General Terms and Conditions (AGB)

I. Scope of application/conclusion of contract

These Terms and Conditions of Sale apply exclusively to entrepreneurs, legal entities under public law or special funds under public law within the meaning of Section 310 (1) of the German Civil Code (BGB). Orders shall be executed exclusively on the basis of the following terms and conditions. Deviating regulations require written confirmation.

II Prices

The price quotations shall only become binding upon confirmation of the order by the Contractor. The prices stated in the Contractor’s quotation shall apply subject to the proviso that the order data on which the quotation was based remain unchanged, but for no longer than one month after receipt of the quotation by the Client. In the case of orders with delivery to third parties, the Customer shall be deemed to be the Client, unless otherwise expressly agreed. The Contractor’s prices do not include VAT. The Contractor’s prices are ex works. They do not include packaging, freight, postage, insurance and other shipping costs.
Subsequent changes at the instigation of the client, including the resulting machine downtime, shall be charged to the client. Subsequent changes shall also include repetitions of test proofs requested by the client due to minor deviations from the original.
Sketches, drafts, test typesetting, test prints, proofs, changes to supplied/transferred data and similar preparatory work initiated by the client shall be charged. The same applies to data transfers (e.g. via ISDN).

III Payment

Payment must be made upon receipt of the invoice without any deductions. Any discount agreement does not apply to freight, postage, insurance or other shipping costs. The invoice shall be issued on the day of delivery, partial delivery or readiness for delivery (debt to be discharged at collection, default of acceptance).
Appropriate advance payment may be demanded in the event of extraordinary advance performance.
If it becomes apparent after conclusion of the contract that the fulfillment of the payment claim is jeopardized by the Client’s inability to pay, the Contractor may demand advance payment, withhold goods not yet delivered and cease further work. The Contractor shall also be entitled to these rights if the Client is in arrears with the payment of deliveries that are based on the same legal relationship. § Section 321 II BGB remains unaffected.
In the event of late payment, default interest of 9% above the prime rate shall be payable. This shall not exclude the assertion of further damages caused by default. If the client does not pay the price including the ancillary costs in accordance with Clause II (“Prices”) within 10 days of receipt of the invoice and delivery of the goods within the specified payment period, the client shall be in default even without a reminder.

IV. Delivery

If the goods are to be dispatched, the risk shall pass to the customer as soon as the consignment has been handed over to the person carrying out the transportation.
Delivery dates are only valid if they are expressly confirmed by the Contractor. If the contract is concluded in writing, the confirmation of the delivery date must also be in writing. The delivery period shall end on the day on which the goods leave the supplier’s works or are stored due to impossibility of shipment. The delivery period shall be interrupted for the duration of the inspection of the proofs, production samples, lithographs, etc. by the customer, namely from the day of dispatch to the customer until the day of receipt of his comments. If the client requests changes to the order after the order confirmation, which affect the production time, a new delivery time shall commence only upon confirmation of the changes. The Contractor shall not be responsible for exceeding the delivery time if this is caused by circumstances for which the Contractor is not responsible.
If the Contractor delays performance, the Client may only exercise the rights under Section 323 BGB if the Contractor is responsible for the delay. This provision does not imply a change in the burden of proof.
Operational disruptions – both in the Contractor’s business and in that of a supplier – such as strikes, lockouts and all other cases of force majeure shall only entitle the Client to withdraw from the contract if the Client can no longer reasonably be expected to wait any longer, otherwise the agreed delivery period shall be extended by the duration of the delay. However, termination is possible at the earliest four weeks after the occurrence of the operational disruption described above. Liability on the part of the contractor is excluded in these cases.
The Contractor shall be entitled to a right of retention in accordance with § 369 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) to the printing and stamping templates, manuscripts, raw materials and other items supplied by the Client until all due claims arising from the business relationship have been settled in full. Material procured by the client, regardless of the type, must be delivered to us free of charge. Receipt shall be confirmed without acceptance of liability for the correctness of the quantity designated as delivered. In the case of larger items, the costs associated with counting or checking the weight as well as the storage charges shall be reimbursed.
The Contractor shall take back packaging within the scope of the obligations incumbent upon it under the Packaging Ordinance. The Customer may return packaging to the Contractor’s premises during normal business hours after prior notification in good time, unless another acceptance/collection point has been designated to the Customer. Packaging may also be returned to the Contractor at the time of delivery, unless another acceptance/collection point has been designated to the Client. Packaging shall only be taken back immediately after delivery of the goods, and in the case of subsequent deliveries only after timely prior notification and provision. The client shall bear the costs of transportation of the used packaging. If a designated acceptance/collection point is further away than the Contractor’s premises, the Client shall only bear the transportation costs that would be incurred for removal to the Contractor’s premises. The returned packaging must be clean, free of foreign matter and sorted according to different packaging. Otherwise, the Contractor shall be entitled to demand from the Client the additional costs incurred for disposal.

