1-2024

European HEALTH & SPA AWARD 2024

General Terms & Conditions (GTC)

• § 1 Privacy Policy and Data Collection

• § 2 Miscellaneous

• § 3 Liability

• § 4 Copyright

• § 5 Subscription Service

• § 6 Sweepstakes

• § 7 Responsibility for content not created by health-spa-award.com

• § 8 Jury

• § 9 Tester

• § 10 Conditions of Participation

• § 11 Criteria for Evaluation

• § 12 Feedback

• § 13 Certification

• § 14 Gala evning

• § 15 Evaluation
  
  
• § 16 Documents and certificates
  
  
• § 17 Payment terms and costs
  
  
• § 18 Terms of use
  
  
• § 19 Place of jurisdiction, place of performance, choice of law

The internet platform health-spa-award.com  is operated and supported by the Agency for Health & Wellness, which is based in Vienna. Health-spa-award.com  is the exclusive owner of the internet platform. The following conditions of participation are the guidelines concerning the use of the pages of health-spa-award.com and to participate to the European HEALTH & SPA Awards. They apply to all users that have a claim to the benefits of health-spa-award.com, even if access of the health-spa-award.com website takes place outside of Austria or the Federal Republic of Germany. Please read these conditions of participation carefully before registering. By registering with health-spa-award.com you accept these Terms & Conditions.

§ 1 Privacy Policy and Data Collection

Terms of Privacy

Privacy Policy

1. Health-spa-award.com is obligated, during the registration and submission and the use of the services of health-spa-award.com, to use any data collected, processed, and stored explicitly for use within the Agency for Health & Wellness, Hintermayer Media, and its affiliated enterprises, within the scope of the Hintermayer Media private policy, and not to divulge to outside third parties, provided that no public authorities or statutory obligations exist. Exceptions are the jury members, who work under an obligation of confidentiality and who are required to delete the documents within a month after the evaluation process.

2. Unless a participant withdraws his or her submission, all the participants stored data will be deleted within one month after withdrawal from health-spa-award.com or after the completion and settlement of all outstanding legal processes.

3. Unless otherwise regulated or provided in these Terms, the remainder of the Privacy Policy of the Agency for Health &Wellness and Hintermayer Media can be consulted on the health-spa-award.com.

§ 2 Miscellaneous

1. If a time or date is critical for explanations and legal transactions, the displayed server date and time is crucial.

2. All contracts between health-spa-award.com and the participants lie explicitly under Austrian law.

3. In accordance with the Austrian Code of Civil Procedure or the Brussels or Lugano Convention on Jurisdiction concerning the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, disputes arising from contracts between health-spa-award.com and the participants are settled under the responsibility of the Vienna Court.

4. Health-spa-award.com reserves the right to change the Conditions of Participation without notice. If this happens, the change will be generally announced on the website. For acts that were made before the change, the initial Conditions of Participate will apply.

5. Health-spa-award.com is entitled to provide all services at any time wholly or partly to third parties. Section 1 Paragraph 2 shall remain unaffected.

6. Health-spa-award.com is entitled to extend, change, or adjust its services, §1 Paragraph 2 shall remain unaffected.

§ 3 Liability of health-spa-award.com& Agency for Health & Wellness

1. Damage claims against health-spa-award.com are independent and excluded from the cause of law, unless health-spa-award.com, a representative or vicarious agent acts willfully or grossly negligent, the damage claims result from the violation of a guaranteed quality of service, from the failure of health-spa-award.com to meet an obligation, or an otherwise unacceptable impossibility of performance by health-spa-award.com. Health-spa-award.com is liable in the same way if one of its legal representatives or vicarious agents negligently violates a duty that is essential to the achievement of the contractual purposes.

2. Insofar as health-spa-award.com is liable on these grounds, the claim for damages is limited to foreseeable damages. This mitigation does not apply if the damage was caused intentionally or by negligence by a legal representative or vicarious agent of health-spa-award.com or if it was based on the absence of a promised feature. Damage caused by higher power (natural disaster, pandemic, etc.) can no longer be refunded, such as the various registration fees.

3. Where health-spa-award.com is excluded from a liability, so also is the personal liability of its employees, representatives, and vicarious agents of health-spa-award.com.

