General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for clients

Zu den Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen (AGB) für die Nutzung der Stellenmärkte

1.1
academics GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “academics”) provides employers and agencies/HR consulting firms operating on behalf of employers (hereinafter referred to as “clients”) the opportunity on its website and via other channels, for example the job newsletter, to publish job advertisements and an employer profile and to publicise media campaigns (newsletters, banners). 

1.2
The client recognises the application of these GTC. The GTC of academics apply exclusively. Any terms and conditions of the client that contradict or differ from academics’ GTC will not be recognised, unless academics explicitly agrees to their application in writing.

A contract is concluded when academics explicitly accepts the client's order, which may be placed either online, through the transmission of an appropriate form by email or fax or by telephone. Acceptance may also be declared by sending a preview link or through the publication of the campaign. 

3.1
academics provides clients the opportunity to publish job advertisements, create an employer profile and publicise media campaigns (newsletters, banners) (hereinafter referred to collectively as “employer content”). The respective service description below relating to the individual products shall apply on a supplementary basis to the relevant products.

3.2
The employer content booked by the client must be called, i.e. published, within a specified period of time. Individual bookings, i.e. bookings of individual job advertisements, an employer profile or a one-time media campaign (hereinafter referred to as “individual bookings”) must be called/published within six months of concluding the contract. If a client books a package with a variety of content (“package contents”), e.g. several job advertisements or media campaigns, they must be called/published within twelve months of concluding the contract. If the employer fails to use the job advertisements booked in the package by the end of the agreed term of the contract, they shall be forfeit without substitution and without any entitlement to reimbursement. 

3.3
Clients may publish a job advertisement in different ways. The orders for the job advertisements may be placed by email, telephone or post; there is an alternative option of independently drafting and uploading a job advertisement using the online portal. Advertisements can also be placed using an interface/ATS system. For this purpose, the interface/ATS system must be configured on one occasion and connection to our system. A client wishing to place advertisements using the online portal must first create a customer account on the academics website. This is possible at the following link address (https://inserieren.academics.de). It is necessary to provide contact details and an invoice address during registration. After registration, the account must first be activated by academics. academics is entitled to refuse activation if the client is not an enterprise but a private individual, as such persons are not authorised to place job advertisements on the portals of academics GmbH. Moreover, academics GmbH reserves the right to refuse activation without statement of reasons. Activation usually takes place within 24 to 48 hours. The client will be notified of the activation and is then able to independently place job advertisements on the online portal. They must comply with the specifications set out in these terms and conditions.  

3.4
A correction loop is included in the price when booking all products. Any additional correction initiated by the employer shall be subject to a fee. 

3.5

a) Job advertisements 

(1) academics provides clients the opportunity to publish job advertisements. On the one hand, they have the option of booking individual job advertisements (customised or a basic design) and, on the other hand, they can book advertising packages, which can be displayed over a certain period of time. 

(2) The display periods, the number of job advertisements and the prices shall be based on academics’ current price list. 

(3) The following terms and conditions apply to the job advertisements, their content and their classification:

Content:

  • Websites that are specified to academics or sent to it for linking must comply with the minimum legal requirements and, in particular, contain a legal notice that complies with statutory principles and the principles developed in case-law.
  • The provisions of the General Act on Equal Treatment (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz) must be complied with.
  • Even if the requirements mentioned above are complied with, content that is irrelevant to the job search must not be published alongside content relating to the position or duties, for example prize competitions, events without any relation to careers, purely promotional campaigns etc.

Links embedded videos/social plugins:: 

  • Only links to the employer’s website may be published in the job advertisements. 
  • Inserting links to other job advertisements not published on academics’ website is prohibited. This also applies to links to job advertisements on the employer’s own website.
  • Links to websites of competitors of academics are not permitted, unless the employer links to its own website as a competitor of academics. 
  • With the exception of email addresses or links which fulfil the requirements mentioned above, the job advertisements must not contain any tracking or interactive elements. 
  • The embedding of videos from video portals, the use of social plugins or the use of other technologies that are associated with the transfer of user data to third parties is not permitted. 

