General Terms and Conditions

1) GENERAL

These General Terms and Conditions (hereinafter referred to as the “GTC”) apply to all contracts concluded between the registered sole proprietorship Sophie Huber – Weddings & Events e.U., FN 614122x, (hereinafter referred to as the “Contractor”) and a third party, regardless of whether it is a natural or legal person (hereinafter referred to as the “Client”). Contracts are all agreements concluded expressly or implicitly, in writing or verbally. The GTC shall also apply to all future transactions, even if no express reference is made to them in individual cases, in particular in the case of future supplementary or follow-up orders.
The current version of the GTC can be accessed and saved at any time on the Contractor’s homepage (https://shweddingsandevents.at/).
The Contractor is a wedding and event planner and provides consulting, support and organizational services in this context. The Contractor does not owe any success, but merely provides its services.
These GTC shall apply exclusively to all contracts between the Contractor and the Client. Any terms and conditions of the Customer that conflict with or deviate from these GTC shall not be recognized by the Contractor. The performance of the contract by the Contractor shall not be deemed to constitute consent to contractual terms that deviate from these GTC.
Any agreements deviating from or supplementing these GTC must be made in writing and shall only apply to the respective legal transaction, but not to other, in particular follow-up transactions.
These GTC shall also apply to all future contracts with the customer. The customer must expressly agree to amendments to the GTC. The amended GTC shall be sent to the customer by e-mail. The current version of the GTC can be requested from Sophie Huber at any time.
The Contractor provides services for entrepreneurs and consumers. For consumer transactions within the meaning of Section 1 KSchG (hereinafter referred to as “consumer transactions”), these GTC shall apply with the deviations regulated for consumer transactions. Insofar as mandatory statutory provisions, in particular those of the KSchG as amended, conflict with these GTC, the mandatory statutory provisions shall apply.

2) COST ESTIMATE

The Contractor does not guarantee the accuracy of its cost estimates. The Contractor shall expressly declare this to consumers when issuing the cost estimate.
The cost estimates are subject to a charge unless otherwise agreed. Consumers shall be expressly informed by the Contractor of any obligation to pay.
If the underlying cost estimate is exceeded by more than 15% in the course of a consumer transaction or by 20% outside of consumer transactions, the Contractor shall inform the Customer of this. In this case, the Customer may declare its withdrawal from the contract in writing within three days of notification, in which case it shall reimburse the Contractor for the expenses already incurred and the pro rata remuneration for the work performed to date. Up to the aforementioned limits, the Contractor shall have no obligation to notify the Customer. If the Customer does not make a declaration, the Contractor shall be entitled to suspend the work until the Customer makes a declaration. If the Contractor has not received a response from the Customer within 7 days, the Contractor shall be entitled to withdraw from the contract by setting a reasonable grace period of no more than 14 days. In this case, too, the Customer shall reimburse the Contractor for the expenses already incurred and the pro rata remuneration for the work performed to date.
The cost estimates provided by the Contractor and the plans, sketches and drawings on which they are based may not be made accessible to third parties or presented for inspection without the express written consent of the Contractor.

3) CONCLUSION OF CONTRACT

Offers from a customer are accepted by written order confirmation from the contractor or by actual execution of the order. Mere silence shall not be deemed acceptance.
All offers made by the Contractor are subject to change and – except for consumer transactions – are only legally binding if they are made in writing or, if made verbally, subsequently confirmed in writing.
If the Contractor submits a binding offer, it shall be bound by the offer for a reasonable period of time, up to a maximum of 7 days, unless a different binding period is agreed in individual cases. The contract shall be concluded – if in writing – by signing the written offer.
The content of the order confirmation must be checked by the customer. The customer is obliged to notify us in writing of any deviations from the order submitted by him without delay, but within three working days at the latest. Otherwise, the legal transaction shall be concluded with the content confirmed by the Contractor.
The scope of the specific order shall be contractually agreed in each individual case.
Information in catalogs and brochures or public statements made by third parties, in particular in advertising, are non-binding and do not constitute an offer to conclude a contract. Such information shall only become part of the contract if express reference is made to it in the order confirmation.
The Contractor provides consulting, support and organizational services as a wedding and event planner. As part of the contractual relationship, it is regularly necessary for the Contractor to commission third parties to provide various services for and on behalf of the respective customer (e.g. suppliers for food, drinks, flowers, location rental). Which companies are commissioned is determined by the customer before the order is placed. The commissioning itself is carried out exclusively in the name and on behalf of the customer. No contractual relationship is established between the commissioned companies and the Contractor; the Contractor merely acts as an intermediary.

