General Terms of Use and Business for the use of engelvoelkers.com

1. Scope

1.1. General Terms of Use and Business ("GTU") apply to the use of the website www.engelvoelkers.com (hereinafter referred to as "Platform") , which is operated by Engel & Völkers GmbH, Vancouverstraße 2a, 20457 Hamburg (hereinafter referred to as "E&V" or „Us“).

1.2. E&V operates www.engelvoelkers.com as an online real estate platform on which legally independent Engel & Völkers licence partners and Engel & Völkers group companies (each hereinafter referred to as "Provider") can present their own content and post real estate on offer. E&V provides the technical infrastructure for this, which enables users (hereinafter referred to as "User" or "You") to search through this content and these offers and, if interested, to contact the respective Provider directly. In addition, E&V offers Users after registering the option of managing real estate offers and newsletters. This includes newsletters from E&V as well as newsletters from those Providers who obtain the corresponding newsletter management service from E&V.

1.3. These Terms and Conditions also serve to fulfill the legal obligations under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council, known as the Digital Services Act ("DSA").

2. Services provided by E&V 

2.1. E&V provides on the Platform functions for real estate search, informative content and opportunities to contact Providers that do not require registration.

2.2. Certain additional functions of the Platform – such as for instance creating a user account, creating a personal watch list or saving search queries – require prior registration.

2.3. Certain additional services offered on the Platform are subject to a fee. This requires the conclusion of a contract, which You must agree to separately.

2.4. The data requested during registration must be provided correctly. The User may not provide any data from third parties and is obliged to notify E&V immediately of any changes to their data, including those that may have occurred between an earlier registration and the conclusion of the contract.

2.5. E&V may adjust or expand the range of functions on the Platform at any time. We strive to ensure the highest possible availability of the Platform. However, uninterrupted and constant availability cannot be guaranteed for technical reasons. In particular, necessary maintenance work may lead to temporary restrictions.

3. Role of E&V / Third-party content

3.1. The real estate offers presented on the Platform, as well as the company presentations of the Providers and any job advertisements provided, are third-party content for E&V. The legal responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and legality of this content (in particular texts, images, property data) lies exclusively with the respective Provider who posted the offer. The respective Provider can be found on the real estate advertisement for the respective property.

3.2. E&V provides its own newsletters via the platform. Newsletters that E&V manages that Users receive from Providers are managed by E&V by order of these Providers. E&V is not responsible for the distribution or content of these Provider newsletters.

3.3. As the platform operator, E&V is also not liable for third-party information provided by Providers, provided that E&V has no positive knowledge of its illegality and takes immediate action upon becoming aware of it (so-called "notice-and-take-down" procedure).

3.4. E&V is not and will not become a party to any rental, purchase, brokerage, or other contract that is initiated or concluded between You and a Provider. E&V does not act as a broker or representative or otherwise on behalf of a Provider or User.

4. Handling of content, moderation, and reporting procedure

4.1. The content published on the Platform is checked for possible legal violations or violations of our guidelines on a case-by-case basis using a combination of automated technologies and human review, whereby E&V has no legal obligation in this regard. The following content is strictly prohibited:

• that is fraudulent or intended to mislead users;

• that is discriminatory, hateful, or politically extremist;

• that infringes the rights of third parties (e.g., copyrights to images).

4.2. Reporting procedure (Art. 16 DSA): You can report content that You consider to be illegal via the email address contact@engelvoelkers.com. Please provide as much detail as possible in your report to enable us to review it quickly and effectively. In order for your report to be processed properly, it should contain the following information:

• a sufficiently reasoned explanation of why You consider the content in question to be illegal;

• a clear indication of the exact electronic location of the content (e.g., the precise URL address) and, if necessary, further information to facilitate the identification of the content;

• Your name and an email address where we can contact You if we have any questions;

• a statement that You believe, to the best of your knowledge and belief, that the information contained in the notification is accurate and complete.

Once we have received your report, you will receive an electronic confirmation of receipt, provided You have given us an email address.

4.3. We will review each report carefully, promptly, and objectively. If a report proves to be justified, we will immediately remove the illegal content or block access to it.

