Laboratoire PhytoChemia shall not maintain a permanent business location within the installations of one of its customers, or customers’ direct competitors.

Laboratoire PhytoChemia shall not promote, import, manufacture, supply, distribute or sell plant-derived products, with two exceptions :

• – For the production of chemically characterized reference standards intended for analytical purposes only, or of pure molecules intended for resale on an isolated and purified basis ;
• – Within the framework of an exploratory pilot study conducted for a customer, where the end product will not be promoted, sold or distributed by Laboratoire PhytoChemia itself.

At no time and under no circumstance will Laboratoire PhytoChemia actively promote, endorse or advise against a specific brand besides its own (i. e. companies pertaining to Groupe Chemia). Public comments released in the name of the laboratory shall be limited to specific test results and/or generalities not applicable to a single brand. Test results apply only to the samples being analyzed and shall not be used by Laboratoire PhytoChemia to make any inference about a given brand’s merits.

When conducting research projects involving other companies, the extent of the collaboration shall be limited to the proper progress of the research project. Promotion of the results shall be limited to scientific publications and related material (e. g. explanatory blogpost or video). If any of the coauthors has any remotely relevant direct interest in the research being published at the time of publication, PhytoChemia shall insist that such conflict is appropriately and clearly declared within the manuscript.

Staff members shall not promote, import, manufacture, supply, distribute or sell plant-derived products, especially via multi-level marketing companies.

When discussing topics pertaining to plant extracts and preparations with people outside the company, staff members should avoid promoting, endorsing or advising against specific brands. This excludes any plant material intended for culinary use, which may be discussed freely as a part of the staff private life and personal tastes.

Staff members shall not accept gifts from companies or individuals dealing with PhytoChemia. When such gifts are made, they shall be considered as donated to PhytoChemia and reserved to research purposes.

Staff members may not maintain any employment or counseling relationship with any of PhytoChemia’s customers, or customers’ direct competitors, outside of PhytoChemia’s regular activities.

• Executive staff members shall not participate as conferencer or guest to corporative events held by a specific brand doing business with PhytoChemia or publicly discuss the pros and cons of a specific brand or line of products. They may participate to events held by groups of several, competing companies and in such event will restrain their interventions to provide general scientific or similarly fact-based background information. They may also attent to corporative events as observers, without remuneration.
• At all time when speaking publicly and on social media, executive staff members shall maintain a neutral, objective, and scientifically supported tone.

Administrators shall have no financial interest and make no investments in companies or organizations manufacturing or distributing products being analyzed by the Laboratory, including but not limited to essential oils, fragrances, cannabis products and herbs or plant extracts intended for medicinal or cosmetic purposes. The exceptions applying to PhytoChemia as a business also apply to this point.

Administrators shall not be an employee of a private organization that is also a customer (or a direct competitor of a customer) of Laboratoire PhytoChemia for testing purposes, nor have had such relation in the past 12 months at the time they become administrator or owner. In the event that such a customer would want to deal with Laboratoire PhytoChemia, the request must be turned down on the basis of an apparent conflict of interest.