Category/heading/search results:

  • academics is constantly implementing optimisation efforts with the aim of achieving the best possible results for all clients. academics reserves the right to adjust or change these parameters according to its own discretion. The client is not entitled to have its job advertisements published under a particular category or heading of its choice.
  • No influence may be exerted on the list of search results in any manner outside the possibilities envisaged by academics (booking as a “top job”, keywording and categorisation, title and visible text of the advertisement). For example, concealed texts (e.g. white text on a white background, text behind an image, use of CSS to conceal text, use of font size “0”) and concealed links are prohibited.

Format/advertisement:

  • In order to improve the quality of advertisements across all devices, academics reserves the right to convert the ad layout accordingly. 
  • academics places a button in the job descriptions with the inscription “Apply now” or similar. This link redirects the applicants to a site for applicants specified by the client or to an application form on academics’ website. Alternatively, a pop-up window featuring a reference may be displayed. 
  • academics collaborates with various partners. It is entitled, but not obliged, to publish advertisements in other online media or to pass them on to third parties for further publication without having to obtain prior approval of the client to this end. Publication in other media / with partners, for example as a mobile-optimised advertisement, may occur in a different or standardised layout.

Ad display time:

  • The job advertisement shall be published in the online jobs market for the duration of the booked period. After the end of that period, the job advertisement may be available online for a further 36 months as an expired job advertisement.

b) Employer profile 

Clients receive a free "employer profile" once they have placed advertisements for one or more jobs. They can also book an expanded “employer profile” and corresponding upsells for a fee (employer profile for a fee). The content of the employer profile can be administered via the academics placement tool (https://inserieren.academics.de). A change or addition is possible at any time. We expressly reserve the right to deactivate the free employer profiles if no further job advertisements are placed by the respective employer 2 months after the placement of an initial job advertisement. The free employer profile is automatically deactivated 6 months after the last placement of a job advertisement. An employer profile that is subject to a fee will be converted to a free employer profile at the end of the term if the above-mentioned conditions apply. 

c) Media campaigns

Clients have the option of booking media campaigns, either as newsletter or banner campaigns. After confirmation of the order by academics, the client shall send academics a finalised advertisement or, if a banner campaign has been booked, images and text for the advertisement in good time before the agreed publication date.

Sponsored content/advertorials are kept publicly accessible digitally for the duration of the booked runtime in the medium specified in the booking. If no runtime is agreed in the booking, a term of 12 months applies.  

d) Programmatic job advertising 

(1) With the "Social Push" and "Programmatic Push" products, the client places advertisements in the respective social networks via partner companies of academics. In the case of "Social Push," these are Facebook and Instagram. "Programmatic Push" also places ads on platforms such as Google Display, Google Search Network, YouTube, LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, Indeed, Spotify, TikTok, WhatsApp, Pinterest and Twitch. The selection of which ad is placed on which platform is made by academics on the basis of the ad profile.  
(2) academics is responsible for the proper activation of the advertisements on the respective platforms/social networks. academics is not responsible for ensuring that the advertisements are actually accessed by the addressees (addressees may, for example, have activated an add blocker), that they take note of them or that they are the correct addressees for the respective job advertisement.  
(3) The final timing of activation of an advertisement depends on the respective platform operator. academics therefore cannot guarantee a specific time of activation and is not responsible for the fault of third parties in the event of a delay in activation.  
(4) academics shall ensure within the scope of its technical possibilities that no advertisements are placed in an environment of undesirable third-party sites (such as those with content glorifying violence / pornographic content / extremist content / gambling, etc.). Presentation in an undesirable environment is not a diminution of service.  
(5) academics can therefore not be held liable for damages of any kind caused by advertisements, publications of advertisements or consequences of publications of advertisements on such unwanted third-party sites.  
(6) After notification by the client of the display of advertisements on unwanted third-party sites, academics will remove the advertisement within the scope of its technical possibilities. 

