of Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH for the website www.petbook-magazine.com
1. Scope
The following terms of use contain the basic rules for the use of the internet platform “PETBOOK” (hereinafter referred to as “PETBOOK”) of Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “Axel Springer”). The PETBOOK offer is exclusively aimed at consumers within the meaning of § 13 of the German Civil Code (BGB) who do not use the offer in the exercise of their commercial or self-employed professional activity.
2. Subject of Use and Definitions
2.1. Axel Springer operates the internet platform PETBOOK. PETBOOK is an editorial portal where users can inform themselves about certain services and products in the areas of pets and livestock. Some services and products in this area are also offered through the portal.
2.2. “User” within the meaning of these terms of use is any person who uses the services of PETBOOK and accesses the PETBOOK internet platform.
3. Use and Registration
The use of PETBOOK for informational purposes only can be done without registration. However, if the user wants to use any rating and commenting functions, this requires a user account with the comment tool used by PETBOOK (for example, Facebook).
4. User Responsibilities
4.1. The user undertakes not to upload and/or distribute any unlawful or unlawfully created content via PETBOOK and/or connected comment tools. In particular, content is impermissible that:
- the user does not have the necessary usage rights for,
- infringes on the rights of others to privacy protection or other personal rights, especially the right to one’s own image,
- contains pornographic, obscene, or demeaning motives, is defamatory or injurious to reputation or contains untrue factual claims,
- infringes on copyright, related rights, trademarks, or other rights of third parties and/or can be legally pursued.
4.2. The user is obligated to:
- ensure before uploading any content that its use is legally permissible,
- obtain usage rights for the use of content if necessary,
- immediately inform Axel Springer if they realize that they have uploaded unlawful content to PETBOOK or distributed it via PETBOOK.
4.3. Furthermore, the user undertakes to refrain from:
- posting content that pursues commercial interests.
- engaging in or promoting anticompetitive actions, such as progressive customer recruitment through chain, snowball, or pyramid schemes,
- engaging in other harassing actions towards other users or employees of Axel Springer via PETBOOK,
- attempting to gain unauthorized access to third-party data,
- using PETBOOK in a way that could lead to overload or disruption of Axel Springer’s systems.
4.4. In the event of user breaches of obligations, Axel Springer may and will take appropriate measures to prevent these breaches. Axel Springer is particularly entitled to edit, block, or delete infringing content. In exceptional cases, Axel Springer may be entitled to exclude users in whole or in part from using PETBOOK.
5. Rights of Use
5.1. All trademarks and other protected designations mentioned on PETBOOK are subject to the respective legal provisions and the ownership rights of the respective rights holders without limitation. Simply by mentioning them, it cannot be concluded that trademarks and designations are not protected by third-party rights.
5.2. All rights to content published on PETBOOK (text, data, images, videos, databases) remain reserved. In particular, it is not permitted to reproduce, modify, distribute, make publicly accessible, broadcast, or otherwise use the content, whether in whole or in part, in any form without the consent of Axel Springer, whether for private or commercial purposes.
5.3. The user grants Axel Springer transferable, non-exclusive, unlimited rights in terms of time and space to the content they upload and/or use to the extent necessary for the operation of PETBOOK. The granting of rights occurs by uploading content to PETBOOK, even if this is done via a third-party commenting tool, such as Facebook. The rights granted may end with the deletion of the relevant content, otherwise, they are granted indefinitely.
5.4. The user particularly grants Axel Springer the right to:
- Include the content in PETBOOK and make the necessary reproductions for this purpose,
- Edit the content to the extent necessary to convert it into a format suitable for PETBOOK,
- Make the content publicly accessible, broadcast it, and otherwise publicly reproduce it. This includes, in particular, making the content available for retrieval by any third party over the Internet,
- Allow third parties to download the content to fixed or mobile devices and use it as intended, and to grant third parties the necessary usage rights for this purpose,
- Use individual contents, particularly audio or text excerpts, as well as excerpts in the form of videos or screenshots, for preview purposes to promote PETBOOK, and to reproduce, distribute, and make the relevant content publicly accessible or otherwise publicly reproduce it, including outside of PETBOOK, and to grant third parties the necessary usage rights for this purpose,
- Transfer the rights granted by the user under these terms of use to companies affiliated with Axel Springer in the sense of § 15 AktG.
5.5. The user indemnifies Axel Springer from all claims in the event that third parties assert claims due to the use of content uploaded by the user, regardless of the legal basis, and these claims are based on culpable behavior by the user.
5.6. Furthermore, Axel Springer reserves the right to open PETBOOK via an appropriate application programming interface (API) so that PETBOOK can also be used by or within the framework of third-party Internet services, possibly including access to the works provided by the user. In this case, the user already grants Axel Springer the transferable, non-exclusive, unlimited right in terms of time and space to allow the respective third parties to access and possibly subsequently make publicly accessible or broadcast the content uploaded by the user.
6. Liability of Axel Springer
6.1. In the case of intentional or grossly negligent breaches of duty and in the case of culpable injury to life, body, or health, Axel Springer is fully liable for all damages resulting therefrom, unless otherwise provided by law or stipulated below.
6.2. In cases of slight negligence, Axel Springer is liable for property and financial damage only in the event of a breach of essential contractual obligations. Essential contractual obligations are those obligations whose fulfillment enables the proper execution of the contract in the first place, whose breach endangers the achievement of the contractual purpose, and on whose compliance the contracting party regularly relies and may rely. Liability is limited to the contract-typical foreseeable damage. This also applies to lost profits and missed savings.
6.3. Further liability for damages is excluded, regardless of the legal nature of the asserted claim. This particularly applies to unauthorized actions under §§ 823, 831 BGB.
6.4. Any unlimited liability of Axel Springer under the provisions of the German Product Liability Act or due to fraud, the absence of a guaranteed quality, or the assumption of a guarantee remains unaffected by the aforementioned liability limitations.
7. Data Protection
Axel Springer places great importance on the protection and security of users’ personal data. Further information can be found in the privacy policy.
8. Final Provisions
8.1. The European Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution (OS platform) at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. Consumers have the opportunity to use this platform to settle their disputes.
Information pursuant to § 36 of the Consumer Dispute Resolution Act: PETBOOK does not participate in a voluntary dispute resolution procedure before a German consumer arbitration board. There is no legal obligation to do so.
8.2. Applicable law: These terms of use are governed by German law, excluding the UN Sales Convention and German and European conflict of laws, with mandatory consumer protection regulations always taking precedence over the choice of law.
8.3. Jurisdiction: For merchants (within the meaning of the German Commercial Code), foundations, or public law corporations, Berlin is the exclusive jurisdiction for all disputes arising from or in connection with the use of Axel Springer’s offerings or these terms of use.
8.4. In connection with participation in sweepstakes, legal recourse is excluded.