General Terms and Conditions
A. Validity
1. These General Terms and Conditions apply to all current and future contracts and other services (hereinafter “delivery”). They shall be deemed accepted when an order is issued or
delivery is accepted. They may be changed by us at any time without prior notice. Other conditions will not become contractual content, even if we do not expressively contradict them; they shall only be effective in individual cases following our written confirmation. The invalidity of individual regulations of this contract does not affect the validity of the remaining regulations.
2. Our conditions of sale only apply in relation to companies according to § 14 of the German Civil Code.
B. Conclusion of Contract
1. Our offers are non-binding. A contract shall only be completed upon our written order confirmation. If the order is not confirmed by us in writing the contract shall be completed upon order execution at the latest. In such a case, the delivery note is considered as order confirmation. Only our written order confirmation is relevant for the date and scope of delivery.
2. We reserve all proprietary rights and copyrights of estimates, designs, drawings, and other documents; these may be made available to third parties only with our express approval.
Drawings and other documents provided as part of an offer must be returned to us on request at any time; this is mandatory when the order is not placed with us. In case of our delivery of items according to drawings, models, samples, or other documents provided by the purchaser, he takes over the liability that protected rights of third parties have not been damaged. If third parties, with reference to protected rights, do not permit the manufacturing and delivery of such items, we are entitled – without being obliged to check the legal position – to stop all further activities and to claim damages from the purchaser in case of his fault. In addition, the purchaser shall undertake to indemnify us immediately from third-party claims related to documents made available to us.
3. We reserve the right to accept small orders and to specify minimum order quantities or minimum prices. In general, a minimum order size of 1,000 Euro per product group is required. We
shall reserve any customary or technically unavoidable deviations from physical and chemical quantities, including colors as well as order sizes depending on the item up to 10%, for metal rubber articles according to VDI 1005 20% in spring characteristics as far as is reasonable for the purchaser. For call orders, we shall be entitled to procure materials for the entire order and to manufacture the total order quantity immediately. Any changes desired cannot be considered after the order has been given unless this has been specifically agreed to.
4. Any oral agreements or agreements by telephone made before or upon the conclusion of the contract with employees of Lausitz Elaste GmbH, so far as they are not in possession of an
appropriate legal power of authority, are subject to written confirmation of Lausitz Elaste GmbH to become effective. With the signing of the contract, any oral amendments and additions must be confirmed by Lausitz Elaste GmbH in writing.
C. Delivery and Delivery time
1. Delivery dates are to be regarded as approximately agreed, even if we have agreed with the purchaser on a delivery time or delivery period unless agreed delivery time/-period has been
expressly stipulated as “fix” by us. A confirmed delivery time/- period shall be subject to the correct, complete, and timely obtaining of supplies by ourselves. The delivery term is deemed to be met if the object to be delivered has left our factory or we have informed the purchaser that the goods are ready for dispatch. Delivery deadlines shall remain ineffective as long as the purchaser has not properly fulfilled his obligations, such as furnishing technical data and documents, approvals as well as making a down payment or providing a payment guarantee.
2. Acts of God or other events beyond our control that render the timely execution of accepted orders impossible shall relieve us of our delivery commitment as long as these events prevail. The same provision shall apply in case of another unforeseeable impediment to performance which we are not responsible for, especially due to fire, floods, labor disputes, shortage of energy and raw materials, or official actions. Damage claims due to default, inability, or non-performance are limited to typical and foreseeable damages, unless we, our legal representatives, or vicarious agents are at fault for slight negligence. The limitation on liability shall not apply to cases of intent or gross negligence. The purchaser’s legal right of withdrawal remains unaffected if
its conditions are fulfilled. In the case of contracts whose performance consists of several deliveries, non-performance, defective or delayed performance of one delivery remains without
influence upon the other deliveries of the contract.
3. Partial deliveries shall be permissible.
4. The goods are delivered at the purchaser’s risk regardless of the place of dispatch. If the goods are ready for dispatch, and the delivery or the acceptance of the goods is delayed for
reasons beyond our control, the risk passes to the purchaser on receipt of the notification that the goods are ready for dispatch.
5. Non-returnable packaging material made of paper, jute, foil, or wood will not be charged. Other packaging, especially special packaging such as wood or steel drums or iron cores will be invoiced at cost price. Carriage-free return shipments of conveyor belt drums or cores will be credited with four-fifths of the invoice amount.
6. It is generally not possible to return sold and non-defective goods. Should, by way of exception, goods be taken back by us, the valid net price on the date of withdrawal shall be credited. If
the net price on the date of delivery is below the net price on the date of withdrawal, the net price valid on the day of delivery will be credited. Clause 6 shall not apply in case of reservation of
ownership.
