Terms of Use

1. Subject Matter of the Terms of Use

   1. These General Terms of Use («Terms of Use«) shall govern the use of services and software products offered by United Soft Media Verlag GmbH, Thomas-Wimmer-Ring 11, 80539 Munich, Germany («USM‬») on its platform, consisting of Catan Universe websites under the domain www.catanuniverse.com as well as the associated sub-sites, including information media and communications areas (such as forum and associated social media services) (jointly referred to as the “Catan Universe”).
   2. USM‬ offers Catan Universe exclusively to individuals, who use Catan Universe as consumers and for private purposes. Any use of Catan Universe for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited. Exceptions shall require the express, prior written consent by USM. Only individual natural persons are permitted as users.
   3. Catan Universe may be used in the form of freely accessible functions and services; additional game contents and special functions may be acquired for a fee. Unless expressly provided otherwise herein, these Terms of Use shall apply both to the free and to the paid use of Catan Universe. The Special Terms of Use for Fee-based Services in Catan Universe shall apply supplementarily to the purchase of virtual additional game contents or special functions, accessible at https://catanuniverse.com/en/special-terms, as well as the respective terms from the App Store.
   4. USM does not represent, warrant or guarantee the accessibility or availability of the services of Catan Universe. USM‬ shall be entitled to interrupt the operation and availability of Catan Universe for necessary technical reasons or due to required maintenance work without advance notice. Temporary restrictions may also arise due to technical failures such as interruption of telecommunications, the power supply, hardware and software errors, technical failures of service providers or other technical failures. To the extent permitted by the circumstances, advance notice of restrictions will be given within a reasonable time period.
   5. Catan Universe may only be used in the current version as amended from time to time.
   6. Users are to ensure the up-to-date status and suitability of the software and hardware used, in order to be able to use Catan Universe.
   7. Information on the games, rules of the game and other regulations of the game structure can be found on Catan Universe websites. This information supplements the existing Terms of Use.

2. Registration and Conclusion of Contract

   1. Users must register in order to use all functions of Catan Universe. No right to registration exists, however.
   2. User accounts created through registration are linked to the respective individual and are non-transferable. Registration must be performed personally and may not be performed by a third party.
   3. During registration, users are to provide a player name and an email address registered to such user. Users shall have no right to a specific player name. Such name depends primarily on its availability and the consent to the general rules of communication in accordance with Article 5 of these Terms of Use. Users participate in Catan Universe and the associated communication channels with their player name. The player name may particularly not violate any third-party rights, other statutory provisions or good morals. Users are expressly responsible for this. In addition, neither e-mail nor URL or Internet address may be selected as a player name.
   4. When registering, users are to provide exclusively true and complete information. Users are obligated to keep data provided in the registration up-to-date at all times. Where it is required for the performance of the contract of use, USM shall be entitled to request suitable proof of identity from the user, which shall be deleted immediately after examination.
   5. When registering, users also are to indicate a password. The password to be selected may not be a sequence of consecutive numbers (such as 123456) or letters (such as ABCDEF) and may not be identical with the player name. It must additionally include special characters and upper case and lower case letters.
   6. Users submit their offers to conclude a contract of use governed by these Terms of Use with the registration. USM accepts such offer by activating the user account. USM may make the activation of user accounts dependent on users validating their e-mail address (opt-in-procedure).
   7. Users may register a user account on Catan Universe portal as well as on the respective associated websites or software clients. Users may also use the user account created on Catan Universe portal for all other websites and software clients linked by USM with the USM portal. USM‬ reserves the right to create technical requirements, whereby user accounts can be used for other USM services at the same time.

3. General Duties of Users

   1. Access data

      1. Users are obligated to keep personal access data strictly confidential. Personal access data of the user are data used in order to authenticate the individual and to provide access to the user account («Access Data«). In particular, users are obligated to use their access data exclusively within Catan Universe and to protect such data from unauthorized access by third parties. Passwords must be changed at regular intervals (no later than every three months).
      2. Where users have reason to suspect that third parties have or could have gained unauthorized access to their data, they must immediately notify USM and change their data or have them changed by USM. In such event or in the event that USM‬ suspects misuse of access data, USM shall also be entitled to temporarily block user access. Users will be readmitted to usage, as soon as the suspicion of misuse of the data is eliminated.
      3. Under no circumstances shall users be entitled to use other users’ access data.

