General terms and conditions of business

Table of contents

1. Scope
2. Conclusion of contract
3. Right of withdrawal
4. Prices and payment terms
5. Delivery and shipping conditions
6. Granting of usage rights for digital content
7. Retention of title
8. Liability for defects (warranty)
9. Liability
10. Redemption of gift vouchers
11. Applicable law
12. Alternative dispute resolution

1) Scope

1.1 These General Terms and Conditions (hereinafter "GTC") of Sarah Stiller, trading under "My Cottage Garden" (hereinafter "Seller"), apply to all contracts for the delivery of goods concluded between a consumer or entrepreneur (hereinafter "Customer") and the Seller regarding the goods presented by the Seller in its online shop. The inclusion of the Customer's own terms and conditions is hereby excluded, unless otherwise agreed.

1.2 These Terms and Conditions apply accordingly to contracts for the delivery of goods with digital elements, unless otherwise agreed. In addition to delivering the goods, the Seller is obliged to provide digital content or digital services (hereinafter "digital products") that are included in or connected to the goods in such a way that the goods cannot fulfill their functions without them.

1.3 These Terms and Conditions shall apply accordingly to contracts for the delivery of vouchers, unless otherwise agreed.

1.4 These Terms and Conditions apply accordingly to contracts for the provision of digital content, unless otherwise agreed. Digital content, as defined by these Terms and Conditions, is data created and provided in digital form.

1.5 A consumer within the meaning of these General Terms and Conditions is any natural person who concludes a legal transaction for purposes that can predominantly be attributed neither to their commercial nor to their independent professional activity.

1.6 An entrepreneur within the meaning of these General Terms and Conditions is a natural or legal person or a partnership with legal capacity who, when concluding a legal transaction, acts in the exercise of his or her commercial or independent professional activity.

2) Conclusion of contract

2.1 The product descriptions contained in the Seller's online shop do not constitute binding offers on the part of the Seller, but serve to submit a binding offer by the Customer.

2.2 The customer can submit an offer via the online order form integrated into the seller's online shop. After placing the selected goods in the virtual shopping cart and completing the electronic ordering process, the customer submits a legally binding contractual offer for the goods contained in the shopping cart by clicking the button that completes the ordering process.

2.3 The Seller may accept the Customer’s offer within five days,

• by sending the customer a written order confirmation or an order confirmation in text form (fax or e-mail), whereby the receipt of the order confirmation by the customer is decisive, or
• by delivering the ordered goods to the customer, whereby the receipt of the goods by the customer is decisive, or
• by requesting payment from the customer after placing his order.

If several of the aforementioned alternatives exist, the contract is concluded at the time one of the aforementioned alternatives occurs first. The period for accepting the offer begins on the day after the offer is sent by the customer and ends on the expiry of the fifth day following the dispatch of the offer. If the seller does not accept the customer's offer within the aforementioned period, this shall be deemed a rejection of the offer, with the consequence that the customer is no longer bound by their declaration of intent.

2.4 If you select a payment method offered by PayPal, payment will be processed via the payment service provider PayPal (Europe) S.à rl et Cie, SCA, 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg (hereinafter: “PayPal”), subject to the PayPal Terms of Use, which can be viewed at https://www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/useragreement-full or - if the customer does not have a PayPal account - subject to the terms and conditions for payments without a PayPal account, available at https://www.paypal.com /de /webapps /mpp /ua /privacywax-full If the customer pays using a payment method offered by PayPal that can be selected during the online ordering process, the seller hereby declares acceptance of the customer's offer at the time the customer clicks the button that completes the ordering process.

2.5 When submitting an offer via the Seller's online order form, the contract text will be saved by the Seller after the contract has been concluded and sent to the Customer in text form (e.g., email, fax, or letter) after the order has been sent. The Seller will not make the contract text available beyond this time. If the Customer has set up a user account in the Seller's online shop before submitting their order, the order data will be archived on the Seller's website and can be accessed free of charge by the Customer via their password-protected user account by entering the corresponding login data.

