General terms and conditions I MEET GERMANY COMMUNITY

1. Contractual partners and subject of the contract

1.1. MEET GERMANY is a registered trademark of Event Destinations GmbH, represented by the Managing Director Tanja Schramm, Heinrich-Heine-Platz 10 in 10179 Berlin (hereinafter „MEET GERMANY“). The subject of this contract is the membership of the contractual partner (hereinafter „Customer“) in the B2B network of the event industry (hereinafter „Community“). The objective of MEET GERMANY is the network activity such as networking and presentation of the services and offers of the Customers (digital & analog), promotion of knowledge transfer, bundling of the sales potential of Customers and other partners of MEET GERMANY, planning and implementation of joint actions and events as well as increasing the level of awareness of MICE & business travel destinations.

1.2. Contractual relations concerning memberships in the community are exclusively between the contracting party and MEET GERMANY.

1.3. These AGB apply to entrepreneurs within the meaning of § 14 BGB. According to § 14 BGB, an entrepreneur is any natural or legal person or partnership with legal capacity who, when concluding a legal transaction, acts in the exercise of his commercial or independent professional activity.

2. Scope and membership rights

2.1. These General Terms and Conditions (GTC) shall apply to all present and future contractual relationships concerning a membership with MEET GERMANY. Deviating, conflicting or supplementary General Terms and Conditions shall not become part of the contract even if the user is aware of them, unless their validity is expressly agreed to upon conclusion of the contract. These General Terms and Conditions shall apply even if the services which are the subject of the contract are performed without reservation under the contracting party’s conflicting General Terms and Conditions. Conflicting or deviating terms and conditions shall not be recognized. Amendments, supplements and verbal agreements by the management or by statements of other persons shall only become part of the contract if they are expressly confirmed by a person authorized to represent the company.

2.2. Eligible for membership are natural persons and companies.

3. Technical procedure for concluding the contract/contract language

3.1. The presentation of the offer by MEET GERMANY does not constitute a binding contractual offer. By signing or sending a membership application via internet, fax, telephone or e-mail, the contracting party makes a binding offer to conclude a contract for a membership with MEET GERMANY. MEET GERMANY reserves the right to accept the offer of the contracting party within a period of 14 days. The acceptance takes place by confirmation of the membership application by MEET GERMANY. If MEET GERMANY does not accept the application within this period, the contracting party is no longer bound to its application.

3.2. Information about the technical steps for the conclusion of the contract The contracting party can fill out a membership application on the MEET GERMANY website. Only those who share the values of MEET GERMANY and are active in the event industry can become members. At the bottom of the page, the contractual partner clicks the button „Book now with costs“. Subsequently, a page opens which confirms the order of the contractual partner. Acceptance by the seller shall be made in accordance with clause

3.3. The text of the contract shall be made available exclusively in German. The contractual partner can save the text of the contract by using the „Save as“ function of his browser to save the relevant Internet page on his computer. By using the print function of his browser, he also has the option to print out the contract text.

3.4. Before bindingly submitting his application via the online order form, the contractual partner can continuously correct his entries via the usual keyboard and mouse functions.

4. Subject matter of the contract and additional services

4.1. The subject of the contract is the membership in the community organized by MEET GERMANY as well as the further services agreed upon. The services of MEET GERMANY belonging to a tariff result from the FACT SHEETS, which are subject of the contract. Through the Community, MEET GERMANY’s customers shall be brought into contact with each other in order to strengthen the relationships of members of the event industry.

4.2. In addition to the membership, MEET GERMANY offers further services in the field of events, marketing and PR as well as mediation. As far as services are not included in the tariff chosen by the member, the service offered by MEET GERMANY can be ordered by additional conclusion of a contract.

4.3. MEET GERMANY offers the brokerage of selected products and/or services of strategic partners to support the contractual partner. In the case of the mediation of services, a contractual relationship is established exclusively between the customer and the third party. Services related thereto are to be rendered directly between these parties. Insofar as MEET GERMANY renders services in this context, these are exclusively services for the customer, without this constituting a contractual obligation of its own towards the third party. The contractual relationship between the Customer and the third party shall be governed by the GTC of the third party. The customer undertakes to indemnify MEET GERMANY from all claims of third parties which are based on an intermediation of MEET GERMANY to the customer.

