(English translation for information purposes only; contracts are always based on german "AGB")
– of unn | UNITED NEWS NETWORK GmbH, Lorenzstr. 29, 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany hereafter
„UNITED NEWS NETWORK“ –
A. General Conditions
§ 1 Scope
1. These Terms & Conditions of Business (“Terms”) shall govern all commercial
transactions covering online services offered and rendered by UNITED NEWS NETWORK,
now and in future. These Terms shall define the contractual relationship
between United News Network and any person who makes use of such services
(hereafter “User”).
2. A written confirmation by an authorized employee of UNITED NEWS NETWORK
shall be required for any amendments hereto, collateral agreements, separate
warranties, or other claims. A special power of attorney shall be required for
any employees who are not authorized to negotiate such amendments, by
virtue of their position, executive authority, or general authority to act and sign.
3. If UNITED NEWS NETWORK organizes third-party services for the Customer pursuant
to these Terms, the Customer shall be governed by the terms & conditions of the
said party, provided it is deemed reasonable for the Customer to review such
conditions prior to executing the contract.
§ 2 Right to change list prices and amend these Terms
1. UNITED NEWS NETWORK reserves the right to adjust prices for a continuing
recurring obligation (contract for usage & services), provided such changes are
reasonable and comparable to those applicable to list prices of other similar
contracts for its customers. A price adjustment shall be deemed reasonable
if it reflects general movements in prices for similar products, as measured
by the harmonized CPI released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics.
The prices shall be adjusted no earlier than two months after notifying the
Customer. The Customer may cancel the contract with one (1) month’s notice
within a month of being informed of a price increase exceeding the harmonized
CPI.
2. An amendment to these Terms by UNITED NEWS NETWORK for a continuing
recurring obligation shall become a constituent element of a contract, provided
UNITED NEWS NETWORK informs the Customer of the amendments in textual form
and of the Customer’s right to file an objection thereto, and the Customer does
not object within one (1) month of such notification.
§ 3 Liability of UNITED NEWS NETWORK
1. UNITED NEWS NETWORK shall be liable to the Customer for damages, if it acts
with intent or gross negligence, but not for indirect or consequential damages, or
loss of profits, production stoppages, and/or operational interruptions that the
Customer and its customers incur. The mandatory legal rights of the Customer
shall remain in force, especially for endangerment to life or bodily injury or
health.
2. The liability of UNITED NEWS NETWORK shall be as prescribed by law for culpable
breach of its contractual duties or violation of an obligation, if such duties/obligation
must be fulfilled to enable proper performance of the contract and if the
Customer normally relies on compliance thereof. In the event of negligence on
the part of UNITED NEWS NETWORK, its liability shall be limited to foreseeable and
typical damages.
§ 4 Confidentiality, Privacy
1. Each party shall hold strictly confidential any and all proprietary information
released by the other party during the course of the contract, including trade
secrets that the Customer is bound not to disclose.
2. Customer data necessary for the business transaction shall be saved
electronically in compliance with BDSG (Federal Data Protection Act).
UNITED NEWS NETWORK is committed to complying with the privacy provisions
of BDSG and TDDSG (Communication services data protection act data),
as stated in its privacy policy ( german: Datenschutzerklärung ).
§ 5 Third-party services and charges
1. UNITED NEWS NETWORK may arrange to render the contractual services
through a third party or an affiliate.
2. UNITED NEWS NETWORK may assign any claims arising from or in connection
with these Terms to a third party or an affiliate, or authorize them to assert claims
on its behalf.
§ 6 Miscellaneous
1. The Laws of Germany alone shall govern a contract with the Customer, under
exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.
2. Jurisdiction shall be at the place of business of UNITED NEWS NETWORK, if a
Customer is a general merchant, a legal entity under public law, or a special
public asset pursuant to §38 of ZPO (Code of Civil Procedures), or if following
execution of a contract the Customer moves its head office or general place of
business abroad or if such domicile is unknown.
3. Unless otherwise stipulated, Karlsruhe shall be the place of performance for
all rights and obligations herein.
4. Terminations, deadlines with a warning of refusal to perform, and reminders
must be in writing, whereby oral agreements shall be enforceable only if
confirmed in writing by UNITED NEWS NETWORK.
5. If any of these Terms are declared or become void or unenforceable, the
remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect, whereupon the
parties shall replace the offending part with an enforceable provision that
best reflects the original commercial intent of the parties.
B. Specific Conditions for the PresseBox service
§ 1 Subject matter of agreement
1. PresseBox is a service, product, and mark of UNITED NEWS NETWORK.
The purpose of the PresseBox service is primarily the digital distribution
and archiving of press releases from various technology sectors (“Base service”).
2. A Customer of the PresseBox service may also book and use additional
services (“Packages”) comprising a defined set of services.
§ 2 Assignability / Payment due date
1. A contract or order may not be transferred and can be used only by
the intended recipient of the service within the term of the contract. An
intended recipient is the User or company that places the order, whereby
a representative may also be designated in the order as the recipient.
2. All prices stated are in EUR and subject to the statutory VAT.
3. Unless otherwise stipulated in writing, the fees for use of the PresseBox
service shall be payable for the full term immediately upon booking the
service. The invoice for all booked services shall be issued at the beginning
of the minimum contractual term, whereby the terms of payment are net seven
(7) days upon receipt of the invoice.
§ 3 Publication of press releases
1. The Customer shall deliver the press releases in a digital form to enable
UNITED NEWS NETWORK to render the PresseBox services, otherwise the service
cannot be provided.
2. The content of a press release published via the PresseBox must be topical
and of potential interest to its readers. Therefore, UNITED NEWS NETWORK shall not
activate any distribution or dissemination functions for press releases that are
more than seven (7) days old when input into the PresseBox. This restriction
shall, however, not affect digital archiving of old press releases.
