General terms and conditions

for the use of the free online portal <truckinfocus.com>

Steve St. Schmidt
truckinfocus.com
c/o berbach GmbH
Lausitzer Str. 31
10999 Berlin

in the following: TiF or we/us

… operates the website <truckinfocus.com>, associated subpages and social media presences and offers interested users (hereinafter also: you) information, articles, images and everything worth knowing about trucks. Users can use the TiF website free of charge. However, some features of TiF are only available to registered users in a password-protected login area, in particular the possibility a) to download high-resolution photo files, b) to upload your own image material or c) to communicate (chat) with other registered users in the community area ("Truckbook") of TiF. These services, which are only available to registered users, are also free of charge for users.

1. Scope of application

(1)  These GTC govern the legal relationship between TiF and you as a user of our online services.

(2)  Our online services are free of charge. Users can surf our websites and social media presences and/or register with us in order to be able to use all features and services in a password-protected login area.

(3)  These GTC apply exclusively to the use of our services. Conflicting or contradictory terms and conditions or other contractual clauses of our users are not recognized by us and only become part of the contract with our express consent. However, individual agreements always take precedence over these GTC.

(4)  For registered users, the version of the T&Cs valid at the time of registration shall apply; for non-registered users, the version of the T&Cs valid at the time of accessing our websites shall apply. Through our registration process, we ensure that registered users agree to the validity of these GTC before the profile can be activated and used. You can view, download and/or save our currently valid GTC on our online platform at any time.

2. Registration

(1)  In order to register on our website, you must provide us with the data required for registration completely and correctly online in the input fields provided. Please check the data entered before you send it to us and correct any inaccuracies or errors. Mandatory fields are marked as such. Providing additional data is voluntary. At the end of the registration process, you will be asked to actively agree to the validity of these GTC. The registration process cannot be completed without your consent to the validity of these GTC.

(2)  If you are registering as a representative of another natural or legal person or partnership, by submitting your data you confirm that you are sufficiently authorized to represent the third party and are authorized and entitled to make the corresponding declarations of intent.

(3)  Once we have received the data you have submitted online, we will send you your registration/access data to the e-mail address you have provided, which you can use to activate your user account. You are free to choose your own password to protect your user account. In your own interest, please ensure that you choose a password that offers you sufficient security against misuse of your user account, e.g. by choosing a long password and using a combination of numbers, special characters, upper and lower case letters. Furthermore, you are obliged not to pass on the valid password to third parties and to take reasonable precautions to ensure that no third party has unauthorized access to your user account. If you suspect any misuse of your user account, you must notify us immediately. If you breach the obligations set out here, we accept no liability for the misuse of your user account.

(4)  The contract for the registered free use of the services offered on TiF online with the rights and obligations regulated here comes into effect with the activation of your user account after the registration steps described here have been fully completed. The contract language is German. The text of the contract is not accessible on our website after registration has been completed. We store your contract data in accordance with the data protection regulations of the GDPR. You can find more information on this in our privacy policy. We do not store the full text of the contract. Before you register, you can print out the relevant contract data using the print function of your browser or save it electronically on your end device.

3. Obligations of the user

(1)  As a registered user of TiF, you can actively participate in our "Truckbook" community through chats and posts, e.g. by uploading content such as photos, and exchange information with other registered users. When using your account in this way, you undertake to comply with the following Community Guidelines.

(2)  As a matter of principle, we do not check any verbal, written and/or pictorial contributions made by the user on our website without cause. However, if we become aware that a user's contribution violates these GTC or statutory provisions, such content will be removed, blocked, deleted or deactivated immediately.

(3)  TiF sees itself as a special interest forum exclusively for content on the topic of "trucks" and offers its registered users the opportunity to exchange information exclusively on this topic using the "Truckbook" community tool. Off-topic or irrelevant content is not permitted and may be deleted by us immediately.

(4)  The user may not upload or make publicly accessible on our websites any content or other material to which he does not have the necessary rights or to which third party rights exist or which infringe the rights of third parties, in particular copyrights, ancillary copyrights, patents, trademarks, names, competition rights, registered designs, utility models, personality rights or other industrial property rights or intellectual property rights.

