GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
FOR THE ONLINE SERVICES OF
WWW.BACKSWAP.COM

I. INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS

1 – Purpose

The purpose of the General Terms and Conditions is to define the modalities and conditions under which the services available on the site www.backswap.com (hereafter referred to as the "Site") may be used.

The Site offers a swapping platform enabling Internet users to come together with a common aim to swap their residences temporarily (the temporary swapping of residences is hereafter referred to as the "Swap").

It offers:

• Services that can be accessed freely by all Internet users (hereafter referred to as "Visitors"), with no prior payment or formalities required. These services are hereafter referred to as "Free Services".

• Exclusive services, that are in addition to the Free Services, that can only be accessed by persons having subscribed for membership (hereafter referred to as "Members"). These services are hereafter referred to as "Member Services".

Free Services and Member Services are hereafter referred to collectively as: "Services".

Visitors and Members are hereafter referred to collectively as "Users".

These General Terms and Conditions apply to the entire range of services offered on the Site.

While using the Site, Users may be subject to certain conditions of use specific to certain Services. These conditions are hereby incorporated into the General Terms and Conditions and, in the case of any inconsistency between the General Terms and Conditions and these specific conditions, the latter prevail.

2 – Manager of the Site and the Services

The Site and the Services are managed by the company Virgile Valour Immobilier, registered under the Paris Trade and Company Registry number 504 883 810, whose head office is located at 25 rue La Boétie, 75008 Paris (hereafter referred to as "the Company").

3 – Site and Services exclusively reserved for private individuals

The Site and the Services are intended exclusively for private individuals and are not intended for professionals, the latter being any person or entity having regular salaried employment in any branch of industry or commerce, notably in the real estate, tourism or travel sectors.

4 – Access to the Site

Users are responsible for setting up all necessary computer and telecommunications equipment that would enable them to access to the Site.

All telecommunication costs for access to the Internet and for use of the Site will be borne by the User.

II. PROVISIONS SPECIFIC TO FREE SERVICES

5 – Acceptance of the General Terms and Conditions

By using the Services, Visitors accept to be fully bound by the General Terms and Conditions, and acknowledge having read, understood and agreed to them in their entirety. Any qualified acceptance is considered as null and void. Visitors who do not accept to be bound by the General Terms and Conditions must not access the Site or use the Services.

6 – Description of Free Services

The Company provides the Free Services listed below under the following conditions:

6.1 Consulting Advertisements (partially)

The term "Advertisement" refers to any description sheet for a residence offered for swapping, put online by a Member in accordance with the terms stipulated in Article 13.1.

Visitors can consult some Advertisements put online on the Site, accessing them through a criteria selection search.

The Advertisements that can be consulted as part of the Free Services do not contain either information on the Members or the means to contact them.

6.2 Consulting the Blog and Photos

Visitors cannot consult the Member Services Blog and Photos defined below in Articles 13.5 and 13.6. They cannot post articles to the Blog, add Photos or use the functionalities, as the use of these Services is reserved for Members.

6.3 Access to the "Advice Centre"

Visitors can access the "Advice Centre", which contains information about the Site and residence swapping in general.

6.4 Subscription to the Newsletter

Visitors can subscribe in order to receive the Company's Newsletter. They are therefore asked to review and agree to the content of the document "Charter concerning the protection of personal data", as stipulated in Article 25 below.

III. PROVISIONS SPECIFIC TO MEMBER SERVICES

7 – Acceptance of the General Terms and Conditions

Members must accept the General Terms and Conditions by checking a checkbox in the Site's membership subscription form. This acceptance can only be full and complete. Any qualified acceptance is considered as null and void. Visitors who do not accept to be bound by the General Terms and Conditions must not access the Site or subscribe to the Member Services.

8 – Access to Member Services

Visitors who wish to have access to Member Services must subscribe for membership in accordance with Article 9 and pay the membership fee in accordance with Article 10.

Once these formalities have been completed, the Visitor becomes a Member.

During subsequent visits to the Site, Members can access the Member Services by connecting to the Site using their connection ID and personal secret code.

9 – Subscribing for membership

In order to subscribe for membership, Visitors must:

1. Fill in the membership subscription form on the Site, entering all required information.
Visitors guarantee that all information they provide in this form is exact, up to date and sincere and is in no way misleading or dishonest.
They agree, once Members, to update this information in the event that any of it should change or become obsolete in order to continuously meet the above-mentioned criteria.

