Terms and Conditions
Terms and Conditions for the use of the ZVG Melder platform.
This is a courtesy translation. The German version is legally binding.
1. Scope and definitions
(1) These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") apply to all contracts between Pascal Szorath (trading as "ZVG Melder", the "Provider") and the users of the ZVG Melder platform at zvg-melder.de (the "Platform").
(2) A consumer is any natural person who enters into a transaction for purposes predominantly outside their trade, business or profession (§ 13 BGB). An entrepreneur is a natural or legal person or a partnership with legal capacity acting in the exercise of their trade, business or profession when concluding the contract (§ 14 BGB).
(3) These Terms contain provisions that apply only to consumers or only to entrepreneurs; these are marked accordingly. In case of doubt, a natural person is treated as a consumer unless there are indications to the contrary (e.g. a company registration, a VAT identification number, evidently commercial use). The user is required to state their status (consumer/entrepreneur) correctly at conclusion of contract and to notify any later change (e.g. business registration).
(4) Automated or AI-assisted preparation under these Terms means all content the Provider derives, estimates, classifies, summarises or generates algorithmically or by means of artificial intelligence from public sources and documents (see § 2(5)).
(5) The version of these Terms valid at the time of conclusion of the contract applies. Conflicting terms of the user are rejected unless expressly agreed.
2. Subject of services
(1) The Provider operates a platform that collects, structures and makes searchable publicly available information on compulsory-auction proceedings from the official announcements of German local courts (in particular zvg-portal.de).
(2) Registered users can create watches for individual proceedings (e.g. by case number) or for a local court and receive email notifications when relevant changes are detected (e.g. a newly scheduled, postponed or cancelled auction date). No specific notification time and no gap-free notification are owed (§ 5). A saved search is a stored search with filters; the user is notified when new or changed proceedings match it. Sentences 1 and 2 apply to saved searches accordingly.
(3) There is a free account and the paid plans Premium and Professional. The user can order both plans on the Platform. In addition there are two one-off purchases: the object unlock (paragraph 3a) and extra-question packs (paragraph 3b).
What a plan contains is stated in the service description on the pricing page. It also states how many watches and saved searches the user can create and how many questions to the assistant and document retrievals are available to them in one day (daily allowance). A day begins at 0:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The version shown to the user when ordering applies. If the user does not use up a daily allowance, the remainder is not carried over to the next day.
The Provider may discontinue the offer of a free account. It informs the users of a free account of this at least 30 days in advance in text form.
(3a) The object unlock is a one-off purchase for exactly one object. The user gets access to the analysis, the documents and the calculations for this object. In addition, they can ask the assistant as many questions about the object as stated when ordering. Anyone with a free account can unlock one object free of charge; the Platform shows whether this unlock is still available.
Access lasts as long as the proceedings are officially published, at the longest until the auction date. If the date is postponed, access lasts until the new date. After the date, after the proceedings have been cancelled, or when the court withdraws documents, the Platform no longer shows the object and its documents. If the Provider has to block an object before the date for legal reasons, for example after an objection by a person concerned, it unlocks another object of the user's choice free of charge at the user's request.
With the unlock, the Platform creates a watch for the object. The user then receives notifications under paragraph 2 until they end the watch.
(3b) An extra-question pack credits the user account with a fixed number of further questions to the assistant. Only users of a paid plan can buy packs. The credit does not expire. It is kept even after the plan ends. The user can use it on objects they have access to (plan or object unlock). The credit is not transferable and is not paid out. Statutory claims of the user, in particular in the case of withdrawal and of defects, remain unaffected.
(4) The Provider is not a public authority and is not affiliated with any state justice administration or the operator of the official auction portal. The Platform does not replace inspection of the competent court's official announcement, nor inspection of the official market-value appraisal (Verkehrswertgutachten).
