Legal Center

Welcome to choco.com and online and/or mobile service of Atlantic Food Waste Partners, LLC dba Choco, along with its affiliates (collectively, "Choco," "we," "our" or "us"). This page explains the terms by which you may use our online and/or mobile services, web site, and software provided on or in connection with the service (collectively, the "Service"). By accessing or using the Service, or by clicking a button or checking a box marked "I Agree" (or something similar), you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (this "Agreement") and have read and understood our Privacy Notice, whether or not you are a registered user of our Service. Choco reserves the right to modify these terms and will provide notice of these changes as described below. This Agreement applies to all visitors, users, and others who access the Service ("Users"), unless your organisation entered into an order form or executed another agreement with Choco for use of the paid Services.

Please read this Agreement carefully to ensure that you understand each provision. This agreement contains a mandatory individual arbitration and class action/jury trial waiver provision that requires the use of arbitration on an individual basis to resolve disputes, rather than jury trials or class actions.

1. Our Service

Choco offers a service that enables (i) food service industry professionals (hereinafter the "Restaurant Owners") to communicate and transfer their orders to their food service vendors (hereinafter the "Vendors"), and (ii) Vendors to receive orders from such Restaurant Owners, including via a software application.

1.1 Eligibility

This is a contract between you and Choco. You must read and agree to these terms before using the Choco Service. If you do not agree, you may not use the Service. You may use the Service only if you can form a binding contract with Choco, and only in compliance with this Agreement and all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations. Any use or access to the Service by anyone under 13 is strictly prohibited and in violation of this Agreement. The Service is not available to any Users previously removed from the Service by Choco. In order to use the Service, you must be at least 18 years of age and able to form legally binding contracts under the relevant laws of the jurisdiction where you reside.

1.2 Limited License

Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you are hereby granted a non-exclusive, limited, non-transferable, freely revocable license to use the Service as permitted by the features of the Service. Choco reserves all rights not expressly granted herein in the Service and the Choco Content (as defined below). Choco may terminate this license at any time for any reason or no reason.

1.3 User Accounts

Your account on the Service (your "User Account") gives you access to the Service and functionality that we may establish and maintain from time to time and at our sole discretion. We may maintain different types of User Accounts for different types of Users, such as Restaurant Owners and Vendors. If you open a User Account on behalf of a company, organization, or other entity, then (i) "you" includes you and that entity, and (ii) you represent and warrant that you are an authorized representative of the entity with the authority to bind the entity to this Agreement, and that you agree to this Agreement on the entity's behalf.

You may never use another User's User Account without permission. When creating your User Account, you must provide accurate and complete information, and you must keep this information up to date. You are solely responsible for the activity that occurs on your User Account, and you must keep your User Account password secure. You must notify Choco immediately of any breach of security or unauthorized use of your User Account. Choco will not be liable for any losses caused by any unauthorized use of your User Account.

You may control your User profile and how you interact with the Service by changing the settings in your profile or settings page. By providing Choco your email address and/or phone number you consent to our using the email address and/or phone number to send you Service-related notices, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail. We may also send you other messages, such as messages regarding changes to features of the Service and special offers. If you do not want to receive such messages, you may be able to opt out or change your preferences in your profile or settings page or by otherwise contacting Choco. Opting out may prevent you from receiving messages regarding updates, improvements, or offers.

1.4 Service Rules

You agree not to engage in any of the following prohibited activities: (i) copying, distributing, or disclosing any part of the Service in any medium, including without limitation by any automated or non-automated "scraping"; (ii) using any automated system, including without limitation "robots," "spiders," "offline readers," etc., to access the Service in a manner that sends more request messages to the Choco servers than a human can reasonably produce in the same period of time by using a conventional on-line web browser (except that Choco grants the operators of public search engines revocable permission to use spiders to copy publicly available materials from the Service for the sole purpose of and solely to the extent necessary for creating publicly available searchable indices of the materials, but not caches or archives of such materials); (iii) transmitting spam, chain letters, or other unsolicited email; (iv) attempting to interfere with, compromise the system integrity or security or decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running the Service; (v) taking any action that imposes, or may impose at our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure; (vi) uploading invalid data, viruses, worms, or other software agents through the Service; (vii) collecting or harvesting any personally identifiable information, including account names, from the Service; (viii) using the Service for any commercial solicitation purposes; (ix) impersonating another person or otherwise misrepresenting your affiliation with a person or entity, conducting fraud, hiding or attempting to hide your identity; (x) interfering with the proper working of the Service; (xi) accessing any content on the Service through any technology or means other than those provided or authorized by the Service; or (xii) bypassing the measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Service, including without limitation features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any content or enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content therein.

1.5 Changes to the Service

We may, without prior notice, change the Service; stop providing the Service or features of the Service, to you or to Users generally; or create usage limits for the Service. We may permanently or temporarily terminate or suspend your access to the Service without notice and liability for any reason, including if in our sole determination you violate any provision of this Agreement, or for no reason. Upon termination of the Service for any reason or no reason, you continue to be bound by this Agreement with regard to any aspects of the Service already performed as of the termination date.

1.6 Disputes with Other Users

You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Users, including but not limited to Restaurant Owners and Vendors. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor disputes between you and other Users. Choco shall have no liability for your interactions with other Users, or for any User's action or inaction.

1.7 Service Location

The Service is intended for use by Users in the United States. Choco makes no representations in this Agreement that the Service is appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who access or use the Service from other jurisdictions may be subject to separate terms of service applicable to users in those jurisdictions. Users who access the Service from a jurisdiction in which Choco does not have an applicable set of terms of service do so in violation of this Agreement and do so at their own volition and are entirely responsible for compliance with all applicable United States and local laws and regulations, including but not limited to export and import regulations. You must not use the Service if you are a resident of a country embargoed by the United States, or are a foreign person or entity blocked or denied by the United States government. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, all materials found on the Service are solely directed to individuals, companies, or other entities located in the United States.

1.8 AI-Powered Services

Services may encompass functionalities that are powered by artificial intelligence (the “AI”). Restaurant will retain ownership over the input it provides and the output generated by AI based on the input. Choco does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the output generated by AI and, to the extent permitted by law, disclaims all warranties and liability for such output. To the extent such full exclusion of liability is not enforceable, Choco’s (including its legal representatives’, employees’, agents’ and subcontractors’) aggregate liability shall be limited to USD 1000 (one thousand dollars). Output generated by AI may not be unique to Restaurant and it does not represent Choco’s views. Restaurant undertakes to comply with the fair use policies of Choco’s third party service providers when using AI-powered functionalities. In the event of a conflict between this section and the rest of the Agreement, this section shall take precedence.

1.9 Third Party Services

Choco may make some ancillary services or add-ons that are offered by third parties (“Third Party Services”) available on the Service, subject to the specific terms and conditions of the third party service provider. Restaurant Owner acknowledges that a third-party service provider may refuse to provide services to the Restaurant Owner at its own discretion and the relevant third party service provider's terms and conditions shall apply to Third Party Services. Choco may have access to certain information included these Third-Party Services to facilitate communication and enable their provision, and will treat such information as User Content. Choco does not control the Third-Party Services and is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss resulting from the use of or reliance on these Third-Party Services. Choco assumes no liability for any issues arising from the Restaurant Onwer’s agreements or dealings with these third party service providers. For the avoidance of doubt, Third Party Services will not be considered as the Services as defined under this Agreement and will not be subject to the Agreement. Restaurant shall be fully responsible for its use of the Third Party Services.

1.10 Payments

Restaurant Owners may pay their orders using the Third Party Service for payments available on the Service, if enabled by the Vendor with whom the order is placed. At no point or time do funds transmitted by Restaurant Owners to Vendors pass into Choco's ownership, this includes any refunds or chargebacks or any kind of fund movement. The available payment methods and terms depend on the agreement between the respective third-party payment provider and the Vendor. Each Restaurant Owner acknowledges that their use of the payment service is subject to all applicable terms for the chosen payment methods, including credit and transaction limits, interest, and rewards programs. Choco has no control over or liability for the payments. 

2. User Content

Some areas of the Service allow Users to submit, post, display, provide, or otherwise make available content such as profile information, order information, product information, images, comments, questions, and other content or information (any such materials a User submits, posts, displays, provides, or otherwise makes available on the Service is referred to as "User Content").

