General Terms and Conditions
(hereinafter referred to as Issociate)

  1. Validity of the terms and conditions

1. Issociate performs services exclusively on the basis of these terms and conditions. Differing purchasing or other conditions on the part of the contractual partner are hereby expressly contradicted.
2. Subsidiary arrangements, assurances and other agreements, as well as alterations and additions to the contract must be performed in written form in order to be effective.

  2. Conclusion of contract

1. By signing the contract, the client submits to Issociate an offer for the conclusion of a contract. This offer is binding for a period of 3 weeks after receipt of the contract by Issociate.
2. The contract comes into force if Issociate confirms acceptance of the order within this period in writing or begins to actually perform the services.
3. Offers by Issociate are always subject to confirmation and are not binding. Issociate may make the conclusion of a contract dependent upon the submission of written proof of authority, advance payment or a certificate of guarantee from a German bank.

  3. Termination

1. Unless other arrangements are made between the parties in the contract, the contract may be terminated after any minimum term agreed with a notice period of one month to the end of a contractual month. In the case of special offers and promotions (in particular offers where payment is performed on an annual basis), different notice periods may be put into place, as long as this is referred to on the Internet pages or in the offer. This does not affect the right to extraordinary termination for important reasons.
2. Notice must be given in writing in order for termination to be effectively.

  4. Obligations of Issociate / Scope of Services

1. Issociate offers the client access to the existing communications infrastructure, allocation of storage space on a server, use of value-added services, maintenance and administration of data processing equipment and communications infrastructure. The individual details and extent of the services will be concluded in the main written contract.
2. If Issociate performs additional services free of charge outside of the contractual agreement, these may be discontinued at any time. No claim to a reduction or compensation will result from this discontinuation.
3. Issociate is entitled to alter, reduce or extend the service offering provided for in the contract and also to cancel access to individual services, if and insofar as the fulfilment of the purpose of the contract concluded with the client is not significantly affected as a result. The clients must be given sufficient notice of this.

  5. Obligations and duties of the client

1. The client is obliged to use Issociate's services in an appropriate manner. In particular it is obliged to:
a) Inform Issociate immediately of changes to the basic principles of the contract;
b) Not to abuse the access methods provided by Issociate's services and to refrain from illegal or unlawful actions. In particular, the client is prohibited from:
· using the services of other participants in the Issociate service without authorisation,
· using services that are not agreed upon in the contract between Issociate and the client without authorisation,
· decrypting or altering passwords, e-mails, files or similar information belonging to other participants in the Issociate service or to the system operator,
· processing individual applications of licensed user software via the Issociate service,
· interrupting or blocking communications services, for example, by means of overloading, insofar as the client is responsible for this,
· transmitting or making available content of any kind that is liable for prosecution available via Issociate services,
· This applies in particular to pornography, content that glorifies violence or that is aimed against the basic free democratic order or the concepts of international understanding, as well as to propaganda material and announcements by unconstitutional parties and associations or their substitute organisations.
· obtaining for itself or third parties pornographic content that involves the sexual abuse of children.
· In the case of violation of the contract (in particular of the points given above) the client will compensate Issociate for material and staff costs, as well as for expenses incurred.
c) ensuring the fulfilment of legal regulations and official requirements, insofar as these apply to participation in the Issociate network at present or in future;
d) making allowance for the data protection regulations in force and adhering to these;
e) Identifiable deficiencies or damages on the part of Issociate should be indicated immediately (fault reports) and take all possible measures to enable the deficiency or damage and its causes to be determined or facilitate and accelerate the elimination of the fault;
f) after a fault report has been delivered, Issociate will be compensated fro the expenses incurred in inspecting its equipment if and insofar as it becomes clear after inspection that there was a fault in the client's area of responsibility (outside of the defined scope of the contract and services).
2. If the client breaches the obligations listed in paragraph 1 items b) and c), Issociate is immediately entitled and in all other cases with the exception of item g) is entitled after the issuing of an unsuccessful reminder, to terminate the contractual relationship without notice.
3. Details of the cooperation between the users may be agreed in partnership by means of a user agreement.
4. In cases where paragraph 1 item c) applies, Issociate is authorised, in addition to its right to termination without notice, to block access to the services included in the scope of services with immediate effect if a breach of the kind detailed there is committed by the client.

  6. Use by third parties

1. Direct or indirect use of Issociate services by third parties is permitted. The customer may use, resell and sublease the services for its own purposes. The client must instruct third parties properly about the use of the services. The customer is responsible to Issociate for the adherence of third parties to the contractual stipulations in the same way that it would itself be responsible for adherence to these.
2. The client must also pay the fees that incurred by third parties as a result of the access and usage opportunities made available to it. This also applies in the case of unauthorised use of the services by third parties, unless the customer can prove that the unauthorised use took place by means of a circumvention or avoidance of the Issociate's security features, for which the client was not responsible.

  7. Payment conditions

1. Unless otherwise agreed in the contract, Issociate will invoice the client for the agreed services provided at the standard rates or fees and conditions valid at the time plus the applicable legally required value-added tax. Invoicing for fixed fees will be performed one month in advance and at the beginning of the following month in each case for fees that are dependent on usage. The applicable payments will be due for immediate payment in each case without discount.
2. If the fees are to be paid for parts of a calendar month irrespective of usage, these fees will be calculated on a daily basis at 1/30 of the monthly fee.
3. Line and communications costs (telephone charges) for connection between the clients and the Issociate connection point will be borne by the client. Insofar as separate costs arise from a connection to the Issociate page (e.g. terminal adapter, exclusive modem provision, etc.), the client will be invoiced for these separately.

