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General Terms and Conditions

Business with us is subject to these Terms and Conditions.

Last updated March 4, 2010

1. Purview
(1) These contractual Terms and Conditions apply to all contracts between Translator (hereafter referred to in these contractual Terms and Conditions as “Translator”) and Client (hereafter referred to in these contractual Terms and Conditions as “Client”) as long as nothing else is expressly agreed in writing or mandated by law. These Terms and Conditions will be made known when the client contracts an order and will apply for the entire duration of the business transaction. Any deviations or alterations to these Terms and Conditions must be made agreed in writing by both parties.
(2) The Client’s Terms and Conditions are only binding if the Client has expressly made them known.
(3) In cases where the Client is acting on behalf of a third party, the Translator still enters into a contract solely with the Client (and not with the third party). The Client is obliged to pay in accordance with Point 10 of these Terms and Conditions, regardless of the payment or non-payment of the Client’s end client.

2. Contracting an order
(1) Before accepting an order, the Client will receive a summary of the contract order (hereafter referred to in these contractual Terms and Conditions as “Contract Order Summary”) from the Translator, which will include all important data concerning the order. In particular, this Contract Order Summary will include the Client’s name, full address, the method of delivery, the date of delivery and the approximate or fixed price.
(2) The order is considered contracted following the Client’s signed acceptance of this Contract Order Summary and these contractual Terms and Conditions (sent by email, fax or mail).
(3) If the source text that the Client provides to the Translator is not complete but only partial, the Translator reserves the right to refuse the contract order if, upon receipt of the complete text, she establishes that the information previously provided by the Client (particularly regarding the kind of text, its level of difficulty, etc.) is not consistent or that grounds exist as listed under Point 6 (3) of these contractual Terms and Conditions. Damages claims on the part of the Client, no matter what kind, will be unauthorized in such a case.

3. Scope of the contract order
The text will be completed carefully and in accordance with the accepted basic standards of the profession. The Client will receive a final version of the text in accordance with the specifications made in the Contract Order Summary.

4. Client’s responsibility to clarify and cooperate
(1) The Translator reserves the right to clarify ambiguities in the source text with the Client or to produce a generally understandable text according to her own best knowledge.
(2) The Client must inform the Translator in writing in due time regarding the purpose and use of the text (e.g., company-internal information or a letter destined for outside the company) as well as any special modes in which the translation is to appear (such as translation on data storage media, number of copies, print-readiness, translation format, etc.).
(3) If the text is to be published in print, the Client must inform the Translator about this in writing before contracting the order and allow her to submit corrections before printing. If the Client does not do so, the Client will be liable for any and all resultant deficiencies in the text. The Client must provide the Translator with a copy once it is in print.
(4) Any and all necessary information and documents must be provided to the Translator by the Client without prior request and upon contracting the order or as soon as possible thereafter (such as the Client’s glossaries, any required company terminology, illustrations, drawings, tables, meanings of abbreviations, etc.). If this accompanying material is not provided, field-specific terms will be translated in a generally accepted and understandable way. The Translator will not be held liable for mistakes that result from the Client’s non-compliance with this responsibility.
(5) The Client exempts the Translator from all copyright claims, including any side costs or resulting costs, that the author of the source text could charge to the Translator due to the translation.
(6) The Client is required to confirm receipt of the text in writing without delay (by email, fax or mail).

5. Delivery deadlines, forces majeures
(1) The Translator is in default in submitting the text only if a calendar date has been specified in writing as the delivery deadline for the text and she is responsible for the delay.
(2) The Translator is not responsible for failure to meet the terms of the agreement if such failure was caused by forces outside her control or acts of God (e.g., sicknesses, power failures, computer viruses, etc.). The Translator will alert the Client without delay as to the situation if such a case arises.
(3) Both parties will work to find a solution so that the contractual responsibilities can still be carried out. A later deadline can only be set given a written agreement agreed by both parties.
(4) Both the Translator and the Client, however, have the right in such cases to withdraw from the contract order. This withdrawal must be made in writing. All services already completed by the Translator must be compensated on the basis of the agreed-upon payment. Any further rights, particularly damages claims, are precluded in such cases.

6. Data protection, confidentiality
(1) The Translator agrees to treat with utmost confidentiality all facts about the Client and the Client’s enterprise revealed to her in the context of the translation contract order.
  (2) The Translator reserves the right, however, to use texts that are made accessible to the general public (such as printed materials or internet sites) as references.
(3) Texts that contain material punishable by law or that violates public decency do not fall under this regulation and can be rejected by the Translator, even after the Translator accepts the contract order.

7. Terminating the contract order
(1) If the Client terminates a contract order without being contractually or lawfully entitled to do, the Client still has the responsibility to compensate the Translator for the work the Translator did before receipt of this termination. Compensation will be made on the basis of the contractually agreed-upon payment.
(2) Payment is to be covered by the Client following deduction of spared expenditures or, if applicable, is to be covered by profit to the Translator stemming from work from other clients. The spared expenditures and the profits from work from other clients are fixed at a flat rate of 75%. The payment to be made for work that is no longer to be done amounts to a flat rate of 25%.
(3) Termination of the contract order must be made in writing.

