General Terms and conditions of Service (GTCS)

These general terms and conditions of service (GTCS), based on the recommendations of the French Translators’ Association (SFT), introduce firstly, the rights and obligations of Léman Traduction (“the Provider”) and secondly, of any natural person or legal entity wishing to benefit from her services (the “Client”).

1. Application of general terms and conditions – Opposability

Any order placed implies the prior knowledge and agreement of the present provisions of these general terms and conditions from the Client, other than any other document. No special condition can, unless otherwise formally stated on the firm and final purchase order, prevail over these general terms and conditions. The performance of any service from the Provider implies that the Client agrees to these general terms and conditions and waives their own general purchase conditions. Therefore, any contrary condition will, unless expressly accepted, be void against the Provider, regardless of when it may have been brought to her attention. If the provider does not claim one of these provisions at some point, from any of these general terms and conditions of service, it cannot be interpreted as a waiver to such a provision at a later stage.

2. Placement of orders/quote

Each client’s order is usually preceded by a free quote, written by the Provider, based on the provided documents to translate, revise or post-edit or information given by the Client. The quote sent to the Client by the Provider by regular mail, fax or electronic mail, specifies in particular:

To confirm their order in a legally binding manner, the Client must send back the quote to the Provider without any modification, either by regular mail or fax signed with the mention “good for agreement” if the quote was sent to the Client by regular mail or fax, or by electronic mail with the expression of their consent if the quote was first sent by electronic mail. Failing to receive confirmation of the order, the Provider reserves the right to not start working on this project. Failing to receive confirmation of the order according to the terms set out above within the deadline stated on the quote or within 3 (three) months from the date of emission of the quote, the latter is deemed to have lapsed. The Provider reserves the right, after having informed the Client, to charge an additional fee and/or to abstain from meeting the delivery date stated on the original order from the Client, in particular in the following cases:

Failing to receive the Client’s express agreement regarding these new delivery and billing conditions, the Provider reserves the right to not start working on this project. Unless otherwise agreed on the quote, the expenses incurred during the provision of service (travel, mail fees…) are the responsibility of the Client. Any decision to apply a discount, a rate reduction or sliding scale rate, based on a percentage or a flat rate (per page, per line or per hour), will be at the sole discretion of the Provider and only for the concerned service. Any discount or reduced price granted to the Client cannot, in any case, give rise to a right acquired for subsequent orders. Assuming no prior quote has been addressed to the Client by the Provider, the orders are made through a simple exchange in writing via electronic mail and the services are billed according to the base rate usually applied by the Provider or any rate agreed between the Provider and the Client in the electronic mail exchange. Once the Client has agreed to the deadline indicated by the Provider, this agreement is worth order.

3. Proof of order

For the purposes of proving acceptance of the quote, the Client agrees to consider faxes, electronic mails, copies and any digital format as undisputed proof of the order, having the same legal validity as the original document.

4. Deposit

Any order of an amount (VAT excluded) exceeding 1000 (one thousand) euros may require a deposit which percentage will be clearly specified on the quote. In which case, the Provider will start working on the project only after receiving this down payment.

5. Delivery deadline

Subject to the receipt by the Provider of all the documents necessary for the performance of the service, the deadline given as an indication and mentioned on the quote is applicable only when the Client confirms their order according to the terms and conditions set out in the Article 2 above within 3 (three) working days starting from the reception of the quote. After this date, the delivery date can be subject to change according to the Provider’s workload.

6. Provider’s obligation

The Provider endeavours to perform the translation, revision or post-edition with the utmost fidelity to the source text and in accordance with the standards of the profession. She does everything possible to take into account and include in the translation, revision or post-edition the information given by the Client (glossaries, diagrams, drawings, abbreviations…). The Provider declines all responsibility in cases where the original document is incoherent or ambiguous, as checking the technical coherence of the final text is the sole responsibility of the Client.

7. Client’s obligation

The Provider undertakes to treat as confidential all information and documents brought to her attention before, during and after the performance of the service. Original documents will be returned to the Client upon written request. The Provider’s responsibility cannot be engaged in cases where information is intercepted or misappropriated during transfer, especially via the Internet. Therefore, it belongs to the Client to properly inform the Provider, before or when the order is placed, of their preferred means of transmission to guarantee the confidentiality of any sensitive information.

