Terms of Use

Publisher and hosting

Publisher: GlobeNews SAS (a French simplified joint-stock company with capital of EUR 500, Rennes Trade and Companies Register 994 540 821, EUID FR3501.994540821, registered office: 2 Allée de Champalaune, 35740 Pacé, France), contact: [email protected].

Host of lexanon.fr: Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, United States.

These Terms of Use govern access to and use of the Lexanon Software and associated services, primarily intended for lawyers and legal professionals wishing to anonymise or redact documents (court decisions, contracts, correspondence, notes, etc.) for publication, disclosure or archiving. Lexanon helps lawyers comply with absolute professional secrecy and GDPR data protection requirements.

The Service includes a licence to use the Software, downloading, activation, updates and access to the customer area for subscription management.

Article 1: Definitions

Publisher : GlobeNews SAS, publisher of the Software.

Software : the Lexanon software, including all versions, add-on modules and updates.

Service : provision of the Software and associated functions (download, installation, activation, updates and technical support through the customer area).

Subscription : the contract between the Customer and the Publisher, defined by a quotation or written special terms specifying the duration, permitted scope of use and price of the Service.

Customer : a natural or legal person (law firm or other professional entity) that has taken out a Subscription.

User : a natural person authorised by the Customer to use the Software under the Subscription.

Documents : any file or content (text, image, etc.) processed using the Software.

Mapping table : a file generated by Lexanon linking each original element of a Document to its anonymised or pseudonymised counterpart. This table constitutes additional information under Article 4(5) of the GDPR and must be strictly protected.

GDPR : Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on personal data protection and the amended French Data Protection Act (Loi Informatique et Libertés).

Article 2: Purpose and scope of the Service

2.1 Purpose. Lexanon assists professionals (lawyers, law firms, etc.) with anonymising and redacting legal documents. It aims to facilitate removal or masking of identifying data in documents prepared for disclosure or archiving, respecting professional secrecy and legal requirements. Lexanon does not provide legal advice or legal validation: the Customer determines the final confidentiality strategy.

2.2 Local processing. Unless expressly agreed otherwise, all anonymisation processing takes place exclusively on the Customer's or User's workstation. The Publisher does not receive, host or access processed Documents. The Customer retains ownership and sole responsibility for original and processed Documents.

2.3 No legal advice. The Service is purely technical. The Publisher gives no legal opinion on Document content. The Customer alone assesses whether disclosed documents comply with legal, professional and contractual duties, including data protection, professional secrecy and confidentiality of communications.

Article 3: Acceptance of the Terms and applicable version

By taking out a Subscription, downloading, activating or first using the Software, the Customer accepts these Terms without reservation.

The applicable version is the one in force on subscription or renewal. The Publisher may later amend the Terms for legal, technical or security reasons. Changes will be notified by email or through the customer interface and apply at the next renewal, unless law or security requires immediate application.

Article 4: Access conditions, prerequisites and security

4.1 Customer responsibility. The Customer must have the technical environment necessary to run the Software: suitable computer, supported operating system, administrator rights and required software. The Customer is responsible for regularly backing up Documents and other important files on its own equipment.

4.2 Security. The Customer must implement measures appropriate to the risks: system and antivirus updates, strict access controls, disk encryption where necessary, secure backups and segregation of directories containing Documents and the mapping table.

4.3 Training. The Customer ensures that Users are trained in the Software and good anonymisation practices. The Publisher provides user documentation; the Customer remains responsible for its team's competence and final review.

Article 5: Licence to use

5.1 Licence granted. Subject to full payment of the agreed price, the Publisher grants the Customer a non-exclusive, non-assignable and non-transferable licence to use the Software for the Subscription term, solely for internal professional purposes and for the authorised number of users.

5.2 Restrictions. Unless expressly authorised, the Customer must not reproduce, modify, adapt, decompile, disassemble or attempt to reconstruct source code; supply, rent, lend, license, sublicense, network or distribute the Software to third parties; or remove or impair intellectual property notices, trademarks, logos or legal notices.

5.3 Intellectual property. The Software, including code, interfaces and documentation, remains the Publisher's exclusive property. The Customer acquires no ownership rights in the Software or its content.

Article 6: Obligations of the Customer and Users

6.1 Rights of use. The Customer warrants that it has the necessary rights to process Documents using the Software and complies with applicable legal obligations concerning personal data, trade secrets, professional secrecy and confidentiality.

6.2 Prohibited uses. The Customer must not use the Service to process or distribute unlawful content, bypass security measures or re-identify a person from an anonymised document, except where strictly necessary for internal quality control.

Article 7: Final review and responsibility for disclosed documents

7.1 Technical assistance. Lexanon provides automated anonymisation processing. No tool can guarantee perfect anonymisation in every circumstance. Results may vary according to document quality and settings.

7.2 Mandatory review. The Customer undertakes to review the entire final document before any transmission, publication, filing or delivery to a third party. The Customer remains solely responsible for disclosed content and its legal and professional compliance.

7.3 Configuration. Software performance depends on the settings selected by the Customer, who assumes full responsibility for their selection and application.

Article 8: Support, maintenance and updates

8.1 Support. The Publisher offers technical support under the terms shown in the customer area. The Customer undertakes to send only excerpts strictly necessary for support, anonymising them beforehand as far as possible.

8.2 Updates. The Publisher may offer corrective, feature or security updates. Some updates may be mandatory to maintain Service compatibility or security.

8.3 Technical environment limitation. The Publisher is not responsible for issues relating to the Customer's technical environment, including hardware, network, incompatibilities, insufficient permissions or antivirus blocking.

Article 9: Reasonable endeavours

9.1 Reasonable endeavours. The Publisher uses all reasonable efforts to ensure Service quality and proper Software operation in accordance with the supplied documentation.

9.2 Correction of defects. Where a defect is identified and reported with supporting details, the Publisher will endeavour to correct it within a reasonable time, unless it is attributable to the Customer's environment.

Article 10: Personal data and confidentiality

10.1 Local Document processing. Documents remain on the Customer's systems. The Publisher does not access their content or process it on its servers. The Customer remains the sole controller under the GDPR for its own processing operations.

10.2 Account data and Subscription management. To manage the account, billing and Service, the Publisher may collect identification data and technical information such as logs and software version. The Publisher acts as controller for this processing.

10.3 Support and minimisation. When requesting support, the Customer must mask or remove data unnecessary for diagnosis.

10.4 Mapping table. The mapping table must be stored separately and protected by appropriate technical and organisational measures. Encryption and storage on a separate medium are strongly recommended.

10.5 Mutual confidentiality. Each party undertakes to keep confidential non-public information received in connection with the Service.

10.6 Data subject rights. For processing managed by the Publisher (account and support), GDPR rights may be exercised at [email protected]. Response within one month. Complaints may be lodged with the CNIL: www.cnil.fr.

10.7 Privacy policy. Detailed arrangements are described in the Service's Privacy Policy.

Article 11: Prices, invoicing and payment

11.1 Prices by quotation. Subscription and any service fees are determined by quotation according to the Customer's needs. The accepted quotation takes precedence.

11.2 Invoicing. Unless otherwise agreed, payment is due in advance at the agreed intervals.

11.3 Late payment. In the event of non-payment, the Publisher may suspend Service access and apply applicable statutory interest and compensation.

11.4 Tax treatment. Prices exclude tax. Applicable VAT is added where required under the tax rules in force.

Article 12: Term, termination and suspension

12.1 Term. The Subscription runs for the term specified in the quotation and renews under the agreed arrangements.

12.2 Termination by the Customer. Unless otherwise stipulated, termination takes effect at the end of the current period. No pro rata refund is due, except where mandatory law requires it.

12.3 Termination for breach. If a material breach remains unremedied after notice, the other party may terminate the agreement as of right.

12.4 Effects of termination. On expiry or termination, the licence ends and the Customer must cease all use of the Software.

Article 13: Limitation of liability

13.1 Principle. The Publisher's liability is limited to direct, certain and proven loss.

13.2 Exclusions. The Publisher is not responsible for anonymisation omissions not detected before disclosure, failure to review, unsuitable settings, improper use or failures in the Customer's environment.

13.3 Indirect loss. Indirect loss, including business interruption, lost profits, reputational harm and fines, is excluded to the extent permitted by law.

13.4 Cap. If the Publisher is held liable, total compensation is capped at the amount excluding tax paid by the Customer in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to liability.

13.5 Statutory exceptions. These limitations do not apply in cases of gross negligence, intentional misconduct or contrary mandatory legal provisions.

Article 14: Warranties

The Service is provided as is, subject to applicable mandatory statutory warranties. The Publisher does not guarantee uninterrupted operation or the complete absence of vulnerabilities.

Article 15: Force majeure

Neither party may be held liable in the event of force majeure, including strikes, fire, flooding, war, network outages or regulatory acts.

Article 16: Changes to the Terms

The Publisher may amend these Terms to reflect legislative or regulatory developments or improve Service security. The Customer will be informed of any material change.

Article 17: Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by French law. Disputes fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent French courts in the Rennes district, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.

Article 18: Miscellaneous

18.1 Severability : if a provision is held invalid, the remaining provisions remain effective.

18.2 No waiver : failure to exercise a right does not constitute a waiver.

18.3 Evidence : the Publisher's electronic records, including logs, backups and timestamps, constitute evidence between the parties to the extent they are reliable.