Terms of service

Terms of Use
Last updated: February 06, 2022

Preamble
The V Welt, Haroldstraße 20, 40213 Düsseldorf (hereinafter referred to as "V Welt") offers an online marketplace on the website www.vwelt.de (hereinafter "V Welt Marketplace") ) for ecological and sustainably produced goods. V Welt thus gives commercial sellers and buyers (hereinafter referred to as "participants") the opportunity to sell and purchase a comprehensive range of sustainable products.

The following terms of use regulate participation in the V Welt marketplace for both sellers and buyers.

By using the V Welt Marketplace, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use.

I. General Provisions
1. Participation of V Welt
1. Contracts concluded on the V Welt marketplace entitle and oblige only the buyers and sellers involved, subject to the following provisions. V Welt itself only becomes a contractual partner in a purchase if its own items are offered for sale.

2. With the exception of the information to be recorded in accordance with § 22f UStG, V Welt does not check whether the offers and other content posted by the sellers on the V Welt marketplace and all information provided by all participants are legal, truthful and complete without a concrete suspicion.

2. Conclusion of the purchase contract
1. The various offers on the V Welt marketplace do not constitute binding purchase offers. A purchase contract between the participants of the V Welt marketplace is only concluded when the respective seller accepts the order of a buyer in a binding manner. A confirmation of receipt of the order by V Welt does not count as acceptance.

2. The items offered on the V Welt marketplace are always sent to the buyer by the respective seller. The seller must expressly agree to the collection of the items.

3. The payment of the purchase price takes place via the Shopify payment service (more on this shortly).

3. Payment methods / payment service
1. Payment settlement for purchases of goods is made exclusively directly via V Welt. Payments are made exclusively via the payment service offered by V Welt. The goods offered on the V Welt marketplace can be paid for using various payment methods. V Welt reserves the right to adjust the payment methods offered at any time. When paying by direct debit, a credit check can be carried out by V Welt before the contract is concluded.

2. All invoices are issued by the sellers with the information that payments are processed exclusively via V Welt.

3. V Welt provides reliable and secure payment processing for payment processing. V Welt may also involve third parties in this regard:

As soon as the agreed purchase price is received, the seller will be informed immediately about the receipt. The seller is obliged to send the sold item to the buyer within the delivery time specified in the item description after receiving the information about the receipt of payment.
V Welt provides the seller with a statement of the amounts credited to him for the previous month by the 21st of each month at the latest.
The payment of the credited amounts minus the sales commissions according to II. No. 5 of these terms of use takes place independently of the monthly statement. V Welt is aiming for a weekly payout. Payment is made to the seller's bank account stored in the Stripe Connected Account (see II.1.5). V Welt is entitled to offset mutual claims.
There is no entitlement to payment and no payment is made in accordance with Section c) if and to the extent that the buyer has not received the items ordered; this also applies if and to the extent that buyers have notified V Welt that they have not received the item, unless the seller can prove receipt of the item by presenting a delivery confirmation.
V Welt is entitled to refuse payment until the seller has provided the information to be recorded by V Welt in accordance with § 22f UStG, in particular his valid German sales tax identification number or, in the case of use of the one-stop shop procedure in accordance with Section II 1. 2 P. 3 has submitted a valid sales tax identification number from a member state of the EU and proof of his residency in accordance with Section II.
4. Evaluation system
1. The buyers have the possibility, after carrying out a purchase transaction, to evaluate its execution by the seller and the respective product. Participants are only authorized to use the rating system for this purpose.

2. Each participant is obliged to only provide truthful and factual information in the evaluation, not to make any insults or unreasonably disparaging statements and only to report circumstances directly related to the respective purchase transaction.

3. It is inadmissible to judge oneself. V Welt is entitled to remove corresponding ratings.

4. V Welt will not check the ratings unless there is a concrete suspicion.

5. If a participant believes that another participant has given an inaccurate or otherwise inadmissible rating, he can contact V Welt via the email address info@vwelt.de. V Welt will ask the author of the review in question to comment. If the author refuses to change or withdraw his rating, V Welt will decide at its own discretion whether the rating will continue to appear on the V Welt marketplace until the admissibility of the rating has been clarified by a court.

6. If a participant violates the stated evaluation principles, he is obliged to compensate V Welt for the damage incurred. In particular, he is obliged to indemnify V Welt from claims by third parties that they assert against V Welt due to an unreasonable evaluation.

