General Terms and Conditions
Status: September 2025
1. Scope of Application, Contracting Parties, B2B
(1) These GTC apply to all contracts between Hreflab UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Bernadottestraße 75, 22605 Hamburg (hereinafter "Hreflab"), and entrepreneurs within the meaning of § 14 BGB (German Civil Code). Contracts with consumers are expressly not concluded.
(2) Deviating GTC of the customer only apply with express written consent of Hreflab. Contradictory or deviating GTC of the customer do not become part of the contract, even if Hreflab does not expressly object to their validity.
(3) The GTC are clearly and visibly incorporated into the ordering process, provided in text form and are available at any time at https://hreflab.com/terms. The customer confirms acknowledgment by checking the corresponding checkbox.
2. Subject Matter and Contract Type
(1) Subject of Performance: Hreflab establishes a technical 301-redirect from a domain owned by Hreflab to a target URL designated by the customer for the contract duration and operates it professionally.
(2) Contract Type: The parties conclude a service contract (§ 611 BGB) with elements of a time-limited usage rights transfer. Only the proper technical provision and operation of the 301-redirect is owed, not the occurrence of specific SEO successes, rankings, visibility improvements or the persistence of third-party backlink stocks.
(3) Domain Ownership: Ownership of all used domains remains completely with Hreflab at all times. No transfer of rights to domains, trademarks or other IP rights takes place. The customer only receives the right to use the redirect functionality for the agreed duration.
(4) SEO Metrics Disclaimer: Information on SEO metrics (e.g., DA/DR/traffic values) serves exclusively for categorization for pricing purposes and does not constitute a performance promise, guarantee or value proposition. These values originate from third-party sources, are proprietary snapshots without guarantee of persistence, measurement accuracy or SEO effectiveness. A change in metrics during the term does not entitle to contract adjustment or price reduction.
3. Contract Formation and GTC Integration
(1) Contract Formation: The contract is concluded through our written order confirmation via email. This takes place promptly after receipt of your binding order and review of technical feasibility.
(2) Performance Delivery: Technical implementation begins only after full payment receipt and takes place within 5 business days. The 12-month contract term begins with successful technical setup of the redirect.
(3) GTC Amendments: Changes to these GTC are communicated in text form and apply only to future contracts. Ongoing contracts remain unaffected by changes unless the customer expressly agrees to the changes.
4. Term, Renewal, Deadlines
(1) Contract Term: The term is 12 months from successful technical setup of the 301-redirect. The contract automatically ends upon expiration of the term without requiring termination.
(2) No Automatic Renewal: No automatic contract renewal takes place. A new order for an additional 12 months is possible before or after expiration of the term through separate order.
(3) Setup Period: Hreflab establishes the 301-redirect within 5 business days after confirmed payment receipt. In case of technical or legal obstacles, the customer is immediately informed.
5. Prices, Payment, Refund
(1) Price Structure: Prices per redirect slot/12 months:
Starter (DA ≤ 60): 149 USD net
Premium (DA 61-80): 249 USD net
Ultimate (DA 81-100): 349 USD net
All prices are exclusive of statutory VAT at the time of invoicing.
(2) Payment Terms: Payment as advance payment after contract conclusion through the payment service provider determined by Hreflab. Performance delivery takes place only after proven full payment receipt in our account.
(3) Refund Policy: After beginning of technical setup, generally no refund takes place. Exception: The service cannot be provided for reasons attributable to Hreflab and reasonable subsequent performance definitively fails. In this case, proportional refund of the paid compensation takes place.
(4) Payment Default: Statutory default provisions remain unaffected. In case of payment default, Hreflab can withhold further services until full settlement and terminate extraordinarily after reminder.
6. Customer's Cooperation Obligations
(1) Target URL Provision: The customer provides a legally unobjectionable, functional target URL as well as all information required for technical setup completely and truthfully.
(2) Legal Conformity Assurance: The customer assures and warrants that the target website and its contents do not violate applicable law or third-party rights (particularly trademark, copyright, personality rights). He indemnifies Hreflab against all corresponding third-party claims and bears all associated costs including reasonable legal defense costs.
(3) Target URL Changes: Changes to the target URL must be communicated to Hreflab in writing in advance. No entitlement to frequent or short-term target changes exists. Hreflab may demand reasonable processing fees for changes.
