Privacy Notice

Dear Sir or Madam,

The security and protection of your personal data is of utmost importance to us. Your data is exclusively processed within the framework of existing legal regulations.

In compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz – DSG) we issue the following information to you as a current or former client as well as to your respective employees, shareholders, company organs and to anybody who visits this website:

I. Responsibility

Responsibility lies with Metzler & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH, Landstraße 49, 4020 Linz, email-address: kanzlei@m3-ra.at, with its managing directors Dr. Michael Metzler and Dr. Matthäus Metzler.

II. Visiting metzler.neuim.net

a. Cookies

Your website uses cookies. We use cookies on our website to help make your visits more user-friendly and effective. A cookie is a small text file which serves the purpose of saving information. When visiting a website, the website may set a cookie on the website user’s computer. If the user visits the website again, the website can read the data from the formally saved cookie in order to know whether or not the user has visited the website before and, if so, which areas of the website were of most interest to him/her.

You can set your browser in a way that it informs you about cookies and gives you the opportunity to allow or not allow the setting of cookies on an individual basis as well as to automatically delete all cookies when closing the browser. Deactivating cookies may lead to a limited functionality of the website and you might not be able to entirely use the website.

Our website particularly uses the following cookies:

Google Tag Manager: used as a central control of all cookies used by the website
Cookie consent plugin: stores the information that the user consented to the use of cookies
Google Analytics: serves to store anonymised user data for Google Analytics through Google

Legal basis for the use of cookies in compliance with Article 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR is the legitimate interest of Metzler & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH.

b. Server Log File

In order to monitor the technical function and enhance the operational reliability of the web server the website processes the following personal data in a server log file:

Called-up content
Time of server enquiry
Browser type / browser version
Operating system used
Referrer URL
IP address

These personal data are stored temporarily for a maximum of 24 hours. Afterwards the IP addresses will be anonymised.

Legal basis for the use of cookies in compliance with Article 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR is the legitimate interest of Metzler & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH.

c. Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA („Google“). For this purpose, we concluded a contract concerning the commissioned data processing with Google. When our website is called-up, a software establishes a connection with the Google servers and transmits data to Google servers which might be located in the USA. Google Analytics additionally uses cookies in order to store information about the website user and in order to analyse the use of the website by the user.

This website uses the functionality “IP Anonymization”. For this purpose, within member states of the European Union and other contracting states of the European Economic Area your IP address will be shortened and thereby anonymised by Google before its transmission to a Google server in the Unites States. Only in exceptional circumstances, the full IP address is transferred to a Google server in the United States and shortened there.

According to Google, the collected information will be used to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports about website activities and to provide further services related to website and internet usage.

The collected data may also be transmitted to third parties as far as this is required by law or as far as third parties have been commissioned by Google to process the data.

You can deactivate Google Analytics. You can block the collection of your personal user data by Google Analytics by downloading and installing the following available browser plugin:

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de

You can block the collection of your personal user data by clicking on the following link: Your local browser cache will be set in a way that the collection of your data is blocked for future visits of the website:

Legal basis for the use of Google Analytics in compliance with Article 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR is the legitimate interest of Metzler & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH. The analysis of the usage of this website is done to optimize the website.

d. Contact form

If you use the contact form provided on our website, the entered personal data will be processed in order to handle your request on the legal basis that by submitting the contact form you gave your consent that data be processed.

There is no legal or contractual obligation to disclose personal data. The only effect of your non-disclosure is that you cannot submit your request and we cannot process it.

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by giving written notice; however, the legitimacy of the processing of the data until your withdrawal shall remain unaffected.

The processing of your personal data in the course of contacting us by using the contact form is deemed as carrying out pre-contractual measures in line with Article 6 (1) (b) of the GDPR.

Data processed for the aforementioned purposes will be stored for the duration of the contractual relationship. After the client-lawyer relationship ceases, your personal data will be kept stored in compliance with the legal storage periods.

III. Clients / prospective clients

We process all personal data necessary for offering and carrying out our legal counselling services as well as any other data that you made available to us. This inter alia includes your name, contact details, date of birth, social security number, photographs etc. In case of claims for damages or criminal proceedings also sensitive data such as health data will possibly be stored.

