Foreword to Terms and Conditions In today’s business world, it is necessary to publish Terms and Conditions. Many people have respect of doing business over the Internet. As we know, they are not always wrong. With following Terms and Conditions we don’t mean to frighten you. We assure you that with our Terms and Conditions we don’t have any fraudulent intentions. With our Terms and Conditions we want to give all members, meaning sellers, buyers as well as the operator of the auction house itself the security, to do safe transactions on “die-brieftaubenauktion.de” & “the-pigeonauction.com”. Terms and Conditions § 1 Services of the auction house “die-brieftaubenauktion.de” & “the-pigeonauction.com” “die-brieftaubenauktion.de” & “the-pigeonauction.com” (hereinafter referred to dBA.de) is an Internet auction portal for legal entities and or private companies that provides the opportunity to sell goods and services of all kinds (hereinafter referred to articles) through an auction. Necessary for this is a proper registration and creation of member account with dBA.de. dBA.de does not trade with goods or articles. dBA.de is simply the marketplace to make distribution of goods or services for legal entities (hereinafter referred to as buyers, sellers and / or members) available. Through dBA.de posted articles can be worldwide looked at, observed or acquired for a surcharge, provided the offer, sale or acquisition does not violate legal regulations, as well as Terms and Conditions of dBA.de. With successful registration, you can set articles as a seller, or bid on articles as a buyer as well as buy these articles with successful bidding at the end of the auction. If listing as “But It Now”, purchase contract will be valid immediately. In most cases, seller is setting his offer on the dBA.de platform him/herself. Seller is entirely responsible for his/her offer. dBA.de does not verify the contents of the offers. Contents or other publications, which are connected with an offer, are not reviewed by dBA.de and doesn’t support any of dBA.de’s opinions. dBA.de only represents the technical ability to distribute articles. No special knowledge is required for setting of articles. We are happy to help with initial difficulties through land-line phone service. If you run into a problem while setting an article, we would like to offer you the possibility of providing this service to you as long as our time allows us to. Please refer to our current charges (Special Setting Service) for the cost of this setting. In addition to the fee for the Special Setting, other fees for the offer itself will apply, as in 7.b. described. Following is needed for this setting: a) Requirements: An image and specifications on how many images are to be set. Detailed description of articles Desired starting price Indication of period of auction Indication of shipping locations Indication of shipping and handling as well as who is to pay (buyer or seller) Indication of desired increase Indication of article location Indication of accepted payment methods b) Optional: Indication of “Buy-It-Now” option Indication of minimum price Indication for the use of the gallery image Indication on the use of special highlights such as bold, yellow highlighters, top auction on the homepage, top auction categories, gallery auction and reference graphic. Quantity of available articles at the time of sale. c) Please refer to § 12 Section 2 for description, minimum price, Buy It Now, starting price and length of auction. d) Please note our current rates. Offers that you select are subject to price dependency. e) In particular we would like to point out that full responsibility for the accuracy of the offer lies by the seller him/herself, even if article was set by dBA.de. dBA.de is only helping to put an article on the auction platform. Submitted images as well as article descriptions will be set on auction platform 1:1. dBA.de will not check the accuracy of the information. A fundamental right of this kind cannot be given, since this service can only be provided if our time allows. g) It is prohibited to send original documents and images especially when sending evidence of origin. In case of loss of original documents, dBA.de is not liable in any way for replacement and / or replacement costs. h) Fully completed Form (Special Setting Service) is required for submission of documents. You will find it under the heading “service” on the homepage of dBA.de. A purchase contract is being established between the seller of the article and the buyer (bidder) with the end of a successful auction. Members data filed with registration are only being limited reviewed by dBA.de since it is impossible to identify people over the Internet. dBA.de can’t rule out that members would give wrong contact information with registration. Therefore each member has to convince his/her contractor of his/her true identity. Members are responsible for the content of the offer. The buyer is solely responsible to look at the full content of the article description on the platform before making a valid bid as well as a purchasing decision. Published offers on the platform of dBA.de, will not be reviewed by dBA.de on accuracy, completeness and applicable law. This is solely the responsibility of buyer and seller. dBA.de doesn’t accept bids from