Cookies Policy

Effective Date: June 11, 2025

This Cookies Policy explains what cookies are, how Wine Vision by Open Balkan (“we” or “us”) uses them on our website, and what choices you have regarding their use. We aim to be transparent about our use of cookies and ensure compliance with EU and Serbian regulations on cookies and privacy. By continuing to use our Site, you consent to the placement of cookies on your device as described in this policy (unless you have disabled them via your browser or our settings, as described below).

1. What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that websites save to your device (computer, smartphone, tablet) when you visit. They are widely used to make websites work or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Cookies can serve many purposes: remembering user preferences, enabling shopping cart functions, analyzing site traffic, or targeting advertising, among others.

Cookies set by us (Wine Vision by Open Balkan) are called “first-party cookies.” Cookies set by parties other than us (such as analytics or social media providers) are called “third-party cookies.” Third-party cookies can recognize your browser when it visits our site and possibly when it visits certain other sites. We explain below how and why we use both types.

It’s important to note that cookies typically do not personally identify you by name or directly store personal details, but they can assign an identifier to your browser which could be linked to other data we hold (like if you’re logged in or provided your email). We treat cookie data as personal data if it is associated with other identifying information.

2. How We Use Cookies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies for the following purposes:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential for the operation of our website and use of its features. Without these cookies, certain services you’ve asked for (like navigating between pages or submitting forms) cannot be provided properly. For instance, if our site has a login for exhibitors or buyers, a necessary cookie might keep you logged in as you move between pages, or remember the items you added to a form before submission. These cookies do not gather information about you for marketing or remember where you’ve been on the internet. They are typically first-party cookies.
  • Example: We might use a session cookie to remember your input on a multi-page form (so you don’t have to re-enter info when moving to the next step). This cookie would expire at the end of your session (when you close your browser).
• Functional Cookies: These cookies allow our Site to remember choices you make and provide enhanced, more personalized features. They may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. Functional cookies remember preferences (like language or region selection, if we had multiple languages) and can also remember changes you’ve made to text size, fonts, and other customizable elements of web pages. Currently, our site is in English only and does not heavily use customization features for logged-out users, so use of functional cookies is minimal. However, if we implement any feature such as remembering a user’s site preferences, these cookies would handle that.
  • Example: A cookie might remember that you dismissed a one-time pop-up announcement, so it doesn’t show repeatedly. Or if you choose to play or mute an event video, a cookie could save that preference for your next visit.
• Analytics and Performance Cookies: We use these cookies to collect information about how visitors use our Site, which pages are popular, and if users encounter errors. These cookies do not collect information that directly identifies a visitor. The information collected is aggregated and anonymized. It is used for statistical purposes to improve the usability and content of our Site. For example, analytics cookies tell us overall how many people visited the “Exhibitors List” page, how long they stayed, and whether they found what they were looking for. This helps us understand user interest (e.g., high traffic to a particular section indicates we should keep that section updated and prominent). We primarily use Google Analytics for this purposefair.openbalkan.com.
  • Google Analytics sets cookies such as _ga, _gid, and _gat (or others in the Google Analytics 4 suite) which can persist for a period (often 24 hours to 2 years, depending on the cookie) and assign a randomly generated user ID to distinguish users. This helps count unique visitors and track user behavior across sessions. The data from these cookies is sent to Google’s servers (which may be outside Serbia/EU, e.g., in the USA). We have configured Google Analytics to anonymize IP addresses where possible, meaning the last octet of your IP is masked before storage/processing, which adds a layer of privacy. The analytics data we see is aggregated – for instance, we might see that “50 users from Germany visited today” but we cannot identify those users individually.
  • We do not use analytics cookies to track you across different websites, only to monitor activity on our own Site. The information from analytics cookies is used strictly for our internal research on how to better serve our visitors and improve site performance and design.
• Advertising and Targeting Cookies: As of the effective date of this policy, we do not utilize any first-party advertising cookies and do not host third-party ads on our site that would set targeting cookies. In the future, if we decide to run marketing campaigns (for example, retargeting ads on social media to those who visited our site), we might use cookies or pixels for that purpose. Such cookies would record that you visited our Site and which pages you viewed, and then that information could be used to show you relevant adverts on other sites. If we introduce such technologies, we will update this policy and obtain your consent where required.
  • Potential Example: A Facebook Pixel or LinkedIn Insight Tag could be placed on our registration confirmation page to note that you signed up. That could help us later show you event-related content on Facebook or LinkedIn. If implemented, these would be third-party trackers from those platforms, and we would ensure to include them under optional cookies that require your opt-in consent.
• Social Media Cookies: We maintain profiles on social media (like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn). Our Site might include embedded content from these services (for example, an embedded YouTube video of last year’s highlights, or an Instagram feed). When you interact with those embedded elements, or sometimes simply when you load a page with embedded content, the social media platform may set its own cookies on your device. These cookies might track your interaction and link it to your profile on their platform. For instance, if you are logged into YouTube in the same browser and play an embedded YouTube video on our Site, YouTube may record that activity.
  • We try to minimize this by using “privacy-enhanced mode” for YouTube embeds when possible (which means YouTube won’t store tracking cookies unless you play the video). However, other platforms may not offer such modes.
  • These social media cookies are considered third-party cookies and are governed by the respective platforms’ privacy policies. We encourage you to review the cookie and privacy policies of any social media or external platform before interacting with embedded content.