(5) Automated and AI-assisted preparation (nature and limits of the service). Parts of the Platform prepare information automatically or with AI. This includes in particular: a risk classification (risk class 1–6) with an information-grade indicator (A–D) for the underlying data; the extraction and estimation of key figures and property attributes (e.g. areas, year of construction, estimated market value, €/m², land/building/income/asset values, renovation backlog, rent and yield figures); the detection and classification of rights and encumbrances (e.g. residential rights, heritable building rights, real burdens (Reallast), easements, building charges, heritage protection, contamination); summaries and reasoning including quotations from the underlying documents, opportunities and recommended checks; an automated assessment of suitability/buyer profile (e.g. "suitable for owner-occupiers/investors") and of yield figures; and the classification and technical processing of images (e.g. categorisation as exterior view, interior view, floor plan or location, and AI-based upscaling of the image resolution).
These results are a non-binding orientation and prioritisation aid. They are derived automatically from documents, have not been reviewed by a qualified appraiser and rely on machine reading, estimation and assessment; they may be incorrect, incomplete or out of date. Possible error types include in particular reading and estimation errors, overlooked or misclassified rights and encumbrances, incorrect or fabricated (hallucinated) quotations, and image content altered by AI upscaling. They do not constitute an appraisal, a valuation or any binding statement about the property, its value, condition, encumbrances or suitability. Only the official market-value appraisal and the competent court's official announcement are authoritative.
(5a) The assistant is an AI system. It answers questions about an object automatically and relies on the documents published for this object. Paragraph 5 applies to its answers: they may be wrong or incomplete and do not replace the user's own review of the documents.
The user must not write personal data of other persons into their questions, nor anything they are required to keep confidential. To answer them, the questions are passed to technical service providers that operate AI models; which ones is stated in the Privacy Policy (sections “Recipients” and “Questions to the assistant”).
The Provider may change the AI models and service providers used, as long as the assistant continues to deliver what this paragraph and the service description describe.
(6) No advice. The Platform and its automated content do not constitute legal, tax, financing, investment or valuation advice, no brokerage service and no investment or purchase recommendation. The Provider owes no duty of advice or examination beyond providing the Platform. No regulatory or statutory monitoring or notification duty arises.
(7) Independent verification (the user's own responsibility). The user decides on their own responsibility based on the official sources and is required to examine the official market-value appraisal and the official announcement themselves before any bid, financing or purchase decision, rather than relying solely on the automated content. The user is informed of this nature of the service separately before conclusion of contract; consent is governed by § 3(4) and § 8.
(8) Beta and preview features. The Provider may recognisably mark individual additional features as "beta", "preview" or "experimental" and provide them free of charge for trial purposes. Such features are voluntary extras; they are not part of the scope of services owed and paid for in the respective plan. The Provider may not mark as a beta or preview feature the core services expressly advertised and paid for in the respective plan, in particular the AI-assisted analysis of official market-value appraisals in the Premium plan, the risk classification, and the watch and notification features; the service description of the respective plan alone determines the scope of services owed. Beta and preview features may be incomplete or contain errors; the Provider may change, restrict or discontinue them for an objective reason, to the extent this is reasonable for the user taking their interests into account. This has no effect on the paid scope of services or on fees already paid. Liability is governed by § 9; the agreement on quality under § 2(5) and § 8 remains unaffected.
3. Conclusion of contract
(1) The presentation of plans is an invitation to submit an offer, not a binding offer.
(2) By clicking the order or payment button, the user submits a binding offer; the contract is concluded upon the Provider's confirmation or provision of paid access.
(2a) The user chooses a plan or a one-off purchase on the Platform, checks their details on the order page and completes the order with the payment button. Until then they can change their details or cancel the process. For a paid order, the user receives an invoice or a receipt for the payment by email.
The contract language is German. The Provider stores the order data. The user can retrieve and save the Terms in their current version on the Platform at any time.
(3) A free account is concluded upon confirmation of the email address provided.
(4) Separate acknowledgement regarding automated preparation. On registration, the user confirms by a separate, non-pre-ticked statement (a dedicated checkbox) that they have taken note of the nature of the automated and AI-assisted content under § 2(5)–(7) and § 8 and consent to the deviation from the objective standard. This consent applies to the free use and to every paid contract the user concludes later, in particular a plan, a plan change, an object unlock and an extra-question pack; before submitting the respective contractual declaration, the user is again specifically informed of it. If the Provider changes the wording of the statement, it obtains the consent again before further use. The Provider stores the time and the text version of the consent in the user account for as long as the account exists. For a purchase, it additionally records the text version of the consent in the payment transaction at the payment service provider. As long as this separate consent is not given and documented, the statutory requirements (§§ 327 ff. BGB) apply in full.
