Powerlaw (“Powerlaw”) develops and operates comprehensive and sophisticated data analysis software (“Software”), which is intended to be used by sellers and vendors on the Amazon Marketplace. The Software combines a wide array of different tools (“Tools”) which shall help the customers of Powerlaw (“Customers”) to make business decisions on the Amazon Marketplace. Powerlaw offers Customers access to its web platform (“Platform”), which allows Customers to access and use the Software as a service.
Powerlaw provides its services exclusively on the basis of these general terms and conditions (“GTC”) and the individual contracts concluded with the Customers over Powerlaw’ website or directly between the parties.
The then current version of these GTC shall also apply to any future contracts between the parties, even if they are not expressly agreed upon again.
Powerlaw expressly contradicts any deviating terms and conditions of the Customer. Deviating terms and conditions shall only apply if and to the extent that Powerlaw expressly agrees to them in writing. Deviating terms and conditions shall not apply even if Powerlaw provides access to the Platform or other services with knowledge of deviating terms and conditions of the Customer without making any reservations.
Insofar as Powerlaw maintains special terms and conditions for certain specific services or the use of specific Tools, the aforementioned paragraphs shall apply accordingly. In the event of contradictions between the special terms and conditions and the GTC, the provisions of the special terms and conditions shall take precedence as more specific provisions.
For Customers who use Tools on the Platform which are provided without an individual contract for free use only, the aforementioned and following rules shall apply accordingly to the extent as they relate to the respective Tool or the use of the Platform, but under the condition that Powerlaw does not offer any warranty for free services and that no guarantees, performance promises or assurances are made with regard to the functionality and availability of the Tools and the Platform. Accordingly, Powerlaw does not provide support or other services to Customers who only use free Tools.
Services
Details on the prices, the term of the agreement and the scope of the access to the Platform granted to Customer are agreed in the individual contract concluded between the parties. These terms apply in addition to these GTC. In case of contradictions between the individual contract and the GTC, the provisions of the individual contract take precedence. Customers who did not conclude such an individual contract can only use Tools on the Platform that are intended for free use without an individual contract.
The general service descriptions, the current descriptions and specifications of the Software and the Tools and the applicable price list can be found on Powerlaw’ website. Other promises, performance promises or collateral agreements are only valid if they are confirmed in writing by Powerlaw.
Access to the Platform, the Software and the Tools is provided by Powerlaw as a software service via the Internet in the form of the so-called “software-as-a-service”.
Other services, such as support services by Powerlaw, are only provided as accompanying services after prior agreement. As a general rule, Powerlaw may but is not obliged to provide any support services to Customer, nor shall it be obliged to enter into contracts for such additional services. This does not apply as far as Powerlaw is obliged to provide such services by law.
Customers of paid services may create their own user account for the use of the Platform (“Customer Account”). Powerlaw will grant the Customer through the Customer Account the contractually agreed access to the use of the Software and the Tools.
Powerlaw is entitled to extend the scope of the Software functions at any time, to adapt them to technical progress and/or to make improvements. Powerlaw is also entitled to introduce additional security measures or similar changes at any time.
If Powerlaw voluntarily provides additional services or Software functions free of any additional charge, such as e.g. new Tools, , the Customer has no claim to be able to use such functions in the future. Such new functions are usually introduced for testing purposes and Powerlaw is entitled to discontinue, change or offer such additional services only against additional payment. In such a case, Powerlaw will inform Customers which are directly affected by such discontinuation or change at least two weeks prior to discontinuing or changing such services.
Some functionalities of the Software are dependent on data provided by Amazon through APIs as well as data collected by other means. Only such provided and collected data (“Available Data”) can be processed and analysed by Powerlaw. Therefore, under certain circumstances, Powerlaw might be forced to reduce the available functionality of the Software or certain Tools and is entitled to do so, as long as such a reduction in functionality is the consequence of changes to the Available Data made by Amazon. If such a reduction of functionality of the Software impairs the Customers interest in using the Software significantly, Customer has the right to extraordinary terminate its subscription of the Software.
Obligations of the Customer
The Customer assures that the information provided by Customer during the creation of Customer’s account and its use or during Customer’s use of the free services is correct and complete. Customer shall inform Powerlaw immediately of any changes in the contact data communicated to Powerlaw as well as in any other data required for the proper execution of the contract.
