1.1. These general terms & conditions of business (“GTC”) apply to all business relationships between Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, Maybachstr. 8, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany (“we” or “Publisher”) and its customers, unless otherwise stated, regardless of whether they are consumers or merchants (“Customer” or possibly “Consumer” or “Businessperson”). These GTC apply to all physical merchandise/digital products (books, magazines, brochures, e-books, CD-ROMs and DVDs, etc.) as well as to online products which are used exclusively by way of data transmission over the Internet.

1.2. Consumer means any natural person who concludes a legal transaction for purposes that are predominantly outside the commercial or self-employed activities of that natural person. Businessperson means a natural or legal person or partnership with legal capacity who, when concluding a legal transaction, acts in the exercise of his or her commercial or self-employed professional activity.

1.3. If you, as a Businessperson, use deviating terms and conditions, these shall only become an integral part of the contract if we have agreed to them in writing.

1.4. Note: Separate provisions apply to the book trade; these can be found in the > general terms & conditions of business for the retailer trade.

2. Conclusion of contract

2.1. When placing an order, you conclude the contract with Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, Maybachstr. 8, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany represented by the managing directors Dr. Benjamin Wessinger, Leonie Haas-Rotta, Thomas Koch, Nils Wörner

2.2. The presentation of our merchandise does not constitute a binding offer on our part. The presentation of our merchandise is a non-binding invitation for you to submit an offer.

2.3. Only when you place the order for merchandise does this constitute a binding offer pursuant to Section 145 of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, BGB). You initiate the order process by placing the selected product in the shopping basket. Clicking the “Proceed to checkout” button in the shopping basket will take you on to the next steps of the purchase process. If you are already a customer and have created a customer account, you can log in and your personal information, such as name and address, will be displayed from the stored data. If you do not have a customer account, you must enter all the necessary data such as name, address, billing and delivery address in a form. Your details and the merchandise you have selected for purchase will be displayed again on a summary page so that you can make any changes you wish or correct any input errors. By clicking the “Place your order and pay” button, your order will be triggered and forwarded to us. With your order, you express with binding effect your wish to purchase the merchandise. You will be informed of the receipt of your order immediately by e-mail.

2.4. If a product is unavailable, you can pre-order or reserve the product with us for in case it becomes available at a later date. Whether a product can be pre-ordered or reserved is displayed for the unavailable product. Pre-ordering means that you go through the ordering process described in Section 2.3 fully for the product but are informed that the product will only be shipped when it becomes available. You are therefore placing a binding order. After receipt of the pre-order, we will send you a written notification of the pre-order and the expected delivery date. You should bear in mind, however, that availability often depends on factors beyond our control, e.g. completion of the work, new editions, reprints, etc. We can therefore only give an approximate delivery date. In this respect, we can only provide a non-binding estimate regarding the delivery time. As soon as the item is available, it will be dispatched to you together with the invoice.

You can cancel the pre-order at any time without notice in writing, by fax or by e-mail; cancellation by telephone is also possible. The cancellation should be sent to:

Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH
Maybachstr. 8
70469 Stuttgart
GERMANY

Phone: +49 711 2582-450
Fax: +49 711 2582-390
E-mail: service@steiner-verlag.de

For a pre-order that has not been cancelled, the contract is concluded when we ship you the merchandise.

In the case of a reservation, you inform us of your e-mail address in a form in the product description of the reservable product. Once the product becomes available again, you will receive an e-mail and can then go through the ordering process described in Section 2.3. The reservation does not constitute a binding order on your part. If the product does not become available within a period of 180 days, your reservation will be automatically deleted.

2.5. The formation of the purchase contract depends both on the payment method and the product type that you select:

For payment on account:

• For physical merchandise, the contract is formed when you click the “Place your order and pay” button and the merchandise is shipped to you and when we confirm shipment by e-mail.
• For digital products and online products, the contract is formed when you click the “Place your order and pay” button and we provide you with the download or online access.