   2. Use of Catan Universe

      1. Catan Universe contains contents (data, images, texts, graphics, pieces of music, sounds, sound sequences, videos, programs as well as software codes and all service offers provided for download) protected by trademark laws, copyright laws and in other ways for the benefit of USM or for the benefit of third parties. Unless expressly authorized by USM or statutory exceptions, users are not entitled to edit, to duplicate, to distribute, to communicate to the public, to advertise with Catan Universe or contents provided by it, or to use such beyond the contractually agreed purpose. Only technical duplication for purposes of the intended use of Catan Universe is permitted. Copyright notices and brand names may not be changed and not suppressed or removed.
      2. Users undertake to refrain from all measures endangering or interfering with the functionality of Catan Universe, and from accessing data, which users are not entitled to access.

   3. Client-Software

      1. For the use of Catan Universe, USM‬ shall grant users the non-exclusive right, limited to the term of the contract of use, to install and use the client software offered by USM. Users are only permitted to duplicate the client software to the extent necessary for the contractual use of the software or permitted by statutory law. Any form of commercial use of the software is prohibited.
      2. Any change of the client software and the retranslation of the program code provided into other code forms (de-compilation) as well as other types of reverse engineering of the software are prohibited unless permitted by statutory law.

4. Special Duties of Users

   1. Users are prohibited from making any kind of manipulative intervention in Catan Universe. Users are not entitled to use measures, mechanisms or software, which may interfere with the function and the game structure. Users may take no measures, which may result in an unreasonable or excessive burden on the technical capacities. Users are not permitted to block, overwrite, modify contents generated by USM or otherwise interfere with Catan Universe.
   2. Moreover, users are prohibited from accessing Catan Universe with programs other than their respective Internet browsers or the client software provided by USM. This shall include, in particular, bots and other tools supposed to replace or to supplement the web interface. Likewise, scripts and programs are prohibited that create an advantage for individual users compared to fellow players. This shall also include auto-refresh functions and other integrated mechanisms of the Internet browser, if they are automated processes. Access is only permitted via Catan Universe and third-party webpages integrated by USM (such as portals or social networks).
   3. Under no circumstances may users
      1. create or use cheats, mods, hacks and/or software changing the gaming experience of Catan Universe,
      2. use software permitting data mining or in another way retaining or gathering information in connection with Catan Universe,
      3. purchase, sell, exchange virtual contents from Catan Universe for actual means of payment from third parties or attempt such actions, unless permitted in the individual case.

      This shall also include all actions, which in their effect compare with the aforementioned prohibitions.

   4. Any and all rights to the virtual contents and functions used and provided in return for payment outside of the use in the scope of these Terms of Use are granted exclusively to USM. ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
   5. Moreover, users may not intervene in the events of the game in prohibited manner, such that the game entertainment or free competition is disturbed. This shall include in particular:
      1. intentionally causing an interference/malfunction, in order to influence the game;
      2. exploiting program errors, in order to selectively gain an advantage (“exploiting”);
      3. unfair conduct of any type, for example, deception of other users;
      4. concealed cooperation with other users, so that unknowing, uninitiated users are disadvantaged thereby and are thus deprived of their fair chance to play the game;
      5. conscious and deliberate, repeated and unexcused independent cancellation of games.
      6. delaying the game flow, for example via deliberately exploiting in-game timers and time limits, deliberately logging in and out during a running game and any other methods used to delay or slow the game flow.

      In the event of a violation, the instructions by USM or its representatives are to be complied with.

5. Rules of Communication in Catan Universe

   1. USM‬ may provide users with different communications options for own contents and contributions that users may use as available. There is no entitlement to be provided any such communications options.
   2. Users are prohibited from publishing or disseminating contents (for example, images, videos, links, names, texts, words) within Catan Universe, which
      1. violate applicable law or are immoral;
      2. violate trademarks, patents, copyrights, other property rights, trade secrets or other rights of third parties;
      3. have a character that is obscene, racist, glorifies violence, is pornographic, harmful to minors or endangers or impairs the development of children and minors;
      4. have a libellous, harassing, slanderous or other defamatory character;
      5. are perceived by other users as undesirable and are repeatedly sent despite the recipient’s objection («spam»);
      6. serve the purpose of collecting, storing or using personal data of users without the respective express consent for commercial purposes in particular;
      7. contain chain letters, surveys or pyramid schemes;
      8. falsely create the impression of being provided or supported by USM;‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
      9. involve personal data of third parties without their express consent;
      10. have a commercial, in particular, obvious or disguised advertising character.
   3. In addition, users shall be obligated to make a reasonable choice of words and to deal with other users in a civilized manner and not to disseminate any political or religious contents and no contents with sexual reference.
   4. USM‬ expressly does not adopt any contents posted by users. Users shall grant USM, however, the permanent, irrevocable and non-exclusive right to use the contents and contributions posted by them within Catan Universe.
   5. Users have the possibility of reporting suspected illegal contents or contents that violate these Terms of Use to USM. USM will immediately react and after appropriate review edit or delete the contents reported, where required.