§ 4 Copyright

1. The copyright to all content of these web pages belongs to health-spa-award.com. Any use outside the narrow limits of copyright law requires the prior written permission of health-spa-award.com. This applies particularly to copying, editing, storing, and processing in electronic systems.

2. Participants may use the information material, unless otherwise noted, solely for personal, non-commercial use, and may only copy if it is guaranteed that such a copy is not being used for unauthorized purposes, Paragraph 1.

3. The copyright for submitted, unsolicited, adjusted, copyrightable contributions by participants, primary submitted inquires, remains with the respective author; the exception is that participants, by contributing, give health-spa-award.com the right to present, distribute, make available for viewing by third parties, or to use their contribution in advertising for health-spa-award.com by all means and media on health-spa-award.com.

§ 5 Subscription Service

1. Through the subscription service, the professional journal WELLNESS WORLD Business can be ordered. Information and subscription on www.wellnessworldbusiness.com/abo.

§ 6 Sweepstakes

1. Participation in a sweepstake by health-spa-award.com  is free of cost, the participants only pay the fees of the Internet connection. The participant enters into no contractual or other obligation to health-spa-award.com by participating. Clicking on a particular banner on health-spa-award.com in no way increases the odds of the participant. The sweepstakes is governed by Austrian law. The judges decisions are final and there is no enforceable right to the payment of the profits (S 762 BGB [Civil Law]).

2. The winners will be informed by health-spa-award.com of their winnings via e-mail. Health-spa-award.com does not enter into any legal obligations in doing so. The participant agrees that, in the event of a win, he/she will be referred to on the internet site.

3. Health-spa-award.com reserves the right to exclude individual participants from the competition on objectively justifiable grounds even after a withdrawal. This is especially true for those participants using multiple e-mail addresses or participates in the sweepstakes through a third party (straw man) on several occasions. Similarly, such participants will be excluded if they act in other ways contrary to the Conditions of Participation or try to influence the results of the contest by unauthorized actions.

4. Health-spa-award.com reserves the right to end the contest at any time. Users of health-spa-award.com will in such case be informed of the end of the contest via the website.

5. Health-spa-award.com is not liable for faulty transmission and/or loss of data, provided that the loss is caused by errors in the data or other Third Party telecommunications networks, data lines, and/or authorized hardware and software. Health-spa-award.com assumes no liability, in particular, for data lost due to incorrect entry by the participant, that was not transmitted duly to health-spa-award.com, or whose lost is ascribed to the participants failure to save/backup data on a daily basis. Moreover, health-spa-award.com  is only liable for intentional and gross negligence in which case a violation of contractual obligations is limited to foreseeable damage. Health-spa-award.com also assumes no liability for indirect damages, especially lost profits.

6. Data collection and privacy policy: please read section §1 of these Terms and Conditions.

§ 7 Responsibility for Content not created by the Agency for Health & Wellness

1. The participant is obligated to warrant  that content loaded, stored, disseminated, presented, and/or published is not contrary to Austrian or German law, statutory or regulatory prohibitions, or is immoral.

2. The participant may not load, store, distribute, present, and/or publish content, that violate any third party rights or that is or may be held as illegal, pornographic, or unsuitable and objectionable for minors.

3. It is prohibited to distribute or spread advertisements, viruses, or unsolicited bulk mail (known as spam) via health-spa-award.com. Equally prohibited are invitations to participate through chain letter, pyramid schemes, or bonus shares promotions.

4. The participant indemnifies health-spa-award.com against any third-party claims, which are asserted against health-spa-award.com on the basis of content disseminated by the participant (including through so-called "links").

5. Without prejudice to the rights under section §1 paragraph 3, health-spa-award.com is entitled to exclude the participant temporarily or permanently in the event of a culpable violation of paragraph 2 and 3.

6. Health-spa-award.com is also entitled to remove content that violates paragraphs 1 and 2.

7. Content within the meaning of this standard also includes software, evaluation results and other files.

§ 8 Jury

A jury, consisting of experts and leaders in the wellness industry as well as key figures in economics and media, will assess the nominations of the participating companies.

Selection / Decision
The selection of the winner of the European SPA & HEALTH AWARDs will take place in two stages.

First, a pre-selection will be made according to a point system provided by the Agency for Health & Wellness. From this, the best companies are nominated for the award. The jury will then determine the winner based on this point system.

Criteria of Evaluation
The entries will be assessed on the basis of defined criteria, which is in the form of a point system. All submissions will be handled confidentially during the jury process.

