Holmenkol Customer-Care:
You can contact us round the clock by e-mail at info[at]holmenkol.com or by telephone on +49 (0)7152/6101-100 [Connection charges depend on the telephone company]
GENERAL TERMS OF BUSINESS (AS AT 24th November 2008)
§ 1 SCOPE
The following General Terms of Business constitute an integral part of the Contract between the Company (Holmenkol AG, Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 3, 71254 Heimerdingen, Germany) and you as our Customer (hereinafter also called the "Customer") and any assigns or successors.
We provide our services, goods and products exclusively on the basis of these General Terms of Business in the currently applicable version.
§ 2 EXCLUSIVE VALIDITY
Our General Terms of Business are valid for legal business between ourselves and companies/commercial customers as well as private persons as users.
§ 3 OBJECT OF CONTRACT/CONTRACT SERVICES
The object of the contract is exclusively the sold product with the properties and attributes of our product description. Images on our website or in catalogues and/or prospectuses are solely pictorial representations to support general product information, and no reliance may be placed on their exactness.
§ 4 OFFERS/PRODUCT PRESENTATION/CONCLUSION OF THE CONTRACT
Our offers and product presentations are invariably free and not binding.
When you order at our online shop you as our Customer declare bindingly, by clicking on the "Confirm Order" button, that you wish to acquire the contents of the shopping basket under the terms of these General Terms of Business. The contract between you and the Company exists from the moment of the explicit acceptance/confirmation of the order by e-mail – not by the automatically sent order receipt confirmation. The delivery of the goods will follow. You are bound to your orders for two weeks.
§ 5 INFORMATION OBLIGATIONS OF THE CUSTOMER
When registering you must provide true information. If your details change during the course/processing of the contract, you are obliged to inform us of these changes immediately. If you fail to do so or if you provide false data, we are entitled to withdraw from the contract at no cost. Costs arising from the incorrect delivery of the goods as a result of incomplete or incorrect address details will be charged to you.
As our partner in the contract you are responsible for ensuring that the e-mail account which you provide can be contacted and that the delivery of e-mails is not prevented by redirection, discontinuation or overfilling of the account.
§ 6 USER’S RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL
Once you as user have placed your order, you may withdraw from the contract within a period of two weeks without giving any reason in writing (e.g. letter, fax or e-mail) or, if the goods have been delivered to you within that period, by returning the goods. The period begins following the receipt of this written instruction on the day after the receipt of the goods by you as recipient (in recurrent deliveries of identical goods not before the first partial delivery), but not before performance of our obligation to inform according to § 312c para. 2 BGB (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch - German Civil Code) in connection with § 1 para. 1, 2 and 4 BGB-InfoV as well as our obligations under § 312e para. 1 BGB in connection with § 3 BGB-InfoV. To comply with the withdrawal period it is only necessary to send the withdrawal notification or the goods in good time. In the case of faulty goods this does not affect your rights to rectification under § 11.
The right of withdrawal is excluded for data carriers such as CDs or DVDs which have been opened, for contracts for the delivery of goods which have been prepared to your chosen specifications or specially produced to your personal requirements; or those which by their nature are not suitable for return, e.g. Software download.
The notification of withdrawal should be addressed to: Holmenkol AG, Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 3, 71254 Heimerdingen, Germany, represented by the CEOs Christian Römlein and Thomas Schultheis, Holmenkol AG, Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 3, 71254 Heimerdingen, Germany, fax: 49 (0)7152/6101-129, e-mail: info@holmenkol.com. Goods should be sent to our postal address: Holmenkol AG, Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 3, 71254 Heimerdingen, Germany.
In the case of an effective withdrawal, the mutually received benefits must be returned, and any advantage derived therefrom (e.g. interest) refunded. If you cannot return the goods to us in part or in whole, or only in a deteriorated state, you must indemnify us accordingly. This does not apply to the delivery of goods when the deterioration is occasioned exclusively from testing, as might occur in retail trade. You can avoid incurring the obligation to indemnify us for deterioration of the goods in normal use by not treating the item as your own and by avoiding any action which may affect its value. Pre-packaged goods for parcel delivery should be returned at our risk and expense. You must bear the cost of return if the delivered goods correspond to the order, and if the price of the goods to be returned does not exceed the amount of 40 Euros or, for goods of a higher price, if you have not yet made the payment or the contractually agreed part-payment at the time of withdrawal. Otherwise the return is cost-free to you. Goods which cannot be sent by parcel delivery will be collected. Obligations in respect of payments for withdrawn goods must be fulfilled within 30 days. For you this period begins from when you send the notification of withdrawal or the goods; for us it begins on receipt of the goods.
§ 7 MANUFACTURER’S GUARANTEES
If we are not the manufacturer of the goods delivered, and the manufacturer offers the purchaser of his products a guarantee beyond claims for the rectification of faulty goods in accordance with § 11 of these General Terms of Business, we will inform you of the same. We accept no responsibility for the manufacturer's fulfilment of his guarantee. Claims arising under the guarantee offered may only be pursued with the manufacturer and/or guarantor, even if we are authorised by the latter to deliver/receive declarations of intent.
§ 8 CONDITIONS OF DELIVERY/TRANSFER OF RISK
1) Delivery times depend on the means of payment selected in accordance with § 9 para. 2 and the availability of the goods from the manufacturers. Expected delivery times will be advised to you with the order acceptance.