6. Breach of Duty

   1. In case of doubt, users are to remove contents objected by USM without undue delay. USM expressly reserves the right to remove said contents itself.
   2. Notwithstanding any other statutory or contractual rights, in particular, the right to termination for good cause under Article 9.2 hereof, USM may take one or several of the following measures at its discretion, if actual indications exist that users have violated these Terms of Use or the applicable supplementary terms, unless such user is not responsible for the violation:
      1. change or deletion of contents,
      2. warning of a user,
      3. publication of the misconduct in Catan Universe identifying the player by name,
      4. temporary suspension of a user account, and
      5. exclusion of a user for the future.
   3. There will be no reimbursement of any fees paid or of game contents acquired. Rather, the user concerned is to compensate USM for any expenses incurred in this connection.

7. Liability

   1. USM‬ is liable in accordance with the statutory provisions for any damage incurred by the user, which has been caused by intentional or grossly negligent behaviour of USM or its vicarious agents, as well as for personal injuries and damage in accordance with the German Product Liability Act. ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
   2. Otherwise, the liability of USM for damage claims, irrespective of the legal grounds, is always limited to the amount of the fees paid to USM by the individual user.
   3. The above limitations of liability shall also apply with respect to USM’s vicarious agents.
   4. USM‬ is not liable for any costs incurred by the user for the use of payment systems.

8. Data Protection

   The protection of your data and your personal privacy is important to USM. You can find information on how we collect, use and, where applicable, transfer personal data in our Privacy policy.

9. Termination of the Contractual Relationship

   1. The contract for the use of Catan Universe is entered into for an indefinite period, unless expressly stipulated otherwise. The contract may be duly terminated by either party at any time at two weeks’ notice, unless a limited term was agreed.
   2. Each party has the right to terminate the contract for good cause without complying with a notice period. Good cause exists in particular, if
      1. the collection of payment fails, in particular in recurring cases,
      2. the user violates laws, the provisions of these Terms of Use in a manner that is not only insignificant, unless such user is not responsible for the violation.
   3. Any termination must be given in writing (including by email).
   4. After a prolonged period of user inactivity, USM‬ shall be authorized to cancel the user account. Not logging in with the player name and password stored for the account constitutes inactivity. USM will inform the user concerned by email about an intended cancellation and grant a reasonable period for appropriate activity. In addition, USM shall be entitled at its own discretion to cancel user accounts after the end of a contract.

10. Special Provisions as Part of the Early Access Phase

    1. If users participate in an Early Access Phase, the following special provisions shall apply: Early Access Phases are only available to a very limited group of participants and serve for testing the software and hardware prior to official release. Users acknowledge and agree that the test contents provided to them are highly confidential and that USM is the exclusive owner of any such contents.
    2. When participating in an Early Access Phase, users agree that USM acquires the exclusive rights to any and all comments, feedback, proposals, ideas, points of criticism and other information, which are disclosed, communicated or offered to USM during the implementation of the Early Access Phase («Feedback«).
    3. Users also grant USM the right to use, to sell, to promote, or otherwise to exploit the feedback in any manner existing or yet to be developed without restrictions and without payment of remuneration to any user, unless such violates applicable laws.
    4. Users acknowledge and agree that advance versions of Catan Universe in the Early Access Phase serve for testing purposes and therefore no representation as to property, functional guarantees or the like will be given by USM. Users further acknowledge and agree that any such versions may contain different known and unknown program errors and such versions are used at the user’s own risk.
    5. Users also acknowledge and agree that in the course of participation in the Early Access Phase, USM may reset any of the game scores and associated bonuses, points, credits etc. and any progress and information of the user may be deleted at any time; this shall not apply to acquired paid contents, if any, in the Early Access Phase.

