Procedure for complaints and appeals

1. General

Target

The purpose of this procedure is to deal adequately with complaints and appeals in order to do justice to parties that lodge a complaint or appeal and to improve DigiTrust's management system. This procedure is intended to inform external parties who complain or appeal. The procedure is publicly available on DigiTrust's website.

Scope

This procedure applies to all complaints and appeals filed by external parties.

Management of this procedure

The DigiTrust compliance team is responsible for the content of this procedure. This procedure is part of DigiTrust's management system.

Definitions

Complaint: A written or verbal complaint about the working methods of DigiTrust, one of its employees or one of DigiTrust's customers. The complaint must be submitted to DigiTrust within three months of the incident.
If a customer wishes to file a complaint that relates to DigiTrust's independence, they can contact chairman of the Impartiality Committee at mail address cvo@digitrust.nl. The latter will handle the complaint confidentially.

Appeal: A written appeal against a certification decision made by DigiTrust or the inadequate handling of a complaint. The appeal must be submitted to DigiTrust within 14 days of the occurrence.

Confidentiality

Any complaint or appeal will be kept confidential with regard to the person making the complaint and the subject of the complaint.

2. Responsibilities

All DigiTrust employees are responsible for reporting and recording all verbal complaints. DigiTrust's compliance team is responsible for handling complaints and appeals. DigiTrust's compliance team is responsible for collecting and verifying all necessary information to validate the complaint/appeal.

The decision on the response to the complaint should be made by person(s) not involved in the subject of the complaint. The appeal will be heard by a person who has not previously been involved in the subject matter of the appeal.

3. Process

Schematic representation of the process

The flowcharts below show the complaints and appeals process and the corresponding turnaround time. The DigiTrust internal compliance team is responsible for implementing the process.

Complaint procedure

Explanation of complaints procedure:

• Upon receipt of a complaint, DigiTrust will confirm whether the complaint relates to certification activities for which it is responsible (validation of the complaint) and, if so, take up the complaint. If the complaint concerns a certificate holder, the effectiveness of the certified management system will be taken into account when investigating the complaint.
• The filing of the complaint, its investigation and decision will not lead to discriminatory measures against the complainant.
• Any complaint about a certificate holder will be communicated to the certificate holder concerned within an appropriate period The starting point for an appropriate period is set at one week.
• The complaint handling process consists of the following elements and methods:
  • An overview of the process for receiving, validating and investigating the complaint, and deciding on the action to be taken in response;
  • follow-up and recording of complaints, including actions taken to resolve them;
  • ensuring that all appropriate corrections and corrective measures are applied
• DigiTrust is responsible for collecting and verifying all necessary information to validate the
• If possible, DigiTrust will acknowledge receipt of the complaint and provide progress reports and outcome to the complainant
• The decision to be made known to the complainant will be made or reviewed and approved by a person or group of persons who have not previously been involved in the subject matter of the The DigiTrust compliance team is leading in this regard.
• DigiTrust will formally notify the complainant of the end of the complaint handling process.
• DigiTrust will work with the customer and the complainant to determine whether, and if so to what extent, the subject of the complaint and its resolution should be made public Degree of communication on the subject and resolution of the complaint and the medium used will be determined situationally by the compliance team, in consultation with the customer and complainant.

Appeal procedure

Explanation of appeal process:

• The filing of the appeal, its examination and the decision on it will not lead to discriminatory measures against the petitioner of the
• The appellate process consists of the following elements and methods:
  • An overview of the process for receiving, validating and examining the appeal and deciding on the action to be taken in response to it; taking into account the results of previous similar appeals;
  • monitoring and recording of appeals, including the actions taken to resolve them;
  • ensure that all appropriate corrections and remedial actions are applied.
• If possible, DigiTrust will acknowledge receipt of the appeal and provide progress reports and the outcome to the appellant
• The decision to be made known to the appellant will be made or reviewed and approved by a person or group of persons who have not previously been involved in the subject matter of the The DigiTrust compliance team is leading in this regard.
• DigiTrust will formally notify the appellant of the end of the appeal handling process.

4. Recommendation, complaint and appeal form

Please complete the form below to submit a recommendation, complaint or appeal. This form will be sent directly to DigiTrust's management. The above procedure will then take effect.