By submitting, posting, displaying, providing, or otherwise making available any User Content on or through the Service:

You expressly grant, and you represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to grant, to Choco a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, list information regarding, edit, translate, distribute, syndicate, publicly perform, publicly display, and make derivative works of all such User Content and your name, voice, and/or likeness as contained in your User Content, in whole or in part, and in any form, media or technology, whether now known or hereafter developed, for use in connection with the Service and Company's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. For example, you grant Choco a license to analyze your User Content to identify business trends and create summary reports regarding your orders. 

You also hereby grant each User of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your User Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under this Agreement. For example, if you are a Vendor, we will make product information you post available to Restaurant Owners.

For the purposes of this Agreement, "Intellectual Property Rights" means all patent rights, copyright rights, mask work rights, moral rights, rights of publicity, trademark, trade dress and service mark rights, goodwill, trade secret rights and other intellectual property rights as may now exist or hereafter come into existence, and all applications therefore and registrations, renewals and extensions thereof, under the laws of any state, country, territory or other jurisdiction.

In connection with your User Content, you affirm, represent and warrant the following:

• You have the written consent of each and every identifiable natural person in the User Content, if any, to use such person's name or likeness in the manner contemplated by the Service and this Agreement, and each such person has released you from any liability that may arise in relation to such use.
• You have obtained and are solely responsible for obtaining all consents as may be required by law to post any User Content relating to third parties.
• Your User Content and Company's use thereof as contemplated by this Agreement and the Service will not violate any law or infringe any rights of any third party, including but not limited to any Intellectual Property Rights and privacy rights.
• Choco may exercise the rights to your User Content granted under this Agreement without liability for payment of any guild fees, residuals, payments, fees, or royalties payable under any collective bargaining agreement or otherwise.
• To the best of your knowledge, all your User Content and other information that you provide to us is truthful and accurate.

Choco takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any User Content that you or any other User or third party posts, sends, or otherwise makes available over the Service, including Vendors' pricing information and Restaurant Owners' order information. You shall be solely responsible for your User Content and the consequences of posting, publishing it, sharing it, or otherwise making it available on the Service, and you agree that we are only acting as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of your User Content. You understand and agree that you may be exposed to User Content that is inaccurate, objectionable, inappropriate for children, or otherwise unsuited to your purpose, and you agree that Choco shall not be liable for any damages you allege to incur as a result of or relating to any User Content.

3. Our Proprietary Rights

Except for your User Content, the Service and all materials therein or transferred thereby, including, without limitation, software, images, text, graphics, illustrations, logos, patents, trademarks, service marks, copyrights, photographs, audio, videos, music, and User Content belonging to other Users (the "Choco Content"), and all Intellectual Property Rights related thereto, are the exclusive property of Choco and its licensors (including other Users who post User Content to the Service). Except as explicitly provided herein, nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to create a license in or under any such Intellectual Property Rights, and you agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit or create derivative works from any Choco Content. Use of the Choco Content for any purpose not expressly permitted by this Agreement is strictly prohibited.

You may choose to or we may invite you to submit comments or ideas about the Service, including without limitation product testimonials and/or other feedback regarding potential improvements to the Service (collectively, "Ideas"). By submitting any Idea, you agree that your disclosure is gratuitous, unsolicited and without restriction and will not place Choco under any fiduciary or other obligation, and that we are free to use the Idea without any additional compensation to you, and/or to disclose the Idea on a non-confidential basis or otherwise to anyone, including for our own advertising and marketing purposes. You further acknowledge that, by acceptance of your submission, Choco does not waive any rights to use similar or related ideas previously known to Choco, or developed by its employees, or obtained from sources other than you.

4. Risk of Loss

All products that may be ordered from or via the Service by a Restaurant Owner are transported and delivered to the Restaurant Owner by or on behalf of the applicable Vendor, not by Choco. Title to products ordered on the Service, as well as the risk of loss for such products, is subject to agreement between the Restaurant Owner and Vendor, and Choco hereby disclaims any liability in connection with such risk of loss.

5. California Residents

The provider of services is: Atlantic Food Waste Partners, LLC dba Choco, 33 Irving Place, New York, NY, 10003 United States, telephone [(415) 819 2411]. If you are a California resident, in accordance with Cal. Civ. Code §1789.3, you may report complaints to the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs by contacting them in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112 Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210 or (916) 445-1254.

6. Email and Text Messaging

If you use the Service to send email or SMS communications to other Users, then you represent that you have adequate rights to use the Service to send such communications, and must comply with all applicable laws in connection with such communications, including, but not limited to, all applicable notice, consent and consumer choice requirements.

7. Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. For more information about our privacy practices, please refer to our Privacy Notice. With respect to the personal data that Choco processes on behalf of Restaurant for the provision of the Services, the Parties enter into a Data Processing Agreement available here ("DPA") and which is incorporated by reference into this Agreement.

8. Security

Choco cares about the integrity and security of your personal information. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat our security measures or use your personal information for improper purposes. You acknowledge that you provide your personal information at your own risk.

9. DMCA Notice

Since we respect artist and content owner rights, it is Company's policy to respond to alleged infringement notices that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 ("DMCA").

If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement and is accessible via the Service, please notify Company's copyright agent as set forth in the DMCA. For your complaint to be valid under the DMCA, you must provide the following information in writing:

• An electronic or physical signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
• Identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and where it is located on the Service;
• Information reasonably sufficient to permit Choco to contact you, such as your address, telephone number, and, e-mail address;
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or law; and
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information is accurate, and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on behalf of the owner.
• The above information must be submitted to the following DMCA Agent:

Attn: DMCA Notice

Choco Communications GmbH

Legal Department

Address: Wrangelstraße 100,

10997 Berlin, Germany

Tel.: +49 030 56795626

Email: legal@choco.com

Under federal law, if you knowingly misrepresent that online material is infringing, you may be subject to criminal prosecution for perjury and civil penalties, including monetary damages, court costs, and attorneys' fees.

Please note that this procedure is exclusively for notifying Choco and its affiliates that your copyrighted material has been infringed. The preceding requirements are intended to comply with Company's rights and obligations under the DMCA, including 17 U.S.C. §512(c), but do not constitute legal advice. It may be advisable to contact an attorney regarding your rights and obligations under the DMCA and other applicable laws.

In accordance with the DMCA and other applicable law, Choco has adopted a policy of terminating, in appropriate circumstances, Users who are deemed to be repeat infringers. Choco may also at its sole discretion limit access to the Service and/or terminate the User Accounts of any Users who infringe any intellectual property rights of others, whether or not there is any repeat infringement.

10. Third-Party Links and Information

The Service may contain links to third-party materials that are not owned or controlled by Choco. Choco does not endorse or assume any responsibility for any such third-party sites, information, materials, products, or services. If you access a third-party website or service from the Service or share your User Content on or through any third-party website or service, you do so at your own risk, and you understand that this Agreement and Company's Privacy Notice do not apply to your use of such sites. You expressly relieve Choco from any and all liability arising from your use of any third-party website, service, or content, including without limitation User Content submitted by other Users. Additionally, your dealings with or participation in promotions of advertisers found on the Service, including payment and delivery of goods, and any other terms (such as warranties) are solely between you and such advertisers. You agree that Choco shall not be responsible for any loss or damage of any sort relating to your dealings with such advertisers.

11. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Choco and its subsidiaries, agents, licensors, managers, and other affiliated companies, and their employees, contractors, agents, officers and directors, from and against any and all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debt, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees) arising from: (i) your use of and access to the Service, including any data or content transmitted or received by you; (ii) your violation of any term of this Agreement, including without limitation your breach of any of the representations and warranties above; (iii) your violation of any third-party right, including without limitation any right of privacy or Intellectual Property Rights; (iv) your violation of any applicable law, rule or regulation; (v) User Content or any content that is submitted via your User Account including without limitation misleading, false, or inaccurate information; (vi) your willful misconduct; or (vii) any other party's access and use of the Service with your unique username, password or other appropriate security code.

12. No Warranty

The Service is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Use of the Service is at your own risk. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Service is provided without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from Choco or through the Service will create any warranty not expressly stated herein. Without limiting the foregoing, Choco, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, and its licensors do not warrant that the content is accurate, complete, reliable or correct; that the Service will meet your requirements; that the Service will be available at any particular time or location, uninterrupted or secure; that any defects or errors will be corrected; or that the Service is free of viruses or other harmful components. Any content downloaded or otherwise obtained through the use of the Service is downloaded at your own risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or mobile device or loss of data that results from such download or your use of the Service.

