Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Affiliate Agreement: Karatbars International GMBH
Affiliate Agreement: Karatbars International GMBH
§1
Subject matter of the agreement, marketing plan
(1) Karatbars mainly sells precious metals, as well as, merchandise articles worldwide
according to the latest Product Details.
(hereinafter briefly referred to as: Karatbars contract products).
The qualified Affiliate shall have the right to recommend Karatbars contract products as
an independent, free and autonomous recommender for Karatbars in accordance with
the Affiliate’s respective national laws and the following provisions.
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(2) This agreement regulates the fundamental cooperation between the contracting parties.
Incorporated with this agreement by reference, enclosure, link, back office download,
and/or addendum is the current applicable marketing plan of Karatbars, which contains
the compensation guidelines for Affiliates. The current marketing plan is linked as
“Marketing plan”
(3) The Affiliate confirms that it has thoroughly checked, understood and accepted the
currently applicable marketing plan. It explicitly declares that it acknowledges and
approves this enclosure fully and completely.
(4) Any deviation, contradictory, or supplementary changes coming from the Affiliate or from
third parties shall become a part of the agreement only if and insofar as Karatbars has
consented to their validity explicitly and in writing.
§2
Contractual prerequisites and relationship of the
contracting parties with each other
(1) The Affiliate declares and assures that it fulfils all legal prerequisites and official
conditions in order to commercially recommend precious metal sales in its respective
country and to recommend Karatbars contract products.
a. Where required by law, the Affiliate must independently register its trade with the
competent authorities and institutions – even with its locally competent tax office;
b. Upon demand, the Affiliate must immediately furnish proof of all permits to
Karatbars and the Affiliate must maintain these documents in a current state.
c. The Affiliate shall be responsible for the fulfilment of all legal requirements including
but not limited to: trade-law-related, tax-related, labour-law-related, competition-
law-related and other legal obligations without any exceptions.
d. The Affiliate must properly declare compensation received for referrals to the
appropriate tax authorities and pay tax on the same.
If the Affiliate has not fulfilled the stated prerequisites, it may not commence its activity.
(2) The Affiliate shall not have an employment relationship with Karatbars under the labour
law. The Affiliate shall particularly determine the place, time, commencement and end as
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well as the type of its activity by itself; it shall itself bear the entrepreneurial commission
risk and shall also not be entitled to remuneration during holidays or illness.
The Affiliate shall be an independent contractor and must apply the diligence of a
prudent businessman in its business. The Affiliate must follow their national laws as well
as the applicable European Union Law regarding fair competition, the company’s internal
statutes and guidelines as well as Karatbars’ directives for business transactions. It must
always ensure that its behaviour does not violate laws, regulations or official instructions.
The Affiliate must follow Karatbars compliance guidelines and instructions for the proper
representation of Karatbars contract products and will promote the free-affiliate program
and marketing plan.
(3) The Affiliate declares that it, in addition to the Affiliate activity for Karatbars, it works for
third parties to a considerable extent. If the Affiliate is working or would work exclusively
or primarily only for Karatbars, it shall be obligated to immediately notify Karatbars and if
necessary, make applications for an exemption from the obligation to contribute to social
security with the competent institutions. If an exemption is not possible, the Affiliate must
immediately notify Karatbars. If it fails to do so, Karatbars shall be authorised to recover
any costs or liabilities for social security contributions from the Affiliate to the extent they
are payable. This provision shall otherwise survive the termination of this agreement.
(4) The Affiliate shall not be authorised to represent Karatbars in legal or contractual
transactions, particularly to make any declarations for Karatbars. Such declarations shall
not bind Karatbars, but the Affiliate itself that shall be solely responsible for any claims
against Karatbars. The Affiliate shall not have the power to represent Karatbars. It itself
shall be liable for its declarations and must, if necessary, indemnify Karatbars from all
consequences of unauthorised declarations. Other entitlements and rights of Karatbars
shall remain unaffected.
(5) Specifically, the Affiliate shall not be authorised to accept payments on behalf of
Karatbars. Customers cannot pay the Affiliate for products and services of Karatbars.
The Affiliate shall not have collection authority for Karatbars.
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§3
Tasks and duties of the Affiliate
(1) The Affiliate has a duty to protect Karatbars’ interests in all manners and to undertake
that Karatbars’ reputation is not damaged by its actions.