As direct contact with the jury is forbidden, any possibility of lobbying efforts is eliminated.  (There may be special circumstances in which exceptions will be allowed).

Contractual penalty (penalty or liquidated damages): In the event of a delay (or non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment) of more than one month for the feedbacks and assessments and the feedbacks and assessments of the certifications - European Health & Spa (Sustainable) Quality (EHSQ) after the agreed deadline, a contractual penalty is agreed, which is not to be regarded as a penalty. It shall amount to 10 ‰ of the total order amount (or at least EUR 30) for each calendar day commenced. If damage is incurred, this will be charged further.

§ 9 Tester

The anonymous test is performed by competent tester they commit themselves to occur so that the company is adequately represented and the companies through their behavior do no harm. The test is carried out autonomously and independently, and they are taking responsibility for the test to the best of their knowledge and belief.

The tester is obligated by an affidavit to treat all information presented to him/her for the evaluation of the participating companies with utmost confidentiality. No information of any kind pertaining to the companies is permitted to be disclosed to third parties. Furthermore, the Juror is obligated to remove all documents within one month after the evaluation has ended or all information will be destroyed after consultation during the same period.

The tester is obligated to submit detailed written feedback immediately after the test on the feedback form to the Agency for Health & Wellness. All indicated dates has to be precisely redeemed.

If there is a violation of this rule compensation can be claimed in full of the actually occurred damage. There are no restrictions on the amount. However at least 350 EUR excl. VAT is charged than on compensation. Austrian law shall apply in the event of a legal action. Place of jurisdiction is Vienna, Austria.

Contractual penalty (penalty or liquidated damages): In the event of a delay (or non-fulfilment or improper fulfilment) of more than one month for the feedbacks and assessments and the feedbacks and assessments of the certifications - European Health & Spa (Sustainable) Quality (EHSQ) after the agreed deadline, a contractual penalty is agreed, which is not to be regarded as a penalty. It shall amount to 10 ‰ of the total order amount (or at least EUR 30) for each calendar day commenced. If damage is incurred, this will be charged further.

§ 10 Conditions of Participation

The competition for the European SPA & HEALTH AWARDs is open to all companies that comply with the given categories and submit valid entries.

• Submission and nomination is open to all companies with operations in spa wellness facilities, beauty salons, companies licensed to market health and spa innovations which are in agreement with the context of the defined criteria (see CATEGORIES / CRITERIA). Or treatments and products they already are offered in spas. For the anonymous test we also have to do we need a voucher from you.

• Participation is open to all companies whose headquarters are in Europe. Only one (1) submission is allowed per category and company.

• No recourse to legal action is permitted. The Jury and the Agency for Health & Wellness reserves the right to modify or reject submissions. By entering a written entry (submitting the documents online via e-mail, by fax or by post) the submitter or sender attests to the completeness and verifiability of the information.

• The winners will receive also a voucher. The Agency for Health & Wellness reserves however in special cases the right without giving reasons to withdraw the voucher service.

• It is a participation fee of 290 EUR excl. VAT for the organizational effort to pay for each category once you have registered.

• Spa manager are exempt from the participation fee only in the category "Best Spa Manager" they only pay if they do not submit a valid submission on time.

• You can also book a short or detailed feedback to find out more after your submission, where the strengths and weaknesses were.  We recommend this however it is not mandatory.

• The participants agree to send to the award Gala a person or representative. If no one attend an organizational fee of 310 EUR excl. VAT is payable. If the amount is not paid before the gala, the Agency for Health & Wellness reserves the right to remove the participant from the nominee list, can also be done after the gala! The nomination of the prize is not allowed to communicate until payment is done. In the event of a violation of this agreement, a lawsuit of at least 5000 EUR may occur by the Agency for Health & Wellness.

• Only in case you emerge as the winner in a category you have to pay just after the gala a fee of 250 EUR excl. VAT for the trophy and the preparation of the certificate etc. and for the second and third places 150 EUR excl. VAT!

• The questionnaire, which is an extremely important basis of evaluation, must be filled in almost completely and a mystery test needs to be performed!

• It is necessary to provide a voucher, which may have no constraints of time and covers the entire cost of the test for the mystery check!

• Attention! If an agency applies for a company it is necessary to have a certification. To verify they have permission to apply for the company.

