Our GTC General Terms and Conditions

(1) These General Terms and Conditions (hereinafter referred to as ‘GTC’) apply to business relationships and business negotiations between wegewerk GmbH (hereinafter referred to as ‘wegewerk’) and companies within the meaning of Section 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB).
(2) Unless otherwise agreed, they apply to all deliveries and one-off and ongoing services provided by wegewerk as a full-service agency, in particular for offline and online communication, campaigns and public relations, as well as strategy and policy consulting.
(3) The client's terms and conditions do not apply unless wegewerk agrees to their validity in writing.

(1) Insofar as wegewerk presents and provides the client with drafts, concepts, plans, etc. prior to a corresponding commission (e.g. as part of a competition presentation), whether for a fee or free of charge, this serves solely for the purpose of considering whether to place an order with wegewerk. 
(2) The potential client may not reproduce, publish in whole or in part, pass on to third parties or use as a basis for producing its own material the drafts, concepts or plans presented in presentations without the agency's consent.

(1) wegewerk provides work on a contract basis and services on a service contract basis.
(2) Offers for work contracts are generally understood to be cost estimates, i.e. non-binding cost estimates. Under certain conditions, wegewerk also offers fixed-price offers, which are indicated as such in the offer text.
(3) Offers for service contracts relate to support for websites, campaign implementation or agile project implementation.
(4) In the case of managed hosting contracts and ancillary hosting services, wegewerk's services are remunerated on a flat-rate basis together with third-party services (e.g. for hardware rental and operation).
(5) Quotations are provided free of charge. For individual services, a fee-based rough concept may be required.
(6) All offers made by wegewerk are subject to change without notice, unless a binding period is specified in the offer documents. Once the binding period has expired, the offer is subject to change without notice. Offers subject to change without notice require acceptance of the order by wegewerk. wegewerk accepts offers by means of a written order confirmation, by commencing work or by issuing a corresponding invoice.
(7) Unless otherwise stated, the prices quoted in the offer are in EUR, plus the statutory value added tax applicable at the time of service provision.
(8) If an original price is quoted in other currencies for individual services, this price shall apply. The equivalent value in EUR shall be determined at the time the offer is made and is for information purposes only. The equivalent value in EUR shall be calculated at the time wegewerk pays for the individual service in question.
(9) The agreed fee covers only the scope of services described in the offer. Any additional services requested will be charged based on the currently valid price list.
(10) The scope of services described in the client's request documents will only be included in the quote if this has been explicitly agreed in the quote. In this case, if there are any differences between the quote and the request document, the quote text will be the deciding factor.
(11) In the case of cost estimates, wegewerk may charge up to 15% of the total amount for individual expenses that exceed the estimate without requiring prior approval from the client.
(12) If the client commissions a specific offer in writing, this shall result in a contract for work and services.
(13) If it is not yet possible to commission the entire service in writing, wegewerk shall be free to commence work if the potential client has issued a letter of intent to pay for services commenced on a time and material basis should the planned commission not take place as expected.

(1) Unless otherwise specified, wegewerk shall provide the contractually agreed services in accordance with generally accepted principles of advertising and public relations, with the usual care and attention and in line with the recognised state of the art.
(2) wegewerk shall only be obliged to comply with additional standards specific to the client's industry or legal form if these have been provided by the client and expressly agreed in the offer documents.
(3) If services require the cooperation or information of the client, wegewerk shall check the client's input within a reasonable time and – as far as possible with reasonable effort – for suitability, accuracy and completeness. However, data and texts shall not be checked for content or accuracy unless this has been expressly agreed. 
(4) wegewerk shall inform the client of any risks relating to data protection, copyright or competition law associated with planned measures, insofar as these can be identified and are known. However, wegewerk does not provide legal advice. Against this background, the client shall decide on its own responsibility whether to implement or modify the measures and shall obtain appropriate legal advice at its own expense if necessary.
(5) If designs for word or figurative marks, designs or slogans have been commissioned, wegewerk shall, subject to any deviating agreements, check the first draft for name similarity and, if applicable, similar figurative marks, and shall guarantee that no third-party rights are known in Germany at the time of presentation. However, wegewerk cannot guarantee protectability or registrability on this basis alone. The client must therefore arrange for a trademark search for the intended area of use before commencing use.

