General Terms and Conditions

1. Scope

These General Terms and Conditions shall apply to all legal relationships arising between viaduct partners GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “viaductus”) and the user of the viaductus offer (hereinafter referred to as “user”) in the context of using the company, franchise and consultancy databases (hereinafter referred to as “database”).

2. viaductus services

2.1 viaductus brings together providers and seekers of companies, parts of companies, participations, franchise offers and advice via the internet on the platform provided at www.viaductus.de. To this end, the user is given the opportunity, in accordance with Section 4, to upload his or her own content to the platform and/or to access third-party content in accordance with Sections 8.2 f.

2.2 The service offering also includes an information service available exclusively to registered users, which provides the user with current offers on company acquisitions and sales, franchising and consulting with regard to the user's logged-in search queries. Data will not be passed on to third parties unless the user expressly agrees to this. If the user changes his search query (e.g. company in another industry), the newsletter is automatically adjusted. However, the user can also change his newsletter preferences in his user account at any time or unsubscribe from this service altogether.

2.3 In addition, various associated services are offered on the viaductus online marketplace, which are also subject to these terms and conditions, unless otherwise agreed.

3. Registration by the user

3.1. The use of certain services of viaductus requires the registration of the user on the viaductus website. Only adult users with full legal capacity are permitted to register. Only registered users are able to place advertisements in the viaductus database.

3.2 During registration, the user must provide his name, e-mail address, company name, role in the company, industry sector, a user name, a password and, as a consultant, the number of transactions accompanied per year. Registration with the real name is mandatory. In addition to the real name, the user can choose a user name with which he can visibly communicate with other users on the platform. Multiple registrations by a single user are not permitted.

3.3. The email address or username and password are the access data for using the services of viaductus that require registration. The user must keep the password secret and must not pass it on to third parties. If third parties obtain knowledge of the user's password, the user must report this to viaductus immediately and change the password.

3.4 Our data protection information applies to the personal data of the user collected during registration. Available at www.viaductus.de/datenschutz

4. Uploading content to the database

4.1 By transmitting the registration data and the content intended for uploading to the database, the user makes an offer to viaductus to conclude a contract for the temporary inclusion and provision of the content in the database. viaductus decides whether to accept the offer after it has been received. The offer is accepted by including the content in the database. viaductus is entitled, but not obliged, to distribute the posted content free of charge to the user via cooperating company exchanges and other partners online and in printed form.

5. Information and obligations of the providers

5.1 Users who advertise companies, parts of companies, franchise systems or consultancy services as part of the viaductus offering (hereinafter referred to as “providers”) undertake to post only reputable offers, to compile the information provided to viaductus about the offer carefully and truthfully, and to deactivate it immediately if the offered object is no longer available. The commercial resale of advertising space and quotas or other services offered by viaductus is expressly not permitted. Unless otherwise expressly agreed, the use or shared use of the account by third parties, in particular by other consultants or franchisees, is also not permitted.

5.2 Offer designs that serve the sole purpose of attracting the attention of interested parties will be considered misuse. Such offer designs are particularly present in the following cases:

a) false and/or incorrect information in the turnover,
b) multiple settings of the same object,
c) advertisements (not profiles) are misused as advertising space for one's own company,
d) Searchers are made aware of an offer through unspecific or even false information (this includes, among other things, incomplete or false offers),
e) Forwarding of interested parties to Internet or telephone services that are subject to a charge (in particular 0190 or 0900 numbers),
f) company or contact data are only disclosed after registration, which is subject to a fee.
Such offers constitute manipulation of the viaductus marketplace.

5.3 Offers in which a consultancy fee is demanded in the event of a transaction must explicitly mention this in the offer.

5.4 Notwithstanding possible civil and criminal consequences for the individual provider, failure to comply with any of the obligations set out in this section shall entitle viaductus to immediately deactivate the affected advertisements and profiles. If the failure to comply is culpable, viaductus is also entitled to terminate the contract with the respective provider without notice for good cause and to block access to the viaductus database system immediately.

