General Terms and Conditions of Spreadshirt, Inc. for establishing a Partner Shop

 

Preamble

For the establishment and on-going operation of an online, custom merchandise shop (“Shop”), Spreadshirt, Inc. (“Spreadshirt”) and the party opening, maintaining and/or promoting that shop (the “Shop Owner”) are the contracting parties.

 

§ 1 Object of the Agreement

(1) The Shop Owner provides in the Shop one or several print designs for products provided by Spreadshirt (“Spreadshirt products”) and/or promotes the Shop, online of offline. In return, the Shop Owner – instead of a fixed remuneration – receives a profit-related, variable commission according to §5 of this agreement resulting from the sale of products via the provided Shop.

(2) Shop products are products which are offered for sale through the Shop and are printed with the designs provided by Spreadshirt, the shop owner or the end customer.

 

§ 2 Granting of Usage Rights

(1) The Shop Owner grants Spreadshirt the right to use the print designs provided according to § 1 (2). This right to use includes, but is not limited to, printing, publishing, reproducing and/or labelling Spreadshirt products with the print design of the Shop Owner and print, publish, reproduce, offer and/or distribute such labeled products (hereafter referred to as “contractual products”) for the purposes of fulfilling the contracted services for a Shop.

(2) The granting of usage rights to Spreadshirt according to § 2 (1) takes place non-exclusively and for an unlimited period of time up to the canceling of the agreement by either party according to §11. Any products on order, in the process of manufacturing, or in shipping before such cancellation will continue to be fulfilled.

(3) Copyrights or other rights to a print design provided by the Shop Owner remain with the Shop Owner. Spreadshirt is not entitled to distribute designs of the owner either in its own shops, in shops of third parties or via other channels of distribution if the shop owner has not expressly agreed to this.

(4) Spreadshirt is allowed to use the Shop Owner’s print design for advertising purposes on Spreadshirt´s website or for other types of advertisement for Spreadshirt. In such cases, Spreadshirt will link all images or advertisements of that design to the Shop of the Shop Owner.

 

§ 3 Usage and Third-Party Rights

(1) The Shop Owner is solely responsible for the content (in particular print designs, background images, slogans, etc.) uploaded, or otherwise added through the Spreadshirt interface, to the Shop.

(2) The Shop Owner guarantees that the content and/or print designs – which he provided for use to Spreadshirt according to these general terms and conditions – was created by him and/or that he is the owner of all usage rights to the content and/or design, in particular rights concerning trademark, copyrights, patents, licenses and or other usage rights. The shop owner guarantees to be the sole and exclusive holder of the usage rights granted to Spreadshirt according to these general terms and conditions.

(3) The Shop Owner guarantees that he does not know of any third-party rights which oppose or could oppose the use of the content and/or print design by Spreadshirt according to these general terms and conditions.

(4) The Shop Owner assures that all content and print designs uploaded to the Shop are free of third-party rights and that their usage does not infringe upon patents, licenses, trademark rights or other third-party rights.

(5) The Shop Owners assures that the respective print design provided for use to Spreadshirt is also in accordance with other statutory regulations, in particular legal regulations concerning protection of minors and does not violate any penal prohibitions.

(6) If third parties assert claims due to infringement of their rights resulting from the use of a design of the shop owner, Spreadshirt reserves the right to withhold royalties (commissions) up to the final clarification of the legal dispute.

(7) If the design, which was licensed by the shop owners, is wrongfully used or obviously misappropriated, in opinion of Spreadshirt, then the parties will jointly decide on the steps to be taken regarding prosecution.

(8) The Shop Owners is not liable for print designs provided by Spreadshirt or provided on a one-off basis by the end customer to the Shop (in particular text personalization).

(9) The Shop Owner is obliged to immediately inform Spreadshirt in writing if claims are made against the Shop Owner due to the infringement of third-party rights resulting from the content and/or print designs in the Shop.

(10) If third parties assert claims to Spreadshirt due to infringement of their rights, then it is at the sole discretion of Spreadshirt to remove the content and/or print design objected to, partly or completely, from the Shop.

 

§ 4 Contact Details and Legal Information

(1) The Shop Owner must provide a complete and correct mailing address, as well as all legal information in the “legal information” of his Shop via the provided Shop Administration interface.

(2) If the Shop Owner fails to provide complete contact details and legal information, then the products of his shop will not be released for viewing to the end customer and cannot be ordered.

(3) Incorrect information in the “legal information” will result in the immediate cancelation of the shop and the withholding of possible existing commissions.

 

§ 5 Payment of the Shop Owner

(1) The Shop Owner receives a commission for every product, for which he has set a commission, sold in his Shop, excluding returns.

(2) The amount of the commission is set by the Shop Owner via the Shop Administration interface for each individual product offered for sale.

(3) The product price is the Spreadshirt base price, plus design fees, plus Shop Owner added commission. Spreadshirt reserves the right to change of the base price of Spreadshirt products at any time.

(4) Settlement and payment of the commission to the Shop Owner will be made quarterly within 45 days of the end of a calendar quarter. The minimum amount payable is $25.00 USD. If the commission exceeds an amount of $100.00 USD, then the shop owner can request payment at any time, but not more often than once a month. Spreadshirt can decide if payment is made per transfer or cheque. Amounts which lie beneath the minimum amount payable are paid after cancellation of all agreements between Spreadshirt and the Shop Owner regarding the Shop within six months of the cancellation coming into effect, if no new agreement is made by Spreadshirt and the Shop Owner within this period.

(5) The Shop Owner is responsible for providing Spreadshirt with his current, required, valid payment details. The Shop Owner will be held liable for providing incorrect payment details. The Shop Owner is also responsible for providing Spreadshirt with his FEDERAL tax identification number if payment of commissions is made. If no tax number is provided then payment of commissions is made with a withholding of 28% according to the IRS code.

 

§ 6 Embedding of the Partner Shop by the Shop Owner

(1) The Shop Owner can publish the Shop on his website; however, there is no obligation to do so. It is published via an electronic reference (“link”) provided by Spreadshirt, which the Shop Owner embeds in his website and which refers to the Shop of the Shop Owner. If it is published, the Shop Owner is committed to include the link generated by Spreadshirt without changes. In particular, the Shop Owner is not permitted to carry out changes which are related to the electronic advertisement linked to the shop or the publishing of general terms and conditions for the end customer.

(2) On request, a Shop free of advertisement can be acquired in return for a monthly fee.

 

§ 7 Privity of Contract with End Customers; Rights to Change Service

(1) Customers purchasing products via the Shop are customers of Spreadshirt. An independent privity of contract is created between customers and Spreadshirt, which is independent of a possible privity of contract between the Shop Owner and the customer who visits the non-shop pages of the Shop Owner. Thus, only the rules, guidelines and business practices of Spreadshirt regarding customer´s orders, customer service and product sales apply to the customer.

(2) Spreadshirt can change Shop Administration, shop offerings, product offerings, guidelines, pricing, availability, business operations, and order processing at any time, and temporarily.

 

§ 8 Inquiries / Purchase Order Processing

(1) Spreadshirt reserves the right to reject inquiries and orders which do not meet the respective requirements set by Spreadshirt.

(2) Spreadshirt reserves the right to reject orders from customers who are known for not being credit-worthy or show as being a credit risk.

(3) Spreadshirt is responsible for all processing and execution of orders. In this respect, Spreadshirt creates i.e. order forms, books payments, executes cancellation and returns and is responsible for the customer service.

 

§ 9 Sales Reports

Spreadshirt registers the sales made through the Shop and provides the Shop Owner with a summary of the statistics. Form and content of the statistics can be modified by Spreadshirt at any time.

 

§ 10 Restriction of Liability, Exclusion of Liability and Release

(1) The Shop Owner is liable towards Spreadshirt for all damages suffered by Spreadshirt resulting from the use of the content and/or print design provided by the Shop Owner according to these general terms and conditions, in particular publishing and reproduction, when this violates third-party rights and/or infringes upon other statutory regulations.

(2) This liability of the Shop Owner includes all costs incurred by Spreadshirt in the form of legal costs, as well as any costs and compensation payment which a court may award against Spreadshirt, resulting from the usage of the content and/or print design of the Shop Owner, or in so far as Spreadshirt is included in any settlement. The Shop Owner obligates himself to release Spreadshirt of all aforementioned costs and damage claims. In such cases, Spreadshirt is entitled to receive an advance payment from the Shop Owner to the amount of the estimated defense costs.

(3) A liability of Spreadshirt towards the Shop Owner, no matter what the legal grounds is defined as follows:
Spreadshirt is liable provided that the Shop Owner proves claims which are based on malice, wilful intent, gross negligence or the breach of contractual duty on the part of Spreadshirt, its executive employees or agents.

(4) Spreadshirt’s liability in the case of negligent behaviour, as proven in §10 (3) above, is limited only to foreseeable, direct, consequential damage.

 

§ 11 Period of Validity / Cancellation

This agreement is considered valid – for an unlimited amount of time – until it is cancelled by either party. Shop Owners cancel a Shop by deactivating it via the Shop Administration provided online by Spreadshirt. Spreadshirt cancels this agreement by notification to the Shop Partner via the email address provided in the Shop Administration.

 

§ 12 Modifications of Provisions

(1) Spreadshirt will publish any modifications of these general terms and conditions on its website “www.spreadshirt.com”. Shop Owners are bound to any modifications as long as this agreement or parts of it are considered valid.

(2) It is agreed that such a change affects neither other rights and duties articled in this agreement. If the shop owner does not agree with a modification made, a cancellation without notice is possible at any time.

 

§ 13 Place of Jurisdiction – Place of Fulfillment – Choice of Law

(1) Place of fulfillment for all services is the place of business of Spreadshirt in Greensburg, PA.

(2) Greensburg, PA is the place of general jurisdiction.

(3) If individual provisions of these general terms and conditions are ineffective or against any statutory regulations, the rest of the agreement remains in full effect.


version 03/2007