The privacy policy

  • Responsible:

  • 4cats Heimtierbedarf GmbH
  • Eschweilerstr. 199
  • 52222 Stolberg
  • Germany
  • Phone: +49 (0)2402 - 974 35 20
  • Fax: +49 (0)2402 - 974 35 11
  • E-Mail:
  • Legal entity: German Limited Company (GmbH)
  • Managing Directors: Marion Hamacher, Markus Friederich
  • Place of Registration: HRB 15721 - Aachen, Germany
  • German VAT Number: DE 270 532 394

  • Responsible Data Protection Officer:

  • Ina Sloane
  • Phone: +49 (0)170 5007825
  • E-Mail:

Data protection

It is generally possible to use our website without providing any personal data. Inasmuch as personal data is collected on our website (for example, name, address or email address), this takes place on a voluntary basis to the extent possible. These data are not passed on to third parties without your express consent.

We wish to point out that the transfer of data in the Internet (e.g. in email communication) can entail security vulnerabilities. Seamless protection of data from access by third parties is not possible. Any use by third parties of the contact information published as required by law in the legal notice for the purpose of transmitting advertising or informational materials not expressly requested is hereby explicitly forbidden. The owner of these pages expressly reserves the right to take legal action in the event of unrequested delivery of advertising information, such as by means of spam mails.

Right to object to the collection of data in special cases; right to object to direct advertising (Art. 21 GDPR)

In the event that data are processed on the basis of Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. e or f GDPR, you have the right to at any time object to the processing of your personal data based on grounds arising from your unique situation. This also applies to any profiling based on these provisions. To determine the legal basis, on which any processing of data is based, please consult this Data Protection Declaration. If you log an objection, we will no longer process your affected personal data, unless we are in a position to present compelling protection worthy grounds for the processing of your data, that outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms or if the purpose of the processing is the claiming, exercising or defence of legal entitlements (objection pursuant to Art. 21 Sect. 1 GDPR).

If your personal data is being processed in order to engage in direct advertising, you have the right to at any time object to the processing of your affected personal data for the purposes of such advertising. This also applies to profiling to the extent that it is affiliated with such direct advertising. If you object, your personal data will subsequently no longer be used for direct advertising purposes (objection pursuant to Art. 21 Sect. 2 GDPR).

Right to Information, Deletion, Blocking

You always have the right to free information about your stored personal data, its origin and recipient and the purpose of the data processing as well as a right to rectify, block or delete this data. For this as well as for further questions about personal data you can contact us at any time under the address given in the imprint.

Use of cookies

Cookies are data records which are sent from the webserver to the web browser of the user and are there saved for later retrieval. You can determine whether or not cookies are to be accepted by setting your browser so that you are informed before cookies are saved and the saving only takes place once you have expressly accepted this.

We only use cookies for the purpose of obtaining information about the manner in which our web presence is used and for statistical purposes.


Server-Log-Files

The provider of the pages automatically collects and stores information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. The storage period is 30 days.
These are:

  • Browser type and browser version
  • Operating system used
  • Referrer URL
  • Hostname of the accessing computer
  • Server Request time

This data cannot be assigned to certain persons. This data is not merged with other data sources. We reserve the right to check this data retrospectively if we become aware of concrete indications for illegal use.

Contact form

If you submit inquiries to us via our contact form, the information provided in the contact form as well as any contact information provided therein will be stored by us in order to handle your inquiry and in the event that we have further questions. We will not share this information without your consent.

Hence, the processing of the data entered into the contact form occurs exclusively based on your consent (Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. a GDPR). You have the right to revoke at any time any consent you have already given us. To do so, all you are required to do is sent us an informal notification via e-mail. This shall be without prejudice to the lawfulness of any data collection that occurred prior to your revocation.

The information you have entered into the contact form shall remain with us until you ask us to eradicate the data, revoke your consent to the archiving of data or if the purpose for which the information is being archived no longer exists (e.g. after we have concluded our response to your inquiry). This shall be without prejudice to any mandatory legal provisions – in particular retention periods.

Please feel free to contact us directly regarding the duration of data storage.

SSL and/or TLS encryption

For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as purchase orders or inquiries you submit to us as the website operator, this website uses either an SSL or a TLS encryption programme. You can recognise an encrypted connection by checking whether the address line of the browser switches from "http://" to "https://" and also by the appearance of the lock icon in the browser line.

If the SSL or TLS encryption is activated, data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

Google Maps

Via an API, this website uses the mapping service Google Maps. The provider is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

To enable the use of the Google Maps features, your IP address must be stored. As a rule, this information is transferred to one of Google’s servers in the United States, where it is archived. The operator of this website has no control over the data transfer.

We use Google Maps to present our online content in an appealing manner and to make the locations disclosed on our website easy to find. This constitutes a legitimate interest as defined in Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. f GDPR.

For more information on the handling of user data, please review Google’s Data Privacy Declaration under: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.

