General Terms and Conditions

General Terms and Conditions

 

Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH
Abraham-Lincoln-Straße 46, 65189 Wiesbaden | Germany
Phone +49 (0)611 / 78 78 - 0, Fax +49 (0)611 / 78 78 - 400
springerfachmedien@springernature.com
Local court: Wiesbaden, HRB 9754 | USt-IdNr. DE811148419
Directors: Stefanie Burgmaier | Andreas Funk | Joachim Krieger
Customer Service Center: Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH, Tiergartenstraße 15, 69121 Heidelberg
Phone +49 (0)6221 / 345 - 4303, Fax +49 (0)6221 / 345 - 4229

 

 

1. Scope of application

1.1 The online services of Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH provide their services at www.meinfachwissen.de, www-my-specialized-knowledge.com exclusively on the basis of these General Terms and Conditions. We do not recognise any regulations that deviate from these terms and conditions, unless they are confirmed by us in writing.

1.2 In the event of a change to these General Terms and Conditions, we will notify you of the changes. If you do not declare within four weeks after receipt of the notification that you object to the change, the new General Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply. We will draw attention to this legal consequence when notifying you of the change. In the event of an objection, we are entitled to terminate the contract for good cause.

 

2. Conclusion of contracts for goods and services offered

2.1 The presentation of the products on the website does not constitute an offer to conclude a contract, but an invitation to place orders. After entering your data, you can check them again and, if necessary, jump back to correct any errors. You can cancel the ordering process at any time by closing the browser window. You only make a binding offer to conclude a contract when you click on the button "Order subject to payment".

2.2 We immediately confirm receipt of the order by e-mail. This is not yet an acceptance of the order. The contract is concluded when we expressly accept the order, or tacitly with delivery or activation of access. The text of the contract is not stored by us.

 

3. Delivery and shipping costs

3.1 In the case of deliveries from the Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH range, we deliver to the postal address given to us. The delivery will be carried out within 30 working days by the shipping service provider Deutsche Post, DPD as well as for international shipments by Springer Nature. The shipping costs incurred are stated on the order page. The place of performance is our distribution warehouse; if you are a consumer, i.e. if you conclude the contract for purposes which can predominantly be attributed neither to a commercial nor to a self-employed professional activity, the risk shall only pass upon delivery. In the case of deliveries abroad, you shall bear the increased shipping costs and also the additional taxes and customs duties.

3.2 As far as goods or services are offered by third parties via the online services of Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, any contracts are concluded exclusively between you and the provider of such transactions. Any claims arising from such transactions are directed exclusively against the provider. All offers are subject to the respective price lists and terms of purchase of the provider, which are valid at the time of the order placement.

 

4. Purchase of and Access to Digital Content

4.1 During the licence term, the Customer shall be granted access to the licensed content on www.springerprofessional.de via Internet Protocol (“IP”) authentication or via any other authentication method specified by Springer (e.g. email address, password). For this purpose, registration on www.springerprofessional.de is necessary and the terms of use of this platform must be accepted by the Customer.  Once the licence agreement has been entered into, Springer shall provide a set of login details to the Customer. These login details may only be used by an authorised Customer and must not be transferred to any other parties. The login details are technically restricted to access to single workstations. The Customer and/or the authorised Customers shall keep the login details secret. The Customer and/or authorised Customers shall be prohibited from disclosing the login details to any third parties.

4.2 Springer reserves the right to analyse the log files in line with applicable data protection laws and regulations to identify any misuse by the Customer and/or third parties of the access granted.

4.3 Springer may remove any parts of the content from the websites in which Springer no longer has rights of publication or which it has reason to believe infringe copyrights or otherwise violate applicable law. Springer shall endeavour to notify the Customer in reasonable time if any such situation arises.

 

 

5. Payment

5.1 Payment shall be made by invoice. The payment is due immediately. After ordering, an order confirmation will be sent with information on payment options and shipping.

5.2 You will be in default at the latest if you do not pay within 30 days of the due date and receipt of the invoice; if you are a consumer, this only applies if you are specifically advised of these consequences in the invoice.

5.3 The purchased goods remain our property until the purchase price has been paid in full.

 

6. Right of withdrawal

Consumers (natural persons who conclude a legal transaction for purposes that can predominantly be attributed neither to their commercial nor their independent professional activity) have a statutory right of revocation.

