Terms of use

Schutzverein Deutscher Rheder V. a. G., Am Kaiserkai 6, 20457 Hamburg (hereinafter: "SDR") is a mutual insurance company based in Hamburg which according to its statutes serves as association of shipowning companies in order to protect their interests. 

In the course of its business SDR provides the website www.shipdefence.de as well as a platform on which properly registered users (hereinafter: "you" or "user") have the opportunity in the so-called "members' area" to access the statutes and circulars of SDR, standard clauses and contract forms and to rate business contacts to its contractual counterparts in the Ratings area by submitting a rating. 

By using the website and registering in the members' area you are accepting our data privacy policy as well as the following terms of use. These terms govern the provision of services by SDR as well as the use of these services through you. Please bear in mind that the subsequent terms also apply when ratings are submitted in the members' area. 

Please do not register for the members' area and do not submit any ratings if you do not want to accept these terms. We reserve to revise these terms of use. Therefore, please read these terms every time when you submit a rating. 

(1) The use of the members' area of SDR under www.shipdefence.de requires your registration. There is no entitlement to a registration. SDR is entitled to reject applications for registration without giving any reasons. 

Only natural persons of full age who are fully legally competent and act for a legal entity which is entitled to the use of the members' area of SDR have the right to be registered. 

(2) The statements which are requested from you during the registration process have to be complete and correct. You are obliged to keep your data up to date and to amend the provided data in your user profile in case of changes or to advise us of such changes by e-mail or telefax. 

 After all required data has been provided SDR will, unless there are any concerns, activate your account for the members' area and will inform you thereof by e-mail. This e-mail will constitute the acceptance of your application for registration. From receipt of the e-mail you are entitled to use the members' area in accordance with these terms of use. You will have to confirm the activation of your account by clicking on the link contained in the e-mail.

(3) Upon termination of the membership with SDR of a legal entity, the entitlement of the natural persons acting for it to use the members' area ends automatically. In that case SDR is entitled to delete the respective registrations without prior notice. You are obliged to notify SDR of a termination of membership of the legal entity for which you are acting. 

(4) In case you are no longer acting for the legal entity whose membership with SDR entitles you to use the members' area, your entitlement to use the members' area ends automatically. In that case SDR is entitled to delete your registration without prior notice. You are obliged to notify SDR in case you are no longer acting for the legal entity.

(5) During the registration process you will be asked inter alia to provide your e-mail address and to select a password. After activation of your account and confirmation of your access you will be able to log in with that data in the members' area according to (2). Your login details including your password have to be kept secret by you and must not be made available to unauthorised third parties. You are responsible to ensure that your access to the members' area and the information and services provided through the portal are exclusively used by you respectively by persons you have authorised accordingly. If you have reason to believe that unauthorised third parties may have gained knowledge of your login details or may gain access to it, SDR is to be informed immediately. 

(6) The members' area under www.shipdefence.de for which a registration is required is provided free of charge but only within the limits of SDR's technical, operational and financial resources. There is no entitlement to the provision of particular services; SDR does not warrant the provision of a certain scope of services. Every user is responsible for the internet access as well as for the condition of its own hard and software.

 SDR reserves the right to suspend services offered under www.shipdefence.de in full or partly or to change its nature or coverage. The interests of the users will thereby be considered adequately and the users will in that case be informed in advance within a reasonable period of time. 

(7) You are obliged to use the services provided through the members' area only in accordance with these terms of use. The content provided through the members' area must only be accessed and viewed by users online. You are only entitled to a download as well as to a printing of content to the extent that these functions are available in the members' area. You are not allowed to remove copyright mentions, logos or other marks or proprietary notices or to amend the same. Furthermore, it is forbidden to adapt, amend, publish, reproduce or distribute, wholly or partly, content provided through the portal which is not designated for download or printout. 

 The circulars, clauses and texts provided by SDR must only be downloaded and/or printed out by the registered user. These circulars, clauses and texts may only be used by the registered user for its business activities and only for its own purposes. A passing on and/or copying of the content is only allowed to this extent. In particular, it is expressly forbidden to provide access to the clauses and texts to persons who are not registered users. SDR reserves the right to withdraw the entitlement to the use of the members' area at any time. 

 Your mandatory legal rights (including the right to copy for private and other use in accordance with Article 53 Urhebergesetz) are not affected by these terms.

