SALES AND DELIVERY CONDITIONS FOR VINE PLANTING MATERIAL (AVLB VINES) FROM 01.11.2006
- General
1.1. The following conditions apply to all offers, deliveries and associated legal transactions that have vine planting material according to the Seed Traffic Act and the Vine Planting Material Ordinance (rods, scions, rootstock vines, blind wood, root vines, grafted vines, pot vines, cardboard vines) as their subject.
1.2 These conditions only apply to vintners and other entrepreneurs in the sense of § 14 BGB.
1.3 The AVLB vine planting material is recognized by the buyer at the latest when the first delivery is received and applies for the entire duration of the business relationship. This does not apply if the buyer could not become aware of the content of the AVLB before the first contract was concluded.
1.4. Changes to these conditions will be announced in writing to the contractual partner. The changes are considered approved if the contractual partner does not object in writing within six weeks of the announcement. The user will particularly point out this legal consequence to the contractual partner when announcing the changes.
1.5 Conditions of the buyer deviating from the AVLB vine planting material as well as other agreements such as guarantees, changes and side agreements are only effective if the seller expressly agrees in writing to the relevant conditions or agreements.
1.6 Insofar as legal transactions are concluded orally or by telephone subject to written confirmation, the content of the confirmation letter is considered agreed, unless the recipient objects immediately. This legal consequence is pointed out in the confirmation letter.
- Acceptance of the vine planting material
The buyer is generally obliged to pick up the vine planting material at the place of production. The collection must take place within one week after being requested to collect by the seller. 8 working days after the agreed collection date, but at the latest upon collection, the risk passes to the buyer. Deviating delivery agreements can be agreed in accordance with 1.5.
3. Shipping
If shipping is agreed differently from 2., the seller determines the type and manner of a goods shipment as well as the loading point for the goods. The buyer bears the costs of shipping. The risk passes to the buyer with the dispatch from the sales point. Packaging is calculated at cost price and is not taken back.
Transport insurances are only concluded at the express request and at the expense of the buyer in the scope desired by him.
- Delivery and Delivery Dates
4.1. The day of dispatch or collection is considered the day of delivery.
4.2 The buyer is obliged to accept partial services (equal partial deliveries), unless this is unreasonable for him in individual cases.
4.3 If the seller does not deliver on time or within the deadline, the buyer must set him a grace period of at least 5 days for performance (equal delivery). For deliveries within the grace period, clause 4.2 applies accordingly. If the seller does not deliver within the grace period or not in accordance with the contract, the buyer can withdraw from the contract and, if the seller is responsible for the breach of duty, demand compensation instead of performance
4.4 If the seller has only effected a partial performance despite a reasonable deadline for subsequent performance, clause 4.3 sentence 3 applies accordingly with regard to the non-effected partial performance. However, the buyer can only withdraw from the entire contract and demand compensation instead of performance if he has no interest in the partial performance.
4.5 The buyer cannot withdraw from the contract and demand compensation instead of performance if the seller has delivered up to five out of 100 of the quantity mentioned in the contract too little; in this respect, any breach of duty by the seller is irrelevant.
4.6 The obligation to deliver vine planting material is in any case limited to delivery from own production (stock debt). If the vine planting material produced by the seller is not sufficient to supply all buyers, he is entitled to supplement through other suppliers or to reduce the delivery quantity proportionally.
- Payment
5.1 The place of fulfillment for payments is the seller’s place of business. When picking up the vine planting material in accordance with § 2, the purchase price is due immediately upon delivery of the goods. If nothing else is agreed, invoices from the seller are to be settled within 14 days of the date of the invoice without deduction; otherwise, the buyer is in default without a reminder.
5.2 If the price is not yet fixed at the time of conclusion of the contract, the seller is entitled to determine the price. If the price determined by the seller exceeds the price of the seller’s previous year’s price list by more than 10%, the buyer is entitled to withdraw. The relevant previous year’s price list is to be made available to the buyer on request
5.3. If the seller becomes aware of a significant deterioration in the buyer’s financial circumstances or insolvency, the seller is entitled to make all claims from the business relationship, including deferred claims and those from bills of exchange, due immediately and to make further deliveries dependent on an advance payment or the provision of security. If a deadline is set for this advance payment, the seller is entitled to withdraw from the contract after the deadline has expired without result and to demand compensation instead of performance.
5.4 The seller is only obliged to accept bills of exchange if expressly agreed. Bills of exchange and checks are accepted in any case only as payment, so that the purchase price claim only expires with the performance of the amount indicated in the bill of exchange or check and only to this extent
5.5 Offsetting against claims of the seller is only permissible with undisputed or legally established counterclaims. The assertion of retention rights by the buyer, which are not based on the same contractual relationship, is excluded.
- Agreement on Quality
The following is exclusively considered as the agreed quality of the planting material according to § 434 paragraph 1 sentence 1 BGB:
- The vine planting material is true to type and variety;
- Vine planting material produced in Germany meets the requirements according to Annex 2 to the Vine Planting Material Ordinance of January 21, 1986 in the respectively valid version; seed produced in other countries meets the requirements of the underlying European directive.
- The minimum possible pest infestation within the meaning of Annex 2 to the Vine Planting Material Ordinance is considered to be pest infestation that is just recognizable at the time of risk transfer according to the state of science and technology with reasonable effort.
- Notice of Defects
7.1 The buyer must inspect the vine planting material immediately, at the latest within 4 working days after handover.
7.2 The buyer must immediately notify the seller of obvious defects in the vine planting material, at the latest within 5 working days after handover. Non-obvious defects must also be reported to the seller immediately, at the latest within 4 working days after becoming known. The receipt of the complaint by the seller is decisive. The seller can demand the notice of defects from the buyer in written form, thereby the deadlines in sentences 1 and 2 are extended by three working days, whereby the receipt of the complaint by the seller is decisive. If the deadlines for the notice of defects are not met, warranty claims are excluded, in non-commercial business transactions with hidden defects, however, not before the expiry of the warranty period determined by § 9.3.