There is no right of revocation for contracts concerning

  • the supply of sound or video recordings or computer software in a sealed package if the seal has been removed after delivery
  • the supply of newspapers, periodicals or magazines (individual issues; in the case of subscription contracts, there is a right of withdrawal)

There is no right of withdrawal for contracts concerning the supply of digitised content if the performance has begun with Customer’s prior express consent and Customer’s acknowledgment that Customer thereby loses their right of withdrawal and Springer has sent Customer a confirmation of the contract and said consent and acknowledgement via email.

a) For a contract for a product or goods delivered as part of a uniform delivery:

Cancellation policy

Right of withdrawal

You have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without giving reasons.

The withdrawal period is fourteen days from the day on which you or a third party designated by you, other than the carrier, took possession of the goods.

In order to exercise your right of revocation, you must inform us (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, Abraham-Lincoln-Straße 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Tel +49 (0)611 / 78 78 - 0, springerfachmedien@springernature.com) by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail) of your decision to revoke this contract.

You can use the attached sample revocation form, which is not mandatory.

In order to comply with the revocation period, it is sufficient to send the notification of the exercise of the right of revocation before the end of the revocation period.

Consequences of revocation

If you revoke this Agreement, we shall reimburse you for all payments we have received from you, including delivery charges (other than any additional charges arising from your choosing a different method of delivery from the cheapest standard delivery offered by us), immediately and no later than fourteen days from the date on which we receive notice of your revocation of this Agreement. For this refund, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no event will you be charged for this refund. We may refuse to make any refund until we have received the goods back or until you have provided proof that you have returned the goods, whichever is earlier.

You must return or hand over the goods to us immediately and in any event no later than fourteen days from the date on which you notify us of the cancellation of this agreement. This period shall be deemed to have been observed if you dispatch the goods before the expiry of the fourteen-day period. You shall bear the direct costs of returning the goods.

You shall only be liable for any loss in value of the goods if this loss in value is due to handling of the goods that is not necessary for testing their condition, properties and functionality.

 

b) A contract for goods which have been ordered in a single order and are delivered separately shall be subject to the following provisions:

 

Cancellation policy

Right of withdrawal

You have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without giving reasons.

The revocation period is fourteen days from the day on which you or a third party named by you, who is not the carrier, took or has taken possession of the last goods.

In order to exercise your right of revocation, you must inform us (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, Abraham-Lincoln-Straße 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Tel +49 (0)611 / 78 78 - 0, springerfachmedien@springernature.com) by means of a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail) of your decision to revoke this contract. You may use the attached model revocation form for this purpose, but this is not mandatory.

In order to comply with the revocation period, it is sufficient to send the notification of the exercise of the right of revocation before the end of the revocation period.

Consequences of revocation

If you revoke this Agreement, we shall reimburse you for all payments we have received from you, including delivery charges (other than any additional charges arising from your choosing a different method of delivery from the cheapest standard delivery offered by us), immediately and no later than fourteen days from the date on which we receive notice of your revocation of this Agreement. For this refund, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no event will you be charged for this refund. We may refuse to make any refund until we have received the goods back or until you have provided proof that you have returned the goods, whichever is earlier.

You must return or hand over the goods to us immediately and in any event no later than fourteen days from the date on which you notify us of the cancellation of this agreement. This period shall be deemed to have been observed if you dispatch the goods before the expiry of the fourteen-day period. You shall bear the direct costs of returning the goods.

You shall only be liable for any loss in value of the goods if this loss in value is due to handling of the goods that is not necessary for testing their condition, properties and functionality.

 

c) For print subscriptions:

Revocation instruction

Right of withdrawal

You have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without giving reasons.

The revocation period is fourteen days from the day on which you or a third party named by you, who is not the carrier, have taken or has taken possession of the first goods.

In order to exercise your right of revocation, you must inform us (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, Abraham-Lincoln-Straße 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Tel +49 (0)611 / 78 78 - 0, springerfachmedien@springernature.com) by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail) of your decision to revoke this contract. You may use the attached model revocation form for this purpose, but this is not mandatory.

In order to comply with the revocation period, it is sufficient to send the notification of the exercise of the right of revocation before the end of the revocation period.

Consequences of revocation

If you revoke this Agreement, we shall reimburse you for all payments we have received from you, including delivery charges (other than any additional charges arising from your choosing a different method of delivery from the cheapest standard delivery offered by us), immediately and no later than fourteen days from the date on which we receive notice of your revocation of this Agreement. For this refund, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no event will you be charged for this refund. We may refuse to make any refund until we have received the goods back or until you have provided proof that you have returned the goods, whichever is earlier.

You must return or hand over the goods to us immediately and in any event no later than fourteen days from the date on which you notify us of the cancellation of this agreement. This period shall be deemed to have been observed if you dispatch the goods before the expiry of the fourteen-day period. You shall bear the direct costs of returning the goods.