Further, Choco does not warrant, endorse, guarantee, or assume responsibility for any product or service advertised or offered by a third party through the Service or any hyperlinked website or service, including any product offered by a Vendor through the Service, and Choco will not be a party to or in any way monitor any transaction between you and third-party providers of products or services.

Federal law, some states, provinces and other jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion and limitations of certain implied warranties, so the above exclusions may not apply to you. This Agreement gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. The disclaimers and exclusions under this Agreement will not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Choco, its affiliates, agents, directors, employees, suppliers or licensors be liable for any indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including without limitation damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to the use of, or inability to use, the Service. Under no circumstances will Choco be responsible for any damage, loss or injury resulting from hacking, tampering or other unauthorized access or use of the Service or your account or the information contained therein.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Choco assumes no liability or responsibility for any (i) errors, mistakes, or inaccuracies of content; (ii) personal injury or property damage, of any nature whatsoever, resulting from your access to or use of our service; (iii) any unauthorized access to or use of our secure servers and/or any and all personal information stored therein; (iv) any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from the Service; (v) any bugs, viruses, trojan horses, or the like that may be transmitted to or through our service by any third party; (vi) any errors or omissions in any content or for any loss or damage incurred as a result of the use of any content posted, emailed, transmitted, or otherwise made available through the Service; and/or (vii) User Content or the defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of any third party. In no event shall Choco, its affiliates, agents, directors, employees, suppliers, or licensors be liable to you for any claims, proceedings, liabilities, obligations, damages, losses or costs in an amount exceeding the amount you paid to Choco hereunder or $100.00, whichever is greater.

This limitation of liability section applies whether the alleged liability is based on contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or any other basis, even if Choco has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you. This Agreement gives you specific legal rights, and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. The disclaimers, exclusions, and limitations of liability under this Agreement will not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.

14. Governing Law, Arbitration, and Class Action/Jury Trial Waiver

14.1 Governing Law. You agree that: (i) the Service shall be deemed solely based in California; and (ii) the Service shall be deemed a passive one that does not give rise to personal jurisdiction over us, either specific or general, in jurisdictions other than California. This Agreement shall be governed by the internal substantive laws of the State of California, without respect to its conflict of laws principles. The parties acknowledge that this Agreement evidences a transaction involving interstate commerce. Notwithstanding the preceding sentences with respect to the substantive law, any arbitration conducted pursuant to the terms of this Agreement shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. §§ 1-16). The application of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded. You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the federal and state courts located in Los Angeles County, California for any actions for which we retain the right to seek injunctive or other equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent the actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation or violation of a our copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, patents, or other intellectual property or proprietary rights, as set forth in the Arbitration provision below, including any provisional relief required to prevent irreparable harm. You agree that Los Angeles County, California is the proper forum for any appeals of an arbitration award or for trial court proceedings in the event that the arbitration provision below is found to be unenforceable.

14.2 Arbitration. Read this section carefully because it requires the parties to arbitrate their disputes and limits the manner in which you can seek relief from Choco. For any dispute with Choco, you agree to first contact us at and attempt to resolve the dispute with us informally. In the unlikely event that Choco has not been able to resolve a dispute it has with you after sixty (60) days, we each agree to resolve any claim, dispute, or controversy (excluding any claims for injunctive or other equitable relief as provided below) arising out of or in connection with or relating to this Agreement, or the breach or alleged breach thereof (collectively, "Claims"), by binding arbitration by JAMS, under the Optional Expedited Arbitration Procedures then in effect for JAMS, except as provided herein. JAMS may be contacted at www.jamsadr.com. The arbitration will be conducted in Los Angeles County, California, unless you and Choco agree otherwise. If you are using the Service for commercial purposes, each party will be responsible for paying any JAMS filing, administrative and arbitrator fees in accordance with JAMS rules, and the award rendered by the arbitrator shall include costs of arbitration, reasonable attorneys' fees and reasonable costs for expert and other witnesses. If you are an individual using the Service for non-commercial purposes: (i) JAMS may require you to pay a fee for the initiation of your case, unless you apply for and successfully obtain a fee waiver from JAMS; (ii) the award rendered by the arbitrator may include your costs of arbitration, your reasonable attorney's fees, and your reasonable costs for expert and other witnesses; and (iii) you may sue in a small claims court of competent jurisdiction without first engaging in arbitration, but this does not absolve you of your commitment to engage in the informal dispute resolution process. Any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Nothing in this Section shall be deemed as preventing Choco from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief from the courts as necessary to prevent the actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation, or violation of our data security, Intellectual Property Rights or other proprietary rights.

14.3 Class Action/Jury Trial Waiver. With respect to all persons and entities, regardless of whether they have obtained or used the Service for personal, commercial or other purposes, all Claims must be brought in the parties' individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action, collective action, private attorney general action or other representative proceeding. This waiver applies to class arbitration, and, unless we agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's Claims. You agree that, by entering into this Agreement, you and Choco are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action, collective action, private attorney general action, or other representative proceeding of any kind.

15. Additional Terms for Mobile Applications

15.1 Mobile Applications. We may make available software to access the Service via a mobile device ("Mobile Applications"). To use any Mobile Applications you must have a mobile device that is compatible with the Mobile Applications. Choco does not warrant that the Mobile Applications will be compatible with your mobile device. You may use mobile data in connection with the Mobile Applications and may incur additional charges from your wireless provider for these services. You agree that you are solely responsible for any such charges. Choco hereby grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use a compiled code copy of the Mobile Applications for one Choco User Account on one mobile device owned or leased solely by you, for your personal use. You may not: (i) modify, disassemble, decompile or reverse engineer the Mobile Applications, except to the extent that such restriction is expressly prohibited by law; (ii) rent, lease, loan, resell, sublicense, distribute or otherwise transfer the Mobile Applications to any third party or use the Mobile Applications to provide time sharing or similar services for any third party; (iii) make any copies of the Mobile Applications; (iv) remove, circumvent, disable, damage or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Mobile Applications, features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any content accessible through the Mobile Applications, or features that enforce limitations on use of the Mobile Applications; or (v) delete the copyright and other proprietary rights notices on the Mobile Applications. You acknowledge that Choco may from time to time issue upgraded versions of the Mobile Applications, and may automatically electronically upgrade the version of the Mobile Applications that you are using on your mobile device. You consent to such automatic upgrading on your mobile device, and agree that the terms and conditions of this Agreement will apply to all such upgrades. Any third-party code that may be incorporated in the Mobile Applications is covered by the applicable open source or third-party license EULA, if any, authorizing use of such code. The foregoing license grant is not a sale of the Mobile Applications or any copy thereof, and Choco or its third-party partners or suppliers retain all right, title, and interest in the Mobile Applications (and any copy thereof). Any attempt by you to transfer any of the rights, duties or obligations hereunder, except as expressly provided for in this Agreement, is void. Choco reserves all rights not expressly granted under this Agreement. If the Mobile Applications is being acquired on behalf of the United States Government, then the following provision applies. The Mobile Applications will be deemed to be "commercial computer software" and "commercial computer software documentation," respectively, pursuant to DFAR Section 227.7202 and FAR Section 12.212, as applicable. Any use, reproduction, release, performance, display or disclosure of the Service and any accompanying documentation by the U.S. Government will be governed solely by these Terms of Service and is prohibited except to the extent expressly permitted by these Terms of Service. The Mobile Applications originates in the United States, and is subject to United States export laws and regulations. The Mobile Applications may not be exported or re-exported to certain countries or those persons or entities prohibited from receiving exports from the United States. In addition, the Mobile Applications may be subject to the import and export laws of other countries. You agree to comply with all United States and foreign laws related to use of the Mobile Applications and the Service.

15.2 Mobile Applications from Apple App Store. The following applies to any Mobile Applications you acquire from the Apple App Store ("Apple-Sourced Software"): You acknowledge and agree that this Agreement is solely between you and Choco, not Apple, Inc. ("Apple") and that Apple has no responsibility for the Apple-Sourced Software or content thereof. Your use of the Apple-Sourced Software must comply with the App Store Terms of Service. You acknowledge that Apple has no obligation whatsoever to furnish any maintenance and support services with respect to the Apple-Sourced Software. In the event of any failure of the Apple-Sourced Software to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price for the Apple-Sourced Software to you; to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the Apple-Sourced Software, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty will be solely governed by this Agreement and any law applicable to Choco as provider of the software. You acknowledge that Apple is not responsible for addressing any claims of you or any third party relating to the Apple-Sourced Software or your possession and/or use of the Apple-Sourced Software, including, but not limited to: (i) product liability claims; (ii) any claim that the Apple-Sourced Software fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement; and (iii) claims arising under consumer protection or similar legislation; and all such claims are governed solely by this Agreement and any law applicable to Choco as provider of the software. You acknowledge that, in the event of any third-party claim that the Apple-Sourced Software or your possession and use of that Apple-Sourced Software infringes that third party's intellectual property rights, Choco, not Apple, will be solely responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of any such intellectual property infringement claim to the extent required by this Agreement. You and Choco acknowledge and agree that Apple, and Apple's subsidiaries, are third-party beneficiaries of this Agreement as relates to your license of the Apple-Sourced Software, and that, upon your acceptance of the terms and conditions of this Agreement, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce this Agreement as relates to your license of the Apple-Sourced Software against you as a third-party beneficiary thereof.

