General Conditions of Participation

Scope of application

The following General Terms and Conditions of Participation govern the contractual relationship between participants in continuing education events such as seminars, conferences and meetings and Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH.

Registration/registration confirmation

Registrations for continuing education events can be made online, by e-mail, mail, fax or by telephone (reservation only). Registration becomes legally binding only upon confirmation by Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH in writing or by e-mail after prior registration. However, in the case of registrations from companies with consulting activities and competing institutions, we reserve the right to examine the extent to which they are in competition with Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH or its partners and to refuse participation or cancel a registration.

Each legally binding registration is based on the present General Conditions of Participation.

Payments

Payment shall be made by advance payment after invoicing. The amount is payable without deductions by bank transfer within 14 days of the invoice date. The costs of the payment transaction shall always be borne by the participant. In case of non-payment Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH reserves the right to cancel and pass on the place. If the participant is in default of payment, Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH is entitled to charge default interest in the amount of 5 % above the base interest rate (§ 247 Abs. 1 BGB) p.a.. The fee includes the services named in the advance notice of the event; regularly not included are, for example, accommodation and travel costs, breakfast and dinner.

Withdrawal

The participant has the right to name a substitute person at any time until the beginning of the event, who will participate in the event in his/her place. No fee will be charged for this change. Cancellations must be made in writing, by fax or by e-mail. If a registration is cancelled before the start of the event, a processing fee of 50% of the participation fee will be charged. If a cancellation is received by the organizer later than two weeks before the start of the event, the full participation fee must be paid.

Cancellation by the organizer / change of program

Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH reserves the right to cancel events. Participants will be informed immediately (in writing).

Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH will, as far as possible, offer the participants of cancelled events alternative offers at other dates or locations. If the participant agrees, the event will be rebooked free of charge. If the participant does not agree, the fees paid will be refunded in full. Further claims are excluded. A claim for compensation of travel and accommodation costs as well as loss of work is excluded. Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH reserves the right to make changes in the organization, staffing or schedule of an event that do not have a significant impact on the overall character of the event.

Certificate of participation

Each participant will receive a certificate of participation from Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH or your event partner upon request.

List of participants

The participant acknowledges that all participants will receive a list of participants with the names of the participants and their companies; contact data such as addresses and telephone numbers will neither be passed on nor published by Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH.

Photo and video use

The participant agrees that photos and videos of the event in which he/she is photographed may be published for print media, in online web presences of the organizer, on data carriers, on TV and for advertising purposes.

Copyright

The conference documents are protected by copyright. Copying, passing on or other use of the conference documents is only permitted with the express written consent of Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH.

Liability

The events are carefully prepared and conducted by qualified authors and speakers. Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH assumes no liability for the timeliness, accuracy and completeness with regard to the conference documents and the execution of the event.

Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH is only liable for property damage and financial losses for which it is responsible – regardless of the legal grounds – to the extent that it is guilty of intent and/or gross negligence, provided that no mandatory legal regulations are in conflict with this.

Storage and use of data

Metropolitan Cities MC GmbH treats personal data confidentially and will only use it in accordance with the provisions of data protection law. There is a storage and use

RWTH Aachen Campus: Antitrust guidelines within the frame of events

RWTH Aachen Campus and its member companies draw importance to compliance of the German and European antitrust law within the framework of their activities. In case of violations of antitrust law, fines and claims for damages might be applied. Additionally, reputational damage might be caused, which needs likewise to avoid.

The ban on cartels (Art. 101 (1) AEUV, Section 1 GWB) prohibits in particular agreements of competitors on market conduct as well as the disclosure of competition-relevant information such as prices and its components, delivery times, warranty, costs, customers, quantities, innovations.

Restraints of competition can be excluded from the ban of cartels, since in specific individual cases it is required to create efficiencies for the benefit of consumers, e.g. for qualitatively better products, and effective residual competition remains (Section 2 GWB, Art. 101 (3) AEUV). Some privileges exist within the frame of Research & Development collaborations. Exceptions to the ban on cartels require a case-by-case assessment in advance.

Regarding this, the participants commit themselves to comply the following codes of conduct during the event and to contact the respective compliance officer in case of any ambiguities:

1. Member companies verify in advance and document on their own responsibility, if a specific collaboration is permissible under antitrust law and which kind of basic rules need to be followed. The antitrust guidelines of RWTH Aachen Campus are binding and can be viewed at any time.
2. In particular, collaboration with focus on standardization, benchmarking or agreements on (commercial) use of R&D results are subjected to a preliminary review.
3. Any communication between the participants should be generally limited to the relevant issues, which are required to realize the respective projects.
4. During all events including the breaks, attention will be paid that no critical topics and collaborations will be discussed. In case of doubts or ambiguities, the matter will be postponed, the respective compliance officer will be contacted and legal advice must be obtained in advance.
5. If any doubt or ambiguity arise that a collaboration is performed in pretense, e.g. due to any anti-competitive agreements on prices and markets or coordinated abandonment of innovation activities, the event will be cancelled, the respective compliance officer informed and legal advice must be obtained.
6. An invitation, agenda and participation list are compiled for each event. The protocol includes each discussed topic and decision. No topics will be discussed, which will not be correspondingly recorded in the protocol.
7. Invitation, agenda and protocol will be provided to all participants. All participants review the documents with regard to critical and misleading wording and ask for correction, if required.