V. Retention of title

The delivered goods shall remain the property of the Contractor until full payment of all claims of the Contractor against the Client existing on the invoice date. The Client shall only be entitled to resell the goods in the ordinary course of business. The Client hereby assigns its claims from the resale to the Contractor. The Contractor hereby accepts the assignment. In the event of default at the latest, the Client shall be obliged to name the debtor of the assigned claim. However, the assignment shall only apply to the amount corresponding to the price (including VAT) of the delivery item invoiced by the Contractor.
If goods supplied by the Contractor and owned by the Contractor are treated or processed, the Contractor shall be regarded as the manufacturer in accordance with Section 950 BGB and shall retain ownership of the products at all times during processing. If third parties are involved in the treatment or processing, the Contractor shall be limited to a co-ownership share in the amount of the invoice value of the goods subject to retention of title. The property thus acquired shall be deemed to be reserved property.

VI Complaints/warranties

The client must check the contractual conformity of the goods and the preliminary and intermediate products sent for correction without delay. The risk of any errors shall pass to the client with the declaration of readiness for printing/declaration of readiness for production, insofar as these are not errors that only occurred or could only be recognized in the production process following the declaration of readiness for printing/declaration of readiness for production. The same applies to all other release declarations of the client.
Complaints are only admissible within one week of receipt of the goods. Hidden defects that cannot be found after an immediate inspection must be claimed within the statutory warranty period.
In the event of defects, the Contractor shall initially be obliged and entitled, at its discretion, to rectify the defect and/or supply a replacement, to the exclusion of other claims. If the Contractor does not fulfill this obligation within a reasonable period of time or if the subsequent performance fails, the Client may – without prejudice to any claims for damages – withdraw from the contract or reduce the remuneration.
Defects in part of the delivered goods do not entitle the customer to complain about the entire delivery, unless the partial delivery is of no interest to the customer.
In the case of color reproductions in all production processes, minor deviations from the original cannot be objected to. The same applies to the comparison between other originals (e.g. digital proofs, press proofs) and the final product. Furthermore, liability for defects that do not or only insignificantly impair the value or usability is excluded.
The Contractor shall only be liable for deviations in the quality of the material used up to the amount of the order value.
Deliveries (including data carriers, transferred data) by the client or by a third party engaged by the client are not subject to any obligation to check on the part of the contractor. This shall not apply to data that is obviously unprocessable or unreadable. In the case of data transmission, the Client shall use state-of-the-art protection programs for computer viruses prior to transmission. Data backup shall be the sole responsibility of the Client. The Contractor shall be entitled to make a copy.
Excess or short deliveries of up to 10% of the ordered quantity cannot be objected to. The quantity delivered shall be invoiced. For deliveries of custom-made paper products under 1,000 kg, the percentage increases to 20%, under 2,000 kg to 15%.

VII Liability

Claims for damages and reimbursement of expenses by the client, regardless of the legal grounds, are excluded.
This exclusion of liability does not apply
- in the event of damage caused intentionally or through gross negligence,
- in the event of a slightly negligent breach of material contractual obligations, including by legal representatives or vicarious agents of the Contractor; in this respect, the Contractor shall only be liable for the foreseeable, direct average damage typical for the type of product,
- in the event of culpable injury to the life, body or health of the client,
- in the case of fraudulently concealed defects and assumed guarantee for the quality of the goods,
- for claims arising from the Product Liability Act.

VIII. Statute of limitations

Claims of the Client for warranty and damages (Sections VI. and VII.) shall become time-barred one year after delivery of the goods, with the exception of the claims for damages mentioned in Section VII. 2. This shall not apply if the Contractor has acted fraudulently.

IX. Trade usage

In commercial transactions, the commercial practices of the printing industry shall apply (e.g. no obligation to surrender intermediate products such as data, lithographs or printing plates that are created to produce the final product owed), unless a different order has been placed.

X. Archiving

Archiving Products to which the Client is entitled, in particular data and data carriers, shall only be archived by the Contractor beyond the time of handover of the end product to the Client or its vicarious agents after express agreement and against special remuneration. If the above-mentioned items are to be insured, this must be arranged by the Client itself in the absence of an agreement.

XI. Periodic work

Contracts for regularly recurring work can be terminated with a notice period of at least 3 months to the end of a month

XII. Industrial property rights/copyright

The client shall be solely liable if the rights of third parties, in particular copyrights, are infringed by the execution of his order. The Client shall indemnify the Contractor against all third-party claims arising from such an infringement of rights

XIII Place of performance, place of jurisdiction, validity

If the Client is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law or has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany, the place of performance and jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship, including proceedings relating to checks, bills of exchange and documents, shall be the Contractor’s registered office. The contractual relationship shall be governed by German law. UN sales law is excluded.
The invalidity of one or more provisions shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.