Terms of use for Experts

Terms of use for Experts

I. Object of the Agreement, amendments

Section 1 Object of the Participation Requirements and Terms of Use

(1) Homify Online GmbH & Co. KG, Holländerstraße 34, 13407 Berlin HRB 153618 B, registered at the Local Court of Charlottenburg, General Manager: Philipp Dommermuth, email: support@homify.com, Phone: +49 (0) 30 16634680 (referred to as "Service Provider" hereinafter) provides a platform (referred to as "homify portal" hereinafter, irrespective of the type of access via web or app) on

homify.de, homify.co.uk, homify.es, homify.fr, homify.it, homify.pt, homify.com.br, homify.com.mx, homify.in, homify.hk, homify.sg, homify.jp, homify.co.kr, homify.nl, homify.com.tr, homify.pl, homfiy.ru, homify.com.ar, homify.com.ve, homify.com.co, homify.co.za, homify.com.my, homify.ae, homify.com.eg, homify.pe, homify.cl, homify.co.th, homify.co.id, homify.pk, homify.ph, homify.tw, homify.vn, homify.ca, homify.com, homify.sa

and as a separate software (app, e.g., for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Nokia, Blackberry, Windows 8, MacOX, or other future software platforms), via which experts present their work to everyone, offer products, and via which properly registered experts and users can publicly make contact with each other and communicate publicly. Experts constitute individuals who commercially offer goods or services on or outside of the homify portal, which lead to the products and results presented on the platform, i.e., generally, professional architects, interior designers, craftsmen, furniture manufacturers, and the like. Users constitute potential and actual consumers of such services which are traded to remain with the user permanently, i.e. generally, lessors or owners of real estate. Further information on the services can be found in section 7.

(2) The present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use govern the provision of the free services by the Service Provider for experts and the use of said services by you as a registered expert. Additionally, the data protection regulations shall apply.

II. Registration for participation, handling access data, termination of the participation

Section 2 Registration eligibility

(1) The use of the services available on the homify portal requires your registration as an expert. No entitlement to participation exists. The Service Provider shall be entitled to reject applications for participation without providing reasons.

(2) You may only register as an expert if you are of age, have unlimited legal capacity, and act as an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur constitutes a natural person or legal entity or a partnership with legal capacity which acts by executing its commercial activity or its occupation through self-employment in performing legal transactions. A natural person with unlimited legal capacity and who is authorized to represent shall perform the registration for a legal entity. Consumers as defined by § 13 of the German Civil Code are excluded in this respect. A consumer is any natural person concluding a legal transaction for purposes which, for the most part, are neither attributable to his/her business nor self-employment.

(3) Multiple registrations shall be prohibited.

Section 3 Your registration on the homify portal and required information

(1) The Service Provider offers you free access to the Portal and the basic services.

(2) The contact information and other information the Service Provider requested from you during the registration process must be complete and correct or be placed on Facebook correctly prior to the registration. For the registration of a legal entity, the natural person who is authorized to represent shall additionally be named.

(3) After you provided all requested information, the Service Provider reserves the right to verify said information for completeness and plausibility. If the Service Provider deems the information to be correct and if the Service Provider has no other concerns, the Service Provider will activate your requested access and will notify you hereof per email. The email shall be deemed as acceptance of your application for participation. As of the receipt of that email, you shall be authorized to use the homify portal within the scope of the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use. For this, you must first confirm the activation by clicking on the link in the email.

(4) At the latest when you log in for the first time after registering on the homify portal, you shall be obligated to provide company details, a data privacy statement, as well as other potentially required information pursuant to the statutory provisions in your profile. The Service Provider shall not be obligated to verify this information for completeness or compliance with the statutory provisions, since the profile and the presentation of information by the expert constitute a telemedia service by the expert, and the Service Provider insofar merely stores and provides external information. The fields on the profile intended for this required information may not be used for information other than the statutorily required information.

Section 4 Responsibility for the access data

(1) In the course of the registration process, you will be asked to provide a user name and a password. The user name must contain the company name or, if no company is operated outside of the homify portal, the expert's surname. With those data, you can log into the homify portal after the activation of the access and your confirmation pursuant to section 3 (3). You are responsible to ensure that the user name does not violate third-party rights, in particular rights to names or trademark rights and is not immoral.