• As direct contact with the jury is forbidden, any possibility of lobbying efforts is eliminated. (There may be special circumstances in which exceptions will be allowed).  If evidence of a lobbying effort can be provided, the Agency for Health and Wellness reserves the right to expel the candidate from the competition without further ado.  A winner may also be stripped of the title if evidence of lobbying comes to light. Cases of manipulation may be construed as fraud and will be handled as such.  In such an event, damages in the amount of 100 000 EUR (excluding tax) will be levied per lawsuit.

General information for registration and submission

Agreement

Each company and participant, who registers, agrees at the time of registration to take part in the submission. We point out that the participation at this time is not free of charge.

If there is a cancellation of the registration, the submission is incorrectly filled or an exclusion by the Agency for Health & Wellness the amount of EUR 290 excl. 20% VAT for each registered category will be automatically charged by the Agency for Health & Wellness for various costs incurred. Just in case if the cancellation or an exclusion by the Agency only takes place after the anonymous test EUR 500 excl. 20% VAT must be paid. May also accrue damage for the Agency for Health & Wellness the amount can be also higher according to the actual amount of the loss.

The same amount will be charged if the information supplied is found by an anonymous audit to be different from the actual circumstances or fraudulent, since this would result in a deception of the jury and the actual assessment of value cannot be guaranteed in a fair manner among the other participants. 

The submission form, which is an extremely important basis of evaluation, must be filled out completely at least 95% of all questions! Documents, instruments or other materials supplied for the submission cannot be returned for organizational reasons they remain at the agency of health & wellness.

Reading this, you automatically agree to the above mentioned conditions at the time of participation.

§ 11 Criteria for Evaluation

The entries will be assessed on the basis of defined criteria, which is in the form of a point system. All submissions will be handled confidentially during the jury process.

The nine criteria groups are as follow

• Design and Technique: Architectural Innovation, Technical Facilities (spa, wellness, fitness area, etc), Technological Innovation.

• Health: Are there recognizable concepts for health benefit . They  have also put into practice  and in use for the clients. (This can be e.g. movement, nutrition, meditation or from cosmetic etc. too.)

• Offers & Services: diversity, creativity, innovation. How are offers & services modulated on the client.

• Benefits: productivity and efficiency, revenue increases, organizational improvements. First benefits for the clients.

• Economic efficiency: economic figures of the hotels and spas as well as of the products.

• Sustainability: ecological master plan linked with long term measures, security and strength of the company in the market, opening of new markets, new distribution channels, new target groups, sustainability of the products offered.

• Creativity: Innovative products and services, creativeness and innovativeness of the company, original appraisal of customer needs.

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Tourism companies have social responsibility. CSR means to integrate economic, social and ecological objectives into the business strategy of a company. It is about transparency in communication and about the balancing of interests of the various stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, neighbours and other interest groups.

• Anonymous testing: Mystery check or anonymous test of Spas, treatments resp. products.

§ 12 Feedback

You can book a short or detailed feedback. You can do this even after registration via the website by registering again and ticking the feedback button. You will receive an invoice after the gala event and the feedback will be sent only after the invoice has been paid.

§ 13 Certificate

It is also possible to order a certificate at the time of registration. There are currently three categories: "Bronze", "Silver" and "Gold" certificate. You can also register after on the website by re-registering and selecting the Certificate item. You will receive an invoice after the gala event and only after payment of the invoice will the certificate be evaluated again and after that the certificate will be transmitted.

§ 14 Gala evning

The Agency for Health & Wellness organizes a gala evening after the results have been obtained. Nominees and interested people have the opportunity to reserve seats using the form provided for this purpose. After that you will receive an invoice which has to be paid before the gala, if this is not the case you are asked to pay at the gala evening directly at the check-in. However, as this is only possible in exceptional cases, we ask you to pay the invoice in advance and take a receipt to the event.  We can only accept changes or cancellations up to five days before the event, after that the entire cost have to be paid.

§ 15 Evaluation

The selection of the winner of the European SPA & HEALTH AWARDs will be made in two stages.

First, a pre-selection from all entries will be made with the help of a points system provided by the Agency for Health and Wellness.  After this procedure, the companies with the most points will be officially nominated for the award.  The jury then will determine the winner based on a point system used to evaluate the submitted materials from each of the contestants.  The contestants will be judged in eight areas with scoring for each of these criteria ranging from 1 - 5.  An anonymous Test, based on a scale of 1-10, finalizes the procedure.  The anonymous Test is weighted more as it evaluates the general overview of all submitted materials.

