Anti-harassment policy at FIDI Conferences

All FIDI Conference attendees should at all times be respectful and considerate. Respect personal space and common courtesy rules for personal interaction. Refrain from displaying any demeaning, harassing, aggressive, or intimidating messages, materials or behaviour towards fellow attendees, exhibitors, FIDI staff and suppliers, hotel staff and suppliers, or hotel guests. 

Harassment includes (but is not limited to): offensive verbal comments related to gender, identity, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age and religion. Harassment also includes displaying sexual images in public spaces, intimidation, stalking, following, photographing or recording without explicit consent, inappropriate physical contact and unwelcome sexual attention, sustained disruption of conversations or other events.

Exhibitors, sponsors and guests are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. Exhibitors should not use sexualised images, activities, or other material to promote their activities. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualised clothing or uniforms, or otherwise create a sexualised environment.

If asked to stop behaving inappropriately by a fellow FIDI Conference attendee, supplier, or FIDI staff member, you should comply immediately. If a participant engages in a behaviour that violates this anti-harassment policy, event organisers may take any actions they deem appropriate (including a verbal warning, expulsion from the event, reporting to the participant’s employer, or filing a complaint at the local police) to maintain a friendly and safe environment for all participants. FIDI Global Alliance reserves the right to sanction and/or expel any attendee violating this Code of Conduct without any refund. FIDI Global Alliance also reserves the right to sanction offenders by prohibiting them from coming to future FIDI Conferences or events.

What to do if you are a victim of harassment or witness

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the FIDI Conference team via mobile phone at +32 470 100 960 or send an email to: admin@fidievents.org  

You can also talk to any member of FIDI staff at the registration desk, or any FIDI staff member present throughout the event. FIDI staff members will be wearing easily identifiable badges for the duration of the event.

When taking a personal report, FIDI staff will ensure you are safe and cannot be overheard. They may involve other event staff to ensure your report is managed properly. Once safe, we will ask you to tell us about what happened. This can be upsetting, but we’ll handle it as respectfully as possible, and you can bring someone to support you. You won’t be asked to confront anyone, and we won’t tell anyone who you are.

If necessary, FIDI staff will assist participants to contact security, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference.

Correct use of FIDI Conference content & communication tools

FIDI puts at the disposal of its FIDI Conference attendees a host of communication tools and channels, to ensure that attendees stay informed of the event’s activities and can communicate with their fellow participants before and during the event. 

All FIDI Conference attendees are asked to always respect FIDI's name, reputation, goodwill and other business assets when using the 2024 FIDI Conference tools, such as the FIDI Conference App, website, social media channels, email, etc. 

Attendees should also refrain from making any statements that would be disrespectful, misrepresenting, or otherwise harmful to FIDI, another user, or any third party. 

Content made available to FIDI Conference attendees, or the general public related to the FIDI Conference should not infringe the rights of FIDI, another user, or any third party. In particular, attendees should refrain from infringing any intellectual property rights, privacy and data protection laws, confidentiality commitments, trade or business secrets, banking secrecy, or other laws when using the 2024 FIDI Conference tools. Attendees can only represent the company under which they have registered their participation to the conference or event.

Attendees should also refrain from sending or posting unsolicited e-mails or internal messages (spam) to other users without their explicit consent.

FIDI does not proactively monitor (neither before nor after publication of content) whether the content posted by users complies with the present Code of Conduct and the Terms of Use of fidi.org & the 2024 FIDI Conference mobile App. FIDI may however investigate at any time whether there are no cyber security incidents.

 
Although FIDI may occasionally verify compliance with the FIDI’s Privacy Policy & the 2024 FIDI Conference mobile App policy, you agree that FIDI does not have a general obligation to monitor content posted on the 2024 FIDI Conference channels or material, nor to actively seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity or content. 

Registration rules

To meet the requirements for representing the FIDI Affiliate.

Not to enter false or misleading information in their registration form.

Respecting the rules and regulations regarding the registration eligibility of conference attendees.

To ensure that the annual FIDI membership dues for the year have been paid prior to the conference, as this is a pre-requisite to benefit from FIDI services.

Anti-Trust Guidelines at Conferences

Most trade association activities are procompetitive or competitively neutral. For example, a trade association like FIDI may help establish industry standards that protect the public or allow components from different service providers to operate together. The association also may represent its affiliates before legislatures or government agencies, providing valuable information to inform government decisions. When these activities are done with adequate safeguards, they need not pose an antitrust risk.

However, forming a trade association like FIDI, and particularly participating in a conference, does not shield joint activities from antitrust scrutiny: Dealings among competitors that violate the law would still violate the law even if they were done through a trade association.

FIDI is an organization built on the principles of trust and integrity and the highest standards of behaviour. Adherence to the rules of competition is an intrinsic part of that integrity which FIDI has as part of its aims. In order to operate, FIDI must be able to inspire confidence in the market that both it and its Affiliates aspire to those high standards.  Worldwide competition laws prohibit agreements and concerted practices between companies that restrict competition, such as price fixing. Price fixing is a very broad term that includes any concerted effort or action which has an effect on prices. Other agreements among competitors that are subject to particular antitrust scrutiny include bid rigging (usually a form of price fixing), agreements to allocate customers or territories, and other agreements not to compete. 

Accordingly, in our FIDI sessions all attendees should refrain from any discussion which may provide the basis for an inference that any attendee agreed to take action relating to prices, production, allocation of markets, or any other matter that would have a market effect because of a reduction in competition. The following topics, while not the only ones, are some of the main ones, which should not be discussed at our meeting: 

1. Do not discuss current or future billing rates, fees, disbursement charges or other items that could be construed as "price." Further, be very careful of discussions of past billing rates, fees or prices. 

2. Do not discuss what is a fair profit, billing rate or wage level. 

3. Do not discuss an increase or decrease in price, fees or wages, or disbursement charges. In this regard, remember that interest charges are considered an item of price. 

4. Do not discuss standardizing or stabilizing prices, fees or wages, or disbursement charges. 

5. Do not discuss current billing or fee procedures. 

6. Do not discuss the imposition of credit terms or the amount thereof. 

7. Do not complain to a competitor about his billing rates, fees or wages. 

8. Do not discuss refusing to deal with anyone because of his pricing or fees. 

9. Do not conduct surveys (even informally) relating to fees, wages or other economic matters without prior review by antitrust legal counsel.

The penalties for violating federal or state antitrust laws are severe. The most serious antitrust violations such as price fixing can incur criminal penalties including multi-million-dollar fines and prison sentences for individuals and corporate officers who are found guilty of bid rigging, price fixing or market allocation. 

FIDI is expecting all its Affiliates to be aware of the risks of infringing competition rules in trade associations and to explicitly dissociate themselves from such anti-competitive behaviour.