Stay informed

General terms and conditions

1.    General provisions
These general terms and conditions are applicable to all work carried out by APARTINMEDIA Bvba for its clients, having its registered office in Oscar Jespersstraat 13, 8670 Oostduinkerke, registered with the Legal Persons’ Register (RPR) Antwerp under number BE 0454 953 061. APARTINMEDIA Bvba will consider any natural or legal person that has assigned a mission to APARTINMEDIA Bvba as a client, unless the client has expressly stated to act on behalf of, in the name of and at the expense of a third party, provided that the name and the address of this third party are communicated to APARTINMEDIA Bvba at the same time.

2.    Estimates – orders – tariffs
Any estimate or tender made up by APARTINMEDIA Bvba in euros, exclusive of VAT, is free of engagement and will remain valid during 30 days, starting from the date of the estimate. APARTINMEDIA Bvba reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer, wholly or partly, until a definitive acceptance in writing of the order has been drawn up. Information on the website of APARTINMEDIA Bvba does not apply to any estimate or tender and does not entail several obligations.
Orders, signed by the person giving the order, should be sent in writing by post or by e-mail. Any order implies that the client confirms his agreement with the tariffs and general conditions of APARTINMEDIA Bvba.
In case of modification or cancellation of the agreement by the person giving the order after definitive acceptance of the order by APARTINMEDIA Bvba as stated above, APARTINMEDIA Bvba reserves the right to modify the terms and/or tariffs agreed upon or to refuse the order. The work that has already been carried out shall be invoiced at 100% and the work that remains to be carried out shall be invoiced at 50%.
The unit of measurement for billing translations – proofreading - revisions – structural control will be per word in the source language, unless otherwise agreed. In case of urgent work, evening work, weekend work or night work, the minimum tariff will be increased, as well as in case of supply of texts of poor quality, databases of inferior quality etc.
3.    Execution of translation assignments – linguistic services – confidentiality
For all linguistic services, the terminology and spelling stipulated in approved dictionaries shall be considered correct by APARTINMEDIA Bvba. Nevertheless, the client may communicate his preference in advance with regard to a more precise spelling or choice of words. Technical texts are to be accompanied by reference documents and/or illustrations/plans provided by the client enabling a better understanding of them. If a text contains specific internal abbreviations, the client shall be asked to communicate their meaning. APARTINMEDIA Bvba refuses to accept any liability regarding errors or inaccuracies in the text supplied by the client.
All translations are carried out in professional confidentiality. This means that APARTINMEDIA Bvba commits itself never to divulge the content of either a document or a price offer in the context of an order without the client’s agreement.
APARTINMEDIA Bvba has the right to, unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing, to have an assignment, wholly or partly, translated by an independent third party/translator without prior written consent. These independent translators are carefully selected, they are highly qualified and have sufficiently demonstrated their competence for the assignment involved.
Under no circumstances APARTINMEDIA Bvba can be held morally or financially responsible for claims related to nuances of style. With regard to publicity and promotion material APARTINMEDIA Bvba will confine itself to the execution of the translation and the company has no obligation to write the text in a style different from the one of the source text.

4.    Delivery deadlines and delivery – Force majeure/Circumstances beyond of control of the parties
The delivery deadline agreed in writing with the client will take effect from the moment the translation agency is in possession of the source text and the definitive order. APARTINMEDIA Bvba will make every effort to respect the delivery deadline agreed upon, and commits itself to inform the person who has given the order whenever anything might occur which makes it impossible for APARTINMEDIA Bvba to deliver the assignment concerned within the set deadline, such as e.g. in force majeure events. Force majeure includes the legislative provisions and jurisprudence, including all circumstances, foreseen or unforeseen, beyond the control of APARTINMEDIA Bvba or that might prevent the company from meeting its commitments, such as fire, accident, disease, strike, rebellion, blockade, riots, war, terrorist attacks, government action, transport obstructions, bankruptcy of the person giving the order, disruptions of the services of internet providers, negligence of suppliers, epidemics, floods, storm etc.
During the period of a force majeure event the obligations of APARTINMEDIA Bvba will be suspended. In case this period lasts longer than two months, then both parties (APARTINMEDIA Bvba and the party giving the order) have the right to unilaterally dissolve the agreement, without any entitlement to indemnity or compensation for either of the parties.
In case APARTIMEDIA Bvba should already have carried out part of the assignment at the start of the force majeure event, or should the company meet its obligations only partly, then the translation agency has the right to invoice the work carried out separately and the person giving the order has to pay this invoice.
In the event of late delivery (delay by one third of the term agreed in advance) and in case should the delay be due directly and solely to APARTINMEDIA Bvba, then the client will be reimbursed and receive a sum, mutually agreed between both parties, being maximum 33% of the amount invoiced for the work delivered late.

