General Terms and Conditions – GTC

(status 02/12/2021)

1. The following Terms and Conditions of the KWS Energy Knowledge eG (KWS) shall apply for participation in all educational activities offered by KWS (courses, seminars, workshops, training) according to the contract concluded between KWS and the Purchaser/Customer. Purchaser/Customer agrees to these Terms and Conditions upon issuance of the order. These GTC shall apply exclusively; KWS will not recognise terms and conditions of Purchaser/Customer that are contrary to or different from these GTC of KWS unless KWS has expressly agreed to their applicability in writing. These GTC shall also apply then if KWS, aware of the terms and conditions of Purchaser/Customer that are contrary to or different from the Terms and Conditions of KWS, performs the contractually owed services without reservation. They shall apply both towards consumers and also towards corporate clients unless a differentiation is undertaken in the respective clause.
2. Our general course offerings/advertisements and prices as stated in circulars are non-binding.
3. Binding registrations for training must be addressed to KWS in writing by regular mail, telefax, as an email or via the KWS Internet portal. The contract is formed by a written confirmation of KWS if no other agreement has been made between the parties. As a general rule, registrations shall be taken into consideration in the order received. If a registration cannot be considered, KWS shall promptly communicate this.
   The data input with the registration shall be electronically stored for internal purposes in compliance with data protection provisions. Purchaser/Customer hereby grants its express consent to processing the data that has become known to KWS within the scope of the contractual relationships and which is required for processing the order.
4. The prices listed according to the respective, valid training price list shall apply in addition to statutory value-added tax for courses that have been classified as taxable by the tax authority, provided that nothing otherwise has been agreed in writing. Insofar as Purchaser/Customer or a training participant registered by the former only periodically attends the training/courses, this shall not qualify for a price reduction. In the event of non-attendance, the full course fee must be paid insofar as no proper cancellation has occurred according to these Terms and Conditions; apart from this, these GTC shall apply for the purpose of cancellation/course cancellation and/or withdrawal from the contract. If nothing to the contrary follows from this contract, the payment location is the business headquarters of KWS.
5. The details of the scope of services owed by KWS—in particular, content, duration and location—follows from the respective offer, the order confirmation, and these contract terms and conditions. KWS shall assume no guarantee for the success of the training. The content of the course/training shall be presented in the respective, valid training concept. KWS reserves the right to modify and further develop the content of the training. KWS is authorised to replace the intended lecturer in case this becomes necessary (illness, accident) with other individuals equally qualified with respect to the topic advertised. KWS is authorised to modify the training location and the scheduled dates with a prior notice of at least 2 weeks. In the event of a postponed scheduled date, Purchaser/Customer has the right to cancel the registration free of charge. No further claims exist.
6. KWS is authorised to declare its withdrawal from the contract for good cause up until 10 days prior to the commencement of the training/course irrespective of other grounds, in particular if
   • there are insufficient registrations for the class;
   • when one or more lecturers are incapacitated, in particular, due to illness;
   • the class must be cancelled due to other circumstances (e.g. force majeure) for which KWS is not responsible.
   In these cases, KWS shall promptly inform the Purchaser/Customer and offer an alternative or substitute date. In the event of a withdrawal according to the proceeding sentences, payments/consideration that have been paid shall be immediately reimbursed in the full amount. Additional claims, for example, for compensatory damages, or reimbursement for expenses already incurred are precluded.
7. Applicable to courses lasting six months or more and with a participant’s confirmed application, a fee of €300 is imposed in case a client/customer withdraws from the agreement in writing. An additional cancellation fee of €1,000 is exacted for deregistrations received by KWS later than eight weeks prior to the commencement of a course. Attendance fees are payable in full in case of deregistrations received later than four weeks prior to the commencement of a course or if a participant drops out of a course. A substitute participant may be nominated free of charge provided the course has not yet commenced and the participant meets admission standards. Compliance with the deadline is determined by the date of receipt of the nomination by KWS.
