General Terms and Conditions

 

Terms and conditions for information and continuing education offers via the "BAM Akademie" platform

between

the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM),

Unter den Eichen 87

12205 Berlin

Germany

Telephone: +49 30 8104-0

Fax: +49 30 8104 7 2222

Internet: http://www.bam-akademie.de

E-mail: akademie@bam.de

- hereinafter referred to as the "Provider”

and the Customer referred to in § 1 of the contract

- hereinafter referred to as the "Customer”

are concluded.

§ 1 Scope of application, definitions

(1) The following General Terms and Conditions in the version valid at the time of booking shall apply exclusively to the business relationship between the Provider and the Customer. Differing general terms and conditions of the Customer are not applicable unless the Provider explicitly agreed in writing.

(2) The Provider arranges information and continuing education offers (hereinafter referred to as: courses) for Customers, which are subject to a fee and free of charge, for the purpose of further education and, if applicable, certification.

(3) Customers can be participants booking for themselves (hereinafter: "self-bookers") or also a natural or legal party (hereinafter: "purchaser") who registers employees or other beneficiaries (hereinafter: "employees") as participants in the courses. The term "Participant" is used as a generic term for "self-bookers" and "employees".

(4) User account: The BAM Akademie uses the BAM Webshop for registration/login and ordering/payment. The BAM Webshop holds the master data and data relating to the payment of each user account, while the BAM Academy holds the data relating to participation in courses.

(5) Access to the BAM premises: Participants of on-site courses have access to the BAM premises via the main entrance/guard and must present a valid government issued photo ID. They will receive a day pass, which shall be worn visibly during their stay on the BAM premises and must be returned when leaving the premises.

§ 2 Conclusion of contract

(1) Any natural person may register with the Provider as a Participant in a course. Ordering parties may also register their employees for a course.

(2) The courses are generally open to all interested parties. In specific cases, course participation is subject to fulfilling admission requirements.  If such requirements are stipulated in the service description of the course offer, the interested party or Participant is solely responsible for the fulfilment of the admission requirements. Claims due to missing admission requirements are not accepted.

Insofar as admission requirements exist, the Provider is not obliged, but entitled, to check whether the Participant fulfils the admission requirements. For this purpose, the Provider shall submit the necessary documents upon request. If the Provider does not make use of his right to check the admission requirements, the Participant is still obliged to pay the course fees even if the admission requirements are not met.

(3) The Customer must - unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the course offer - create a user account on the Provider's website to book a course. In addition, the creation of a separate user account is required for each employee to participate in the courses. The courses taken by each Participant, as well as course progress, "on demand" content commenced, as well as certificates of participation and examination certificates acquired, are stored there.

(4) In the case of free course offers, the Customer can select from courses offered on the Provider's website and marked as "free of charge" and register for the selected course via the button "Participate free of charge" (offer). However, the offer can only be made and transmitted if the Customer has accepted these contractual terms and conditions by clicking on the button "I have read the General Terms and Conditions and expressly agree to them" and has thereby included them in his offer. The Provider shall then send the Customer an automatic confirmation of receipt by e-mail, in which the Customer's booking is listed again and which the Customer can print out using the "Print" function. The automatic confirmation of receipt merely documents that the Provider has received the Customer's booking and does not constitute acceptance of the offer. If there are free places for the selected course, the Provider accepts the offer by sending a confirmation e-mail to the e-mail address stored in the user account (acceptance). If a confirmation e-mail is not sent, no contract is concluded. If there are no free places available, the Provider shall inform the Customer of this. The Customer then has the option of entering his name on a list of interested parties if he wishes to participate in further events of the Provider in the future. In this case, a binding booking is not made.

(5) In the case of chargeable course offers, the Customer can select courses from the Provider's course offer and collect them in a so-called shopping basket via the button "add to basket". By clicking on the "Book" button, the Customer submits a binding application to purchase the courses in the shopping cart. Before submitting the order, the Customer can change and view the data at any time. However, the application can only be submitted and transmitted if the Customer has accepted these contractual conditions by clicking on the button "I have read the General Terms and Conditions and expressly agree to them" and has thereby included them in his application.