buyers. In order to be able to bid on an article it is required to register correctly. dBA.de itself does not act as a party between the members when contracts a being closed. Even the proper fulfillment of the contracts lies among the members themselves. § 2 Creating a membership account – Registration Registration, as well as viewing offers, is free. Complete registration is required for the full use, what means buying, bidding as well as offer preparation. The approval of these Terms and Conditions is a prerequisite for the use of all services of dBA.de. With registration a contract for use of all available services provided by dBA.de is being established between dBA.de and the declared member (hereinafter referred to as “License Agreement”). Members can not claim a License Agreement. Only legal competent people, legal entities as well as private companies are permitted to register. Minors as well as limited legal competent people are prohibited to register. Information given at registration are subject to the privacy act and will only be used on the need of the auction as well as internal use of dBA.de. Information will not be released to third parties. Information necessary for the establishment of contact between buyer and seller are only being released with closing of contract. This information consists of first name, surname, address, telephone and e-mail. dBA.de will not release any account information. Members are solely responsible for full exchange of information after closing of contract. It is possible to contact seller before closing of contract. dBA.de allows releasing of e-mail address and telephone number. Information given at registration need to be complete and correct. PO Boxes are prohibited. Complete indication of all necessary information is required by dBA.de for the use of the platform. Only individuals, not families, clubs or couples can be indicated at registration. If necessary information needs to be changed at a later stage of the registration (e.g. moving), member is solely responsible to change settings as well as purchase in the appropriate area on the platform. It is necessary to set up a member name and password at registration. Member name must not violate any trademark rights, rights of third parties as well as violate against morality contravene. When registering members select a member name and password. E-mail address as well as Internet address must not be used. The password must be kept confidential otherwise dBA.de can not prevent abuse by third parties. Registered members are solely responsible for the safe storing of their access data. Members are obliged to immediately inform dBA.de if there is a clue that users account is being abused by a third party. dBA.de will not publish password as well as member name to other people. In the sense of today’s phishing dBA.de will never ask for member name or password through email. Registered members are usually liable for activities the members carry out themselves. Members are not liable if there is no violation of the existing duty of care by member itself. dBA.de reserves the right to delete members who do not comply with these Terms and Conditions, as well as the principles of morality to the auction itself. This also applies to an incomplete application. Each member may open up several accounts. However, members are not allowed to use these accounts to bid on their own offers. In addition, changes in the rating system are prohibited. The transferability of the membership account to another is prohibited. § 3 Further Details of License Agreement dBA.de’s Terms and Conditions and descriptions for the use of functions are only provided in the form of a website. The auctions are Internet auctions and no traditional auctions in particular place. dBA.de can tie shown credentials to the services of this website. That means the scope and services provided by dBA.de may be tied to certain conditions. These are for example, public assessment profile, number of positive reviews, payment behavior with purchase and sale, length of membership. dBA.de reserves the right to remove articles from the auction portal in certain cases. These are: Violation of German Law, Violation of morality contravene, sale of racist and neo-Nazi objects. In this case, however, setting fee and commission payment will be waived. In the case of German Law violation, known by dBA.de, dBA.de will prosecute. The use of dBA.de auction platform exists only within the meaning of dDA.de’s available technology. High Server utilization, security and integrity or any capacity limits, maintenance, technical changes may restrict the use of the website. dBA.de will inform its members by e-mail if use is restricted due to technical changes as well as maintenance work. dBA.de can not be held liable for server data loss caused by system failure or server bottlenecks. In the event of serious system failure, such as total loss, dBA.de will initiate immediate action within their possibilities to restore system to full use. In this case selling member can claim a credit on the price setting. This applies only to non-completion of auction due to a general system failure. A liability as well as recourse against dBA.de is ruled out. Buyer can only claim articles with completion of auction. The decision for this lies solely with the