9. Document format

The translation, revision or post-edition is delivered by electronic mail as a Word file. Upon request, the document can be delivered by fax or on prints sent by regular mail. Any other means of delivery or document format must be expressly agreed between the parties and can be subject to additional billing.

10. Responsibility

The Provider’s responsibility is limited only to the amount written on the related invoice.  Under no circumstances shall the Provider be held responsible for claims related to nuances of style. It is stated that the delivery deadlines are provided for information only and that missed deadlines cannot give rise to penalties for delay. In any event, the Provider’s shall not be held liable for direct or indirect harm to the Client or a third party resulting from a delivery delay in case of force majeure or potential fax, electronic mail or regular mail problems.

11. Editing and proofreading

In the event of disagreement on some elements of the service, the Provider reserves the right to correct them in cooperation with the Client. In the event the translation, revision or post-edition is to be printed, the Provider must receive the printing proofs to proofread. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, any correction or revision/proofreading is subject to additional billing based on the current hourly rate.

12. Payment terms

Unless otherwise specified on the quote, the invoices shall be intended net and without discount and payable within thirty (30) days from the date of issue of the invoice. In the event of payment by check or bank transfer from abroad, the full cost of exchange and bank fees give rise to a flat-increase specified on the quote or billed to the Client. The Provider retains full ownership of the translation, revision or post-edition until payment is received in full. It should be specified, for business Clients only, that in the event of late payment, pending orders are interrupted by right until reception of the payment in full and the Client is obliged, without any prior formal notice, in accordance with Article L.144-6 of the French Commercial Code, to pay late payment interest calculated to the interest rate applied by the European Central Bank to its most recent main refinancing operation plus 10 per cent, applied to the amount of the invoice, as well as a fixed sum compensation for recovery cost of 40 (forty) euros.

13. Intellectual property

Before submitting a document for translation, revision or post-edition, the Client must ensure that this does not infringe on any third-party rights. The Client must be the author of the original document or have obtained prior written permission to translate, revise or post-edit the document from whoever holds copyright. For lack of it, the Provider shall not be held responsible if all or part of the documents submitted by the Client happened to infringe on the intellectual property rights or any other right of a third party or any applicable laws or regulations. In such a case, the Client alone shall bear the possible damages and financial consequences of their own negligence. Furthermore, the Client acknowledges that the translation, revision or post-edition made by the Provider is a new document, whose copyright is held jointly by the author of the original document and the Provider. Therefore, for literary or artistic translations, revisions or post-editions, and without prejudice to her economic rights over her own work, the Provider reserves the right to require that her name should be mentioned in any publication or copy of all the materials resulting from her services, in accordance with the Article L.132-11 of the French Intellectual Property Code.

14. Cancellation

In the event of cancellation in the written form by the Client of an order already in progress, whatever the reason, the work already performed by the Provider shall be charged 100 % (one hundred per cent) to the Client and the remaining work shall be charged 50 % (fifty per cent) to the Client.

15. Amicable settlement

The parties agree, in the event of dispute of any nature whatsoever and before any legal action is taken, to seek an amicable settlement. To do so, as soon as the event from which the complaint or dispute arises occurs, the parties undertake to refer jointly to the Arbitration Committee of the SFT by certified mail return receipt request (CMRRR), with a copy being sent by CMRRR to the other party. The parties agree to do their utmost to ensure this arbitration is successful. They agree to operate in good faith. They also agree to not undertake any legal action within 4 (four) months following the referral to the Committee and admit that any referral made in contradiction with this obligation may be considered to be a dismissal or an obstacle to any amicable settlement of the dispute and justifies the payment to the other party of a compensation of 1500 (one thousand five hundred) euros.

16. Applicable law – competent court

These general terms and conditions of service are governed by French law and must be understood accordingly. Failing amicable settlement between the parties as presented in the Article 15 above, the parties grand exclusive jurisdiction to the French courts to settle any dispute relating to the provision of service and these general terms and conditions.