5. Cooperation obligations of the customer

5.1. The Customer and MEET GERMANY agree that MEET GERMANY can only provide its services properly if the Customer supports MEET GERMANY to the necessary extent. In this respect, the customer shall make available to MEET GERMANY all information necessary for the performance of its services. The customer shall bear the costs for the effort if work has to be repeated or is delayed as a result of his incorrect, incomplete or subsequently changed information provided by MEET GERMANY.

5.2. The Customer shall provide MEET GERMANY free of charge with all templates, information, data, image, sound, text or other materials and files (hereinafter referred to as „Documents“) necessary for the performance of the contract.

5.3. Insofar as MEET GERMANY has to provide image, sound, text or other materials for the performance of services, these shall be transmitted to MEET GERMANY in a common, directly usable, preferably digital format. If a conversion of the material provided by the customer into another format is necessary, this customer shall bear the costs and expenses associated therewith.

5.4. The customer guarantees that MEET GERMANY receives the rights required for the use of these materials from the customer with the provision, in particular with regard to copyright and labeling rights, youth protection and press law as well as the „right to one’s own image“. He assures that these templates are not encumbered with rights of third parties or that the Customer has the right of use required for the provision of services by MEET GERMANY. MEET GERMANY shall not be liable for any infringement of such rights.

5.5. The customer shall perform all acts of cooperation on its own responsibility and at its own expense.

6. Membership fee and terms of payment

6.1. The amount of the membership fee is determined by the rate selected by the customer. All prices are net and subject to the applicable statutory value-added tax.

6.2. Unless otherwise stated in the description of MEET GERMANY, the prices quoted are net prices. The value added tax is shown additionally. All price offers and quotations outside the order confirmation are non-binding and can be changed by MEET GERMANY at any time.

7. Rights and obligations of the contracting party

7.1. The contracting party undertakes to pay the agreed membership fee after invoicing within a period of 14 days from sending the invoice to the account designated by MEET GERMANY. In the event of non-payment of the membership fee, the contracting party shall be in default upon expiry of this period without the need for an additional reminder.

7.2. Together with the membership application, the contracting party shall name an e-mail address via which communication with the member can take place. The contracting party is obliged to notify the change of its contact details without delay.

7.3. The contracting party is aware that the common goals of the community can only be achieved if the members can also be brought into contact with each other by MEET GERMANY. For this reason, the contracting party agrees that MEET GERMANY may, during the term of the contract, transmit the contact data communicated to MEET GERMANY to other members, if the goals of the Community can be pursued through this or if it can be assumed that the contracting party is interested in establishing contact with this other member.

7.4. The contracting party is aware that MEET GERMANY has entered into strategic partnerships with third parties, among others, for the purpose of staging events. Services of MEET GERMANY shall be provided in consideration of the respective general terms and conditions and/or house rules of the strategic partner, which must be observed when using services in connection with this strategic partner and which shall become the subject matter of the contract.

7.5. The contracting party is aware that no economic and/or media successes or hoped-for profits of the contracting party are owed by MEET GERMANY with this contract.

8. Warranty and liability

8.1. Outside the liability for material defects and defects of title, MEET GERMANY shall be liable without limitation insofar as the cause of damage is based on intent or gross negligence. MEET GERMANY shall also be liable for the slightly negligent breach of essential obligations (obligations the breach of which jeopardizes the achievement of the purpose of the contract) as well as for the breach of cardinal obligations (obligations the fulfillment of which makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and the compliance with which the client regularly relies on), but in each case only for the foreseeable damage typical for the contract. MEET GERMANY shall not be liable for the slightly negligent breach of obligations other than the aforementioned.

8.2. Warranty claims due to defective services must be asserted to MEET GERMANY in text form immediately, at the latest within a period of five working days after the service has been provided by MEET GERMANY and the customer has become aware of this. Warranty claims asserted after this period are excluded.

8.3. If the liability of MEET GERMANY is excluded or limited according to section 8.1, this shall also apply to the personal liability of its employees, representatives and vicarious agents.

8.4. Liability for culpable injury to life, limb or health shall remain unaffected; this shall also apply to mandatory liability under the Product Liability Act and other mandatory statutory provisions.

8.5. MEET GERMANY shall not be liable for the loss of data or for any other damage resulting from the fact that the customer has used a service of MEET GERMANY without having performed a data backup beforehand.

8.6. If MEET GERMANY considers a legal examination by a particularly competent person or institution to be necessary for the measures to be carried out, the customer shall bear the costs after consultation.

9. Term of the contract, termination of the contract

9.1. Membership has a minimum term of one year and begins on the day the membership application is signed by MEET GERMANY. During this time, termination without good cause is excluded.

9.2. If the membership is not terminated at least two months before the end of the respective contract period, the membership is extended by one year at a time. The date of receipt of the written notice of termination by MEET GERMANY is decisive for the date of termination.

9.3. Termination for other good cause shall remain unaffected. Good cause shall be deemed to exist in particular if

9.3.1. the contracting party is in default of payment of the membership fee by more than eight weeks from the date of invoicing

9.3.2. the rules or the basic principles of MEET GERMANY are violated by the contracting party and/or the member,

9.3.3. the contracting party makes incorrect or incomplete statements to third parties or the public, which could give rise to fears of damage to the reputation of MEET GERMANY or otherwise violate legal provisions,

9.3.4. an application has been filed for the opening of insolvency proceedings against the assets of the contracting party, insolvency proceedings have been opened against the assets of the contracting party or the opening of such proceedings has been rejected for lack of assets.

9.4. In the event of termination for cause, MEET GERMANY expressly reserves the right to assert claims for damages against the contracting party in accordance with the statutory provisions.

9.5. Any termination may be made in text form. The termination becomes effective when it has been delivered to the contracting party in due time.

10. Special conditions for events

10.1. The opportunity to participate in an event organized and/or conducted by MEET GERMANY is exclusively available to members of the community.

10.2. MEET GERMANY implements concepts of events in order to bring special purposes and/or goals of the community or particularly interesting topics of the event industry into the discussion and thereby support an overall strengthening of the community. Depending on the concept pursued, MEET GERMANY reserves the right to grant access exclusively to selected members and/or members from certain fields of activity in the event industry.

10.3. Insofar as the participation option is not already included in the tariff chosen by the customer, the customer is obliged to pay the agreed price for the participation in the event organized and/or carried out immediately after booking the participation in MEET GERMANY.

10.4. The Customer is aware that MEET GERMANY conducts events and functions both with personal presence at a venue (offline) or via the Internet (online) as well as in a combined manner, namely by transmission by means of video and audio recordings from the venue (hybrid event).

10.5. MEET GERMANY reserves the right to replace announced speakers with others and to make necessary changes to the event program while maintaining the overall character of the event. MEET GERMANY is entitled to relocate events, to hold them exclusively online and/or to name another date if there are important reasons.

11. Special conditions for exhibitors

11.1. MEET GERMANY offers members the opportunity to rent a stand area on the event grounds for an additional fee, while maintaining the overall character of the event, and to agree on further advertising services from MEET GERMANY associated with this, in order to present their own services and products to the participants of the event.

11.2. If several exhibitors wish to rent a stand together, they must name an authorized exhibition representative in the registration form, with whom MEET GERMANY alone will negotiate. The authorized representative is liable for any fault on the part of the person giving the power of attorney as for his own fault. The participating exhibitors are liable to MEET GERMANY as joint and several debtors.

11.3. MEET GERMANY may exclude individual exhibitors from participation for objectively justified reasons, in particular if the space available is insufficient, as well as restrict the event to certain exhibitor groups if this is necessary to achieve the purpose of the event. The same applies to the exhibits.

11.4. MEET GERMANY will allocate the stand taking into account the theme and structure of the respective event as well as the available space. Stand requests will be considered as far as possible. An exchange of the allocated stand with another exhibitor as well as a partial or complete transfer of the stand to third parties is not permitted without a corresponding agreement with MEET GERMANY.

11.5. If the contract for the stand rental and the associated additional advertising services is terminated by the exhibitor with a notice period of up to 8 weeks before the day of the event by cancellation or withdrawal, he is obliged to pay an amount equal to 50% of the agreed total rent. If the contract is terminated by the exhibitor with a notice period of less than 8 weeks before the day of the event, he remains obliged to pay the agreed total rent. The exhibitor reserves the right to prove that MEET GERMANY did not incur these costs or did not incur them in this amount. MEET GERMANY reserves the right to assert further claims.

11.6. MEET GERMANY is entitled to withdraw from the contract if

11.6.1. full payment has not been received by no later than the date specified in the invoice and the exhibitor does not pay even after expiry of a grace period granted to him;

11.6.2. the stand is not recognizably occupied in time, i.e. at least 24 hours before the official opening;

11.6.3. the exhibitor violates the house rules and/or a hygiene concept existing at the event location and does not cease his behavior even after receiving a warning;

11.6.4. the prerequisites for the granting of admission in the person of the registered exhibitor no longer exist or MEET GERMANY subsequently becomes aware of reasons, the timely knowledge of which would have justified non-admission.

11.7. Advertising of any kind by the exhibitor is only permitted within the stand rented by the exhibitor for the exhibitor’s own company and only for the exhibits it manufactures or distributes, unless the parties have agreed otherwise. Loudspeaker advertising, slide or film presentations as well as show interludes require written agreement with MEET GERMANY. The same shall apply to the use of other devices and equipment by means of which an increased advertising effect is to be achieved in a visual and acoustic manner. Political advertising is generally not permitted.

11.8. Official approvals must always be obtained by the exhibitor. He is responsible for ensuring compliance with the GEMA regulations as well as with the provisions of trade law, police law, health law and other statutory provisions, including in particular the „Gesetz über technische Arbeitsmittel“ (Equipment Safety Act). He must also observe the „Technical Guidelines“ in the Exhibitor Service Documents, which contain, in particular, regulations on stand construction and design, as well as extensive safety regulations. During the event, the exhibitor is subject to the domiciliary rights of the respective venue on the entire premises. The instructions of its employees must be obeyed.

12. Force majeure

12.1. If the event cannot be held due to force majeure, due to disruptions at the venue or due to too few participants, the participants and exhibitors will be informed immediately by MEET GERMANY. Cancellation due to insufficient number of participants will be made in due time before the start of the event. The event fee will be refunded in such cases. A claim for compensation of travel and accommodation costs as well as loss of work is excluded, unless such costs arise due to grossly negligent or intentional conduct on the part of MEET GERMANY.

12.2. In case of cancellation with simultaneous and/or planned rescheduling of the event due to force majeure (natural disasters of any kind, extreme bad weather, pandemics, epidemics, wars, political unrest, strikes, terrorism, sabotage, acts of state, production disruptions beyond MEET GERMANY’s control), the contractually agreed services shall remain in effect and the contract term shall be automatically extended until the new event date.

12.3. The parties mutually undertake to inform each other immediately of any cancellation and postponement of the event. In this case, delivery and service obligations of both contracting parties shall be performed on the postponed date.

12.4. The presumption or anticipation of a case of force majeure, e.g. cancellation of the event due to measures to contain, among other things, the Corona pandemic, is not an important reason entitling to extraordinary termination. MEET GERMANY is only entitled to cancel the event due to official measures, warnings and resolutions of the responsible institutions. In this case, MEET GERMANY is entitled to provide the services owed to the contractual partners by holding the event as an online event.

12.5. The parties exclude claims of the contracting party against MEET GERMANY due to changed circumstances after the start of the event and related official restrictions issued in connection with gatherings of people to prevent the spread of the Covid 19 pandemic or comparable circumstances. This applies in particular if, in the event of non-compliance with distance regulations, a temporary or complete interruption of the event is ordered by the authorities.

13. Collecting societies

13.1. The contracting party undertakes to pay any fees due to collecting societies (e.g. VG Wort, Gema etc.). If these fees are disbursed by MEET GERMANY, the customer undertakes to reimburse MEET GERMANY against proof.

14. Video, sound & photo recording

14.1. Film, sound and photo recordings will be made at all MEET GERMANY events.

14.2. Photos or film recordings of members taken at an event may be used by MEET GERMANY on the websites operated by MEET GERMANY as well as in other media, e.g. social media such as Facebook etc., newspaper articles, film reports (e.g. television, YouTube). Sound recordings may furthermore be evaluated by MEET GERMANY in other ways as regards content and may be irrevocably evaluated and used by MEET GERMANY in anonymized form in any known and/or unknown type of use. By registering for an event, the member gives his/her consent to these uses.

14.3. The consent can be revoked at any time with effect for the future. The revocation must be in text form and should be sent to team@meet-germany.network. With the revocation, the date and location of the event, the image number, the direct link to the image file and a brief description of the persons depicted must be provided.

14.4. If no consent is given, this must be communicated to the photographer or a representative of MEET GERMANY with the registration and/or on the day of the event

15. Consent to data processing

15.1. MEET GERMANY processes personal data only insofar as this is necessary for the establishment, content, processing, fulfillment and modification of the contractual relationship established with the member. Data is only passed on to third parties if this is necessary for the fulfillment or for the purpose of initiating and processing the contract

15.2. MEET GERMANY is entitled to pass on the personal data to the third parties commissioned with the performance of the contractual services.

15.3. The contracting party expressly agrees that its personal data may be passed on to another member of MEET GERMANY in the event that this member wishes to be contacted.

15.4. The consent can be revoked at any time with effect for the future. The revocation must be in text form and should be addressed to datenschutz@meet-germany.network

15.5. The member receives further information on the processing of data with our privacy policy.

16. Non-solicitation

The contracting parties undertake not to directly or indirectly employ employees or vicarious agents of the other contracting party at their premises, directly or indirectly, during the term of the contract and for 12 months thereafter, unless the respective other contracting party gives its prior written consent.

17. Final provisions

17.1. Additions or amendments to this contract must be made in writing. This also applies to this written form clause.

17.2. Place of performance and place of jurisdiction for all legal disputes arising from the contractual relationship as well as concerning its origin and effectiveness is, as far as legally permissible, the registered office of MEET GERMANY.

17.3. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply exclusively. The application of the Vienna Convention on the UN Sales Convention is excluded.

17.4. Insofar as one or more of the clauses of this contract are invalid or should become so in the course of time, the validity of the remaining contract shall remain unaffected. The invalid clauses shall be replaced by the statutory provisions. The statutory provisions shall also apply in the event of a loophole.

17.5. The contracting parties shall promptly inform each other of all circumstances that could be of significance for the implementation of this contract.

17.6. The contracting parties undertake to treat the contents of this contract, in particular the services owed hereunder, confidentially towards third parties. The disclosure of contractual agreements of any kind to third parties shall only be permissible with the prior express written consent of the other contracting party, to protect the interests of one or both contracting parties or due to mandatory statutory provisions. This obligation shall continue to apply after termination of the contract.

17.7.  MEET GERMANY reserves the right to amend these General Terms and Conditions of Business insofar as this appears necessary, e.g. due to a changed legal situation, and the contractual partner is not disadvantaged by this contrary to good faith. MEET GERMANY shall inform the contracting party in writing or in text form in the event of an amendment to these General Terms and Conditions. In this case, the contractual partner may object to the amendment of the General Terms and Conditions of Business within a reasonable period of time to be notified. If the contractual partner does not object to the amendment of the General Terms and Conditions or does not object in time, these shall become part of the contract concluded with the contractual partner after expiry of the reasonable period.

17.8. This contract contains the English and the German version. In the event of translation differences, the German version of the contract shall be binding.

18. Alternative dispute resolution

18.1. The EU Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution on the Internet at the following link:http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. This platform serves as a contact point for the out-of-court settlement of disputes arising from online purchase or service contracts involving a consumer.

18.2. MEET GERMANY is neither obliged nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

Status February 2021