4.4. If we remove, block, restrict the visibility of, or suspend access to a user account, we will inform the Provider or user concerned without delay. The notification will contain at least the following:

• Whether and what measures have been taken;

• a note on whether automated systems were used;

• Information about the available legal remedies.

4.5. Misuse of the reporting system: The reporting procedure must not be misused by knowingly submitting unfounded reports. We reserve the right to suspend the processing of reports from users who repeatedly misuse the system.

5. Complaint management (ART. 20 DSA)

5.1. You can appeal moderation decisions under section 4 free of charge within six months. Complaints can be submitted electronically to contact@engelvoelkers.com. Each complaint will be reviewed promptly, carefully, without discrimination, and by qualified personnel who were not involved in the original decision. In the event of misuse of the complaint system, we reserve the right to temporarily suspend the processing of further complaints.

5.2. Out-of-court dispute resolution: You have the right to refer the matter to an out-of-court dispute resolution body certified in accordance with Art. 21 DSA if we refuse to act on your report of illegal content or to resolve disputes in connection with a moderation decision we have made.

5.3. Legal recourse: Regardless of whether you use our internal complaint system or the option of out-of-court dispute resolution, you can always take your case to the ordinary courts to assert your rights.

6. User obligations and rights of use

6.1 You agree to use the Platform exclusively within the scope of its intended function.

6.2. Any form of automated reading, extraction, or collection of content and data from the Platform (in particular through "text and data mining") for any purpose, in particular for the development or training of software or artificial intelligence systems, is expressly prohibited.

6.3. The data and exposés obtained through your queries may not be used for commercial purposes or to build your own database.

6.4. E&V is the owner of all property rights (e.g., copyrights and trademark rights) to the design and functionalities of the Platform and the database. This does not affect the rights of the Providers to the content they have posted.

7. Recommendation systems (in accordance with Art. 27 DSA)

The sorting of search results on our Platform is based on objective criteria such as the date of publication or the search filters you have selected (e.g., location, price, size). We do not currently use any personalized recommendation systems that change the ranking of results based on your individual user behavior or profiling.

8. Liability

E&V is liable for its own services in accordance with the statutory provisions. Liability is unlimited in cases of intent, gross negligence, and injury to life, limb, or health. If a contractual relationship is established between you and E&V, E&V shall, notwithstanding the foregoing, be liable exclusively for foreseeable, typically occurring damage in the event of a negligent breach of a material contractual obligation (so-called cardinal obligation). Essential contractual obligations are those whose fulfillment is essential for the proper execution of the contract and on whose compliance you as a user can regularly rely. E&V is not liable for content, information, or newsletters provided or sent by Providers via the platform. The respective Providers are solely responsible for this third-party content. E&V does not check such content in advance and does not guarantee its legality, accuracy, or timeliness. If E&V becomes aware of illegal content, it will be removed immediately or access to it will be blocked.

9. Contact points and dispute resolution

9.1. In accordance with Art. 11 DSA, authorities of the member states, the Commission, and the European Digital Services Board can contact us at contact@engelvoelkers.com. Communication is possible in German and English.

9.2. Central contact point for users: In accordance with Art. 12 DSA, as a user, You can contact us at contact@engelvoelkers.com if you have any questions about these GTU or the DSA.

9.3. For further disputes under the VSBG, E&V is neither obliged nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board within the meaning of the Consumer Dispute Resolution Act (§ 36 VSBG).

10. Final provisions

10.1. The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies. If You are a consumer with your habitual residence in the EU, You also enjoy the protection of the mandatory provisions of the law of your country of residence.

10.2. For legal action against consumers, their legal place of jurisdiction applies exclusively. The place of jurisdiction for entrepreneurs is Hamburg.

10.3. Should individual provisions of these GTU be or become invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions shall remain unaffected.

10.4. For non-registered users, publication of the current GTU on the Platform is sufficient.

10.5. Registered users will be informed of changes affecting their contractual rights or obligations in writing (e.g., by email) at least six weeks before they come into effect. If the user does not object within this period or continues to use the platform, consent to the changed terms and conditions shall be deemed to have been given. We will point out this right of objection and the legal consequences in the notification.