General Terms and Conditions for translation services
A) General
1. About
For the purpose of these General Terms and Conditions, “Nextlevel Translations” hereinafter refers to the individual Nicholas Hirschmann and/or any other person with which a Customer enters into an assignment agreement.
2. Application
These General Terms and Conditions are applicable to all assignments for translation and/or related services, accepted by Nextlevel Translations and the Customer unless otherwise agreed in writing or required by law.
B) Assignment
1. Acceptance of assignment
An assignment agreement is entered into when the Customer accepts the price estimate proposed by Nextlevel Translations in respect of an assignment or the parties come to a specific agreement. To the extent that an assignment is initiated or implemented without a written contract or acknowledgement of order, the relevant parts of these General Terms and Conditions shall apply.
Nextlevel Translations reserves the right to decline an assignment if Nextlevel Translations considers the assignment to contain a criminal element or if the nature of the assignment in general is in breach of the Ethical Policy or Code of Conduct of Nextlevel Translations.
2. Implementation and basis of assignment
The work of Nextlevel Translations is carried out with accuracy and care by competent personnel and in accordance with the assignment agreement entered into by both parties. Nextlevel Translations abides by the Code of Good Practice appropriate to its line of work. Unless otherwise agreed by Nextlevel Translations and the Customer, Nextlevel Translations will employ the methods and standards pertinent to its work.
The Customer shall provide Nextlevel Translations with the material required in order for Nextlevel Translations to carry out the assignment in accordance with the assignment agreement whereupon Nextlevel Translations shall notify the Customer if it is not in receipt of the full material required. If the necessary material is not received from the Customer, Nextlevel Translations is entitled to an extension of delivery in addition to compensation for any expenditure incurred. If the absence of the material required renders it significantly more difficult for Nextlevel Translations to carry out the assignment, Nextlevel Translations has the right to terminate the assignment with immediate effect whereupon Nextlevel Translations shall be entitled to compensation from the Customer for work carried out until the date of termination in addition to the cost of terminating the assignment and loss of revenue.
3. Terms of delivery
Terms of delivery are agreed in association with each individual assignment contract.
4. Delay in delivery
Should a delay in delivery from Nextlevel Translations occur for reasons that do not involve the Customer and such delay is not accepted by the Customer, the Customer will be compensated for the delayed part of the delivery with up to 3 % of the delayed part of the delivery per week or a maximum of 15 % of the total order value. If a delay in delivery entitles the Customer to the maximum amount of compensation, the Customer has the right to terminate the delayed part of the assignment. If the Customer decides to terminate the delayed part of an assignment, no additional compensation other than the compensation specified herein is payable.
If a delay in delivery from Nextlevel Translations is considered significant given the volume and frequency of the assignment, the Customer is entitled to terminate the assignment with immediate effect and, if relevant, is liable to pay for the completed parts of the assignment with a deduction for the compensation specified herein. No other sanctions shall apply owing to a delay in delivery from Nextlevel Translations.
5. Confidentiality
Confidential documents and files made available to Nextlevel Translations in connection with an assignment are treated as strictly confidential and will not be disclosed to a third party without the approval of the Customer. Confidential information does not include information that is or will be known to the general public or that in any other way (unrelated to the assignment) is received by Nextlevel Translations. An individual NDA can be signed per request of the Client.
Unless the Customer has requested in writing that Nextlevel Translations use a specific alternative delivery mode, Nextlevel Translations is not in breach of the confidentiality clause above if delivering the assignment to the Customer via the same delivery mode used by the Customer to supply the original and related material to Nextlevel Translations.
6. Ownership and right of use of end product
The end product of the assignment submitted to the Customer is the property of the Customer for unconditional use subject to Nextlevel Translations having received full payment. However, Nextlevel Translations is entitled to have free disposal and use of glossaries and translation memories created in conjunction with the assignment.
C) Prices
1. Price of assignment
The price is agreed on an individual assignment basis.
2. Amendments and supplements
a) If the Customer asks for an amendment to be made to the agreed schedule, Nextlevel Translations is entitled to charge the Customer for the extra work involved with such amendment as per applicable pricelist.
b) If the Customer wishes to make any other amendment to the assignment, Nextlevel Translations is entitled to deduct a surcharge in addition to the agreed price. Such amendment includes the addition of supplementary conditions. The surcharge deduction is made in line with the applicable pricelist whereupon Nextlevel Translations is required to update the relevant terms of delivery and price in line with the amendment made.
