Platform Usage Terms and Conditions of PROTIQ GmbH
1 Scope of Application; Contractual Parties
1.1 PROTIQ GmbH, Flachsmarktstraße 54, 32825 Blomberg ("PROTIQ"), operates an online platform on protiq.com (hereinafter referred to as the "Platform") on which you can purchase services in connection with the manufacture and delivery, in particular in the field of 3D printed products and additive manufacturing, from PROTIQ or from third party providers ("Services").
1.2 These Platform Usage Terms and Conditions of PROTIQ GmbH ("Platform T&Cs") bindingly govern your registration and use of the Platform. You can access, save and print out the currently applicable Platform T&Cs at any time at https://www.protiq.com/en/general-terms-and-conditions/. The text of the contract is not saved by PROTIQ.
1.3 PROTIQ is your contractual partner in relation to the use of the Platform under these Platform T&Cs. If you purchase services or products from a third-party provider via the Platform, only this third-party provider will be your contractual partner in relation to this contract for the purchase of the services or products.
1.4 In addition to these Platform T&Cs, separate Terms and Conditions of PROTIQ or third parties may apply to the purchase of services via the Platform, which will then be incorporated separately when the contract is concluded.
1.5 PROTIQ is authorised to use subcontractors for the provision of services at its own discretion.
2 Conclusion of Contract; Registration
2.1 You submit a binding offer to register for the Platform and use the Platform's range of functions by providing the information required to create a user account as part of the registration process on the Platform under the heading "Open an account" and clicking on the "Save " button ("Offer to register"). When choosing the type of user account, consumers should select "Private customers" and not "Business customers".
2.2 Until you click on the "Save " button, you can cancel the registration process at any time or change the information you have entered by deleting, adding to or correcting the information in the various fields or closing your web browser or tab. After completing the registration process, you can change the information you have entered at any time in your personal customer account under “My account”.
2.3 The contract between you and PROTIQ is concluded when PROTIQ sends a confirmation to the e-mail address used for registration immediately after the offer to register. This e-mail constitutes PROTIQ's acceptance of the offer to register ("Conclusion of Contract").
2.4 You will not incur any costs by concluding this contract.
2.5 The contract can be concluded in German and English.
3 Range and Scope of Services; Availability of the Platform
3.1 The services that PROTIQ provides to you ("Platform Services") are determined by the functionality of the Platform, which can be accessed at protiq.com and include in particular :
a) the provision of the utilisation options of the Platform free of charge after the Conclusion of Contract for the contractually agreed term;
b) enabling the production and delivery of 3D printed products from PROTIQ or third party suppliers;
c) enabling the purchase of Services in connection with 3D printed products and additive manufacturing from PROTIQ or third party providers.
3.2 PROTIQ is entitled to temporarily restrict the use of the Platform at its reasonable discretion if this is necessary with regard to the security, integrity and capacity limits of the Platform or to carry out technical measures on the Platform, such as maintenance work. PROTIQ will take your legitimate interests into account and inform you of any restriction in good time.
4 Prohibited Content; Restricting Access to the Platform
4.1 Prohibited Content
The following content is prohibited on the Platform ("Prohibited Content"):
a) Content that contains personal insults, discrimination, defamation, vulgar, sexual and obscene language, images or similar expressions or graphics that may offend other people;
b) Content that is misleading, discriminatory or fraudulent (e.g. incorrect content);
c) Viruses, malicious codes, software, scripts, files and other mechanisms/techniques that are capable of spying on, attacking, shutting down or otherwise impairing PROTIQ or customers of the Platform, their devices/software used or supporting such an impairment;
d) Infringement of trademarks or other labelling rights relating to the Platform or PROTIQ, an affiliated company or the rights of or contractual restrictions on third parties. In particular, you must also ensure that the content does not violate the terms of use of a third party website;
e) Extraneous content;
f) Content that violates applicable law, e.g. terrorist content, content that violates consumer or youth protection laws, copyright infringements, unlawful, non-consensual sharing of private images or other files;
g) Content that violates these Platform T&Cs or the Production and Delivery T&Cs of PROTIQ (available at https://www.protiq.com/en/marketplace-merchants/protiq-gmbh/).
