Terms of Use

This translation is provided for information only. The German version is legally binding: German terms of use.

1. Scope

These terms govern the use of Quellenkontor (website, API, SDK, CLI and MCP server), offered by Nick Schäfer, Quellenkontor, An der Mannsfaust 9, 60599 Frankfurt am Main. This offering is directed exclusively at businesses (Unternehmer) within the meaning of § 14 BGB (German Civil Code), legal entities under public law and special funds under public law, not at consumers. Deviating terms proposed by the customer do not apply.

2. Services

Quellenkontor provides reference data from official sources and schematic calculations under statutory rules. The scope, datasets and access methods follow from the website and the documentation. The scope of service on each plan, including deadlines for updates, notification, availability and support, is described in the Service Description, which is part of these terms. The calculations do not account for contractual, collectively agreed or company-specific rules, or the particulars of an individual case. Quellenkontor does not provide legal advice or tax advice.

We operate the service with the care of a prudent provider and aim for 99.5% average monthly availability. That's a target, not a guaranteed characteristic. Binding availability with credits is available only under a separate agreement on the Enterprise plan. Where possible, we announce maintenance in advance.

3. Account and keys

The customer keeps their API keys secret and is responsible for their use. If abuse is suspected, they revoke the key in their account. We may temporarily suspend keys if a use endangers the service or violates these terms, and we inform the customer about it.

4. Plans, quotas and prices

The plans and prices on the pricing page at the time of booking apply. All prices are net, plus VAT. Paid plans are billed monthly in advance through Stripe. The quota applies per calendar month. On paid plans, the service answers up to 10% of requests above the quota at no extra charge (buffer). Once the quota, on paid plans including the buffer, is used up, the service responds to further requests with status 429 until the first of the month. Unused requests are forfeited. A bigger plan applies from the time of booking. After a cancellation or a switch to a smaller plan, the previous quota applies until the end of the calendar month.

5. Term and termination

Paid plans run for an indefinite period and can be canceled at any time, effective at the end of the current billing month, in the customer portal or by email. The customer can delete the free account themselves at any time. The right to extraordinary termination remains unaffected.

If we discontinue a single dataset, we announce it by email at least three months in advance. If we discontinue the entire service, we likewise announce it at least three months in advance; that discontinuation never takes effect between October 1 and January 31, because that period covers the year end changeover in payroll. If the resulting date falls within that period, the discontinuation moves to the following February 1. We refund, on a pro-rata basis, any fees paid in advance for the period after discontinuation.

If we are no longer able to operate Quellenkontor ourselves, a deputy we have named receives emergency access to operations and data, in order to continue the service or wind it down in an orderly way. If we discontinue the entire service permanently, we publish the dataset as it stood at that point in time under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

6. Usage rights

The underlying values are official works (amtliche Werke) and free of copyright. For the compilation, verification and calculations, we grant the customer a simple, non-transferable right to store the results and cache them, and to process them further in their own systems, for example in payroll, HR software, reports and archives. On paid plans, the customer may additionally use the results in their own products and services and pass them on to their own customers as part of those products. The Free plan covers use within the customer's own company only.

This right continues beyond the end of the contract for results the customer retrieved during the term: they may keep them indefinitely in closed payroll runs, records and archives, and are under no obligation to delete them after the contract ends. What does end with the contract are new retrievals and the further use of the results as an ongoing, self-updating data source, for example as a continuously embedded API call or a refreshed cache.

It is not permitted to resell, or otherwise make available to third parties independent of one's own product, the dataset, in whole or in substantial part, as a data service of one's own.

7. Customer obligations

The customer uses the service only within the bounds of applicable law. They do not circumvent quotas, do not place an excessive load on the service, and do not send personal data in requests that isn't necessary for the query. Queries do not require the names or identifiers of employees.

8. Warranty and liability

We compile the data with great care from the primary sources named. Even so, errors, delays or gaps can occur. The customer checks results before using them for decisions with legal or economic significance, in particular for payroll.

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, and under the Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz). For ordinary negligence, we are liable only for breach of material contractual obligations (wesentliche Vertragspflichten), meaning obligations whose fulfillment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance the customer may rely. In that case, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this kind of contract, capped at the fees paid over the last twelve months. On the free plan, we are liable only for intent and gross negligence.

9. Data protection

How we process personal data is set out in the Privacy Policy. Since queries don't require personal data about the customer's employees, no data processing (Auftragsverarbeitung) takes place on the customer's behalf.

10. Changes

We may amend these terms with effect for the future. We announce changes by email at least four weeks in advance. If the customer does not object within that period, the changes are deemed accepted. We point out the right to object and its consequences in the notice. If the customer objects, either party may terminate the contract as of the date the change would take effect.

11. Final provisions

German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The place of jurisdiction is Frankfurt am Main, to the extent the customer is a merchant (Kaufmann), a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law. Should any provision be invalid, the remainder of the contract remains valid.