General Terms and Conditions

1. Scope

THE SECRET NUMBER e.U. (a company hereinafter referred to as 'TSN'), owned by LDV (Thomas Peterson), is the operator of the internet portal www.thesecretnumber.com. The following General Terms and Conditions apply to all business performed by TSN, in particular the transactions between TSN and its advertising partners. In case of any deficiencies in these provisions, the Conditions of Participations shall be used for interpretation purposes.

2. Services

The advertising partner agreement shall arise by registering as an advertising partner, followed by an invoice sent by TSN. Advertising partners will provide prizes for THE SECRET NUMBER Contest free of charge, waiving their right to reclaim, and demand surrender of, said prizes irrespective of Contest results. Advertising partners shall bear all postage, customs, or other carriage charges such as COD fees. TSN shall have the right to dispose of all prizes at its own discretion. TSN will provide advertising partners with advertising space.

3. Fee

For the duration of their utilization of advertising space, advertising partners shall pay a fee (to be agreed separately) which will be determined regardless of the value of the material prizes supplied. Any claims for the return of fees paid following activation of advertising space shall be excluded. This also applies to justified deletions of advertising space. Unless agreed separately, all fees shall be payable immediately upon registration.

As a general principle, fees are invariably exempt from interest provided that they are paid on time. In case of defaulting, all outstanding payments will be subject to 12% default charges, to be added to the original sum due. Additionally, clients shall be liable to bear all costs incurred by TSN as a result of late payment. In this respect, a minimum reminder and postage fee to the amount of 10.62 per dunning level will be charged. Reminders issued by legal counsel shall be subject to the latest applicable rates.

4. Advertising Space

Advertising partners shall only receive advertising space on the website www.thesecretnumber.com following full payment of the agreed fee. TSN expressly reserves the right to design and place the aforementioned website as it sees fit. TSN agrees to provide a separate, defined advertising space depending on its own technical circumstances. Advertising partners will supply their advertising content (banner, brand, logo, product, etc.) in the file format requested by TSN. Advertising partners are free to reserve advertising boxes based on consecutive numbers. Where future advertising boxes are reserved, they will be only activated after the corresponding advertising space has been created, pending payment of all fees. Both prizes and fees will be returned if the Contest is terminated prematurely. The use or the linking of copyrighted material is only permitted insofar as such use or linking is performed in accordance with applicable legal and statutory requirements as well as in compliance with the general terms and conditions of its author or provider currently in force, or insofar as such use or linking has been specifically permitted by its author or provider. However, advertising partners and/or owners of copyrighted material agree even now that TSN shall be entitled to use such material for contests such as the "Puzzle of the Week" for advertising purposes. Users must refrain from copying, reproducing, transferring, distributing, publishing, and exploiting commercially, converting such material into another data format, electronically or otherwise, and from making use of such material in any other way exceeding the scope so permitted by said author or provider. In particular, it is illegal to make use of brand names or trademarks, whether in their original or modified form, or by linking them to another internet domain.

Copyright infringements may give rise to claims for damages. It is not permitted to use the website in order to publish instructions, references to instructions, or invitations for morally reprehensible or illegal acts or things. In particular, this provision shall apply to instructions or invitations for the manufacture of explosive devices as well as to instructions and invitations to commit suicide as well as violations against the Act against National Socialist activities (Constitutional Act from 08-05-1945 on the prohibition of the NSDAP as amended). Furthermore it is prohibited to use morally offensive company signs (logos) as well as product advertisement with morally offensive slogans, advertising and offering prohibited weapons and war material. In particular, services by prostitutes, drugs, animals, plants protected by natural protection law or species protection law, animals and animal products (ivory, corals etc.) are not admissible as prizes. In turn, the advertising partner will guarantee that its price corresponds to the real value, that its company signs (logos) and advertising actions will not contain any such improper or misleading content. Furthermore, no liability will be assumed for any undesirable use of content of websites created by the use of the scripts. Website authors hereby agree that these will be saved and made accessible to the public. The way or manner website viewers will use such content is beyond TSN's control.