4.2 Moderation of Content
In order to enforce the provisions of Section 4.1 and these Platform T&Cs, PROTIQ may take the moderation measures described below:
4.2.1 Users of the Platform can notify PROTIQ if they suspect that Prohibited Content has been published on the Platform or content that violates these Platform T&Cs in any other way. If users report Prohibited Content via the electronic tool provided for this purpose and this re-port contains an electronic contact option, PROTIQ will send the users a confirmation of receipt. The reporting user will be notified of our decision regarding the information to which the report relates and we will provide information on the possibilities for redress in respect of this decision.
4.2.2 If PROTIQ learns of any unauthorised use of your customer account, in particular by unauthorised third parties, PROTIQ will temporarily block your customer account. In the event of unauthorised use, PROTIQ is entitled to change your login data.
4.2.3 If PROTIQ has reasonable grounds to suspect that your customer account is being used by you or a third party in an unlawful manner, for example to commit or attempt to commit criminal offences, or to harm PROTIQ, a third-party provider on the Platform, other customers or other third parties in any other way, PROTIQ may also permanently block your customer account.
4.2.4 Unless immediate action by PROTIQ is required to limit the damage, PROTIQ will inform you of the above-mentioned blocking measures in advance.
4.2.5 PROTIQ decides in the above-mentioned cases free of arbitrariness and objectively on the basis of the information available at the time. The measures that PROTIQ takes are primarily based on the type (e.g. criminal offences), the severity (e.g. threats of death or violence), the frequency (in relation to the total number of individual pieces of information and in relation to a certain period of time), the consequences (e.g. whether and how many others have been harmed or affected) and the intention of the acting customer, insofar as this is recognisable.
4.2.6 If PROTIQ takes the aforementioned measures, the decision will always be justified to you ("Statement of Reasons"), provided that PROTIQ is aware of the relevant electronic contact details. PROTIQ will explain what restriction is being applied, the facts and circumstances on which the decision is based, if applicable, information on the use of automated means in the decision-making process, a reference to the legal basis or the contractual provisions concerned and inform you of the possibilities for redress available in relation to the decisions.
4.2.7 PROTIQ may also take action against you or content that violates applicable law, if the competent national judicial or administrative authorities have issued an order based on applicable law to take action against you or one or more specific pieces of illegal content. In this case, we will not provide you with a self-drafted Statement of Reasons as described in Section 4.2.6 but will inform you of the order received and its execution. You will also receive a statement of reasons from the competent national judicial or administrative authority and will be informed about the will be informed about the redress mechanisms available and the description of the territorial scope of the order.
4.2.8 If PROTIQ becomes aware of information that gives rise to the suspicion that a criminal offence has been, is being or may be committed that poses a threat to the life or safety of one or more persons, we will immediately inform the competent law enforcement or judicial authorities of our suspicions and provide all available relevant information to the extent we are legally authorised to do so.
5 Information on Recommender Systems
5.1 The order in which third party providers are displayed on the Platform is exclusively alphabetical within the framework of the general provider overview. It is not possible for you to influence this order through filters or a different sorting.
5.2 You can sort the order in which materials and finishes are displayed in the component configuration based on the following criteria: (i) "Processing method", (ii) "Price (low to high)", (iii) "Price (high to low)" or (iv) "Popularity". The sorting can be selected as desired. The display can also be influenced by the following filters: (i) favourites, (ii) material group, (iii) manufacturing group, (iv) manufacturing process, (v) material properties or by (vi) merchant requirements (e.g. by certification, shipping method or maximum production time).
5.3 You can determine the order in which the suppliers are displayed in the context of a specific material or finishing on the basis of the order and filters described in Section 5.2.