4) PRICES

The prices quoted by the Contractor are in euros (€ / EUR) and are exclusive of VAT in Vienna.
All prices announced by the Contractor are subject to change.
In the case of continuing obligations, the remuneration is agreed as value-adjusted according to the CPI 2020 or an index replacing it. The month in which the contract was concluded shall be taken as the starting point. The adjustment shall be made on the first of January and the first of July of each calendar year to the extent that the index has increased compared to the previous reference date. The Contractor’s failure to request an adjustment on the basis of the value adjustment agreement – even over a longer period of time – shall in no way be regarded as a conclusive waiver thereof. In the first two months after conclusion of the contract, however, there shall be no increase on the basis of the value assurance agreement.
If there are interruptions to working hours for which the customer is responsible, the waiting times incurred will be charged as working hours.

5) TERMS OF PAYMENT, DEFAULT AND REMINDER FEES

Half of the agreed remuneration shall be paid immediately after conclusion of the contract, the other half within one week after performance of the service, in each case after invoicing by the Contractor.
The Contractor shall have no obligation to perform before receipt of the advance payment referred to in point 5.1. In this case, the Contractor shall also be entitled to make further services dependent on the provision of security. In the event of default in payment, the Contractor shall also be entitled to demand compensation for non-performance or, without prejudice to any claims for damages, to withdraw from the contract by setting a grace period of no more than 14 days (see Section 14.1.).
For journeys to events and consultations that are more than 30 km away from Biedermannsdorf, the Contractor shall be entitled to charge a mileage allowance of EUR 0.70 for each additional kilometer.
The Contractor shall also be reimbursed for cash expenses for air and rail travel, public transportation, cab rides and – if necessary in individual cases – also for rental vehicles on an individual receipt basis.
If the Contractor is commissioned to supervise an event which – taking into account any preparations to be made before the start of the event – would require the Contractor to depart from Biedermannsdorf before 8:30 a.m., the Customer shall provide the Contractor and any assistant, if such an assistant is required for the event and it would be necessary for them to depart from their place of residence before 8:30 a.m., with a single room at the event location for the night before the start of the event. In the case of an event which – also taking into account any services to be performed after the end of the event – requires such a long period of supervision by the Contractor that the Contractor would not arrive before 11:00 p.m. in the event of a return journey to Biedermannsdorf, the Customer shall also provide a single room for each assistant for the night after the end of the event, if such an assistant is required until the end of the event or possibly beyond and would therefore not arrive at his/her place of residence before 11:00 p.m. in the event of a return journey. Unless the costs have already been paid in advance by the customer, invoicing shall be on an individual receipt basis.
In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, payments shall be due for payment immediately upon invoicing to the customer, free of charges and deductions. Transfers shall not be deemed to be payment until the amount has been credited to the Contractor’s account.
In the case of orders comprising several partial services, the Contractor shall be entitled to issue a separate invoice after the provision of each partial service.
Charges incurred in connection with the payment method selected by the customer (credit card payments, foreign bank transfers, etc.) shall be passed on to the customer.
Cash discount deductions shall always require a separate agreement. The granting of discounts, rebates or bonuses on one or more occasions does not constitute any entitlement on the part of the customer to the same or similar conditions for subsequent orders. All remuneration (rebates, discounts, deductions) shall be granted by the Contractor exclusively subject to timely payment by the Customer. In the event of default in payment, even with partial payments, any discount agreements, discounts, installments and other benefits granted shall lapse and shall therefore cease to apply retroactively.
Payment allocations made by the Customer shall not be binding on the Contractor.
In the event of default in payment, the Contractor shall be entitled to charge interest on arrears to entrepreneurs as customers at a rate of 10% points above the base interest rate. In the case of consumers, the Contractor shall be entitled to charge the statutory default interest of 4% p.a..
The Contractor reserves the right to assert further claims for damages caused by default, but only against consumers as customers if this is negotiated in detail.
If the entrepreneurial customer is in default of payment under other contractual relationships existing with the Contractor, the Contractor shall be entitled to suspend the fulfillment of its obligations under this contract until the customer has fulfilled its obligations. In the event of default of payment, the Contractor shall also be entitled to declare due all claims for services already rendered from the current business relationship with the Customer. This shall only apply to consumers as customers in the event that an overdue service has been due for at least six weeks and the Contractor has unsuccessfully reminded the customer under threat of this consequence, setting a grace period of at least 14 days.
In the case of consumer transactions, the Contractor shall be entitled to charge reminder fees in the amount of EUR 5.00, insofar as this is in reasonable proportion to the claim, as well as the postage costs of the first reminder. This shall not affect the Contractor’s claim to reimbursement of further necessary costs of appropriate extrajudicial collection and recovery measures. In the case of business transactions, the Contractor shall be entitled to claim other dunning, collection and legal costs insofar as they are necessary for appropriate legal action. In contrast to consumer transactions, this includes a lump sum of EUR 40.00. The assertion of further rights and claims, in particular the assertion of costs of extrajudicial collection or recovery measures (Section 1333 (2) ABGB) remains unaffected by this.

