Information for customers
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Information for customers
Information on the processing of personal data in accordance with Articles 13, 14 and 21 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for customers
Dear Customer,
We would like to inform you about how we process your personal data and about your rights under data protection law.
- Name and contact details of the data controller and the data protection officer
Data controller:
Ratioparts-Ersatzteile-Vertriebs GmbH
Markus Linder
Barentsstrasse 17
53881 Euskirchen
Landline (general): +49 2251-650-0
Email address (general): verkauf@ratioparts.de
Data Protection Officer:
Digital Compliance Consulting GmbH
Karl-Arnold-Straße 44, DE-52349 Düren
Tel.: +49 (0) 2421 5559333
Email: datenschutz@ratioparts.de
2-Source of personal data
We process personal data that we receive from you in the course of our business relationship.
In addition – insofar as this is necessary for the provision of the service or the fulfilment of the contract with you – we process personal data that we lawfully receive or have received from other companies (e.g. transport service providers, agencies/resellers) or from other third parties (e.g. SCHUFA, credit reference agencies) – which we have lawfully received or are lawfully receiving, e.g. for the purpose of executing orders, fulfilling contracts or on the basis of consent given by you.
We may process personal data that we have lawfully obtained from publicly available sources (e.g. commercial and associations registers, the press, the media).
- Categories of personal data
We process the following categories of personal data:
- Contact details, e.g. name, address, telephone number, fax number, email address
- Customer management data, e.g. customer number
- Order data, e.g. order confirmation, delivery address
- Payment details, e.g. bank details, tax identification number
- Data arising from the fulfilment of our contractual obligations
- Information for marketing purposes
- Documentation data, e.g. data from consultancy and service meetings
- Purposes and legal bases for the processing of personal data
We process personal data on the basis of Article 6(1), first sentence, point (b) of the GDPR. The processing serves to fulfil our contracts or pre-contractual measures with you, to carry out orders, and to perform all activities necessary for the operation and administration of our business.
Details regarding the purpose of data processing can be found in the relevant contractual documents and our General Terms and Conditions.
Beyond the actual performance of the contract, we process personal data in accordance with Article 6(1), first sentence, point (f) of the GDPR. This is permitted insofar as the processing is necessary to safeguard our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided that your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms, which require the protection of personal data, do not take precedence.
Such a legitimate interest exists, for example, in the case of:
- Carrying out payment processing via external service providers
- Consulting and exchanging data with credit reference agencies (e.g. SCHUFA) to identify default risks in specific business transactions
- Reviewing and optimising procedures for needs analysis and direct customer engagement
- Advertising our own products and conducting market and opinion surveys
- Asserting legal claims and defending against legal disputes
- Ensuring the company’s IT security and IT operations
Where you have given us your consent to process your personal data for specific purposes (e.g. customer communication, conducting customer surveys, remote maintenance), the lawfulness of this processing is based on your consent (Article 6(1), first sentence, point (a) of the GDPR).
Consent that has been given may be withdrawn at any time. Please note that the withdrawal will only take effect from that point onwards. Processing carried out prior to the withdrawal is not affected by this.
Furthermore, we process personal data in accordance with Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR to the extent that this is necessary to fulfil legal obligations to which we, as a company, are subject.
The purposes of processing include, amongst other things, retention obligations under commercial and tax law pursuant to Section 257 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) and Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code (AO).
Please note:
Information on the processing of personal data in accordance with Articles 13 and 14 of the GDPR when visiting our websites and online shop can be found in the privacy policy provided there.
- Recipients of the data or categories of recipients
Within our group of companies, access to your data is granted to those departments that require it to fulfil contractual and statutory obligations.
In addition, we may disclose your personal data to other recipients outside the company, insofar as this is necessary to fulfil contractual and statutory obligations.
These may include, for example:
- Solicitors for the purpose of clarifying claims or allegations
- Tax advisers and auditors
- Data processors
6-Duration of storage and criteria for determining the storage period
Where necessary, we process and store personal data for the duration of our business relationship. This also includes the initiation and performance of a contract, as well as warranty and guarantee claims.
We also store personal data where we are legally obliged to do so. The relevant obligations regarding evidence and retention arise from the German Commercial Code and the German Fiscal Code.
The retention and documentation periods specified therein are 6 years in accordance with commercial law provisions under Section 257 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) and up to 10 years in accordance with tax law provisions under Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code (AO).
- Data subjects’ rights and right to lodge a complaint
In accordance with Article 15 of the GDPR, you have the right to obtain information about the personal data held about you.
Should any inaccurate personal data have been processed, you have the right to rectification in accordance with Article 16 of the GDPR.
Where the legal requirements are met, you may request erasure in accordance with Article 17 of the GDPR or restriction of processing in accordance with Article 18 of the GDPR.
Under Article 20 of the GDPR, you may exercise your right to data portability in respect of data processed automatically on the basis of your consent or a contract.
In addition, you have the right under Article 21 of the GDPR to object to the processing of your data. In this case, you have the right, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you which is carried out on the basis of Article 6(1), first sentence, point (f) of the GDPR (data processing based on a balancing of interests).
If you object, we will no longer process your personal data unless there are demonstrable compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
You may exercise these rights informally directly with the data controller; where possible, please address them to:
If you believe that data processing infringes data protection law, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.
You can contact the data protection supervisory authority responsible for us using the following contact details:
State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, North Rhine-Westphalia
PO Box 20 04 44
40102 Düsseldorf
Tel.: +49 211 38424-0
Fax: +49 211 3824-10
Email: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de
8 – Voluntary provision or obligation to provide data
In order to conclude a contract, you must provide us with all the information necessary for the performance of the contract.
Without this information, which may also include personal data, we will generally have to refuse to conclude the contract or will no longer be able to fulfil an existing contract and may have to terminate it.
9-Information regarding automated decision-making, including profiling
Neither automated decision-making nor profiling takes place.
10 – Transfer of data to other countries
We transfer personal data to Member States of the European Union, amongst other things, in the context of the following processing activities, and personal data is transferred to the USA (a third country).
- Customer master data management
- Contact details management
- Customer communication
- Customer relationship management
- Customer loyalty management
- Customer training
- Enquiry, quotation and order management
- Order picking
- Delivery management
- Handling of claims and complaints
- TeamViewer
- Email communication
This ensures compliance with the requirements of the GDPR. Within our group of companies, all companies involved in these processing activities have signed a framework agreement (Inter-Company Contract).
In addition to the provisions regarding mutual data processing in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR and possible joint controllership in accordance with Article 26 of the GDPR, this agreement also sets out the conditions for data transfers to third countries (EU Standard Contractual Clauses in accordance with Article 44 et seq. of the GDPR).
If you would like further information on this matter, please contact the data controller. Your enquiry should, where possible, be addressed to:
Revision history / Updates
V 1.0 / 2020 – 4 May 2020: First publication
V2.0 / 2026 – 18 September 2026