Status: 19 January 2024
The online search and evaluation service "ProvenEmployer" (hereinafter referred to as "ProvenEmployer" or "the service") of Expert Systems AG enables employees (hereinafter referred to as "employees") to publicly evaluate their own employer (hereinafter referred to as "profile holder" or "employer"), provided that the latter has duly registered for ProvenEmployer with an employer profile. This employer profile is independent of a ProvenExpert profile, as it is a separate independent service.
The service offers registered companies the opportunity to be rated as an employer by their employees under the keyword "employee satisfaction". Depending on the settings selected by the profile owner, an overall score is calculated from the ratings and incorporated into a ProvenEmployer rating seal. This in turn can be used by the profile owner for advertising purposes in a variety of ways.
The service also offers anyone the opportunity to search for registered ProvenEmployers.
The evaluation and search service for employees is operated by Expert Systems AG, Quedlinburger Straße 1, 10589 Berlin, Germany, represented by its CEO Remo Fyda.
1. scope of application
The following terms of use contain the exclusive rules for the use of the ProvenEmployer online rating and search service.
2. registration
2.1 Proper registration is required for the use of the service by the profile owner. By registering, a contract for the use of the ProvenEmployer service is concluded between the Profile Holder and Expert Systems. Registration and the creation of a user account (hereinafter referred to as "Profile") is free of charge for the Profile Holder.
2.2 Registration is only open to entrepreneurs within the meaning of Section 14 of the German Civil Code (BGB). Minors and other natural persons with limited or no legal capacity are not permitted to register, nor are consumers within the meaning of Section 13 BGB.
2.3 Generating and trading in manipulated employee evaluations contradicts the values of Expert Systems. Companies that generate or trade in ratings are therefore excluded from use.
2.4 The profile owner is obliged to provide the data collected during registration truthfully and completely. The use of pseudonyms or stage names is not permitted. If the data collected changes after registration, the profile holder must update the information in his/her profile immediately. Failure to comply with these requirements entitles Expert Systems to block and cancel the profile.
2.5 By submitting the registration form, the profile holder submits an offer to conclude a user agreement with Expert Systems, agrees to these Terms of Use and assures that he/she has the necessary power of representation to conclude the user agreement, has provided truthful personal details and is not excluded from using the service in accordance with sections 2.2 and 2.3.
2.6 Registration of several identical profiles by the same profile owner is not permitted. This does not include the creation of profiles for independent subsidiaries of the same profile owner. A separate registration is required for each of these profiles.
2.7 When registering, the profile owner defines a company-related user name and password (hereinafter referred to as "access data"). User names whose use infringes the rights of third parties, in particular naming or labelling rights, or which are otherwise unlawful or offend common decency, are not permitted. The profile owner must keep the access data secret and protect it from access by unauthorised third parties. If the profile owner has lost the access data or if he realises or suspects that his access data is being used by a third party, he must inform Expert Systems immediately.
2.8 There is no entitlement to registration. Expert Systems reserves the right to reject the registration of the profile holder without giving reasons.
2.9 In the event of a serious breach of these Terms of Use, Expert Systems is authorised to block the profile immediately. This applies in particular:
• If incorrect information was provided during registration,
• If the profile holder belongs to the group of persons described in sections 2.2 and 2.3,
• In the event of loss or suspected misuse of the access data by a third party
• If the profile owner has violated the General Terms of Use of Expert Systems; in particular, if there is reasonable suspicion of manipulation of ratings and in the case of multiple registrations, or
• If there is otherwise an important reason within the meaning of § 314 BGB
If the profile is blocked, the profile owner concerned is prohibited from re-registering with ProvenEmployer and creating a new profile until Expert Systems has given its express prior consent.
3. services provided by Expert Systems for profile holders/employers
3.1 Expert Systems grants the Profile Holder access to the Service for the duration of the User Agreement. The Service enables the Profile Holder to collect, manage, aggregate (number of ratings, overall score) and display employer ratings and to integrate the ProvenEmployer seal on websites. The range of functions and content of the various service packages and features offered by Expert Systems as well as the respective prices are shown in the current price and service overview of Expert Systems at www.provenemployer.com/en-us/features-pricing/.
