Scope of Application
These terms and conditions apply to North Data’s standard products are subject to a charge, in particular, the North Data Premium Service, the Widget API, the Data API and the quarterly export subscription (hereinafter referred to as “products”). They do not apply to the use of the free website as a non-registered visitor.
North Data’s products are exclusively intended for entrepreneurs as defined by the § 14 German Civil Code [BGB], i.e., natural or legal persons or partnerships with legal capacity. Only these are deemed users as defined by these terms and conditions. In this respect, North Data declines the conclusion of a contract with consumers. Upon conclusion of the contract, the user declares that his use can be predominantly attributed to his commercial or self-employed professional activity.
The user’s differing purchase or business terms shall only be valid if North Data has separately acknowledged them in writing. In the event of a conflict, the users’ purchase or business terms shall be regarded as subordinate to these GTC.
Subject Matter
North Data processes incorporate publications (in particular from the Commercial Registry – “Handelsregister”, the German Federal Gazette – “Bundesanzeiger”, and announcements of insolvency – “Insolvenzbekanntmachungen”) in a fully automated way. The objective is to determine, present and make searchable any economic information. The results of this processing will be made available to the users in North Data products.
The products’ scope of services offered as well as the amount of the payable remuneration is based on the description to be found on the North Data website and the tariff selected by the customer.
North Data grants the customer a non-exclusive license, that is limited in time to the cooperation’s duration, to use the websites, software and interfaces offered, and to use the North Data services under the contractual agreements made. In particular, the type, number, and scope of access options and further processing are regulated. Resale, transfer or leasing of the user licenses granted is only permitted within the scope of the agreed range of services or with North Data’s prior written consent.
Under the terms of his agreement, a North Data customer may make a certain number of requests to find companies or obtain extended information about them. Each such “request” shall be offset against a monthly general quota as specified in the product description. If the quota is exhausted, each further request will incur the fixed additional fees. Therefore, the customer shall ensure that only those users receiving access to login credentials are authorized to carry out chargeable activations and configure their systems in a manner, that before use, they are informed about surplus requests in a suitable manner. Within the scope of the contract, unused requests shall expire at the end of the day on which the customer’s contract term ends.
The tariffs of the North Data Premium Service are tied to a number of users. The online tariff is valid for one user. Each user identifies himself through an e-Mail address and password. A user account may only be used by one person.
Registration and Contract Conclusion
There is currently no registration required for the Data API, Widget API, and Export subscription products. The contract is concluded upon commissioning (usually by e-Mail), and the subsequent receipt of an API Key or when sending the first export.
To use the North Data Premium Service, the customer must register at the North Data website. Upon completion of this registration process and selection of the respective tariff, a contractual relationship between the customer and North Data shall come about. The registration process is complete after registration is confirmed; by clicking on the confirmation link sent via e-Mail, and by filling in the company and payment data form.
During registration, a customer account (“Account”) is created for the customer, within which the customer can manage his settings and access the services of North Data.
North Data uses an external invoicing system for billing. Details of this use are available, as stated in North Data’s Privacy Policy. Billing and invoicing is done solely electronically. The customer agrees to the electronic transfer of invoices.
With the registration, the customer assures that all data transmitted by him, during the registration process itself as well as within the account created thereby to his person and his enterprise, are complete and content-wise correct. The use of pseudonyms or alias is not permitted.
The customer declares that he has a justified interest in inspecting the register- data.
The customer is obliged to keep the customer’s address and contact data, or of his company’s, up to date at all times. In the account created while registering, the customer is also obliged to deposit a permanent authorized representative contact including an e-Mail address as well as a postal address (if different from the customer’s general address). Furthermore, in his account the customer must name all qualified persons and their contact data (name, e-Mail address, telephone number), who are authorized to use the services of North Data (“additional authorized users”).
It is the customer’s responsibility as well as that of other authorized persons, if provided, to exercise the greatest possible care in the use of their login credentials, and to take all measures necessary to guarantee the data’s confidential and secure handling and prevent their disclosure to third parties. The customer or the other authorized users are solely responsible for misuse or loss of login credentials; in the event thereof, the customer must inform North Data of this immediately.
