Article 1 – Principles and aims of the V d’Or Awards
The V d’Or Awards are organised by Vinexposium, Société par Actions Simplifiée [simplified joint stock company] with share capital of €2,922, with its registered office at 10 rue Condillac – 33000 Bordeaux, registered with the Register of Trades and Companies of Bordeaux under no. 822 686 192 (hereinafter referred to as the “Company”), and have the aim of honouring the most ambitious business initiatives in terms of performance, responsibility and collective spirit (hereinafter referred to as the “Initiatives”), awarding a “V d’Or Award” trophy to them each year.
By seeking the view and expertise of a College of professionals, and by organising the V d’Or Awards ceremony as part of the Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2024 event organised in February, the V d’Or Awards aim to encourage the construction of a sustainable future for the wine and spirits sector and highlight ambitious initiatives to a wide international audience.
The V d’Or Awards are awarded after a vote by the members of the College, and during a dedicated awards ceremony held on the eve of Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2024, attended by all Nominees. This will be simultaneously broadcast on the digital portal of the Vinexposium group. The projects selected will also benefit from dedicated visibility over the three days of the Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris event.
Entry by participants (hereinafter referred to as the “Candidates”) wishing to become members of the College of the V d’Or Awards (hereinafter referred to as the “Members”) entails unreserved acceptance of the clauses of these Regulations and the decisions handed down within the framework of the V d’Or Awards.
Article 2 – Terms and conditions of entry as member of the College
2.1 Conditions:
Wine and spirits professionals can apply to become Members of the College of the V d’Or Awards from one of the following 6 professional categories:
– Producers: representatives of companies practising a significant activity of production or trading and marketing of wines and spirits internationally (equal to or greater than 25% of their average annual turnover during the 5 years preceding their request for admission).
– Distribution buyers: procurement or general management roles of companies practising a significant activity of import, distribution, wholesale or BtoB agents (a minimum of 250 references of wines and/or spirits bought on average during the 5 years preceding their request for admission).
– Retail buyers: procurement or general management roles of companies practising a significant activity of supermarket, wine merchant, restaurant, hotel, bar or delicatessen in BtoC (a minimum of 250 references of wines and/or spirits bought on average during the 5 years preceding their request for admission).
– Collective organisations: representatives of collective organisations dedicated to the wine and spirits professions (trade organisations, syndicates, associations, groups, etc.) with over 50 members on average over the 5 years preceding their admission.
– Technical and scientific experts: experts, researchers, observers, consultants, trainers and teachers, and scientific and technical journalists practising all or part of their expertise in the wine and spirits sector with a significant technical and/or scientific contribution for the industry.
– Economics and marketing experts: experts, researchers, observers, consultants, trainers and teachers and journalists practising all or part of their expertise in the wine and spirits sector with a significant economic and/or marketing contribution for the industry.
Candidates:
– Must not be a member of the V d’Or Awards Committee,
– Must accept these Regulations without restriction or reserve,
– Must have sent their application before 1st October 2023 at midnight (French time),
2.2 Terms of entry
Applications to become a Member of the College of the V d’Or Awards must be submitted online, in the dedicated section of the website: www.vinexposium.com/en/vdor. Candidates may submit their application by completing the information requested in the online form.
Candidates must prepare and provide:
– a supporting document demonstrating that they fulfil the conditions of one of the 6 professional categories presented in Article 2.1.
Applications for admission to the College of the V d’Or Awards must be submitted online, by expressly submitted an application for admission on the website www.vinexposium.com/en/vdor no later than 1st October 2023 at midnight (French time).
The number of Members composing the College of the V d’Or Awards is not limited.
The application for admission is definitively confirmed by clicking “Submit”. An acknowledgement of receipt confirming receipt of the application for admission will be sent by email to every person having submitted an application.
Candidates must solemnly swear only to communicate accurate and true information, and notably to avoid any omission or imprecision that could lead to an erroneous judgment. In case of proven irregularity, the College of the V d’Or Awards reserves the right to cancel a Member’s admission at any time.
Furthermore, Candidates solemnly swear not to make direct contact with the members of the College of the V d’Or Awards or send them any information about their application for admission outside of the web platform provided for that purpose.
Applications for admission will be analysed by the V d’Or Award Committee. The decisions of the V d’Or Award Committee on applications for admission are discretionary and not open to appeal. In case of rejection of the application for admission, the V d’Or Award Committee is not in any way bound to justify its refusal. A refusal decision will not under any circumstances give rise to the award of damages.