(5)  The user may not upload any content or other material to our websites or make it publicly accessible if uploading or making it publicly accessible constitutes a breach of trade secrets or violates general laws. In particular, it is prohibited to upload or make publicly accessible content or other material on our websites that is offensive, libellous, hurtful, insulting, defamatory, discriminatory, derogatory, extremist, inflammatory, pornographic, racist, criminal or otherwise unlawful or contrary to common decency.

(6)  The user may not upload any content or other material to our websites or make it publicly accessible if this results in fees, charges or other financial obligations for us, e.g. charges to publicity companies.

(7)  The user may not upload or make publicly accessible any content or other material on our website that contains viruses, spyware or other harmful software (malware).

(8)  The user may not upload or make publicly accessible on our website any content or other material in a data volume that is likely to unreasonably impair the smooth operation of our website.

(9)  It is prohibited to use our website as an advertising platform for purposes other than the contractual purposes, e.g. to conduct competitions, place advertising banners, engage in surreptitious advertising, send chain letters, upload content or other material with advertising content for purposes other than the contractual purposes and make it publicly accessible, spy on other users' data, collect other users' data that has become known or use such data for advertising purposes.

(10)  It is prohibited to copy or reproduce our website in whole or in part, to read out source codes or have them read out or to decompile them in whole or in part, insofar as this goes beyond what is permitted under § 69 e UrhG.

(11)  Uploading or making illegal content or infringing material publicly available on our website constitutes a serious breach of these GTC, which entitles us to terminate the contract immediately and to exclude the user immediately, even without prior warning. In the event of a breach of the aforementioned obligations, we expressly reserve the right to remove content or other material without prior notice, to block the user account, to exclude the user from further use of our services and/or to assert further rights and resulting claims against the user and/or the party liable for the legal violations.

(12)  To finance our online services, we place advertisements and banner ads on our websites, for example. By registering as a user, you agree to tolerate these advertisements and banners. The selection of our advertising partners is at our sole discretion.

4. Transfer of simple rights of use to the content of the user account

(1)  The content selected by you and uploaded to our website (in particular photos and texts) is user-generated content. In order to offer and perform our services, it is essential that the rights of third parties are observed and that the user does not upload or make accessible any content to which he does not have the necessary rights or which infringes the rights of third parties.

(2)  Furthermore, it is necessary for the offer and provision of our services that the user transfers to us simple rights of use, i.e. to display the uploaded content, so that we can make this content accessible to other users. For this purpose, the user transfers to us the spatially unrestricted, simple, i.e. non-exclusive and free of charge right, limited in time to the duration of use, to make the content uploaded by the user, in particular user names, texts, photos, brands, business names, graphics, etc., publicly accessible on the Internet for display on our websites and to use them for this purpose.  

(3)  By uploading content to our websites, the user guarantees that he/she is entitled and authorized to dispose of all necessary rights to this content without incurring royalties, fees or other remuneration for third parties (e.g. rights holders, manufacturers, photographers, picture agencies, publishers, etc.). He warrants that he has not disposed of the rights to his content transferred to third parties in accordance with this contract to an extent that would prevent its use on our website. The user further warrants that the use of his content does not infringe the rights of third parties.

5. Transfer of simple rights of use to photos offered for download by TiF

(1)  As a registered user, you can download photos of various truck models free of charge as digital image files in high resolution from the photo gallery on our website.

(2)  By downloading/downloading the image files, we transfer to you a simple, i.e. non
exclusive, non-transferable, temporally and spatially unrestricted right to use the respective digital photo, limited in content to private, non-commercial and non-commercial use. In particular, you are therefore not permitted to reproduce, edit, modify or redesign the downloaded digital photos/image files in whole or in part or to distribute them for payment or free of charge, i.e. to offer the photos/image files to the public or to place them on the market; this includes all physical and non-physical acts of distribution, such as renting, passing on, reselling, lending, making available to the public, e.g. in online services, selling, granting sublicenses, etc.