8. Liability
(1) In terms of economic loss and damage to property, the Translator is only liable for gross negligence and willful intent. Furthermore, the Translator is liable in cases of simple carelessness if there exists an infringement of the contractual responsibilities.
(2) To the extent that this is enforceable by law, the liability of the Translator for insurable economic loss and damage to property is limited to the liability insurance amount (in the amount of €100,000 for economic loss and €3 million for personal and property damages). For non-insured economic loss and property damages, the amount for which the Translator is liable equals the total amount invoiced by the Translator for the contract order in question.
(3) The Translator assumes no responsibility for the correctness or incorrectness of the content of the source text, especially as concerns legal or technical texts.
(4) The Client is barred from recourse to the Translator in enforcing damages claims against third parties (any parties not listed as party to the contract order).
(5) The Translator is not liable for damage or loss during transport. She uses and periodically updates a virus protection program, but she is not liable for any possible damage due to computer viruses.
(6) The Translator is not liable for the loss of documents due to fire, water, natural disaster, breaking and entering or theft. She is also not liable for non-adherence to the delivery date when it is due to the reasons listed in Point 5 of these contractual Terms and Conditions.
(7) The Translator is not liable for changes to the text made by the Client or third parties. She is also not liable for the cases outlined in Point 4.

9. Correction of errors, warranty claims
(1) The Translator is not liable for errors in the final text due to hard-to-read, mistake-filled or incomplete source texts or due to provision of incorrect terminology on the part of the Client.
(2) The Client has the right to correct possible errors in the final text (with the exception of those listed in Point 9.1). The Client must present all presumed errors in the quality of the text within eight days after receipt of the text. The Client must submit sufficient references in writing as proof and explain these presumed errors. If the Translator does not receive the presumed list of errors before the eight days have elapsed, the translation is deemed free of errors, and the Client waives any and all possible claims of entitlement due to such errors.
(3) The Translator has the right to correct possible errors. The Client must allow her an appropriate timeframe in which to do so. If the Client does not allow for this, the Translator is free of liability for the errors. If errors are not corrected within the agreed-upon timeframe, the Client can lay claim to a reduction in payment. If this is in concerns to insignificant errors, however, the Client has no claim to a reduction in payment.
(4) Warranty claims do not entitle the Client to withhold the contractually agreed-upon payment.

10. Compensation, basis for price calculations
(1) Prices for texts will be calculated according to the scope and level of difficulty of those texts. The price listed in the Contract Order Summary is binding unless it is expressly listed as an approximate price. In the case of an approximate price, the actual price will be calculated after the translation is finished on the basis of the actual amount of work done by the Translator.
(2) Payment, as a rule, is calculated per line (for clients in Germany) and per word (for clients outside Germany, unless otherwise indicated). The basis for these calculations is the program Text-Count. As an alternative, a fixed price can be agreed (as well as for additional services, such as editing and research). The minimum fee for any contract order is 20 Euros. Value-Added Tax will be added to this if it is legally required.
(3) For calculations per line, a standard line is defined as 55 characters (including spaces) on the basis of the source text. If the text is not available to the Client in the form of a computer file but instead as a photocopy, fax, handwritten text or the like, the calculation will be made on the basis of the target text.
(4) Payment is due immediately upon receipt of the text, with no discounts. The timeframe for accepting the text is listed in Point 9 (4).
(5) In addition to the agreed-upon payment, the Translator also has a claim to payment for the actual expenses in terms of time and materials and those made in conjunction with the Client (e.g. for research). In the case of a very large project, the Translator can require advance payment that is objectively needed to carry out the work. In justified cases, she can make delivery of her work dependent on prior full payment.
(6) If the payment amount has not been agreed upon, the payment made is to be customary and commensurate to the kind and level of difficulty of the work. In such a case, the paragraphs found in the Justizvergütungs- und -entschädigungsgesetzt or JVEG (the German law on just compensation) apply as the minimum possible customary and commensurate amount.

11. Reservation of proprietary rights and copyright
(1) The text remains property of the Translator until full payment is made. Until full payment is made, the Client has no rights to use it.
(2) The Translator owns the copyright to the translation (as according to § 3 of the “UrhG,” the German copyright law).
(3) Transfer of the text or the conferment of rights to third parties on the part of the Client may not take place without the Translator’s prior written consent. The material may not be saved in a database system or be utilized or processed electronically without the Translator’s prior written consent, especially not in systems connected to the internet.
(4) Forged changes or changes made by means of adding or leaving out text that obfuscate the text are unauthorized. The text may not be obfuscated or otherwise damaged in any way, in accordance with § 14 of the “UrhG.”
(5) Upon the publishing of certain translations, the name of the Translator and her function must be indicated clearly. A corrections copy must be made available to the Translator for her approval in due time before the text is published.
(6) If the Translation is published on the internet, the Client must list the Translator by name on the internet page where the translation is published, along with a clearly visible link with the text “Übersetzung von Gratia Stryker-Härtel” (or, if applicable, “Translation by Gratia Stryker-Haertel”) linking to the Translator’s website (http://www.strykerhaertel.de).

12. Applicable law, place of jurisdiction, place of delivery, Salvatory Clause
(1) German law applies for the contract order and all claims resulting from it. Berlin is the place of jurisdiction and the place of delivery. The German version of these contractual Terms and Conditions, to be found at http://www.strykerhaertel.de/e87/e255/index_ger.html, is the legally binding version.
(2) The effectiveness of these contractual Terms and Conditions will not be affected by the invalidity or ineffectiveness of individual clauses contained within it. In such cases, a clause as identical as possible to the original clause and which serves the objective of the purposed clause will be applied retroactively to replace the invalid or ineffective clause.
(3) The Salvatory Clause will only be applicable if no dispositive law is available as a replacement and the Clause is only meant to enable an ancillary contractual interpretation.