1. Contracting Parties and Applicability
1.1. WAL International AG, Zug (“WAL” or “provider”) is a provider of services in context of comparison and agency platforms as well as legal services. In connection with the use of these services by the contractual party, the provider and the contractual party conclude a contract. The contractual party and the provider are each a “party” and together the “par-ties” to this Agreement. The male term always includes the female term.
1.2. These General Terms and Conditions (“GTC”) for services in connection with the present platform are part of the contract concluded between the parties. In the event of contradictions, the individual contract takes precedence over the GTC.
1.3. The provider is entitled to amend these GTC at any time. The contractual party may view the current GTC on the platform or order a copy from the provider. The contractual partner confirms that he has taken note of and accepted the current version of the GTC with every change to the content, the purchase of new services or the payment of every invoice. Section 9 of these GTC shall apply to the adjustment of services and remuneration.
2. Definitions
Attorney (-user): An attorney admitted to the bar according to the relevant national provisions, who is entitled to repre-sent persons professionally at all instances before judicial and administrative authorities and is registered as an attorney on the platform.
Client: A person who uses the services of WAL and does not fall under any other category of users for the specific service.
Content: Information of the contractual party (e.g. name/company, address, telephone number, e-mail, opening hours) as well as other contents (e.g. attributes, keywords, images and texts, qualification certificates, titles, etc.), which the con-tractual party provides to the provider in the user account for the purpose of publication on the platform, including subse-quent changes and additions as well as evaluations according to section 14.
Contract: The contract between the contractual party and the provider concerning the services in connection with the platform, including these GTC.
Lawyer (-user): A person who, according to the relevant national regulations, has completed and passed the study of law as a major subject and is registered as a lawyer on the platform.
Publication: Online publication of content on the provider’s platform.
Platform: The service platform of WAL, advertised by the provider under the domain www.wal.world (or any related website) and made available on the smartphone / tablet / web application.
Referee (-user): A person who has agreed to settle disputes and is registered on the platform as referee.
Services: The free and paid services offered by the provider in connection with the platform.
Student-Lawyer (-user): A person who is matriculated at a recognized university and is studying law as a major subject.
Support-Partner: The affiliated companies and / or other third parties engaged by the provider for the provision of the services.
User: All users of the platform (end users, attorney users, lawyer users, student-lawyer users, referee users, etc.).
3. Entry into Force, Components
3.1. The contractual party shall be required to download the application from the Appstore or Playstore (or other application providers) in order to receive the services. These rules are valid from the moment you visit the website or download the application. The contract is concluded for an indefinite period of time.
3.2. The following documents are part of the contract between the contractual party and the provider:
I. Individual contract
II. Product description (if any)
III. GTC / WAL International Arbitration Rules (WIAR) / University Guidelines
IV. Data Protection Declaration & Cookies Policy
V. Codes of Conduct (ABC-Rules, behavioral standards)
VI. Imprint
3.3. The components are in a hierarchical structure according to the order (from top to bottom) in which they are listed, mandatory legal provisions are reserved and always precede.
4. WAL’s Services
4.1. The services of WAL are partially described on the website (www.wal.world or other related websites) and based on the orders of the contractual party. In particular the following services can be agreed upon:
WAL-Lawyers: Clients have access to registered attorneys and lawyers and can contact them via the platform. Attorneys and lawyers can create a profile on the platform and offer their services.
WAL-Library: All users have access to the global library of templates, contracts, and other documents created by attorneys and lawyers. Each contract is provided with the author. Attorneys and lawyers are obliged to provide a certain number of templates, contracts, and other documents free of charge and for an unlimited period of time.
WAL-Journal: All users have access to the Legal Journal, where they can view and, if registered as an attorney/lawyer, elaborate on legally relevant topics. Each publication is provided with the author.
WAL-Manager: End users have access to the contract management system. Downloaded contracts/templates are stored there and made available.
WAL-Digital Court: End users have access to the digital arbitration system. Arbitrable disputes can be settled bindingly via the digital court. Disputes will be decided by registered arbitrators, based on the WAL International Arbitration Rules.
WAL-STX: All users have access to the payment system. Secured payments may be processed and executed with the help of a support partner.
