Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions STANDARD TERMS OF BUSINESS 1. DEFINITIONS 1.1. The “Agency“ means the company Die ILLUSTRATOREN Alexandra Maul GmbH, Marienthaler Straße 163a, 20535 Hamburg, Germany. 1.2. “Illustrator“ means the artist contracted and represented by the Agency. 1.3. “Client“ means any person or any entity entering into a contract with the Illustrator via the Agency with regard to the creation, delivery and/ or use of illustrations (hereinafter referred to as “Assignment“). 1.4. “Work(s)“ means the illustration created by the Illustrator on behalf of the Client. 2. GENERAL 2.1. The Agency represents and provides Illustrators for national and international Clients. 2.2. By placing an order, the Client acknowledges that the Agency‘s Standard Terms of Business, valid as amended, shall apply to the current assignment and any future transactions. The Standard Terms of Business shall apply in relation to the Agency and in relation to the Illustrator as well. Dissenting Standard Terms of Business of the Client are hereby rejected, including in letters of confirmation. 2.3. The Assignment relates to the creation and delivery of the Work and the grant of license(s) if applicable for the purposes agreed-upon by contract. 2.4. It is expressly noted that the Agency represents the Illustrator and is not party to any contract entered into by the Client and the Illustrator. All information and declarations are provided in the name and on behalf of the relevant Illustrator unless the declaration is expressly provided on behalf of the Agency or apparently relates to the Agency and therefore to its interest only. 3. OFFERS, FEES, PAYMENTS, CANCELLATION FEE 3.1. All offers are subject to change. All prices are understood to be in Euros to which the applicable value-added tax must be added. 3.2. Invoices shall be due on the invoice date without any deductions. 3.3. Clients within the scope of Section 24 of the German Artists Social Insurance Act, in particular entrepreneurs or companies mentioned therein, are obliged to pay the social security contribution for the illustrators in addition to the agreed fee. The social security contribution is not included in the agreed fee. 3.4. Additional costs or expenses caused by expanding or postponing the original Assignment, subsequent requests that differ from the briefing, failure to provide products on time, errors in the laboratory, etc. shall increase the fee commensurately. Ancillary costs incurred for the Assignment (e.g. costs of materials, technical costs, shipping costs, and travel costs and expenses) shall also be borne by the Client and are not included in the fee. 3.5. If the Client ceases an assignment for reasons for which the Illustrator is not responsible before the Illustrator has started, the Illustrator shall be entitled to charge a cancellation fee of 10 % of the total agreed-upon net fee, without the need to provide proof of loss. The right to prove that the Illustrator actually suffered no loss or a smaller loss is reserved to the Client. The right to prove that the loss was greater is reserved to the Illustrator. If an assignment, once begun, is not completed and the Illustrator is not responsible for this, the Illustrator shall be entitled – in addition to any compensation for services already provided – to claim 10 % of the agreed-upon net fee attributable to the portion of the services that have not yet been provided, without the need to provide proof of loss. The right to prove that losses were higher or lower is reserved to the parties. 4. OWNERSHIP RIGHT, COPYRIGHTS AND RIGHTS OF USE, RESERVATION OF A RIGHT OF USE 4.1. All ownership and copyright rights to the original specimen of the Work and all intermediate stages shall remain with the Illustrator. 4.2. The Client shall be granted rights, under copyright law, to use the Work solely for the contractually agreed-upon purpose. Any additional use shall require express written consent and must be compensated separately. 4.3. Without the express written consent of the Illustrator, these rights of use may not be transferred to any third party, in whole or in part. In particular, the Client acquires no ownership of the delivered Work, unless the Illustrator sells the Work to the Client in exchange for an additional sales fee. 4.4. Any type of copying, reproduction, modification, editing, disclosure to the public, transformation for purposes of reproduction on other image carries, storage on other media, etc. shall require the express written consent of the Illustrator, to the extent that it is not covered under the contractually agreed-upon use. 4.5. All rights to be transferred to the Client under the contract shall remain with the Illustrator until payment in full, including the part of the fee which relates to the creation of the Work. Any prior use or disclosure is impermissible. 4.6. In case there is a prior impermissible transfer to third parties, the Client hereby assigns all claims against the third parties to the Illustrator, who accepts the assignment. 4.7. If there is an unauthorized use, disclosure, or other non-sanctioned use, a minimum fee of twice the agreed-upon user fee shall be due, subject to additional claims for compensatory damages. 