General Terms and Conditions

§ 1 Scope and contracting parties

(1) These General Terms and Conditions (hereinafter “T&Cs”) apply to all contracts for the use of the software-as-a-service platform “PfotenCard” (hereinafter “Software”) concluded between Mika Joos, Joos Soft Solutions, Listweg 4, 72581 Dettingen an der Erms, Germany (hereinafter “Provider”) and the customer (hereinafter “Customer” or “dog school”).

(2) The offer is aimed exclusively at entrepreneurs within the meaning of § 14 BGB (German Civil Code), i.e. legal and natural persons who, when concluding the legal transaction, act in the exercise of their commercial or independent professional activity. The conclusion of a contract with consumers (§ 13 BGB) is excluded. When registering, the Customer confirms that they are acting as an entrepreneur. The Provider may request suitable proof (e.g. business registration, VAT or business identification number).

(3) Deviating terms and conditions of the Customer are not recognised unless the Provider expressly agrees to their validity in text form.

§ 2 Subject matter of the contract and services

(1) The Provider makes available to the Customer cloud-based software for managing dog schools (incl. customer management, digital credit management, appointment booking, chat function, billing and invoicing functions, certificate creation and further optional modules) for use via the internet (software as a service).

(2) The range of functions of the Software results from the service description on the Provider's website current at the time the contract is concluded and from the subscription plan chosen by the Customer.

(3) § 2a applies to the availability of the Software, maintenance work, faults and data backup.

(4) The Provider is entitled to further develop the range of functions of the Software in line with technical progress, to adapt modules or to add new modules, insofar as this is reasonable for the Customer and the agreed core functions of the booked plan are not significantly impaired.

(5) Depending on the plan and booked modules, the Software also includes in particular an email marketing module (newsletters to the dog school's end customers), link pages (“link in bio” under pfotencard.de/l/…), a voluntary entry in the public dog school directory and the Academy, through which the Customer can offer and sell their own online courses (§ 4a).

(6) The Provider provides support by email to info@pfotencard.de during normal business hours (Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in Baden-Württemberg). The Provider only owes specific response or resolution times insofar as they are expressly stated in the service description of the booked plan. Legal, tax or data protection advice is not part of the services.

§ 2a Availability, maintenance, faults and data backup

(1) In the paid plans, the Provider makes the Software available with an annual average availability of 99%. The Software is available if it can be reached at the transfer point – the internet connection of the data centres used by the Provider – and its core functions (sign-in, operator portal, customer app, appointment and course booking, credit and payments) can be used. Availability is calculated per calendar year as the proportion of time during which the Software was available in relation to the total time less the times under paragraph 2. No availability commitment applies to the “Free” plan.

(2) The following do not count as downtime: (a) announced maintenance work under paragraph 3 of up to a total of four hours per calendar month; (b) faults outside the Provider's sphere of influence, in particular of the internet, the end devices, browsers and networks of the Customer or its end customers, failures of third-party services that are not subcontractors of the Provider for the operation of the Software (e.g. payment service providers, recipients' email inboxes, browser manufacturers' push services), force majeure and attacks that could not be averted despite state-of-the-art measures; (c) faults for which the Customer is responsible, for example due to incorrect operation or its own interfaces; (d) restrictions under § 4 (10) and § 5 (4).

(3) Where possible, the Provider carries out plannable maintenance work on working days between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am or at weekends and announces it at least 48 hours in advance by email or by a notice in the operator portal. The Provider may carry out urgent work to eliminate security vulnerabilities or to avert dangers without prior notice; it keeps the interruption as short as possible and informs the Customer afterwards.

(4) The Customer reports faults by email to info@pfotencard.de with as precise a description as possible (affected function, time, error message). The Provider begins processing without undue delay, as a rule on the same working day within the business hours under § 2 (6). Faults that prevent the use of the Software as a whole or booking and payment by end customers are dealt with as a priority. The Provider informs the affected customers by email about major faults and their resolution.

(5) The Provider backs up the database regularly and automatically via its hosting service provider and can restore it from these backups in the event of a fault. The backups serve to restore the overall system; the Provider does not owe the restoration of individual data records deleted by the Customer. The Customer's responsibility for its own exports (§ 6a, § 7 (3)) remains unaffected.

(6) If availability falls below the level under paragraph 1, the remuneration for the billing period concerned is reduced in proportion to the additional downtime; at the Customer's request, the Provider offsets the amount against the next invoice. If availability falls short by more than one percentage point in each of two consecutive calendar months, the Customer may terminate the contract for cause (extraordinary termination). Further claims are governed by § 7.

