Welcome to the DFGE Customer Sustainability Platform
GENERAL TERMS OF USE
Your access to, and use of
customers.dfge.de or any other website owned and/or operated by DFGE – Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy GmbH
is subject to the following DFGE’s terms of use, including DFGE’s
Privacy Policy,
Cookie Guidelines and the other legal notices, disclaimers and policies.
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Subject of the contract
- The following Terms of Use shall apply to the business relationship between DFGE and the Customer to the extent that the Customer is granted access to DFGE's Software limited to the respective term of the contract for the purpose of using the Software as intended.
- Even if no further reference is made to this when concluding similar contracts, these Terms of Use shall apply exclusively in the version made available to the Customer at the time the declaration is made by the Customer, unless the contracting parties expressly agree otherwise.
- Further or supplementary contractual terms and conditions may apply to other deliveries and services of other kinds by DFGE as well as to other third-party software or hardware.
- Entrepreneurs within the meaning of these contractual terms and conditions are natural or legal persons or partnerships with legal capacity who, when concluding the legal transaction, act in the exercise of their commercial or independent professional activity. Customers within the meaning of these contractual conditions are exclusively entrepreneurs.
- Individual contractual agreements shall take precedence over these Terms of Use. Deviating, conflicting or supplementary contractual terms and conditions shall not become part of the contract unless their validity is expressly agreed to.
- For access to the Internet or mobile network and their use, separate contractual terms and conditions of the respective telecommunications provider may apply.
- Prior to the conclusion of the contract, the Customer shall verify whether and to what extent the specifications of the Software correspond to his/her wishes and needs. In this respect, he/she must keep himself/herself informed about the essential functional characteristics and operating conditions of the Software.
- The scope of the Software functions regularly depends on the Customer's current Internet connectivity at the time of the conclusion of the contract as well as on his/her hardware and software environments. It is expressly pointed out that the trouble-free and unrestricted quality and functionality of the Software is regularly also dependent on software components of third-party providers. Any changes in such software components or in the hardware and software environments of the Customer may lead to restrictions in the functionality of the Software to be provided by DFGE.
- The concrete scope, type and quality of the services as well as the concrete range of functions of the Software shall be determined by the agreements made between the parties in the individual case in accordance with the contractual offer contained in the order and the order confirmation by DFGE based thereon. Furthermore, the quality and functionality of the Software result from the corresponding product descriptions, which are not to be understood as warranties. A warranty is only granted if it has been expressly designated as such.
- The Software is operated by DFGE as a SaaS or cloud solution. The Customer is enabled to use the Software stored and running on the servers of DFGE or on the servers of a service provider commissioned by DFGE (see § 11 in this regard) via an Internet connection for his/her own purposes during the term of this contract. Furthermore, he/she is enabled to store and process his/her data with the help of the Software.
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Conclusion of contract
- Offers made by DFGE are subject to change and non-binding, unless the offer is expressly designated as binding. A legal obligation shall only be established by a contract signed by both parties or by a written order confirmation by DFGE, as well as by DFGE commencing with the provision of the commissioned services. In the respective contract, the concrete scope of the services to be provided by DFGE requested by the Customer as well as the fee to be paid by the Customer for such services shall be specified in detail. In this sense, the contract to be concluded describes the agreements on the type and scope of the software use, which make reference to these contractual terms and conditions as well as to any further attachments. The concrete system requirements for the use of the Software are specified separately between the parties as part of the conclusion of the contract as well as through the indication in the respective service descriptions, to which reference is made in the contract.
- The conclusion of the contract shall be subject to the proviso that in case of incorrect or improper supply to DFGE, DFGE shall not deliver or shall only deliver in part. This shall only apply in the event that DFGE is not responsible for the non-delivery and DFGE has concluded a specific covering transaction with due diligence. DFGE will make all reasonable efforts to be able to provide the service. Otherwise, the consideration will be refunded immediately. In case of non-availability or only partial availability, the Customer will be informed immediately.
- Separate contracts shall be concluded for deliveries and services of other types (e.g. consulting for the Software).
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Obligations of DFGE
- DFGE shall make the Software available to the Customer in the respective current version at the router exit of the data center where the server with the Software is located ("time of handover") for the duration of the Agreement. For this purpose, DFGE shall set up the Software on a server that is accessible to the Customer via the Internet.