2.6 Before submitting a binding order via the Seller's online order form, the Customer can identify possible input errors by carefully reading the information displayed on the screen. An effective technical means for better detection of input errors can be the browser's zoom function, which enlarges the display on the screen. During the electronic ordering process, the Customer can correct their entries using standard keyboard and mouse functions until they click the button that completes the order process.

2.7 The German language is available for the conclusion of the contract.

2.8 Order processing and contact are generally carried out via email and automated order processing. The customer must ensure that the email address provided for order processing is correct, so that emails sent by the seller can be received at this address. In particular, when using spam filters, the customer must ensure that all emails sent by the seller or third parties commissioned by the seller to process the order can be delivered.

3) Right of withdrawal

3.1 Consumers generally have a right of withdrawal.

3.2 Further information on the right of withdrawal can be found in the seller’s cancellation policy.

4) Prices and payment terms

4.1 Unless otherwise stated in the Seller's product description, the prices quoted are total prices including statutory VAT. Any additional delivery and shipping costs will be stated separately in the respective product description.

4.2 The payment option(s) will be communicated to the customer in the seller’s online shop.

5) Delivery and shipping conditions

5.1 If the Seller offers to ship the goods, delivery will be made within the delivery area specified by the Seller to the delivery address provided by the Customer, unless otherwise agreed. The delivery address specified by the Seller during order processing shall be decisive for the processing of the transaction.

5.2 If delivery of the goods fails for reasons for which the customer is responsible, the customer shall bear the reasonable costs incurred by the seller as a result. This does not apply to the shipping costs if the customer effectively exercises their right of withdrawal. If the customer effectively exercises their right of withdrawal, the provisions in the seller's cancellation policy apply to the return shipping costs.

5.3 If the customer is an entrepreneur, the risk of accidental loss and accidental deterioration of the sold goods shall pass to the customer as soon as the seller has delivered the item to the freight forwarder, carrier or other person or institution designated to carry out the shipment. If the customer is a consumer, the risk of accidental loss and accidental deterioration of the sold goods shall generally only pass to the customer upon handover of the goods to the customer or a person authorized to receive them. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the risk of accidental loss and accidental deterioration of the sold goods shall pass to the customer, even in the case of consumers, as soon as the seller has delivered the item to the freight forwarder, carrier or other person or institution designated to carry out the shipment, provided that the customer has commissioned the freight forwarder, carrier or other person or institution designated to carry out the shipment and the seller has not previously named this person or institution to the customer.

5.4 The Seller reserves the right to withdraw from the contract in the event of incorrect or improper delivery. This only applies if the non-delivery is not the Seller's responsibility and the Seller has entered into a specific hedging transaction with the supplier with due diligence. The Seller will make all reasonable efforts to procure the goods. In the event of unavailability or only partial availability of the goods, the Customer will be informed immediately and the consideration will be refunded immediately.

5.5 Self-collection is not possible for logistical reasons.

5.6 Vouchers are provided to the customer as follows:

- by email

5.7 Digital content is provided to the customer as follows:

- via direct access via the entrepreneur's website

6) Granting of rights of use for digital content

6.1 Unless otherwise stated in the description of the content in the Seller’s online shop, the Seller grants the Customer the non-exclusive, geographically and temporally unlimited right to use the content provided exclusively for private purposes.

6.2 The transfer of the contents to third parties or the creation of copies for third parties outside the scope of these General Terms and Conditions is not permitted unless the Seller has agreed to a transfer of the contractual license to the third party.

6.3 To the extent the contract relates to the one-time provision of digital content, the granting of rights only becomes effective once the customer has paid the full amount owed. The seller may also grant provisional permission for the use of the contractual content prior to this time. Such provisional permission does not constitute a transfer of rights.

7) Retention of title

If the seller makes advance payments, he retains ownership of the delivered goods until the purchase price owed has been paid in full.

