T&Cs | Cancellation policy

This English version is only for your convenience. The German version is legally binding.

Notice of Cancellation Right

We are legally obliged to inform you of your right of cancellation as a consumer.

Right to withdraw
You have the right to withdraw from the contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract. To exercise the right of withdrawal, you must inform us (Heinlein Hosting GmbH, Schwedter Straße 8/9A, 10119 Berlin, Fax 030/40505119, E-Mail widerruf@mailbox.org) of your decision to withdraw from the contract by an unequivocal statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or e-mail). You may use the attached model withdrawal form, but it is not obligatory.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal
If you withdraw from this contract, we shall reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (with the exception of the supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract. We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

If you requested to begin the performance of services during the withdrawal period, you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been provided until you have communicated us your withdrawal from the contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.

Lapse of cancellation right
Your right to withdraw from this contract also expires when we begin performing the complete service before expiry of the cancellation period with the expressed agreement of the service user or the service subscriber has himself initiated the same.

Model withdrawal form
(complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract)

To Heinlein Hosting GmbH
Schwedter Straße 8/9A
10119 Berlin

Fax 030/40505119
E-Mail widerruf@mailbox.org:

— I/We (*) hereby give notice that I/We (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract of sale of the following goods (*)/for the provision of the following service (*):

— Ordered on (*)/received on (*)

— Name of consumer(s)

— Address of consumer(s)

— Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper)

— Date

(*) Delete as appropriate

End of Notice of Cancellation Right

 

 

General Terms and Conditions for mailbox.org Prepaid

Section 1 – Provider, User

(1) The provider of the services offered at the domain mailbox.org (hereinafter "Service") is Heinlein Support GmbH, Schwedter Str. 8-9b, 10119 Berlin (hereinafter "Provider").

(2) Any terms and conditions defined by the User shall be inapplicable. The Provider expressly rejects their inclusion unless their inclusion is individually agreed to in writing.

Section 2 – Scope of services

(1) The Provider shall make an e-mail address available to the User under the domain of the Provider, e.g., in the format username@mailbox.org (hereinafter "Mailbox Address"). The User can personally select the login name when concluding the contract, provided that the name is available in accordance with the Provider's naming guidelines and has not already been assigned.

(2) Upon setting up the Mailbox Address, the Provider creates an identical user account which the User can use via SMTP, POP3 and IMAP or via the websites under mailbox.org in order to retrieve and send e-mails, to configure settings and, if desired, to use further services such as calendar administration, address book management, task management, file storage and file transfer functions.

(3) The hosting of domains or webspace is not a component of the Service.

Section 3 – Availability ("Uptime") and storage capacity ("Quota")

(1) The Provider shall make its Service available for an average of 99.9% of the duration of any given calendar month.

(2) In the case of data transmission, the Provider’s duty to perform shall be limited to the communication between the Provider's server and a suitable Internet connection point to be selected by the Provider. The Provider has no influence on the availability or reliability of the data paths outside its own network. There is therefore no obligation to effect the successful forwarding onward of data from connection points to servers of third parties.

(3) The Provider is only obligated to receive e-mails and store data for the User within the parameters of the individually agreed storage capacity ("Quota"). The Quota depends on the User's selected plan and may differ for various services of the Provider. The User can obtain information about his/her current Quota utilisation in his/her user account.

(4) E-mails sent to the User when the storage capacity is already exhausted are returned by the Provider's mail server; the sender receives a message about the failure of the attempted delivery ("over quota").

(5) Once the storage capacity has been exhausted, the User cannot add any further data (e.g., addresses, calendar entries, tasks, notes, files).

Section 4 – Fees

(1) The User is obligated to pay fees in advance.

(2) Payments may be made via bank transfer or by sending cash by mail. The Provider can choose to allow further forms of payment.

(3) In addition to these terms and conditions of use, the price list valid at the time of the conclusion of the contract shall apply for fees.

(4) The Provider shall notify the User via e-mail before the end of the paid contractual relationship that the account will be converted to a limited user account at the end of the contract. For contracts with a definite term, the User will be notified 30 days before the end of the contract at the latest. For contracts with an indefinite term, the Provider shall notify the User if the credit balance drops below the amount required for two months’ use at the selected tariff.

(5) The User shall also be liable for fees arising from a third party's utilisation of the services of the User's user account (e.g., following negligent disclosure of the User's access data) unless the User can prove that he/she is not responsible for the utilisation of services.

