GTCs

 

Spektrum der Wissenschaft Verlagsgesellschaft mbH general terms and conditions for use of the "Contoo" platform

 

1. Scope of application

1.1 These general terms and conditions for use of the www.contoo.de platform ("GTCs") govern the contractual relationship between Spektrum der Wissenschaft Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Slevogtstrasse 3-5, 69126 Heidelberg, Germany ("Spektrum") and the user ("user") of the services ("services") which Spektrum offers users on the Internet platform www.contoo.de, as well as associated top-level domains (e.g. www.contoo.com) and subdomains ("platform"). They do not apply to the services of organisers (as described in figure 3.3). A full version of the valid GTCs is available on the platform and can be saved and printed.

1.2 Spektrum reserves the right to make amendments to these GTCs, provided that these amendments are reasonable for the user. Spektrum will inform the user of amendments using the e-mail address entered by the user during registration, will provide him with the amended GTCs, with typographical emphasis of the amendments, and will make the amended version available on the platform. If the user does not raise objection to the validity of the amended GTCs within two weeks of receiving the amended GTCs, they shall be deemed to have been accepted. However, this shall only apply if the user was expressly made aware of the consequences of his silence in the notification of change. If the user objects to the amendments, Spektrum shall have a right of extraordinary termination of this agreement.

2. Registration

2.1 To make use of Spektrum's services, the user registers on the platform, thereby opening his user account ("account").

2.2 The user must set up a password for his account. The user is responsible for keeping his password secret and for preventing third parties from accessing his account using his password. The user is obliged to inform Spektrum immediately via e-mail info@contoo.com if there is evidence to suggest that the password is being used by third parties.

2.3 The user undertakes to submit only truthful data during registration and to update the information if it changes. The user shall ensure that Spektrum is able to contact him at any time using the contact data entered during registration, particularly by e-mail.

2.4 Spektrum reserves the right to refuse individual members registration without stating its reasons.

3. Services

3.1 On the platform, the user is able to access information about scientific conferences, symposia and other events of a scientific nature ("events") organised by various organisers ("organisers") and make contact with organisers via the specific organiser web pages ("organiser web pages") set up by organisers for the purpose of registration. The organisers are solely responsible for the organiser web pages; Spektrum merely facilitates access to these web pages over the platform for the user ("service(s)").

3.2 If the user registers for an event on an organiser web page, he is able to access documents and information relevant to the event, such as registration forms, participant lists, programme notes and abstracts, insofar as the organiser has provided such information on the specific organiser web pages and has activated them for the user. If permitted by the organiser, the user is also able to upload his own content, such as abstracts, onto organiser web pages.

3.3 By registering with the organiser, the user himself concludes an agreement with the organiser concerning participation in the event or use of the organiser web pages ("participant agreement"). No contractual obligations of any kind whatsoever shall result for Spektrum with regard to the organiser or the user as a result of participant agreements entered into between the organiser and a user. The user shall be entirely responsible for legal relationships entered into with organisers. In particular, this shall also apply to all disputes on account of substandard performance, delay and other breaches of duty and to claims resulting from these disputes. The reciprocal duties of the parties to a participant agreement are essentially based on the relevant provisions of the respective applicable statutory law, unless agreed otherwise in the participant agreement.

3.4 Spektrum shall not involve itself in the communication and exchange of information and content between users and organisers or the organisation of events or organiser web pages. Spektrum accepts no responsibility for the correctness and completeness of the information, documents and other content circulated or published by users or organisers over the platform and shall not inspect these in any way in this respect.

3.5 The user may use the services free of charge. This does not apply to organisers' services.

3.6 Online payment services are provided by ZENIT Pressevertrieb GmbH, Julius-Hölder-Straße 47 in 70597 Stuttgart. Any questions concerning online payment should be adressed to ZENIT Pressevertrieb GmbH ( Phone +49 (0) 711 / 7252221).

3.7 Spektrum reserves the right to alter the services at any time, unless this is unreasonable for the user. This also includes the right to introduce charges for all or some services.

4. Responsibility on the part of Spektrum

4.1 The user is aware that Spektrum is not able to guarantee uninterrupted availability of the platform or individual services. Spektrum will make every effort to offer the platform without unplanned interruptions. However, there may be temporary interruptions to the platform's availability or faults affecting individual services due to maintenance work, for security reasons or for reasons outside of Spektrum's control (e.g. due to power cuts or interruptions to the public communications network).

4.2 Spektrum accepts no liability for the uninterrupted use of the platform and the uninterrupted possibility of communication between the user and organisers or other users over the platform. This shall apply particularly to all use of the platform on the basis of participant agreements.