For payment in advance, regardless of the type of product, the contract is formed when you click the “Place your order and pay” button and we send you the request to make payment.

For credit card payment and payment by PayPal, the contract is formed when you click the “Place your order and pay” button.

2.6. The terms of contract along with details of the ordered merchandise, including these GTCs and Cancellation Guidance will be sent to you by e-mail with the order confirmation. We do not store the terms of contract.

2.7. You can order merchandise in our online shop either as a guest or as a registered user. As a registered user, you do not have to enter your personal data each time, but can, before or in the course of an order, log in to your customer account with your e-mail address and the password which you freely chose during registration.

To perform and process an order, we need you to provide us with the following data:

• First and last name
• E-mail address
• Postal address.

If you would like to create a customer account, we require the aforementioned data from you as well as a password freely chosen by you.

Without your separate consent, we use your provided data exclusively for fulfilling and processing your order(s), for example for delivering merchandise to the address you provided. Any further use of your personal data for the purposes of advertising, market research or for the needs-orientated composition of our offers requires your express consent. You have the possibility to give this consent before placing your order.

This declaration of consent is given on an entirely voluntary basis, can be accessed on our website, and be withdrawn by you at any time. Further details about this can be found in our > Privacy Policy.

Your provided data remain stored in your customer account. If you place an order as a guest, without your own customer account, we will only store your data to the extent required for us to fulfil our obligations under tax and commercial law. Insofar as your personal details change, you yourself are responsible for updating them. All changes can be made online after logging in, under “Account”.

3. Prices

3.1. Our prices are total prices in euros. They include the applicable value added tax (VAT) and other price components. Delivery, shipping or other costs are charged additionally in accordance with Sections 3.2 and 3.3.

Note: Separate provisions apply to the book trade; these can be found in the > general terms & conditions of business for the retailer trade.

3.2. Our prices for delivery in Germany are plus the shipping costs itemised in your order. For orders of physical merchandise, with the exception of magazines, shipping within the Federal Republic of Germany is free of shipping charges.

3.3. Varying shipping costs apply to the delivery of magazine subscriptions within Germany and abroad. The shipping costs are stored in the online shop under the respective products and at the check-out.

4. Terms of payment and delivery

4.1. Credit card, PayPal, payment in advance and purchase on account are available as payment methods in our shop. For certain reasons, however, we may not be able to offer you all these payment methods in individual cases. In particular, if an invoice is in the dunning process at the time of your intended order, only payment in advance will be offered. Furthermore, first-time customers can only order on account up to an invoice amount of EUR 200. The Publisher reserves the right to refrain from offering specific payment methods for further reasons.

4.2. For payment by PayPal, the time of payment is the time at which the order is placed. If the payment service provider PayPal is used, the payment is processed via PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg, subject to the PayPal Terms of Use which can be viewed at www.paypal.com. Payment via PayPal requires that you have set up a customer account with this payment service provider. We process credit card payments through the payment service provider SIX Payment Services (Europe) S.A., 10, rue Gabriel Lippmann, L-5365 Munsbach, Luxembourg, using their e-payment system Saferpay (hereafter Saferpay). If you choose to pay by credit card, the Saferpay online payment terminal will open during the order process. We automatically provide Saferpay with the data required for processing the payment, in particular the total price to be paid. You then make the payment, or payment authorisation, yourself using Saferpay. After payment authorisation has been completed, you will be redirected back to our shop, where you will receive an automated notification stating whether the payment has been accepted or declined.

4.3. For purchase on account, the invoice amount is payable within 21 days of the invoice being issued.

You can remit the invoice amount to one of the following accounts:

• Postbank Stuttgart, IBAN: DE18 6001 0070 0005 6197 03, BIC: PBNKDEFFXXX
• BW Bank Stuttgart, IBAN: DE54 6005 0101 0002 8325 51, BIC: SOLADESTXXX

Please quote your invoice payment number for identification purposes when making the transfer.

