Conducting business on your own responsibility on Suchen.Expert
Entrepreneurs and users engaged in commercial or independent professional activity generally act on their own responsibility on Suchen.Expert.
Unless they are recognisably acting on behalf of someone else, they conclude contracts in their own name and bear responsibility for the resulting rights and obligations themselves. By contrast, anyone validly acting as another person's representative acts directly for and against the person represented under the general rules of agency. §§ 164 et seq. BGB are particularly relevant.
1. Personal responsibility for offers and contracts
Within the limits of the law, commercial users determine in particular:
which goods or services they offer,
the prices at which they offer them,
which permissible contractual terms apply,
which payment methods are accepted,
how delivery or service provision takes place, and
which additional terms apply to the transaction concerned.
The provider concerned is responsible for properly performing the resulting contracts.
Depending on the activity, this also includes, in particular, compliance with tax obligations, necessary authorisations, statutory documentation obligations and other sector-specific requirements.
2. Providing clear information before concluding a contract
All essential points should be clearly established before a contract is concluded.
These include in particular:
the identity of the contracting parties,
a precise description of the goods or services,
the condition of the goods where applicable,
the total price and additional costs,
the payment method,
delivery or service terms, and
agreed deadlines.
Essential agreements should be documented in a traceable manner. This may be particularly important for subsequent queries or disputes.
3. When is a contract concluded?
Merely publishing an advertisement on Suchen.Expert does not in every case automatically mean that a binding contract has already been concluded.
Whether an advertisement itself already constitutes a legally binding offer or merely invites interested parties to make an offer depends on its content and presentation and the circumstances of the individual case.
Anyone making a binding offer to another person to conclude a contract is generally bound by it unless that binding effect has been excluded. This follows from § 145 BGB.
4. Honouring contractual commitments
If a contract is concluded, the agreed obligations must be fulfilled.
Under an obligation, each contracting party may demand the performance owed. There may also be duties to take account of the rights and interests of the other contracting party. § 241 BGB provides the general basis for this.
Legally binding statements and commitments made to customers should therefore be honoured. Breaches of duty may, subject to the statutory conditions, give rise in particular to claims for subsequent performance, rescission, a price reduction or damages. For example, § 280 BGB governs damages for a breach of duty for which the party is responsible.
5. Complaints and unwinding transactions
Complaints and asserted claims should be reviewed promptly and handled in accordance with statutory and contractual requirements.
Any statutory or contractual deadlines must be observed. This applies, for example, to:
withdrawals,
notifications of defects,
requests for subsequent performance,
refunds,
returns, and
other contractual claims.
Statutory rules on due dates and default must also be observed. Under the conditions of § 286 BGB, for example, a debtor may fall into default after the due date and a reminder or, in cases specified by law, even without a reminder.
6. Role of Suchen.Expert
Suchen.Expert provides the technical platform for publishing offers and for communication between users.
Unless expressly stated otherwise,
Suchen.Expert is neither the seller nor the buyer of the goods or services traded between users,
Suchen.Expert does not become a party to contracts concluded between users,
publication of an offer does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement of the provider by Suchen.Expert, and
Suchen.Expert does not provide bookkeeping, tax advice or debt collection for transactions concluded between users.
Suchen.Expert's statutory obligations as a platform operator and mandatory statutory liability remain unaffected.
7. Protecting the business account
Entrepreneurs should adequately protect access to their Suchen.Expert account.
In particular:
login details should not be shared with unauthorised persons,
secure and unique passwords should be used,
access permissions within the business should be reviewed regularly, and
access that is no longer needed should be removed or blocked.
If there is any suspicion that an account or login details have been used without authorisation, the password should be changed immediately and Suchen.Expert customer support informed.
Responsibility of the user
The entrepreneur concerned remains responsible for their business decisions, offers, the structure of their contractual relationships and proper contractual performance.
Suchen.Expert does not conduct an individual legal, tax or economic assessment of transactions concluded between users.
If there is uncertainty about specific contractual, tax or trade-law requirements, an appropriate professional assessment should be obtained.
