§ 1 Application

(1) The General Terms and Conditions accepted by both contracting parties govern the business relationship between them. LB Detectives GmbH, Boschstrasse 10, 73734 Esslingen, hereinafter referred to as “LB Detectives” and the client, hereinafter referred to as “Clients“, as a service contract within the meaning of Sections 611 et seq. of the German Civil Code (BGB), unless explicitly agreed otherwise in writing between the contracting parties.

(2) LB Detectives offers expert and investigative services as a private and corporate detective agency. Clients can be legal entities or private individuals.

(3) The client undertakes, in its own interest, to provide all relevant information truthfully and completely and, if necessary, to perform any required acts of cooperation.

(4) These terms and conditions apply to all current and future business relationships between LB Detectives and the client as a business entity, without the need for their repeated incorporation. Deviating, conflicting, or supplementary terms and conditions, even if known to LB Detectives, do not become part of the contract unless their validity is expressly agreed to in writing by LB Detectives.

§ 2 Conclusion of contract

(1) The contract is concluded by both parties signing the respective fee and order agreement of LB Detectives or a separate contract document, or by LB Detectives performing the services requested by the client.

(2) If the client engages LB Detectives without a prior offer from LB Detectives, LB Detectives is entitled, at its sole discretion, to accept the order by means of a written declaration of acceptance (including one by electronic means) or by providing the services commissioned.

(3) LB Detectives is entitled to refuse a service contract without giving reasons, e.g., if LB Detectives cannot or may not provide the service due to its specialization or for legal reasons, or if there are reasons that could lead to a conflict of conscience. In this case, LB Detectives retains its right to payment for services rendered up to the point of refusal.

§ 3 Content of the service contract

(1) LB Detectives provides its services to the client by applying its knowledge and skills in the aforementioned areas and preparing reports in accordance with standard requirements. A subjectively expected outcome for the client cannot be promised or guaranteed. The client understands that the result of the investigations or surveillance may not always be positive in the client's interest or in the context of the assignment, and that all information provided, results of investigations and observations (surveillance) are based on the objective, personal perceptions of the assigned detective officers, possibly also on oral statements from interviewed persons, and are therefore often not verifiable in writing.

(2) The client undertakes to use the information materials, reports and results produced by LB Detectives within the scope of their services only for their own purposes. The client receives the exclusive and non-transferable right to use them.

(3) All documents provided by LB Detectives are protected by copyright. This applies to content, texts, and images on the LB Detectives website and other documents, as well as the work product itself. The client is not authorized to reproduce, distribute, or publicly display such documents unless explicitly agreed otherwise in writing. The client is also not authorized to make any photographic, video, or audio recordings of the services without the express permission of LB Detectives.

(4) The client is expressly permitted to use the results of the assignment in civil, criminal, or public law proceedings through a lawyer of their choice. Any further use is not permitted and requires the separate consent of LB Detectives.

§ 4 Performance of the service

(1) The client is not obligated to accept the service or implement the recommendations provided. The client acknowledges that all steps and measures taken by him in connection with the provision of the service or following up on information provided are his own responsibility.

(2) LB Detectives is entitled to postpone the performance of a service if LB Detectives or a third-party service provider engaged by LB Detectives is prevented from performing the service on the agreed date through no fault of its own, for example, due to riot, strike, lockout, natural disasters, severe weather, traffic disruption, or illness.

(3) LB Detectives is entitled to make adjustments to the content or procedure of the service for professional reasons, for example, if there is a need to update or further develop the service content, provided that this does not result in a material change to the contract and the change is reasonable for the client. The choice of the means and measures used to fulfill the contract is solely at the discretion of LB Detectives.

(4) LB Detectives is not obligated to perform the service itself. LB Detectives is entitled to delegate the performance of the service to third parties, e.g., subcontractors, provided this is reasonable for the client. LB Detectives guarantees that investigation assignments are only given to long-standing partners (subcontractors | freelancers) and not to external detectives, but that only case workers are employed whose employment and subcontracting agreements include a legally valid confidentiality and secrecy obligation, which is renewed annually.

(5) LB Detectives is only obligated to provide the client with a written, and as detailed as possible, activity report in digital form (PDF file) after full payment of the invoice. All assigned detectives are not named in this report. The report may be supplemented with visual material (photos/videos) as JPG or AVI files, provided that their creation was possible and legally permissible. In this respect, only the activity report in digital form as a PDF file is contractually owed; visual materials are not included, as these may be subject to copyright, privacy rights, and data protection regulations. Therefore, the use of the visual material is always at the client's own responsibility and risk. It is expressly recommended that the client seek legal advice before using any of the material.

(6) LB Detectives expressly points out that a detective team consisting of 2 to 4 investigators will be deployed simultaneously at all times during the execution of the assignment. Each investigator will, if LB Detectives deems it necessary, operate their own vehicle (car, covert surveillance van, motorcycle) to allow for rapid and regular rotation of investigators within the target's field of vision, to ensure that all access and egress routes are covered continuously and as much as possible, thereby minimizing the risk of being noticed or even recognized, and to enable an appropriate and professional response to any changes in the target's mode of transport (on foot, car, motorcycle, public transport, etc.) at any time, thus keeping the risk of the target's loss as low as possible. The client was expressly and comprehensively informed of this during the free consultation and agrees to it.

(7) For reasons of discretion, LB Detectives will only provide information regarding a specific assignment upon presentation of a personal client password and the assignment number. Both must be provided correctly upon initial questioning. The client expressly agrees that ANY caller who can correctly provide the client password and assignment number upon initial questioning will receive assignment-related information. The assignment number will be provided with the assignment confirmation. The client password will be specified separately in the assignment. The client is solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and preventing the disclosure of this information.

§ 5 Cooperation of the client

(1) The client guarantees that all necessary cooperation on their part, on the part of their agents, or on the part of third parties will be provided in a timely manner and free of charge to LB Detectives. If the client breaches this guarantee, they cannot assert any claims regarding resulting delays in the contractually owed services. The client shall bear any additional expenses incurred as a result of work having to be repeated or delayed due to late, incorrect, or incomplete information or improper cooperation. Even if a fixed or maximum price has been agreed upon, LB Detectives is entitled to invoice these additional expenses separately.

(2) The client is obliged to inform LB Detectives immediately of any changes in the scope or content of the services or any other circumstances relating to the assignment and to provide the necessary information and documents.

(3) Furthermore, the client’s cooperation must comply with the applicable legal regulations, standards and specifications of LB Detectives.

§ 6 Remuneration/ Payment Terms

(1) After services have been rendered, LB Detectives will issue a proper invoice. Payment is due no later than 14 days after the invoice date. Invoicing is primarily done digitally. All prices in LB Detectives' price lists or offers are gross prices unless otherwise stated. Payment is only possible using the payment methods specified by LB Detectives at the time of contract conclusion.

(2) LB Detectives reserves the right to request advance payments or partial payments during the execution of the assignment, provided there are compelling reasons to do so. The (partial) payment must then be received before the agreed date or before the commencement of services, or at the agreed time. Otherwise, LB Detectives reserves the right to refuse or suspend the provision of services until the partial payment has been received in full.

(3) LB Detectives is entitled to charge and bill surcharges of 50% per hour on the agreed hourly rate for work performed between 22:00 and 6:00, and 100% per hour on the agreed hourly rate for work performed on Sundays and public holidays.

(4) If a fee limit has been agreed upon with the client, LB Detectives will cease performing the assignment when the services rendered reach the fee limit, unless the client agrees to an increase or cancellation of the fee limit. Such agreement must be in writing. The fee limit is determined by the agreed fee arrangement.

(5) If LB Detectives is called upon to participate in court proceedings or other legal proceedings by court order, either for a hearing or for additional written reporting, this time will be billed separately. Any compensation paid by the court will be claimed up to the maximum permissible amount and offset against the terms of this agreement. If, at the client's request, LB Detectives is called upon to appear as a witness in court without prior summons, this time, including travel to and from the court and a flat-rate allowance for absence, will be billed according to the terms of the respective fee agreement.

