Terms & Conditions

1. GENERAL

All services provided by ElaN are subject to ElaN’s general terms and conditions, which may also be consulted on ElaN’s website www.elanlanguages.com. General terms and conditions of the client and/or person giving the order, or other general terms forming a part of orders, order forms, etc. do not apply, with the exception of special written agreement between the relevant parties.

2. LANGUAGE TRAINING

For the language trainings, invoices are made out before the start of the training. The training’s intellectual rights of ownership, including the copyright, belong to ElaN, unless explicitly agreed otherwise. The material, developed by ElaN, in view of the training, can only be used by the client and/or person giving the order for his/her own internal use. Should violations be determined the client and/or person giving the order will be called to account for the compensation of the damages. In any case, the client and /or person giving the order will offer his cooperation to help recover the damages from third parties from the client’s and/or person giving the order’s environment should they be guilty of violations to ElaN’s intellectual rights of ownership. If a training session is cancelled more than 24hrs before it is due to take place, this session may be postponed to a later date, without incurring costs. Training sessions taking place on a Monday, need to be cancelled at the latest by Friday noon. In all other cases, these sessions will be considered as having taken place and the client and/or person giving the order will owe 100% of the agreed price for the session. Sessions which are cancelled before this time limit, can still take place, free of charge, within one year after the start date of the training. If the client and/or person giving the order decides to cancel this training completely, however, the client will nevertheless have to pay 100% of the agreed price. At all times, the cancellation needs to be done in writing, by fax or e-mail, for the attention of ElaN or the trainer involved. A cancellation fee is linked to immersions (intensive or semiintensive) or specific workshops, because of the loss of income for ElaN and third parties. Should the training course be cancelled three to one weeks before the actual start date, the fee will be 10 % of the agreed price, with a max of € 250. Should the cancellation take place less than a week before the start, 50% of the agreed price will be charged.

3. COMPLAINTS

All complaints should be sent via registered mail with full justifications within seven days of the delivery of the translation or the execution of the services, failure to do so will render complaints null and void. In the absence of this, the translation or service provided will be deemed to have been accepted. Complaints or disputes about the non-conformity of the translation that is completed within the contractual deadline, should be thoroughly substantiated with dictionaries, glossaries, similar text material written by authorised native speakers. Unsubstantiated rejection of a translation does not constitute a reason for nonpayment of the invoice. Should there still be differences about the quality of the translation following an investigation of the complaint by ElaN, ElaN or the client should present the matter to the Arbitration Committee of the Belgian Chamber of Translators, Interpreters and Philologists (BKVTF). The Arbitration Committee will only pronounce upon the conformity of the translation against the source text. No single complaint gives the client and/or the person giving the order the right to suspend payment.

4. DELIVERY DEADLINE - DELIVERY

ElaN is not bound to the delivery and execution deadlines proposed by the client and/or person giving the order, unless agreed otherwise in writing. The delivery and execution deadlines quoted by ElaN are provided only as an indication.Exceeding these deadlines may in no way be considered as a contractual error on ElaN's part, nor shall it give rise to a fine and/or compensation. ElaN may in no way be held responsible for late delivery or loss of material by third parties or damage during dispatch.

5. CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND CONTROL

In case of force majeure, ElaN’s duties are suspended. In such cases ElaN is only obliged to deliver, as well as executing all its other commitments, as soon as this is reasonably possible.

6. PAYMENT

Invoices are payable within 30 days of receipt of the invoice, net, cash and without reduction to the address of the headquarters unless otherwise agreed. The client remains in all instances responsible for the payment even if ElaN has accepted to issue the invoice in the name of a third party. In the event of dispute, the invoice must be contested along with a letter including justifications sent by registered mail within seven days of the date of the invoice. In the absence of such a notification the invoice will be deemed to be accepted. Invoices that are not paid or not paid in full on the due date will give ElaN full authorisation to charge with no advance warning, an additional 12% interest per annum, as well as a fixed and irrevocable compensation of a further 10% on the amount due, with a minimum of € 125. Failure to pay one single invoice by the due date entitles ElaN to lawfully demand immediate payment of all other invoices even though these may not be overdue.

7. LIMITED LIABILITY

ElaN may only be held liable in instances of fraud. In all instances, with the exception for fraud, ElaN can only be held liable for the amounts of the invoiced sums or sums paid by the client and/or person giving the order to assignment in question. Under no circumstances can ElaN be held liable for indirect damages, including increase in general costs, loss of clients, loss of profits, absence or damage of electronic data. This list is non-exhaustive.

8. DISSOLUTION

Should the client and/or person giving the order not meet his or her obligations, or in the event of an unavoidable inability, settlement or bankruptcy on the part of the client and/or person giving the order, ElaN is legally entitled to end the assignment either partially or completely, or to postpone the execution thereof, without being liable to pay any compensation.

9. COPYRIGHT

Unless expressly agreed in writing, ElaN reserves the copyright to translations, texts and course material provided by ElaN. The client and/or person giving the order protects ElaN against appeals from third parties in connection with alleged breaches of property, patent or copyright or other intellectual property rights in connection with the execution of the assignment.

10. SETTLING DIFFERENCES

Belgian law applies to disputes relating to contracts. Any disputes should be addressed exclusively to the court of Hasselt or the justice of the peace court of the canton of Houthalen.