§ 3 Conclusion of contract, free plan and trial period

(1) The presentation of the Software on the website does not constitute a legally binding offer, but an invitation to submit an order (invitatio ad offerendum).

(2) The contract is concluded when the Customer fully completes the registration process and accepts the T&Cs; use initially takes place in the free “Free” plan. The Customer books a paid plan or an add-on by selecting it in the customer account and confirming the booking. The Provider confirms the conclusion of the contract and bookings by email.

(3) If the Provider offers a free trial period, the Customer may use the functions of a paid plan for the specified period (usually 14 days) free of charge and without providing payment details. After the trial period expires, the contract automatically continues in the free “Free” plan; functions not included in the Free plan are paused, and the associated data remains stored. A transition to a paid plan only takes place if the Customer actively books it. There is no automatic conversion without the Customer's express consent.

(4) The “Free” plan is free of charge (except for the fees for online payments under § 5 (6)). The Provider may change the scope of services of the “Free” plan with 30 days' notice and terminate a contract in the “Free” plan with 30 days' notice in text form, in particular if the account has not been used for twelve months. The right to data export under § 6a remains unaffected.

§ 4 Obligations of the Customer (dog school)

(1) The Customer is obliged to provide the data requested during registration (in particular company name, billing address, email address) completely and correctly and to update any changes in its account without undue delay.

(2) The Customer is responsible for keeping its access data and the access data of its trainers and staff confidential. It is obliged to inform the Provider without undue delay if there is a suspicion that third parties have gained unauthorised access to its account.

(3) The Customer undertakes to use the Software exclusively for lawful purposes. In particular, it is prohibited to upload to or distribute via the platform any unlawful, offensive, defamatory or copyright-protected content (without the corresponding rights). Also prohibited is content and offers that show, recommend or promote methods or aids contrary to animal welfare (§ 3 TierSchG, German Animal Welfare Act), in particular prong collars and electric shock devices.

(4) The Customer bears sole responsibility for the legal structuring of its relationship with its end customers (dog owners). In particular, it ensures that it has all the necessary consents under data protection law from its end customers in order to be permitted to process their data (in particular for push notifications and email communication) via the platform. The Customer is further obliged to provide its own legally compliant terms and conditions and its own privacy policy to its end customers and to store these in the app.

(5) The Provider is not responsible for content that the Customer stores in the Software or communicates via it. The Customer shall indemnify the Provider against all third-party claims resulting from unlawful use of the Software by the Customer.

(6) The Customer may voluntarily have itself listed in the public dog school directory on pfotencard.de and revoke this release at any time in the settings. The Customer is solely responsible for the accuracy, completeness and lawfulness of the information it publishes (in particular provider identification, texts, logo and images) and shall indemnify the Provider against third-party claims based on this information. The Provider may remove or block entries that are evidently unlawful or violate these T&Cs after notifying the Customer.

(7) Insofar as the Provider provides templates for legal texts (e.g. terms and conditions, privacy policy or cancellation policy, which are displayed as long as the Customer has not stored its own texts), these are non-binding, general templates without examination of the individual case and do not constitute legal advice. The Customer checks for itself whether they are suitable for its offering and replaces them with its own texts if necessary.

(8) If the Customer uses the email marketing module, it is the sender and the controller under data protection law for the newsletters. It only sends advertising to recipients who have given their consent via the channels provided in the Software (consent in the app or sign-up with confirmation email) and does not add any addresses without demonstrable consent (§ 7 UWG, Art. 6 and 7 GDPR). The Software automatically inserts mandatory information from the legal notice and the unsubscribe link; the Customer keeps its legal notice up to date for this purpose. The Provider may temporarily suspend sending if there are signs of misuse (e.g. unusually high complaint or bounce rates).

(9) Link pages are services of the Customer. The Customer is the provider within the meaning of § 5 DDG and is responsible for all content, links and images embedded from third-party servers; the link page refers to its legal notice and its privacy policy. A link page can only be published once the legal notice is complete.

(10) The Provider may temporarily block individual content, link pages, courses, directory entries or functions if there are concrete indications of unlawful content, a significant breach of these T&Cs or an acute risk to the security of the platform. In doing so, it chooses the least intrusive suitable measure, informs the Customer of the measure with a statement of reasons in text form no later than when it takes effect (Art. 17 Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Art. 4 Regulation (EU) 2019/1150) and gives it the opportunity to comment. The Provider handles third-party reports concerning the Customer's content in accordance with § 7a of the terms of use.