Powerlaw will inform the Customer of the technical requirements for the use of the Platform or other provided services. Such information is generally available in the product description and specification of the Software available on Powerlaw’ website. It is the Customer’s responsibility to ensure that the technical requirements are met, including the availability of required hardware and software as well as a suitable telecommunications connection. On request, Powerlaw can advise the Customer with regard to the required hardware and software environment. Powerlaw shall, however, only be liable for such advice to the extent that it is provided against payment, as well as in the case of intent and fraudulent deception or the existence of other mandatory statutory liability circumstances.
It is the Customer’s responsibility to ensure that its employees are suitably qualified and trained to use the Platform.
Malfunctions, defects and other functional impairments that restrict the use of the Platform or other services provided by Powerlaw shall be reported to Powerlaw by the Customer immediately after their discovery. As far as possible, the impairments shall be described in text form, preferably by email in order to explain how the faults, defects or functional impairments can be reproduced. This is in most cases required to make an effective remedy possible.
The Platform is not intended for the permanent backup and storage of data. For this reason, the Customer shall retain its own backup copies of all data it transmits to Powerlaw, which must not be stored on Powerlaw’ servers. In addition, the Customer shall regularly back up data created in connection with the use of the services in order to prevent permanent data loss and thus minimise the risk of damage.
The Customer shall keep any login and password details for access to the Platform secret and keep them safe and inaccessible to third parties. Persons to whom the Customer grants access authorization shall be instructed accordingly by the Customer and shall be obligated to the same extent. It is recommended that passwords will be changed regularly. Passwords must be changed without undue delay if Customer has plausible reasons to believe that the security of these passwords has been compromised. The Customer shall inform Powerlaw immediately if it becomes aware that unauthorised third parties have obtained access data to the Platform. Powerlaw is entitled, but not obliged, to take measures to reduce the damage and, for example, to block the corresponding Customer Account or to change the access data. In such a case, the Customer has the right to request new access data from Powerlaw. If a third party uses a Customer Account to receive access to the Platform after it has obtained the required access data because the Customer has not sufficiently secured it, the Customer will be accountable for such third party actions made with this Customer Account as if he had acted himself/herself. This does not apply if the Customer has previously informed Powerlaw of the possibility of unauthorized access by a third party with sufficient lead time to take countermeasures.
The Customer shall refrain from taking any measures that could impair or endanger the stability and safety of the Platform or any other Powerlaw systems or services, unless such an impairment or endangerment is a technically necessary consequence of the contractual use of the Platform.
The Customer is solely responsible for complying with the Amazon’s terms of use and guidelines for using the Amazon Marketplace. Although the Platform and the functions provided by it might in some cases give Customers the actual possibility to violate Amazon’s terms and guidelines, this is explicitly not the intended use of the Platform and Powerlaw does neither support nor accepts such a use of the Platform.
Data Access
The Customer is obliged to provide Powerlaw with all data necessary for the performance of the services as contractually agreed upon. The data will be delivered in the manner agreed in the contract, usually by linking the Amazon account of the Customer (“Amazon Account”) to the Customer Account on the Platform. This will grant the Software access to the data available on the Amazon Account and allow its analysis.
Customer must ensure that Powerlaw is granted all access rights required for this purpose.
The data supplied by the Customer for analysis may not violate legal regulations or infringe the rights of third parties. Services provided by Powerlaw may not be used for unlawful or third party infringing purposes. In the event of a violation, Powerlaw may suspend the provision of the services owed with immediate effect or block the Customer’s access to the Platform. The Customer indemnifies Powerlaw from any damage resulting from a violation of sentence 1 or 2, including any lawyer’s fees incurred.
The Customer grants Powerlaw the required right to use the data for the purpose of analysing the delivered data in accordance with the contract.
Due to the nature of the required analysis of data, Powerlaw may use the linked Amazon Account to also collect and analyse data that is not directly related to the Customer, such as data concerning products that are not sold by the Customer. Customer allows Powerlaw to analyse such data as well.
