General terms and conditions of use for your website

If you use a website to promote your work or develop your business, we recommend that you draw up general conditions of use for this site. Unlike legal notices, these are not mandatory. But they are important because they define the terms of use of your website.

1. Why CGU?

The general conditions of use allow :

- inform users about how the site works and the rules to be followed

- to define the limits of your responsibility and that of the user of the site (in particular in the event of litigious behavior of certain Net surfers)

- Prove your involvement in the operation of the site.

They must be written at least in French.

2. What should you include in your Terms of Use?

This list is not exhaustive. Terms of use vary according to the features available on your site.

You can include :

- the purpose, operation and description of the services offered by the site

Example:

"This page defines the terms and conditions under which the publisher: (your name), makes the site, and the services available on the site, available to its users. They specify the manner in which Internet users access the site and use its services.

Any use of the site is subject to compliance with these conditions. Simply accessing the publisher's site on (site domain name) implies acceptance of all the conditions described below."

- the rights and obligations of the user (e.g.: to use the site in accordance with its intended use, not to harm the operation of the site or the activity of its publisher...)

- a clause holding the Internet user liable in the event of non-compliance with the GCU

- A clause protecting your intellectual property rights over your content.

For example:

"all information available on the site is the property of the publisher and is protected by intellectual property law, in particular copyright.

"the information appearing on the site is only available for consultation by users, in the absence of prior and express agreement."

"any total or partial use of the site or its content, by any means whatsoever or on any medium whatsoever, for commercial or advertising purposes, is prohibited and renders the user liable."

- Rules limiting your liability as site editor

ex :

"The publisher makes every effort to ensure that the information provided on the site is accurate and up-to-date, but cannot guarantee that the information it contains is complete, precise, accurate, exhaustive or error-free. It cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies.

It cannot be held responsible if the site is inaccessible due to technical problems.

It cannot be held responsible for the operation of hypertext links to which this site points, or for the accuracy of information from external sources to which these links point."

(if you allow users to publish on your site) "It does not in any way endorse, nor can it be held responsible for, the actions and words of users of the site, for example if they publish erroneous content or abusive language."

\ A clause on dispute settlement, enabling an attempt at amicable settlement to be made before any legal action is taken. This clause will stipulate that French law is applicable and will define the competent jurisdiction.

3. What are the GTCU?

The simplest way to present the T&C is on a dedicated page of your site, easily accessible via a link at the bottom of the page, for example.

However, this procedure does not make the GCU enforceable against your users. In other words, you can't penalize users for non-compliance with the GCU, because the fact that they appear on the site doesn't mean they've been read and accepted by users. They remain merely informative. However, the rules of French law apply (in particular, the protection afforded by the Intellectual Property Code to your works published online on your site).

To give your T&Cs contractual force, especially if the user uses a personal account or can publish online, we recommend that you display them in a pop-up window with an "I accept" checkbox at the bottom. Only users who have checked "I accept" can close the pop-up and access the site. You'll keep track of which visitors have accepted your terms and conditions.

This will enable you to penalize users who fail to comply.