(2) You must keep the access data, including the password, confidential and may not make them accessible to unauthorized third parties.

(3) In addition, you are responsible to ensure that your access to the homify portal and the services available on the homify portal are exclusively used by you or by individuals authorized by you. If you fear that unauthorized third parties have gained or will gain knowledge of your access data, the Service Provider is to be promptly notified thereof.

You shall be liable for any use and/or other activity executed as a result of the usage of your access data, pursuant to the statutory provisions.

Section 5 Updating the expert data

You shall be obligated to keep your data (including required information and other contact information) up-to-date. If there is a change in the data you provided during your participation, you are to correct the information on the homify portal immediately in your personal settings. Should you not succeed in doing so, please notify us of the changed data immediately by email or fax.

Section 6 Termination of the participation

(1) Unless otherwise agreed between the Parties, both Parties may terminate the Agreement at any time without notice. The options of extraordinary termination shall remain unaffected in any case.

(2) Upon entry into force of the termination, the contractual relationship shall be deemed to end, and you may not use your access anymore. The Service Provider reserves the right to block the user name as well as the password upon entry into force of the termination, as well as to reassign the user name at the end of twelve months.

(3) The Service Provider shall be entitled to irretrievably delete any and all data generated within the scope of your participation at the end of 30 calendar days after the entry into force of the termination and at the end of potential statutory data provision periods.

(4) The expert shall download and secure any and all data stored for it on the homify portal prior to the entry into force of the termination: in case of doubt, at the time of giving notice. The Service Provider shall not be obligated to compile a database report or to release data to the expert after the entry into force of the termination.

III. Services and contents of the homify portal

Section 7 Services offered and availability of services

(1) The Service Provider shall provide you with information and other services on the homify portal for a limited period of time. Such services may include, for instance, making data, contributions, image and audio files, information and other contents (hereinafter summarized as "contents" ) available to the public, as well as the option to create individual profiles and to make contact with other experts or users by sending messages. Please note that all actions performed on the homify portal can be seen by the public, unless explicitly designated otherwise.

(2) As an expert, you are also subject to discussion of your work with other experts and users who may rate and comment on the contents posted by you here for. Criticism is part of these options. Observing neutrality is of importance to the Service Provider, and it shall only be obligated to delete potential ratings or comments within the scope of statutory claims. The expert shall not have a contractual claim for deletion against the Service Provider. Experts who may not wish to be criticized should not use the homify portal for the presentation of their services. Experts shall not be allowed to manipulate ratings for their own purposes or the purposes of others, e.g., by using additional user accounts herefor themselves or via third parties.

(3) The content and scope of the services shall be determined according to the respective contractual agreements and, otherwise, according to the currently available functionalities on the homify portal, respectively.

(4) The services available on the homify portal may also include services by third parties, to which the Service Provider merely provides access. Regulations deviating from or in addition to the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use, which are generally found on websites of third parties, may apply to using such services – which the Service Provider is not required to separately identify. The expert shall undertake on its own to gather the information on the regulations applying in this respect. Insofar as the expert provides information on its user name with third-party providers (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedlin, Xing, and the like) on the homify portal, the expert hereby commissions the Service Provider to provide according social media plug-ins of these third-party providers, connected with the expert's user name, on the homify portal at the same time, even if this then causes a data exchange of the visitor with the third-party provider with every page view.

(5) For all services available for a fee (including those available as part of the basic access), the Service Provider shall guarantee an availability rate of 99% as a monthly average within its scope of responsibility. The regular maintenance slots of the homify portal, which are scheduled between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. on Sundays, shall not be included in the availability calculation.

Incidentally, there shall only be a claim for use of the services available on the homify portal within the scope of the technical and operative means of the Service Provider. The Service Provider shall undertake to ensure a usability of its services which shall be as uninterrupted as possible. However, technical problems (such as the interruption of the power supply, hardware and software errors, or technical problems in the data lines) may cause temporary restraints or interruptions.

