform to publish Positions and engage Experts, together with the individuals it authorises to act on its behalf.

Expert: an individual offering services in the field of aviation certification, including the holder of an authorisation, delegation, approval, licence or privilege issued by or under an aviation authority (a “Designation”).

Position: an assignment published by an Organisation: certification, compliance review, audit, staffing, regulatory advice, training or another mission.

Engagement: a working relationship agreed between an Organisation and an Expert for a Position.

Content: any information, text, document or file submitted to the Platform by a User.

3.1 The Platform is a business-to-business service. It is not offered to consumers. You may use it only for the purposes of your trade, business, craft or profession, and only if you are at least 18 years old and have legal capacity to contract.

3.2 If you register on behalf of an Organisation, you represent that you are authorised to bind it. The Organisation is responsible for the acts of every individual it authorises on the Platform.

3.3 Sanctions. You represent that neither you nor, where applicable, the Organisation you represent, nor any person who owns or controls it, (a) is the subject of sanctions administered by the European Union, the United Nations, France, the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom, or (b) is located, organised or ordinarily resident in a country or territory subject to comprehensive sanctions. You shall not use the Platform to provide or obtain services, including technical assistance relating to aircraft, in breach of such sanctions. You shall inform us without delay if this representation ceases to be true.

4.1 Creating an account

You must provide accurate, complete and current information, keep your credentials confidential, and tell us without delay of any unauthorised use of your account. You are responsible for all activity carried out through your account.

4.2 Opening of accounts

We may review a registration before opening the account, in order to protect the Platform against abuse, fraud and use outside its professional purpose. We may refuse to open an account; we will tell you why on a durable medium. This review is an access control. It is not a verification of any Designation, qualification or statement.

4.3 We do not verify Designations

AeroCertLink does not verify, certify, endorse or guarantee any Designation, qualification, experience or statement published on the Platform. Each Expert declares their own Designations. The Platform displays them as declared, with the statement: “Designations are declared by each expert. AeroCertLink does not verify them.”

In particular, we do not represent that a Designation exists, is valid, is in force or has the scope declared; that an Expert has the competence required for a Position; or that an aviation authority recognises or has any connection with the Platform.

Each Organisation remains solely responsible for verifying, directly with the competent aviation authority or the holder of the relevant approval, and before entrusting any work, that an Expert holds a valid Designation of the required scope.

4.4 Accuracy of what you declare

You are solely responsible for the accuracy of everything you declare, including Designation references, scopes, dates of validity and professional experience, and for keeping it up to date. Declaring a Designation you do not hold, or misstating its scope or validity, is a serious breach of these Terms and may also constitute an offence under applicable law.

5.1 AeroCertLink provides an online intermediation service. We enable Organisations and Experts to find each other and give them tools to organise their exchanges.

5.2 We are not a party to any contract concluded between Users. We are not an employer, a staffing or placement agency, an agent, a broker, a design organisation or a certification body. We do not perform, supervise, review, approve or endorse certification work.

5.3 Accordingly, we are not responsible for the conclusion, terms, performance, quality, timeliness or outcome of any Engagement; any payment between Users; the employment, tax or social security status of any Expert; any decision of an aviation authority; or any Content exchanged between Users. Disputes between Users are resolved between them. We may, at our discretion and without obligation, provide records from the Platform to assist.

5.4 Regulatory Information. The Platform may display information published by aviation authorities, such as airworthiness directives and type certificate data sheets, collected automatically from public sources ("Regulatory Information"). Regulatory Information is provided for convenience only. It may be incomplete, out of date or contain errors, and it is not an official publication. It does not replace the official sources of the competent authority, which alone are authoritative. Before relying on it for any airworthiness, design, maintenance or certification decision, you must check it against the official source. We do not warrant its accuracy, completeness or timeliness.

5.5 Generated documents. Documents that the Platform generates from what Users enter, such as checklists, compliance tables or project records, are working documents. We do not review them, and they do not constitute a finding of compliance. The qualified person or organisation that uses them remains solely responsible for their content.

6.1 Positions. An Organisation describes a Position: authority, required Designation, scope, dates and conditions. An Expert may apply, or an Organisation may invite an Expert.

6.2 Identity of the Organisation. Unless the Organisation chooses to display its name on a Position, the name of the Organisation is not shown to Experts for that Position until an Engagement is agreed on it.

6.3 Accepted version. When an application or invitation is accepted, the Platform records the version of the Position accepted by both parties. That version is not modified afterwards and remains available to both parties, including if the Position is later edited or withdrawn.

6.4 No rating. The Platform does not rate, score or review Users. It displays only, for each requirement of a Position, whether an Expert's declarations meet it. Every decision to invite, select, reject or engage is taken by a User.

