General Terms and Conditions
General Terms and Conditions
General Terms and Conditions (GTC)
General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for participants in language courses run by Hartnackschule Berlin GmbH & Co.KG
Part I
General regulations for all types of language courses
§ 1 Scope
(1) These GTC apply to all language courses offered by the Hartnackschule Berlin (hereinafter referred to as the Hartnackschule). This includes both the courses that are conducted in face-to-face classes and the courses that are conducted using electronic means of communication as so-called online courses. Insofar as separate regulations apply to online courses, these can be found in Part II.
(2) The Hartnackschule provides all teaching and other services within the framework of the current and future business relationship exclusively on the basis of its (GTC) in the version current at the time of the conclusion of the contract and published on the website www.hartnackschule-berlin.de. Within the framework of the contractual relationship, only the GTC of the Hartnackschule apply. Any other terms and conditions, including any contradictory GTC of contractual partners, shall not apply. This also applies if the Hartnackschule has not separately objected to the application of these deviating GTC in individual cases.
(3) For reasons of simpler readability, gender-specific differentiation is dispensed with in these GTC. Insofar as they refer to participants, this term applies to all genders and also to legal persons for the purpose of equal treatment.
§ 2 Conclusion of the contract
(1) The announcement of language courses by the Hartnackschule is non-binding. The booking of a language course by the participant does not therefore constitute the conclusion of a contract. Rather, the contract only comes into effect when the Hartnackschule
a) confirms the registration for the booked course within a period of two weeks either in text form or in writing or
b) the participant does not cancel his booking within two weeks of the booking being made.
(2) If the language course has already begun at the time of booking, the contract is only concluded, in deviation from paragraph 1, through a booking confirmation issued by the Hartnackschule in text form or in writing. Paragraph 1 letter b) does not apply in this case.
(3) In order to book a course via the Hartnackschule's homepage, it is necessary to create a user account by entering first name, last name, e-mail address and a password. The user account with the associated data of the user is stored on servers of the Hartnackschule. After successful entry, the participant can log in in the future with his e-mail address as the user name and his password and receives access to the personal user area myHartnack.
(4) The contractual language is German.
§ 3 Right of withdrawal for distance contracts
The contractual partner of the Hartnackschule, who is a consumer and not an entrepreneur, has a right of withdrawal for language courses that are not booked in the business premises of the Hartnackschule, but are concluded as so-called distance contracts using means of communication at a distance. According to the current legal definition in § 312c paragraph 2 BGB (German Civil Code), means of distance communication are all means of communication that can be used to initiate or conclude a contract without the contracting parties being physically present at the same time (e.g. letters, catalogues, telephone calls, telecopies, e-mails, messages sent via mobile phone service (SMS) as well as broadcasting and telemedia). In particular, the Hartnackschule homepage and the associated booking screen also belong as such a means of distance communication.
We would like to point out the following with regard to the right of withdrawal that exists in these cases and its consequences:
Right of withdrawal
You have the right to revoke this contract within fourteen days without giving any reason.
The revocation period is fourteen days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.
To exercise your right of withdrawal, you must inform us of your decision to withdraw from this contract by means of a clear declaration (e.g. a letter or e-mail sent by post) (Hartnackschule Berlin GmbH & Co. KG, Motzstr. 5, 10777 Berlin, phone: +49 30 210 2193 fax +49 30 215 4454 E-Mail info@hartnackschule-berlin.de).
To comply with the cancellation period, it is sufficient that you send the notification of the exercise of the right of cancellation before the end of the cancellation period.
Consequences of cancellation
If you withdraw from this contract, we must refund all payments we have received from you immediately and at the latest within fourteen days of the day on which we received notification of your withdrawal 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; in no case will you be charged any fees because of this repayment. If you have requested that the service should begin during the withdrawal period, you must pay us a reasonable amount corresponding to the proportion of the services already provided up to the time you notify us of the exercise of the right of withdrawal with regard to this contract compared to the total scope of the services provided for in the contract.
§ 4 Contractual partners and participants
(1) The contract for participation in the language course creates contractual rights and obligations only between the Hartnackschule and the person who books the course, as the contractual partner of the Hartnackschule.