(2) The Affiliate shall have the task of recommending the Karatbars contract products
released by Karatbars to customers. While doing so, it must inform the customers about
the Karatbars products truthfully and professionally. Upon the successful conclusion of a
purchase contract personally recommended by the Affiliate, it shall be entitled to
compensation in accordance with this Affiliate Agreement and the current marketing
plan.
(3) The Affiliate shall further be obligated to recommend other customers and Affiliates
(down-line-affiliates). If these down-line-affiliates successfully recommend Karatbars
contract products resulting in the sale of Karatbars contract products by Karatbars, the
Affiliate and the down-line-affiliate shall both receive compensation in accordance with
this Affiliate Agreement and the current marketing plan.
(4) The Affiliate may only recommend the sale of Karatbars contract products which are
released for sale in writing by Karatbars and available in accordance with the laws and
other legal provisions of the Affiliates’ respective country.
(5) The Affiliate shall not have territorial protection. The Affiliate shall however be prohibited
to headhunt customers or affiliates of Karatbars for third parties, particularly for other
affiliate marketing systems, or to induce directly, or indirectly, other affiliates to abandon,
neglect, sell, or trade their existing account.
The Affiliate shall further be prohibited from headhunting customers, affiliates, or down-
line-affiliates of other affiliates of Karatbars, which have an active account with
Karatbars, for itself or for third parties (so-called cross-recruiting). “Active account” within
this meaning refers to an account, for which KYC documents have already been
uploaded and/or through which at least one purchase of Karatbars contract products has
taken place.
(6) The Affiliate shall be authorised to take advertising measures in the fair promotion of
Karatbars and Karatbars contract products; the Affiliate must have prior approval by
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Karatbars of any external presentation or promotion which concerns Karatbars or uses
any copyright or trademarks.
(7) The Affiliate must regularly participate in web seminars of Karatbars and forward the
knowledge obtained there to its down-line-affiliates.
(8) The Affiliate must constantly keep itself and the downstream recommendation partners
supervised by it (down-line-affiliates) informed about the current Karatbars contract
products in the log-in of the Karatbars website, the recommendation system and all the
data and facts that are important for customers.
(9) The Affiliate shall not be authorised to assign its claims against Karatbars to third parties.
Set-off with counterclaims of the Affiliate, or retention of payments due to such claims,
shall be permissible only if and as far as the counterclaims are undisputed, legally
determined valid, or recognised by the company.
(10) The Affiliate is entitled, and obliged, to have one Affiliate account during the agreement
period. If the Affiliate operates more than one Affiliate account, then Karatbars is entitled
to terminate those accounts. Any other rights of Karatbars remain unaffected.
(11) The Affiliate guarantees that its advertising spaces do not violate laws, regulations,
statutes or other legal or contractual provisions and do not infringe rights of third parties.
It further guarantees that it shall not use any illegal marketing strategies or marketing
strategies that violate this agreement.
(12) The Affiliate shall indemnify Karatbars from all claims of third parties, which are based on
illegal behaviour, on behaviour that violates this agreement, or on behaviour that
otherwise infringes on the rights of third parties. This shall also refer to the costs of
appropriate prosecution and legal defence.
(13) The Affiliate shall be authorised to deploy its own employees, sub-agents and other
auxiliary persons for its activity. The Affiliate must ensure that these persons also adhere
to the duties of this Affiliate Agreement.
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§4
Advertising guidelines
(1) As advertising materials, the Affiliate may exclusively use the original advertising
materials provided to it by Karatbars. The use of altered and modified advertising
materials shall not be permitted.
(2) The Affiliate shall be responsible for the placement of the advertising materials. It shall
also bear the costs associated with the implementation or placement and delivery of the
advertising materials.
(4) The Affiliate must adhere to the terms of use of the websites, which it selects as
advertising spaces.
(5) The Affiliate must design on its own advertising spaces in accordance with the provisions
of the Telemedia Act, consumer protection and data protection, particularly provide
proper contact information. It must immediately remove illegal contents or contents
violating rights of third parties and take suitable measures in order to not repeat such
violations.
(6) The Affiliate must ensure that the advertising materials are flawlessly integrated and
delivered.
(7) Karatbars shall any time be authorised to re-design the advertising materials or replace
them with new advertising materials. The Affiliate must ensure that it always uses the
latest advertising materials.
(8) The Affiliate must refrain from impermissible forms of Internet marketing, particularly (but
not exclusively):
a. improper use of cookies, especially cookie-dropping;
b. sending advertising e-mails to recipients, who have not explicitly consented to the
receipt of such e-mails including the advertisement contained therein;
c. violation of terms of use and applicable guidelines of search engines;
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d. maintaining websites, which can result in a risk of confusion with the web presence of
Karatbars.
(9) The Affiliate shall be prohibited from executing the following advertising measures
without explicit prior written consent and approval of Karatbars:
a. promising or distributing rewards to users for the interaction with the advertising
materials (“incentivised traffic”);
b. any form of Search Engine Marketing;
c. use, registration or purchase of domains, which are similar to the name of Karatbars,
i.e. typo-squatting (use of so-called typing mistake domains).
§5
Confidentiality
(1) The Affiliate shall be obligated for confidentiality regarding all the internal knowledge
about the business model, corporate policy and operating procedures of Karatbars as
well as for extensive customer and resource protection. Violation of its confidentiality
obligation shall not only make the Affiliate liable for compensation, but possibly also
liable to prosecution.
(2) All the stated contents, mainly advertising materials, work documents such as pre-
printed forms, brochures, training and business documents, contracts – even this
agreement – shall be subject to copyright protection. The Affiliate may neither use these
contents outside the business relationship nor forward these – even partly – to third
parties, have these forwarded or duplicate these, except for third parties that are legally
obligated for confidentiality.
(3) The duties of the Affiliate described in § 5.1 shall remain applicable without any
restrictions even after the end of this agreement, unless there is a separate written
agreement supplemental to this agreement. If this agreement ends or if the Affiliate no
longer requires documents of any type from this business relationship, it may not use
these materials further. This shall mainly be applicable for brochures, pre-printed forms
and training documents. A right of retention of the Affiliate – for any reason whatsoever –
is ruled out.
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§6
Remuneration
(1) Development and amount of a remuneration claims of the Affiliate are regulated in the
Marketing plan within the remuneration guidelines.
The Affiliate shall not have any payment claims against the customer and may not
demand any remuneration from the customer.
(2) The Affiliate shall be entitled to remuneration only after the receipt of the customer’s
payment by Karatbars and according to the amount actually received by Karatbars.
Every remuneration payment to the Affiliate shall be subject to the condition that the
customer makes an unconditional payment to Karatbars for the respective products
ordered by it and the Affiliate has not violated any regulation of this agreement.
(3) In case of a so-called charge-back or a comparable return debit (e.g. in case of credit
card payments) of payments already made to Karatbars, Karatbars shall be authorised to
offset the commissions already paid to the Affiliate for such cases with future
commission payments or distributions. The same shall be applicable in case of criminally
relevant acts by the Affiliate or by the customer (for instance but not exclusively: in case
of submission of forged documents, in case of use of stolen or otherwise abstracted
credit cards). Further claims of Karatbars shall remain unaffected by this.
§7
Statements
(1) The Affiliate can check the statements online using its personal account login. Objections
to a statement must be raised within 10 business days. After this, the statement shall be
deemed acknowledged. If the Affiliate is hindered from raising objections by force
majeure, the term shall be extended by 10 more business days from the elimination of
the hindering reason.
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(2) Remuneration payments to the Affiliate shall take place exclusively through a debit card
issued by Karatbars to the Affiliate. As soon as the Affiliate has acquired a commission
entitlement of at least € 20.00, Karatbars shall provide it with a reloadable debit card.
The costs for the issue of the debit card in the amount of € 20.00 shall be borne by the
Affiliate or shall be deducted from the remuneration payment.
§8
Turnover tax / Value added tax
For remunerations pursuant to § 6 of the Affiliate Agreement, the following shall be applicable
with regard to turnover tax / value added tax (VAT):
Remunerations for pure gold referrals are turnover-tax-exempt in Germany and are
basically paid net, i.e. without showing VAT. If the Affiliate is liable for payment of
value added tax in its country, this must be paid by the Affiliate from the received
amount. If the Affiliate wants the payment of the value added tax, it must fulfil the
required legal prerequisites of the respective country and furnish proofs for the same
to Karatbars. In this case, the Affiliate shall be obligated to prepare a legally
compliant invoice for Karatbars, which shows the VAT. All conditions and
specifications of the competent tax authority in the respective country must be
clarified by the Affiliate and provided to Karatbars along with Karatbars’ possible
obligations to cooperate. If the Affiliate fails to notify Karatbars accordingly, it shall
solely be liable for the resulting damage and must exempt Karatbars from all claims.