6) CREDIT CHECK

If the Contractor’s services are not paid for in full in advance, the Contractor shall be entitled to check the Customer’s creditworthiness. This check is necessary so that the Contractor can offer forms of payment that require advance payment by the Contractor in the interests of all customers and control the associated risks. The customer therefore expressly agrees that his data (order number, first name and surname, invoice address, date of birth, e-mail address, value and content of the order) may be transmitted to the state-authorized creditor protection associations Alpenländischer Kreditorenverband (AKV), Österreichischer Verband Creditreform (ÖVC), Insolvenzschutzverband für Arbeitnehmer oder Arbeitnehmerinnen (ISA) and Kreditschutzverband von 1870(KSV) exclusively for the purpose of creditor protection.

7) FORCE MAJEURE

Cases of force majeure are those circumstances and events that cannot be prevented with the diligence of proper business management (including but not limited to war or terrorist conflicts, epidemics or pandemics, strikes or unrest, global supply bottlenecks, etc.).

8) PERFORMANCE OF SERVICES AND PERFORMANCE DATES

If no express agreements have been made on the provision of all services, the usual duration for the type and scope of the services shall be deemed to have been agreed.
The place and time of deployment shall be agreed between the Contractor and the Customer, taking into account the specific order and the scheduling requirements. The performance deadlines and dates shall be adhered to by the Contractor as far as possible. Unless expressly agreed as binding, they are non-binding.
Subsequent requests for changes and additions by the Customer shall extend the performance period appropriately. The same shall apply in the event of unforeseen obstacles that lie outside the sphere of the Contractor (e.g. in the sphere of a company commissioned in the name and on behalf of the Customer) (e.g. in the event of force majeure, see point 7).
Outside of consumer transactions, withdrawal from the contract by the customer due to delay in performance by the contractor is only possible by setting a reasonable – at least fourteen-day – grace period and must be asserted by registered letter. The right of withdrawal only applies to that part of the service for which there is a delay.
Outside of consumer transactions, the Contractor’s liability for damages caused by delay shall be limited to 0.5% of the value of the delayed performance.

9) OBLIGATIONS OF THE CUSTOMER TO COOPERATE

The Customer shall create all conditions for the provision of services by the Contractor prior to the performance of services.
As part of the contractual relationship with the Customer, the Contractor shall regularly commission third parties with the provision of various services in consultation with the Customer. The Customer is obliged to select the respective contractors to be commissioned within a reasonable period to be determined by the Contractor.
The Customer undertakes to submit to the Contractor all documents necessary for the fulfillment and execution of the order without delay, even without the Contractor’s specific request, and to inform the Contractor of all information, facts, processes and circumstances that are of significance for the execution of the order. This shall also apply to all documents, processes and circumstances that only become known during the Contractor’s activities.
The Contractor shall be entitled to assume that the information, facts, documents and records are correct, unless their incorrectness is obvious. During the term of the order, the Customer shall be obliged to notify the Contractor of any changed or newly arising circumstances which could be of significance in connection with the execution of the order as soon as they become known.
If the Customer breaches the duties to cooperate incumbent upon it, services provided by the Contractor which the Contractor was only able to provide incompletely as a result of this shall not constitute a defect and the assertion of claims for damages shall also be excluded.
Furthermore, the Contractor shall be entitled to terminate the contractual relationship by setting a reasonable grace period if the Customer breaches its obligations to cooperate or fails to create the conditions for adequate performance.