- DFGE shall provide the Software, the computing power necessary for its use and the required storage and data processing space.
- DFGE is not responsible for establishing and maintaining the data connection between the Customer's IT systems and the described transfer point.
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General obligations of the Customer
- The Customer shall support the proper use of the Software both through active and appropriate cooperation. The Customer shall provide DFGE with the information and data necessary for the correct performance of the service. The Customer is responsible for ensuring that the technical prerequisites for the use of the subject matter of this contract are met, in particular with regard to the hardware and software used, the connection to the Internet and up-to-date browser software. In particular, the Customer must perform regular data backups and use up-to-date virus protection software. DFGE is not liable for virus damage that could have been prevented by the use of such software. In this context, the limitations of liability pursuant to § 8 of these Terms of Use shall also apply.
- The Customer shall take reasonable precautions in the event that the Software does not work properly in whole or in part (e.g. by means of data backup, fault diagnosis, regular testing of results, emergency planning). It is his/her responsibility to ensure the operability of the working environment of the Software.
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The Customer shall in principle observe the applicable law of the Federal Republic of Germany, in particular data and youth protection regulations, criminal law provisions and these Terms of Use. In particular, the Customer is obligated:
- to protect the access data provided as well as the corresponding identification and authentication mechanisms from unauthorized access by third parties and not to disclose them to such third parties;
- not to infringe the rights of third parties, in particular copyrights and ancillary copyrights, trademark rights, patent rights and other property rights as well as personal rights;
- to respect the privacy of others, i.e. not to spread defamatory, threatening, violence glorifying, harassing, damaging, racist or otherwise reprehensible content;
- not to run applications that may lead to a change in the physical or logical structure of the networks, such as viruses;
- not to use the infrastructure made available to him/her for unauthorized advertising purposes, in particular for the unsolicited transmission of electronic mail.
- If storage space is provided to the Customer, he/she may not store any illegal content, content that violates laws or official regulations or content that violates the rights of third parties. In particular, the infrastructure provided by DFGE or the storage space provided by DFGE, if applicable, may not be used for commercial property rights (such as trademark, patent, utility model and design patent rights), copyrights and ancillary copyrights as well as other rights (such as the right to one's own image, name and personality rights), infringing offers, their advertising or distribution. The same applies to pornographic material and material harmful to minors, propaganda articles and products bearing the trademarks of unconstitutional organizations.
- If the Customer becomes aware of any misuse of its access data or the identification and authentication mechanisms, he/she shall notify DFGE thereof without undue delay. In the event of misuse, DFGE is entitled to block access to its services. The blocking may only be lifted upon written request of the Customer. The Customer shall be liable for any misuse for which he/she is responsible.
- DFGE reserves the right to delete information from servers and to block user accounts if these Terms of Use are violated. In case of violation of applicable laws, DFGE is entitled to forward the relevant information to the competent governmental authorities.
- DFGE reserves the right to temporarily block access to the agreed services in whole or in part if and to the extent that the Customer uses these services unlawfully or violates the obligations set forth in these Terms of Use. The Customer will be informed of this immediately by e-mail.
- DFGE is generally not responsible for the Customer's own content. In particular, DFGE is not obligated to review the content for possible legal violations. The Customer shall indemnify DFGE against all justified claims asserted by third parties against DFGE due to the infringement of their rights and for which the Customer is responsible. In this respect, the Customer shall also bear the costs of DFGE's legal defense including all court and attorney fees in the amount of the statutory fees. For this purpose, the Customer shall provide DFGE with a reasonable advance payment.
- The contents stored by the Customer on the storage space designated for him/her, if applicable, may be protected by copyright and data protection laws. The Customer hereby grants DFGE the right to make the Customer's content stored on the server accessible via the Internet in the event of queries and, in particular, to be able to reproduce and transmit it for this purpose and to reproduce it for the purpose of data backup.
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Rights of use
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Rights of use for Software
- The Customer shall have the non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right, limited in time to the term of the Agreement, to use the Software in unmodified form to the extent of the agreed type of use via its own Internet connection. The Software may only be used by the maximum type and number of authorized users in accordance with the licenses of the Software purchased by the Customer.
- The contractual use includes loading as well as displaying and running the Software.
