General terms and conditions of sale

I.             Application of the general conditions

Any order placed implies the Customer’s full and unreserved acceptance of these general terms and conditions of sale to the exclusion of any other document.

No special condition may, except in the case of a formal and written exception appearing on the quotation which has become firm and definitive, prevail over the general conditions of sale.

The performance of any service by the Translator implies acceptance by the Client of these general terms and conditions, and the waiver of his or her own general terms and conditions of purchase. Any condition to the contrary shall therefore, in the absence of express acceptance, be unenforceable against the Translator, regardless of when it may have been brought to her attention.

The fact that the Translator does not avail herself at one time of one of the present general conditions of sale may not be interpreted as a waiver of the right to avail herself at a later date of one of the said conditions.

II.            Placing of orders and quotations

Each order placed by the Client shall be preceded by a free estimate drawn up by the Translator on the basis of the documents to be translated or the information provided by the Client.

The quotation sent by the Translator to the Client by e-mail shall specify in particular

– The number of pages or words to be translated

– The language of the translation

– The method of determining the price of the translation service. The latter shall be invoiced either on a flat-rate basis, or by the time spent, or by the line, page or hour, or on the basis of the service provider’s price list in force on the day the quotation is drawn up, in particular by the source word (i.e. the number of words contained in the text to be translated) or by the target word (i.e. the number of words contained in the translated text), according to the count proposed by Microsoft’s Word software (Tools, Statistics)

– The delivery time of the translation service

– The format of the documents to be translated in the event of a request for a specific layout of the document delivered

– Any price increases applied in particular due to urgency, specific terminological research or any other request outside the usual services provided by the Translator

In order to confirm the order in a firm and definitive manner, the Client must return the quotation to the Translator without any modification, by return e-mail, with the expression of his/her consent. If the Translator does not receive the acceptance of the quotation, she reserves the right not to start the service.

If the Translator fails to confirm the order in the manner described above within one (1) month of the date of dispatch of the quotation, the quotation shall be deemed to have expired.

The Translator reserves the right, after having informed the Client, to increase the rates for the services and/or not to respect the delivery date indicated on the Client’s initial order confirmation, particularly in the following cases

1.            The modification or addition of additional documents by the Client after the Translator has drawn up the quotation, in which case the Translator reserves the right to adjust the rate according to the volume of additional text found or requested.

2.            The absence of documents at the time the quotation was drawn up. If the quotation had to be made on the basis of the approximate word count and an extract of the content.

In the absence of the Client’s express agreement to these new terms of delivery and/or invoicing, the Translator reserves the right not to commence the service.

Unless otherwise agreed in the quotation, the costs incurred for the performance of the service (travel, mailing, etc.) shall be borne by the Client.

Any decision to grant a discount or reduction or to apply a sliding scale of charges, based on a percentage or a flat rate (per page, per line or per hour), shall be at the sole discretion of the Translator and only for the service in question. Any discounts or rebates granted to the Client shall in no case create a right to subsequent services.

III.           Proof

In order to prove that he or she accepts the quotation, the Client agrees to consider the e-mail, the copy and the computer medium as equivalent to the original and as perfect proof.

IV.          Advance payment

Any order of more than 1,000 euros excluding tax may be subject to a request for a deposit, the percentage of which will be specified on the quotation. In this case, the execution of the services will only begin once the deposit has been received.

V.            Delivery time

Subject to receipt by the Translator of all the documents to be translated, the delivery period mentioned in the quotation shall only apply if the Client confirms his or her order in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in Article 2 above within three (3) working days of receiving the quotation.

After this period, the delivery date may be revised according to the Translator’s workload.

VI.          Obligations of the Translator

The Translator shall endeavour to produce the translation as faithfully as possible in relation to the original and in accordance with the practices of the profession. The Translator shall make every effort to take into account and integrate into the translation any information provided by the Client (glossaries, plans, drawings, abbreviations). The Translator accepts no responsibility for any inconsistencies or ambiguities in the original text, and the Client shall be solely responsible for checking the consistency of the final text.