4. Prices, payment, term and cancellation
(1) The prices shown at the time of order apply. Towards consumers all prices are gross prices including statutory VAT where applicable.
(2) Paid plans are billed in advance for the chosen billing period, one-off purchases when ordering. Payment runs via the payment service provider Stripe; the order page shows the available payment methods. The user receives invoices electronically.
If the payment for a billing period fails, the payment service provider tries to collect it again. As long as a due payment is outstanding, the Provider may restrict access to the scope of the free account. The user's content is kept. Statutory rights of both sides remain unaffected.
(3) With monthly billing, the plan runs for an indefinite period. The user can cancel as of the end of each billing month; until then they keep access.
With yearly billing, the plan initially runs for twelve months. If the user does not cancel as of the end of these twelve months, the contract continues for an indefinite period; the fee continues to be billed for twelve months in advance each time. The user can then cancel at any time with a notice period of at most one month. The Provider refunds pro rata any fees the user has paid in advance for the time after the end of the contract.
Instead of cancelling, the user can also end any paid plan immediately. Access then ends with their declaration. In that case they receive a refund for the current billing period only if a plan with yearly billing ends after the first twelve months have passed.
(4) The user can switch between Premium and Professional. The billing period (monthly or yearly) stays the same. If they switch to the higher plan, the Provider invoices the difference for the remainder of the current billing period immediately. If they switch to the lower plan, the new scope applies immediately; the Provider credits the overpaid amount against the following invoices. Before the switch, the Platform shows the amounts and the effective date.
(5) Cancellation option (§ 312k BGB). Consumers who have entered into a continuing obligation by electronic commerce can terminate it via a permanently available and directly accessible cancellation option on the Platform; cancellation in text form to the contact details in the legal notice is also possible. The Provider ensures that cancellation can be declared without unreasonable hindrance.
(6) Set-off and retention. The user may set off against claims of the Provider only with counterclaims that are undisputed or have been finally established by a court. The user may exercise a right of retention only to the extent their counterclaim is based on the same contractual relationship; the right to refuse performance under § 320 BGB remains unaffected. If the user is an entrepreneur, they have a right of retention or a right to refuse performance only on the basis of counterclaims that are undisputed or have been finally established by a court.
5. Provision and availability
(1) The Provider endeavours to keep the Platform as continuously available as possible but owes no specific availability quota. Uninterrupted or error-free availability is not technically achievable. Maintenance and disruptions outside the Provider's control may cause temporary restrictions; paragraph 3 additionally applies to events of force majeure.
(2) The timeliness of displayed data depends on the courts' publication behaviour and the technical availability of the official sources. Notifications are sent only after the underlying change has been published in the official source and recorded by the Provider. Real-time delivery and gap-free recording are not owed; the Provider endeavours to maintain high recording quality but, subject to § 9, is not liable for individual changes missed or detected late due to technical failures, errors or force majeure (paragraph 3). The official sources include in particular the compulsory-auction portal of the German states (zvg-portal.de); if this source is temporarily unavailable, technically changed, throttled or discontinued, this may lead to delays, gaps or the absence of data and notifications. The operation of this source is outside the Provider's control and is not carried out on its behalf.
(3) Force majeure. Force majeure means unforeseeable events outside the control of both parties that make performance considerably more difficult or impossible and that the affected party could not avert even with reasonable care (e.g. natural disasters, war, terrorism, pandemics, widespread power or telecommunications outages not limited to a single service provider, official orders for which the Provider is not responsible, and the failure of the official source zvg-portal.de). The conduct of the vicarious agents and subcontractors the Provider uses to provide the service (e.g. payment, email, map or AI services), including the failure of the infrastructure they provide, is not a case of force majeure; in this respect the Provider is liable in accordance with § 9 and paragraph 4. For the duration and to the extent of an event of force majeure, both parties are released from the affected performance obligations. The affected party notifies the other party of the event without undue delay in text form and makes every effort to limit its effects. If the event lasts for more than 30 days without interruption, either party is entitled to terminate the contract with effect for the future; in this case prepaid, unused fees are refunded pro rata. Statutory claims and rights of the parties, in particular rights of termination for good cause, remain unaffected.
