General Conditions of Membership

of TECH by HANDELBLATT MEDIA GROUP GmbH, Toulouser Allee 27, 40211 Düsseldorf

1 Preconditions of Membership

TECH membership is open to all persons above the age of 18.

2 Contractual Relationship, Access Details, Profile

2.1 TECH membership is generally based on a paid membership licence agreement that can be acquired in the form of a single or multiple licence.

2.2 When you are accepted as a TECH member, you will receive your personal access details (e-mail address and password), which you can edit in your user profile. Please ensure that your access details remain strictly confidential. Under no circumstances may you pass on these details to third parties.

2.3 To increase the interest in interaction with you and to make it easier to find you, you can add information to your TECH profile, such as additional details of your occupation, your company, your interests and your goals. Please ensure, however, that your profile details are visible to all TECH members.

3 Duration of Membership Licence, Expulsion, Consequences of Termination

3.1 The licence on which your membership is based comes into effect as soon as the order confirmation has been sent and has a duration of one year. If you do not terminate the licence on which your membership is based with notice of 30 days to the end of this duration, the licence will be automatically extended by a further 12 months. If you wish to terminate the licence on which your membership is based, you can write an e-mail to service@tech-europe.org or terminate your licence directly using the self-service feature at www.tech-europe.org.

3.2 If any changes occur during your membership – if, for example, you move to another company or if you move to another position within your company – you must inform us of such a change in a timely manner. It is generally possible to take your membership with you to a new position or a new company; please feel free to contact us for more information.

3.3 Membership can be terminated by way of expulsion. Decisions on expulsion are made by an internal TECH body based on the request of a member or if we learn of grounds for expulsion by other means. Serious violations of our TECH criteria constitute grounds for expulsion, in particular a violation of our Code of Conduct (see. No. 4.), deception regarding the fulfilment of acceptance criteria (see no. 2.) or the passing on of access details to third parties. We will request a statement from you prior to expulsion, unless the delay caused by this is not something we can be expected to accept.

3.4 We will block your access in the event of the termination of your membership, irrespective of the reason for termination. We will store your data for a period of six months as a precautionary measure; these data can be reactivated during this period if your membership is resumed. In the event of expulsion, we will store the data until any issues concerning your expulsion have been clarified (including legal disputes or prosecution).

At the end of this storage period, we will permanently delete your data. If you wish to restore your membership, you must therefore do so within this six-month period.

4 Code of Conduct

4.1 TECH facilitates open exchange and discussion on important technology topics from the standpoint of the location “Europe”. Agreements between TECH members that violate competition laws are prohibited, as is the commercial use of information that a TECH member has revealed in a confidential context.

4.2 We will also exclude members with immediate effect if we learn that they have registered with TECH using false information.

4.3 Recording of live chats, streams, discussions, presentations or other formats offered via TECH is prohibited.

4.4 We promote open and critical communication on TECH. We nevertheless expect that interaction between members is of an appropriate nature at all times. Insults, stalking, discriminatory statements, defamation or other inappropriate forms of communication can be reported to service@tech-europe.org. We will address such reports, and this may lead to expulsion.

5 Membership Fee

Membership of TECH is subject to a fee and can be acquired either in the form of a single licence or a multiple licence. If membership is renewed, we reserve the right to adjust the membership fee to the market situation at our reasonable discretion (Section 315 German Civil Code (BGB)).

6 Services of TECH

In addition to permitting participation in the annual TECH Conference in Heilbronn (including the provision of high-quality products from our partners at the event venue for each participant), TECH membership also provides exclusive access to the TECH platform. More information will be provided together with your personal access details.

7 Processing of Personal Data

7.1 One prerequisite for participation in TECH is that your data are processed both by us and by Microsoft Team. The scope of our data processing is outlined in our privacy statement, which you can subsequently access again at https://tech-europe.org/privacy-policy and save. You consented to this data processing with your application to become a member of TECH. You can revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future by sending an e-mail to crm@handelsblattgroup.com. If you do so, however, the TECH services provided to you will be limited or become unavailable in whole or in part.

7.2 Participation in TECH services further requires that we may send you information by e-mail on internal or external events and seminars that may be of interest to you. We will generally use the e-mail feature for this purpose. It may also be the case, however, that we use the e-mail address entered during your registration for this purpose.

7.3 We use the e-mail address stored during your registration in order to send you our exclusive member newsletter. You can unsubscribe to the newsletter at any time; in this event, the other services provided by TECH will continue to be available without restriction.

8 Amendment of Membership Conditions

We reserve the right to adapt these conditions to new circumstances – in the event that there are changes to the services we provide, for example, or in response to new legal framework conditions. We will inform you of these changes at the latest four weeks before they come into effect. If you do not agree to the changed conditions, you can terminate your membership during the period until the changes come into effect. In such cases, no membership fees will be reimbursed.

9 Right of Cancellation

9.1 Provided that your membership was not acquired in the form of a multiple licence, you have the right to cancel your membership within 14 days without giving reasons. The cancellation period is 14 days from the day on which the licence on which your membership is based comes into effect. In order to exercise the right of cancellation, you must inform us – i.e. TECH by Handelsblatt Media Group GmbH, Toulouser Allee 27, 40211 Düsseldorf, E-Mail service@tech-europe.org – by way of a clear statement (e.g. by letter sent via the postal service or by e-mail) of your decision to cancel your membership. The cancellation deadline will be deemed to have been met if you send the message concerning the exercise of the right of cancellation before the end of the aforementioned cancellation period.

9.2 Consequences of Cancellation

If you cancel your membership, we will reimburse you for all payments made in the case of a single licence without delay and at the latest 14 days from the day on which we received your message concerning the cancellation of your membership. This reimbursement will be made using the same mode of payment used by you for the original transaction, unless explicitly agreed otherwise with you. You will not be charged any fees in connection with this reimbursement.

10 Warranty, Liability

10.1 We offer our services on the basis of the current technical and legal framework conditions. We can therefore not guarantee or be held liable for uninterrupted availability. We therefore exclude any liability for data loss, access disruptions or other impairments arising from the use of TECH unless stipulated otherwise in the following.

10.2 If your claims are based on intentional or grossly negligent conduct by us, we will be liable in accordance with the legal regulations. The same applies in the event of injury to life, limb or health, the absence of an assured property, fraudulent misrepresentation or in cases of mandatory liability – in accordance with the German Product Liability Act (“Produkthaftungsgesetz”), for example.

10.3 In the case of minor negligence, we will only be liable for violation of an essential contractual obligation (an essential contractual obligation is an obligation which is absolutely necessary for the fulfilment of a contract and the fulfilment of which each party may therefore rely on). In such cases, the claim to compensation for damages is limited to damages that are foreseeable and that typically occur.

10.4 In all other cases, liability on our part is excluded, also with regard to the loss of data.

11 Final Provisions

Membership is subject to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the stipulations on international private law. Please note that we have decided against participation in dispute resolution proceedings before consumer dispute resolution entities. You can find the link to the ODR platform at https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. We also do not participate in this process.

Düsseldorf, last revised: 10/2024