General Terms and Conditions

for the provision of services by HDR Hero, Poststraße 12, 88048 Friedrichshafen, email: kontakt@hdrhero.de (hereinafter the “Contractor”) to its customers (hereinafter the “Client”)

This English text is a non-binding translation provided for convenience. In the event of any discrepancy, the German version of these General Terms and Conditions shall prevail.

1. General

1.1 These General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for the provision of services apply to contracts concluded between the Client and the Contractor incorporating these GTC.

1.2 The Contractor does not conclude contracts with consumers or private individuals.

1.3 Insofar as, in addition to these GTC, further contractual documents or other terms and conditions in text or written form have become part of the contract, the provisions of those further contractual documents shall, in the event of a conflict, take precedence over these GTC.

1.4 The Contractor does not recognise any GTC used by the Client that deviate from these terms – subject to express consent.

2. Subject matter of the contract and scope of services

2.1 As an independent entrepreneur, the Contractor provides the following services to the Client:

HDR HERO is a SaaS application for commercial customers (estate agents, photographers, project developers) that processes real-estate photos in two automatic steps: first, uploaded exposure brackets are merged into a balanced HDR image (HDR merging). This is followed by an AI-assisted step for subtle optimisation — primarily brightening and slight colour saturation; the image content remains unchanged.

2.2 The specific scope of services is the subject of individual agreements between the Contractor and the Client.

2.3 The Contractor provides the contractual services with the greatest possible care and diligence in accordance with the latest state of the art, the latest rules and findings.

2.4 The Contractor is obliged to provide the services owed under the contract. However, in performing its activity it is not subject to any instructions regarding the manner of provision of its services, the place of provision or the time of provision. Nevertheless, in scheduling its working days and organising its time on those days, it shall determine these itself in such a way as to achieve optimal efficiency in its activity and in realising the subject matter of the contract. The Contractor provides the services solely in coordination with the Client.

3. Client’s duties to cooperate

It is incumbent on the Client to provide the information, data and other content to be made available for the purpose of performing the services completely and correctly. The Contractor is in no way responsible towards the Client for delays in the provision of services that arise from late but necessary cooperation or contribution by the Client; the provisions under the heading “Liability/Indemnification” remain unaffected.

4. Remuneration

4.1 The remuneration is agreed individually.

4.2 The remuneration is payable after the services have been rendered. If the remuneration is measured by periods of time, it is payable after the end of the respective periods (§ 614 BGB). For effort-based billing, the Contractor is entitled – subject to any deviating agreements – to bill the services rendered on a monthly basis.

4.3 After the services have been rendered, the Contractor issues the Client an invoice by post or by email (e.g. as a PDF). The remuneration is due for payment within 14 days of receipt of the invoice.

5. Liability / Indemnification

5.1 The Contractor is liable without limitation on any legal ground in cases of intent or gross negligence, in cases of intentional or negligent injury to life, body or health, on the basis of a guarantee where nothing else has been agreed in this respect, or on the basis of mandatory liability. If the Contractor negligently breaches a material contractual obligation, liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract, unless liability is unlimited pursuant to the preceding sentence. Material contractual obligations are obligations that the contract imposes on the Contractor according to its content in order to achieve the purpose of the contract, the fulfilment of which makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance the Client may regularly rely. Otherwise, liability of the Contractor is excluded. The foregoing liability provisions also apply with regard to the Contractor’s liability for its vicarious agents and legal representatives.

5.2 The Client indemnifies the Contractor against any third-party claims asserted against the Contractor due to the Client’s breaches of these contractual terms or of applicable law.

6. Contract term and termination

6.1 The parties agree the contract term and the periods for ordinary termination individually.

6.2 The right of both parties to terminate without notice for good cause remains unaffected.

6.3 After the contract ends, the Contractor must, at the Client’s choice, return or destroy all documents and other content provided to it without undue delay. The assertion of a right of retention in this respect is excluded. Electronic data must be deleted completely. Excepted from this are documents and data for which a longer statutory retention obligation exists, but only until the end of the respective retention period. At the Client’s request, the Contractor must confirm the deletion in writing.

7. Confidentiality and data protection

7.1 The Contractor will treat all matters that come to its knowledge in connection with the engagement as strictly confidential. The Contractor undertakes to impose the duty of confidentiality on all employees and/or third parties who have access to the information that is the subject of the contract. The duty of confidentiality applies without time limit beyond the duration of this contract.

7.2 The Contractor undertakes to comply with all data protection regulations – in particular the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and the German Federal Data Protection Act – when carrying out the engagement.

8. Final provisions

8.1 The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, to the exclusion of the CISG.

8.2 Should any provision of these GTC be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining GTC shall not be affected.