The main parameters determining the order in which Experts and Positions are displayed, in decreasing order of importance, are:

• declared match between the Position’s requirements and the Expert’s declared Designations (authority, type of Designation, scope, validity on the relevant dates);
• availability, as declared for the relevant period;
• account status, including whether a declared Designation has passed its declared expiry date;
• recency of activity on the Platform.

Users can also sort and filter results using the criteria displayed on screen. We do not accept any payment in exchange for a better position in results.

8.1 We do not currently give any differentiated treatment to any User or category of Users, and we do not offer any product or service in competition with Users. If this changes, we will describe the treatment in these Terms before applying it.

8.2 We do not restrict your ability to offer your services, or to seek experts, through other channels or on different terms.

You must not:

• declare, upload or transmit false, misleading or fraudulent information, including forged or altered documents;
• impersonate any person, organisation or authority, or suggest an affiliation you do not have;
• use the Platform for purposes unrelated to professional aviation work, including unsolicited commercial communications;
• circumvent, disable or interfere with any security or access-control feature;
• scrape, harvest, index or extract data from the Platform by automated means, or reuse its content to build a database or a competing service;
• upload malicious code, or any Content that is unlawful, defamatory, discriminatory, or infringes the rights of others;
• use the Platform in breach of any export control, sanctions, aviation safety or data protection law.

10.1 Your Content

You retain all rights in your Content. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display and transmit it solely to the extent necessary to operate the Platform and provide the service to you and to the Users with whom you interact. This licence ends when the Content is deleted, subject to backups and to the records we keep under section 11 and our Privacy Policy.

We do not use your Content to train machine-learning models. We do not sell it.

10.2 Technical data

Unless you use a service expressly designed for that purpose and governed by Service-Specific Terms (section 16.5), the Platform is not designed or authorised for the storage or transmission of technical data subject to export controls, including technical data within the meaning of the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR, 22 CFR § 120.33), technology within the meaning of the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and equivalent categories under any other applicable regime.

The Platform is intended for descriptions of requirements, scopes, availability and Designations. It is not intended for drawings, stress or performance calculations, test reports, source code, manufacturing data or comparable design or production data.

Outside such a service, you must not upload or transmit such data through the Platform. Within such a service, the conditions set out in its Service-Specific Terms apply, in particular as to encryption, classification of files, access control and location of data. Data subject to the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) or classified information may never be uploaded, whatever the service.

In all cases, you are solely responsible for classifying your Content and for any export, re-export or deemed export arising from your use of the Platform. We may restrict file types and sizes, and refuse or remove Content, to give effect to this section.

10.3 Confidentiality between Users

Information disclosed by one User to another through the Platform in connection with a Position or an Engagement, including aircraft identification, technical scope, schedule and commercial terms, is confidential. The receiving User shall use it solely to evaluate or perform that Engagement, and shall not disclose it to third parties without the disclosing User’s written consent, for five (5) years from disclosure. This section does not replace any confidentiality agreement concluded between Users.

10.4 Administrator access

Our authorised administrators may access accounts, exchanges and attachments where strictly necessary to operate and secure the Platform, to process a notice or a complaint, to investigate a suspected breach of these Terms, or to comply with a legal obligation. Such access is limited to what is necessary. Every administrator action that changes data is logged.

11.1 The Platform keeps a record of each Engagement: the parties, the accepted version of the Position (section 6.3), the dates, and the actions taken on the Platform (application, invitation, acceptance, refusal, withdrawal, completion) (the “Engagement Record”).

11.2 The Engagement Record serves as evidence for both parties of what was agreed and by whom. It is kept for five (5) years after the end of the Engagement, including if one party closes its account, and is then deleted. After an account is closed, the Engagement Record is accessible to administrators only, and to the other party to the Engagement within the limits of section 12.

11.3 The Engagement Record contains no technical data. The Platform keeps files only where they form part of a completed certification or a signed compliance record; those files are kept with the Engagement Record for the period in section 11.2. Service-Specific Terms may provide otherwise for the service they govern. Each Organisation remains responsible for keeping its own certification records, for the periods required by the rules that apply to it.

Access to data works as follows:

• during your use of the Platform, you can access the data you have provided and the data generated by your own activity (your Positions, applications, invitations, messages and Engagement Records);
• you cannot access another User’s data, other than what the Platform is designed to show you, nor aggregated data on the activity of other Users;
• after your account is closed, you can request a copy of the data relating to you within thirty (30) days of closure; the other party to an Engagement keeps access to the shared Engagement Record for the period set out in section 11.2;
• we do not share data provided by Users with third parties, other than our processors listed in the Privacy Policy and where required by law;
• we may produce aggregated and anonymised statistics from the use of the Platform (for example, average durations by category of Position, or the number of Positions by authority), under the conditions of section 13.