2) Delivery will be from our depot to the delivery address given by you, unless any instruction to the contrary has been agreed in writing. Any despatch of goods ordered requested by you will be uninsured and at your expense. In any legal transaction between ourselves and you as user, the title in the event of a despatch only passes with the delivery of the goods to you, or when you are in default of acceptance. In the event of a legal transaction with companies/commercial customers the title passes with the delivery of the goods to the person named for the despatch. Transport insurance will only be taken out at your express request and for your account. The choice of the means and route of despatch is left to us.
3) Part deliveries are permitted and are considered as independent deliveries, unless a part delivery is not reasonable for the Customer. Additional costs arising from a part delivery will not be charged to you.
4) In the event of legal transactions between ourselves and companies/commercial customers the despatch of the ordered goods is effected at your risk. Our obligations in the despatch are discharged with the timely delivery of the goods to the delivery/forwarding agency. All delays in delivery to your premises are the exclusive responsibility of the delivery agency or the Customer.
§ 9 TERMS OF PAYMENT
1) Prices shown on our website www.holmenkol.com at the moment when the order is placed will apply. All prices are understood to be final prices to the Customer including the legal sales tax at the time of closure of the contract.
2) The purchase price becomes payable on closure of the contract. Payment for the goods must be made by one of the means shown in the order process.
3)Delivery costs are shown in detail on our website at shipping information and in the framework of the order process of our web shop. Special means of despatch stipulated by you will be invoiced at the local rate.
4) If you as a Customer fall into arrears on your payment obligations we are entitled to charge interest on the overdue payment at a rate which is 5 percentage points – for companies/commercial customers 8 percentage points – above the applicable base rate of interest. Payments become overdue if not made either at 30 days after the due date without an overdue notice, or the day after the delivery of such notice. We reserve the right to make further claims for damages, in particular additional costs and overdue notice charges of € 5.00 for the second notice and € 10.00 for the third notice. Bank costs incurred by us due to incorrect account details or unjustified rejection of payments may be passed on by us to you as Customer, unless the incorrect information is not your fault.
§ 10 RETENTION OF TITLE
1) The goods remain our property until the total payment of the purchase price, independent of the expiry of any withdrawal period.
2) As Customer you are obliged to treat the goods with care, to advise us of the interest of a third party in the goods, for example if they are pawned, and to inform us immediately of any damage to or the destruction of the goods.
§ 11 RECTIFICATION OF FAULTY GOODS
We will rectify faulty goods in accordance with the following rules:
a. In the event of a legal transaction with users our obligations to rectify faulty goods are based on the provisions of the law.
b. If you as a merchant have ordered goods through our web shop, you are obliged to check the goods delivered with appropriate care within seven working days of receipt and advise us in writing within a further seven working days of any defects encountered. Defects which are not immediately apparent shall be advised to us within seven working days of their discovery, in compliance with the complaints procedure in Section 1. In the absence of such advice, the goods delivered are deemed to have been accepted with respect to this defect, and consequently any warranty claims are excluded. This clause is not valid for fraudulent claims.
c.In respect of rectification of faulty goods for companies/commercial customers we may choose whether to repair or replace the goods.
§ 12 LIABILITY
1) We are liable, for whatever legal cause (e.g. breach of obligations, unlawful act) – subject to the rules in § 13 – for compensation or refund of useless expense according to the following rules:
a) in cases of intent or gross negligence, without limitation.
b) in cases of slight negligence to the detriment of a duty of compliance which is of particular significance for meeting the object of the contract (essential contractual obligation). Liability is then limited, for each individual case of damage, to typical contractual damages foreseeable at the closure of the contract. In all other respects, liability for damage caused by slight negligence and liability to companies or commercial customers due to lost profit, personal additional work and expense for a Customer, loss of use and/or loss of sales shall be excluded, without prejudice to paragraph 2.
2) Liability for failing to meet a guarantee, fraudulent intent, and damage to life, limb or health is determined according to legal provisions.
3) You as Customer are obliged – in so far as possible – to report or indicate to us immediately, in writing, any damages covered by the foregoing rules of liability, so that we may be informed as soon as possible and can work together with the affected Customer, if appropriate, to apply damage-reducing measures.
§ 13 TIME BAR
1) If the Customer is a user, the time bar for claims for the rectification of faulty goods is two years from the delivery of the goods. If the Customer is a company in the meaning of § 14 BGB, claims for faulty goods or infringement of rights, and resulting claims for damages, become time barred after one year from delivery. If the right infringed consists of the right in rem of a third party, on the basis of which the object of the contract may be reclaimed, the legal periods for time bar apply.
2) In any other claims by the purchaser arising either out of the contract or contractual obligation (§ 311 para. 2 BGB) the period for time bar is one year from the legal start of the period. Claims become time barred at latest on completion of the legally established maximum periods (§ 199 para. 3 and 4 BGB).
3) In the case of personal damages (including infringement of liberty), intent and gross negligence the legal periods for time bar apply.
§ 14 APPLICABLE LAW/PLACE OF VENUE
(1) These General Terms of Business and contracts agreed on the basis thereof between you and the Company are subject to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany to the exclusion of the United Nations Convention On Contracts For The International Sale Of Goods, without prejudice to the binding provisions of the legal order of the state where you have your ordinary domicile.
(2) If you as a Customer of our web shop are a merchant, a legal entity in public law or a separate estate in public law, or have no general place of venue in Germany, or your domicile is relocated abroad following conclusion of the contract, or your domicile at the time of lodgement of the claim is unknown, the place of venue for all such contracts, agreed under the terms of these General Terms of Business, is our competent court in Stuttgart (Germany).
§ 15 MISCELLANEOUS
Should any individual term of these General Terms of Business be or become inoperative in part or in full, this fact shall not affect the validity of the remaining terms.