(6) The Service Provider reserves the right to present the contents of individual experts and users in a particularly distinguished manner (e.g., as a banner on the home page, category pages, or advertisement for the Portal) free of charge or for a fee at its own discretion, without a claim for the expert for a likewise distinguished presentation arising here from.

Section 8 Changes of services

The Service Provider shall be entitled to change services provided free of charge, to make available new services free of charge or for a fee, and to terminate the provision of services free of charge on the homify portal at any time. The Service Provider shall herewith respectively take the legitimate interests of the users into consideration.

Section 9 Protection of contents, responsibility for third-party contents

(1) The contents available on the homify portal are predominantly protected by copyright or by other property rights, and are respectively owned by the Service Provider, other experts, users, or other third parties who provided the respective contents. The compilation of the contents as such is protected as a database or database collection within the meaning of sections 4 para. 2, 87a para. 1 UrhG (German Copyright Act), where applicable. You may only use these contents pursuant to the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use as well as within the scope provided on the homify portal.

(2) The contents available on the homify portal come partially from the Service Provider and partially from other experts, users, or other third parties. Contents by the users, experts as well as other third parties are hereinafter summarized as "third-party contents". The Service Provider itself generally does not take note of these third-party contents, does not verify third-party contents for completeness, accuracy, and legitimacy, and thus does not assume any responsibility or guarantee for the completeness, accuracy, legitimacy, and timeliness of the third-party contents. The same applies with regard to the quality of the third-party contents and their suitability for a certain purpose, as well as if third-party contents on linked external websites are concerned.

In cases of doubt, any and all contents on the homify portal shall be deemed third-party contents, with the exception of those contents labeled with a copyright notice by the Service Provider or which are clearly part of the general homify portal design.

Section 10 Main parameters of the expert search

(1) The service provider gives users of the homify portal the opportunity to search for professionals for specific areas of activity. When entering an occupation in the search bar on the homify portal, the user will generally be shown those professionals from the pool of professionals registered on the homify portal who created the search term in their professional profile. In addition, users have the option of using a geographical location or a postal code as additional search terms as part of the search.

(2) In the automated compilation of the results for the respective search query, there are various parameters that are included in the selection for the search result, whereby the following parameters have an essential influence on the compilation and order of the search result list:

  1. offends the Service Provider, its employees, other experts or users, uses abusive criticism, or makes false factual claims;
  2. field of service(s) of the professional (goal = relevant search results)
  3. the geographical proximity of PREMIUM professionals to the position of the search query (goal = placement of PREMIUM professionals [requires the conclusion of a paid service package, PREMIUM professionals are marked as such] in the relevant area of service(s) in close proximity)
  4. the geographical proximity of other professionals to the position of the search query (goal = placement of professionals in the relevant field of service(s) in close proximity)
  5. the domain of the registration of the professional (goal = compliance with the search query)
  6. degree of completeness of the professional profile on the homify portal (goal = valid decision-making basis for the inquiring user through comprehensive information on the professional).

IV. Your usage of the services on the homify portal

Section 11 Scope of permitted use

(1) Your authorization for use shall be limited to the access to the homify portal as well as the use of the services respectively available on the homify portal within the scope of the regulations of the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use and for view and use of the homify portal.

(2) You are responsible for ensuring that the necessary technical requirements for use of the services according to the Agreement in your scope of responsibility are fulfilled. The Service Provider shall not owe you consultation associated therewith.

Section 12 Creation of user profiles

(1) If available as a functionality on the homify portal, you may personalize your user profile within the scope of the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use. Please make sure to note the limitations of section 15.

(2) The Service Provider generally does not verify the identities of profile owners and the information on the profiles. Thus, the Service Provider shall not be obligated to warrant that each profile owner actually is the respective person it claims to be.