7. In case of purchaser’s application for the opening of an insolvency proceeding, purchaser’s statements in lieu of an oath according to § 807 ZPO, shortages of liquid funds, or significant deterioration of financial circumstances become known to us after the conclusion of the contract, we shall be entitled to suspend deliveries immediately and to refuse the fulfillment of current
contracts unless the purchaser executes counter-performance or, on our request, provides appropriate securities.
8. If the purchaser has to provide objects and materials for the execution of the order, these shall be delivered ex-works in the agreed or any other reasonable extra-quantity for any defective goods in due time and perfect condition. In default thereof, we are entitled to invoice the purchaser for additional costs which might arise as a result of it and not to supply goods as we deem appropriate or to interrupt. We reserve the right to charge the costs for testing parts as well as tools required for their manufacturing (molds, dome, mouthpieces, etc.) The tools necessary for series production shall remain our property in all cases.
D. Reservation of Ownership
1.a) We shall reserve the ownership of all and any goods delivered until all existing claims, including conditional and subsidiary claims, maintained by us towards the purchaser from our
business relation have been satisfied or until any checks and/or bills of exchange handed over have been honored. The aforementioned stipulation shall also apply to future claims.
b) We shall be entitled to immediately take possession of the goods subject to retention of title if the purchaser is in arrears with fulfilling the claims resulting from the business relationship. The demand of return of goods or the repossession of the goods subject to retention of title does not constitute a withdrawal from the contract unless we have expressly stated this. We are entitled to demand immediate return of the goods under exclusion of rights of retention unless there are legally effective or undisputed counterclaims.
c) Regardless of the purchaser’s financial obligations, we are entitled
aa) to sell the goods returned after the prior announcement at the best price and to credit the proceeds or
bb) to credit the contract price – fewer discounts, rebates, and other reductions and after deduction of the depreciation in value. In addition, we are entitled to deduct our costs of return from the credit amount.
d) Prior to any pledge or any other infringement of our ownership rights by third parties the purchaser shall notify us immediately and confirm the right of ownership in writing both to us and the
third parties. The purchaser is not entitled to pledge the goods subject to retention of title or transfer them by way of security.
e) The purchaser has to adequately insure the goods subject to retention of title against fire and burglary. Any claims against the insurance company concerning the reserved goods are
already hereby surrendered to us to their full value. The purchaser is obliged to immediately inform the insurance company of the assignment of the claim.
f) Any processing of reserved goods is effected for us as the manufacturer in the sense of § 950 BGB (Civil Code) without our obligation. The developed and processed goods apply as goods
subject to retention of title in the sense of these conditions.
g) If the purchaser processes, connects, mixes, or combines the reserved property with other merchandise not belonging to us (§§ 947, 948 BGB), we become joint owner of the new object or total quantity in the proportion of the value of our reserved goods to the other merchandise at the time the processing, connecting, mixing or combining took place.If the purchaser acquires sole title to the new object, we hereby agree that the purchaser grants us co-ownership in the ratio of the invoice value or total quantity of the reserved goods to that of the processed, combined, mixed, or mingled goods. For the new object resulting from this processing is considered as privileged property under this provision. The purchaser shall keep the new object in safe custody for
us with the due diligence of a responsible businessman and shall be obliged to provide any information and access to documents relating to the exercise of justice.
2.a) The purchaser is entitled to resell retained goods in the proper course of business. Resale of goods is equal to the use of goods subject to retention of title by the purchaser in performing contracts for work and labor. The purchaser’s claims arising from the resale of reserved goods are even now assigned to us together with all ancillary rights, regardless of whether the retained goods were sold before or after further processing, connecting, mixing, or combining and whether they are resold to one or more buyers. If an assigned claim against the garnishee has been included in a current account, the assignment agreed upon shall relate to all claims of the balance of the open account as well. The assigned claims shall serve as security for all our rights and claims according to D.1.a).
b) If the reserved goods are resold together with other goods, irrespective of whether without or after processing, combination, mixing, or blending, the assignation of the purchase price claim
according to D.2.a) is valid up to the amount of the invoice value of the conditional goods. Furthermore, it is agreed that in addition to the aforementioned resale price a claim of 10% of our sales price is assigned to us which will be offset with interests and costs after receipt of payment whereby the unconsumed dunning amount will be compensated. If the purchaser provides goods and services in combination with the sale of the goods subject to retention of title and does he not differentiate between the reserved goods and the goods and services provided on the invoice issued for the consumer, thus, he calculates a total price, this value shall be assigned to us to the amount of our sales price.
c) In the event the conditional goods are used by the purchaser to fulfill an agreement for services or an agreement for work and materials, the payment resulting from the contract for
work/services or the contract for work and materials is assigned to us as determined in D.2.a) and b).