The capacity of Member of the College of the V d’Or Awards will be communicated by email to Candidates whose application for admission has been accepted by the V d’Or Award Committee no later than 6th October 2023 at midnight (French time). This shall be valid until 30 March 2024.
The composition of the College of the V d’Or Awards is strictly confidential. Members of the College of the V d’Or Awards expressly undertake not to communicate on the subject of that capacity in any way.
Article 3 – V d’Or Awards timeline
– Deadline for applications for admission to the College of the V d’Or Awards: 1st October 2023 at midnight (French time),
– Examination of applications by the College of the V Awards and scoring: 16 October to 27 October 2023 at midnight (French time),
– Announcement of Nominees: from 21 November 2023,
– Vote of the College of the V d’or Awards to select the winners: 2 January to 12 January 2024 at midnight (French time),
– Announcement of the Winners and award of the V d’Or Award and Honorary V d’Or Award trophies: 11 February 2024, the day before Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2024.
Article 4 – Evaluation of applications by the College of the V d’Or Awards
Applications are open to relevant Initiatives in one of the following 6 categories:
1. Export strategy
2. Brand experience
3. Business solution
4. Responsible marketing
5. Collective initiative
6. Knowledge-sharing initiative
It is specified that one Honorary V d’Or Award will also be awarded. Selection for that award will take place off the platform, as the V d’Or Award Committee will access the information directly internally.
The Initiatives will be assessed according to 5 criteria, scored on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 representing a project which does not fulfil the criterion, 4 for that fully responding to the issue of the criterion). Thus, each Initiative will have a score out of 20.
The College of the V d’Or Awards will assess the entries on the following criteria:
– On the basis of the observable and measurable elements that must be provided by Participants and which make it possible to understand the concrete results of the project. Every document containing figures must be true and official.
A responsible and sustainable approach in respect of people and the environment is essential to apply for a V d’Or Award. This may concern one or more steps of the Initiative presented.
For the “Best export strategy” category, the 5 criteria each assessed on a scale of 1 to 4 will be:
1. Understanding of the market
2. The level of boldness of the export strategy
3. The effectiveness of the means put in place on the export market
4. The impact in terms of visibility
5. The CSR impact of the export strategy
For the “Best brand experience” category, the 5 criteria each assessed on a scale of 1 to 4 will be:
1. The innovative and original quality of the brand experience
2. The coherence of the experience you offer in relation to the personality of your brand
3. The quality of execution of the brand experience
4. The impact in terms of visibility
5. The CSR impact of the brand experience
For the “Best new business solution” category, the 5 criteria each assessed on a scale of 1 to 4 will be:
1. The relevance of the new business solution
2. The improvement of the customer experience
3. The concrete impact on the wine and spirits sector
4. The viability of the business model of the new solution
5. The CSR impact of the innovation
For the “Best eco-friendly marketing” category, the 5 criteria each assessed on a scale of 1 to 4 will be:
1. The coherence of the project with the brand personality
2. The innovative and original nature of the project
3. The eco-friendly vision over the whole of the value chain
4. The pedagogic approach accompanying the marketing
5. The CSR impact of the project
For the “Best collective initiative” category, the 5 criteria each assessed on a scale of 1 to 4 will be:
1. The consistency between the execution and the goals of the project
2. The innovative and original nature of the project
3. The unifying spirit of your collective initiative
4. The impact in terms of visibility
5. The CSR impact of your collective initiative
For the “Best knowledge-sharing initiative” category, the 5 criteria each assessed on a scale of 1 to 4 will be:
1. The dynamic engendered following your knowledge-sharing initiative
2. The preservation of the heritage in question
3. The capacity to promote the knowledge-sharing
4. The impact in terms of visibility
5. The CSR impact of your knowledge-sharing
Article 5 – Designation of Nominees and Winners
Only 4 Initiatives per category will be selected by the College of the V d’Or Awards, according to the criteria set out in Article 2 of these Regulations: these will be the Initiatives which obtain the best score in each category.
The College of the V d’Or Awards will then vote to choose a Winner for each category from among the Nominees.
The official announcement of the 6 Winners of the V d’Or Awards and the award of the trophies will take place on the day before the Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2024 event opens.
Article 6 – Confidentiality
The Members of the College of the V d’Or Awards must respect the confidentiality of the information of all types provided by the owners of Initiatives, without limitation of duration, and notably the personal and professional data.