5. Arbitration Service
1. V Welt attaches great importance to the trust of participants in the sales made on the V Welt marketplace. In the event of a dispute, V Welt will therefore endeavor to settle according to the following provisions:

In the event of a dispute with another participant (e.g. dispute about the freedom from defects of a product), each participant is entitled to inform V Welt of the facts by means of a complaint.
V Welt will then compile the facts and, if necessary, contact both participants.
Within two weeks of receipt of the complaint, V Welt will then finally examine the facts of the case and propose a solution to both parties.
In order to submit the proposed solution, V Welt is entitled to obtain legal advice and to transmit the facts of the case to a lawyer who is bound to confidentiality. Obtaining advice does not involve any additional costs for the participants.
2. Participants have no legal right to arbitration of a dispute.

6. General Obligations of Participants
1. V Welt can only check the identity of participants to a limited extent. It is up to each participant to ascertain the identity of their respective contractual partner.

2. Each participant (seller and buyer) must provide their complete address data and email address when registering their user account; if a buyer orders without registering a user account, he must provide this data when ordering.

The participant guarantees that the information given to V Welt when registering or placing an order is true and complete. If he provides incorrect or incomplete information, V Welt is entitled to delete and terminate the account without notice or not to execute the order.

3. A participant is not entitled to register more than once for the V Welt marketplace. V Welt can allow exceptions in individual cases on request.

4. Under no circumstances is the participant entitled to pass on his access data and in particular his access password to third parties. If third parties nevertheless gain access to the participant's account or if the participant has other indications of misuse of his account, the participant must inform V Welt immediately and change his access data.

5. Each participant undertakes not to pass on to third parties data from other participants obtained as part of the use of the V Welt marketplace or to use it commercially in any way. In particular, participants may not send commercial e-mails to other participants or otherwise contact them beyond what is necessary to process the transactions made on the V Welt marketplace without their prior express consent.

6. Each participant undertakes not to place any links or references to external websites, advertising for offers outside of the V Welt marketplace or other content on the V Welt marketplace (e.g. as part of offers, the rating system or when processing purchase transactions). to be posted that are not directly related to the V Welt Marketplace.

7. The participants transfer V Welt a royalty-free, comprehensive right of use limited to the duration of the contractual relationship, in particular for the reproduction, distribution, revision of all works or parts of works as well as databases or any other catalog or any other product information that the participants use in the online -offer of the V Welt marketplace to V Welt, including the right to publish this content in particular in print media, online, on CD-ROM etc., also for advertising purposes, to present products on the V Welt marketplace, be it in search, categories or otherwise; to represent vendors on the V Welt marketplace; to present products and/or providers in advertising materials, newsletters, advertising banners or advertisements, regardless of the technical representation; and to visualize advancements or changes to the V Welt Marketplace; to use, as well as to allow other sellers who offer the same product on the V Welt marketplace to use it, in particular as a product image. The right of use does not include logos, registered trademarks and other trademark rights that a seller transmits to V Welt for the purpose of sale.

7. Liability of the participants
1. Each participant is directly and personally liable for violations of the rights of third parties for which he is responsible. Each participant undertakes to compensate V Welt for all damages that arise due to culpable non-compliance with the obligations arising from these terms of use.

2. Each participant exempts V Welt from all claims that other participants or other third parties assert against V Welt due to the violation of their rights through content posted by the participant or due to the violation of other obligations. The participant also bears the costs of the necessary legal defense of V Welt, including all court and attorney's fees. This does not apply if the participant is not responsible for the infringement.

8. Sanctions for rule violations
1. If a participant violates his contractual obligations - this also includes a breach of the V Welt Buyer Principles and the V Welt Seller Principles, the law or morality, V Welt can react at its own discretion as follows:

V Welt can warn the participant;
V Welt can delete offers or content (e.g. ratings) of the participant;
V Welt may limit the Participant's eligibility to use the V Welt Marketplace;
V Welt can temporarily block the participant's account
V Welt can permanently block the participant's account and terminate the contract.
In the event that sellers repeatedly include vouchers or advertising for other online offers in orders via V Welt, V Welt is entitled to increase the commission by 10% in the following month. The prerequisite is that V Welt has reported the violation and also the repeated violation to the seller in writing (e-mail is sufficient).
2. V Welt will take due account of the legitimate interests of the participant concerned. However, in the event of a breach of his contractual obligations, the participant has no right to continue the contract if V Welt terminates the contract of use.

9. Term and Termination of the License Agreement
1. The contract of use is concluded for an indefinite period. It starts with the admission of the participant by V Welt. In the case of a purchase without registration by the buyer, the contract of use begins when the order is sent.

2. The participant can terminate the contract with a notice period of 30 days to the end of the month. The obligations towards V Welt and/or other participants established by the participant during the term of the contract remain unaffected by the termination.