5. USE IN CONNECTION WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) 5.1. Unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing, the granted rights, copyrights, usage rights, or editing rights do not include any use of the Work in connection with artificial intelligence (AI) systems or processes. In particular, the following uses are not permitted: a) feeding the Work into AI models or AI-based systems (e.g., for training, fine-tuning, or style transfer); b) analyzing or processing the Work by AI systems for the purpose of generating new, derivative, or stylistically similar content; and c) any other use in which the Work is used in a manner that contributes to the automated generation of new content by an AI system. Any use pursuant to sections 5 a) to c) requires a separate written license agreement specifying the scope, duration, nature, and remuneration of the AI-related use. 5.2. If there is an unauthorized use, disclosure, or other non-sanctioned use pursuant to section 5.1, a minimum fee of twice the agreed-upon user fee shall be due, subject to additional claims for compensatory damages. 6. SPECIMEN COPIES, SELF-PROMOTION, CREDITING THE ILLUSTRATOR 6.1. The Client shall send the Illustrator at least three specimen copies of every publication on its own initiative free of charge. 6.2. The Illustrator shall be entitled to use the Work for self-promotion, including publishing the Work on social media in this regard and showing it as a sample of his Work, unless this would obviously infringe the interests of the Client or unless the parties expressly agreed in writing that the Illustrator shall refrain from this kind of use. 6.3. The Illustrator shall have the right to be credited as the author, unless he expressly waived this right. 7. STORAGE OF DIGITAL DATA, SHIPPING, TRANSFER OF RISK 7.1. The Illustrator shall deliver the Work to the Client in digital form. The Client is hereby informed that the relevant digital data and files will not be stored by the Illustrator after the end of the Assignment and therefore will no longer be available. The Illustrator and / or the Agency are not liable for the security and availability of the digital data after the end of the Assignment. Therefore, the Client itself shall insure that the delivered digital data and files are backed up. 7.2. The risk of accidental damage or loss shall pass to the Client as soon as the Work is delivered. If a physical Work is to be delivered the risk of accidental damage or loss shall pass to the Client as soon as the Work is delivered to the shipper. This shall also apply if the Illustrator performs the transport himself. 7.3. The shipment of the Work shall only be insured by the Illustrator at the express request and expense of the Client. In the absence of any express instructions by the Client, the means of transport and the route shall be within the discretion of the Illustrator. The Illustrator shall have no liability for using the least expensive and quickest mode of shipment. 8. DUTY TO INSPECT AND REPORT DEFECTS, LIABILITY FOR DEFECTS, LIMITATION PERIOD 8.1. The Illustrator shall produce the Work assigned to him in his own style, taking into account the details provided to him by the Client`s Assignment of tasks and the layout. 8.2. The artistic design itself shall not constitute a defect. 8.3. Defects must be promptly reported in writing after receipt of the Work. Otherwise, after the expiration of three business days, the Work shall be deemed to have been accepted in accordance with the contract, and liability for patent defects shall be excluded, if the client is a trader in accordance with Section 14 of the German Civil Code. These limitations of the warranty rights do not apply to consumers and these General Terms and Conditions shall in no way limit the statutory warranty rights for consumers. 8.4. The limitation period for liability for defects is one year from delivery, unless a contract with private end customers is involved. The reduction of the limitation period shall not apply to claims for death, personal injury or damage to health or in cases of grossly negligent or intentional breach of contract by the Illustrator and/ or the Agency. 8.5. If the Client is a consumer, Section 438 Paragraph 1 No. 3 of the German Civil Code or Section 634 a Paragraph 1 No. 3 of the German Civil Code applies. 8.6. If the Work is proven to be defective, the Illustrator shall, at his option, correct the defect or deliver a new Work. The Client must provide the Illustrator with the time and opportunity necessary for this purpose. Otherwise, the Illustrator shall be released from his warranty obligations. Only if the correction or the new Work is not provided within a reasonable period of time due to the Illustrator`s own fault or has ultimately failed, the Client shall have the right to rescind the contract in accordance with the provisions of law, reduce the price or demand damages or reimbursement of expenses. 8.7. Any correction of the Work or replacement delivery shall be deemed as ultimately failed after two unsuccessful attempts, unless the nature of the Work or the defects or any other circumstances provide for something different. 