5.4 The order in which user reviews about PROTIQ and the third-party providers are displayed is chronological, so that the most recent review is displayed first. It is not possible for you to influence this order through filters or a different sorting.
5.5 No further ranking takes place. In particular, there is no possibility for third party providers to influence the ranking by paying a direct or indirect remuneration to PROTIQ.
6 Your Obligations
6.1 You are obligated to provide truthful and complete information in the offer, insofar as this is necessary for the conclusion of the contract and the information is declared as mandatory information as part of the registration process. You are also obligated to inform PROTIQ immediately of any changes to this mandatory information by updating the changed details in your customer account.
6.2 You are obligated to keep your login data secret and to protect it against unauthorised access by third parties. If you suspect that your login data or customer account has been misused, you are obligated to inform PROTIQ immediately.
7.2 Claims of the customer for damages or reimbursement of futile expenses (Sec. 284 BGB) shall only exist in accordance with the following Section 8, even in the event of defects in the Platform.
a) for damages resulting from injury to life, body or health,
8.2 The liability limitations arising from Section 8.1 shall also apply towards third parties and in the event of breaches of duty by persons (including in their favour) for whose fault PROTIQ is responsible under the statutory provisions.
8.3 The liability limitations arising from Section 8.1 and 8.2 shall not apply if a defect has been fraudulently concealed or a guarantee has been given for the quality of the products, for claims under the Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) and in the event of data protection violations.
9.2 You can cancel this contract at any time without observing a period of notice.
9.3 PROTIQ may terminate this contract with a notice period of 14 days.
9.4 The right to terminate for good cause remains unaffected. Good cause that entitles PROTIQ to terminate the contract exists in particular in the event of ongoing operational disruptions due to force majeure that are beyond PROTIQ's control, such as natural disasters, fire or network failure for which PROTIQ is not responsible.
9.5 The text form (e.g. by e-mail or letter) is sufficient to declare a formally effective termination.
10.2 A valid reason exists in particular if the changes are necessary to a not insignificant extent due to a disruption of the equivalence relationship of the contract that was unforeseeable for PROTIQ at the time the contract was concluded or are necessary for the further performance of the contract due to changes in case law or legislation.
10.3 This Section 10 does not apply to changes to a principal obligation.
10.4 PROTIQ will send you the amended Platform T&Cs in text form prior to the planned entry into force and will point out the new regulations and the date of entry into force separately. At the same time, PROTIQ will grant you a reasonable period of at least six weeks to declare whether you accept the amended Platform T&Cs for further use of the Platform.
10.5 If no declaration is made by you within this period, which begins on receipt of the message in text form, the amended Platform T&Cs shall be deemed to have been agreed.
10.6 PROTIQ will inform you separately of this legal consequence, i.e. the right of objection, the objection period and the significance of silence, at the beginning of the period.
a) ensure compliance with applicable law and/or implement changes to relevant legislation, case law and regulatory requirements;
b) rectify errors, make technical adjustments and improvements, such as adapting the Platform to a new technical environment or transferring the Platform to a new hosting Platform;
c) change the structure, design or layout of the Platform, including changing the name of the Platform or rebranding, or changing, improving and/or enhancing the available features and functions;
d) maintain the operation of the Platform;
e) adapt the Platform to changing market conditions such as increased user numbers; and
f) ensure the security of the Platform.
11.3 If we make changes in accordance with Section 11.1 and these are changes that affect your access to or use of the Platform more than insignificantly ("Major Change"), we will inform you of this at least six weeks in advance by e-mail ("Change Notice"). The Change Notice will contain a description and the date on which the Major Change will be made as well as information about your rights as described below.
11.4 In the event of a Major Change, you have the right to terminate the contract free of charge within 30 days. If you do not reject the Major Change or do not terminate the contract within this period, we will assume that you accept the changes.
11.5 The time limit in Section 11.4 shall commence upon receipt of the Change Notice by you. If the change is made after you have received the Change Notice, the period shall not begin until the time of the change.
11.6 These Platform T&Cs apply accordingly to all changes made and to the use of the service in the respective changed version.
