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Terms of use and sale

Terms of use

The terms of use, the terms of sale and the data processing agreement (DPA) published on this page form a whole. Version 1, in force from 1 December 2026.

Article 1. Purpose and publisher

These terms of use (the “Terms of Use”) govern access to and use of the Ancrale service, available at app.ancrale.fr or at any other address given to the Customer (the “Service”). The Service is published by ANCRALE, registered with the Paris Trade and Companies Register under number 109 497 354 (“ANCRALE”), whose legal information is given in the legal notice.

The Terms of Use apply to anyone who uses the Service. They supplement the terms of sale (the “Terms of Sale”) and the data processing agreement annexed to them (the “DPA”), which govern the subscription. The common provisions of Article 18 of the Terms of Sale apply to all three documents.

Article 2. Definitions

  • Customer: the professional entity that subscribes to the Service.
  • Organisation: the Customer’s space in the Service, which groups its Users and keeps its data apart from that of other customers.
  • User: any individual named by the Customer and authorised to use the Service within its Organisation.
  • Document: any file a User uploads to the Service, and any file the Service produces from it.
  • Customer Content: the Documents and the text Users type in the Service.
  • Operation: a task a User requests on Customer Content, using a tool of the Service.
  • Audit trail: the record of the technical metadata of each Operation (tool, date and time, cryptographic fingerprints, erasure method, pseudonymised identifier of the User), without the content or the name of the Documents.
  • Quota: a usage limit per period, attached to the plan subscribed to, which may cover one or more tools, as set by the price list (Article 3 of the Terms of Sale).

Article 3. Description of the Service

The Service provides the Customer with online document-processing tools, whose list and features are those of the Service. It is provided remotely, with nothing to install, and makes no information provided by its Users available to the public. Its technical limits, Quota usage and the renewal date of the subscription are shown in the Service.

Customer Content is not stored lastingly: it is erased automatically no later than 24 hours after it is uploaded or typed. The erasure delays in force, which are shorter, are published on the Sovereignty page.

Experimental features: ANCRALE may offer features marked as experimental in the Service. They are provided as is, may be changed or withdrawn at any time and fall outside the availability objective of Article 9 of the Terms of Sale.

Article 4. Acceptance and formation of the contract

The Terms of Use, the Terms of Sale and the DPA can be read before subscribing, through a visible link, in a form that allows them to be stored and reproduced. For plans subscribed to online, the person subscribing on the Customer’s behalf, who declares being empowered to bind it, accepts them on the secure payment page of ANCRALE’s payment provider by ticking a box, unticked by default; the payment cannot be confirmed until that box is ticked. They thereby declare having read and accepted these documents in the version in force on that date, identified and dated on this page. The Customer brings the Terms of Use to the attention of each User to whom it gives access to the Service and guarantees that they comply with them (Article 1204 of the French Civil Code). The payment page links to the French version of these documents, which prevails under Article 18 of the Terms of Sale; their English translation can be reached from this page. Merely browsing the Service does not amount to acceptance.

For each online subscription, ANCRALE’s payment provider records the acceptance with the payment session and the date and time of payment; ANCRALE keeps a copy of that record as evidence and archives every version of the documents; the Customer may obtain the version it accepted on request. As the contract is entered into between professionals, the parties derogate, under Article 1127-3 of the French Civil Code, from items 1° to 5° of Article 1127-1 and from Article 1127-2 of that code. For the Intégral plan, the contract is entered into by signing a quote that refers to the Terms of Use, the Terms of Sale and the DPA.

Article 5. Account and access

The Service is reserved for professionals. It is used by adults who are empowered to bind the entity they represent or authorised by it; ANCRALE does not knowingly create a User account for a minor.

Each User has personal credentials, which they keep confidential and share with no one. The Customer is responsible for its Users’ use of the Service and for granting and withdrawing their access, and informs ANCRALE without delay of any unauthorised use it becomes aware of.

For the security of the Service, ANCRALE keeps the Audit trail of Operations and access logs of the Service, without the content of the Documents. This processing and its retention periods are described in the privacy policy.

Article 6. Acceptable use and illegal content

In particular, Users must not:

  • use the Service to process content that is illegal under European Union or French law;
  • remove the protection of a file, with any feature that removes a protection, without being entitled to do so;
  • circumvent the Quotas, the technical limits or the security measures of the Service;
  • share an account between several people, access the Service by automated means other than those ANCRALE provides, or disrupt its operation;
  • resell the Service or make it available to third parties.

Uses presented as unlimited mean normal use by each User, for the needs of the Customer’s business. Use out of all proportion to that of a User working on their own documents, or use that threatens the stability or security of the Service, is abnormal; ANCRALE may restrict it without delay and informs the Customer, with its reasons.

ANCRALE exercises no control over Customer Content: apart from the Operations requested, it carries out no analysis of its content, in particular for moderation purposes, and no person accesses it, except at the Customer’s explicit support request or under a legal obligation (Clauses 2 and 3 of the DPA).

Anyone may report content they consider illegal, without creating an account, following the procedure described on the Report illegal content page. ANCRALE acknowledges receipt of the report, examines it diligently, objectively and in a non-arbitrary manner, acts promptly when it is well founded and informs its author of its decision and of the available remedies.

Moderation policy: ANCRALE handles only the substantiated reports it receives and orders from the authorities; it uses no automated moderation tool. Depending on the seriousness of the breach, it may ask the Customer to stop the use concerned, suspend a User’s access, suspend the Organisation or terminate the contract under the Terms of Sale. These measures are applied diligently, objectively and in a non-arbitrary manner, with due regard to the rights and legitimate interests of all parties.

Except where the law or an order from an authority prohibits it, any restriction of the access of a User or of the Customer comes with a clear and specific statement of reasons: the facts relied on, whether a report was made, the rule of law or the clause applied, the means used to decide, automated or not, and the available remedies. A restriction does not by itself lead to the deletion of any data.

A decision may be challenged, free of charge, at contact@ancrale.fr.

Article 7. Customer Content

The Customer keeps all its rights in Customer Content. It grants ANCRALE, solely to carry out the Operations requested, a non-exclusive, free-of-charge technical licence, which ends when the Customer Content is erased.

ANCRALE acknowledges that Customer Content may be covered by professional secrecy or by any other duty of confidentiality binding the Customer. It refrains from any analysis, indexing or reuse of Customer Content for purposes other than carrying out the Operations requested. The aggregated and anonymised usage statistics of Article 9, which never concern Customer Content, are not a reuse.

Customer Content is never used to train or improve an artificial intelligence model. No third-party artificial intelligence service processes Customer Content. An optional feature relying on such a service, if one were offered, would be turned on only by the Customer, once its provider is on the list of sub-processors (Clause 5 of the DPA), and would process the data in the European Union.

The Customer warrants that it holds the necessary rights in Customer Content, in particular to remove a protection from it, and that its processing is lawful. It indemnifies ANCRALE against any third-party claim based on a breach of this warranty.

ANCRALE is not a health data host within the meaning of Article L. 1111-8 of the French Public Health Code and does not hold the certification provided for by that Article. The Customer must not use the Service for health records or for any processing that amounts to health data hosting within the meaning of that Article, and bears the consequences of any breach of this prohibition. An incidental mention of health data in an ordinary document whose subject is not health, such as a payslip or a letter, remains allowed where it does not fall under that Article, the Customer being answerable for the lawfulness of its processing.

The Service is not a means of archiving or backup: the Customer keeps its originals and the output files it wishes to keep.

Article 8. Automated features

The features of the Service that transform, convert, compress, recognise or mask content produce an automated result, which the User checks before any use; ANCRALE guarantees neither its accuracy nor its completeness, and no decision producing legal effects follows from it. A redaction feature is not anonymisation within the meaning of the GDPR.

The level of electronic signature offered by the Service’s signature features is the one indicated in the Service. Unless the Service states otherwise, it is neither an advanced nor a qualified electronic signature within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (eIDAS). The Customer alone assesses, under its own responsibility, whether that level suits the act signed and, if not, uses another process; it ensures that its Users take this into account. Beyond the signature’s conformity with the level indicated in the Service, ANCRALE guarantees neither the legal effect of a signature nor its admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings for a given act.

Article 9. Intellectual property

The Service, its software, its interfaces and the Ancrale trademark belong to ANCRALE or its licensors. For the term of its subscription and for the features subscribed to, the Customer receives a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service, reserved for its Users, subject to the exceptions provided by law (Articles L. 122-6 and L. 122-6-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code). The trademarks of third-party components belong to their owners.

Except where the law allows it (Article L. 122-6-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code), the Customer must not decompile or analyse the Service in order to reproduce how it works, extract its content or data systematically, or use it to design a competing service.

ANCRALE may compile and use aggregated and anonymised usage statistics (volumes, tools used, performance), which never concern Customer Content. The Customer grants ANCRALE a non-exclusive, free-of-charge, worldwide licence, for the term of the rights, over the suggestions it sends about the Service, allowing ANCRALE to use them to improve the Service.

Article 10. Availability and support

ANCRALE uses reasonable means to ensure access to the Service and its security; it is bound by an obligation of means. The availability objective, maintenance and support are described in Article 9 of the Terms of Sale.

