General terms and conditions of business, payment and delivery

I. Area of application/Conclusion of contract

Orders are executed exclusively on the basis of the following terms and conditions. Deviating regulations require written confirmation.

 

II. Prices

1. The prices stated in the Contractor’s offer are subject to the reservation that the order data on which the offer was based remain unchanged. In the case of orders with delivery to third parties, the customer is considered to be the principal, unless otherwise specifically agreed. The prices of the Contractor do not include VAT. The prices of the Contractor are valid ex works. They do not include packaging, freight, postage, insurance and other shipping costs.
2. Subsequent changes at the instigation of the customer, including the machine downtime caused thereby, are being charged to the customer. Subsequent changes also include repetitions of test prints requested by the customer due to minor deviations from the original.
3. Sketches, drafts, sample typesetting, sample prints, proofs, changes to transmitted data supplied and similar preparatory work initiated by the customer are being charged. The same applies to data transfers (e.g. via ISDN).

 

III. Payment

1. Invoices are generally payable net within 14 days ./. 2 % discount or 30 days. Any discount agreement does not apply to freight, postage, insurance or other shipping costs. The invoice is accepted under the date of delivery, partial delivery or special agreement and on account of payment without granting any discount.
2. In case of extraordinary advance performance, reasonable advance payment may be required.
3. The customer may only set off a claim that is undisputed or has become res judicata or may exercise a right of retention.
4. If it becomes apparent after conclusion of the contract that the fulfillment of the payment claim is endangered by the Customer’s inability to pay, the Contractor may demand advance payment, withhold goods not yet delivered and stop further work. The Customer is also entitled to these rights if the Contractor is in default with the payment of deliveries which are based on the same legal relationship. § 321 II BGB remains unaffected.
5. In the event of late payment, interest on arrears is payable at a rate of 8% above the prime rate.

This does not exclude the assertion of further damage caused by default. If the customer does not pay within 30 days after receipt of the invoice and delivery of the goods, he is in default even without a reminder.

 

IV. Delivery

1. If the goods are to be shipped, the risk passes to the Customer as soon as the delivery has been handed over to the person carrying out the transport.
2. Delivery dates are only valid if they are explicitly confirmed by the Contractor. If the contract is concluded in writing, the confirmation of the delivery date must also be in writing.
3. If the Contractor delays performance, the Customer may only exercise the rights under § 323 BGB if the Contractor is responsible for the delay. A change in the burden of proof is not associated with this regulation.
4. Operational disruptions – both in the Contractor’s business and in that of a supplier – such as strikes, lockouts and all other cases of force majeure, only entitle the Customer to terminate the contract if it can no longer be expected of the Customer to wait any longer, otherwise the agreed delivery period is extended by the duration of the delay. However, termination is possible at the earliest four weeks after the occurrence of the operational disruption described above. Liability of the Contractor is excluded in these cases.
5. The Contractor has a right of retention to the printing and stamping templates supplied by the Client, manuscripts, raw materials and other items supplied by the Customer until all due claims arising from the business relationship have been settled in full.
6. Pursuant to § 15 para. 1 sentence 5 of the German Packaging Act (VerpackG), we hereby inform you that manufacturers and distributors of transport packaging are obliged to take back free of charge used, completely empty packaging of the same type, shape and size as the packaging they put into circulation at the place of actual transfer or in the immediate vicinity thereof in order to reuse or recycle it.
   By way of derogation from the foregoing and in accordance with the fourth sentence of section 15(1), the parties agree that the transport packaging shall be transferred to the consignee free of charge and that the consignee shall be obliged to reuse or recycle the transferred transport packaging in accordance with the Packaging Act.

 

V. Reservation of title

1. The delivered goods remain the Contractor’s property until full payment of all claims of the Contractor against the Customer existing on the invoice date. The Customer is only entitled to resell the goods in the ordinary course of business. The Customer hereby assigns its claims from the resale to the Contractor. The Contractor hereby accepts the assignment. In the event of default at the latest, the Customer is obliged to name the debtor of the assigned claim. If the value of the securities existing for the Contractor exceeds its claim by more than 20 % in total, the Contractor is obliged to release securities of the Contractor’s choice at the request of the Customer or a third party affected by the Contractor’s excess security.
2. When processing or working on goods delivered by the Contractor and owned by it, the Contractor is considered to be the manufacturer pursuant to § 950 BGB and retains ownership of the products at all times during processing. If third parties are involved in the handling or processing, the Contractor is limited to a co-ownership share in the amount of the invoice value of the reserved goods. The property thus acquired is considered to be reserved property.

 

VI. Objections/ Warranties

1. The Customer is obliged to check the contractual conformity of the goods as well as the preliminary and intermediate products sent for correction without delay in any case. The risk of any errors passes to the Customer with the declaration of readiness for printing/readiness for production, insofar as these are not errors which only occurred or could only be detected during the production process following the declaration of readiness for printing/readiness for production. The same applies to all other release declarations made by the Customer.
2. Obvious defects must be reported in writing within a period of one week from receipt of the goods, hidden defects within a period of one week from discovery; otherwise the assertion of the warranty claim is excluded.
3. In case of justified complaints, the Contractor is initially obligated and entitled to rectify the defect and/or make a replacement delivery at its discretion. If the Contractor does not comply with this obligation within a reasonable period of time or if the rectification of defects fails despite multiple attempts, the Customer may demand a reduction of the price (abatement) or rescission of the contract (withdrawal).
4. Defects in a part of the delivered goods do not entitle the Customer to complain about the entire delivery, unless the partial delivery is of no interest to the Customer.
5. In the case of color reproductions in all manufacturing processes, minor deviations from the original cannot be objected to. The same applies to the comparison between other originals (e.g. digital proofs, press proofs) and the final product. Furthermore, liability for defects that do not or only insignificantly affect the value or usability is excluded.
6. The Contractor is only liable for deviations in the quality of the material used up to half of the order value.
7. Deliveries (including data carriers, transmitted data) by the Customer or by a third party engaged by it are not subject to any duty of inspection on the part of the Contractor. This does not apply to data that is obviously not processable or not readable. In the case of data transmissions, the Customer has to use state-of-the-art protection programs for computer viruses before sending the data. Data backup is the sole responsibility of the Customer. The Contractor is entitled to make a copy.
8. Excess or short deliveries of up to 10% of the ordered circulation cannot be objected to. The delivered quantity is calculated. In the case of deliveries of paper custom-made products weighing less than 1,000 kg, the percentage increases to 20 %, and to 15 % for deliveries weighing less than 2,000 kg.

 

VII. Liability

1. Claims for damages and reimbursement of expenses by the Customer, irrespective of the legal basis, are excluded.
2. This exclusion of liability does not apply

– in the case of damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence

– in the case of a slightly negligent breach of essential contractual obligations, including by legal

representatives or vicarious agents of the Contractor; in this respect, the Contractor is only liable for the direct average damage foreseeable, direct average damage typical for the type of product,

– in case of culpable injury to life, body or health of the client,

– in the case of fraudulently concealed defects and assumed guarantee for the condition of the quality of the goods,

– in the case of claims arising from the Product Liability Act.

 

VIII. Statute of limitations

Claims of the Customer for warranty and damages (Sections VI and VII) become statute-barred after one year beginning with the (delivery) of the goods, with the exception of the claims for damages mentioned in Section VII 2. This does not apply if the Contractor has acted fraudulently.

 

IX. Commercial practice

In commercial transactions, the commercial customs of the printing industry apply (e.g. no obligation to hand over intermediate products such as data, lithos or printing plates which are created to produce the final product owed), unless a different order has been placed.

 

X. Archiving

Products to which the Customer is entitled, in particular data and data carriers, will only be archived by the Contractor beyond the time of handover of the end product for the Customer or its vicarious agents if this has been explicitly agreed and in return for special remuneration. If the aforementioned items are to be insured, this shall be arranged by the Customer itself in the absence of an agreement.

 

XI. Data privacy

Each time a user accesses our web pages, data about this process may be temporarily stored in a log file and statistically analyzed. We have no influence on this process. However, this is not personal data, so that it is not possible to trace which user has accessed which data.

Our company regularly checks creditworthiness when contracts are concluded and in certain cases where there is a legitimate interest. For this purpose, we cooperate with credit insurers from whom we receive the required data. For this purpose, we transmit your name and account data, etc.

Responsible for data security in our company, is the data protection officer.

 

XII. Periodic works

Contracts for regularly recurring work can be terminated with a notice period of at least 3 months to the end of a month.

 

XIII. Industrial property rights/copyright

The Customer is solely liable if the rights of third parties, in particular copyrights, are infringed by the execution of its order. The Customer shall indemnify the Contractor against all claims of third parties due to such an infringement of rights.

 

XIV. Place of performance, place of jurisdiction, validity

1. The place of performance and jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship, including proceedings relating to checks, bills of exchange and documents, is the registered office of the Contractor if the Customer is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law or has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany. German law applies to the contractual relationship. UN sales law is excluded.
2. Any invalidity of one or more provisions does not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.