Terms and Conditions

1. General

The general terms and conditions regulate the contractual and business relationship between the office Rotkel Textwerkstatt (hereinafter referred to as »the contractor«) and its client.
The terms and conditions are recognized by the client when a issuing an assignment and stay valid for the whole duration of the business relationship.

2. Issuing of an assignment

The basis for each assignment is a written offer formulated by the contractor. An assignment is issued when the contractor receives both the text, that is to be edited, and a clear work assignment, and the client receives an acknowledgment of receipt, in which the contractor acknowledges the acceptance of the assignment.
The work assignment determines the kind of requested service (proofreading, copy editing etc.), the extent, the spelling rules (old or new), all additional assignments with regard to style, terminology or other, the deadline as well as the method applied for the price calculation and the total price. Later changes or a delayed delivery of the assigned texts respectively additions to an assignment may extent the deadline and request, where necessary, a new written deadline.
The client can cancel an issued assignment before the proofreading or copy editing is finalized. Should this happen, all fees that result from the work done up to the cancellation date must be compensated according to the actual state of work. In any case, the compensation claim of fees amounts to at least 70 % of the original contract value.
The contractor does not vouch for delays or execution deficiencies that result from an unclear or wrong assignment issuing, from mistakes or from unclear or wrong formulations in the original text.

3. Extent of services and delivery

The extent of the services is agreed upon and determined by the client when he issues the assignment. Copy editing and proofreading will be done, according to the assignment, either on paper or directly in a digital file. The text, resp. the file, will be sent back within the agreed upon delay of the assignment. The timely delivery is determined by the time the e-mail is sent or by the date stamp.
Every text submitted for proofreading or copy editing works will be – unless it has been agreed upon differently – edited according to the rules and regulations of written and spoken German present-day language, and according to the text’s subject and addressees. The same applies to assignments in American or British English. In case of doubt – especially those regarding spelling rules – the decision about the adequate use of language will be based upon the publications of the Dudenverlag (German) or relevant specialized or technical dictionaries and publications (German and other languages).
The contractor stays in regular contact with the client, especially during the processing time of extensive and complicated assignments. In such cases, the contractor reserves the right to present a recalculation of additional costs. The contractor informs the client in time, should it be foreseeable that the agreed upon delivery deadline will not suffice, and he proposes a new delivery date. If the exceeding of the original deadline is caused by the contractor, a discount applied to the final price may be negotiated. Should this not be the case and should the client still insist upon the originally agreed upon delivery date, the contractor can charge the client for the work, which has been accomplished up to that moment.

4. Rates, invoices, means of payment

All offers and prices are without obligation. All prices are in EUR, unless otherwise agreed upon. In cases of extensive assignments an advance payment or a payment by installments corresponding to the finalized amount of text can be demanded. Prices and conditions only apply to the one contract they have been agreed upon for. Mailing expenses or other additional costs will only be invoiced in such cases, where special circumstances regarding the original text or additional requests by the clients have caused additional expenses.
The contractor charges the client with the editing fee for the submitted texts immediately after completion of the assignment. The invoice amount is due within seven days of the invoice date. Should the invoiced amount not arrive at the contractor within this delay, the client is in default without any further notification needed. Should the client be late regarding any payments relating to the business relationship so far or should the contractor come upon information reducing the client’s creditworthiness, the contractor has the right to depend any further delivery upon prepayments as well as to invoice any deferred payment requests immediately.

5. Discretion and Confidentiality

The contractor is obliged to confidentiality concerning all contents and information that are part of the business relationship, unless they are publicly known or accessible. The contractor assures that documents respectively their contents will not be passed on to third parties.
The contractor has the right to process and safe the client’s personal data within the limits of data protection laws. These data will, however, under no circumstances be passed on to third parties.

6. Guarantee and Liability

The contractor is obliged to provide the proofread/copy edited text within the agreed upon delay. The edited text is regarded as accepted by the client, should the contractor not receive any objections within a period of seven days after the effected delivery.
Should the edited text, in spite of all carefulness, show any deficiencies, and should these be significant, the client is obliged to write a complaint about these deficiencies including a detailed description within the delay specified under 6.1. Simultaneously he is obliged to set an adequate time limit for the removal of said deficiencies. Should the removal of said deficiencies fail, the client has the right to decrease the fee. Any further claims, including indemnification claims due to a nonfulfillment or eventual consequential losses, are excluded.
If the client refuses any proposals concerning the linguistic expression (style) made by the contractor, these cannot serve as a basis for claims or objections.
The contractor solely vouches for damages caused within his own area of responsibility, by intention or gross negligence. The contractor does not vouch for any interference with the electronic data communication by third parties, in the case of a technical disruption, strikes or acts of God. The compensation for damages can sum up at most to the fee, which has prior been invoiced for proofreading or copy editing services.
The contractor only vouches for damages to the client’s soft- or hardware caused by the documents edited by the contractor, if these were made intentionally or due to gross negligence. The maximum limit of liability stated under 6.4. applies in this case as well.
The contractor does not vouch for any delays or deficiencies, which result from an unclear or incomplete assignment or mistakes respectively incomprehensible formulations within the original text.
The contractor does not vouch for the factual or technical correctness of the proofread respectively copy edited texts.
The contractor acts on the assumption that the client is the lawful owner and holder of all therewith associated rights of the submitted texts. The client is held responsible for and account of all claims arising from non existent rights.
The contractor does not vouch for any damages occurring for the client himself or third parties due to wrong corrections or the delayed delivery of the proofread respectively copy edited texts.

7. Final Clause

Changes to the general terms and conditions will be submitted to the client in written form. Possible changes become valid, should the client not object to them in written form within fourteen days after their announcement.
The contractual relationship between contractor and client is subject to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Status: January 1st, 2016.