A maximum of 50 points can be achieved.  The winner is the competitor with the most points.

§ 16 Documents and certificates

The documents or certificates issued on paper are originals and therefore cannot be reproduced or changed digitally, which is also strictly prohibited by legal regulations. For this reason, documents or certificates are generally not transmitted electronically. If electronically created documents or certificates are transmitted in exceptional cases, they must be created with the electronic notarisation signature. The electronic notarisation signature is a qualified electronic signature via electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market. The documents must contain the date and the consecutive number of the chronological list. They must be entered in chronological lists by the Agency for Health & Wellness and kept for at least ten years. In the event that the award expires or is revoked, the documents or certificates must be stored in the Agency for Health & Wellness electronic document archive for the remainder of the retention period.

In the event of subsequent changes and adjustments to the results, new documents or certificates can be requested, but this is associated with costs. The creation of a new certificate will be charged at 250 EUR excl. VAT and delivery costs.
If a winner's trophy is ordered at a later date, a fee of 250 EUR excl. VAT must also be paid in advance. If a new laudation is also ordered, this will be charged at 100 EUR excl. VAT.

No responsibility is assumed for the correctness of the document contents, document forms or the completeness of the documents on which the archiving is based.

Documents and certificates are official documents, therefore alteration or falsification is a legal offence and prohibited and may result in criminal prosecution!

§ 17 Payment terms and costs

1. The fees are due for payment within 10 days of invoicing, but at the latest by the date shown on the invoice, unless otherwise agreed in writing.

2. Value added tax shall be charged in addition to the fees at the statutory rate applicable until the final execution of the order and shall be shown separately on the invoice.

3. The customer is not entitled to withhold or offset payments due to warranty claims or other claims asserted against the Agency for Health & Wellness.

4. If the customer defaults on payment, the Agency for Health & Wellness is entitled to charge interest on arrears in accordance with § 1333 ABGB. If the bank debit interest rate is higher, the interest rate demonstrably calculated by the bank can be charged.

5. The statutory default interest rate is 9.2 percentage points above the base interest rate. The base interest rate as of 1 July 2023 is 3.38%, the statutory default interest rate for business transactions is therefore 12.58%. The current base interest rate can be found on the website of the Austrian National Bank at oenb.at. However, this increased default interest rate only applies in the event of default in payment.

6. If the debtor is not responsible for the delay, the statutory default interest rate is 4% per year, even for business transactions.

7. Reminder fees, debt collection or legal fees

According to the Late Payment Act, the creditor of a business transaction is entitled to demand a flat rate of 40 EUR from the debtor in the event of late payment for any debt collection costs (in particular reminder fees). This lump sum is due in addition to the default interest.

In the event of a delay in payment, the debtor also undertakes to cover the operating costs of the debt collection agency commissioned by the Agency for Health & Wellness, as well as any legal fees incurred.

§ 18 Terms of use

The customer receives the non-exclusive right to use the documents and submission documents provided in accordance with these General Terms and Conditions (GTC), which are limited to the time of participation in the award.

The documents, questionnaires and forms are subject to the copyright of the Agency for Health & Wellness and must therefore be deleted or destroyed after the award and must not be passed on to third parties.

Upon loss of professional authorization or closure of the company, the right to use the documents or certificates also expires.

§ 19 Place of jurisdiction, place of performance, choice of law

1. To the extent that legal provisions exclude an agreement on the place of jurisdiction, the competent court in Vienna is agreed as the competent court for all legal disputes between the Agency for Health & Wellness and its customers.

2. The place of performance for all liabilities arising from contracts is Vienna. The place of jurisdiction is therefore Vienna in Austria.

3. The contractual relationship and all legal relationships arising from it are subject exclusively to Austrian law; the application of international conventions, in particular the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, is expressly excluded.

4. Should individual parts of a contract or these General Terms and Conditions (GTC) be or become legally invalid in whole or in part, this will not affect the binding nature of the remaining provisions and the validity of the legal transactions concluded on the basis of these provisions. Invalid provisions or parts of a provision must be interpreted or supplemented in such a way that the intended purpose is achieved as precisely as possible in a legally permissible manner.

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