In principle, North Data is entitled to decline the conclusion of a contract without stating reasons. In the event of an incomplete registration, North Data is entitled to delete the customer’s account within one week.
If a contractual relationship with a customer lasts at least six months, North Data shall then be entitled to use the customer’s name and logo as a reference. North Data shall inform the customers of this fact separately before naming them as a reference for the first time. The customer may revoke this consent at any time (even immediately after conclusion of the contract). A simple notice, e.g. by e- Mail, is sufficient.
Billing and Contract Duration
Depending on the selected tariff and product, billing is carried out either monthly, quarterly, or annually. All prices are net, i.e. plus the statutory value-added tax.
The contractual relationship may be terminated at any time at the end of the current billing period (unless expressly agreed otherwise). If the contract has not been terminated, the contract term is automatically extended by the length of the selected period, at the end of the billing period.
Termination by the user of the Premium Service can either take place online via the customer’s account, by e-Mail to info@northdata.de or by post. For technical reasons, the notice period is as follows: one day for online cancellations, three days for cancellations by e-Mail, two weeks for cancellations by post.
Payment of the fixed basic fee is due at the start of the respective billing period. Variable costs (such as company calls over and above the free quota) are settled at the end of the settlement period.
The minimum contract period for the product “Export in Quarterly Subscription” is 12 months.
The minimum contract term for API packages (Data, Widget, and Start-up API) is six months.
Should the customer be in default of payment, North Data shall have the right to decline performance of services for the customer, to block access to the account or to terminate the contract.
Technical Processing
For API customers, North Data provides the economic information via an API (programming interface) that allows data to be retrieved in JSON or XML format. Corresponding documentation is provided to the customer on the North Data Documentation Hub. As a software-as-a-service product, the API is subject to constant further development. North Data incorporates its customers’ input into the development process and informs them of any changes that may occur.
The underlying database and API are operated in the “cloud” by North Data. North Data guarantees 99.95% availability (monthly). Planned maintenance periods are not required due to North Data’s “zero-downtime deployment” architecture. Due to the cloud-operating model with shared resources, individual requests may be declined at peak load. Therefore, it’s technically recommended, in the event of an error, to build in a client-side mechanism to repeat requests.
Since North Data’s economic information is generated by automatic algorithms from documents that weren’t initially intended for further technical processing, errors cannot be ruled out. North Data shall be notified of any errors of importance to the customer in the customer relationship, and North Data shall attempt to remedy such errors as far as this is possible with reasonable effort. Notification will be made by e-Mail; however North Data may introduce a technical system (Ticket/Issue Management System) to facilitate this support process.
Copyrights and Disclaimer
The customer shall have the right to store, process, use and transmit any economic information provided by North Data under the provisions of this Agreement, and shape such economic information into a form designed by the customer or North Data.
North Data grants the customer all rights of use necessary for the installation and use of the acquired information into its systems – in particular rights to the graphics and the compilation of the balance sheet data, should these be components of the product – and for the system’s regular use by the customers or the customers’ partners.
All rights granted are non-exclusive and non-transferable.
The customer is not entitled to resell the data en-bloc, and thereby, compete with North Data. In particular with the product “Export in subscription”, data may only be passed on to third parties as extracts and in processed form.
The reuse of content provided by North Data GmbH is permitted for noncommercial and commercial purposes within the scope of a non-exclusive right of use. In all cases, however, the source must be referenced. In addition, North Data must always be identified as the publisher in the source, and the relevant source page (northdata.de, northdata.com, or northdata.fr) must be referenced and linked.
The customer is aware that all data displayed and supplied by North Data has been processed and evaluated based on automatic procedures. All information is given without guarantee. He or she accepts the fact that no guarantees are given whatsoever for the completeness or accuracy of the data displayed. In particular, the customer may not demand compensation for any damage that may have arisen as a result of the use of or poor quality of the data. North Data continually strives to improve the quality of its automated processing and to enable the customer to verify the data by referring to the data sources.