You shall only be liable for any loss in value of the goods if this loss in value is due to handling of the goods that is not necessary for testing their condition, properties and functionality.

 

d) For contracts for the delivery of non-physical digital content (downloads, e-paper, e-books):

 

Cancellation policy

Right of withdrawal

You have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without giving reasons.

The revocation period is fourteen days from the date of conclusion of the contract.

In order to exercise your right of revocation, you must inform us (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, Abraham-Lincoln-Straße 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Tel +49 (0)611 / 78 78 - 0, springerfachmedien@springernature.com) by means of a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail) of your decision to revoke this contract. You may use the attached model revocation form for this purpose, but this is not mandatory.

In order to comply with the revocation period, it is sufficient to send the notification of the exercise of the right of revocation before the end of the revocation period.

Consequences of revocation

If you revoke this Agreement, we shall reimburse you for all payments we have received from you, including delivery charges (other than any additional charges arising from your choosing a different method of delivery from the cheapest standard delivery offered by us), immediately and no later than fourteen days from the date on which we receive notice of your revocation of this Agreement. For this refund, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no event will you be charged for this refund.

 

e) The following form may be used to declare cancellation, but is not mandatory:

Sample Withdrawal Form

(If you want to cancel the contract, please fill out this form and send it back).

To Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, Abraham-Lincoln-Straße 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Tel +49 (0)611 / 78 78 - 0, springerfachmedien@springernature.com:

I/we (*) hereby revoke the contract concluded by me/us (*) for the purchase of the following

Goods (*)/the provision of the following service (*)

Ordered on (*)/received on (*)

Name of the consumer(s)

Address of the consumer(s)

Signature of the consumer(s) (only in case of communication on paper)

Date

___

(*) Delete as applicable.

 

7. Accessibility

There is no claim to the constant availability of our web pages. The web pages may be temporarily unavailable, in particular due to maintenance work or technical faults, without this giving rise to any claims against us.

 

8. Liability

We shall only be liable if the damage was caused by intent or gross negligence or if an obligation was violated by slight negligence, the fulfilment of which is essential for the proper execution of the contract and on the observance of which the contractual partner may regularly rely (cardinal obligation); in the latter case, liability shall be limited to such damage, the occurrence of which must be typically and predictably expected in the context of the provision of services such as the contractual services. The liability for injury to health, body or life and under the Product Liability Act shall remain unaffected.

 

9. Additional terms and conditions for multiple licences

9.1 Licensee / Authorised User: "Licensee" in the sense of these terms and conditions is the person who concludes a license agreement with Springer for multiple licenses. The Licensee may designate Authorised Users, i.e. persons who are to be Authorised to use the product under the License Agreement, up to a number specified in the order process. Authorised Users may be employees of Licensee, but may also be an independent contractor or temporary employee working on behalf of Licensee. If a method of making the product available to Authorised Users which is bound to specific persons is agreed, the Licensee will name the relevant Authorised Users to Springer.

9.2 Permitted cope of use: Upon conclusion of the contract and full payment of the due license amount, Springer grants the customer the non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right to access and use the products that are made available to him. Access and right of use are granted to the number of Authorised Users corresponding to the number of licenses purchased. Each license has the following scope or rights:

  • The right to electronically display the researched materials via the access to the online service provided by Springer on no more than one single PC workstation at the same time.
  • The right to print a single copy of the researched materials exclusively via the print functions in the online service.
  • The right to save the research results for own use exclusively via the download function in the online service. The right to save the search results in machine-readable form is in all cases limited to the term of the contract.

The customer and Authorised Users are not Authorised to pass on the documents to third parties and are not entitled to publish, reproduce or distribute the documents.
Use of the product by an information intermediary of the customer (e.g. librarian, knowledge manager) who is not an Authorised User himself/herself is permitted if the information intermediary acts on behalf of an Authorised User, the Authorised User does not make the query himself/herself and the materials are only forwarded to the Authorised User once. The data must subsequently be deleted immediately from the information intermediary.
The customer and its Authorised Users are only permitted to use the service within the legal limitations of copyright law.
The systematic, permanent storage of search results in a database is not permitted. The customer must not make Springer's services available to third parties, under no circumstances and in no case and no way.
Licensee may not remove, obscure or alter the copyright notices, trademarks, logos or marks, or other proprietary rights, that appear in or on the Licensed Content.

