ARTICLE 1 – SCOPE OF APPLICATION —
These Terms & Conditions apply to services provided by Six Continents to its business clients, regardless of the provisions contained in the documents of the Client, particularly its own Terms & Conditions of Purchase. These Terms & Conditions apply to the following services: translation, proofreading, revision, post-editing, document formatting, transcription. Six Continents reserves the right to deviate from certain clauses contained in these Terms & Conditions, subject to the prior consent of the Client. For the purposes of these Terms and Condition, ‘Client’ shall mean the legal entity or natural person represented by the individual signing the Quote or any other document serving as a Purchase Order. Six Continents shall consider without restriction that any employee of a company or organisation placing an order on behalf of the said company or organisation has previously been authorised by the management to purchase services.
ARTICLE 2 – QUOTES AND ORDERS —
Each order from the Client may follow a quote provided free of charge by Six Continents based on the documents to be translated as supplied by the Client or information provided by the Client.
Six Continents propose different services:
– “Translation + revision” describes our standard service. It includes 2 steps: translation by a professional translator native in the target language and revision by a second professional translator. This service is certified by the ISO 17100 quality standard.
– “Translation + checks” describes the service including translation by a professional translator selected for his mother tongue and his area of expertise. A final quality check eliminates residual mistakes. This service is not certified by the ISO 17100 quality standard.
– “Post-editing” refers to an automated translation of a source text slightly improved by a professional human translator (the degree of improvement is decided in advance between the client and SIX CONTINENTS). This service is certified by the ISO 18587 quality standard.
The Client will know the service included in the quote.
The client may also send reference documents and/or diagrams, drawings or plans with the text to be translated, as guidance for the translator. Similarly, any glossary supplied by the Client will be used and incorporated in the translation. Any document, particularly one containing a description of the work to be carried out and the price of the service shall be considered to be a quote The Client shall notify its acceptance of the quote by sending it back to Six Continents unchanged by post, fax or email, after adding the date, signature and company stamp below the word ‘Approved’, along with a copy of these Terms & Conditions signed as required in Article 13 below. The Client may also place orders by sending Six Continents a Purchase Order or a Purchase Request issued by the authorised departments of the Client, or by sending Six Continents payment for all or part of the service required. In the latter case, the order placed by the Client shall only be deemed to have been accepted if confirmed by Six Continents in writing.
ARTICLE 3 – ORDER CANCELLATION —
If the Client cancels a firm and final order, Six Continents shall invoice the Client for all the work already completed up to the date of cancellation, and 50% of the balance of the initial value of the order.
ARTICLE 4 – DELIVERY DEADLINE —
If a time period has been defined for the completion of the service, that period shall begin from the date on which Six Continents receives the signed quote and Terms & Conditions from the Client, or on the date on which the Purchase Order or Purchase Request is confirmed in writing by Six Continents as provided in Article 2. Any order received by Six Continents after 5 pm shall be considered to be received on the following day. If the following day is not a working day, the date used shall be that of the first subsequent working day. If the acceptance of a quote by the Client is notified to Six Continents more than a month after the quote is issued, the service completion time may be adjusted in accordance with the workload of our team on the date of such acceptance.
ARTICLE 5 – PRICES —
The prices for the services of Six Continents shall vary depending on the nature of the service. Translation and proofreading services shall be based on a unit price per source word. Document formatting services shall be invoiced using an hourly rate, after estimating the number of hours required to perform the work requested by the Client. Prices shall be quoted net excluding VAT. Six Continents shall notify the Client of the prices upon request. Those basic prices may be increased depending on the format of the documents to process, the specific nature of the text and the urgency. Any decision to offer a discount or apply reduced rates, based on a percentage or an amount, shall remain at the sole discretion of Six Continents. The application of a discount shall not make it obligatory for Six Continents to apply the same discount to future orders placed by the Client. Unless otherwise requested by the Client, the translation of text contained in images or other elements not directly editable will be supplied in simple format (text in MS-Word). However, Six Continents may perform reintegration or graphic retouching work, if expressly requested by the Client, for a corresponding additional cost. Each detailed quote is free of charge and preferably prepared on the basis of the documents to be processed, supplied by the Client. The price stated in the quote shall be firm and final, except in the following cases: (1) modification of content or addition of documents by the Client when the order is confirmed; (2) documents missing when the quote is prepared, when the quote is prepared merely on the basis of the approximate number of words indicated and an extract of the content. (3) underestimation of the work to be performed, in particular for services invoiced on an hourly basis. In such cases, Six Continents reserves the right to adjust the price stated in its Quote and to prepare an amended Quote.
ARTICLE 6 – TERMS OF PAYMENT —
6.1. Payment time Unless otherwise specifically agreed, invoices shall be payable within thirty (30) days from the invoice date, with no discount for cash payment. 6.2. Payment methods All payments shall be made by bank transfer or cheque payable to Six Continents. The postal address of Six Continents appears on the invoice. Invoices also carry the bank account details of Six Continents. Unless otherwise indicated, the invoicing address shall be that stated by the Customer when the quote is requested. Any order may be subject to advance payment of up to 50% (amount specified in the quote). In such cases, work will only start after receipt of the advance payment (payable by bank transfer or cheque). 6.3. Late payment and penalty for late payment In the event of late payment, a penalty for late payment shall apply at a rate equal to 10 percentage points above the refinancing rate of the European Central Bank. That rate shall be applied to the amount of invoices including VAT. Such penalties will be owed to Six Continents as of right, with no need for a formal procedure or prior notice. The application of such penalty for late payment shall make all the amounts owed by the Client immediately payable, without prejudice to any other remedy that the service provider would be entitled to pursue against the Client. If the above terms of payment terms are not fulfilled, Six Continents further reserves the right to suspend any pending service until payment is received. If Six Continents were caused to undertake proceedings to recover payment for its invoices, the Client shall be liable for all the costs incurred by such debt recovery (bailiff, lawyer, etc.), in addition to fixed processing costs of forty euros (€40) ex VAT. Until services are paid in full, particularly translation, revision and proofreading, Six Continents shall retain ownership of the rights to reproduce any document or file translated, entirely or in part, in accordance with applicable intellectual property law. In the event of non-payment, any partial or entire use, representation or reproduction of the aforesaid translation shall not be lawful. Six Continents reserves the right to take the necessary legal action to enforce its right of ownership.