seller. With repetition of the auction normal setting fees will apply. If the auction was disabled by a server crash that ended the auction it may be, that the seller wasn’t able to receive further bids due to the crash. Therefore it wasn’t possible for the seller to achieve best results for his offer. In case of server failure, highest bidder has no right to receive goods. Under these special circumstances a purchase will only be reached if seller explicitly consents to it. This arrangement occurs only in a complete server failure, not by high server utilization. No credits will be granted for circumstances under normal maintenance work. § 4 Cancellation of Offers, Exclusion of a member, suspension and termination If dBA.de has concrete evidence of failure behavior of a member, dBA.de reserves the right to take immediate measures as well as the exclusion of a member. dBA.de wants to protect its members from fraudulent acts. Following is to understand under miss behavior: Violation of Laws Violation of the rights of third parties Failure to brand piracy Violation of dBA.de principles as well as general terms and conditions Violation of species protection agreement If a member repeatedly has received negative ratings. If safeguarding interests of other members are not present . If a member has indicated false contact data If transferring a member's account to others If harming other members or dBA.de For any other important reason In the case of misconduct in the evaluation system as described in -Paragraph 7. Among immediate measures must be understood Cancellation of tenders Deletion of content Exclusion of member through preliminary closing Exclusion of member through final closing Restricting the use of dBA.de auction platform Warning of members Removal of acquired status Cancellation of feedbacks dBA.de will weigh up the circumstances in the selection of measures if, for example, there is evidence that the member is not at fault for the incident. In a preliminary blocking of members, as well as offer cancellation, only fees already paid for not completed tenders, are being credited. When complete closure due to gross violation of an offer or member, only paid for and not completed tenders, are being contemplated for a refund. There is no claim for reinstatement of an offer, the restoration of the membership, as well as feedbacks. After blocking a member, it may not use dBA.de auction platform under any circumstances. Registering under a different member name is prohibited. Contract may be terminated by members at any time without deadlines and without giving reasons.. dBA.de can terminate contract within a period of 14 days to end of the month. This doesn’t affect exclusion and blocking of members described in Section 4, paragraph 1-2. Written form by e-mail or letter is required to terminate License Agreement. When sending letter date of receipt is valid. § 5 Fees and sales commissions Following applications are free: Registration Viewing of tenders Hand in bids of auction Acquisition of articles by auction or Buy Now Following applications come with fees to the benefit of dBA.de Setting an offer to auction or for immediate purchase. Depending on the quote fees may vary. Levying a sales commission to the selling member with successful purchase Fees for dBA.de arise only to the selling member. Level of fees is indicated when posting quote. The fee-chart is retrievable under services, fees. The sales commission is 5% of the amount of gross sales achieved. The fees are subject to change and will be posted in a timely manner. Fees for sending an article must be set among members. The fees for posting of articles and the commission are due for payment immediately. Each member of dBA.de has a dBA.de account balance. This account balance is to be set by bank transfer before posting item. Each member may keep a credit balance, through bank transfer to dBA.de, in this account. Immediately after receipt of payment, member will be credited. The credit to the dBA.de account depends on the transfer speed of financial institutions. With this credit members can now post items. Posting fees and sales commissions will be debited from this account. dBA.de account needs to be adequately covered for posting items. Member can keep track of their account balance under “My Account”. It is always possible to grant a debit authorization to dBA.de. In this case, dBA.de will only debit the bills incurred from your bank account. In general, your account is being collected twice a month on the 15 th and the 30 th. You will receive an invoice by email. Failure to pay by debit, member is to reimburse costs to dBA.de. A payment is automatically defaulted 30 days after invoicing without further warning . In a demonstrable failure of payment by the buying member to the selling member, the provider (seller) under certain circumstances gets its commission payment credited. No further reimbursements are granted. dBA.de or the holder is subject to small business regulation (pursuant to Article 19 paragraph 1 UstG). Therefore, bills are being posted excluding tax value. dBA.de can always change its scale of fees. A change of fees is announced via e-mail to the members. This affects in particular the sales commission. If sending of email is impossible due to e-mail missing, false or altered