(1) In providing its services, wegewerk is dependent on the cooperation of the client. The client therefore undertakes to make and communicate necessary decisions regarding project implementation, project content or proposed changes by wegewerk without undue delay. 
(2) If the services to be provided are not already sufficiently specified in a service description underlying the order, the client shall provide a written briefing on this.
(3) The client shall review any minutes sent to it at short notice. They shall be deemed binding as soon as they have been confirmed by the client or if neither party has requested any corrections within five working days of their transmission.
(4) If the client fails to fulfil its obligations to cooperate or does so late and wegewerk is therefore unable to perform its services in accordance with the contract, the agreed execution deadlines shall be extended in accordance with the delay plus a reasonable period for the resumption of work. wegewerk may charge the client for any additional expenses incurred as a result – in particular for renewed planning – at the agreed rates.

(1) If, during the implementation of a contract for work and services, changes or adjustments to the originally defined requirements and service descriptions become necessary, the parties shall inform the contact person of the other party as early as possible and in sufficient detail.
(2) wegewerk shall examine the new requirements for technical or conceptual implications as well as additional or reduced time or financial expenditure. Changes to the scope of services, time and budget planning shall be recorded in a so-called ‘change request’ (hereinafter ‘CR’) and forwarded to the client (e.g. following meetings and in addition to the minutes).
(3) The CR must be confirmed in writing by the client. Until then, the service provision shall continue as originally agreed.
(4) If more than 40% of the costs originally commissioned for the technical implementation of the project have already been incurred, the agency may reject further change agreements.
(5) Otherwise, wegewerk will only refuse to implement a CR if it is unable to carry out the desired change due to a lack of personnel or expertise, or if it considers the success of the agreed service to be fundamentally jeopardised as a result of implementing the CR.

(1) Services provided under contracts for work and services (cost estimates and quotations) are work services and must be accepted by the client.
(2) Services provided under service contracts (within the scope of support or campaign contracts or agile project implementations) are not subject to acceptance, as a service and not a result is owed in this case. This also applies if these cost estimates were made in advance.
(3) Acceptance of defined partial results of work services may be provided for in the service description or in schedules. These are usually the basis for the continuation of further work. Unsuccessful partial acceptance does not entitle the client to withdraw from the contract.
(4) wegewerk shall make the work performance available to the customer for acceptance upon completion. Acceptance of the work performance must be declared by the customer within fourteen working days of availability. If the customer does not notify wegewerk of any defects preventing acceptance within this period or if the work performance is already being used productively, it shall be deemed accepted even without a declaration.
(5) If the creation of a specification sheet has been agreed, its most recent approved version shall be the exclusive basis for acceptance.

(6) If the work performance includes new application developments, an acceptance test shall be carried out. To this end, the client and wegewerk shall agree on test procedures and expected test results before implementation begins. wegewerk is entitled to participate in the acceptance test and to view the test results.

• Class 1 defects result in the work performance being unusable for the client as a whole or to a significant extent (e.g. frequent, unavoidable interruptions of transactions in an online shop).
• Class 2 defects result in significant restrictions on the use of important functions of the work performance that cannot be circumvented for a reasonable period of time that is acceptable to the client (example: incorrect VAT calculation in an online shop).
• Class 3 defects are all other deviations from the service description.

Defects in classes 1 and 2 prevent acceptance.
(8) If an acceptance test is carried out, the client shall document any defects that have occurred and their classification within the acceptance period in full in an acceptance report.

(1) Subcontractors typically take on work that arises in an agency. wegewerk is generally entitled to carry out the work assigned to it itself or to commission subcontractors to do so without requiring the approval of the client.
(2) If the agency engages subcontractors to fulfil the contract, it shall acquire rights of use from them to the agreed extent and transfer or have them transferred to the client.
(3) Any artists' social security contributions incurred by subcontractors shall be borne by wegewerk.

(1) External services are services provided by third parties which are not recognisable to the client as part of the standard services of an agency (e.g. photo shoots, printing, editing, translations, film productions, event management, model, actor or influencer fees, market research or legal advice), but which are offered and coordinated by the agency (full-service agency).
(2) External services also include material and ancillary costs required for the production of communication measures (e.g. rights of use for audiovisual material, font licences, equipment, approval and travel costs).
(3) When commissioning external services, wegewerk shall take economic, ecological and social compatibility aspects into account to the best of its knowledge, unless otherwise instructed by the client.
(4) wegewerk commissions external services after approval of the costs by the client, usually in its own name and on its own account and at the expense and risk of the client. In this case, the provisions on agency (§ 675 BGB, including the corresponding reference to contract law) shall apply. The Agency shall be entitled to demand advance payment. Claims by the Client due to defects in third-party services shall be limited in content and scope to the rights to which the Agency is entitled vis-à-vis third parties.
(5) When media services are commissioned through the agency, any AE commissions, discounts or rebates (if achievable) granted to the agency shall be passed on to the client.
(6) To cover accounting and payment processing costs as well as the order risk, wegewerk charges a flat rate of 15% of the order amount for each external service. This is shown in the offer and invoiced together with the external service. The flat rate does not cover the time required for planning and processing the orders.
(7) The costs for planning and processing external service orders shall be invoiced separately or via an existing service or work contract.
(8) GEMA fees, artists' social security contributions, customs duties and similar costs incurred for external services shall be borne by the contractor and shall be passed on in the event of payment by the agency, even if they are only levied retrospectively.

