Usage Agreement - Customer

  1. General Terms and Conditions for the use of the MedZig service
    1. The MedZig service is rendered via websites in the Internet. All of the websites, subdomains, aliases, webservices and links to third-party sites offered by the GmbH in connection with the MedZig service upon which the MedZig service is available are referred to in the following as a whole as "MedZig"
    2. The applications of the MedZig service in particular include contact and communication forums (referred to in the following as "medical network") for which the Customer is herewith acquiring membership and within the framework of which the Customer accesses the data of a physician, a hospital, a pharmacy and any other medical service provider (hereinafter: "service provider") and can enter into contact with such parties. Other registered service providers or private customers, referred to in the following as "users", may also access the data of service providers and enter into contact with them.
  2. Subject of the Agreement and foundations for the use of MedZig
    1. MedZig is a service that pursues the purposes of contributing to an improvement and simplification of medical assistance and treatment through a variety of different services offering information and contacts. MedZig acts in this regard as a broker between the service provider and the Customer, hence offering the platform to render medical services.
    2. The medical network is the core application of the MedZig service. The user profile produced by the Customer within the framework of the medical network constitutes the identity with which the Customer acts within the MedZig service. The medical network by the same token offers the Customer the possibility to use the network with their own user profile, to search for service providers, chat with them and interact with them and in return for an additional charge interact with them in real time by video telephony.
    3. A Customer who registers for MedZig can select between a basic tariff free of charge and gold and platinum tariffs subject to charge.
  3. Preconditions for usage
    1. The Agreement between the GmbH and the Customer shall come about through the establishment of the user account.
    2. The possibility to use the memberships offered by MedZig does not constitute an offer, but rather a request for submission of an offer. By completing the booking procedure, the Customer submits an offer for the conclusion of the agreement on the use of the respective MedZig membership. The GmbH accepts this offer by the user by providing the respective services. Only through this acceptance does the agreement come about between the Customer and the GmbH. The GmbH is not obligated to conclude an agreement.
    3. The Customer warrants and represents that the data provided by the Customer is true and without omission. The Customer is obligated to keep the data true and without omission with regard to all applications used by the Customer during the entire term of the Agreement. In the event that the customer service of the GmbH undertakes manual changes to the data of the user upon the commission of the Customer, the GmbH reserves the right to invoice the Customer for the costs that may be incurred by the GmbH in the scope that the Customer is to be responsible for the event triggering costs.
    4. Registration is necessary to acquire MedZig membership, in which the Customer inter alia has to select a password.
    5. The Customer is contractually obligated to keep the password it selects confidential. MedZig shall not disclose the password to third parties, shall only use such for the registration procedure and shall not ask the Customer - aside from in the registration procedure - for such at any point in time. For security reasons and to preclude abuse, the Customer is recommended to change his or her password at regular intervals. Securing and storing access data to the MedZig member account (user name and password) falls solely in the exclusive domain of responsibility of the Customer.
    6. Each Customer may only create one user profile. The Customer is not allowed to pass on the data for use by third parties.
  4. Usage
    1. The Customer recognises that 100% availability of MedZig is not technically possible to achieve. The GmbH shall endeavour, however, to keep the service available as constantly as possible. In particular, maintenance, security or capacity requirements as well as events that are beyond the power of the GmbH (such as, for example, disruptions in public communications networks, power outages, etc.) may lead to brief disruptions or to temporary discontinuation of MedZig. All claims against the GmbH that are due to negative impact and/or interruptions, regardless of the legal reason for such, are ruled out to the extent that such is allowed by law.
    2. The GmbH shall only provide contents, data and/or information made available by the Customer to the extent that such do not violate statutory provisions or the general terms and conditions upon which the contractual relationship is based, are abusive or are contra bonos mores or the publication of which is unreasonable to expect of the GmbH for any other reasons. The GmbH shall be entitled to remove such contents, data and/or information from MedZig without any prior notice. This shall not be deemed to justify any claims on the part of the Customer for compensation.
    3. The Customer shall be obligated
      1. to only make true statements and refrain from any misleading statements and use his or her clear name and no pseudonyms,
      2. to only use such photograph as profile picture on the user profile within the framework of MedZig upon which the Customer is clearly and unmistakably recognisable. The Customer shall act to ensure that public reproduction of the profile photograph transmitted by the Customer is allowed on MedZig under applicable law. Use of the photographs or images of other or non-existent persons or any other beings (animals, phantasy creatures, etc.) or of logos as profile picture is not allowed.