(6) All fees are deemed to include the applicable sales tax prevailing in Germany.

Section 5 – Active and limited user accounts

(1) All services of the selected plan shall be fully available to the User for the term of a paid contractual relationship whose fee has been paid by the User ("active user account").

(2) If the paid contractual relationship has expired or if the due fee has not been paid, the Provider can limit the functionality of the user account ("limited user account").

(3) If the User has not converted a limited user account into an active user account within 30 days after a paid user account expires, the Provider will close the limited user account at the end of the 30th day. The Provider with thereby delete all of the data stored on its systems in accordance with Section 10 and can release the e-mail address for another registration.

Section 6 – Conclusion of contract, account creation

(1) The contract is concluded exclusively online via the website mailbox.org. Only the desired user name, a first and last name, the country of habitual residence (for natural persons) or the country of domicile (for juridical persons) and a password selected by the User are required when requesting an account.

(2) If the user account can be created with the selected user name, the Provider shall confirm the conclusion of the contract on the screen as well as via an e-mail which will be sent directly to the newly created e-mail address. The User can read and download this e-mail via the user account, which the User can access by entering their user name and password.

(3) The user account will initially be set up as a limited user account consistent with a term of 30 days. This user account will be converted into an active user account when the first payment is made.

Section 7 – Consumer's right of withdrawal

(1) Consumers are entitled to the statutory right of withdrawal for the user agreement concluded with the Provider. The details can be found in the cancellation policy.

(2) A consumer is any natural person who concludes a legal transaction for a purpose that cannot be predominantly attributed to either their commercial or their independent professional activity.

(3) A consumer with continuous residence outside of Germany shall be granted a right of withdrawal by the Provider in accordance with the paragraphs above even if the national law of the consumer does not provide for any right of withdrawal or if the withdrawal is subject to a shorter limitation period or a stricter form than regulated in the German Civil Code.

Section 8 – Misuse, indemnification against damages

(1) The User is not permitted to misuse the user account for purposes that contravene the contract or the law. The Parties define misuse in particular as follows:

(a) the dispatch of e-mails with falsified or intentionally deceptive sender information for the purpose of preparing for or carrying out a criminal act,

(b) the dispatch of prohibited e-mail marketing ("spam") as well as any instance of the User making his/her mailbox address available as a response address for spam sent via a third party,

(c ) the storage or dispatch of dialler programs ("diallers"), unless these are permitted by regulatory authorities,

(d) the storage or the transmission of viruses or similar malicious software ("malware") as well as programs whose dissemination is prohibited in accordance with Section 95a (3) of the Act on Copyright and Related Rights (UrhG) (software for the circumvention of copy protection),

(e) utilisation for the purpose of computer sabotage or of the unauthorised access of other Internet hosts (Sections 303a and 303b of the German Criminal Code [StGB]) as well as comparable acts or preparations thereto which lend themselves to being utilised for the execution of an illegal act,

(f) the storage or the dispatch of image, video, audio, text or other files in contravention of copyrights, trademark rights, name rights, competition rights or personal rights or of files which contain prohibited propaganda material or designators of unconstitutional organisations (Sections 86 and 86a of the German Criminal Code [StGB]) and

(g) the storage or the dispatch of pornographic material as defined in Sections 184-184c of the German Criminal Code (StGB) or of media listed in Section 24 Paragraph 1 of the Youth Protection Act (JuSchG) as being harmful to minors.

(2) The User is obligated to indemnify the Provider against all third-party claims raised against the Provider as a consequence of content which is distributed via the User's e-mail address, particularly due to alleged infringements of copyrights, trademark rights, name rights, competition rights, or personal rights. The entitlement to indemnification also encompasses any expenses incurred by the Provider for appropriate fact finding and legal defence.

(3) E-mails from third parties intended to deceive the user into revealing sensitive information through misrepresentation of the true sender ("phishing" e-mails) do not have to be forwarded by the Provider to the user's mailbox. Insofar as the Provider identifies such phishing e-mails, the Provider is permitted to block their receipt or delete already received phishing e-mails from the user's mailbox.

Section 9 – Term and termination of the contract

(1) Depending on the plan, the user agreement can be concluded for an indefinite term or for a definite term. If a definite term of contract is agreed upon, ordinary termination effective before the end of the term of contract is excluded.

(2) Each party's right to extraordinary termination for cause shall remain unaffected. For the Provider, cause for termination may be a misuse of the Service as defined in Section 8. The termination must be made in text form in order to be valid.

