§ 1 — Scope of Application

(1) These Terms of Service (hereinafter "Terms") apply to all business relationships between IT-World-Invest (hereinafter "Service Provider") and all visitors, users, and clients (hereinafter "Client") worldwide — regardless of their place of residence or business.

(2) Deviating, conflicting, or supplementary general terms and conditions of the Client shall not become part of the contract unless the Service Provider has expressly and in writing agreed to their validity.

(3) These Terms apply in both B2B and B2C contexts. Consumers within the meaning of applicable consumer protection laws will be separately informed of any deviating provisions.

§ 2 — Appointment Obligation & Paid Consultation

(1) Appointment booking as prerequisite: Booking an appointment is a mandatory prerequisite for any contact that goes beyond a general email inquiry. This applies in particular to consultations, project discussions, planning meetings, and all other forms of collaboration.

(2) Paid initial consultation: The initial consultation is subject to a fee. The applicable hourly rate is communicated in writing in advance and forms part of the order confirmation. By booking a consultation appointment, the Client expressly acknowledges the obligation to pay.

(3) No spec work: Free concepts, drafts, design proposals, technical analyses, feasibility studies, or comparable preliminary services are not provided. Planning time is paid time.

(4) Binding nature of appointments: Booked appointments are binding and subject to fees. Cancellation, withdrawal, or revocation of a booked appointment is excluded without exception. The agreed hourly rate is payable even in the event of the Client's no-show.

§ 3 — Commissioning & Contract Formation

(1) Offers by the Service Provider are non-binding and subject to change unless expressly designated as binding.

(2) A contract is concluded upon written order confirmation by the Service Provider or upon commencement of service delivery. Verbal side agreements require written confirmation by the Service Provider to be effective.

(3) Exclusion of right of withdrawal: Since the Service Provider commences execution of the service at the Client's express request before expiry of the withdrawal period and the Client has declared their agreement thereto, any right of withdrawal expires upon commencement of service delivery. In the B2B context, the right of withdrawal is fully excluded.

(4) Changes to the scope of services during project execution (change requests) must be agreed in writing and may result in adjustments to the fee and delivery dates.

§ 4 — Remuneration & Payment Terms

(1) Fee: Remuneration is based on the hourly rate or project flat rate set out in the offer or order confirmation. All prices are stated net plus applicable value added tax.

(2) Payment term: Invoices are to be settled within 14 days net of the invoice date without deduction.

(3) Default interest: In the event of payment default, interest will be charged at 9 percentage points above the applicable base interest rate (in accordance with German § 288(2) BGB for B2B transactions). The right to claim further damages is reserved.

(4) Advance payment: For projects with a total order value exceeding EUR 2,000 net, a deposit of 50% of the total amount is due before commencement of services. The remaining balance is invoiced upon acceptance or according to a milestone schedule.

(5) Independence of payment obligation: The Client's payment obligation exists independently of their subjective satisfaction with the result, provided the agreed services have been rendered. Objections by the Client do not entitle them to withhold payments unless a court has expressly established a defect.

(6) Set-off / right of retention: Set-off against counterclaims of the Client and the exercise of a right of retention are excluded unless the counterclaims are undisputed or have been established by final and binding judgment.

§ 5 — Acceptance & Deemed Acceptance

(1) The Client is obligated to review delivered services promptly, but no later than 5 business days after delivery, and to report any defects in writing.

(2) If no written notice of defects is submitted within this period, the service shall be deemed accepted (deemed acceptance). In this case, the Client forfeits the right to invoke defects that could have been identified through proper inspection.

(3) Priority of rectification: In the case of legitimate defect notices, the Service Provider has the right to remedy the defect. The Service Provider is entitled to a maximum of 2 rectification attempts. A reduction in the fee is only possible after an unsuccessful second rectification attempt and only to a reasonable extent.

§ 6 — Intellectual Property & Copyright

(1) All content, designs, source code, concepts, texts, graphics, and other materials created by IT-World-Invest are protected by copyright and remain the property of the Service Provider until full payment of the agreed fee has been received.

(2) Transfer of rights: The right to use the created works transfers to the Client only upon complete and unconditional payment of all outstanding invoices. Until then, any use, publication, or transfer of the created materials is prohibited.

(3) Prohibition of reproduction: All content contained on this website and in services rendered may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, or used for commercial purposes without the express written permission of IT-World-Invest.

(4) Right to reference: The Service Provider is entitled to list and display completed projects for reference purposes in its portfolio, unless an express written confidentiality agreement has been concluded.

§ 7 — Retention of Title

All delivered services, works, and results shall remain the property of the Service Provider until all claims from the business relationship have been settled in full. This also applies to partial deliveries and interim results.

§ 8 — Limitation of Liability

(1) Scope of liability: The liability of the Service Provider is limited to intent and gross negligence. Liability for simple negligence is excluded unless it concerns the violation of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations), or damages arising from injury to life, limb, or health.

(2) Liability cap: The Service Provider's liability is limited in amount to the net order value of the respective project.

(3) No warranty / "AS IS": All services and information are provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE". The Service Provider makes no warranty as to the completeness, accuracy, or currency of information, concepts, or services, to the extent permitted by law.

(4) External links: The Service Provider accepts no liability for the content of linked external websites. Links are provided after careful review; continuous content monitoring without specific evidence of a legal violation is not reasonable.

(5) No liability for consequential damages: Loss of profit, indirect damages, consequential damages arising from defects, and other financial losses are, to the extent permitted by law, excluded from liability.

§ 9 — Indemnification

The Client shall indemnify and hold IT-World-Invest harmless from and against all claims of third parties arising from a violation of third-party rights through content, materials, or information provided by the Client. This includes in particular claims for infringement of copyright, trademark, personality rights, or data protection violations. The indemnification obligation also covers necessary legal costs including reasonable attorneys' fees.

§ 10 — Confidentiality

(1) Both parties undertake to treat all confidential information obtained in the course of the collaboration — in particular trade secrets, technical concepts, pricing, and customer data — as confidential and not to disclose it to third parties.

(2) This confidentiality obligation shall continue beyond the end of the business relationship for an indefinite period, as long as the relevant information has not lawfully entered the public domain.

(3) Information shall not be deemed confidential if it was already publicly known at the time of disclosure, was already known to the recipient, became public without breach of this agreement, or was lawfully received by the recipient from third parties.

§ 11 — Client Cooperation Obligations

(1) The Client is obligated to provide the Service Provider with all information, materials, and access required for service delivery in a timely and complete manner.

(2) Delays resulting from incomplete or late cooperation by the Client are not attributable to the Service Provider. Additional effort caused by insufficient cooperation will be invoiced separately.

§ 12 — Governing Law & Jurisdiction

(1) Governing law: All legal relationships between the parties shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. The application of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) is expressly excluded.

(2) Jurisdiction: The place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from and in connection with contracts with the Service Provider shall be, to the extent permitted by law, the competent court at the Service Provider's registered place of business in Germany.

(3) Language: In the event of discrepancies between the German and any other language version of these Terms, the German version shall prevail.

§ 13 — Written Form Requirement

Amendments and supplements to these Terms and all concluded contracts require written form (including email) to be effective. Verbal side agreements are invalid. This also applies to any waiver of the written form requirement itself.

§ 14 — Severability Clause

Should individual provisions of these Terms be or become wholly or partially invalid or unenforceable, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The invalid or unenforceable provision shall be replaced by a valid provision that comes closest to the economic purpose of the invalid provision.

§ 15 — Reservation of Right to Amend

IT-World-Invest reserves the right to amend these Terms at any time. The current version is always available on the website. For ongoing contracts, the Terms valid at the time of contract conclusion shall apply. Clients will be notified of material changes by email where a business relationship exists.