Should the English version differ from the German version, the German version is explicitly valid and binding.

General terms and conditions of business

General terms and conditions for athletes

Preamble

become-a-pro GmbH, with its registered office at Mangoldweg 20 in 88471 Laupheim, Germany (hereinafter referred to as “operator”) is the operator of the agency platform become-a-pro.net (hereinafter referred to as “platform”). The mediation platform enables registered athletes (hereinafter referred to as “athletes”) to present themselves with pictures, videos and information for possible sponsor contacts. The service is free of charge. Persons under 18 years of age may only use the platform with the consent of a parent or legal guardian. The following terms and conditions apply:

§ 1 Registration / Scope of services / membership

a) Every athlete has the opportunity to register as part of a free membership and create his or her own profile. The information required for a profile shall be brought to the Athlete’s attention automatically during the process of creating the profile. The profile is published on the intermediation platform after approval by the Athlete and can be viewed by everyone on the platform. Excluded from this are personal data such as name, contact details or address. Within the context of the profile, the athlete is evaluated with a scoring system. The evaluation factors are determined by the operator at his own discretion (e.g. professionalism, coverage, activity, fans, completeness of the profile, etc.). This also includes the analysis and evaluation of linked websites or content (e.g. number of followers on social media). With the registration a free contractual relationship between the operator and the athlete is established.

b) If the operator receives enquiries from sponsors concerning the registered athlete, the operator is obliged to pass on the information provided by the athlete to the requesting sponsor. The athlete consents to the disclosure of this information and agrees that the sponsor may contact the athlete.

c) In order to make full use of the mediation platform, the athlete must always use the latest (browser) technologies or enable their use on his/her computer (e.g. activation of Java Script, cookies, pop-ups). If older technologies or not commonly used technologies are used, the Athlete may have limited use of the operator’s services (limited availability, etc.).

d) By registering as an athlete there is also the possibility of using the marketplace. Details can be found in the relevant general terms and conditions.

§ 2 Athlete’s responsibility and obligations

a) The athlete is solely responsible for the content of his/her registration as well as the content of his/her profile and thus for the information he/she provides about him/herself. The athlete assures to provide only true information on the mediation platform. The athlete assures that he/she is solely entitled to use all photos, videos and texts used in his/her profile and that there are no conflicting rights of third parties.

b) The athlete obligates himself/herself to inform the operator immediately of the conclusion of a sponsorship contract after the operator has arranged it, at the latest within three days after the conclusion of the contract. This applies to all sponsorships that are concluded with the same sponsor within three years of the placement. All companies associated with the sponsor are also considered as sponsors.

c) If the athlete is successfully placed to a sponsor via the placement platform and a sponsorship contract is concluded, the athlete obligates himself/herself after successful placement to wear the become-a-pro logo, which is provided to him/her by the operator, in a clearly visible place on the front of the helmet or on the chest of the clothing. This is valid for a period of three years after conclusion of the contract with the same sponsor and for public appearances in connection with the sport. No further remuneration is owed upon conclusion of the contract.

d) The athlete obligates himself/herself to hold the operator free of any kind of damages or claims that arise from his/her registration and profile, if the athlete has acted culpably.

e) Any use beyond the purpose of the usage agreement is prohibited. In particular, the athlete is prohibited to,

• register multiple times under different identities on the platform;
• disseminate false or misleading allegations within the platform;
• threaten, insult, harass or otherwise violate the rights of other users;
• to violate these terms and conditions or applicable law (e.g. copyright and trademark law) when using the platform;
• – to send chain letters or spam messages;
• disseminate pornographic, racist, violence glorifying or trivialising, inciting, right-wing extremist, anti-constitutional or other contents within the platform that violate applicable law and morality.

In case of a violation of the regulations of this clause, the operator is entitled to temporarily block the customer account or the sending of electronic messages or to terminate the contract of use for extraordinary reasons. The sanction depends on the type, severity and duration or number of the violation(s) and is selected by the operator at its discretion.

