General Terms of Use
Contents
Valid from September 6 2024.
1. Scope
The Internet platform GoodCrowd.org ("platform") is operated by Good Crowd GmbH (Good Crowd GmbH, Schlesische Strasse 26, D-10997 Berlin).
These General Terms of Use apply to all platform visitors and users registered on the platform. They regulate the rights and obligations of visitors and registered users towards Good Crowd GmbH when visiting the platform and using the provided functions.
In addition, these General Terms of Use contain provisions relating to the contractual relationship between the donor and the respective campaign manager (donation contract subject to conditions), which exists independently of the contractual relationship with Good Crowd GmbH.
Where "the platform" is mentioned as a standard term below, this involves a legal relationship with Good Crowd GmbH as operator of the platform.
If a campaign is registered, the Additional General Terms of Use for campaigns apply in addition to these General Terms of Use.
The Privacy Policy for the platform is also to be noted in addition to these General Terms of Use.
2. Definition of terms
There are various functions and terms which apply to the use of the platform and in the associated terms and conditions (these General Terms of Use and the Additional General Terms of Use for campaigns):
- "General Terms of Use" – These General Terms of Use
- "Additional General Terms of Use" – Additional General Terms of Use for campaigns
- "Platform" – means the online donation platform www.GoodCrowd.org and refers to Good Crowd GmbH, the operator of the platform.
- "Social purposes" means not only non-profit purposes within the meaning of the German Fiscal Code (AO) but also charitable and religious purposes within the meaning of the AO and, in addition, purposes defined as social by the platform in accordance with its principles.
- "Registered User" – Person registered on the platform.
- "Non-registered user" – Person who accesses and uses the platform website without being registered.
- "User" – Registered or non-registered user of the platform.
- "Campaign" – Specific initiative of the campaign manager with an objective defined in the "campaign description".
- "Payment service provider" – Payment service provider(s) integrated by the platform for payment processing as part of the donation process: PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. 22-24 Boulevard Royal 2449 Luxembourg ("PayPal") and/or Stripe Payments Europe Ltd, Block 4, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Road, Dublin 2, Ireland and Stripe Payments UK Ltd, 7th Floor, The Bower Warehouse, 211 Old Street, London EC1V 9NR, United Kingdom ("Stripe"), with whom the campaign manager must enter into separate payment service contracts in order to collect donations.
- "Campaign manager" – Registered user of the platform who registers a campaign on the platform in accordance with the Additional General Terms of Use in order to solicit and receive donations for this campaign. The campaign manager and donation recipient must always be the same person. Campaign managers who use PayPal as a payment service provider can either be private individuals (consumers) resident in Germany or Austria or legal persons or sole proprietorships under German law with their registered office in Germany or under Austrian law with their registered office in Austria. Campaign managers who are legal persons or sole proprietorships in this sense can use the payment service provider Stripe in addition to PayPal. If the campaign manager is a sole proprietorship, its owner must be acting in the exercise of his or her commercial or independent professional activity when concluding the contract with the platform and the respective payment service provider(s). The campaign manager is solely responsible for his or her campaign.
- "Donor" – User of the platform who donates money to a campaign manager for their campaign. The term "donor" is to be understood independently of the tax status of the supported campaign manager and their campaigns.
- "Donation" – The term is to be understood independently of the tax status of the campaigns and the campaign managers and of the tax deductibility of the donation. In principle, donations via this platform are not tax-deductible. For details, see Section 10.
- "Campaign account" – Account that the respective payment service provider maintains on behalf of the campaign manager (PayPal or Stripe account), and into which the donations for the campaign manager's campaign are paid, less the fees in accordance with Section 6.5. of the Additional General Terms of Use.
- "Bank account" – Account of the campaign manager with a bank designated by the campaign manager, to which the respective payment service provider pays the donations received in the campaign account on the instructions of the campaign manager if the conditions for payment (Section 10.2.5. of these General Terms of Use) are met.