8.3 The Client shall support the Contractor in providing its contractual services through appropriate acts of cooperation where necessary. In particular, the Client shall provide the Contractor with the information and data required to perform the engagement.

8.4 If the Client is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, or has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany, the parties agree the Contractor’s registered seat as the place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contractual relationship; exclusive places of jurisdiction remain unaffected.

8.5 The Contractor is entitled to amend these GTC for objectively justified reasons (e.g. changes in case law, the legal situation, market conditions, or business or corporate strategy) observing a reasonable notice period. Existing customers will be notified of this by email no later than two weeks before the amendment takes effect. If the existing customer does not object within the period set in the amendment notice, their consent to the amendment is deemed to have been given. If they object, the amendments do not take effect; in this case the Contractor is entitled to terminate the contract extraordinarily as of the time the amendment takes effect. The notice of the intended amendment of these GTC will point out the period and the consequences of objecting or failing to object.

9. Information on consumer dispute resolution

The provider is not willing or obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

You can find our email address in the heading of these GTC.

10. Supplementary terms for the HDR HERO online service

10.1 Precedence. The following terms specify and supplement the foregoing provisions for the use of the “HDR Hero” online service. In the event of conflicts with the foregoing general provisions, they take precedence over them (cf. Section 1.3).

10.2 Registration and account. An account is required in order to use the service. The Client provides truthful information, keeps its access credentials secret and is responsible for activities under its account. In the event of misuse or breaches of these GTC, the Contractor may temporarily suspend accounts.

10.3 Service and availability. The service processes uploaded exposure brackets via an automated cloud pipeline into tone-corrected result images (web and print variant). The Contractor does not owe any particular creative result and no uninterrupted availability. Maintenance windows, force majeure and disruptions of upstream services may temporarily restrict availability.

10.4 Prices and billing. The prices and quotas displayed in the service at the time of booking apply; these constitute the individual remuneration agreement within the meaning of Section 4.1. In particular, a monthly subscription is offered (base fee including a quota plus usage-based remuneration for series exceeding it) as well as usage-based billing per processed series (on demand). For the Pro and Studio subscriptions, annual billing may be chosen at booking instead of monthly billing; in that case the remuneration is due in advance for the entire twelve-month term. Even with annual billing, the quota included in the price continues to be credited monthly; the usage-based remuneration for series exceeding the quota (additional consumption) likewise continues to be billed monthly even with annual billing. By way of derogation from Sections 4.2 and 4.3, billing and payment collection take place in advance or periodically via a payment service provider — upon booking or at the start of the respective billing period. All prices are net plus statutory value added tax. For intra-Community supplies to entrepreneurs with a valid VAT ID, the reverse-charge procedure applies. Where the small-business regulation (§ 19 UStG) is applied, no value added tax is shown.

10.5 Subscription term and termination. The subscription initially runs for the selected billing period (generally monthly) and is tacitly renewed for an indefinite term unless terminated with a notice period of no more than one month; thereafter it can be terminated at any time with a notice period of no more than one month (§ 309 No. 9 BGB). If the Client chooses annual billing for a Pro or Studio subscription, the initial term is 12 months; the remuneration is due in advance for the entire term. In that case, the subscription renews for a further 12 months in each instance unless terminated with a notice period of one month to the end of the respective term. No pro-rata refund is made for unused periods; quotas already credited remain usable until the end of the term. The Client selects the billing period (monthly or annual) upon booking. On-demand use is not a continuing obligation and ends with the respective individual service. Section 6.2 (termination without notice) remains unaffected.

10.6 Price changes. The Contractor may change prices for the future with reasonable advance notice. Periods already billed remain unaffected. The right to terminate as of the time the change takes effect remains unaffected.

10.7 Rights to images and results. All rights to the uploaded images and the generated results remain with the Client. The Client grants the Contractor only the simple rights of use necessary to perform the contract (storing, processing, providing the results). The images are not used for any other purposes, in particular not for training AI models. Details on the processing of personal data are governed by the Privacy Policy.

10.8 Client’s obligations. The Client warrants that it holds the necessary rights to the uploaded images and does not upload any unlawful content. Any abusive use (e.g. automated scraping, circumvention of limits, reverse engineering) is prohibited. The Client makes its own backup copies of its source images.

10.9 Reserve (carry-over of unused quota). Processing units included in the monthly price that have not been used are credited to the contract account as a reserve at the end of the billing period. The reserve is capped at one monthly quota of the currently booked plan; units exceeding this cap expire without compensation. Consumption draws first on the current billing period’s quota and then on the reserve. The reserve exists for the duration of the active subscription, is non-transferable, cannot be paid out and is not refunded in cash; it expires when the subscription ends. On a plan change, the reserve is capped at the monthly quota of the new plan. A claim to a credit arises only for billing periods falling entirely within the term of a quota-based subscription.