(6) The text of the contract shall be stored in compliance with data protection in the case of both fee-based and free offers. In the confirmation e-mail or in a separate e-mail, the contract text (consisting of booking, GTC and order confirmation) is sent to the Customer by the Provider on a permanent data carrier (e.g. by e-mail).

(7) The contract shall be concluded in German or English. § Section 11 (7) of this agreement remains unaffected.

 § 3 Revocation

If the Customer is a consumer within the meaning of § 13 of the German Civil Code (BGB), the Customer shall be entitled to a statutory right of revocation, about which information is provided below:

Cancellation policy

You have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason. The revocation period is fourteen days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

In order to exercise your right of cancellation, you must inform us (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Unter den Eichen 87, 12205 Berlin, Germany, telephone: +49 30 8104-0, fax: +49 30 8104 7 2222, e-mail: akademie@bam.de) by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter sent by postal service, fax or e-mail) of your decision to cancel this contract.

You can use the model withdrawal form (German) for this purpose, which is, however, not mandatory.

To comply with the withdrawal period, it is sufficient for you to send the notification of the exercise of the right of withdrawal before the expiry of the withdrawal period.

Consequences of the revocation

If you withdraw from this contract, we must refund all payments we have received from you, including delivery costs (except for additional costs resulting from the fact that you have chosen a type of delivery other than the cheapest standard delivery offered by us), without delay and at the latest within fourteen days of the day on which we received notification of your withdrawal from this contract. For this repayment, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no case will you be charged any fees because of this repayment.

If you have requested that the services begin during the withdrawal period, you must pay us a reasonable amount corresponding to the proportion of the services already provided up to the time you notify us of the exercise of the right of withdrawal regarding this contract compared to the total scope of the services provided for in the contract.

End of the cancellation policy

§ 4 Scope of services

(1) The contractually agreed scope of services includes access to the booked courses and the granting of access to the content therein. A specific training or learning success is not owed by the Provider.

(2) In the event of proven participation in the courses, the Provider shall issue a confirmation of participation with a summary of the course content imparted. Insofar as a final or module examination is provided for in the respective course, the Provider shall also issue a certificate of the examination passed in the event of successful completion. The learning status of the Participants in the courses is verified by storing the IP address and the course and examination history. Certificates of attendance and examinations are sent to the Customer by e-mail, provided that the Customer has consented to such transmission. Otherwise, the Customer can retrieve the participation and examination certificates in his user account on the Provider's website. 

(3) Depending on the information in the course description, the courses take place in presence form and/or via means of distance communication from the Participants' place of residence or place of work. The Customer assures that a demarcated work area/room is available to him/her in the home environment. In addition, course content can be made available "on demand" via the learning platform. Insofar as employees participate in the course offerings, the Customer shall work towards ensuring that the employee complies with this obligation or shall provide the employee with an appropriate work area.

(4) Insofar as the course description provides for this, in the case of online courses the supplier can check the actual participation in the online courses by storing the IP address and in particular by means of control questions or attendance queries within the online courses.

§ 5 Obligations of the Customer

(1) The Customer is prohibited from passing on the username and password for online access to the course to third parties other than employees participating in the course and from tolerating and/or enabling third parties to gain knowledge of user data, passwords and course content.

(2) The Customer may not misuse the online services offered by the Provider in any way. Abusive use is deemed to exist particularly in the following cases:

- Use beyond personal contractual purposes, in particular use that would require the granting, transfer or exercise of rights under the Copyright Act;

- Publication or distribution of pornographic, obscene, sexist, defamatory, libellous, insulting, threatening, inciting or racist content, information, software or other material;

- Any form of advertising of products or services, including the use of data to disseminate advertising, unless the Provider has explicitly agreed to this in writing in advance;

- Taking any action that interferes or may interfere with the functioning of the Provider's online services (for example, using "robot", "spider" or "offline reader" software to automatically generate user requests over the Internet; email bombing; denial of service attacks; inclusion of harmful components such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, etc.);

- Publication of contributions and information with misleading and/or untruthful content.