3. What Specific Cookies Do We Use?

For transparency, here is a non-exhaustive list of the cookies that may be set by our Site, categorized as above. Note that cookie names and specifics may change over time (especially analytics cookies if Google updates their technology). We will update this section periodically.

• Necessary Cookies:
  • PHPSESSID (or similar session cookie): Used by our web server/Content Management System to maintain an anonymous user session (e.g., remembering form inputs between pages). Expires at end of session.
  • wordpress_logged_in_* and wordpress_sec_* (if the site is on WordPress and you log in as a user): These keep you logged in. Only applicable to admin or if we had user login. Expires when you log out or after a short period of inactivity.
  • cookie_consent (example name): Remembers that you’ve seen and responded to the cookie banner, so we don’t show it every time. If you consented, this might store a value like “yes” and persist for maybe 6-12 months.
    (If our site uses a specific cookie consent tool, it may have its own cookie name to save preferences.)
• Analytics Cookies (third-party, Google Analytics):
  • _ga: Used to distinguish users (assigns each user a unique ID). Persistence: 2 years.
  • _gid: Used to distinguish users on a daily basis. Persistence: 24 hours.
  • _gat: Used to throttle request rate (limit the collection of data on high-traffic sites). Persistence: 1 minute.
  • _ga_<property-id> (for GA4): Used to persist session state. Persistence: 2 years.
  • __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmz (if using older GA): Various purposes like session count, referral info, etc. (GA4 largely replaced these).
  • Google may also set cookies like __Secure-3PAPISID, __Secure-3PSID, NID as part of its infrastructure; these may be more related to Google accounts if you’re logged in to Google. We do not control those directly, but they can appear due to the GA script.
• Functional Cookies:
  • pll_language (for example, if we had a multilingual site with Polylang plugin): Remembers selected language. Persistence: 1 year. (Currently not used because site is English only).
  • Other functional cookies might include ones set by interactive tools or forms – for instance, a schedule builder or map that saves your selections in a cookie. We will add any such cookies here if and when they’re implemented.
• Advertising/Social Media Cookies:
  • As noted, none by default. Potential future cookies might include fr (Facebook cookie for encrypted user ID and browser ID for ad purposes), or cookies from LinkedIn (li_oatml, li_sugr) or others, but these are not currently in use on our site. If we ever use these, it will be only after obtaining consent via the cookie banner and we will document them here.

Please be aware that third-party cookies (like those from Google or YouTube) might change their names and behavior. We rely on those third-party services to provide accurate information about their cookies. We have provided the above examples based on current known usage.