- The Customer is not entitled to duplicate, edit or decompile the Software, unless this would be legally permissible by way of exception.
- The Customer shall not be entitled to transfer the Software to third parties for use. In particular, he/she shall not be permitted to sell, lend, rent or otherwise sublicense the Software or to publicly reproduce the Software or make it accessible.
- If the Customer violates any of the above provisions, all rights of use granted under this contract shall immediately become ineffective and shall automatically revert to DFGE. In this case, the Customer shall immediately and completely discontinue the use of the Software, delete all copies of the Software installed on its systems and, if applicable, delete the created backup copy or hand it over to DFGE.
- It is generally not permitted to back translate the program code into other code forms or to perform any other type of reverse engineering of the various production stages of the Software, including any program modification for the user's own use. DFGE may terminate the rights under Section 5.1 for good cause. Good cause shall be deemed to exist in particular if DFGE cannot reasonably be expected to continue to adhere to the contract, in particular if the Customer fails to pay the remuneration or violates clause 5.1 in a significant manner. If the rights according to clause 5. 1 arise or if they end, DFGE may demand from the Customer the return of the provided items or the written assurance that they have been destroyed, furthermore the deletion or destruction of all copies of the items together with the written assurance that this has been carried out.
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Rights of use for test seal
- DFGE, in cooperation with Lansinoh Laboratories, Inc, 99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 550 Alexandria Virginia 22314, US, issues a test seal to certify the Customer's carbon footprint.
- DFGE, in compliance with the terms and conditions of Lansinoh Laboratories, Inc, 99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 550 Alexandria Virginia 22314, US, hereby grants the Customer a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the test seal to be awarded on the Customer's website for the duration of the contract.
- The Customer undertakes to use the test seal awarded to him/her in compliance with the prevailing legal provisions and in particular to protect the rights of fairness and the rights of third parties, in particular their personal rights. In particular, the Customer is prohibited from using the test seal for untruthful advertising.
- The Customer is aware that DFGE may also conclude similar contracts with third parties.
- The Customer is not entitled to grant sublicenses.
- The Customer shall indemnify DFGE and hold DFGE harmless from and against all claims of third parties arising out of and in connection with the use of the test seal, unless DFGE is at least predominantly also responsible for the claims and liabilities. In all other respects, § 254 of the German Civil Code (BGB) shall apply.
- DFGE does not warrant that the use of the test seal does not infringe any third-party rights. DFGE declares, however, that it is not aware of any such rights. No liability is assumed for freedom from defects, in particular for dependence on third party property rights.
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Remuneration
- The amount of the monthly remuneration owed shall be based on the agreements made between the parties in the individual case in accordance with the contractual offer included in the order and the order confirmation by DFGE based thereon. DFGE is entitled to reasonably increase the agreed prices for the contractual services to compensate for increases in personnel and other costs. DFGE shall inform the Customer of such price increases in writing or by e-mail; the price increases shall not apply to periods for which the Customer has already made payments.
- If the contract is not concluded on the first day of a calendar month, the fee to be paid for the first month shall regularly be calculated on a pro rata basis according to the remaining days of the month, beginning with the day following the provision of the Software. Unless otherwise agreed between the parties, the fee for the respective month shall be due in advance on the 3rd working day of each month. In the first month of the contractual period, the fee shall be due upon complete provision of the Software.
- Other services expressly agreed to be subject to remuneration shall be provided by DFGE on a time and material basis at the general list prices in effect at the time of the order.
- During the default, the Customer shall pay interest on the debt in the amount of 9 percentage points above the base interest rate. DFGE reserves the right to claim a higher damage caused by default. The Customer shall generally accept the agreed payment terms. In case of delayed payment, DFGE is entitled, subject to further claims, to temporarily block access to the agreed services in whole or in part. The Customer will be informed thereof immediately by e-mail.
- The Customer shall only have a right of set-off if its counterclaims have been legally established, acknowledged or not disputed by DFGE. The right of the Customer to set-off against contractual and other claims arising from the initiation or execution of this contractual relationship shall remain unaffected. The Customer may only exercise a right of retention if its counterclaim is based on the same contractual relationship.