(4) Breach of Cooperation Obligations: In case of material breaches of cooperation obligations despite warning and reasonable grace period, Hreflab may terminate the contract extraordinarily.
7. Scope of Services, Limitations and External Risks
(1) Subject of Performance: Hreflab owes exclusively the proper technical provision and operation of a 301-redirect. The HTTP status code 301 signals a permanent URL change and serves the technical transport of signals without guaranteeing a specific SEO effect, ranking improvement or link value transfer.
(2) External Risks (not owed): Expressly not owed and outside Hreflab's sphere of influence are:
Loss/change of third-party backlinks to the redirected domain
Website relaunches, editorial link removals, domain changes
Robots.txt or meta tag adjustments by third parties
Disavow actions, indexing/crawler decisions by search engines
Algorithm updates and policy changes by search engine operators
Changes to SEO metrics (DA/DR/traffic) during the term
(3) No SEO Success Guarantees: No commitments whatsoever are made regarding rankings, visibility improvements, traffic increases, indexing successes, metrics development (DA/DR/Trust Flow etc.) or "link signals". Third-party metrics are non-binding snapshots without guarantee of persistence.
(4) Exclusively 301-Redirects: The subject of the contract is exclusively 301-redirects. 302-redirects or other HTTP status codes are not subject of the contract unless expressly agreed in writing.
8. Service Level, Maintenance, Substitute Provision
(1) Availability Target: Hreflab strives for an average monthly availability of the redirect infrastructure of 99%. Planned maintenance windows (max. 4 hours/month, outside business hours) and force majeure events remain unconsidered.
(2) Fault Resolution: In case of technical faults, Hreflab has the right to subsequent performance within reasonable time (typically 48 hours after becoming aware). The customer is informed about major faults via email.
(3) Domain Substitute Service: If a used domain permanently falls outside Hreflab's sphere of control (e.g., registry problems, domain loss), Hreflab endeavors to provide an appropriate, equivalent substitute domain. No substitute claim for purely external backlink loss without domain loss.
(4) Service Level Shortfall: In case of permanent, significant shortfall of availability (below 95% in three consecutive months), the customer may demand reasonable contract price reduction.
9. Impermissible Uses and Compliance
(1) White-Hat Compliance: Hreflab uses exclusively white-hat SEO-compliant 301-redirects and observes recognized technical best practices. Third-party search engine guidelines are not direct contractual basis but are considered as industry standard.
(2) Impermissible Target Content: Target content that violates applicable law, personality, trademark, copyright or other protective rights or is directed against public morals is impermissible. Hreflab may refuse setup or discontinue operation after warning and reasonable grace period.
(3) Registry/Registrar Compliance: Registry and registrar requirements for domains and redirects must be observed where applicable. In case of conflicts with registry requirements, Hreflab may offer alternative technical solutions.
(4) Abuse Prevention: In case of justified suspicion of abuse of redirect services for spam, malware distribution or other unlawful purposes, Hreflab may discontinue the service immediately after warning.
10. Liability
(1) Unlimited Liability: Hreflab is liable without limitation for damages from injury to life, body or health, in case of intent, fraudulent concealment of defects as well as under mandatory statutory provisions (particularly Product Liability Act).
(2) Gross Negligence and Cardinal Obligations: In case of gross negligence, Hreflab is liable without limitation. In case of simple negligence, Hreflab is only liable for breach of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations) whose fulfillment enables the proper performance of the contract and on whose compliance the customer may regularly rely. Liability is limited in this case to the contractually typical, foreseeable damage.
(3) Liability Exclusions: Excluded – except in the cases of paragraphs (1) and (2) – is liability for lost profits, indirect and consequential damages, data/usage failures as well as damages resulting from algorithm changes, editorial third-party decisions and measures by search engine operators, provided these are not based on breach of essential contractual obligations by Hreflab.
(4) Maximum Liability: Total liability of Hreflab is – except in cases of paragraph (1) – limited to 100% of the net compensation of the respective affected redirect slot. In case of multiple affected slots, the sum of the corresponding compensations applies as maximum liability.
11. Warranty/Subsequent Performance
(1) Subject of Warranty: Only the proper technical redirect function according to § 2 is warranted. External SEO signals, backlink stocks, metrics development and SEO results are not subject of the warranty.