4.2. The provider is entitled to consult support partners for the provision of services.
4.3. The contractual party agrees that the content stored in the user account may be published on the provider’s platform. The contractual party grants the provider all rights to use, edit and publish the content that the provider requires to fulfill the contract. The provider may supplement the contractual party’s content with additional data, which the provid-er obtains from public sources or third parties.
4.4. The provider is not obliged to review the content provided by the contracting party or the contracting party’s rights on the content. The provider may, however, demand proof of authorization from the contractual party and / or re-ject, modify or delete the publication of content if, at the provider’s discretion, the content violates the contractual party’s assurances in accordance with section 6 and / or for other objectively justified reasons. The provider is also entitled to set a reasonable deadline for the contractual party to adapt or delete content and to suspend its services after the deadline has expired unused. In this case, the contractual party shall be entitled to publish modified content, but shall not be enti-tled to a reduction or refund of the remuneration
4.5. The contractual party acknowledges that the content published on the provider’s platform is made public and available to everyone, and that third parties may redistribute the content published on the provider’s platform without the provider being able to control this. Even after deletion of content on the provider’s platform, the content may remain published on other platforms controlled by third parties, over which the provider has no influence. The contractual party agrees to this.
5. User Account
5.1. Registration or the creation of a user account may be necessary to use the services. The registration or opening of a user account is only permitted to users who are capable of acting (natural and legal persons). The user is obliged to provide complete and correct information and to make changes immediately if the information provided is no longer up to date. The user is solely responsible for the content of his registration and thus for the information he provides about him-self. The provider is not obliged to check this information for correctness or completeness. The provider provides the con-tractual party with access to the user account, in which the contractual party can maintain and adjust his profile, the ser-vices he has obtained and his content at any time unless provided otherwise herein.
5.2. The provider determines the type of access protection for the user account. It is not obliged to check the identity details of users and may consider any access with the correct login data as authorized access. The contractual party under-takes to protect its login data from misuse and shall be liable to the provider for any damage resulting from such misuse. The provider is not obliged to take copy protection measures. WAL is free to reject any registration, delete a user account or restrict access to it for legitimate reasons. Content and information shared via the user account may continue to be displayed on the platform or third party platforms.
6. User’s Duties
6.1. The contractual party is responsible for maintaining the information in the user account and for the information and documents (“contents”) provided by him. If the contractual party provides incomplete or incorrect content and the provider therefore fails to publish it correctly, the contractual party is not entitled to a reduction or refund of the fee.
6.2. The contractual party himself is responsible for ensuring that his content on the provider’s platform is up-to-date and correct.
6.3. The contractual party himself is responsible for ensuring that any legal requirements for handling data, clients, funds, etc. are complied with at all times.
6.4. The contractual party assures that:
– he owns all required rights regarding the contents and has unlimited access to them or has obtained the neces-sary licenses from the owner of the rights;
– the used content does not violate any third party rights (e.g. firm-, trademark-, and copyright);
– it is unrestrictedly entitled to grant the provider the rights stipulated in this contract in connection with the con-tents;
– the contents are correct;
– the contents and connected websites comply with all legal regulations and in particular do not violate personal privacy, secrecy or honor, are not pornographic, racist, defamatory, harassing, glorify violence, immoral or mor-ally reprehensible.
6.5. If claims are asserted against the provider, its affiliated persons or employees, by third parties due to a breach of assurance by the contractual party pursuant to Section 6.4, the contractual party shall conduct the legal dispute at its own expense as far as legally possible and shall fully indemnify the provider, its affiliated persons or employees. The provider informs the contractual party within a reasonable period of time of any claims asserted.
6.6. The contractual party undertakes to use the services for the intended purpose and to refrain from any improper, abusive and illegal use, e.g. the introduction of malware (such as viruses, worms or other spy software). Furthermore, the services may not be used in such a way that the availability for the provider, other users or otherwise negatively influenced (e.g. by the use of automatic devices, scripts and robot, spy, crawler or scraper services).