3. Outstanding sales commissions are due upon termination of the contract.

4. V Welt can properly terminate the contract with a notice period of 30 days to the end of the month.

5. The right to termination without notice for important reasons remains unaffected. In particular, V Welt can terminate the contract without notice if:

the participant intentionally provides incorrect information as part of the evaluation system,
the participant provides incorrect or incomplete information when registering,
the participant repeatedly receives negative evaluations as part of the evaluation system and these are not obviously unjustified,
the participant repeatedly violates other contractual obligations and does not refrain from violating obligations even after being requested to do so by V Welt.
6. If V Welt has terminated the contract, the participant has no right to set up a new account, not even under a different name or designation.

7. Any notice of termination must be given at least in text form. Terminations by e-mail are in text form.

10. Distribution Channels and Presentation of Products
1. To market the products offered on V Welt, V Welt uses in particular but not only digital sales channels such as advertising bookings in search engines, affiliate programs and cooperations, display ads and other digital advertising formats. On request, V Welt will provide sellers with more detailed information on the channels specifically used at the respective time within the framework of the legal requirements. Some of the channels and measures used by V Welt change at short notice and can therefore not be reproduced here in an up-to-date manner.

2. The ranking - i.e. the order in which products are displayed in a search or in a category on V Welt - takes various factors into account. The ranking is essentially based on interactions with the product in the past (clicks and orders) and the availability (stock stored at V Welt) of the relevant product variants. We also put these parameters in relation to each other. In a search, we also include the relevance of products for the search term. In addition, the ranking can be influenced by booking marketing products. These marketing products allow for the fixed placement of specific products within the V Welt.

3. V Welt also appears as a seller itself on the V Welt marketplace. In order to decide which products V Welt wants to offer itself, it has access to historical sales data and analysis of transactions on the V Welt marketplace. V Welt can place its products firmly in lower positions in the ranking (see also Section 10.2.).

11. Access to data
1. The information provided in this section 11 serves to fulfill our obligations in accordance with Art. 9 P2B-VO (VO (EU) 2019/1150). They do not replace our general descriptions and declarations on data protection, see Section IV. 2 below.

2. V Welt has access to the following categories of data as part of the V Welt marketplace, including both data with and without personal reference:

Account data;
address/contact details;
order data;
inventory data;
product data;
payment details (limited access only);
access data.
3. V Welt provides Sellers with the following categories of data generated in connection with their use of the V Welt Marketplace:

account data (of the Seller);
Account data (the buyer) – insofar as they are necessary to process the order;
Order data - insofar as they are required to process the order or to calculate the commission;
Inventory and product data (of the seller).
4. The above clause 11.2. Some of the categories of data mentioned are made available by V Welt to third parties who use this data for the further provision or further development and analysis of the V Welt marketplace:

Payment
services CRM and marketing software/service providers
Statistics and analysis software/service providers
II. Special provisions for sellers
1. Registration as a seller
1. Sellers within the meaning of these terms of use are those participants who offer other participants items for sale via the V Welt marketplace. Only commercial sellers of new goods can register as sellers on the V Welt marketplace. The sale of used goods is not permitted. Registration as a seller is a prerequisite for the sale of goods.

2. Only natural persons, legal persons and partnerships of legal age and full legal capacity who have their registered office and warehouse in the European Union can register as sellers. The seller is obliged to prove its residency upon registration by providing a valid VAT number and other information required by law. The seller is also obliged to state his German sales tax identification number issued by the Federal Central Tax Office, unless he declares his sales generated in Germany exclusively via the one-stop shop procedure in accordance with § 18j UStG.

3. Following the full registration, V Welt will send the seller an e-mail with the personal access data required to use the V Welt marketplace.

4. Each seller undertakes to notify V Welt of all future changes to the data provided during registration without being asked and without delay.

5. Payment services for V Welt Sellers will henceforth be provided by Stripe and are subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which incorporates the Stripe Terms of Service (collectively, the “Stripe Services Agreement”. By agreeing to these [Terms of Service, Terms, …] or continuing to act as a seller on the V Welt Marketplace, Sellers accept the terms of the “Stripe Services Agreement”, which may be amended by Stripe from time to time, as a condition that V Welt may use Stripe's payment services in the future, you as a seller agree to provide V Welt with full and complete information about yourself and your business,and you authorize V Welt to share such information and transaction information related to your use of the payment services offered by Stripe.

2. Sustainability
Criteria 1. The V Welt Marketplace sees itself as a marketplace for ecological and sustainable products. The goods offered by the sellers must therefore meet at least one of the following criteria:

CO2-saving,
resource -saving, low-
pollutant production, d) Cradle to Cradle,
raw materials from organic farming,
fair & social,
vegan,
recycled, durable
,
made in Germany.
2. V Welt may require that products sold on the V Welt Marketplace meet more than one of the criteria listed under 2.1.