4.4. Unless otherwise agreed, physical products will be delivered by our publishing house delivery service to the delivery address you provided. Physical merchandise other than magazines can also be delivered to a self-service package collection point (“Packstation”).

4.5. The delivery time within Germany for immediately available products is approximately four to five working days after we have confirmed receipt of your order.

4.6. As soon as a pre-ordered product becomes available again, it will be shipped to you immediately.

4.7. The delivery time within Germany of a magazine is five to eight working days after the issue is published. Subsequent issues will also be delivered within this time frame after publication. The publication date of an issue may vary due to circumstances beyond our control.

4.8. Digital products, e.g. e-books, will only be delivered against prior payment by credit card or PayPal. These products are downloaded via a link in the order confirmation that you receive by e-mail after you have completed the purchase process.

5. Cancellation right

5.1. As a Consumer, you have a statutory cancellation right in accordance with the attached Cancellation Guidance.

5.2. Information on the conditions and legal consequences of cancellation can be viewed in our > Cancellation Guidance, available separately to these GTCs.

6. Cost of returns

8.1. We reserve unrestricted ownership of all deliveries until all payment obligations have been met in full by the Customer.

8.2. For deliveries to resellers, the resellers are entitled to resell the merchandise in the ordinary course of business. The reseller is principally authorised to collect the accounts receivable. As a precaution, the reseller assigns to us all claims against his/her customers to the amount of the value of the merchandise for which we invoiced the reseller (extended reservation of title).

9. Warranty/liability

9.1. The statutory warranty law applies.

9.2. For questions, complaints and objections, our customer service can be reached by telephone on +49 711 2582-450 from Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (CET) or by e-mail to service@steiner-verlag.de. For Merchants, Sections 377, 378 HGB apply in this respect.

10. Unavailability

12.1. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) if:

(a) your habitual place of residence is in Germany or

(b) your habitual place of residence is in a state which is not a Member State of the European Union.

If your habitual place of residence is in a Member State of the European Union, German law will also be applicable, whereby mandatory provisions of the Member State in which you have your habitual place of residence remain unaffected.

12.2. The language available for conclusion of contract is exclusively German. Translations of these GTCs into other languages are for your information only. If any differences arise between the language versions, the German text takes precedence.

12.3. If the Customer is a Merchant or a legal person under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship will be the court responsible for our registered office in Stuttgart, Germany.

13. Arbitration board

13.1. We draw your attention to the fact that, in addition to the ordinary legal process, you also have the option of out-of-court settlement of disputes in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 524/2013. Details of this can be found in Regulation (EU) No. 524/2013 and at the Internet address: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. Our e-mail address is: service@steiner-verlag.de. In accordance with Section 36 of the German Consumer Dispute Resolution Act (Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz, VSBG), we would like to point out that we are not obliged to participate in an out-of-court dispute resolution process before a consumer arbitration board.

13.2. Should individual provisions of these GTCs be invalid, this shall have no effect on the validity of the remainder of the contract.

– End of the general terms & conditions of business –

3.1. With the delivery you acquire the right to use the digital products delivered to you to the contractually stipulated extent on any computers that are suitable for these purposes.

3.2. You undertake to use the digital product for your own purposes only and to refrain from making it accessible or available to third parties, whether free of charge or in return for payment.

3.3. You are entitled to install and use the digital product – provided that the product is suitable for this purpose – on the hard disk.

3.4. You are not entitled to make copies of the digital product or its accompanying information. Neither may you reproduce, distribute, rent, grant sub-licences to third parties for, or otherwise make available to third parties the components of the digital product, any images supplied, the manual, accompanying texts or the documentation belonging to the digital product. You are not authorised to pass on access identifiers and/or passwords to third parties. You are not authorised to change, modify, adapt or decompile the digital product or its accessories, in whole or in part, to the extent that this exceeds the limitations prescribed under Sections 69d (3) and 69e of the German Copyright Act (Urhebergesetz, UrhG). You are also prohibited from changing copyright notices, marks/trademarks and/or proprietary notices.