4.1
The client is responsible for ensuring that its information and content in its job advertisements, employer profile and media campaigns are consistent with all applicable laws and other legal regulations, as well as the relevant provisions of these GTC. In particular, no information or content such as, for example, texts, images, graphics, links or framelinks may be uploaded and/or distributed which violate patent, trademark or labelling rights, copyrights or neighbouring rights, personal rights or other rights of third parties. The client shall indemnify academics at its first request against all third-party claims asserted against academics due to infringements of their rights or due to rights violations arising from the information and/or content uploaded by the client. The client shall also bear the costs incurred in this context of a necessary legal defence, including all attorney costs and court costs. 

4.2
All information of the client in job advertisements, in the employer profile and in media campaigns must be accurate. academics does not under any circumstances adopt third-party content as its own. 

4.3
The client is prohibited from uploading and/or making publicly available any content or images that depict or glorify violence, is pornographic, discriminatory, racist, offensive, defamatory or otherwise unlawful and/or from having such content or images uploaded and/or made publicly available. 

4.4
The client is prohibited from conducting commercial advertising in profiles for its own or a third party’s benefit. The presentation of the employer in this context is not deemed to constitute advertising. In particular it is prohibited to draw users’ attention within the context of a booked job advertisement to other job advertisements, particularly those uploaded onto the employer’s website. 

4.5
The use of paid service telephone numbers in the employer profile or in job advertisements is prohibited.

5.1
academics provides a support system for filling vacancies. It does not provide a personnel recruitment or consulting service and has no involvement in such a service. academics neither recruits applicants nor is it otherwise involved in the process of applications and filling vacancies. 

5.2
academics reserves the right not to fulfil orders placed by the client or to block performance elements already published on the Internet such as, for example, images, texts, logos, graphics and other files, and/or to erase them from the platform insofar as the content to be published violates statutory provisions, official prohibitions, third-party rights, accepted principles of morality or academics’ GTC (“prohibited content”). The same applies insofar as links to websites are installed by order of the client that lead directly or indirectly to sites containing prohibited content. The client’s payment obligations remain unaffected by this. academics shall only be obliged to remove such prohibited content within the framework of statutory provisions and at the client’s request. If legal action is taken against academics due to prohibited content or other legal violations for which the client is responsible, the client shall indemnify academics at its first request. Indemnification shall cover the necessary costs associated with legal proceedings.

5.3
If the client violates the provisions of this paragraph, applicable statutory provisions or third-party rights, academics shall have the right to temporarily or permanently block the client and the content published by it. 

5.4
academics is entitled to adjust, improve and develop the layout, structure and functions of the website. 

5.5
academics accepts no responsibility for supplied data material, ad texts or related storage media and, in particular, is not obliged to store them or return them to the client.

5.6
academics is entitled to use the core data of an advertisement (job title, employer name, place of work and publication date) for trend analyses and overviews.

5.7
If these requirements are not met, the content shall be deemed to be prohibited content with the consequences referred to in sections 5.2 and 9.2.

6.1
The client grants academics a simple transferable right, without any restrictions in terms of territory, to use the logo, trademarks, images, texts and (where applicable) fonts, as well as all uploaded content of the client, for the purposes of this contract, particularly to duplicate or distribute them, make them publicly available, process them in databases and/or archive them. The archiving right shall continue to be effective after the end of the term of the customer contract for the purposes of reactivating its employer profile and job advertisements in the event a new customer contract is concluded. The client may object to the archiving at any time after the end of the term of the contract and demand erasure. The client also grants academics the right to enlarge or downsize its logos and/or convert colour logos to black and white so that they can be appropriately displayed in the portal and in newsletters. 