- "Campaign description" – The description of the campaign written by the campaign manager on the campaign page on the platform, which informs the platform users and donors about the campaign. This requires accurate, complete, realistic and detailed information about the proposed campaign. This includes, in particular, information on the campaign goal and purpose, in addition to information about the campaign plan and the time frame as well as the campaign location. The campaign description may also contain images and/or videos and must contain a minimum number of characters specified by the platform.
3. Registration as a user, conclusion of a contract for use of the platform
3.1. Registration as a user is free of charge.
The user registers by filling out the registration form on the platform and clicking on the "Register" button. By completing the registration process, the user makes a binding offer to conclude a contract for the use of the platform. After registration, the user immediately receives a confirmation from the platform via email. The contract for the use of the platform is concluded when the user clicks on the confirmation link in the email.
Certain functionalities of the platform are only available for registered users, in particular:
- Registration of a campaign (for the conclusion of a contract on the use of the platform for campaigns, see Section 4.1. of the Additional General Terms of Use).
3.2. Only users with full legal competency and those acting with the consent of their legal representatives are authorised for use. However, the minimum age of users is 16 years, unless the user is one of the registered users listed below: Private individual (consumer) as campaign manager, sole trader as campaign manager or legal representative of a legal person as campaign manager. Such users must all be at least 18 years old.
3.3. The user is required to provide only accurate information, in particular regarding their identity and age, when registering.
3.4. The registered user who registers a campaign of a legal person in its name and manages and carries out the campaign on behalf of the legal person assures that he/she is authorised to do so vis-Ã -vis the respective legal person because he/she is the legal representative of the legal person, and shall prove this authorisation upon request by the platform by providing suitable evidence. Any changes to the legal representative are to be reported immediately to the platform by emailing [email protected] or in the administrative area of the campaign. The previous legal representative will remain visible on the platform until a new legal representative is appointed and registered.
The registered user who registers a campaign of a sole proprietor or a private individual must be the same person as the sole proprietor or the private individual and shall confirm this authorisation upon request by the platform by providing appropriate evidence.
3.5. The platform reserves the right to refuse the registration of a user without giving a reason.
4. Duties and obligations of the user
4.1. The user is fully responsible for his or her conduct on the platform, all content posted by him or her and its accuracy. Before actually participating or posting content, the user must confirm that his or her conduct and content do not breach statutory regulations, good morals or third-party legal rights (e.g. trademark law, the right to bear a name, copyright and data protection law, youth protection regulations, general personal rights, competition law). In particular, the user undertakes to obtain the required approval of participants/affected parties/beneficiaries, for example the photographers and the depicted or mentioned individuals, before posting text, images or videos and to provide the platform with evidence of this at any time upon request. The user indemnifies the platform with regard to any third-party claims arising from a breach of this obligation.
4.2. With regard to his or her conduct when using the platform, the user shall take into consideration that the betterplace community (i.e. the entire community of users and the operators of the platform) work together on the basis of mutual respect and fair and reasonable interaction with each other. Sensitivity and respect towards the differing opinions of others is, in particular, required for issues related to world views and religious or political beliefs.
4.3. It is not permissible to directly post, provide links to or otherwise facilitate access to the following content on the platform:
- Material which endangers or impairs young people and their development, especially violent, pornographic or otherwise immoral content
- Content that promotes or glorifies hate, violence or any form of discrimination
- Racist, right-wing extremist content
- False statements of fact and offensive statements
- Vulgar and obscene language; disrespectful, provocative and aggressive communication with other users
- Misleading content
- Calls for boycotts or non-peaceful or otherwise illegal activity
- Content that violates public safety and order
- Content that is not compatible with the current principles of the platform, which the platform communicates transparently on the platform.
