General Terms of Business
(as at 1st March 2022)
1. Application
a. These General Terms of Business shall apply to contracts between the Translator and her Clients, unless otherwise agreed or inalienably required by law.
b. The Client’s General Terms and Conditions shall only be binding for the Translator if she has expressly acknowledged them.
2. Acceptance
a. As soon as the Client has transmitted the documents to be translated to the Translator by e-mail, fax, post, diskette or CD and the Translator has acknowledged receipt, a binding contract between Client and Translator shall exist. This shall not apply to documents which are sent to the Translator for the purposes of a quotation.
b. The Translator shall not be liable for delays or faulty execution arising from unclear, incorrect or incomplete placement of commission or information or documents not made available in time.
c. The Translator shall treat the documents and materials entrusted to her with utmost care. She shall not be liable for damages to or loss of these documents and materials unless they are a result of gross negligence or intent,
3. Scope
a. The translation shall be executed diligently in accordance with the principles of professional conduct. The Client shall receive the translation in the form and on the date agreed upon.
b. Graphic and formatting work is not included in the translation work and shall be commissioned by the Client separately and expressly.
4. Completion times and dates
a. Completion times and dates shall be agreed at the time of commission and are binding. Delivery shall be deemed to have been made at the time the translation was verifiably sent to the Client.
b. The Translator shall not be in delay if the work cannot be completed following an event beyond her control. If a deadline cannot be met due to force majeure, both Client and Translator shall be entitled to withdraw from the contract. In this case, all rights and claims beyond that, including but not limited to claims to damages, shall be excluded. The Translator shall notify the Client about such circumstances as soon as possible.
c. Force majeure shall be strikes, lockouts, industrial disputes, civil unrest, natural disasters, acts of war, terrorism, local electricity failures, irreversible breakdown of computer and telecommunication technology, accidents, diseases or any other impedimental situation not resulting from intentional or negligent behaviour of the Translator, which make it impossible to complete the translation within the agreed time and to the agreed standard.
5. Client’s duty of cooperation and clarification
a. The Client shall inform the Translator about the intended use of and special requirements for the translation (translation on data carriers, number of copies, publication, layout, etc.) in time, but no later than at the time of placing the commission. If the translation is to go press, the Client shall provide the Translator with a proof of the text.
b. Should the Client use the translation for a purpose other than specified, the Client shall first obtain confirmation from the Translator that the work is suitable for the new purpose. The Translator shall accept no liability where a translation is used for a purpose other than that for which it was originally supplied and reserves the right to make a further charge for any amendments necessitated by the use of a translation for a new purpose. If a translation is in any way amended or altered without the written permission of the Translator, she shall not be in any way liable for amendments made or their consequences.
c. Information and documents necessary for the translation (Client’s glossaries, pictures, drawings, tables, abbreviations, etc.) shall be provided by the Client without any further requests and in time, but no later than at the time of placing the commission.
d. The Translator shall not be held responsible for faults arising from a failure to comply with these duties.
e. The Translator shall also not be held responsible for faults arising from badly legible, illegible, faulty or incomplete source documents.
6. Removal of defects
a. The Translator reserves the right to removal of defects. The Client shall be entitled to claim removal of possible, objectively existing faults in the translation. The claim to removal of defects shall be made by the Client in writing, giving the exact nature of the fault(s), no later than ten working days after receipt of the translation. The Translator shall be given a reasonable deadline for amending the fault(s). If the claim to removal of defects has not been reported within ten working days after receipt of the translation, the claim for removal of defects shall lapse; possible fault(s) noticed and reported by the Client after that shall be the Client’s exclusive responsibility.
b. In case the amendment or substitute translation is not satisfactory, the Client shall have the right to a price reduction or redhibition. Claims in excess of this, including but not limited to claims for damages because of non-compliance, shall be excluded. Liability shall be limited to the value of the commission in question.
7. Liability
a. The translator shall be liable for gross negligence and intent. Liability for slight negligence shall only apply if duties essential for the contract have been breached.
b. In any case liability shall be limited to the total amount of the invoice made out by the Translator for the commission in question.
8. Compensation
a. An estimate shall not be considered contractually binding, but given for guidance or information only.
b. No fixed quotation shall be given by the Translator until she has seen all the source material and has received firm instruction from the Client. A binding quotation once given after the Translator has seen all the source material shall remain valid for a period of 10 (ten) days from the date on which it was given, after which time it may be subject to revision.
c. The compensation agreed upon shall be due 14 days after delivery of the translation, without any deductions, by bank transfer, banker’s cheque or in cash and payable in Euro. The amount shall be calculated on the basis of the price per word or standard line of the source text. A standard line consists of 55 keystrokes including spaces. If agreed in advance the amount can also be calculated on the basis of an hourly fee or per line of the target text. Prices shall be quoted in Euros and exclusive of VAT. VAT is levied at the rate of 19% on invoices payable by Clients resident in Germany. VAT may not be applicable on invoices payable by Clients resident outside Germany.
d. In addition to the compensation agreed upon the Translator shall be reimbursed for all expenses actually incurred and agreed with the Client in advance. If the translation work is substantial the Translator may ask for an advance which is objectively necessary for the execution of the work. If justified, the Translator may make delivery of her translation dependent on the prior payment of her fees in full.
e. If the Client fails to make payment on the due date specified on the invoice the Translator will, without prejudice to any other right or title, be entitled to add delay interest at the rate of 5% above the German base rate valid at the time the payment is due until such time as full payment plus interest charged is effected by the Client.
9. Cancellation
Before completion of the translation work the Client can only cancel the commission for important reasons. The cancellation shall only be valid if the Translator has been informed in writing. In this case the Translator is entitled to damages for lost profit in the amount of the value of the commission.
10. Retention of title and copyright
a. The translation shall remain property of the Translator until full payment has been received. The Client shall have no right of use before that.
b. The Translator shall reserve her copyright to the translation.
c. If the source language text is copyright, the Translator shall presume that the Client has either obtained translation rights or will be using the translation only for private purposes.
d. The Client shall hold the Translator harmelss from any claim for infringement of copyright and/or translatino rights and also from any legal action which may arise from the contents of the original.
e. The Client shall undertake to keep the Translator harmless from any legal action including defamation which may arise as a result of the content of the original source material or its translation.
11. Confidentiality
The Translator shall treat all facts and information come to her knowledge in connection with her work for the Client with complete confidentiality. This shall also apply to texts and documents sent to the Translator for the purposes of an estimate, which she does not, however, translate for the Client.
12. Jurisdiction
a. The commission and all claims arising therefrom shall be interpreted in accordance with German law. Venue shall be Munich.
b. Should any provision be invalid or unenforceable in whole or in part, the validity of all other provisions of these General Terms of Business shall not be affected. In such a case the parties agree to replace the invalid and/or unenforceable provision by a valid and/or enforceable provision as close as possible to the spirit and purpose of the provision to be replaced.
