Terms & Conditions
of the Dr. Susanne Merk, SUME Medical Writing, Kosthofstr. 35b, 82205 Gilching, Germany, Phone: +49 (0)8105/7301730, Mail: info(at)susanne-merk.de
- hereinafter referred to as “supplier” or “we”-
§ 1 Field of Application, Form
(1) These Terms and Conditions apply to all business connections with our customers. They are only applicable if the customer is an entrepreneur (§14 BGB), a corporate body under public law or a special fund under public law.
(2) Unless specified otherwise, the Terms and Conditions are effective in the version valid at the time of order or respectively the version last communicated as a general agreement equally also for future contracts of the same kind, without the need to call attention to them in every individual case.
(3) Our Terms and Conditions apply exclusively. The Customer’s deviating, opposing or complementary Terms and Conditions are only and insofar part of the contract, if we have explicitly agreed to their validity. This consent requirement is always effective, even if we carry out the customer’s order aware of their terms and conditions, for example.
(4) Isolated individual agreements with the customer (including subsidiary agreements, additions, and changes) always take precedence over these Terms and Conditions. A written contract or our written confirmation is relevant for the content of suchlike agreements, subject to use as evidence.
(5) Claims and statements relevant in law concerning the contract (e.g. setting a deadline, notice of defect) are to be submitted in written (e.g. letter, mail, telefax) form. Legal formal requirements and further verification especially when doubting the claimer’s legitimation remain untouched.
(6) References to the legal regulations have clarifying purposes only. Even without such clarifications, legal regulations are always in force, as far as they are not directly changed or excluded by these Terms and Conditions.
§ 2 Offer and Conclusion of a Contract
(1) Offers and Prices contained in prospects, advertisements and other promotional material are non-binding and subject to change.
(2) We are bound by our offer for 14 running days after dispatch. The customer has the right to accept the offer within this timeframe. Relevant for the adherence to the time limit is the time we receive the customer’s answer.
§ 3 The Customer’s Duty to Collaborate
(1) The customer is required to make all relevant data, product information and submittals necessary for service provision available to the supplier for strictly confidential use.
(2) The customer guarantees that he is entitled to employ and hand over any submittals/ information that he cedes to the supplier for the design of the writing.
(3) The customer’s acceptance of a proposed draft is considered a final approval. For technical and organizational reasons subsequent adjustments are normally associated with additional expenditure. Therefore, every change request after approval is in legal terms considered an offer for a new contract with a simultaneous lifting of the existing contract. We are entitled to refuse that offer. Should we accept that offer, we are able to charge seperatley for potentially arising additional costs. The customer will be informed of such at the time of the change request.
(4) The customer bears sole responsibility for the compliance with regulations and laws for medical devices, pharmaceuticals and advertising in the health care system.
§ 4 Delivery Deadline and Delay of Delivery
(1) The delivery date is arranged individually or stated by us with the acceptance of order.
(2) If we cannot meet the delivery date for reasons we are not responsible for, we will inform the customer at once and at the same time communicate the estimated new time of delivery. We are entitled to rescind from the contract or parts of it, should the service not be available during that second time of delivery either. An already performed payment or other consideration will be returned to the customer immediately.
(3) A delay of delivery is specified by the legal regulations. A notice by the customer is necessary in any case.
§ 5 Prices and Payment Terms
(1) Our prices are to be understood plus VAT at statutory rate and potential delivery costs. Custom duties and similar expenditure have to be borne by the customer.
(2) When supplying against invoice, our invoices are to be met, unless specified otherwise, within 10 workdays after delivery of the product and arrival of the invoice with the customer.
(3) The customer is only eligible for right of set-off or retention, if his claim is either legally established or indisputable. In case of deficiencies the customer’s rights remain untouched.
(4) If after conclusion of the order it becomes apparent that our entitlement to the agreed remuneration is endangered by the customer’s insufficiency (e.g. an application to open insolvency proceedings), we are then authorized to refuse services and – potentially after setting a deadline – to withdraw from the contract by legal regulations (§ 321 BGB).
§ 6 Special conditions for scientific publications
(1) Dr. Susanne Merk works according to the guidance provided by the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA): These are as follows: Authors who choose to collaborate with a professional medical writer on manuscripts or congress presentations must:
• ensure that they, as authors, have access to all relevant information (eg, protocols, statistical analysis plans, statistical analyses, and clinical study reports)
• provide intellectual input before writing commences and throughout content development
• ensure that the final text fully reflects the views of, and is approved by, all authors
•affirm the appropriateness of the final choice of journal or congress
•acknowledge the provision of medical writing support, including the nature of the support, and the name, highest relevant qualifications (eg, degree or professional credential), and affiliation of the professional medical writer accountable for the support provided (see sample text), and acknowledge the funding sources for the provision of medical writing support
•recognize as a co-author all contributors (including a professional medical writer) who meet the ICMJE authorship criteria:
oSubstantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
oDrafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
oFinal approval of the version to be published; AND
oAgreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
(2) The following sample text or equivalent shall be added as suggested in the "Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Current pediatrics. 2017 Jan 1;16(2):90–106":
“The authors thank Susanne Merk for providing medical writing support/editorial support [specify and/or expand as appropriate], which was funded by [sponsor, city, country] in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines (http://www.ismpp.org/gpp3).”