(4) Use of third-party providers. The Provider renders parts of the service with the involvement of third-party providers, in particular for payment processing, the sending of notification emails, the display of map material and for AI services. The availability and freedom from errors of the Platform therefore also depend on the technical availability and proper performance of these third-party providers; their temporary disruptions or failures may lead to restrictions. These third-party providers are vicarious agents of the Provider; their conduct is attributed to the Provider under the general provisions (§ 278 BGB). The Provider's liability in this respect is limited in accordance with § 9; no limitation of liability going beyond § 9 follows from this provision. Failures of third-party providers are not treated as force majeure (paragraph 3); something different applies only to the extent that the failure is itself based on an event of force majeure and the Provider could not have avoided the consequences even by reasonable precautions.
(5) Maintenance. The Provider is entitled to temporarily restrict the Platform or take it out of operation, in whole or in part, for maintenance, update and security work. The Provider announces plannable maintenance work that is expected to cause a more than merely insignificant impairment with reasonable advance notice, where reasonable, and carries it out at times of low demand where possible. The Provider may carry out urgent maintenance work, in particular to avert security risks, at any time and without prior notice. A merely temporary, reasonable restriction due to maintenance is not a defect; statutory rights of the user, in particular in the case of an impairment that permanently undermines the core function, remain unaffected. Liability is governed by § 9.
5a. Data security
(1) The Provider takes technical and organisational measures that are appropriate according to the state of the art to protect the data stored with it against unauthorised access, loss and manipulation; details are set out in the Privacy Policy (Art. 32 GDPR). What is owed is compliance with this standard of care and protection, not a specific security outcome. According to the state of the art, nobody can guarantee absolute protection against all attacks by third parties, in particular against novel attacks or attacks that cannot be averted with proportionate effort; such protection is therefore not owed.
(2) This provision describes the content of the service and is not a limitation of liability. The technical provision of the Platform and data security are essential contractual obligations; the Provider's liability in this respect continues to be governed by § 9 (in particular § 9(2)).
(3) Claims under the General Data Protection Regulation, in particular for damages under Art. 82 GDPR, remain unaffected by this provision.
6. User obligations
(1) Only persons who are of full age and have full legal capacity may create a user account. Each account is intended for a single person. The user may not pass on their access credentials and may not use the account jointly with others.
The user must keep their access credentials secret and protect them from third-party access. In doing so, the user is in particular required: (a) to use a password that meets the minimum requirements shown at registration and not to use it for other services at the same time; (b) to use an additional sign-in safeguard offered by the Provider (e.g. two-factor authentication) where available; (c) not to respond to requests to disclose their access credentials (phishing); and (d) to protect the devices used to access the account from unauthorised access with reasonable care. If the user becomes aware or has reasonable suspicion that a third party has obtained knowledge of their access credentials or that their account is being misused, they must inform the Provider without undue delay and, where possible, change their password. These requirements do not establish an independently enforceable main obligation; a breach of them is taken into account in accordance with § 254 BGB.
(2) The user must not misuse the Platform. The following are in particular not permitted: (a) automated bulk retrieval (scraping, crawlers) impairing operation; (b) circumventing access, authentication or rate-limiting mechanisms; (c) systematic extraction or commercial redistribution of the prepared datasets (see § 7); and (d) any use in breach of applicable law. On suspicion of a breach, the Provider may temporarily throttle features or suspend access under § 11.
