General Terms and Conditions

1. Scope of services

1.1 The present General Terms and Conditions of Business apply to all present and future business relationships between the Customer and Olga Nather, MA (hereinafter referred to as Translator), if not explicitly agreed otherwise in a specific case.

1.2 The scope of services rendered to the Customer generally includes translation and (consecutive) interpreting, project management, planning and possible additional services.

1.3 The Translator is obliged to carry out all activities she is entrusted with to the best of her knowledge and according to the principles of economic efficiency.

1.4 The Customer undertakes, when requesting a quote, to inform the Translator on the purpose for which the translation will be used, for instance whether it is intended

1.4.1 for a specific country,
1.4.2 for information purposes only,
1.4.3 for publishing and advertising,
1.4.4 for legal purposes or patent procedures,
1.4.5 for any other purpose that requires a particular translation of the texts carried out by the Translator in charge.

1.5 The Customer has the right to use the translation only for the specified purpose. The Translator is not liable for any consequences of the translation, if the Customer uses the translation for a purpose other than the specified and contracted.

1.6 If not agreed otherwise, the Translator shall deliver one electronic copy of translation.

1.7 If the Customer wishes use of specific terminology, he/she must in advance inform the Translator thereof and at the same time provide documents necessary to perform the assignment.

1.8 The technical and linguistic accuracy of the source texts lies exclusively within the Customer`s responsibility.

1.9 The Translator is entitled to forward the assignment to equally qualified subcontractors. In this case, however, the Translator remains the sole translator and contractor of the Customer.

1.10 The Translator`s name may only be mentioned in the published translation if the entire text was translated by the Translator and if no changes were made in the translation.

2. Fees and invoicing

2.1 The fees are determined according to the Translator`s rates applicable to the respective special type of translation.

2.2 The calculation is based upon an agreed unit (such as, for instance: source text or target text, hourly rate, number of standard lines à 55 characters including the space characters).

2.3 A quote is considered binding only if made in writing upon receipt of the documents to be translated. Other quotes at all times merely represent completely non-binding guidelines.

2.4 Unless otherwise agreed, the Translator may charge adequate fees for changes in the assignment or additional assignments.

2.5 Unless otherwise agreed, proofreading of translations of third parties can be invoiced at appropriate prices.

2.6 Adequate and appropriately agreed upon surcharges may be invoiced for express and weekend work.

3. Delivery

3.1 The deadline for delivery of translation is based on the relevant agreement between the Customer and the Translator. If the deadline represents a crucial part of the assignment accepted by the Translator and if the Customer is not interested in a delayed delivery, the latter shall accordingly inform the Translator in advance. Timely receipt of all necessary documents to be provided by the Customer (such as source texts and all necessary background information) and fulfillment of all agreed payment obligations and other obligations represent the prerequisites for meeting the delivery deadline. Shall these preconditions not be met in due time, the deadline will be extended by the period of time equal to the Customer`s delay in delivery of the necessary documents to the Translator; in case of an agreed fixed delivery date the Translator is entitled to assess if she will be able to meet the deadline despite the late receipt of necessary documents from the Customer.

3.2 The Customer carries all and any risks associated with delivery (transmission).

3.3 Unless agreed otherwise, the Translator shall keep the Documents provided to her by the Customer after the assignment was finished. The Translator shall ensure that these documents are carefully stored and cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties, that the confidentiality obligations are adhered to and the documents cannot be used in any manner contrary to the agreement.

4. Force Majeure

4.1 In the case of a force majeure the Translator shall immediately inform the Customer on the occurrence of such event. Force Majeure entitles both the Translator and the Customer to terminate the agreement. However, the Customer shall compensate the Translator for expenses and services already rendered.

4.2 Especially the following events are considered force majeure: labor conflicts; civil war; occurrence of unforeseen events significantly impairing the possibility of the Translator to complete the assignment according to the agreement.

5. Liability for defects (warranty)

5.1 Any defects shall be sufficiently explained and proved by the Customer in writing (error report).

The Customer shall grant the Translator a reasonable period of time and an opportunity to amend the defects and improve the result. The Customer is not entitled to claim a price reduction if the Translator amends the defects within the reasonable period of time.

5.2 The Customer has the right to terminate the agreement or claim a reduction of remuneration (price reduction) if the Translator does not amend the defects within the reasonable period of time. The agreement cannot be terminated on grounds of minor defects.