- The Participant undertakes to follow the instructions of the teaching or training staff as well as the representatives of the Provider and his auxiliary staff.

(3) The Customer is obliged to pass on the obligations regulated in § 5 para. (1), (2) to his employees participating in the course if he is the purchaser.

§ 6 Technical requirements

The technical requirements for participation in online courses are described in the respective course offer. The Participant is responsible for fulfilling the technical requirements. The Provider shall not be liable for any malfunctions in performance for which the Participant is responsible. A claim for reimbursement in the event of malfunctioning technology is excluded.

The Participant must be connected via audio connection and, if possible, also visually during the event. If the audio connection is not established for reasons for which the Provider is not responsible, the Provider may refuse to issue a certificate of participation. There shall also be no claim for repayment.

§ 7 Prices and payment modalities

(1) All prices stated on the Provider's website are inclusive of the statutory value added tax applicable in Germany.

(2) The Customer may make payment by bank transfer, direct debit, credit card, invoice or by Giropay. For Customers domiciled abroad, the payment options are bank transfer, direct debit, credit card and Giropay. For Customers outside the EU, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, payment by direct debit is not possible.

(3) The Customer may change the payment method stored in his/her user account at any time.

(4) The course fee is due 14 days before the start of the course. In the case of short-term course registrations, i.e. registrations made less than 14 days before the start of the course, the course fee is due on the day of the event.

(5) The Customer is responsible for the timely payment of the course fees. If the Customer does not make a due payment of fees as agreed, a reminder will first be sent. If the Customer does not pay within 14 days of this reminder, the Provider is entitled to cancel the course booking without observing any further deadlines. The date of receipt of the amount by the Provider shall be decisive. Interest on arrears shall be payable for overdue fees.

§ 8 Copyright, granting of rights

(1) The Customer undertakes, or the employees sent by the Customer, to observe existing copyrights and related property rights. The course materials provided by the Provider are protected by copyright and may only be used for teaching purposes. Any use beyond this, even in part, in particular reproduction, is only permitted with the express written consent of the Provider. Image and sound recordings of any kind or screenshots of the lessons are not permitted. All video, sound and image rights are held by the Provider. The Client shall indemnify the Provider against any claims made by third parties on the basis of non-compliance with this Agreement.

(2) The Customer grants the Provider free of charge the simple, transferable, temporally, and locally unlimited rights of use to all work products which they, or their employees, if applicable, produce in cooperation with other Participants, as well as the lecturer within the framework of the courses, insofar as they are entitled to copyrights or rights to inventions or creations capable of being protected by property rights. The granting of rights extends to all known and unknown types of use.

The Customer undertakes not to infringe any industrial property rights of third parties in the production of the work results and to ensure that employees sent by him do not infringe any industrial property rights of third parties. The Customer further undertakes to sign a separate licence agreement with the Provider in individual cases about the respective work result concerned.

§ 9 Changes, Cancellation

(1) The Provider reserves the right

- to change the location and/or time of the courses up to one working day before the start of the course if there are reasons for which the Provider is not responsible. These include cases of force majeure (e.g. natural disasters, fires, accidents, terrorist events, pandemics, hacker attacks, strikes, power cuts, disruptions or failure of telecommunications networks) or failure to reach the minimum number of Participants as well as short-term cancellations by lecturers who cannot be replaced by another lecturer. Insofar as the Participant is unable to attend the alternative date, the Provider shall offer him/her another alternative date.

- to change the venue during the course, as far as this is reasonable for the Participants.

- make changes to the course schedule (e.g. due to technical updates, cancellation or change of lecturers).

- to change between a face-to-face and an online event, or to use a different conference software than originally specified.

These changes do not entitle the Customer to a reduction of the agreed fees.

(2) The Provider shall notify cancellations or changes as early as possible.