2. Choose an ID and a password. Once a Member, they will be able to change their password at any time. Changing the password regularly is recommended.

3. Choose the membership plan and pay the corresponding fee, in accordance with Article 10 below.

Membership subscription automatically creates an account in the Member’s name, to which the Site allocates a personal space in a format, and according to the technical means, that the Company deems the most appropriate for providing Member Services. This personal space enables Members to:

• Manage their profiles and their Advertisements

• Use the Services of MailBox, Blog, Photos and Chat.

10 – Membership plans and prices, terms of payment

10.1 The available membership plans and their respective prices are as follows:

10.2 The membership fee can be paid:

• By credit card, through a secure online payment service e-transactions of Credit Agricole.

• By PayPal.

10.3 In the event of any payment irregularity, the Company reserves the right to suspend or terminate the membership in question, at any moment and without notification.

10.4 Proposing for membership

A Member can propose one or several persons that they know with the aim that the latter take out a membership subscription to the Site.

For five newly-subscribed Members resulting from a proposal for membership, the proposing Member will be offered three extra months' free membership and the new Member will be offered one month free membership, whatever the membership plan either has subscribed to.

11 – Immediate implementation of Member Services

Due to the fact that Member Services become effective immediately upon subscription for membership, Members do not benefit from any right of withdrawal.

12 – Membership strictly for private use

A Member can only subscribe to one membership at a time.

Members agree to be the sole users of their membership subscription and thus of the Member Services and agree not to allow any third party to use these services on their behalf, unless accepting full responsibility for the consequences. In the same way, Members are responsible for keeping their passwords confidential.

Members must contact the Company immediately at the address mentioned in Article 26 of the General Terms and Conditions, if they notice that their account has been used without their knowledge. Members acknowledge the Company's right to take all measures it deems appropriate in a case such as this.

13 – Description of Member Services

The Company provides the Member Services listed below under the following conditions:

13.1 Putting Advertisements online

13.1.a Purpose – Presentation of Advertisements

Members have the option to put one or several Advertisements online.

Each Advertisement is composed of the information provided by the Member.

The Advertisement is put online in a format, and according to the technical means, that the Company deems the most appropriate.

In particular, photographs that may be included in the Advertisement may be subject to modifications concerning their scaling, format and colour, as well as any alteration or deterioration of the quality of the image due to technical requirements and constraints related to their coding, their compression or their publishing on the Internet.

Members must check their Advertisement as soon as it is put online. In the event that their Advertisement contains errors or omissions, Members can modify their Advertisement through their personal space or inform the Company whose contact details can be found in Article 26.

Referencing of Advertisements and their presentation resulting from a search or from the Swap Calendar is left solely to the discretion of the Company, who also reserves the right to present certain Advertisements on the Site's home page. Members cannot lodge a complaint or put in a claim concerning this condition.

13.1.b Members' obligations and agreement relating to Advertisements

Members can only put Advertisements online relating to their own residence(s) but not relating to that/those of a third party.

A Member is solely responsible for the information contained in their Advertisement(s) (text, contact details and photographs) which they provide and put online.

Members agree to only put information in the Advertisement(s) that is honest, complete and reflecting real facts, in such a way as not to mislead the public.

Where the photographs of an Advertisement are concerned, the Member guarantees that the photographs accurately represent the residence being advertised and its surroundings and are not likely to mislead the public.

Members are expressly referred to the provisions of Article 14 of the General Terms and Conditions concerning Members' obligations and agreement relating to the content of Advertisements.

13.2 Consulting complete versions of Advertisements and Members' profiles

Members can consult all Advertisements put online on the Site, accessing them through a criteria selection search or through the Swap Calendar.

They can also consult other Members' profiles.

Advertisements and profiles that can be consulted through Member Services contain a link enabling the advertising Member to be contacted through the services of MailBox or Chat set out in Articles 13.3 and 13.4 below.

13.3 MailBox

The Company offers to Members, within the limitations and conditions of the General Terms and Conditions, access to the email mailbox service called "MailBox", which allows Members of the Site to communicate with each other privately without having to provide their private email addresses.

The MailBox Service operates in a format, and according to the technical means, that the Company deems the most appropriate for providing this Service.

13.4 Chat

The Company offers to Members, within the limitations and conditions of the General Terms and Conditions, access to an instant messaging service called "Chat", which allows Members of the Site to chat with each other through a text dialogue interface in real time.

Communication between Members through the interface of the Chat Service assumes the nature of private correspondence.