6.2
The rights referred to in section 6.1 are granted to academics in respect of the individual job advertisements in each case for the duration of the display period of the job advertisements and for a further 36 months (see section 3.a)). The rights to the content of the respective job advertisement subsequently revert to the client without the need for a rights recall. academics may nonetheless make the core data pertaining to the advertisement (job title, name of the employer, place of work and publication date) publicly available after the end of the contract without limitation in order to offer users of the applications portal the possibility of also subsequently viewing jobs that they have noticed in the past or for which they have applied. 

6.3
Upon conclusion of the contract, the client grants academics, for advertising purposes, the right to cite it with respect to third parties as a reference employer and to use logos and trademarks of the employer to this end. The client may object to such use at any time, for example by sending an email to abwicklung@academics.de. 

6.4
Any partial or full transfer of the client's rights under the contract with academics to third parties is excluded. 

6.5
The client transfers to academics all the ownership rights to databases that it has provided to academics for publication in connection with repeated advertisements. In particular, academics is granted the sole right to assert the economic ownership of its job advertisement database vis-à-vis third parties.

7.1
academics shall ensure that its server and those of any service providers it makes use of and/or its service providers are in line with state-of-the-art technology and are secured, in particular through firewalls. However, the client understands that for all participants there is a risk that transmitted data may be read in the course of transmission. 

The client agrees to academics storing information and data on the performance and reach of the employer content in anonymised form and using it exclusively in said anonymised form for marketing purposes, for example for the creation of statistics and presentations. 

7.2
academics is entitled during the term of this contract to process and store the data it receives from the client in connection with the business relationship in compliance with the requirements of applicable data protection laws, as well as to have it processed and stored by any engaged service providers insofar as this is necessary for the purposes of performing the contract. Specifically, the client agrees, in particular, to academics and/or one of its service providers: 

  • storing and processing the information provided by the client on client data, invoice data and contact persons, as well as relevant updates provided by the client;
  • storing the data received from the client in connection with the business relationship in compliance with the requirements of applicable data protection laws, including after the end the term of the contract for the sole purpose of reactivating its employer profile and job advertisements in the event a new customer contract is concluded; the client shall have the right to object to this at any time and request erasure. 

7.3
academics shall otherwise treat confidentially all data relating to the client that the latter designates as confidential and only use it in accordance with these conditions of use. academics reserves the right to deviate from this provision if it is required to disclose data on the basis of statutory or official orders. 

7.4
The client warrants with respect to academics and all other users that with regard to the data transferred by it, it has complied with the requirements of data protection laws shall indemnify academics against any claims. In particular, the client must itself ensure that any necessary consent of employees is obtained before personal data of employees is published, for example as a contact address in the job advertisement.

8.1
The fee to be paid to academics shall be based on the type and scope of the booked packages and options. Payments for booked packages shall be due for payment in full upon booking / when the first accepted job advertisement begins. All prices shall be based on academics’ offers effective at the time of booking. All prices are subject to the addition of the applicable statutory VAT. The fee covers all additional costs, such as those pertaining to email, telephone, fax, data transmission costs, postal charges and photocopies to the usual extent. It also covers a correction loop. It does not cover correction and editing costs incurred due to erroneous data delivery. If, due to individual orders, the additional costs exceed the typical amount, academics shall notify the client of this. The client shall be obliged to reimburse these further additional costs if it approves them.

8.2
The client shall be invoiced for the payable fee. This shall be settled through Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius GmbH & Co. KG, Pressehaus Buceriusstraße, Eingang Speersort 1, 20095 Hamburg, as the performing company. academics reserves the right to request an advance payment. In the event of a delay in making payment, academics is entitled to postpone the publication of individual performance elements until payment has been made in full. This shall not apply insofar as the client is entitled to a right of retention. In the event of a payment using the SEPA direct debit scheme, the employer shall be granted a 2% discount on the invoice amount. 