(2) Subsequent Performance: In case of technical defects of the redirect function, Hreflab has the right to subsequent performance through defect removal or substitute delivery (alternative domain with equivalent metric categorization). If subsequent performance definitively fails after reasonable time, the customer may reduce or withdraw regarding the affected redirect slot.
(3) Further Claims: Further warranty claims are governed by the liability provisions in § 10.
(4) Warranty Exclusions: Warranty claims are excluded for defects resulting from improper use, abuse of the target URL by the customer or third-party interventions outside Hreflab's sphere.
12. Data Protection
(1) Data Processing: Hreflab processes personal data as controller exclusively for fulfillment and processing of the contractual relationship according to GDPR and BDSG (German Federal Data Protection Act). Detailed information on data processing is governed by our separate privacy policy at [URL].
(2) Data Processing Agreement: Insofar as Hreflab exceptionally acts as processor for the customer, the parties conclude a separate data processing agreement (DPA) according to Art. 28 GDPR in advance.
(3) Third Country Transfer: For data transfers outside the EU/EEA, Hreflab ensures an adequate level of data protection through appropriate safeguards (standard contractual clauses, adequacy decisions).
13. Intellectual Property, Domains, Trademarks
(1) Hreflab IP Rights: All rights to software, tools, technologies, processes and trademarks (including Backlynxer™, Hreflab™) remain completely with Hreflab. No licenses are granted except for the contractual use of the respective redirect slot.
(2) Domain Ownership: All used domains remain exclusive property of Hreflab. The customer acquires no rights whatsoever to domains, trademarks or other IP rights. Upon contract termination, all usage rights automatically expire.
(3) Customer Warranty: The customer warrants that his target website and its contents do not infringe third-party rights (trademarks, copyright, personality rights). He indemnifies Hreflab against all corresponding claims and reimburses all costs arising therefrom.
(4) Trademark Conflicts: In case of recognizable trademark conflicts with used domains, Hreflab may provide alternative domains after warning or discontinue the service. No liability exists for non-recognizable IP right infringements by third parties.
14. Force Majeure
(1) Force Majeure: Force majeure events release Hreflab from performance obligation for the duration of the disruption and a reasonable startup period. These include in particular:
Failures at registries, registrars or DNS providers
Large-scale network disruptions, cyber attacks, DDoS attacks
Natural disasters, pandemics, war, terrorism
Official measures, legislative/regulatory changes
Strike, lockout at Hreflab or essential suppliers
(2) Information Obligation: Hreflab informs the customer immediately about occurrence and expected end of the disruption. In case of disruptions exceeding 30 days, either party may terminate the contract extraordinarily.
15. Contract Termination
(1) Automatic Term End: Ordinary terminations are excluded. The contract automatically ends upon expiration of the 12-month term according to § 4 para. 1 without further action by the parties.
(2) Extraordinary Termination: Either party may terminate extraordinarily for important cause, particularly in case of:
Serious, repeated legal violations despite warning
Payment default exceeding 30 days after reminder
Continued cooperation obligation breaches despite deadline setting
Insolvency or liquidation of the other party
Material deterioration of financial circumstances
(3) Termination for Legal Violations: In case of unlawful target content, Hreflab may terminate extraordinarily after unsuccessful warning with reasonable grace period (at least 7 days).
16. Choice of Law, Jurisdiction, Text Form
(1) Applicable Law: Exclusively German law applies excluding the UN Sales Convention (CISG). Application of international private law is excluded.
(2) Jurisdiction: Exclusive jurisdiction for all disputes is Hamburg, provided the customer is a merchant, legal entity under public law or special fund under public law or has his general place of jurisdiction outside Germany.
(3) Text Form: Amendments and additions to this contract as well as collateral agreements require text form (§ 126b BGB) for their validity. This also applies to the waiver of this formal requirement. Email satisfies the text form requirement.
17. Severability Clause, Final Provisions
(1) Partial Invalidity: Should individual provisions of this contract be or become invalid or unenforceable, this does not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. The parties undertake to replace invalid provisions with valid ones that come closest to the economic purpose of the invalid provision.
(2) Contract Language: These GTC are drafted in German language. In case of translations into other languages, the German version is authoritative.
(3) Digital Transmission: These GTC may be transmitted to the customer in digital form (email, download). The customer is obligated to create a copy for his records.
Status: September 2025
Hreflab UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Bernadottestraße 75, 22605 Hamburg
Email: contact@hreflab.com
Website: hreflab.com