      3. to abide by and adhere to applicable law and rights of third parties in the use of MedZig and the contents thereof. The Customer is in particular prohibited from the following:
        1. Use of insulting or defamatory contents regardless of whether this content relates to other users, staff of the GmbH or other persons or enterprises;
        2. Use of pornographic content, content glorifying violence, abusive content, content contra bonos mores, content violating laws protecting minors , or the application, offer and/or distribution of goods or services having pornographic content, content glorifying violence, abusive content, content contra bonos mores or content violating laws protecting minors;
        3. Unreasonable harassment or annoyance of other users, in particular by means of spam (see § 7 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb – UWG));
        4. Use of contents protected by law (e.g. through copyright, trademark, patent, industrial or utility patent) without being entitled to do so, or advertising, offering and/or distribution goods and services protected by law also without being entitled to do such; or
        5. Execution, advertising or promotion of structural distribution measures (such as multi-level marketing or multi-level network marketing) as well as undertaking or promoting anti-competitive activities including progressive customer advertising and acquisition (such as chain, snowball or pyramid schemes);
    4. The Customer is prohibited from the following actions
      1. The use of mechanisms, software or scripts in connection with the use of MedZig. Direct or indirect advertising or dissemination of such mechanisms, software or scripts is also prohibited. The user may use, advertise or disseminate interfaces or software authorised by the GmbH, however;
      2. Block, overwrite, modify or copy to the extent that such is not required for the proper use of MedZig;
      3. Distribution and public reproduction of contents of MedZig or from other users unless this dissemination and public reproduction is provided for within the framework of MedZig or the other user has consented to the dissemination and public reproduction; and/or
      4. any action that is capable of having a negative impact on the functioning of the MedZig infrastructure, in particular to unduly load such.
    5. The GmbH is entitled to remove data and/or information that is unallowed under sections 4.3 and 4.4 without notifying the Customer hereof in advance.
    6. The Customer herewith concedes to the GmbH the simple usage rights unlimited in time and space to contents made available and published by the Customer that are required for the operation of the Internet services in the scope required for the operation of the services.
    7. The Customer is aware that in the case of illicit upload of contents or in the event of illicit forum articles there is a danger that claims will be asserted against the GmbH by third parties for violations of rights based on such. If the Customer has culpably violated obligations emanating from these Terms and Conditions of Use and there has been a violation of rights as a result and claims are thus asserted against the GmbH by a third party, the Customer is obligated to indemnify and hold harmless the GmbH from any and all claims forwarded by third parties. Such indemnification shall also apply to all required costs incurred by the GmbH to defend its rights, for instance the costs of legal counsel.
  5. Changes in services
    1. The GmbH reserves the right to change the services on offer or any other contents of the Agreement or to offer other services unless such is not reasonable to expect of the Customer.
    2. Above and beyond this, the GmbH reserves the right to change the services offered or other contents of the Agreement or to offer different services
      1. if the GmbH is obligated to establish conformity of the services or contractual contents offered by the GmbH with law applicable to the services or contractual contents, in particular if the situation changes with regard to applicable law;
      2. to the extent the GmbH as a result complies with a court ruling or a decision issued by a government authority against MedZig;
      3. to the extent the respective change is necessary to close existing security gaps;
      4. If the change is merely beneficial to the Customer, or
      5. if the change is of a purely technical or process-related nature without any negative impact on the Customer.
    3. Changes that merely have an insignificant impact on the functions of MedZig shall not be deemed to constitute changes in services in the meaning of this section. This shall in particular apply to changes of a purely graphic type and a mere change in the arrangement of functions.
  6. Remuneration, settlement of accounts, invoicing, terms and conditions of payment
    1. Remuneration under the gold tariff is € 9 per year; remuneration under the platinum tariff is € 19 per year. Remuneration includes respectively applicable value-added tax.
    2. Use of the special features of video telephony shall be remunerated in addition. An invoice pursuant hereto shall be issued by the service provider to the Customer.
    3. The Customer may pay invoices using a payment procedure offered by the GmbH. If remuneration cannot be collected, the Customer shall bear all of the costs incurred by the GmbH, in particular bank fees in connection with the return of debits and comparable fees in the scope in which the Customer is responsible for the event triggering the costs.
    4. The GmbH shall be free to transmit invoices and payment reminders solely by electronic means.
    5. The GmbH reserves the right to switch over the settlement of accounts from the Euro to the respective national currency of the Customer at any time if the Customer does not object to such.
    6. The amounts due on membership subject to charge shall be due and payable immediately in advance upon invoicing for the entire term.
    7. The GmbH reserves the right to increase the amounts for membership subject to charge effective as of the commencement of a new extension period that either follows the minimum usage period or the respective ongoing extension period on a reasonable scale. A maximum of one price increase takes place per calendar year. In such case, the GmbH shall inform the Customer accordingly at least six (6) weeks before the end of the minimum usage period or the respective ongoing extension period. If the Customer is not in agreement with this increase in remuneration, he or she may object to such by letter, fax or e-mail within a period of three (3) weeks. The objection shall be tantamount to termination of membership subject to charge by the Customer, which means that membership subject to charge shall end upon the expiry of the respective minimum period of usage or the ongoing extension period.