Availability
In order to ensure the proper functioning of the Platform and the services offered, Powerlaw carries out regular service, maintenance and updating work (“Routine Maintenance Work”) on the system on a regular basis. Such work is generally carried out at times of expected low utilisation.
Powerlaw warrants a 99% annual average availability of the Platform and other software-as-a-service services. Excluded from this are times in which the Platform or other provided services cannot be reached due to technical or other problems which are outside of Powerlaw control (e. g. force majeure or downtimes of required Amazon services). Times during which Routine Maintenance Work is carried out are also excluded.
Powerlaw may restrict access to the Platform and other provided services if the security and integrity of the Platform so require. These times are also not taken into account in the calculation of the average availability.
Powerlaw will inform the Customer in good time of upcoming maintenance dates, if the availability of the services cannot be warranted for a considerable period of time due to such maintenance work.
Powerlaw liability for non-availability of the Platform due to intent and gross negligence by Powerlaw remains unaffected.
Term and Termination
The initial term of the agreement is agreed in the individual contract concluded between the parties. If no individual contract has been concluded, the contract period of this agreement is unlimited and can be terminated for convenience at any time with two weeks’ notice to the end of the month. Unless otherwise agreed in the individual contract, a fixed-term contract shall be automatically extended for another term with the same duration as the initial term, but not for more than a year per extension, if no party terminates the agreement before the expiry of the then current term.
The right to extraordinary termination for good cause remains unaffected. An important reason for Powerlaw shall in particular be deemed to exist if the Customer defaults on payment of the fees by a not inconsiderable amount.
Purchases are not refundable. Exceptions apply to automatic contract extensions with a duration of more than 1 month. If the Customer wishes to cancel such an extension within 7 days after the start of the new term (“grace period”), Powerlaw may grant the Customer a refund limited to the amount due at the date of extension. A refund only applies if the full amount due at extension date has been paid within the grace period.
After termination of the contract, Powerlaw is not obliged to store any of the Customer’s data on the Platform and within the Customer Account and can delete such data and the Customer Account at any time without prior notice. It is the Customer’s responsibility to secure and backup such data in good time before the termination of the contract. In the event of an unexpected premature termination of the contractual relationship not caused by the Customer, Powerlaw shall grant the Customer a reasonable period of time to secure and backup such data.
Payment Terms
The use of Powerlaw’ services is subject to continuous charges as agreed in the individual contract or – if no such agreement has been made – according to the price list on Powerlaw’ website. This does not apply to services which are explicitly provided free of charge by Powerlaw.
Powerlaw’ price lists are always subject to change, confirmation by Powerlaw and non-binding. Orders shall only be deemed accepted if they have been confirmed by Powerlaw in writing or if their execution has begun.
Powerlaw may adjust the pricing at its reasonable discretion with effect for the future beginning with the first day of the extension of the contract to the extent necessary to fully off-set sustained increases of costs that are relevant for Powerlaw’ cost calculation. For example, Powerlaw may increase or reduce the pricing, if changes in the legal framework or requirements imposed by Amazon result in a change to the costs for Powerlaw’ services, such as license fees for the Amazon API. Powerlaw may increase the price due to increases in a specific cost type only if and insofar as there is no compensation by a reduction in costs in other areas. For clarification, such price changes will have no effect during the respective current term of already concluded agreements. § 315 BGB (“German Civil Code”) remains unaffected.
All prices stated in the contract or in the price list are net prices and do not include the applicable statutory value added tax as well as any other taxes and levies that may be incurred.
Fixed fees are due and payable in advance for the respective contract term, unless a different payment period has been agreed.
Fees which according to the applicable price list depend on the Customer’s revenue on the Amazon Marketplace will be automatically determined and adjusted by the Platform based on the revenue in the previous observation period, usually the last two months prior to the accounting period. A different duration of the observation period may be agreed in the individual contract or applicable according to the referenced price list.
As soon as the Platform will be linked with an Amazon Account, it will be able to calculate the applicable fees based on the revenue made by Customer with this linked Amazon Account during the last observation period and report the appropriate fee amount to Powerlaw for the purpose of creating the respective invoice. Such fees are payable in advance for the subsequent accounting period. By choosing a price model that is dependent on the revenue of the Customer, Customer agrees that Powerlaw and the Platform will use the revenue data available on the Amazon Account that has been linked to the Customer’s Account for the determination of applicable subscription fees for the access to the Platform.