7.3 The buyer must properly store the complained vine planting material and allow the seller the opportunity for immediate inspection and verification.
- Sample Drawing, Obtaining an Expert Opinion
In case of disagreements between the buyer and seller about the quality of the vine planting material, the official advisory service responsible for the buyer’s location should be consulted with the aim of an amicable agreement. If no clarification has been made in this way, a binding, impartial expert opinion will be prepared. The expert is named by the Chamber of Agriculture responsible for the buyer’s location or the Regional Council responsible for the buyer’s location upon request by one party.
- Warranty and Liability of the Seller
9.1 The seller is only liable for damages due to breach of duty in case of intent and gross negligence, unless the seller violates the life, body or health of the buyer or a significant contractual obligation that is essential for achieving the purpose of the contract.
9.2. In the case of material defects for which the seller is liable, he provides rectification or replacement delivery at his choice. Only when the rectification or replacement delivery has failed, the buyer can reduce or withdraw from the contract and, if the seller is charged with intent or gross negligence, demand compensation instead of delivery. Sentence 2 does not apply if the presence of the defect constitutes a significant breach of contract, which has made the achievement of the contract purpose impossible.
9.3 Warranty claims expire within one year from the time of handover. The same applies to breaches of duty by the seller that do not concern material or legal defects, unless the seller violates the life, body or health of the buyer or a significant contractual obligation that is essential for achieving the purpose of the contract.
- Duty to Mitigate Damage
The buyer must take all reasonable measures that are suitable to reduce the damage. If the damage could have been averted or reduced if the defect had been complained about as soon as it was recognizable, this must also be taken into account when assessing the compensation.
- Retention of Title, Transfer of Ownership for Security
11.1 All goods delivered by the seller to the buyer remain the property of the seller until all claims from the business relationship with the buyer (reserved goods) have been settled. This also applies if individual or all of the seller’s claims have been included in a current account and the balance has been drawn and recognized. This also applies to claims from checks and bills of exchange that have been established in connection with the business relationship.
11.2 Through any processing or processing of the reserved goods and the growth according to 11.4, the buyer does not acquire ownership, as he carries this out for the seller, without any obligations arising for the seller. In the event of processing, connection, mixing or mingling of the reserved goods with other goods not owned by the seller, the seller is entitled to the co-ownership share of the new item that arises in relation to the value of the reserved goods to the other processed goods at the time of processing, connection, mixing or mingling. If the buyer acquires sole ownership of the new item, the seller and buyer agree that the buyer grants the seller co-ownership of the new item in relation to the value of the processed or connected, mixed or mingled reserved goods and stores this free of charge for the seller.
11.3 The buyer may only resell the reserved goods or use them for planting in the ordinary course of business.
11.4. The growth (propagation material and/or grapes) from the vine planting material supplied by the seller is transferred to the seller for security until all claims from the business relationship have been fully paid off and is stored free of charge by the buyer.
11.5 All claims of the buyer from a resale of the reserved goods are assigned to the seller at the time of the conclusion of the contract to secure all claims of the seller from the business relationship. The buyer is entitled to collect these claims for the seller’s account until revoked by the seller. The seller’s authority to collect the claims himself remains unaffected by this. However, the seller undertakes not to collect the claims as long as the buyer properly fulfills his payment and other obligations.
11.6 The buyer is obliged to adequately insure the reserved goods at his own expense, if this is customary, and to immediately notify the seller of a damage case. In this respect, claims from the insurance contract are assigned to the seller in advance, namely until all claims from the business relationship have been fully paid off.
- Use of the vine planting material
12.1 The buyer undertakes to use the vine planting material only for its intended use. In particular, the buyer may not use the vine planting material to produce propagation material without the prior written permission of the respective variety protection holder or clone breeder, the granting of which is at the discretion of the variety protection holder/clone breeder. This does not affect a breeding processing of the material to build new clones. Contrary provisions of the German Variety Protection Act and the European Variety Protection Regulation remain unaffected by this.
12.2 If the buyer violates an obligation under number 12.1, he must pay a contractual penalty to the variety protection holder at the request of the seller or the variety protection holder in the amount of three times the purchase price of the vine planting material. This does not affect the buyer’s obligation to pay further damages.
- Disputes
13.1 If the parties to the purchase contract are merchants, all disputes arising from or in connection with the purchase contract will be decided by an arbitration court for seed disputes (see attached list) or a regular court at the choice of the claimant.
13.2 The arbitration court for seed disputes or ordinary court responsible for the location of the defendant’s business headquarters is responsible, unless the parties agree otherwise.
13.3 The arbitration proceedings are governed by the procedural rules of the competent arbitration court.
- Miscellaneous
If one or more provisions of these AVLB vine planting material should be or become ineffective or unenforceable, the effectiveness of the remaining provisions will not be affected. Instead of the ineffective or unenforceable provision, the parties will agree on an effective and enforceable provision that comes closest to the economic interests of both parties. The same applies if the AVLB vine planting material have an unintentional gap. Directory of arbitration courts for seed disputes according to § 13.1 AVLB VINES
- Arbitration court for seed disputes at the Hanover Chamber of Agriculture, Johannsenstr. 10, 30159 Hanover
- Southern German arbitration court for seed disputes, Kerner Platz 10, 70182 Stuttgart
- Arbitration court for seed and variety protection disputes at the Central German Product Exchange e. V., Räcknitzhöhe 35, 01217 Dresden