6.7. The Referee may refuse to be assigned to a dispute only if a conflict of interest is proven to exist in accordance with the WIAR. Acceptance of the assignment despite a conflict of interest will result in immediate and permanent exclu-sion from the WAL Community, the account will be blocked. The Referee shall bear full responsibility for the feasibility (e.g. arbitrability, informing of the parties, handling the third parties, informing the Court in case of technical defects, etc.) and conduct of the arbitration procedure assigned to him. If there are sufficient grounds, the Referee may be replaced at any time without compensation, even during proceedings.
7. Remuneration, Invoicing and Payment Terms
7.1. The remuneration owed for paid services is a net price. The statutory value-added tax will be invoiced additional-ly. For the adjustment of the remuneration by the provider section 9 applies.
7.2. Depending on the service, invoices are issued monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually in advance.
7.3. The contractual party undertakes to pay the remuneration by the last day of the previous month without any deductions to the provider’s account.
7.4. If payment is not received on time, access to the user account can be blocked and/or profile visibility will be disabled. All contractual obligations of the provider shall be suspended until the amount owed has been paid. A reminder fee of USD 20.00 is due for the administrative work (blocking and setting of profile visibility). In case of recurrence, the amount is doubled in each case. The maximum reminder fee is USD 80.00. Even if the account is not blocked or made invisible, this does not constitute acceptance/recognition of a payment.
7.5. The outstanding invoice amount plus any reminder fees and interest may be assigned to third parties for the purpose of collection. If the claim is transferred to a collection agency, the provider may charge the contractual party the costs of the assignment in the amount of USD 75.00. The amount will be invoiced by the collection company.
7.6. Set-off by the contractual party is excluded in any case.
8. Exclusion from the Provider’s Services
8.1. In the event of a breach of contractual or legal obligations, the provider has the right to block the user account without warning and to disable profile visibility. The contractual party himself is responsible for the external storage of the information/documents (independent of the provider) necessary for compliance with legal obligations.
8.2. In the event of a gross breach of contractual or legal obligations, the provider has the right to permanently ex-clude the contractual party from using the platform. Whether a gross violation exists is at the provider’s discretion. The provider evaluates this from a neutral point of view and in good faith.
8.3. If the provider receives a plausible initial suspicion of abuse of the platform by the contractual party, the provider has the right to block the contractual party temporarily and to disable profile visibility. During the provisional measure, the obligations of both parties shall be suspended. If the suspicion turns out to be unfounded, the measures will be cancelled.
8.4. A refund is excluded in any case.
9. Adjustment of Performance and Remuneration
9.1. The provider is entitled to adjust services and remuneration at any time. This includes, for example, design adap-tations, adaptations to technological requirements or developments as well as changes, replacement and omission of functionalities or content to be published. The provider notifies the contractual party in advance of any significant changes to services as well as an adjustment of the remuneration in a suitable manner (e.g. in an information letter, by e-mail, on the website, as a notification on the app or on the invoice).
9.2. In such a case, the contractual party shall be entitled to terminate the contract at the latest when the change comes into effect, otherwise the changes shall be deemed to be accepted.
10. Intellectual Property
10.1. The provider is entitled to all (intellectual) property and protection rights (e.g. copyrights and trademark rights) to services and documentation (e.g. smartphone application, advertising materials, product brochures, website, logo, product designations, label, etc.). For the duration of the contract, the provider grants the contractual party the non-transferable, non-exclusive right to use the services and documentation covered by the contract.
10.2. The complete or partial reproduction, transmission (electronically or by other ways) or modification of the ser-vices or contents is not allowed.
10.3. Copying, downloading or printing the services or contents is only permitted for personal, non-commercial use, provided that neither any copyright notices nor other legally protected designations are removed.
10.4. The complete, partial or extract use of the address directories made available via the services for commercial address exploitation, commercial information or as a document or aid for the compilation or supplementation of subscrib-er, address or other directories in any form (electronic, in print, on data carriers, etc.) as well as the reading out of data on the Internet for the above-mentioned purposes and for other commercial purposes is prohibited.
10.5. The provisions concerning the rights of third parties are reserved.
11. Intellectual Property of the Contractual Party
11.1. For content uploaded and/or published on the platform by the contractual party, the provider has the exclusive, free-of-charge, permanent, transferable, irrevocable and unrestrictedly sublicensable right to use, reproduce, translate, distribute and publish. In addition, the provider may use the content on all known media and for any purpose. Under no circumstances shall the contractual party be entitled to compensation.
11.2. Content shared by the contractual party (in particular contracts, samples, templates, publications, etc.) shall remain published on the platform even if the contractual party or the provider has terminated the contractual relationship. The contractual party grants the provider the irrevocable right to share the shared content permanently on the platform and to use it for commercial purposes without compensation.
11.3. The provider may, at its own discretion and without stating reasons, reject, change or delete the user’s content at any time due to its specific content, origin, technical form or quality, especially if the content does not comply with the assurances mentioned in section 6.4. The user shall have no claims against the provider arising from the rejection, modifi-cation or deletion of content.
11.4. The provider is not liable for the correctness of the contents.
12. Platform Availability, Warranty
12.1. The provider endeavors to ensure high availability of its services and the user account, but does not guarantee uninterrupted and trouble-free services. It also endeavors to eliminate technical faults within a reasonable period of time, but does not guarantee the availability of technical support.
12.2. Further warranty claims of the contractual party are excluded.
12.3. With regard to the warranty/assurances by the contractual party, section 6.4 shall apply.
13. Liability
13.1. The provider is responsible to the contractual party for the careful provision of the agreed services in accordance with the contract. The provider, his representatives, affiliated persons or companies, employees and support partners shall only be liable for damages caused by intent and gross negligence. Otherwise, the liability of the provider, his repre-sentatives, affiliated persons or companies, employees and support partners is excluded to the extent permitted by law. In particular, liability is excluded for indirect and consequential damages, for cases of force major and strikes, for tech-nical malfunctions (e.g. service or internet interruptions) also within the responsibility of third parties and for auxiliary persons, for data or information losses, damages caused by third parties such as other users (especially Referees or Law-yers/Attorneys) or hacker attacks or malware, or for missed profit. Insofar as the provider is liable, the liability is in all cases limited to the amount of the proven damage, but to a maximum amount of USD 1.000.
13.2. The platform may be temporarily unavailable or limited available due to maintenance work or other reasons. The provider is not liable for the (temporary) unavailability of the platform, the failure of some or all functions, or for malfunc-tions of the platform.
13.3. The provider shall not be liable for any actions of users towards the contractual party except intent or gross negligence. This includes content of any kind which is shared by a user on the platform and which infringes the rights of the contractual party in any way.
13.4. Any liability of the support partner towards the contractual party is excluded to the extent permitted by law.
13.5. The contractual party shall be liable to the provider for damages resulting from breaches of contract or law, shall indemnify the provider from all claims of third parties which third parties assert against the provider in connection with the use of services by the contractual party, and handle any litigation as well as pay the legal/attorney fees incurred thereby. In particular, the contractual party shall be liable for claims asserted against the provider by third parties and/or users in connection with the publication of content to which the contractual party is not entitled to publish.
14. Rating-System
14.1. The provider provides an evaluation system on the platform. This system includes ratings (such as awarding stars, etc.) and reviews (possibility of commenting, such as writing evaluative comments) by the users of the platform. Upon conclusion of the contract, the contractual party agrees to participate in the provider’s rating system. In addition to the ratings of users, the contractual party will also be evaluated by the provider with regard to compliance with the obliga-tions on the platform and further neutral guidelines determined by the provider at its discretion.
14.2. The provider has the exclusive, free of charge, permanent, transferable, irrevocable and unrestrictedly sublicens-able right to use, reproduce, translate, distribute and publish the ratings (star rating and commentary), even if the contract between the provider and the contractual party has been terminated. In addition, the provider may use the ratings on all known media and for any purpose it deems fit.
14.3. The provider has no obligation to control the ratings posted or distributed on the platform by the users. The provider is in no way liable for the ratings. The provider has the right to block, delete or not activate ratings at its sole discretion without prior notice.