3. V Welt can refuse to activate a product for sale if the requirements in terms of section (1) are not met. There is no entitlement to activation for sale even if the criteria are met.

4. V Welt can remove a product from the portfolio if facts subsequently become known that speak against sustainability.

3. Special obligations of the seller
1. Sellers have to behave in a legally compliant manner within the framework of their entire business activity processed via V Welt and to observe the legal and official requirements for the sale of their goods.

2. In particular, sellers must comply with all consumer protection regulations. This applies above all to the proper granting of a right of withdrawal, insofar as this is required by law. Information about the legal requirements can be found here. V Welt is not obliged to provide the seller with an up-to-date cancellation policy. Insofar as V Welt proposes cancellation instructions, general contract conditions and delivery or shipping conditions to the sellers, these proposals are not part of the contract of use and no liability is assumed for them.

3. Each seller undertakes not to offer any products whose offering or sale violates the rights of third parties (e.g. trademark or copyright) or offends common decency.

4. In the event that third parties assert claims against V Welt due to the violation of legal or official requirements or the violation of private rights, the seller who violates the contractual provisions will indemnify V Welt from all claims asserted upon first request. The exemption also includes the costs of the necessary legal defense of V Welt, including court and attorney's fees.

5. The seller is obliged to only offer such items that he can send to the buyer within the delivery time specified in the item description.

6. Seller is solely responsible for determining whether any taxes, duties and/or customs duties apply to the items it offers and whether these are payable by it.

7. The seller is obliged to describe the items offered by him truthfully and completely. In doing so, he has to include all circumstances that are relevant for the average buyer for the purchase decision. In particular, he must inform the buyer of any defects or signs of wear and tear, as well as delivery and shipping conditions. For each item, the seller must state the full purchase price to be paid by the buyer, including VAT and any shipping costs incurred.

8. The seller is obliged to reimburse the buyer immediately for any purchase prices paid directly to him. Payment must be processed via the V Welt Payment Service so that payments can be correctly assigned. Otherwise, the transaction cannot be processed.

9. The sale of items that may only be sold to persons of legal age requires that the buyer has registered for the V Welt Ü18 area and has successfully completed an accepted age verification process. These requirements apply in particular to alcoholic beverages and spirits. Any seller is prohibited from selling over 18 items to unverified buyers. Items that may only be sold to persons of legal age must be shipped by the seller using the shipping option "registered mail personally" or another shipping option that ensures that minors cannot gain access to the shipment.

10. The seller is not entitled to place links to external websites in any form as part of his offer on the V Welt marketplace. This does not apply to links to other offers from V Welt.

11. The seller may only reproduce the item offered and information about the item as part of his offer on the V Welt marketplace. The seller is not entitled to advertise in any form beyond this. V Welt can allow exceptions to this in individual cases on request.

12. The seller is obliged to enter into and execute its sales exclusively through the legal entity located in the European Union as which it has registered. He is not entitled to have the conclusion of the contract or the delivery carried out by a subsidiary not based in the European Union or any other person associated with him.

13. The seller is obliged to only sell and deliver goods with the start of transport in a member state of the European Union.

14. If the seller provides information during registration that is not in accordance with Section II 1.2, processes sales contrary to the specifications in Section 12 or offers and delivers goods contrary to the specifications in Section 13, he is obliged to notify V Welt of the resulting to replace the resulting tax loss. The term "tax damage" includes in particular the sales tax incurred for V Welt and the costs for any sales tax registration that may be necessary in each affected country, including the associated consulting costs.

15. In addition to these provisions, the V Welt Seller Principles, which the seller accepts as a participant, apply to every seller.

4. Own shop for sellers
1. V Welt provides the seller with its own website (“shop”) with its own URL, on which only the seller’s offers are presented. The design of the website is specified by V Welt.

2. The seller alone is responsible for the content of the website, who in particular has to include an imprint on the website in accordance with the statutory provisions.

3. The seller is also not entitled to place links to external websites in any form within his shop. This does not apply to links to other offers from V Welt.

4. The seller may only reproduce the items offered and information about these items in his shop. The seller is not entitled to advertise in any form beyond this.

5. Brokerage commission
1. For every order brokered via the V Welt marketplace, V Welt receives a sales commission from the respective seller. This is based on the gross purchase price (purchase price including VAT) and does not include the statutory VAT. The amount of the accruing commission depends on the overview of fees valid on the day of the order. The overview of fees is an integral part of these Terms of Use.

