General Terms and Conditions

Status: 22 March 2023

  1. Scope of application

    1. These General Terms and Conditions ('GTC') apply to all contracts for electronic and printed information services of energate gmbh, Norbertstrasse 3-5, 45131 Essen, Germany ('energate').

    2. Services provided by energate are exclusively directed at entrepreneurs in the sense of section 14 of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), legal entities under public law, and special funds under public law.

    3. General contractual conditions of the customer, in particular purchasing conditions, are hereby rejected. They shall only become part of the contract if energate has expressly agreed to their validity.

  2. Conclusion of contract; Scope of services

    1. Orders placed by a customer constitute a binding offer which energate can accept or reject without giving reasons. A contract is only concluded when energate sends the customer an order confirmation or an invoice, but at the latest when energate commences providing the service.

    2. energate offers information services in electronic form ('digital services', including, in particular, the digital services of the energate-messenger product family) and in printed form ('print services'). The services are available as individual purchases and/or within the framework of fixed-term agreements (subscriptions).

    3. The type, scope and, if applicable, term of the contract are always based on the offer provided at the time of conclusion of the contract and selected by the customer, consisting of digital and/or print services, including any additional modules ('add-ons') selected. Add-ons can only be purchased in combination with the digital service energate messenger+.

    4. The content provided within the scope of energate's information services partly comprises data and information, in particular market data, provided by third parties ('data partners'). There is no entitlement to the provision of certain information and data or data from certain data partners. energate is entitled at any time to change data partners, to replace certain information and data with other relevant information and data or to remove them from the scope of the service without replacement. In the event that (also taking into account other new functionalities and services within the scope of the information service) the removal without replacement, which is not merely temporary, results in an unreasonable overall disadvantage to the customer, the customer may demand an appropriate reduction in the subscription price; any further claims by the customer are excluded.

  3. Provision; Use

    1. Print services are sent to the delivery address provided by the customer when placing the order. Unless otherwise stated in the offer, delivery costs are included in the agreed subscription price.

    2. Digital services are provided to the customer for the duration of the agreed term via the platforms (websites, apps) of energate and/or sent to the specified e-mail address. Upon expiry of the contract term, the customer's ability to access digital content via the platforms ends.

    3. energate is entitled to freely choose the technologies, functionalities and service providers used within the scope of its digital services and, in particular, to change, supplement or restrict them at any time in order to expand, optimise, update and adapt them to the current state of technology, provided that this does not conflict with any legitimate interests of the customer.

    4. The use of energate's digital services is only permitted for one user on a person-specific basis ('named user principle'), unless multiple licences for several users have been expressly agreed (see item 4). In this case, personal access is only permitted for the agreed number of users. Access is granted via the user's own e-mail address and a password chosen by the user.

    5. Access data must be kept secret by the user(s) and may not be passed on to third parties. In particular, the use of a user access by more than one person is not permitted. energate is entitled to limit the access possibility per user to up to 5 end devices. energate is also entitled to mark digital content with invisible watermarks or to take other technical measures to prevent/detect misuse. In addition to other legal claims, energate is entitled to claim damages and to terminate the contract without notice in case of misuse.

    6. In the case of the Internet pages offered within the scope of the information services, the use is effected by the complete loading of the web pages through corresponding client programs ('web browser'). An isolated partial retrieval of content and, in particular, the use of automated query programs ('scrapers', 'bots' etc.) is not permitted.

    7. Access to the platforms may be temporarily restricted by energate, as far as this is necessary for technical and legal reasons, in particular for maintenance or to rectify technical faults, and to protect data. energate will, within the bounds of what is reasonable in technical and operational terms, rectify faults within its sphere of influence without delay and carry out maintenance at times of low usage, when possible.

  4. Multiple licences

    1. It is possible to purchase multiple licences (also known as 'multi-user licences' or 'company licences') for energate's services. Multiple licences cover access to the selected services of energate according to the selected extent and on a person-specific basis for the selected number of users.

    2. Only the customer's own employees and bodies are permitted as users; passing on the agreed licences to third parties and the use of the agreed licences by third parties are not permitted; this also applies to companies affiliated with the customer (subsidiaries, holdings), unless this has been expressly agreed.

    3. The customer is obliged to ensure that their users comply with the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions.

    4. The customer shall provide energate with the e-mail addresses of the users who are permitted to access the energate service within the scope of the multiple licence. The e-mail addresses shall be provided as collectively as possible for all users within the scope of the multiple licences. A change or addition of individual users up to the agreed number of users is possible at any time. energate sends the users an e-mail informing them about the scope of the service and offering the possibility to activate a user account for the use of the service by providing an individual password.

    5. The customer undertakes to pay the remuneration agreed for the multiple licences in full (in one sum) and for the entire reference year in advance, unless otherwise agreed. A pro rata refund for unused user licences is excluded.