8) Liability for defects (warranty)

Unless otherwise stated in the following provisions, the statutory liability for defects applies. The following applies to contracts for the delivery of goods:

8.1 If the customer acts as an entrepreneur,

• the seller has the choice of the type of subsequent performance;
• For new goods, the limitation period for defects is one year from delivery of the goods;
• In the case of used goods, rights and claims due to defects are excluded;
• The limitation period does not begin again if a replacement delivery is made within the scope of liability for defects.

8.2 The limitations of liability and shortening of deadlines set out above shall not apply

• for claims for damages and reimbursement of expenses by the customer,
• in the event that the seller has fraudulently concealed the defect,
• for goods which have been used for a building in accordance with their usual purpose and which have caused its defectiveness,
• for any existing obligation of the seller to provide updates for digital products, in the case of contracts for the delivery of goods with digital elements.

8.3 Furthermore, for entrepreneurs, the statutory limitation periods for any existing statutory recourse claim remain unaffected.

8.4 If the customer acts as a merchant within the meaning of Section 1 of the German Commercial Code (HGB), he or she is subject to the commercial duty of inspection and notification of defects pursuant to Section 377 of the HGB. If the customer fails to comply with the notification obligations stipulated therein, the goods shall be deemed approved.

8.5 If the customer is a consumer, they are requested to report any goods delivered with obvious transport damage to the delivery company and to notify the seller of this. Failure by the customer to do so will have no effect on their statutory or contractual claims for defects.

9) Liability

The seller is liable to the customer for all contractual, quasi-contractual and statutory claims, including tortious claims, for damages and reimbursement of expenses as follows:

9.1 The Seller shall be liable without limitation for any legal reason

• in case of intent or gross negligence,
• in the event of intentional or negligent injury to life, body or health,
• based on a guarantee promise, unless otherwise agreed,
• due to mandatory liability such as under the Product Liability Act.

9.2 If the Seller negligently breaches a material contractual obligation, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for the contract, unless unlimited liability applies in accordance with the above clause. Material contractual obligations are obligations that the contract imposes on the Seller according to its content to achieve the purpose of the contract, the fulfillment of which makes the proper execution of the contract possible in the first place, and on whose compliance the Customer may regularly rely.

9.3 Otherwise, the Seller’s liability is excluded.

9.4 The above liability provisions shall also apply with regard to the Seller’s liability for its vicarious agents and legal representatives.

10) Redemption of gift vouchers

10.1 Vouchers that can be purchased through the Seller's online shop (hereinafter "Gift Vouchers") can only be redeemed in the Seller's online shop, unless otherwise stated in the voucher.

10.2 Gift vouchers and any remaining balance on gift vouchers can be redeemed until the end of the third year following the year of purchase. Any remaining balance will be credited to the customer until the expiration date.

10.3 Gift vouchers can only be redeemed before the order process is completed. Subsequent crediting is not possible.

10.4 Multiple gift vouchers can be redeemed in one order.

10.5 Gift vouchers can only be used to purchase goods and not to purchase additional gift vouchers.

10.6 If the value of the gift voucher is insufficient to cover the order, one of the other payment methods offered by the Seller can be used to settle the difference.

10.7 The balance of a gift voucher will not be paid out in cash or bear interest.

10.8 The gift voucher is intended for use only by the person named on it. Transfer of the gift voucher to third parties is excluded. The seller is entitled, but not obligated, to verify the material eligibility of the respective voucher holder.

11) Applicable law

All legal relationships between the parties shall be governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the laws governing the international sale of movable goods. For consumers, this choice of law applies only to the extent that the protection granted is not withdrawn by mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which the consumer has his or her habitual residence.

12) Alternative dispute resolution

12.1 The EU Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution on the Internet at the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr

This platform serves as a contact point for the out-of-court settlement of disputes arising from online sales or service contracts involving a consumer.

12.2 The Seller is neither obliged nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.