  7. Term, end of the Agreement, sanctions, repayment of remuneration paid in advance
    1. The Customer and the GmbH may give notice to terminate membership free of charge at any time without stating the reasons for such. To protect the Customer against unauthorised deletion of his or her usage profile by third parties, MedZig may carry out an ascertainment of identity upon termination, e.g. by enquiring about the user name and an e-mail address registered with MedZig.
    2. The Agreement may be terminated subject to a three-month period of notice prior to the end of a year. If no notice is provided, the Agreement shall be automatically renewed on an ongoing basis. Notice shall be provided by letter, fax or e-mail. Following termination of the membership subject to charge by the service provider or the GmbH, the Customer shall retain membership free of charge until it ends, but the additional and expanded functions of membership subject to charge shall be discontinued.
    3. Even if certain special stipulations regarding term and termination apply, both parties shall be entitled to extraordinary termination of the contractual relationship for good cause at any time without observing any period of notice. Good cause for extraordinary termination shall be deemed to be present if continuation of the contractual relationship until the expiry of the statutory period of notice would not be reasonable to expect of the party giving notice taking into account all the circumstances involved in the individual case and weighing out the interests of both parties. Good cause for MedZig shall in particular be deemed to include the following events:
      1. Failure of the customer to adhere to statutory provisions;
      2. Violation by the user of his or her contractual obligations;
      3. The reputation of the services offered on MedZig is negatively affected on a significant scale by the presence of the Customer (e.g. if following registration of the service provider it turns out that the Customer has been effectively convicted of a wilful criminal act and other users are aware of such conviction);
      4. The Customer advertises for organisations, associations, amalgamations or communities - or their methods or activities - that are under observation by the security authorities or authorities in charge of protecting minors;
      5. The Customer causes damage to one or more other users; or
      6. The Customer is member of a sect or community of belief that is controversial in Germany.
    4. In the presence of good cause as laid down in section 7.3, the GmbH may also apply the following sanctions against the Customer independent of termination in accordance with section 7.3:
      1. Deletion of contents that the Customer has introduced;
      2. Blocking of access to MedZig; or
      3. Pronouncement of an admonishment.
    5. The claim of the Customer to repayment of remuneration that has already been paid in advance in the event of termination is excluded unless the Customer gives notice of termination for good cause for which the GmbH is responsible. In the following cases, the claim of the service provider to repayment of remuneration that has already been effected in advance shall always be excluded:
      1. The GmbH gives notice to terminate the agreement for good cause; or
      2. The GmbH blocks access by the user in accordance with section 7.4, letter b.
  8. Responsibility for contents, data and/or information of users, availability
    1. The GmbH shall not assume any responsibility for the contents, data and/or information made available by service providers and customers of MedZig or for contents on linked external websites. The GmbH shall in particular not be liable for these contents being true, fulfilling a certain purpose or being able to serve such purpose.
    2. If the Customer notices any use of MedZig in violation of law or the contractual agreement (including the use of pseudonyms or deceptive identities), the Customer may provide notification of such.
    3. With regard to data or contents that in accordance with the General Terms and Conditions, the data-protection provisions of the GmbH or the content provided by the Customer are or have been publically available and stored by a third party, the GmbH shall not be obligated to prevent such storage by third parties.
    4. The GmbH merely provides the Customer a platform and in principle does not take part in the content of communications between service providers and users. If the Customer concludes agreements with service providers through MedZig, the GmbH shall not be deemed to be involved in such, nor shall it be deemed to be a contractual partner. Solely service providers are responsible for the execution and fulfilment of all agreements concluded with the Customer. The GmbH merely provides the tool for communication by video telephony. It shall not be liable for violations of rights by service providers emanating from the agreements concluded by service providers and the Customer or for technical breakdowns by the communication tool and the platform.
  9. Evaluations by users, answers by service providers
    1. MedZig offers the Customer the possibility to evaluate service providers whose service the Customer has made use of. The service providers have declared their consent to usage of this platform through the Customer of MedZig being able to draft evaluations of them while abiding by section 9.2. The GmbH is not responsible for the comments and evaluations of customers; MedZig thus merely serves as platform.
    2. Every service provider may only be evaluated by a user once, including when different illnesses are treated. If the user would like to update his or her evaluation because he or she has gained new experience with the service provider, the user may log in with his or her personal access data and process the evaluation. Every renewed attempt at evaluation shall be rejected. If a third party submits an evaluation for a user, only one evaluation may also be performed for a user in connection with the service provider (e.g. evaluation may only be performed by one parent of a child in the capacity of user and not both).