4.4. The user is obliged:
- to provide complete and accurate information, in particular on his/her identity and age, for necessary registrations and to provide any other requested information which is necessary to achieve the purpose of the contract (e.g. as part of the registration of a user and a campaign),
- to refrain from registering a second time,
- to make corrections without delay in the designated administrative function in the event of a subsequent change to the requested data,
- to ensure that his or her username and password are not made available to third parties,
- to prevent any use of the services of the platform via his or her own account by third parties,
- to refrain from using automatic default settings for the password,
- to inform the platform without delay by sending an email to [email protected] if your password or account have been used without authorisation or if there are indications of imminent use without authorisation.
4.5. The user shall comply with the legal data protection and data security requirements, in particular the requirements of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
4.6. Overloading the platform is to be avoided. In particular, measures are prohibited which may compromise the integrity, stability and availability of the IT systems of the platform.
4.7. The content posted on the platform by users is generally not checked by the platform before publication. If the platform gains knowledge of prohibited content in accordance with this Section 4 or suspects the existence of such content, the platform is entitled to temporarily or permanently remove or block this content from the platform at any time. The platform is also entitled to temporarily or permanently block the user from using individual or all functionalities of the platform if he or she has breached an obligation in this Section 4. The blocking in particular relates to the ability to upload or change content on the platform. The platform shall in particular make use of this right if third parties inform the platform of the violation of any laws, third-party rights, General Terms of Use or principles of the platform in relation to specific content or users. The right of termination and the right to block campaigns in accordance with Section 7 remain unaffected by the rights in this Section 4.7.
4.8. The user indemnifies the platform with regard to any third-party claims arising from a breach of obligations based on the aforementioned Sections 4.1. to 4.7.
4.9. If the user finds content on the platform which, in their opinion, violates existing laws or these General Terms of Use, the Additional General Terms of Use, or the principles of the platform, they are requested to inform the platform of this fact, e.g. via the reporting procedure set up for this purpose (Section 8.2), by email (to: [email protected]) or by post (to: Good Crowd GmbH; Schlesische Strasse 26, D-10997 Berlin).
4.10. As soon as a registered user is blocked, this user can no longer use the platform, even with other platform accounts, and shall not be able to re-register.
4.11. The platform reserves the right to delete a user if they have not used their platform account for more than two years.
5. Rights of use, copyright, indemnity
5.1. The user grants the platform the right to use on the platform the content (text, images) he/she has posted, for purposes which correspond to the purposes of the individual services within the scope of the platform. In particular, the platform has the right to edit the content, in particular to shorten it, as well as the right to store the content and make it publicly accessible via the platform, taking the original purpose into account. Distinct and clearly displayed alternative instructions when uploading the content remain unaffected.
5.2. Furthermore, the platform may use the content in advertising materials for the platform and for the platform (Good Crowd GmbH) online and offline – e.g. on other websites of the platform (Good Crowd GmbH) including social media channels and in print media – in order to reach a larger target group for all.
5.3. The user assures that they are entitled to all rights required in order to grant the platform the rights stipulated in Section 5.1. and 5.2. without violating the General Terms of Use, legal regulations, good morals, or rights of third parties, irrespective of the type (e.g. trademark, name, copyright and data protection law, youth protection regulations, general personal rights, competition law). In particular, the user undertakes to obtain the approval of participants/affected parties/beneficiaries required for use pursuant to Sections 5.1. and 5.2., for example the photographers and the depicted or mentioned individuals, before posting the content and to provide the platform with evidence of this at any time upon request. The user indemnifies the platform with regard to any third-party claims arising from a breach of this obligation.
5.4. For reasons of transparency, all campaign content will remain visible on the platform in accordance with Section 10.3.4. of these General Terms of Use even after the campaign has ended or been cancelled and, in accordance with Section 7.1. of these General Terms of Use, after the usage agreement has ended, so that previous campaigns and the use of donations can be tracked by users.
This does not affect the rights of the data subject under data protection law.
Sentence 1 of this Section 5.4. does not apply if the platform makes use of its right of deletion in accordance with Section 4.7.
6. Provision of the platform
The platform shall endeavour to keep the platform available and free of disruption whenever possible and aims for an availability rate of 97 per cent per year. A specific availability is not guaranteed. The platform is in particular authorised to take the platform off the network, both for regular and unscheduled maintenance work. The platform is entitled to change the functionality, appearance and other features of the platform as it chooses. Access to the platform is only provided for the current version. The platform is not obliged to store or save versions or content on behalf of users.
7. Termination, blocking of campaigns
7.1. Termination
7.1.1. The usage relationship of a registered user can be terminated by the platform or the registered user at any time by giving notice in writing with a notice period of 14 days.
The subject of the usage relationship for registered users includes all functionalities of the platform that the user can use in accordance with the General Terms of Use and the Additional General Terms of Use. Thus, in addition to the functionalities available to every registered user under the General Terms of Use (in particular the ability to post content on the platform), the subject of the usage relationship of a campaign manager also includes the functionalities regulated in the Additional General Terms of Use (in particular the registration of a campaign and the raising of donations for this campaign and the ability to post campaign content on the platform).
In the event of termination of the usage relationship of a registered user, when the termination takes effect the registered user shall no longer be able to use the respective functionalities of the platform.
The campaigns registered by the campaign manager on the platform shall be ended when the termination takes effect. Campaigns that have already received support in the form of donations, but which have not yet been paid out from the campaign account to the bank account, must be completed in accordance with these General Terms of Use and the Additional General Terms of Use.
For reasons of transparency, all campaigns shall remain visible on the platform as inactive campaigns even after termination, so that users can track previous campaigns and the use of donations. This does not apply to campaigns for which no donations have been raised by the time of their ending by termination. In this case, the campaign manager can delete the campaign.
7.1.2. The right to extraordinary termination for cause remains unaffected.
The platform may terminate the registered user's contract for the following important reasons in particular:
- The registered user has seriously or repeatedly violated his or her obligations in accordance with Section 4 of these General Terms of Use.
If the registered user is a campaign manager, the following reasons for termination by the platform are to be regarded as good cause in addition to the aforementioned good cause:
- The campaign is used for unauthorised purposes.
- Serious violations of these General Terms of Use or the Additional General Terms of Use.
- Improper use of data (see Section 8 of the Additional General Terms of Use) by the campaign manager.
- The termination of payment service contracts between the campaign manager and the payment service providers used by the campaign manager.
- If a payment service provider used by the campaign manager changes its services under the payment service contracts and the platform is unable to restore the connection to the payment service after the payment service provider has changed its services and/or the interface with economically justifiable effort.
- Violation by the campaign manager of provisions of the payment service contracts of a payment service provider used by the campaign manager.
7.2. Blocking of campaigns
The platform is entitled to cancel a campaign and to temporarily block campaigns, regardless of the right to ordinary and extraordinary termination and the right in accordance with Section 10.3.3. The blocking relates in particular to the ability to post or change content on the campaign page on the platform and to raise and pay out donations. The platform shall in particular make use of this right if third parties inform the platform of the violation of any laws, third-party rights, General Terms of Use or principles of the platform in relation to specific content or users.
7.3. As soon as the usage agreement is terminated by the platform, this user is no longer permitted to use the platform, even with other platform accounts, and shall not be able to re-register.
8. Reporting procedure and internal complaints management system
8.1. The platform support team is accessible to all users free of charge for the submission of complaints and other enquiries.
8.2. Reporting procedure
If users consider content that other users have published on the platform to be unlawful, they can use a reporting procedure to report the content considered unlawful to the platform. The reports must be sufficiently precise and adequately substantiated. In particular, the content considered to be unlawful must be made available in the reporting procedure. If electronic contact details are specified for the reporting user in the report, the platform will immediately send a confirmation of receipt to them. The platform is free to forward the content of the report and the data provided in the report to the user who posted the reported content. However, this option is only utilised if it is absolutely necessary for dealing with the report and, in particular, the disclosure of the identity of the reporting user is avoided unless it is absolutely necessary. The platform processes all reports and decides on the content of the report promptly, carefully, objectively and non-arbitrarily. Subsequently, the platform immediately informs the reporting user of the decision on the content of the report and also points out the possible legal remedies against this decision. Reports submitted by so-called trusted flaggers within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 who are active in their designated field of expertise, via the procedures provided for this purpose, will be prioritised by the platform, processed immediately and a decision made on their content.