4. Liability

Liability for damage to other software or data carriers/data processing systems caused by the use of digital products of the Publisher will only be assumed if the defect in the digital product causing the damage was caused intentionally by or through the gross negligence of a legal representative or vicarious agent of the Publisher and the damage is foreseeable and one that might typically occur. For contracts with legal persons under public law, special funds under public law and merchants – but only in respect of the latter if the contract forms part of the operation of their commercial business – liability for gross negligence on the part of vicarious agents is also excluded over and above the liability limitation in the preceding sentence, unless vicarious agents in senior management positions were at fault and/or main contractual obligations were infringed.

Statutory claims for rectification of defects and subsequent delivery – but not for damages – remain unaffected by the above provision. Further claims, in particular for loss of profit or consequential damage, are excluded.

– End of the supplementary general terms & conditions of business for digital products –

These supplementary general terms & conditions of business for online products apply to the conclusion of contracts for using online products in addition to the preceding GTCs.

2. Access to the online product

Your access to the online product is password-protected and occurs over the Internet by means of remote data transmission. You must keep your access data and password confidential and protect them from misuse by third parties. If you lose your access data or password or you suspect misuse of these data, you must inform the Publisher without undue delay. In the event of misuse, the Publisher is entitled to block access to the online products. The Customer is held liable for any misuse for which he/she is responsible.

3. Copyright, usage rights

3.1. All copyrights, usage rights and other property rights to the online products remain with the Publisher.

3.2. You acquire the right to access the online products from any computer that is suitable for these purposes. The duration of the usage right is determined by the agreement upon which the contractual relationship is based; you will be informed of it at the beginning of the contract and it terminates at the latest upon expiry of the contractual relationship.

3.3. You undertake to use the online products for your own purposes only and to refrain from enabling third parties to gain separate access to the online products, whether free of charge or against payment.

3.4. With a single licence, the online products may only be accessed by a single computer at any one time, not, however, simultaneously by two or more computers, regardless of whether these are being used by the same or different persons.

3.5. With a multi-user licence agreement, you are entitled, in accordance with the contractual agreement, to access the online products at any time from one or more computers with more than one person at the same time.

3.6. You are prohibited from changing copyright notices, marks/trademarks and/or proprietary notices of the online products.

4. Warranty/liability

4.1. The online products are revised and updated regularly with the expected care. Despite all prudence and care, it must always be borne in mind when using the online products that changes in the legal situation, changes in jurisdiction and/or new technical requirements may necessitate changes to the online products.

4.2. If you download content, applications, etc. from an online product and save them at least temporarily, it is vital that you use the retrieved data in the current version at short notice. The Customer alone is responsible for selecting and using the online products.

4.3. Liability for damage to other software or data carriers/data processing systems caused by the use of online products of the Publisher will only be assumed if the defect in the online products causing the damage was caused intentionally by or through the gross negligence of a legal representative or vicarious agent of the Publisher and the damage is foreseeable and one that might typically occur. For contracts with legal persons under public law, special funds under public law and merchants – but only in respect of the latter if the contract forms part of the operation of their commercial business – liability for gross negligence on the part of vicarious agents is also excluded over and above the liability limitation in the preceding sentence, unless vicarious agents in senior management positions were at fault and/or main contractual obligations were infringed.

Statutory claims for rectification of defects and subsequent delivery – but not for damages – remain unaffected by the above provision. Further claims, in particular for loss of profit or consequential damage, are excluded.

4.4. To safeguard your system, you undertake to back up data at intervals which are appropriate for the application. In the event of a data loss for which the Publisher is responsible, we shall only assume liability for the effort typically required to recover the data.

5. Unavailability

The Publisher endeavours to provide permanent access to the online products, i.e. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Availability at all times is, however, expressly not guaranteed. In particular, access may be temporarily restricted for technical reasons, for example due to necessary maintenance and repair work.

– End of the supplementary general terms & conditions of business for online products –