e-mail, selling member must convince oneself of current charges before posting quote. A written notice of the change in postal fees does not take place. Claims of a member to dBA.de, for not yet granted credits, can only be retained or withheld if these demands are legally assessed. If a buyer make use of his rights of withdrawaland his right of return with the trader, neither the posting fee as well as the commission received from dBA.de is refunded. Arising costs of remittance from abroad to Germany are paid by the member. If member doesn’t transfer costs of remittance from abroad, dBA.de will deduct member account for this purpose. §6 Special promotions, launch deposits, credits Special Promotions or sign-up promotions are issued within a validity period. Only within the validity period, will the member receive a starting credit. This starting credit is to be used within the validity period as it will expire after validity period ends. The right for the starting credit exists only within the validity period. With expiration of validity period, no claim for an extension or renewal of the starting credit can be made Starting credit is being credited per legal entity, not per pseudonym or user name. If double credits are received through infringement, dba.de reserves the right to delete credits and to debit members account at any time and without giving reason. Members are not entitled to payment for sign-up credits, bonuses or other free credits. These credits can only be used within the dBA.de platform. §7 dBA.de Rating system and "personal homepage" It is possible for dBA.de members to rate each other with successful completion of sale. Feedbacks must be true. Untruth, false statements, defamation and violations of morality are prohibited. Furthermore, following is strictly prohibited: to post contents that have nothing to do with the purpose of feedback to post untruths, which intend to shame other members without a connection to the sales transaction. To award oneself with the assistance of a different user name. To award oneself with the assistance of a third party To set links to other sites dBA.de doesn’t carry out inspections for the feedback, as well as the “personal homepage”. Evaluations as well as “personal homepages” may be wrong and untrue. DBA.de cannot be held liable for false or mistaken information. It is strictly prohibited to use feedback for any other purpose other than the feedback itself. Feedback can be cancelled, provided that both parties consent. Both parties must send agreement in written form to dBA.de. In this case, email is enough. In cases of dispute between both parties, DBA.de is not the solving body. Cancellation of Feedback will only be conducted if both parties agree. A violation of this rule may result in immediate exclusion of a member, as described in paragraph 4. With reference to the interest of its members, dBA.de will make the decision itself. dBA.de makes pages available, in which members can tell more about oneself. This so-called “personal homepage”, is to be adjusted and managed by member itself. It also applies here to post true details, as well as the immediate exclusion of a member for misconduct as stated in Section 4. In this “personal homepage” symbols must not be used to reinforce the idea of better business, service, or offer sense of better reliability. Prohibited are third party symbols and indications about third parties. § 8 Restricted articles and prohibited contents It is strictly prohibited to post products, which violate statutory provisions offer products, which violate rights of third parties offer products, which harm name-brands (name-brand piracy) offer or sell animals, that violate the agreement on the protection of endangered species offer services that are defined by the erotic industry. offer products and fodders questionable to its origin, as well as its composition within the meaning of cruelty to animals. offer firearms or other weapons which are prohibited by law. post harmful writings to young people, pornographic material and articles post discriminative and racial articles post articles of banned organizations, in particular with neo-nazism background. offer prescription drugs, illegal drugs or other narcotics §9 Product Liability dBA.de is not liable for posted products on auction platform. Full product liability shall be adopted by the person making an offer Not at all does dBA.de guarantee any products. dBA.de isn’t liable for a product liability within the meaning of consequential damages. § 10 Principles of dBA.de All members commit to not to harm, shame or slander one another. It is the responsibility of the member to verify products and their respective sellers. Hereto dBA.de offers the feedback system and the “personal homepage”. Every member is free to learn about other members in addition to reviews offered by dBA.de All members are to undertake and to follow applicable laws Each member has to make sure that offers and contents are legal and that no third party rights are violated. Each member has to archive proof of funds in cases of dispute. Each member performs its own accounting Members may use acquired addresses, as well as additional contact information for no other purpose than the compliance and completing of a bill of sale through dBA.de. For the purpose of data