General terms of business

Status: as of December 2021

1. Scope of application

1.1. The following terms of business apply to contracts concluded for the sale of entry tickets of Messe Friedrichshafen GmbH, Neue Messe 1, 88046 Friedrichshafen (hereinafter known as MFN) and the purchaser of entry tickets (hereinafter known as the Customer). They apply exclusively to contracts concluded using the respective Internet portal.

1.2. The Customer in the sense of these terms of business includes both consumers and companies.

1.3. Different, contradictory or supplementary general terms of business, even if we are aware of them, shall not become part of the contract unless we have expressly agreed to their being valid in writing.

1.4 Express reference is hereby made to MFN’s company regulations, which apply to the entire premises of MFN and to all visitors and which are posted on the premises. Before the ordering process, these regulations may be accessed or read via the link and on MFN’s website.

1.5 The entry tickets ordered in the ticket shop operated by an external service provider on behalf of MFN are sold for MFN’s own events exclusively by order and for account of MFN.

1.6 In individual cases MFN acts solely as an agent for other events. This may also apply with regard to combi-tickets. Please refer to the notes on admission tickets.

2. Contract conclusion

2.1 MFN requests the Customer to make offers in the ticket shop for buying an entry ticket for the events cited there and under the conditions stated there.

The Customer shall issue a binding offer by sending a purchase order. In doing so, the Customer declares he/she is willing to have an entry ticket provided through electronic means. The conclusion of the contract and the acceptance of the Customer’s offer takes place when MFN sends an email, confirming the order or in any case if MFN collects the ticket price. MFN uses an external service provider for processing the payment. The Customer shall waive its right to receive an acceptance.

In the event that the customer submits an offer to purchase a ticket for a third party event, MFN will only act as the agent of the respective organiser upon acceptance of the contract. The contract is therefore concluded between the customer and the respective third party organiser.

In the event of an offer to purchase a combined ticket, which includes not only admission to the trade fair event but also the right to use the respective transport company, the transport contract itself, despite acceptance of the offer by the MFN, is concluded exclusively between the respective transport company and the customer.

2.2 The Customer has fulfilled its performance obligation if the invoice amount has been credited to MFN’s account. At this point in time MFN becomes obligated to supply to the Customer, to the address stated by the Customer in the order process.

2.3 By sending its offer the Customer also expresses its consent to be invoiced and have the invoice sent through electronic means. There shall be no right to be invoiced in paper form.

2.4 The Customer is hereby notified regarding storage and archiving obligations, in particular pursuant to the Fiscal Code (Abgabenordnung), the Sales Tax Act (Umsatzsteuergesetz - UStG), the Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch), the standards of data processing-supported accounting systems (GoBS) as well as the standards for data access and verifiability of digital documents (GDPdU). Pursuant to the GDPdU and § 14b of the UStG, the email with the attached invoice sent by MFN are subject to mandatory storage and digital archiving obligations.

2.5 The Customer hereby assures that all data provided in the ordering process are correct, and that it is of legal age at the time of ordering.

3. Exclusion of liability/liability restrictions

3.1 MFN’s liability shall be ruled out for damage caused through improper cooperation or unsatisfactory technical equipment of the invoice recipient in connection with the invoices sent to it. Liability shall also be ruled out for invoices not recognized by the tax office or for input tax reductions that are not recognized, unless MFN is responsible for this.

3.2 Liability of MFN, its legal representative and its vicarious agents shall be ruled out as a matter of principle.

3.3 In the case of grossly negligent/deliberate action on the part of MFN or grossly negligent/deliberate action by its legal representative or its vicarious agents as well as in the case of culpable violation of an important contractual obligation by the above-mentioned parties, the exclusion of liability shall not apply. With regard to companies within the meaning of § 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB), MFN’s liability in such cases shall, however, be limited to such contractually typical and direct average damage which was foreseeable when the contract was concluded.

The above limitations of liability shall not apply to claims by the Customer based on product liability. Furthermore, the exclusion of liability shall not apply to physical damage, damage to health or the loss of the Customer’s life, caused through a culpable violation on the part of MFN, its legal representative and its vicarious agents.

4. Binding purchase, non-existence of a right of cancellation

4.1 There shall be no right of return or reimbursement, unless MFN cancels the event. In this case, the Customer is reimbursed for the purchase price, if it enforces its request at the latest two weeks after the originally planned beginning of the event. Cash reimbursements shall be ruled out.

4.2 When purchasing entry tickets (whether it is a consumer or a company) the Customer pursuant to § 312 g, sub-section 2, no. 9 of the German Civil Code (BGB) shall not have a cancellation right pursuant to § 355 of the BGB. 

5. Data protection

5.1. Information on data protection and data processing of the Customer’s data can be read on MFN’s homepage, and we hereby expressly refer to this.

5.2. In the respective ticket shop of an event, in the ordering process the consent for data processing for private visitors is to be separately explained, and in the respective ordering step reference is made to the respective applicable information and regulations on the topic of data protection, and the necessary documents can be accessed here.

6. Concluding provisions

6.1 The laws of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply. This choice of law shall apply to consumers who are not concluding the contract for professional or commercial purposes only in as much as the protection provided by mandatory provisions in the laws of the country in which the consumer is normally resident are not withdrawn as a result. The provisions of the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not be applicable.

6.2 Friedrichshafen shall be the place of fulfillment.

6.3 If the Customer is a businessman, legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contract shall be Tettnang Local Court or Ravensburg Regional Court, depending on objective responsibility. The same shall apply if the Customer does not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany or its place of residence or normal place of abode is unknown at the time when the lawsuit is lodged.

6.4 If individual provisions of the contract with the Customer, including these general terms of business, are or become wholly or partly invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the other provisions. The wholly or partly invalid provision shall be replaced by a provision whose commercial success is as close as possible to the invalid one.