(1) Ancillary costs, such as travel expenses, accommodation costs, additional meal expenses, couriers, etc., are not included in the offer unless they are listed specifically or as a flat rate.  
(2) Travel costs and expenses calculated specifically or included in the offer in the form of a flat rate are to be understood as cost estimates. The client shall reimburse wegewerk for the actual costs incurred in this regard upon presentation of receipts. In this case, wegewerk must charge the value added tax applicable to the main service.
(3) If travelling by car, the travel time will be charged in full. If travelling by train, coach or public transport, 50% of the travel time will be charged; travel times in sleeping cars between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. count as 12.5%.

(1) Services provided under service contracts (such as support and campaign contracts or agile project implementations) are invoiced by wegewerk retrospectively on a monthly or quarterly basis (depending on the respective contract) at the end of the month.
(2) Ongoing technical services (such as managed hosting) are invoiced quarterly in advance. Agreed maintenance services for the server system (e.g. hardware, operating system, backup, monitoring) are included in the flat rate.
(3) Ongoing technical ancillary services such as domains or chargeable SSL certificates are invoiced per calendar year commenced.
(4) wegewerk shall invoice completed (partial) services from contracts for work and services on a monthly basis, provided that they are defined as completed by mutual agreement. If no agreement is reached, wegewerk may in any case invoice in the following instalments:

• 30% of the agreed gross remuneration for the respective individual order after the order has been placed

• 50% of the agreed gross remuneration for the respective individual order upon completion and handover of the service to the client

• 20% of the agreed gross remuneration for the respective individual order after acceptance of all contractually owed services by the client

(5) Invoices are due 21 days after the invoice date.
(6) wegewerk sends invoices by email to the contact person or another email address specified by the client. Upon request, the invoice can be sent by post; this has no effect on the due date.
(7) In the event of repeated unjustified non-payment, wegewerk may suspend ongoing services after prior notification without this affecting the validity of the contract.

(1) Upon full payment of the contractually owed remuneration, wegewerk grants the client the right to use its own work results to the extent necessary to achieve the contractual purpose agreed upon by the parties.
(2) In case of doubt, the Agency shall fulfil its obligation by granting simple rights of use for the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany and the planned period of use of the work results.
(3) Any use beyond this, in particular editing and modification, requires the prior written consent of the Agency. The same applies to the transfer of rights of use from the commissioning company to third parties and the granting of sub-licences.
(4) If work results are deliberately created for a project in which several organisations are collaborating, the client may grant these organisations a simple right of use to the work results. Wegewerk must be able to verify which organisations are involved.
(5) Until full payment has been made, the client may use the work results for testing purposes. If no test period has been agreed, this right shall expire 30 working days after acceptance of all work results owed.
(6) Without the consent of the authors, including the author's designation, the work results may not be changed, either in the original or in reproduction. Any imitation, including of partial results, is prohibited.
(7) Unless otherwise stated, the client shall receive full and unrestricted rights of use for logos or corporate design documentation created by wegewerk.
(8) In the case of work results that contain ‘open source’ software or modifications of this software (such as technical implementations based on the content management systems TYPO3, WordPress, Drupal or ww.edit), the client shall receive rights of use in accordance with the relevant licence conditions for this software (e.g. ‘GNU General Public Licence’).
(9) When using software components that are not based on open source software and to which wegewerk holds all rights (such as the interactive dialogue format ‘wahltest’), the rights of use shall be non-exclusive and limited to the agreed purpose of use and contract period, unless otherwise stated.
(10) Insofar as the provision of services by wegewerk results in work products that are eligible for patent or utility model protection, wegewerk may file a corresponding application for property rights in its own name and on its own account. wegewerk shall grant the client the right to use the property rights together with the work products free of charge to the extent necessary.
(11) When commissioning third-party services, wegewerk shall agree on rights of use for the client to the same extent as for its own work results. If this is not possible or only possible with disproportionately high effort, wegewerk shall offer the client an alternative or limited rights of use. If a corresponding note is included in the offer, the granting of limited rights of use shall be deemed approved upon commissioning.