14.4. The provider provides a notification procedure for the deletion of ratings. If the contractual party detects person-ality-, competition-, copyright-, honor- or other right-infringing content, or content that glorifies racism, violence, threats, pornography or obscenity, he can assert this by sending a notification to the provider’s contact details given on the plat-form. The provider will make reasonable efforts to delete such content within a reasonable period of time. There is no legal claim to a deletion within a period of time.
15. Data Protection
15.1. The provider’s data protection declaration applies in its current version, which is available on the platform. In case of discrepancies between the GTC and the data protection declaration, the GTC shall take precedence.
15.2. The provider may provide the contractual party with information on other services of the provider (e.g. by news-letter or by letter, e-mail, push notification, etc.). If the contractual party no longer wishes to receive such notifications from the provider, it may unsubscribe at any time using the contact data provided on the platform.
15.3. The provider may integrate third-party services into its services. For example, some functions of the services may involve interaction between the user and third parties or their services, whereby the third-party services may enable the user to share content, which is then published on the third-party services.
15.4. By using the services, the contractual party agrees that the provider has or may have access to all documents and correspondence. The contractual party also agrees that all correspondence between users, which may potentially be cov-ered by an official or professional confidentiality obligation, may be stored on the providers’ servers in order to comply with the obligation to retain data or other obligations. The data that falls under said confidentiality obligation will not be disclosed to third parties unless required by law.
16. Termination
16.1. The contract may be terminated by either party at any time without notice by the end of the month, whereby termination does not release the contracting party from paying the remuneration accrued up to the effective date of ter-mination. The termination will result in the contractual partner not having access to the user account anymore. The data will be deleted at the provider’s discretion, reserving the contractual provisions. The contractual party itself is responsible for exporting its content before the termination takes effect. It cannot be guaranteed that the data can be made available after the termination of the contract.
16.2. Termination by the contracting party may be effected by mail or e-mail to the provider’s contact data mentioned on the platform.
17. Final Provisions
17.1. Side agreements, amendments to contractual arrangements or supplementary agreements shall only be valid if they have been agreed in writing or – in the case of an electronic relationship with the contractual partner – after confir-mation by the provider via e-mail or message on the application (with the exception of amendments to the General Terms and Conditions and components according to section 3.2).
17.2. Any messages from the provider to the contractual party shall be sent via the (e-mail) address or phone number specified by the contractual party or by notifications in the application. The provider must be notified of any changes of address, internal contact person and correspondence e-mail in advance.
17.3. The provider is entitled to transfer certain or several rights and obligations from the contract or the entire con-tractual relationship to a third party. A transfer by the contractual partner is excluded.
17.4. The possible invalidity of any provision of the contract (including these General Terms and Conditions) shall not affect the validity of the remaining contract.
17.5. Every term defined here or in any other component has the same meaning here or in any other component.
17.6. With the exception of the provisions agreed upon in this agreement and its components, the parties note that no side agreements have been concluded. All previous agreements and verbal agreements are replaced by the present con-tract.
17.7. Any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement, including its validity, invalidity, breach or termination (the “Dispute”) shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the WAL International Arbitration Rules (WIAR) with the exemption that WAL does not have to deposit costs in case the contractual party files a claim but claimant shall deposit all costs. The version of the Rules in force at the time of delivery of the Request of Arbitration shall apply. The Tribunal shall has its seat in Zurich, Switzerland. The arbitral proceedings shall be held in German. Applicable is Swiss substantive law, without regard to the rules of conflict of laws and the provisions of the Vienna Convention (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, concluded in Vienna on 11.04.1980). The binding Request for Arbitration will be delivered by e-mail and push notification on the WAL mobile application. In the event that the dispute is partially not arbitrable, this clause stays intact for the remaining arbitrable parts. In the event that the ad-ministration through the WAL mobile app is not possible, the rest of the arbitration clause, such as WIAR, applicable law, seat, language, etc., is still applicable. This arbitration clause shall be treated as a separate agreement. In the event that the dispute is not arbitrable at all or cannot be enforced under national law, the parties undertake to accept and enforce any arbitration award requested despite this circumstance. If a party subsequently invokes the non-binding nature or unen-forceability of the arbitral award, that party shall bear all costs of the arbitration proceedings in full.