General terms of use

3.1 Readers

The Terms can be accessed at any time from every page of the Site. By consulting the Service, a Reader accepts the Terms in the version in force on the date of consultation.

3.2 Local Correspondents and Lead Reviewers

Opening a Local Correspondent or Lead Reviewer account is subject to the express acceptance, by the person concerned, of the version of the Terms in force. The Publisher records the identity of the User, the version accepted and the date of acceptance. Each new version of the Terms must be expressly accepted for access to the account to be maintained.

3.3 Enforceable version

The enforceable version of the Terms is the one in force on the date the Service is used. Each version is numbered and dated; earlier versions remain available from the version history at the end of this document.

5.1 Sourced and dated facts

Each Fact is taken from an identified source, together with the date on which that source was consulted. The state of each Fact reflects what the source indicates on that date, and nothing else.

5.2 No assessment

The Service gives no opinion, score, ranking or label, and makes no assessment of the websites presented or of the content they publish. No Fact may be interpreted as such an assessment.

5.3 Absence of a Fact

The absence of a Fact only means that the source consulted did not contain it on the date indicated. It does not amount to any assessment of the website concerned.

5.4 Completeness and currency

The Facts depend on the sources that produce them. The Publisher guarantees neither the completeness of the Cards nor their real-time updating: a Fact may have changed in its source after the date indicated.

6.1 Who may dispute

Anyone may dispute a Fact shown on a Card: the publisher of the website presented, a person named on the Card, a journalist or a reader.

6.2 Form of the dispute

The dispute is filed through the Site’s dispute form, which gives it a tracking number at once. It states the address of the website concerned, the line of the Card disputed, the capacity of its author and what is inaccurate, with what should appear, in particular any document issued by the source of the Fact. It may also be sent by email to contact@recto-medias.fr.

6.3 Examination and decision

The dispute is examined in the light of the source of the Fact by a Lead Reviewer, who gives a reasoned opinion, then by a panel of five members of the network of Local Correspondents and Lead Reviewers, which decides by majority in an anonymous vote. The Publisher notifies the reasoned decision to the author of the dispute within fifteen days of receiving a complete dispute. Where the dispute is well founded, the Fact is corrected; the Card mentions the correction and its date.

6.4 Reply published on the Card

Where the author of the dispute is the publisher of the website and has asked for it, their reply is published on the Card once the dispute has been examined.

6.5 Right of reply

This procedure does not affect the right of reply available to any person named or designated in an online public communication service, under paragraph III of Article 1-1 of French Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 on confidence in the digital economy. The request is sent to the publication director, at clement.pandreau@axo-lab.fr, within three months of the message justifying it being made available to the public. The reply is free of charge; the publication director inserts it within three days of its receipt, under the conditions laid down by law.

9.1 Best-efforts obligation

The Publisher undertakes to use the means necessary to reproduce the Facts faithfully from their sources and to ensure the operation of the Service. It is bound by a best-efforts obligation.

9.2 Limits

To the extent permitted by law, the Publisher cannot be held liable for:

• an inaccuracy or omission in a source, provided that the Fact faithfully reproduces that source on the date indicated;
• the use the User makes of the Facts, or the decisions they take on their basis;
• any unavailability of the Service, in particular for maintenance or in the event of force majeure;
• the content of third-party websites to which the Service refers, over which the Publisher has no control.

No provision of the Terms has the effect of excluding or limiting the Publisher’s liability in the event of gross negligence or wilful misconduct, or of depriving a User who is a consumer of the rights granted to them by mandatory provisions.

9.3 Liability of the User

The User is responsible for the use they make of the Service and of the Facts, in particular for reproducing and disseminating them.

10.1 Rights holders

The Service and all its elements, in particular the source code of the Site and of the Extension, the database in its structure and content, the name “Recto”, its subtitle, its logo, its graphic charter and its texts, form a work of collaboration within the meaning of Articles L. 113-2, first paragraph, and L. 113-3 of the French Intellectual Property Code. They are the joint property, in equal shares, of the Rights Holders, under a co-ownership and operating agreement. The Rights Holders also hold the database producer’s right in the Service’s database, provided for by Articles L. 341-1 et seq. of the same code.

The Publisher operates the Service under a non-exclusive licence granted to it by the Rights Holders. It does not hold the intellectual property rights in the Service or in any of its elements.

10.2 User’s right of use

The Terms grant the User no licence over the Service or any of its elements, with the sole exception of the personal, non-exclusive and non-transferable right to consult the Service and to make personal, non-commercial use of it, to the extent necessary for that consultation.

10.3 Prohibitions

Any reproduction, representation, extraction or reuse, in whole or in part, of the Service or of any of its elements, by any means whatsoever, without the prior written authorisation of the Rights Holders, is prohibited. It constitutes an infringement within the meaning of Articles L. 122-4 and L. 335-2 of the French Intellectual Property Code or an infringement of the database producer’s rights within the meaning of its Article L. 342-1. These prohibitions apply subject to the exceptions provided for by law, in particular by Articles L. 122-5 and L. 342-3 of the same code.

10.4 Public data

The public data displayed by the Service remain subject to the licences of their producers, which govern their reuse and are set out in the legal notice, in the article “Data sources and licences”.

14.1 Severability

If a provision of the Terms is held to be void or unenforceable, it is deemed not to have been written; the other provisions remain in full force.

14.2 No waiver

The fact that the Publisher does not rely on a breach by the User of any of their obligations does not amount to a waiver of the right to rely on it later.

14.3 Amendments

The Publisher may amend the Terms, in particular to take account of changes to the Service, to the regulations or to case law. Each amendment gives rise to a new version, numbered and dated, published on the Site. Earlier versions remain available from the version history at the end of the document.

A new version comes into force on the date it states. Where the amendment is substantial, the Publisher informs Users by a notice on the Site and, for Users with an account, by email, before it comes into force.

14.4 Governing law

The Terms are governed by French law.

14.5 Dispute resolution

In the event of a disagreement about the interpretation or performance of the Terms, the User is invited to send a written complaint to the Publisher by email at contact@recto-medias.fr, in order to seek an amicable solution.

Failing an amicable solution, the disagreement is brought before the competent French courts. Where the User is a consumer, they may bring proceedings, at their choice, before one of the courts with territorial jurisdiction under the French Code of Civil Procedure or before the court of the place where they lived at the time the contract was concluded or the harmful event occurred. This clause applies subject to the mandatory rules protecting consumers.