5. Disclaimer of Liability

TSN neither assumes any liability whatsoever regarding the up-to-dateness, completeness, or quality of the information provided, nor for the complete and correct forwarding of User data in realtime. In spite of the fact that TSN has carefully reviewed their contents, TSN is unable to assume any responsibility for the contents of linked-party sites. Such responsibility rests exclusively with the respective operators of those sites. TSN reserves the right to limit accessibility of the internet portal, in particular due to technical reasons (e.g. servicing and/or maintenance), or to temporarily suspend accessibility. Furthermore, the website itself or one or more of its services or access nodes may become temporarily unavailable due to congestions of access nodes or in the event of system failure. Such instances, however, shall not give rise to any claims against TSN. Liability claims against TSN based on material or immaterial damage resulting from the use, or failure to use, the information offered and/or the use of defective or deficient information shall be excluded without exception.
TSN or its agents can only assume liability, based on any legal ground whatsoever, for damage incurred in connection with the use of the internet portal owing to willful intent or gross negligence. In particular, this exclusion of liability applies to all unforeseeable events, political action, war, and natural disasters. This disclaimer of liability, however, does not apply to any statutory liability for loss of life, physical injury, or impairment of health. Users' claims for compensation shall be limited to foreseeable damage typically ensuing from their orders. All limitations of liability shall apply universally except where stipulated otherwise by law. Liability for remote consequential or indirect damage on grounds of negligence shall also be excluded. The aforementioned provisions, however, do not entail any change of the burden of proof to the detriment of Users. All offers are non-binding and subject to confirmation. TSN expressly reserves the right to modify, amend, delete, or cease publication of, parts of the website or the entire offer temporarily or permanently without prior specific notice.
In case of content infringements according to point 4, TSN shall be entitled to remove such advertising spaces and prizes of any advertising partners from the website without further notice. In such a case, advertising partners will have no right to reimbursement of any payments already made.

6. Data Protection

To the extent that personal or business data (e-mail addresses, names, and addresses) can be entered within the scope of this internet offer, such data is disclosed on the part of Users on an expressly voluntary basis. Advertising partner data will not be passed on without the express consent of the respective advertising partner. TSN would like to point out that all personal data collected in the course of Contest participation will be saved and commercially exploited. Users hereby acknowledge that in the event of a successful call, their number will be briefly displayed on the mobile phone in the live stream and be visible to third parties. Users have the right to object to the use of their data at any time. Such objections to data use will not affect Users' past Contest participation or chances of winning. TSN expressly advises Users that, given the present technological state of the art, data protection in the course of data transmissions over open nets such as the internet can not be guaranteed. In particular, data transmitted without encryption (also when submitted by e-mail) may also be read by others. TSN has neither any technical nor actual control over this matter.

7. Intellectual Property Rights

All content and services offered and provided by TSN are protected by industrial property rights and other copyright laws and may only be used in the form and manner approved by TSN. According to TSN's present knowledge, the brands shown are owned by their respective advertising partners even where not expressly stated. All related copyrights shall remain the sole property of their owners.

For any reproduction or use of the displayed content in any other electronic or printed form, the express written consent of the respective copyright owners shall be required. TSN does not assume any liability regarding competition law violations or copyright infringements on the part of advertising partners to the extent that such exclusion of liability is permitted by law. TSN shall not be liable for the content of linked advertising partner websites. According to TSN's present knowledge, the linked websites of advertising partners do not include any illegal, pornographic or morally improper content. TSN shall only be liable for such content in case of grossly negligent ignorance.

8. Final Provisions

Should any provision of these General Terms and Conditions be or become legally void, the remaining contractual conditions shall continue in full force and effect except where adherence to an agreement would place undue hardship on a party. For all disputes between Users and TSN arising from any legal ground whatsoever, the factually and locally competent court of law at TSN's registered domicile shall have sole jurisdiction. All disputes between Users and TSN shall be subject to Austrian law exclusively, regardless of whether the service in question is supplied in Austria or abroad. As far as the present Contest is concerned, the applicability of legal provisions with regard to conflicts of international private law as well the of UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is hereby excluded.

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