Terms and Conditions of Use

Article 1 — Introduction to the platform

The anderlecht.eu platform (hereinafter ‘the Platform’) is a digital service for residents dedicated to the municipality of Anderlecht (Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium). It enables residents and visitors to post opinions, views and reviews regarding municipal services and local elected representatives, within an anonymous, supportive and respectful framework.

The Platform is published and managed by the anderlecht.eu project team, who can be contacted at the following email address: contact@anderlecht.eu.

The project is listed in the Google Cloud Console under the name ‘Projet anderlecht eu’.

Article 2 — Access to the service and terms of use

Access to the Platform is open and free of charge. No registration is required to view published reviews. To post a review or opinion, users need only enter a freely chosen pseudonym; citizens are not required to create a personalised account.

The user undertakes to:

• Use the Platform in good faith and solely for the purpose for which it is intended;
• Not to impersonate a third party, an elected representative or a local authority official;
• Not to attempt to compromise the technical integrity of the service (attacks, injections, denial-of-service attacks, abusive scraping);
• Respect the rights of third parties, in particular personality rights and intellectual property rights.

Article 3 — Geographical targeting feature by neighbourhood

The Platform offers the option to link each review to one of the official neighbourhoods of the municipality of Anderlecht, namely:

• Anderlecht Centre
• Cureghem
• Moortebeek
• Neerpede
• Peterbos
• Saint-Guidon
• Scherdemael
• Veeweyde
• Vogelzang

This list is subject to change depending on local council decisions. Geographical affiliation is based on the user’s declaration and is not technically verified by the Platform. The user shall be held liable in the event of a false declaration intended to damage the reputation of a neighbourhood or its residents.

Article 4 — User-generated content and liability

4.1 User liability

By publishing a review or comment on the Platform, the user acknowledges that they are solely and entirely responsible for the content they submit. They declare that this content:

• Is truthful, based on their personal experience and does not constitute a false allegation;
• Contains no defamatory, insulting, racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic or homophobic remarks, or remarks that undermine human dignity;
• Does not constitute harassment of a natural or legal person, a local business, an elected representative or a public official of the local authority;
• Does not contain any calls for violence, incitement to hatred or threats;
• Does not breach any professional confidentiality, image rights or intellectual property rights belonging to a third party;
• Does not constitute unfair competition, unfounded disparagement or disguised advertising.

Any breach of these rules exposes the user to civil and/or criminal proceedings under applicable Belgian law.

4.2 The Platform’s status as a hosting provider (DSA)

In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act — DSA), the anderlecht.eu Platform acts as a content hosting provider (‘hosting provider’). As such:

• The Platform is not the author of the views and opinions published by users;
• The Platform cannot be held liable for unlawful content of which it was unaware, provided that it acts promptly upon notification;
• The Platform does not carry out any systematic prior validation of published content (post-publication moderation).

The Platform nevertheless reserves the right to remove, without prior notice or compensation, any content that is manifestly unlawful or contrary to these Terms of Use, as soon as it is brought to its attention.

Article 5 — Procedure for reporting and removing content (‘Notice and Action’)

In accordance with Article 16 of the DSA, any natural or legal person, as well as any competent authority, may report content that they consider to be unlawful or in breach of these Terms of Use in accordance with the following procedure:

5.1 How to report content?

Send an email to contact@anderlecht.eu, stating:

• Your contact details (surname, first name or company name, contact email address);
• The URL or precise identifier of the content in question;
• The nature of the reported content and the legal grounds cited (defamation, harassment, racism, etc.);
• Any relevant supporting documentation.

5.2 Handling of the report

The Platform undertakes to:

• Acknowledge receipt of your report within 72 working hours;
• Assess the reported content diligently and impartially;
• Remove or make the content in question inaccessible without delay if it is manifestly unlawful;
• Inform the user who made the report of the action taken in response to their request, where possible.

The Platform also reserves the right to suspend or block a user’s ability to publish content in the event of repeated abuse or serious breaches of these Terms of Use.

Article 6 — Intellectual Property

All elements constituting the Platform (design, source code, logo, graphic identity, architecture) are protected by copyright and are the exclusive property of the website publisher. Any unauthorised reproduction, representation, modification or use is strictly prohibited.

By publishing content on the Platform, the user grants the publisher a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence, valid for the duration of legal protection, to host, display, reproduce and distribute this content as part of the operation of the service.

Article 7 — Service Availability and Limitation of Liability

The Platform endeavours to ensure maximum service availability. However, the publisher shall not be held liable for any interruption, unavailability or loss of data resulting from:

• Scheduled or emergency maintenance operations;
• A failure of the hosting infrastructure (OVH SAS);
• An external cyber-attack;
• A force majeure event within the meaning of Article 1148 of the Belgian Civil Code.

Article 8 — Amendments to the Terms of Use

The publisher reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use at any time, in particular to comply with changes in Belgian or European legislation. Amendments come into force as soon as they are published on the Platform. It is the user’s responsibility to consult the current version regularly. The date of the last update is indicated in the header of this document.

Article 9 — Applicable law and competent jurisdiction

These Terms of Use are governed by Belgian law, including in particular:

• The Belgian Economic Code (CDE);
• The Act of 11 March 2003 on certain legal aspects of information society services;
• Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act);
• Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR).

In the event of a dispute relating to the interpretation, performance or termination of these Terms of Use, and in the absence of an amicable resolution within thirty (30) calendar days of notification of the dispute, exclusive jurisdiction is conferred on the courts of the judicial district of Brussels, notwithstanding multiple defendants or third-party proceedings.

Article 10 — Contact

For any queries regarding these Terms of Use, you may contact the anderlecht.eu team at: contact@anderlecht.eu.