5.5 The provider's rights under the contract with viaductus are non-transferable.

6. Responsibility for content

6.1 The user is responsible for the content posted by him. In particular, he warrants that the content is not unlawful and does not infringe the rights of third parties (e.g. copyrights or trademark rights). viaductus is not obliged to check whether posted content infringes the rights of third parties or violates legal regulations. The user is obliged to correct or delete the content posted by him if it does not meet the requirements for the design of advertisements. The user can make changes via the “My Account” menu. Furthermore, the user must ensure that the files they transmit do not contain any viruses or similar harmful programs. Uploading, publishing, sharing or distributing images, videos, texts or other materials that depict or contain the following content is strictly prohibited:

Violence: depictions of physical violence, abuse, torture, murder, animal cruelty or other acts that inflict harm or suffering.
Pornography: any form of pornographic or sexually explicit content, including, but not limited to, child pornography, depictions of rape or non-consensual sexual acts.
Hate speech and discrimination: content that incites, promotes or justifies hatred, discrimination, violence or prejudice based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or any other protected characteristic.
Terrorism and extremism: content that promotes, glorifies or justifies terrorist acts, as well as content that spreads extremist ideologies.
Illegal activities: Materials that promote, advocate, or depict illegal activities, including, but not limited to, drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, or hacking.
Bullying and harassment: Content intended to harass, intimidate, threaten, or otherwise victimize an individual or group.
Copyright infringement: content that infringes the intellectual property rights of third parties, including, but not limited to, copyrighted material, trademarks or trade secrets, without the express permission of the rights holder.

6.2 If claims are made against viaductus by third parties, including state institutions, under this contract due to the infringement of third-party rights or other legal violations as a result of the contractual use of the user's content, the user shall indemnify viaductus against these claims and shall provide viaductus with the necessary support in the legal defense, to which viaductus is entitled but not obliged, provide the necessary support and assume the necessary costs of the legal defense for viaductus. The prerequisite for this is that viaductus informs the user immediately and comprehensively in writing (e-mail is sufficient) of any claims asserted and violations of rights, does not make any concessions or acknowledgments or any declarations equivalent to these, and enables the user to conduct all judicial and extrajudicial negotiations regarding the claims at his own expense. The assertion of further claims remains reserved to viaductus.

6.3 In the event of a breach of the provisions described in this section, viaductus is entitled at any time to reject the content, or to remove or deactivate it immediately and without prior consultation with the user. viaductus will inform the user immediately of the reasons for rejection, deletion or deactivation of the content.

6.4 The user's obligation to pay the fee remains unaffected by the measures mentioned in this clause.

7. Rights of use

By placing content in the database, the user grants viaductus the right to use this content for an unlimited period of time for the types of use necessary for placing and storing the content in the database and for retrieval by third parties, in particular to store, reproduce, edit, modify, store, transmit, publish and make publicly available, including through or in the form of magazine advertisements, online advertising banners from viaductus in the context of so-called retargeting marketing, in which visitors to the viaductus websites are targeted with advertising about companies and franchise systems that they have previously viewed on the viaductus websites.

8. Rights to the database

8.1. viaductus is the rights holder for the contents of the website and the database. All copyrights, trademark rights and other proprietary rights in the database work, the database and the contents, data and other elements posted here are the exclusive property of viaductus; any rights of the user to the contents posted by him remain unaffected.

8.2 Within the scope of these terms and conditions of use, the user has the right to visualize individual data sets on his screen and to make a printout for permanent visualization, but only by using the online search masks provided by viaductus. Automated queries by scripts, by circumventing the search mask by search software or comparable measures are not permitted.

8.3 The user may not use the data obtained through the query, either in whole or in part, to build up his or her own database in any media form and/or for commercial data utilization or the provision of information and/or for any other commercial use. The linking, integration or other connection of the database or individual elements of the database with other databases or meta-databases is not permitted.

9. Warranty

9.1. viaductus does not guarantee the correctness and completeness of the information provided by users and the declarations made by them, nor does it guarantee the identity and integrity of the users.

9.2. The content and advertisements placed in the database are third-party content for viaductus within the meaning of Section 8 (1) of the German Telemedia Act (TMG). Accordingly, legal responsibility for such content lies with the person who has placed the content in the database.

9.3. viaductus does not provide any warranty for technical defects, in particular for the constant and uninterrupted availability of the database and its contents or for the complete and error-free reproduction of the content placed in the database by the user.

10. Liability

10.1 The following shall apply to losses incurred by the user in connection with the services provided by viaductus through viaductus, subcontractors or their respective agents:
In the event of intent or gross negligence and in the event of a guarantee, liability shall be unlimited. In the event of slight negligence, liability for injury to life, limb or health is also unlimited. In the event of a slightly negligent breach of material contractual obligations, liability is limited to the property and pecuniary damage attributable to this in the amount of the foreseeable, typically occurring damage. Any further liability for damages is excluded, except for claims under the Product Liability Act.