They acknowledge that it is strictly prohibited to reproduce or reuse, in whole or in part, on their own behalf or that of a third party, the information brought to their knowledge within the framework of their participation in the College of the V d’Or Awards.
They also undertake to guarantee the confidentiality of the deliberations of the College and not to disclose the result to the owners of Initiatives, and more generally to any third parties.
Article 7 – Impartiality
The Members of the College must be impartial. Respect for the principle of impartiality entails that every Member of the College abstains from participating in any way in the examination and scoring of the Initiative, if there are links with the owner of the Initiative relating to the personal life or professional activities which could influence its scoring. A member of the College who has reason to think that his impartiality could be cast into doubt or who considers, in all conscience, that he cannot award a score with the required impartiality, undertakes to inform the Company thereof and refrain from taking part in the scoring concerning that Participant.
Article 8 – Data Protection
The personal data gathered about each Candidate presenting an application to become a Member of the College of the V d’Or Awards are collected and processed in compliance with the data protection legislation.
The data collected are for use by the Company only. They may be communicated to any service providers and subcontractors the Company uses for the purposes of the organisation and/or management of the V d’Or Awards.
Since the data collected about each Candidate within the framework of the V d’Or Awards are essential for their application to become Member of the College of the V d’Or Awards, exercise by a Member of his right of withdrawal before the end of the V d’Or Awards shall entail automatic cancellation of his participation.
Each Candidate or Member has a right of access to and rectification of his data and, if applicable, a right of withdrawal, a right of objection to the processing of those data, a right to erasure and restriction of processing, and a right to portability of the data, which can be exercised at any time, by post at the following address: Vinexposium – Les V d’Or – 10, rue Condillac – 33000 Bordeaux, or by email at [email protected]. Each Candidate lastly has a right to file a complaint with the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL).
The personal data shall be kept for the duration of the V d’Or Awards 2024, then for a period of 5 years after the Candidate’s last manifestation of interest. The data necessary to establish proof of said relationship, those necessary to execute these Regulations, and those necessary for the Company to respect the legal and regulatory obligations to which it is subject shall be kept in compliance with the legal provisions in force.
Article 9 – Modification
The Company reserves the right, at any time and without notice or any obligation to justify its decision, to shorten, extend, postpone or cancel the V d’Or Awards, and to modify all or some of the conditions of access and/or the terms of implementation of the V d’Or Awards in case of force majeure or events outside of its control, for which it cannot be held liable and for which no compensation can be claimed of it on this ground.
In such circumstances, the Company shall endeavour to inform the Candidates and Members thereof promptly.
Every Candidate or Member shall then be deemed to have accepted such modification merely through participating in the V d’Or Awards from the effective date of said modification.
Article 10 – Languages of the V d’Or Awards
The full Regulations of the Competition are published in English and in French. In case of discrepancy between the translations, the reference text shall be the French text.
Article 11 – Consultation of the Regulations
The full Regulations are available on the dedicated V d’Or Award platform. The Regulations can also be obtained free of charge on written request to the following address: Vinexposium – Les V d’Or – 10, rue Condillac – 33000 Bordeaux.
Article 12 – Disputes – applicable law and jurisdiction
Participation in the College of the V d’Or Awards necessarily entails unreserved and unrestricted acceptance of these Regulations by each Candidate.
If one or more stipulations of these Regulations are held to be invalid and/or inapplicable, the other clauses shall retain all their strength and their scope.
Candidates unreservedly accept that the mere fact of participating in the V d’Or Awards compulsorily subjects them to the French laws, notably for any dispute that may arise owing to the V d’Or Awards or which may be directly or indirectly linked thereto, without prejudice to any rules of conflict of laws. The Company and the Candidate must endeavour to amicably resolve any dispute arising at the time of the V d’Or Awards . In the absence of agreement, the dispute shall fall to the jurisdiction of the Commercial Court of Nanterre.
In any event, when a breach of these Regulations is ascertained, the Company shall have the right to exclude the Candidate or Member in question, without such Candidate or Member having any entitlement to compensation and without prejudice to any damages the Company may claim.
Any dispute or complaint relative to the V d’Or Awards must be submitted in writing and sent to Vinexposium by post, and cannot be considered after 11 February 2024.
No response shall be given to any telephone or written request concerning the interpretation or application of these Regulations, the mechanisms or terms of the V d’Or Awards, or the nomination of the Nominees and Winners .