In the event of an incident that lastingly affects access to the Service, ANCRALE informs the Customers concerned by any appropriate means, in the Service or by e-mail. Personal data breaches are notified under Clause 8 of the DPA.

Article 11. Warranty and liability

Subject to the express commitments of the contract, in particular on confidentiality, security and erasure of Customer Content, the Service is provided as is. ANCRALE guarantees neither the accuracy of the results of Operations, in particular conversion, character recognition, compression or redaction, nor the fitness of the Service for the Customer’s own obligations, in particular professional secrecy, which it is for the Customer to assess.

Each party’s liability is governed by Article 14 of the Terms of Sale, which applies to the use of the Service.

Article 12. Suspension and termination

In the event of a serious breach of the Terms of Use, in particular of Articles 6 and 7, ANCRALE may suspend the access of a User or of the Organisation, then terminate the contract, under Article 10 of the Terms of Sale, which also provides for the cases of immediate suspension. Any suspension comes with the statement of reasons provided for in Article 6 and does not by itself lead to the deletion of any data; the automatic erasure of Customer Content (Article 3) continues.

The effects of the end of the contract and the fate of the data, including the retrieval period, are governed by Articles 11 to 13 of the Terms of Sale.

Article 13. Personal data and trackers

For Customer Content and the personal data it contains, the Customer is the controller and ANCRALE acts as processor, under the DPA annexed to the Terms of Sale. For accounts, invoicing, security and support, ANCRALE is the controller, under its privacy policy. The trackers used by the Service are described on the Cookies and trackers page.

Terms of sale

Article 1. Scope

These terms of sale (the “Terms of Sale”) govern exclusively the relationship between ANCRALE and professional customers, that is, any natural or legal person acting for purposes within its commercial, industrial, craft, liberal or agricultural activity, within the meaning of the preliminary article of the French Consumer Code (the “Customer”). The Service is offered neither to consumers nor to non-professionals. Terms defined in the Terms of Use have the same meaning in the Terms of Sale.

When subscribing, the Customer warrants that it subscribes as a professional, in the name and for the professional activity of the entity it designates, whose company name it gives and whose SIREN number or, failing that, intra-EU VAT number it provides as set out in Article 7. ANCRALE may refuse an order or ask for proof (Kbis extract, SIRENE registration notice or equivalent document). If it turns out that this status is lacking, ANCRALE may close the account; the sums paid for the period already elapsed remain due and are not refunded.

As a professional, the Customer has no right of withdrawal under the French Consumer Code.

Article 2. Contract documents

The contract consists of the following documents, in decreasing order of precedence:

  • the signed quote, for the Intégral plan, and any special conditions agreed in writing within the limits of Article 5;
  • the annexed DPA, which prevails over any other document, including the quote unless it expressly provides otherwise, as regards personal data;
  • these Terms of Sale;
  • the Terms of Use;
  • the price list of Article 3 of the Terms of Sale.

The Sovereignty page, the privacy policy and the Cookies and trackers page are information documents to which the contract refers; they are not contract documents. Each document is dated and versioned. The Customer’s general terms of purchase do not apply unless ANCRALE accepts them in writing.

Article 3. Plans, prices and Quotas

The plans, their prices, their Quotas, their features and their limits are those of the price list published on the Pricing page, in force on the date of subscription, subject to Articles 6 and 18. That price list forms part of the contract, at the rank set in Article 2: it sets the prices, Quotas, features and limits of each plan, and derogates neither from the Terms of Sale nor from the Terms of Use. ANCRALE dates and archives every version of the price list; the Customer may obtain on request the one that applies to its subscription.

Prices are stated excluding VAT, per User; VAT is charged on top, at the applicable rate. Quotas are monthly. Beyond a Quota, no overage is ever charged: the Operation concerned is refused until the Quota renews. An Operation that fails because of ANCRALE is not counted. The Intégral plan is subject to a quote. A feature shown on the price list as coming is not part of the plan subscribed to until it is available in the Service; ANCRALE commits to neither its date nor its availability.

Promotional conditions: the promotional conditions shown on the price list, such as a founder price, apply to subscriptions whose contract is formed, within the meaning of Article 4, during their offer period; for the founder price of the Avancé plan, until 28 February 2027 inclusive. They apply to the number of seats ordered at subscription, less any seat whose removal has taken effect; replacing one User with another on the same seat is not an addition. Any other seat, added beyond that number or again after a removal, is billed at the price of the price list in force when it is added. The promotional conditions end when the subscription ends, for whatever reason, or when the Customer changes plan; the price of the price list then in force applies, and this is not a price increase within the meaning of Article 6. While the promotional conditions apply, the promotional price is not changed under Article 6. Promotional conditions do not prevent Article 1195 of the French Civil Code from applying.

