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General Terms and Conditions

I. Impartiality and Confidentiality

The Institut für Materialprüfung Glörfeld GmbH (hereinafter referred to as ‘IMG’) is a certified testing laboratory in accordance with ISO/IEC 9001. The shareholders, management and employees of IGM are committed to impartiality, confidentiality and non-disclosure of information and data from customers and other interested parties.

II Scope of Application

The following conditions apply to all orders and services of IMG concluded between the customer and IMG with entrepreneurs (within the meaning of § 14 BGB), legal entities under public law or special funds under public law (hereinafter referred to as ‘customer’, customer and IMG each also a ‘party’ and jointly also the ‘parties’). They shall then also apply to all future business relationships and follow-up orders, even if they are not expressly agreed again. Deviating conditions of the customer, which IMG does not expressly recognise in writing, shall not apply and are excluded. This applies even if IMG is aware of them and does not expressly object to them or provides services to the customer without reservation.

III Offer and Conclusion of Contract
  1. The client is bound to its offer to conclude a test contract for three months. The offer can only be accepted within these three months. Any acceptance of an offer must be made in writing (including e-mail) to the client within three months of receipt by IMG.
  2. Calculations, drawings, plans and other documents belonging to the offer remain the property of the customer, who reserves all copyrights to these documents. IMG may not pass these documents on to third parties without the written consent of the customer. If IMG does not accept the offer within the time limit (see Clause III.1), these documents must be returned to the customer within two weeks of expiry of the acceptance period (see Clause III.1) or after rejection of the offer.
  3. Submitted sample material is generally disposed of three months after completion of the test order or returned to the client by special written agreement.
IV. Basis of the IMG’s Activities
  1. IMG shall provide its services in accordance with the agreement with the client. The customer may issue specific instructions and propose procedures in advance of the provision of services. The customer must be informed of any deviations from this. If the customer does not specify the procedure to be used, IMG will select a suitable procedure and inform the customer of this. IMG shall provide its services in accordance with the generally recognised rules of technology at the time of conclusion of the contract and with the care customary in the industry.
  2. The agreements made with the customer are set out in the order confirmation (Section III.1). If there are any changes, IMG must inform the customer immediately in writing.
  3. Tests
    IMG carries out tests in accordance with relevant product and process standards and specifications as well as internal regulations:
    1. Conformity statements
      To determine compliance with specification limits (conformity), the measured value determined by the IMG is taken into account without the associated measurement uncertainty. Conformity is deemed to be fulfilled if the measured value is less than or equal to the tolerance limit or the upper limit value (applies analogously for lower limit values). If the customer wishes to apply a different decision rule, this must be agreed in writing with IMG before the start of the analysis.
    2. Analytical testing without compliance testing:
      If IMG is commissioned to carry out an analytical test without testing for compliance with limit values or specifications, no conformity assessment is carried out. The standard measurement uncertainties given in the table are maximum process uncertainties. Possible inhomogeneity of specific customer samples is not taken into account. The expanded measurement uncertainty is specified, which is calculated by multiplying the standard measurement uncertainty by the coverage factor k=2. The value of the measured variable lies within the assigned value interval with a probability of 95 %. IMG thus enables the customer to estimate measured values close to the limit value. IMG also determines specific measurement uncertainties of customer samples, some of which can deviate significantly from the process uncertainty. This service is only owed if it has been explicitly ordered by the customer and confirmed in writing by IMG. It is basically an additional expense subject to a charge.
    3. Arbitration analyses
      Arbitration analyses are carried out according to the specific specifications of the client, unless otherwise agreed between IMG and the client and recorded in the order confirmation by IMG (see section III.1).
  4. Insofar as IMG’s services consist of the testing of samples, all statements made by IMG relate exclusively to these samples and the facts established at the time of testing. No statements are made about the other material from which the samples were taken. IMG is not obliged to refer to facts outside the agreed contractual purpose.
  5. Unless otherwise agreed, the results of the IMG are regularly presented in a test report. When placing the order, the client may request that the test report be prepared in digital or paper form. If the customer has not made use of this option, IMG can decide on the form at its own discretion.
  6. IMG provides its services itself, unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing. IMG reserves the right to subcontract certain investigations and analyses to suitable subcontractors. The agreement on the use of subcontractors is set out in the order confirmation (section III.1).
V. Payments
  1. Unless otherwise agreed in writing with IMG, the customer shall pay within ten working days of delivery of the test result and receipt of the invoice. The customer shall be in default without a reminder, in which case interest shall be charged at a rate of 9 percentage points above the currently applicable base rate.
  2. All prices are subject to the applicable statutory value added tax.
VI Period of Performance / Force Majeure