10.2 viaductus shall be liable for data losses and costs of useless data input within the scope of the above provisions only to the extent that could not have been avoided even if the user had secured the data available to him in the latest state of processing in machine-readable form.

10.3 Any contributory negligence on the part of the user must be taken into account in every case. In particular, the user is obliged to check the data posted by him and displayed by viaductus at least by means of a single search query to ensure that it is correct.

10.4. viaductus gives both users and advertising partners the opportunity to set up links to external websites not operated by viaductus. viaductus makes it clear that it is not responsible for the content of linked pages and has no way of influencing their design or content. viaductus does not endorse the content of these pages and assumes no liability for them. The operators of linked pages are exclusively responsible for their content. viaductus cannot be expected to check the content without specific indications of illegal content. The user must notify viaductus immediately as soon as he becomes aware of linked pages whose content appears questionable.

10.5. The above provisions also apply to the benefit of viaductus employees.

11. Remuneration and withholding of services

11.1. The prices and products for the individual viaductus services are based on the prices and product range applicable at the time the order is placed. The order is placed as soon as the user clicks on the “Book now” button.

11.2. The following payment methods may be available to you on viaductus. Please note that not all payment methods are available in every case. The available payment methods are displayed during the booking process.

Credit card: When placing an order, you provide your credit card details. Your card will be charged immediately after the order is placed.

PayPal, PayPal Express: To pay the invoice amount via the payment service provider PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A, 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg (“PayPal”), you must be registered with PayPal, identify yourself with your access data and confirm the payment instruction.
The payment transaction is carried out by PayPal immediately after the order has been placed. You will receive further instructions during the booking process.
PayPal may offer registered PayPal customers, selected according to its own criteria, further payment options in their customer account. However, viaductus has no influence over whether these options are offered; further individually offered payment options affect your legal relationship with PayPal. You can find further information on this in your PayPal account.

PayPal Plus: In cooperation with the payment service provider PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A, 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg (“PayPal”), we offer you the following payment options as PayPal services. Unless otherwise specified below, payment via PayPal does not require registration with PayPal. Further information can be found in the respective payment option and during the booking process.

Credit card via PayPal: Your card will be charged by PayPal after the order has been placed.

Direct debit via PayPal: Payment by direct debit via PayPal requires an address and credit check and is made directly to PayPal. By confirming the payment instruction, you authorize PayPal to collect the direct debit. PayPal will inform you of the date of the account debit (so-called prenotification). The account will be debited after the order has been placed.

Sofort by Klarna: To pay the invoice amount via the payment service provider Sofort GmbH, Theresienhöhe 12, 80339 Munich, you must have a bank account that is activated for online banking, identify yourself accordingly and confirm the payment instruction. Your account will be debited immediately after the order has been placed. You will receive further instructions during the booking process.

Google Pay: To pay the invoice amount via the payment service provider Google Ireland Ltd, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Google”), you must be registered with Google, have activated the Google Pay function, identify yourself with your access data and confirm the payment instruction. The payment transaction will be carried out immediately after the order is placed. You will receive further instructions during the booking process.

Apple Pay: To pay the invoice amount via the payment service provider Apple Inc., One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA (“Apple”), you must use the “Safari” browser, be registered with Apple, have activated the Apple Pay function, identify yourself with your access data and confirm the payment instruction. The payment transaction will be carried out immediately after the order has been placed. You will receive further instructions during the booking process.

Amazon Pay: To pay the invoice amount via the payment service provider Amazon Payments Europe S.C.A., 38 avenue J.F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg (“Amazon”), you must be registered with Amazon, identify yourself with your access data and confirm the payment instruction. The payment transaction is carried out by Amazon Pay within one bank business day of the order being placed. Amazon Pay may offer registered Amazon Pay customers, selected according to its own criteria, further payment modalities in the customer account. However, viaductus has no influence on the offering of these modalities; further individually offered payment modalities concern your legal relationship with Amazon Pay. You can find further information on this in your Amazon Pay account.

giropay: In cooperation with the payment service provider paydirekt GmbH, Stephanstr. 14-16, 60313 Frankfurt a. M, we offer the giropay payment method. To pay the invoice amount via giropay, you must have a bank account that is activated for online banking, identify yourself accordingly and confirm the payment instruction. Your account will be debited immediately after the order has been placed. You will receive further information during the booking process. Giropay can offer registered giropay customers, selected according to their own criteria, further payment options in their customer account. However, viaductus has no influence over the offering of these options; further individually offered payment options affect your legal relationship with giropay. You can find further information on this in your giropay account.

paydirekt: In cooperation with the payment service provider paydirekt GmbH, Stephanstr. 14-16, 60313 Frankfurt a. M, we offer the payment methods paydirekt. To pay the invoice amount via paydirekt, you must have a bank account that is activated for online banking, identify yourself accordingly and confirm the payment instruction.
The payment transaction is carried out immediately after the order has been placed. You will receive further instructions during the booking process.
Paydirekt may offer registered and selected paydirekt customers further payment options in their customer account. However, viaductus has no influence on whether these options are offered; further individually offered payment options affect your legal relationship with paydirekt. You can find more information in your paydirekt account.

