ugreen-forum.de

1. Scope

1.1 These Terms of Use apply to the use of the UGREEN.FORUM online forum operated at ugreen-forum.de by registered users.

1.2 The operator of the forum is Michael Doll (hereinafter referred to as the "Operator").

1.3 In addition to these Terms of Use, the Community Rules apply. In particular, they specify the rules governing conduct and interaction within the community. In the event of any conflict, these Terms of Use shall prevail. If amendments to the Community Rules affect material rights or obligations arising from the user relationship, Section 9 shall apply accordingly.

2. Registration, Eligibility and User Account

2.1 The forum may be used by natural persons. Minors may register and use the forum insofar as they are legally entitled to do so. Where the consent of a legal representative is required by law for the conclusion or performance of the user relationship, such consent must have been obtained.

2.2 As a general rule, each user may maintain only one user account. User accounts are personal and may not be transferred to or shared with other persons. In justified exceptional cases, the Operator may permit the use of multiple user accounts.

2.3 A user may visibly act on behalf of a company, manufacturer or other organisation provided that the user is authorised to do so. The Operator may request appropriate evidence of such authorisation.

2.4 A user account is required for the active use of certain functions of the forum. To create an account, the user must complete the registration process provided on the website and provide the information required there.

2.5 During regular registration, the user receives an email containing a confirmation link. Until the email address has been confirmed, the user account can only be used to a limited extent. If no confirmation is received within 24 hours, a reminder email will be sent. If confirmation is still not completed within the following 24 hours, the user account that has not yet been fully activated will be deleted automatically.

2.6 Where registration or login through a third-party provider is offered, confirmation of the email address may be replaced by successful authentication with the respective provider.

2.7 The user agreement is concluded once registration has been successfully completed and the user account has been activated. The Terms of Use and Community Rules incorporated at the time of registration shall apply.

2.8 Before completing registration, the user may review and correct their entries using the input fields provided and the usual operating functions. The contract is concluded in German. The Terms of Use and Community Rules can be accessed via the website before registration is completed and can be saved or printed using the usual browser functions. An individual copy of the contract is not made available in the user account after conclusion of the contract.

2.9 Information provided during registration must be accurate insofar as it is required for use of the forum and must be updated where necessary. If there are reasonable doubts regarding the accuracy or current status of required information, the Operator may request clarification or correction and may temporarily restrict access until the matter has been clarified.

2.10 The user is responsible for protecting their access credentials and the means of access associated with their user account. Access credentials may not be disclosed to third parties. If there are indications that a user account has been used without authorisation or that access credentials have become known to third parties, the Operator must be informed without undue delay.

2.11 Information on the processing of personal data in connection with registration and use of the forum can be found in our Privacy Policy.

3. Services, Availability and Changes to the Forum

3.1 The Operator provides an online community at ugreen-forum.de in which users may, in particular, publish posts and other content, access content posted by other users, use user profiles and communicate with other users. The specific scope of functions is determined by the functions available on the platform at the relevant time.

3.2 Use of the forum is generally free of charge. Voluntary financial contributions to support the community are not a requirement for registration or use of the forum.

3.3 The internet connection required to access the forum as well as the devices and software required for this purpose are the responsibility of the user.

3.4 The Operator endeavours to ensure that the forum is available as reliably as possible. However, continuous and uninterrupted availability cannot be guaranteed. Maintenance work, technical disruptions, security measures and circumstances outside the Operator's control may in particular result in temporary restrictions or outages.

3.5 The Operator may develop, modify, replace or discontinue the forum or individual functions where there is an objective reason for doing so. Such reasons may include, in particular, statutory or regulatory requirements, security concerns, the resolution of technical problems, changes to the software used or to technical conditions, or the improvement or further development of the forum.

3.6 Changes must not unreasonably disadvantage users contrary to applicable law. Changes to the existing forum will not result in additional charges for the user unless otherwise expressly agreed for an additional and voluntarily used service.

3.7 The Operator will provide timely information in an appropriate manner regarding changes that more than insignificantly impair access to or use of the forum. Where required by law, such information will be provided in text form or on another durable medium. Any statutory rights of the user arising from an adverse change remain unaffected.

3.8 Purely technical adjustments, bug fixes, security updates, design changes and comparable measures that do not have a material adverse effect on the use of the forum may be implemented without separate prior notice.

3.9 Technical usage and log data may be processed in order to ensure secure and functional operation and to detect and prevent misuse. Further details can be found in the Privacy Policy.

4. User Responsibility and Permitted Content

4.1 Each user is responsible for the content they post or distribute through their user account. Content must not violate applicable law, these Terms of Use or the Community Rules.