13.1 You authorise us to compile, use and exploit statistics derived from the use of the Platform, provided they are aggregated and anonymised so that no User, Organisation, Position, aircraft or project can be identified, directly or indirectly, including by combination with other data. In particular, we do not publish or provide any statistic based on fewer than five (5) distinct Organisations or Experts.

13.2 We may use these statistics to operate, improve and develop the Platform, to publish studies about the sector, and to offer products or services based on them, including for a fee. You are not entitled to any remuneration for this use.

13.3 We never sell, license or disclose your Content, your technical data or your personal data under this section. This section does not apply to data stored within a service governed by Service-Specific Terms that excludes it.

14.1 Reporting. Anyone can report Content they consider unlawful, or contrary to these Terms, by writing to report@aerocertlink.com. A report should identify the Content and its location, explain why it is considered unlawful, and give the name and e-mail address of the reporting person, except for reports concerning certain offences where the law permits anonymity. We acknowledge receipt without delay.

14.2 Our decisions. We process reports diligently, objectively and without arbitrary decision. Where we remove or restrict access to Content, or suspend or terminate an account, we give the User concerned a statement of reasons on a durable medium, stating the facts relied upon, the ground (unlawfulness or breach of these Terms) and the means of redress available. Our moderation decisions are taken by a human being; we do not use automated tools to decide on Content.

14.3 Criminal offences. Where we become aware of information giving rise to a suspicion that a criminal offence involving a threat to the life or safety of persons has taken place, is taking place or is likely to take place, we inform the competent authorities.

14.4 Redress. You may contest any decision under this section by writing to contact@aerocertlink.com. You may also bring the matter before the competent courts.

The Platform, its software, design, databases, trade marks and content (other than User Content) belong to AeroCertLink or its licensors and are protected in particular by the French Intellectual Property Code. We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable right to use the Platform in accordance with these Terms, for the duration of your account. No other right is granted. Any extraction or reuse of a substantial part of our databases is prohibited.

Feedback you send us about the Platform may be used freely by us, without obligation or compensation.

16.1 Opening phase

The Platform is provided free of charge during its opening phase, expected to last approximately twelve (12) months from the opening of the Platform to the public. Free provision does not create any right to continued free provision and does not oblige us to maintain the Platform, any feature or any level of service.

16.2 Paid offers

After the opening phase, or earlier for new features, we may offer paid services. These may include in particular: subscriptions, fees per active certification project, and optional features or services. Some features may remain free, in particular for Experts.

The description, price and conditions of each paid offer will be set out in an order form and in commercial terms (payment, invoicing, duration, renewal and termination of subscriptions), published before any fee applies (section 16.3). In case of conflict, the order form prevails over the Commercial Terms, which prevail over these Terms for paid offers.

16.3 Introduction of fees

We will notify you on a durable medium at least thirty (30) days before any fee applies to a service you already use for free, together with the applicable terms. No fee will ever apply retroactively to a period before the notice. A fee applies to you only if you subscribe to the paid offer or continue to use the service concerned after the effective date. You may close your account, or stop using the service concerned, at any time before that date, without charge.

16.4 Payment

Prices are stated exclusive of taxes. Value added tax and any other applicable tax are added at the rate in force. Invoices are payable within the period stated on them, or failing that within thirty (30) days of their date. In accordance with Article L. 441-10 of the French Commercial Code, any late payment gives rise, automatically and without prior notice, to late payment interest at three (3) times the French legal interest rate, and to a fixed indemnity for recovery costs of forty (40) euros. We may suspend a paid service in case of non-payment after a reminder that has remained unanswered for fifteen (15) days.

16.5 Service-Specific Terms

Certain services may be governed by specific terms (the “Service-Specific Terms”), accepted separately, for example a service for the encrypted storage of technical data, or access to an API. The Service-Specific Terms complement these Terms and prevail over them for the service concerned.

We aim to keep the Platform available but do not commit to any service level. The Platform is provided as is and as available. We may suspend access for maintenance, security or technical reasons, and will give notice where reasonably practicable. We may modify, add or withdraw features; where a change materially reduces the service, we will give notice in accordance with section 24.

18.1 Your right to leave

You may close your account at any time, from your settings or by writing to contact@aerocertlink.com. Closure takes effect as described in our Privacy Policy, subject to section 11.

18.2 Grounds for restriction, suspension or termination

We may restrict, suspend or terminate your access where:

• you breach these Terms, in particular sections 4.4, 9 or 10.2;
• the representation in section 3.3 is or becomes inaccurate, or we reasonably believe that maintaining your access would breach applicable sanctions;
• information you have declared is false, misleading, forged or materially inaccurate;
• a Designation on which your account relies has expired, been suspended, revoked or withdrawn, or never existed, and you have not updated your declaration after we asked you to;
• your use presents a security risk to the Platform or to other Users;
• we are required to do so by law, a court or a competent authority;
• you have not logged in to your account for thirty-six (36) consecutive months, after a reminder sent to you at least thirty (30) days in advance;
• we cease to operate the Platform in whole or in part.