(11) Statutory mandatory functions: in the customer app, the shop and the Academy, the Provider provides the functions prescribed for the Customer's consumer contracts and keeps them up to date when the law changes, in particular clearly labelled order buttons (§ 312j (3) BGB), contract confirmation on a durable medium (§ 312f BGB), the withdrawal function “Withdraw from contract” with acknowledgement of receipt (§ 356a BGB) and the cancellation button for subscriptions (§ 312k BGB). The Provider fulfils these functions for the Customer as its technical service provider; the Customer remains obligated towards the end customers. The Customer does not deactivate or circumvent them, processes incoming withdrawals and cancellations in due time and also accepts withdrawals and cancellations that reach it by other means.

(12) The Customer concludes the contracts with its end customers exclusively in its own name and for its own account; the Provider does not become a party to the contract. Claims arising from these contracts are asserted solely by the Customer against its end customers; the Customer is also responsible for customer service, refunds, invoices and receipts vis-à-vis its end customers. Prices, service descriptions, cancellation terms and product information in the shop (in particular manufacturer information and safety information under Regulation (EU) 2023/988, unit prices under the German Price Indication Ordinance) are determined by the Customer itself, who is responsible for them. The Customer only uses environmental advertising claims (e.g. “climate-neutral”, “sustainable”) if they meet the requirements of the UWG applicable since 27/09/2026.

(13) If the Customer uses the application programming interface (API) or webhooks, it keeps the API keys and signing secrets confidential, only passes them on to service providers it has engaged and revokes them without undue delay if misuse is suspected. It complies with the request limits stated in the developer documentation and does not use the API to circumvent plan limits. The Customer itself is responsible for data that it transmits to third parties via the API or webhooks. The Provider announces changes to the API that affect existing integrations at least 90 days in advance, unless security reasons or legal obligations require a shorter period.

§ 4a Academy (sale of online courses) and marketplace

(1) Via the Academy, the Customer can publish its own online courses (pre-produced videos and accompanying material) and sell them to end customers; published courses can also be displayed in the Academy marketplace on akademie.pfotencard.de. The seller and contractual partner of the buyers is exclusively the Customer. The Provider provides the platform, video hosting and technical payment processing and does not become a party to the purchase contracts.

(2) Before the first publication, the Customer submits the entrepreneur declaration provided in the Software and keeps the information on its identity and contact details (legal notice) complete and up to date. The Customer is responsible towards the buyers for fulfilling all obligations as a seller, in particular for information obligations, the right of withdrawal, the rights relating to digital products (§§ 327 et seq. BGB), invoicing, the payment of taxes, and for ensuring that its courses do not constitute distance learning requiring approval within the meaning of the FernUSG (German Distance Learning Protection Act). If the Customer offers monitoring of learning success for a course (e.g. answering questions, correcting assignments, feedback on submitted videos), it obtains approval from the State Central Office for Distance Learning (ZFU) beforehand and states its number in the course description; it shall indemnify the Provider against claims based on a breach of the FernUSG. As long as the Customer has not stored its own texts, the Academy uses the Provider's standard texts (§ 4 (7) applies accordingly).

(3) For the duration of publication, the Customer grants the Provider the simple, non-transferable right, limited to the provision of the Academy services, to store the course content, technically convert it (e.g. into different resolutions), make it available to buyers for retrieval and display the title, description, preview image as well as the name and logo of the dog school in the marketplace and on the pages of the Academy. Any further use, in particular for the Provider's own advertising outside the Academy, only takes place with the Customer's consent. The Customer warrants that it has all the necessary rights to the content (in particular copyrights, ancillary copyrights, music rights and personality rights of the persons depicted) and shall indemnify the Provider against third-party claims due to an infringement of these rights.

(4) Purchases are processed via the Customer's Stripe account (Stripe Connect); the purchase price is paid out to the Customer by Stripe in accordance with Stripe's payout terms. The commission provision of § 5 (6) applies to purchases in the Academy. Refunds following withdrawal or in the event of defects, as well as chargebacks, are borne by the Customer.

(5) Ranking in the marketplace and in the directory (Art. 5 Regulation (EU) 2019/1150): by default, courses are displayed by publication date (newest first); buyers can instead sort by popularity (number of enrolments) or by price, with the publication date deciding in the event of a tie. Search and filters only narrow down the results. In the marketplace, dog schools are displayed according to the number of their listed courses and then alphabetically, and in the dog school directory by location and name. There is no paid or preferential placement; neither the plan nor the commission rate influences the ranking. Differences between customers exist only in the plan-dependent commission rates and functions according to the service description (Art. 7 Regulation (EU) 2019/1150).