(3)  The respective copyrights, ancillary copyrights and/or other industrial property rights to the photos and the content depicted therein remain with the respective rights holders and are not affected by the download of the digital image files.

6. Termination / Cancellation

(1)  The free registration and use of your account runs for an indefinite period and is unlimited. You can terminate the user relationship at any time, without notice and without cause, with effect for the future, by deactivating your user account yourself or by notifying us via one of the above-mentioned contact options that you wish to terminate your user account. Upon receipt of a corresponding notification, we will deactivate your user account immediately. The right to extraordinary termination remains unaffected for both contracting parties. Furthermore, we may also terminate the user contract in due time in accordance with the statutory provisions. The usage data will be deleted after your account has been deactivated if there are no statutory retention obligations to the contrary.

(2)  In the event of breaches of contract, the party in breach of the contract must generally be given a warning before an extraordinary termination is declared and must be given the opportunity to remedy the breach of contract and eliminate the consequences of the breach of contract. However, extraordinary termination without prior warning is permitted in particular a) if the breach of contract is so serious that the terminating party cannot reasonably be expected to continue to adhere to the contract or b) if the contract is repeatedly breached. In the event of extraordinary termination by TiF, we will block, deactivate and/or delete the user account and the content contained therein.

(3)  Irrespective of the termination of the contractual relationship through the exclusion of a user from our services or the issuing of a termination notice, we reserve the right to block the user account in whole or in part, e.g. with regard to individual objectionable content, if we determine that infringing or unlawful content is available on a user's account, if the user has repeatedly violated the obligations arising from the user relationship or if the user does not cease behavior that is in breach of contract or unlawful even after a warning has been issued. We will inform the user of this. Claims for damages due to temporary or permanent account blocking are excluded to the extent permitted by law (see Section 8 of these GTC). TiF may maintain the blocking of a user account until the allegations have been finally clarified. After a final blocking, deactivation or deletion of a user account, a new login or registration of the affected user is also excluded via other user accounts.

7. Temporary maintenance work

We endeavor to make our websites available to you permanently and without restrictions and to ensure the permanent operation and provision of your user account. Nevertheless, we expressly assume no guarantee for this. If technical maintenance work is required on our websites and access to your user account is likely to be temporarily restricted for this reason, we will inform you of this in advance and, if possible, have this work carried out at a time outside normal business hours. Such work serves the system stability and ongoing optimization of our websites. Any reasonable restrictions associated with this are to be tolerated within the usual framework.

8. Liability

(1)  TiF is only liable for its own fault and only for intent and gross negligence, regardless of the legal grounds. TiF shall only be liable for slight negligence in the event of a breach of material contractual obligations for compensation for expenses and damages, limited to direct, foreseeable damages and limited to the interest in performance. In this case, TiF shall not be liable for indirect damages, consequential damages and loss of profit. Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfillment is essential for the proper execution of the contract and on whose compliance the customer may regularly rely. In our case, this is in particular the possibility to use your free user account. Except in cases of intent and gross negligence, TiF is therefore not liable in particular for any disruption to your business operations or the loss of business information or data or the incompatibility of downloaded image files with your working environment. In the event of death, injury to health or body and in the event of claims under the German Product Liability Act (ProdHG), the statutory liability provisions shall apply.

(2)  The exclusions and limitations of liability set out above also apply to our employees, representatives, subcontractors and vicarious agents to the extent set out in section 8 of these GTC.

(3)  The user shall indemnify us against all claims asserted against us by third parties due to conduct for which the user is responsible or liable.

9. Data protection

(1)  As a registered user, you are aware that all data and contributions that you upload to your user account are visible to everyone on the Internet.

(2)  We collect and process the personal or personal-related data provided by you as a registered user within the framework of the applicable legal regulations, in particular in accordance with the relevant provisions of the EU GDPR and the BDSG on the basis of an effective legal basis, either on the basis of your consent, for the purpose of fulfilling existing contracts with you or for the initiation of contracts or on the basis of our legitimate interest in data processing. You can find more detailed information on this in our privacy policy.

Status: June 2024