Section 13 Your posting of contents

(1) By posting contents, you respectively grant the Service Provider a transferable right of use to the respective contents which is free of charge, in particular

  • to store the contents on the server of the Service Provider as well as the publication thereof, in particular making them available to the public (e.g., by displaying the contents on the homify portal),
  • to copy, distribute, exhibit, and demonstrate them, as well as to reproduce them in image files, insofar as the above-mentioned actions serve editorial use, for advertising or reporting about the homify portal,
  • to edit and copy them, insofar as this is required for the above-mentioned actions of exploitation, and
  • to grant rights of use – also for a fee – vis-a-vis experts, users, and other third parties within the scope of section 14, i.e., insofar as the use by these individuals takes place on the homify portal or with the help of the homify portal (e.g., for an email service of the homify portal by means of which individual images may be sent, too), as well as to advertise the homify portal or to report about the homify portal.

If you delete your posted contents from the homify portal, the right of use and exploitation granted to us above shall expire, with the exception of actions for editorial use, advertising, or reporting, if such specific actions have at least already been specifically planned or executed with the content at the time of the deletion of the content. However, the Service Provider shall remain entitled to store copies created for purposes of back-up and/or evidence. The rights of use already granted to the users, experts, or other third parties in using the homify portal to contents posted by you shall also remain unaffected.

(2) You are fully responsible for the contents you have posted. The Service Provider shall not be obligated to verify contents for completeness, accuracy, legitimacy, timeliness, quality, or suitability for a certain purpose.

You shall thus declare and guarantee that you are the sole owner of any and all rights to the contents you have posted on the homify portal, or that you are otherwise authorized (e.g., by means of a valid consent of the owner of the rights) to post the contents on the homify portal and to grant the rights of use and exploitation pursuant to the above-mentioned paragraph (2). This particularly concerns copyrights, design rights, patent rights, utility model rights, the rights to their own image of any people shown, as well as other product and personal rights, as well as compliance with competition law and antitrust law.

You shall immediately indemnify the Service Provider from any and all third-party claims upon request which are asserted against the Service Provider on grounds of contents posted by you. The Service Provider shall be obligated to immediately notify you of the assertion of such claims. At the Service Provider's own option, it may defend itself against the claims according to the conditions of the German lawyers' compensation act, depending on the value in dispute, or ask the expert to assume or provide the according defense, or to comply with adequate third-party claims in the case of poor prospects of success.

(3) The Service Provider reserves the right to reject the posting of contents and/or to edit, block, or delete already posted contents (including private messages and guest book entries) without prior notice, insofar as the posting of the contents by the expert or the posted contents themselves have caused a violation of section 15 or there are clear indications that a severe violation of section 15 is imminent. However, in doing so, the Service Provider shall take your legitimate interests into consideration and choose the most lenient measure to avert the violation of section 15.

(4) With regard to the right to name the originator, the Parties agree that the originator shall be deemed adequately named if the user name is shown on the homify portal. The expert shall guarantee that the originator agrees with this form of naming the originator.

(5) The homify portal is characterized by the visual effect of the images and the high-quality texts.

Any and all pictures posted must be of high technical and visual quality.

Images and products must be captioned by the expert with individual, meaningful headings and descriptions which emphasize what is special about the illustration or the product and which must go beyond mere technical data sheets. Individual means that the headings and descriptions may not be used in identical form on other websites.

(6) Insofar as you post pictures of products on the homify portal, a sale of the products may not be exclusively conducted via homify portal. You shall be obligated to sell the products via an external online shop or via individual communication. Pictures of products may exclusively link directly to the specific product in the external online shop. The offered products must be topically suitable to the homify portal, i.e. furniture, lamps, and similar objects of the exterior and interior fitting of real estate shall be admissible. The external online shop may not be based on the homify portal in terms of its visual design. The sale must be conducted according to the regulations of the respectively applicable right; in particular, the sale itself via the external online shop must be conducted in that the regulations concerning competition law, electronic legal relations, and distant selling are complied with there. Insofar as the external online shop offers an affiliate program, the Service Provider must be able to participate, if desired.

Section 14 Rights of use to contents available on the homify portal

(1) Unless continuous use is explicitly allowed in the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use or on the homify portal or is facilitated on the homify portal by means of an according functionality (e.g., download button),

  • you may retrieve online and display contents available on the homify portal exclusively for personal purposes. This right of use shall be limited to the term of your participation in the homify portal according to the Agreement;
  • you shall be prohibited from fully or partially editing, changing, translating, displaying or demonstrating, publishing, exhibiting, copying, or distributing contents available on the homify portal. Moreover, it shall be prohibited to remove or change copyright notices, logos, and other marks or protection notices.