Article 4. Ordering

The Customer subscribes online: it chooses its plan and the number of Users then, on the secure payment page of ANCRALE’s payment provider, accepts the Terms of Use, the Terms of Sale and the DPA as set out in Article 4 of the Terms of Use, and pays. The contract is formed when the payment is confirmed; for the Intégral plan, when the quote is signed; for special conditions entered into outside an online subscription, when they are signed.

Article 5. Term, renewal, plan changes and refunds

Monthly subscription: with no commitment, the subscription renews every month, on the monthly anniversary of the subscription date. Where that day does not exist in a month, the subscription renews on the last day of that month. The Customer may terminate it online at any time; termination takes effect at the end of the current monthly period.

Moving to a higher plan and adding Users take effect immediately and are charged pro rata for the current period. Moving to a lower plan and removing Users take effect at the end of the current period.

Other term or billing period: ANCRALE and the Customer may agree in writing on another subscription term or another billing period. The special conditions so agreed prevail over these Terms of Sale on the matters they govern; they may not restrict the rights the Customer holds under Articles 11 and 12 or derogate from the DPA. Unless those conditions provide otherwise, entering into them is neither a change of plan nor an end of the subscription within the meaning of Article 3.

Refunds: ANCRALE refunds, pro rata, the part of the price paid in advance that corresponds to the remaining period when the contract ends for a serious breach by ANCRALE (Article 10), without fault of the Customer (Article 13) or for permanent force majeure (Article 14), or when the Customer ends it after refusing a substantial change (Article 18), after objecting to a sub-processor (Clause 5 of the DPA) or after an assignment that lowers the protection of personal data (Article 17). In all other cases, in particular where the contract ends during a period following a request to switch provider or to erase the data (Article 11), the sums paid are not refundable.

Article 6. Price changes

Prices are not indexed. Any price increase is notified at least 60 days before it comes into force, as set out in Article 18, and never applies during a period already paid for; a Customer who refuses it may terminate its subscription free of charge before it comes into force. Promotional conditions follow Article 3.

Article 7. Payment and invoicing

The price is payable in advance, on ordering and then at each renewal, by card, through ANCRALE’s payment provider. The Customer authorises that provider to charge the card registered when ordering, or the card that replaces it, at each renewal and for any amount due under Article 5, until the subscription ends, and keeps a valid means of payment. ANCRALE neither receives nor stores the full card number or its security code. For the Intégral plan and for the special conditions of Article 5, payment terms are set by the quote or by those conditions, within the statutory time limits.

Prices are set and invoiced in euros. Where the payment page offers the Customer to pay in another currency, the converted amount is shown there before payment; the exchange rate applied includes a conversion fee, borne by the Customer. If the Customer chooses that currency, each renewal and each amount due or refunded under Article 5 is charged or refunded in it, at the rate the payment provider applies to each transaction. That fee and those variations change neither the price in euros nor the amount of the invoices.

The applicable VAT is determined by the Customer’s place of establishment, from the billing address and, where applicable, the intra-EU VAT number it gives when paying; it is answerable for their accuracy and bears the consequences of inaccurate or missing information. Where the tax is due from the Customer itself (reverse charge), the invoice says so.

Invoices are electronic. ANCRALE issues them through its payment provider for plans subscribed to online, which sends them to the Customer by e-mail with a receipt for each payment, and through its e-invoicing platform for the Intégral plan; the Customer agrees to receive them in that form. When the e-invoicing reform requires ANCRALE to issue an invoice through an approved platform, from 1 September 2027 under the current rules, ANCRALE issues and sends it by that means. The Customer gives its SIREN number or, failing that, its intra-EU VAT number, its billing address and any information needed to send the invoices, and keeps them up to date. No Customer Content appears in the billing data. The payment provider and the e-invoicing platform are named in the privacy policy.

Any sum unpaid when due bears, automatically and without reminder, late-payment penalties at the rate applied by the European Central Bank to its most recent refinancing operation plus 10 percentage points, together with a flat-rate recovery fee of €40 (Article L. 441-10 of the French Commercial Code). Additional compensation may be claimed, on proof, where the recovery costs incurred exceed that amount.

Article 8. Free trial

ANCRALE may open a free trial Organisation for the Customer, limited to one trial per entity. Its length, stated when it is opened, may not exceed one year, and ANCRALE may end it at any time. Its Quotas are set by ANCRALE, and no availability objective or support level applies to it. The trial entails no obligation to buy and no exclusivity. The Terms of Use, the DPA and the confidentiality commitments apply to it; the switching rights of Article 11 do not (Article 31(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854). At its end, without a subscription, access ends and the data is handled under Article 12.