8. Applicable to courses lasting from three up to six months and with a participant’s confirmed application, a fee of €300 is imposed in case a client/customer withdraws from the agreement in writing. An additional cancellation fee of €500 is exacted for deregistrations received by KWS later than eight weeks prior to the commencement of a course. 80% of attendance fees are payable in case of deregistrations received later than four weeks prior to the commencement of a course. Attendance fees are payable in full in case of deregistrations received later than two weeks prior to the commencement of a course or if a participant drops out of a course. A substitute participant may be nominated free of charge provided the course has not yet commenced and the participant meets admission standards. Compliance with the deadline is determined by the date of receipt of the nomination by KWS.
9. For courses with a duration of greater than 6 months, cancellation costs of € 1,000 shall be due in the case of written course cancellations of the contract that are received by KWS later than 8 weeks prior to the start of the course. For course cancellations received by KWS later than 4 weeks prior to the start of the course, or in the event of discontinuing participation in the course, 100% of the course fee must be paid. Designating a replacement participant is possible free of charge insofar as the course has not yet started and the participant meets the admission requirements. Receipt of the designation by KWS is decisive for the purpose of complying with the notice period.
10. For courses with a duration of greater than 3 and up to and including 6 months, cancellation costs of € 500 shall be due in the case of written course cancellations of the contract that are received by KWS later than 8 weeks prior to the start of the course. For course cancellations received by KWS later than 4 weeks prior to the start of the course, 80% of the course fee must be paid. For course cancellations received by KWS later than 2 week prior to the start of the course, or in the event of discontinuing participation in the course, the entire course fee must be paid. Designating a replacement participant is possible free of charge insofar as the course has not yet started and the participant meets the admission requirements. Receipt of the designation by K is decisive for the purpose of complying with the notice period.
11. For training/courses with a duration of up to 3 months, written course cancellations of the contract that are received by KWS up until 2 weeks prior to the start of the course are free of charge. 80% of the course fees must be paid between 1 and 2 weeks prior to the start of the course; as of one week prior to the start of the course, 100% of the course fees must be paid. Designating a replacement participant is possible free of charge insofar as the course has not yet started and the participant meets any admission requirements. Receipt of the designation by KWS is decisive for the purpose of complying with the notice period.
12. Purchaser/Customer is obligated to pay the course fees prior to commencement of the course. The fees for attending training/courses are immediately due after receipt of the invoice. Purchaser/Customer is in default for late payment not later than 30 days after the due date. This shall only then apply towards a consumer if this legal consequence was expressly indicated in the invoice. KWS can demand € 3.00 for reimbursement of expenses for every payment reminder subsequent to the occurrence of a default for late payment. Deviations from the payment terms require express written agreement.
13. The liability of KWS for a breach of contractual obligations, as well as for those derived from tort offences is limited to intentional acts and gross negligence. This shall not apply: in the case of injury to the life, body, and health of the Purchaser/Customer/participant, to claims on account of a violation of material contractual obligations, (that is to say, obligations that follow from the nature of the contract, and the violation of which jeopardizes achieving the purpose of the contract), as well as to reimbursement of damages due to delayed performance (§ 286 German Civil Code). In this respect, KWS shall be liable for every degree of fault. The aforementioned exclusion of liability also applies for slightly negligent breaches of duty on the part of the vicarious agents of KWS. Liability in the case of breaching material contractual obligations vis-à-vis consumers is limited to typically foreseeable damages. Insofar as damages are involved that do not result from an injury to the life, body, and health of the Customer, KWS shall be liable towards corporate clients for typically occurring damages. Any further liability of KWS is precluded. To the extent that liability is precluded or limited for KWS, this shall also apply for the personal liability of its staff, workers, employees, representatives or vicarious agents.
14. KWS reserves all rights, in particular, property and copyrights in and to the training content and files. This also applies for those written files that are designated as confidential. Any form of duplication, publication or other dissemination—also in extract form—for third parties, in particular, for purposes of holding instructional sessions, is prohibited without the prior express written consent of KWS. Software is used in the courses/training that is protected by copyright and trademark rights. This software may neither be copied nor processed and/or removed in another machine-readable form. The documents and files provided are prepared according to the best of our professional knowledge and ability. Liability and a guarantee for the accuracy, correctness, completeness and quality of the content is precluded.
15. Security regulations at the location of the class must be observed.