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Maintenance and warranty
- In general, the software applications provided are subject to the express restriction that no software or IT infrastructure on the market is 100% secure and 100% free of defects. This is due, among other factors, to the large number of viruses in circulation and to the fact that there are fundamental security risks that cannot yet be countered given the current state of technology. DFGE cannot per se provide protection against improper operation or modification of software applications, against possible contamination of software components with computer viruses or other malware, or against other security vulnerabilities that are beyond DFGE's control or DFGE's responsibility. The services provided by DFGE do not protect against possible infringements of intellectual property or other illegal activities of third parties - such as cyber attacks/hacker attacks, spying and interception of data or other illegal data manipulations and computer sabotage.
- DFGE warrants in general that the services owed are free from any substantial defects and third-party rights which might restrict the normal use of the services. DFGE warrants that the services owed by DFGE have the quality that is customary for services of the same type and that the Customer can expect according to the type of the specific service. Pursuant to the aforementioned provisions of Section 7.1, it is expressly pointed out that the trouble-free and unrestricted composition and functionality of the services owed by DFGE are regularly also dependent on software and hardware components of third-party providers, which are beyond DFGE's control. In particular, any changes in such software components or in the Customer's hardware and software environments may lead to restrictions in the functionality of the services owed by DFGE. Restrictions due to technical or other problems beyond DFGE's control (force majeure, fault of third parties, etc.) are not attributable to DFGE.
- The Customer is obliged to report any defects occurring to DFGE without undue delay. In case of material defects, this shall be done by describing the time of occurrence of the defects and the detailed circumstances. Any defects in the services owed by DFGE shall be remedied immediately upon description of the defect by the Customer. If DFGE is unable to remedy the defect within a reasonable period of time, the Customer may demand a pro-rata reduction. This shall not apply if the defect is due to circumstances within the Customer's responsibility, in particular if the Customer fails to comply with his/her obligation to cooperate. In the event of repeated significant defects, the Customer may also terminate the contract without notice. Further rights of the Customer remain unaffected.
- DFGE does not give any guarantees in the legal sense to the Customer, unless expressly agreed otherwise.
- The contents placed in the infrastructure provided by DFGE, if applicable, are third-party contents for DFGE. The legal responsibility in this respect lies with the Customer.
- Data communication via the Internet cannot be guaranteed to be error-free and/or available at all times according to the current state of the art. Therefore, DFGE does not assume any liability for technical deficiencies beyond DFGE's responsibility, in particular for the continuous and uninterrupted availability of the databases and their contents or for the complete and error-free reproduction of the contents placed by the Customer, if any.
- In the event that the contractual services infringe third party intellectual property rights, the Customer shall immediately notify DFGE in writing and provide DFGE with the information and other appropriate support required to defend itself against such infringement.
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Liability
- DFGE does not assume any liability for the uninterrupted availability of systems as well as for system-related failures, interruptions and malfunctions of the technical equipment and services for which DFGE is not responsible. In particular, DFGE shall not be liable for disruptions in the quality of access to services due to force majeure or events for which DFGE is not responsible. This includes in particular strikes, lockouts, lawful internal industrial action and official orders. Furthermore, this also includes the complete or partial failure of the communication and network structures and gateways of other providers and operators required for DFGE's own service provision. DFGE is entitled to postpone the services incumbent upon DFGE for the duration of the impeding event plus a reasonable start-up period. DFGE shall not be liable for insignificant interruptions. DFGE shall furthermore not be liable for errors originating from the risk area of the Customer or other third parties, in particular not for errors caused by improper operation or modification of the applications or other third party software, by infection of corresponding software components with computer viruses, by use of unsuitable data carriers, defective hardware, by failure of the power supply or cables carrying data, for errors due to insufficient information security or unsuitable environmental conditions at the place of the operation of applications.
- In case of slightly negligent breaches of duty, the liability is limited to the foreseeable, contract-typical, direct average damage according to the type of goods. This also applies to slightly negligent breaches of duty by the legal representatives or vicarious agents of DFGE. DFGE shall not be liable for slightly negligent breach of non-essential contractual obligations. DFGE shall, however, be liable for the breach of material contractual legal positions of the Customer. Material contractual legal positions are those which the contract must grant to the Customer according to the content and purpose of the contract. DFGE is also liable for the breach of obligations, the fulfillment of which is necessary for the proper execution of the contract in the first place and on the compliance with which the Customer may rely.
