Privacy Notice

We at APOELLA stores, the company “AEGEAN STORES P.C.” with distinctive title “www.apoella.com”, with registered offices in Athens Greece 3 Kosma Aitolou & 2 Artemidos Street, Postal Code 15125 (hereinafter “we” or “Apoella”) are committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of our website www.apoella.com “Website”) visitors and users and we are obligated to inform you in a transparent way of the processing of your data during your visit to our Website or through our pages on social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram. 

We reserve the right to amend and update this Notice whenever necessary. If there are any changes to this Notice, we will upload the new document on the Website so you are informed. Therefore, we recommend that you carefully read this Privacy Notice and check our webpage periodically. 

The protection of the personal data of the Website visitor is subject to the relevant provisions of the applicable European legislation (mainly EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679) and respective Greek law for the protection of individuals from the processing of personal data, as supplemented by decisions of the competent administrative authorities. 

What personal data do we process?

In the context of the services provided through our Website, we may collect the following categories of personal data:

  • Basic information (such as name, surname)
  • Contact details (such as an address, phone number, email address, and postal code)
  • Username and password
  • Information arising from the use of the Website through cookies (such as IP address, web content) 
  • Information relating to your orders through the Website (such as order history, and product type)
  • Information that may be provided by you regarding customer-related services (such as a request for a return or repair)

 In certain cases, we also collect automatically technical information that does not directly identify you, such as browser type, PC operation system, the domain name of the webpage from which the connection was made, and other information arising from the use of website cookies (such as IP address, web content viewed, etc). For more details on the use of cookies on our Website, please refer to our Cookie Policy.    

 How and why do we process your personal data? 

 We will process the personal information that you provide us with, depending on the case, for the following purposes:

  • To provide our services to you that are available through our Website i.e. to enable you to register as an account holder, manage your account, place an order and purchase a product from us, and receive our customer support. In this context, we may combine the data that you provide with any of your purchase information from our physical stores or via telephone, e-mail, fax, or mail (post). In this case, we act because of our contractual relationship (or any pre-contractual requirements) by which you will purchase a product and we will accommodate any related request you may have.
  • To pursue our legitimate interests and thus mainly to operate, evaluate and improve our business, such as, developing new products and services, enhancing and improving our services, managing our communications, analyzing our products and customer base, performing accounting, auditing, and other internal functions, as well as, verify your identity, protect against, identify and prevent fraud and other unlawful activity, claims and other liabilities, comply with relevant industry standards, contractual obligations and our policies. 

In this context and relating to our physical stores, if you connect to the wireless internet service ("Wifi"), we or, in the case of a ‘shop-in-a-shop’ facility, the retailer of our products, may collect data about your device (including your device type, device identification number, and browser type) and your use of the Wifi (including how long you stay connected to the Wifi, the websites you visit and the mobile applications you use). It is our or the retailer’s legitimate interest to collect this information in connection with your use of the Wifi in order to manage and operate our business and provide Wifi to our customers, improve and prevent abuse of the Wifi, analyze consumer traffic in these stores, and understand customers' interests. Please note that, in the case where a retailer collects your personal data, you should take into account the retailer’s privacy notice.

  • To comply with and enforce applicable legal requirements to which we are subject (e.g. for tax or accounting reasons) and for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.
  • So we can enlist you in our newsletter subscribers list. We will maintain your basic contact details (email address, social media profile) in order to send you information on our new products, events, and actions either on the basis of your consent, should you click the respective option on the website, or as a social media follower on our legitimate interest to send newsletters to our customers. In any event, we will do so until you send us an opt-out request. Please note that, if you unsubscribe from our email marketing list, you may still receive non-marketing emails from us, such as order confirmation emails, shipping confirmation emails, and transactional emails.
  • To improve your experience on our Website through a collection of cookies and similar technologies in accordance with your selection of choices while entering our Website. At the same time, we will collect the cookies that are strictly necessary in order to pursue our legitimate interests to operate and administer our Website as we describe in our cookies policy.

How long will we keep your information?

We will keep the information that you provide through our Website only for the time necessary for us to achieve the above purposes in accordance with this Privacy Notice or for as long as we are required by law to take into account the applicable statute of limitation periods for the exercise and defense of our legal rights. 

Such time may differ depending on the particular use e.g. we will keep your personal information for the duration of our relationship or at least as long as you keep your account open with us, we will keep the email that you gave in order to receive newsletters for us until you submit an opt-out request, and provided that we are not required to keep it for any other purpose (e.g. in order to administer your account in the Website). 

Who has access to your data and how is this access secured?

Any information provided by you through the Website will not be disclosed, except as provided in this Privacy Notice. 

This information will be kept by our authorized personnel and persons that are responsible for operating our Website and related online services and for promoting, supporting, and accommodating any related request from you.  

We share personal information with our service providers who perform services on our behalf based on our instructions. We do not authorize these service providers to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or comply with legal requirements. Examples of these service providers include entities that fulfill orders or provide web hosting, analytics, and marketing services and advisors. Please note that third-party service providers have their own privacy policies, and your information may become subject to the laws of the jurisdiction(s) in which that service provider or its facilities are located. 

Since our Website is hosted by the “Shopify Inc” platform, your data are collected by “Shopify Inc.” Operators of social media sites also collect data. Please refer to the respective privacy terms and conditions of the aforementioned entities. 