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§9
Duties of Karatbars
(1) Karatbars maintains a website that serves for general information and is continuously
updated. The Affiliate can get all the required information and forms through the links
provided there.
(2) Karatbars shall provide the Affiliate with sales and training documents, as well as all
printable contracts online in a download section, from where the Affiliate can download
the required documents.
(3) If the Affiliate wants supporting material as hard copies, it can purchase this according to
the price list on the website.
(4) For queries, Karatbars has a Support Centre, which supports the Affiliate in various
world languages in case of ambiguities.
(5) Karatbars offers regular training opportunities on the Internet (webinars) so that the
Affiliate can always have up-to-date information about all areas regarding its activities.
(6) Karatbars informs the Affiliate immediately about product changes, about changes in the
sales or accounting system as well as news which could be interesting for the Affiliate.
(7) Karatbars has the remuneration claims of the Affiliate accounted for on a daily basis
through an accredited, professional international contractual partner. Karatbars must pay
due remunerations once a month / week to the Affiliate according to the respectively
applicable remuneration guidelines in the latest marketing plan.
(8) While doing so, Karatbars must consider the structures of down-line-affiliates built up by
the Affiliate and pay attention to the hierarchies established.
(9) Karatbars periodically offers incentive programs under separate terms which are
published prior to the incentive and are available during the incentive period as part of
the incentive report found in the Affiliate back office.
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§ 10
Karatbars’ authorities
(1) The Affiliate shall allow Karatbars to contact it any time necessary for the execution of
this Affiliate Agreement.
(2) Karatbars shall be authorized to give instructions to the Affiliate, if this is necessary for
successful business. In all other cases, the Affiliate shall not be bound by instructions.
(3) Karatbars shall be authorised to modify this agreement and the enclosed remuneration
guidelines including the marketing plan any time at a month end with a notice period of
three (3) months. The Affiliate shall be authorised to object to a change of the agreement
or of its enclosures within two weeks of the announcement and to terminate the
agreement extraordinarily. Other reasons for termination shall remain unaffected by this.
If the Affiliate does not raise objection within the objection period, the change shall be
deemed accepted and shall become part of the agreement. The new regulation shall
then replace the old regulation.
(4) Karatbars shall any time be authorised to change the user name(s) used by the Affiliate,
particularly if a user name violates laws, morality, trademarks, or is not in the best
interest of Karatbars. Karatbars shall immediately notify the Affiliate. Other claims and
rights of Karatbars shall remain unaffected.
(5) Karatbars shall be authorised to have the account blocked if, and as long as necessary,
should the legal successor of the Affiliate does not prove its legal succession to
Karatbars with the help of written documents.
(6) Karatbars shall be authorised to assign its rights and duties from this agreement to a
third party (legal successor). It must inform Affiliate immediately. In this case, the Affiliate
shall be authorised to terminate the agreement extraordinarily within a period of two
weeks.
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§ 11
Karatbars’ liability
(1) Karatbars shall not be liable for the uninterrupted and error-free accessibility and
functioning of the Karatbars website.
(3) The aforementioned liability limitations shall be applicable to the same extent in favour of
bodies, legal representatives, employees and vicarious agents of Karatbars.
(4) The aforementioned liability limitations shall however not be applicable if Karatbars has
maliciously concealed a defect or has taken a procurement risk or a guarantee for the
condition of the product. Claims pursuant to the Product Liability Act or other mandatory
legal prerequisites for liability shall remain unaffected.
§ 12
Term of the agreement / Termination
(2) The agreement may be terminated by each contracting party at the end of a quarter with
an advance notice of 6 weeks.
(3) Furthermore, it may be terminated in writing at any time by each of the contracting
parties for a compelling reason according to the respective legal regulations of the
country.