  5. Prices and payment

    1. The prices stated or agreed in the order process for the selected service shall apply. Unless otherwise stated, all prices are exclusive of statutory VAT (Umsatzsteuer).

    2. Unless otherwise stated (in the case of annual subscriptions for the entire subscription year in each case), the subscription prices are due for payment via bank transfer in advance and without deduction immediately after receipt of an invoice, unless another method of payment (e.g. SEPA direct debit, credit card payment, PayPal) has been agreed. Invoices may also be sent electronically by e-mail.

    3. If the customer is in default with a payment, energate is entitled to interrupt the services and deliveries and/or to terminate the contract extraordinarily after a prior reminder and after setting a reasonable deadline.

    4. In the case of fixed-term agreements, energate is entitled to adjust the subscription price to compensate for changed market conditions. This includes, in particular, changes in the following costs: printing and other costs, postage and shipping costs, costs for content (licences, fees, etc.), costs for the provision and distribution of digital services (IT systems, software, etc.), costs of selling (customer service, billing, payment, marketing, etc.), general administrative and other overhead costs (rent, energy, interest, personnel, services, etc.), as well as government-imposed fees, contributions, taxes and levies. The customer shall be informed of price adjustments ('notification'). Price adjustments shall take effect from the beginning of the next billing period. If the adjustment leads to an increase in the purchase price, the customer has a special right of termination. The notice of termination must be received by energate within 4 weeks of the notification. Any exchange of services that has taken place in the meantime will not be reversed.

  6. Term; Termination

    1. Term contracts have an initial fixed term of 12 months ('initial term'), unless otherwise stated in the ordering process. energate may also offer term models with more flexibility (e.g. day passes or subscriptions that can be cancelled monthly).

    2. After the initial term, unless otherwise stated in the order process, the contract will be renewed for a further 12-month period unless it is cancelled with one month's notice to the end of the initial term or to the end of the current subscription period.

    3. The right to extraordinary termination for good cause is reserved. energate is, in particular, entitled to extraordinary termination of the contract if the customer has registered for the service using false customer data, takes measures which are not customary in use and which damage or significantly impair the functionality of the services, misuses the service, or otherwise violates the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions.

    4. Any termination must be made at least in writing (letter, e-mail, fax) to be effective.

  7. Free trial offers

    1. If energate offers the possibility to test services of energate for a certain period of time free of charge ('trial period'), the trial period ends automatically after the expiry of this trial period without the need for a termination.

    2. There is no entitlement to the use of the trial offers. energate is entitled to terminate or refuse the option of a trial period at any time – even after the trial period has already begun.

    3. The use of energate’s digital services is only permitted for one user on a person-specific basis, even within the scope of trial offers; the terms of use according to these General Terms and Conditions apply in all other respects.

    4. Trial offers may only be used once by a person. Repeated registration by a person using different or false contact data is not permitted.

    5. energate expressly reserves the right to assert claims for damages in case of misuse of the trial offers.

  8. Customer data

    The customer assures that all data provided by them (customer and user data) are complete and correct. The customer undertakes to immediately inform energate of any changes. Changes in the delivery address for print services must be communicated at least 4 weeks in advance. energate does not assume any liability for missing or delayed deliveries due to changed delivery addresses which were not communicated or not communicated in time.

  9. Rights of use

    The content of energate's services is protected by copyright. Any use of the content beyond the legal restrictions, in particular any such reproduction, storage, dissemination, making available to the public etc. for commercial and/or industrial purposes, thus also including corresponding storage in database systems or publication on the internet or intranet as well as forwarding of content (including by means of forwarding e-mails) or a granting of rights to third parties, is not permitted and requires the prior express consent of energate.

  10. Liability; Warranty

    1. The content provided by energate within the scope of the information services is partly based on agency reports, data from weather services, data provided by data partners (in particular data related to rates and prices), and information originating from other third-party sources that were carefully selected by energate. energate does not guarantee the correctness, topicality and availability of content contained in the information offered, in particular regarding rates and prices. energate will, therefore, in no event be liable for any decisions made by the customer on the basis of the content, which subsequently prove to be incorrect or inaccurate.

    2. energate will in no event be liable for content of third-party content to which reference is made in the information services of energate via links.

    3. Furthermore, energate shall only be liable for damages caused by intent or gross negligence (including those caused by representatives or vicarious agents) or in the case that energate culpably breaches an essential contractual obligation. Provided that energate is not accused of intentional breach of contract, the liability for damages shall, however, be limited to the foreseeable, typically occurring damage.

    4. Liability for culpable injury to life, limb or health shall remain unaffected; this shall also apply to mandatory liability under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz).

  11. Final provisions

    1. Should individual provisions be or become invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The invalid provision shall be replaced by a valid provision that comes as close as possible in economic terms to the intended purpose of the invalid provision.

    2. The contract shall be governed exclusively by German law under exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The place of jurisdiction for all legal disputes in connection with the contract is Essen, Germany.