§ 1 General
GIATA GmbH as a licence provider operates databank systems for the tourism industry, which provide digitalised data and data collection as well as multimedia content and content management systems for use through the Internet or other networks. Our core product is the GIATA Hotel Guide with the following components:
- Hotel descriptions in the form of hotel images and texts
- Climate data, country maps
- further travel-relevant information
- Panoramic images, videos and other rich media content
These general conditions are valid for all licencees with an existing standard contract as well as for all future conclusions of contract. Those terms and conditions of clients that contradict those of the company will not be integrated in the contract. The general terms and conditions hereunder may be changed by GIATA GmbH. The changes are effective one month from notification.
§ 2 Termination of Contract/ Allocation of Rights/ Provisos of the Licenser
a. Offers are always subject to change, price and performance changes stay in line with what is reasonable for the client.
b. The contract with the client is generally first drawn up after GIATA has approved the client's binding order in writing or by fax. Orders and deals can also be exclusively processed via electronic medium.
c. The basis of the contract is generally one filled out and undersigned by clients as well as the contents confirmed by the licence provider, along with signed request forms, which contain the range of activities as well as the payment in detail. Verbal agreements are not valid.
d. GIATA GmbH offers the client a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the GIATA products. GIATA mbH reserves all non expressly assigned patent rights. The licence provider is authorised to make changes and variations to the service offerings, provided that the contractual use for the client is not, or only marginally, affected.
§ 3 Contract Duration/ Cancellation
a. The licence is generally issued for an indefinite time period, cancellation results from written notice ensuring the completion of a 12 month term at the end of the month.
b. GIATA GmbH can refuse it’s services after explicit declaration, by blocking database access, if the client substantially violates their contractual obligation, for example with payment having fallen into considerable arrears or violating cooperation and not supplying information.
§ 4 Prices und Payment Methods
The prices comply with the current price list. Alterations are also allowed at the conclusion of the contract, if these are required through the licence provider making adverse alterations to the costs (for instance unpredictably high traffic volume).
The payment normally takes place through direct debit.
§ 5 Guarantee/ Liabilities
a. The licence provider does not guarantee that the delivered product functions flawlessly with the client's hardware and software.
b. The liability of the licence provider ends at the gateway between the database server and the general network.
c. The licence provider renders neither direct nor indirect assurances concerning the products as well as their capacity and applicability for a certain usage.
d. The licence provider does not take responsibility for losses due to business’ profit loss, business interruptions, loss of business information or particular financial losses, resulting from usage or non-usage of the search/booking product. Claim for compensation is possible only due to gross negligence of the licence provider. In individual cases there is a limit of 1000 EUR for occurrence of damage.
e. The following terms count in the occurrence of concerns or other faults:
The client is only entitled to make guarantee claims when notified faults can be shown through automatically-generated output data. The client has to report these faults in a trackable form, stating the appropriate information for fault detection, in written or text format. The client has to facilitate the licence provider, where required, on elimination of the faults, in particular to provide appropriate work equipment. The licence provider has to resolve concerns or comparable faults within a reasonable time limit. In the event of prompt successful rectification of faults demands for redhibitory action or reduction are disqualified. GIATA is authorised to refuse a selected part of the supplementary performance/ rectification of faults, if it is only possible with disproportional costs.
Requirements because of obvious defects are invalid if they are not reported within 7 days after written notice or in text format. The licence provider takes no responsibility for the contents’ accuracy of the provided data.
f. The following licence provider is dependent on the delivery of data from third party suppliers; primary tour operators. License agreements are valid under the proviso that GIATA itself is bailee or has authority of mandate. The warranty of title is precluded on the condition that the licence provider is not guilty of gross negligence.
§ 6 Responsibilites of the Client, Prohibited Acts
The client is responsible for using the data and databases appropriately, and is forbidden from any conduct which endangers the data security, responsible for keeping the username and password secret, and ensuring that the data integrity is kept intact during use. Changes to the provided data and systems which distort or alter the content are not permitted.
The license provider will ensure that necessary systems are in place to prevent unwarranted third users gaining access to the saved data. Over and above this, the client is responsible for data security himself. Should the client become aware that his user data has been accessed by third parties, he is responsible for barring access. In relation to the contract partners, the client has liability. This is of particular relevance for the demands of third parties in travel agreement law and copyright law for art.
The client is required to credit data from GIATA products, for example in Affiliate Programmes or in conjunction with other databases. As a rule this requires approval. The client is not permitted to use segments of the GIATA database, including GIATA codes, for the purpose of evaluating the GIATA database over and above the contractually stated use, especially in order to use GIATA data for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Search Machine Marketing (SEM), without obtaining written consent from GIATA. On pages, which are integrated with GIATA content, a search engine indexing system must therefore be excluded using suitable medium (robots.txt, Meta tags etc.).
If the client publishes their own databases using GIATA systems they are obliged to ensure that the data within them complies with the appropriate legislation. GIATA GmbH cannot accept liability if an offence is committed in this context.
As the assessment of payment is dependant on the individual specifications of the client, the client must ensure that all information passed on to the company is complete and true to the best of their knowledge. GIATA GmbH reserves the right to fix a flat fee in the case of discrepancies or to seek third party verification. This applies in particular to the definition of licence fees on the basis of website hits or the number of customers booking online.
§ 7 Data Protection/ Privacy
The company complies fully with the German data protection act (the BDSG). § 33 of this act states that licence providers have the right to save data about their customers if it is relevant to the creation of a contract. This data is expressly accepted as evidence between parties. The use of statistical evaluations, market research etc. is also authorised. GIATA GmbH will take every caution to guarantee the anonymity of data in its possession.
§ 8 Applicable Law
Those with sealed contracts with the licence provider are subject to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany.
These general terms and conditions are valid from 09.05.2007, all existing general terms and conditions are overridden.