Powerlaw can send invoices to Customer by mail or email or upload them to the Customer’s Account on the Platform as an electronic document.
The Customer is in default without reminder if he does not settle the invoiced amount within 7 days after the receipt of the invoice. In the event of a delay in payment, the statutory default interest rate shall apply. Powerlaw reserves the right to assert further claims, in particular further damages caused by delay.
Powerlaw offers the possibility to make payments by SEPA direct debit. If Customer wants to use SEPA direct debit, the Customer shall grant Powerlaw a mandate for the SEPA basic direct debit procedure to collect all fees incurred by Powerlaw under the contractual relationship for the bank details communicated by the Customer. The Customer will be informed in advance about the date of the debit, if necessary already together with the invoice. The period for advance SPEA direct debit information shall be shortened to at least three days prior to debiting. The Customer must ensure that the account is adequately covered.
Customer may only set-off with undisputed or legally binding counterclaims against Powerlaw. The Customer may only exercise a right of retention if its counterclaim is based on the same contractual relationship. An assignment of the Customer’s claims against Powerlaw to third parties is excluded.
Copyright and License
Insofar the Customer pays the fees for the use of the Platform in full and in advance or uses a free Tool, Powerlaw grants the Customer a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, and non-sub-licensable right to use the Software, the Platform and the Tools within the scope of the contract and for the respective intended use of the Platform only. The intended use of the Platform is to support the Customer in making business decisions on the Amazon Marketplace with the analysis of available data (“Intended Use”). The right to use is limited in time to the respective accounting period the fee has been paid for or, in case of free use, is limited to the contract period. The granting of rights is subject to the condition of full and timely payment of the respective fees due.
Any transfer of the rights to third parties is not permitted.
The Platform may only be used for its Intended Use. Exploiting or spying out the database by means of other software is not permitted. It is also prohibited to copy, pass on, send or publish the available data on the Platform unless the Platform expressly provides such a function or if this is necessary for the Intended Use of the Platform. Powerlaw reserves the right to prohibit the Customer’s use of the Platform with immediate effect in the event of any signs of misuse.
Any form of decompilation, reverse engineering or other measures of decomposition of Powerlaw’ Software or Tools is prohibited. The rights under §§ 69d, 69e UrhG (German Copyright Act) remain unaffected.
Warranty and natural and technical limits of the Platform
The Customer shall notify Powerlaw immediately of any errors or other faults affecting proper use of the Platform and shall provide Powerlaw with reasonable support if such support is required for the rectification of a reported error or fault.
Powerlaw, the Platform, the Software and the Tools do not provide any tax or legal advice regarding the Customer’s business decisions. Accordingly, there are no claims against Powerlaw in this respect.
Any suggestions to improve Customer’s success on the Amazon Marketplace made by the Software are the result of technical algorithms solely based on the data analysed by the Software in accordance with the settings of the Customers. An analysis of existing data alone cannot always reliably predict actual future behaviour of Amazon customers. Suggestions based on algorithms and data analysis are also susceptible to from time to time contradict common sense or to not comply with existing legal requirements. For example, Software does not check if certain terms are ambiguous, suggestive or if their use is prohibited by law such as trademark law. Suggestions by the Software do not warrant the achievement of the desired result and it is absolutely necessary that an experienced sales person or similar expert reviews such suggestions, which are solely based on data analysis, before making any business decisions. The data analysis by the Software is only intended to support such decisions by an experienced Amazon Marketplace user, not to replace them. The responsibility of making the right decisions lies with the Customer. Powerlaw assumes no responsibility for achieving specific results when implementing the suggestions and is not liable for failure to achieve a specific result or business success, especially not for any specific revenue or increase or decrease in sales of the Customer.
Powerlaw warrants that the Software is developed with the usual standard of care and is free of defects (bugs etc.) which preclude or affect the suitability for the customary or contractual use to a more than immaterial extent.
The quality and reliability of any suggestions made by the Software are also dependent on the amount of time between the collection and the analysis of the relevant data. Powerlaw gives its best effort to collect as recent data as possible, but a collection in real-time is not possible due to technical limitations of the collection process and the update intervals of the systems involved. Therefore, there is always the risk that the analysed data was already outdated and thus the suggestions based on such data not reliable anymore.