(3) The Customer may cancel his booking at any time. The cancellation declaration must be in text form (e.g. e-mail or fax). A registration deadline is set by the Provider for each event in the service description of each event. If the registration deadline has passed, the Customer shall be entitled to a refund of the participation fees in accordance with the following regulations:

In the event of cancellation of offers with a fixed event date:

- Before the expiry of the registration deadline, the participation fee will be refunded minus a cancellation fee of 20.00 euros.

- After expiry of the registration period up to two weeks before the event date, 20% of the participation fee will be refunded, but at least the cancellation fee will be retained.

- Less than two weeks before the event date, in the event of absence or cancellation, the full participation fee must be paid.

- If the Participant is unable to attend the booked event, he/she is entitled to nominate a substitute who will attend the event instead. The substitute must be named to the Provider. For this purpose, the information required for registration shall be sent to the Provider in text form. § 2 para. 3 shall also apply to the substitute Participant.

In the event of cancellation of offers "on call":

- Before the start of the use of the offer, the participation fee shall be refunded minus a cancellation fee of 20.00 euros.

- After the start of the use of the offer (termination), the full participation fee must be paid.

- Cancellation or designation of a substitute must be sent to the Provider in text form (e.g. letter, fax, e-mail, booking platform). The date of the postmark or, in the case of faxes or e-mails, the date of transmission shall be decisive for the time of notification. § 2 para. 3 shall also apply to the substitute Participant.

- In the event of cancellation by the Provider, the full participation fee shall be refunded.

- Refunds shall generally be made within 2 months of the end of the event to the Customer - unless otherwise agreed - by means of the payment method used for the booking.

(4) The regulations regarding the exercise of the statutory right of withdrawal remain unaffected by § 9 of this agreement.

§ 10 Liability

(1) Claims of the Customer for damages are excluded. Excepted from this are claims for damages by the Customer arising from injury to life, limb, or health or from the breach of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations) as well as liability for other damages based on an intentional or grossly negligent breach of duty by the Provider, its legal representatives or vicarious agents. Material contractual obligations are those whose fulfilment is necessary to achieve the objective of the contract.

(2) In the event of a breach of material contractual obligations, the Provider shall only be liable for the foreseeable damage typical for the contract if this was caused by simple negligence, unless it is a matter of claims for damages by the Customer arising from injury to life, limb, or health.

(3) The restrictions of paragraphs 1 and 2 also apply in favour of the legal representatives and vicarious agents of the Provider if claims are asserted directly against them.

(4) The limitations of liability resulting from paragraphs 1 and 2 do not apply insofar as the supplier has fraudulently concealed the defect or has assumed a guarantee for the quality of the item. The same applies insofar as the supplier and the Customer have reached an agreement on the quality of the item. The provisions of the Product Liability Act remain unaffected.

§ 11 Final Provisions

(1) The Customer may only offset claims of the supplier against counterclaims that are undisputed, legally established or ready for decision. The Customer is only permitted to exercise a right of retention insofar as the counterclaim on which he bases the right of retention is undisputed, legally established or ready for decision and is based on the same contractual relationship.

(2) Subject to § 354a of the German Commercial Code (HGB), the Customer may assign rights and obligations under this contract to third parties only with the written consent of the Provider. The Provider is always entitled to provide the service to the Customer himself.

(3) Additions and amendments to the contract must be made in writing. Verbal subsidiary agreements do not exist.

(4) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply to contracts between the Provider and the Customer to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

(5) If the Customer is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from contractual relationships between the Customer and the Provider is the court with local/material jurisdiction at the Provider's registered office. This also applies if the Customer has its registered office abroad.

(6) The contract remains binding in its remaining parts even if individual points are legally ineffective. The invalid points shall be replaced by the statutory provisions, if any. However, insofar as this would represent an unreasonable hardship for one of the contracting parties, the contract as a whole shall become ineffective.

(7) These General Terms and Conditions are available in various languages. Only the German language version is legally binding.