General Terms and Conditions (GTC)

Version 1.0, dated 4 May 2024

The English version of these General Terms & Conditions (GTC) is an automated translation of the German version. As translation errors cannot be ruled out, it is hereby expressly pointed out that in the event of discrepancies, the German version of the GTC shall have legal validity.

1. Scope and subject matter of the contract

The following terms and conditions (the "General Terms and Conditions") apply to the use and operational support of the SaaS software "eGovStore" (hereinafter the "Software"), which is produced by Bermuda GmbH (hereinafter Bermuda) and provided as a Software-as-a-Service service via the Internet.
Subject of the contract are:

  • the provision of the software listed under egovstore.online for use via the Internet and
  • the storage of the customer's data on the data centre's servers

Individually developed software is not covered by this contract.

2. Nature and scope of the services

The nature and scope of the services provided by both parties are governed by the agreements listed here and the services listed at egovstore.online. The scope of services defined in the contract is deemed to be the agreed quality. Decisive for this are:

  • the defined scope of services of the software listed under eGovStore.online
  • suitability for the intended use,
  • the following conditions,
  • generally applied technical guidelines and specialised standards, in particular the international standards and proposals of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), as documented in the Request for Comments (RFC), and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). 

In the event of discrepancies, the contractual agreements shall apply in the above order.

Further conditions, in particular general terms and conditions of the contractual partner do not apply, even if Bermuda does not expressly contradict them. The GTC of Bermuda GmbH apply exclusively.

3. Terms of use

3.1 Rights of the customer to the software

Bermuda grants the customer a non-exclusive, non-transferable and non-sublicensable right to use the software specified in the contract for the duration of the contract. The software is provided via the Internet. The transfer point for the SaaS services is the router output of the data centre used by Bermuda to the Internet. The customer undertakes to use the software exclusively in accordance with the contract and neither to pass it on to third parties nor to make it accessible to third parties in any other way. The customer is not authorised to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or reproduce the software or to use any part of the software to create a separate application.

The Customer hereby recognises Bermuda as the sole licensor of the Software and the associated copyrights. Bermuda's rights as sole licensor also extend to any enhancements to the Software provided by Bermuda to Customer, unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Customer hereby acknowledges Bermuda's trademark, name and patent rights with respect to the Software and related documentation. Customer shall not remove, alter or otherwise modify any copyright information or other similar proprietary notices in the programmes and related documentation.

3.2 Rights of the customer to the data

The data collected, processed and generated by the software is stored on the data centre's servers. The customer remains in any case the sole authorised party to the data and can therefore demand the return of individual or all data from Bermuda at any time, in particular after termination of the contract, without Bermuda having a right of retention. The release of the data takes place by electronic transmission via a data network or after separate agreement by handing over data carriers. The request for the release of the data has to be made in any case before the expiry of the contract (see 3.4) The customer has no claim to receive the software suitable for the use of the data. The customer is responsible for the permissibility of the collection, processing and use of the data and for safeguarding the rights of the data subjects (information, use, correction, blocking, deletion).

3.3 Violation of the terms of use

In case of offences against the mentioned terms of use Bermuda is entitled to cancel the contract in whole or in part without notice. In this case, Bermuda also reserves the right to assert claims for damages against the customer resulting from the breach of contract.

3.4 Duration of contract and cancellation

The customer has the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the scope of the software during a thirty-day free trial access to the software. The minimum term for the provision of the SaaS service following the trial access is 1 month. The contract period is automatically extended by a further month if no cancellation is made. The amounts are collected from the last credit card details on file. If the customer opts for an annual contract during the ordering process, the contract is automatically extended by a further year unless cancelled.

Bermuda is entitled to terminate the contract for good cause, in particular in the event of failed direct debits or credit card collections.

Bermuda is not obliged to keep any stored data after expiry of the contract (or after expiry of the test phase). After expiry of the contract, the software instance including all stored data can be irrevocably deleted by Bermuda.

4. Maintenance conditions and service level

4.1 Further developments/change in performance

Bermuda reserves the right to further developments and service changes (e.g. through the use of newer or other technologies, systems, procedures or standards) in the course of technical progress and service optimisation after conclusion of the contract. In case of essential service changes Bermuda will inform the customer in due time. If significant disadvantages arise for the customer due to the service changes, the customer has the right to extraordinary cancellation of the contract on the date of change. The cancellation must be made by the customer within two weeks of receipt of the notification of the service change.

When providing new versions of the software, Bermuda grants the customer the rights listed in section 3 accordingly also for the respective new version.

4.2 System operation

Bermuda ensures that the software provided is operated in an environment and configuration suitable for the customer's requirements and on hardware suitable for the customer's intended use. This includes the number and type of servers, regular backups, scalability, power supply, air conditioning, firewalling, virus checking and broadband internet connection.