15.3 Mobile Applications from Google Play Store. The following applies to any Mobile Applications you acquire from the Google Play Store ("Google-Sourced Software"): (i) you acknowledge that the Agreement is between you and Choco only, and not with Google, Inc. ("Google"); (ii) your use of Google-Sourced Software must comply with Google's then-current Google Play Store Terms of Service; (iii) Google is only a provider of the Google Play Store where you obtained the Google-Sourced Software; (iv) Choco, and not Google, is solely responsible for its Google-Sourced Software; (v) Google has no obligation or liability to you with respect to Google-Sourced Software or the Agreement; and (vi) you acknowledge and agree that Google is a third-party beneficiary to the Agreement as it relates to Company's Google-Sourced Software.

16. General

16.1 Confidentiality. Each party undertakes to keep strictly confidential the documents, data and Information of the other party which are confidential in nature ("Confidential Information").The party receiving Confidential Information undertakes not to disclose it without the prior consent of the other party for a period of five years from the end of the performance of the Services concerned. It may only disclose it to employees, trainees, vicarious agents or consultants if they are subject to professional secrecy or if obligations corresponding to the confidentiality obligations of these Terms of Service have been imposed on them beforehand. Furthermore, the parties shall only disclose the Confidential Information to those employees who need to know it for the performance of this contract and shall also oblige these employees to maintain confidentiality to the extent permitted by labour law for the time after their departure.

This obligation does not extend to Confidential Information: (a) which was already known to the receiving party or thereafter becomes known to it from a third party without breach of any confidentiality agreement, legal requirements or governmental orders; (b) which are already public at the time of their disclosure or which become public without breach of these conditions; which are required to be disclosed by law or by order of a court or governmental authority (c) disclosed upon the disclosing party's prior consent. To the extent permissible and possible, the recipient obliged to disclose shall notify the other party in advance and give it the opportunity to oppose the disclosure.

16.2 Assignment. This Agreement, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by you, but may be assigned by Choco without restriction. Any attempted transfer or assignment in violation hereof shall be null and void.

16.3 Notification Procedures and Changes to the Agreement. Choco may provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for marketing or other business related purposes, to you via email notice, written or hard copy notice, or through posting of such notice on our website, as determined by Choco in our sole discretion. Choco reserves the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to our Users, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Agreement. Choco is not responsible for any automatic filtering you or your network provider may apply to email notifications we send to the email address you provide us. Choco may, in its sole discretion, modify or update this Agreement from time to time, and so you should review this page periodically. When we change the Agreement in a material manner, we will update the 'last modified' date at the top of this page and notify you that material changes have been made to the Agreement. Your continued use of the Service after any such change constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Service. If you do not agree to any of these terms or any future Terms of Service, do not use or access (or continue to access) the Service.

16.4 Entire Agreement/Severability. This Agreement, together with any amendments and any additional agreements you may enter into with Choco in connection with the Service, shall constitute the entire agreement between you and Choco concerning the Service. If any provision of this Agreement is deemed invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of this Agreement, which shall remain in full force and effect, except that in the event of unenforceability of the universal Class Action/Jury Trial Waiver, the entire arbitration agreement shall be unenforceable.

16.5 No Waiver. No waiver of any term of this Agreement shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other term, and Company's failure to assert any right or provision under this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

16.6 Contact. Please contact us at with any questions regarding this Agreement.

This Data Processing Agreement (“DPA”) is entered into between the Restaurant Owner accepting the Terms of Service and Atlantic Food Waste Partners LLC d/b/a Choco(“Choco”), (each “Party” and together the “Parties”).

Recitals

For the purposes of providing the Services to Restaurant Owner, Choco may have access to, collect, or be provided with, Restaurant Owner Personal Data (defined below) in relation to which Restaurant Owner is subject to certain obligations.

This DPA enables Restaurant Owner to comply with its obligations when providing or allowing access to Restaurant Owner Personal Data by Choco. This DPA is supplemental to, and forms an integral part of Agreement. In case of any conflict or inconsistency with the terms of the Agreement, this DPA will take precedence over the terms of the Agreement to the extent of such conflict or inconsistency.

1. Definitions

For the purposes of this DPA:

“CCPA” means the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, as set forth in California Civil Code § 1798.100 et seq. and all other applicable laws or regulations relating to the processing of personal information promulgated thereunder. Other terms that have meanings ascribed to them in the CCPA, including but not limited to “business”, “business purposes”, “commercial purposes”, “collects”, “collected”, “collection”, “consumer”, “de-identified”, “personal information”, “sell”, “selling”, “sale”, “sold”, “service provider” or “third party” shall have the same meaning as in the CCPA.

“Consumer” means the California individual to whom Restaurant Owner Personal Data relates.

“Subcontractor” means any processor engaged by Choco or by any other Subcontractor of Choco, which agrees to receive from Choco, or from any other Subcontractor of Choco, Restaurant Owner Personal Data intended for processing activities to be carried out on behalf of Restaurant Owner and in accordance with its instructions, the terms of this DPA and the terms of the Services Agreement.

“Restaurant Owner Personal Data” means any personal data and/or personal information regarding a Consumer, as applicable, provided by Restaurant Owner to Choco in connection with the Services or in the course of Choco’s performance of the Services.

Other defined terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the Agreement.

2. Status of Parties; Details of the processing activities

2.1 The Parties agree that with respect to the provision of Services, as applicable, as to processing of the personal information, Restaurant Owner is the “Business” and Choco is the “Service Provider”, as such terms are defined in the CCPA.

2.2 Choco and any person acting under its authority, including Subcontractors and those acting under the Subcontractor’s authority shall process Restaurant Owner Personal Data pursuant to the written instructions provided by Restaurant Owner to Choco, and attached hereto as Schedule 1, and only to the extent necessary to fulfil its obligations under this DPA. Any additional instructions outside of the scope of Schedule 1 shall be agreed upon, in writing, by both Parties.

2.3 Restaurant Owner warrants and represents that it has obtained all necessary consents and complied with all obligations required by CCPA for making available any Restaurant Owner Personal Data to Choco and for allowing collection of Restaurant Owner Personal Data by Choco on the Restaurant Owner’s behalf under the Services Agreement.

3. Obligations of Choco

3.1 Choco agrees:

(a) to process Restaurant Owner Personal Data only:

(i) on behalf of Restaurant Owner and/or the applicable Business and in accordance with Restaurant Owner's documented instructions unless otherwise required by the CCPA;

(ii) for the purpose of carrying out the Services or as otherwise instructed by Restaurant Owner; and

(iii) in compliance with this DPA and the CCPA.

(b) that it shall not process the Restaurant Owner Personal Data other than on Restaurant Owner’s documented instructions in the Agreement, which include processing to detect data security incidents, protecting against fraudulent or illegal activity, maintaining and improving the Services, managing Restaurant Owner’s account, creation of datasets of aggregate consumer information and deidentified information, appointing Subcontractors, and any other business purpose or operational purpose permissible under the CCPA for a service provider that does not cause Choco to lose its Service Provider status.

(c) that it shall not (i) sell the Restaurant Owner Personal Data, (ii) retain, use or disclose the Restaurant Owner Personal Data for any purpose other than for the business purposes, including retaining, using, or disclosing the personal information for a commercial purpose other than providing the Services or carrying out the instructions of Restaurant Owner, or (iii) retain, use, or disclose the Restaurant Owner Personal Data outside of the Business relationship between Restaurant Owner and Choco.

(d) that it shall promptly notify Restaurant Owner of any requests, complaints, messages, or any other notices received from any third party regarding the processing of the Restaurant Owner Personal Data under this DPA (including requests from Consumers to correct, or limit or restrict use of such Consumers’ personal information), and that it will reasonably assist Restaurant Owner with its obligations to reply to or comply with requests, provided that Choco reserves the right to reimbursement from Restaurant Owner for any reasonable costs incurred as a result of providing such assistance.

