Terms of Service

(1) These terms govern use of the software-as-a-service platform "Sondercase" (the "Service"), which uses AI to automatically answer or draft responses to inbound customer inquiries (email and messenger) for online shops. Contracting parties are exclusively businesses within the meaning of § 14 BGB (the "Customer"). The Customer’s own customers are referred to as "End Customers".

(2) Deviating or supplementary terms of the Customer do not become part of the contract, even if the Provider does not expressly object to them. Individual agreements in text form (e.g. for Enterprise plans) take precedence over these terms.

By registering and confirming the email address, the Customer submits an offer to conclude a usage agreement. The contract is formed when the Provider activates the account.

(1) The Provider makes the Service available within the chosen tier. The specific scope of functions follows from the respective product description.

(2) The Service is a technical tool of the Customer. Using AI language models, it produces replies and proposed actions (e.g. refund, cancellation, address change, return, shipping label) based on End Customers’ messages, shop data and the information and settings the Customer provides. AI-generated results are probabilistic and may, in individual cases, be incomplete, inaccurate or unsuitable even when the Service works properly. The Provider owes provision of the Service in line with the product description, not the correctness of every individual result.

(3) The Provider is not a party to the contracts between the Customer and its End Customers. Messages sent through the Service and actions executed through the Service in the Customer’s systems are the Customer’s own declarations and acts, made in the Customer’s name and for its account.

(4) The Service does not provide legal, tax or other advice. This also applies to statements about withdrawal, warranty and return rights that the Service uses in replies or default settings.

(5) The Customer’s shop system (e.g. Shopify, WooCommerce) remains the authoritative system for orders, payments and refunds. The Service holds only a working copy of the data it needs to perform.

(6) For quality assurance and product improvement, the Provider computes aggregate metrics on the extent to which AI suggestions are adopted unchanged or edited (details in the Privacy Policy and DPA).

(7) Features labelled "beta", "preview" or similar are provided without commitment to any particular quality or availability and may be changed or discontinued at any time.

(1) The Customer decides the degree of automation: whether replies are only provided as drafts for approval or sent automatically, for which channels and topics this applies, and which actions run automatically or only after approval. Out of the box, the Service provides replies as drafts for approval.

(2) By enabling automatic sending or automatic execution of actions, the Customer instructs the Provider to send messages and execute actions without case-by-case human review. The Customer makes this decision on its own responsibility, aware that individual automated messages or actions may be wrong even when the Service works properly (section 3(2)).

(3) When the Customer or a person it has authorised approves a draft or a proposed action, the approval is the Customer’s own decision. The Customer checks content, recipient, amount and the other details before approving.

(4) The Customer trials the Service in draft mode before enabling automated functions and regularly spot-checks automatically sent messages and executed actions. If it detects faulty results, it promptly disables or restricts the automation concerned and informs the Provider in text form.

(5) The Service includes additional safeguards, such as mandatory approval for certain actions, amount, quantity and daily limits, and automatic downgrading of individual replies to draft mode. They reduce risk but do not replace the Customer’s own settings and checks, and they are no commitment that every faulty message or action will be prevented. The Provider may add or tighten safeguards.

(6) Claims of the Customer for breaches of duty by the Provider remain unaffected; they are governed by section 13.

(1) Actions triggered through the Service (e.g. refunds, cancellations, address changes, returns, replacement shipments and shipping labels) are executed with the Customer’s credentials in its shop, payment and shipping systems.

(2) Whether, in what amount and on what terms the Customer refunds, cancels, replaces or makes goodwill gestures towards End Customers is decided solely by the Customer: by approval in the individual case or through the rules, policies, limits and automation settings it has configured.

(3) The Provider does not check whether an action approved by the Customer or executed under its settings is owed to the End Customer, commercially sensible or free from abuse by the End Customer. Indications from the Service, for example on return eligibility or fraud risk, are decision aids, not assurances.

(4) Executed refunds, payments and shipping labels generally cannot be reversed. Recovering amounts from End Customers is the Customer’s matter; fees charged by payment or shipping providers for executed actions are borne by the Customer. Section 4(6) applies accordingly.

(5) Where a shop or third-party system sends its own messages to End Customers as a result of an action (e.g. refund confirmations), this follows the Customer’s settings in that system.

(1) The Customer is responsible for:

• the accuracy and currency of the information provided, in particular company details, shipping, return and warranty terms, knowledge base and policies from which the Service derives replies;
• the lawful connection of its mailboxes, messenger accounts and shop, payment and shipping systems;
• the content of messages it approves or that are sent automatically under its settings, and of actions executed accordingly;
• meeting its obligations towards End Customers, in particular under consumer, competition and data-protection law, including any obligation to inform End Customers about the use of AI;
• compliance with the terms of the connected platforms (e.g. Meta/WhatsApp, Google, Shopify).

(2) The Customer ensures it is entitled to process the personal data fed into the Service.

(3) The Customer keeps credentials confidential and grants access only to authorised persons. Acts of those persons in the Service are attributed to the Customer. It informs the Provider promptly if it suspects misuse.

(4) The Customer does not use the Service for unlawful purposes, for sending unsolicited advertising, or in a way that impairs the operation or security of the Service.