(3) Security incident. If the Provider becomes aware of a security incident or of concrete indications of unauthorised access to the user account, it is entitled to temporarily suspend the affected account in accordance with § 11, to require the password to be reset and to take the protective measures directly required for containment (e.g. resetting active sessions, blocking compromised credentials). The measures must be limited to what is necessary and are lifted as soon as the reason ceases to exist. The user is informed of this without undue delay, to the extent this is practicable, reasonable and does not conflict with the handling of the incident. Statutory reporting and notification duties of the Provider, in particular under Art. 33 and Art. 34 GDPR, remain unaffected.
6a. Indemnification
(1) If the user culpably breaches the duties under § 6 or § 7 or culpably violates statutory provisions, and the Provider or third parties are harmed as a result, the user indemnifies the Provider in accordance with the statutory provisions against all claims that third parties assert against the Provider on account of such a breach of duty or of law for which the user is responsible. This also covers the reasonable costs of a necessary legal defence.
(2) The indemnification requires that the Provider informs the user of the claim without undue delay in text form, gives the user, where legally permissible, the opportunity to take part in the defence, and does not acknowledge the claim or conclude a settlement without the user's prior consent, unless the Provider is legally obliged to do so. Any contributory fault or contributory causation on the part of the Provider is taken into account under § 254 BGB.
(3) Further statutory claims of the Provider remain unaffected.
7. Rights of use
(1) For the term of the contract the Provider grants the user a simple, non-transferable right to use the Platform in accordance with the contract. Systematic extraction, reproduction or commercial redistribution of the prepared datasets (including substantial parts of the database within the meaning of §§ 87a ff. UrhG) without the Provider's prior consent in text form is not permitted. Statutory rights of the user, in particular to use insubstantial parts of the database and within the limits of mandatory copyright exceptions, remain unaffected.
(2) Appraisals, exposés and photos come from the official publications of the courts. Rights in these documents, in particular copyrights of the appraisers, continue to exist. The user may use the documents only to inform themselves about the object and to prepare their own bidding or financing decision. For this purpose they may pass them on to their bank and to their advisers. Publication or passing them on to other third parties is not permitted.
Documents may be shortened or redacted. The court's file remains authoritative.
(3) The user may use exports (for example as PDF, CSV or XLSX) and the dossier for their own purposes and pass them on to their bank and to their advisers. Users of the Professional plan may also use them for their own professional activity. The user may not publish exported data and may not build their own data offering from it (paragraph 1).
8. Nature of automated services; separate agreement
(1) Service owed. What is owed is the provision of the Platform and the careful preparation of the documents provided, in line with the respective professionally recognised state of the automated and AI-assisted methods used, and the provision of the orientation and prioritisation aids derived from it (§ 2(5)). The subject of the service owed is this structured, time-saving preparation and condensation itself; the value of the service the user makes use of lies in the preparation and the time saved. It is not owed that individual automatically generated statements (in particular risk class, information grade, estimated values, key figures, detected rights and encumbrances, summaries, quotations, suitability/buyer profiles, image classifications) are substantively correct, complete or up to date. In this respect the essential contractual obligation is limited to carrying out the preparation with technical care and in line with the professionally recognised state of the methods used; a specific substantive result is not the subject of the service owed. The preparation is technically proper if it is carried out according to this state. The Provider's liability for intent and fraudulent intent, in particular for malfunctions of the preparation that were fraudulently concealed or positively known to the Provider, and for an expressly assumed guarantee remains unaffected and is not restricted by this description of quality. The user ensures the correctness, completeness and suitability of their decision basis by inspecting the official sources themselves (§ 2(7)). Specific properties going beyond this service description are deemed agreed only if the Provider has expressly and separately warranted them.
(2) Separate agreement with consumers (§ 327h BGB). Where this is a consumer contract for digital products, the nature described in (1) expressly deviates from the objective requirements. The consumer is informed separately before submitting their contractual declaration and consents to the deviation by a separate, express statement (§ 3(4)). Without this separate consent, the statutory requirements apply.
(3) This provision describes the content of the service and is not a limitation of liability; liability is governed by § 9. Statutory warranty rights remain unaffected where a service actually owed is defective.
