General Terms and Conditions

These General Terms and Conditions (‘the Terms and Conditions’) apply to all contracts concluded in connection with Expertist’s performance.

(1) The conclusion of a contract with Expertist takes place exclusively via the online platform and only with customers and service providers registered there (hereinafter:”Users”).

(2) The registration is exclusively open to natural or legal persons or legal entities. Partnerships, which are registered in the exercise of their commercial or industrial activities and accordingly entrepreneurs within the meaning of § 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB). The registration and the use of the online platform by a person, who is using the platform predominantly neither for its commercial nor its self-employed purposes, is inadmissible. Equally inadmissible are the registration and the use by minors.

Registration on the online platform is free of charge for users. The fees for using the online platform are based on the price table available at the time. Costs are only incurred by the customer if a consultancy contract is concluded between Expertist and the customer in accordance with the provisions of section 3 of these GTC. The price displayed to the customer includes the fee charged by the service provider plus an agency fee charged by Expertist in accordance with Expertist’s current price list available online.

Before submitting his request for advice to Expertist, the customer can choose the procedure by which the service providers indicated to him for selection are determined. He can choose between the online negotiation procedure according to § 5 of these GTC and the direct search procedure according to § 6 of these GTC.

(1) In accordance with these GTCs, online negotiation is defined as a temporary process that enables service providers to determine an appropriate remuneration for a specific request for advice from the customer and subsequently make a corresponding offer.

(2) Expertist examines the requests for advice before they are activated for the service providers’ applications. The customer is not entitled to have his request for advice activated.

(3) Only those registered service providers who have applied to participate and have been selected by the customer are entitled to participate in an online negotiation and thus to submit offers. Expertist examines the service providers’ applications to participate in the online negotiation before they are made available to the client for final selection.

(4) The service provider has no right to be notified of a request for advice or to be given the opportunity to participate in the online negotiation.

(5) Users shall be notified of the start of the online negotiation. It shall last at least 48 hours from the time indicated in the notification. This is followed by a so-called freeze period, which lasts at least another 48 hours. At the end of this period the online negotiation is finished.

(6) After the beginning of the online negotiation and until the beginning of the freeze period, the service providers can change and withdraw their offers completely at any time.

(7) After the start of the freeze period, service providers may no longer change or withdraw their offer. In exceptional cases, where the service provider is not at fault, Expertist may cancel the offer without acknowledging any legal obligation. Expertist may refuse cancellation if the reasons given are not sufficiently explained and proven. Only an Expertist can amend or withdraw the offer in such a case.

(8) Furthermore, the service providers may ask the customers questions about their request for advice during the period under § 5 No. 6. Both the questions and the customer’s answers are visible to all service providers participating in the online negotiation. Expertist checks the questions before they are forwarded to the customer for answering. The service providers have no right to have their questions forwarded to the customer. The service providers have the obligation to check the questions also asked by other service providers for possible effects on their offer and to adjust or withdraw their offer if necessary.

(9) The conclusion of the consultancy contract between Expertist and the customer in the online negotiation process is governed by §27 of these GTC, the conclusion of the contract between Expertist and the service provider by §32 of these GTC.

(1) In accordance with these General Terms and Conditions, direct search is understood to be the process by which Expertist directly selects and contacts those service providers on behalf of the customer who are eligible to provide the consultancy service described in the customer’s consultancy application. Expertist obtains an offer from these service providers and displays it to the customer. The customer decides on the basis of the offers made to him by Expertist, who Expertist should use to provide the consultancy service.

(2) Expertist examines the requests for advice before Expertist contacts the service providers in question. The customer has no right for Expertist to contact specific service providers.

(3) The service provider is not entitled to be selected by Expertist to submit a tender.

(4) After the offer has been submitted to Expertist, it cannot be changed or withdrawn by the respective service provider. In exceptional cases, where the service provider is not at fault, Expertist may cancel the offer without acknowledging any legal obligation. Expertist may refuse cancellation if the reasons given are not sufficiently explained and proven. Only an Expertist can amend or withdraw the offer in such a case.

(5) The conclusion of the consultancy contract between Expertist and the client is based on the direct search procedure according to § 28 of these GTC, the conclusion of the contract between Expertist and the service provider according to § 33 of these GTC.

It is prohibited to use the online platform in any way other than as described here and for any purpose other than set out in these General Terms and Conditions. In particular, it is forbidden:

• to circumvent the technical precautions for protection against misuse;
• to manipulate or agree on the prices of own or third-party offers by using several user accounts or in cooperation with other users;
• to systematically read out and store the information about users available on the online platform or to use it for any purpose other than to initiate a contract with Expertist;
• the use of the online platform with the intention of circumventing the commission fee for Expertist:

(1) Expertist does not offer services that are immoral or violate the rights of service providers or the law. Furthermore, Expertist does not offer any services which require a special legal or professional license. This includes in particular (according to the corresponding definition of the respective valid version of the respective law or professional chamber):

• Extrajudicial legal services within the meaning of the Legal Services Act;
• Services of a lawyer within the meaning of the Federal Lawyers’ Act;
• Services provided by an auditor within the meaning of the auditing regulation;
• Services provided by a tax consultant within the meaning of the Tax Consultancy Act;
• Services provided by a notary within the meaning of the Federal Notary Code;
• Services of a patent attorney according to the Patent Attorney Regulations;
• Services of an architect;
• Services of a consulting engineer (if bound by professional law).

(2) The customer shall not be permitted to tender any of the services referred to in paragraph 1.

(3) It is also inadmissible for the service provider to offer or advertise such a service.

(4) Expertist reserves the right to make the admissibility of services subject to conditions that exceed those referred to in paragraph 1.