Article 9. Availability and support

Unless a quote provides otherwise, ANCRALE sets itself an indicative objective of 99% availability of the Service over business hours (Monday to Friday, public holidays excluded, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Paris time), as an obligation of means. Scheduled maintenance announced in the Service, experimental features and unavailability due to force majeure or to the Customer or its Users fall outside this objective.

Scheduled maintenance takes place outside business hours and is announced in advance in the Service, as far as possible. Urgent security work may take place at any time; ANCRALE informs the Customers concerned.

Support answers requests sent by e-mail to contact@ancrale.fr, in French or in English, on business days. For the Intégral plan, the service level and support are set by the quote.

Article 10. Breaches, suspension and termination

In the event of non-payment, ANCRALE sends the Customer a formal notice referring to this Article, as set out in Article 18. If payment is not made within 15 days, ANCRALE may suspend access to the Service; suspension does not by itself lead to the deletion of any data. If the default continues, ANCRALE may terminate the contract as of right, by a notice referring to this Article.

The same procedure applies to any breach by the Customer of Articles 6 (acceptable use) and 7 (Customer Content) of the Terms of Use, and to any other serious breach by the Customer: the formal notice refers to the clause concerned, and suspension occurs only if the breach continues 15 days after it. The Customer may, on the same terms, terminate the contract as of right in the event of a serious breach by ANCRALE. These provisions do not deprive either party of Articles 1224 to 1230 of the French Civil Code.

By way of exception, ANCRALE may suspend access without waiting for that period, for as long as necessary, in the event of an imminent risk to the security of the Service or of third parties, manifestly illegal content established by a well-founded report, fraud, a rejected or disputed payment, a false declaration of professional status, abuse of the free trial, manifest use of the Service for health records or for any processing amounting to health data hosting, in breach of Article 7 of the Terms of Use or an order from an authority. It informs the Customer without delay, with the statement of reasons of Article 6 of the Terms of Use.

The data retrieval period of Article 12 also applies to a termination under this Article.

Article 11. Switching provider and data portability

Under Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 on data (the “Data Act”) and French Law No 2024-449 of 21 May 2024, the Customer may at any time ask to switch to another provider, to transfer its data to its own infrastructure or to have its data erased:

  • Request: the Customer notifies its choice (another provider, its own infrastructure or erasure) by e-mail to contact@ancrale.fr, with 2 months’ notice.
  • Transition: at the end of the notice, ANCRALE provides the exportable data and gives reasonable assistance, by e-mail, to the Customer and the third parties it authorises, during a transition period of no more than 30 calendar days; during that period it ensures the continuity of the Service and the security of the data, informs the Customer of known risks to that continuity and provides it with all information useful to its exit strategy. The Customer may extend this period once, for the length it considers appropriate.
  • Technical impossibility: if the transition is technically impossible within that time, ANCRALE informs the Customer within 14 working days of its request, gives the reasons and states another transition period, of no more than 7 months; continuity of the Service is ensured during that period.
  • Charges: switching provider, transferring the data and erasing it give rise to no charge: zero euros.
  • Exportable data: the account and Organisation data, including the Organisation’s settings, the list of Users and their roles, the history of Operations (metadata, without content), the Audit trail and sign-in security events, activation events, Quota usage, the usage dashboard for the plans that include it, and invoices. Customer Content cannot be exported: it is erased automatically (Article 3 of the Terms of Use).
  • Excluded data: only data specific to ANCRALE’s internal operation: its code, the configuration of its infrastructure and its internal metrics.
  • End of the contract: the contract ends when the transition has been completed or, if the Customer asks only for erasure, at the end of the notice; ANCRALE informs the Customer by e-mail.
  • Current period: a request to switch provider or to erase the data ends the contract under this Article, even before the end of the current period or of a term agreed under Article 5; it gives rise to no charge or penalty, and the part of the current period already paid is not refunded.

Outside a switch, the Customer obtains an export of its exportable data free of charge, in self-service where the Service offers it, otherwise on request to contact@ancrale.fr within a reasonable time. The export formats and the jurisdiction of the infrastructure are published on the Sovereignty page.

Article 12. End of the contract and fate of the data

At the end of the contract, whatever the cause, and at the end of any transition period, the Customer has a retrieval period of 30 days during which it may obtain an export of its exportable data free of charge.