(4) The user may report obvious errors in automatically generated content to the Provider; the Provider reviews reported content at its reasonable discretion and corrects it where appropriate. The reporting option is a voluntary service; in itself it does not establish a separate basis for claims and at the same time does not curtail any statutory claims. The user's statutory rights and the Provider's liability under § 9 remain unaffected; whether the Provider is liable for an error that persists after it became aware of it is governed solely by § 9 and the general statutory provisions.
9. Liability
(1) The Provider is liable without limitation for damage arising from injury to life, body or health; for damage based on intentional or grossly negligent breach of duty by the Provider, its legal representatives or vicarious agents; under the Product Liability Act; and to the extent of a guarantee assumed by the Provider.
(2) For slightly negligent breach of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations) liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract. Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance the user may regularly rely; these include in particular the technical provision of the Platform, data security, the collection, structuring and searchability of the public data, and the provision and technically proper operation of the notification feature as such. The following are not essential contractual obligations: the substantive correctness or completeness of individual automatically generated statements (§ 8(1)) and, for the notification feature, a specific notification time, real-time notification, the gap-free recording of all changes and the successful delivery of every single notification (§ 2(2), § 5(2)). Liability for damage arising from injury to life, body or health and for intent and gross negligence remains unaffected by this provision in every case (§ 309 no. 7 BGB).
(3) Otherwise liability for slight negligence is excluded.
(4) Clarification regarding automated and AI-assisted content. The unlimited liability under paragraph 1, the liability for slightly negligent breach of essential contractual obligations under paragraph 2 and the limitation of liability under paragraph 3 remain unaffected by this paragraph and take precedence over it. Otherwise, in line with § 8: what is owed is the technically careful generation and provision of the automated or AI-assisted results on the basis of the sources used, but not their substantive correctness, completeness or timeliness (§ 8(1)). The Provider is liable under paragraphs 1 to 3 for the technically proper provision of the service itself (for example availability, data security and correct execution of the processing). If the description of quality under § 8(1) does not apply in an individual case (for example because, towards a consumer, the separate consent under § 8(2) in conjunction with § 3(4) has not been validly given), the statutory requirements and warranty rights apply in full to the service concerned; in that case the above clarification does not exclude liability under paragraphs 1 and 2.
(5) The accuracy, completeness and timeliness of the court-published source data are not owed either; only the competent court's official announcement is legally binding.
(6) If fault on the part of the user contributed to the occurrence of damage, this is taken into account under § 254 BGB. Contributory fault may in particular lie in the user having failed to carry out the required own examination of the official sources (§ 2(7)) or to protect their access credentials (§ 6(1)), to the extent this omission caused the damage. The statutory allocation of the burden of presentation and proof remains unaffected; this provision does not shift the burden of proof to the user's disadvantage.
(7) The above limitations also apply in favour of the Provider's legal representatives and vicarious agents.
(8) Clarification regarding mandatory statutory liability. Claims of the user for compensation for damage caused by an infringement of the General Data Protection Regulation under Art. 82 GDPR and other claims under mandatory statutory liability provisions, in particular under the Product Liability Act and the Federal Data Protection Act, remain unaffected by the limitations of liability in this § 9 and by §§ 5a, 6 and 6a; they are neither excluded nor limited. The allocation of the burden of proof under the General Data Protection Regulation, in particular under its Art. 82(3), remains unaffected. Any contributory fault of the user is taken into account under the statutory provisions.
(9) Data backup. To the extent the user creates their own content or configurations on the Platform (e.g. watches), it is up to the user to back up or document content that is important to them to a reasonable extent themselves, to the extent the Provider provides a feature for this. Paragraphs 1 and 2 take precedence; in particular, liability for slightly negligent breach of data security as an essential contractual obligation (paragraph 2) remains unaffected. Otherwise, the Provider's liability under paragraph 2 for the loss of such content is limited to the effort that would have been required for restoration if the user had made reasonable backups of their own. Liability for damage arising from injury to life, body or health, from intent or gross negligence and under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected.