(1) As of the first naming of a contact (that can be another user, a service provider or a customer) the user commits himself neither directly nor indirectly to bypass the rules of Expertist, to close agreements or to close contracts with that contact.

(2) This obligation shall also apply to all affiliated companies.

(3) This obligation applies to all services commissioned via Expertist.

(4) The duration of this obligation shall be determined individually for each published contact. The obligation ends one year after the start of a project between the user and Expertist, in which Expertist either uses this contact as a vicarious agent (if the user acts as a customer in this project) or sells the services of the user (if the user acts as a service provider in this project). If no project comes about, the obligation ends after three years.

(5) An exception exists for already known or otherwise known users. The burden of proof that the contact has been established admissibly lies with the user referring to it.

(6) If a user contacts a contact by circumventing this customer protection, the user has to pay a contractual penalty of EUR 1,000.00 immediately as a result of contacting this address. The contractual penalty is immediately due without the need for a reminder. The right to claim further damages is reserved.

The user indemnifies Expertist against all claims asserted against Expertist by other users or other service providers due to infringement of their rights by services advertised or offered by the user via the online platform or due to the user’s other use of the online platform. The user assumes the costs of the necessary legal defense of Expertist including all court and attorney fees at the statutory rate. This does not apply if the user is not responsible for the infringement. The user is obligated to inform Expertist without delay, truthfully and completely about all Expertist information necessary in the event of using Expertist for service providers which are important for the examination of the claim and its defense.

(1) Expertist shall not be liable for damages resulting from a slightly negligent breach of duty by Expertist or his vicarious agents, as far as their occurrence within the scope of the respective contractual relationship could not reasonably have been calculated. Occurrence of damage do not normally have to be taken into account if it is only indirectly due to a breach of duty.

(2) Para. 1 shall not apply to damages resulting from injury to life, body or health.

(3) If the damage of a user is based on a breach of duty by another user, Expertist assigns to the injured party as a precaution all own claims against the injured party as a precautionary measure, which originate from the respective uniform life situation. A claim against Expertist by the injured party shall only be permissible after prior judicial recourse of the damage by the customer, and only to the extent that the proceedings against the harmful party have not provided remedy and this is not due to a culpable omission on the part of the aggrieved party.

(4) Expertist is not obliged to perform and may withdraw from the contract if Expertist, for his part, fails to contract, even though carefully selected contract partners had been contracted.

(1) If, according to this contract, Expertist is liable for the performance of a work, the customer must examine this work immediately after delivery with reasonable thoroughness and, if a defect becomes apparent, notify Expertist immediately. If such a defect appears later, the notification must also be made to Expertist immediately after discovery.

(2) If the customer has not notified the defect within 5 working days from the reasonable possibility of gaining knowledge of the defect, the notification shall be deemed delayed. The date on which Expertist receives the customer’s declaration together with a description of the defect is decisive.

(3) If the customer fails to notify Expertist immediately, insofar as this is necessary, the assertion of the defect shall be excluded, unless Expertist fraudulently concealed the defect.

(4) Without prejudice to paragraphs 1 to 3, the work shall be deemed to have been approved after 14 days at the latest, except for minor defects.

(5) If a work performed by Expertist is defective and if the customer remedies the defect himself, Expertist shall, notwithstanding paragraphs 1 – 4 only to the extent that the customer’s expenses are compensated, as the expert has agreed to the self-payment in advance. Expertist shall not refuse its consent if this would be disproportionate after weighing the interests of the parties.

(6) In the event of a defect in the work, Expertist shall always have the right, at his discretion, to remedy the defect or to produce a new work. The customer’s withdrawal from the contract, the reduction of the remuneration owed by the customer or the claim for damages due to a defect is not permissible until the subsequent performance has failed a second time or Expertist has failed the subsequent performance.

Deviating, conflicting or supplementary general terms and conditions or terms of use of the contractual partners shall not apply.

Expertist reserves the right to change these GTC at any time and without giving reasons, with effect for the future. Expertist will inform the users of the intended changes by e-mail at least four weeks before they come into effect and make the changed GTC available to the users. The changes shall be deemed approved if the user does not notify Expertist in writing within four weeks after receipt of the changes. The notification shall contain a corresponding reference to this period and to the consequences of failure to object. The receipt of the objection by Expertist is decisive for compliance with the time limit. In the event of a timely opposition, both parties shall have the right to terminate the contracts concerned.

Should individual provisions of these General Terms and Conditions be or become void or ineffective in whole or in part, this shall not affect the effectiveness of the remaining provisions. In place of any provisions of these GTC that are not included or ineffective, statutory law shall apply. If such legislation is not available (legal gap) or would lead to an unacceptable result, the parties shall enter into negotiations to replace the ineffective or unenforceable provisions which comes as close as possible to it economically.

(1) Expertist collects, processes and uses personal data in accordance with the applicable statutory data protection provisions, in particular the Telemedia Act and the Federal Data Protection Act. The data protection regulations of Expertist apply, available at: www.expertist.de/en/privacy-policy/,. The collected data will not be passed on to service providers outside subsidiaries/parent companies of Expertist.

(2) The user agrees to the disclosure of his personal data to other users in the orderly course of business by Expertist.

(3) The user may object to the use of the data in accordance with the statutory provisions. An informal declaration to Expertist is sufficient for this purpose. The contact details can be found at www.expertist.de/en/contact/.

The contracts concluded in connection with the use of the online platform shall be governed exclusively by German law, to the exclusion of the norms of international private law and the German law of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from contractual relationships that arise in connection with the use of the online platform or a contract concluded thereon shall be Hamburg. This shall not apply if, in accordance with the statutory provisions, a different exclusive place of jurisdiction is established.