8.8. In any case, liability for defects shall be extinguished if the Client or a third party makes changes of any kind to the Work. 9. Right of Withdrawal 9.1. In case of a contract of a private consumer via distance selling deal, the following provisions shall apply to the right of cancellation: You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period is fourteen days from the day of the conclusion of the contract. To exercise the right of cancellation, you must inform us (Die ILLUSTRATOREN Alexandra Maul GmbH, Marienthaler Straße 163a, 20535 Hamburg, Telephone +49 (0)40 250 40 50, Fax +49 (0)40 250 40 58; kontakt@illustratoren.de) of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. letter sent by post, fax or email). You may use the model cancellation form or another clear statement via our website www.illustratoren.de, but it is not obligatory. If you send us the statement through our website, we will confirm the receipt of the cancellation immediately (e.g. by email). To meet the cancellation period, it is sufficient to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period expires. 9.2. Consequences of Withdrawel If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse all payments we have received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the additional costs arising from your choice of a delivery method other than the least expensive standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and in any event not later than fourteen days from the day on which we are informed of your decision to withdraw from this contract. For this repayment, we will use the same payment method that you used in the original transaction, unless expressly agreed otherwise with you; in no case will you incur any fees due to this repayment. If you requested that services begin during the withdrawal period, you will owe us an amount corresponding to the proportion of services already provided by the time you inform us of the exercise of the right of withdrawal in relation to the total scope of services agreed upon in the contract. End of the Right of Withdrawal Notice 9.3. Exclusion of the Right of Withdrawal The right of withdrawel shall not apply, amongst others, to distance selling contracts a. for the delivery of goods which are not prefabricated and which are made on customer’s specification or which have been clearly tailored to personal requirements of the private consumer, b. with a business. 10. LIABILITY 10.1. The Illustrator, the Agency, its representatives, employees, and agents shall be only liable, on whatever legal ground, for wrongful intent and gross negligence, unless the matter involves liability for the breach of cardinal contractual obligations or damages arising from the assumption of a procurement risk or a guarantee. 10.2. Except in cases of intentional breach of contract, the Illustrator, the Agency, its representatives, employees and agents shall not be liable for lost profits, lost savings, indirect damages and/or consequential damages. 10.3. Except in cases of grossly negligent or intentional breach of contract, any liability shall be limited to those losses that were reasonably foreseeable when the contract was entered into. 10.4. The foregoing limitations of liability shall not apply to culpable injury to life, limb or health. 10.5. Any liability for parts of the Work which are created or provided by the Client itself shall be excluded. In this case, the Client shall be liable that no rights of third parties were infringed. The Client indemnifies the Agency and the Illustrator in this regard from any claims of third parties. This indemnification shall include any legal costs. 11. DATA PROTECTION The Client is informed that the Agency and the Illustrator will process and store the personal data obtained within the scope of the business relationship in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). Further information regarding the rights of the data subjects and the processing of personal data can be found in the privacy policy. 12. FINAL PROVISIONS 12.1. The Client is not entitled to assign claims against the Agency or the Illustrator to third parties without the Agency‘s express written consent. This clause 12.1 does not apply to contracts with consumers, insofar as they concern claims for payment of money by the Client. 12.2. The Client is entitled to set off counterclaims against the claims of the Agency or the Illustrator only if the Client‘s counterclaim is uncontested or has been determined to be valid by a court of law. Claims arising from warranty or the assumption of a guarantee are excluded from the prohibition of offsetting. The Client can only assert a right of withholding if the right is based on claims arising under the same contractual relationship. 12.3. German law shall apply between the Client and the Illustrator as well as between the Client and the Agency, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. 12.4. The place of performance shall be Hamburg. The competent courts in Hamburg shall have exclusive jurisdiction over claims between the Client and the Illustrator as well as between the Client and the Agency if the Client is a company, a legal entity under public law or a public law special fund. 12.5. If individual provisions of these Standard Terms of Business should be or become invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The invalid provision shall be replaced by a provision that comes closest to the purpose and intent of the invalid provision. Copyright DIE ILLUSTRATOREN Alexandra Maul GmbH, 2026