(10) Towards entrepreneurs only: maximum amount. Without prejudice to the unlimited liability under paragraph 1, the following applies to damage caused by slight negligence: a) in the case of a breach of an essential contractual obligation, liability is limited in amount to the damage typical for the contract and foreseeable at conclusion of contract; b) in the case of a breach of a non-essential contractual obligation, liability per damage event is limited to the fee paid by the entrepreneur in the last twelve months before the event giving rise to the damage, but at least to EUR 5,000. Several instances of damage based on the same breach of duty or the same uniform technical defect are deemed one damage event. The limitations do not apply in the cases of paragraph 1 and not in the case of fraudulent intent.
(11) Towards entrepreneurs only: in the area of slight negligence, the Provider is not liable for lost profit, savings not achieved, indirect damage, consequential damage caused by a defect, or loss of production or use, unless this is the foreseeable damage typical for the contract from the breach of an essential contractual obligation that is to be compensated under paragraph 10. The unlimited liability under paragraph 1, liability in the case of fraudulent intent, and mandatory liability for life/body/health, intent and gross negligence, a guarantee and under the Product Liability Act remain unaffected.
(12) Towards entrepreneurs only: limitation period. For claims for damages of the entrepreneur that can be limited in amount or excluded under paragraphs 10 and 11, the limitation period is one year from the statutory start of the limitation period. This does not apply to claims based on intent, gross negligence, fraudulent intent, injury to life, body or health, the Product Liability Act or an assumed guarantee; the statutory limitation periods apply to these.
10. Changes to these Terms and to the services
(1) The Provider may amend these Terms if a change in the law or a decision by a court or an authority makes the amendment necessary, or if the amendment does not put the user in a worse position. The Provider does not change the fees, the scope of the services owed, or the term and cancellation in this way. Such changes take effect only if the user expressly consents; paragraph 5 applies to changes to the Platform.
(2) The Provider notifies the user of an amendment under paragraph 1 at least six weeks before it takes effect in text form. The notice contains the amended wording. If the user does not object before the amendment takes effect, it is deemed accepted. In the notice, the Provider specifically points out this consequence, the period and the user's right to object. If the user objects, the contract continues on the previous terms.
(3) The Provider does not unilaterally change the fee of a running contract. If it wants to change the fee for future billing periods, it offers the change to the user at least 30 days before the start of the billing period concerned in text form and states the previous and the new fee.
The new fee applies only if the user expressly consents. If they do not consent, the contract continues at the previous fee. In this case the Provider may terminate the contract by ordinary notice with effect from the end of a billing period (§ 11(2)). It points this out in the offer.
(4) Form of declarations. Legally relevant declarations and notices of the user in connection with this contract (e.g. cancellation, objection under paragraph 2, other communications) require at least text form (e.g. email); a stricter form is not required of the user. More specific provisions of these Terms, in particular the cancellation option under § 4(5) and the Withdrawal Instruction under § 12, and mandatory statutory form requirements remain unaffected; they take precedence over this provision to the extent they provide for a form that is more favourable or simpler for the user.
(5) The Provider may change the Platform in order to keep it in the condition the contract requires, for example to fix errors. Other changes are permitted only for one of the following reasons:
- The law has changed, or an authority or a court requires the change.
- The change serves the security of the Platform or of the users' data.
- An official source has changed or has ceased to exist.
- A technical service provider or an AI model is no longer available or is available only on changed terms.
- The Platform is being developed further technically, and its range of functions is kept or grows.
The change does not cause the user any additional costs. The Provider informs the user of what changes.
If a change noticeably restricts access to the Platform or its use, the Provider informs the user of the content and the time of the change in good time in advance by email. The user can then end the contract free of charge within 30 days. The period begins when the notice is received. If the change occurs only later, the period begins with the change. The Provider refunds fees paid in advance for the time after the end of the contract. This special right to end the contract does not exist if the user can continue to use the Platform in its previous form at no additional cost. Their other rights of cancellation remain in place.
11. Suspension and termination by the Provider
(1) The Provider may temporarily suspend access or terminate the contract for good cause if the user materially or repeatedly breaches § 6 or endangers the security or functionality of the Platform. Before a permanent suspension or termination, the user is, where practicable and reasonable, informed and given an opportunity to remedy within a reasonable period; in cases of serious breach or acute danger, suspension may also occur without prior notice.