8.3. Internal complaints management system
It is possible to lodge a complaint against decisions made by the platform within the framework of the above paragraph (Section 8.2.). This also applies to decisions following a report (Section 8.2.) as to whether, due to unlawful content, reported information is removed or access to it is blocked or restricted, the services of the platform are (temporarily) ended in whole or in part for the users concerned or the user accounts of the users concerned are (temporarily) blocked. Appeals against the aforementioned decisions are only possible within six months of the date on which the user was informed of the decision. The platform processes complaints submitted via the complaints management system provided for this purpose in a timely, non-discriminatory, careful, objective and non-arbitrary manner. If a complaint contains sufficient grounds to believe that the decision not to act on a report is unfounded or that the information to which the complaint relates is neither unlawful nor in breach of these General Terms of Use, or if it contains information showing that the behaviour of the user who submitted the complaint does not justify suspension or termination of the services of the platform or permanent blocking of the user account, the platform shall immediately reverse the respective decision previously taken. The platform will inform the user of the outcome of the complaint immediately after it has been processed, stating the reasons for the outcome and pointing out the possibility of out-of-court dispute resolution (Section 13.5.) and any other available legal remedies. The platform ensures that complaints submitted on behalf of users by institutions, organisations or associations qualified in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 will be processed and decided on as a matter of priority and without delay. The platform shall regularly review its internal complaints management system.
8.4. If users frequently submit obviously unfounded reports or complaints, the platform will suspend the processing of reports and complaints from these users for a reasonable period of time after prior warning. The platform shall evaluate this based on the absolute number of reports and complaints received, the relative number of those that are obviously unfounded, the severity of the cases and the user's intentions. The platform will decide carefully, promptly and objectively on a case-by-case basis.
9. Liability
9.1. The liability of the platform is excluded for all damages and liability claims, regardless of their legal grounds (e.g. warranty, default, impossibility of performance, breach of duty or tort), except for claims
- due to injury to life, body and health,
- due to fraudulent intent or on the basis of a warranty,
- due to wilful intent or grossly negligent conduct of the platform or its legal representatives or vicarious agents,
- in accordance with the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz)
9.2. The statutory regulations apply to these exceptions in accordance with Section 9.1. The above-mentioned disclaimer in accordance with Section 9.1. shall not apply in the event of a breach of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations), i.e. obligations whose fulfilment enables the proper execution of the agreement in the first place and on the compliance of which the respective party can usually rely.
10. Donation process, handling of donation payments and conclusion of contract between campaign manager and donor
By donation process, the platform means the whole process from the advertising of a campaign on the platform by the campaign manager to the payment of a donation by a donor for the purpose of supporting the advertised campaign. The donation is made in the form of a monetary donation and is to be understood independently of the tax status of the respective campaign manager and their supported campaigns. The use of the donation is indicated in the respective campaign description on the respective campaign page.
Details regarding the listing conditions can be found in the Additional General Terms of Use.
All of these campaigns also have a social purpose. The donation is made in the legal relationship between the donor and the campaign manager.
The donor selects a campaign on the platform and enters the desired amount in the donation form on the campaign page. By clicking on the integrated donation button and paying the respective amount, a contractual relationship independent of the platform is established between the donor and the campaign manager (donation subject to conditions).
After clicking the donation button, the donor will receive a donation confirmation email. This is merely a confirmation of receipt.