4. Your Choices and Managing Cookies

Consent: When you first visit our website, we present a cookie banner or notification that explains that we use cookies and gives you the option to accept or customize your cookie settings. Non-essential cookies (like analytics and any future marketing cookies) will not be set unless you opt in (depending on the design of our consent mechanism, it might be implied by clicking “Accept” on the banner). By clicking “Accept All” you agree to all cookies. If you click “Reject” or simply close the banner without consenting, we will refrain from setting non-essential cookies (though necessary cookies will still operate as the site cannot function without them).

Customizing Preferences: Our banner or cookie settings page (if available) allows you to toggle certain categories of cookies on or off. For example, you might choose to enable functional cookies but disable analytics cookies. You can revisit these settings anytime by clicking a “Cookies” link or icon on our site (often found in the footer or header as “Cookie Settings”).

Browser Controls: In addition to our site controls, you can manage cookies through your web browser settings. Most browsers let you:

• View what cookies are stored on your device and delete them on a one-by-one basis or all at once.
• Block third-party cookies (or sometimes all cookies) from being set.
• Receive notifications when cookies are being set so you can choose to accept or not.
• Use “incognito” or “private” mode which deletes cookies after you close the browser (though while in use, cookies may still be set).
  Each browser’s process is different. You can find instructions on how to manage cookies on common browsers here:
  • Google Chrome: Support site has info on clearing, enabling, and managing cookies.
  • Mozilla Firefox: See Firefox’s help pages on cookie settings.
  • Safari (Desktop and Mobile): Safari’s preferences under Privacy allow cookie management.
  • Microsoft Edge: Edge settings > Cookies and site permissions.
  • Opera: Opera settings have an advanced section for cookies.
    (We omit specific URLs for brevity; a quick web search like “manage cookies on [browser name]” will get you the latest official instructions.)

Please note that if you disable all cookies (especially if you block “first-party” essential cookies), some features of our site may not function correctly. For example, you might not be able to register or add items to a cart, or your preferences won’t be saved. We recommend allowing at least the necessary cookies for optimal experience.

Google Analytics Opt-Out: As mentioned, Google offers a Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on which prevents GA from collecting data on any sites you visit that use GA. If you’re concerned about data collected by analytics cookies, you can install this plugin in your browser. It’s available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Do Not Track (DNT): “Do Not Track” is a setting in some web browsers that signals to websites that you do not want to be tracked. Our Site currently does not respond to DNT signals in a different way from other requests, because there isn’t an industry consensus on how to interpret DNT. We instead rely on our cookie consent and privacy mechanisms to honor your preferences.

5. Legal Basis for Cookies (EU/Serbia)

From a legal perspective, non-essential cookies (like analytics or targeting cookies) are used based on your consent under GDPR and equivalent laws. When you provide consent via our cookie banner, that serves as our legal basis for setting those cookies and processing any related data (like usage analytics)fair.openbalkan.com. You have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by adjusting your cookie settings or contacting us. For strictly necessary cookies, our legal basis is our legitimate interest (or necessity for providing a service you requested) because these cookies enable core functionality of the site (e.g., maintaining a logged-in session or remembering your cookie consent choice).

Serbian e-commerce and data protection regulations similarly require consent for non-essential cookies and transparent communication about cookies usage. We strive to comply with those requirements by clearly disclosing our cookie practices (hence this policy) and obtaining consent.

6. Updates to this Cookies Policy

We may update this Cookies Policy to reflect changes in technology, law, or our Site’s usage of cookies. When we make changes, we will update the Effective Date at the top of this policy. Significant changes may be communicated via a notice on our website or via email if appropriate. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.

7. Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of cookies or about this Cookies Policy, feel free to contact us:

Wine Vision by Open Balkan – Web Team
Email: [email protected]
Address: Bulevar Vojvode Mišića 14, 11030 Belgrade, Serbia
Phone: +381 11 26 55 239 / +381 11 26 55 113

We will be happy to explain more or address any issues you may face regarding cookies on our Site. Your feedback is valuable as we work to ensure our site is user-friendly and compliant with all relevant laws.

By using our Site after having seen the cookie notice, you acknowledge and agree to our use of cookies as outlined above (unless you’ve adjusted settings to disable them). Thank you for visiting Wine Vision by Open Balkan and for reviewing our Cookies Policy!