5.3 Warranty claims do not entitle the Customer to withhold the entire payment, he/she may only withhold an adequate part of the invoice amount; in this case the Customer waves the possibility of a set-off.

5.4 No liability for defects is granted to translations of texts that are difficult to read, illegible or incomprehensible. The same applies to proof-reading of translations.

5.5 Stylistic improvements or adaptation to specific terminologies (especially of industry-specific or company-specific terms) are not regarded as translation defects.

5.6 No liability is granted for abbreviations not specified or explained by the Customer when ordering the translation.

5.7 The Translator does not assume any liability for correct reproduction of names or addresses not written in Latin characters. In such cases the Customer is recommended to provide the names and denominations written in Latin characters in a separate document.

5.8 Numbers are reproduced according to the source text. The Customer is responsible for conversion of numbers, measures, currencies and alike.

5.9 The Translator is liable, as a safe-keeper according to the Austrian Civil Code for the period of four weeks after the completion of the assignment, for source texts, original documents and alike, provided by the Customer, unless these documents were returned to the Customer upon delivery of the translation. No insurance obligation exists.

5.10 The Translator delivers the translation via data transfer (per e-mail etc.) according to the current state of technology. However, due to technical reasons, the Translator assumes no warranty or liability for delivery-related defects or impairments (such as virus transmission, breach of confidentiality obligation, file damage), unless the Translator acted with at least gross negligence.

6. Compensation for damages

All claims of damages to be paid by the Translator are limited by the (net) amount invoiced, unless otherwise stringently stipulated by law. The cases in which damage was caused by gross negligence or with intent or includes physical injury are exempt from this damages limitation.

7. Retention of ownership

7.1 All documents provided by the Customer within the scope of the assignment remain the property of the Translator until all payment obligations arising from the agreement are completely fulfilled.

7.2 All types of documents not contained within the scope of assignment such as parallel texts, software, brochures, catalogs and reports as well as all cost-causing documents such as literature or notes remain the property of the Translator and are protected by the relevant legal provisions.

7.3 Transfer and reproduction are possible only with consent of the Translator.

7.4 If not otherwise agreed, Translation Memories created within the scope of one or several assignments, remain the property of the Translator.

7.5 If not otherwise agreed, Translation Memories provided by the Customer remain the property of the Customer.

8. Copyright

8.1 The Translator is not obliged to prove the right of the Customer to translate the relevant documents or to have them translated. The Customer explicitly assures that he/she possesses all rights necessary to perform the assignment.

8.2 The Customer shall stipulate the intended purpose of use for translations protected by copyright. The Customer obtains only the rights corresponding to the stated purpose of use.

8.3 The Customer shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Translator against all claims made by third parties for reasons of breach of copyright, ancillary copyright and other industrial or private property rights. This also applies to cases in which the Customer does not state any intended purpose of use for the translation or uses it for other than the indicated purpose. The Translator obliges to immediately notify the Customer of such claims and summon him/her to join the Translator in the event of legal proceedings. If the Customer does not join the Translator in the proceedings, the Translator is entitled to acknowledge the claim of the plaintiff and to obtain compensation from the Customer regardless of the legitimacy of the claim recognized.

9. Payment

If not otherwise agreed, the payment shall be effected after the delivery of the translated text, within 14 days after the date of invoice.

10. Confidentiality obligation

The Translator obliges to maintain confidentiality and to bind her subcontractors to keep to the same extent of confidentiality.

11. Severability clause

The invalidity of individual provisions of the present Terms and Conditions does not affect the validity of the remaining agreement. If a provision is or becomes invalid or unenforceable, the Parties shall replace such provision by a legally permissible, valid and enforceable provision which most closely approximates the intended commercial purpose of the provision in question.

12. Written form

All modifications and supplements to the present Terms and Conditions and to other agreements between the Customer and the Translator have to be made in writing.

13. Applicable law and jurisdiction

The place of business of the Translator is the place of fulfillment of all contractual relationships subject to the present Terms and Conditions. The court of jurisdiction for all legal disputes arising from this contractual relationships is the competent court at the Translator`s place of business. The present Terms and Conditions are governed by Austrian law to the exclusion of international conflict of law provisions and the UN convention on the international sale of goods.