Our Standard Terms & Conditions

1. Aequivalent Platform

1.1. Aequivalent SA provides an online employment screening platform (hereafter referred to as the «Platform») to manage and execute the quality assurance programmes put in place by its clients (hereafter referred to as the “Client”) during the hiring and monitoring of persons under their labour or services agreements (hereafter referred to as “Employees”).

1.2. The Platform allows the Client to verify employee personal data (hereafter referred to as the “Personal Data”) through the use of the “Services” provided by Aequivalent SA or through the tools provided on the “Marketplace”.

1.3. Through a secure electronic interface, the Client can manage and consult the Platform and has access to standardised checks, programmes, questionnaires, documents, and verification procedures.

1.4. The Client designates the users of the Platform within its organisation (hereinafter the «Client-Users») who will have personalised and secure access.

1.5. A customer support service is available to Client-Users and Employees during normal business hours in Switzerland.

2. The Services

2.1. The Services consist in the verification and delivery of a detailed employee dossier and a summary verification report (hereafter referred to as the “Employee Dossier”).

2.2. The Services are rendered according to the programmes defined and chosen by the Client (the “Programme”). The services delivery time depends on the type of programme selected by the Client and the Personal Data that need to be verified. A final report will be established at the latest 6 weeks after the Client’s request.

2.3. The Employees who are subject to the Services are contacted by Aequivalent SA and receive their own unique, personal, and secure access to the Aequivalent Platform. This access will allow the Employee to consult and complete the Personal Data that will be verified by Aequivalent SA and consult these Personal Data until they have been deleted (see clause 4.3.).

2.4. The Client is bound to inform the Employee about the treatment and verification of the Personal Data through the Aequivalent Platform and Services. Aequivalent SA does not proceed with the Services without confirmation by the employee which is formalised via the Aequivalent platform.

2.5. The Employee Dossier is the Client’s property. The Client is the only one who, according to its interests, may grant the Employee access to the Employee Dossier. The Client will provide the respective instructions to Aequivalent SA through its electronic interface. Aequivalent SA can not be held responsible for the Client’s refusal to grant the Employee access and the Client will compensate Aequivalent SA for potential damages due to an unlawful refusal.

2.6. Services that are not standardised (hereinafter the «Additional Services»), in particular the development and execution of customised programmes and verification procedures, IT systems development and support services for the integration of IT systems via the API, requests for additional official documents or additional verifications, customised statistical reports or consulting and training services, are provided at the Client’s request and subject to additional costs (see clause 5.6.).

3. Marketplace

3.1. The Platform gives the Client access to a separate space, referred to as the “Marketplace”, where several self-service tools can be used to verify and/or analyse Personal Data (hereafter referred to as the “Checks”).

3.2. The Marketplace is (only) available for Clients who have a licence to the Platform that includes this feature.

3.3. According to the Checks that the client has selected, the Checks that are made available on the Marketplace could include the use of third-party providers and/or services and may be subject to additional terms and conditions. These additional terms need to be acknowledged separately by the Client during each Check.

4. Data protection / Data security

4.1. The Personal Data are stored in Switzerland and protected by technical and organisational measures in compliance with the ISO/IEC 27001 standards, including the Swiss Data Protection Act, until they are deleted (see clause 4.3.).

4.2. Aequivalent SA can not use the Personal Data and Employee Dossier for any other purpose than the Services and/or the Checks it provides to the Client.

4.3. With the exception of the Personal Data referred to in clause 4.4., Aequivalent SA deletes all Personal Data and Employee Dossiers 90 days after the delivery of the final verification report unless a request for earlier deletion is made, in which case Aequivalent SA will comply with the request at the earliest possible moment.

4.4. Aequivalent SA has the right to use certain Personal Data (gender, nationality, country of residence, year of birth) that have been irreversibly anonymised, for statistical purposes.

4.5. The Client and Aequivalent SA are bound to comply with every applicable law and provision in the fields of data protection and employment law. In Switzerland, said protection is governed in particular by the Federal Act on Data Protection and its Ordinance, as well as by the existing regulation in the field of workers’ protection (Federal Act on Employment in Trade and Industry and its Ordinances) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

4.6. The Client-users receive a unique and secure personal access, a personal password, and an authentication code for each session. The Client is responsible for the respect of the usual security measures by the Client-Users, as well as for the update of the list of these Client-Users. Aequivalent SA reserves the right to modify the access data in case of doubt concerning the security of these accesses.

4.7. The Client may choose to manage the access of its Client-Users by setting up a Single-Sign-On (SSO) connection linked to its Active Directory. To do this, this functionality must be activated on the platform by Aequivalent SA.

4.8. The before mentioned measures do not release the Client nor Aequivalent SA from the obligation to ensure that unauthorised people are given no possibility of accessing the Personal Data and Employee Dossiers and apply additional and appropriate security measures.