  1. Dates and deadlines for the provision of IMG’s services are only binding if they have been confirmed by IMG in writing in advance. Otherwise they are non-binding.
  2. Compliance with deadlines and time limits requires the timely and proper fulfilment of all obligations to cooperate on the part of the client.
  3. If IMG is prevented from providing its services in whole or in part for unforeseeable and serious reasons for which IMG is not responsible (force majeure), IMG shall be released from the obligation to fulfil the respective services for the duration of the effects of this force majeure event.
VII Obligation of the Client to Co-operate
  1. The services to be provided by the customer, such as the provision of all necessary information, documents, instructions or other acts of co-operation, must be provided in good time, in any case three (3) working days before the start of IMG’s activities.
  2. The delivered test objects must be in a condition that allows objective testing. If the customer delivers test objects, he is responsible for the correct and representative selection and removal of the test objects. Dates for the delivery or collection of the test objects and the processing time for each individual order must be agreed with IMG before the start of the test work.
  3. If the customer is in default with the co-operation negotiations, IMG is entitled to the statutory rights. In addition, the time in which IMG has to provide its contractual services shall be extended.
  4. The customer bears the risk of taking and delivering the samples to IMG, unless it has been agreed that IMG will take or collect the samples. When dispatched by the customer, the test material must be packaged properly and in compliance with statutory regulations.
  5. IMG documents the sampling or its receipt from the customer in the test report.
VIII. Warranty/Liability
  1. IMG undertakes to perform the assigned services in a timely and professional manner in accordance with the recognised state of the art at the time the order is placed. The warranty period is one year from the date of acceptance of the services.
  2. IMG is liable for damages caused by gross negligence or wilful intent in accordance with the statutory provisions. In the event of negligently caused property damage and financial loss, IMG shall only be liable in the event of a breach of a material contractual obligation, but the amount shall be limited to the damage foreseeable and typical for the contract at the time of conclusion of the contract. Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfilment characterises the contract and on which the customer may rely.
  3. If IMG is liable in accordance with these regulations, it is obliged to repeat or rectify the defect free of charge.
  4. IMG shall only be liable for indirect or consequential damages if these are typical for the contract and were foreseeable at the time the contract was concluded.
  5. IMG’s liability is excluded in the case of simple negligent breach of non-essential contractual obligations.
  6. IMG shall not be liable for damages resulting from the use of incomplete or incorrect information provided by the client or from incorrect or unusable samples.
  7. IMG shall not be liable beyond the above provisions of this Section VIII. The above provisions apply accordingly in the event of a breach of duty by a vicarious agent.
  8. The above limitations of liability do not apply in the case of damage caused by gross negligence or intent on the part of IMG or in the case of mandatory statutory liability (e.g. under the Product Liability Act).
  9. The same applies to negligently caused damage resulting from injury to life, limb or health.
IX. Utilisation of expert opinions and test reports, intellectual property and granting of rights of use
  1. The use of expert opinions, test reports and analysis certificates and other work results of IMG by the client is only permitted after full payment of the agreed fee.
  2. IMG fully reserves the rights to its test methods and/or procedures as well as its work results, in particular the test reports and other embodiments of its performance.
  3. If IMG provides the customer with test reports or other results of its services, it grants the customer a simple, non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right of use within the contractually agreed framework.
  4. The customer may only use the results of IMG’s services, in particular test reports, unchanged, in full and not in extracts. They may only be used by the customer itself and only for the contractually agreed purposes. In particular, any publication or other promotional use of IMG’s work results without the prior written consent of IMG is excluded.
X. Confidentiality

The parties shall treat as confidential all business and trade secrets and confidential information which they receive about the other party in connection with the legal relationship existing between them or its execution or the execution of follow-up orders and shall not make them accessible to third parties without the express consent of the other party, unless they are publicly known without breach of this confidentiality obligation. The above provisions shall not apply if a party is obliged to disclose such information due to statutory provisions or a comprehensible order of a court or authority.

XI. Choice of Law / Place of Jurisdiction / Place of Fulfilment / Severability Clause
  1. The place of fulfilment and exclusive place of jurisdiction for deliveries and payments as well as all disputes arising between the parties from the contracts concluded between them is the registered office of IMG.
  2. The relationship between the parties shall be governed exclusively by German law, even if the client has its registered office abroad.
  3. Should any provision of these General Terms and Conditions be or become invalid or unenforceable, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these General Terms and Conditions. Rather, the parties undertake in such a case to replace the invalid or unenforceable provision with a valid or enforceable provision that corresponds as far as possible to the economic and ideal provisions.