- The aforementioned limitations of liability do not apply to claims of the Customer based on warranties and/or product liability. Furthermore, the limitations of liability shall not apply in the event of fraudulent intent, breach of material contractual obligations and in the event of bodily injury or damage to health attributable to DFGE or in the event of loss of life of the Customer.
- DFGE shall not be liable for the loss of data and/or programs insofar as the damage is due to the fact that the Customer has failed to perform a data backup and thus to ensure that lost data can be restored with justifiable effort.
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Term and termination
- The contract shall generally be concluded for a period of one year from the conclusion of the contract. The specific minimum term of the contract shall be based on the agreements reached between the parties in each individual case. Unless terminated by one of the parties at the end of the respective term with a notice period of three months, the contract shall be extended automatically by a further 12 months.
- Furthermore, the contract may be terminated in writing for good cause without notice by either party. A good cause entitling DFGE to terminate the contract shall be deemed to exist, in particular, if the Customer infringes DFGE's Terms of Use by using the Software beyond the scope permitted under this contract and fails to remedy the infringement within a reasonable period of time after a warning by DFGE.
- Notice of termination must be given in writing.
- In the event of termination, the Customer shall give up the use of the Software.
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Confidentiality and data protection
- "Confidential Information" shall mean all information and documents of the respective other party which are marked as confidential or which are to be regarded as confidential due to the circumstances, in particular information on operational processes, business relations and know-how, as well as - for DFGE - all work results.
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The parties agree to maintain confidentiality about such confidential information. This obligation shall continue to exist also after the termination of the contract. Excluded from this obligation is such confidential information,
- which was demonstrably already known to the recipient at the time of conclusion of the contract or which subsequently becomes known from a third party, without thereby violating a confidentiality agreement, statutory provisions or official orders;
- which is publicly known at the time of the conclusion of the contract or is made publicly known thereafter, unless this is based on a breach of this contract;
- which must be disclosed due to legal obligations or by order of a court or authority. To the extent permissible and possible, the recipient obligated to disclose shall inform the other party in advance and give it the opportunity to take action against the disclosure.
- The Parties shall only grant access to confidential information to third parties who are subject to professional secrecy or who have previously been subject to obligations corresponding to the confidentiality obligations of these Terms of Use. Furthermore, the parties shall only disclose the confidential information to those employees who need to know it for the performance of the contract and shall oblige these employees to maintain confidentiality to the extent permissible under employment law also for the time after their departure.
- Any processing of personal data shall be carried out mutually in accordance with the provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and in particular in accordance with the statutory data protection provisions of the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). The detailed data protection provisions of DFGE can also be viewed at https://dfge.de/en/data-security-cookies/. They contain detailed information on how personal data is handled, how it is protected and what rights the data subject has in this respect.
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§ 11 Integration of the services of Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- For the provision of our services, we use the service "Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)", a cloud solution of Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, 38 avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, a subsidiary of Amazon Web Services, Inc., 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle WA 98109, United States. Amazon Web Services, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "AWS") is a corporation founded and registered under the laws of the State of Delaware (Registration Number: 4152954, Secretary of State, State of Delaware.Tax ID: 204938068).
- Further information on the purpose and scope of data collection and its processing, as well as further information on your corresponding rights and setting options for the protection of your privacy, can be found in our data protection provisions at https://dfge.de/en/data-security-cookies/.
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Amendment of these Terms of Use
- DFGE reserves the right to change these Terms of Use at any time by giving reasonable notice of at least six weeks. DFGE shall notify the Customer of any such amendment in text form.
- If the Customer does not object, the amended Terms of Use shall be deemed accepted. In the event of an objection, the contract shall continue unchanged with the previous Terms of Use; DFGE shall, however, be entitled to terminate the contract ordinarily.
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Other
- German law shall apply to this contract.
- The Customer is informed that IT Services may be subject to export and import restrictions. In particular, there may be licensing requirements, or the use of the Software or associated technologies may be subject to restrictions abroad. The performance of the contract may be subject to the proviso that the performance is not prevented by any obstacles arising from national and international export and import regulations or any other statutory provisions.
- The possible invalidity of individual provisions shall not affect the validity of the remaining content of the contract.
- The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship shall be the registered office of DFGE, unless a norm mandatorily orders another place of jurisdiction.