(2) The person who books the language course can also make the booking for another participant. This third person must be named at the time of booking. In this case, he/she receives the right to participate in the language course instead of the person booking the course. The other rights and obligations arising from the concluded contract, insofar as they are not directly related to personal participation in the course, exist independently of this only between the Hartnackschule and the person booking the language course.
(3) If a person other than the person for whom the language course was booked is to participate in the course, this requires the consent of the Hartnackschule. The Hartnackschule will grant consent unless there are objective reasons to the contrary.
§ 5 Conduct of the courses, organisational changes
(1) The Hartnackschule reserves the right to cancel courses due to insufficient numbers of participants. In this case, the Hartnackschule will refund the proportionate course fees for the cancelled lessons.
(2) The minimum number of participants for a language course is 10. If this number is not reached in the course of a course, the Hartnackschule is entitled to place the group or individual course participants in other courses. If this is not reasonable for the participant for urgent factual reasons which he must prove, he can terminate the contractual relationship with the Hartnackschule with immediate effect within a preclusive period of 2 weeks after the assignment to the other course. In this case, the Hartnackschule will refund the proportionate fees for the outstanding and already paid lessons. Further claims, including claims for damages, are excluded.
(3) The course times specified by the Hartnackschule are subject to the availability of corresponding teachers. There is no entitlement to a particular teacher teaching in the course. This also applies if the course has been announced with the name of a teacher.
(4) Should a teacher be unavailable, the Hartnackschule will try to provide a substitute. If this is not possible, the lesson can be made up for - without there being any entitlement to this. If this is not the case in an individual case, the Hartnackschule will reimburse the proportionate course fees for the lesson that was finally cancelled. The refund will be made at the end of the course. Further claims, including claims for damages, are excluded.
(5) No language courses take place on public holidays in the state of Berlin.
(6) The Hartnackschule is not liable for the achievement of a specific learning or teaching success.
§ 6 Prices and terms of payment
(1) For the respective language courses, the prices stated at the time of the order shall apply. The contractual partner booking the language course undertakes to pay this price. Payment is due upon conclusion of the contract. For language courses lasting longer than one month, the fee can also be paid in monthly instalments. The instalments are due monthly in advance. The first instalment is due for payment at the latest by the beginning of the course, the subsequent instalments at the latest one month later.
(2) The payment obligation must be met punctually; for each required reminder, the Hartnackschule will charge a flat rate of 5.00 Euros for the administrative costs incurred. The participant reserves the right to prove that only lesser costs were incurred.
(3) The prices shown on www.hartnackschule-berlin.de or in printed documents of the Hartnackschule are final prices and include the statutory value added tax, insofar as this is applicable to the respective service or product. According to the current legal situation in Germany, language tuition is exempt from VAT (§ 4 No. 21a and b UStG), so that no VAT is shown in this respect.
(4) The obligation to pay the course price also applies to the periods in which the course participant does not or cannot take part in the lessons for reasons for which the Hartnachschule is not responsible. There is no entitlement to make up lessons missed in the event of absence or interruption by the course participant.
§ 7 Withdrawal before the start of the course by the participant
(1) The participant is permitted to withdraw from the contract and cancel the booked course at any time before the course begins. Cancellations up to one month before the start of the course are free of charge. If the cancellation takes place less than one month before the start of the course, the Hartnackschule can demand a lump-sum compensation, which is determined as follows:
- Cancellation up to the 15th day before the start of the course: 50 % of the course price.
- Cancellation less than 15 days before the start of the course: 90 % of the course price.
The participant reserves the right to prove that the Hartnackschule has suffered less damage in an individual case.
(2) Any statutory right of cancellation (e.g. in the case of distance selling) remains unaffected.
(3) In the case of contracts "from arrival", the participant can withdraw from the course before it begins, in deviation from paragraph 1, if a written rejection of the visa from the respective embassy is submitted in original to the Hartnackschule. The rejection must be in German or with an officially certified translation. In this case, the course fees already paid will be refunded minus a cancellation fee. The written rejection of the visa application must be submitted to the Hartnackschule no later than three months after it has been issued. If this does not happen, the obligation to pay remains in force and no refund will be made. The participant retains the right to prove that the Hartnackschule has suffered a lesser loss in an individual case. Any statutory right of withdrawal (e.g. in the case of distance selling transactions) remains unaffected.