(2) You shall only be entitled to download contents as well as print contents if a download or print option is available on the homify portal as a functionality (e.g., via a download button).

You shall respectively obtain an indefinite and non-exclusive right of use for use for your own, non-commercial purposes to the contents properly downloaded and/or printed by you. Incidentally, any and all rights to the contents shall remain with the original owner of the rights (the Service Provider or the respective third party).

(3) Your compulsory, statutory rights (including copying for private and other use of your own pursuant to section 53 UrhG) shall remain unaffected.

Section 15 Prohibited activities

(1) The services available on the homify portal shall be exclusively intended for use by the experts, users, and other natural persons as visitors of the homify portal. You shall be prohibited from any use of contents by other experts for or in connection with commercial purposes outside of the homify portal , unless the Service Provider has explicitly allowed such use by you in advance and in writing. Unauthorized use shall include in particular

  • contests, raffles, trade-offs, ads, or pyramid schemes, and
  • any electronic or other collection of identity and/or contact information (including email addresses) of members (e.g., for sending unsolicited emails) and
  • the systematic electronic retrieval of contents on the homify portal, in particular to compile your own database using the contents of the homify portal.

(2) You shall be prohibited from performing any activities on or in connection with the homify portal which violate applicable law, third-part rights, or the principles of the protection of minors. In particular, you shall be prohibited from performing the following actions:

  • posting, distributing, offering, and advertising contents, services and/or products of a pornographic nature, which violate the law for the protection of youth, data privacy law, and/or other laws, and/or which are fraudulent;
  • using contents which offend or slander other experts, users, or third parties;
  • using, providing, and distributing contents, services, and/or products which are protected by law or encumbered with third-party rights (e.g., copyrights), without explicitly being authorized hereto.

(3) Furthermore, you shall also be prohibited from performing the following activities, irrespective of a potential violation of the law, when posting your own contents on the homify portal and when communicating with other experts or users (e.g., by sending personal messages, by participating in discussion forums or writing guest-book entries):

  • spreading viruses, Trojans, and other malware;
  • sending out junk or spam emails as well as chain emails;
  • distributing insinuating, offensive, sexual, obscene, or defaming contents or communication as well as such contents or communication suitable to (explicitly or implicitly, respectively) promote or support racism, fanaticism, hatred, physical violence, or unlawful acts;
  • harassing other experts or users, e.g., by personally contacting them multiple times without or despite a reaction by the other expert or user, as well as promoting or supporting such harassment;
  • ordering other experts or users to disclose passwords or personal data for commercial or unlawful or illegal purposes;
  • distributing and/or publicly reproducing contents available on the homify portal, unless you were explicitly authorized to do so by the respective originator or it is explicitly provided as a functionality on the homify portal.

(4) You shall also be prohibited from performing any action suitable to impact the smooth operation of the homify portal, in particular excessively overloading the Service Provider's systems.

(5) Should you become aware of an illegal, improper, or otherwise unauthorized use of the homify portal contrary to the Agreement, please contact support@homify.com The Service Provider will subsequently investigate the incident and take according steps, if applicable.

(6) In the event of a suspicion of unlawful or criminal acts, the Service Provider shall be entitled, and potentially even obligated, to investigate your activities and to take according legal measures, where applicable. This may include forwarding relevant facts to the department of public prosecution.

Section 16 Blocking access

(1) The Service Provider may temporarily or permanently block your access to the homify portal if there are clear indications that you have violated the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use and/or applicable law, or if the Service Provider has any other legitimate interest in blocking it. In deciding whether to block your access, the Service Provider shall adequately take your legitimate interests as well as a potential payment of compensation by you into consideration. The Service Provider may in particular block the access if the expert:

  1. offends the Service Provider, its employees, other experts or users, uses abusive criticism, or makes false factual claims;
  2. criticizes the homify portal or its individual functions in excess of the usual form of objective argument;
  3. uses discussion forums for criticizing the homify portal, the Service Provider, or its employees such that said criticism is not explicitly approved as general statements about the homify portal;
  4. posts contents, in particular images, headings, and descriptions on the homify portal, which are not in line with section 13 para. 5 and 6 of the present Terms of Use, and the expert does not improve the contents within 48 hours upon request;
  5. does not maintain its profile, in particular does not update it;
  6. uses a user name which does not contain the company name or, if the expert does not operate a company outside of the homify portal, the expert's surname; or
  7. violates criminal law or morality.

