General Terms and Conditions of Business

1. Applicability of the general terms and conditions

IBS Fachübersetzungen AG, Baarerstrasse 14, 6300 Zug, Switzerland (in short IBS) operates a professional translation service and has recourse to a global network of specialised native tongue translators. We entrust the translations to approved freelance graduate specialist translators who have at least 5 years of professional experience. Your contract partner is always IBS. There is no contractual or other legal relationship between you and the translator.

You can find these general terms and conditions on the IBS website. They are applicable to all services provided by IBS. Anyone who places an order in accordance with article 2 is bound by these terms and conditions.

IBS reserves the right to amend or supplement these general terms and conditions if necessary at any time without notice. Before placing an order, as a client it is in your best interest to review the latest version of the general terms and conditions.

The following agreements are only valid in writing and when signed by us:

  • Variations from these general terms and conditions
  • Application of the client's general terms and conditions
  • Subsidiary agreements, guarantees and other agreements
  • Amendments and supplements to the contract

2. Origination of the order

IBS provides you with an offer (quotation) including a suggested price based on your requirements. In the absence of any of the cases described below, the offer varies by no more than 20% from the final price. If you agree, you award us a written order (by email or fax); by doing so you accept these general terms and conditions. Once your written order has been placed we are obliged in principle to maintain the contractual delivery period. The delivery period is determined according to working days (Monday to Friday excluding holidays). If you award us an order outside of business hours (Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., excluding January 1, January 2, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, August 1, December 25 and 26), the delivery period begins from the next business session. In the event that we need more time, we will contact you by telephone to discuss the further course of action.

3. Price calculation

We calculate the number of lines and hence the price electronically. A line consists of 53 characters or blank spaces. If it is not possible to precisely calculate the number of lines of individual sections of a document (e.g. due to text boxes, image fields) or the entire job (e.g. due to files in the pdf or xls format), we expressly reserve the right to adjust the price in accordance with the actual volume of the text.

We base our calculation of the suggested price on the source text. The number of lines of the translated document is the basis for determining the final price. We are pleased to carry out additional work on request (e.g. proofreading, editing, alignment etc.). This is charged at an hourly rate.

You receive an invoice for each order. Please pay this within 10 days. Please bear in mind that in the event of payment delays we are entitled to charge statutory default interest of 5% per year. 

4. Payment agreements:

Payment is due within 10 days of receipt of the invoice. Offsetting against disputed claims is excluded.

5. Translation quality

Your wish is our command:

  • We work according to the quality standard DIN 15038 (reg. no. 7U056) and the four-eyes principle.
  • We check each text for grammar, spelling, completeness and punctuation.
  • We translate no more and no less than the content of the original document. 
  • We take account of your company's own specialist technology and / or glossaries provided that these are available at the time the order is awarded.
  • We take account of general technical terminology and your glossaries.
  • We adhere to the layout of editable texts and approximate to the layout of non-editable texts.

6. Guarantee and work under guarantee

We guarantee top quality translations. If you tell us the purpose of the translation when you place the order, the guarantee also covers this purpose.

Should you be dissatisfied with our service, however, you must inform us of the reason for your complaint, including details and examples, by no later than 1 week following receipt of the translation. Subsequent complaints are excluded.

In the case of a justified complaint, we arrange a suitable date for correction free of charge. We are not obliged to provide free of charge correction if we did not receive precise or complete instructions or the customer made any changes after placing the order.

7. Liability and limitation of liability

We are liable:

  • only up to the amount of the order value;
  • only in the case of deliberate intention or gross negligence.

We are not liable:

  • for indirect losses (consequential losses) or incidental losses;
  • for cases of force majeure or unforeseen events;
  • for loss or delay of communication networks (Internet, email, telephone, post etc.)

8. Duty of confidentiality

We and our appointees handle all your business secrets in strict confidence, even after completion of the order.

9. Cancellation of orders

Naturally, you may cancel any order with us at any time. However, this may give rise to costs. These amount to at least 50% of the order value.

We reserve the right to refrain from processing orders if invoices from earlier orders are overdue for payment. However, we inform you in good time that on immediate payment of arrears the new order can be processed within the prescribed period.

10. Intellectual property rights

You warrant to us that you own all the intellectual property rights to the texts presented to us and indemnify IBS against all third party claims and corresponding legal and court costs.

The translations remain our intellectual property until the invoice has been paid in full.

11. Retention of documents

If you hand over documents to us in paper or other form and you require us to return these, please let us know when you hand them over; otherwise we may dispose of these documents one year after receiving them, without informing you beforehand. Unless otherwise agreed, we archive source texts and finished translations in electronic form.

12. Prohibition of solicitation

The client undertakes for the duration of the contractual relationship and for 1 year thereafter not to entice away from IBS any translator or service provider who performs work for IBS (including translators externally commissioned by IBS). A contract penalty of up to CHF 15,000 is payable on violation of this non-solicitation clause.

13. Entry into force

These general terms and conditions enter into force on 1 February 2013 and replace all earlier versions of our general terms and conditions.

14. Place of performance and jurisdiction

The place of performance and jurisdiction is Frauenfeld, unless another place of jurisdiction is mandatory. IBS also reserves the right to enforce the contract before any other competent judge.

Swiss law, particularly contract law, applies. Provisions that cite the applicability of foreign law and the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) are excluded.

15. Severability clause

Should any of the provisions of these general terms and conditions be invalid or void, such provisions are to be replaced by provisions which approximate as closely as possible to the economic meaning of the invalid or void provision. The remaining provisions of the general terms and conditions do not change.