Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Merlin Car Auctions regard the privacy and security of our customer's information as an important component of the service that we offer. This policy describes how we use your personal information in your dealings with us. Please take the time to read it carefully. You have a number of rights in relation to your information including the right to object to the processing of your personal information where that processing is carried out for our legitimate interests.

When you purchase a motor vehicle from us, we, Merlin Car Auctions, will be the company responsible for handling your personal information (known as a "controller" under data protection law).

The personal information collected by us includes your name, address, contact information, telephone number, email address, garage code (if applicable) company number (if applicable) and questions regarding your knowledge of Merlin Car Auctions.

1. The purpose and legal basis for processing your information
We collect your personal information to enter into a contract with you to sell a motor vehicle on your behalf or to allow you to purchase a motor vehicle from us. It is a requirement of the contract that we enter into with you that you provide all personal information requested on this form (with the exception of an email address). If you do not provide us with contact details we may not be able to perform our contract, for example, we will not be able to call you should a problem arise with your vehicle.

In order to process your personal information for this purpose, the processing is necessary for the performance of the contract to which you are a party.

We may use your personal information for direct marketing purposes to make you aware of auction dates or ad hoc auctions which may interest you or for customer satisfaction surveys where you have not objected to us doing so. As part of our marketing activities, we may also use your personal
information to provide you with details of vehicles which may be of special interest to you. We may do this by phone, post, email, text or through other digital media. Where we do so, we rely on the lawful processing ground of legitimate interest and our legitimate interest is to develop relationships with our existing customers and to assess our performance and standards.

When you purchase a motor vehicle from us we will use your personal information to perform the change of ownership on the vehicle. We may also use your personal information to comply with any obligation under anti-money laundering legislation, for the purposes of any statutory audit or for any other legal obligation to which we are subject.

We may also use your personal information to manage our everyday business needs, including accounting and to prevent fraud. Where we do so we rely on the lawful processing ground of
legitimate interest and our legitimate interest is in the effective management of our business.

2. Your Information and Third Parties
• The Revenue Commissioners: We may share your information in the act of performing the change of ownership on the car you have purchased/sold.

• Third Party Service Providers: We may share your personal information with third party service providers that perform services at our direction and on our behalf such as transport companies, providers of security and companies that manage marketing campaigns.

• An Gardai, Government Bodies or officials: We may share your personal information with an Gardai or other government bodies or agencies where required to do so by law.

3. Storage Periods
We may hold your personal information for a period of 7 years from the date of completion of this contract. We may hold this data for a longer period if we are legally required to do so.

4. Your Rights
You have several rights under data protection law in relation to how we use your personal information. You have the right, free of charge, to:

1. Check what type of personal data we hold about you and what we do with that information.
You are also entitled to receive a copy of this information.
2. Rectify any inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
3. Erase personal information we hold about you.
4. Stop us from using your personal information in certain cases, including if you believe that the
personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or our use of your information is
unlawful. If you exercise this right, we will store your personal information and will not carry
out any other processing until the issue is resolved.
5. Object to us using your personal information where we rely on our legitimate interests to use
your information. We will stop using your personal information unless we can demonstrate an
overriding legitimate grounds for the continued processing of this information.
6. Receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to have that data transmitted to another data controller.

These rights are in some circumstances limited by data protection legislation. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact us on 045 988700. We will endeavour to respond to your request within a month. If we are unable to deal with your request within a month we may extend this period by a further two months and we will explain why. You also have the right to lodge a complaint to the office of the Data Protection Commission.

For further information on data protection see www.dataprotection.ie

This consent can be withdrawn at any time free of charge.