§ 3 Operator’s liability

The contractual and legal liability for damages and compensation of expenses by the operator, regardless of the legal basis, as well as the liability of the legal representatives and vicarious agents of the operator is excluded or limited as follows:

a) For the slightly negligent violation of essential obligations from the contractual relationship, the operator is amount limited liable for the the damage foreseeable at the time of the conclusion of the contract and typical for the contract. ” Essential contractual obligations” are those obligations which protect the athlete’s legal positions which are essential to the contract and which the contract must specifically grant him/her according to its content and purpose; also essential are those contractual obligations whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose compliance the athlete has regularly relied and may rely.

b) The operator is not liable for the slightly negligent violation of non-essential obligations arising from the contractual relationship or for force majeure.

c) The aforementioned limitation of liability does not apply in cases of mandatory legal liability (in particular under the product liability law), if and insofar as the operator has assumed a guarantee or a procurement risk (§ 276 BGB) and for culpably caused bodily injury (injury to life, limb, health) also by representatives and vicarious agents and in the case of delay in a fixed service date.

d) The athlete is obliged to take reasonable measures to prevent and mitigate the damage.

e) A reversal of the burden of proof is not associated with the above provisions.

f) The operator only owes the provision of the services for the placement of contact data, not the success. The operator is therefore not liable if no contact between the athlete and a sponsor is established within the contract period.

g) The operator also assumes no liability for any misuse of information that has been passed on by the operator in accordance with the contract. The operator cannot prevent the information from being used in an inadmissible or illegal manner despite the prohibition.

h) The operator does not guarantee that the service or platform will always be in proper operation or that the service or platform will be usable or accessible without interruption. In particular, the operator is not liable for disruptions in the quality of access to the service due to force majeure or due to incidents for which the operator is not responsible. Furthermore, the operator is not liable for the unauthorized acquisition of personal data of athletes by third parties (e.g. through unauthorized access by “hackers” to the database).

§ 4 Rights of use

The Athlete grants the Operator the non-exclusive, non-transferable, free and geographically unrestricted rights of use for the photos, videos and texts posted in the Athlete’s profile. The rights of use are limited to the use for advertising the platform by the operator and the operator’s company and its activities. The rights of use for the operator end when the application is made. The application is possible at the earliest five years after the termination of the contractual relationship between the athlete and the operator, i.e. with the deletion of the profile by the athlete (termination of membership).

§ 5 Termination

The athlete has the right to cancel the contract for free membership at any time with immediate effect. The termination of the free membership can be done via the delete function in the profile.

§ 6 Applicable law and legal venue

a) The business relations between the operator and the athlete are subject to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany under exclusion of German conflict of laws.

b) Place of jurisdiction is the registered office of the operator, if the Athlete is a merchant or a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law.

§ 7 Amendment of the General Terms and Conditions

a) become-a-pro reserves the right to amend these general terms and conditions at any time, as long as essential provisions of the contractual relationship are not affected by this and this is necessary to adapt to developments that were not foreseeable by become-a-pro at the time of the conclusion of the contract and whose non-consideration would noticeably disturb the balance of the contractual relationship. Essential regulations are in particular those concerning the type and range of the agreed services as well as the duration including the regulations for termination. become-a-pro is entitled to make changes in order to close gaps in the contract, which occur in particular due to legal changes and changes in jurisdiction.

b) become-a-pro shall inform the user of the changes by e-mail, sending him/her the general business relations to be changed. The user has the possibility to object to the changes with a period of two weeks. If the user does not object to the changes within this period, the changed General Terms and Conditions of Business shall apply from the day of the expiry of the period..

§ 8 Legally required information on online dispute resolution for consumers

The EU Commission provides a platform for online dispute resolution on the Internet at the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr

This platform serves as a contact point for out-of-court settlement of disputes arising from online purchase or service contracts in which a consumer is involved. The operator is neither willing nor obliged to take part in a consumer dispute resolution procedure according to the VSBG.