At the end of that period, ANCRALE erases the Customer’s data, including the Audit trail, within 30 days, then the backup copies within the following 7 days. Only the data that a legal obligation requires ANCRALE to keep, such as invoices, and the data it needs for its security or as evidence, such as the access logs of the Service and the records of acceptances, are kept, for the periods given in the privacy policy. On request, ANCRALE confirms the erasure by e-mail. Customer Content is not concerned: it is erased automatically (Article 3 of the Terms of Use).

Article 13. Termination by ANCRALE without fault of the Customer

ANCRALE may end a subscription without fault of the Customer with 3 months’ notice, given as set out in Article 18. It then refunds the part of the price paid in advance that corresponds to the period remaining after the end of the contract, and the retrieval period of Article 12 applies.

Article 14. Liability and force majeure

Each party is liable for the direct damage it causes to the other by a breach of its obligations. Neither party is liable for indirect damage. The following are excluded in particular, save in the event of gross negligence or wilful misconduct: loss or alteration of Documents or output files and the cost of reconstituting them, operating loss, loss of turnover, of customers or of an opportunity, damage to reputation and third-party claims. These exclusions apply neither to the indemnity owed by the Customer under Article 7 of the Terms of Use, nor to claims between the parties under Article 82(5) of the GDPR, which are subject to the cap in the next paragraph. The Customer keeps its originals; the Service is not a means of backup.

ANCRALE’s total liability, for all causes combined, is limited to the amount paid by the Customer under the contract in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to it, and may not be less than €5,000. This cap does not apply in the event of gross negligence, wilful misconduct or bodily injury, nor to each party’s liability towards data subjects under Article 82 of the GDPR; claims between the parties remain subject to the cap.

Neither party is liable for a failure caused by force majeure within the meaning of Article 1218 of the French Civil Code, such as an outage of the host or of communication networks, or a cyberattack, where that event is beyond ANCRALE’s control and occurs despite the security measures in place. If the impediment is temporary, performance of the obligation is suspended; if it is permanent, the contract is terminated as of right.

Article 15. Confidentiality and requests from authorities

Each party keeps confidential the information of the other that it learns in performing the contract. ANCRALE complies with the commitments of Article 7 of the Terms of Use and of Clause 3 of the DPA.

Customer Content is processed in France. Only an optional feature relying on a third-party artificial intelligence service, if one were offered and turned on by the Customer under Article 7 of the Terms of Use, would process it in the European Union. Under Article 32 of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854, ANCRALE acts on a request from a third-country authority concerning the Customer’s data only if it is based on an international agreement or if the conditions of that Article are met and, for personal data, in compliance with Chapter V of the GDPR, in particular its Article 48. It informs the Customer before complying, except where the request serves law enforcement purposes and for as long as necessary to preserve the effectiveness of the law enforcement activity. When any other authority asks for access to the Customer’s data, ANCRALE informs the Customer where the law allows it. In all cases, it discloses only the minimum data necessary.

Article 16. Personal data

The annexed DPA governs the processing of personal data that ANCRALE carries out on behalf of the Customer; it forms part of the contract. The processing for which ANCRALE is the controller, its retention periods, the payment provider and the e-invoicing platform are described in the privacy policy.

Article 17. Assignment and subcontracting

The Customer may not assign the contract without ANCRALE’s written consent. The Customer consents in advance, within the meaning of Article 1216 of the French Civil Code, to the assignment of the contract by ANCRALE to a company that takes over all or part of its business, or to a company it controls, that controls it or that is under the same control as it; the assignment takes effect towards the Customer when it is notified to it and releases ANCRALE for the future (Article 1216-1 of the French Civil Code). The Customer may terminate the contract on that ground only if the assignment lowers the protection of personal data. ANCRALE may use subcontractors, under the DPA as regards personal data, and remains responsible for their work, subject to Article 14.

Article 18. Provisions common to the Terms of Use, the Terms of Sale and the DPA

Changes: ANCRALE may change the Terms of Use, the Terms of Sale, the DPA and the price list. A substantial change unfavourable to the Customer, in particular one affecting the essential features of the Service, the Quotas or limits of the plan subscribed to, liability or the DPA, is notified to it at least 30 days before it comes into force; continued use of the Service after that date amounts to acceptance, and a Customer who refuses it may terminate free of charge before that date, with the refund provided for in Article 5. A change that lowers the protection of personal data also requires the Customer’s express acceptance, given by e-mail by a person empowered to bind it; until it is accepted, it does not apply to the Customer. Other changes (minor corrections, updates of the information pages to which the contract refers, security, anti-abuse or legally required measures) take effect on publication. Price increases follow Article 6, and changes of sub-processors Clause 5 of the DPA. Successive versions are dated and archived.