The Chat Service operates in a format, and according to the technical means, that the Company deems the most appropriate for providing this Service.

13.5 Blog

13.5.a Purpose of the Blog Service

Within the framework of the Service called "Blog", the Company offers Members, within the limitations and conditions of the General Terms and Conditions, the option to (i) edit one or more web pages (hereafter called "Blogs") on which Members may place any private content, (ii) publish comments (hereafter called "Comments") on the Blogs of other Members.

The Blog Service operates in a format, and according to the technical means, that the Company deems the most appropriate for providing this Service.

13.5.b Members' obligations and agreement concerning the Blog Service

A Member is solely responsible for editing their own Blog and Comments. The Company will not perform any moderation or prior monitoring of any sort (Members are expressly referred to the provisions of Article 14 of the General Terms and Conditions).

Members expressly agree to abstain from publishing their contact details or those of another Member of the Site on their Blog or in their Comments.

13.6 Photos

13.6.a Purpose of the Photos Service

Within the framework of the Service called "Photos", the Company offers Members, within the limitations and conditions of the General Terms and Conditions, the option to (i) post photographs of their trips on the Site, with an aim to share them with the community, (ii) download photographs posted by other members, for private use only.

Members expressly authorize other members of the Site to download the photographs that they put online and use them for private use only and not commercial use.

The Photos Service operates in a format, and according to the technical means, that the Company deems the most appropriate for providing this Service.

13.6.b Members' obligations and agreement concerning the Photos Service

Within the framework of the Photos Service, Members agree to only post photographs that do not contain any identifiable person.

Members agree to only use the photographs posted by other Members for private purposes and not for commercial purposes.

Members are expressly referred to the provisions of Article 14 of the General Terms and Conditions concerning Members' obligations and agreement relating to the photographs that they choose to post on the Site.

13.7 Access to the "Advice Centre"

Members can access the "Advice Centre", which contains information about the Site and residence swapping in general.

14 – Members' obligations and agreement relating to Content

14.1 The term "Content" refers to all opinions or contents of whatever nature (text, images, photographs, comments or otherwise), put online on the Site by Members notably within the context of the Services described in Article 13.

14.2 A Member is solely liable for all Content that they choose to put online on the Site.

14.3 Members expressly agree to refrain from stating opinions that are offensive, slanderous, defamatory, racist, xenophobic, contrary to accepted standards of public decency, that disrupt public order and more generally, whose content would infringe the law and/or regulations, notably the penal code.

14.4 As an editor of Content, a Member declares and expressly guarantees the Company:

That he/she is the sole owner of all intellectual property rights related to the Content, or when this is not the case that he/she has acquired from all authors and more generally, all right holders of all or part of the Content, all necessary authorization, licenses and concessions permitting its publishing,

• That he/she has obtained all necessary authorization from all parties whose images are shown in the said Content, or from all parties with the authority to consent to such,

• That he/she has obtained all necessary authorization from all parties whose property is shown in the said Content,

• That generally he/she is not infringing on the rights of any third party, in whatever way or for whatever reason, as a result of the said Content.

14.5 A Member declares and expressly guarantees the Company that the Content that he/she puts online on the Site belongs solely to him/her personally, that this Content is legal, does not disrupt public order, is not contrary to accepted standards of public decency, and more generally, does not infringe any legal provision and/or regulation, notably the penal code.

14.6 Should a Member not respect any one of the provisions set out in this article, the Company retains the right to delete any illicit Content, at any moment and without notification, as it retains the right to take any appropriate measures in its capacity as the host of the said Content, in response to a simple third party complaint, without prejudice to the provisions set out in Article 17.

15 – Purpose of Member Services

15.1 Members acknowledge that the Services that are offered to them on the Site provide them with an additional solution, not an alternative solution, whose objective is to increase the scope of their research aiming towards concluding a Swap and that these Services cannot substitute other means that the Member may dispose of elsewhere to reach the same goal.

15.2 The purpose of the Blog and Photos Services is to promote the world of swapping and travel, through Content that Members decide to post on the Site. Members acknowledge and accept that through placing this Content on the Site, they voluntarily and freely show their intention to participate in the promotion of the varied information and opinions contained therein on the Internet within the spirit of a swap community and notably:

- Members agree to their Content being published by the Company, at no charge to the Company, on the Site and on any other French or foreign Internet sites published by any other companies with which the Company has agreements and renounce claiming any type of payment, fee, royalty, indemnity or financial compensation from the Company for this,

- Members accept that should their editorial Content be displayed on any foreign site, that it may be translated into any language,

- Members accept that their Content remain on the Site or sites published by any other companies with which the Company has agreements for as long as the Company deems necessary, the Company retaining the right to delete it or republish it at any time and as its own convenience.