10) WARRANTY AND GUARANTEE

Warranty claims are excluded in any case if the alleged defect is due to the fact that the customer or third parties (with the exception of vicarious agents) have violated plans or express instructions of the contractor.
The statutory warranty provisions shall apply to consumers. However, the following shall apply to transactions with the Contractor that are not consumer transactions:
Duty to give notice of defects: Defects must be notified in writing immediately after performance, at the latest within five working days, hidden defects within five working days of discovery, otherwise all claims under warranty, damages, damages in lieu of warranty and error shall be forfeited. The complaint must be sufficiently substantiated and supported by evidence.
The warranty period is six months from acceptance of the goods. The assertion of warranty claims shall lapse upon expiry of the warranty period.
The existence of defects must be proven by the customer. § Section 924 ABGB and Section 933b ABGB shall not apply. The assertion of claims based on laesio enormis is also excluded.
The complaint about the service provided by the contractor, regardless of whether it is justified or unjustified, does not entitle the customer to refuse further services from another contract.

11) PROHIBITION OF OFFSETTING AND RIGHT OF RETENTION

The Customer shall only be entitled to set-off to the extent that its (counter) claims have been established by a court or recognized by the Contractor. Consumers as customers are also entitled to a right of set-off insofar as counterclaims are legally related to the customer’s payment obligation, as well as in the event of the contractor’s insolvency.
Rights of retention of the customer are excluded outside of consumer transactions.

12) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND RETENTION OF TITLE

Plans, sketches, cost estimates and other documents provided by the Contractor shall remain the intellectual property of the Contractor.
They may only be used by the Customer during the ongoing contractual relationship and exclusively for purposes covered by the contract.
The use of plans, sketches, cost estimates and other documents provided by the Contractor outside the intended use or use within the scope of the specific order, in particular the passing on, duplication, publication and making available, including copying in extracts only, shall require the express consent of the Contractor.
Furthermore, the customer undertakes to maintain confidentiality towards third parties with regard to information received from the business relationship.
Upon termination of the contract, all sketches and plans must be handed over to the Contractor without delay.
The Contractor shall retain title to the sketches and plans handed over to the Customer until full payment of the remuneration plus all interest and costs.
The Customer shall keep the sketches and plans handed over by the Contractor in safe custody.
The reservation of title shall not be affected by the recognition of a balance, nor by the submission of bills of exchange or checks until they have been correctly and actually honored.

13) INDEMNITY

The Contractor shall not be liable for damages caused by misconduct on the part of event guests or other third parties (e.g. other contracted companies, even if the contract was awarded in the name of a proxy) during an event.
If the customer is not a consumer, the following shall apply (points 13.2. to 13.8.):
Insofar as this does not violate mandatory law and unless otherwise stipulated in these Terms and Conditions, the Contractor shall only be liable for compensation for damages caused by blatantly gross negligence or willful misconduct.
In the event of gross negligence, the amount of liability shall be limited to the contractual value of the respective service, but no more than the amount covered by the Contractor’s liability insurance.
The aforementioned limitations of liability do not apply to compensation for personal injury.
If property damage is caused by slight negligence on the part of vicarious agents of the Contractor, liability on the part of the Contractor is also excluded. A vicarious agent shall only be a person commissioned by the Contractor itself to fulfill the Contractor’s obligations to the Customer. Forwarders, warehouse keepers, transport companies and suppliers are not vicarious agents of the Contractor.
The Contractor shall not be liable for indirect damage, loss of profit, loss of interest, failure to make savings, consequential and mere financial loss and damage arising from third-party claims or for damage caused by unsuitable or improper use, natural wear and tear, incorrect or negligent handling or storage.
The Customer’s claims for damages shall become time-barred within six months of becoming aware of the damage and the damaging party, unless the transaction is a consumer transaction, and must be asserted in court within two years of the event giving rise to the claim, failing which they shall lapse.
The customer shall always be responsible for proving any fault.

