Terms and conditions for the use of the website provided by the Association of Employed Academics and Executives in the Chemical Industry (Verband angestellter Akademiker und leitender Angestellter der chemischen Industrie e. V.; VAA – Führungskräfte Chemie), referred to hereinafter as “VAA”, and for users of the website. 

General terms & conditions of use

1. General provisions and scope

a.) The website “www.vaa.de” is subject to the following terms and conditions of use, which become a legally binding agreement between the VAA and the user when this website is visited. Insofar as special terms for specific uses of this website deviate from the conditions set out below, notice of such exceptions shall be expressly stated in the relevant section. The supplementary terms of use shall then also apply accordingly.

b.) The VAA reserves the right to modify these terms and conditions of use, and to adapt them in keeping with technical or legal developments.

2. Rights

a.) This website contains data and information of all kinds, including text, logos, graphics and source text, which are trademarked or copyrighted by the VAA or, in some cases, by third parties. This website may be accessed on a browser for technical reasons provided that this does not serve any commercial purposes; the permanent duplication of material for personal use is also permitted.

b.) The user is not permitted to use any personal data gained through a query, either in full or in part, to build their own database, nor for commercial data processing or commercial provision of information, nor for any other form of commercial use. The data or individual elements thereof must not be linked, integrated or otherwise connected with other databases or meta databases.

c.) VAA members may also use VAA texts for their activities as association members in the VAA insofar as the texts are not altered and the VAA is named as the author.

d.) The framing of this website is not permitted.

e.) Any further use is only permitted with the express consent of the VAA.

3. Liability

a.) No guarantee is provided for the accuracy, completeness and up-to-dateness of the information on the website.

b.) The VAA accepts no liability for slightly negligent violations of secondary contractual obligations. This also applies in the event of slightly negligent breaches of duty by the legal representatives or by performing agents or vicarious agents of the VAA. In the event of a slightly negligent breach of a principal contractual obligation, the liability of the VAA shall be limited to predictable, immediate average damages typical for the type of contract.

c.) The aforementioned liability restrictions do not apply to user claims arising from product liability.

d.) The VAA shall only be liable for its own content on the website. References and links to third-party websites are by no means an indication that the VAA adopts the contents of the reference or link as its own. The contents do not constitute any responsibility on the part of the VAA for data and information provided there. The VAA has no influence over the content available via the link. The VAA is not liable for any unlawful, incorrect or incomplete content, nor for any damage resulting from use of content available via the link. If the VAA acquires knowledge of illegal contents on external websites, it shall block access to these websites without delay.

e.) Users browse the internet at their own risk. In particular, the VAA shall not be liable for any failure of the internet or lack of access to the internet due to technical reasons.

f.) In particular, the VAA assumes no responsibility for the availability of the website.

4. Privacy policy

(1) All data transmitted to the VAA is collected, saved and processed in accordance with § 28 of the German Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, BDSG) and § 3 et seq. of the German Teleservices Data Protection Act (Teledienstedatenschutzgesetz, TDDSG) for the purposes of providing services or for the performance and implementation of the contract.

(2) Any personal data that the VAA collects during the registration process and as part of the provision of its services shall be treated confidentially. This data shall only be collected, processed and used to the extent permitted by § 28 BDSG and § 4 TDDSG or with the user’s consent. In cases where the user requests the services of third parties via this website, the personal data required in order to provide these services for the user shall be forwarded to the third parties by the VAA.

(3) If so requested, the VAA agrees to provide full information for the user free of charge about any data stored concerning his or her person. VAA will not forward this information or the content of any private messages from the user to any third party without the user’s prior consent. This does not apply in cases where the VAA is legally required to reveal such information to third parties, government agencies in particular, or insofar as this is stipulated by internationally recognised technical standards and the user does not object.

(4) The VAA advises the user according to § 33 BDSG that personal data (master data) and other information relating to his or her usage behaviour (connection data, e.g. passwords, uploads and downloads) will be stored by the VAA for the duration of the contractual relationship or membership insofar as this is required to fulfil the purpose of the contract or the membership. The user agrees to the storage of this data.

(5) The VAA is entitled to provide anonymous user information to third parties for demographic purposes. This anonymous data may be used by the VAA in order to compile statistics or for quality assurance purposes.

(6) When you access the pages on the VAA website, information such as the name of your internet service provider, the website you are viewing, the date and time of access and your IP address will be automatically recorded. This refers only to information which cannot be traced back to you as an individual. This data is also collected when you access any other website on the internet. It is therefore not a function which is specific to the VAA website. This kind of information is collected on an anonymous basis only and used for statistical evaluation by us. This helps us to improve our offer on the internet and cater for your preferences more effectively.

(7) We use so-called “cookies” in order to enhance the range of functions of our offer  on the internet and to make it more convenient for you to use. These “cookies” allow data to be stored on your computer when you access our website. You can prevent cookies from being stored on your computer by adjusting the corresponding settings in your browser. This may, however, restrict the functionality of our offer.

5. Final provisions

a.) The laws of the Federal Republic of Germany apply. As far as consumers who do not use the website for professional or commercial purposes are concerned, this agreement on applicable law only applies insofar as the consumer is not deprived of the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which he or she habitually resides. The provisions of UN law do not apply here.

b.) If the user is a businessperson, a legal person under public law or a special fund under public law, the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising out of or in connection with the present use of the website shall be Cologne. The same shall apply if the other party does not have a general place of jurisdiction in Germany or if their residence or habitual abode is unknown when the legal action is filed. The VAA’s right to bring an action against the user at any other legally permissible place of jurisdiction (e.g. at his or her place of residence and/or business) remains unaffected.

c.) In the event that individual provisions of these terms and conditions of use should be declared invalid, the rest of the terms and conditions shall remain effective.