§ 7 Liability
(1) Unless specified otherwise in these Terms and Conditions including the following regulations, we are liable for a violation of contractual and non-contractual duties under legal regulations.
(2) We are liable for damages – no matter the legal reason – within the fault-based liability in the case of deliberate action and culpable negligence. In the case of ordinary negligence (e.g. diligence in own affairs) we are, by legal regulations subject to a limited responsibility, only liable for
a) damage resulting from death, physical injury and harm to health
(obligation, that is necessary for the proper carrying out of the contract, and on which the contract partner relies and should be able to rely). In this case our liability is limited to the replacement of the predictable to be expected damage.
(3) The limitation of liability arising from paragraph 2 are also applicable to breaches of obligations by or in favour of persons, whose culpability we have to represent legally. These limitations are invalid if we have concealed deficiencies by devious means or have provided a guarantee for the quality and for claims as per the product liability act.
(4) In case of a breach of obligation, that is not a deficiency, the customer can only withdraw from or cancel the contract if we are responsible for the breach. A free right of termination for the customer (according to §§ 651, 649 BGB) is ruled out. As for the rest, legal regulations and consequences apply.
(5) The liability is limited to the agreed contract value in any event.
§ 8 Data Protection
(1) In that which follows we inform you of the collection of personal data in business deals. Personal data is all data, that is connect to your person, for example name, address, E-Mail-address, payment information, ordered goods. Responsible subject as per Art. 4 Par. 7 DS-GVO is Dr. Susanne Merk, SUME Medical Writing, Kosthofstr. 35b, 82205 Gilching, Germany, Phone: +49 (0)8105/7301730, Mail: info(at)susanne-merk.de
(2) Data is collected, saved and potentially passed on insofar as is necessary to fulfill the contractual obligations. The collection, saving and passing on therefore takes pace for the purpose of fulfillment of the contract according to Art 6 Par. 1 Page 1 lit. b DS-GVO. Not granting access to this data may result in us being unable to accept the contract. If we supply goods, we pass your data on to the shipper as far as it is necessary for the delivery.
(3) We operate contemporary technical measures to guarantee the safety of personal data. They are being updated to fit the current technical possibilities.
(4) Affected persons have the right to request information about their personal data saved by us at any time (Art. 15 DS-GVO). That also means recipients, who we have passed the data on to or the reason for the storage of data. They are also entitled to request the correction (under the terms of Art. 16 DS-GVO), deletion (under the terms of Art. 17 DS-GVO) and/or the restriction of use (under the terms of Art. 18 DS-GVO). They can furthermore under the terms of Art. 20 DS-GVO request a data transfer. Personal data is only stored for as long as is necessary to fulfill its purpose. That usually means the length of the contract duration.
In the case of the use of your personal data for the purpose of the exercise of tasks for the public benefit (Art. 6 Par. 1 page 1 lit. e DS-VGO) or the exercise of relevant interests (Art. 6 Par. 1 page 1 lit. f DS-VGO), you are entitled to object to the use of your personal data for the future at any time. In the case of an objection we have to stop processing your data for the stated purposes, unless
- there are compelling reasons worth of protection, that overweigh your interests, rights and freedoms, or
- the processing is necessary to enforce, exercise or defend legal titles.
You can at any time object to the processing of your data for direct advertisement for the future. This includes a profiling, if it is connected to the direct advertisement. In the case of an objection we have to stop processing your data for the purpose of direct advertisement.
(5) We reserve the right to pass the customer’s personal data on to credit agencies if we feel the need to check credits, providing the customer explicitly agrees to this in the individual case. We will not pass personal data on to any third parties without the explicit agreement of the customer, except for situations in which we are legally obliged to.
(6) The collection, transmission and processing of personal information and data for other purposes than stated in §8 is not allowed.
(7) With all request on information, revocations and objections to the data processing please get in touch using the contact details stated in paragraph 1. For more information we reference the full DS-VGO, which you can access under https://dejure.org/gesetze/DSGVO and our Privacy Policy, which you can access under https://susanne-merk.de/datenschutz Furthermore, you can issue a complaint regarding the data protection law with the responsible supervisory authority.
§ 9 Governing Law and Place of Jurisdiction
(1) The existing contract between us and the customer is, reserving compelling international private regulations, subject to the laws of the federal republic of Germany, to the exclusion of the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG).
(2) Should the customer be a merchant within the meaning of the Commercial Code, corporate body under public law or a special fund under public law, our registered office in Gilching will serve as exclusive including international place of jurisdiction for all disputes directly and indirectly originating from the contractual relationship. Higher-ranking legal regulations, especially concerning exclusive responsibilities remain untouched.