4.9. The Client is responsible towards Aequivalent SA for every prejudice resulting from the non-compliance of the aforementioned obligations – in particular due to indiscretions or abusive use of the disclosed personal information.

5. Fees

5.1. The opening of an account for the Client and the use of the Platform in its standardised configuration are free of charge for up to a maximum of 2 Client-Users, for a limited number of Employee Dossiers. To benefit from a Platform with advanced functionalities, the Customer chooses the type and configuration of its account corresponding to its needs, subject to a corresponding license fee. Accounts and corresponding licence fees are automatically renewed unless written cancellation by the Client or Aequivalent SA, at least 30 days before the licence expiry date.

5.2. In order to use the Services and Marketplace, the Client needs to operate an account on the Platform with sufficient user-credit. The Client can acquire (additional) credit at any time. For certain types of accounts, the Client may also select the option of receiving an invoice retrospectively (billing charges may apply in this case) or underwrite a subscription model.

5.3. The fees for the Services and/or Marketplace depend on the price of the Programme(s) and Check(s) selected by the Client and are automatically debited from the Client’s account when placing an order on the Platform.

5.4. If an Employee does not agree to be the subject of the Services before receiving access to the Platform, the Client is informed, and the Services fees are credited to his account upon confirmation of the cancellation of the order by the Client. Fees for Checks made via the Marketplace cannot be reimbursed once the order has been confirmed by the Client.

5.5. The Programme prices include the costs of official documents in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Costs for official international documents or verification sources are not included and additionally debited to the Client’s account if they do not exceed 150.00 CHF, or after explicit client approval if they exceed this amount. If the Client does not have sufficient credit on his account to debit the additional costs, these will be invoiced retrospectively.

5.6. The Additional Services (see clause 2.6) are subject to a separate agreement with the Client. In the absence of such an agreement, additional Client-Users are charged CHF 250.00 per year and requests for additional documents or verifications are charged CHF 100.00 per event.

5.7. If the Client’s account has not been used for 12 consecutive months, Aequivalent SA is entitled to charge an administration fee of CHF 480.00 or to deactivate the account. Any remaining credit on the account of the Client concerned at the time of closure is acquired by Aequivalent SA.

5.8. Invoices are sent to the Client’s main-user by electronic means in PDF format.

5.9. The payment term for invoices is 30 days. In case of payment delay, Aequivalent SA is granted a 5% interest on arrears, and a 20.00 CHF compensation for each payment reminder. The due amounts by the Client must neither be offset with claims, nor used as compensation for other services. In case of payment delay, Aequivalent SA is granted the right, without previous notice, to interrupt the Services until it receives full payment for the Services provided.

5.10. Aequivalent SA reserves the right to adapt its prices according to the Swiss CPI or to an increase of external charges, as long as it respects a three months’ prior notice.

5.11. All amounts stated in these Standard Terms of Business and the Client contract are exclusive of VAT, unless provided otherwise.

6. Liability

6.1. Information provided by Aequivalent SA shall be used as mere support for the Client’s decision, and do not substitute the Client’s own judgement. The interpretation of the information received by the Client, as well as the decision-making itself, is the sole responsibility of the Client.

6.2. The Services and Marketplace are provided under exclusion of any liability, except those based on gross negligence or intentional fault (in the later cases, the liability of Aequivalent SA is limited to the amount of the provided services). Aequivalent SA is neither responsible for the content of collected information, nor of the content of the database transmitted to the Client, nor of the functioning capacity of its technical installations or of its software. All of the Client’s claims regarding damages, contract termination, replacement, nullity or redhibition are excluded.

7. Confidentiality and Intellectual Property

7.1. Aequivalent SA commits to treating confidentially and keeping secrecy about all the data and information that concern the Client’s organisation and businesses, and which are communicated to Aequivalent SA to fulfil the contract unless they are public information.

7.2. Clients respect the copyrights and intellectual property rights of Aequivalent SA and comply with the use of personal data according to the contract and the applicable legislation. The Clients undertake not to disclose to third parties all or part of the information of an internal, confidential or bilateral nature (in particular methods, prices, processes) resulting from the collaboration with Aequivalent SA or from other sources related to the Services. This obligation does not lapse upon termination of the contract.

8. Final Dispositions

8.1. Failure to comply with the obligations mentioned in this document may result in the refusal by Aequivalent SA to provide the Services and Marketplace.

8.2. Agreements derogating from the present Terms & Conditions are only valid if agreed in written form with Aequivalent SA. In case of doubt, these Terms & Conditions apply.

8.3. The law applicable to these Terms & Conditions and to the contractual relationship between Aequivalent SA and its Client is the Swiss law. The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all legal proceedings arising out of this contract are the headquarters of Aequivalent SA.