(6) LB Detectives uses specially equipped cars, motorcycles, and surveillance vans for carrying out assignments. Due to the use of these specialized vehicles and their technical equipment, a mileage allowance of EUR 1,20 plus statutory VAT per kilometer driven is charged, regardless of any fee limit or flat fee, starting from the place of assignment. Travel to and from the respective place of assignment is not charged separately.

(7) If the scope of services and remuneration are not specified in writing when the contract is awarded, billing will be based on actual expenses and LB Detectives' prices valid at the time the services are rendered. Otherwise, prices and special billing procedures will be set out in the fee agreement/contract award.

(8) In the event of default by the client, LB Detectives is entitled to withhold the agreed services. LB Detectives will only perform withheld, outstanding services during the client's default against advance payments or security deposits. Otherwise, the statutory provisions apply.

(9) Clients are not entitled to offset any claims against LB Detectives' claims unless their counterclaims have been legally established or are undisputed. Offsetting is only possible with claims arising from the same contractual relationship.

§ 7 Term and Termination

(1) The term of the service contract is determined by the respective contract. If the contract does not specify a term, it is deemed to have ended upon completion of the service without the need for notice of termination.

(2) Either party may terminate the respective assignment at any time without giving reasons, effective at the end of a day of service. Termination of the assignment during an ongoing day of service is not possible for either party. Costs incurred up to the time of termination are to be invoiced and payable in accordance with Section 6. Termination of this assignment after it has been placed and before the start of service entitles LB Detectives to invoice for the work performed up to that point in accordance with the fee agreement. As compensation, at least one day of service must be paid. The client retains the right to prove that no damage or damage of a lesser amount than claimed has occurred.

(3) The right to extraordinary termination remains unaffected.

(4) Any notice of termination must be in written form at least.

§ 8 Confidentiality / Secrecy

(1) The parties shall treat all documents, data, and other information of the other party marked as confidential (hereinafter referred to as "confidential information") in connection with the cooperation and performance of the contract as confidential. The receiving party ("recipient") shall treat the confidential information with the same care as it would its own confidential information of the same sensitivity, but at least with the care of a prudent businessperson.

(2) Use of the confidential information is limited to use in connection with this agreement. Disclosure of confidential information to third parties is not permitted without the prior written consent of the disclosing party. For the purposes of this paragraph, affiliated companies of the parties and advisors who are legally bound to confidentiality are not considered third parties.

(3) To the extent required by applicable legal obligations, the recipient is also entitled to disclose and transfer confidential information. Where legally permissible, the recipient will inform the disclosing party before disclosing confidential information.

(4) The parties shall require their employees or third parties to whom they disclose confidential information to treat such information confidentially within the framework of the respective subcontracting and employment relationships, with the proviso that the obligation of confidentiality shall continue beyond the termination of the respective subcontracting or employment relationship, unless a corresponding general obligation to maintain confidentiality already exists.

(5) Information which is exempt from the obligation of confidentiality shall be

a) were already generally known at the time of conclusion of the contract or subsequently become generally known without breach of the confidentiality obligations contained in this contract;
b) which the recipient has developed independently of this contract; or
c) the recipient has received from third parties or outside of this agreement from the disclosing party without any obligation of confidentiality.

The burden of proof for the existence of the exceptions mentioned in this paragraph lies with the party invoking the exception.
The disclosure of information to one's own legal counsel is excluded from the above regulations.

(6) Upon termination of this Agreement, the parties shall, at the request of the other party, surrender or delete any confidential information of the other party in their possession. This excludes confidential information for which a longer statutory retention period applies, as well as data backups carried out as part of standard backup procedures.

(8) LB Detectives will irrevocably delete existing reports and images after 20 days for data protection reasons, unless there are longer statutory retention obligations.

§ 9 Liability

(1) LB Detectives shall be liable to the client in all cases of contractual and non-contractual liability for intent and gross negligence in accordance with the statutory provisions for damages or reimbursement of wasted expenses.

(2) In all other cases, LB Detectives shall be liable – unless otherwise stipulated in paragraph 3 – only for breaches of contractual obligations, the fulfillment of which is essential for the proper performance of the contract and on which you, as the client, may regularly rely (so-called cardinal obligations), and then only to the extent of foreseeable and typical damages. In all other cases, our liability is excluded, subject to the provisions of paragraph 3.