  8. Right to perform offsetting and right of retention, service interruption

1. The client may only offset Issociate's claims against uncontested claims or claims that have been determined to be legally binding. The client is entitled to assert a right of retention only as a result of such counterclaims as arise from the same contractual relationship as the claims against which the right of retention is being asserted.
2. Claims for damages on the basis of interruptions in delivery or service are excluded insofar as Issociate is not responsible for these as a result of malice aforethought or gross negligence.
3. If a significant interruption in Issociate's services lasts longer than one week and therefore results in an actual period of inactivity that is longer than one working day, the client is entitled to reduce the monthly payment and fees accordingly from the time when the obstruction occurred until the time when it was removed. A significant obstruction is present if:

a) the client no is no longer able to access the Issociate infrastructure for reasons for which itself or a third party are not responsible and is therefore no longer able to use the services listed in the contract and b) the use of these services overall is significantly complicated or the use of individual services listed in the contract becomes impossible or similar limitations are present.

4. In the case service failure as a result of a fault that is outside of Issociate's area of responsibility, reduction is excluded. The same applied in the case of service failure as a result of necessary service interruptions in accordance with item 10 of the General Terms and Conditions.

  9. Delayed payment

1. In the case of delayed payment Issociate is entitled to claim default interest of 4% over the applicable Deutsche Bundesbank discount rate p.a. If Issociate is in a position to prove higher damages resulting from delay, Issociate is entitled to assert a claim to these. The client is entitled to prove to Issociate that no damages or significantly lower damages resulted from the delay in payment.
2. Under extraordinary circumstances, Issociate can terminate the contractual relationship without notice or assert a right of retention to the services incumbent upon it, in particular to interrupt access to the domains, connection of the server to the network and the client's line connection, if the client is in arrears with payment of all or part of sums owed for longer than one month, Issociate has reminded the client giving a deadline for payment and has warned the client of the possible consequences of termination and the asserting of a right of retention.
3. Issociate reserves the right to assert further claims.

  10. Availability of the services

Issociate offers its services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Necessary interruptions in service for preventative maintenance work will be announced as early as possible. Issociate will resolve faults in its technical equipment within the framework of the existing technical and operational possibilities as quickly as possible.

  11. Non-disclosure / data protection

1. In accordance with Section 33, paragraph 1 of the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG - German Data Protection Act), the contractual partner is hereby informed that Issociate mechanically processes personal data in machine-readable form and for tasks that arise from the contract.
2. If Issociate employs the services of third parties for the performance of the services on offer Issociate has the right to disclose information on the participants, while observing Section 28 of the BDSG. Otherwise Issociate is entitled to do so in all cases in which the recognition, isolation and resolution of faults and errors in Issociate's equipment, as well as third party equipment used makes necessary the transmission of data.
3. Issociate declares that its employees who will be working within this contract are obliged to observe the confidentiality of data in accordance with Section 5 of the BDSG and Issociate has taken the technical and organisational steps required in accordance with Section 9 of the BDSG in order to ensure that the specifications of the BDSG are put into practice.

  12. Liability and limitations on liability

1. Claims for compensation arising from the contract, from faults during the conclusion of the contract, positive breach of contract and impermissible actions, both against Issociate and in relation to its vicarious agents is excluded, unless malice aforethought or gross negligence is present or guaranteed properties are missing.
2. Issociate is not liable for third party information transmitted via its service, its completeness, accuracy or actuality. It is also not responsible for this information being free from third-party rights or the transmitter acting in a lawful manner unless malice aforethought or gross negligence are present.
3. Insofar as other conditions of these terms and conditions do not exclude liability, for clients who are fully-qualified traders, the level of liability for damages that arise:
a) as a result of the use of Issociate services,
b) as a result of the transmission and storage of data by Issociate,
c) as a result of the use of programs and data transmitted by Issociate,
d) as a result of the omission of inspections with regard to stored or transmitted data pages belonging to Issociate or
e) as a result of the fact that the storage or transmission of data offered by Issociate was not performed, is limited to the level of proven foreseeable damages.
4. The client is liable for all consequences and disadvantages that are incurred by Issociate or third parties as a result of misuse or illegal use of the or as a result of the client not adhering to its other obligations.
5. Issociate is not liable for damages that result from war or similar conflicts, force majeure or as a consequence of industrial action that prevents Issociate services from being performed.

  13. Concluding stipulations

1. The place of performance for all contractual services is Issociate's head office in Forchheim, Federal Republic of Germany.
2. Contracts that are concluded on the basis of these general terms and conditions are subject to German law. The regulations of the UN Convention for the International Sale of Goods are invalid as far as possible.
3. For fully-qualified traders, Issociate's head office is the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contractual relationship. This also applies to legal persons under public law or separate estates under public law. Issociate, however, is also entitled to lodge a complaint at the place of the client's head office.
4. The client is obliged to refer to the office given below for business correspondence on technical and contractual matters, unless another or additional contact office has been provided in the contract for technical questions.

Issociate GmbH
Konrad-Ott-Straße 2
91301 Forchheim
Germany
Local Court Bamberg
Chief Executive Officer: Mareen Eisenmann

5. If any stipulation of this agreement becomes completely or partially void or ineffective, this does not affect the effectiveness of the remaining stipulations. Instead, in place of the ineffective stipulation a replacement stipulation that corresponds to the purpose of the agreement or at least comes as close as possible to it, which the parties would have agreed upon to achieve the same economic result if they had known that the stipulation was ineffective will apply. The same applies accordingly for incomplete stipulations.