Privacy notice
Ermelle is in development. This notice covers the founding-furrier waitlist and application form on this site.
Who is responsible
Ermelle is a brand operated by Timo Loeper, trading as develoeper.com Consulting, Im Hackert 15, 42279 Wuppertal, Germany (VAT ID DE314840812). He is the controller for the personal data collected here and is contactable directly at privacy@ermelle.com. Because the controller is established in Germany, the EU GDPR applies directly (Art. 3(1)) alongside the German BDSG and TDDDG. No Art. 27 representative is required. Full provider details are in our legal notice.
What we collect and why
- Step 1 (waitlist): your email and name, and your consent choices. Purpose: to contact you about your founding-furrier application (legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b)/(f) — pre-contractual steps / legitimate interest) and, only if you opt in, to send you updates (legal basis: consent, Art. 6(1)(a) with ePrivacy).
- Step 2 (application): business details you choose to share — trading name, country, existing shop links, species/materials, product types, years active, role and free-text notes. These are self-declared and used to understand and pre-screen your craft. We do not collect identity documents, tax IDs, or beneficial-ownership data here — regulated verification (KYC/KYB) only happens later, in a separate onboarding process, if you join.
- Business outreach (pre-launch): for a limited number of fur-trade businesses we process publicly listed business contact details (trading name, public email or contact-form address, country, product category, shop link) to send a one-time, personal note about Etsy's 11 August fur delisting and our founding-furrier waitlist (legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) — legitimate interest; assessment on file). Source: your own shop or website. You can object at any time via privacy@ermelle.com or by replying "no thanks" — we then permanently suppress your contact (we keep a hashed copy solely to honour the suppression). Retention: outreach records are deleted no later than 6 months after last contact or upon objection; suppression hashes are kept permanently.
- Technical: we store the time, IP address and browser of your submission and consent as proof of consent and to prevent abuse.
Consent and how to withdraw it
Marketing consent is optional and confirmed by a link we email you (double opt-in). You can withdraw it at any time via the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or by emailing privacy@ermelle.com. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before withdrawal.
Who we share it with, and international transfers
Your data is stored on our infrastructure hosted in the EU (Frankfurt). Emails are sent via our email delivery provider acting as a processor under a data-processing agreement. We do not sell your data. Because the controller is established in Germany, your data is not transferred to a controller outside the EU. Any processor located outside the EU/UK is covered by the European Commission's 2021 Standard Contractual Clauses. Our forms are protected against automated abuse by Cloudflare Turnstile, which processes limited technical data (e.g., IP address and browser signals) for security only; Cloudflare acts as a processor under Standard Contractual Clauses.
How long we keep it
Waitlist and application data for applicants who do not go on to onboard is kept on a short cycle and then permanently deleted. (Because we deliberately do not collect regulated KYC/tax data at this stage, none of the long statutory retention obligations apply to these records.)
Your rights
You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, port and object to the processing of your personal data, and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. We respond within one month. To exercise a right, email privacy@ermelle.com.
Cookies and analytics
We use analytics and advertising measurement via Google Tag Manager (including Google Analytics) and the Meta Pixel (Facebook), loaded with EU Consent Mode: advertising and analytics storage are denied by default and only enabled if you accept in the cookie banner. After you accept, we may also send a hashed Lead event to Meta’s Conversions API as a server-side fallback when the browser Pixel is blocked — never without that consent. You can change your choice at any time via “Cookie settings” in the footer of the home page.
Prohibited species
Ermelle will never list CITES-listed species, seal or other marine-mammal products, or dog and cat fur — anywhere. Wild cats (lynx, ocelot, and similar), big cats, gray wolf, otters, vicuña and wild chinchilla, and all CITES Appendix II fur are not accepted at launch. If your work includes any of these, tell us in the application and we'll advise you.