The provisions below shall govern the performance of all orders for the placement of advertisements in the broadest sense. The placement of an order with the Company implies a waiver of the Client’s conditions of purchase. These conditions may only be varied with the express written agreement of the Company.
1. CLIENT AND RESPONSIBILITY
1.1. Advertisements shall be published under the exclusive responsibility of the Client. The Client shall hold the Company harmless against any claim against the Company or its responsible editor resulting from the performance of the order, and he shall be liable for all costs incurred by the Company in this respect, such as the space used for a right of reply.
1.2. The Client shall only be entitled to provide materials to which he has obtained all rights (intellectual property rights, image rights, etc.).
1.3. If a court order is issued to include text, the price of the publication shall be invoiced to the person placing the order for the placement, at the rates applicable at that time.
1.4. When the Client does not have a place of residence in Belgium, the Company may demand that the order be placed by a person whose place of residence is in Belgium.
1.5. The Company shall be entitled to insert a number or other sign, or to clearly indicate in another manner that it concerns an advertisement, and it shall always be entitled to make the Client’s identity public.
2. RIGHT OF REFUSAL
The Company shall be entitled, at its discretion, without being obliged to provide reasons for its decision and without being liable for any damages, to suspend, end or refuse the placement, even after the advertising department has accepted the order in question or started its performance. The acceptance of an order shall always take place with the suspensive condition of approval by the management of the Company.
3. PROHIBITION OF RESALE AND EXPLOITATION
3.1 Except with the express written agreement of the Company, advertising space must not be resold in any way or made available to third parties in any other way.
3.2. The Client shall refrain from any kind of exploitation and, more generally, from any processing, either directly or indirectly, immediate or deferred, of personal data – concretely, data that identify physical persons or enable their identification – which is not strictly limited to an efficient dissemination of the advertisements placed by him on the website(s) of the Company. In case of non-compliance, the Company reserves the right to end the order, without prejudice to its right to full payment of the order.
4. SPECIFICATION
4.1 For special wishes in relation to the placement (specific days, specific place or page) a higher price will be applied, in accordance with the applicable rates.
4.2. Inclusion in a specific place or on a specific day or exclusivity on the page cannot be guaranteed. All instructions in this sense shall be regarded as wishes, which will be taken into account to the extent possible. In no case shall any failure to comply with any such wishes result in damages or a lower price.
4.3 For technical reasons related to printing, publication of an advertisement in one specific medium only cannot always be allowed. When one single rate is provided for publication in different media at the same time, this rate is indivisible and the full price shall be payable even when the wish was expressed to only have the advertisement published in a single medium.
5. MATERIALS AND METHOD
5.1. Materials must be supplied in time and comply with the technical specifications.
5.2 The Company shall be entitled to adapt any materials that are not suitable for use, although this shall not be deemed an obligation of the Company. The costs involved in such adaptations shall be charged to the Client.
5.3 In no case can shortcomings that are the result of materials that do not comply with the specifications or are supplied late result in any price reduction, repeated publication or damages in any form whatsoever.
5.4 In principle, orders for the publication of advertisements must be submitted in writing or by electronic means. When an order is submitted by telephone, orally, or by fax, the Company cannot be held liable for any alleged errors in the performance of the order.
5.5 The Company cannot be held liable for any damage occurring during the handling of materials provided by the Client.
5.6. Materials shall be kept available for the Client for a maximum period of one month after the inclusion, after which they shall be destroyed.
5.7. If the Client entrusts the layout of an advertisement to the Company, he shall pay for the layout costs. If the Client does not give any specific instructions, the Company cannot be held liable for the way in which it does the layout.
6. TRANSLATIONS
The Company may refuse advertisements that are supplied in a language other than that of the medium.
7. CANCELLATION
7.1. The Client shall not be entitled to cancel orders or interrupt the performance of ongoing orders; orders shall be invoiced in full.
7.2 If a volume discount has been granted in anticipation of the placement of a certain number of advertisements, and this number is not reached because no new publication orders are received or because payment has been stopped and further advertisements are no longer placed, the Company shall be entitled to invoice the Client for the amount of the discount already granted.
8. RATES
Advertisements shall be charged at the rate applicable at the time of placement. The Company shall be entitled to change its rates for advertisements and/or formats at any time. The current rates can be found on the website of the Company.
Deviations in the quality, colours and dimensions of advertisements resulting from the nature itself of the reproduction and the (printing) technique used are expressly accepted by the Client.
9. PAYMENT TERMS
9.1. Invoices shall be paid into the bank account or at the registered office of the Company. All possible levies and taxes, transaction costs and VAT shall be for the account of the Client. Bills of exchange or cheques shall not be accepted as a means of payment.
9.2. The Company shall always be entitled to demand that invoices be paid in advance. Unless otherwise agreed, invoices shall be paid within 30 days after the date of the invoice. In case of non-payment of one invoice on the due date, the Company shall be entitled to suspend any ongoing advertisements without further notice, without prejudice to its rights and without being liable for any kind of damages in this respect.
9.3. When an invoice has not been paid at the latest on the due date, interest on arrears shall automatically be due, without prior notice of default, at the interest rate applicable under the Law on Late Payments in Commercial Transactions, to be calculated on the amount of the invoice, counted from the date of the invoice, as well as a fixed amount of damages equal to 10% of the total amount of the invoice, with a minimum of 50 euros.
9.4. If the Client has asked to issue the invoice to a third party and the Company has granted this request, the Company shall remain entitled to claim the amount due from the original Client as soon as the invoice to the third party is not paid on the due date. The same applies if the Company has granted a request for crediting and invoicing to a third party.
10. COMPLAINTS AND LIABILITY
10.1 Any complaints in relation to the publication shall be submitted in writing within five working days after publication;
10.2. Any complaints in relation to invoices shall be submitted in writing within 14 days after the date of the invoice, stating the invoice number.
10.3. The Company shall never be liable for circumstances beyond its control that delay the performance of the order or make it impossible, such as a strike, flood, fire, technical problems in the printing plant, distribution problems and other situations of force majeure.
10.4. Human errors, printing errors, a poor or unclear display of text and/or images, a smaller print run than usual, shall not result in damages or price reductions unless the Client provides proof of intent or gross negligence on the part of the Company.
10.5. Without prejudice to the foregoing, the Company shall never be liable for damages exceeding the value of the price the Company could charge for the publication order, unless proof of intent is provided.
11. DOMICILE AT THE COMPANY
If the Client of an advertisement that allows for responses wishes to preserve his anonymity, he can have the reactions to the advertisement placed by him addressed to the Company. In that case, the responses shall be kept available for the Client for 15 days after the publication of the last advertisement of the Client. If the Company is asked to transmit the responses, this shall be done at the Client’s risk and cost. Once the 15-day period has ended, the Company shall be entitled to destroy this correspondence. Advertising material and mailings shall not be forwarded.
12. COMPETENT COURT AND APPLICABLE LAW
12.1. This Agreement shall be governed by Belgian law, to the exclusion of international conventions that would lead to the application of a different legislation.
12.2. All disputes relating to the validity, the interpretation or the performance of this Agreement shall fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of Hasselt.