1. SCOPE, DEFINITIONS, REGISTRATION FOR THE EVENT
1.1 These General Terms and Conditions (GTC) apply to all contracts for participation in conferences and workshops (hereinafter referred to as ‘Events’) concluded between the contractual partner, nova-Institut GmbH, Leyboldstraße 16, 50354 Hürth (hereinafter referred to as ‘we’ or ‘nova-Institut’) and the ‘Participant’. Deviating or supplementary general terms and conditions of the Participant shall not apply, even if we do not expressly object to their application.
1.2 Participants may be ‘Consumers’ or ‘Entrepreneurs’. Some provisions of these GTC only apply to Consumers, others only to Entrepreneurs.
– ‘Consumer’ shall mean any natural person who concludes a legal transaction for purposes which cannot mainly be attributed to either his commercial or his self-employed professional activity (Section 13 of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch)).
– ‘Entrepreneur’ shall mean a natural or legal person or a partnership with legal capacity, which acts in the scope of its commercial or independent professional activity when concluding a legal transaction (Section 14 of the German Civil Code).
1.3 The registration for participation in the Event is made via the data form on the Event website. The Participant has the option of saving and/or printing the text of these GTC on the Event website at any time. The contract language is English.
1.4 The registration is confirmed by the electronic transmission of the invoice. Upon receipt of the invoice, the contract for participation in the Event is concluded.
2. SUBJECT OF THE CONTRACT, CHANGES TO THE EVENT
2.1 Participation in the Event is only possible if payment has been received no later than three (3) days prior to the opening of the Event. On-site registrations are not possible.
2.2 Program changes, in particular changes in the schedule of Events, do not entitle the Participant to revoke the contract.
2.3 We are entitled to cancel the Event at any time for good cause (e.g. in cases of force majeure, too few participants, etc.). In such a case, the Participant will be informed immediately of the cancellation and the advanced participation fee will be refunded. Further claims of the Participant, in particular for damages, are excluded in this context.
3. PRICES AND PAYMENTS, DEFAULT OF PAYMENT, RIGHT TO SET-OFF
3.1 The participation fee applies per person and per Event date and is exclusive of statutory VAT. The services included can be found in our description on the conference website. Further services are not included in the participation fee.
3.2 Payments can be made via credit card (Visa, EuroCard/MasterCard) or upon prior agreement via advance payment by invoice.
3.3 Unless otherwise agreed, if payment is made by invoice, the participation fee will be due within 14 days following the date of invoice without any deduction.
3.4 In the event of default in payment, we may demand the statutory default interest rate. We reserve the right to claim higher default damages.
3.5 If the Participant is in default of payment, we can use a debt collection agency to collect our open claims after unsuccessful warnings. The collection costs shall be borne by the Participant.
3.6 The set-off against a claim is only permitted if the respective counterclaim has been confirmed by final decision of a competent court and/or is not disputed by us.
4. CANCELLATION
4.1 The Participant has the option of irrevocably cancelling participation in the Event before it begins (hereinafter referred to as ‘Cancellation’). The Cancellation must be made in writing.
4.2 If we receive the cancellation notice no later than 14 days before the opening of the Event, no cancellation fee will be charged.
4.3 If we receive the cancellation notice within less than 14 weekdays prior to the opening of the Event, a cancellation fee of 50% of the agreed participation fee will be charged. In such a case, we will furthermore deduct the value of the saved expenses as well as those benefits which we obtain from the freed participation opportunity.
4.4 A Cancellation on the day of the Event or afterwards is excluded.
4.5 Should the Participant have already paid in advance in cases of 4.2 and 4.3, we will refund any overpaid amounts.
5. LIABILITY
5.1 The presentations will be held by carefully selected and qualified speakers. However, we do not guarantee the accuracy, currency or completeness of the information presented by the speakers.
5.2 We shall be liable in accordance with the statutory provisions in the event of intent, gross negligence, culpable injury to life, body or health, assumption of a guarantee or a procurement risk and in the event of liability under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz).
5.3 We shall also be liable in the event of a simply negligent breach of material contractual obligations, i.e. obligations the fulfilment of which is essential to the proper performance of the contract and the observance of which the Participant regularly trusts and may trust. In this case, however, our liability is limited to the total amount of the respective participation fee. Any further liability is excluded.
5.4 The above provisions shall also apply if damage is caused by our bodies, legal representatives, employees or other vicarious agents.
5.5 Insofar as our liability is excluded or limited in accordance with the above provisions, this shall also apply to the personal liability of our bodies, legal representatives, employees and other vicarious agents.
5.6 In the event of a delay or non-performance of our deliveries and services, we shall also not be liable if this delay was caused by events which we could not otherwise have influenced with reasonable effort. This applies in particular in cases of force majeure (e.g. war, public measures as well as operational disruptions not caused by our fault) and other events or circumstances which are beyond our control and which we cannot prevent with reasonable care. We will immediately inform the Participant of the existence of such an event and take appropriate measures to keep the period of the event and its effects as limited as possible.
6. COPYRIGHTS
6.1 The documents handed over to the Participant by us or the speakers during the Event are protected by copyright. Intellectual property rights, copyright and other protective notices may neither be removed nor violated in any other way.
6.2 Any reproduction, transmission or other use of the materials provided – even in extracts – is only permitted with our express written consent.
6.3 Violations of the provisions mentioned in 6.1 and 6.2 constitute a breach of law which can be subject to both civil and criminal prosecution.
7. CONSUMER’S RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL
7.1 Right of Withdrawal
If you are a Consumer, you have the right to withdraw from this contract within fourteen (14) days without giving reason.
The revocation period is fourteen (14) days from the date of conclusion of the contract. In order to exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us of your decision to withdraw from this contract by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or e-mail). You can use the attached model revocation form, which is, however, not mandatory.
In order to comply with the withdrawal period, it is sufficient that you send the notification of the execution of the right of withdrawal before expiry of the withdrawal period.
7.2 Effects of Withdrawal
If you withdraw from this contract, we shall repay to you all payments received from you immediately and no later than fourteen days from the date on which we received notification of your withdrawal from this contract. We will use the same means of payment used by you in the original transaction for such refund, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you and in no event will you be charged for such refund.
If you have requested that the services commence during the withdrawal period, you shall pay us a reasonable amount equal to the proportion of the services already performed by the time you notify us of the execution of the right of withdrawal in respect of this contract in relation to the total services provided for in the contract.
8. NOTICE TO CONSUMERS
8.1 The European Commission provides a platform for non-judicial online dispute resolution, which can be accessed at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. Our e-mail address is: contact@nova-institut.de.
8.2 Information on consumer dispute resolution according to Section 36 of the German Consumer Dispute Resolution Act (Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz):
We shall not participate in or be obliged to participate in any dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration body within the meaning of the German Consumer Dispute Resolution Act.
9. SEVERABILITY, PLACE OF PERFORMANCE, PLACE OF JURISDICTION, GOVERNING LAW
9.1 We refer you to our data protection regulations, available on the conference website.
9.2 Should any of the above provisions be or become void, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.
9.3 Hürth is agreed as the place of performance.
9.4 If the Participant is a merchant (Kaufmann within the meaning of Sections 1 et seq. German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch)), a legal entity under public law or a special public fund (öffentlich-rechtliches Sondervermögen) or has no general place of jurisdiction in the Federal Republic of Germany, the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the business relationship between us and the Participant is in Hürth.
9.5 These GTC are subject to German law. With respect to a Consumer, this choice of law shall only apply insofar as it does not restrict any mandatory legal provisions of the state in which the Consumer is domiciled or habitually resident.
Version: 23 January 2019