12.2 Addressees of restrictive measures in accordance with Section 4.2 and reporting persons ("Complainants") can lodge a complaint against a moderation decision by PROTIQ.
12.3 Complaints can be lodged by using the complaint form in the footer of the website of the Plaform under DSA reporting system, also available at https://www.protiq.com/service/kontaktstelle-dsa/?formtype=4. In order to ensure that the complaint is sufficiently precise and substantiated, the information and instructions provided on the input form must be followed. The lodging of an appeal is free of charge.
12.4 PROTIQ will examine and process the complaint promptly, without discrimination, carefully and free of arbitrariness. PROTIQ ensures this through appropriately trained employees.
12.5 If a complaint contains sufficient grounds to believe that the decision not to act on a report is unfounded or that the information to which the complaint relates is neither unlawful nor in breach of the contracts in force between us and the users, or if it contains information showing that the behaviour of the Complainant does not justify temporary or permanent blocking of the user, PROTIQ will immediately reverse the moderation decision.
12.6 In the event that the Complainant is notified of a decision by means of a Statement of Reasons or notification in accordance with Section 4.2.1 PROTIQ reserves the right to only process complaints that have been submitted within a period of six months after the decision has been communicated by means of the above-mentioned statement of reasons or notification.
12.7 PROTIQ shall immediately inform the Complainant of the reasoned decision that PROTIQ has taken with regard to the content to which the complaint relates and shall inform the Complainant of the possibility of out-of-court dispute resolution and other available remedies. With regard to out-of-court dispute resolution, the Complainant is entitled to choose an out-of-court dispute resolution body that is certified in accordance with Art. 21(3) of the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 – “DSA”). However, these bodies are not authorised to bring about a binding agreement between the Complainant and PROTIQ, and PROTIQ may refuse to cooperate with such an out-of-court dispute resolution body if a dispute has already been resolved regarding the same content and the same grounds for the alleged illegality or incompatibility of content with the contracts in force between PROTIQ and the users.
12.8 These rules do not restrict or limit the Complainant's right to use other judicial procedures or measures under applicable law.
14.1 Right of Withdrawal Instructions
Right of Withdrawal Instructions
You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.
The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract. To exercise the right of withdrawal, you must inform us
PROTIQ GmbH
Flachsmarktstraße 54
32825 Blomberg
Tel.: +49 5235 3-43800
Email address: service@protiq.com
of your decision to withdraw from this contract by an unequivocal statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or email). You may use the attached model withdrawal form, but it is not obligatory.
To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.
Effects of withdrawal
If you withdraw from this contract, we shall reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (with the exception of the supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract. We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.
If you requested to begin the performance of services during the withdrawal period, you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been provided until you have communicated us your withdrawal from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.
14.2 Model withdrawal form
Model withdrawal form
(complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract.)
- To PROTIQ GmbH, Flachsmarktstraße 54, 32825 Blomberg, service@protiq.com:
- I/We (*) hereby give notice that I/We (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract of sale of the following goods (*1)/for the provision of the following service (*),
- Ordered on (*)/received on (*),
- Name of the consumer(s),
- Address of the consumer(s),
- Signature of the consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper),
- Date
__________
(*) Delete as appropriate.
15 Choice of Law and Place of Jurisdiction
15.1 These Platform T&Cs and the contractual relationship between PROTIQ and you shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, provided that you have your habitual resi-dence in Germany or have your habitual residence in a country that is not a member of the European Union. If you have your habitual residence in a member state of the European Un-ion, this shall only apply unless mandatory provisions of the law of the state in which you have your habitual residence provide otherwise.
15.2 The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with this contract is Cologne (Germany), provided that the contracting parties are merchants (Kaufleute) or you have no general place of jurisdiction in Germany or in another EU mem-ber state or have moved your permanent residence abroad after this contract has come into effect or your place of residence or habitual residence is not known at the time the action is brought.
Status: August 2024