North Data does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, quality, and availability of the information provided, nor the absence of any other technical malfunction, for any claims beyond those outlined in the paragraphs relating to rights, obligations and technical performance. Liability claims concerning damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any information that is incomplete or incorrect, will, therefore, be generally rejected. If the Federal Gazette or the Commercial Registery introduce technical or legal access restrictions that make access to annual reports or announcements more difficult, and that the data cannot be updated; as a result, liability is further excluded.
It is expressly stated that the economic information provided by North Data does not contain any credit ratings; therefore, North Data may not be cited as the source of a credit rating.
Obligations of the Customer
When using North Data services, the customer agrees to observe the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions and to take due care under regular business practice. This means in particular: (a) not to take advantage of program errors that occur, but instead, to immediately report them to North Data. (b) not to manipulate the service or its infrastructure. (c) not to use the service for illegal or manifestly unfair purposes. (d) not to spread viruses, worms or other malicious code through the service. (e) not to read out North Data’s offers and database works employing automated scripts/queries (scraping) unless this is explicitly part of the contractually agreed use and takes place via the interfaces provided for this purpose. (f) not attempt to obtain profile and personal data from other users or otherwise compromise privacy. (g) not intentionally mislead other users of North Data services.
If there is evidence or severe suspicion that a user has committed or attempted to commit a breach of duty pursuant to this section, North Data may, with immediate effect, exclude the user from using its services until the matter has been conclusively clarified.
Changes in Services
North Data reserves the right to alter the services offered on the North Data Websites or to provide different services unless this is unreasonable for the user.
North Data also reserves the right to change the services offered on the North Data websites or to provide diverging services, as far as North Data is obligated to conform services provided by North Data to the law applicable to the services, in particular if applicable legal situations change; if North Data thereby complies with a court ruling or an official decision against North Data; if the respective change is necessary to close existing security gaps; if the change is only beneficial to the user; or if the change is of purely technical or procedural nature and has no material effect on the user.
Changes with only an insignificant influence on the functions of North Data do not constitute changes in performance as defined by this section. This particularly applies to changes of a purely graphic nature and the mere modification of the arrangement of functions.
Services subject to a charge at any given time can also be offered free of charge in the future, and vice versa.
Amendments to the General Terms and Conditions
North Data reserves the right to change these terms and conditions at any time without notice unless the amendment is deemed unreasonable for the user. North Data will notify the user of any changes to the GTC promptly. Should the user not object to the validity of the new GTC within six (6) weeks after notification, the amended GTC shall be deemed accepted by the user. North Data will inform the user of his right to object and the significance of the objection period in the notification.
North Data also reserves the right to amend these General Terms and Conditions (a) if the amendment is only beneficial to the user; (b) if the change is purely technical or procedural in nature, unless it has a material effect on the user; (c) to the extent that North Data is required to bring these Gernaly Terms and Conditions into compliance with applicable law, in particular if the relevant legal situation changes; (d) to the extent that North Data thereby complies with a court judgment or governmental decision directed against North Data; or (e) to the extent that North Data introduces additional, entirely new services or service elements that require a service description in the GTC, unless the previous usage ratio is adversely affected thereby.
North Data will give notification of any such changes to these General Terms & Conditions, for example, on the North Data website.
Final Provisions
The contractual relationship shall be governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.
Unless otherwise agreed upon, the place of performance for all rights and obligations arising from this contract is Hamburg.
In the event that the customer is a businessman, legal entity under public law or holder of a special fund under public law as defined by § 38 Code of Civil Procedure [ZPO] or if the user relocates his residence, domicile or registered office abroad after contract conclusion or if this is not known, the exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be Hamburg.
Changes, cancellations, and amendments to North Data contracts must be made in writing (e.g. e-Mail or fax); this also applies to a rescindment of this written form requirement. Verbal side-agreements were not made.
The invalidity or ineffectiveness of individual provisions of these General Terms and Conditions shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions.