Terms of Service

The following terms of service apply to all business relationships between the customer and Hohl IT e.U., following named as “Alwyzon”. Any additional terms between the customer and Alwyzon must be explicitly stated in writing or by e-mail.

1. Scope of the Services

1.1. Alwyzon provides the customer with the services as they are described on the website, in the client area, or in an individual quote, after acceptance of the order. By placing an order, the customer submits a binding offer to conclude a contract.

1.2. Alwyzon will confirm the receipt of the customers order immediately. The confirmation is not yet contractually binding. Alwyzon is entitled to accept the order within 2 working days after receipt. Alwyzon is also entitled to reject the order, for example after examining the creditworthiness or reliability of the customer.

1.3. The services provided are targeted to a professional audience with advanced knowledge in running servers. Alwyzon, either directly or through a third party, will provide limited support during business hours for basic technical matters, such as unavailability of the provided services, but will not provide assistance with setup or configuration of any services on the provided server. It is the customer's responsibility to configure the server according to their requirements. What kind of support is considered basic technical matters is up to the sole discretion of Alwyzon.

1.4. Unless otherwise agreed, Alwyzon guarantees a minimum average annual availability of 99,9 percent. Availability is understood as the general operational readiness of servers and the pertinent infrastructure. The following circumstance do not count as service disruptions:
(a.) any disruptions caused by miss-configurations made by the customer him- or herself,
(b.) any disruptions due to the fault of a third party outside the influence of Alwyzon,
(c.) any disruptions in order to service the infrastructure required by Alwyzon to provide the offered products (e.g. downtime caused by the necessity to install updates),
(d.) any disruptions due to a temporary deactivation of services in relation to paragraphs 2.5., 5.6., 5.7. and 8.3. of this agreement, and
(e.) any disruptions due to force majeure.

1.5. For dedicated servers, the minimum average annual availability mentioned in paragraph 1.4. of this agreement does also not cover failures of the server hardware itself but is limited to the availability of network and power. Any electronic equipment, but especially disks and cooling fans, have a limited expected lifetime and might need to be replaced after some time. Alwyzon will replace defective hardware within a reasonable timeframe, but it's the customer responsibility:
(a.) to monitor for hardware failures,
(b.) to have a backup plan should any equipment fail, and
(c.) to notify Alwyzon in case any equipment should fail and requires replacement.

1.6. In providing its service, Alwyzon relies on third parties. Any faults or service impairments that arise from them lies outside of Alwyzons influence. This applies in particular to general Internet and power outages.

2. Payment Terms

2.1. The current valid prices are accessible at any time at the Alwyzon website.

2.2. Unless a different payment schedule has been agreed in writing or by e-mail, all fixed fee payments are to be made in advance for the billing period stated on the individual order. Per usage fees are to be made at the end of the billing period.

2.3. Invoices must be paid within seven days of receipt.

2.4. Alwyzon is entitled to charge without warning an interest on all overdue payments. If the customer is a consumer within the meaning of the Austrian Consumer Protection Act (KSchG), the amount of interest charged will be 4 percent per annum, accruing daily. Otherwise, the amount of interest charged will be 9,2 percentage points above the basis rate according to the website of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank.

2.5. Alwyzon is entitled to temporarily disable any services without further notice should any invoice remain unpaid beyond the due date. Alwyzon is also entitled to terminate all contracts should an invoice remain unpaid for 14 days past the due date. Such action will not remove the customer's liability to pay any outstanding fees.

3. Obligations of the Customer

3.1. The customer provides a full and correct set of personal information when registering and agrees to notify Alwyzon of any change to that information. The customer also agrees to assist in verifying that information, should there be any doubts of its correctness.

3.2. If the customer is a legal entity, the customer will also assist in confirming the identities of the beneficial owners of this entity and the source of funds if requested by Alwyzon.

3.3. The customer agrees to ensure that any services provided by Alwyzon will not be used for any illegal activity and will undertake any steps necessary to maintain compliance with applicable law.

3.4. The customer will refrain from any activities that can cause disruption for the services provided by Alwyzon.

3.5. Alwyzon expects that the customer uses the provided servers solely for legitimate hosting activities. The following activities are expressively prohibited:
(a.) the sending of spam or bulk mail; including in particular the sending of unsolicited advertising to third parties,
(b.) the scanning of foreign networks or foreign IP addresses,
(c.) to run any services that cause a particular high and permanent CPU load or can lead to faster wear out of the hardware, such as the operation of mining services (e.g. Bitcoin or Etherum),
(d.) to store or distribute any material that violates the rights of third parties or violates the law,
(e.) to store or distribute files and material concerning radicalism, encouraging violence or terrorism,
(f.) to store or distribute files that contain malicious programs such as viruses, worms or spyware,
(g.) to participate in Denial of Service attacks,
(h.) to provide any Torrent-related services including Torrent directories and trackers, and
(i.) to host Tor entry, relay or exit nodes.

3.6. The customer accepts the responsibility for all items published or transmitted from their servers. Alwyzon only provides the infrastructure, acts solely as a distributor of the customer's traffic, does not examine that traffic in any way except for the purpose of routing it, and is in no way responsible for the customer's use of the server.

3.7. The customer is liable for all direct and indirect losses (including lost profits) incurred by Alwyzon due to a breach of the obligations arising from this agreement. This also covers any legal defence costs incurred by Alwyzon.

3.8. The customer shall ensure that all software is kept up-to-date, secure, is fully licensed and complies with all regulations and authorities.

3.9. The customer is responsible for preparing and retaining adequate backups of all content stored by the customer. The customer retains those backups outside the servers provided by Alwyzon. Unless otherwise agreed, Alwyzon does not perform backups of customer content. In the event of a data loss, the customer is obligated to transmit the data concerned to Alwyzon again free of charge or to restore it themselves.

3.10. The customer is obligated to keep any login credentials confidential and is responsible for any abuse of his or her login credentials by third parties.

3.11. The customer is obligated to respond to all requests of the abuse department of Alwyzon within 24 hours. Failure to respond within reasonable time may be considered equal to an acknowledgment of the accusation.

4. Liability

4.1. Claims for damages by the customer for direct damages, secondary damages or lost profits, in particular those resulting from technical problems, are excluded. This does not apply to claims based on intent or gross negligence.

4.2. If the guaranteed minimum average annual availability was not provided to the customer, Alwyzon agrees to refund one month of fixed fees paid by the customer.

4.3. Alwyzon is liable to the customer for direct damages, secondary damages and lost profits only in cases of intent or gross negligence. In such cases, liability is limited to the damage that is foreseeable and typical for this type of contract, and in any event to the total value of the amounts paid by the customer to Alwyzon in the previous 3-month period for the individual service concerned.

4.4. Liability for personal injury, and liability under mandatory statutory provisions, remains unaffected by paragraphs 4.1. and 4.3.

5. Duration of the Agreement and Cancellation

5.1. Unless expressly agreed otherwise and confirmed in writing or by e-mail, agreements are in place for an indefinite period of time.

5.2. All services are billed upfront for the billing period specified during the order process: either monthly, quarterly or yearly, unless expressly agreed otherwise and confirmed in writing or by e-mail.

5.3. The customer may cancel this agreement to the end of the current billing period with a notice of at least 7 days before the end of that period. A cancellation can be done through the client area on the Alwyzon website, through writing or through e-mail.

5.4. Alwyzon reserves the right to unilaterally cancel this agreement with a 30 days notice. Any upfront payments made for the duration after that cancellation have to be refunded to the customer in that case.

5.5. As with any services provided over a longer duration, the costs to provide these services may change over time due to changes in the legal and economic environment. Alwyzon, therefore, reserves the right to adapt its prices at the beginning of any new billing period.

5.6. Alwyzon reserves the right to temporarily disable any services without further notice or delete data, should Austrian authorities request it.

5.7. Alwyzon reserves the right to temporarily disable any services with or without further notice should there be a well-founded suspicion that the services provided to the customer are used for illegal activities, to harm the rights of others, or have been compromised by a third party. A cease-and-desist order brought against the customer by third parties for reasons that are not manifestly unfounded, or an investigation being conducted by state authorities, are in any case to be considered grounds for well-founded suspicion.

5.8. A temporary deactivation as per paragraph 5.7 is to be lifted if the suspicion that formed the basis for this deactivation has been disproved beyond doubt.

5.9. Alwyzon is furthermore entitled to terminate this agreement with immediate effect for good cause. Good cause exists in particular where the customer breaches the obligations arising from paragraphs 3., 7. and 8. of this agreement, and in particular the accepted usage policy defined in paragraphs 3.4. and 3.5., and does not immediately rectify that breach despite having received a warning. A warning is not required where the breach cannot be rectified, where the breach is so serious that Alwyzon cannot reasonably be expected to continue the contractual relationship, or in the cases of paragraph 8.3. Any upfront payments made for durations after that termination are not refunded to the customer, but are considered a compensation payment for the breach of contract.

5.10. Servers are automatically switched off at the end of a contract. The customer acknowledges that it is his or her responsibility to ensure that all data is transferred out before the end of the contract. Servers that have been switched off will be permanently deleted and Alwyzon does not take any liability for data lost in that process.

