Privacy Policy

1 Introduction

(a) FlixBus Australia Pty Ltd ACN 686 837 301 (Flix Australia) understands the importance of protecting the privacy of an individual’s personal information.

(b) This policy sets out how Flix Australia aims to protect the privacy of your personal information, your rights in relation to your personal information managed by Flix Australia and the way Flix Australia collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information.

(c) In handling your personal information, Flix Australia complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act and all other relevant Australian privacy laws.

2 What kinds of personal information does Flix Australia collect?

(a) Personal information is information or an opinion about an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual.

(b) When you access services (including ticket booking and booking management services) provided by, or otherwise engage with, Flix Australia, Flix Australia may collect your personal information.

(c) The kinds of personal information that Flix Australia collects will depend on the nature of Flix Australia’s interactions with you and the types of products and services you access or obtain from Flix Australia. Generally, the kinds of personal information Flix Australia may collect about you include:

(i) contact and identification information such as your name, residential address, telephone number, email address, date of birth and gender;
(ii) booking information such as information regarding any connecting services, your consent to Flix Australia’s terms and conditions, advance seat reservation information, baggage details and the booking channel (web or app) used by you to complete your booking;
(iii) payment information in connection with your payment for Flix Australia’s products and services;
(iv) customer service support data such as means of communication, customer inquiries or chat bot data;
(v) information regarding your travel and purchase history;
(vi) your preferences in relation to Flix Australia’s marketing communications, including its newsletter and other communications which Flix Australia may send to you about its services, products, offers and promotions; and
(vii) other information required for Flix Australia’s functions and activities, such as copies of your communications with us including via email and chat bot including where required by law.

(d) In some circumstances Flix Australia may also hold other personal information provided by you or obtained from third parties with your consent.

(e) If you are applying for a role with Flix Australia, please refer to Flix Australia’s Privacy Policy for Applicants which outlines how Flix Australia will collect, use, disclose, store and manage personal information during the recruitment process.

3 How does Flix Australia collect personal information?

(a) Generally, Flix Australia collects your personal information directly from you. For example, Flix Australia may collect your personal information through:

(i) the completion of an online booking form;
(ii) an interaction or exchange in person or by way of telephone, video conference, email, other electronic communication, including via an AI enabled chatbot, or post;
(iii) your use or access of Flix Australia’s website or mobile app;
(iv) your use of Flix Australia’s products and/or services; and/or
(v) any other form of communications you may have with Flix Australia about its products and services.

(b) There may be occasions when Flix Australia collects your personal information from other sources such as from:

(i) third party partners and service providers such as sales partners and travel agents, information services providers and customer service providers; and/or
(ii) a publicly maintained record or other publicly available source of information including social media, such as Facebook, Instagram or X.

(c) Generally, Flix Australia will only collect your personal information from sources other than you if it is unreasonable or impracticable to collect your personal information from you or with your consent.

4 Why does Flix Australia need your personal information?

(a) Flix Australia collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information where it is reasonably necessary for the purposes of:

(i) Flix Australia providing and facilitating the provision of Flix Australia’s products and/or services to you and all associated purposes including:
- (A) to verify your identity and contact details;
- (B) to complete bookings for services;
- (C) to facilitate payment for Flix Australia’s products and/or services;
(ii) assisting Flix Australia to monitor, maintain, evaluate and improve its quality of products, services, offers and promotions, including for research, market analysis and quality improvement processes;
(iii) providing you with access to Flix Australia’s website and other online and app based services including your personal customer account;
(iv) responding to queries you submit to Flix Australia;
(v) enabling Flix Australia to promote its products and/or services to you;
(vi) identifying and informing you of other products, services, offers and promotions that may be of interest to you;
(vii) processing and responding to any complaints, feedback or inquiries made by you;
(viii) preventing fraudulent bookings
(ix) Flix Australia’s internal business operations and processes, including administrative processes; and/or
(x) any other legal requirements.

(b) Flix Australia may also use or disclose your personal information for purposes related to the above purposes and for which you would reasonably expect Flix Australia to use or disclose your personal information, where you have consented to the use or disclosure, or where the use or disclosure is otherwise in accordance with law.

(c) Where personal information is used or disclosed, Flix Australia takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure it is relevant to the purpose for which it is used or disclosed. You are under no obligation to provide your personal information to Flix Australia. However, without certain personal information from you, Flix Australia may not be able to provide its products and/or services to you or otherwise engage with you in relation to any queries you have in relation to Flix Australia’s products and/or services.

(d) If Flix Australia receives personal information about you that it has not requested and it determines that the personal information received is not reasonably necessary for it to provide its products and/or services to you, or for its other functions as described above, Flix Australia will take all lawful and reasonable steps (if any) to de-identify or destroy that personal information.

5 To whom does Flix Australia disclose your personal information?

(a) Flix Australia discloses your personal information for the purposes for which Flix Australia collects it. That is, generally, Flix Australia will only disclose your personal information for a purpose set out at paragraph 4 above. This may include disclosing your personal information to:

(i) third party bus transport carriers who assist Flix Australia to deliver its products and services to you (you can find an overview of the current carriers here);
(ii) third party partners and service providers such as IT service providers, sales partners and travel agents, marketing agencies and customer service providers;
(iii) financial institutions and payment service providers (including PayPal);
(iv) store operators;
(v) security companies;
(vi) third parties engaged by Flix Australia to perform administrative or other business management functions;
(vii) people or entities considering acquiring an interest in Flix Australia’s enterprise;
(viii) Flix Australia’s professional advisors (including legal and accounting firms, banks and auditors), agents, contractors, and consultants, where necessary to enable them to render their professional services to Flix Australia;
(ix) insurance providers including travel insurers;
(x) Flix Australia’s parent company, Flix SE and other companies within Flix Australia’s corporate group (who may be located overseas - see section 6 below); and
(xi) regulatory bodies and agencies if and as necessary, including the Australian Taxation Office.