4.3 Spektrum is in no way responsible for the correctness and completeness of the content of information placed on the platform by organisers or other users. The same applies to the content of external websites linked to the platform.

4.4 The user is aware of and consents to the fact that all content which he voluntarily places on the platform (e.g. abstracts, images, job title, information on the user's academic interests and qualifications, etc.) may be accessed by all other users and possibly also by the general public. In this respect, Spektrum is not obliged to maintain technical means or to take measures to prevent third parties from accessing such content.

5. Duties on the part of the member

5.1 The user undertakes, to the best of his knowledge, to state only truthful information at all times when communicating over the platform. This particularly applies to information concerning his person, professional information and other information which he communicates to Spektrum or to other users over the platform. The user also agrees not to use any pseudonyms, code or stage names.

5.2 Each user is obliged to treat all e-mails, messages and personal data (particularly names, telephone and fax numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses and URLs, etc.) which he receives from other users or from Spektrum or third parties over the platform as strictly confidential and not to make them accessible to third parties without first obtaining the consent of the beneficiary.

5.3 The user consents to Spektrum sending him e-mails or newsletters relevant to the service informing him of all news, such as new events.

5.4 The user will not upload any content via his account or on the organiser web pages, nor provide it, make it accessible or have it made accessible by others on or to the platform by other means, or send messages to other users with content if this content breaches applicable laws in any way or conflicts with the rights of third parties. Accordingly, the following content is prohibited ("illegal content"):

• Content and actions relevant in terms of criminal law, advertisements for anticonstitutional organisations or characteristics of such organisations, content which glorifies violence, racist content, pornographic content, content harmful to minors, sexist content, content relating to the drugs trade, the encouragement of drug use or its belittlement, the encouragement of criminal acts and gambling, libellous and slanderous content, etc;
• Content which is impermissible under competition law, e.g. chain letters, snowball systems, multi-level marketing, etc. or content which, although it is not anticompetitive, disproportionately harasses other members;
• Content which violates the rights of third parties, such as copyrights, rights to benefits and industrial property rights such as trademarks, patents, utility patents and design patents, as well as other rights, such as rights to a name and personal rights;
• Content which attempts to disrupt or damage the services on the platform, particularly by means of robots, spiders, spamming, DoS attacks, chain letters, junk mail, scripts, etc.

5.5 The user shall bear the sole responsibility under press and competition law, as well as all other responsibility, for the content provided or placed on the platform and on the organiser web pages by him or his participants.

5.6 If the user breaches obligations arising from figures 2, 6 and this figure (5), Spektrum reserves the right take suitable measures (e.g. by deleting content, the account or access authorisation; blocking access to individual features, etc.) to prevent future breaches.

6. Rights of use/release

6.1 If the user uploads content (particularly text, abstracts, images, etc.) to be accessed on organiser web pages, the agreements reached between the organiser and the user shall apply with regard to the granting of the rights of use required by the organiser to such content. The user guarantees that, at the same time as providing content, he will grant the organiser all rights of use required for use on the platform and that this content does not violate third-party rights.

6.2 If the user uploads content other than on the organiser web pages, he shall grant Spektrum a non-exclusive right to save all content uploaded or entered as text (particularly images and text, etc.) in electronic form on the platform and to make it accessible to other users and/or the general public. The right of use is unrestricted by time or place.

6.3 Spektrum shall be entitled to make the content more user-friendly, to make it accessible for research purposes and to process it so that other users and the general public are able to access this content at any time. This also includes transmission in other data formats. Furthermore, Spektrum will be granted the right to format the content in terms of its visual appearance, composition, layout, scaling, etc. and to present it on the platform in the immediate vicinity of advertisements.

6.4 Concerning all above-mentioned content, within the bounds of legal possibility the user waives the right to exercise any authorisations connected to moral rights, particularly with regard to adverse effects due to changes made to his content by Spektrum or the linking of his content with advertisements.

6.5 The user confirms that he himself is the owner of the property rights associated with all content provided by him or that he is entitled to use and transfer rights of use (in particular, rights to publish, copy and circulate), as required by this agreement and necessary for the use of this content on the platform, so that no third-party rights are breached.

6.6 The rights granted by the user in this figure (6) are irrevocable and shall continue to exist, regardless of any termination of this agreement.

6.7 The user shall release Spektrum from claims based on the breach of third-party rights by the user upon first request. The user is obliged to release Spektrum from third-party claims resulting from the user's illegal actions or actions otherwise in contravention of the agreement, particularly with regard to content which breaches third-party rights and which the user has placed or made available on the organiser web pages or the platform. The same shall apply to third-party claims on grounds of other illegal content placed or made accessible on the organiser web pages by the user (cf. figure 5) or any other breach of the duties set out in this agreement. The preceding obligation to release shall apply regardless of whether and when the user has become aware of the statutory violations.

