Affiliate terms

§ 1 Contracting party and scope

(1) These terms govern participation in the Stenowise affiliate program. The contracting party is Stenowise, Inhaber Sören Kann, Heidkoppel 20B, 21379 Scharnebeck, Germany, email kontakt@stenowise.com ("we"). A participant is called a "partner" in these terms ("you").

(2) Only these terms apply. A partner's own terms do not apply, even if we do not object to them expressly.

(3) You and we make declarations under these terms in text form. An email is enough, as is a message through the partner page.

§ 2 Application and approval

(1) You apply with the form on stenowise.com/en/partner or by email to kontakt@stenowise.com. There is no right to be accepted.

(2) You can take part if you are of legal age and run a public channel with its own audience and a connection to office work, productivity, software, technology or AI. That can be a video channel, a blog, a newsletter or a podcast.

(3) Only businesses (Unternehmer) within the meaning of § 14 BGB can take part, including small businesses exempt from VAT. You are a business if you conclude the contract in the exercise of your trade or your self-employed professional activity. If your business is established in another member state of the European Union, you give us your VAT identification number or, if you have none, your tax number in your state.

(4) Your details in the application and later on the partner page must be true and complete. If your address, tax status, VAT identification number, tax number or bank details change, you tell us without delay.

(5) The contract is concluded when we approve you. We tell you by email, together with your access to the partner page. If we decline an application, no contract is concluded. We do not have to give a reason.

(6) Your service is a promotional service: you recommend Stenowise with your voucher code on your channels. You do not broker contracts and conclude none for us. You have no obligation to promote Stenowise or to win a certain number of customers. You are free to promote other providers as well. You are not a commercial agent, you act in your own name and you have no authority to conclude contracts for us or to make promises in our name.

§ 3 Voucher code, partner link and assignment

(1) On approval you receive a voucher code. It consists of 4 to 16 letters and digits, upper and lower case do not matter. We give you your preferred code if it is free and we consider it suitable, otherwise we set a code. We do not issue codes that contain "Stenowise" or a similar spelling such as "Stenoise", "Stenoweis" or "Stenowize". As long as no account is assigned to your code yet, we change it on request.

(2) Your partner link is stenowise.com/?p=CODE. The website then shows the code on the download page so that visitors can enter it when they sign up. The link itself does not assign an account. The website does not store the code in the browser and sets no cookie for it.

(3) An account is assigned to you only if the customer enters your code themselves: when creating the account on the sign-in page, also when signing in with Google, Microsoft or Apple, or in the app within the first 30 days after the account was created. This applies only while you are approved.

(4) Each account carries at most one code. The code entered first applies and cannot be changed afterwards. We do not assign accounts through clicks, devices, IP addresses or closeness in time and we do not add codes by hand. Without an entered code there is no assignment and no commission.

(5) With your code, customers get 50% off the first payment for Stenowise Pro, on a monthly or a yearly subscription. The code must be on the account before that payment. If the code is added only after the first payment, the assignment applies and the discount does not. All further payments are at the regular price. We set the amount and the conditions of the discount. We announce a change to you at least four weeks in advance. It applies only to accounts whose first payment falls after the announced date.

§ 4 How you may advertise

(1) You advertise in your own name, on your own channels and in your own words. You may use the promotional material we provide (logo, brand mark, app images, videos, product description) to promote Stenowise for the term of the contract. This right of use is non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable at any time. You do not alter the logo or the brand mark.

(2) Your statements about Stenowise are true and match what stenowise.com says. You state prices only as they appear on our pricing page, or you link to the pricing page. You describe the discount with its conditions: 50% off the first payment if the code is entered at sign-up or in the app within the first 30 days afterwards, before the first payment is made.

(3) Every post that contains your code or your partner link must be recognisable as advertising. You label it clearly at the beginning with the word "Advertisement" or "Ad", in German-language posts with "Werbung" or "Anzeige". In videos and podcasts you say it at the beginning or show it on screen. If a platform offers its own label for paid partnerships, you use it as well. The post must make clear that you are advertising Stenowise.

(4) After the contract ends you publish no new posts with your code. You may leave existing posts up. You remove the code from descriptions, profiles and pinned comments where this is possible with reasonable effort, because it is no longer valid.

§ 5 What is not allowed

The following is not allowed:

1. Self-referral: creating accounts for yourself, your team, your company or people you buy for with your code, or adding your code to such an account.
2. Voucher and deal sites: publishing your code, or having it published, on voucher, discount, cashback or deal sites, including forums or groups that collect codes.
3. Brand bidding: running search engine or platform ads on the terms "Stenowise", "Stenoise", "Stenoweis", "Stenowize", "Steno-Wise" or "Steno Wise", on their own or combined with other words.
4. Brand name as a name: using the name Stenowise or a similar spelling in domains, subdomains, channel, profile, app or user names, or giving the impression that you are Stenowise or speak for us as an official source.
5. Paid ads: running paid ads with your code or your partner link without our prior approval in text form.
6. Spam: advertising by email, messenger, text message or direct message to recipients without their prior express consent, bulk email and advertising in the comments under other people's posts.
7. Advertising without a label: posts with your code or partner link that are not labelled as set out in § 4(3).
8. Unfounded statements: statements about the processing of data, about where it takes place and about providers or models Stenowise uses, unless they are on stenowise.com. Also comparisons with competitors and promises we do not make ourselves, for example about recognition accuracy or suitability for particular professions.
9. Unlawful settings: advertising in posts or on sites with unlawful content, content harmful to minors, insulting or discriminatory content.

§ 6 Commission

(1) For every payment we receive for an account assigned to you, you receive 25% of the net amount. The net amount is the payment without VAT, so for the first payment it is the amount after the discount. This applies to monthly and yearly subscriptions.

(2) A payment earns commission if all of the following conditions are met:

1. It comes in after the code is on the account.
2. The account's first payment came in within twelve months of the account being created.
3. It comes in before the day that lies twelve months after the account's first payment. A yearly subscription therefore earns one commission, a monthly subscription up to twelve.
4. You are approved at the time of the payment and the contract is in force.

(3) There is no commission for the free month, for accounts without a payment, for failed, cancelled or expired payments, for card checks or for payments that result from advertising prohibited under § 5.

(4) We round the net amount and the commission commercially to the full cent.

(5) The commission is a net amount. § 9 governs whether VAT is added.

(6) The commission covers all your services and costs.

§ 7 Holding period, refund and chargeback

(1) A commission becomes due 30 days after the payment comes in.

(2) If we refund a payment or the customer charges it back before the commission is on a self-billed invoice, we recalculate the commission: 25% of the net amount of what remains paid. With a full refund it lapses.

(3) If the commission is already on a self-billed invoice or has been paid out, we book the difference against it and offset it against your next commissions. A negative balance is not paid out. We claim it back only if it results from a breach of § 5 or from false details you gave.

(4) If a refund fails, the commission applies again.

(5) If the share of charged-back payments exceeds 5% of the payments you received commission for, we hold payouts until we have examined the cause.

§ 8 Payout and self-billed invoice

(1) We settle once a month: we issue a self-billed invoice for all commissions of the previous month, including those whose holding period is still running. We pay out a self-billed invoice once the holding period of every commission on it has ended and the self-billed invoices to be paid add up to at least €50 net. Smaller amounts carry over to the next month. After the contract ends by termination (§ 11(3)) or blocking (§ 10(4)), we also pay out amounts below €50, because the partnership does not continue.

(2) We pay by SEPA bank transfer to the account you gave us. At your request, or if a SEPA transfer to your account is not possible, we pay by PayPal. We deduct the fee PayPal charges us for that payment from the amount transferred. We pay in euros.

(3) Before the first self-billed invoice we need your full postal address, your tax status and, depending on your status, your tax number or your VAT identification number, and before the first payout also your bank details or PayPal address. If your business is established in another member state, your tax number in that state is enough if you have no VAT identification number. We check a VAT identification number from another member state through the European Commission's confirmation service (VIES). If VIES does not confirm it, we settle with your tax number in your state. You send us these details and every change through the partner page or by email, and we enter them. If a detail is missing, we hold the self-billed invoice and the payout until we have it. Your commissions do not lapse because of this.

(4) If you are a business, we settle by self-billing. You agree that we, as the recipient of your promotional service under § 2(6), issue a self-billed invoice (Gutschrift) for it. You do not issue your own invoice for this service. Each self-billed invoice carries a sequential number and lists your commissions per month. We provide it on the partner page and notify you by email. Check each self-billed invoice and tell us about errors.

(5) You can object to a self-billed invoice. It then loses its effect as an invoice. If it is wrong, we issue a corrected one. If you object to self-billing as such, from then on you issue your own invoice with all mandatory details for each settlement. We then pay once we have received that invoice.

(6) You receive self-billed invoices as PDF files and you agree to this. If the law requires an electronic invoice in a structured format, you receive the self-billed invoice in that format.

§ 9 Taxes

(1) How we treat the commission for tax purposes depends on the status you give us:

1. Business established in Germany, standard VAT: we pay the commission plus the statutory VAT, currently 19%.
2. Small business established in Germany (§ 19 UStG): we pay the commission without VAT. The self-billed invoice refers to § 19 UStG. If you exceed the turnover limits of the small business scheme, you tell us at once. From then on number 1 applies.
3. Business established in another EU member state, with or without a VAT identification number: your service is taxable in Germany. We owe the VAT as the recipient. The self-billed invoice shows no VAT and carries the note "Steuerschuldnerschaft des Leistungsempfängers" (reverse charge). It states your VAT identification number or, if you have none or VIES does not confirm it, your tax number in your state. Obligations in your own state, such as reports, are yours.
4. Business established outside the EU: number 3 applies accordingly.

(2) We withhold no taxes from the commission. You take care of income tax and trade tax on your earnings and of your registration and reporting duties yourself.

(3) If taxes, interest or costs arise for us because of false or late details about your status, you reimburse them to the extent you are responsible for this. We may offset them against your commissions.

§ 10 Breaches, holding payouts and blocking

(1) If you breach § 4 or § 5, we ask you to remedy the breach within a reasonable period. Until then we may hold payouts.

(2) If we have a specific suspicion of abuse, we hold payouts until it is cleared up. We tell you why and examine the matter promptly.

(3) Payments that result from advertising prohibited under § 5 earn no commission. You pay back commissions for them that were already paid out.

(4) In the case of a serious breach we may terminate the contract without notice and block your code at once. A serious breach is in particular: self-referral, publishing the code on voucher or deal sites, brand bidding, the brand name in domains or profiles, spam, missing labels despite our request and knowingly false details in the application or about your tax status. When the code is blocked, all commissions not yet paid out lapse. We cancel self-billed invoices for such commissions that have not been paid out. If you prove that a commission does not result from the breach, we release it again, settle it with the next self-billed invoice and pay it out once its holding period has ended, even if the amount is below €50, because the partnership does not continue.

(5) Further claims, in particular under § 12(4), remain unaffected.

§ 11 Term and termination

(1) The contract runs for an indefinite period. You can terminate it at any time without notice. We can terminate it with 30 days' notice. Termination is made in text form.

(2) The right of both sides to terminate without notice for good cause remains unaffected. For us a serious breach under § 10(4) is good cause.

(3) When the contract ends, also by blocking under § 10(4), your code is no longer valid. You receive commission for payments that come in until the end of the contract, under §§ 6 and 7, after a block under § 10(4). Later payments earn no commission. We never give your code to another partner, not even after the deletion under § 13(5). Old links and posts with your code stay in circulation. Whoever enters it must not be assigned to someone else. Sign-up and the app therefore no longer accept the code. After a termination under paragraph 1, we issue the last self-billed invoice for all open commissions and pay out your remaining balance once the holding period of the last commission has ended, even if it is below €50. Until that payout you can read the partner page. You receive the settlements after the end of the contract as well.

§ 12 Liability

(1) We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under a guarantee we have given and under the German Product Liability Act.

(2) In the case of slight negligence we are liable only for the breach of essential contractual obligations. These are obligations whose fulfilment makes the performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment you may regularly rely, here above all correct settlement and the payout of due commissions. Liability is then limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this kind of contract.

(3) We do not promise you any particular income or number of accounts. The website, the sign-in page, the app and the partner page may be unavailable at times. We may change the prices, plans and features of Stenowise.

(4) If third parties make claims against us because of a breach of these terms or of applicable law for which you are responsible, you indemnify us against these claims. This includes the reasonable costs of legal defence. We inform you of such a claim without delay and give you the opportunity to comment.

(5) Paragraphs 1 and 2 also apply to the people we engage to perform our obligations.

§ 13 Data protection

(1) Each side is solely responsible for the data it processes itself. How we process your data as a partner is set out in our privacy policy at stenowise.com/en/privacy.

(2) About customers you receive only figures: the number of accounts with your code per month, how many of them have a subscription, your commissions and your self-billed invoices with amounts per month. You do not receive names, email addresses, individual accounts or individual payments, not even on request.

(3) You do not send us data about your audience, you do not collect data for us and you do not ask customers for their sign-in details.

(4) You keep your sign-in details for the partner page secret. If you notice misuse, you tell us without delay.

(5) We keep self-billed invoices, the commission lines behind them and the payouts for eight years from the end of the calendar year in which we paid them out or cancelled them (§ 147(3) and (4) AO), and delete them afterwards. If the contract ends by termination or blocking, we delete your IBAN, your PayPal address, your password, your sign-ins on the partner page and the links for setting the password at once after the last payout, as soon as nothing is left open for payout. Your name, address and tax details are on the self-billed invoices and stay stored until those are deleted. With the last of these records we delete your other details, after a block no earlier than eight years from the end of the calendar year of the block. After that we keep your voucher code, without any link to you, as a reserved code (§ 11(3)).

§ 14 Changes to these terms

(1) We may change these terms for the future. We announce a change by email at least six weeks before the day it is to apply and send you the new text with an overview of the changes.

(2) Changes that are solely to your advantage or that a law, a court decision or a requirement of an authority makes necessary apply from the announced day.

(3) All other changes apply only once you agree to them. An email is enough. If you do not agree, the previous version continues to apply. We may then terminate the contract under § 11(1).

(4) § 3(5) applies to the customer discount.

§ 15 Applicable law, place of jurisdiction, language

(1) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies.

(2) Where an agreement on the place of jurisdiction is permitted by law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this contract is the court responsible for the place of business of Stenowise. We may also sue at your place of business.

(3) If a provision of these terms is invalid, the rest of the contract remains valid.

(4) These terms exist in German and English. The English version is a translation. In the event of differences the German version prevails.