§ 8 Cancellation after the start of the course
(1) After the beginning of the course, an ordinary cancellation of the booked language course is excluded. Any statutory right of cancellation (e.g. in the case of distance selling transactions) remains unaffected.
(2) If a course participant is in arrears with the payment of the course price for a further 2 weeks despite a reminder, the Hartnackschule is entitled to terminate the contract extraordinarily and without notice and to make the total amount of the outstanding payments due by the end of the agreed course duration and to demand payment in full. The course participant retains the right to claim expenses saved by the Hartnackschule.
(3) The Hartnackschule can terminate the contract for good cause (§ 314 BGB). An important reason exists in particular in the following cases:
- Anti-community behaviour in courses despite previous warning and threat of termination by the course instructor, in particular disturbance of the information or event operation due to noise and sound pollution or by obstructive behaviour,
- Any kind of defamation of the course instructor, participants or employees of the Hartnackschule, discrimination of persons because of personal characteristics (in particular because of age, gender, skin colour, ethnic origin, religious affiliation, ideology, disability or sexual orientation)
Instead of termination, the Hartnackschule can also exclude the participant from a course unit. The Hartnackschule's entitlement to remuneration is not affected by such a termination or exclusion. Fees already paid will not be refunded.
(4) If the language course has a defect that is likely to impair the objective of the course in the long term, the participant must inform the Hartnackschule of the defect and give the Hartnackschule the opportunity to remedy the defect within a reasonable period of grace to be set. If this does not happen, the participant can terminate the contract for good cause after the deadline has expired. The participant may also terminate the contract without notice in the case of § 5 paragraph 2. In these cases, the fee shall be owed in proportion to the number of partial units completed in relation to the entire event.
§ 9 Termination of contract for course participants who are supported according to the SGB (Social Security Code):
The following regulations apply to course participants who are supported according to the SGB
1. Upon commencement of employment, termination of the contract is possible without additional costs after presentation of an appropriate confirmation.
2. If the Federal Employment Agency and the Job Centre cease to provide funding, the contract can be terminated early without additional costs.
3. Course participants of a measure funded by the Federal Employment Agency or Job Centre are not entitled to an interruption of the measure.
§ 10 Limitations of liability
(1) Claims for damages by the participant are excluded. Excluded from this are claims for damages by the participant arising from injury to life, limb or health or from the breach of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations) as well as liability for other damages based on an intentional or grossly negligent breach of duty by the Hartnackschule, its legal representatives or vicarious agents. Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfilment is necessary to achieve the objective of the contract.
(2) In the event of a breach of essential contractual obligations, the Hartnackschule is only liable for the foreseeable damage typical of the contract up to the amount of the course price paid, if this was caused by negligence, unless it is a case of gross negligence on the part of the Hartnackschule or claims for damages on the part of the participant arising from injury to life, body or health.
(3) The restrictions of paragraphs 1 and 2 also apply in favour of the Hartnackschule's legal representatives and vicarious agents if claims are made directly against them.
(4) The Hartnackschule accepts no liability for loss, theft or damage to items that participants bring to the school.
§ 11 Online Dispute Resolution
The European Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution, which can be accessed on the internet at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. However, the Hartnackschule is not obliged or willing to participate in such dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.
§ 12 Place of Jurisdiction
If the participant is an entrepreneur as defined by § 14 BGB, the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from contractual relationships between the participant and the Hartnackschule is the registered office of the Hartnackschule.
Part II
Special Conditions for Online Courses
§ 1 Conclusion of Contract
(1) The participant can choose from the online courses offered on the website of the Hartnackschule, enter his data via the button "Register now" and register for the online course he has chosen. After entering the necessary data, the participant submits a binding offer to conclude a service contract for the selected online course via the button "register with obligation to pay".
(2) The participant's offer is accepted by the Hartnackschule by sending a confirmation e-mail to the e-mail address provided by the participant. Should a confirmation e-mail not be sent in individual cases, the contract offer is deemed to have been accepted by the Hartnackschule upon expiry of 14 days after registration.