Notices: formal notices, terminations and notices of change are given by e-mail: by ANCRALE, to the e-mail address the Customer gave when subscribing and keeps up to date; by the Customer, to contact@ancrale.fr, or online in the Service for termination under Article 5. They are deemed received on the first working day after they are sent. Other information may be given by a message in the Service.

Language: the contract is entered into in French. The Terms of Use, the Terms of Sale and the DPA are written in French; the English translation is provided for convenience and, in the event of any discrepancy, the French version prevails.

Governing law and disputes: the contract is governed by French law. Subject to mandatory rules of jurisdiction, any dispute between traders falls within the jurisdiction of the commercial court of Paris or of the court that succeeds it; for other professionals, the statutory rules of jurisdiction apply. Any action by one party against the other under the contract is time-barred one year after the day its holder knew or should have known the facts allowing it to be brought (Article 2254 of the French Civil Code).

Evidence: the records of acceptances kept by ANCRALE or by its payment provider, the versions of the documents archived by ANCRALE and the Audit trail kept by ANCRALE are evidence between the parties of the acceptances, the versions accepted and the Operations they record, unless proven otherwise.

General provisions: the contract is the entire agreement of the parties on its subject matter and supersedes any prior exchange. If a provision is held void or unenforceable, the others remain in force. A party’s failure to rely on a breach is not a waiver of its right to rely on it. The provisions that by their nature survive the end of the contract, in particular confidentiality, liability, the fate of the data and the settlement of disputes, remain in force.

Data processing agreement (DPA), annexed to the Terms of Sale

This agreement (the “DPA”) is entered into between the Customer, as controller, and ANCRALE, as processor, under Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”). Where the Customer itself acts as processor for its own clients, ANCRALE is its sub-processor: the Customer warrants that it has obtained its controller’s authorisation to use ANCRALE and that its instructions comply with those it receives. Terms defined in the Terms of Use and the Terms of Sale have the same meaning in the DPA.

Clause 1. Subject matter, roles and term

The DPA sets the terms on which ANCRALE processes, on behalf of the Customer, the personal data contained in Customer Content, described in Annex 1. It applies for the whole term of the contract, then until that data is erased, and prevails over the Terms of Sale and the Terms of Use as regards personal data.

Clause 2. Instructions

ANCRALE processes the data only on the Customer’s documented instructions, including with regard to transfers to a third country: the Terms of Use, the Terms of Sale, the DPA and the Operations started in the Service are its instructions, which the Customer may supplement in writing. ANCRALE immediately informs the Customer if an instruction appears to it to infringe data protection law. If Union or Member State law requires it to process the data, ANCRALE informs the Customer before processing, unless that law prohibits it. The Customer warrants the lawfulness of the processing it entrusts to ANCRALE, in particular its legal basis and the information given to data subjects.

Clause 3. Confidentiality and access

The persons authorised to process the data are bound by a written duty of confidentiality and informed of the secrecy that binds the regulated professions. None of them accesses Customer Content, except at the Customer’s explicit support request or under a legal obligation (Clause 2); any such access is documented.

Clause 4. Security

ANCRALE implements the technical and organisational measures described in Annex 2. It may change them without lowering the overall level of security they provide and keeps Annex 2 up to date; such a change is not a change to the DPA.

Clause 5. Sub-processors

The Customer gives a general authorisation for the sub-processors whose list, with their location and the processing entrusted, is published on the Sovereignty page. ANCRALE notifies it, by e-mail or in the Service, of any addition or replacement at least 15 days before it takes effect. The Customer may object in writing, on legitimate grounds, within that period; the change then does not apply to its data until the objection is settled. Failing agreement before the change takes effect, the Customer may terminate the contract free of charge, with effect no later than that date, and with the refund provided for in Article 5 of the Terms of Sale. If the Customer does not terminate and the objection is not settled, ANCRALE may end the contract under Article 13 of the Terms of Sale; the change does not apply to the Customer’s data until the contract ends. ANCRALE imposes on each sub-processor obligations equivalent to those of the DPA and remains fully liable for their performance.

Clause 6. Location and transfers

Customer Content is processed in France and is not transferred to any third country. Only an optional feature relying on a third-party artificial intelligence service, if one were offered and turned on by the Customer under Article 7 of the Terms of Use, would process it in the European Union. Requests from authorities are handled under Article 15 of the Terms of Sale.

Clause 7. Assistance to the Customer

ANCRALE forwards to the Customer, without undue delay, any request to exercise rights it receives about the data it processes for the Customer, without answering it itself. As Customer Content is kept only for the periods of Article 3 of the Terms of Use, ANCRALE cannot identify the persons it concerns; it helps the Customer, as far as possible, to answer requests. It provides, on request, a security and architecture sheet for the Customer’s impact assessments and helps it comply with Articles 32 to 36 of the GDPR, taking into account the information available to it.