10.1. Role of the platform
10.1.1. In the context of the donation process, the platform is solely a technical service provider that provides a platform for advertising and arranging donations. The platform does not check the campaigns before they are published and does not monitor their progress. The platform exclusively provides the technical infrastructure through which donors and campaign managers come together. The platform is not involved in the processing of payments during the donation process. The platform does not accept payments into its own accounts, nor does the platform have any power of disposition over donations. For payment processing in the context of the donation process, the platform involves one or more payment service providers which have the necessary authorisation under payment transaction law and with whom the campaign manager concludes separate payment service contracts in accordance with Section 4.2. of the Additional General Terms of Use. The platform only acts as the campaign manager's intermediary to transmit to the respective payment service provider the campaign manager's declarations, which it was previously instructed to submit within the framework of the General Terms of Use or the Additional General Terms of Use.
10.1.2. The platform recommends that users should only support a campaign if the donor knows the campaign manager or if the campaign has been recommended by a trustworthy person and he/she deems it to be suitable on the basis of the descriptions. Each donor is personally responsible for obtaining all the information which they may need for their donation decision.
10.1.3. In the case of donations to support the platform, in deviation from Section 10.1.1., the platform (Good Crowd GmbH) is the recipient of donations and accepts these donations on its own account, see Section 10.2.7.
10.2. Processing of donation payments
10.2.1. The donor can make payments to the respective campaign managers in the form of donations.
10.2.2. The donation process on the platform is secure. The data is transmitted using an encrypted connection (SSL) and is only processed by the platform in connection with the donation.
10.2.3. The donor is hereby informed that his/her donation is final and that there is no right to repayment, with the exception of the cases regulated in Section 10.2.4. The donor is not entitled to interest payments on funds held in the campaign account.
10.2.4. Right to repayment
The donor is entitled to payment from the respective campaign manager in the amount of the donation made by him/her in the following cases:
- Campaign cancellation by the respective campaign manager or by the platform (in accordance with Sections 10.3.2. and 10.3.3. of these General Terms of Use).
- Suspicion of fraud
If the respective campaign was cancelled by the campaign manager in accordance with Section 10.3.2. or by the platform in accordance with 10.3.3. or if fraud is suspected, the campaign manager undertakes to repay donations received to the donors.
If the campaign manager cancels his/her campaign in accordance with Section 10.3.2., he/she alone is responsible for informing the platform of this.
Different regulations apply to this right to repayment depending on the payment service provider used:
a) For donations where the payment processing takes place via Stripe:
In these cases, the campaign manager shall instruct the payment service provider Stripe to repay the respective donation to the respective donor in accordance with the payment service contracts of Stripe pursuant to Section 4.2. of the Additional General Terms of Use, provided that the donation has not yet been paid out from the campaign account (here the Stripe account) to the bank account in accordance with Section 10.2.5. The campaign manager shall appoint the platform as its intermediary for the transmission of this instruction, unless the campaign manager itself has already instructed the payment service provider Stripe to make the repayment.
If the respective donation has already been paid out to the bank account, there is also a right to repayment. To make a claim, the donor must contact the campaign manager directly. For this purpose, the platform will send the contact details of the campaign manager to the donor on request.
b) For donations where the payment processing takes place via PayPal:
In these cases, the campaign manager shall instruct the payment service provider PayPal to repay the respective donation to the respective donor in accordance with the payment service contracts of PayPal pursuant to Section 4.2. of the Additional General Terms of Use, provided that the donation has not yet been paid out from the campaign account (here the PayPal account) to the bank account in accordance with Section 10.2.5. or the balance in the campaign account (here the PayPal account) has not yet been used up. The campaign manager shall appoint the platform as its intermediary for the transmission of this instruction, unless the campaign manager itself has already instructed the payment service provider PayPal to make the repayment.
If the respective donation has already been paid out to the bank account, or if there are no more funds in the campaign account (here the PayPal account), there is also a right to repayment. To make a claim, the donor must contact the campaign manager directly. For this purpose, the platform will send the contact details of the campaign manager to the donor on request.
c) Other consequences under criminal or civil law remain unaffected.