Klarna: In cooperation with the payment service provider Klarna Bank AB (publ.), Sveavägen 46, 111 34 Stockholm, Sweden (“Klarna”), we offer you the following payment options. Payment via Klarna is only available to consumers. Unless otherwise specified below, payment via Klarna requires a successful address and credit check and is made directly to Klarna. You will receive further information with the respective payment option and during the booking process.

Klarna Credit Card: You provide your credit card details during the booking process. Your card will be charged by Klarna immediately after the order is placed. No address or credit check is carried out.

Klarna direct debit: You issue Klarna a SEPA direct debit mandate. Klarna will inform you of the date of the account debit (so-called prenotification). The account will be debited after the order has been placed.

12. Invoices

12.1. Invoices are sent by email through the payment service provider Stripe. By using our services and providing your email address, you consent to electronic invoicing. Stripe processes your payment information in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations. For payments with a discount code, the discount code is only valid in the online booking process. It is not possible to apply a discount to bookings made at a later date.

12.2 The user is responsible for ensuring that the billing address is up to date. viaductus will charge a fee of EUR 10 net to reissue an invoice with a changed billing address.

13. Revocation

If you, as a consumer, order a service for which a fee is payable, you have the following right of revocation:
Consumers have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without stating any reasons.
The revocation period is fourteen days from the date of the conclusion of the contract.
To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must notify us at

viaduct partners GmbH
Gudrunstr. 2
D-80634 Munich
Tel.: +49 (0) 155 664 768 05
contact@viaductus.de

of your decision to withdraw from this contract by means of a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail). 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.
Consequences of withdrawal
If you withdraw from this contract, we shall reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery, 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. For this repayment, we will use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; under no circumstances will you be charged for this repayment.
If you have requested that the services should begin during the revocation period, you shall pay us a reasonable amount corresponding to the proportion of the services already provided by the time you notify us of the exercise of the right of revocation with respect to this contract compared to the total scope of the services provided for in the contract.
Note on the premature expiration of the right of revocation
Your right of withdrawal expires prematurely in the case of a contract for the provision of services if we have provided the service in full and have only begun to provide the service after you have given your express consent and at the same time confirmed that you are aware that you will lose your right of withdrawal if we have fully performed the contract. In your case, your right of withdrawal shall lapse as soon as we make available to you the option of creating a sales advertisement or a purchase request on our viaductus platform.
By consenting to the immediate performance of the service, you declare your agreement that your right of withdrawal shall lapse as soon as you have been given the option of creating the advertisement, regardless of whether the advertisement is published or not.
End of cancellation policy.

14. Amendment of the general terms and conditions

14.1. viaductus reserves the right to amend these general terms and conditions at any time, subject to a reasonable notice period of at least six weeks. The announcement shall be made by publishing the amended general terms and conditions on the viaductus website, stating the date of entry into force.

14.2 If the Demander does not object within six weeks of publication, the amended Terms and Conditions shall be deemed to have been accepted. The announcement of the amendment shall make specific reference to the significance of the six-week period.

14.3 If the Demander objects to the amended terms and conditions within the time limit, viaductus shall be entitled, while safeguarding the legitimate interests of the Demander, to terminate the contract existing with the Demander at the time the amendment comes into force. Corresponding contents of the user will then be deleted from the database. The user cannot assert any claims against viaductus as a result.

15. Final Clauses

15.1 The legal relationships between viaductus and the user are subject to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany under exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. For consumers, this choice of law only applies to the extent that the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the state in which the consumer has his habitual residence is not withdrawn.

15.2 The place of jurisdiction is Munich, provided that the user is a merchant or a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law. The same applies if the user does not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany or the EU or if their domicile or usual place of residence is not known at the time of the commencement of proceedings. The right to also appeal to the court at another legal place of jurisdiction remains unaffected.
As of May 2024