(e) that if it is legally required to process Restaurant Owner Personal Data otherwise than as instructed by Restaurant Owner, it shall notify Restaurant Owner before such processing occurs, unless the law requiring such processing prohibits Choco from notifying Restaurant Owner on an important ground of public interest, in which case it shall notify Restaurant Owner as soon as that law permits it to do so.

(f) that it will provide reasonable assistance to Restaurant Owner in fulfilling its legal obligations under the CCPA, and will not knowingly carry out, or omit, any act, that would cause the Restaurant Owner to be in breach of the CCPA.

(g) that it has implemented and will maintain reasonable technical, organisational, and security measures to protect Restaurant Owner Personal Data against accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or access, appropriate to the risks represented by the processing and the nature of Restaurant Owner Personal Data to be protected. It shall be incumbent upon Restaurant Owner to determine whether these measures are sufficient with respect to the circumstances surrounding the data processing that are not known by Choco.

(h) to take reasonable steps to ensure that its personnel who have access to the Restaurant Owner Personal Data have committed themselves to confidentiality or are under appropriate statutory obligation of confidentiality.

(i) to inform a Consumer making a request that it should submit the request directly to Restaurant Owner.

(j) To notify Restaurant Owner if it makes a determination that it can no longer meet its obligations under the CCPA.

(k) to allow for and contribute to audits and assessments, including inspections, conducted by Restaurant Owner or another auditor mandated by Restaurant Owner, upon terms mutually agreeable to the Parties, to the extent that such information is within Choco’s control and Choco is not precluded from disclosing such information by applicable law, a duty of confidentiality, or any other obligation owed to a third party.

4. Subcontractors

Restaurant Owner acknowledges that Choco may transfer Restaurant Owner Personal Data to Subcontractors and Restaurant Owner hereby authorizes Choco to engage and appoint such Subcontractors to process Restaurant Owner Personal Data. Restaurant Owner also permits each Subcontractor to appoint a Subcontractor on its behalf when necessary. Restaurant Owner understands and acknowledges that all Subcontractors authorized by Restaurant Owner are acting under the authority and subject to the direct instructions of Restaurant Owner. Choco may continue to use those Subcontractors already engaged by Choco, as listed on Schedule 2, or to engage new Subcontractors to process Personal Data. Choco will update the list of sub-processors in Schedule 2 when engaging with new Subcontractors. If Restaurant Owner wants to receive an individual notification of an update to the list of Subcontractors, it shall sign up to the notification mechanism available in Schedule 2. Choco shall impose substantially similar data protection obligations vis-à-vis its Subcontractors which are no less protective than those set forth in this DPA and will remain liable to Restaurant Owner for the performance of its Subcontractors under this DPA.

5. Allocation of costs

Except as otherwise specified in this DPA, each Party shall perform its obligations under this DPA at its own cost.

6. Return or Deletion of Restaurant Owner Personal Data

Upon Restaurant Owner’s or a Consumer’s request, Choco will delete any Restaurant Owner Personal Data at any time during the term of this DPA. Alternatively, upon written request of Restaurant Owner or Consumer after expiration or termination of this DPA, Choco will securely destroy all Restaurant Owner Personal Data for Restaurant Owner. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Choco may decline the deletion requests from Restaurant Owner or Consumer if any applicable laws prevent Choco or Subcontractors from doing so.

7. Liability

Each Party’s liability towards the other Party in connection with this DPA will be limited in accordance with the applicable terms of the Agreement. Restaurant Owner acknowledges that Choco relies on Restaurant Owner’s directions as to the processing of Restaurant Owner Personal Data on behalf of Restaurant Owner in connection with Choco’s provision of the Services. Consequently, Choco will not be liable under this DPA or the Agreement for any claim resulting from (a) any action or omission by Choco resulting from Choco’s compliance with Restaurant Owner’s instructions or (b) Restaurant Owner’s failure to comply with its obligations under the CCPA.

8. Miscellaneous

8.1 In the event of inconsistencies between the provisions of this DPA and other agreements between the Parties, the provisions of this DPA shall prevail. In cases of doubt, this DPA shall prevail, in particular, where it cannot be clearly established whether a clause relates to a Party’s data protection obligations.

8.2 Should any provision or condition of this DPA be held or declared invalid, unlawful or unenforceable by a competent authority or court, then the remainder of this DPA shall remain valid. Such an invalidity, unlawfulness or unenforceability shall have no effect on the other provisions and conditions of this DPA to the maximum extent permitted by law. The provision or condition affected shall be construed either: (a) to be amended in such a way that ensures its validity, lawfulness and enforceability while preserving the Parties’ intentions, or if that is not possible, (ii) as if the invalid, unlawful or unenforceable part had never been contained in this DPA.

8.3 Any amendments to this DPA shall only be effective in they are made in writing duly signed by authorised representatives of the Parties hereto.

Schedule 1

Data Processing Instructions

This Schedule forms part of the DPA.

Purposes

The Restaurant Owner Personal Data shall be processed for the provision of the Services.

Consumers

The personal data concerns the following categories of data subjects (please specify):

Personal Data relevant to the Services, the extent of which is determined and controlled by Restaurant Owner in its sole discretion, and which may include, but is not limited to Personal Data relating to the following categories of data subjects:

Employees or contact persons of Restaurant Owner’s suppliers

Employees, consultants, agents, advisors, freelancers of Restaurant Owner (who are natural persons)

Restaurant Owner’s users authorized by Restaurant Owner to use the Services

Categories of data

The personal data concerns the following categories of data (please specify):

Personal Data relevant to the Services, the extent of which is determined and controlled by Restaurant Owner in its sole discretion, and which may include, but is not limited to the following categories of Personal Data:

• First and last name
• Position
• Contact information (company, email, phone, physical business address)
• ID data
• Log-in data
• Device data
• Usage data
• Any other data provided directly or indirectly by Restaurant Owner, its Authorized Users and/or Personnel of its Suppliers
• Special categories of data (if appropriate)

The personal data concerns the following special categories of data (please specify):

None. The personal data processed will not include sensitive personal data including information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, sex life, government issued identification numbers, health or medical records, financial information and criminal records.

Processing operations

The personal data will be subject to the following basic processing activities (please specify):

Collect, store, and process Restaurant Owner Personal Data to perform, operate, maintain, support and improve the Services pursuant to the Agreement, including the activities such as detecting data security incidents, protecting against fraudulent or illegal activity, managing Restaurant Owner’s account, creating datasets of aggregate consumer information and deidentified information and appointing subcontractors.

Duration

The personal data will be processed by Choco for the duration of the Services Agreement.

Schedule 2

You may find the list of sub-processors and the notification mechanism for new sub-processors at https://legal.choco.com/buyer-subprocessors.

Effective Date: August 09, 2024
 

Welcome to choco.com/us, a website of Atlantic Food Waste Partners, LLC, a subsidiary of Choco Communications GmbH (“CHOCO”, “we”, “us” or “our”). Choco provides a mobile application and a webtool (the “App”) to the entities who are suppliers and buyers in the food industry (collectively, “Customers"). This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process Personal Information in connection with choco.com/us (together with any other website operated by Choco, the “Site”), App and other services and business operations (collectively, the “Services”). It does not address our privacy practices relating to employees and other personnel.

What is Personal Information?

When we use the term “Personal Information” in this Privacy Notice, we mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, to an individual. It does not include aggregated or de-identified information that is maintained in a form that is not reasonably capable of being associated with or linked to an individual.

Our Collection of Personal Information

We collect Personal Information about individuals when they visit our Site or create an online account on our App. Sometimes we collect Personal Information automatically when an individual interacts with our Services and sometimes we collect the Personal Information directly from an individual when they interact with us. At times, we may collect Personal Information about an individual from other users, customers, sources and third parties, even before our first direct interaction.

Personal Information Collected From Individuals

The Site

Personal Information Submitted by Site Visitors

We collect the following Personal Information submitted to us by visitors to our Site:
 

• Contact Information, including first name, last name, employer, title, account status, email address, mailing address, phone number and communication preferences.
• Inquiry Information, including information provided in custom messages sent through the forms or contact information provided on our Site.

