General terms of service recommended by the SFT — translation work
These general terms of service set out the rights and obligations of Sundays Translation /SARL / SIRET 93186164500014 (the “Service Provider”), on the one hand, and any natural or legal person wishing to use its services (the “Client”), on the other.
APPLICATION AND ENFORCEABILITY OF THE GENERAL TERMS
By placing an order, the Client accepts these general terms of service in full and without reservation, to the exclusion of any other document.
No special condition may take precedence over these general terms of service unless a formal written exception appears in the order that has become firm and final.
The performance of any service by the Service Provider entails the Client’s acceptance of these general terms and waiver of its own general purchasing terms. Any conflicting condition shall therefore, unless expressly accepted, be unenforceable against the Service Provider, regardless of when it was brought to its attention.
The Service Provider’s failure to invoke any of these general terms of service at any given time shall not be interpreted as a waiver of its right to invoke any of them subsequently.
ORDERS AND QUOTATIONS
Each order from the Client is generally preceded by a free quotation prepared by the Service Provider on the basis of the documents supplied for translation or the information provided by the Client.
The quotation sent to the Client by post, fax or email specifies, in particular:
- The number of pages or words submitted for translation;
- The target language;
- The method used to determine the price of the translation service. The service is billed at a fixed rate, on a time basis or according to the Service Provider’s rates in force on the date of the quotation, in particular per source word (words in the text to be translated) or target word (words in the translated text), as counted by Microsoft Word or another mutually agreed tool, per line or per page;
- The delivery time for the translation service;
- The format of the documents to be translated where a specific layout is requested for the delivered document;
- Any surcharges, particularly for urgency, specific terminology research or any other request outside the Service Provider’s usual services.
To confirm an order firmly and finally, the Client must return the quotation to the Service Provider without modification: either signed by post or fax and marked “approved” where the quotation was sent by post or fax, or by email expressing consent where it was sent by email. If acceptance of the quotation has not been received, the Service Provider reserves the right not to begin work.
If the Client does not confirm the order as described above within the period specified in the quotation or, failing that, within three (3) months of the date on which it was sent, the quotation shall be deemed to have lapsed.
After informing the Client, the Service Provider reserves the right to increase its charges and/or depart from the delivery date shown in the Client’s original order confirmation, particularly in the following circumstances:
- The Client modifies or adds documents after the Service Provider has prepared the quotation. In this case, the Service Provider reserves the right to adjust the price according to the additional volume of text identified or requested;
- Documents were unavailable when the quotation was prepared, which had to be based solely on an approximate word count and an extract of the content to be processed.
If the Client does not expressly accept the revised delivery and/or billing terms, the Service Provider reserves the right not to begin work.
Unless otherwise agreed in the quotation, expenses incurred in carrying out the service, such as travel or express postage, shall be borne by the Client.
Any decision to grant a discount, reduction or sliding scale rate, whether a percentage or a fixed rate per page, line or hour, remains at the Service Provider’s sole discretion and applies only to the service concerned. Any discounts or reductions granted to the Client shall under no circumstances create an acquired entitlement for subsequent services.
Where the Service Provider has not sent a prior quotation to the Client, orders are placed through an exchange of emails and translation services are billed at the Service Provider’s usual basic rate or any other rate agreed between the parties in that exchange. Any acceptance by the Client of a delivery time communicated by the Service Provider constitutes an order.
EVIDENCE
For the purpose of proving acceptance of the quotation, the Client agrees to regard fax, email, copies and electronic records as equivalent to the original and as conclusive evidence.
ADVANCE PAYMENT
Any order exceeding one thousand (1,000) euros excluding taxes may be subject to an advance payment, the percentage of which is specified in the quotation. In that case, work shall begin only after the advance payment has been received.
DELIVERY TIME
Provided that the Service Provider has received all the documents covered by the translation service, the indicative delivery time stated in the quotation applies only if the Client confirms the order as specified in Article 2 above within three (3) working days of receiving the quotation. After that period, the delivery date may be revised according to the Service Provider’s workload.
SERVICE PROVIDER’S OBLIGATIONS
The Service Provider endeavours to translate as faithfully as possible to the original and in accordance with professional practice. It makes every effort to take account of and incorporate the information supplied by the Client, such as glossaries, plans, drawings and abbreviations. The Service Provider accepts no responsibility for inconsistencies or ambiguities in the source text; checking the technical consistency of the final text is solely the Client’s responsibility.
CLIENT’S OBLIGATIONS
The Client undertakes to provide the Service Provider with all texts to be translated and all technical information necessary to understand them, together with any specific terminology required. If the Client fails to fulfil its duty to inform the Service Provider, the latter cannot be held responsible for any non-conformity or missed deadline.
The Client has ten (10) working days from receipt of the translated or proofread documents to report in writing any disagreement concerning the quality of the service. After that period, the service is deemed to have been duly performed and no dispute may be raised. For this purpose, the Client agrees to accept any acknowledgement of receipt by post, fax or email as proof of delivery.
CONFIDENTIALITY
The Service Provider undertakes to respect the confidentiality of information brought to its attention before, during or after the service. Originals shall be returned to the Client on written request.
The Service Provider shall not be liable for the interception or misappropriation of information during data transfer, particularly over the Internet. It is therefore the Client’s responsibility to inform the Service Provider, before or when placing the order, of the transfer methods it wishes to use to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive information.
FORMAT
The translation is delivered by email in Word format. On request, it may be delivered by fax or as a paper copy sent by post. Any other transfer method or format must be expressly agreed by the parties and may incur an additional charge.
LIABILITY
The Service Provider’s liability is limited solely to the amount of the invoice concerned.
Under no circumstances shall the Service Provider be liable for complaints based on nuances of style.
Delivery times are indicative only and, in principle, failure to meet them cannot give rise to late delivery penalties. In any event, the Service Provider shall not be liable for direct or indirect loss suffered by the Client or third parties as a result of a delay in delivery caused, in particular, by force majeure or a transmission problem.
CORRECTIONS AND PROOFREADING
If there is disagreement over aspects of the service, the Service Provider reserves the right to correct the work in cooperation with the Client.
Where the translation is to be published, the Service Provider must receive the printer’s proof for proofreading.
Unless otherwise agreed in writing, any correction or proofreading is billed separately at the current hourly rate.
PAYMENT TERMS
Unless special terms are specified in the quotation, invoices are issued net, without early payment discount, and are payable within thirty (30) days of the invoice date.
For payment by cheque or bank transfer from abroad, all exchange and bank charges are either covered by a fixed surcharge specified in the quotation or charged in full to the Client.
The translation remains the translator’s property until payment has been made in full.
For business clients only, in the event of late payment, current orders are automatically suspended until full payment is received. Without prior formal notice, and in accordance with Article L.441-6 of the French Commercial Code, the Client owes late payment interest calculated at the rate applied by the European Central Bank to its most recent refinancing operation plus ten percentage points, applied to the relevant invoice amount, as well as a fixed recovery charge of 40 euros.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Before submitting a document to the Service Provider for translation, the Client must ensure that it has the right to do so. It must therefore be the author of the original document or have obtained prior written permission to translate it from the copyright holder.
Failing this, the Service Provider cannot be held liable in any way if all or part of the documents entrusted by the Client infringes intellectual property rights, any other third-party right or any applicable regulation. Where applicable, the Client alone shall bear any damages and financial consequences arising from its own negligence.
The Client also acknowledges that the translation produced by the Service Provider is a new document whose copyright is jointly held by the author of the original document and the Service Provider. Consequently, for literary or artistic work, and without prejudice to its economic rights in its work, the Service Provider reserves the right to require that its name appear on every copy or publication of its work, in accordance with Article L.132-11 of the French Intellectual Property Code.
CANCELLATION
If an order in progress is cancelled for any reason by written notice to the Service Provider, work already completed shall be billed to the Client at one hundred per cent (100%) and the remaining work at fifty per cent (50%).
AMICABLE SETTLEMENT
In the event of a dispute of any kind, the parties undertake to attempt conciliation before taking legal action.
To this end, once the disputed event has occurred, the parties undertake jointly to refer the matter to the SFT Arbitration Committee by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, with a copy sent to the other party by the same means.
The parties undertake to make every effort to give the conciliation process every chance of success and to act in good faith. They further undertake not to bring proceedings before a court during the four (4) months following referral to the Committee. They acknowledge that proceedings brought in breach of this obligation may constitute grounds for inadmissibility or, failing that, an obstacle to any amicable settlement, and justify payment to the other party of compensation of one thousand five hundred (1,500) euros.
APPLICABLE LAW AND JURISDICTION
These general terms are governed by French law and shall be interpreted accordingly. If no amicable settlement is reached under Article 15 above, the parties confer exclusive jurisdiction on the French courts to settle any dispute concerning the service and these general terms.
Version dated 18 October 2024