According to the current state of the art, it is not possible to create software and hardware in such a way that it works flawlessly in all application combinations, works with previously unknown third-party software and hardware and/or is protected against all kinds of manipulations by third parties. Powerlaw only warrants that the hardware and software used and provided by Powerlaw are suitable for the Intended Use as described on Powerlaw’ website.
Powerlaw does not warrant the achievement of the business purpose intended by the Customer and is not liable for the consequences of any business decisions made by Customers.
Any warranty claims become statute-barred within one year. This does not apply if the law prescribes mandatory longer periods. Any longer statutory limitation periods shall also apply if Powerlaw or its legal representatives or vicarious agents are guilty of intent or gross negligence or if the claim for damages is based on injury to life, limb or health.
Limits and Risks associated with Powerlaw AI
Insofar as Powerlaw offers new Software, Tools or other functions on its Platform which allow for a higher degree of automation than the standard suggestions to the Customer, the following additional limitations in this section apply.
All of Powerlaw’ automation systems are based on self-learning artificial intelligence algorithms, which are due to their self-learning nature under continuous development and change. This also means that these systems are always to some degree experimental.
An algorithm makes its decision purely based on the data available to it and without any plausibility check by a human. This is by its nature potentially riskier but comes with its own benefits, such as labour savings and an expected higher mathematical efficiency of an artificial intelligence. Customers who decide to use such automation must be aware that they are making this trade-off and that they accept a higher risk for unexpected results due to a lack of human control in favour of labour savings and expected higher mathematical efficiency.
To mitigate the inherent risks of such an automated system, Powerlaw has several security mechanisms in place, such as limits to the allowed changes or the amounts spent by the automated system. Turning off such security limits further significantly increases the potential risk for unexpected results.
Although a Customer might not be able to prevent an automated system from making an initial wrong decision due to the automation of the process, the Customer is still able to see and track all actions made by the automated system and to intervene and change the automated behaviour at any time. It is therefore of paramount importance that the Customer reviews the decisions made by the automated systems on a regular basis and either changes wrong behaviour or reports it to Powerlaw.
Limitation of Liability
For paid services, in the case of slight negligence, Powerlaw shall only be liable for the violation of an essential contractual obligation. These are obligations, the fulfilment of which enables the proper execution of the contract and on whose observance the Customer may regularly rely. In such cases, Powerlaw shall only be liable for the foreseeable, contract-typical damage. For all other damages, liability for slight negligence is excluded.
For services provided free of charge, Powerlaw shall only be liable for damages caused by intent or gross negligence.
The above exclusions and limitations of liability shall also apply with regard to the liability of Powerlaw’ employees, workers, staff, representatives and vicarious agents and in particular for the benefit of shareholders, employees, representatives, executive bodies and their members with regard to their personal liability.
Neither the foregoing limitations nor any other provisions in this GTC shall limit Powerlaw’s liability for damages or injury to life, limb or health, in the event of wilful intent or gross negligence by Powerlaw or its employees and representatives or Powerlaw’ liability under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) or as a result of a guarantee.
Powerlaw is not liable for damages caused by unauthorized access of third parties to the Platform if such damages have been caused because the Customer has not sufficiently protected its login data against access.
The use of the Software does not warrant the achievement of a specific result or Customer’s business success. Powerlaw is only liable as set out in these GTC and in particular not liable for any failure to achieve specific commercial results or Customer’s business success when using the Software.
The Customer is solely responsible for the correct setting and use of the Software, including, if necessary, the correct instructions and input of required data. Powerlaw is not liable for any misunderstanding or misapplication of the Tools and algorithms by the Customer.
Powerlaw is also not liable for the consequences if the Customer disregards any disclosed technical and natural limits in functionality of the Platform, the Software and the Tools, or any other instructions for use and warnings for use, in particular regarding the limitations and risks of Tools for automatic administration and bidding.
Powerlaw is not liable for any non-compliance of the Customer with Amazon Marketplace terms of use and guidelines.
Confidentiality
The Customer and Powerlaw work together in a spirit of trust. This already applies to pre-contractual contacts and negotiations. The parties shall in each case take the interests of the other party into account and undertake to maintain confidentiality.
The persons entrusted by Powerlaw with the execution of the contract are bound to secrecy and data confidentiality.
Customer entrusts Powerlaw with access to and analysis of significant and sensitive business data, such as sales and product data. Powerlaw’ staff may access and analyse the data, in particular to provide support for Customer.
Powerlaw is fully aware of the sensitive nature of the data and undertakes to keep such data strictly confidential and to only use such confidential data for the execution of this contract and the fulfilment of its obligations under this contract. Powerlaw undertakes to keep all data and information received from the Customer confidential and not to transmit or otherwise disclose the data and information to third parties. All Powerlaw’ staff is explicitly bound to secrecy and, in case of a breach of secrecy, is obliged to pay large contractual penalties. All rights of the Customer to the data remain unaffected.
As an exception to sec. 12 (4) above – and only insofar as the used data has been previously aggregated and anonymized – Powerlaw has the right to conduct statistical evaluations and analysis of all business data provided to Powerlaw in order to in the best interest of its customers improve the services provided by Powerlaw and to offer improved and new services to Customer and third parties. Powerlaw will ensure at all times, that it is impossible to draw any direct conclusions between such aggregated and anonymized data and the Customer’s business and that no business secrets of the Customer, such as in particular profit margins and revenue, will be disclosed by such evaluation, analysis or any other means to third parties. For the purpose of the exceptions in this subsection as well, Powerlaw’ staff is explicitly bound to secrecy and, in case of a breach of secrecy, is obliged to pay large contractual penalties. All rights of the Customer to the data remain unaffected as well.
Data protection
Powerlaw collects, processes and uses the Customer’s personal data to maintain contact with Customer and to execute the contractual relationship. Refer to Powerlaw’ special privacy policy for details.
Powerlaw provides its services, where appropriate, by way of contract data processing, as far as personal data is concerned. In this respect, the Customer is the client. Powerlaw shall perform the services as instructed by the Customer. If this is necessary for the scope of services specifically agreed upon, the Customer undertakes to conclude with Powerlaw the agreement on order data processing contained in the respective individual contract, in which further details are regulated in accordance with the statutory requirements of data protection law.
Changes
Powerlaw reserves the right to change or extend these GTC at any time with effect for the future only, as far as this appears necessary and does not adversely affect the Customer against good faith. In particular, an amendment may be necessary in order to adapt to changes in the legal situation. Recent court rulings are also considered changes in the legal situation. Changes and further developments of the Platform or other services offered may also require a change or amendment of the GTC.
An amendment or addition (“Change”) shall be announced in text form at least six weeks prior to its entry into force in an appropriate manner. As a general rule, the reference to the Change of the GTC is made by notification by email or within the Platform, but at least during the next login of the Customer to the Platform.
The Customer has the right to either accept or to object to any Change to the GTC within six weeks after publication of the upcoming Change and the possibility to notify Powerlaw about the objection. In the event of a timely objection, the present terms and conditions shall continue to apply. If the Customer does not object the Change within the objection period or if he continues to use the services and the Platform thereafter, the Change shall be deemed accepted and shall become an integral part of the contract.
Powerlaw will inform the Customer of the possibility of objection, the deadline and the legal consequences, in particular with regard to an omitted objection, when informing the Customer of the Changes to the GTC.
Final provisions
The contractual relations between Powerlaw and the Customer are subject to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and international conflict of laws rules.
The place of performance is the registered office of Powerlaw.
The place of jurisdiction is Berlin, Germany.
In cases of force majeure, e. g. in the case of natural disasters, fire, war, terrorism or strikes, performance and delivery periods shall be suspended for the duration of these events.
Any amendments and supplements to the contract as well as ancillary agreements must be made in writing. The same formal requirement applies if the contract provides for an express written agreement. The sending of signed documents by email or fax is sufficient to meet this form requirement, a simple email is not. This also applies to a change or waiver of the written form requirement. The written form requirement does not apply to changes of these GTC according to Sec. 14.
Should individual provisions of these GTC be or become invalid in whole or in part, the GTC shall remain valid in all other respects. In the event of such invalidity, the invalid provision shall be replaced by the legal provision.