(3) Our liability for damages resulting from injury to life, body or health and under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected by the above limitations and exclusions of liability.

§ 10 Data protection

(1) LB Detectives collects, processes, and uses personal data only to the extent necessary for establishing, defining the content of, processing, fulfilling, and amending the contractual relationship with the client, and/or to the extent that the client has consented to the data collection, processing, and use. LB Detectives undertakes to protect the client's privacy and to treat their personal data confidentially. To this end, LB Detectives implements comprehensive technical and organizational security measures, which are regularly reviewed and adapted to technological advancements.

(2) When processing personal data necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party, Article 6(1)(b) GDPR serves as the legal basis. This also applies to processing operations necessary for carrying out pre-contractual measures. Furthermore, data processing is lawful if there is a legitimate interest pursuant to Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

(3) If the client has given consent to the collection, processing and/or use of their data, they may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future. The recipient of the revocation is LB Detectives.

(4) The data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was processed. Furthermore, statutory retention obligations may exist, for example, commercial or tax law retention obligations under the German Commercial Code (HGB) or the German Fiscal Code (AO). If such retention obligations exist, we will block or delete your data once these retention periods have expired.

(5) Here you will find information about your rights regarding your personal data. Details can be found in Articles 7, 15-22 and 77 of the GDPR. You can contact the data controller (section 2) regarding this matter.

Right to withdraw your consent under data protection law pursuant to Art. 7 para. 3 sentence 1 GDPR

You can withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data at any time with effect for the future. However, this does not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out before the withdrawal.

a) Right of access pursuant to Art. 15 GDPR

You have the right to request confirmation as to whether we process personal data concerning you. If this is the case, you have the right to access this personal data and to further information, such as the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data processed, the recipients, and the planned duration of storage or the criteria for determining the duration.

b) Right to rectification and completion pursuant to Article 16 GDPR

You have the right to request the immediate correction of inaccurate data. Taking into account the purposes of the processing, you have the right to request the completion of incomplete data.

c) Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”) pursuant to Article 17 GDPR

You have the right to erasure, provided that the processing is not necessary.

This is the case, for example, if your data is no longer necessary for the original purposes, you have withdrawn your data protection consent, or the data has been processed unlawfully.

d) Right to restriction of processing pursuant to Article 18 GDPR

You have the right to restrict processing, e.g. if you believe the personal data is inaccurate.

e) Right to data portability pursuant to Article 20 GDPR

You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

f) Right to object pursuant to Article 21 GDPR

You have the right to object, at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of certain personal data concerning you.

In the case of direct marketing, you as the data subject have the right to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you for the purpose of such marketing; this also applies to profiling insofar as it is related to such direct marketing.

g) Automated decision-making in individual cases, including profiling pursuant to Article 22 GDPR

You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, except in the cases of exceptions mentioned in Article 22 of the GDPR.
Decision-making based solely on automated processing – including profiling – does not take place.

h) Complaint to a data protection supervisory authority pursuant to Article 77 GDPR

Furthermore, you can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority at any time, for example if you believe that the data processing is not in accordance with data protection regulations.

§ 11 Final provisions

(1) Should individual provisions of the respective service agreement be or become invalid or unenforceable, this shall not affect the validity of the service agreement as a whole. The invalid or unenforceable provision shall instead be replaced by a provision that most closely reflects the purpose of the agreement or the intent of the parties.

(2) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply. Germany excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

(3) LB Detectives reserves the right to amend these General Terms and Conditions at a later date. In this case, LB Detectives will notify the client of the amendments in a timely manner (at least six weeks in advance). If the client does not object to the amendments at least four weeks after receiving the notification, they will be deemed accepted by the client. If the client objects to the amendments, LB Detectives has the right to terminate the contractual relationship with the client without notice. In the notification of the amendments, LB Detectives will also inform the client of the possibility of objecting and the legal consequences of failing to object.

(4) The place of jurisdiction and performance for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship is the registered office of LB Detectives, provided the client is a merchant. If the client is a private individual, the statutory provisions apply.