The Company reserves the right, which is expressly accepted by the Members, to delete any Content which it deems inappropriate to and/or unsuitable for the purpose of the Services, as described in this article.

16 – End term of Member Services

Membership ends when the subscription reaches its term.

Members' profiles, the Advertisement(s) that they put online, their MailBoxes, their Blogs as well as their photographs posted using the Photos Service will be automatically deleted from the Site when their membership reaches its term.

When membership arrives at its term, the Company has no obligation to renew the Member Services in the General Terms and Conditions and may freely modify them or delete them, partially or in totality.

17 – Membership cancellation due to breach of General Terms and Conditions

In the event that a Member breaches any one of the General Terms and Conditions, the Company reserves the right to suspend or cancel their membership and delete their account, at any moment and without notification, with no reimbursement of the membership fee and this without prejudice to any legal action that the Company may instigate against the Member in order to protect and defend its rights.

To this end, the Member agrees to compensate the Company for any loss sustained from the Member's failure to comply with the General Terms and Conditions and agrees to compensate the Company for any legal action instigated against the Company based on information or opinions put online on the Site by the Member that is/are erroneous, misleading or prejudicial to the rights of a third party.

18 – The Company's non-intervention in relations between Members

The Company is only liable for the provision of a technical platform for Members which it puts at their disposition in order to enable them to get in contact with each other.

The Company will not enter into discussions between Members, or intervene in their swapping or potential transactions, for which the Company is in no way liable. Consequently, the Company is not obliged to check the existence, quality, availability, compliance or general state of property advertised or to verify Members' ability to actually carry out the expected Swap.

It is the responsibility of Members to check the aforementioned information as well as any other relevant information before concluding any Swap or contract.

In the same way, it is the responsibility of Members to take all necessary precautions in order for the Swap to go smoothly and in particular to ensure that any insurance that they have taken out for themselves privately, or for their dwelling place, vehicle or any other property, covers the Swap being considered.

IV. PROVISIONS COMMON TO ALL SERVICES

19 – Exclusion of liability and of guarantee of the Company

19.1 The Company makes the commitment to regularly monitor the operation and accessibility of the Site. To this end, the Company reserves the right to interrupt access to the Site momentarily for maintenance purposes. In the same way, the Company will not be held liable if the Site is ever momentarily difficult (or impossible) to access, the causes of these circumstances being outside the Company's control, force majeure, or due to disruption of the telecommunications network, Users being informed of the complexity of global networks and of the influx of Internet Users at certain times of the day.

19.2 The Services are provided by the Company as is and without any guarantee of any description, either express or implied. In particular, the Company does not guarantee to Users (i) that the Services, which are subject to constant research to improve their performance and progress, will be totally free of errors, faults or defects, (ii) that the Services, being standard and not offered specifically to any one given User according to his/her own personal constraints, will specifically meet his/her needs and expectations.

19.3 The Company is a host of Content posted by Members on the Site as in the sense of the Law of 21st June 2004 on Confidence in the Digital Economy. The Company does not ensure any prior moderation or monitoring of this Content, excepting that required by the law.

Consequently, the Company cannot be held liable, in its capacity as simply host, for Content whose authors are third parties, and any potential complaint should be made firstly to the author of the Content in question.

Any act that is committed on the Site that causes prejudice to a third party can however be the subject of a complaint to the Company within the conditions defined in Article 27.

20 – Links and third party sites

The Company can in no way be held liable for the technical availability or unavailability of Internet sites run by third parties to which Users access through links on the Site.

The Company will not take on any liability for content, advertisements, products and/or services available on such third party sites and Users are reminded that these sites are governed by their own terms and conditions of use.

The Company is also not liable for any transactions conducted between Users and any advertisers, professionals or salespersons to which the User may be oriented through the Site and will not be part of any disputes whatsoever with these third parties particularly concerning the delivery of products and/or services, guarantees, declarations or other obligations whatsoever to which these thirds parties may be bound.

21 – Non-commercial use

It is strictly forbidden to make money from, sell or concede all or part of one's access to the Services, to the Site's servers or to the information that is hosted and/or shared on the Site.

22 – Forbidden behaviour

Also strictly forbidden are: (i) any behaviour that would interrupt, suspend, slow down or prevent continuity of the Services, (ii) any hacking or attempts to hack into the Company's IT systems, (iii) any hijacking of the Site's system resources, (iv) any acts that would place a disproportionate load on the Site's infrastructure, (v) any attempts to breach the Site's security and authentication structures, (vi) any acts that could infringe on the rights and financial, commercial and moral interests of the Company or of the users of its Site and finally, generally, (vii) any breach of the General Terms and Conditions.

In the event of a breach of any of provisions of this article or more generally, of any laws and regulations, the Company reserves the right to take any measures it deems appropriate and to instigate any legal action, without prejudice to Article 17 above concerning Members.

23 – Intellectual Property

The systems, software, structures, infrastructures, databases and content (text, images, graphics, music, logos, trademarks, etc.) used by the Company on the Site are protected by all intellectual property rights in force. Any dismantling, decompilation, deciphering, extracting, reusing, copying and generally any reproduction, representation, publishing or use of all or part of any these items, without the authorization of the Company, is strictly forbidden and could be the subject of a lawsuit.

24 – Advertising

The Company reserves the right to insert on any page of the Site, and to associate with any Content posted on the Site by a Member, any advertising or promotional message in a format, and according to the conditions, that the Company deems appropriate. In more general terms, Users of the Site declare to have been informed that the Company may publish any advertising or promotional content that it chooses on the Site.

25 – Personal Data

The Company practices a policy of protection of personal data, the characteristics of which are detailed in the document called "Charter concerning the protection of personal data" to which Users who have provided personal data on the Site must agree after having read it.

26 – Contact

For all comments, information or questions for the Company concerning the use of the Site and the Services, as well as any complaints provided for in Article 27 below, the Company can be contacted using the following contact information:

Postal Address:Virgile Valour Immobilier, 25 rue La Boétie – 75008 Paris

Telephone: 00.33.6.63.88.23.18

Contact Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

27 – Complaints

Any act that is committed on the Site that causes prejudice to a third party can be the subject of a complaint to the Company.

This complaint must be addressed to the Company through the contact information \n In this case, replace this paragraph with: This complaint must be addressed to the Company at the following email address: [to be completed] -->mentioned in Article 26.

The complaint must contain the date it is being made, the identity of the person making the complaint (in the case of an individual: his/her family name, first name, profession, address, nationality, date and place of birth; in the case of an entity: its form, its name, its head office and the body that legally represents it), the name and address of the person to whom the complaint is being addressed (in the case of an entity, its name and head office), the description of the contentious facts and their precise location, the reasons why the content must be removed, details of the legal provisions and proof of the facts, as well as a copy of the prior correspondence addressed to the author or publisher of the contentious information or activities requesting their termination, their removal or their modification, or proof that the author or the publisher could not be contacted.

The Company will freely take all measures it deems appropriate, without obligation on its part, and/or pass the complaint on to the appropriate authorities.

28 – Modifications

28.1 The Company reserves the right to modify the General Terms and Conditions at any time.

28.2 The modified General Terms and Conditions apply to Visitors who use the Free Services immediately after the modification. Visitors are therefore invited to regularly consult the latest version of the General Terms and Conditions in force on the Site.

28.3 Members whose membership is active at the time the General Terms and Conditions are modified are informed by email of the modification. Members have the choice to (a) maintain their agreement to the General Terms and Conditions that were in force at the moment of their membership subscription or (b) accept the new General Terms and Conditions. Members have a period of 15 days from the day they receive the email informing them of the modification to inform the Company of their decision. In the absence of a reply during this period, Members will be deemed to have opted for the choice to maintain their agreement to the General Terms and Conditions that were in force at the moment of their membership subscription.

However, the modified General Terms and Conditions apply immediately to Members who renew their membership or take out a new membership after this notification, as they expressly accept the modified General Terms and Conditions at the moment of membership renewal or new membership subscription.

29 – Law and Jurisdiction

The General Terms and Conditions are governed by French law, the language of interpretation being French, in the event of any dispute concerning the meaning of any one of their terms or provisions.

In the event of dispute concerning the interpretation and/or application of the General Terms and Conditions, all parties agree that the courts of Paris shall be the only competent jurisdiction capable of judging the dispute, save conflicting mandatory rules of practice.

30 – Effective date

The General Terms and Conditions become effective the January 15th, 2010