11. Final Provisions

    1. These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods. Where users as consumers have their usual place of residence in another country within the European Union at the time of the respective conclusion of a contract (registration, acquisition of fee-based services), the application of mandatory statutory provisions of that country will remain unaffected by the choice of law made in sentence 1 of this paragraph.
    2. USM‬ reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use. USM‬ shall send users by email the amended terms at least 30 days prior to their entry into force and point out the intended validity of such new Terms of Use for existing contracts as well as the right of the user to object to the validity of these Terms of Use. If a user does not object to the validity of the new Terms of Use within such deadline or uses the contents of Catan Universe after the amended Terms of Use have entered into force, the new Terms of Use are deemed accepted. USM will point out the importance of the 30-day deadline, the right to object and the legal consequences of failure to respond in a suitable form.
    3. Any provision of these Terms of Use is to be interpreted separately and independently. Should a provision of these Terms of Use be ineffective or unenforceable in whole or in part, the effectiveness of the remainder of these Terms of Use shall remain unaffected.
    4. Any notices, objections or complaints are to be addressed in writing to
       
       United Soft Media Verlag GmbH
       Thomas-Wimmer-Ring 11
       80539 Munich
       Germany

       or by email to catanuniverse@usm.de

    5. The contract language is German. If copies of the contract or parts thereof are additionally made available in another language, in the event of lack of clarity or deviations the German-language version shall prevail.

Special Terms of Use for Fee-based Services in Catan Universe

1. Scope of application of the Terms

   These terms («Terms«) supplement the scope of application of the General Terms of Use in Catan Universe and shall govern the purchase of the game currency, the activation of a complete game, extensions or bonus contents, and the forming, implementing and terminating of fee-based memberships as part of subscriptions to Catan Universe provided by United Soft Media Verlag GmbH ‬(«USM«). Such fee-based services may each have different designations in the various online games. Fee-based services, such as virtual currencies, bonus content or other benefits to be purchased are all referred to as «Fee-based Services«‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ herein.

2. Special provisions for the acquisition of fee-based services

   1. Users must have a registered user account for the use of fee-based services.
   2. Users will submit their offers for concluding a contract on the acquisition of fee-based services by selecting the total of the «fee-based services» they would like to acquire in the respective offer in Catan Universe and clicking on the appropriate buttons labelled “jetzt kaufen” («Buy now») or similar. Prior to clicking this button, input errors may be corrected by using the browser’s back button.
   3. The contract will come into existence upon receipt of an order confirmation from USM or from the respective sales platform, where such service is offered, and no later than upon USM crediting the fee-based service to the user’s account.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ USM can accept the offer within three business days after the offer has been made.
   4. Upon crediting of the fee-based services in the form of game currency, users acquire a non-exclusive, non-transferable right, limited to the term of the contract, to acquire the virtual goods or benefits offered by USM in the respective game in Catan Universe at the relevant time and described in detail therein, if the game currencies credited to the user account are sufficient for the respective acquisition. The respective equivalent amount shown for the virtual commodity or benefit provided by the fee-based service will be debited from the user account. The right to use such acquired virtual goods or benefits is subject to the condition subsequent of the termination of the contract of use governed by the General Terms of Use. Users are not entitled to use the virtual commodities or benefits for a specific minimum period, unless a specific period of use was provided for in the description of the virtual commodity or benefit.
   5. The purchase price for the fee-based services is paid via a service provider integrated by USM. The methods of payment in each case are indicated to users at the respective game in Catan Universe. Users acknowledge the fact that regularly a contract comes into existence with the selected payment service provider on performing the transaction in accordance with the provisions of the relevant payment service provider.
   6. Where users acquire fee-based services via the Google Play Store, Amazon App Store, Microsoft or a similar platform («third-party platform»), the terms of such third-party platform will apply supplementarily to these Terms.
   7. Users’ rights to the acquired fee-based services are subject to the condition subsequent on the termination of the contract of use governed by the General Terms of Use. If USM terminates the contract of use by way of an ordinary termination the User shall have the right to use the purchased Fee-based Services for an appropriate time but no less than the expressly agreed use period. In the event of the suspension of a user account within the meaning of Article 6.2(d) of the General Terms of Use, USM shall be entitled to refuse performance for the duration of the suspension.

3. Special provisions for concluding subscriptions subject to a fee

   1. Upon concluding fee-based subscriptions («Subscriptions«), for the (minimum) term selected users are granted access to special advantages in Catan Universe (for example, special functions, areas not generally accessible), which are not provided to non-subscribers.
   2. Users select the (minimum) subscription term and thus the price payable. The provisions on concluding the contract and the payment methods under Articles 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 shall apply accordingly. The amounts payable for the membership must be paid in advance at the beginning of the respective membership term.
   3. Notwithstanding Article 9.1 of the General Terms of Use, the subscription may be terminated at any time at the end of the respective term without observing of a deadline. Terminations may be given by email or in writing. Memberships will be extended upon expiry of the contract period in each case by an additional term corresponding to the selected contract term. Memberships will not be extended if the contract was terminated at the due date. Users will be informed by email on the expiry of the notice period in due time.

4. Final Provisions

   1. These Terms supplement the General Terms of Use. For Clarification: The Final Provisions of the General Terms of Use shall apply accordingly.