(1) If the client terminates a fixed-price contract for work and services without good cause before the service has been rendered in full, experience has shown that, due to our long-term resource planning, only a small portion of the work can be used for other projects. wegewerk is therefore entitled to 50% of the remuneration for the portion of its work that has not yet been rendered, in addition to the remuneration for external services already incurred. wegewerk must prove a higher percentage, and the client must prove a lower percentage.
(2) If the client terminates a contract for work and services on the basis of a cost estimate instead of approving a written cost increase for commissioned services totalling more than 15% of the total costs, wegewerk shall only be entitled to remuneration for external services already incurred and completed partial services to be handed over to the client.
(3) Unless otherwise agreed, all current service contracts shall have a minimum term of 12 months. The contract shall come into effect upon acceptance of our offer and shall be automatically extended for a further 12 months unless it is terminated in writing with 3 months' notice to the end of the year.
(4) Terminations must be declared in writing to the contact person. 

(1) wegewerk shall be liable for ensuring that the services provided meet the agreed requirements and functions. The statutory limitation period shall commence upon acceptance or, in the case of digital products, upon provision of the service. In the case of partial services, the limitation period shall depend on the acceptance or provision of the partial service in question.
(2) In the case of work results that contain ‘open source’ software or modifications to this software, liability for defects shall only extend to the modification of the software. Defects in modified components that occur due to an update of the underlying ‘open source’ software are not covered by liability for defects.
(3) If a defect occurs, the client shall immediately notify wegewerk in writing, detailing how, where and under what circumstances the defect is apparent. If wegewerk requires further information and documents, the client shall provide these without delay.
(4) If wegewerk has set up access to its ticket system for the client's contact person, the client shall use this access to report defects.
(5) Defects that are recorded in the acceptance report and those that were reported before the expiry of the liability period for defects shall be remedied by wegewerk free of charge.
(6) Defects in digital products shall be assigned to the classes defined in § 7 (6) by mutual agreement between both parties.
(7) If it can be proven that no defects existed, wegewerk may demand reimbursement of the expenses as an additional service.
(8) wegewerk shall commence work to remedy defects preventing acceptance without delay during its regular working hours. wegewerk may determine the time of subsequent performance for material defects that do not prevent acceptance at its reasonable discretion.
(9) wegewerk may determine the type of subsequent performance at its own discretion. If defects cannot be remedied at short notice, we may provide a temporary solution. A reasonable workaround provided to the client shall also be deemed subsequent performance, provided that the workaround leaves an insignificant error.
(10) If the client's application is not operated by wegewerk, wegewerk may demand that the client install programme parts sent to it with corrections (‘bug fixes’).
(11) If a defect cannot be remedied despite repeated attempts at rectification (two attempts), the client may set wegewerk a reasonable deadline for remedying the defect, stating that the remedy of the defect will be rejected after this deadline has expired.
(12) If the defects are not remedied in good time, the client may withdraw from the contract after expiry of this period, reduce the remuneration or claim damages.

(1) If a support contract has been concluded, wegewerk may provide the client with access to its ticket system. In this case, the client shall use the ticket system to request and coordinate support services.
(2) If a support contract has been concluded, the client will also receive a telephone number that they can use to contact the support team at wegewerk by telephone from Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to clarify questions, report urgent issues or seek advice.
(3) Larger orders (expected total time required: more than 1 hour) are usually started in the week following the order placement. Smaller orders (expected total time required: up to 1 hour) are usually started on the working day following the order placement.
(4) At the client's request, wegewerk also provides support services outside regular working hours. For this, wegewerk charges a surcharge of 50% on weekdays between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. and 100% on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays in the state of Berlin. The availability of the necessary employees must be requested by the client at least one week in advance and confirmed by the agency.