§ 2 Scope of services
The Hartnackschule owes the participant access to the online course. The Hartnackschule does not owe a specific training or learning outcome.
§ 3 Procedure; technical requirements
(1) After booking the online course, the participant will receive an e-mail in good time for the start of the course, in which the Hartnackschule informs the participant of the access to the online course.
(2) Once access has been set up by the Hartnackschule, the participant will receive a user account for the agreed duration of the course, which entitles the participant to access the content of the online course on digital media and to use it within the period of use.
(3) The respective chapters of the online course may contain training videos and learning material for download. The technical requirements necessary for the perception of the contents on the part of the participant are to be fulfilled by him. For smooth use, we recommend using the browsers Firefox or Chrome. Furthermore, it is important that the participant has a sufficient internet connection and a microphone and a loudspeaker (or headset) as well as a camera.
(4) The Hartnackschule accepts no liability for the online course being able to be carried out properly within the specific hardware and software environment of the digital medium used by the participant (PC, tablet, smartphone).
(5) The course offer is available to the participant according to the booked course. Excluded from this are the times during which data backup work is carried out and system maintenance or programme maintenance work or work on the system or database is or must be carried out. The Hartnackschule and its vicarious agents will regularly carry out this work outside the normal usage time. The Hartnackschule is entitled, insofar as it is necessary in the interests of the participant or necessary due to extraordinary circumstances, to carry out this work during the normal period of use. This may result in disruptions to data retrieval. The participant is not entitled to any claims for reduction or reimbursement of course fees due to such restrictions on use, provided that the downtime does not make it objectively impossible to achieve the desired learning success.
§ 4 Obligations of the Participant; Reservation of Abuse
(1) The participant is prohibited from passing on his user name and password for access to the online course to third parties and from tolerating and/or enabling third parties to gain knowledge of this.
(2) The Hartnackschule reserves the right to block access to the online course in the event of suspected misuse or significant breaches of contract by the participant until the suspicion is dispelled by the participant and, if necessary, to terminate the contractual relationship without notice in the event of serious breaches.
§ 5 Cancellation of online courses
(1) The Hartnackschule reserves the right to cancel or prematurely terminate an online course for good cause at any time. An important reason is, for example, technical problems that cannot be resolved in a timely manner, an attack on the online course system by an outside third party (so-called hacker attack) or other force majeure. Cancellation or premature termination of the online course does not include the cancellation or premature termination of a course unit if the Hartnackschule announces that it will make up for the cancelled course unit within one week.
(2) If an online course is cancelled or prematurely terminated by the Hartnackschule, the Hartnackschule will inform the participants as soon as possible and offer the participants access to an alternative online course. If such an alternative is not available or if the participant declines to take part in it, the Hartnackschule will refund any payments made towards the course price on a pro rata basis for the sections of the course that are no longer taken. The participant has no further claims.
§ 6 Changes
The range of online courses is continuously updated and expanded by the Hartnackschule. Despite careful planning, changes in content may become necessary in individual cases. The Hartnackschule therefore reserves the right to make necessary adjustments to the content and methodology or deviations from the course description, provided that these do not significantly change the subject and overall character of the online course concerned.
§ 7 Copyright; Right of Use
(1) The Hartnackschule is the owner of all rights of use of all content that can be called up as part of the online courses, in particular texts, videos and the downloadable course documents.
(2) The participant receives a simple, non-exclusive right of use to the available content of the online course. He is prohibited from reproducing, processing, duplicating, distributing, publicly reproducing or in any other way processing the texts, videos or other content in any form, including for the purpose of teaching, without prior written permission. The participant must ensure that the course documents are not passed on to third parties.
(3) The participant is permitted to save the downloadable content on a local hard drive for his/her own use and to print it out. The storage of the media on a network hard drive or a similar online service (cloud) is not permitted.
(4) The participant is prohibited from photographing, filming or recording the course in whole or in part and/or saving it on data carriers. Received teaching material may not be duplicated, distributed or otherwise publicly reproduced without the written permission of the Hartnackschule or the respective course instructor.
Berlin, 14th June 2021
Henning Lauterbach
Managing Director
Hartnackschule Berlin
GmbH & CO. KG
Thank you!