General Provider Terms and Conditions

General Provider Terms and Conditions

Section 1: Scope of the Terms and Conditions

These Provider Terms and Conditions apply to all contracts that punkt.de enters into with business entities as defined in § 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB) regarding services related to the Internet in accordance with the punkt.de service rates. To the extent that punkt.de supplies hardware, software, or other goods to the customer in connection with provider services, or provides other work or services, the General Terms and Conditions of punkt.de shall apply in addition.
Any conflicting terms and conditions of the customer are invalid, even if punkt.de does not expressly object to their validity and fulfills the contract.
Any deviating agreements in individual cases must be in writing to be valid.

§ 2 Conclusion and Content of the Contract

The scope of the services provided by punkt.de, the fees to be paid by the customer, and, if necessary, other terms and conditions are specified in an individual contract (order) between punkt.de and the customer. To the extent that the individual contract refers to a rate sheet containing the agreed-upon punkt.de service rate, the terms and conditions set forth therein shall form an integral part of the contract.
The binding individual contract is concluded when punkt.de accepts the customer’s written orders by sending a countersigned copy of the contract, a written order confirmation, or by performing a corresponding act. The customer is bound by their order for a period of two weeks following its receipt by punkt.de.

§ 3 Prices and Payment

punkt.de punkt.de charges the customer one-time and recurring fees as compensation for its provider services; the amount and frequency of these fees are specified in the individual contract. One-time fees are due for payment without deduction upon receipt of the invoice by the customer. Recurring fees are—unless expressly agreed otherwise in the individual contract—payable quarterly in advance, without deduction, upon invoicing by .
To the extent that recurring fees are determined by a specified usage limit (e.g., MB of data transfer or storage capacity), the fees are not reduced if the customer does not utilize the usage limit or does not utilize it in full. If the customer exceeds the agreed-upon usage limit, punkt.de will charge the additional fees in accordance with the service rate on the next billing date.
All prices are based on participation in the direct debit system. For other payment methods, an additional fee of €4 per invoice applies. If checks or direct debits are rejected by the bank for reasons attributable to the customer, punkt.de will charge a separate flat fee of €15.
All prices are subject to value-added tax at the statutory rate.
If the customer falls behind on payments for provider services from punkt.de, punkt.de has the right to refuse to provide the customer with due provider services—in particular, to temporarily suspend the provided Internet access—until the delinquency is resolved. punkt.de In such cases, will notify the customer in writing of the suspension of Internet access
, typically providing a 10-business-day grace period to remedy the default. The other statutory and contractual rights of punkt.de arising from the customer’s default in payment remain unaffected by the refusal to provide services.
punkt.de will charge late payment interest at a rate of eight percentage points above the base interest rate. The right to claim higher damages resulting from the delay remains reserved.

§ 4 Rate Changes and Plan Changes

punkt.de has the right to adjust the fees and service contents of agreed service plans to reflect changed circumstances (rate change) by providing written notice to the customer with two months’ advance notice to the end of the quarter. If the customer does not wish to continue the contract under the amended rates, the customer has the right to terminate it in writing effective as of the datepunkt deof the rate change.
punkt.de is prepared to switch the contract to a service plan with a higher scope of services (plan change) as of the beginning of each calendar month if the customer submits a written request to punkt.de by the 10th business day of the preceding month. The rate change requires that the customer sign an individual contract for the new service plan.

§ 5 Scope of Responsibility of punkt.de; Service Disruptions

punkt.de punkt.de offers its provider services based on the current state of the Internet and the current technical, legal, and commercial framework conditions for Internet access and data traffic on the Internet. The customer acknowledges that the quality of Internet access and data traffic on the Internet depends on these conditions and other circumstances—e.g., conditions on downstream data lines—over which has no control and for which it bears no responsibility.
Disruptions to the quality of Internet access and Internet data traffic that, pursuant to paragraph 1, lie outside the scope of
’s responsibility at punkt.de do not affect punkt.de ’s right to compensation. If such disruptions result in punkt.de being unable to provide the customer with the offered services, either at all or in full, for a non-negligible period of time, the customer has the right to terminate the contract extraordinarily with one week’s notice, effective at the end of a calendar month. The notice of termination must be in writing to be effective. Any further rights of the customer are excluded.
If punkt.de fails to provide its contractual services, or fails to provide them in accordance with the contract, in cases other than those specified in § 5(2), the customer is obligated to notify punkt.de of this in writing. If punkt.de fails to provide its services properly even after a reasonable period has elapsed following a justified complaint, the customer has the right to reduce the ongoing fees for provider services for the period and to the extent that punkt.de failed to provide these services in accordance with the contract after receiving the written notice of complaint. In addition, the customer has the right to terminate the contract extraordinarily, provided that such termination is in writing.
Extraordinary termination requires that the customer has granted punkt.de a grace period of at least one week in writing to provide services in accordance with the contract and that this grace period has expired without result. Section 10 applies to claims for damages or reimbursement of futile expenses.

§ 6 Scope of the Customer’s Responsibilities

Unless punkt.de has expressly assumed further obligations in the contract, it is the customer’s responsibility to establish and maintain, at their own expense, the necessary technical infrastructure (hardware, software, telecommunications, internal network) for Internet access up to the access point provided at punkt.de. punkt.de will, upon request, advise the customer on the appropriate configuration of this infrastructure. The customer shall bear all telecommunications costs incurred up to the punkt.de location at
.
The customer shall provide all information required for registration as a subscriber to the contractual services punkt.de in the proper form. The customer is responsible for ensuring that the address designations (domain, email addresses) selected by the customer are available and do not infringe upon the rights of third parties.
It is the customer’s responsibility to properly program and set up their online content intended for the Internet, unless punkt.de has expressly assumed consulting obligations in this regard.
The customer is obligated to handle items provided by punkt.de as part of the provider services (e.g., routers) with the care customary in the
and in accordance with the instructions provided by punkt.de. These items remain the property of punkt.de and must be returned to punkt.de at any time upon request. The customer is liable for any damages incurred by punkt.de as a result of a breach of these obligations.
If the customer’s violations of the foregoing or other duties of cooperation and obligations result in punkt.de being unable to perform its provider services, or to do so in full or on time, the customer may not derive any rights against punkt.de from this; in particular, punkt.de ’s claim for payment remains unaffected.
The customer shall ensure that the IT infrastructure within its sphere of control is adequately protected by professional IT security measures.

§ 7 Customer Obligations on the Internet

The customer is obligated not to misuse Internet access and to respect the law as well as the rights of third parties. This includes, in particular, the following obligations of the customer:

a) The customer shall ensure that data transmitted by him or her to the Internet does not violate statutory provisions regarding the protection of minors, the personal rights of third parties, or the infringement of intellectual property rights, in particular the copyrights of third parties. The customer shall refrain from uploading data containing immoral content.
b) The customer is obligated to refrain from placing an excessive load on the networks through untargeted or improper distribution of data. This also includes the sending of so-called spam email. Likewise, the customer may not send mass emails via punkt.de ’s mail servers.
c) The customer shall ensure that the scripts and programs used on the punkt.de server do not contain errors that could disrupt the provision of services by punkt.de.
In the event of a breach of the obligations set forth in paragraph 1, punkt.de is entitled, at its discretion, to temporarily suspend Internet access in whole or in part with immediate effect, to temporarily suspend other provider services with immediate effect, and/or to terminate the contractual relationship without notice.
The customer shall indemnify punkt.de against any claims by third parties arising from breaches of the obligations set forth in paragraph 1. The customer shall compensate punkt.de for any damages resulting from such breaches of obligation.

§ 8 Copyrights, Data Protection

The customer is aware that data to which they gain access through the usage rights provided by punkt.de may be protected by copyright. It is the customer’s responsibility to verify, prior to using such data, whether it is free of intellectual property rights. punkt.de assumes no responsibility for any claims for damages by third parties against the customer.
It is the customer’s responsibility to protect the data they upload to the Internet against misuse through encryption or other means. punkt.de is under no obligation to the customer to take technical or legal measures to protect this data.

§ 9 Use by Third Parties

punkt.de grants the customer Internet access for the customer’s own purposes. The customer is not authorized to make the access available to third parties, either entirely or predominantly, for commercial purposes.
If the customer allows third parties to use the Internet access, the customer shall be liable to punkt.de for the conduct of such third parties as if it were the customer’s own conduct.

§ 10 Liability

punkt.de punkt.de shall be liable for damages or reimbursement of futile expenses, regardless of the legal basis (breach of contractual or non-contractual primary or secondary obligations, liability for defects, tort), in full only in cases of willful misconduct or gross negligence. In cases of slight negligence, shall be liable only if an obligation is breached whose fulfillment is essential for the proper performance of the contract, whose breach jeopardizes the achievement of the contract’s purpose, and on whose compliance the contracting party regularly relies (cardinal obligation), as well as in cases of liability for delay or initial impossibility; in the aforementioned cases, liability is limited in amount to the remuneration agreed upon for the respective delivery and service. In all other cases of slight negligence, shall not be liable. punkt.de
Liability under the Product Liability Act and for personal injury, as well as for warranties provided by punkt.de, remains unaffected by the limitation of liability set forth in paragraph 1.
To the extent that punkt.de is liable for data loss pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2, such liability—except in cases of intent or gross negligence on the part of
— — to the loss of such data that the customer has backed up in a manner customary in the industry (at least once a day) so that the customer can reproduce it with reasonable effort. The defense of contributory negligence remains admissible at all times.

§ 11 Confidentiality and Data Protection

punkt.de and the Customer shall treat each other’s documents that are expressly marked as confidential or that clearly require confidential treatment as confidential and shall carefully protect them from unauthorized access by third parties.
The customer consents to the electronic storage and processing of their data by punkt.de for the purposes of the respective contract. The customer also consents to the transfer of data to third parties—to the extent necessary to fulfill the purposes of the respective contractual relationship (e.g., in connection with activities involving Denic).

§ 12 Termination

Contracts for provider services for which punkt.de charges ongoing fees are concluded for an indefinite term. Unless otherwise expressly agreed in the individual contract, they may be terminated with four weeks’ notice, effective at the end of a calendar quarter. Unless expressly agreed otherwise in the individual contract at
, the minimum term of these contracts is six months.
Both contracting parties reserve the right to terminate the contract early for good cause.
Any termination must be in writing to be effective.

§ 13 Special Provisions Regarding DENIC

punkt.de acts as an intermediary between DENIC and the customer with regard to .de domains.
The customer enters into a contract with DENIC through punkt.de, with billing handled by punkt.de.
In the event of improper termination of the contract by the customer, DENIC becomes the customer’s direct contractual partner, and the customer must then pay DENIC for the .de domain in accordance with the current DENIC price list.

§ 14 Final Provisions

The laws of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply exclusively.
The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contract is Karlsruhe if the customer is a merchant, a legal entity under public law, or a special fund under public law, or if the customer has no general place of jurisdiction in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Version date: July 16, 2008