(2) The user's right to ordinary cancellation under § 4(3), the Provider's right to terminate by ordinary notice with effect from the end of a billing period, and the mutual right to extraordinary termination for good cause remain unaffected. Where the Provider is responsible for early termination, prepaid, unused fees are refunded pro rata.
12. Right of withdrawal for consumers
(1) Consumers have a statutory right of withdrawal; details are in the Withdrawal Instruction, which prevails over this § 12 in case of conflict.
(2) You have the right to withdraw within fourteen days without giving reasons, starting from the day of conclusion of the contract. To exercise it, inform us (Albulastrasse 50, 8048 Zurich, Switzerland, email: kontakt@zvg-melder.de) by a clear statement; you may also use our online withdrawal form.
(3) Consequences: if you withdraw, we refund all payments received from you without undue delay and at the latest within fourteen days of receipt of your withdrawal. If you requested that performance begin during the withdrawal period, you owe us a reasonable amount (compensation for value) for the performance already rendered up to withdrawal.
(4) Early expiry. For a plan (a contract for the supply of digital services), the right of withdrawal expires once we have fully performed the service and only began performance after you gave your express consent and confirmed your acknowledgement that you lose your right of withdrawal upon our complete performance of the contract; until then you owe compensation for value under paragraph (3) in case of withdrawal. For the object unlock and for an extra-question pack (contracts for the supply of digital content that is not on a physical medium), the right of withdrawal expires once we have begun performance of the contract after you expressly consented to our beginning performance before the withdrawal period expires, you confirmed your acknowledgement that by giving this consent you lose your right of withdrawal when performance begins, and we provided you with a confirmation of the contract on a durable medium. The confirmations under this paragraph are recorded with text version and timestamp.
13. Data protection, data export and account deletion
(1) Information on the processing of personal data is in our Privacy Policy.
(2) The user can request that the Provider hands over to them the content the user has created themselves, such as watches, saved searches, notes and calculations. A message in text form is sufficient for this. The Provider makes the content available in a commonly used machine-readable format.
The user can delete their account in the account settings. As long as a paid plan is running, the account cannot be deleted. The user can end the plan immediately for this purpose. Together with the account, the Provider deletes the associated content. What it has to retain under commercial or tax law, it keeps until the end of the statutory period and uses only for that purpose.
14. Final provisions
(1) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If the consumer has their habitual residence in another state, then notwithstanding this choice of law the provisions of that state's law from which no derogation is permitted by agreement and which are more favourable to the consumer additionally apply (Art. 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 — Rome I).
(2) If the user is an entrepreneur, merchant, legal entity under public law or special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with the contractual relationship is the Provider's registered seat. To the extent the Provider has its seat in Switzerland, international jurisdiction is determined by the Convention on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters of 30 October 2007 (Lugano Convention); the agreement on jurisdiction is made in accordance with Art. 23 of the Lugano Convention. A statutory exclusive place of jurisdiction remains unaffected. This agreement does not apply to consumers; for them the statutory places of jurisdiction apply.
(3) We are neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute-resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration body.
(4) Transfer of contract. The Provider is entitled to transfer all rights and obligations under this contract to a third party by way of an assumption of contract, in particular in connection with a change of legal form or a transfer of the business. The Provider will inform the user of this at least 30 days before it takes effect in text form, stating the identity of the acquiring company. The user is entitled to terminate the contract within 30 days of receipt of this notice with effect as of the time of the transfer; if they exercise this right, fees paid in advance for the time after the end of the contract are refunded to them pro rata without undue delay. The user may transfer the contract or individual rights under it to a third party only with the Provider's prior consent in text form.
(5) Should individual provisions be or become wholly or partly invalid or unenforceable, the validity of the remaining provisions remains unaffected (§ 306(1) BGB). In place of an invalid or unenforceable provision, and to fill any gaps, the statutory provisions apply (§ 306(2) BGB). A validity-preserving reduction of invalid provisions to a just-permissible level does not take place.