(6) The Customer can view data on purchases, participants and learning progress of its courses in the Studio and export it in accordance with § 6a. The Provider only uses this data to provide the Academy services and in anonymised, aggregated form in accordance with section 7 of the DPA; it does not pass it on to other dog schools (Art. 9 Regulation (EU) 2019/1150). The Provider is an independent controller for the learners' accounts in the Academy (registration, sign-in, security).

(7) The Provider may terminate the provision of the Academy for a Customer as a whole with 30 days' notice; it communicates the reasons in text form. Termination without notice is only possible if the Provider is obliged to do so by law or by order of an authority, or if the Customer has repeatedly violated § 4 (3), § 4 (10) or this § 4a (Art. 4 Regulation (EU) 2019/1150). Existing buyer access is retained where possible; the Customer's obligations towards its buyers remain unaffected. The Customer addresses questions and complaints regarding the Academy to info@pfotencard.de.

(8) Insofar as the Provider, as a platform operator, is subject to reporting obligations under the German Platform Tax Transparency Act (PStTG), the Customer shall provide it with the legally required information (in particular name, address, tax identification number or business identification number, VAT identification number, bank details and, for natural persons, date of birth) completely and correctly. If the information is not provided despite two reminders, the Provider may suspend sales in the Academy until the information is provided (§ 22 PStTG). Insofar as required by law, the Provider reports the information to the German Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern) and makes the reported information available to the Customer.

§ 5 Prices, billing and terms of payment

(1) The prices shown on the website at the time the contract is concluded apply. All prices stated are total prices. As the Provider makes use of the small business regulation pursuant to § 19 (1) UStG (German VAT Act), no VAT is shown or charged. VAT is therefore not shown separately on invoices.

(2) The usage fee is due and collected in advance for the respective billing period chosen (monthly or annually).

(3) Payments are processed via the payment service provider Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd., Dublin, Ireland). The Customer authorises the Provider or Stripe to automatically collect the amounts due from the specified means of payment. Payment by credit or debit card is currently offered; further payment methods will be displayed in the ordering process as soon as they become available.

(4) If the Customer is in default of payment, the Provider is entitled to block access to the Software after a prior reminder and expiry of a reasonable grace period until the outstanding claims have been settled in full. The Customer's obligation to pay remains unaffected during a block.

(5) The Provider reserves the right to change the prices for the Software with at least 30 days' notice in text form before they take effect. The Customer is entitled to terminate the contract before the price change takes effect, with effect from the date it takes effect. In this case, the previous prices apply until the end of the contract. A price change for billing periods that have already been paid is excluded.

(6) For payments that the Customer's end customers make via the Software using Stripe (e.g. credit top-ups, subscriptions, shop orders, purchases of online courses in the Academy), the Provider receives a commission equal to the percentage of the payment amount shown on the website for the booked plan. In addition, the Customer bears the fee charged by Stripe for the respective payment at its actual amount without any mark-up. Both amounts are withheld at the time of payment from the amount forwarded to the Customer; amounts withheld in excess are refunded automatically, and amounts withheld too low are offset subsequently. If the Customer refunds a payment, the commission is refunded proportionately; fees not refunded by Stripe are borne by the Customer. The Provider provides an overview of all amounts withheld in the customer account. End customers are not charged a surcharge. Chargebacks initiated by the Customer's end customers and the fees charged by Stripe for them are borne by the Customer; if Stripe makes a claim against the Provider for such amounts, the Customer shall indemnify the Provider against them.

(7) The plans include a quota of active end customers (end customers with a booking, payment or sign-in in the last 90 days) and of logins for staff. If the quota of active end customers is exceeded, the Provider informs the Customer; after a grace period of 14 days, no further end customers can be created until the quota is extended (add-on or change of plan). Existing end customers and logins always remain usable.

§ 6 Term and termination

(1) The contract is concluded for an indefinite period, but at least for the selected billing period (month or year).

(2) Either party may terminate the contract at any time with effect from the end of the current billing period. Termination can be made electronically via the corresponding function in the customer dashboard or in text form by email to info@pfotencard.de.

(3) The right to extraordinary termination for good cause remains unaffected. Good cause exists for the Provider in particular if the Customer, despite a reminder, is in default of payment for two consecutive billing periods, seriously breaches material contractual obligations under § 4 or uses the Software for unlawful purposes.