protection, disclosure of contact information to third parties is strictly prohibited, unless member has agreed to it. In particular, selling of contact information is strictly prohibited. dBA.de is not responsible for possible transfers of contact data by its members. Each member is allowing dBA.de the transfer of e-mail addresses or telephone numbers for pre-communication. dBA.de may at any time change or complete principles of marketplace, provided that protection of its members is being maintained or improved. If posted offer concludes in a purchase contract, dBA.de is permitted to pass on contact information to the two affected parties. Each member must assign its offer to the correct category itself, as long as dBA.de hasn’t undertaken settings. Description of the offer must be sufficient in the form of words and images, that buyer can view and understand the necessary product. It is prohibited to suppress known defects in the product description, that means errors, that reduce the value of the item, must be clearly identified. Provider shall ensure that the items offered by him will be made available to his buyer immediately after payment. Seller must indicate information on payment, delivery time and delivery costs in their bids. With purchase, terms of conditions of seller apply, provided that they comply with statutory provisions. Business entrepreneurs are obliged to provide the buyer with statutory consumer protection information and to grant them the right to complain and revocation or the right to return, if this is offered by seller. The item description and images may not violate the rights of third parties. Advertisement from other websites onto dBA.de platform is only allowed with approval of dBA.de . This affects in particular setting links to other sites in article descriptions, feedbacks and/or other contents. Sale price of item is final and has to be identified including tax. The price may not include shipping and handling. It is prohibited to change dBA.de sales commissions and dBA.de posting fees on selling price. Providers can only withdraw from a binding offer if no bid has been received. If bid has been received, an offer can only be withdrawn if legal basis exists. Current server time of dBA.de is in effect for conduct and duration of auction. No purchase agreement will take place, if offer is deleted before the end of the auction. After posting an item, there is no fundamental right to commit dBA.de to cancel an offer. Seller has to check the accuracy of his offer, in particular the sales price, before posting it. Seller agrees to buyer to sell item to the highest bid at auction. Members must agree on the sale, the implementation of transport, and compliance with the agreement among themselves. § 11 Standard Auctions, Auctions with “Buy It Now” possibility and Auctions with multiple quantities available. There are 2 different ways to offer goods, standard auction and auction with Buy It Now option. In both cases, seller will provide a binding offer. With standard auction, seller can set starting price and the duration of the auction. Buy It Now auction may optionally, in addition to the standard auction, be selected. With Buy it now option seller must set an additional Buy It Now price. With standard auction, interested buyer must deliver a bid. During the duration of the auction, it is always possible to outbid the current bid. With standard auction, without Buy It Now option, the winning bid gets the award not until after the auction period ended. In case of bidder accepting Buy It Now option, purchase contract agreement is being reached without expiry date of the auction. Every bidder can present a maximum bid. Such bid is the maximum amount that a bidder is willing to pay for the article. This maximum bid won’t be displayed to other members. Do other members bid on the article, the bid gradually increases until a bidder exceeds maximum bid. More details on how to bid, see §13. Seller can set a minimum bidding price that differs from the starting price. In this case a purchase agreement is only met if this minimum bidding price is offered. Seller may only withdraw a posted offer, if no bid on this product has been made. If there is already a bid on the item, seller may only withdraw the offer if he is legally entitled to. No reimbursement will be made by dBA.de. DBA.de reserves the right, in case of such a bid withdrawal, to raise an expense fee. It is prohibited to get assistance of so-called automatic bidding programs. DBA.de wants to protect its members from so-called Sniper programs. This means the following: If a bid is being placed in the last 3 minutes before the end of auction, end of auction is being postponed by 3 minutes. It is possible to offer a product indicating a certain sales volume and to acquire this product several times. Seller shall ensure that this quantity is available. Products must be approved to be the same type and quality. If offered quantity is not available, appropriate clarification between seller and buyer is necessary. In this case, sales commission is collected by dBA.de for the number of sales settled with auction. A credit or refund of commission as well as posting fees of unsold items, due to nonavailable quantities, is not possible. § 12 Starting Price, Buy It Now option (item at a fixed