18.3 Procedure

Before, or at the latest when, a restriction or suspension takes effect, we give you a statement of reasons on a durable medium, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so or you have repeatedly breached these Terms.

For a termination, we give you thirty (30) days’ notice on a durable medium, with a statement of reasons, except where we are under a legal obligation to terminate sooner, where we exercise a right of termination for an imperative reason under national law, or where you have repeatedly breached these Terms.

You may respond to a statement of reasons by writing to contact@aerocertlink.com. We will review your response and confirm, vary or lift the measure. If we lift a suspension, we restore your account without delay.

We handle complaints sent to contact@aerocertlink.com free of charge and aim to respond within fifteen (15) business days.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, and without prejudice to section 21.3, the Platform is provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including as to accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose or uninterrupted operation. We do not warrant that use of the Platform will result in any Engagement, any certification outcome, or acceptance by any aviation authority.

21.1 Excluded losses. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect loss, including loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, opportunity, goodwill or data.

21.2 Matters outside our control. We are not liable for the acts or omissions of any User; the performance or non-performance of any Engagement; any decision of an aviation authority; the accuracy of any Designation or statement declared by a User; the consequences of an Organisation’s failure to carry out the verification described in section 4.3; or any reliance on Regulatory Information without checking the official source (section 5.4).

21.3 Cap. To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of or in connection with these Terms, for all events occurring in any period of twelve (12) consecutive months, is limited to the greater of (i) the amounts you paid us for the Platform during those twelve months and (ii) five thousand euros (EUR 5,000).

21.4 What is never excluded. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability for fraud, wilful misconduct (faute dolosive), gross negligence (faute lourde), death or personal injury, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

21.5 Time limit. Any claim arising out of these Terms must be brought within one (1) year of the date on which the claimant knew or ought to have known of the facts giving rise to it, in accordance with Article 2254 of the French Civil Code.

22.1 You shall indemnify us against any claim brought by a third party against us, and the resulting losses, damages, penalties and reasonable legal fees, to the extent it arises from: (a) your breach of section 3.3, 4.4, 9 or 10.2; (b) your Content; or (c) any inaccuracy in what you declare, including as to a Designation.

22.2 We shall indemnify you against any claim brought by a third party alleging that the Platform, as provided by us and used in accordance with these Terms, infringes that third party's intellectual property rights, subject to section 21.3.

22.3 The party seeking indemnity shall notify the other party promptly of the claim, let it control the defence and settlement, and provide reasonable cooperation.

Our processing of personal data as controller is described in our Privacy Policy. Where an Organisation submits to the Platform personal data of its own staff or contacts that we process on its behalf, our Data Processing Agreement applies and forms part of these Terms.

24.1 We may amend these Terms. We will notify you of any amendment on a durable medium at least thirty (30) days before it takes effect, or longer where a longer period is reasonably necessary for you to make technical or commercial adaptations. This period is never shorter than fifteen (15) days.

24.2 You may terminate your account before the amendment takes effect, with effect within fifteen (15) days of receiving the notice. Continuing to use the Platform after the effective date constitutes acceptance. You may also waive the notice period by a clear affirmative action, except for the introduction of fees.

24.3 The notice period does not apply where an amendment is required to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or to address an unforeseen and imminent risk to the Platform, its Users or their data.

We send notices to the e-mail address associated with your account, or display them in the Platform. You must keep that address current. Notices to us are sent to contact@aerocertlink.com and, for formal notices, by registered letter to our registered office.

26.1 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign them to an entity taking over all or part of our business, on notice to you.

26.2 Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, the remainder stays in force, and the provision is replaced by a valid provision reflecting its intent as closely as possible.

26.3 No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

26.4 Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Data Processing Agreement and, where applicable, any Service-Specific Terms, commercial terms and order form constitute the entire agreement between you and us in respect of the Platform.

26.5 Force majeure. Neither party is liable for a failure to perform caused by force majeure within the meaning of Article 1218 of the French Civil Code.

26.6 Language. These Terms are available in English and French. Users residing in Québec receive the French version first. In case of discrepancy, the French version prevails for users residing in France or Québec; otherwise, the English version prevails.

27.1 These Terms and any dispute relating to them are governed by French law, excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

27.2 Before bringing any claim, the parties shall seek an amicable solution for thirty (30) days from written notice of the dispute.

27.3 Failing an amicable solution, any dispute is submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction, to the extent permitted by applicable law, of the Tribunal des activités économiques de Lyon (or, where that court is not competent, the other competent courts of Lyon), including in case of multiple defendants or third-party claims, and without prejudice to interim or protective measures, which may be sought before any competent court.