    3. The user is obligated,
      1. to precisely state the service provider,
      2. to only submit an assessment if the user has had contact with the service provider him- or herself.
      3. not to make any untrue and/or non-objective evaluation and/or statements regarding the service provider, the staff employed at the service provider or any other conditions characterising the service provider,
      4. to refrain from stating the name of any employee of the service provider,
      5. to refrain from establishing any links to external contents.
    4. If the evaluations and commentaries drafted by the Customer violate statutory provisions, the service provider may assert a claim to deletion of evaluations and commentaries drafted on it and by it towards the GmbH. The GmbH shall review all commentaries in this respect. The GmbH reserves the right to review and delete evaluations that are issued by unprofessional users.
    5. The evaluations drafted by the user shall be used worldwide, including with the services of third parties.
    6. The service provider shall be entitled to write and publish a commentary on every evaluation.
  10. Liability of the GmbH
    1. Any liability on the part of the GmbH is excluded to the extent allowed by law. The GmbH shall in particular not be liable for mistakes in advice or damage due to injury to life and limb or impairment of health with a customer incurred as a result of incorrect treatment or failure to provide treatment by a service provider.
    2. In particular, the GmbH shall not be liable for damage resulting from force majeure or meetings by video telephony that did not take place independently of the reason for such.
  11. Data protection
    1. Any collection, dissemination and/or usage of personal data shall only take place if the service provider has consented to such or such is allowed by law.
    2. The GmbH uses google adds (https://privacy.google.com/how-ads-work.html) in order to submit customers tailor-cut offers. The Customer herewith consents to this.
    3. Otherwise please refer to the General Terms and Conditions upon which this Agreement is based as well as the current Data-Protection Declaration by the GmbH, which can be respectively called up at www.medzig.com.
  12. Right of cancellation for consumers
    1. If the Customer is a consumer in the meaning of § 13 of the German Civil Code, the Customer shall be entitled to cancel this Agreement within a period of fourteen days without stating the reason for such. The cancellation period is fourteen days beginning with the day upon which the Agreement is concluded. To exercise this right of cancellation, the Customer must inform MedZig GmbH Dorfbauerschaft 8, 48317 Drensteinfurt Tel.: +4923878159 Fax: +4923878110 E-Mail: widerruf@medzig.com by means of a clear and unambiguous declaration (e.g. by a letter sent with the postal services, telefax or e-mail) that the Agreement is cancelled.
    2. To meet the cancellation deadline, it shall be deemed to suffice if the notification on the exercise of the right of cancellation is sent before expiry of the cancellation period.
    3. If the Customer cancels the Agreement, the GmbH shall reimburse all payments that the GmbH has received from the Customer without undue delay and no later than fourteen days after the day on which notification of cancellation of the Agreement is received by the GmbH. In effecting reimbursement, the GmbH shall use the same means of payment that the Customer used in the original transaction. The Customer shall not be charged any fees for the repayment.
    4. The right to cancellation shall not apply if the Customer acts primarily in the practice of his or her commercial or self-employed professional work in the conclusion of the legal transaction and is therefore deemed to be a businessperson (Unternehmer) (§ 14 of the German Civil Cod).
    5. Cancellation right towards the GmbH shall not apply with regard to those covenants and agreements that are not concluded by the Customer with the GmbH, but rather by the Customer with a third party. Any rights of cancellation may only be asserted towards such third party.
    6. The Customer expressly consents to the GmbH commencing execution of the service prior to the end of the cancellation period.
    7. A sample cancellation form is available for download at www.medzig.com
  13. Final stipulations
    1. Any changes or amendments to this Agreement must be in writing to be effective. This shall also apply to any change in this writing requirement.
    2. This Agreement shall be governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. The German Civil Code (BGB)/German Commercial Code (HGB) shall apply.
    3. The parties herewith agree that the courts having jurisdiction over the registered office of the GmbH shall serve as the sole legal venue for any and all disputes emanating from this Agreement provided that the user is a businessperson (Kaufmann) in the meaning of the German Commercial Code (HGB) or the user does not have any registered office in the Federal Republic of Germany when the complaint is filed.
    4. If individual parts of this contractual relationship are or become invalid or impossible to carry out, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of the Agreement. In such case, any invalid or ineffective provisions shall be replaced by stipulations that in terms of their economic purpose come as close as possible to the invalid provision or provision which is impossible to execute. The same shall apply to gaps and omissions in the Agreement.
    5. The Customer recognises the General Terms and Conditions and Data Protection Declaration of the GmbH.