4.2 Users may only publish content for which they have the necessary rights and permissions.

4.3 Prohibited content includes, in particular, content that

• infringes copyrights, trademark rights, personality rights or other rights of third parties;
• discloses personal or confidential data of third parties without the required authorisation;
• is criminal or otherwise unlawful;
• threatens, insults, deliberately disparages or defames other persons;
• contains statements of fact that the user knows to be false;
• is racist, xenophobic, discriminatory, dehumanising or comparably degrading;
• is harmful to minors or glorifies violence;
• contains or distributes malware, harmful code, spam or other abusive content; or
• is intended to circumvent technical safeguards, access restrictions or other security measures of the forum.

4.4 Links to external content may not be used to circumvent statutory requirements, these Terms of Use, the Community Rules or technical access restrictions.

4.5 The above rules apply accordingly to topics, posts, comments, profile content, signatures, attachments and other content provided by users.

4.6 When using non-public communication functions, users must also respect the rights of other users, the Community Rules and applicable law. Non-public communications are generally not reviewed by the Operator without a specific reason.

5. Moderation, Reporting of Content and Measures in the Event of Violations

5.1 The Operator is generally not required to review all content posted by users before publication or continuously without a specific reason in order to determine its legality or compliance with these Terms of Use.

5.2 Users and affected third parties may report content that they consider unlawful or incompatible with these Terms of Use or the Community Rules using the reporting function available in the forum or the email address specified in the Legal Notice. A report should identify the relevant content as clearly as possible and provide a comprehensible explanation of the reason for the complaint.

5.3 Incoming reports will be reviewed within an appropriate scope in a timely, diligent, objective and non-arbitrary manner. Where contact details of the reporting person are available and where required by law, receipt of the report and the decision taken in relation to it will be communicated.

5.4 Moderation decisions concerning reported content are generally reviewed by members of the forum team. Where automated technical protection or filtering mechanisms are used, these serve in particular to detect and prevent spam, bots, malware or other technical misuse.

5.5 In the event of a violation of statutory provisions, these Terms of Use or the Community Rules, the Operator may take appropriate measures. These may include, in particular, notices or warnings, moving, editing, restricting, blocking or removing content, restricting individual functions, and temporarily or permanently suspending a user account.

5.6 When selecting an appropriate measure, the Operator will take into account, in particular, the nature, severity and frequency of the violation, any fault on the part of the user, the impact on other users or third parties, and previous violations. In the event of particularly serious violations or where immediate action is necessary to protect other users, third parties or the forum, a measure may be taken without a prior warning.

5.7 Where required by law, the affected user will be informed of a restriction or moderation decision and of the main reasons for it. The identity of a reporting person will generally not be disclosed unless disclosure is required for legal reasons.

5.8 A user affected by a moderation or suspension measure may contact the Operator using the contact details specified in the Legal Notice and request a further review.

5.9 A permanently suspended user may not create a new user account or use another user account to circumvent the suspension without the Operator's prior consent.

5.10 The right to take legal action in the event of legal violations remains unaffected.

6. Rights to Content and Use of Forum Content

6.1 The rights to content posted by a user generally remain with the respective user or other rights holder.

6.2 By providing content, the user grants the Operator, free of charge, the non-exclusive and territorially unrestricted rights of use required for the operation of the forum. Content will be used in accordance with the visibility intended for the respective content, either publicly or only within the respective authorised group of users.

6.3 The rights granted include, in particular, the right to store and technically reproduce content, make it accessible to the intended group of users, display it in search and overview functions and retain it as part of technically required caching and backups.

6.4 The Operator may technically edit content or edit it as part of moderation where this is necessary for the operation of the forum. This includes, in particular, formatting, display adjustments, moving content and removing or obscuring unlawful or rule-violating portions. The substantive meaning of a post should not be altered without an objective reason.

6.5 After termination of the user relationship, previously published posts, topics, comments and quotations may remain in the forum insofar as this is necessary to preserve the readability, traceability and substantive structure of existing discussions and is permitted by law. The rights of use required for this purpose under Sections 6.2 to 6.4 shall continue to apply to this extent. Attachments and other content provided by the user may continue to exist insofar as their continued use is permitted by law. Mandatory statutory rights of the user, in particular rights relating to data protection, remain unaffected.

6.6 The user represents that they hold the rights required to provide their content. If the Operator is legitimately held liable as a result of an infringement of third-party rights culpably caused by the user, the user shall indemnify the Operator against such claims and the necessary costs of legal defence to the extent permitted by law. This shall not apply insofar as the user is not responsible for the infringement. The user shall provide reasonable assistance to the Operator in reviewing and defending against such claims.

6.7 Publicly accessible content of the forum may be linked to. Any further reproduction, publication or distribution of content posted by other users is only permitted insofar as this is allowed by law or the necessary consent of the respective rights holder has been obtained.

6.8 Content from areas accessible only to a particular or restricted group of users may not be made accessible outside that group without the appropriate authorisation. Technical access restrictions may not be circumvented.

7. Liability of the Operator

7.1 The Operator shall be liable without limitation in accordance with statutory provisions for damage caused intentionally or through gross negligence and for damage resulting from injury to life, body or health. The same applies where a guarantee has been assumed or mandatory statutory liability applies.

7.2 In the event of a slightly negligent breach of a material contractual obligation, the Operator's liability shall be limited to the type of damage typical of the contract and foreseeable at the time the contract was concluded. A material contractual obligation is an obligation whose performance is essential for the proper performance of the user relationship and on compliance with which the user may regularly rely.

7.3 In all other respects, the Operator's liability for slight negligence is excluded to the extent permitted by law.

7.4 The above liability provisions apply accordingly to the Operator's legal representatives and vicarious agents.

8. Term, Termination and Deletion of the User Account

8.1 The user relationship is concluded for an indefinite period. The user may terminate it at any time without observing a notice period. The Operator may terminate the user relationship with 14 days' notice. This applies in particular if the Operator discontinues operation of the forum as a whole.

8.2 The right of either party to terminate the user relationship for good cause remains unaffected. Good cause may exist, in particular, where continuation of the user relationship is unreasonable due to a serious or repeated violation of statutory provisions, these Terms of Use or the Community Rules.

8.3 The user may terminate the user relationship at any time by using the function provided for deleting their user account in the user account settings. Alternatively, termination may be declared to the Operator in text form, in particular by email.

8.4 Where deletion is initiated through the user account, the account will initially be scheduled for final deletion after a period of seven days. During this waiting period, the user may revoke the deletion request.

8.5 After expiry of the waiting period, the user account will be terminated. Personal account data will be deleted or anonymised in accordance with statutory requirements unless statutory retention obligations or other lawful grounds permit further processing. The publicly displayed username will be replaced by a neutral designation following the format "Guest_UserID".

8.6 Private conversations associated with the user account will be deleted as part of the final account deletion. Statutory retention or evidentiary obligations that exist independently of the private conversation function remain unaffected.

8.7 Deletion of the user account does not automatically result in the deletion of content published by the user. Previously published posts, topics, comments and other discussion content may remain in the forum insofar as this is necessary to preserve the readability, traceability and substantive structure of existing discussions and is permitted by law. Remaining content will no longer be associated with an active user account.

8.8 Termination of the user account does not, by itself, give rise to a general entitlement to deletion of all published content. Statutory rights relating to deletion, rectification or restriction of individual content remain unaffected. If published content contains personal data or if other legal grounds for removal or modification exist, the former user may request a review using the reporting function available in the forum or the email address specified in the Legal Notice.

8.9 In quotations or other technically generated references to earlier posts, the username originally used may technically remain visible. If this continues to create a personal reference in an individual case and removal or anonymisation is legally required, the relevant content will be reviewed upon request and, where necessary, modified or removed.

8.10 Statutory rights of the user relating to their personal data or content provided by them remain unaffected.

9. Changes to the Terms of Use and Community Rules

9.1 The Operator may amend these Terms of Use where there is an objective reason for doing so and the amendment does not unreasonably disadvantage the user.

9.2 An amendment without separate consent of the user is permitted in particular where it is required due to a change in the law, an enforceable regulatory or court decision, or where it concerns only editorial, clarifying, technical or organisational provisions that do not adversely alter material rights and obligations of the user.

9.3 The same applies to amendments that operate exclusively in favour of the user or are necessary to reflect new voluntary functions or services, provided that the existing user relationship is not thereby altered to the user's detriment.

9.4 The Operator will inform affected users of material amendments to these Terms of Use in good time and in an appropriate manner.

9.5 Where an amendment requires the user's consent under applicable law, it will only take effect for the existing user relationship once the user has consented to it. Mere silence or continued use of the forum does not constitute consent.

9.6 The Community Rules may be amended insofar as such amendments specify, in particular, conduct within the community, moderation procedures or organisational details and do not adversely alter material contractual rights or obligations of users.

9.7 Mandatory statutory rights of users remain unaffected.

10. Applicable Law and Jurisdiction

10.1 The user relationship is governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany. In relation to consumers, this choice of law applies only insofar as it does not deprive the consumer of the protection afforded by mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which the consumer has their habitual residence.

10.2 To the extent that an agreement on jurisdiction is permitted by law, the Operator's general place of jurisdiction shall be the place of jurisdiction for disputes arising from the user relationship. This applies in particular in relation to merchants, legal persons under public law and special funds under public law, as well as in cases where the user has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany and the statutory requirements for an agreement on jurisdiction are met. The Operator remains entitled to bring claims at the user's general place of jurisdiction. In all other respects, the statutory provisions governing jurisdiction shall apply.

11. Alternative Dispute Resolution

The Operator does not participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer conciliation body.