(2) In the case of a temporary or permanent block, the Service Provider will block your access authorization and notify you thereof via email.

(3) In the case of a temporary block, the Service Provider will reactivate the access authorization after the blocking period and notify you thereof via email. A permanently blocked access authorization cannot be restored. Permanently blocked individuals are permanently excluded from participating in the homify portal and may not register on the homify portal again.

V. Liability limitation

Section 17 Liability limitation

(1) The Service Provider shall be liable for the violation of material contractual obligations for which it or its vicarious agents are at fault. Material contractual obligations are those enabling the proper implementation of this Agreement in the first place, and upon the compliance of which the other Party regularly relies and may rely. Otherwise, the Service Provider shall only be liable, irrespective of legal basis, insofar as it or its vicarious agents can be accused of willful intent or gross negligence. The liability due to delay, for claims from the German Product Liability Act, or other german compulsory, statutory provisions, as well as the liability for damage from injury of life, limb, or health shall remain unaffected hereby.

(2) The liability for a slightly negligent violation of a material contractual obligation shall be limited in the amount to the predictable damage typical to contracts of this kind.

(3) The above-mentioned liability provisions shall also apply in favor of the legal representatives, employees, and vicarious agents of the Service Provider.

(4) A potential liability regardless of negligence or fault by the Service Provider pursuant to section 536 a para. 1, 1st alternative BGB (German Civil Code) due to defects which had already been present at the time of the conclusion of the Agreement shall be excluded.

VI. Other provisions

Section 18 Severability clause

Should any provision of the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use be or become invalid, the legal validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected hereby. The invalid provision shall be replaced with a valid provision which comes closest to the economic purpose intended by the Parties.

Section 19 Applicable law

The present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use are subject to the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, under exclusion of the Convention of Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG).

Section 20 Place of jurisdiction

If the expert is a merchant, a legal entity of public law, or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the present Participation Requirements and Terms of Use shall be Berlin.

VII. Conflict resolution

Section 21 Mediation

(1) Pursuant to Article 12 (1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 (Platform-to-Business Regulation; P2B Regulation), the service provider is obliged to specify at least two mediators with whom the service provider is fundamentally willing to work together, In order to achieve an out-of-court settlement of any disputes in connection with the provision of the homify platform with professionals of the homify platform - in particular with regard to complaints that could not be resolved via the internal complaint management system in accordance with § 20 above.

(2) In fulfilling the aforementioned obligation, the service provider appoints the following mediators:

Bitkom Consult

(3) These mediators can be called by both the professional and the service provider to resolve disputes. However, neither the expert nor the service provider is obliged to participate in such an out-of-court dispute settlement. If the service provider agrees to participate in a procedure involving the aforementioned mediators, the service provider bears a reasonable portion of the total costs of the mediation in accordance with Art. 12 Paragraph 4 P2B-VO.

(4) In any case, the right of both the professional and the service provider to resolve the dispute in court at any time remains unaffected.

Section 22 Internal Complaint Management System

(1) The service provider has set up an internal complaint management system with the aim of resolving complaints from professionals on the homify portal amicably and quickly.

(2) Professionals can contact the service provider free of charge using the contact details of the complaints office given in the legal notice with the following concerns:

  1. The professional is of the opinion that the service provider is in breach of its obligations under Regulation (EU) 2019/1150 (Platform-to-Business Regulation; P2B Regulation) and this affects the professional;
  2. Complaints from the professional about (1) measures or behaviour of the service provider or (2) technical problems, which are each directly related to the homify platform and affect the professional.

(3) After carefully examining the professional's complaint, the service provider will contact the professional and inform them of the result of the internal review process.