(3) The Provider may terminate the contractual relationship ordinarily, duly observing a notice period of two weeks, effective at the end of a billing month.

Section 10 – Deletion of user data

(1) The Provider is entitled and has an obligation to the User to irretrievably delete all data of the user account following a retention period of 60 days after the closure of the limited user account. These include, in particular, all e-mails, address book and calendar entries, tasks, notes and files which belong to the user account. The 60-day retention period serves to give the User an opportunity to recover his/her data in the event that he/she inadvertently allowed the contract to expire. The User's right to obtain immediate deletion of the user's data shall remain unaffected.

(2) The User is obligated to back up any data which he/she would like to continue to use after the end of the contract in a timely manner prior to the end of the contract by downloading the data to the User's own storage medium.

(3) However, data whose continued storage is mandated according to tax law, commercial law or other statutory legislation shall be precluded from the erasure.

Section 11 – Liability, data backup

(1) The liability of the Provider for pecuniary damage is limited to instances of intent and gross negligence. In other cases, the Provider shall be liable for pecuniary damage only in the case of beach of duties whose fulfilment is required in order to enable the proper implementation of the contract in the first place and upon compliance with which the User may routinely rely (cardinal duties). In such a case, the Provider shall be liable solely for consequences which can be typically expected to arise. Section 44a of the German Telecommunications Act (TKG) shall prevail, provided that it relates to this standard's scope of application.

(2) The Provider can set up a backup service on a voluntary and not legally binding basis by which a copy of the stock of e-mails and/or other data of a respective User at a specific time ("snapshot") will remain stored for a period of seven days. In the event of the loss of data, e.g. in case of accidental deletion by the User, the User will be able to independently recover an earlier data stock with the aid of a snapshot, if any exist ("self-service backup"). However, the User does not have any contractual entitlement to this free-of-charge function. The User is also aware that the risk of data loss or damage to data cannot be entirely ruled out, even when the Provider observes the requirements of due care, and that this applies for both the original data as well as for any snapshots.

(3) It is the obligation of the User to regularly back up the data of his/her user account which is important to him/her on his/her own storage medium on a regular basis but no less frequently than a weekly basis. Data backup serves to reduce damage in the event of loss, which cannot be ruled out entirely, or in the event of data damage at the Provider's end; such a case can occur even if the Provider exercises the due care and diligence for the service in question. This shall remain the obligation of the User regardless of whether or not the Provider has also assumed the obligation to back up the data.

(4) The liability of the Provider for damage arising from injury to life, limb or health in accordance with the Product Liability Act or from the provision of a guarantee shall remain unaffected by the preceding paragraphs.

Section 12 – Specifics for encrypted e-mails and other data

Insofar as the User encrypts e-mails or other data in the user account, it is incumbent upon the User to take particular care with regard to the storage of the key required for decryption. If the key is lost, the decryption of e-mails and other data will no longer be possible. The Provider does not have a duplicate key, nor does it have any other means of recovering the User's encrypted data.

Section 13 – Changes to the General Terms and Conditions

(1) The Provider may make changes to these General Terms and Conditions where there is a legitimate interest in doing so. In particular, a legitimate interest may exist if a third party changes or refines technical standards, thereby necessitating an adjustment of the services of the Provider. The Provider shall notify the User of the intended change no later than six weeks before the time of the change. If the User does not object in text form within one month, his/her consent shall be deemed to have been given. In the notice the User will be given special indication of the right to object and option to terminate.

(2) Duly observing the procedure defined in Paragraph 1, the Provider may also increase the agreed gross fees if taxes incorporated therein or any regulatory fees are increased after the conclusion of the contract or if such fees are newly introduced. For its part, the Provider shall be obligated to lower gross fees if there is a decrease in or waiver of taxes incorporated therein or of any fees.

Section 14 – Severability clause

Should one of the provisions of these General Terms and Conditions should prove to be ineffective or impracticable, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The same shall apply in the event of any unintended omission or gap in provisions.

Section 15 – Applicable law

(1) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany, to the exclusion private international law, shall apply to the contractual relationship between Provider and User. However, German law shall not be applicable to consumers with a permanent residence abroad if national legislation to which the consumer is subject contains provisions which do not permit deviation by means of contractual arrangements at the expense of the consumer.

(2) In the event that the User is a merchant, a public-law entity or a special fund under public law, the parties agree that the address registered in the commercial register as the Provider's domestic business address shall be the place of performance and the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes in connection with the legal relationships regulated here.

Last update: September 7th, 2023 (3)