General terms and conditions

Your satisfaction with our deliveries and services is our priority! In case you should ever have reason for complaint, critique, praise or found a mistake, we kindly ask you to send us an email (dittmerendoskopservice@t-online.de). The general terms and conditions regulate the contract between supplier and client. Before ordering from us, please take note of the following terms and conditions, as well as the clarifications. All offers, deliveries and services are exclusively bound by the following terms and conditions. We hereby expressly refute contrary affirmations on the part of our clients with reference to their own terms of business or purchase. Deviating agreements with our employees will only come into effect after having been confirmed in writing by an authorized representative.

§1 Conclusion of the contract

1. The order (offer of service) is placed by the client online, via phone, fax or mail. It will be confirmed either explicitly by a confirmation of order sent online, via phone, fax or mail or, impliedly by the delivery of the ordered goods (acceptance of contract).

§2 Right of return according to §13 BGB (German Civil Code) (Right of cancellation of distance selling contracts)

1. The purchase contract can be cancelled within 2 weeks after receiving the order. To this end, the goods must be returned to us. It is not necessary to detail the reasons. The right of return is exercised by the timely dispatch of the received goods, or, if they cannot be sent as a package, by requesting a return. The request of return must be placed in writing via email, fax or mail. It is not necessary to detail the reasons. The return shall be at shop operator’s expense and risk. The timely dispatch shall be sufficient to observe the deadline. The purchase contract will be terminated after the return of the goods and payments already made will be reimbursed to your bank account. The client should treat the ordered goods carefully in order to avoid additional costs in case of return [within the two weeks]. The right of revocation does not apply on contracts for the supply of goods produced according to customer specifications or clearly tailored to personal needs of the consumer.

§3 Delivery time, special items

1. The delivery will, generally, take place within a period of 30 days after receiving the order. Delivery periods or delivery dates which have been bindingly agreed upon otherwise, have to be confirmed by us in writing. Delivery periods start running from confirmation of the order. 2. Delays in delivery and service on the grounds of force majeure, war, uproar, strike, lockouts or similar circumstances beyond our reasonable control will firstly cause a reasonable extension of the delivery period. The mentioned circumstances release us from delivery obligations for as long as delivery should be thereby prevented and entitle both parties to cancel the contract. 3. In case of special items deliveries can take place only while stocks last. We are entitled to a cancellation of the contract, provided the deficiency is beyond our control. In case of non-availability we will notify the client immediately and compensate counter services already collected without delay.

§4 Risk Transfer and Acceptance

1. The goods will be loaded and shipped uninsured at the risk of the buyer. The risk passes to the customer as soon as we hand the goods over to the carrier or, if dispatch should be delayed without blame attaching with us, as soon as we notify the customer that the goods are ready for dispatch. At your request, we can insure your vehicle during transport for an additional fee. These conditions do not apply if the customer purchases the goods as a consumer. 2. The customer shall be committed to accept the goods provided that such goods are not full of apparent technical defects. 3. If the client refuses to accept ordered goods as a result of gross negligence or willful intent on his/its part, we may set a written period of grace of 8 days together with a declaration that we will refuse to perform the contract at the end of the said period. After fruitless expiration of the period of grace, we shall be entitled to withdraw from the contract and claim damages for non-performance. There is no need to set an extended deadline if the customer makes a serious, final refusal or if, during the time he is supposed to be fulfilling his liability to pay, he clearly is not in a position to do so. 4. If we demand compensation according to no. 3, damages amount to a flat rate of 15% of the net purchase price (profit margin). The amount of damage shall be estimated at a higher or lower value, if we prove higher or the customer proves lesser damage.

§5 Prices and payments

1. All prices specified by us are to be understood as being in Euros, including the current legal Value Added Tax, as well as the costs for transportation and packing inside Germany and Europe. For the shipping outside of Europe, a fixed fee will be levied. 2. The purchase price is due for cash payment directly with the collection of the goods or respectively with the delivery. Deviating terms of payment shall require our special written agreement. 3. Payments will be registered every time to the oldest open invoice. 4. Only claims which are uncontested or have been determined with legal finality shall entitle the client to set off or retain. The customer shall be entitled to assert for right of retention only if his claims are founded upon the same agreement.

§6 Retention of title

1. The object of purchase remains our property in order to balance our accounts receivable to which we are entitled to on the basis of the contract of sale. If the customer is a legal person under public law, a special fund under public law, or a trader for whom the contract is part of his business operations, then the reservation of ownership shall also apply to receivables which we have from our ongoing business relations with the customer. 2. The client shall be authorized to dispose of the purchased goods in the ordinary course of business, granted our written consent. As security, the client assigns to us here and now, as a whole or in a sum equal to any co-ownership share which we acquire the claims against third parties ensuing from reselling. The buyer is entitled to collect the claims until revocation or discontinuation of its payments to us for our account. 3. If the value of the security provided to us exceeds the value of the claims to be safeguarded by more than 20 %, we shall, at the customer’s request, release security of our own choice accordingly. 4. In the event of a customer's behavior being contrary to the terms of the agreement - in particular delay in payment or other breaches of duty arising out of the title retention - we shall be entitled, irrespective of our other claims, to demand restitution of the reserved goods and, upon written notification and a reasonable deadline, to offer the goods by private sale in the open market to achieve the optimum by appropriating the proceeds of the realization on the purchase price. The costs of repossession and disposal of goods are to be borne by the client. The enforcement of the retention of title by us, if the customer fails to meet his obligations, shall not mean repudiation from the agreement unless it concerns the hire purchase transaction of a non-merchandiser. In such a case, the consumer loan agreements apply.

§7 Warranty

1. The Customer is obliged to examine the goods for any transport damages immediately upon receipt thereof and to notify these to the supplier (Post, UPS, forwarder/carrier, etc.). Any later objections shall not be accepted. 2. The customer is obliged to inspect the delivered goods immediately upon receipt for visible defects, which are conspicuous to an average customer. Clients should make a complaint about defects/faults in writing within two weeks from the date of delivery. In the event that the obligation to inspect and give notice of defects is violated, the goods shall be deemed to be approved with regard to the relevant defect. The valid liability of verification and reproval for merchants related to §§ 377 HGB (German Commercial Code) are not challenged. 3. In the event of a defect and if the customer is not a consumer, we are entitled after our choice to the finishing touches or to the spare delivery. 4. The Warranty Period in relation to consumers shall be two years starting at the time of handover of the goods. In relation to clients, who are not consumers, it shall be one year. 5. The sale of used items occurs under a limitation period for consumers, of one to three months after handover of the goods. The guarantee is excluded if the client is not a consumer. 6. Irrespective of regulations 4 and 5, the statutory warranty periods shall apply. 7. The statutory periods of limitation apply to a fraudulent concealment of a failure or the assumption of a guarantee for the condition of the goods. The same shall apply to the legal requirements of §§ 478, 479 BGB (German Civil Code) concerning recourse of the entrepreneur towards the supplier.

§8 Liability

1. Liability shall be limited to foreseeable damages in the case of simple negligence due to default, material liability for defects and legal liability for defects, impossibility, as well as for the breach of an essential contractual obligation (cardinal obligation) and excluded for any other breach of contractual obligations. This does not apply to damage resulting from injury to life, limb or health. 2. Liability for data loss in the case of ordinary negligence is limited to the typical recovery effort that would have been incurred in the case of regular and risk-adequate preparation of backup copies. 3. We are fully liable for gross negligence and intent. 4. The limitations of liability according to numbers 1 and 2 also apply to our employees and agents. 5. Liability for a guarantee of quality and liability under the Product Liability Act remain unaffected.

§9 Applicable law, place of performance and jurisdiction

1. For these business terms and conditions and for the complete legal relationship between the contractual partners, Dittmer Endoskop Service and the client, German law is exclusively applicable, in particular excluding the rules and regulations of the uniform UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). 2. The place of performance for deliveries and payments shall be Pfullendorf, Germany, if the customer is a merchant and the conclusion of a contract is part of his business. For all current and future claims from the business relationship with merchants, the exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be Pfullendorf. The same place of jurisdiction applies if the customer does not have any general place of jurisdiction in the Federal Republic of Germany, after conclusion of the contract relocates his domicile or customary place of residence from the Federal Republic of Germany or his domicile or customary place of residence is not known at the time when the action is filed.

§10 Final provisions

If individual provisions or parts of provisions of these Testing and Certification Regulations and General Terms and Conditions should become ineffective, the effectiveness of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected.