BMW M GmbH Gesellschaft für individuelle Automobiles (Daimlerstr. 19, 85748 Garching-Hochbrück) Hereinafter also referred to as “BMW M” or “we”, “us” etc.) provides the user with the “BMW M Drivers Community” forum in accordance with these terms of use, including data protection information. The BMW M Drivers Community is the official discussion and exchange forum for owners of BMW M and BMW M Performance cars, where we can also share our own content, such as surveys and competitions, and also provide information about our products and services. We particularly encourage to an active cooperation, discussion and exchange of questions and answers. We would like to expressly point out that the administrators and moderators authorized by us express their personal opinion in all contributions. This opinion does not have to match the opinion or interests of BMW AG or BMW M.

Membership in the BMW M Drivers Community is free of charge. Anyone who has reached the age of 18 and owns a BMW M or M Performance automobile can become a BMW M Drivers community member (hereinafter “user”).

BMW M Drivers community membership starts with the registration of the login details chosen by the customer. The prerequisite for registering for BMW M Drivers community membership is that the user is registered with MeinBMW or my BMW respectively and has a BMW ID.

When registering, the customer is required to provide us with correct and complete information about her/his identity and to update it immediately if changes occur during the M Drivers Community membership.

The BMW M Drivers Community membership is not transferable. There is also no right to participate in the BMW M Drivers Community.

Only one BMW M Drivers Community membership is permitted per person. Each user may also only use one user name for the BMW M Driver Community. Dual accounts (multiple use) are not permitted. In case of multiple use, all accounts of a user will be blocked. In the event of a block, it is not allowed to log in again. To remove the block, users must contact the administrator (bmwmdriverscommunity@bmw-m.com).

We reserve the right to deny individual users access to the forum, both temporarily and permanently. Such a suspension will be considered, in particular, in the event of a breach of applicable law or these terms of use.

Users of the BMW M Drivers Community are required not to make the data necessary directly to use the forum available to third parties. This includes, in particular, user name and password.

Each user must choose a user name (community nickname) for the BMW M Drivers Community. This does not have to match the user's real name, so it may also be a pseudonym. For reasons of readability, letters (including numbers) should be used; special characters should not be used. The use of registered trademarks of third parties and any internet addresses as user names is not permitted. Like other content the user name must not be illegal or offensive.

The signature must be limited to three lines - including empty lines. Links in the signature may only refer to BMW vehicles and BMW Group websites or to a non-commercial personal homepage of the user that complies with these terms of use.

The BMW M Drivers Community may be temporarily unavailable, e.g. due to maintenance work or installation of updates. However, without giving any legal binding statement or assurance, we aim to keep these downtimes as low as possible.

The BMW M Driver Community includes a newsletter, which is intended to inform users about specific topics in the BMW M Drivers community. Users who do not wish to receive newsletter emails can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, either via the respective link included in every newsletter, or by notifying the administrator (bmwmdriverscommunity@bmw-m.com).

The BMW M Drivers Community is primarily intended for exchange among users. However, we reserve the right to post our own content ourselves, such as surveys and competitions, and also to provide information about our products and services. These contributions are identified by a sender from BMW M (e.g. “communityadmin”).

Users have the opportunity to post content themselves and participate in discussions. Each user ensures that their content, including any images, do not violate applicable law or these terms of use (see section 9). This applies both to the directly visible part of the posted content and to links contained in the posted content.

We assume no responsibility for any written or published content of users beyond our obligations under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on a single market for digital services (Digital Services Act or Digital Services Act or “DSA”).

Content posted by users are compiled thematically (e.g. by product) at our sole discretion and then usually displayed in chronological or alphabetical order. Search results are sorted by relevance; details on the allocation of relevance points can be found on the following website:

https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/guide/master/scoring-theory.html. We do not use recommendation systems in the meaning of Art. 3 lit. s) DSA.

We and the appointed administrators and moderators are entitled, in individual cases, to delete, move within the forum and/or change the content posted by users, in particular content that violates applicable law and/or these terms of use or if such violation is suspected. Such a changes will clearly marked as such. A review of content posted by users is not undertaken by us, or only to a limited extent.

9.1  Users are not permitted to post, publish or distribute in the BMW M Drivers Community any content that

• violates applicable law or is immoral;
• infringes trademarks, patents, copyrights, other property rights, in particular personal rights, as well as trade secrets or other rights of third parties;
• is obscene, racist, glorifying violence, pornographic, harmful to young people or otherwise endangering or impairing the development of children and adolescents;
• is insulting, harassing, defamatory or may inflict other personal injury;
• is not wanted by other entrepreneurs and is sent repeatedly without consent or despite objection from the recipient (“spam”);
• serves the purpose of processing users' personal data without the respective express consent, in particular for business purposes;
• includes chain letters, surveys or pyramid schemes and other business models;
• has as its object personal data from third parties without this processing being permitted; and/or
• has a disguised advertising character.

9.2  The BMW M Drivers Community offers a forum for the exchange between owners of BMW M and BMW M Performance cars. It is therefore also prohibited to post or publish content which

• Is not related to the products of BMW AG or BMW M, or
• constitutes commercial advertising.

Any misuse of the forum for advertising websites, products and services, whether commercial or private, as well as the offering of services or goods, is prohibited. This prohibition also expressly applies to user names and links that are provided with a “referrer ID” or “affiliate ID.”

10.1  Pursuant to Art. 16 of the DSA, individuals and entities have the opportunity to notify us of information published in BMW M Drivers Community that they consider to be illegal content. Users of the BMW M Drivers Community may also submit such notice to us via the “Report” button. Details on required information of such notice are available on our website at https://community.bmw-m.com/en/web/m-community/digital-services-act/#3.

10.2  We will process all such notices in a timely, diligent, non-arbitrary and objective manner, will inform the notifying individual or entity of the decision immediately and provide information on the possibilities for redress in respect of that decision. Where we use automated means for that processing or decision-making, we shall include information on such use in out information to the notifying individual or entity.

11.1  Should we come to the conclusion (e.g. on the basis of a notice in accordance with section 10) that a specific content of a user is unlawful or violates these terms of use, we reserve the right to take the following measures:

(i)  restrictions on the display of certain individual information provided by the user, including removal of content, blocking access to content, or downgrading content;

(ii)  suspension or termination of all or part of the provision of the service;

(iii)  suspension or closure of the user's account. Paragraph 13 applies to such suspension or closure.

11.2  We will provide all affected users with a clear and specific statement of reasons for any restrictions under section 11.1.

12.1  We maintain an internal complaints handling system, which is open to users as well as to individuals and entities that have filed a notice under section 10. Details are available on our website at https://community.bmw-m.com/en/web/m-community/digital-services-act/#3.

12.2  In order to resolve disputes in connection with decisions made within the framework of our internal complaint handling system, there is, among other things, the option of an out-of-court dispute settlement before a so-called approved out-of-court dispute settlement body within the meaning of Art. 21 DSA. More information is available on our website at https://community.bmw-m.com/en/web/m-community/digital-services-act/.

13.1  To protect against misuse, we will, for a reasonable period of time and after having issued a prior warning, suspend the provision of our services to users, who frequently provide manifestly unlawful content, and the processing of notices and complaints submitted through the notice and action mechanisms and internal complaints- handling systems, respectively, by individuals or entities or by complainants that frequently submit notices or complaints that are manifestly unfounded.

When deciding on suspension, we will assess, on a case-by-case basis and in a timely, diligent and objective manner, whether the user, the individual, the entity or the complainant engages in the misuse, taking into account all relevant facts and circumstances apparent from the information available to the provider of online platforms. Those circumstances shall include at least the following:

(i)  the absolute numbers of items of manifestly illegal content or manifestly unfounded notices or complaints, submitted within a given time frame;

(ii)  the relative proportion thereof in relation to the total number of items of information provided or notices submitted within a given time frame;

(iii)  the gravity of the misuses, including the nature of illegal content, and of its consequences;

(iv)  where it is possible to identify it, the intention of the recipient of the service, the individual, the entity or the complainant.

A myBMW account is required to register in the BMW M Drivers Community (see section 1). This consists of an e-mail address and the user's password. The BMW account can be used for several BMW Group services. The data from the user-specific BMW account is not publicly available to other users. The user name (community nickname) is published in the BMW M Drivers Community. The BMW M Drivers Community is an exclusive area for drivers of BMW M and BMW M Performance cars. In order to verify that the user is a driver of a BMW M or BMW M Performance automobile, the user's VIN number is requested during registration. The VIN number is not publicly visible to other users in the BMW M Drivers Community, but after registration, vehicle data matching the user's VIN number is displayed in order to provide the vehicle profile with certain basic information. The vehicle profile can be supplemented or changed by the user with further data. Certain values of the vehicle profile can be set to invisible by the user (e.g. the production date) so that other users cannot see them. In addition to this basic information about the vehicle, other information in the user's profile can be viewed by other users of the BMW M Drivers Community. The username (community nickname) chosen by the user is displayed as a public display name in the user's profile. The user's profile picture and the profile slogan chosen by the user can also be viewed by other users within the BMW M Drivers Community. In addition, when registering, the user's personal data is requested, some of which the customer can provide voluntarily. Some of this data is used to adjust the profile to the user or to enrich the profile. The salutatory address is used to create an exemplary avatar image (male/female/divers) in the user's profile. The country specified by the user is used to assign a language (German/English) based on the country selection. The country and city are shown in the user profile (without additional address). During registration, the user's personal data is requested, such as the first name, last name, additional address (street, house number, zip code) and telephone number. These are not publicly displayed in the profile. This contact information is used for customer support, provided that the user has explicitly consented to this as part of the registration process. This data is not publicly available to other users. The account, profile and some of the vehicle data can be changed by the user at any time in the settings of the BMW M Drivers Community.

Users may terminate their membership in the BMW M Drivers Community at any time by having the user profile deleted such request to be sent via email to the community administrator (bmwmdriverscommunity@bmw-m.com) or by deleting the profile while being logged in via the following link: https://community.bmw-m.com/en/group/m-community/delete-account. Forum entries posted until that time will be displayed anonymously after termination of the BMW M Drivers Community membership.

We are entitled to change the BMW M Drivers Community and these terms of use at any time and without giving reasons. Users of the BMW M Drivers Community will be informed about significant changes and may be asked for their consent, for example when logging in.

These terms of use are subject to German law Application of the principles of conflict of law and the regulations of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 11.04.1980 is excluded. This choice of law only applies to the extent that it does not deprive a user of the mandatory consumer protection provisions of the country in which the user has his habitual residence at the time the contract is concluded. The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all claims arising from the business relationship with merchants is Munich. The same place of jurisdiction applies if the user does not have a general place of jurisdiction in the European Union, moves his place of residence or habitual abode from the European Union after conclusion of the contract, or if his place of residence or usual place of residence is unknown at the time the action is brought.