10.2.5. Payout requirements
a) For donations where the payment processing takes place via Stripe:
The campaign manager shall instruct the payment service provider Stripe to transfer the donations received in the campaign account (here the Stripe account) to the bank account (donation payout) in accordance with the payment service contracts of Stripe in accordance with Section 4.2. of the Additional General Terms of Use. The campaign manager shall appoint the platform as its intermediary for the transmission of this instruction. If the platform suspects that fraud has been committed, the campaign manager shall appoint the platform as its intermediary to pause and/or not execute the transmission of this instruction.
b) For donations where the payment processing takes place via PayPal:
The campaign manager shall instruct the payment service provider PayPal to pay out the donations collected to the campaign account (here the PayPal account) (donation payout) in accordance with the payment service contracts of PayPal in accordance with Section 4.2. of the Additional General Terms of Use. The campaign manager shall appoint the platform as its intermediary for the transmission of this instruction.
When using PayPal, transferring donations from the campaign account (here the PayPal account) to the bank account is not mandatory. Here, the campaign manager can settle his/her campaign expenses directly via the campaign account (here the PayPal account).
c) The campaign manager has an obligation to the donors to make such donation payouts in accordance with Sections a) and b) only insofar as they would not benefit campaigns that have already been cancelled in accordance with Section 10.3.2. or 10.3.3. or insofar as the requirements for a campaign cancellation in accordance with Section 10.3.2. or 10.3.3. are not met.
10.2.6. Anonymous donations: The donor has the option, as either a registered or unregistered user, of making an anonymous donation to a certain extent.
The donor provides their name, email address and payment details during the donation process. This data is used for authentication purposes during the payment process.
The donor can choose a comment function to choose whether their donation should appear with or without their donated amount and their name and picture (if a picture is available) on the platform. If the donor decides that their support shall be displayed with no name and picture, only the amount donated will be displayed anonymously. The default setting for the respective display is based on the privacy policy of the platform.
10.2.7. Donations to support the platform: When donating to a campaign manager for his/her campaign on the platform, there is also the option to donate an additional amount to the platform (to Good Crowd GmbH). This option is explained during the donation process. For this additional amount, the platform (Good Crowd GmbH) is the recipient and accepts these donations on its own bank account. This donation to the platform is never tax-deductible.
10.2.8. Publication/review of donations: An important aspect of the platform is transparency in the management of campaigns. The privacy policy applies to the publication of donations, and can be viewed in its current valid version at the platform. In addition, the donor authorises the platform to obtain information from the respective campaign manager and the respective payment service provider as to whether and in what amount the respective donation has been paid into the campaign account. the platform is also entitled to save this information to provide details to authorities and other third parties as required by law for the duration stipulated by law.
10.2.9. Donation receipt: The donor will not receive a donation receipt from the platform for his/her donation, even if he/she donates to the platform (Good Crowd GmbH) as described in 10.2.7.
In the event that a campaign manager issues a donation receipt for a donation made to them by a donor, it is the sole responsibility of the campaign manager to check whether they are entitled to do so in each individual case. The campaign manager is also solely responsible for the accuracy of the donation receipt.
10.3. Ending or cancellation of a campaign
10.3.1. Ending of a campaign by the campaign manager if the donations collected before the ending can still be used for the intended purpose:
a) Completed campaigns – Funded campaigns are no longer eligible for donations on the platform and can either be ended by the respective campaign manager or they will be ended by the platform. For donations not yet paid out at the time of the ending of the campaign, the general conditions for payout in accordance with Section 10.2.5. apply.
b) Premature ending of campaigns that have not yet been funded: The campaign manager shall end his/her campaign if he/she does not intend to fully complete it on the platform, but can use the donations already collected but not yet paid out for the purposes specified in the campaign description. The campaign manager shall communicate
- the reason for the ending of his/her campaign on the campaign page on the platform for reasons of transparency towards the donors and
- the appropriate use of the donations collected so far on the campaign page on the platform for the use of funds.
For donations not yet paid out at the time of the ending of the campaign, the general conditions for payout in accordance with Section 10.2.5. apply.