Personal Information Collected Automatically

 

As is true of most digital platforms, we and our third-party providers may collect Personal Information from an individual’s device automatically when visiting or interacting with our Site, including:
 

• Log File Data, including internet protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser type, browser id, the URL entered and the referring page/campaign, date/time of visit, the time spent on our Site and any errors that may occur during the visit to our Site and general geographic location based on the log data we or our third-party providers collect.

The processing of this log data is essential to enable you to visit our Site, to ensure the constant functionality and security of our systems and to manage our Site in general.

• Cookie Data: including data about user’s preferences, the activity on our Site, such as the links and objects viewed, clicked or otherwise interacted with.

For information about our and our third-party partners’ use of cookies and related technologies to collect information automatically, and any choices individuals may have in relation to its collection, please refer to the Cookies and Online Ads section of this Privacy Notice below.

The App

Personal Information Submitted by App Users

We collect Personal Information from our users and prospective users in connection with the online user accounts and ongoing maintenance of the accounts, which includes:

• Online Account Information, including username and password.
• Contact Information, including first name, last name, title, employer, email address, mailing address, phone number and communication preferences
• Other Profile Information, including a photograph for the online account or other Personal Information shared through the account.
• Communication Information, including Personal Information provided when contacting us in connection with our Services, in relation to a survey, comment, question, request or inquiry, support requests and user interviews.
• Transaction Information and Messages: including transactions you carry out in our App, such as the date and time of the orders you place on behalf of a Customer and messages with other users.
• Camera and Contact list access, including images and contacts saved in your phone. While using the App you have the option of adding pictures and/or screenshots to simplify the ordering process. For that, you need to give Choco permission to access your camera. Only the pictures you upload to our App will be stored in our servers. You can also grant us permission to access the contact list on your phone to be able to add team members to your account. In that case, you’ll be able to select them directly from the contact list your phone. Neither of these permissions are mandatory to use the App. If you give permission, we will continue accessing your camera and contact list until you withdraw your permission. We do not store your images or contact lists on our servers. We only store the images you upload to the App and information (name and phone number) of your contacts who are already using Choco and the ones that you have invited to use Choco.
• Microphone access: voice ordering feature allows you to place orders by recording them directly on your phone. To enable this feature, we need your permission to access your phone’s microphone. This access is optional and not required to use the App. If you grant permission, we’ll only access the microphone while you are actively recording an order. You can revoke your permission at any time.
• Location access: If you’re using the App as a sales representative, you may view your leads and customers on a map within the App. The map is provided via Google Maps API and Google Privacy Policy applies to use of the maps feature. To be able to display the relevant results near you, we need access to your location. This access is optional and not required to use the App. If you grant permission, we’ll only access your location while you’re using the App. You can revoke your permission any time. 
   

Personal Information Collected Automatically

• Device and Connection Data: When you visit our App, the App automatically collects certain information from your device, such as the operating system version, device type and manufacturer, access times, your IP address, your mobile carrier, configurations, browser type, information on Internet connection and including general location based on your IP address.
• Usage Data: We use first-party automated data collection tools, such as tracking pixels and similar tools, to collect information about how you interact with our App and communications/emails. This includes information like User ID, IP address, the pages you visit and the time spent on those pages, the features you use, your commands and other statistical information relating to your use of the App.

Job Applicants

Personal Information Submitted by Applicants

We collect Personal Information obtained from your job application provided to us during the recruitment process through, inter alia, our Site, a recruiter, an internal employee referral or from publicly available sources (e.g., LinkedIn). We may also receive your Personal Information from our recruitment service providers. On our Site you have the opportunity to apply for open vacancies in our company.

Depending on the position you are applying for, we collect the following information:

• Application Data: your first and last name, your e-mail address, phone number, your CV, your cover letter, link to your LinkedIn profile, link to your website, your right to work in the country you applied for, salary expectations, fluency in the main language/s of the country you applied for, your preferences for starting work and your willingness to relocate, as well as other information depending on the position.

 

Personal Information From Third Parties

We also obtain Personal Information from third parties which we often combine with Personal Information we collect either automatically or directly from an individual.

We may receive the same categories of Personal Information as described above from the following third parties:

• Your Employer: in connection with your role as an employee or contractor of a company or other legal entity, we may obtain your information from such an entity.
• Restaurants and Suppliers: in connection with your role as an end user of a Restaurant or Supplier, we may receive your information from other Restaurants and/or Suppliers. For example, we may receive your information from another entity in conjunction with processing a purchase order, or responding to an inquiry.
• Social Media: When an individual interacts with our Services through various social media networks, such as when someone “Likes” us on Facebook or follows us or shares our content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networks, we may receive some information about individuals that they permit the social network to share with third parties. The data we receive is dependent upon an individual’s privacy settings with the social network. Individuals should always review and, if necessary, adjust their privacy settings on third-party websites and social media networks and services before sharing information and/or linking or connecting them to other services.
• Service Providers: Our service providers that perform services solely on our behalf, such as payment processors and analytics providers. For example, we receive Personal Information from our service providers that conduct marketing or analytics activities.
• Other Third Parties: From time to time, we may receive information about individuals from third parties. For example, we may obtain information from our marketing partners or from third parties to enhance or supplement our existing information about an individual. We may combine this information with the information we collect directly from individuals.
• Publicly Available Sources: We collect Personal Information about individuals that we do not otherwise have, such as contact information, employment-related information, and interest-in-services information, from publicly available sources. We may combine this information with the information we collect from an individual directly. We use this information to contact individuals, to send advertising or promotional materials or to better understand the demographics of the individuals with whom we interact.

 

Our Use of Personal Information

We use Personal Information we collect to:

• Fulfill or meet the reason for which the Personal Information was provided. For instance, if you contact us by email, we will use the Personal Information you provide to answer your question or resolve your problem;
• Manage our organization and its day-to-day operations;
• Process job applications;
• Communicate with individuals, send technical or legal notices, updates, security messages and to provide customer support;
• Request individuals to complete surveys about our service offerings;
• Market our Services to individuals, including through email, direct mail, phone or text message; and to organize sweepstakes, contests and promotional activities;
• display ads from food manufacturers and other third-party advertisers on our App, which may be relevant to the Buyers on whose behalf you are using the App; and track ad performance;
• Manage relationships with our Customers, such as for billing and account management;
• Administer our Services, including by recognizing an individual and remembering their information when they return to our Site;
• Host and maintain the Services;
• Prepare for and facilitate our events;
• Create and maintain accounts for our users; authenticate users when they log in;
• Process payment for accounts, deliveries, balances and related services;
• Identify and analyze how individuals use our Site and Services; conduct user research;
• Improve and customize our service offerings to address the needs and interests of our user base and other individuals we interact with;
• Test, enhance, update and monitor the Services, or diagnose or fix technology problems and security incidents;
• Help maintain the safety, security and integrity of our property and Services, technology assets and business;
• Evaluate, negotiate or conduct a merger, divesture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of CHOCO’s assets, whether as a going concern or as a part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by CHOCO about consumers is among the assets transferred or is otherwise relevant to the evaluation, negotiation or conduct of the transaction;
• Defend, protect or enforce our rights or applicable contracts and agreements;
• Prevent, investigate or provide notice of fraud or unlawful or criminal activity; and
• Comply with legal obligations.

We may provide additional privacy disclosures where the scope of the inquiry/request and/or Personal Information we require fall outside the scope of this Privacy Notice. In that case, the additional privacy disclosures will govern how we may process the information provided at that time.

 

Providing functionalities of our App and associated services

We process Personal Information to provide services and functionalities of our App to our Customers as a service provider. In that case we only process Personal Information on their behalf to execute their instructions. For instance, we may process your Personal Information for delivering you a message from a Supplier or inviting you to use the App on behalf of a Supplier. For more information, please refer to the privacy policy of our Customers

Our Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose Personal Information in the following ways:

• Affiliates: We may share Personal Information with other companies owned or controlled by CHOCO, and other companies owned by or under common ownership as CHOCO, which also includes our subsidiaries (i.e., any organization we own or control) or our ultimate holding company (i.e., any organization that owns or controls us) and any subsidiaries it owns, particularly when we collaborate in providing the Services.
• Restaurants and Suppliers: We may disclose your information to end users of other Restaurants and/or Suppliers at your instruction, with whom you have freely decided to communicate and/or to place your orders via the Services.
• Service Providers: We share Personal Information with third parties who assist us in providing our customer services and facilitating our communications with individuals that submit inquiries. We engage third-party service providers that perform business or operational services for us or on our behalf, such as website hosting, infrastructure provisioning, IT services, analytics services, administrative services.
• Other Businesses As Needed To Provide Services: We may share Personal Information with third parties that an individual engages with through our Services or as needed to fulfill a request or transaction that an individual requested. including, for example, payment processing services.
• Other Third Parties: We work with advertising, analytics and social media partners as described in the Cookies and Online Ads section below.
• Business Transaction or Reorganization: We may take part in or be involved with a corporate business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, joint venture, or financing or sale of company assets. We may disclose Personal Information to a third party during negotiation of, in connection with or as an asset in such a corporate business transaction. Personal Information may also be disclosed in the event of insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership.
• Legal Obligations and Rights: We may disclose Personal Information to third parties, such as legal advisors and law enforcement:
  • in connection with the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
  • to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process;
  • to protect our rights and property and the rights and property of others, including to enforce our agreements and policies;
  • to detect, suppress, or prevent fraud;
  • to protect the health and safety of us and others; or
  • as otherwise required by applicable law.
• Otherwise With Consent or Direction: We may disclose Personal Information about an individual to certain other third parties or publicly with their consent or direction. For example, with an individual’s consent or direction we may post their testimonial on our Site or service-related publications.