Karatbars shall, for instance (but not exclusively), be authorised for extraordinary
termination for a compelling reason if:
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• the Affiliate proves to be unreliable, mainly if a claim is made on Karatbars due to
culpable behaviour of the Affiliate or if a notice is given to Karatbars due to a culpable
violation by the Affiliate;
• the Affiliate has culpably committed serious agreement infringements, which could
affect the reputation or rights of Karatbars, of another partner or of a customer. This
shall particularly (but not exclusively) include violations of confidentiality and data
protection obligations and the prohibition of collecting monies due Karatbars, or the
prohibition to headhunt external customers or employees;
• the Affiliate provides false data to Karatbars;
• the Affiliate provides false data to customers;
• the Affiliate renders itself liable to prosecution;
• the Affiliate continues to violate the agreement in spite of a warning from Karatbars;
or but not limited to,
• the activity of the Affiliate and/or of Karatbars is restricted or excluded in the field of
activity of the Affiliate and/or in a country/state, where the Affiliate operates;
particularly if a country/state restricts or prohibits the import and/or export of precious
metals (e.g. of gold).
(4) In the event of a termination, the Affiliate must immediately and completely remove and
delete all links, banners, and other Karatbars advertising materials installed by it. There
shall be no right of retention in this regard.
(5) After the announcement of a termination as well as for a compelling reason (for instance
but not exclusively in the cases stated in § 6.3), Karatbars shall any time be authorised
to change the Affiliate’s account into the so-called Investigate Status and/or to revoke
this status.
In the Investigate Status, the Affiliate cannot modify the profile data in the account, and
commissions are no longer distributed to it from this account; the Affiliate can however
continue to log in, acquire and register customers as well as generate commissions.
Possible remuneration claims of the Affiliate shall remain unaffected by this. After
reversal of the Investigate Status, due remuneration claims of the Affiliate shall be paid
with the next payment cycle according to the marketing plan.
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§ 13
Data protection
(1) The Affiliate must use the data of any type and all forms, accumulated within the scope
of this Agreement exclusively for contractual purposes. It must adhere to all data
protection regulations in their respectively valid version, particularly the regulations of the
Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the Telemedia Act (TMG). If the Affiliate
employs staff or uses third parties, it must obligate these also for the adherence to the
data protection regulations.
(2) Karatbars shall essentially save personal data only as far as this is necessary for the
service provision or for the execution of the agreement. It may therefore be necessary to
forward personal data of the Affiliate to companies, which are used for the service
provision or for the agreement processing. These can, for instance, be transport
companies or other service providers. There shall be no further forwarding unless there
is a legal or judicial obligation for this. Karatbars’ employees are obligated for
confidentially in writing.
(3) The Affiliate shall issue its consent to credit assessment or age verification in order to
facilitate the services or payment methods of Karatbars.
(4) After the termination of the agreement, the data of the Affiliate shall be deleted. Data,
except for which there are legal retention obligations, shall first be blocked and shall be
deleted after the expiry of the retention periods, or the latest after six (6) months.
(5) The Affiliate shall any time receive free information about its saved data without giving
reasons. It may any time have its collected data blocked or corrected. Also, it may any
time revoke the issued consent for the data collection and use without giving reasons
under the address specified in the imprint on Karatbars’ website.
§ 14
Contractual language
The contractual language shall be German. This English version is provided for convenience
and informational purposes only. In case of correspondence in other languages, the Affiliate
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must have it translated into German at its own costs, risk and responsibility. Translations
errors shall be borne by the Affiliate.
§ 15
Applicable law / Legal domicile / Written form requirement
(1) This Agreement shall be exclusively subject to the laws and jurisdiction of Federal
Republic of Germany, and not subject to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for
the International Sale of Goods (CISG).
(2) For all disputes arising from and in connection with this Agreement, the contracting
parties agree upon the exclusive competence of the district court at the headquarters of
Karatbars as far as this is legally permissible. Karatbars shall however also be
authorised (but not obligated) to address all claims to the competent court in the
jurisdiction for the headquarters of the Affiliate.
(3) Changes or additions to this Agreement must be in written form in order for them to be
effective; e-mail or fax shall be sufficient for observing the written form requirement
within the scope of this Agreement. This shall also be applicable for modifying this
written form provision.
(4) The German language version of this Agreement is the only binding version of the
affiliate Agreement; the English version is provided for convenience and informational
purposes only.
§ 16
Severability clause
(1) If one or multiple regulations of this agreement become ineffective, the parties shall
agree upon a substitute regulation that comes closest to the ineffective regulation.
(2) The ineffectiveness of one or multiple regulations of this agreement shall not affect the
validity of the rest of the regulations.
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