We process your personal data in fulfilment of contractual duties in accordance with Article 6 (1) (b) of the GDPR, in particular in order to give you legal advice, represent you vis-à-vis public authorities, public agencies and in court as stipulated in our contract of mandate.
We process your personal data in fulfilment of legal requirements in accordance with Article 6 (1) (c) of the GDPR along with Article 9 (2) (g) of the GDPR with the objective of complying with various legal obligations which Metzler & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH is subject to. Such obligations are stipulated by the Austrian Lawyer’s Act (Rechtsanwaltsordnung – RAO) and other legal provisions regarding lawyer’s services.
We process your personal data in order to protect our legitimate interests in accordance with Article 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR as long as they are not overridden by your non-disclosure interest. Our overriding legitimate interests especially include the advertising and marketing of our office at special occasions.

Your personal data will be transmitted to third parties as far as this is necessary for carrying out and protecting our duties and interests defined above; such third parties could be the following:

courts and authorities including arbitral tribunals
bar association
legal and voluntary representative bodies
compulsory insurance and private insurance companies
tax consultants / auditors
opposing parties in court proceedings
opposing parties in extra-judicial proceedings
medical institutions and doctors e.g. if we solicit medical records
legal registries e.g. testament, residents register, register for ultimate beneficial owners, commercial register, land register, execution register
probate court commissioners

In case the recipients of your personal data are located outside of the EEA and there is no decision by the European Commission which declares that they provide an adequate level of data protection, we will make sure that the transmission of data takes place only on the basis of primary convention articles or a certification and the EU-US-Privacy Shield.

Furthermore, we transmit your personal data to data processors like IT service providers only for the performance of certain tasks. Any and all data processors are obligated to comply with the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz – DSG).

Your personal data will only be processed as long as necessary. As soon as your data is not needed anymore, it will be deleted.

We will store all personal data necessary for the purpose of fulfilling our contractual duties for the duration of the business relationship and beyond that only in accordance with legal requirements (e.g. the Austrian Commercial Code – Unternehmensgesetzbuch [UGB]). We explicitly point out that legal storage periods may last up to 30 years.

IV. Business partners

We use your submitted personal data in order to fulfil contractual duties (Article 6 [1] [b] of the GDPR), legal obligations (Article 6 [1] [c] of the GDPR) and protect our legitimate interests (article 6 [1] [f] of the GDPR) only as long as they are not overridden by your non-disclosure interest. If necessary, we transmit personal data to third parties like banks, tax consultants/auditors etc.

In case the recipients of your personal data are located outside of the EEA and there is no decision by the European Commission which declares that they provide an adequate level of data protection, we will ensure that the data transmission takes place only on the basis of primary convention articles or a certification and the EU-US-Privacy Shield.

Furthermore, we transmit your personal data to data processors like IT service providers only for the fulfilment of certain tasks. Any and all data processors are obligated to comply with the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz – DSG).

Your personal data will only be processed as long as necessary. As soon as your data is not needed any more, it will be erased.

V. Applicant data

When you apply for a position in our law firm, you submit all personal data (CV, reports and recommendations, contact details) on a voluntary basis. If you do not give your express consent to store your data longer than for the recruitment period, these will automatically be deleted after the end of the recruitment process plus another period of six months thereafter.

VI. Your rights pursuant to the GDPR

According to Article 15 of the GDPR you have the right to be informed about stored personal data at any time.

Furthermore, you have the right to rectification of inaccurate or incomplete personal data according to Article 16 of the GDPR, a right to restrict processing according to Article 18 of the GDPR or – apart from the mandatory data storage for the purposes of conducting business – you have the right to deletion of your personal data according to Article 17 of the GDPR as well as a right to data portability according to Article 20 of the GDPR.

You also have the right to file a complaint with the competent data protection authority.

You can object to the processing of your data via regular mail to Metzler & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH, Landstraße 49, 4020 Linz, or by writing an email to kanzlei@m3-ra.at.

If you have any questions or suggestions concerning this privacy notice, please directly get in touch with the managing directors Dr. Michael Metzler or Dr. Matthäus Metzler via email to kanzlei@m3-ra.at.