(4) When the termination of a paid plan takes effect, the contract continues in the free “Free” plan unless the Customer expressly terminates this as well. If the Customer terminates the contract as a whole, the Customer's access to the Software ends when the termination takes effect, with the exception of the export function under § 6a. The Provider keeps the data stored by the Customer available for retrieval during the transition period under § 6a (3) (30 days from the end of the contract) and irrevocably deletes it after this period has expired, unless statutory retention obligations (e.g. under HGB or AO) prevent this. At the Customer's request, the Provider confirms the deletion in text form.

§ 6a Switching providers and data export (Data Act)

(1) At any time – during the term of the contract and in the transition period under paragraph 3 – the Customer can retrieve all data of its dog school stored in the Software (in particular customer, dog, appointment, booking, transaction, shop, chat and document data as well as settings) via the export function in the operator portal in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (JSON and CSV, bundled as a ZIP archive). Uploaded files (images, PDFs) are provided via download links. The export is free of charge.

(2) If the Customer wishes to switch to another provider or to its own infrastructure, it can initiate the switch at any time by terminating the contract in accordance with § 6; there is no period beyond the notice period under § 6 (2), and in no case does it exceed two months. The Provider supports the switch to a reasonable extent, in particular by providing the export under paragraph 1 and by providing information on the data format.

(3) After the end of the contract, a transition period of 30 days begins during which the Customer can continue to use the export function and the Provider keeps the data unchanged. At the Customer's request, the transition period is extended once by up to 30 days if the switch cannot be completed within the original period for technical reasons. To this extent, the contract continues for the duration of the transition period; no charges beyond the agreed remuneration are incurred for this.

(4) The Provider does not charge any switching fees for switching, exporting or deleting the data. After the transition period has expired, the data is deleted in accordance with § 6 (4); the Provider confirms the deletion in text form on request.

(5) The Provider provides information on the exportable data categories, the data format, the switching procedures and changes to these terms in the export function (README file of the archive) and in these T&Cs (Art. 25, 26, 29 and 30 of Regulation (EU) 2023/2854).

§ 7 Liability

(1) The Provider has unlimited liability for damage resulting from injury to life, body or health, for damage caused by intent or gross negligence on the part of the Provider or its vicarious agents, as well as under the German Product Liability Act and to the extent of any guarantee assumed.

(2) In the case of slight negligence, the Provider is only liable for the breach of an essential contractual obligation (cardinal obligation), the fulfilment of which makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on compliance with which the Customer may regularly rely. In this case, liability is limited to the damage typical for the contract and foreseeable at the time the contract was concluded.

(3) Liability for the loss of data is limited to the typical restoration effort that would have been incurred if the Customer had made regular backups appropriate to the risk. The Provider recommends that the Customer regularly exports its data.

(4) The Provider accepts no liability for the accuracy or completeness of content that the Customer stores in the Software.

(5) The above limitations of liability also apply in favour of the Provider's legal representatives and vicarious agents.

§ 8 Data protection and data processing on behalf

(1) Both parties undertake to comply with the data protection provisions applicable to them, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).

(2) As the Provider processes personal data of the Customer's end customers (dog owners) on behalf of the Customer, the parties additionally conclude a data processing agreement (DPA) pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. The DPA is available on the Provider's website and becomes part of the main contract upon conclusion of the contract.

(3) Further details on data processing by the Provider in connection with the platform can be found in the Provider's privacy policy, which can be viewed on the website at any time.

(4) In the event of contradictions between these T&Cs and the DPA, the DPA takes precedence with regard to the processing of personal data on behalf of the Customer.

§ 8a Confidentiality and rights to data

(1) The parties shall treat as confidential all information of the other party that is not publicly known and that becomes known to them in the course of the contract (in particular customer data, prices, business figures, access data) and shall use it only for the performance of the contract. This obligation continues beyond the end of the contract. It does not apply to information that is or becomes publicly known without a breach of this obligation or that must be disclosed on the basis of a statutory or official order.

(2) As between the parties, the data and content stored by the Customer in the Software belong to the Customer. The Provider only uses them insofar as this is necessary for the provision of the contractual services or as expressly permitted by this contract or the DPA (in particular anonymised, aggregated usage statistics in accordance with section 7 of the DPA). Rights to the Software itself remain with the Provider.

§ 9 Changes to these T&Cs

(1) The Provider reserves the right to amend these T&Cs with effect for the future. The Customer will be informed of changes by email to the stored address at least 30 days before the amended T&Cs take effect.

(2) The Customer is entitled to terminate the contract before the amended T&Cs take effect, with effect from the date they take effect; the previous T&Cs apply until the end of the contract. Changes that significantly shift the balance between performance and consideration to the Customer's disadvantage (e.g. removal of main services) only become effective with the Customer's express consent.