14) Termination FOR CAUSE

Existing contractual relationships can always be terminated by the Contractor for good cause with immediate effect. Important reasons are in particular
Default in performance or payment and unused expiry of a grace period of no more than 14 days, whereby the customer shall also be entitled to this right of termination.
Actual or legal impossibility of performance;
Failure by the customer to create the conditions for adequate performance, in particular breach of the customer’s duty to cooperate and unused expiry of a grace period of no more than 14 days;
The existence of a permanent obstacle due to force majeure;
failure to perform for other reasons within the customer’s sphere of responsibility;
In the event of a justified withdrawal from the contract by the Contractor, the Contractor shall have the option of claiming lump-sum compensation of 15% of the gross invoice amount or compensation for the actual damage incurred if the entrepreneurial Customer is at fault.

15) ELECTRONIC BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS

Legal declarations of the Contractor of all kinds are regularly sent by e-mail.
Legal declarations by the Customer may be validly sent using any electronic forms provided by the Contractor and by e-mail, but must be received by the Contractor without error in order to be valid. Transmission errors – regardless of the cause – shall be borne by the Customer.
The Contractor reserves the right to immediately revoke the validity of individual or time-limited legal declarations due to a malfunction of the data processing system by appropriate means (individual message, announcement on our websites) and to make or request the renewed, valid transmission of the same.

16) Data protection AND CHANGE OF ADDRESS

The Contractor and the Customer are obliged to comply with the provisions of the Data Protection Act (DSG), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and any other statutory confidentiality obligations.
The Contractor processes the personal data required for the purpose of fulfilling the contract (Art. 6 para. 1 GDPR). The detailed data protection information (data protection notice) pursuant to Art. 13 ff GDPR can be viewed at https://shweddingsandevents.at/datenschutz/.
The Contractor shall comply with the provisions of the DSG, the DSGVO and the TKG when handling personal data and shall take the necessary, appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational measures for data protection. If a third party succeeds in gaining control of stored data in an unlawful manner or continues to use it, the Contractor shall only be liable in the event of intent or gross negligence.
The customer agrees that the personal data contained in concluded contracts on the one hand, as well as the electronic correspondence (e-mail, etc.) relating to the respective contractual relationship between the contractor and the customer on the other hand, may be stored and processed automatically and, if necessary, also transmitted to authorities.
If the Contractor processes third-party data provided by the Customer within the scope of the contractual relationship for the purpose of the contract, the Customer shall be obliged to take all necessary data protection measures, in particular those within the meaning of the GDPR (e.g. obtaining the declaration of consent of the data subjects), so that the Contractor may process the personal data for the purpose of the contractual relationship.
The Customer must notify the Contractor immediately of any changes to its name, company name, place of residence and business, billing address, legal form and any other material circumstances that may be relevant to the contractual relationship with the Contractor. If such notification is omitted, declarations shall be deemed to have been received even if they are sent to the last known address.

17) Final provisions

Severability clause: Should individual provisions of these GTC be or become invalid, this shall not affect the legal validity of the remaining provisions. The same shall apply if it should transpire that the GTC contain a loophole. In place of the invalid or unenforceable provision or to fill the loophole, an appropriate provision shall be deemed to have been agreed which – as far as legally possible – comes closest to what the contracting parties would have wanted economically if they had considered this when concluding the contract or when subsequently including a provision. This does not apply to consumers.
The place of performance for all claims arising from the contractual relationship is 2362 Biedermannsdorf, Austria.
Provided it is not a consumer transaction, all disputes arising from or in connection with a contract concluded between the Contractor and the Customer and/or these GTC shall be subject exclusively to the jurisdiction of the court with subject-matter jurisdiction for the municipality of Biedermannsdorf.
These GTC and all contracts concluded between the Contractor and the Customer shall be governed exclusively by Austrian law, to the exclusion of international conflict of law rules and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. This choice of law shall only apply to a consumer insofar as it does not restrict any mandatory statutory provisions of the country in which the consumer is domiciled or habitually resident.