3.2 Employer ratings can be generated in the following ways:
• Invitation by e-mail to participate in an employer assessment,
• Issue of an access code to employees, which they can use to submit a one-off assessment via their employer,
• Contact form for activating the rating option (the profile owner himself releases the rating option) or
• Profile owner enables his employees to make ratings through his profile settings.
3.3 Employer reviews are initially made available to the profile owner internally in his/her profile. The profile owner decides - depending on the price tariff selected by him - whether he wishes to publish none, a certain number or all of his ratings. If the profile holder chooses to publish all reviews, an overall rating is calculated (one to a maximum of five stars), which can be called up on the respective profile page and is displayed in the form of a ProvenEmployer seal (hereinafter "the ProvenEmployer seal"), which the profile holder can integrate into websites. Unless otherwise specified in the respective service package, the overall score is made up of all ratings.
If the profile owner decides to publish only individual positive reviews, no overall score is calculated. In this case, only the published reviews are shown on the profile page; in this case, the ProvenEmployer seal indicates the total number of published reviews.
3.4 The profile owner is not entitled to have negative reviews deleted if they do not contradict the review guidelines. Reviews contradict the review guidelines in particular if they are objectively untrue. Furthermore, insulting, defamatory review content, calls for violence, racist or sexist statements, political or religious propaganda or similar content, as well as open or hidden advertising, calls for boycotts or personal data of third parties (in particular names, telephone numbers, private addresses, e-mail addresses, etc.) without their consent are not permitted.
This expressly excludes the right of the profile owner to set ratings to invisible. In this case, the profile will indicate that not all ratings are visible.
3.5 ProvenEmployer also enables profile holders to aggregate ratings (number and overall score) from other employee rating portals under the following conditions:
• The ratings to be aggregated must be consistent with the company of the profile owner with which the profile owner has registered with ProvenEmployer.
• Reviews may only be aggregated from review portals that verify employee reviews. To ensure this, the verification process is qualitatively tested by Expert Systems.
In order to comply with our quality standards, the employer reviews to be aggregated are entered manually by Expert Systems and checked editorially for seriousness. Expert Systems reserves the right not to aggregate reviews or to remove aggregated reviews without giving reasons if they contradict our usage guidelines.
There is no entitlement to the aggregation of reviews from portals that are not included in the list of employer review portals supported by us, which is currently available in the Terms of Use. Expert Systems reserves the right not to provide the rating aggregation function for certain portals if this exceeds the technically or temporally reasonable effort.
3.6 Expert Systems grants the Profile Holder the non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to use the ProvenEmployer seal to advertise its services for the duration of this licence agreement. The licence is subject to the condition that the Profile Holder fulfils the obligations arising from this User Agreement (in particular the obligations under Sections 2 and 4).
3.7 The employer evaluations obtained by the profile holder via ProvenEmployer can be requested free of charge as a CSV file for the duration of the user agreement and may continue to be used by the profile holder even after termination of the user agreement. An e-mail to support@provenemployer.com is sufficient for this purpose.
3.8 The profile holder recognises that 100% availability of the service cannot be technically realised. However, Expert Systems endeavours to keep the service available as constantly as possible. In particular, maintenance, security or capacity issues as well as events beyond the control of Expert Systems (such as disruptions of public communication networks, power failures, etc.) may lead to short-term disruptions or temporary suspension of the Service. Expert Systems also reserves the right to discontinue the service in whole or in part at any time, if necessary against reimbursement of user fees already paid.
4. obligations and warranty of the profile owner
4.1 The profile owner guarantees that the information provided by him/her during registration is complete and correct. If he/she uses a profile picture, the profile owner warrants by uploading it that he/she is authorised to use the photo or graphic within the scope of the service and that no third-party rights, in particular third-party copyrights or personal rights, are infringed as a result. The same applies to the content uploaded. Furthermore, this content must not contain any form of content that is offensive, glorifies violence, is extremist, racist, sexist, discriminatory, harmful to minors, pornographic or otherwise in breach of the law.
4.2 Only employees from the profile owner's company may be authorised to submit an evaluation or invited to do so as part of an employer evaluation query. The profile owner assures that he/she will contact employees for the purpose of submitting an evaluation exclusively via their respective company email addresses or, if this is not possible in exceptional cases, that he/she will only use the non-company email addresses of his/her employees if the employees have expressly given him/her prior consent to do so, which can be revoked by them at any time, and the profile owner undertakes to expressly inform his/her employees of this.
4.3 It is not permitted to misuse the ProvenEmployer rating system, including the ProvenEmployer rating seals. In particular, the ProvenEmployer seal may not be altered in any way by the profile owner and must always be linked to the associated profile. The use of screenshots of the seal or any other pictorial use of the seal without the corresponding link is prohibited, see also section 4.6. An offence entitles Expert Systems to terminate the profile.
Furthermore, it is not permitted to make content available for retrieval on the websites in which the ProvenEmployer seal is integrated that is unlawful or immoral, discriminatory, racist, sexist, offensive, glorifies violence or is pornographic.
4.4 The profile owner is legally responsible for the authorised promotional use of employer ratings or the ProvenEmployer seal. Any liability of Expert Systems towards the profile holder for damages caused by unlawful promotional use of the ProvenEmployer seal or employer ratings is hereby excluded.
4.5 ProvenEmployer seals may only be included on those company websites of the profile owner through which goods and/or services are offered that originate from the companies whose employees have submitted the reviews.
4.6 The profile owner is not authorised to directly or indirectly change, edit or copy ProvenEmployer seals, to use content from them or to write summaries of them. This includes separation into components or creation of derivative works.
4.7 All rights, title and interest in and to the ProvenEmployer Seals, including all intellectual property rights therein, shall remain the exclusive property of Expert Systems.
4.8 The profile owner guarantees that the e-mails sent by him via the service do not violate applicable law or infringe the rights of third parties (name, trademark, copyright, personal rights, etc.).
4.9 Expert Systems does not intend the Service to provide a platform for political activity of any kind or direction. Sending content via the Service that relates to political activities, such as party meetings, demonstrations, leaflet or signature campaigns in particular, is therefore not permitted. This also applies if e-mails merely refer to corresponding offers via a hyperlink.
5. remuneration
5.1 If the profile owner has selected a fee-based service package, the fee is due upon conclusion of the contract, unless expressly agreed otherwise. The fee is charged monthly or for one year in advance, depending on the package selected.
5.2 The term of subscriptions is divided into a minimum term and renewal periods. Both are determined by the offer selected by the profile holder.
5.3 After expiry of the minimum term or an extension period, the term is automatically extended by the extension period specified in the selected offer, unless the contract is cancelled by one of the parties at least 14 days before expiry of the term.
5.4 Expert Systems shall send invoices and payment reminders by e-mail to the e-mail address provided by the profile holder. The invoice shall be deemed to have been received on the day the invoice e-mail is sent. The profile holder shall be in default of payment 14 days after receipt without a reminder if he has not paid the invoice within this period.
5.5 Students can use the PREMIUM account of ProvenEmployer to the full extent free of charge for themselves as long as they are enrolled for full-time studies at a German university and are not on leave of absence. The same applies to use for student companies, provided that at least one of the (not only passively/capitalistically involved) company founders or at least one of the managing directors is enrolled as a full-time student at a German university.
5.6 Proof of valid enrolment must be provided for the first time no later than 4 weeks after registration with ProvenEmployer and annually thereafter. Proof must be provided by sending a copy of the certificate of enrolment in electronic or paper form. If no proof of valid enrolment is provided after the deadline, the PREMIUM account will be converted into a FREE account. From this point onwards, the account can be continued at the conditions of the BASIC, PLUS or PREMIUM tariff.
5.7 The profile holder is not entitled to offset unless the counterclaims have been legally established or are not disputed by Expert Systems.
6. termination
6.1 The profile owner can cancel their profile at any time without giving reasons. For fee-based offers, the cancellation period is two weeks to the end of the current term, unless otherwise specified in the respective service package. The right to extraordinary cancellation for good cause in accordance with § 314 BGB remains unaffected. Cancellation must be submitted in writing or in text form by e-mail to info@provenemployer.com or sent to the following address:
Expert Systems AG
Quedlinburger Straße 1
10589 Berlin
Germany
6.2 Expert Systems may terminate the profile at any time subject to a notice period of four weeks, unless otherwise stipulated in the respective service package. The right to extraordinary cancellation for good cause in accordance with § 314 BGB remains unaffected by this. Good cause shall be deemed to exist in particular if
• the profile holder is in arrears with a total of two or more monthly payments
• the profile owner has breached the obligations set out in these terms of use.
Claims for payment of the usage fee up to the expiry of the ordinary cancellation period shall remain unaffected by an extraordinary cancellation by Expert Systems.
7. optional additional services from Expert Systems for profile holders (search function) from 01.01.2025
7.1 ProvenEmployer offers all Internet users a so-called search function on its Internet platform, by means of which they can display companies rated by employees who are registered with ProvenEmployer and have expressly authorised themselves for this search function without disclosing their own identity and, if desired, according to industry-specific criteria. The service is optional for profile owners.
7.2 If a location-based search query is also made, only profiles close to the location in question will be displayed. The companies displayed are selected and sorted according to objective criteria determined by ProvenEmployer.
8. liability
8.1 Expert Systems shall be liable for damages to the profile owner in accordance with the statutory provisions if the damages were caused intentionally or by gross negligence, if they are the result of the non-existence of a guaranteed quality of the service, if they are based on a culpable breach of essential contractual obligations, if they are the result of culpable injury to health, body or life, or if liability is provided for under the Product Liability Act.
8.2 Material contractual obligations are those contractual obligations whose fulfilment is essential for the proper execution of the contract and on whose compliance the contractual partner may regularly rely, and whose breach on the other hand jeopardises the achievement of the purpose of the contract.
8.3 In all other respects, both the liability of Expert Systems and the liability for vicarious agents and assistants is excluded, irrespective of the legal grounds.
9. exemption
9.1 The profile owner shall indemnify Expert Systems against all claims asserted by third parties against Expert Systems due to content posted or e-mails sent via the service (in particular invitations to participate in employee surveys). The indemnification includes in particular the costs of any necessary legal defence.
9.2 In the event of a claim against Expert Systems, the profile holder is obliged to immediately, truthfully and completely provide all information that Expert Systems requires for the examination of the claims and the defence.
10. changes to the General Terms of Use
10.1 Expert Systems reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use during the respective contractual term of the profile holder, for example because the service is expanded or otherwise modified. Corresponding changes will be offered to the profile holder in text form (e.g. by e-mail) at least one month before the proposed date of entry into force (hereinafter "the effective date of change"). The profile holder shall be deemed to have given their consent if they have not indicated their refusal before the change deadline.
10.2 If the profile owner does not agree with the changes, he/she may terminate the user agreement with effect from the effective date of the change at no additional cost. In the notification of change, special reference is also made once again to the right of refusal, the deadline for this and the possibility of cancellation. In addition, the changes to the terms of use available online will be published.
11. other
11.1 The exclusive place of jurisdiction for all claims arising from the contractual relationship is Berlin.
11.2 The contract shall be governed exclusively by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany to the exclusion of the rules of private international law.
11.3 In the event of the invalidity or partial invalidity of one of the provisions of these Terms of Use, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected. An invalid or partially invalid provision shall be replaced by a provision that comes closest to the original provision from an economic point of view.