Cookies and Online Ads

Cookies

What We Collect:

We, and our third-party partners, may automatically collect certain types of usage information when an individual visits our Site. We may collect this information through a variety of data collection technologies, including cookies, web beacons, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, file information, and similar technology (collectively, “cookies”). For example, we may collect information about an individual’s device and its software, such as IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, platform type, device type, operating system, date and time stamp, and other similar information. We may collect analytics data or use third-party analytics tools such as Google Analytics to help us measure traffic and usage trends for our Services.

How We Use That Information:

We may use the data collected through cookies for different purposes:

• Essential cookies: for enabling and supporting our security features, for keeping our Site stable, monitoring its effectiveness, preventing misuse and detecting malicious activity, diagnosing and fixing technical issues. This also includes cookies set for cookie consent management. Without these tools, we could not provide our Site.
• Preference cookies: for remembering information so that an individual will not have to re-enter it during their visit to our Site and also to provide features, insights and customized content.
• Analytics cookies: to understand and research how our visitors interact with our Site, to aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, usage, and demographic patterns on our Site; to update and improve our Site.
• Marketing cookies: to evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, to show you personalized advertisements based on your interests. These cookies may be placed on our Site by third parties to understand your browsing activities, including across unaffiliated third-party sites, to show you relevant advertisements on other sites you visit. See section “Online Advertising on our Site” for more information.

Choices About Cookies on the Site: We ask for your consent regarding preference, analytics and marketing cookies placed on our Site, you may always change your preferences when you visit our Site. To manage cookies, you may change your browser settings to: (i) get notified when you receive a cookie, so that you can choose whether or not to accept it; (ii) disable existing cookies; or (iii) set your browser to automatically reject cookies (such as via Global Privacy Control). Please note that doing so may negatively impact your experience of using our Site, as some features and Services on our Site may not work properly. Depending on your device and operating system, they may not be able to delete or block all cookies. In addition, if you want to reject cookies across all your browsers and devices, you will need to do so on each browser on each device they actively use. You may also set your email options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain technologies that would allow us to know whether you have received our email and performed certain functions with it.

Online Ads on the Site

This section is exclusively limited to ads displayed on the Site, we do not enageg in interest-based advertising for in-App ads.

Online Advertising on our Site:

We participate in interest-based advertising and use third-party advertising companies to serve targeted advertisements based on an individual’s browsing history. We permit third-party online advertising networks, social media companies and other third-party services, to collect information about an individual’s use of our Site over time so that they may play or display ads on other websites, or services an individual may use, and on other devices an individual may use. Typically, though not always, the information used for interest-based advertising is collected through cookies, which recognize the device an individual is using and collect information, including click stream information, browser type, time and date the individual visited the website, AdID, precise geolocation and other information. We may share a common account identifier (such as a hashed email address or user ID) with our third-party advertising partners to help identify an individual across devices. We and our third-party partners use this information to make the advertisements an individual sees online more relevant to their interests, as well as to provide advertising- related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics and market research. You may opt out of these advertising cookies by accessing the cookie settings on the bottom left of our Site or by contacting us. You can also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Third-Party Partners:

We use Google Analytics to recognize an individual and link the devices they use when they visit our Site on their browser or mobile device, log in to their account on our Services, or otherwise engage with us. We share a unique identifier, like a user ID or hashed email address, with Google to facilitate the Services. Google Analytics allows us to better understand how our users interact with our Services. For information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, as well as how individuals can control information sent to Google, review Google’s site “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps” located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. Individuals can learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs, including the Google Analytics Browser Ad-On here https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

We may also utilize certain forms of display advertising and other advanced features through Google Analytics, such as Remarketing with Google Analytics, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, the DoubleClick Campaign Manager Integration, and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting. These features enable us to use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick advertising cookie) or other third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and display ads based on past visits to the Service. Individuals may control their advertising preferences or opt-out of certain Google advertising products by visiting the Google Ads Preferences Manager, currently available at https://google.com/ads/preferences, or by visiting NAI’s online resources at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices.

Social Media:

Our Site and social media accounts may include social media features, such as the Facebook Like button or other widgets. These social media companies may recognize an individual and collect information about their visit to our Site, and they may set a cookie or employ other data collection technologies. An individual’s interactions with those features are governed by the privacy policies of those companies.

We display targeted advertising to individuals through social media platforms, such as Linkedin, Meta and other social media forums. These companies have interest-based advertising programs that allow us to direct advertisements to users who have shown interest in our Services while those users are on the social media platform, or to groups of other users who share similar traits, such as likely commercial interests and demographics. We may share a unique identifier, such as a user ID or hashed email address, with these platform providers or they may collect information from our Site visitors through a first-party pixel, in order to direct targeted advertising to an individual or to a custom audience on the social media platform. These advertisements are governed by the privacy policies of those social media companies that provide them.

Opting Out of Targeted Ads on Social Networks:

If an individual does not want to receive targeted ads on their social networks, they may be able to adjust their advertising preferences through their settings on those networks. An individual may learn more about advertising preferences by clicking on the links provided below. Please note that these links are provided for convenience only and we do not control the content or features that may be available on these third-party services.

- Meta: To learn more about advertising preferences on Facebook Companies, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/help/109378269482053.

Opt-Out: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads and http://www.youronlinechoices.com.

Opt-Out: https://help.instagram.com/1896641480634370

- Google/ YouTube

Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Opt-Out: https://www.google.com/settings/ads.

-Twitter

Privacy Policy: https://twitter.com/en/privacy

Opt-Out: https://twitter.com/personalization.

-LinkedIn : Operating the LinkedIn company page under joint controllership on the basis of a Joint Controller Agreement (so-called Page Insights Joint Controller Addendum)

Information on the processed site insights data and the contact options in the event of requests for data protection: https://legal.linkedin.com/pages-joint-controller-addendum

-Privacy Policy: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

-Opt-Out: https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out.

Children’s Personal Information

Our Site and Services are not directed to, and we do not intend to, or knowingly, collect or solicit Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If an individual is under the age of 13, they should not use our Site or Services or otherwise provide us with any Personal Information either directly or by other means. If a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Information to us, we encourage the child’s parent or guardian to contact us via legal@choco.com to request that we remove the Personal Information from our systems. If we learn that any Personal Information we collect has been provided by a child under the age of 13, we will promptly delete that Personal Information.
 

Links to Third-Party Websites or Services

Our Site and Services may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Except where we post, link to or expressly adopt or refer to this Privacy Notice, this Privacy Notice does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, any Personal Information practices of third-party websites and online services or the practices of other third parties. To learn about the Personal Information practices of third parties, please visit their respective privacy notices.

Region-Specific Disclosures

We may choose or be required by law to provide different or additional disclosures relating to the processing of Personal Information about residents of certain countries, regions or states. Please refer below for disclosures that may be applicable to you:

• For residents of the State of Nevada, Chapter 603A of the Nevada Revised Statutes permits a Nevada resident to opt out of future sales of certain covered information that a website operator has collected or will collect about the resident. We do not currently sell covered information based on such statute.
• For residents of the State of California, please click here for additional California-specific privacy disclosures

Updates to this Privacy Notice

We will update this Privacy Notice from time to time. When we make changes to this Privacy Notice, we will change the date at the beginning of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will notify individuals by email to their registered email address, by prominent posting on this Site or our online Services, or through other appropriate communication channels. All changes shall be effective from the date of publication unless otherwise provided.

 

Contact Us

 

For any questions or requests in connection with this Privacy Notice or other privacy-related matters, please send an email to legal@choco.com

Alternatively, inquiries may be addressed to:

Choco Communications GmbH 

Attn: Legal Department 

Wrangelstraße 100

10997 Berlin Germany

 

1. SCOPE OF DISCLOSURES

This California Privacy Notice (the "CA Notice") applies to information that Atlantic Food Waste Partners, LLC, a subsidiary of Choco Communications GmbH, and their respective subsidiaries and affiliates ("CHOCO", "we", "us", or "our") collect in connection with their websites, mobile applications, products and services (collectively, the " Services"). This CA Notice supplements the information contained in our Privacy Notice and applies solely to individual residents of the State of California ("consumers" or "you").

This CA Notice provides additional information about the categories of personal information we collect about California residents and the rights granted to them under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (" CCPA").

Unless otherwise expressly stated, all terms in this CA Notice have the same meaning as defined in our Privacy Notice or as otherwise defined in the CCPA.

2. PERSONAL INFORMATION DISCLOSURES

When we use the term " Personal Information" in this CA Notice, we mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.

For the purposes of this CA Notice, Personal Information does not include:

• Publicly available information from government records.
• Deidentified, aggregated or anonymized information that is maintained in a form that is not capable of being associated with or linked to you.
• Information excluded from the CCPA's scope, such as:
  • Health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data;
  • Information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach- Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

Categories of Personal Information Collected

In the last 12 months, we have collected the following categories of Personal Information established under the CCPA:

• Identifiers, such as your name, mailing address, email address, IP address, or other similar identifiers.
• California Customer Records (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)), such as username and password, phone number, company name, job title, business email address, and department
• Internet/Network Information, such as your browsing history, log and analytics data, information about the device(s) used to access the Services, domain server, search history and information regarding your interaction with our websites or Services and other usage Data.
• Location Data, including general geographic location based on the log data we or our third-party providers collect
• Sensory Information, such as pictures you provide or upload in connection with our Services, and the content and audio recordings of phone calls between you and us that we record where permitted by law.
• Profession/Employment Information, such as current employer, your first and last name, your e-mail address, phone number, your CV, your cover letter, link to your LinkedIn profile, link to your website, your right to work in the country you applied for, salary expectations, fluency in the main language/s of the country you applied for, your preferences for starting work and your willingness to relocate, as well as other information depending on the position.
• Other Personal Information, such as Personal Information you provide to us in relation to a survey, comment, question, request or inquiry, or information you provide in conversations via the message service.
• Transaction Information and Messages: including transactions you carry out in our App, such as the date and time of the orders you place on behalf of a Customer and messages with other users.
• Camera and Contact list access, including images and contacts saved in your phone. While using the App you have the option of adding pictures and/or screenshots to simplify the ordering process. For that, you need to give Choco permission to access your camera. Only the pictures you upload to our App will be stored in our servers. You can also grant us permission to access the contact list on your phone to be able to add team members to your account. In that case, you’ll be able to select them directly from the contact list on your phone. Neither of these permissions are mandatory to use the App. If you give permission, we will continue accessing your camera and contact list until you withdraw your permission. We do not store your images or contact lists on our servers. We only store the images you upload to the App and information (name and phone number) of your contacts who are already using Choco and the ones that you have invited to use Choco.

 

3. SOURCES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Please see the “Our Collection of Personal Information” Section of our Privacy Notice to see the sources of the Personal Information we collect.

4. OUR USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Please see the “Our Use of Personal Information” Section of our Privacy Notice to see how we use Personal Information.

5. CATEGORIES OF RECIPIENTS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

For each category of Personal Information listed above, we disclose this Personal Information as described in the “Our Disclosure of Information“ and “Cookies and Online Ads” sections of our Privacy Notice.
 

6. RETENTION PERIOD

We will only keep your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it in the first place, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. 
 

7. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

As a California resident, you may be able to exercise the following rights in relation to the Personal Information about you that we have collected (subject to certain limitations at law):

The Right to Know: You have the right to request any or all of the following information relating to your Personal Information we have collected and disclosed in the last 12 months, upon verification of your identity:

- The specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you;

- The categories of Personal Information we have collected about you;

- The categories of sources of the Personal Information;

- The categories of Personal Information that we have disclosed to third parties for a business purpose, and the categories of recipients to whom this information was disclosed;

- The categories of Personal Information we have sold, if any, and the categories of third parties to whom the information was sold (if applicable); and

- The business or commercial purposes for collecting or selling (if applicable) the Personal Information.

The Right to Request Deletion: You have the right to request the deletion of Personal Information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.

The Right to Request to Correct: You have the right to correct any inaccurate Personal Information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.

The Right to Opt Out of Personal Information Sales or Sharing: Although we do not “sell” or “share” Personal Information in the traditional sense, under the CCPA some of our disclosures may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of Personal Information. You have the right to direct us not to “sell” or “share” Personal Information we have collected about you to third parties now or in the future. If you are under the age of 16, you have the right to opt in, or to have a parent or guardian opt in on your behalf, to such sales or sharing. We do not knowingly “sell” or “share” the Personal Information of individuals under 16 years of age.The Right to Non-Discrimination: You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising these rights. However, please note that if the exercise of these rights limits our ability to process Personal Information (such as in the case of a deletion request), we may no longer be able to provide you our products and Services or engage with you in the same manner. "Shine the Light": California residents that have an established business relationship with us have rights to know how their information is disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year under California's "Shine the Light" law (Civ. Code § 1798.83).

When displaying ads in our App, we do not sell or share personal information with third parties including but not limited to ad networks, social media platforms, ad serving companies, or data brokers under any circumstances.

8. HOW TO EXERCISE YOUR CALIFORNIA CONSUMER RIGHTS

To exercise your rights, please submit a request by:

• Emailing legal@choco.com with the subject line "California Rights Request", or
• Filling out our California Resident Rights Request Form.

We will need to verify your identity before processing your request. In order to verify your identity, we will generally require either the successful login to your account (if applicable) or the matching of sufficient information you provide us to the information we maintain about you in our systems. Although we try to limit the Personal Information collected in connection with a request to exercise your rights, certain requests may require us to obtain additional Personal Information from you. In certain circumstances, we may decline a request to exercise the right to know, right to correct and/or right to deletion, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity or locate your information in our systems, or as permitted by law.

To Exercise Your Right to Opt Out of Personal Information Sales and Sharing

Cookies placed on our Site for interest-based advertising and analytics may be considered as “sale” or “sharing” under CCPA. Please see the Cookies and Online Ads section in the US Privacy Notice for more information about how we and third parties use cookies and related technologies to collect information automatically on our Site and other online services.

To exercise your right to opt out of Personal Information Sales and Sharing, you may change your preferences by accessing the cookie settings on the bottom left of our Site or by contacting us.

You may also set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or enable a browser-based universal opt-out mechanism such as the Global Privacy Control. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.
 

9.NOTICE OF LOYALTY PROGRAM

From time to time, we may offer promotions, like rewards for signing up for our Services or giving discounts for the first order you place on behalf of the entity you’re representing on our Services. Although these rewards are offered to business entities as our potential or existing customers, Under the CCPA these programs may be deemed a “financial incentive” program. While we do not assign a monetary value to the Personal Information we collect from you in the promotions in exchange for the rewards/discounts offered, we do receive value in the form of customer loyalty and increased engagement with our Services. In determining the value to CHOCO, we consider the revenue generated from activities related to the collection and retention of your Personal Information less expenses related to providing the promotions. This value will vary depending on the orders made, the types of promotions, the value of the business deal, and many other factors. If you participate, we may collect the following categories of Personal Information: your name, phone number, and email address, as well as the customer entity you’re representing when using our Services. Participation in the promotions is optional and those who opted-in may withdraw their consent by contacting us at legal@choco.com. 

10. UPDATES TO THIS CA NOTICE

We will update this CA Notice from time to time. When we make changes to this CA Notice, we will change the "Effective Date" at the beginning of this CA Notice. All changes shall be effective from the date of publication unless otherwise provided in the notification. Your continued use of the Services after any changes have been posted, means that you agree to all such changes.

11. CONTACT US

If you have any questions or requests in connection with this CA Notice or other privacy-related matters, please send an email to legal@choco.com

Alternatively, inquiries may be addressed to: Choco Communications GmbH

Attn: Legal Department

Wrangelstraße 100

10997 Berlin

Germany