Terms of participation “Refer”

1. Organizer

SW labs – Felix Winkel
Email: team@sw-labs.de

Postal address: see legal notice.

2. What this is about

Anyone who refers a business to SW labs receives a bonus if it turns into a paid project. A referrer is anyone who passes the contact on to SW labs, as an individual or as a business. SW labs signs the project contract directly with the business.

Anyone who runs the sale themselves, meaning they sign the contract with the business, invoice it, carry the risk of nonpayment and take the support questions, is reselling. A separate framework agreement applies to that, not these terms.

3. Participation, code and overview

Adults and businesses may take part. You sign up with the form on sw-labs.de/en/refer, using your own details: name, email address and whether you refer as an individual or a business. You do not provide contact details of third parties; the business contacts SW labs itself.

After signing up, you confirm your email address through a link. Only then does SW labs assign your personal referral code; you cannot choose it. Each address receives exactly one code. It works for any number of businesses and is tied to your address: the bonus always goes to you, even if you share the code publicly.

You can see where things stand in a personal overview without a password. You get access through a link sent to your address; it is valid for 30 days and can be used once, and you can request a new one on the page. You receive a short email at every step of a case.

If no business mentions your code within seven months of signing up or of the last mention, and no case is still open, the code is deleted. At your request, SW labs deletes your account at any time; open bonuses lapse. You can sign up again at any time.

4. When a referral counts

• The business mentions your code or your name in its first message to SW labs (contact form, email, call or conversation). What counts is the time of that first mention. A mention that comes only later does not count.
• A mention through the contact form counts only once the business confirms it in its first conversation with SW labs, and the time of the form then still governs; anyone who fakes a mention is excluded under section 9.
• Signing up alone does not create a claim.
• There is one bonus per business. If several people refer the same business, whoever the business names first counts.
• The referral is valid for six months from the mention. If the business engages SW labs within that time, the claim under section 5 arises; if the order comes later, there is no bonus.
• Within five business days of the mention, SW labs tells you in text form whether the referral counts. If it does not, you learn the reason under section 6, but no details about the business.
• How things proceed with the business after that (proposal, order, payment) shows in your overview only if the business has consented; until then, it says “under review.” You are told about the payout in any case.

5. Amount of the bonus

The bonus is 10% of the net one-time amount (fixed price) of the project the business orders from SW labs within the period under section 4, with no cap. There is no bonus on monthly fees for operation and further development, on follow-up orders or on changes. If the price is reduced, the bonus is calculated from the amount actually paid.

The business pays the same price as without a referral. The proposal to the business states openly that it came through a referral and that the referrer receives a bonus out of SW labs’ revenue; it also asks whether the referrer may see where things stand.

6. When there is no bonus

• The business was already in contact with SW labs in the twelve months before the mention (inquiry, conversation or proposal), or it is already a client.
• You refer your own company or an affiliated one.
• You work at, advise or look after the referred business (for example as its IT provider), and the owner or management does not know about the bonus. The disclosure in the proposal under section 5 serves exactly that purpose.
• The bonus flows back, in full or in part, to the referred business, its owners or employees, for example as a kickback or through a person put forward as the referrer. SW labs then reclaims any bonus already paid.
• You are a tax advisor or lawyer. Whether professional rules (§ 9 StBerG, § 49b(3) BRAO) allow such a bonus is not settled; until it is, these professions are excluded.
• The business withdraws, cancels or does not pay.
• There is no bonus for recruiting other referrers; there is only one tier.
• You breach section 8 (consequences: section 9).

7. Payout

SW labs transfers the bonus within 30 days after the business has paid the project in full, to the payout details in your overview: account holder, IBAN and address, for businesses also the company name and VAT ID or a note on the small-business rule; businesses issue an invoice or receive a self-billed credit note. If the details are missing when a project is paid, SW labs asks for them by email; the period then starts when they arrive.

You can change payout details only with a fresh access link (no more than 15 minutes old). After every change, an email goes to your registered address, and SW labs pays nothing out for seven days.

From the third referral that counts under section 4, SW labs and the referrer sign a written agreement on further referrals. This program is not intended to create a commercial agency relationship.

8. How you refer

• Anyone who refers publicly, for example on social media or a website, labels it as advertising or mentions the bonus (§ 5a(4) UWG).
• In conversation, you tell the business that you receive a bonus if it turns into an order.
• No advertising by email, phone or messenger to people without their consent (§ 7 UWG).
• You do not act in the name of SW labs and make no promises about price, duration or service.
• No paid search ads on “SW labs,” “Felix Winkel” or spellings that could be mistaken for them, and no domains that could be mistaken for them.

9. Breaches

Anyone who breaches section 8, fakes a mention under section 4 or lets a bonus flow back to the business under section 6 is excluded from the program; open bonuses lapse.

10. Taxes

The recipient bears any taxes on the bonus. For individuals in Germany, bonuses are usually other income under § 22 No. 3 EStG; they are tax-free only if all income of this kind stays below €256 in the calendar year. SW labs keeps the name and address of every recipient (§ 160 AO). This is not tax advice.

11. Changes

SW labs may change these terms for future sign-ups or end the program. A code already requested is governed by the terms of the day it was requested; a referral mentioned before the end is completed under these terms.

12. Data protection

Which data SW labs processes for the program, and for how long, is set out in the privacy policy of sw-labs.de, section “Referral form.”

13. Law

German law applies.