In addition, we may disclose information about you (i) if we are required to do so by law or legal process, (ii) to competent law enforcement authorities, and (iii) when we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to prevent an illegal act, or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual fraudulent or illegal activity. We also reserve the right to transfer personal information we have about you in the event we sell or transfer (or contemplate the sale or transfer of) all or a portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a merger, acquisition, joint venture, reorganization, divestiture, dissolution or liquidation).

The safety of your information is of utmost importance to us. We try to be always up-to-date in respect of digital transformations and adopt technical and organizational measures that ensure, to the extent possible, the smooth operation of our Website and the protection of the integrity, confidentiality and availability of any information transmitted through this channel. Nonetheless, we encourage you to review the Website Terms and Conditions referring to the matters over which we do not have control and cannot guarantee, such as, the way you enter and use the Website.

What rights do you have?

You are entitled to the following rights in relation to your personal data:

  • The right to request access to the data that we keep and receive a copy of your data
  • The right to request rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data that we maintain related to you
  • The right to request the erasure of your data that we are no longer entitled to keep
  • The right to object to the processing of your data that is based on our legitimate interest 
  • The right to request the restriction of processing
  • The right to data portability i.e. to request that we provide you or another controller with your personal data in a structured, easily readable format (e.g. USB)
  • The right to revoke your previously given consent, where the processing is based on your consent

You may exercise your rights by addressing a written request at the email address eshop@apoella.com.

If you exercise any such right, we will apply your preferences going forward and take all necessary measures to address the request within one month or up to 2 additional months if the perplexity of the request or the total number of requests received so requires. We will notify you in writing of the satisfaction of the request, or alternatively of the reasons that prevent us from satisfying the such request. 

Please keep in mind that the exercise of the above rights is subject to certain requirements and limitations set by law e.g. we may not be able to address a request if we don’t receive identification details necessary to protect your data and confirm that it’s you who makes a request, or delete information that we may be obligated to keep in order to comply with an obligation or to pursue our legitimate interest. Where and to the extent provided by law, withdrawal of consent you previously provided to us or objection on legitimate grounds to the processing, will not affect the lawfulness of our use of your information based on your consent before its withdrawal.

Lastly, in case you disagree with the processing of your information by Apoella or our response to your request, you are entitled to file a request with the Greek Personal Data Protection Authority, which reviews written complaints in accordance with the instructions contained on its website (www.dpa.gr).

Cookies Policy

General 

Cookies are small text files that contain browsing information and are stored in your computer browser when browsing our website. At apoella.com, we use this technology, in order to offer an improved user experience, as well as better services. 

What cookies do we use?

Apart from the functional cookies that support essential features of our website (e.g. storing your shopping cart selections while you continue to shop, or store your privacy settings, avoid improper use of our services), we may use cookies in order to: 

  • Provide aggregate and anonymous statistics on how our site is used;
  • See how effective our advertisements are by identifying where you click and from which website you arrived;
  • Help us improve the site by capturing errors in your browsing experience.
  • Provide you with improved site functionality by allowing access to additional services or restoring your shopping bag if you wish to return on a subsequent browsing session.

Our carefully selected third-party providers may have access to the above information in order to provide services on our site. The information shared is only to be used to provide the service or function. Certain third-party cookies can be used to offer a customized user experience, by providing you with interest-based services both on this site and on some other websites as well. Some of these customized browsing experiences may be linked to services provided by third parties which provide these services to recognize that you have visited our site. This information is used to inform you of our products and services which may be of interest to you.

What options do I have? 

You have the following options:

  • Accept all cookies and other mechanisms by selecting the button “Allow all cookies”: you will be able to access all our website functionalities, preferences, performance, and targeting cookies are installed. We will remember this choice of yours for a year. When this period is over, or if you visit us from another device or a different browser, we will ask you again.  
  • Refuse any non-necessary cookies by selecting the button “Use necessary cookies only”: you continue your browsing only with the functional cookies. We will remember this choice of yours for a year. When this period is over, or if you visit us from another device or a different browser, we will ask you again. Unfortunately, if you do not wish for them to be installed at all, you should not use our services and manually delete the cookies that have already been installed on your browser. 
  • Grant your consent to the selection of cookies by selecting the button “Allow Selection
  • Withdraw your consent - customize your cookie settings by selecting the button: “Renew Cookies”: you may at any time change for future use, the choice you have made with respect to cookies and similar technologies on our website. Regardless of what was your selection the last time we asked you through a pop-up banner if you accept the installation of cookies and similar technologies, you can decide again easily, directly and free of charge, through the pop-up banner, that will emerge again when selecting the “Renew Cookies” button.
  • You may also control and manage the cookies via the settings of the browser you use. Some of your options (depending on the browser) are for example, the acceptance of all cookies, the notification for the installation of cookies, or the ban of their installation. 

In order to manage and deactivate cookies, you may follow the relevant instructions per browser. 

Please note that your action or consent is not required for the installation, which is done upon your visit to our website, of the cookies that are functional and strictly necessary either from a technical perspective or in order to offer you the website services or functionalities of your choice. 

Please note also that disabling, blocking, or deleting cookies in your browser settings may impact your ability to fully use our website. 

Please see our Privacy Notice above for further details about what information we collect and how we use any personal information you give us, however not all information captured by using cookies will identify you.