8.3
Offsetting with counterclaims of the client or retaining payments shall only be permitted insofar as the counterclaims are undisputed or have been established with legally binding effect.

9.1
The contract shall end automatically and without the need for termination as soon as the booked content has been published and the booked term of the content has expired. If the booked employer content is not called or not called in full within the period specified in subsection 3.2, the contract shall end six months after conclusion of the contract in the case of individual bookings, and twelve months after conclusion of the contract in the case of package content, without the need for termination. 

9.2
Both of the parties hereto are entitled to terminate the contract for good cause without observing a notice period. academics considers there to be good cause, in particular, in the event of:

  • a breach by the client of the provisions of these GTC that has not been redressed even after a deadline has been set; 
  • use of the website by the client outside the scope permitted under these GTC and the customer contract that is not stop even after a deadline has been set;
  • criminal conduct on the part of the client or an attempt at such action, e.g. fraud;
  • a delay by the client of more than six weeks in making a due payment.
  • lasting operational disruptions due to force majeure that is beyond academics’ control. 

9.3
academics is also entitled to terminate the contract by way of extraordinary termination, giving three months’ notice, if the service provider commissioned by academics ceases to provide support for the operation of the website. The receipt of the termination notice letter by the client shall be decisive as to whether the notice period has been observed. Any payments already made by the client shall be refunded on a pro rata basis to the extent to which a counter-performance can no longer be rendered due to the premature termination of the contractual relationship by academics. 

9.4
Any notice of termination must be in writing. Notices of termination sent by fax or email shall be deemed to comply with the requirement of written form. 

10.1
academics shall be liable for wilful misconduct and gross negligence without limitation, and for minor negligence only in the event of injury to life, limb or health or in the event of a breach of key contractual obligations. Key contractual obligations are deemed to be obligations whose fulfilment makes it possible to correctly perform the contract and achieve its objective in the first place and upon whose fulfilment the client can therefore generally rely. Liability in the event of a breach of such a key contractual obligation shall be limited to the losses under a typical contract that academics could expect upon conclusion of the contract on the basis of the circumstances known at that time. 

10.2
academics accepts no liability for disruptions within the supply network for which it is not culpable.

10.3
academics shall only be liable for loss of data in accordance with the paragraphs above if such loss would not have been preventable with appropriate data backup measures on the part of the client. 

10.4
Liability shall not extend to impairments to the contractual use of the services provided by academics on the website caused by inappropriate or erroneous use thereof by the client. 

10.5
The limitations of liability mentioned above also apply analogously to the benefit of academics’ workers, employees, representatives, corporate bodies and vicarious agents. 

10.6
To the extent that the website enables the forwarding of users to databases, websites, services etc. of third parties, for example through the provision of links or hyperlinks, academics shall be liable neither for the accessibility, existence or security of those databases or services, nor for their content. In particular, academics shall not be liable for their legality or the accuracy, completeness or currency etc. of their content.

11.1
The laws of the Federal Republic of Germany apply to the exclusion of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The place of jurisdiction for any legal disputes is Hamburg. 

11.2
Should individual provisions of these GTC be or become ineffective and/or be contrary to the statutory provisions, the effectiveness of these GTC shall otherwise not be affected. The ineffective provision shall be replaced by mutual agreement by the contracting parties with a provision that in a legally effective manner comes closest to the commercial purpose of the ineffective provision. The provision above applies analogously to unintended omissions/gaps.

11.3
academics shall notify the client of any amendments to these GTC in writing, by fax or by email. If the client fails to object to such amendments within six weeks from the receipt of the notification, the amendments shall be deemed to be agreed. In the event an amendment to these GTC, the client shall be separately informed of its right of objection and the legal consequences of failing to respond. 

As at: April 2024

Notice within the meaning of the German Act on Equal Treatment (Gleichbehandlungsgesetz): For reasons related to readability, gender-specific forms are not used herein. In the interests of equal treatment, the relevant terms apply to both genders.