3. Either the Customer or a staff member of UNITED NEWS NETWORK shall
input and categorize press releases in the PresseBox system, whereby
the staff member shall not edit the articles.
4. The User alone shall bear the responsibility for publishing the content
of its article (such as textual material, images, illustrations, and links) and
disseminating the same.
5. The Customer shall not publish or disseminate any content of an article
via the PresseBox that contravenes the law, or infringes upon third-party
rights, or offends common decency.
6. Furthermore, the following kinds of articles shall not be published via
the PresseBox service:
* press releases that do not match any of the PresseBox categories
* press releases whose kind and size are deemed unreasonable, and
* press releases that are solely of a promotional nature, especially those
that do not satisfy the minimum conventional standards for articles.
7. UNITED NEWS NETWORK reserves the right to delete and not archive any
articles that contravene the provisions of §§B3.6 and B3.7, and to:
* restructure a press release.
* change the title of a press release.
* shorten the content of a press release (e.g. press agent or company profile)
placed in the press box of the client company.
8. UNITED NEWS NETWORK also reserves the right to delete an article completely
from its system at its discretion, in special circumstances.
§ 4 Liability of Customer
1. The Customer shall be responsible for the confidentiality and misuse of the
user name and password assigned for inputting press releases via a password
protected section of the website.
2. The Customer shall, within the scope of the law, hold UNITED NEWS NETWORK
harmless against any third-party claims arising from or in connection with the
content of any article published by the Customer via the PresseBox.
§ 5 „Ticket“ products#
1. The Ticket product is a service with a given number of coupons in a package,
(e.g. 3-coupon Ticket, 10-coupon Ticket…), each usable by the Customer to
publish an article via the PresseBox
2. A Ticket contract is valid for 12 months, and renews automatically for a
further 12 months at a time under the same conditions, unless terminated
with three (3) months notice prior to expiration of the then current period, as
determined by the date when UNITED NEWS NETWORK receives the termination
notice.
3. The Tickets shall expire at the end of their term, whereby any unused ones
cannot be carried forward into the following period.
4. If all Tickets in a package are used up within their term, the set shall renew
automatically at that point in time. The Customer shall receive a new package
with the same number of coupons subject to the same conditions, unless a
termination notice is received by UNITED NEWS NETWORK within seven (7) days
of using the last coupon.
5. The Ticket product also includes promotional coupons with a term of 12
months that are valid for a limited number of press releases.
§ 6 „Flat/Flat rate“ products
1. The Flat Rate product allows the Customer to issue an unlimited number
of press releases over a specified term via the PresseBox.
2. The term of a Flat Rate contract can be 12 months (typical) but not less
than (3) months. The Customer also has the option to negotiate other terms
of payment in writing.
3. A Flat Rate contract renews automatically for a further period of the same
duration under the same conditions, unless terminated with three (3) months
notice prior to expiration of the then current period, as determined by the date
when UNITED NEWS NETWORK receives the termination notice.
§ 7 „Media monitoring“ products
1. This is a service that UNITED NEWS NETWORK offers to conduct research on
specific media for the Customer per the latter’s requirements. If instead of having a fixed research profile the customer opts to use the software "Echobot", then instead of the following paragraphs 2. to 5. he will also be bound by the the terms and conditions at www.echobot.de/index/agb.
2. On the day an order is placed, UNITED NEWS NETWORK shall identify and
select the media to be assessed, subject to review by the Customer.
However, UNITED NEWS NETWORK reserves the right to change the content
of its media program, in order to stay current and be effective in monitoring
the media
3. UNITED NEWS NETWORK reserves the right to reject any specific monitoring
order at its discretion. The User shall verify the details of its monitoring order
and notify UNITED NEWS NETWORK immediately of any amendments thereto, whereby
UNITED NEWS NETWORK shall incorporate any requested changes that are feasible.
4. UNITED NEWS NETWORK does not warrant the completeness or correctness of the
research findings.
5. The User shall use the excerpts, textual materials, images etc. resulting
from the media monitoring program and delivered by UNITED NEWS NETWORK,
solely for internal archiving and documentation purposes, or as permitted by law.
6. A Media Monitoring contract is valid for at least three (3) months, and
renews automatically for a further period of one (1) month under the same
conditions, unless terminated with thirty (30) days notice prior to expiration of
the then current period, as determined by the date when UNITED NEWS NETWORK
receives the termination notice.
§ 8 Other services
1. UNITED NEWS NETWORK also offers other services to supplement the above
package deals, such as creating press releases. The terms and conditions,
including duration and payment, for these services are negotiated to reflect the
custom nature of the task at hand.
§ 9 PR services for company websites
1. UNITED NEWS NETWORK offers this service that includes an interface to the
PresseBox, such that press releases entered by the Customer are integrated for
automatic updates of the latter’s own website. This is accomplished via an
appropriate source code provided to the Customer by UNITED NEWS NETWORK.
2. UNITED NEWS NETWORK shall assign a simple right to use the source code within
the scope of the contract. The Customer shall be authorized to use the source code
within the scope of the contract. Following integration, the User shall take over
the complete source code provided. No changes or modifications may be made
to the code. Any changes to the graphical layout, for instance, can be done
via the configuration tool provided by UNITED NEWS NETWORK, which in turn creates a
modified source code.
3. Upon contracting for this service and following integration of the source
code, the User shall set up a link on its website to the PresseBox that
highlights the latter as a service provider. The Customer shall not delete the
relevant link from the source code transmitted by UNITED NEWS NETWORK.
4. The User shall verify that this service functions properly, is correct, and in
particular compatible with the existing technical infrastructure of the website.
Karlsruhe, 1st of december 2008