6. Right of Withdrawal

6.1. If the customer is a consumer within the meaning of the Austrian Consumer Protection Act (KSchG) residing inside the European Union, he or she has a right to withdraw from a contract within fourteen days without giving any reason. The withdrawal period will expire after fourteen days from the day of the conclusion of the contract. To exercise the right of withdrawal, the customer must inform Alwyzon of his or her decision to withdraw from the contract in writing, by e-mail or via the contact form on the Alwyzon website. To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for the customer to send the communication concerning the exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

6.2. Services that, due to their one-off nature, have already in full, or at least in most parts, delivered at the time of withdrawal are excluded from the possibility of withdrawal. This in particular includes domain registration fees, setups fees and any fees related to customized dedicated servers. For these services, a withdrawal from the contract is only possible as long as the processing of the order has not been yet started.

6.3. If the customer withdraws from this contract in accordance with 6.1., Alwyzon shall reimburse payments received from the customer, including the costs of delivery without undue delay and in any event not later than fourteen days from the day on which Alwyzon was informed about the decision to withdraw from this contract. Alwyzon will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as used for the initial transaction, unless both parties have expressly agreed otherwise, in any event, the customer will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

6.4. The customer may use the following model withdrawal form, which however is not required:

To Hohl IT e.U., Floridsdorfer Hauptstraße 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria, Email: support@alwyzon.com
I hereby give notice that I withdraw from my contract for the provision of the
following service:
Order Number:
Name of consumer:
Address of consumer:
Signature of consumer (only if this form is notified on paper):
Date:

7. Use of the Services by Third Parties

7.1. The customer may allow third parties to use the services, including within the customer's own business as a service provider. The customer remains Alwyzon's sole contractual partner, passes the obligations under paragraphs 3. and 8. on to those third parties, and is answerable for their conduct as for its own. The customer indemnifies Alwyzon against all claims arising from that use.

7.2. The contractual relationship exists only between Alwyzon and the customer. Unless expressly agreed otherwise, Alwyzon provides no support to the customer's own users; the customer will not refer them to Alwyzon and will not use Alwyzon's support for services it has not ordered directly from Alwyzon.

8. Sanctions and Export Control

8.1. Restrictive measures are the economic and trade sanctions, embargoes and export control provisions of the European Union, the Republic of Austria and the United Nations, as amended from time to time, in particular the consolidated list of persons, groups and entities subject to EU financial sanctions.

8.2. The customer warrants that it is not subject to restrictive measures, is not owned or controlled by and does not act for anyone who is, and is neither resident nor established in a territory subject to comprehensive restrictive measures. The customer further warrants that it will not make the services available, directly or indirectly, to any such person, entity or territory. Should any of this cease to be accurate, the customer will inform Alwyzon without undue delay.

8.3. Alwyzon is not obliged to perform where restrictive measures conflict with performance or would expose Alwyzon to measures under them. In that case, and where a warranty under paragraph 8.2. is or becomes inaccurate or is well-foundedly suspected to be, Alwyzon may temporarily disable the services with or without notice and terminate this agreement with immediate effect. Paragraph 5.8. applies accordingly.

8.4. Where restrictive measures conflict with a payment to the customer, that payment is suspended for as long as the obstacle persists; Alwyzon will handle the amount in accordance with the applicable provisions and the instructions of the competent authority.

9. Final Provisions, Place of Jurisdiction and Applicable Law

9.1. Alwyzon uses mainly e-mail communication, but may also use ticket-based, paper and phone communication. At all times it is the responsibility of the customer to have an active e-mail address and a correct phone number provided to Alwyzon. E-mails sent to this address must regularly, but within a maximum of three days, be read.

9.2. Alwyzon is at all times entitled to amend these Terms of Service. The customer is entitled to terminate the agreement as a result of this change within 30 days of the announcement of these changes if the changes are to the customers disadvantage.

9.3. If any provision of these terms is or becomes invalid, the other provisions and any contracts concluded pursuant to these provisions shall not be affected thereby. The invalid provision shall be replaced by a provision which best corresponds to the intention and economic purpose of the invalid provision. Printing and typesetting errors excepted.

9.4. The place of performance for all services under this agreement is Vienna, Austria. This agreement is governed by the substantive law of the Republic of Austria excluding the conflict-of-law rules of international private law.

9.5. The place of jurisdiction for all disputes between the parties is the court having jurisdiction for Vienna, Austria. Mandatory statutory provisions on the place of jurisdiction, in particular those applying to consumers, remain unaffected.

9.6. A transfer of this agreement, or of individual rights and obligations arising from it, to a third party requires the prior consent of Alwyzon given in writing or by e-mail.

9.7. If Alwyzon does not exercise a right arising from this agreement, or tolerates a breach of contract by the customer, whether on one or on several occasions, this does not constitute a waiver of that right. Alwyzon remains entitled to exercise that right at a later point in time. A waiver of a right arising from this agreement requires an express declaration by Alwyzon to that effect.

9.8. These terms of service are published in German and in English. For each contract, the language version in which the contract was concluded applies.