10.3.2. Cancellation of a campaign by the campaign manager if the donations collected before the cancellation can no longer be used for the intended purpose: If it is no longer possible to achieve the campaign target as specified in the campaign description or if there is a serious risk of this, the respective campaign manager must cancel the campaign and provide a corresponding notification
- to the platform and
- on the platform for reasons of transparency towards the donors.
If a campaign is cancelled in accordance with this Section 10.3.2., the donor has a right to repayment from the campaign manager in accordance with Section 10.2.4.
10.3.3. Cancellation of a campaign by the platform – Furthermore, the platform is entitled to cancel a campaign due to serious violations of these General Terms of Use or the Additional General Terms of Use. The following in particular constitute serious violations:
- false information about participating individuals or significant features of the campaign
- use of donations for other purposes
If the platform exercises its right and cancels the campaign in accordance with this Section 10.3.3., the donor has a right to repayment from the campaign manager in accordance with Section 10.2.4.
10.3.4. For reasons of transparency, campaigns ended and cancelled in accordance with this Section 10.3. shall remain visible on the platform as inactive campaigns, so that users can track previous campaigns and the use of donations. This does not apply to campaign cancellations in accordance with Sections 10.3.2. and 10.3.3. where no donations have been raised by the time the campaign is cancelled. In this case, the campaign manager can delete the campaign.
11. Obligation of the campaign manager to provide information on statutory cancellation rights and other statutory information obligations
With regard to the conclusion of the contract between the campaign manager and the donor (donation contract subject to conditions), the campaign manager is solely responsible for providing information in each individual case about any cancellation rights and their legal requirements and exercise. The same applies to any other statutory information obligations of the campaign manager towards the donor. The platform is legally a third party in this respect.
12. Changes to conditions
These General Terms of Use are valid from September 2024 onwards.
The platform reserves the right to make changes to these General Terms of Use at any time without restriction, in particular in order to adapt them to legislative or technical changes. The changed conditions will be announced on this website no later than four weeks before their entry into force. Registered users will be informed by email about upcoming changes at the latest four weeks before their entry into force. The platform therefore advises you to regularly review the current version on its website. If a registered user does not object to the validity of the new conditions within four weeks after receipt of the email, the changed conditions shall be deemed as having been accepted. The platform will separately inform the registered user in the email containing the changed conditions about the possibility of objecting and the significance of this four-week period.
13. Final provisions
13.1. Should individual provisions of these General Terms of Use be or become invalid or ineffective in whole or in part, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. Any provisions of these General Terms of Use that are not included or are invalid shall be replaced by statutory law. In all other respects, the parties shall replace the invalid or ineffective provision with a valid provision that comes as close as possible to it in economic terms, unless a supplementary interpretation of the contract takes precedence or is possible.
13.2. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the CISG.
13.3. The platform is neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.
13.4. For users who are merchants within the meaning of the German Commercial Code, a special fund under public law or a legal person under public law, Berlin is the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the usage agreement and these General Terms of Use.
13.5. Users who are affected by decisions made by the platform in accordance with Section 8 of these General Terms of Use have the right to choose an out-of-court dispute resolution body certified for this purpose in accordance with Article 21 para. 3 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 to resolve disputes in connection with these decisions and with complaints that have not been resolved by means of the internal complaints management system in accordance with Section 8.3. of these General Terms of Use. The platform will work with the selected certified out-of-court dispute resolution organisation in good faith to resolve the dispute. The platform may refuse to cooperate with such an out-of-court dispute resolution body if a dispute regarding the same information and the same grounds for alleged unlawfulness of the content a) has already been resolved or b) if the dispute could not be resolved within the framework of the internal complaints management system (Section 8.3.) because the user did not submit his/her complaint in due time within the six months stipulated in Section 8.3. of these General Terms of Use. The authorised out-of-court dispute resolution body has no authority to impose a binding dispute resolution on the affected users and the platform.
For comments or questions about these General Terms of Use, please contact our community manager at any time: