Terms and Conditions

§ 1 Scope of application
These General Terms and Conditions of Business apply to all business dealings between T&I Portfolios GmbH (referred to hereinafter as “T&I”) and its Client. By placing its order the Client acknowledges the General Terms and Conditions of Business and they apply for the entire duration of the business relationship. They also apply to future transactions. Clients are both legal entities and natural persons. The translation agency provides its services exclusively on the basis of these Terms and Conditions of Business. The Client’s General Terms and Conditions of Business are only binding upon us if we have expressly acknowledged them. Agreements and riders over and above these must be in writing in order to be effective.

§ 2 Coming into force of the Agreement
The Client shall issue its translation requests in writing, by fax or by email. In urgent individual cases this can also take place verbally. T&I shall then issue a quotation; this can take place both in writing or electronically by email. The translation contract comes about through the acceptance of this quotation.

T&I can decline to translate a text. This applies in particular in cases in which texts with criminal content and texts which offend good morals are supplied for translation, and also when translating the text in suitable quality in the time specified by the Client appears unreasonable due to the difficulty and/or scope of the text submitted.

§ 3 Prices
The prices according to the written or electronic quotation provided by T&I shall apply. Unless agreed otherwise, prices are in Euros excluding value added tax. For extensive orders (where the time probably required for working on the text(s) is greater than one month) a down payment can be requested, or for work accepted in partial deliveries payment can be requested in instalments according to the proportion of these in relation to the entire text.

§ 4 Performance period and fulfilment period
The translation shall be sent to the Client by post, email or fax according to what has previously been agreed. Delivery and performance periods shall be indicated to the Client to the best of our knowledge and conscience, but these can only be probable or estimated deadlines. Delivery deadlines shall only be binding when they have been expressly agreed by the Parties. The Client is obliged to point out the relevance of particular delivery periods. In the event of force majeure and circumstances beyond the control of T&I the delivery deadline shall be extended accordingly. T&I is obliged to inform the Client immediately of any deferral of the delivery date.

§ 5 Client’s duty of cooperation
The Client shall inform T&I of the target language(s) for the text, any special formatting wishes, deadlines and if necessary the intended purpose. The Client is obliged to provide the text to be translated in a generally accessible word processing program or as a written document in legible form. Furthermore the Client is obliged to make the information and documents necessary for the translation accessible. Before using the translation the Client is obliged to check it for its usability and any obvious errors.

§ 6 Scope of services
If no special agreements have been made about the requirements in terms of the quality or content of the translation, or if no specific requirements are evident from the type of order, the Contractor shall produce the translation to the best of its knowledge and conscience completely and correctly in terms of its meaning and grammar (de lege artis) for the purpose of information.

§ 7 Notice of defects
The Client must notify the Contractor of any evident defects within a period of 14 days of receipt of the document in writing, by email or by fax, precisely stating the defects and as appropriate presenting the reasons which have led it to assume that an error exists. Concealed defects must be notified immediately these are discovered. The Client must give T&I an opportunity to rectify the defect(s) within an appropriate period of time. If the Client itself undertakes to correct the defects that have been notified, T&I shall accept neither the costs of the Client undertaking this itself nor any guarantee for the passages that are thus amended.

§ 8 Exclusion of liability
T&I shall accept no liability for translation errors caused by the Client due to information or documents being incorrect, incomplete or not provided in good time or source texts being incorrect or illegible (including in parts). If no intended purpose for the translation has been indicated, particularly if the text is intended for printing, publication or advertising purposes, the Client cannot request compensation for damages arising due to the text proving to be unsuitable for the intended purpose or because the publication or advertising has to be repeated due to an inadequate adaptation or if the text leads to damage to the reputation or loss of the image of the company. If the Client does not send us any proofs for correction before printing and prints without our approval, any defects shall be at the Client’s expense. The Client fully absolves the Contractor from liability if a breach of copyright comes about on the basis of the translation and as a result claims are asserted, including by third parties. T&I shall not be liable for damages arising due to interruption of business, especially due to force majeure, e.g. natural events and traffic congestion, network and server faults, any other disruptions to lines and transmission, and any other hindrances beyond our control. In exceptional cases of this kind T&I is entitled to withdraw from the Agreement in full or in part. The same applies if business operations, in particular the online service, have to be fully or partially suspended or limited for a certain period of time for an important reason. Liability for damage arising due to viruses is also excluded. When deliveries take place by email or any other remote transmission, the Client shall be responsible within the context of its duty of cooperation for undertaking a final inspection of the files and texts transmitted. Claims for compensation in this regard shall not be acknowledged. Liability is further excluded for such damage as could have been avoided if the Client had undertaken a proper inspection in accordance with its duties of cooperation. In the cases mentioned liability for loss of profits is excluded. In addition, liability for all further damages is excluded unless the damage is due to intentional or grossly negligent behaviour by T&I or its assistants. In the event of intent and gross negligence by assistants, as is normal in commercial transactions liability towards entrepreneurs shall be limited to three times the invoice value of the service or supply as a result of which the damage has arisen and to a maximum of EUR thirty thousand. This applies only to typical direct damages which were foreseeable on conclusion of contract. If the Client is insured against damages the limits of liability shall be reduced in terms of the amount to one third.

§ 9 Cession
Cession by the Client of the rights from an agreement requires the written consent of T&I.

§ 10 Payment terms
Our fee is payable within 14 days of the invoice date. If this payment period is exceeded, interest on late payments shall be charged in the amount of 8 percentage points above the respective base rate and for consumers 5 percentage points above base rate. The translation that has been delivered shall remain the property of T&I until all claims have been paid in full. The Client shall not be entitled to any rights of use until the transfer of ownership.

§ 11 Confidentiality/data storage
All texts are treated in confidence. T&I undertakes to maintain secrecy in respect of all facts which become known to it in connection with its activities for the Client. With regard to the electronic transmission of texts and data, and any other communication in electronic form between the Client, the Contractor and any assistants of the Contractor, no absolute protection of business and trade secrets and other confidential data can be guaranteed as the possibility cannot be ruled out that unauthorised third parties gain access by electronic means outside the Client’s sphere of control to the texts transmitted. The data received in the context of the order or the translation itself that exists in file format shall be retained by T&I in accordance with the statutory retention periods for the purposes of archiving. This data shall be deleted only on the basis of an express written request by the Client.

§ 12 Place of performance/place of jurisdiction
The place of performance and place of jurisdiction is Saarbrücken.

§ 13 Severability clause
If one or more provisions of these General Terms and Conditions of Business are ineffective or contain a loophole, the Parties shall replace or supplement the ineffective or incomplete rule by appropriate provisions which come as close as possible to the economic purpose of the intended rule in an effective manner.