VII.         Client’s obligations

The Client undertakes to provide the Translator with all the texts to be translated and any technical information necessary for the understanding of the text and, where applicable, the specific terminology required. If the Client fails to inform the Translator, the Translator shall not be held responsible for any non-conformity or for exceeding the deadline.

The Client shall have a period of 10 working days from receipt of the translated or proofread documents to express any disagreement with the quality of the service in writing. After this period, the service shall be considered to have been duly performed and no dispute shall be accepted. To this end, the Client agrees to consider as proof of delivery any acknowledgement of receipt by post or e-mail.

VIII.        Confidentiality

The Translator undertakes to respect the confidentiality of information brought to her knowledge before, during and after the performance of her services. The originals shall be returned to the Client upon request.

The Translator shall not be liable for any interception or misappropriation of information during the transfer of data, in particular over the Internet. Consequently, it is up to the Client to inform the Translator, before or at the time of the order, of the means of transfer that he or she wishes to see implemented in order to guarantee the confidentiality of any sensitive information.

IX.           Format

The translation is delivered by e-mail in the format of the source text. On request, it can be delivered by post. Any other means of transfer or format must be expressly agreed between the parties and may be subject to an additional charge.

X.            Liability

The Translator’s liability shall in any case be limited to the amount of the invoice concerned.

The Translator shall under no circumstances be liable for complaints due to stylistic nuances or changes in the translation without her written permission.

It is hereby clarified that delivery deadlines are given as an indication only, and that failure to comply with them shall not lead to penalties for delay. The Translator shall not be liable for any direct or indirect damage caused to the Client or to third parties as a result of late delivery due to force majeure, nor for any delays in delivery by e-mail or postal services.

XI.           Corrections and proofreading

In the event of disagreement with the translation, the Translator reserves the right to correct the translation in cooperation with the Client.

If the translation is to be edited, the Translator shall receive the print proof for proofreading.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, additional charges for proofreading and editing shall be invoiced at the current hourly rate.

XII.         Terms of payment

Unless otherwise specified, the invoice must be paid in full within 30 calendar days of the date of issue. The translation remains the property of the Translator until full payment has been received.

As these terms and conditions are the subject of an agreement between the Translator and the Client, payment of the amount of the service shall not be subject to verification, approval or payment by any other party.

In the event of late payment, orders in progress may be suspended by operation of law until full payment has been made and the Client shall be liable, without the need for a prior reminder, for late payment interest calculated at the rate of 10% per month from the first day following the due date for payment and applied to the total amount of the invoice in question, exclusive of tax, to which shall be added a flat-rate indemnity for collection costs of 40 euros.

XIII.        Intellectual Property

Before submitting a document for translation to the Translator, the Client must ensure that he or she has the right to do so. The Client must therefore be the author of the original document or have obtained prior written permission for translation from the copyright holder of the document.

Otherwise, the Translator shall not be liable in any way if any part of the documents submitted by the Client infringes the intellectual property rights or any other rights of a third party or any applicable regulations. In such a case, the Client shall be solely responsible for any damages and financial consequences resulting from his or her negligence.

Furthermore, the Client acknowledges that the translation obtained by the Translator constitutes a new document, the copyright to which is held jointly by the author of the original document and the Translator. Consequently, in the case of a literary or artistic service, and without prejudice to the Translator’s economic rights in her work, the Translator reserves the right to demand that her name be mentioned on any copy or publication of her service.

XIV.        Cancellation

In the event of cancellation of an order in progress, for whatever reason, notified to the Translator in writing, the work already carried out shall be invoiced to the Client at 100% (one hundred percent) and a cancellation fee of 100 euros shall be applied to the total amount of the Client’s invoice, exclusive of tax.

XV.         Disputes

Any dispute relating to the interpretation and execution of these general sales conditions shall be subject to French law.