Clause 8. Data breaches

ANCRALE notifies the Customer of any personal data breach without undue delay after becoming aware of it, by e-mail or in the Service, so that the Customer actually learns of it within a time that allows it to meet its own notification obligations (Article 33 GDPR). The notification describes the nature of the breach, the categories and approximate number of persons and records concerned, its likely consequences, the measures taken or proposed and the contact point from whom more information can be obtained; information not yet available is provided as soon as it is. ANCRALE keeps a register of breaches.

Clause 9. Fate of the data

Customer Content is erased automatically, no later than 24 hours after it is uploaded or typed (Article 3 of the Terms of Use). At the end of the contract, the Customer’s other data is returned then erased under Articles 11 and 12 of the Terms of Sale; the only exception is the data for which ANCRALE is itself the controller (Clause 11) and which Article 12 of the Terms of Sale allows it to keep. On request, ANCRALE confirms the erasure by e-mail.

Clause 10. Documentation and audits

ANCRALE keeps a record of the processing it carries out as processor and makes available to the Customer, on request, all information needed to demonstrate compliance with the DPA. Audits are first carried out on documents: a questionnaire and attestations provided by ANCRALE. If the Customer considers, with stated reasons, that these documents are not enough to establish compliance with the DPA, it may have an on-site audit carried out, no more than once a year, with reasonable notice, by itself or by an independent auditor bound by confidentiality, at its own cost, including the reasonable time ANCRALE spends on it. An on-site audit is also possible, on the same terms as to notice, confidentiality and cost, after a personal data breach affecting the Customer or at a supervisory authority’s request. Where an audit establishes a breach by ANCRALE of its obligations under the DPA, ANCRALE bears its own costs, including the time it spent on the audit, and refunds to the Customer any sums the Customer has already paid to ANCRALE on that account. If that breach is significant, ANCRALE also refunds the reasonable fees the Customer has paid to the independent auditor. The refund of these fees counts towards the liability cap of Article 14 of the Terms of Sale.

Clause 11. Processing for which ANCRALE is the controller

ANCRALE is the controller of the processing described in its privacy policy, in particular the Audit trail, which holds neither the content nor the name of the Documents, invoicing, support and the security of the Service. It refrains from any reuse of Customer Content, including to train an artificial intelligence model; the aggregated and anonymised statistics of Article 9 of the Terms of Use, which never concern Customer Content, are not a reuse.

Clause 12. Liability and common provisions

Each party’s liability towards data subjects is not limited (Article 82 GDPR). Changes to the DPA follow Article 18 of the Terms of Sale, changes to the security measures Clause 4 and changes of sub-processors Clause 5. The other common provisions of Article 18 of the Terms of Sale apply to the DPA.

Annex 1. Description of the processing

  • Nature: the Operations of the document-processing tools of the Service, whose list and features are those of the Service.
  • Purpose: carrying out the Operation requested by the User, to the exclusion of any other.
  • Duration: the time of the Operation, then automatic erasure no later than 24 hours after upload or typing; the delays in force are published on the Sovereignty page.
  • Data: any Customer Content. It may include special categories of data (Article 9 GDPR), data relating to criminal convictions and offences (Article 10 GDPR) and data covered by professional secrecy, the lawfulness of whose processing the Customer alone assesses. ANCRALE is not a health data host, nor certified as one: health records and any processing covered by Article L. 1111-8 of the French Public Health Code are excluded; an incidental mention of health data in an ordinary document whose subject is not health, outside the scope of that Article, remains allowed, the Customer being answerable for the lawfulness of its processing (Article 7 of the Terms of Use).
  • Data subjects: any person mentioned in Customer Content, in particular the Customer’s clients, correspondents, employees and third parties, and the Users.
  • Location: France, subject to Clause 6.

Annex 2. Security measures

ANCRALE implements, according to the state of the art and the risks (Article 32 GDPR), measures in the following categories:

  • no lasting storage of Customer Content and automatic erasure, checked regularly;
  • encryption of exchanges, with the Service and between the components of the infrastructure;
  • separation of the data of each Organisation;
  • access control: authentication of Users, management of staff authorisations, human access to Customer Content only at the Customer’s support request or under a legal obligation (Clause 3);
  • logging: Audit trail of Operations, without content or file name, and security logs;
  • backups limited to account and billing data, excluding Customer Content;
  • protection of technical secrets and configurations;
  • hosting of the infrastructure of the Service in data centres located in France; the host’s certifications are given, dated, on the Sovereignty page;
  • regular review of the measures as the risks and the state of the art evolve.