Bermuda carries out daily backups of the data. Using a restore procedure, Bermuda can restore customer data at the express request of the customer.

4.3 System availability

The availability of the data centre network at the router output on the Internet is 99% on an annual average. The client-side connection to the Internet is the responsibility of the customer. This is not part of the SaaS scope of services. The downtime is determined in full minutes and is calculated from the sum of the fault clearance times per year. Excluded from this are those periods which Bermuda identifies as so-called maintenance windows for optimisation and performance enhancement as well as loss of time during fault rectification due to reasons for which Bermuda is not responsible and outages due to force majeure.

4.4 Disruptions to system availability

Disruptions to system availability must be reported by the customer to helpdesk(at)bermuda-software.ch as soon as they become known. Before reporting a fault, the customer must check their area of responsibility. In the case of fault reports received during support hours (Mon-Fri, 09:00-12:00 and 13:00-17:00, excluding public holidays in Switzerland (Canton of Zurich)), fault rectification will begin within two hours. In the case of fault reports received outside support hours, fault rectification will begin on the following working day. Delays in fault rectification for which the customer is responsible (e.g. due to the unavailability of a contact person on the customer side) are not counted towards the fault rectification time.

5. Warranty

According to the state of the art, it is not possible to exclude errors in software under all conditions of use. However, Bermuda guarantees that the software mentioned under egovstore.online is basically usable. The limitation period is one year.

Errors in the software will be corrected by Bermuda free of charge within a reasonable period of time. Prerequisite for this error correction claim is that the error is reproducible. Bermuda can fulfil the warranty obligation at its own discretion either repair or replace. In particular Bermuda can provide the customer with a new version of the software to fulfil the warranty obligation. It is equivalent to an error correction if Bermuda provides an alternative solution to the faulty function, which allows the customer the contractual use.

The warranty claims are excluded if the software is not used in accordance with the contract. Furthermore, warranty claims are excluded if the customer makes changes or enhancements to the software specified in the contract, unless the customer proves that the errors are not causally related to the changes or enhancements.

If a significant application error is not remedied by Bermuda in accordance with the stated conditions, the customer may demand a reduction of the monthly/annual SaaS fee. Bermuda has the same right if the correction of the error is not possible with reasonable effort. If in the course of the error correction it turns out that the problems are due to operating errors or improper use by the customer, Bermuda can demand reasonable compensation for the expenses incurred.

Bermuda does not guarantee the fulfilment of the individual requirements of the customer by the software specified in the contract. This applies in particular to the non-achievement of the intended economic success. Warranty claims against Bermuda are only available to the direct customer and cannot be assigned.

6. Limitation of liability

In any case, the contractual and tortious liability of Bermuda is excluded except in cases of intent and gross negligence for personal injury, financial loss, damage to property and activity as well as for loss of data. Liability for loss of profit is excluded.

Bermuda assumes no liability for disruptions on telecommunication connections, for disruptions on line paths within the Internet, in case of force majeure, in case of fault of third parties or the customer himself. Bermuda assumes no liability for damages that occur if the customer passes on passwords or user IDs to unauthorised persons.

7. Remuneration

A monthly/annual fee agreed in the contract is charged for the SaaS services. The fees incurred are invoiced in advance over the selected period.

8. Terms of payment

Payments are made by credit card. If the payment deadline is exceeded, services may be restricted in the event of default. After repeated requests for payment and non-payment of the invoice, the service will be suspended and the data deleted.

The customer is not entitled to offset claims against Bermuda, unless they are legally established claims or claims recognised in writing by Bermuda.

9 Confidentiality, data protection

The contracting parties undertake to keep confidential the knowledge gained in the context of the subject matter of the contract - in particular technical or commercial data and other knowledge - and to use it exclusively for the purposes of the subject matter of the contract.

This does not apply to information that is publicly accessible or becomes publicly accessible without the unauthorised intervention or omission of the contracting parties or must be made accessible by court order or by law. In the case of support assistance for customer problems, it may be necessary to access the customer's data records. Access can take place via an online meeting with the customer or via database analysis. This access is limited to the period of the respective support measure.

If personal data must be processed within the scope of the subject matter of the contract, Bermuda and the customer will comply with the statutory data protection regulations.

Bermuda informs the customer in accordance with the Swiss Data Protection Act (DSG) that the customer's data will be stored.

10. Final provisions

The place of fulfilment is Glattfelden/Zurich/Switzerland. The place of jurisdiction for both contracting parties is Glattfelden/Zurich/Switzerland. The law of the Swiss Confederation shall apply exclusively. The contract, its supplements and amendments as well as changes to the form must be made in writing.

Should a provision of the contract be or become invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the remainder of the contract. The contracting parties undertake to replace the invalid provision with a provision that comes as close as possible to the economic intent of the invalid provision. The same applies if a gap in the contract should become apparent.