Updating and changing this privacy policy

This privacy policy is currently valid and is valid as of December 2019.

Due to further development of our website and offers or due to changed legal or regulatory requirements, it may be necessary to change this privacy policy. The current privacy policy can be retrieved and printed by you at any time.

YouTube

Our website uses plug-ins of the YouTube platform, which is being operated by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA.

We use YouTube in the expanded data protection mode. According to YouTube, this mode ensures that YouTube does not store any information about visitors to this website before they watch the video. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that the sharing of data with YouTube partners can be ruled out as a result of the expanded data protection mode. For instance, regardless of whether you are watching a video, YouTube will always establish a connection with the Google DoubleClick network.

As soon as you start to play a YouTube video on our website, a connection to YouTube’s servers will be established. As a result, the YouTube server will be notified, which of our pages you have visited. If you are logged into your YouTube account while you visit our site, you enable YouTube to directly allocate your browsing patterns to your personal profile. You have the option to prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account.

Furthermore, after you have started to play a video, YouTube will be able to place various cookies on your device. With the assistance of these cookies, YouTube will be able to obtain information about our website visitor. Among other things, this information will be used to generate video statistics with the aim of improving the user friendliness of the site and to prevent attempts to commit fraud. These cookies will stay on your device until you delete them.

Under certain circumstances, additional data processing transactions may be triggered after you have started to play a YouTube video, which are beyond our control. The use of YouTube is based on our interest in presenting our online content in an appealing manner. Pursuant to Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. f GDPR, this is a legitimate interest.

For more information on how YouTube handles user data, please consult the YouTube Data Privacy Policy under: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Newsletter

With the following information we inform you about the content of our newsletter as well as the registration, dispatch and statistical evaluation procedures as well as your right of objection. By subscribing to our newsletter, you agree to the receipt and the procedures described.

Content of the newsletter: We send newsletters, e-mails and other electronic notifications with advertising information (hereinafter "newsletter") only with the consent of the recipient or a legal permission. Insofar as the contents of a newsletter are concretely described, they are authoritative for the consent of the users. Incidentally, our newsletters contain information about our services and us.

Double opt-in and logging: Registration for our newsletter is done in a so-called double opt-in procedure. That means after registration, you will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your registration. This confirmation is necessary so that no one else can register with your email address on your behalf. The registration for the newsletter will be logged in order to prove the registration process according to the legal requirements. This includes the storage of the logon and the confirmation time, as well as the IP address. Likewise, changes to your data stored with our delivery service provider will be logged.

Credentials: To subscribe to the newsletter, it is sufficient to provide your email address. Optionally, we ask you to give a name in the newsletter for personal address.

The dispatch of the newsletter and the related performance measurement is based on a consent of the recipients in accordance of Article 6 paragraph 1 lit. a, Art. 7 of the GDPR in connection with § 7 paragraph 2 Nr. 3 UWG (Act against Unfair Competition) or on the basis of the legal permission acc. § 7 Abs. 3 UWG ( Act against Unfair Competition). The logging of the registration process is based on our legitimate interests in accordance with. Art. 6 paragraph. 1 lit. Of the GDPR. We are interested in using a user-friendly and secure newsletter system that serves our business interests as well as meeting the expectations of users and allows us to provide consent.

Termination / Withdrawal - You can terminate the receipt of our newsletter at any time, ie. Revoke your consent. A link to cancel the newsletter can be found at the end of each newsletter. We may save the submitted email addresses for up to three years based on our legitimate interests before we delete them to provide prior consent. The processing of this data is limited to the purpose of a possible defense against claims. An individual request for cancellation is possible at any time, provided that at the same time the former existence of a consent is confirmed.

Newsletter – Performance Statistics

The newsletters contain a so-called "web beacon", a pixel-sized file that is retrieved from the server when opening the newsletter from our server, or via our sending partner. This call will initially collect technical information, such as information about the browser and your system, as well as your IP address and time of opening.

This information is used to improve the technical performance of services based on their specifications or audience and their reading habits, based on their locations (which can be determined using the IP address) or access times. Statistical surveys also include determining if the newsletters will be opened, when they will be opened and which links will be clicked. For technical reasons, this information can be assigned to the individual newsletter recipients. However, it is neither our intention, nor, if used, that of the delivery service provider can observe individual users. The evaluations serve us much more to recognize the reading habits of our users and to adapt our content to them or to send different content according to the interests of our users.

Website Tracking

We do respect your privacy. Hence, this website uses Matomo (https://matomo.org/) for analysing purposes. Matomo is a open source projekt. Besides others the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein assessed Matomo positively. IP-adresses are shortened of the last six digits, so that any personal reference is impossible. However you can object any tracking by Matomo. Therefore please visit "Object use of Matomo". By doing so a so-called Cookie will be stored on your computer. This cookie tells us, that we must not process your data. Attention: your objection is only valid as long as this cookie can be found on your computer.

Matomo Deactivate