5.    Payment
For each assignment exceeding seven hundred euros (€ 700.-), inclusive of VAT, an advance of thirty percent (30%) will be asked for, to be settled on the day of acceptance of the assignment by APARTINMEDIA Bvba, and signed by the person giving the order. In case of non-payment of the advance APARTINMEDIA Bvba has the right to unilaterally dissolve the agreement by operation of law and without serving notice. For private persons the principle of payment in advance will be applicable and all invoices should be settled before delivery.
Unless otherwise provided on the invoices, all invoices of APARTINMEDIA Bvba are payable in euros within 15 days after invoice date, by bank transfer to the account number mentioned on the invoice.
In the event of late payment all pending orders will be suspended.
Terms of payment cannot be interrupted by complaints.
Unfounded refusal of a translation is no reason for non-payment of the invoice or fee.

6.    Complaints and disputes
All invoices made by APARTINMEDIA Bvba are payable in euros upon receipt, unless otherwise expressly agreed.
All costs arising from collections or disputes will always be at the expense of the person giving the order. In case of exceeding the term of payment the amount due will automatically be increased by a lump sum of compensation of 10% with a minimum of € 125.-, this by operation of law and without the requirement of a serving notice by registered post. The above-mentioned stipulations shall apply without restrictions in the event of granting periods of grace. APARTINMEDIA Bvba reserves the right to take direct legal action against ‘bad payers’ in its own name and to claim compensation for copyright infringement.
In the event of arrears of pay all pending orders will be suspended.
In the event of non-payment all presentations or reproductions of the texts or translations concerned, wholly or partly, are forbidden.
Complaints related to texts, translations or invoices should be reported within 5 working days from the invoice date by means of a registered letter with copy by mail, or failing to deem the text or the translation and the invoice accepted.
Complaints or disputes relating to the non-conformity of a text or translation, carried out within the contractual deadline, should be thoroughly substantiated by reference to dictionaries, glossaries or equivalent texts written by native speakers. APARTINMEDIA Bvba shall nonetheless remain the sole judge of the relevance of such a dispute. Under no circumstances can faults in some part of the text/the translation are arguments to question the work as a whole. APARTINMEDIA Bvba reserves the right to make amendments. Terms of payment cannot be interrupted by complaints.

7.    Liability
APARTINMEDIA Bvba can only be held responsible in the event of malicious intent. Furthermore, any possible liability of APARTINMEDIA Bvba is in any event, notwithstanding the preceding and subject to fraud, limited to the sums invoiced and paid by the client, relating to the assignment concerned.
APARTINMEDIA Bvba shall be held responsible for damages arising from the use of information technology and the use of modern communication tools such as e-mail, internet etc.
APARTINMEDIA Bvba shall not be held responsible for late delivery caused by events of force majeure, as stated under article 4.
Under no circumstances APARTINMEDIA shall be held liable for indirect damage with regard to the person giving the order or a third party. The term indirect damage includes but is not limited to, i.a. economic loss, loss of profits, loss of savings, loss of clientele, loss of contracts, loss of earnings, loss of time, loss of reputation, loss or damage of data, whether contractual, extra-contractual or other.
The person giving the order shall be deemed to act in the capacity of the author of the text to be translated, expressly authorizing the translation in accordance with Article 12 of the Law of 22 March 1986 on copyright.
Under no circumstances APARTINMEDIA Bvba shall be held liable for complaints relating to style, layout, characters, presentation, quality or format of the carrier, software etc.
APARTINMEDIA Bvba cannot be held liable for the content, the impropriety or an eventual ambiguity in texts to be translated submitted by the person giving the order or for any eventual damage arising from the use of these texts. APARTINMEDIA Bvba has the right to refuse the assignment or to unilaterally dissolve the agreement in case the text to be translated should be or could be illegal, defamatory or injurious, in its opinion.
APARTINMEDIA Bvba cannot be held responsible for errors in the translation, due to inaccuracies when submitting the assignment, or due to texts difficult to read, poor or incomplete or due to missing, inadequate or incorrect terminology of the person giving the order, neither for eventual errors or damages that might arise as a consequence of it.

8.    Jurisdiction and governing law
All disputes concerning the existence and/or (non-) execution of any order of APARTINMEDIA Bvba are the concern of the exclusive competence of the court of Veurne, including the courts being in summary session. Only Belgian law is applicable.