(b) Flix Australia’s disclosures of your personal information to the above third parties will be on a confidential basis or otherwise in accordance with law. Flix Australia may also disclose your personal information with your consent or if disclosure is required or authorised by law.

6 Overseas disclosure

(a) Flix Australia may disclose personal information to overseas recipients in order to provide its products and/or services and for administrative or other business management purposes. It is impracticable to list all countries in which recipients may be located. However, Flix Australia is likely to disclose personal information to its parent company, Flix SE, located in Germany and to other companies within its corporate group located overseas.

(b) Overseas recipients may have different privacy and data protection standards. However, before disclosing any personal information to an overseas recipient, Flix Australia takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure the overseas recipient complies with the Australian Privacy Principles or is bound by a substantially similar privacy scheme unless you consent to the overseas disclosure or it is otherwise required or permitted by law. If you have any queries or objections to such disclosure, please contact Flix Australia’s privacy department on the details set out in paragraph 11.

7 Direct marketing

(a) Flix Australia may use or disclose your personal information in order to inform you of its services, products, offers and promotions.

(b) Where Flix Australia uses and discloses your personal information to inform you of its services, products, offers and promotions, you will be able to opt-out of receiving such communications by contacting Flix Australia’s Privacy Officer on the contact details set out in paragraph 11 below or through the opt-out mechanism contained in the marketing communication.

8 Security of your personal information

(a) Flix Australia takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that the personal information it holds is protected from misuse, interference and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

(b) Flix Australia holds personal information in both hard copy and electronic forms in secure servers or in storage located in secure environments and access is restricted to authorised personnel only. Flix Australia’s employees are required to maintain the confidentiality of any personal information held by Flix Australia.

(c) Flix Australia will destroy or de-identify personal information in circumstances where it is no longer required, unless Flix Australia is otherwise required or authorised by law to retain the information.

9 Can you access and correct the personal information that Flix Australia holds about you?

(a) Flix Australia takes steps reasonable in the circumstances to ensure personal information it holds is accurate, up-to-date, complete, relevant and not misleading.

(b) Under the Privacy Act, you may seek access to and correction of your personal information that is collected and held by Flix Australia. If at any time you would like to access or correct the personal information that Flix Australia holds about you, or you would like more information on Flix Australia’s approach to privacy, please contact Flix Australia’s privacy department on the details set out in paragraph 11 below.

(c) Where Flix Australia outsources any of its functions relating to the provision of its products and/or services to you, any request for access to or correction of the personal information held by that service provider or other third party may need to be made to the relevant service provider or third party.

(d) Flix Australia will grant access to the extent required or authorised by the Privacy Act and take steps reasonable in the circumstances to correct personal information it holds about you where necessary and appropriate.

(e) To obtain access to your personal information:

(i) you will have to provide proof of your identity to enable Flix Australia to confirm that the personal information to which you seek access is about you and to ensure that the privacy of others is protected;
(ii) Flix Australia requests that you be reasonably specific about the personal information you require; and
(iii) Flix Australia may charge you a reasonable administration fee, which reflects the cost to Flix Australia, for providing access in accordance with your request.

(f) Flix Australia will endeavour to respond to your request to access and/or correct your personal information within 30 days from receipt of your request.

10 Cookies

(a) When accessing Flix Australia’s website, or a related entity’s website, Flix Australia uses ‘cookies’ to store a log file which is retained for technical and statistical purposes only.

(b) Cookies are small pieces of information sent from the website and stored by your Internet browser on your computer’s hard drive. You can disable cookies at any time. However, if a browser does not accept cookies or if you reject a cookie, some portions of Flix Australia’s online services may not function properly.

(c) To the extent any personal information is collected through Flix Australia’s use of cookies, it is de-identified prior to being analysed for technical and statistical purposes.

11 How to contact us

For further information or enquiries regarding your personal information held by Flix Australia, to request access to, or correction of your personal information held by Flix Australia, if you would like to opt-out of receiving any promotional or marketing communications, or to make a privacy complaint, please contact Flix Australia’s privacy department using the following contact details:

FlixBus Australia Pty Ltd

Level 18, 347 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia

data.protection.au@fcs.flixbus.com

12 Privacy complaints

(a) Please direct all privacy complaints to Flix Australia’s privacy department in writing using the contact details contained under paragraph 11. At all times, privacy complaints:

(i) will be treated seriously;
(ii) will be dealt with promptly;
(iii) will be dealt with in a confidential manner; and
(iv) will not affect your existing obligations to Flix Australia or the commercial arrangements between you and Flix Australia.

(b) In the event you are dissatisfied with Flix Australia’s response to your complaint, you may refer the complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

13 Review of this policy

This policy may be reviewed and updated from time to time. Where Flix Australia updates this policy, Flix Australia will make the updated policy available.