6.8 If the user is obliged to release Spektrum from claims, he shall also bear all reasonable costs of prosecution (that is to say, including all court and reasonable lawyer fees) incurred by Spektrum in this connection. Any further damage compensation claims shall remain unaffected.

7. Limitation of liability

7.1 Spektrum shall be liable to the user in the event of intent and gross negligence, as well as in the case of breach of fundamental contractual obligations in a manner which endangers the purpose of the agreement (cardinal obligation). Subject to figure 7.3, all further liability for damages on whatever legal grounds is excluded.

7.2 If Spektrum is liable for the breach of cardinal obligations, in the absence of intent or gross negligence Spektrum's liability shall be limited to the extent of damage which could have been anticipated at the time of concluding the contract, in accordance with the circumstances known at that time.

7.3 The limitations of liability shall not apply to any claims for damages for injury to life, body or health or to liability under the German Product Liability Act.

8. Duration and termination

8.1 The duration of this agreement is unlimited. It can be terminated by either party in writing or by e-mail at any time. The user is aware that he shall neither have access to the services nor to the organiser web pages following termination. If a user has concluded a participant agreement with an organiser, this agreement shall continue to apply until the end of the respective event, in the event of termination with notice by Spektrum. In such a case, the user is only able to use the organiser web page(s) for which he has registered.

8.2 Termination by the user must contain the user name and the user's contact or e-mail address.

8.3 The parties' right to terminate on serious grounds shall remain unaffected. Serious grounds shall be deemed to exist if the user breaches applicable law or fundamental contractual obligations set out in this agreement through actions carried out on the platform or if his actions cause damage to the platform's reputation or there is a risk of such damage. In the event of extraordinary termination on serious grounds, the user shall no longer be able to use the organiser web pages of organisers with whom he may have registered. The user shall not able to claim against Spektrum for this.

9. Data protection

9.1 Spektrum guarantees that it will adhere to the applicable German data protection provisions when processing the user's personal data. Subject to figure 9.3, Spektrum will not pass on the user's data saved in electronic form to outsiders during the term of use without the user's consent, unless Spektrum is obliged to disclose data to third parties, particularly government agencies, in certain cases, or the user has agreed to this.

9.2 For the rest, the privacy statement is binding on both parties to this agreement and forms an integral part of these GTCs. It can be accessed at www.contoo.de/en_US/util/cms/slug/pt_privacy at any time and saved.

9.3 The user consents to organisers with whom he has registered as a participant or user of the corresponding organiser web pages viewing his personal information saved by Spektrum for the purposes of the event.

10. Other provisions

10.1 The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply exclusively, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

10.2 Amendments and additions to this agreement, including this written form requirement, must be made in writing. Spektrum's rights to amend the agreement as set out above shall remain unaffected by this.

10.3 The invalidity of individual provisions of this agreement shall not affect the validity of the the remaining provisions of this agreement.

11. Right of withdrawal

11.1 If the user registers with Spektrum as a consumer (within the meaning of Section 13 of the German Civil Code (BGB)), i.e. for a purpose that is outside his trade, business or profession, the following provisions shall apply.

11.2 The user may cancel the registration for the service provided on the platform by Spektrum within two (2) weeks, without stating his reasons. The two week period commences as soon as registration is complete and the user is able to use the platform, but not sooner than the receipt of this cancellation policy.

11.3 Posting of the cancellation in good time shall be adequate in order to meet the cancellation period deadline. The cancellation can be sent by post to Spektrum der Wissenschaft Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Slevogtstrasse 3-5, 69126 Heidelberg, Germany, by fax or e-mail to Spektrum. Spektrum's fax number and e-mail address will be sent to the user following registration and can also be found in the "Contact" section of every Spektrum website. The user's rights of termination arising from figure 8 shall remain unaffected by the user's right of cancellation pursuant to this figure (13).

11.4 Pursuant to Section 312d, paragraph 3 of the German Civil Code (BGB), the right of cancellation shall expire before the end of the two-week cancellation period if Spektrum has started to provide services for which the user has registered with the user's express consent or if the user has prompted these himself (e.g. as soon as the user has made use of the platform's services for the first time after registering).

11.5 Following effective cancellation, the services already received are to be returned within the scope of statutory provisions and any benefits obtained (e.g. interest) are to be released. If the user is not able to return the received services to Spektrum or is only able to return them in part or in a worse condition, he may be required to pay compensation to Spektrum in this respect. The user must fulfil obligations to refund payments within 30 days of sending his notice of cancellation.