(5) The Customer backs up data that matters to it in its own systems. The Service is not an archive and does not replace the Customer’s own backups.

The Customer indemnifies the Provider against third-party claims, in particular from End Customers, platform operators, competitors and authorities, including reasonable legal defence costs, to the extent these claims arise from messages or actions the Customer approved or that were sent or executed automatically under its settings, or from a culpable breach by the Customer of these terms or applicable law. This does not apply to the extent the Provider is responsible for the infringement. The Provider informs the Customer promptly of any claims asserted and does not acknowledge or settle them without consulting the Customer.

(1) The Service depends on interfaces and services of third parties, such as shop systems, email and messenger providers, AI providers, and payment and shipping providers. Their availability, functionality and terms are outside the Provider’s control. If a third party changes or restricts its interface or suspends a Customer account, the Provider may adapt or restrict the affected function.

(2) The Customer’s contracts with these third parties are governed solely by their terms. Fees charged to the Customer by third parties are borne by the Customer.

(1) Use is subject to a fee according to the chosen tier. The prices stated at the time of booking apply. They are final prices; the VAT they contain depends on the Customer’s place of business and any VAT ID provided. Billing is in advance via the payment provider Stripe.

(2) Tiers may include quotas, for example for drafts and executed actions per billing period. Once a quota is used up, the Service creates no further drafts or executes no further actions until the next billing period or a change of tier. This is not a defect of the Service; during that time the Customer handles inbound inquiries itself.

(3) If the Customer is in payment default, the Provider may, after notice in text form, suspend automated functions or access to the Service until the outstanding amounts are paid.

(4) Money-back guarantee: if the Customer cancels within 30 days of its first payment for a paid tier, the Provider refunds, on request in text form, the full amount paid for that first billing period. The guarantee applies once per Customer; the contract ends with the refund.

Where a free trial is offered, it ends automatically after the stated period. Afterwards the Service may be restricted (e.g. no new drafts and no automatic sending) until a paid tier is booked.

(1) The Provider endeavours to maintain high availability but does not owe any specific availability unless a service level is expressly agreed. Maintenance windows and third-party disruptions (e.g. AI providers, hosting) are reserved.

(2) The Provider may temporarily suspend automated functions, in particular automatic sending and automatic execution of actions, in whole or in part, or downgrade them to draft mode, where this is necessary to avert risks to the Customer, End Customers, third parties or the Service, for example on signs of faulty results, security incidents, abuse or third-party disruptions. It informs the Customer appropriately and lifts the measure once its cause no longer applies.

(1) The Customer reports defects in the Service promptly after discovering them, in text form and with a comprehensible description.

(2) Individual AI results that are inaccurate in content are not in themselves a defect, provided the Service otherwise matches the product description (section 3(2)).

(3) The Provider’s no-fault liability for defects already present at the conclusion of the contract (§ 536a(1) alt. 1 BGB) is excluded.

(1) The Provider is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under the Product Liability Act, and to the extent of an expressly assumed guarantee.

(2) In cases of slight negligence, the Provider is liable only for breach of a material contractual obligation. Material obligations are those whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance the Customer may regularly rely, in particular provision of the Service to the agreed extent. In that case liability is limited to the damage that was foreseeable and typical for the contract at the time of conclusion.

(3) Liability under paragraph 2 is further limited in total to the fees the Customer paid to the Provider in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the damage.

(4) In the case of paragraph 2, the Provider is liable for loss of data only up to the effort that would have been required to restore it had the Customer backed up its data properly (section 6(5)).

(5) Contributory fault of the Customer is taken into account (§ 254 BGB), in particular where damage results from the Customer providing inaccurate information, approving messages or actions without checking them, not monitoring automated functions contrary to section 4(4), or not disabling them after becoming aware of errors.

(6) Damage claims of the Customer become time-barred one year after the statutory limitation period begins. This does not apply in the cases of paragraph 1.

(7) The above limitations of liability also apply in favour of the Provider’s partners, employees, representatives and vicarious agents. They do not shift the burden of proof to the Customer’s detriment.

(1) The contract runs for an indefinite period. The Customer may cancel a monthly or annually billed subscription at any time with effect from the end of the current billing period; access continues until then. The Provider may terminate with one month’s notice to the end of a billing period. The right to extraordinary termination for good cause remains unaffected.

(2) During a pause chosen by the Customer, the Service cannot be used and inbound inquiries are not processed.

(3) After the contract ends, the Customer’s data is deleted in accordance with the DPA, unless statutory retention obligations apply. The Customer backs up any data it needs in its own systems before the contract ends.

(1) The Provider may amend these terms with future effect where there is a valid reason, in particular a change in the law or case law, further development of the Service, or changes to third-party interfaces. Main performance obligations and prices are not changed this way.

(2) The Provider announces changes in text form at least six weeks before they take effect. If the Customer does not object before they take effect, the changes are deemed accepted; the Provider specifically points out this consequence in the announcement. If the Customer objects, either party may terminate the contract with effect from the date the changes would take effect.

(1) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

(2) If the Customer is a merchant (Kaufmann), a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction is Dresden.

(3) Declarations under these terms require text form (e.g. email) unless otherwise specified.

(4) Should individual provisions be invalid, the validity of the remainder is unaffected.