Terms and Conditions

Introduction

These Terms and Conditions (“TAC”) contain important information about the services provided by FDC Belize LLC.

About us

FDC Belize LLC is a Texas limited liability company operating and carries on business in the United States.  We are an affiliate of Food Development Corporation. 

You agree that we may, where we consider it appropriate to do so, engage any of the Food Development Corporation affiliates to work alongside us on a matter.  Where we do engage Food Development Corporation affiliates on your matter we will, unless otherwise agreed, include its charges in our statements.

Documents and Files

We will maintain necessary documents relating to this matter in our client files.  At the conclusion of the matter (or earlier, if appropriate), it is your obligation to advise us as to which, if any, of the documents in our files you wish us to make available to you.  These documents will be delivered to you, in accordance with our usual practice, within a reasonable time after receipt of payment for outstanding fees and costs, subject to applicable rules of professional conduct.  We will retain any remaining documents in our files for a certain period of time and ultimately destroy them in accordance with our record retention program schedule then in effect.

We will keep information and documentation entrusted to us confidential, subject to any duties or obligations imposed on us by law or by applicable rules of professional conduct.  These duties or obligations may include, but are not limited to, persons attending the firm for the purposes of carrying out an audit as required, which audit may involve examining files and interviewing personnel.

Due Diligence and Bribery

The Money Laundering Regulations 2017 impose on us various obligations, including the requirement that we verify the identity of our clients and, where appropriate, their beneficial owners, prior to acting, and conduct ongoing client due diligence.  We will contact you initially and from time to time, where we are required to do so, to request this information.  In order to assist in this process we may also obtain information through electronic data provided by third parties.

We are obliged to report to the National Crime Agency (“NCA”) any knowledge or suspicion we may have of money laundering or terrorist financing, or if we have reasonable grounds for knowing or suspecting money laundering or terrorist financing.  We may not be able to tell you that a report has been made and we may not be able to continue to provide professional services unless and until the NCA permits us to do so.  We may also need to report such knowledge or suspicion to our regulator.  In such circumstances the engagement shall be suspended to the extent necessary.

We have a zero tolerance approach to bribery and corruption.  By agreeing to these TAC, you are agreeing to abide by our zero tolerance approach to bribery and corruption and to report to us any such activity which is related to this engagement and which comes to your attention during the course of the engagement.

Data Protection

Our use of personal data you provide to us is subject to your instructions and our professional duty of confidentiality.

We, acting as a data controller (and others processing data on our behalf or acting as controllers with whom we have shared personal data), hold and use information about you and your employees and representatives and individuals whose details you provide.

We work with sub-contractor data processors as required including e-discovery platforms, translators, tracing and collection agents.  Such data processors will process the personal data on our behalf and at our direction.  Furthermore, where necessary, we appoint and share personal data with external third parties as data controllers including barristers, foreign lawyers, experts, arbitrators, mediators, courts, tribunals, regulators, professional advisors or other third parties.

We use your personal data primarily to provide legal services to you, but also for related purposes including:

· conducting checks to identify you, verify your identity and screen for financial or other sanctions. For this we use third party providers who may keep a record of such search;

· gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries and investigations by regulatory bodies;

· complying with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our firms;

· ensuring firm policies are adhered to, eg policies covering security and internet use;

· ·operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control;

· ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information;

· statistical analysis to help us manage our practice eg in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures;

· updating client records;

· preventing unauthorized access and modifications to systems;

· employee administration and assessments, monitoring employee conduct, and disciplinary matters;

· marketing our services;

· credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies; and

· external audits and quality checks.

We will take appropriate technical and organizational measures which are designed to protect against unauthorized or unlawful processing of the shared personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, shared personal data.

Information we hold, including personal data about you, supplied by you or on your behalf, will be held and used in connection with our engagement in other countries or jurisdictions, some of which, including the USA, do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in other countries.

Please note that you can find more information about how we process personal data on our external Privacy Policy and cookie notices which can be found on our website.

Cookies

FDC Belize LLC uses cookies on its websites.  Cookies record information about your online preferences.  Many of these only last for the duration of the visit.  We use Google Analytics to provide information on our website visitors.  Some third parties, such as Google Analytics, may also have cookies embedded via their websites.  This includes cookies storing information when you sign up to receive newsletters and e-alerts via the website.  By agreeing to these TAC, you consent to cookies gathering information as described in this paragraph.

Communications

Unless you inform us to the contrary, we may communicate with you in connection with any matter (including confidential and legally privileged matters) by whatever means we consider appropriate, including by email or other electronic communications over the internet and with such persons we reasonably believe are authorized by you.  However, you acknowledge that electronic communications are not secure nor free from error or virus and we cannot provide any guarantee that such communications have been received, are complete and have not been intercepted or their content otherwise disclosed, and we accept no liability in respect of any claim or loss arising in connection with such communications.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may record and monitor electronic communications (including by e-mail, facsimile transmission and telephone) to ensure compliance with our global legal and regulatory obligations and internal policies.