2. The commission accrues for each order placed via the V Welt marketplace. This applies regardless of whether the transaction is actually carried out later or, for example, due to a cancellation before or after delivery. The commission is not due if the seller has effectively informed about the right of withdrawal and a consumer then makes use of his statutory right of withdrawal.

3. Sales commissions incurred are immediately offset against the seller's credit balance. The difference will be credited or debited to the seller's Stripe Connected Account. As long as the seller's Stripe Connected Account has a negative balance, no payments will be made to the seller. If a seller's Stripe Connected Account shows a negative balance for a period of more than 2 weeks, the seller is obliged to balance the negative balance at the request of V Welt.

4. The amount of the commission can be changed by V Welt. The changed overview of fees will be sent to the seller by e-mail at least two weeks before it comes into effect. If the seller does not object to the validity of the new fee rates within two weeks of receipt of the e-mail, the changed fee overview is deemed to have been accepted. V Welt will separately inform the seller in the e-mail containing the changed fee rates of the importance of this two-week period, the right to object and the legal consequences of remaining silent. If the seller objects to the changed overview of fees within the aforementioned period, V Welt is entitled to terminate the contract without notice.

III. Special provisions for the buyer
1. With the registration and/or the order, the buyer confirms that he is of legal age, has full legal capacity and is able to pay the purchase price.

2. In addition to these Terms of Use, the V Welt Buyer Principles apply to buyers.

IV. Special Provisions for V Welt
1. Warranty and Liability
1. V Welt will endeavor to make the V Welt marketplace available as uninterrupted as possible. However, V Welt does not guarantee a specific availability rate. In particular, no liability is assumed for force majeure, such as server failures of the provider for which V Welt is not responsible, power failures or manipulations by third parties.

2. V Welt is not a contractual partner in a sales transaction between seller and buyer and assumes no liability for the object of purchase.

3. V Welt does not guarantee that the sellers and buyers will comply with the legal provisions incumbent on them (e.g. consumer protection rights). However, if there is a concrete suspicion of a violation of the law by a participant, V Welt will examine the facts and, if necessary, work towards eliminating the violation of the law.

4. The liability of V Welt for and in connection with the provision of the V Welt marketplace, for whatever legal reason, is determined by the following provisions:

V Welt is fully liable for intent and gross negligence and in the case of personal injury (injury to life, limb and health), but for slight negligence only in the event of a breach of essential contractual obligations, in the event of delay and/or impossibility for which V Welt is responsible. Liability in the event of a breach of such an essential contractual obligation is limited to the damage typical of the contract that V Welt had to reckon with when the contract was concluded based on the circumstances known at the time. The essential contractual obligations include in particular the provision and enabling of the use of the V Welt marketplace.
V Welt is only liable for the loss of data in accordance with the above paragraphs if such a loss could not have been avoided by appropriate data backup measures on the part of the participant.
Apart from that, the liability of V Welt is excluded. The provisions of the Product Liability Act remain unaffected.
2. Data protection
Personal data of the participant will only be collected, processed or used if the participant has consented or if the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), the Telemedia Act (TMG) or another legal regulation orders or permits it. Details are determined according to the V Welt data protection declaration.

3. Final Provisions
1. V Welt reserves the right to change these terms of use at any time and without stating reasons. The changed conditions will be sent to sellers by e-mail in good time at the latest two weeks before they come into effect. If the participant does not object to the validity of the new terms of use by the time the changed terms of use come into force within two weeks of receiving the e-mail, the changed terms of use are deemed to have been accepted. V Welt will separately inform the participant in the e-mail containing the changed conditions of the importance of this two-week period, the right to object and the legal consequences of remaining silent. If the participant objects to the changed conditions within the aforementioned period, V Welt is entitled to terminate the contract without notice.

2. Participants can only offset undisputed or legally established counterclaims against claims by V Welt. The participant can only exercise a right of retention if his counterclaim is based on the same contractual relationship.

3. The participant can only transfer rights and obligations from the contracts with V Welt to a third party with the prior written consent of V Welt.

4. If the participant is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law or has no registered office in Germany, the registered office of V Welt is the place of jurisdiction. V Welt is free to assert claims in the courts of the customer's general place of jurisdiction. An exclusive place of jurisdiction remains unaffected.

5. Should individual provisions of these Terms of Use be or become invalid and/or contradict the statutory provisions, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining Terms of Use. The parties shall mutually agree to replace the ineffective provision with a provision that comes as close as possible to the economic meaning and purpose of the ineffective provision in a legally effective manner. The above provision applies in case of loopholes accordingly.