(1) wegewerk rents servers in professional data centres to provide hosting services. Unless otherwise agreed, servers are located in the European Union and powered by renewable energy. Air conditioning, dust protection, emergency power supply and access control, multiple connections to high-performance Internet backbones and peering points are guaranteed.
(2) We offer monthly flat rates for managed hosting. These include the following maintenance services for the server system: Ongoing monitoring of available security updates for the operating system, ongoing monitoring of available security updates for the PHP runtime environment, installation of necessary version upgrades for the operating system and runtime environment, backup of data on a backup server at a different location, monitoring of web server availability at least once an hour (watchdog) and a service level agreement (SLA) with 16 (9)/7/2 availability. This means that in the event of malfunctions (such as the website being unavailable), a service technician at wegewerk is automatically notified on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. (16 hours) and on all other days from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (9 hours) 
(3) The managed hosting flat rate does not include the configuration and ongoing updates of the application software installed on the server (e.g. the CMS). This is covered by support contracts.
(4) As standard, we guarantee an average annual availability of at least 99.0%.
(5) If the client suspects that the guaranteed availability is not being achieved, we will check this using the watchdog service we use. If, after deducting downtime due to maintenance work and third-party fault (e.g. security shutdowns or so-called DoS attacks), this shows a shortfall for the last 12 months, we will refund 50% of the monthly fee for each month that shows a shortfall.
(6) Our hosting services are invoiced quarterly in advance via SEPA direct debit. External technical costs (such as domain fees) are invoiced per calendar year or part thereof.

(1) wegewerk shall be liable without limitation for damages caused by gross negligence or intent, as well as for damages resulting from injury to life, limb or health. wegewerk shall also be liable without limitation for damages under the Product Liability Act.
(2) wegewerk shall only be liable for slight or simple negligence in the event of a breach of essential contractual obligations (so-called cardinal obligations) whose fulfilment is essential for achieving the purpose of the contract. In such cases, liability shall be limited to compensation for foreseeable, typically occurring damages.
(3) wegewerk's liability under (2) is limited to EUR 250,000.00 per claim. If the client expects a higher risk of damage, it shall notify wegewerk in writing prior to conclusion of the contract so that an individual adjustment of the liability limit or an insurance solution can be examined.
(4) A further limitation of liability to the respective project volume may be agreed individually with the client and documented in writing in the offer documents.
(5) Any further liability for damage caused by slight or simple negligence is excluded.
(6) In the event of liability for slight negligence, the obligation to pay compensation for lost profits, lost savings and indirect or consequential damages is excluded.

(1) The parties undertake to keep confidential all confidential information of the other party that comes to their knowledge in the course of their cooperation and, unless this is necessary to achieve the purpose of the contract, not to record, store, pass on, exploit or make it accessible to unauthorised persons.
(2) All information of a party – regardless of its form – that is marked in writing as confidential or whose confidentiality is clearly apparent from its nature, in particular trade and business secrets, is confidential. This includes, in principle, previously unpublished source codes and other intellectual property of wegewerk.
(3) The parties undertake to involve only those employees or subcontractors in the cooperation who have previously been bound by a similar confidentiality obligation.
(4) All employees and subcontractors employed in accordance with the contract are not considered unauthorised within the meaning of this provision.
(5) If personal data is transferred or processed in order to perform the contractual services, the parties shall conclude a separate data processing agreement (DPA) for this purpose.
(6) In accordance with the provisions of the Federal Data Protection Act, wegewerk shall only employ persons who have been sworn to data secrecy (§ 53 BDSG-neu) to work with personal data.
(7) While maintaining these confidentiality obligations, wegewerk shall be entitled to use the name and brand of the client, images of work results and the subject matter of the services for its own advertising purposes on its website, as well as in its own social media channels or newsletters as a reference.

(1) wegewerk reserves the right to use artificial intelligence (AI) for support purposes. wegewerk guarantees confidentiality and data protection in this regard.
(2) Unless the use of AI has been explicitly agreed, this is at our own risk, i.e. wegewerk is liable as for other work results in accordance with § 17.
(3) If the use of AI has been agreed, wegewerk is not liable for the quality of the results and for their legality, unless a corresponding review has been commissioned.

(1) Amendments and additions to the contract must be made in writing. 
(2) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply, excluding the provisions of international private law and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).
(3) In the event of disputes, the client and wegewerk shall first attempt to reach an amicable agreement out of court.
(4) The place of performance for delivery and payment and the place of jurisdiction for all disputes between the parties shall be Berlin, provided that such an agreement between the parties is legally permissible.
(5) The assertion of rights of retention and offsetting against counterclaims is only permissible for claims or counterclaims arising from the same contractual relationship or with claims or counterclaims recognised by wegewerk or legally established.

wegewerk GmbH
HRB 76336, AG Berlin Charlottenburg
Managing Director: Juri Maier
Saarbrücker Str. 24, 10405 Berlin, Germany
www.wegewerk.com

Status:
2025-10-01
(Previous status here)