(8) SDR as service provider as per Article 7 TMG is responsible for content which is accessible under www.shipdefence.de in accordance with the general principles. The content was prepared according to best knowledge; however, SDR does not guarantee the correctness, completeness, up-to-dateness and legality of the content. 

(9) SDR is not obliged and not in the position to check and/or to supervise or to enquire circumstances which may serve as an indication for illegal activities insofar as content uploaded or published by third parties (hereinafter: "third-party content") is concerned. This also applies to hyperlinks. SDR does not adopt content provided by third parties. Consequently, SDR does not take over responsibility and does not warrant the completeness, correctness, legality or up-to-dateness of third-party content. This also applies with regard to the quality of the third-party content and its suitability for a certain purpose, also insofar as third-party content on linked external websites is concerned. SDR is liable for third-party content as per Articles 8 – 10 TMG at the earliest from the time of actual knowledge of a concrete infringement. When SDR is informed of infringements and/or violations of the terms of use SDR will investigate the complaint in full and will delete the concerned content in case of a violation either in full or in part. 

(10) The liability of SDR and its legal representatives and servants is limited as follows:

 The liability for negligence is excluded. The liability for gross negligence and in case of injury to life, body or health is not affected hereby.

(11) The application and interpretation of these terms of use is exclusively governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany. 

(12) Place of fulfilment is Hamburg. For all claims out of or in connection with the terms of use Hamburg is agreed as place of jurisdiction provided that the user is to be considered as merchant within the meaning of the German Commercial Code ("Handelsgesetzbuch"). The same applies when the user changes his place of residence after conclusion of the contract to a place outside Germany or in case the user does not have a place of general jurisdiction in Germany. 

(13) In case any provision of the terms of use is or becomes fully or partly void or unenforceable this does not invalidate the remaining provisions hereof. Void or unenforceable provisions are replaced by the law (Article 306, second paragraph BGB). Besides, the parties will agree on an effective and enforceable provision which leads to an economically as similar as possible result in order to replace the void or unenforceable provision, if a complementary interpretation of contract does not have priority or is impossible. 

In addition, and without limitation of the above terms of use, the following conditions apply for the submission of ratings in the ratings portal of SDR which can be found in the members' area: 

(14) SDR only provides the technical requirements for the transmission of information through the ratings portal. SDR does not influence the content of the ratings. 

(15) Upon submission of a rating your name will also be transmitted to SDR. Your name will never be publicly visible; your name will not be mentioned when the rating is published. SDR may contact you in order to verify the submitted rating. 

(16) With the submission of a rating you are transferring the right to store, publish, make publicly available and to copy, as well as to integrate into other works in any form (media, technologies; already existing or such which will be developed), wholly or party, online or offline (e.g. in print media or catalogues), to SDR. 

(17) You are warranting that your comments are solely relevant for the rated business and/or the company concerned. You are only entitled to submit a rating if it has actually come to a business contact with the rated company. 

(18) The integration of hyperlinks in your ratings is forbidden.

(19) You are solely and exclusively responsible for your ratings. You are warranting that you have made the ratings by yourselves and that you are entitled to pass on the included information. 

(20) With the submission of a rating you commit yourself not to violate applicable laws and, in particular, you ensure that your ratings are not violating third-party rights (e. g. copyrights, trademark rights or personality rights). 

(21) SDR will not check your submitted ratings in the members' area prior to publication. Accordingly, SDR does not warrant the correctness or completeness of the content. 

(22) In case SDR is notified of violations of rights SDR reserves to request you to provide detailed comments as well as evidence about the commercial relationship in order to check the matter. In case there is concrete reason to believe that a user has violated the law, the terms of use or rights of third-parties, SDR is entitled, in its discretion, to take in particular one or more of the following measures: 

SDR will consider the justified interests of the affected user and will use the mildest remedy available as protection against the violation when the measure is chosen. 

(23) If a user or rated person or company holds the view that a rating violates the law or these terms of use then this person may notify SDR accordingly. SDR will then check the complaint and the concerned content of the rating will be deleted in case of a violation. 

 When there is a complaint relating to the content of a rating the user is obliged to use his best efforts in order to clarify the situation. For this purpose, the user will in particular answer inquiries of SDR concerning the facts and circumstances within five working days by e-mail or in writing (as requested by SDR). 

(24) The user indemnifies SDR against all claims which third-parties may raise against SDR in view of a violation of their rights due to the submission of a rating or other use of the ratings portal by the user. This does not apply if and to the extent that the user is not responsible for the violation of the right.