Why should I submit a report/question?

By seeking advice or submitting a concern you are demonstrating your commitment to Danone's standards of business conduct and integrity and helping ensure that the Company operates in line with its ethical values and complies with various laws and regulations. You are also helping to protect yourself, Danone's image and reputation, minimizing the risk of financial loss and contributing to a sustainable business.

What is the process for submitting a report?

To submit an anonymous or personalized report, start by clicking the ”Submit report or seek advice“ button located on the top left side of our introduction page.

There are 4 steps to the report process:

1. First, you will be asked to read some information on the protection of your anonymity and to respond to a security query.
2. On the following page, you will be asked about the category of your report.
3. On the report page, you can elaborate on your report in your own words and answer questions about the incident by simply selecting responses. You can type up to 5000 characters into the free text field, which corresponds to a full A4 page. You may also submit a file of up to 5MB to support your report. Please do bear in mind that documents can contain information about the author. Following the sending of your report, you will receive a reference number as confirmation that you have forwarded this report.
4. After you have submitted your report, you receive a reference number as proof that you have submitted this report and choose your user name and password for your secured postbox. You will receive feedback from us via this postbox, including answers to questions and information about the progress of your report.

If you already have a secured postbox, you can access it directly via the ”Login“ button. First, you will have to answer a security query.

As long as you do not enter any data from which conclusions about your person can be drawn, the technology of the BKMS^® System will protect your anonymity.

Please rest assured that we are interested only in the incident you are reporting. Malpractices should be revealed and financial losses prevented.

What happens after I submit a report?

Your question or concern will be forwarded to the appropriate Danone management team for follow-up. Members of management will review and address your concern; they may include representatives from the Compliance team, Human Resources or Audit. Your concern will be addressed by representatives from local/cluster/regional or central teams depending on its nature and severity.

Your concern will be handled promptly, discreetly, and professionally. Discussions and enquiries will be kept in confidence to the extent possible and permitted by applicable laws and regulations.
You will be provided with a response and should you wish, follow-up information about how your question or concern was addressed.

How can I receive a reply and yet remain anonymous?

The overriding principle of this system is the protection of the whistleblower. The system's anonymity protection function is certified by an independent body.

To activate your secured postbox after submitting your report, please select your own pseudonym/user name and password. Your report is kept anonymous through encryption and other special security routines. You will never be asked for personal information at any time during the reporting process. As such you should try not to submit any personally identifiable information.

Via the secured postbox, Danone management will provide you with feedback on what is happening with your information or pose questions if details still need to be clarified - you will also remain anonymous during the dialogue. We are interested in reports to avoid damages, not in you as a whistleblower.

PRIVACY AND COOKIES POLICY

1. ABOUT US
The Danone Ethics Line (“Ethics Line”) is owned and operated by Danone S.A., a company established under the laws of France, with head offices located at 17 Boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris. Personal data entered into the Ethics Line will be stored on Danone S.A. behalf in a database operated by Business Keeper AG, Bayreuther Str. 35, 10789 Berlin, Germany.

For any questions you may have about this Data Privacy and Cookie Policy, please contact us at privacy@danoneethicsline.com.

This Privacy and Cookies Policy (the “Policy”) applies to the Ethics Line and governs the use made of the Ethics Line users' (the “Reporters”) data. Reading it carefully will help ensuring that there is nothing within it that Reporters are not prepared to agree with.

2. GOVERNING LAW
This Policy is governed by the laws of France.

3. PRIVACY AND PROTECTION OF REPORTERS PERSONAL DATA
Danone S.A. upholds the strictest protection of personal data provided or created by Reporters while using the Ethics Line.

No personally identifying information is automatically collected from Reporters browsing on the Ethics Line webpage.
When Reporters decide to submit a report or a question, the disclosure of their location and their preferred language becomes compulsory.
Generally, personally identifying data such as Reporter's name and/or e-mail address is collected and processed only when voluntarily disclosed by Reporters. Nevertheless, some countries' national laws require this disclosure as a condition for reporting on specific topics: in these cases, Reporters unwilling to disclose their data will be unable to use our Ethics Line.

If Reporters create personal accounts, to access them they will be required to disclose their login credentials: this identity verification information is kept secure and only used to assist Reporters in accessing their account or report.

Personal information gathered by us can include, but is not limited to, Reporters' name, email address, fixed or mobile telephone number, employer, and any other information useful to effectively process their report.
We will also process all the personal information included by Reporters in their report.

Data voluntarily disclosed by Reporters may, under Reporters responsibility and initiative, reveal or relate to: their physical characteristics, medical/health status, ethnic origin, religion and/or sexual orientation. By providing such data, which is entirely optional, the Reporters manifest their intention and, consequently, expressly consent to, and take sole responsibility for, the processing of this data by Danone S.A. and its delegated third parties, as the case may be.

3.1. Who has access to Reporters' information?
All precautions have been taken on our databases to store Reporters' information in a secure environment. Only a small number of Danone S.A. employees have access to Reporters' information.

Danone S.A. may transfer (or otherwise make available) Reporters' information to trusted third parties that process reports on its behalf (companies owned and operated, directly or indirectly, by Danone S.A., external consultants, auditors). Danone S.A. only transfers data to the extent necessary for these third parties to perform the required task. Danone S.A. may also disclose Reporters' data to third parties, such as competent public authorities, in order to comply with mandatory applicable laws and regulations.

Danone S.A. operates internationally. Reporters' personal data may therefore be transferred worldwide where Danone S.A. entities or delegated third parties are established and/or operate, including to countries whose data protection legislation differs from that of France. Such transfers take place in accordance with applicable French data protection rules under security conditions enabling the protection of Reporters personal data.

3.2. Reporters' rights
To the extent legally possible, Reporters can request access to data concerning them in order to have it modified, deleted or to forbid any use of it by Danone S.A. Such requests may be done by sending an email to privacy@danoneethicsline.com.

4. COOKIE POLICY
When using the Ethics Line a text file (called “session cookie”) is saved on Reporter's computer. It contains only the number of Reporter's session.
This is necessary for technical reasons in order to establish the connection to a security-certified server. The “session cookie” does no damage to Reporter's computer, it does not access their data and has no relation to the contents of their report. When Reporters close all browser windows after submitting their report, the “session cookie” will expire and be automatically deleted.