9.3 The Authorised Users of the Licensee will receive access to the licensed content during the contract period via the agreed authentication method (e.g. IP address, license key, user name and password). After conclusion of the License Agreement Springer will provide the Licensee with a set of access data for the Authorised Users of the Licensee or inform the Licensee about the data activation of the IP address. The access data may only be used by the Authorised Users and are not transferable to other persons, unless the license agreement contains an explicit exception for special cases. The Licensee and the Authorised Users must keep all access data, including the personal registration data, secret. The Licensee and his Authorised Users are prohibited from passing on these data to third parties. The Licensee shall ensure by appropriate contractual agreement with the Authorised Users that its Authorised Users undertake to do so in favour of Springer.

9.4 Rights and obligations of Springer: Springer reserves the right to analyse the log files in compliance with the relevant data protection laws in order to detect misuse of the access by the Licensee and/or third parties.
Springer may at any time remove from the websites parts of the content to which Springer no longer holds any rights of use or in respect of which it has justified reason to believe that they infringe copyrights or otherwise violate other legal provisions. Springer endeavours to inform the Licensee of this in good time.

9.5 Rights and obligations of the Licensee: The Licensee shall inform the Authorised Users about the intellectual property or other property rights applicable to the contents as well as about the forms of use prohibited according to section 9.2 of these GTC. The Licensee will take all reasonable measures to prevent any infringement of the intellectual property rights or other rights of Springer in the Content by Authorised Users or third parties.
If the Licensee discovers an abuse of access to the contents by an employee or a third party, the Licensee will immediately inform Springer of the details of the abuse and take the necessary measures to prevent a repetition of the abuse. To the extent possible, the Licensee will immediately block the access authorization of the abusive party upon knowledge of the abuse. Depending on the nature and extent of the misuse, Springer may, at its own discretion, take further steps against the abusive Authorised User.

9.6 License fee: The Licensee is obliged to pay the licence fee agreed in the licence agreement. If the payment is not made after the expiry of the time limit for payment, Springer can prevent both the access of the Licensee and the access of the Authorised Users covered by the license agreement without further notice and at its own discretion. Further claims of Springer remain unaffected.
Unless otherwise specified on the order page in the ordering process, the licence fee is payable plus the statutory value added tax. Licensee shall not be entitled to deduct any sales, use, distribution, withholding, value-added or similar taxes, government levies or other taxes.
Springer may adjust or amend the periodically recurring license fees after prior notification to the Licensee, subject to a notice period of 2 months. For this purpose, Springer will prepare a new contract offer for the Licensee, which will replace the previous contract. If the new offer is not accepted by the Licensee, Springer may terminate the existing agreement by giving 2 months' notice.

9.7 Contract period: Unless otherwise expressly provided for on the order page in the ordering process, the license agreement shall be valid 12 months from the start of the agreement and shall be extended repeatedly for a further 12 months unless it is effectively terminated by one of the contracting parties with a notice period of 3 (three) months before the end of the respective term of the agreement. The right to extraordinary termination for good cause remains unaffected for both parties.
An isolated termination of individual products covered by the licence agreement is not possible.
Any termination must be in writing. The transmission of a notice of termination can be made by letter post or e-mail. Termination by telephone shall not satisfy this written form requirement.

9.8 Indemnity: The Licensee undertakes to indemnify Springer in respect of such claims and losses which arise from unauthorised use of the licensed content and which he could have prevented by exercising the care required in the course of business. The Licensee undertakes to indemnify Springer in this respect from claims of third parties.

9.9 Data protection: Springer processes Authorised Users' personal data in accordance with Springer's privacy policy, which can be found under the following link:
https://www.springerprofessional.de/datenschutzerklaerung-springerprofessional/6947310

 

10. Final provisions

10.1 All contracts shall be governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you conclude a contract for a purpose that cannot be attributed to your professional or commercial activity, this does not mean that you lose the protection provided by the mandatory legal provisions of the country of your habitual residence.

10.2 For goods and digital products there is a legal guarantee of conformity. Claims arising from that guarantee become statute-barred within two years after the goods have been received or the digital product was provided, in the case of the continuous provision of a digital product not earlier than 12 months after the end of the provision of the digital product.

10.3 If you are a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law or have your residence or habitual abode abroad, Wiesbaden shall be the place of jurisdiction for all claims in connection with their use; however, we shall also be entitled to sue at your general place of jurisdiction.

10.4 Complaints: The EU Commission has created an online platform for extrajudicial conflict resolution between customers and companies. This gives customers the option of clarifying disagreements arising from online orders without initially involving a court of law. The platform can be reached via an external link: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/.

10.5 Out-of-court settlements: We do not engage in out-of-court settlements before consumer arbitration bodies.

 


Last update: July 2022