selling price), minimum bidding price, bidding steps, auction duration If seller is posting an article with “Buy It Now” option, “Buy It Now” price as defined by the seller is becoming valid with acceptance of the offer. dBA.de is not liable if “starting price” and “Buy It Now” price are being confused. Minimum price describes the price at an auction that must be achieved in order to reach a valid purchase agreement. It will be displayed during auction, if minimum price hasn’t been met. The minimum price is not displayed. The starting price describes the price at which the auction begins. The lowest possible starting price is € 1.00. § 13 Bidding steps No bidding steps are being set by dBA.de. Each seller establishes his/her step increase for his/her article when posting it. Minimum bidding step of merely 1.00 Euro is requested. Step increase is specified by the seller before bidding starts. §14Exercise of rights by third parties, transfer of contract dBA.de may issue a 4 week notice period to transfer its rights and obligations under this contract, wholly or partially, to third parties. In this case member may cancel his License Agreement. §15 Exemption Sellers and buyers release dBA.de of all claims arising in connection with server failures or server bottlenecks. dBA.de can not be held responsible by members if rights of other members are being violated, what means dBA.de is free of claims, offers, in particular to the content rating system or other uses of the site In the case of a legal dispute, member is responsible to cover necessary costs including lawyer, court costs or other expenses. §16 dBA.de system integrity of the auction platform It is prohibited to use mechanisms, programs, software or scripts which disturb ongoing operation or even complete system failure of dBA.de. Members may, in the event of a breach of terms and stock, made liable. It is prohibited to block or modify any of dBA.de contents. §17 Copyright Without the extraordinary approval of dBA.de it’s prohibited to copy, distribute or to otherwise use contents of dBA.de. §18 Restriction of Liability dBA.de is only liable if operator or his agents can prove intent or gross negligence. A liability for lost profits through server failure or bottlenecks is not given, with exception of gross negligence or misconduct. By violating the rights of third parties by the members of dBA.de, dBA.de cannot be held liable. Members are fully liable for offers, contents and articles. dBA.de liability in certain cases was already explained in previous contents of Terms and Conditions. These are to understand within the meaning of the disclaimer. §19 Writing, Jurisdiction of Applicable Law Legal Court is in the city of Schwandorf . The applicable law refers to the statutory provisions under the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. All statements to the use of contract with dBA.de must be made in writing by mail, or by e-mail. Valid addresses of the members are the ones given in the registration process as the current contact details by the members. §20 Severability, Modification of these Terms and Conditions dBA.de reserves the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time without giving reasons. Amendments to the Terms and Conditions will be e-mailed to members at least 2 weeks before changes will take place. Members have the right to oppose amended terms. This can be done by giving written notice to cancel use of contract. New Terms and Conditions are automatically adopted if member doesn’t oppose within 2 weeks of receiving the notice. If any regulations of these terms and conditions are ineffective, remaining regulations stay unaffected. §21 Right and Instruction of Revocation Members can cancel contract in writing (letter, e-mail) within 2 weeks without giving reasons. In order to safeguard the withdrawal period it is sufficient to send the revocation in writing. Revocation must be sent to: Ruwen Internet-Auction Joachim Ruwen Neunaigenerstrasse 51 92533 Wernberg Köblitz e-mail : info@die-brieftaubenauktion.de In case of an effective revocation, member account with dBA.de will be deleted. Obtained starting balances, which are free with registration to the member, will not be paid out because no transfers were made. In case of remittances being received by dBA.de at the same time as legally revoking rights, received payment must be transferred back to member. Cancellation policy is effective without the signature of both parties and is valid with registration. Business Entrepreneurs are obliged to provide the buyers with statutory consumer protection information and to grant them information about right of revocation and right of return provided it is offered by the seller. §22 Disclaimer This web page was constructed with the utmost care. Nevertheless, accuracy of the information cannot be guaranteed. We preclude any liability for damages caused, directly or indirectly by use of the platform, unless they are based on gross negligence or intent. The operators of this site have no influence on design and content of linked sites and expressly distance themselves from these pages, for which particular operator is responsible. §23 Overall / Final Regulation Internet - or online auctions, won’t fall within the meaning of Section 34 of the Industrial Code. Official language is German.