3. Termination
The Customer is entitled to terminate an assignment prior to delivery conditional on the Customer compensating Nextlevel Translations for the work carried out prior to notice of termination in addition to the cost of terminating the assignment and loss of revenue.
4. Value Added Tax
The price listed in the assignment contract or price estimate proposed by Nextlevel Translations does include the value added tax.
5. Terms of payment
Nextlevel Translations will invoice the Customer upon completion of the assignment. All invoices are payable within thirty (30) days from the date of invoice.
Due to the nature of the assignment or the customership, Nextlevel Translations is entitled, if it so deems necessary, to request the issue of a monthly or advance invoice. In case of monthly invoicing, Nextlevel Translations will charge for the work carried out throughout the month adding up to the total price of the assignment.
6. Overdue payments
Nextlevel Translations is entitled to terminate the assignment in the event of the Customer being in arrears with payments of significance importance to Nextlevel Translations. Nextlevel Translations is also entitled to claim compensation from the Customer for work carried out until the date of termination in addition to the cost of terminating the assignment and loss of revenue.
Any overdue payments are subject to an interest rate of 3 % of the original invoice amount per month.
D) Other terms and conditions
1. Limited liability
Aside from these General Terms and Conditions, the Customer cannot make a claim against Nextlevel Translations in connection with an assignment. The Customer is not entitled to any compensation for loss of production, loss of revenue or any other indirect damage and on no account is Nextlevel Translations liable for damage in connection with the payment of compensation to a third party. As regards delivery of an assignment by electronic means or data media (e.g. CD), Nextlevel Translations shall not be held liable for any damage caused by a so-called computer virus or any other problem beyond the control of Nextlevel Translations. Moreover, Nextlevel Translations disclaims all liability in connection with a problem that occurs as a result of the Customer using the end product of the assignment or that is pertaining to the technical equipment or software used by the Customer or another entity. The liability of Nextlevel Translations and its subcontractors is limited to an amount equal to the agreed total value of the assignment.
In order to be able to provide entitlement to compensation, any claim for damages shall be submitted to Nextlevel Translations in writing as soon as possible after the damage has been discovered, and no later than six (6) months after completion of the assignment.
2. Force majeure
Nextlevel Translations shall not be held responsible for any loss caused if Nextlevel Translations is late in delivering an assignment due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of Nextlevel Translations, including but not limited to illness, fire, stroke of lightning, natural disaster, strike, boycott, industrial conflict, war, mobilisation or unexpected call-up for military service, exchange currency restrictions, insufficient or deficient power supply, telecommunications including network communications, insurrection and riots or any other comparable circumstance or unanticipated Government action.
3. Personal Data
3.1. Processing of personal data
Documents sent to Nextlevel Translations for processing may contain personal data. To the extent Nextlevel Translations processes any personal data on behalf of the Customer the terms of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, Directive 95/46/EC) shall apply.
As the Data Controller, it is the Customer’s responsibility to obtain consent from data subjects mentioned in documents sent to to Nextlevel Translations for processing or to make sure that another legal basis for the processing is in place.
3.2. Anonymisation
To be able to perform language service-related processing to a document (e.g. translate the content), the document must be in clear text and, as such, cannot be encrypted other than during the transfer.
Therefore, before sending documents containing personal data to Nextlevel Translations, the Customer must take responsibility for anonymising personal data in such documents or by other means ensure that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject. This is particularly important if the documents are to be translated into a language of a third country with no adequacy decision or otherwise processed by a native language speaker of such a third country, since the local legislation of that country may be in direct conflict with EU privacy laws.
Furthermore, Nextlevel Translations may use CAT tools that store the content of the documents (including the personal data) in a translation memory specific to the Customer. If to Nextlevel Translations may not store the personal data from the Customer’s documents in translation memories or other databases as part of the processing, the Customer must anonymise documents before sending them to Nextlevel Translations for processing.
3.3. Ownership
The data stored in translation memories and other databases used for processing the Customer’s documents are the Customer’s data, and Nextlevel Translations processes the data according to the Customer’s instructions.
3.4. Deletion
If personal data needs to be deleted from translation memories and other databases, Nextlevel Translations would either delete the entire translation memory and/or database, or charge a fee for filtering out the data, where possible.
4. Governing law and court
The interpretation and application of these General Terms and Conditions shall be governed by German law.
Any disputes relating to the validity, interpretation or application of these General Terms and Conditions shall be decided at a public court, with District Court Nuremberg Fürth (Amtsgericht Nürnberg Fürth) as the court of first instance.