ARTICLE 7 – OBLIGATIONS OF SIX CONTINENTS —
7.1. Service quality Six Continents guarantees the Client a process for constant control of the quality of its work. Where work is subcontracted, Six Continents undertakes to employ qualified linguists and to ensure they have the required skills and necessary resources to fulfil the services satisfactorily. The Client shall have a period of ten (10) working days from the receipt of the finalised documents to express any dissatisfaction about the quality of the service in writing. After that time, the service shall be considered to be duly fulfilled and shall be invoiced. The conditions for complaints expressed by the Client have been provided in in Article 9 below, titled ‘Complaints’. Under no circumstances may Six Continents be held morally or materially liable for complaints based on subtleties of style or different terminological choices. The observation of a few inaccuracies in any part of a translation shall not call all the work completed by Six Continents into question. Six Continents reserves the right to make the necessary modifications and/or to agree to a discount or credit note with the Client if the complaints expressed were to prove well-founded. In the event of a dispute over the quality of the service, the liability of Six Continents shall be limited to the value of the relevant invoice. Under no circumstances shall Six Continents be held liable towards the Client or any other party for special, incidental, indirect or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, loss of earnings or savings, work interruptions, damage or replacement of equipment or property, or the recovery or replacement of programs or data) arising from complaints based on the precision, readability, accuracy or consistency of data processed by Six Continents, even if it has been informed about the possibility of such complaints or damages. 7.2. Punctuality of work The IT Development department of Six Continents works continually to implement the best computer transfer resources, in order to provide the fastest possible Internet-based service. As a result, Six Continents may not be held liable for late deliveries particularly related to technical problems outside its control, potential transmission delays by fax, modem, email and postal methods, or in a force majeure circumstance. Similarly, Six Continents shall not be required to pay any compensation whatsoever in respect of any delay attributable to the Client (delay in supplying files, delay in the provision of necessary information, invalid format, illegible text, etc.).
ARTICLE 8 – OBLIGATIONS OF THE CLIENT —
The Client undertakes to make available to Six Continents all the text to be translated, any technical information needed to understand the text and specific terminology that may be required. Under no circumstances may Six Continents be held liable for non-compliance or delivery delays that arise as a consequence of any failure by the Client to fulfil its obligation of information.
ARTICLE 9 – CONFIDENTIALITY —
Six Continents agrees to strictly abide by confidentiality and business secrecy rules, by not disclosing any information to third parties without the prior written consent of the Client. That obligation of confidentiality shall continue after the completion of the work carried out on behalf of the Client. Any subcontractors working on behalf of Six Continents shall be bound by a Confidentiality Agreement holding them equally liable in the event of indiscretion or disclosure of information provided to them as part of their service. However, the liability of Six Continents and its subcontractors shall not extend to the disclosure of the Client’s information as a result of the use of the Internet. In that respect, the Client agrees that data circulating on the Internet may be breached and that it therefore communicates sensitive information via the Internet at its own risk. In consequence of the above, the Client waives the right to hold Six Continents liable in the event of information being disclosed following the exchange of such data over the Internet.
ARTICLE 10 – COMPLAINTS —
Any complaint about the quality of services shall only be considered if it is notified explicitly in writing, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt (or by email with automatic receipt sent to the Six Continents project manager), no later than ten (10) working days after delivery of the work. Any complaint shall be accompanied by specific corrections and explicit comments about the nature of the disputed passages or terms, with relevant supporting examples. Beyond that ten-day time limit, all translations shall be considered to be approved and shall be invoiced as of right. Complaints may only be accepted insofar as Six Continents has been able to retain a computerised trail of the content covered by the agreement (as a minimum, the content provided by the Client for the work to be performed and content delivered by Six Continents). If the Client requires the work to be carried out using online IT systems or the deletion of the content covered by the agreement, thus denying Six Continents the possibility of archiving the source and delivered versions, no complaint shall be accepted. In the event of a justified dispute over the quality of the work done, Six Continents may, after agreement with the Client or at its sole discretion, undertake one of the following compensatory measures: (1) grant a discount in a maximum amount equivalent to 40% of the amount excluding VAT of the relevant invoice; (2) issue a credit note for the next order in a maximum amount equivalent to 40% of the amount excluding VAT of the relevant invoice; (3) cause the text to be revised by an independent proofreader selected by it at its own cost and as quickly as possible.
ARTICLE 11 – APPLICABLE LAW AND JURISDICTION —
The Parties expressly agree that these Terms & Conditions of Sale and the buying and selling transactions arising from them shall be governed by the laws of France. These Terms & Conditions are drafted in French. If they are translated into one or more other languages, only the French text shall be the authentic text in the event of a dispute. Disputes of any kind arising between Six Continents and its Client shall be brought before the Strasbourg Commercial Court.
ARTICLE 12 – ACCEPTANCE —
These Terms & Conditions of Sale are hereby accepted by the Client, which declares and acknowledges full knowledge of the same, and waives the right to use any other document, in particular its own Terms & Conditions of Purchase, which shall not be enforceable against Six Continents.
